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.