I’ve been fiddling around with PHP5 and a bit of XSLT recently. I have to admit I was quite surprised to find how lacking support generally is for PHP5. I’d just assumed it something common that was just a simple install using whatever standard packaging system your Operating System has available. Not so it seems, I had to hand compile it on both my Linux webserver and MacOS X laptop along with all the modules I was wanting to use. Of course the fact I can compile it myself on my webserver is a bonus but it would be nice to have a standard package available. The whole experience reminded me of the hassle that is setting up Ruby on Rails.

I’ve been following the reviews of the new Transformers movie. Most reviews seem to either say it’s one of the best movies ever or that it’s one of the worst movies ever. I like good special effects in movies but I’m by no means a special effect junkie and I don’t accept good effects as alternative for good story and acting. Ah well, guess I’ll see it sometime and decide for myself, I don’t really feel a lot of motivation to see it immediately so I’ll probably hold off till the Blu-ray release which has already been announced.

As always I’ve been listening to plenty of music, I really should comment on what I’m listening to more than I do and that’s what I’m about to do here. At risk of going off on a tangent I must say I’m looking forward to George Bush leaving office even if it’s for nothing more than to stop the constant stream of anti-Bush albums being put out by musicians everywhere. I’m no fan of Bush by any means (quite the opposite even) but most of these albums have been pretty dire. The recent Nine Inch Nails album “Year Zero” has been about the only one I’ve heard with any real merit but it’s impact is lessened by Trent’s lyrics which have the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But I digress. Currently I’ve been checking out the new album by the reformed Smashing Pumpkins, Zeitgeist. This is one of these anti-Bush albums although it’s not taken to the point of distraction in this case thankfully.

I’ve always enjoyed the Smashing Pumpkins albums, they kept me company through my university years so it’s hard not to look back on them with a degree of nostalgia. The critics and fans have been all over the place on this one. Some say that it’s not truly the Smashing Pumpkins any more which is a fair point given there’s only two band members from previous albums but I doubt any would deny Billy Corgan has always been the driving force behind the band. Some critics suggest this album is Billy mis-remembering the past or trying to invoke the pumpkins of old and failing. He’s accused of focusing only on the band’s harder rock sound of the latter Machina albums in his quest to prove this is the real Smashing Pumpkins even with the missing band members. I think these reviewers are missing the point.

This album would be very much at home under the name “Machina 3″ as a follow up to the last album released before the band split a few years back. Clearly Billy isn’t interested in going backwards and reinventing the wheel as appealing as that may be to fans (especially casual fans) of their earlier works. One may wonder if when album is viewed as a natural progression from Machina 2 does it really sound like the Smashing Pumkins? Yes it does so in spades. Is it better than their most exalted works of the past? I don’t believe so. The most obvious comparison is to to the first Machina album and this one has nothing that rocks as hard as “The Everlasting Gaze” or something as beautiful as “Stand Inside Your Love”. If anything it has a bit of a feel of their debut album Gish in that the promise is there but it isn’t quite achieved. It comes close a few times but never quite manages to hit the mark with the album as a whole lacking emotion and disappearing to some degree into a wave of distortion. I do think it’s still a good album, I think I’d give it a 6 out of 10 but it wouldn’t be honest for me to say I’m not hoping for that little bit extra in their next release.