Tag: thoughts

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Just Three Words

I saw this on Wendy’s blog, and you know me with these kind of things, I couldn’t resist 🙂

“You have to use 3 words to answer each question. No more, no less. It’s harder than you think.”

Where is your mobile phone? right beside me
Your girlfriend/boyfriend/hubby? very near me
Your hair? (not my answer – but is this mean WHERE is my hair? WTF?!) on my head
Where is your father? I don’t know
Your favorite thing to do? listen to music
Your dream last night? didn’t have one
Your favorite drink? malted milk drink
Your dream car? A Smart car
The room you’re in? our front room
Your fears? bees, spiders, heights
Who did you hang out with last night? Em and Chrissy
What aren’t you good at? too many things
Muffins? with grilled cheese
One of your wish list items? SLR digital camera
The last thing you did? made blog comment
What are you wearing? t-shirt, nightie, underwear
Your pet? cat and goldfish
Your computer? Acer Aspire One
Your life? fair to middling
Your mood? subdued but chipper
Missing? my Australian family
What are you thinking about right now? what’s for breakfast
Your car? don’t have one
Your work? not in employment
Your summer? a mediocre one
Your relationship status? partnered, technically married
Your favorite color(s)? pink, black, blue
When is the last time you laughed? late last night
Last time you cried? on November 11th
School? Busby Primary School

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What has REALLY happened to Saturday night TV?

This piece (edited) I wrote for a thread on a TV forum site. I thought it SO good, I decided to extend it a little and add it as a post in its own right on my blog.

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I’ve been turned off by the “same old format” tripe of X Factor (singing reality contest in the vain of Pop Idol). The sob stories, the “average” singers that get through, the groups always being booted out never to win.

I watched some of the opening shows, but as soon as it got to “boot camp”, I well and truly tuned out.

I was excited by the return of Strictly Come Dancing (the original UK format of the new worldwide “Dancing With The Stars” franchise), but only watched the 1st week of mens and the 1st week of ladies. Now I’m equally sick of that and haven’t watched it since!

Why DOES reality TV dominate Saturday nights so much now? And WHY oh WHY are we going down this American route of if you have a successful show, you should churn it out season after season with no changes in format to keep it interesting?

Thank goodness there’s going to be a break from the “Maria/Joseph/Nancy – search for the next musical theatre star” Andrew Lloyd Webber lead shows next year.

As soon as Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor are finished we’ll get Dancing On Ice in January.

I wish I could shout from the roof tops “Reality TV is dead, long live Variety!” But no one can even do a good variety show anymore.

There are still aspects of Saturday nights at certain times of year to look forward to, thank goodness, like when Doctor Who is on air. But Saturday nights USED to be a TV entertainment shining beacon! Now the light is flickering and almost extinguished.

R.I.P. Saturday night TV. It was good while it lasted.

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A Doctor Who Top Ten?

This is a response to a question on a forum I wanted to answer which became WAY too long-winded to air as a post. So I thought I’d put it here and link to it.

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I have to say that I haven’t got a top ten. Although I’m almost 38, grew up in Oz where there is a HUGE following of DW on TV (it was aired during my formative years), I didn’t really watch it. I was aware of Peter Davison’s Doctor, and tried to watch, but like most things aired on the TV channel in Oz that showed DW (The ABC) – I thought everything they aired was boring.

I can’t really therefore give a top ten of Doctors. But I did want to say that I was utterly smitten with the new series from episode one. I was worried I wouldn’t like it ‘cos I just wasn’t interested in it all the years beforehand.

The new series has taken me through up and downs. I LOVED Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor from the start and when it was revealed he’d only be Doctor for one series, I wanted to cry. Even more so when they announced this “who is he?” bloke, David Tennant. I wanted to boycott the second series, but thought I’d better give DT a go. I wasn’t really happy to begin with. I thought he played it too childishly, too manically (a diff manic to CE’s – an over-exuberant rather than a dark manic), too in-your-face happy clappy. Then of course it was announced Billie Piper was leaving, and despite my reservations when it was revealed who’d be playing the Doctor’s companion in the first series, that Billie would be too amateurish, I felt she allayed my fears.

Then Xmas 2006, and we get Catherine Tate as companion of sorts. I was NOT a happy bunny. Thank God we knew that this is not going to last, I thought, as we’d been told of Freema Agymen’s appointment as the new companion. I didn’t watch The Runaway Bride at all.

I lose interest a bit, miss bits and pieces, but come back to it in time. I thought Freema would be good, and thought she was competent enough at the time. I missed chunks because I went home to Australia for a few months shortly after series 3 began. I watched some while there and caught up once back home. By this time DT is maturing into the role as the 10th Doctor and I’m really beginning to shine to him.

Xmas 2007. Kylie Minogue? WTF?! Had you SEEN her in Neighbours? If not, check out Street Fighter (yes, the lame movie version of the video game with Jean Claude Van Damm in it). Sorry, I really LOVE Kylie as a musical performer, but as an “actress”, I’ve seen more animated and less wooden strips of MDF! She didn’t disappoint (with the notion she’d be even MORE sinkable than the Titanic itself). The best scene was her throwing herself off the precipice in the fork-lift truck!

I wasn’t really sad about Freema leaving, but I was peeved they’d decided to reprise Catherine Tate’s role as Donna Noble. Just when I was beginning to get happy with the dynamic (which on reflection was AWEFUL), they were going to have yet ANOTHER companion for the Doctor! And one I was really not happy about to boot. I SO feared it was going to send DW back into a more “kiddish” slant and have DT back to his manic Doctor and that there’d be too much farce with CT back as Donna.

I can’t say my fears were FULLY allayed by the first episode. But of the comedy and farce there was in Partners In Crime, I enjoyed. As I watch more episodes, The Fires of Pompeii, then Planet of The Ood, I was really beginning to take to Catherine Tate. By Turn Left, I really, really loved her character. And DT’s Doctor had matured even more than series 3. The dynamic between Doctor and companion was FINALLY at its most believable. He finally had someone by his side who was a true crutch for him, and not a soppy little teenager with a crush. A soulmate almost, a kindred spirit. Ballsy, brash and passionate, how can you not love that about Donna?!

I was crushed when it became obvious that this might be Catherine Tate’s only series of Doctor Who. I fell in love with Donna (metaphorically) and just thought her and the Doctor were the best pairing so far, and the best pairing of David and Catherine. No underlying sexual chemistry and all that baloney, just straight out mutual respect and friendship. Why does the Doctor always have to have “totty”?

The roller coaster continued when Russell T Davies toyed with us at the ending of The Stolen Earth with the regeneration scene. I was ready to slit my wrists at the very notion of David Tennant leaving! Heaven forbid! Just when you got me not only liking him as the Doctor, but actually falling in love with him! NNNNNOOOOOOO

I know he has his haters, but I think there was far more a collective sigh at the beginning of Journey’s End then “oh hell, it’s STILL David Tennant”. I think there were quite a few utterances of “tsk” when the first few minutes went out, from whichever side of the DT fence you sit on. What a wasted regeneration sequence that was!

BBC Three just finished repeating series one which I watched again. It felt VERY strange watching it, because although I SSOO loved Christopher Eccleston to begin with, when watching the repeats he didn’t feel like MY Doctor. My heart now belongs to David. CE was a darker Doctor, but he did have some mania with the role and he wasn’t quite as wholly competent as I remembered him to be. And although it has taken DT probably the two full series to “hone his craft”, I think he is now a compelling and complex Doctor with wonderfully subtle nuances.

So, now we are still left wondering if DT WILL continue into 2010 (he’s not signed the dotted line yet as far as I am aware) and who will be his companion. I, for one, hope the rumours that Catherine Tate will come back ARE true. For me, David Tennant and Catherine Tate ARE the “dream team”.

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Personal (and general) Musical Pinnacles.

I wanted to write a post about what, for ME, are/were the pinnacle points in music. But not just generalized, but in my life, my musical taste.

I’ll start with 1972, the height of Glam rock. Glam is a genre of music I still love to this day. One of my favourite albums of all time is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, released in 1972. I suppose Glam rock really started in around 1970 with Marc Bolan and T-Rex of which there are songs I do like. I like Cosmic Dancer, Metal Guru, Children of the Revolution, among others. Most of the songs and groups I love though for me, Glam rock peaked around 1972. If it hadn’t been for Glam, we probably would not have had David Bowie. He’d been around for several years already and had a modicum of success with Space Oddity, but it was very much a one-hit wonder thing for him until Ziggy. So for me the first pinnacle year is 1972. It gave us Glam and it gave us Bowie.

The next pinnacle year – 1977. The height of new, electronic music. It gave us Kraftwerk and a newly directed Bowie, giving us in that one year two of his three Berlin Trilogy albums, Low and “Heroes”, whilst also producing and co-writing on Iggy Pop’s The Idiot and Lust For Life. A very prolific period for him indeed and gave us electronic gems like A New Career In A New Town (Low) and Sense of Doubt (“Heroes”). This sound would pave the way for New Wave and later, dance music in general. Many groups point to Kraftwerk and 1977 Bowie as inspiration.

From there, we go to 1981. Two musical genres collide here to make a very exciting time musically. New Wave and New Romanticism clash to make one of the best periods of modern pop music history. The acts are just rich! The songs as well. Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, Soft Cell’s cover of Tainted Love, Ultravox’s Vienna, Duran Duran’s Planet Earth are just some of the songs and acts swilling around. Basically, from this point until 1984 is probably my most loved era of music. It probably mostly coincides with my being a young teen and getting my own defining taste of music, but I just love this period of music. I don’t love ALL 80’s music, I don’t love ALL of the 80’s! There is a marked, audible decline in music by 1985 as far as I’m concerned, which has lead to the predominance of the over-manufactured pop we get now. I lay the blame solely at the hands of Stock, Aitken and Waterman. These men should be hung, drawn and quartered for their “contribution” to music. We do have things to thank them for, Kylie Minogue, Mel and Kim and Rick Astley. But also they gave us The Reynolds Sisters, Sonia, and changed Bananarama’s career for the worse as far as I’m concerned. There was amazing music from 1981 to 1984. It was if not the best period of modern musical history, then it’s definitely in the top three!

I must mention in this gap, there was the break-up of The Smiths. A group that sadly escaped my attention until the late 80’s at the earliest. I was definitely into them by the early 90’s though. Just had to mention them.

Next, a little detour around 1991. We get the first wave of dance music with things like Dee-lite’s Groove Is In The Heart. And we also get…Nirvana! And grunge. But no-one ever thinks of grunge without Nirvana. But of course there were other pioneers. Sonic Youth, Beck, The Breeders, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and even a few “harder than grunge” acts like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. A good little beginning for what is now probably labeled EMO music.

Next, 1995 – the second Brit invasion with Britpop. LOVED this period too. Before the invasion though, and me discussing it, I have to make a mention of Bjork. She came in the wave of the rave scene of the early 1990’s with her Debut album in 1993. A pinnacle album for me. Just had to mention it as it’s sort of between timelines. Anyway, on to 1995. A Brit wave began. It must have been odd for some groups as they’d been around for some time before really breaking, like Pulp. They had formed way back in 1978, but didn’t really make mainstream impact until Common People and the Different Class album. Blur had been around a few years, had a minor hit with There’s No Other Way in 1991, but it wasn’t until 1994’s Park Life did they really come into prominence. Other acts of note were of course, Oasis, Supergrass, Suede and The Verve. Loved, LOVED Britpop. Being such a musical Anglophile, I found it fab.

Penultimate of the musical pinnacles for me is around 1999 when I moved to the UK and found myself in a resurgence of dance music and chill-out stuff. I bought several “chill-out” albums in the early Naughties. Mostly all Ministry of Sound produced. There was stuff like Alice DJ, DJ Spiller, Armend Van Helden, Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, Avalanches, The Chemical Brothers (although around for some time), Goldfrapp, Royksopp, Air, William Orbit, all making an impact on my listening taste. I very much enjoy this genre of music.

Last of the pinnacles is 2005. Lots of new indie bands make their way to the mainstream. Two of my current faves, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers come to prominence then. As well as the Kaiser Chiefs and groups like The Futureheads. Also to come on the scene a little later was The Feeling.

Well, that’s it. My musical pinnacles. Let me know what you think.

My next topic for music will be my list of Scottish acts I like.

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New Music From The Faves.

There is a number of groups I’m into releasing new material over the next few months, which I’m looking forward to.

The first is the highly anticipated new Verve album for 10 years. It’s released in two weeks time. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it then. I hope it can capture what they had when they split. I think there is still quite a bit of discord in the camp, but let’s hope it doesn’t detract from them making great music.

The next two to release new stuff are Kaiser Chiefs and Keane.

The Kaiser’s seem quite prolific with their stuff. This is their 3rd album in as many years. I hope it stands up, as sometimes I think bands can rush material. I think there needs to be a balance between the length of absence with someone like The Verve (okay, they had officially split, granted), to an act like the Kaiser’s that can produce albums within 12-18 months.

Keane have had a longer absence due to Tom Chaplin’s rehab stint, etc. They sound like they’ve worked very hard on this album. I was a little disappointed in Under The Iron Sea. I could appreciate what they were trying to do, but some if it got a little lost. Let’s see if they “move on” or take a retrograde step and try and recreate Hopes and Fears.

Both Kaiser’s Off With Their Heads and Keane’s Perfect Symmetry albums are released October 13th in the UK.

The next on the card, towards the end of the year (no official release date yet) is the hotly anticipated new U2 album. Said to sound very retrograde by all accounts. Going back as far as supposedly recapturing the sounds of Achtung Baby. Bono has said to have described it as sounding very Moroccan influenced. Bono goes on to say “it’s not like anything we’ve done before” but it’s all sounding a little Achtung Baby meets Pop to me. But we’ll see I suppose. I don’t mind if it recaptures those sounds. I tuned out during ATYCLB and HTDAAB (the last two albums) sadly. There are a few tracks I like on both, but on the whole I was disappointed with them. I’m holding out a lot of hope with this new one.

The last two, expected to be due early in the New Year are Franz Ferdinand and Antony and The Johnsons. Franz say their new album is more disco influenced. I’m not sure if that’s a bit of a retrograde step. Not that the first self-titled album was disco-based, but You Could Have It So Much Better was such a mature continuation of their sound, I’m worried the new one will sound a little backward. It’s not that I’m not wanting a disco sound from them, I just don’t want it at the expense of them compromising the maturity they gained in their sound with YCHISMB.

I’m not sure what we’ll get with Antony. He’s quoted on Wiki as saying the new album is about “landscape and the future” and said the previous album’s theme was “sort of sad and redemptive”. Sounds like he’s going for a more “upbeat” sound, although he says the new album will be more one of “contrasts”, with a blend of uplifting and redemptive songs. If the musicality of it is anything like I Am A Bird Now, I’ll love it.

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I’m Hot, Casanova.

The weather died down yesterday, only for it to be hot again today! And it’ll be even HOTTER tomorrow. I’m glad the weather is sunny, but it SERIOUSLY does not need to be this hot with it. It was sunny yesterday, but there was a lovely north wind blowing keeping the temp. down.

I watched Casanova yesterday. You think (for me anyway, only vaguely knowing the reputation of Giacomo Casanova) that there isn’t going to be anything at all redeeming about him. That by the end you’ll just think of him as a half-wit ladies man. But not so at all. I never knew of the story of Henriette. I’m sure given “artistic licence” given more relevance by writer of the script Russell T Davies. Casanova was not just a mere “ladies man”. He seems to have truly loved women.

Peter O’ Toole plays an older Casanova and even at the age he’s at in this point in his life (around 73 years old), he still manages to seduce a young woman (he doesn’t go on to “have his way” with her, and there is no actual intercourse) and you are totally “spun-in” with her. You find yourself, watching, thinking “Yes, you are old, but you can have me too!!!” If he was anything like he was portrayed in the series, I can see why he is held as such a Lothario. But with such overwhelming love for women, with no malice ever meant, no harm ever wanting to be done. Even though he lived over 200 years ago, I fell in love with him too.

The experience was made all the lovelier for watching David Tennant as the younger Casanova, as well as Mr O’ Toole being the older Casanova. When I was in Australia last year, they showed Goodbye, Mr Chips on the TV on a Saturday afternoon. I watched it and just fell in love with it. It was a musical version with Petula Clark and Peter O’ Toole as Chips. Oh, it was so lovely, and O’ Toole played such a lovely, gentle version of Chips. Despite the man being in his 70’s, I fell in love with him as Chips. Still, he was 37 at the time of making Chips, so that’s OK!

Can you tell I loved Casanova? 🙂

And of course, with the repeats being on BBC3, I watched ANOTHER Doctor Who last night. Probably my equal favourite of the series with the one being aired tonight (Turn Left). I was just mesmerised by Mr T’s performance in this and this was pre-hots-for! It was after this went to air, I had my dream of him…

Well, I’ll let you know what’s in stall for DVD watching when the new batch arrives.

I’m looking forward to a new series of The Tudors starting up too this Friday. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, more absolute male hotness to be had. I’m sure Henry VIII was never THAT sexy!!!

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Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (The Tudors)

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I Love Music.

And I just don’t listen to it enough.

When I was growing up, through my teens and into my late 20’s, I’d listen to at least 2 hours of music a DAY!

Now all my music I hear in a day is probably about 20 minutes worth of incidental music I hear whilst watching TV. I no doubt hear MORE than that, but it’s background stuff on TV shows and the like. Not music on the radio or from iTunes/CD’s/whatever.

On Thursday night there was SO little on TV, I decided to put the radio on and listen to Radio 2. Radcliffe/Maconie was just about to start – the program I was hoping to catch. Stuart Maconie was on his own this week while Mark Radcliffe was filling in for Steve Wright (in the afternoon). It was like stepping back in time…

Here’s a short back story. Mid March 2008, Em and I are on a anniversary break. We’d spent the afternoon in Birmingham waiting for the time to come around for us to go and watch U2-3D at the Imax theatre in Brum. We wasted time by sitting in the car listening to…Mark Radcliffe and Liza Tarbuck filling in for Steve Wright while he was on hols! That night as we were driving home (having just seen U2-3D on Imax), Stuart Maconie was hosting the show on his own.

I’d promised myself a few days ago that I MUST start listening to Radcliffe/Maconie because that night coming back from Brum, Stuart was playing some great stuff. So, lo and behold when I listen in for the first time since that night, Maconie’s on his own ‘cos Radcliffe’s filling in for Wrighty! It was like picking up where I’d left off!!

I only got to listen in to the first hour of the show and it was most enjoyable. And now because the BBC are so damn high-tech and stuff, if I DO miss a show, I can listen to it the next day via the BBC web site. Oh, technology!!

Tonight I listened to a program on Radio 2 that was repeated from 2004 about the history of Chillout music. I love Dance/Chillout/Ambient stuff. Love Chemical Brothers, Royksopp, Faithless, Daft Punk, Moby, Fatboy Slim, Paul Oakenfold, Massive Attack, Moloko, Goldfrapp, and then into similar genre stuff like Portishead and Everything But The Girl. It was a good prog and it made me want to get back into listening to dance. There’s an Oz group I’ve just heard about called The Presets, as well as another group called Midnight Juggernauts (Stuart Maconie played MJ’s last night), they both sound fab. I thought The Avalanches were going to be the only Oz dance group ever to make it out of Terra Australis.

After that, it was time to watch a DVD. I watched Sweeney Todd. Much better than I anticipated. I know, if I felt like that, why did I want to see it? Curiosity mainly, to see how Johnny Depp would play it. I thought he was good. I know the reaction was mixed. A lot of people saying he just parodied David Bowie’s singing voice – is that bad? I thought he delivered good vocally. It was enough of his own NOT to totally sound like DB. And let’s face it, if we’re talking parodies, DB himself was only parodying Anthony Newley anyway in his early days, or Scott Walker. I was worried I was going to tire of the musicality of it, but I didn’t. It had aspects of being an old-style film musical, which surprised me. It wasn’t “top notch”, but it was better than I was lead to believe it would be, or that I thought it would be. I could endure it again at some point. It’s something I could watch again, so that’s good enough for me. The one thing that was making me giggle through it though was Helena Bonham-Carter’s character and the young kid regularly referring to Depp’s character as “Mr. T”!

DVD’s to come are…the first series of Black Books (re: Dylan Moran discussion a few posts back) and Threads – 80’s “crap yourself” drama about potential nuclear annihilation. Nothing like a bit of 80’s nuclear war drama to cheer you up! Credit crunch?! Peh!!!

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I Know I Have! Thanks Daniel.

I saw an article on the BBC New web site saying that Daniel Powter’s song Bad Day has been the most played song in the UK in the last 5 years.

I can’t tell you how much I detest this song. As soon as I hear the first melodies, I scream blue murder and try and get away or turn the sound down. Anything to get away from it. If I actually HAVE had a bad day, this song is the blooming last thing I want to hear! “Yes, Daniel. I’ve had a bad day. And now YOU’VE just made it worse!” I mean why sing to someone “you’ve had a bad day, ne na na na nar”. Just f*ck off Daniel Powter!!!

Next most played was Kelly Clarkson’s mediocre Because Of You. I don’t mind admitting to the “guilty pleasure” of liking Since You’ve Been Gone, but Because Of You?! God, it’s SO MOTR!

James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful was 3rd most played. That I don’t mind. There’s a lovely sentiment to that song that I’m not ashamed to admit liking. I can see why people have been “Blunted” out though. I like Goodbye My Lover and Same Mistake more though as songs.

Rounding off the top five were Scissors Sisters’ Don’t Feel Like Dancing (probably not my fave track of theirs) and Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars – which I adore! I mean, that sentiment in that chorus – “If I lay here. If I just lay here, will you lie with me and and just forget the world?” That’s on par with the chorus of The Smith’s There’s A Light That Never Goes Out…for me. As far as I’m concerned, Chasing Cars isn’t played ENOUGH!

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Hedgehogs and Hairspray.

Watching DVD’s again. I’ve finished watching my set of Blackpool discs. It was a really good series. I think you need to have something of the Brit about you, or be Anglophilic to appreciate some of it. I can understand why Viva Laughlin (a US re-production of it made by/for CBS) failed. I found something outrageously sexy about David Morrissey’s voice in it. I loved the kitschy musical segues.

More discs arrived by post yesterday. After spending the morning doing the whole bankruptcy petition thing at the local county court, I needed some light relief. One disc to arrive was Hairspray. I’d been wanting to see it for ages. Just the mere notion of John Travolta in drag was funny enough! Oh, it was SO good. I just freaking LOVE musicals! I’m a gay man trapped in a heterosexual woman’s body!! I’d love to see it in the West End now. I’d love to see Michael Ball as Edna. Musicals are even more special when you see them in the theatre. I haven’t been to the West End for a musical for years now. Last one I saw was Cats, just before it ended its run. Maybe, just maybe for my birthday or something. Anyway, it was just the “pick me up” I needed. I LOVE the music of the show.

After watching that, I just had the TV on Big Brother. Chris was looking out the loungeroom window with something in her sight, seemingly. I suggested to Em that she might have spotted a hedgehog, so Em went outside to investigate with a torch. And lo and behold, there was a hoggy outside! He was out in the garden, rummaging around. Em went back inside to get some dog food for him, but then he slipped away under the bushes. It was lovely being able to go out into the garden to see him though, even if it was just for a fleeting glimpse. Em says there are LOADS of slugs and snails around at the moment and she keeps seeing hedgehog droppings (amazingly, very slug-like shaped poo – who’d have thought?).

That’s it for now, I’m off for another DT fix.

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DVD’s

After working on my list of U2 songs for yesterday’s post, I watched some DVD’s. It’s SSSSOOOOO the non-rating season in the UK. Here’s a sample of the “delights” on TV last night.

As of 6pm:

BBC1:
News 6.10-6.30
My Family 6.30-7.00
(a modern day Brit family comedy – ie: not THAT funny) – OK if you really ARE stretched for something to watch)
Last Choir Standing 7.00-8.00
(yet ANOTHER reality TV talent show – this one obviously about finding “the” choir group of the UK – I just can’t generate any interest in it)
The National Lottery: This Time Tomorrow 8.00-8.50
(yes, our lottery programme goes for that long! They usually have some quiz show linked into it. This one is seemingly called “This Time Tomorrow” where the quiz winner gets flown off to an exotic location as their prize)
Casualty 8.50-9.40
(hospital-based drama series)
News 9.40-10.00

BBC2
The Weakest Link 6.15-7.00
Dad’s Army 7.00-7.30
Carry On Camping 7.30-9.00
(Lord have mercy! Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I DO love an old “Carry On” film, but not prime time on a Saturday night!)
Cor, Blimey! 9.00-10.45
(TV drama about the Carry On films and stars of the movies)

ITV1
Twins 5.35-7.30
(the movie with Arnie and Danny De Vito)
New You’ve Been Framed 7.30-8.00
(one of those home video compilation shows – give me strength)
Who Dares Sings 8.00-9.00
(another reality TV show – basically karaoke on TV)
Foyle’s War 9.00-11.00
(drama series about some war bloke or something. Dunno. Never watched, never will – even despite David Tennant being in an episode once)

Channel 4
Gok’s Fashion Fix (repeat from Thursday night) 6.00-7.00
(hosted by fashionista Gok Wan, telling people who care what’s hot in fashion and trying to help members of the public improve their fashion sense)
Channel 4 News 7.00-7.30
Day Of The Kamikaze 7.30-9.00
(a documentary about Japanese Kamikaze fighter pilots of WWII)
Big Brother 9.00-10.00
(the day’s “highlights” from the reality TV show’s house)

Five
Superstars 6.05-7.00
(has-been athletes competing against each other for reasons beyond my comprehension)
Five News 7.00-7.15
Cricket on Five 7.15-8.00
(the day’s highlights of the current test between England and South Africa)
NCIS 8.00-9.00
CSI:NY 9.00-10.00
(sorry, I’m not interested in CSI:Anywhere – well, maybe I’d watch CSI:Luton! – NOT)

The only cool thing to be had on was highlights from T In The Park (Scotland’s big music festival – think Glastonbury but in Scotland) on BBC Three. I just recorded what I wanted to see.

So, hence DVD night.

I watched a film called Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. Oh My God! That film WAY surpassed what I was expecting of it. I just sort of remembered it being talked about on film reviews and stuff, but couldn’t really remember much about it, but added it to my rental list anyway. Oh man it was good! A lot more Sci-fi based than I was expecting too. The ending was a tad far-fetched (I suppose it’s just that Hollywood need for a happy ending), but the film had me glued.

After watching that, it was time for a bit of a DT fix, so I started watching the TV series Blackpool. I watched the first two episodes. I remember wanting to watch it when it was on the TV, but just never got the chance. I think I was worried by the musical slant on it that it might be too kitschy. It IS kitschy in those scenes, but fun. And Mr T is being quite sexy in this show. I love this running theme they have through it that his character – a detective called Peter Carlisle – he is completely addicted to sugary foods. So far – just in the first two episodes we’ve seen him eat chips, ice cream, candy floss, cake, and biscuits. In nearly every scene he’s in he’s eating something. Like a bloke would stay that skinny eating all that junk food? The ice cream scene is particularly yummy. DT eating ice cream from a cone, licking the ice cream off – I can’t tell you how much I was wishing to be the ice cream!!!

I think had I got to watch it on the TV I might not have stuck with it. It’s a bit of a slow-burner. The plot doesn’t really develop until the second episode. But now I’m really dying to watch the rest of it. The lead guy in it, David Morrissey is going to be in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special. And there are rumours he might end up being the Doctor’s new assistant. Here’s my fave scene so far, with Messers Tennant and Morrissey being ever so slightly homo-erotic.

Not the best clip, but the others up were out of sync.

I’ve got Run, Fat Boy, Run to watch later on. I’m scarily now starting to get a thing for Dylan Moran! I’m on a real geeky-sexy trip at the moment! Next thing you know, I’ll be watching the whole series of Black Books (which I should anyway because by all accounts it’s wonderfully funny). He’s touring around the country at the moment. I’d love to see him again. We saw him at the Cambridge Corn Exchange a few years back and he did this thing about Irish men, and their hair. I was in stitches. Here’s a clip of it from another performance in Dublin (from the official DVD release).

Dylan Moran on Smurfs.