Tom’s Films of 2009

It’s that time again when I stick up my top 20 films of the year. I’ve left it far too late to spend time writing anything meaningful of insightful about why they’re all good and why I like them, so you’ll just need to be happy with the brief pish I’ve scribbled about them all.

1. In The Loop

Directed by Armando Iannucci
Starring: James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi

Seeing this at its Glasgow Film Festival premiere definitely did add to the enjoyment of it. This, if you didn’t know is essentially the film version of the TV series The Thick Of It. I recently met someone who had never heard of The Thick Of It, so maybe you didn’t know that. Anyway, from the very first moments of Malcolm Tucker shouting and swearing at anyone and everyone around him the film is a total hoot. Tom Hollander turns in a brilliantly awkward performance as the MP put of his depth as he’s spun this way and that over an imminent invasion. Steve Coogan appears in a hilarious cameo as a moaning nutcase pestering his local MP with his petty grievances. I don’t think I enjoyed a movie more all year.

2. Inglourious Basterds

Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz

It would appear there’s a straight down the line love it or hate it with this film. Clearly I’m in the ‘love it’ camp. The lengthy first scene is edge of the seat stuff and a total masterclass in creating tension. It’s pure war-revenge porn but I see nothing wrong with that. Even the one star reviews had to admit that Christoph Waltz is outstanding. You would have to think he’s a certainty for an Oscar nomination.

3. The Hangover

Directed by Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galiafainakis, Ed Helms

This is the film I saw most times in the cinema (three). Being a huge fan of Zach Galiafanakis’s stand-up comedy I was always going to be rushing to see a film where he has a major role. Chuck in Ed Helms, a guy I’ve grown to love greatly as Andy Bernard in The Office and you’ve got a winner for me.

4. Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Directed by Jean-Francois Richet
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Cécile De France, Gérard Depardieu

There’s very little to like about France’s most notorious criminal, the ruthless gangster Jacques Mesrine. The film has little real character development and moves from one violent act to another. For all that it was utterly gripping from beginning to end. I could have watched the second part right after the first. It’s just a shame that the second part Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1 only played for a week and I missed it.

5. Frost/Nixon

Directed by Ron Howard
Starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Rebecca Hall

Michael Sheen is probably the finest British actor working at the moment. He’s brilliant in this as David Frost chasing the biggest coup of his career with his interview with Richard Nixon.

6. Moon

Directed by Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey (voice), Matt Berry

Sam Rockwell gives not one but two of the performances of the year in this film about an astronaut about to leave his base on the moon and return home. All is not as it seems as he discovers his clone.

7. Starsuckers
Directed by Chris Atkins

A documentary that got a limited release in Glasgow and Edinburgh it really is a must see. The film exposes the underhand methods and deceit that goes into creating celebrities. The last portion of the film on Live 8 is particularly damning.

You should see it when you can, before Max Clifford and his injunction gets some of the juicy bits cut out.

There’s a bit on the website where they give you step by step instructions of how to sell your own fake story to the tabloids.

8. Zombieland

Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone

Now, I would have thought that zombies have pretty much had their day in movies what with the spate of zombie films in recent years. I would have been wrong however. Zombieland is a great romp from start to finish. It gets straight into the story and the characters from the off, it’s a stylish take on the genre and features an amazing cameo from Bill Murray. You can’t ask for much more really.

9. World's Greatest Dad

Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring: Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore

Written and directed by Police Academy’s Bobcat Goldthwait World’s Greatest Dad is funny, horrific and touching. I’m not going to say much about the plot because I knew very little about it going in and it was all the better for it.

It only got a limited release in America so the chances of it getting a proper release here (it played at the Edinburgh Film Festival) look slim.

10. Funny People

Directed by Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann

A film about stand-up and about relationships. It’s probably a bit longer than it needs to be, but it has a really good cast and enough laugh out loud moments to be a success.

This film was spoiled for me slightly by the clown repeatedly kicking the back of my seat all throughout it. He only stopped when I had to go all John Paul on him. As a result I’ve added Fridays to my list of no-go-to-the-cinema days. It comes to something when you can’t see a film in peace without threatening to punch fuck out of someone sitting behind you.

If you haven't watched the Raaaaaaaandy segments online get on it now. He's only in the film briefly but these are gold.

11. The Wrestler

Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

When I was about 18 I spent several weeks watching Mickey Rourke classics like Angel Heart, Barfly, A Prayer For the Dying, Diner and The Pope of Greenwich Village. I also watched pish like Johnny Handsome, Homeboy, Wild Orchid and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. I always knew he was a great actor even if his movie choices were increasingly awful. He credits his agent David Unger with the turnaround in his career.

Anyway he’s great in this as Randy "The Ram" Robinson a star of the 80s now performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centres around New Jersey.

12. Milk

Directed by Gus Van Sant
Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin

Milk charts the last eight years of Harvey Milk’s life. An outstanding performance from Sean Penn in the title role. You can read the film's script here.

13. Up

Directed by Pete Docter
Starring: Ed Asner (voice), Christopher Plummer (voice), Paul Eiding (voice)

An animated comedy adventure about a 78-year-old man who ties balloons to his house and flies away, with an 8-year-old stowaway. There’s a sequence near the beginning of this films which is as good as anything you’ll see in a film all year.

14. The Damned United

Directed by: Tom Hooper
Starring: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent

Michael Sheen again, this time as Brian Clough, in the cinema adaptation of David Peace’s brilliant book on Clough's 44 days in charge of Leeds United.

15. Sunshine Cleaning

Directed by Christine Jeffs
Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin

One of those wee gems that goes undetected by many filmgoers. Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski now finds herself a thirty-something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, is still living at home with their dad, a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes.

Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. It’s funny and moving and well worth seeing.

16. The Hurt Locker

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes

When a new sergeant takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. Good, edge of the seat stuff.

Here's a good interview with screenwriter Mark Boal.

17. Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Directed by Sacha Gervasi
Starring: Kevin Goocher, Glenn Gyorffy, Steve 'Lips' Kudlow

A documentary on the enduring lack of success of the Canadian heavy metal band Anvil. We see them in the process of touring to almost no one in Europe and the tensions in recording their 13th album.

The film is made by someone who has genuine affection for the band, so it’s never the point-the-finger-and-laugh film it could have turned into.

It’s very funny in places, but it’s also quite a nice film in parts and a must see for anyone who’s a fan of rock documentaries.

18. A Serious Man

Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Simon Helberg, Adam Arkin, Richard Kind

A brilliantly made film, that stays with you long after you've come out of the cinema.

19. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring: Meryl Streep (voice), George Clooney (voice), Bill Murray (voice)
As a film maker Wes Anderson does it for me every time. A kids' film that's not really a kids' film.

20. District 9

Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope

Aliens in South Africa. Begins slowly but really picks up.

Other films that deserve a mention include Watchmen, Gran Torino, State of Play, Synecdoche New York and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

This has been the sixth Talking Pish round up of the films of the year. You can find the others below.

Tom’s Films of 2008

Tom’s Films of 2007

Tom’s Films of 2006

Tom’s Films of 2005

Tom’s Films of 2004

Monday 11th January 2010

If you happened to be watching BBC2 last night between Gary: Tank Commander and The Football League Show then you would have seen the trailer for Limmy's Show. You then may also have seen me looking, as Ronnie put it, 'gormless'. You can also spot me headbanging in there too.

The actual information that you really want to take away from it though is that the six episodes start at 10pm on BBC2 Scotland on Monday 11th January. It'll be available to see UK-wide on Sky 990 and on the iPlayer. The pilot that was on in February doesn't form any part of the series so it's six fresh episodes.

The scripts were laugh-out-loud funny themselves, it was a hoot to film and as far as I'm concerned everybody in it is very funny. So do tune in.

There's a Facebook page for it here.

HMV At It Yet Again With Their Death Display

This time Brittany Murphy gets the patented HMV treatment.

Own Goal Crazy

Have a look at this remarkable match from the Bundesliga at the weekend. Borussia Moenchengladbach beat Hannover 96 5-3, with the help of 3 own goals. Not only that, but all of them were scored from outside the penalty area. The second one is the peach.

Death Comes to Town Trailer

Here's the trailer for Kids in the Hall's forthcoming mini-series Death Comes to Town.

Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town - watch more funny videos

Tom's November Spotify Playlist

Here's my Spotify playlist for the month of November. A shorter one than normal. Mind if you like any of the stuff I'm serving up to listen to my radio show on SubCity.

Pixies on Jimmy Fallon

While I'm on about Jimmy Fallon, here's The Pixies performing 'Hey'.

Jimmy Fallon as Neil Young

This is probably the funniest thing I've seen Jimmy Fallon do. It's a spot on impression of Neil Young, playing a song you'll probably recognise.

November Spotify Playlist

A bit late, but here's my November Spotify playlist. Maybe some stuff on here you might like.

More Classic Keano

I liked Roy Keane as a player, but it's as a manager he's been more entertaining for me. I keep hoping Ipswich get beat just to see him lose the nut with someone else in the post match interview on The Football League Show. Here he is fielding questions about Thierry Henry's handball in Wednesday night's game. It's Keano's usual uncompromising stuff, but watch out for the bit around 2.33 when someone's phone goes off.

Mercury Fur

Mercury Fur is the next play up at the Ramshorn. It opens on Monday night. I'm going along to see it on Friday. This is the write up it got on Saturday in The Guardian.

Dying Day

Here's a video of Edwyn Collins and Teenage Fanclub performing 'Dying Day' in Mono in September.

It's a Double Edged Sword

Some great stuff from Louis CK here. Definitely NSFW and he probably says something that will offend someone watching.

Fastest Goal Ever and a Ten Goal Thriller

Couple of football posts for you today. Both of these happened over the weekend. This is reputed to be the fastest goal ever scored in football. Nawaf Al-Abid of Al-Hilal fired it in this weekend in around 2 seconds. The Offside wonders if it really is.

Meanwhile in France, Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille drew 5-5. The Ligue 1 website is calling it 'The Game of the Century'. The goals are below.

FOOT L1 OL 5 - 5 OM
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Odds and Sods Review

Here's a review of Odds and Sods from the Strathclyde Telegraph.

Karaoke Interviews

A pretty amusing sketch from Funny or Die.

Karaoke Interviews - watch more funny videos

Marshall's Misdemeanours

Be sure to tune into Radio Scotland at 11.30am tomorrow to hear Marshall's Misdemeanours. Written by our pal Sandy Nelson, it's an hilarous campus comedy. It features Sandy in the main role, along with Gavin Mitchell and Steven McNicoll. If you can't tune in at the time, it is of course available for a week on the iPlayer. Just hit up this link.

Chris Rock on Jay Leno

Chris Rock on Jay Leno's chat show discussing, among other things Roman Polanski.

Saul Bass vs. Star Wars

This is pretty great. If Saul Bass created the opening titles for Star Wars.

Tom's October Spotify Playlist

A bit of a short one this month, as I was doing most of my music listening away from Spotify. But here it is anyway.

If you're enjoying my music picks then do listen in to my radio show 'Hooray For Saturday' on Sub City. You can listen to the last 6 shows on the listen again feature at the link.

The Glue Radio Pilot

As I'm sure you've read umpteen times we had a radio pilot on Radio Scotland in January and again in August. Well, it looks unlikely that there will be any more episodes made. So if you never heard it or want to have a copy for yourself, you can now download the show as an mp3 from this RapidShare link.

This Week's HFS

The latest Hooray For Saturday can be listened to online right now on SubCity. There's comedy from Stephen Lynch and Maria Bamford, plus tunes from Portugal. The Man, The Hives, Nada Surf and more.

New Rabbits Video

Here's the video for the new Frightened Rabbit single 'Swim Until You Can't See Land'.

Update: This is the amended link with the dodgy sound fixed.

Odds and Sods Soundtrack

Here's a Spotify Playlist of all the songs played during 'Odds and Sods'. There's three nights left. Saturday has sold out, so that just leaves tonight and tomorrow if you want to come along.

The Dots at The Grand

If you're not coming to see Odds and Sods on Friday then what about a music gig? My pals All About The Dots are playing the Classic Grand in Jamaica Street.

They're playing support to Doll and the Kicks, and from what I can make of the four act line-up they'll probably be on first, so get there early to see them. Doors open at 7pm and it's a mere 6 quid to get in.

You can download a couple of songs from their website or head over to their MySpace page and hear a few more.

Hooray For Saturday

I've began presenting my own radio show. It's called Hooray For Saturday, I know it sounds like a kids' TV show, but trust me it's not. It's on Glasgow Uni's station Sub City.

So far I've had three shows and they've all went all right. No major disasters or nothing. I've been playing music, some comedy and gibbering, although I try to keep the talking to a minimum. I have been touting the idea of having some comedy guests on in the future, but I've so far been slow in organising it.

You can listen live on the Sub City website from 9am to 10am on a Saturday or listen again at the link at the top of the post. All three shows are there just now.

There's a fan page on Facebook. Gonnie join it and save it being just me.

The Marriage Ref

Here's an interview with Jerry Seinfeld from The Guardian. In it he talks about his appearances on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm as well as his new gameshow 'The Marriage Ref'.

He doesn't think much has changed in the pitching process since he was talking to NBC about Seinfeld in the 1980s. "Broadcasters still use the word excited to mean nervous," he nods. "Like, Endemol saying they have loads of shows out here that they're excited about." He gives a sly grin.

It's Tonight

'Odds and Sods' opens tonight at the Ramshorn Theatre in Ingram Street, Glasgow. It finishes on Saturday. The last night has sold out, and some of the other nights are selling well. Still plenty of tickets left for tonight however. Monday and Tuesday are the cheap nights at £6 or £4 concession.

Fraser and I are pretty happy with the way it's shaped up. The cast are all excellent, we've got the best stage manager in town and the set looks great too. So come along and see it.

Odds and Sods - 6 Days to Go

There's less than a week to go before Fraser and I's play 'Odds and Sods' opens. You can get yourself a ticket for it by calling the Ramshorn Theatre on 0141 552 3489, by e-mailing ramshorn dot theatre at strath dot ac dot uk, or by calling the Collins Gallery on 0141 548 2558.

There's a Facebook Event for it, where you can click to say you're no' coming should you wish to do so and there's a website where if you want to you can download a press pack and have a look at some more photographs.

As for the play itself, we have high hopes it'll be funny and well acted.

Talking Pish October Playlist

Tom will no doubt come along and do a much better more refined October list, but here's my first go at a spotify playlist. Hopefully you'll find something you like.

Limmy's Show - That's a Wrap

That's five weeks filming on Limmy's Show done. It'll not be a surprise to you if I say every second of it was a total pleasure. I had a great time on it from start to finish. Everyone on it was great to work with all throughout the production. I have no doubts that it will be very funny once it hits the TV screens come late 2009 or early 2010.

My set of photographs can be viewed by clicking this link. You'll notice that there are very few photos of me in there. Should you wish to see some of me looking fat and daft, you can hit up my fellow cast member Omar's Flickr page for some of his photies.

Over at Brian's blog he's running a Q & A on the show, so go and join in if you haven't already. He's also got a new video up on his YouTube page.

Classic Keano

On watching The Football League Show last night I had to laugh at Roy Keane's interview. After the latest Ipswich Town loss, the BBC reporter asked Roy if he'd be staying on in the job. The look on his face was a picture. You can watch the interview yourself, by going onto the BBC site.

Who's Bootlegging Who?

This is a really good piece by Grace Maxwell, Edwyn Collins' wife and manager. She talks about music copyright and how the big companies aren't quite the victims they make themselves out to be.

Eddie Izzard - Believe

This is a trailer for Eddie Izzard's new documentary'Believe'.

Talking Pish September Playlist

Here's this month's Spotifty playlist. Not much new music on it this time. There's Richard Hawley, Wilco, AC Newman, Ian Brown and The Weakerthans in there. Hope you enjoy it.

HMV At It Again

HMV Sauchiehall Street get their Death Display sorted again. They may as well just have a Recently Deceased section.

Dead Man's Merchandise

Patrick Swayze, the poor fucker, was still lying with a sheet over his face somewhere when HMV sorted out this display to shift some of his films and telly work.

Limmy's Show Photos

As most of you will know anyway I've just started my third week on Limmy's Show. I've been taking the odd photograph here and there and this is a set of the best of them. I'll be updating it over the next three weeks. As a bonus here's a couple of me taken by my colleague Omar.

The Seinfeld Reunion on Curb

Odds and Sods

You may be interested to learn that the play what the boys from 'Pish have wrote is on at the Ramshorn Theatre from Monday the 12th October until Saturday the 17th of October.

Tickets are priced: Mon - Tues £6/4 Wed - Sat £9/6. You can reserve and pay on the night by phoning the Ramshorn on 0141-552-3489 or e-mailing ramshorn dot theatre at strath dot ac dot uk.

There's a Facebook group here, do join and spread the word.

If you fancy a double bill of theatre that week, do what we'll be doing and go see Sandy Nelson's play Glimmering Nymph at Oran Mor in the afternoon. The Facebook group for that is here.

Talking Pish August Spotify Playlist

Here's my 'Pish playlist for August. On it you can find a selection of the stuff I've been listening to this month. There's Wintersleep. The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, Harry Nilsson and Coconut Records as well as many others.

Fraser is also now on Spotify so you may well get a playlist from him soon too.

"Somebody's Left the Old Comedy Game a Bit Late"

Apparently the six part series Limmy's Show starts filming tomorrow. Here's the man himself to tell you why it's all coming a bit late.

Well Done Kevin

Congratulations to Kevin Bridges who has been nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival in the awards that used to be The Perriers. The winner is announced on Saturday. Hope he takes the trophy home.

"I'm Having a Sandwich"

Graham Linehan writes a great blog post on the misleading newspaper articles about the worth of Twitter. The Guardian in particular appears to have begun a trend of allowing people to write articles on topics they know little about, just so long as their article takes a negative slant.

If you use Twitter it's well worth a read and if you don't use Twitter cos you think it's just people letting you know they're having a sit down then it's perhaps an even more worthwhile read.

Twitter's so good there's even people plugging a radio sketch show.

Off to a Good Start

Thanks to all the folk who tuned in to our show last night and listened on the iPlayer. We're currently "most popular" on the BBC Radio Scotland iPlayer page.

If you haven't listened in already, please give it a bash.

Radio Scotland at 6.10pm Tonight

It's The Magic Glue where you can hear Fraser and I being dafties, with the help of Darran Lightbody, Moira Byrne and Alison May. Please do give it a listen. It'll be on the iPlayer for a week afterwards if you can't hear it at the time of broadcast, or indeed if you want to listen to it again and again.

Here's the link to listen on the iPlayer.

The Hurt Locker

Here's the trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's new film The Hurt Locker. It played in the cinema before Mesrine and it's the first time in a long while I've been totally wrapped in a movie trailer.

Mesrine

I went to see this yesterday, I'll probably be back to see it later this week. The best gangster film in years and one of the best films of this year. Mesrine: Killer Instinct. I cannot wait for the second part.

The Magic Glue this Friday

Radio Scotland is repeating our pilot The Magic Glue this Friday at 6.10pm. If you didn't listen when it was on in January please give it a shot this time round. If you heard it then and liked it please get the word out to your muckers. If you heard it and didn't like it, get it up ye, what use are you to me?

So that's Friday 14th August at 6.10pm on Radio Scotland FM & MW. It'll also be on the BBC iPlayer for a week afterwards, so if you can't listen on the night you can hear it at a later date on your computer.

San Diego News

For anyone interested in comics, cult TV or movies, The 2009 San Diego Comic Convention - for years the biggest of the big pop culture events in the US - has just wrapped up for another year.

There was little to grab all but the die-hard this year other than news Gary Oldman let slip that Batman 3 will be along sooner than expected.

The other big news of the con for me was that Marvel have sorted out the complex legal mess entangling the much loved character Miracleman and have bought all rights to the character, who will revert to his original name of Marvelman.

Why is this potentially good news? Well, Miracleman/Marvelman was re-vamped in the mid 80's by none other than Alan Moore and latterly Neil Gaiman but was never properly finished and the stories, considered some of Moore's greatest early work, was never effectively collected. Now it looks as if fans will now get the chance to see why wealthy comic junkies pay top dollar for the hard to find original issues and ultra-rare collected editions.

Here's a digest page of all the news and announcements made during the con from Newsarama.

July 'Pish Mix

Here's a Spotify mix featuring some of the stuff I was listening to last month. It features some old tunes as well as some new stuff. You can expect to hear The Apples in Stereo, Marina and the Diamonds, The Fall and Hotel Lights among others.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Another movie trailer. This time it's Wes Anderson's forthcoming The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

A Serious Man

The trailer for the new Coen Brothers movie.

Raaaaaaaandy Part 3

Your favourite bad comic is back. It's Raaaaaaaandy Part 3. Raaaaaaaandy shows us his TV pilot and injects his comedy with a message.

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 3 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Funny Friends

Later this morning you can hear Limmy being interviewed by Susan Calman for Suan's programme Funny Friends on Radio Scotland. The show will be on Radio Scotland at 11.30am. If you miss it you can catch it for a week or so on the BBC's iPlayer. You can still listen to last week's episode with Des Clarke until about midnight on Friday.

The Mighty Boosh on Jimmy Fallon

The Mighty Boosh make their US chat show debut on Jimmy Fallon's show.

Kevin Bridges on 8 Out of 10 Cats

Rapidly rising comedy star Kevin Bridges was on 8 Out of 10 Cats last week. Needless to say he knocked it out the park.

The whole show is down below in three parts.

Randy's Process

Here's the second part of the Raaaaaaaandy documentary. Not quite as funny as the first part for me, but still good. Here, Randy shows us his process for being funny. If you've seen 'Comedian' you might notice what appears to be a wee dig at Orny Adams in here.

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 2 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Emergency Pizza Delivery

This is Doug Stanhope involved in a Game for a Laugh style prank from Spy TV. Stanhope plays one of two rogue doctors operating on a patient when the pizza delivery guy arrives. It's worth watching for the last 15 seconds.

Packaging Design at its Worst

I really hate supermarkets going over the top in packagaing foodstuffs. This is a slideshow of some of the worst examples from Treehugger. Surely Morrisons realise that bananas come in their own packaging?

The Wild Whites of West Virginia

This is worth a watch. Richard Metzger interviews Julien Nitzberg, director of the documentary film, The Wild Whites of West Virginia. The film follows a wild out of control hillbilly family living on the edge of the law in Boone County, West Virginia.

It runs for 20 minutes, but watch it for the film trailer at the beginning at least.

DANGEROUS MINDS 003: metzger/nitzberg from Richard Metzger on Vimeo.

Scott Agnew in Attitude Magazine

Odds and Sods' Jordon, Scottish Comedian of the Year and our mucker Scott Agnew is seen here profiled in Attitude magazine. Click on the picture to go to the full size and read the profile.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Anti-Piracy Ads

"Piracy PSA" with Christopher Mintz-Plasse from Judd Apatow

"The Mclovin' Fund" with Kristen Bell and Christopher Mintz-Plasse from Kristen Bell

Raaaaaaaandy

Definitely not safe for work this is a film done to plug Judd Apatow's new film 'Funny People'. This is a documentary starring Aziz Ansari as Randy. I lost it when it gets to the bit with his DJ. Check out more of Randy at his website Laugh Your Dick Off.

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 1 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Talking Pish June Playlist

Here's another Talking Pish Spotify playlist. This is some of the stuff I was listening to in June. There's 20 songs from folk like The Dears, Eulogies, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, Broken Social Scene, Brakes, The Duke Spirit and Guster.

Has No One Told Last.fm?

Michael Jackson Death - The Latest

The telly and everyone else is still at it with the Michael Jackson patter. Here's a few of the best things I've found online.

Charlie Brooker on Twitter: "All 24-hr news channels should be forced to cover NOTHING but MJ 'latest' for the next 7 years. Anchors hanging themselves on air by 2011."

Video of Flavor Flav turning up to see 'Mother Jackson' and being told to turn about and get tae. Although, he promises he'll be back later on.

No Rock and Roll Fun looks at The Sun telling their readers it's their 'job' to buy Michael Jackson records. As if anyone who gave a stuff wasn't doing that already.

They've also been running a feature they call 'It's not eulogy, it's me'. "When the famous talk of the recently dead, it's normally not about the corpse, but all about them. Madonna's claims this morning that she "can't stop crying" is designed to say nothing about Jackson's life, or his death, and everything about how empathetic Madonna would like us to think that she is."

Fred Durst pays tribute to MJ by dressing up like him.

The BBC have a video of a fan who "Lives Michael Jackson literally every day."

Ken Levine has a post on Michael Jackson - Wall to off the wall coverage. In it he includes such gems as this: 'Fans flocked to the Michael Jackson star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. But it was talkshow host’s star, not Jacko’s. His star was covered by a red carpet laid down for the premiere of BRUNO. But here’s the great part: The fans were informed this was the wrong Michael Jackson but they remained and set up their shrine anyway.'

This is an article on how the internet handled the Michael Jackson search requests.

Reuters reports of Jackson's death sparking a bus brawl in Florida. Funnily enough the bus driver was at the centre of it.

This is an article on Michael Jackson's Moonwalker video game from joystiq.com.

"Besides the musical, dance and technical genius of the man, and the influence he's had on four decades of artists, Michael loved Zombies." -Anthrax's Scott Ian (via)

Richard Herring has a bit on his blog with his thoughts on the news coverage. "...But it was also entertaining to see the news channels managing to stretch this one story, which has already happened and which there were unlikely to be many significant developments into hour after hour of news."

This is an interesting article on Jackson's manager Frank Dileo from Nashville Scene.

Here's an interesting story about Michael Jackson from Drew McWeeny at HitFix.com. He tells of his days working at a video store where Michael Jackson would be a regular after hours customer.

Back to No Rock and Roll Fun who look at the towns and cities attempting to turn his death into a money spinning tourist attraction.

An 'It's not eulogy, it's me' moment that NRARF missed comes from Twitter where the musician, actor and producer Wyclef remarked, “I will not be going on TV talking about this, but my memory of Michael was when he came and saw me in the studio, I LOVE MICHAEL.” Do you think he's great? Yeah, well he thought I was great.

Scott McCloud on Comics

Scott McCloud talking about comics. It runs for about 17 minutes.

Save the Ramshorn Theatre

The Ramshorn Theatre is facing closure. The building where Fraser and I had our rehearsed reading of 'Odds and Sods', where we've performed as You Owe Me Glue, where we've both done stand-up and where I've performed in several plays is set for the bin under the new principal of Strathclyde University's new agenda.

The Director of Estates Management has announced that the building, built in 1824, will be 'Disposed of'.

Susan and Sylvia of Strathclyde Theatre Group are actively fighting the decision. There is an EGM for members of STG this coming Wednesday night at 6.30. I'm sure from this will come a plan of action that will involve as many folk as want to help out.

In the meantime there is a Facebook group you can join.

You can find out more about the history of the building here.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

So yesterday I went down to Balloch for the day, then into town to the cinema, purely to stay away from the computer for one day. Then when I finally switch the thing on, around half ten at night, I discover the internet has gone mental.

Musicians at Glastonbury are falling over themselves to sing snatches of his songs, while comedians and anyone else online can't get the jokes out fast enough.

Uri Geller appears to see it as a resurrection of his own career, whatever the fuck it was he did that made him famous. He twice avoided the question, "When did you last speak to Michael Jackson?" on the news last night. Presumably because the answer, "About 6 or 7 years ago," would make him less relevant to TV producers wanting soundbites. He also put the phone down on the BBC saying he was too upset to talk, only to turn up on Sky News ten minutes later with his good jumper on, a camera crew firmly set up in his front room.

It's a wonder Frank Carson hasn't been on anywhere, mourning the loss and then launching into a chunk of his act.

My pal Natalie will be on Sky News at about 7 o'clock, representing Muso's Guide. She certainly can't do any worse than prize plum Craig David. The 28-year old apparently said that he never thought he'd "See Michael Jackson die in my lifetime."

For the people saying that he was killed by over rehearsing for his 50 dates in London, it should perhaps be noted that he was being trained by The Hulk.

Comic Book dot Com has 'The Top 8 Strangest Comic Book Stories About Michael Jackson'.

I had Thriller on cassette when I was about 12. There's no denying he wrote some cracking songs and will be remembered as one of music's true greats. But then he went nuts...

This is a round-up of how my favourite music blog No Rock and Roll Fun covered the story.

Fringe Sell Out for Kevin

Following on from last week's post of Kevin Bridges and his storming appearance on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, it's been announced that he's sold out all his shows at the Edinburgh Festival. Making him, I believe, the first act this year to do so. He's therefore had to add four more shows at bigger venues.

If you've not got a ticket to see him yet then I guess now is the best time to do so. In the meantime away and watch two minutes of him on Paramount Comedy's The World Stands Up. Oh aye, and he's now on Twitter as well. Follow him on www.twitter.com/kbridges1986.

Incidentially, I think perhaps I've lost any knack I may once have had for coming up with headlines on these posts. That's what posting instead on Twitter and Facebook does for you.

Wie Open Spaces

The new film from Father Ted co-writer Arthur Mathews, here's a look at The Famine Ship Restaurant.

Jelly Parties

From the brilliant Psychoville here's Mr. Jelly's promotional video for Mr Jelly and his box of a hundred hands.

Kevin Bridges on the Roadshow

In case you missed him when it was on the telly Saturday week there here's our comedy mucker Kevin Bridges storming it in front of 3,000 people at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow.

Limmy's Show

As you may have already read in the papers today Limmy's Show has been commissioned for a full series by BBC Scotland. It probably won't reach your screens until early next year, but at least we all know it's coming. Down below are three sketches from the pilot, including one of some guy being chased through a park.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme

I interviewed Rob Jones, who is The Voluntary Butler Scheme, for Muso's Guide a couple of weeks ago. You can read my interview here. The video for his single 'Trading Things In' is down below.

Twat Egged

Here's some not very good footage of Nick Griffin being egged by people who appear to be following him around like the protesters who never left Homer's side in the Homer Bad Man episode of the Simpsons. Hopefully, as the weeks progress, better footage of Nick Griffin being egged will emerge.

Hitting 50

About a year ago I came up with the mildly daft idea of going to 50 football matches over the course of the 2008/09 season. Yesterday I finally did it when I attended the Junior Cup final featuring Clydebank and Auchinleck Talbot.

It's been an entertaining season and I've had fun going to the games. It was intended just to be a one season thing, but I plan to carry on with it next season and hopefully get to a wider variety of matches.

My report on game fifty is here.

'Pish Mix

Most folk I know seem to be using Spotify. If you're one of them then here's a mix I've put together. It features, among others, The National, The Shins, Frightened Rabbit and Bishop Allen as well some comedy.

If you've not got it then you can download Spotify for nowt and use it complete with annoyingly chatty adverts. (I've found that I can't open Spotify links in Firefox, but they open fine in Internet Explorer.)

Some Links

I've found I've been posting less on here and more on daft Facebook and Twitter. Probably more people read them there right enough, but anyway, here's a couple of things I've posted there that I'm now posting here.

Kenny Burns, the former Nottingham Forest defender, gives an amusing interview to The Sunday Herald about the 'poofs' and 'pansies' playing the modern game.

The always funny Adam and Joe in The Observer. Again from The Observer, a reminder not to vote BNP next week.

Finally, here's a great scene from The Office where Kevin brings in to work his famous chilli.

Barcelona win La Liga

Thanks to Villareal's win over Real Madrid. Highlights below.

Whatever Works

Larry David stars in Woody Allen's new movie. Here's the trailer.

The BBC's New Comedy Site

The BBC has a new comedy site online. A sketch from Limmy's Show is there sitting side by side with stuff like Flight of the Conchords and Stewart Lee. If you're interested you've probably already seen it. Well you can see it again here.

Barca v. Villareal

We've turned into a Spanish football blog, but when La Liga is serving up classics every weekend why not? Barcelona versus Villareal highlights down below.

Why Mince When You Can Mangle?

In keeping with our recent theme of football related posts, here's Chick Young's daft blog entry about the upcoming Old Firm game. Scroll down for the hilarious comments left by ordinary punters, almost all apparently fed up with Chick's insane patter.

Real vs. Barca

Another cracker from La Liga on Saturday night.

More Spanish Football

One cracking goal and some hideous blunders from last night's Valencia-Barcelona clash.

Real Madrid-Getafe

A great article from Sid Lowe in The Guardian about last night's Real Madrid victory over Getafe. Watch down below for Pepe going mental and one of the worst penalty kicks of all time.

Liverpool and The Sun

A good article in The Guardian about the people of Liverpool's continued hatred for The Sun thanks to the lies the paper told about Hillsborough.

Cut Scene from In the Loop

Some cracking stuff from Steve Coogan.

Jimmy Fallon Gets Susan Boyle Crazy

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon finds that Susan Boyle soothes all.

Wes Craven's Health and Safety

Apparently this is a real health and safety in the workplace training video. It's not for the squeamish.

Bongos

Rainn Wilson from The Office joins Weezer's Rivers Cuomo on a cover of Joan Osborne's hit 'One of Us'.

America's Team

I was up in Fort William yesterday to see the local team take on Deveronvale. Fort William haven't won a match since September 2007. Well, they didn't win yesterday either. Although they took the lead early on, they finished on the wrong end of a 6-1 thumping.

You can have a look at my report of the game on my other site here. However, the reason I want you to go and have a look is because of the scheme Fort William have got themselves involved with. When you click on the link play the video I have embedded. It's a film by the company making the America's Team project that's designed to take Fort William 'From zeroes to heroes'. Although it's clearly amusing, I found it offensive to the football team and everyone involved with it.

I've written more about why and about the scheme on the link.

UPDATE: My post has received a response from Paul McDonald, the man behind the America's Team project. Go and have a look at the comments section for our back and forth.

Odds and Sods - The Verdict

I thought I should write a wee bit on 'Odds and Sods' our rehearsed reading which played to a sold out Ramshorn Theatre last night.

It seemed to go over pretty well with the audience and certainly everyone I spoke to said that they enjoyed it. A lot of people decided to hang around afterwards as well, which was nice.

It was slightly unusual as this was the first production we've undertaken where neither Fraser nor I took a part in it, so we watched proceedings from the back of the theatre.

The cast we put together were all really good. Moira Byrne of course we know and love from Glue and we wrote the part of Janice especially for her. It's easily the best part we've ever given her and she really excelled.

John Love fitted the part of Shug really well. He got the character from the off and really gave his all to it. The wee tender moment he has near the end John performed with aplomb.

James Keenan relished the opportunity to play a bastard in Sandy and seemed surprised when people told him afterwards that they were sympathetic to his character. Just proved how much he put into him that made people care about him, even if he isn't the nicest guy.

Robert Radcliffe handled the part of Frank brilliantly from the get-go. Along with Jen Byrne, who gave the character of Shelagh a lot more sass than we'd envisaged, he formed a great romantic duo.

Scottish Comedian of the Year Scott Agnew, making his acting debut, perfectly fitted Jordon, the washed up former boyband singer. We always had Scott in mind for the part and he did a really good job with it, using his comedian's improvisational skills when the need arose.

Last, but definitely not least, was Will Speirs as Milton. Will brought a manic energy to the part we never saw coming. Always explosive in rehearsals he was a real hit with the audience on the night.

With any luck 'Odds and Sods' will be back as a full-length play in the Autumn.

There is a review on our mate John's site.

The Damned United

I'm loathe to link again to TalkSport for the second time in a week but here we are. There's good reason though because this week they are doing a special on The Damned United, the film of David Peace's book which hits the cinemas tomorrow.

This an interview with Michael Sheen discussing playing Brian Clough. It lasts for over 17 minutes.

This is a 2 minute interview with Timothy Spall about playing Peter Taylor.

There was also an interview this afternoon with director Tom Hooper. I'll stick that up when it's on the site.

Iannucci In the Loop

Armando Iannucci talks about In the Loop in The Observer. The Sunday Times talks to Iannucci and Peter Capaldi. The Sunday Herald chats to In the Loop star Chris Addison.

Down below Iannucci talks to the Edinburgh TV Festival about the film.

Graeme Souness on TalkSport

Former Liverpool and Scotland captain Graeme Souness has hit the headlines today thanks to a bust-up at his son's Under-10s football match. The Sun ran this story telling of Souness's 'foul-mouthed rant'.

Jeff Goodwin, 46, who was watching his son Jacob, said: “This guy should know better. There were ladies in our group. He did say to them, ‘Excuse me.’

“But he told our coach, ‘If you think this is the way to teach kids to play, you’ve no f***ing chance.’

It's a bit of a non-story, perhaps not such a coincidence that this film featuring Ray Winstone has just been put up on the FA's website as part of the Respect campaign.

But far more amusing was Souness's call to his former Scotland team-mate Alan Brazil on TalkSport in order to clear the matter up. You can listen to the 6 1/2 minute call here. He's pretty angry. This was what woke me up this morning. The Souness Alarm Clock, I think you could market it.

Odds and Sods - 4 Days to Go

If you fancy coming to see the rehearsed reading of the play what we wrote - Odds and Sods - then get yer tickets fast. There's only about 20 or so left.

You can reserve tickets and pay on the night by phoning or e-mailing the Ramshorn Theatre on 0141-552-3489 or ramshorn dot theatre (at) strath dot ac dot uk. You can also buy them through the SECC on 0870 0135464 or through their website.

I've already heard the "I'm skint" excuse trotted out. It's only Four pounds (£4). Going by rehearsals it should be a laugh. Of course since it's partially a You Owe Me Glue production it's not been going as smoothly as we would like. But everything will come together on the night I'm quite sure.

So do come along.

Bathtub IV

This is a great tilt-shift video. It's worth a few minutes of your time to watch it. Via.


Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Another Pundit Loses It

Ronnie and I discussed this on Twitter within minutes, then I stuck it up for folk to have a look at on my Facebook page. The discussions have slowly been spreading round the net. On Match of the Day 2 last night former West Ham and Charlton gaffer Alan Pardew described a piece of play by Chelsea's Michael Essien by saying "He absolutely rapes him there."

I froze when I heard it and thought, 'He didn't just say 'rapes him' did he? 'Rakes him' mibbie? But slowly it seems football fans throughout the country have been thinking the same thing. 'I didn't imagine that did I? He did say it. He did.'

It's already on his Wikipedia page, although since the content there will no doubt be amended soon I'll just quote from it here.

" * In March 2009, on Match of the Day 2 Pardew stated that Chelsea F.C. midfielder Michael Essien "absolutely rapes" Manchester City player Ched Evans during a midfield tussle, Essien has since gone AWOL since the accusation was made leading many people to believe the claims were probably true.

The BBC after terminating his contact announce that they will be replacing him on MOTD2 with Ron Atkinson."

Some folk are insisting it's just a saying, although I go to a lot of football matches and I've never heard anyone say it (and at a Clydebank game several years ago I once heard a guy loudly instruct a player that the best way to deal with an opponent would be to "Pish in his mooth.")

The guys on football programmes talk a lot of rubbish for the most part and the basic rule that will keep you coming back on these shows is just knowning not to swear on air. Or make racist remarks, or, you would imagine, not to make casual comments about rape.

I'm not making any call for him to be removed from telly. (Although since there's hunners of ex-pros out there, maybe someone else could have a crack at it) I just thought it was a ridiculous thing to have said.

I'm sure we'll hear more about it in the days to come.

With the wonders of the internet, footage was up on YouTube in about 15 minutes. (Ignore the chatter from the two guys who've filmed it, as it's frankly more offensive than Pardew, but they're not being paid to sit and talk about football on BBC 2.)