Sunday 30 December 2007

Tom's Films of 2007

It’s that time again where I round up all the hours this year I’ve spent in the cinema. Due to having more free time than ever before this year it’s a top 20.

1. Infamous

The year's most underrated film. It suffered from coming out so early in the year and of course from treading the same ground as Capote, one of last year's best films. But this was actually the better movie. Toby Jones gives the performance of a lifetime as Truman Capote and there's great support from Juliet Stevenson, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig and yes even Gwyneth Paltrow.

2. Atonement

Admittedly I went into this thinking that it might be a bit dull. I couldn't have been more wrong. I loved it from the off, a sweeping, tragic epic with some great performances it will surely get Oscars chucked at it in the new year.

3. Taking Liberties

A brilliant documentary which is sure to make any UK citizen shake with rage while watching it. The film looks at the erosion of liberties under Tony Blair's rule. The website is well worth a look and the DVD is out now.

4. Superbad

Immature, crude, sexist, aye maybe but the funniest film of the year all the same.

5. Hot Fuzz

This wasn't far behind. As good as you would expect from the makers of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead. Lethal Weapon meets Miss Marple.

6. Sicko

Michael Moore's damning documentary on the American health system. Of course it has had its detractors, like everything Moore does, but it's hard hitting and moving and makes you grateful for the NHS, despite its flaws.

7. Knocked Up

A really enjoyable comedy from Judd Apatow. I look forward to more of the same from him in the multitude of Apatow written, produced and/or directed films that are coming out in 2008.

"He's doing the dice too much."
"That's all he's got."

8. This is England

Skinheads and racism in the Midlands in 1983. This might be Shane Meadows' best film. It captures the racist mentality well, and features some really strong performances.

9. Mutual Appreciation

The story of a musician coming to stay with his friend while trying to put a band together, he realises he kind of fancies his friend's girlfriend and that's about it. It has a lot of charm and some likable characters.

10. The Darjeeling Limited

More of the same from Wes Anderson as three brothers cross India in a train in an attempt to reconnect. I happen to love Anderson's quirky style of filmmaking, so this kind of thing will always win me over. Amusing performances, great sets and cinematography an excellent soundtrack and a couple of nice cameos.

11. Zodiac

Directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's books Zodiac tells the story of the people hunting the infamous 'Zodiac' killer over three decades in San Francisco. Nearly three hours in length, it really doesn't feel it, as it's completely absorbing. Although the film focuses more on the investigation there is at least one truly shocking murder scene. A bumper DVD is out in the new year.

12. In the Shadow of the Moon

The story of how America won the space race. A Fascinating documentary with some stunning footage.

13. Bee Movie

Jerry Seinfeld's heavily promoted animated comedy. It's got a lot of Seinfeld's touches, "Toe-rings? Why would anyone wear a ring on their toe? That's like wearing a hat on your knee." Smart enough for grown-ups, daft enough for kids.

14. The Simpsons Movie

The much anticipated feature film hit the mark for me. Perhaps not as funny as its reputation as the world's funniest comedy show would suggest, but enough laughs in it to be a success. 'Look out he is a spiderpig'.

15. The Hoax

Another film based on a true story, Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving who claims he is ghostwriting the autobiography of Howard Hughes. It sags a bit towards the last half hour but it's a compelling story of opportunity and greed and a solid performance from Gere.

16. Run Fat Boy Run

Simon Pegg stars in this comedy that was actually much funnier than I anticipated.

17. 3.10 to Yuma

Russell Crow plays the heartless villain, Christian Bale the loving family man who offers to escort him to prison in this western. Two of the best actors working at the moment playing off one another, you could hardly lose.

18. American Gangster

Crowe again, this time opposite Denzel Washington in a cops and robbers tale. It never really takes the mantle of great movie but it holds your attention all the way through and there are some good supporting roles, notably from Josh Brolin.

19. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

I'm a huge fan of director Andrew Dominik's film Chopper and since then I've been waiting to see what he would do with some Hollywood big bucks. He did this and although it's long and slow moving it's captivating. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in the title roles are both outstanding.

20. The Bourne Ultimatum

The third instalment of the Bourne saga ticks all the boxes. I could have done with more Paddy Considine however.

Worst films of the year? The Number 23 was pretty awful. In fact I don't think I went to the cinema again for about a month after seeing it.

Tom's Films of 2006


Tom's Films of 2005

Tom's Films of 2004

Phil O'Donnell 1972-2007

It was a big shock for the country and football as a whole when Phil O'Donnell passed away suddenly yesterday. If you're a Scottish football fan you would have seen his career progress over the last 17 years through his early days at Motherwell, sucess and injury blighted periods at Celtic and a fruitless time at Sheffield Wednesday.

I for one was pleased to see him back at Motherwell and he seemed to be enjoying an Indian Summer as the Well climbed the table.

It was unfortunate he only gained one full cap for Scotland and his manager for that game, Craig Brown, was on the radio this morning saying he would have capped him more often had he not suffered from frequent injuries.


There are literally hundreds of tributes and obituaries for him online, but this is about the best one I've read, from the Sunday Times.

There are numerous video tributes to him online on YouTube and below is his goal from probably the best Scottish Cup final that I can remember, the 1991 game where Motherwell beat Dundee United 4-3.

Sunday 23 December 2007

Tuesday 18 December 2007

Tough Day at the Office

So after 7 months on the buroo, countless knock-backs from prospective employers, endless hassles with housing benefit, interviews that were nothing but a waste of time and a dwindling back account, that's right, I've finally found a job. It was a shock to me too.

It wasn't easy finding it. A burst of activity on the job market, where I applied for 91 jobs in 12 days did the trick. So aye, right-wing radio phone-in jocks 'there's jobs out there if you look for them'. If you look at every single one of them every single day until someone lets you have one.

Two days in and surprisingly I've not found (much) to complain about. Like everyone else who suffered from the same redundancy axe as myself I've now got a better job, better money, better working conditions, I'm working for a better company and have a more rewarding day than I ever could have dreamed of at my previous employer.

Of course since I started I've done nothing but bat away phone calls and e-mails from other agencies asking me to speak to them about jobs. Yet I could barely get anyone to return my calls from May to November.

Much as I enjoyed having the time off, I'm relieved to have discovered that I'm not unemployable after all. I had months of people saying, 'Something will turn up,' and I would say, 'You know, I'm not so sure.'

So anyway it's back to going to the cinema in the evenings when it's crowded, getting up in the dark, moaning about holidays, moaning about pay, listening to people who get paid more than you moan about pay. Aye, it's good to be back.

Sunday 16 December 2007

Bee Movie

I went to see Jerry Seinfeld's much hyped Bee Movie yesterday, and it didn't disappoint. It's pretty funny. Much like The Simpsons it offers a combination of jokes for the kids and stuff for adults. Chris Rock is only in it for two scenes, but he gets most of the best lines.

Down below are two very funny trailers featuring Jerry and a few star cameos.



Maldini

I was about to write a post about the career of living football legend Paolo Maldini. However the 39 year old has announced that he is not retiring after today's World Club Cup final. He plans to carry on until his contract runs out in June 2008. And why not when now he's added the World Club Cup to his already impressive list of honours.

Thursday 13 December 2007

Double Take

I thought there was funnier stuff in his show, but Limmy's legendary Double Take video is now up on his YouTube page. When listening through headphones Surprise Surprise is just too creepy.

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Music Class

My music nightclass semester finished last night with a panel discussion that featured some notable figures from the Glasgow music scene.

It was later on in the pub though when we got treated to stories about
Andrew Loog Oldham, Grand Royal, Bis, the inner workings of the NME and Alan McGee making some poor choices in video directors.

All in all it was an entertaining 12 weeks that opened my eyes to various aspects of the music business and numerous different ways of looking at the industry. The essays and exams are another thing entirely.

Vaginarinoed

Back at the beard contest I've been Vaginaro'ed. Monday was album cover day, so you had to replicate an album cover of your choice. So down below it's me mimicking the album cover, then Jennifer from Vaginarino mimicking me, then the original album cover.


Tuesday 11 December 2007

Animal Actors

Ken Levine has a good post on writing for Eddie in Frasier and animal actors in general.

Sunday 9 December 2007

The Nines & The Killing of John Lennon

Over the last few days I've been to the cinema to see The Nines twice and The Killing of John Lennon.

The Nines is the directorial debut of Go and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory screenwriter John August. It tells three inter-connecting stories about showbiz types in LA. Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Mellisa McCarthy play the three central characters in each strand.

It's undeniably a little bit confusing, but it's a good watch if you're prepared to put the puzzle together. Which several folk in the first screening I went to weren't, considering the number of walkouts.

I went back to see it a second time in order to watch it while listening to the commentary that John August made for download on his website. Listening to an audio commentary on headphones in the cinema was quite a nice experience. For one thing it shuts out anyone around you who might be talking.

The Killing of John Lennon is about as straightforward a movie title as you can get. It tells the story of three months in the life of Mark Chapman. Why it bothered, I dunno.

It's a well made film, no question about that. There's some great cinematography and some nice camerawork, but for my money the film manages to glamourise Chapman. It probably doesn't set out to do this, but there's an attempt to make a glamorous, good looking film, with a handsome charismatic star.

The story, such as there is, is taken from Chapman's interviews, depositions and court transcripts, so the words in the narration are all Chapman's own. The locations are almost all the actual locations. The gun shop seen in the film is the actual one in which Chapman bought the gun he used to kill Lennon.

The director Andrew Piddington said in an interview, "I knew the series of events that led up to the murder but I didn't know the mind behind the killer. I set out to try and explore the reasons why he did it and hopefully to come up with something that gave me some kind of closure on the tragic loss of somebody so amazingly talented who still had so much to offer." Well, he doesn't really explore the reasons why Chapman did it. His mental problems that appeared much earlier in his life were unexplored. The film offers nothing much other than his obsession with Catcher in the Rye and the suggestion that he killed Lennon because he was 'a phoney'.

Jonas Ball gives a good performance, but I'm not sure it's representative of Mark Chapman. He also looks more like Jim Morrison than the chubby baby-faced Chapman.

There's a mixed critical reaction. It's either getting great reviews or terrible ones.

Here's a mixed review of the film by Robert Rosen, who wrote the book 'Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon'.

There is a second film on the same subject, called Chapter 27, due out next year. This film has attracted a boycott website.

This is an interview with John August and Ryan Reynolds about The Nines.

Saturday 8 December 2007

GOSH!WOW COMICS

Coming soon from the team who brought you Black Cape...and all that. This is Iain and I having a look at the kind of stuff we read by the ton while growing up.

We'll be posting it here and Iain has already stuck up some cracking teaser artwork.



The first Mr Hubris story is with me to complete at the moment so shouldn't be too long.

Black Cape #34

Merry Xmas folks...

Wednesday 5 December 2007

The Lion Ate Bambi

This was the main story in the early edition of the Evening Times today. It made me laugh.

Basically the big advertising screen on George Square showed a trailer for I Am Legend. In it a deer gets eaten by a lion. There appears to be no evidence that any children were traumatised by this, though the Evening Times suggests otherwise.

I love that the 'passerby' insisted he remain anonymous.

One passerby, who asked not to be named, said he was shocked by the images. He added: "I just happened to look up and got the fright of my life.

"Will Smith was watching this deer graze and then suddenly out of nowhere comes this lion. You think you're watching an almost pastoral scene with this cuddly little deer, then this thing zooms across the screen and suddenly the deer gets devoured in one gulp.

Thursday 29 November 2007

Films

Due to having copious amounts of time on my hands I've been to see more films than I care to write about here, but of the last week or so here are the best two I've seen.

In the Shadow of the Moon is the story of the NASA space programme and the men who went to the moon. It's a fascinating documentary featuring archive footage of moon, the space programme and interviews with the surviving men who went to the moon. All except Neil Armstrong.

One of the things that fascinates me about travelling to the moon is that even although (or perhaps because) it was last done 35 years ago it still seems futuristic and difficult to comprehend. There's also the fact that these guys are all in their 70s and 80s now and although travelling to the moon is one of mankind's greatest achievements, in 20 years or so there will be no one left alive to talk about the experience first hand.

The trailer is below.



The Darjeeling Limited is the latest from director Wes Anderson. The film has received mixed reviews, with some people finding it inconsequential. Me, I loved it. Really I think if you're a fan of Anderson's other films such as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums then you should lap this up.

The story of three brothers attempting to reconnect after their father's death by travelling in a train across India provides a lot of funny moments. It's undeniably great to look at and offers a great soundtrack. It probably won't win anyone who wasn't a Wes Anderson fan already over, but if like me you are then it's well worth seeing.

Here's the trailer.

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Black Cape #33

Sunday 25 November 2007

"They're Obviously Daft"

Chris Morris writes in today's Observer about Martin Amis and his thoughts on Islam.

"I claim no great knowledge on this subject - level-three SATs perhaps - but Amis couldn't pass the test for morning playgroup. If my Shetland pony looks like a high-horse it's only because Amis is trotting round the paddock on a chihuahua."

Friday 23 November 2007

Early Bill Watterson

Here's a website that shows off some rare Bill Watterson artwork. They are taken from his days as a student at Ohio's Kenyon College.

Black Cape # 32

Thursday 22 November 2007

30 Rock & SNL Live

Here's a review complete with pictures of the 30 Rock live performance at the UCB Theatre last week.

"Even though the cast read from scripts, using only chairs for props, the show was enormous, intimate and undeniable. But it’s easy to define a small, crowded space as ‘intimate’ when you’re crammed in there like I was, cross-legged on the edge of the stage floor like a wide-eyed, open-mouthed kindergartner, stuffed scalp-to nostril between the show’s script coordinator and the Teamster in charge of transportation."

Here's another review, this time from the
Huffington Post.

McBrayer and Lutz provided the "commercial" breaks in the form of improvised commercials based on shouted-out suggestions from the audience. The first one was "beer" (McBrayer, as child fishing: "Fishing makes me think of mortality." Lutz urging him to have a beer: "It makes me forget about your mom." McBrayer: "I guess this beer is pretty wonderful." Lutz: "It's beer!" Fin.)

Here's their review of the
Saturday Night Live show at the UCB too.

"So, if you want to understand why virtually the entire cast and crew of SNL would put on a full-length live show in this modest little spot, working their asses off as much as they ever would in Studio 8H, that's why — which is precisely what they did last night. The show, which ran almost 2 hours — with no commercial breaks, obviously — was a benefit for the SNL crew members who were laid off because of the writer's strike (the SRO crowd paid $20 apiece to get in). As Poehler said at the show's open: "No one likes laying people off, no one likes getting laid off, but everyone likes getting laid." Poehler, who used the word "family" to describe her colleagues at SNL, also made a point of including NBC in that family, thanking the network "for allowing us to do this" (the show was made up of a mixture of old and new material, with unaired sketches and jokes that Poehler assured the crowd "were never going to make it on the air" — but still presumably belonged to NBC as work-for-hire material)."

Wednesday 21 November 2007

Speechless

From tomorrow a number of high profile actors will be taking part in an internet campaign to highlight the Writers' Guild Strike.

Run by
Deadline Hollywood and entitled 'Speechless' the campaign features Sean Penn, Holly Hunter, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Jay Leno, Harvey Keitel, Tina Fey, Tim Robbins, David Schwimmer, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Andre 3000, Chazz Palminteri, Jason Bateman, Justine Bateman, Rosanna Arquette, Diane Ladd and Matthew Perry among many others.

"During the first day of the strike, director/writer George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl) and writer Alan Sereboff (The Red House) were struck by the talent surrounding them on the picket line. Hickenlooper suggested to Sereboff that they focus their energies on a creative campaign. That night, they met at WGA Headquarters with writers Ian Deitchman (Life As We Know It), Justin Zakham (The Bucket List) and director Josh Marston (Maria Full of Grace). After conferring, the team came to an agreement: What better way to bring attention to the issues regarding the Internet then to use the Internet itself?"

In this video below one of the writing staff of The Daily Show brings you Not The Daily Show.



In that clip there's talk of Viacom suing YouTube's parent company Google for a Billion Dollars. Here on the real Daily Show Jon Stewart and Demetri Martin explain how that might work.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Black Cape # 31

I'll Let You Go

Last night I went to see Milton Jones at The Stand. If you don't know his comedy he's very much a wordsmith. Although some of his jokes have pretty laboured premises his laugh rate was very good. His joke writing at its best is superb and he has a great sense of comic timing, as well as a range of facial expressions and acting ability.

Here he is on BBC's Music Hall Meltdown. Nearly every joke here he did last night.


Monday 19 November 2007

Overheard

I was in a shop this afternoon buying some stationary and a guy in a Post Office uniform was in talking to a member of staff. They obviously knew one another. She was asking him if he went out to watch the football on Saturday.

"Aye. I wisnae really drinking cos I had the wean with me, so I only had about 5 pints."

New Pornographers Live

I went to see The New Pornographers at Oran Mor last night. As much as I love them I can't help thinking that they're a better band on record than they are live. However I don't think I've ever seen them in a venue where the sound does them justice.

I think I would like to see them in North America playing with the same line up as on the recent album. All that said they were still good value. The highlights for me were Spirit of Giving and Unguided from the new album and the two-song encore Letter From an Occupant and The Slow Descent into Alcoholism.

There are more photographs from last night, not taken by me, here.

Here's the video for Challengers.

Sunday 18 November 2007

Wha's Like Us?

Further to Tom's account of taking in the match today - I didn't even bother leaving the house. The idea of wading through a sea of Jimmy-hatted wanks who had taken the game as license to act as if civilisation were a fledgling concept filled me with dizzying inertia.

Not that I didn't care - it is simply that I can't face people when Scotland lose and I couldn't see how I'd be in any kind of nick to handle quite so abundant a crop of utter tubes even if we'd miraculously won.

Having lost the match and gone out, I feel physically ill. When Lord? Fucking when are we going to grasp opportunity instead of congratulating ourselves in failure? When are we going to loup the dike of success, instead of accepting the role of also-rans? How many times have we done this now as a footballing nation - come close to achievement only to fall at the last?

Because the harsh fact of the matter is that this campaign has seen us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with our results in the last two games. Ultimately, for all the team's efforts, they have achieved next to nothing.

Tangibly, we'll get a slightly easier draw for the World Cup qualifiers maybe. That's all. Wait until next summer. Then it will all sink in.

For me the fact that we played well, beat France twice and still went out makes this harder to take, not easier. Where people are drawing the comfort from here escapes me.

I honestly don't know why we bother with the polavar of a professional football set-up if the national attitude to the sport is "win, lose draw, whatever, lets aw get pished." It's this wholesale acceptance of mediocrity that allowed debacles like the Berti Vogts era to happen.

I'm fucking pissed off we're out. Bet the players are too. And I bet the police van fulls of idiot jimmy hat wearing buffoons up on GBH charges come Monday morning will try and pass their secret rage off on "just having a drink and a laugh".

End of the day, the table doesn't lie - we had and still have capable players, now we need the correct attitude and, just for me, a lot less of these embarrassing happy-go-lucky fans.

Saturday 17 November 2007

30 Rock Live on Stage

This is a great idea in light of the US writers' strike. The casts of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live are performing their shows live on stage, with Michael Cera hosting.

Proceeds from the sale of tickets to "30 Rock" - priced at a modest $20 - will go to the Writers Guild strike fund, the Web site says.

Typical Scotland

The phrase 'Typical Scotland' seems to sum up this evening's performance. I dunno how many times I've watched a big Scotland game thinking we would overcome all the odds. In today's Daily Record they interviewed every manager in Scotland and asked them for their prediction. Nearly every one said '1-0 Scotland' or 'Scotland to win'. Just shows you, eh? Optimism doesn't come easy to us, but when we have cause we leap right in.

Still, you can't ask much more from the players under the circumstances. It was a group that looked impossible to qualify from and taking it to the last game is as much as anyone can ask of the team.

Watching the game was far from fun and that wasn't just due to what was taking place on the pitch. Although at the pub we went to we got a seat in front of the big screen, we constantly had to keep one eye on the assembled throng around us to see where the next bit of bother was coming from.

Half the room didn't seem to be interested in the match at all. Many, mainly young guys decked out in scarves and/or tartan hats, seemed more interested in being blootered with the drink, jumping around and noising people up. I currently smell of stale beer, as the sport of the evening seemed to be throwing it around. The atmosphere from about 90 minutes before kick-off felt menacing. And as Tommy pointed out everyone in the room was supporting the same team.

I have to confess to getting into a wee scuffle myself shortly after full-time. As we walked out onto Sauchiehall Street past a sea of empty beer cans and half-naked guys unconscious on the street I can only predict a night of frenzied activity for the local constabulary. Typical Scotland.

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Late Show Writers on Strike

The writers for The Late Show in the US have set up their own blog about their striking experiences. Like this little Q & A.

Q: How long will the strike last?

Until the writers achieve a fair contract and/or Lou Ferrigno is elected president.

Q: Why did negotiations with the AMPTP break down?

Negotiations broke down when the AMPTP was unwilling to put “real” proposals on the table that compensate writers for work in new media. Also, AMPTP lead negotiator Nick Counter insisted on bargaining in his underpants.

Q: Will the networks attempt to use the writers' strike, particularly if it is an extended strike, to cancel “Airwolf”?

“Airwolf” was cancelled in 1987.

Saturday 10 November 2007

Vaginarino

Back to the beard contest, there is now a tribute site in full swing. Vaginarino really isn't as bad as it sounds. The girls of Vaginarino aim to pay tribute to their favourite photographs of bearded men on Whiskerino by mimicking the pics.

Not a Word

Back on the American writers' strike John August has a good post making it clear that writers and showrunners are doing -no screenwriting whatsoever- until the strike is resolved.

"The blockbusters of 2009 are sitting unwritten. That’s an economic factor I’ve never seen reported in all of this. The next installments of Spider-Man, Harry Potter, and every other movie franchise are unwritten and unproducible until the strike is over."

Photos of Charlatans

There's a good photo gallery from the recent Charlatans gig I went to at their website.

Friday 9 November 2007

Together Again

You surely can't not see a film with both Jason Bateman and Michael Cera? This is the trailer for Juno.

Thursday 8 November 2007

Showrunners Out on Strike

Here's a video of the showrunners of TV shows such as The Shield, Scrubs, Family Guy and ER out on strike. There's more of this kind of stuff at United Hollywood.

Whiskerino

As some of you may know I am part of Whiskerino 2007, a beard growing contest. It's run by Michael of Yewknee and the Scottish contigent is spearheaded by Ronnie at This Place is Dead.

Simply we have to grow a beard from 1 November to 29 February. Some girls joined in, but unfortunatley they have now been thrown out of the site. You can keep in touch with our progress by visiting the Whiskerino site.

Tom

Ronnie

Mong Minger

Extras at Christmas

Here's the trailer for the Christmas special of Extras. It looks pretty funny. My favourite bits are the exchanges between George Michael and Gerard Kelly.

Pencils at Dawn

I found this cartoon site by way of Graham Linehan's blog. Some of the stuff on Pencils at Dawn is really funny. See this one too. The two guys who do it have their own sites here and here.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

The Writers Guild Strike

As you'll probably know screnwriters in America are out on strike. Some of the best places to get information on what's going on is at Mark Evanier's blog News From Me and Ken Levine's blog.

It's through the former that I found this article below.

Writer for comics and screen Brian K. Vaughan has
this post on his thoughts on the strike and what it could mean for comics.

***Does this mean there’s going to be a flood of Hollywood writers coming into comics?

Maybe? I know a few creators--and a lot of readers--are sometimes annoyed by carpet-bagging movie/television writers swooping into comics to steal “their” jobs, but film/TV writers have been enormously generous about letting me into their world, and I think we should return the favor. Art is not a competition, and there’s always room for talented creators.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Your Typical Bonfire

It's not the best picture, but I didn't fancy getting too close. I took this as I walked from my Mum's to the train station yesterday evening. Basically this is on a bit of wasteground next to houses and a bingo hall, a bunch of lads stuck what appeared to be an entire garden fence on the bonfire just after I took the pic. As I turned to walk towards the station two fire engines roared down the main road. Bonfire Night, don't you just love it?

Monday 5 November 2007

Pish Search

Some people arrive at this blog through some odd searches. It would appear that there are a few sexy terms that bring folk here. I'm glad however that someone somewhere likes the YOMG girls so much.


Sunday 4 November 2007

"Do You Know Who I Am?"

Man, Larry King sure pisses off Jerry Seinfeld here.

Concerts


Being on the buroo most days it feels like the weekend, but this weekend, the real one I went to a couple of concerts, both at the ABC.First of all on Friday I saw The National. They were fantastic. Right from the opening song they were awesome. A really tight band, nearly every song they played had a big powerful sound.

On Saturday I went to to see The Charlatans. It was the first time I've seen them and they were really good. The singles were the best stuff Just Lookin', Can't Get Out of Bed, How High, but the handful of new songs they played too were quite good.

Below is the video for 'Abel' by The National.

Thursday 1 November 2007

More Cavett

Here I go again saying how great The Dick Cavett Show was. But it really was. I've been watching the Ray Charles and John and Yoko discs. The Lennon discs are great and provide some fascinating and entertaining interviews.

On the second show
Stan Freberg is also a guest and he proves to be very funny.

Below is a clip of Cavett interviewing John and Yoko. You may recognise it as being the interview Forrest Gump was inserted into in the movie of that name.

Less Serious But No Less Farcical


How do you cock up a Semi-final draw?

Get Scottish politicians involved of course! Don't worry folks, it was a muddle, not a fiddle...

A Catastrophic Series of Failures

No doubt anyone who is interested will have read up on the news that the Metropolitan Police have been found guilty of endangering the public during the fatal shooting of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.

Aside from the actual incident itself, what I find most upsetting about this whole affair is the attempt made by the Met’s legal team to slur the character of the slain man and the attitude of those with a vested interest in defending the Police.

The idea implicit in remarks I’ve read made by everyone from Commissioner Blair to Ken Livingston that supporting the Police in the extremely difficult commission of their duty to protect us from would-be killers somehow removes the necessity to account for appalling failures like this one bears little sensible scrutiny and is frankly nonsensical and offensive.

We cannot descent into the kind of society that allows Police and Security Services leeway to cock up their jobs simply because these jobs are difficult.

Monday 29 October 2007

Punk and Metal

As part of my nightclass on Popular Music I've been writing an essay on subcultures in music. This has led me to watch some interesting documentaries such as The Punk Years, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

From that last film comes this piece of video below. WASP's Chris Holmes floats in his pool, drunk out of his head, as his mother watches. It's horrifying yet compelling to watch.

Friday 26 October 2007

Comedy on Telly

You'll all be reading this too late for it to matter but here are some TV recommendations for tonight.

Firstly The Armstrong & Miller Show, on BBC One at 9.30pm.

Here they are in the Telegraph and in The Times.

Secondly Doug Stanhope, Go Home on Channel 4 at 11.35pm.

This is a pilot that includes a live gig he performed in Edinburgh in March. On a radio interview I heard with him recently he said he hopes it doesn't get picked up for a series as he doesn't want to keep coming over here to film it.

Here's Doug from his mailing list.

Attn UK! "Doug Stanhope Go Home" Airs Friday Oct 26th on Ch 4!

The pilot I did for Channel 4 in the UK "Doug Stanhope Go Home" airs Friday, Oct 26th at 11:35 pm.

Please send out the town crier to go door-to-door and let people know. Or just repost this round the clock until then.

I'm sure one of you good folk will tape it and Youtube it for the poor pricks here in the states.

Thanks for your support. And before you ask, I'm sure I'll be coming back over sometime in the first half of '08. Stay tuned. ~ Stanhope


This is Brian Donaldson's review of it from The List.

As the latest batch of Comedy Labs reaches us, the pick of the bunch is Doug Stanhope, Go Home (Channel 4, Fri 26 Oct, 11.35pm ••••). While the pottymouth slurring of the man who threatened to run for the White House is not, as some of his disciples will claim, to be comedy’s Second Coming, he undoubtedly shines in this half-hour tirade against race hatred. Interspersed with his trademark firebrand stand-up routine recorded in Edinburgh’s Caves, he confronts a BNP activist outside Ibrox, meets Polish workers finding flaws with potatoes in a farm near Perth and tackles stereotypical bigots on Scottie McClue’s radio show. Naturally, he has his own vile sentiments to get over on occasion, but on this showing at least, the core of Stanhope contains a warm spirit with a previously hidden humanity oozing from every noxious pore.

And if you want to go laugh at something right now, Jacqueline McCafferty’s Big Brother Audition Tape made me cry with laughter when I saw it at Limmy's Show during the Edinburgh Festival.

Here's a video of Armstrong & Miller trying out some new material for the show.



Here's a clip form Stanhope's new DVD 'No Refunds'.

Wednesday 24 October 2007

They All Sit in the Town Centre

There was a hilarious call on George Galloway’s TalkSport show this morning. Galloway had kicked off the discussion by suggesting that Britain could do with more immigration. The population of Glasgow, he said, was one million in the 1960s but now sits at around 400,000.

A listener from Blackburn called in. He was outraged at the large number of Asians in his area. “Once they’ve finished their shifts on the taxis at 3am, they go into the town centre. Now, there’s no way I would take my five-year old in there.”

George said the same as I was saying, “At 3 in the morning? I would think not.” The caller then said he ‘wasn’t talking about 3 in the morning.’ When George prodded him to make an actual point he had another go.

“When they’re not working they all sit in the town centre talking in their own language...” George first of all pointed out that the guy just said the Asian population in his area regularly work until 3am, then asked him why, if they were all sat together and talking to each other, did he care if he couldn’t understand what they were saying. “Do you normally go around listening in to other people’s conversations?” George asked him.

“Why? Don’t you George?”

So this caller’s point seemed to be that the Asian population in his area worked long hours, made it impossible for him to take his 5-year old out at 3am and prevented him from listening in on their private conversations by speaking a language he didn’t know.

And then there was the other caller who said, “There’s too much health and safety in this country.”

You wonder why some folk bother to pick up a phone.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Black Cape # 30

Seinfeld Interview

Here's a revealing interview with Jerry Seinfeld as he promotes his forthcoming Bee Movie.

"I don't mind it at all when people come up to me. I figure I owe them that much. It's my job to talk to them. The truth is few things make me angrier than celebrities whining about how hard it is to be famous. Stop whining! It's not hard. It's easy. It's what you wanted."

Are You Kiddin' Me?

More goals, this time the Goal of the Week contest from Major League Soccer in the USA. There are a couple of belters.

Monday 22 October 2007

What's it Gonna Be?

I couldn't help laughing at this. It features Mike O'Connell and Dr Ken Jeong.

It's definitely Not Safe For Work.

An Interview with Stewart Lee

Here's an interview with Stewart Lee from Chortle.

Before asking what he makes of the state of stand-up right now, I mention that he’s sometimes been critical of other comedians in the past.

‘Have I? When?’

Well, there was a fairly sizeable attack on Joe Pasquale in his show 90s Comedian.

‘Well, that’s hardly… I mean, all his stuff’s stolen. It’s not a controversial opinion. All comedians know that. I don’t think he even really counts as a comedian, does he? It’s not even really a little dig about Joe Pasquale – it’s a 15-minute explanation.’


And here it is.

Goal!

Here's 5 minutes worth of goals. Mainly scored in Italy. There are a lot of great goals in here, but have a look in particular for the one at the 1 min 10 sec mark. It's by Francesco Graziani of Torino in 1976.

Sunday 21 October 2007

99p Challenge

The 99p Challenge was a radio series that ran on Radio 4 from 1998 to 2004. It regularly featured such funny people as Simon Pegg, Armando Iannucci, Richard Herring and Peter Serafinowicz.

You can download all the shows here.

Saturday 20 October 2007

Brendon Burns

Last night I went to see Brendon Burns at a packed Maggie Mays. The triumphant winner of The if.Comedy Award at this year's Edinburgh Festival played for around two hours.

He started off telling us how winning that award had made his cmedy life different, then went on to discuss his ill-fated stint presenting the I'm a Celebrity show on ITV2.

Properly edgy, a lot of his material centred on race, religion, regional stereotypes and the sexes. So much so that a large chunk of the evening was devoted to him feilding heckles from several inebriated women in the audience.

Here he is on an Irish TV show a couple of years ago.

Soup Man

Did you know that you can buy soup from The Soup Nazi online? No? Well you can . The Original SoupMan has set up around 200 stores across the US. He even has the same rules as the Seinfeld character.

Thursday 18 October 2007

Black Cape # 29

Black Cape # 28



We're All Stuck Out In The Desert

When me and the This Place is Dead boys went to see Jenny Lewis last year, she was supported by her boyfriend Johnathan Rice. I think we all agreed that the best song he did was one he introduced as a new song, "We're All Stuck Out In The Desert". It's now on his new album Further North. Here it is being performed when he supported REM at Hyde Park a couple of years ago.

You can see the video for it by clicking on the link to his website.

David Simon in the New Yorker

Here's a long piece in the New Yorker on David Simon and The Wire.

Much of the new season, which will begin airing in January, will take place at a downsizing newspaper called the Baltimore Sun. Johnson, back at the monitor, began teasing Simon for giving so many of his old Sun colleagues small parts on the show. Among the dozens of people who have recurrent parts or cameos are Simon’s former editor, Rebecca Corbett, now an editor at the Times; the former Sun political reporter Bill Zorzi, now a writer for “The Wire”; Steve Luxenberg, the editor who first hired Simon as a reporter at the Sun; and Simon’s wife, Laura Lippman, a crime novelist who used to be a Sun reporter.

Have You Been to Brixton Yet?

Here's Dave Chappelle on one of his recent surprise appearances in London.

Black Cape # 27

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Armstrong and Miller are Back

An interview with Armstrong and Miller.

Having decided to reunite, Armstrong and Miller recruited a team of writers, including The League Of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson as script editor.

Armstrong explains: 'We have always been big fans of Jeremy. He has a fantastic outlook and a wonderful scientific and emotional handle on comedy. He's really good at putting his finger on what is funny and we leapt at the chance when he was suggested.'

The pair tried out some of their sketches in front of a live audience, and Miller said: 'It was one of the best things that we did. It got us used to performing in front of an audience again, and helped us try out lots of material before we went into the studio.’

Some YOMG Show Photos

Here are some photographs from last night's show at The Stand.












Sunday 14 October 2007

Black Cape # 26

Saturday 13 October 2007

More YOMG Rehearsal Photos

Here are some more YOMG rehearsal photographs.

Mind it's this coming Tuesday the 16th of October at The Stand in Edinburgh. Six quid/four quid.




Thursday 11 October 2007

C'Mon

For no reason, this is Guster riding on Segways and being bullies in the video for C'mon.

Panini Stickers


Of no interest to anyone who wasn't into football in the mid 1980s but here is the complete Scottish Premier in Panini sticker form for the 1985/86 season.