Season one of 30 Rock starts tonight on Five. It's well worth watching. Set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live style sketch show it stars former SNL Head Writer Tina Fey, SNL star Tracy Morgan and the ever-hilarious Alec Baldwin.
In my opinion it's like an updated Mary Tyler Moore Show, if that means anything to anyone reading. It has a really strong supporting cast and everyone in it gets there fair share of laughs.
Here's a good piece by Matt Greenhalgh who wrote the Ian Curtis biopic Control.
I can tell you that as good as this film is it is not improved by having two 50-year-old jakeys drinking cherry brandy sat next to you.
The film looks amazing, as you might expect from a top-class photographer like Anton Corbijn. One scene in particular, after Curtis's baby is born, is framed like a classic photograph and lingers in the same way as you would take in a still image.
It's certainly pretty bleak but handles Curtis's battle with epilepsy well. The performances are all pretty strong. Sam Riley as Curtis though is the obvious stand-out.
"In the research phase, I had a hitlist of people who knew Ian to go to see to get it right. As a biographer, you've got to be right. Some can try to bully you into presenting their version of Ian - we'd have a showdown and I was just waiting to get "well, you didn't even know Ian" thrown into my face. But Tony Wilson just said: "Fuck 'em, go write the myth". I felt free after getting his permission."
“I still stand by Freak Show,” states Cross. “My poor attitude is partly to blame; I may not have been the easiest person to work with at that time. But Comedy Central can be blamed for the rest.”
Asked to pinpoint where it all went wrong—or right, depending on your p.o.v.—Oswalt points to a scene from his childhood. It’s Sunday at St. Catherine of Siena, the church Mrs. Oswalt tried to get her son to swallow. Oswalt, not yet the ostensibly raging atheist with a shit-tipped blow dart for every pious prick, showed up in what you might call his Sunday Okay; he was lookin’ sharp, but not sharp enough for some. “There was an elder in the church that complained about me not dressing nice enough,” Oswalt recalls, “and it turned out to be Robert Hanssen, that spy that was selling secrets to the Russians. He was flagging me for not dressing nice enough, and he was trying to take out our country.”
Mirman created his own “comedy” curriculum at Hampshire College, with his thesis a one-hour standup he wrote, performed, produced and promoted. “I never understood why anyone thought what I did was so impractical,” he observes. “We were all going to temp for several years until some of us gave up on our dreams.”
Clement and McKenzie were roommates in Wellington, New Zealand, when they began writing together around 1998. Clement had been doing comedy with the Humourbeasts and McKenzie was playing music, but at a time “when we didn’t have much work on,” Clement says they picked up guitars to learn David Bowie and Leonard Cohen songs. “We’d never remember them,” Clement says, “so we started making up our own songs.” Although these had funny parts, they weren’t necessarily comedy songs. They played them at an open-mic comedy night anyway.
This is a good interview with Armando Iannucci, as he discusses The Thick of It and promotes the forthcoming book of scripts.
"When you say mainstream," he says, "what I don't mean is very safe and very twee." He points to American comedies such as The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle - each original, intelligent and uncompromising in its own way. They're only "mainstream" in the sense that everyone watches them.
"I'm trying to persuade the sort of people who write Father Ted or Peep Show to start thinking about writing stuff for BBC1 or BBC2, in front of an audience, but not in any way compromising the material." Comedy writers in this country, as he sees it, are in danger of resigning themselves to chasing cult followings on specialist channels. "Comedy is a strange thing," he says. "I think it's the only genre in television where the people who are best at it don't automatically write for the biggest audience."
Here's a good interview with Peter Serafinowicz discussing tonight's Peter Serafinowicz Show.
"There’s not mystique about being on TV anymore. You see these people go on Jeremy Kyle and carry on their miserable lives as if the cameras weren’t there, there’s no prestige about it. That’s why we came up with Michael-6, a robot talk-show host. The people in our sketch just ignore him."
When we were writing this series, me and Jay, and this guy called Dan Mayer and the Dawson brothers; we were trying to come up with spoofs and tried to fi gure out how to spoof Big Brother because its ridiculous enough as it is, especially celebrity big brother, and also every other comedy show has done it already.
I make no apologies for this being a bumper post raving about an American TV Show from over 30 years ago.
Some time ago I raved about the DVD set The Dick Cavett Show Comedians. Through my subscription to Love Film I rented Dick Cavett: Rock Icons. This three-disc set comprises several full-length episodes of the DCS featuring some of the major music stars of the time.
The first disc features a musical special with Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Joni Mitchell. Cavett, a good decade older than the hippies in his studio, looks like a dad hanging out at his kid’s birthday party.
There’s then a fascinating episode featuring Sly and the Family Stone. After performing Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) Sly joins Cavett and Debbie Reynolds for a chat.
Although the former Sylvester Stewart isn’t completely all there (in an interview on the disc Cavett suggests his brain had been beaten by an egg whisk) he still manages to be an entertaining guest, frequently telling Cavett how much he likes him.
The third episode is an all-David Bowie one. Interesting as it was in the period where Bowie, although having moved on from Ziggy Stardust and now performing as himself, still wished to maintain an aura of mystique. The interview is a little slow but throughout it Cavett manages to coax more and more personality out of the Thin White Duke.
Disc Two is all-Janis Joplin. I couldn’t claim to be a big Janis fan and even after watching these shows I’m still not converted to her music. However I could listen to her talking all night. In the each of the three shows featured she’s a warm and engaging interviewee who oozes enthusiasm for what she does and helps to create some lively debate.
In the first episode she’s joined by writer Michael Thomas and improvisational sketch group The Committee. The second sees her chat with Raquel Welch, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and newsman Chet Huntley. At the time he was about to retire from his role as co-anchor on The Huntley Brinkley Report. (A news show that Alasdair Milne claims was the blueprint for Reporting Scotland).
In the third show, filmed just two months before her death, her fellow guests are film legend Gloria Swanson, a young and kooky Margot Kidder and American footballer Dave Meggyesy, who had just written an expose on the sport.
The third disc kicks off with Stevie Wonder, though he’s the least entertaining thing on the show. Elsa Lanchester, Bride of Frankenstein and wife of Charles Lawton provides numerous amusing anecdotes from her acting days as well as some catty but funny tales concerning Isadora Duncan.
Then Alain Delon doing his first chat-show in English, joins in as Cavett playfully banters with him over the language gap. We then get Tex Ritter performing the theme song from High Noon. The second show is a George Harrison special and it’s an interview you’ll never see on a chat show of today. He jokingly mocks John and Yoko, laughs off the suggestion that there were no internal problems in The Beatles before Yoko and suggests he was relieved the band split up. He then talks of delays in publishing The Concert for Bangaldesh LP, before inviting his distributors’ head to sue him as he intends to release it through another label.
Cavett asks him if he feels responsible for The Beatles’ drug use possibly encouraging their fans to try drugs. Some of the audience boo. Harrison chastises them, saying Cavett can ask that question if he wants. He then goes on to discuss LSD and numerous other drugs prevalent in the music scene.
The final show sees a change of format. The first half is all Paul Simon, who plays some songs and chats to Cavett about songwriting. He then plays two verses of a song he was then writing, asks Cavett for lyric suggestions and explains the chord progression choices he felt he had available in order to complete it. The song was Still Crazy After All These Years.
The show was recorded in September 1974 and Cavett had just completed his book ‘Cavett’. So, in the second half of the show he turned the tables on himself and had a selection of authors interview him about his writing process in an attempt to illicit some of the personal side of him he was often accused of concealing from the viewers.
Anthony Burgess, Barbara Hower and Jerzy Konsinski are the authors in question. Burgess particularly is fascinating. Erudite and authoritative he proves a compelling conversationalist as he praises and quizzes Cavett while also throwing in some literary stories and myth busting.
Due to the discs containing complete episodes this isn’t just a package for fans of 70s music. There’s something to entertain anyone interested in films, music, books, sport, news and intelligent conversation.
Cavett really is a first class interviewer. Even although some of his guests seem slightly reluctant to talk Cavett never seems frustrated and with his excellent ad-libbing skills he’s never short of something to say himself. These kinds of conversations just don’t appear on television anymore. Actual debate breaks out, discussion, arguments, differing opinions, guests listening to and being entertained by other guests. There are several Dick Cavett DVDs out there. I just wish there were a lot more.
Here’s an excellent article by Danny Miller on the Huffington Post discussing the Janis Joplin disc.
In the bonus interview on the disc where Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Bob Weide takes him through some of his memories of the show he briefly mentions the time one of his guests died on the show. Cavett writes about it here in the New York Times.
And here’s the rest of his blogs for the NY Times.
Here's a trailer for the first episode of the second season of the terrific 30 Rock. The episode features a guest spot from Jerry Seinfeld. The best bit of this is where Kenneth the Page mimics the Seinfeld theme tune to Jerry.
The second night class that I've started is a 6-month creative writing class. It's a bit of a contrast to the music class I began on Tuesday. For a start there's only 15 registered and only 11 turned up for the first night. While in the music class I was one of the oldest, here I'm one of the youngest.
I think I know what to expect from this class. Write short stories and stuff most weeks, get feedback from them from lecturer and fellow student. There's also some analysis of short stories and novels.
So far it looks like it'll be worthwhile and good fun.
After Jose Mourinhio’s recent departure from Chelsea there’s been a bit of chatter in the sports media about whether new manager Avram Grant can cut it.
Of course the results throughout the season will provide the real answer, but a guy with no managerial experience outside his native Israel was never going to satisfy the success-hungry Chelsea support.
Would anyone be excited at his appointment at their club? If Grant took over at one of the Old Firm, supporters would be up in arms. I can’t think of one club in the Premiership or the Championship whose fans would be pleased if Grant took over at their club.
Grant doesn’t just match up to The Special One, his reputation can’t even touch that of the last four Chelsea managers. (I exclude caretaker-manager Graham Rix).
Claudio Ranieri, before Chelsea he had bossed Fiorentina, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. Afterwards he went back to Valencia and he now gaffers Juventus.
Gianluca Vialli, 59 caps for Italy. One of the few players to have won a full house of European trophies - the European Cup (with Sampdoria & Juventus), UEFA Cup (with Juventus) and European Cup Winners’ Cup (with Chelsea).
Ruud Gullit, winner of the 1988 European Championship with Holland. 2 European Cups with a Milan side rated one of the best footballing teams of all time.
Glenn Hoddle, 53 caps for England. 2 FA Cups and a UEFA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur. A French Title with Monaco before managing Swindon to promotion to the Premiership
Grant has won trophies as well. The Israeli Premier League four times.
Grant’s appointment screams ‘Yes Man’. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich seems like a Dad who has a bought his kid a copy of Football Manager, then when he’s saw how much fun the game looks has pushed his kid aside and started taking turns on it himself.
However the tabloids today are saying that Gullit’s former teammate Marco van Basten will shortly be appointed Chelsea’s new manager and he’s exactly the kind of pedigree that fans there should expect. He’s by no means a yes man, so it will be interesting to see what his relationship with Abramovich will be. Although Chelsea were not long in denying the story.
As I left the flat this morning in order to sign on I stopped at the post box at the end of the street to post a letter. I then crossed the road. At that point I heard someone shouting “Excuse me,” so naturally I turned around.
The guy, in his mid-twenties, then excitedly asked me, “Are you the Real Radio Renegade?” somewhat confused I replied, “No I’m not.” The guy stood staring at me unconvinced. Now I’m going through my Rolodex of mental images to see if this guy is a match for anyone I might know. He wasn’t. But still he stared at me. “How you doing?” I said not wanting to offend anyone who might think they know me, though still baffled as to why they would want to greet me in this manner.
By now the guy realised that whatever prize he thought he was claiming, it would not be forthcoming. “Thanks anyway,” he said as he finally turned away from me. Funnily enough I couldn’t help feeling as if it was me that had bothered him.
Apparently the Real Radio Renegade is 'a man travelling all over Scotland with a bounty on his head. When he contacts Real Radio in the morning he gives a cryptic clue as to where he might be and tells the audience how much is on his head today. All you have to do to win is find him by asking everyone you see in the area he might be hiding "are you the REAL RADIO RENEGADE?" if you are lucky he will pass you a mobile to contact the station and your in the money. Remember if you don't ask you can't win is the catch phrase for this game.'
Aye, not annoying at all. Well done Real Radio. The station for bams. Encouraging folk to embarrass themselves by running up to strangers in the street and asking if they are ‘The Real Radio Renegade?’ Is listening to Real Radio not punishment in itself?
I started a night class last night at Glasgow Uni. I’m doing Popular Music: An Introduction. I wasn’t really sure what it involved having read the blurb in the handbook, but the first lecture indicates to me that it’s a more heavyweight subject than I was probably anticipating.
Running for 12 weeks it features a wide range of subjects including censorship and freedom of musical expression, gender and sexuality and musicians and the musical career. There’s also a 2,000-word essay that needs to be done within the month as well as a written exam in January of next year.
Over the weeks we’re promised a guest lecturer from the music industry as well as a discussion with music industry panel. The class seems to be pretty popular as there were 30 people in a class that should only have 25 people signed up to it.
The class seems mainly to be made up of full-time students. There’s probably only one other person there older than me. Though I could be wrong. I’m also one of the few people in the class who doesn’t play a musical instrument. There were such a sea of hands that went up on that question that I may in fact be the only person in the class who doesn’t play a musical instrument. One of the few people in the class I spoke with was a guy who used to transcribe the NME into Japanese.
Among the things we did in class was try to work out the lyrics to Louie Louie. Matt, the lecturer, pointed out that the song was once investigated by the FBI.
It’s not the only night class I’m taking. More tomorrow.
I've mentioned before how much I hate these late night 'quiz' shows that pollute the commercial channels most nights. On his blog Dave Gorman has outlined his own complaints about such shows.
"If you went to your local pub quiz and Question 1 was "Name a female singer with an 'M' in her name?", you'd think it wasn't a very good question because there could be so many right answers. If when the marks were being handed out you found your answer, Madonna, didn't score a point because it wasn't one of the answers they were looking for, but that the table next to you did score a point with Kylie Minogue, you'd probably feel a bit pissed off."
I was disappointed to see the England team get knocked out of the Women's World Cup yesterday. With there being no Scottish team at the tournament it's fair to say that I was supporting England.
Yes, you read right I was supporting England. I was supporting England for exactly the reasons I'd like to support them in the men's game but just can't. I like some of their players and I enjoy the fact that their continued involvement makes the whole tournament a bit more interesting. But what always holds me back from wishing the men's team well just wasn't a factor here. That is the overwhelming media bias and unfounded belief that England will win it. Although the Women's World Cup is being covered live on the BBC, there's nowhere like the amount of national interest the men's tournament would enjoy.
Here I could watch an England team without the nagging feeling that if they win it'd be mentioned in every single football commentary from that day forward. I could cheer them on safe in the knowledge that if they get beat there would be no town squares wrecked. And I could support them feeling like I was rooting for the underdog, as without the hyperbole of an overexcited media we all knew their chances of a win were slim.
As for the women's game itself, while technically nowhere near as good as the men's it's still pretty entertaining. England's 6-1 win over Argentina had it all. Crazy mistakes, long range goals, penalties and a red card. Sweden and North Korea also served up an end-to-end encounter on Tuesday. Certainly there are more unforced errors than you see in the men's game. Attacks break down as passes inexplicably go astray, poor ball control often means teams lose possesion and keepers seem to have a bit more difficulty getting across their goals for long range efforts. But watch a professional men's game and you'll see similar errors if perhaps with less frequency.
David James writes a good article in today's Observer about women goalkeepers and the women's game in general.
Below is England's win over Argentina, kickstarted by Argentina captain Eva Gonzalez's Terry Butcher-like own goal.
I once had a flatmate who loved Duckman so much that he once forced another of our flatmates to watch an episode with him literally at knifepoint.
Running on US TV in the mid-90s Duckman was a cartoon about an incompetent duck detective played by Seinfeld's Jason Alexander.
On NetworkLive's YouTube channel there's a lot of complete Duckman episodes. There's also a lot of 9/11 footage and news stories, but it's Duckman I'm encouraging you to go look at.
Below is an episode from season one called 'American Dick'.
It was a fascinating documentary wherby Jonathan Ross looked at the career of, and attempted to track down artist Steve Ditko. If you missed it and don't know who Ditko is, then he co-created Spiderman. Or he was the artist who worked with Stan Lee on Spiderman. Depending on whose version you want to believe.
The fact that he's not univerally credited as being the co-creator of Spiderman was a big feature of the film.
I was a big Spiderman fan when I was young and what I noticed from the panels they showed in the doc, was that Ditko's artwork was what I most associated with Spiderman. I had these early stories in paperback book form, a long time before the term 'graphic novel' was widely known, and I read them cover to cover numerous times.
Ross talked to a lot of big names in comics including Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Mark Millar. They discussed the reasons why Ditko suddenly, amid rumours of acrimony with Stan Lee, got up and left Marvel Comics.
There was also an interview with Stan Lee, who was put on the spot as to whether he believed Ditko was the co-creator. Lee was very diplomatic and suggested Ditko could have co-creator status if he wished, but when asked if he believed that he was, just couldn't bring himself to say so.
An excellent documentary the only disappointing thing about it for me was that a couple of newspaper previews said that there would be an on-camera interview with Ditko. In fact one preview I read said that it was 'moving'. Unfortunately Ross can't quite convince Ditko to appear on camera.
Jonathan Ross writes about it here in Friday's Guardian.
So, for more about the man himself, Canadian writer Blake Bell provides some stories of Ditko from the 1960s. Here he discusses his own visit with Ditko in 2001.
From one of the best sources of information on comics on the net, Mark Evanier's News From Me comes these two pieces on Ditko relating to the documentary. In the first he discusses Ditko's alleged recluse status. In the second he provides a link to a 1968 interview and writes about Ditko's departure from Marvel. Here's Mark Millar on his own forum talking about the doc after he had watched it in June.
Season one of 30 Rock starts tonight on Five. It's well worth watching. Set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live style sketch show it stars former SNL Head Writer Tina Fey, SNL star Tracy Morgan and the ever-hilarious Alec Baldwin.
