Wednesday 31 January 2007

Weekly Movies

Rocky Balboa (****)

Despite my reaction being ‘surely not’ when I heard that Stallone was making this film, I actually really enjoyed it. Rocky coming back to box at 50 doesn’t seem all that ridiculous and when you read about guys like Jerry Quarry, there’s certainly precedent for it.

It’s a movie with a message, and has lots of ‘inspirational’ moments throughout. It plays on all the things we liked about the original Rocky movie and its sequels – the training montage, the run up the steps, the trash-talking, the love story, the uplifting speeches. It covers all the old Rocky ground.

Although there are numerous plot holes in it and silly scenes of Rocky bonding with various folk, it’s worth a trip to the cinema to see.



Dreamgirls (****)

It took me a little bit of time to get into Eddie Murphy as a straight man and stop thinking about him doing James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party on SNL. Once I did, I really enjoyed him in his role as James Thunder Early a man who although a star was never going right to the top.

Step in the Dreamgirls, with Beyonce Knowles with the glamour, but Jennifer Hudson the stand out. An Oscar surely beckons.

It’s a musical in the proper sense, dialogue turns into singing bouts and there’s never an opportunity missed for a show stopping number. The songs aren’t all that memorable, and the storyline has been done before. But that didn’t stop from making it a worthwhile watch.



Venus (***)

The story of a pervy old man and a yobbish young girl, Venus is held together by the performances of Peter O’Toole and Leslie Phillips. When I went into the cinema I noticed the 5 strong team of neds and nedettes, feet up on the seats, rabbitting away. I made sure I sat as far away as possible from them. However, even although they got pulled up by the staff at one point they seemed to roar with laughter all the way through the film.

This was mainly to do with the fact that O’Toole and Phillips play a couple of foul mouthed elderly gentlemen. Barely a sentence went by without a ‘fucker’ or stronger.

A film that you could easily envisage on stage, Venus is mostly amusing, though plodding in parts. With weaker actors it wouldn’t have had as much charm, but it just about pulls it off.

Jesus Christ, Oops, I Mean...


If you ever wanted an example of why the entire planet should be tarred over and started again, here it is.

I don't know who the bigger set of goons are here, the "live like we do or else" brigade or the religious twats who seem to have everyone cow-towing to them every time they consider something offensive.

Honestly, it's enough to make you not want to come in to your pishy office job...

Tuesday 30 January 2007

Return of the King

Here’s a nice appreciation of King of the Hill before its return for its 11th season last weekend.

Was It Really That Bad?


Just reading Tom's post about the Glue gig on Saturday there. I don't think it went as badly as he seems to have.

It's true right enough that the audience had no clue how to take us and didn't really want to see sketches. But, as usual, by the time we finished up, we'd won a good proportion of the crowd over. I blame myself really for not thinking to start the set with a heavier hitter than "The Old Mugging". I also think that including "Fat and Stupid" doesn't work unless you either know me, or have had a chance to get to know "The guy I play in most of the sketches". So I'd count those as mistakes. We could also have been better organised in terms of the seating and the props, again, something I should have though of. Plus, we weren't very well rehearsed.

That said the new one did go down well as did Bertie and most of the rest of the set. The only ones that really fell flat were the ones I mentioned.

And it's not as if this hasn't happened before. In loads of gigs we've done the audience has taken about 20 mins to warm up to what we're doing. Then they get into it, the heavy hitter sketches come out and everyone has a good time. We only had 20 mins here, and like I said, they were just warming up to us when we finished up.

The two guys I heard arguing were pretty funny, but it was nice to hear one guy had got it, and was happy to say he enjoyed us. They guy who didn't like us was perfectly within his rights, but I'd imagine he was of the mind that he could do better. I don't see his sketch show out there though.

As for "the headline act", we're talking about a total has-been whose meaningful career ended around 1991. It says a lot about him that he said what he did. That he went onstage with no material for one.

He can think we're as "weird" as he likes. This is guy who turned up decked from head to toe in black leather with a bandana, shades and a dyed beard despite the fact that he must be pushing 50. So fine, if Axel Rose's prison bitch doesn't like us, I can make my peace with that.

All in all, I don't think we're getting many ticket sales off the back of this, so in that sense, yeah it was a bit of a waste of time. Considering it was arranged specifically for someone in particular to come and see, it was also a waste of time, as they didn't show.

But I sensed it hit confidence and for me, that's not justified. Surely we've floored enough audiences by now to realise that one sticky night where a couple of sketches died doesn't mean we can't deliver.

We know we can, and will again.

Monday 29 January 2007

No Flipping

This is a really good interview with Garry Shandling. He has put together a Best of Larry Sanders box set of 23 episodes. He’s also made a warts and all documentary, where he went around apologising to the people he felt he let down during the duration of the series.

A shame though that they don’t seem to have released all the seasons in their entirety. In the UK all we got was a 6 episode ‘Best of’ DVD, while the US got the whole of season one, though it appeared to stop there.

I would also love for someone to release a DVD of Shandling’s earlier, and in my opinion much funnier show, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.

Never Again...No, Hang On

The first You Owe Me Glue show of 2007 was Saturday night and it was largely a waste of a time. I don’t think we’ve ever went down worse.

Playing to a reasonably full room in Blackfriars the audience had been whipped up into a jovial frenzy and would rather have been shouting ‘Ugly basturt’ at the compere than keeping quiet while we performed.

Having to all sit out on the stage during the set didn’t really help matters. It was obvious during the first sketch that it would be difficult to win the room over. They did pick up for Bertie in sketch 3 and our only new sketch met with a favourable response, but all in all we were met by bemused looks and faint titters.

After we came off Fraser had to listen to an argument between two guys in the front row. One of who thought we ‘could be as funny as Chewin’ the Fat’ while the other declared we were ‘fundamentally not funny’.

Whereas I, on the other hand, had to shout down the headline act, who thought he would begin his set by going on about how weird we were. He failed to hear me, what with being so out his nut on pills that his head was undoubtedly full of Muppets fighting.

Really we would have been as well doing fire-eating or walking across hot coals. It’s a good job we don’t have more of these gigs coming up…aw naw hold on, we have several.

While I’m here I should just mention that tickets for the Comedy Festival shows are now on sale. You can get two for the price of one here.

Friday 26 January 2007

Spare Any Loose Change?

There’s an article in today’s Guardian about the film Loose Change. If you don’t know Loose Change is a ‘documentary’ concerning the supposed conspiracy over 9/11.

The Guardian article starts off making me think that perhaps the 3 guys who made this film may have something. They might have uncovered some evidence that suggests that 9/11 was an inside job. They don’t and they haven’t.

Some of their theories are just plain ridiculous. Like all the best conspiracy nuts they cherry pick bits and pieces of the story that they like the sound of and dismiss large chunks as Government lies.

A website called Screw Loose Change was set up to take some of the theories apart and the people at Popular Mechanics spent a long time researching key conspiracy arguments in order to disprove them.

I like to be sceptical about stuff like this and I’d be interested to hear any kind of conspiracy theory that could be proved. However it’s sad that people are spending so much time and getting so much attention on peddling misguided nonsense, unqualified theories posing as facts and out and out lies.

Popular Mechanics offered this quote from Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York that I liked. "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts."

Thursday 25 January 2007

"It's Big Scott Agnew..."

The big man doesn't update very often, but when he does it's usually gold. Have a look at Scott Agnew's blog to read about the maddie getting himself into a dangerous scuffle with a two-time former world boxing champion.

Life Is Brilliant

Well great news for me today – another job interview, another knockback.

This of course means I have to face up to at least another month of my current job, which leaves me with about £6 a month to pure live it up with after I pay my travel fares and bills.

I’ve always managed on not very much cash, but it’s getting a bit beyond the pale now.

Anyway, not getting this job means I can fill youse aw in on the hilarious interview.

I won’t say who the job was for, but it was a shop in Falkirk’s busy “retail park” – the term it would appear is used for a vast car park with shops round about it. And a cinema.

While waiting for the manager to take me in for interview I was hanging about the front, trying to look interested in the garish pish they sold.

A guy from the storeroom came up to chat to me and here follows the conversation we had word for word as I remember it:

Guy: “You here for the stockroom job?”

Me: “Aye, just waiting for the manager.”

Guy: “I hope you get it ‘cos I could really do with a hand. I’ve only been here a few weeks and before that I hadn’t worked for 11 months ‘cos I found my wife dead in our bed. That knocked me back a bit, finding my wife dead in our bed like that. I’m surprised they took me on. But I could really do with a hand in there.”

Me: Riiiiiight…”

Then the manager came out.

The interview itself was cracking stuff.

The tossbag who interviewed me never let me speak, cut in and talked over everything I said and, after finding out that I’d spent some time working for the evil filth who are Scottish Power, spend about 20mins regaling me with the story of how they did him out of about 60 grands-worth of redundie.

Good. Wish it had been more.

I’ve had to phone 3 times over the course of the last few days to get my knockback and to be told that I lost out to someone with “more experience” and that “I should have had a letter by now”.

All this to get a shitty shop job that paid 15p above minimum wage.

Fucking soul destroying stuff. Trying to find even the most basically paid job in the area I’ve moved to is becoming the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Still, it’s life experience you can’t buy, which is just as well given that I haven’t a brass tuppence to my name, and no prospect of that changing anytime soon.

Tuesday 23 January 2007

Oscar Nominations

The Oscar nominations have been announced.

Best Picture

Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Queen
The Departed

Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Best Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Will Smith - The Pursuit Of Happyness
Forest Whitaker -The Last King Of Scotland

Best Actress
Penélope Cruz - Volver
Judi Dench - Notes On A Scandal
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet - Little Children

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Cate Blanchett - Notes On A Scandal
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal

Personally I’d like to see Little Miss Sunshine take most awards going. I think Arkin should be a lock for Best Supporting Actor. I cannot understand why Mark Whalberg got a nomination for The Departed. All he does in it is shout and push Leonardo DiCaprio about.

You’d think that this would be Scorsese’s year, but that’s said every time he takes another nomination. You could also say the same about Best Actor nominee Peter O’Toole. This will be his 8th nomination, though his first in 25 years. He won an honorary award in 2003.

O'Toole initially wanted to refuse that award and wrote the academy a letter saying he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright". After being told he was getting it whether he liked it or not, he opted to receive it.

None of the Best Actor nominees have won before although DiCaprio and Smith have also both been nominated previously.

This is Scorsese’s 6th Oscar nomination as a director. He also has two nods as a writer.

Dreamgirls has the most nominations with 8.

His nomination for writing The Queen continues the rise of Britain’s hottest new screenwriter Peter Morgan. He also wrote the screenplay for The Last King of Scotland and his play Frost/Nixon is just about to transfer from London to Broadway.

Some Films

Deja vu (***)
Denzel Washington stars as a cop tracking down a bomber in this sci-fi thriller. I mostly enjoy Tony Scott’s films, though they’re very rarely challenging.

Denzel more or less phones it in here. I’ve seen him do the same thing in several other films. The supporting cast of Val Kilmer, Bruce Greenwood and Adam Goldberg, do their best but never really rise to anything noteworthy.

The storyline was more straightforward than I thought it was going to be. I had imagined several twists and double crosses that never came about, although what I had imagined seemed to me to be more interesting that the actual conclusion.

Babel (****)
The third feature from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga. This follows on from their previous flms, Amores Perros and 21 Grams by following several interweaving storylines over a fractured time period.

It’s never less than gripping, even if some of the storylines seem to bear no relationship to the others. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett have less screen time than their star billing would usually suggest. Blanchett spends most of her time lying on the floor.

The pacing of the film and its use of music to build tension and atmosphere are both excellent and while, for me, it didn’t have the power of 21 Grams, it was still a class act.

Infamous (*****)
You might think that you’ve seen this story before if you’ve seen Capote, but even if you have seen that film, this is most definitely worth going along to.

It employs different techniques than the first film did. Capote was full of short, sharp scenes, Infamous takes more time and features several flashbacks and talking heads sequences.

Toby Jones is phenomenal as Capote. It’ll be a shame if Academy voters think they can’t nominate him for Best Actor because Hoffman won for the same part last year. Daniel Craig warms to the role of Perry Smith, the kind of part he’ll now very rarely be offered since Bond has launched him into the big time.

This is much more like a love story between Capote and Perry Smith, than Bennett Miller’s film was. Infamous also frequently plays up Capote’s flamboyance for comic effect.

Of the supporting cast Juliet Stevenson is the stand-out as fashion editor Diana Vreeland, though Gwyneth Paltrow has a brief but memorable scene as a torch singer.

Monday 22 January 2007

So What The Bloody Hell Are You Wearin’?


Don’t know if anyone spotted this, but it would appear that Qantas believe themselves to be in a position to tell people what they can think say and wear on their flights.

This from an airline serving a country that swears at you in its tourist ads.

I weep for the future (milky tears), and I’ll tell you something else –these buggers won’t be flying me to Australia any time soon.

Friday 19 January 2007

On the Buses

Despite the harsh weather this week, the bus service has been no worse than usual. Oh, except for Monday when we all had to troop off, due to the bus being on fire. I couldn’t get a photograph of that, but I did notice this last night.

Pish on the Beeb

One of the photographs of the snow that was on here yesterday has made its way onto the BBC site.

Thursday 18 January 2007

Happy Birthday Mike Lieberthal

This fucker was born on the same day as me. On December 6, 2006 he signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He received a $1.15 million contract, with a club option for 2008. No bad, eh?

I, on the other hand, work in a dead end office job and am looking down the barrel of £17 a week to live on for the next two months. No bad, eh? It’s his birthday today. Happy birthday to him.

Also celebrating birthdays today, the 63rd anniversary of the Soviet liberation of Leningrad, are former Thompson Twin Tom Bailey, former porn actress Sharon Mitchell, singer Samantha Mumba, Benji Schwimmer dancer and cousin of Friends star David, and star of V and 21 Jump Street Jeff Yagher. Happy birthday to them all.

It's Snowing

It’s snowing quite heavily here. Since about 9am Katie has been excitedly hoping that we’ll all be sent home, due to lack of public transport. I have assured her that her fears are unfounded, as there is no way that a bit of snow would stop First Glasgow from delivering anything less than their usual first class service.

There are some photos below, including one of the gang who unsuccessfully attempted to engage Fraser in a snowball fight.









Wednesday 17 January 2007

Something Good on the Telly

Here's some good news. The Thick of It will be back in the summer for another one-off special. It will pick up where the Festive special left off.

You Owe Me Glue on Tour

Speaking of You Owe Me Glue (as I was in the last post) we have a shedload of gigs coming up. Here’s a run down.

Saturday 27th January, Blackfriars (20 mins)
Tuesday 6th February, Classic Grand (30 mins)
Monday 12th February, The Stand, Edinburgh (10 mins)
Fri 16th or Sat 17th February, Blackfriars (20 mins)
Tuesday 27th February, The Stand, Glasgow (10 mins)
Friday 9th March, O’Neill’s, Sauchiehall Street
Friday 16th March, O’Neill’s, Sauchiehall Street
Friday 23rd March, O’Neill’s, Sauchiehall Street
Saturday 24th March, Old Fruitmarket (20 mins)

The Classic Grand is part of some kind of comedy showcase, we’re unclear on the details as yet. The Classic Grand is of course the new venue that you may be familiar with as the old scud cinema.

Following on from last year’s performance in East Kilbride, we’re taking Glue on the road once again by doing a short spot at The Stand in Edinburgh.

We’re not certain if we’re gonna be appearing on the Friday or Saturday in the middle of February at Blackfriars. What we can tell you is this…

‘Alan Anderson introduces a very special line up of comedy superstars. This is an invite only show. More details of how to obtain tickets to follow.’

The gigs at O’Neill’s are the full YOMG show, as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. These tickets should go on sale tomorrow and the full programme is free with this week’s Sunday Times.

The show at the Old Fruitmarket is part of the NO2ID Gala Benefit. A show that we’re actually co-organising. There are a handful of names already booked and hopefully more will follow.

In addition to all that we may crop up in some other places during March, possibly Oran Mor for one.

So, plenty of chances to catch us should you wish.

Stop The Presses!!!!!

Apparently, some naecunt's dog dying is news. Fair enough; nothing else going on, eh?

Tom Goes to the Movies

Winter nights and no YOMG rehearsals say all hail to the cinema.

A Prairie Home Companion
(***) The three stars are chiefly obtained by Garrison Keillor, who for the most part plays himself in the story of an old time radio show and its theatre about to go out of business.

Keillor wrote the script, based on his radio show. Robert Altman’s last film it features an ensemble cast as was his signature style. Other than Keillor Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, as a Chandler-esque prvate eye/security guard are about the best of the bunch.

Things take an odd turn though when Virginia Madsen turns up as an Angel of Death. ‘Why’s this turned into The Sixth Sense?’ I found myself thinking.

Smokin’ Aces (****) From the trailer this looked like a mad shoot ‘em up with no real plot. And that would not be far from the truth. Narc director Joe Carnahan’s fourth feature film Smokin’ Aces sees an assembly line of hitmen and FBI agents attempting to track down Jeremy Piven’s Sinatra-like magician and mobster turned stool pigeon.

I found both Ryan Reynolds and Alicia Keys pretty watchable in this cast that includes Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta.

Surprisingly the film takes on a moral core towards the end, which to be honest the set-up never really justifies.

The undoubted stand out in the picture is Jason Bateman’s hilarious cameo as a washed-up lawyer. Lost’s Matthew Fox is unrecognisable in his great scene as the hotel's head of security.

I can totally see why this is being panned everywhere though. Too many characters, a story that's not particularly believable and a twist that I saw coming from early on.

Carnahan said this about the film on his blog.

"Very happy that the film finished behind 'Pursuit of Happyness' and 'Night At The
Musuem' this weekend at the UK box office despite horrific reviews which I guess I
understand to some extent. The film really is in a lot of ways a make or break
proposition: You're either going to groove with the pretty radical gear and tonal
changes the film makes and go with it, or you're not."



The Last King of Scotland
(****) Based on Giles Fodden’s novel of the same name this looks at the rise of Idi Amin through the eyes of fictional Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan.

Both Forrest Whitaker as Amin and James McAvoy as Garrigan are excellent. So too is Gillian Anderson in her small role as an English doctor.

Garrigan’s excitement and naivety at life in Uganda is perfectly believable and the thriller plot builds slowly. In Amin’s Uganda nothing seems implausible so even when the story seems to stretch credibility, you can still buy into it.

The Pursuit of Happyness
(****) Another film partly based on a true story. This time of Chris Gardner, who lived in poverty with his young son while attempting to become a stockbroker. If you’ve seen the trailer for this, you’ll know what the deal is as it’s little more than a 2 hour version of that trailer.

Will Smith shows his acting chops once again and his real life son also plays a good part. It’s a well told story, that kept me entertained throughout. Nice to see Dan Castellanetta in a movie role, although he does very little in it.

Tuesday 16 January 2007

Who'd have thought it?


Who'd have thought Frank Carson would ever win a Golden Globe eh? And meet Stephen Whatsname? It must be the way he tells em'.

Monday 15 January 2007

Rant # 2 - Advertising Pillars

For my next rant let’s talk about these things that have recently cropped up in Glasgow. Advertising pillars, or whatever they’re called seem to be filling up every spare bit of pavement space in the city.

A giant piece of rubbish, with no aesthetic quality whatsoever. Who the fuck thinks that we need more advertising on our streets?

Advertisers, that’s who.



All the sites seem to be advertising the same things. A concert by Nelly Furtado record and the Bo Selecta DVD, great, haud me back from rushing out for those things.

This is another idea much like the Showcase TV one. Some clown sees big bits of space in cities doing nothing and thinks, ‘I know, why not make money putting eyesores in folks’ way.’

Whenevr there’s an empty space somewhere some genius thinks that advertising is the thing to fill it with. That’s the way to spend your limited time on earth. Fill the place up with adverts for shit no one wants or gives a fuck about.

Thanks Advertising Gurus.

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags."


Rant #1 - Sham TV Companies

As you may be aware, due to our constant whinging, the comedy ladder is a fickle one, with lots of late nights and hours put in writing, travelling and performing. There’s lots of lies, bullshitting and time wasting. On top of that there is little if any money at the end of it all.

Comedy is also a rich breeding ground for parasites. Talentless people who are out to suck money out of folk with some talent and a desire to make a career out of comedy.

One such parasite is Showcase TV. One of their minions, stuck this ‘opportunity’ on the forums of Chortle a week or so ago, though he pretended that he had just come across the information. Then he registered to join a forum specifically in order to let a bunch of other folk he had never conversed with before know about it.

SHOWCASE TV (Sky Channel 181)

Showcase TV, the UK's first TV channel allowing members of the public to send their message or air their talents to the nation. Broadcast 100% Guaranteed

We want to see your crazy tricks and talents, your personal or even political message to the nation, your jokes and jackass comedy on Showcase TV (Sky Channel 181).

Operated by UK-based media company Classic Media Group based at Shepperton Film Studios, the Showcase TV programme launches February 12th on digital Sky Channel 181. Showcase TV will rely entirely on members of the public for its programming content, you are guaranteed to be on air for the small sum of £100 plus VAT for 60 Seconds and you can buy as much airtime as you want as frequently as you want. The show runs twice weekly on a Monday and a Wednesday at 10.00pm. You could even have your own regular 5 minute slot.

Aspiring actors, up-and-coming comedians, wannabe models and unsigned bands/singers with original material or in fact anyone will be able to showcase their talents or message and launch their careers on national TV.

They then go on to explain that they are not like similar rip-off internet sites.

In addition you can also take away the recorded piece on DVD to promote yourself on You Tube or My Space, or to send in for auditions etc. An ideal low-cost showreel plus the benefit of having broadcast to the nation on Showcase TV.

For Further Information Please Contact:
Showcase TV
Classic Media Group, Shepperton Film Studios, UK

Telephone: 01932 592016
Email: info@classic-media-group.com
www.myspace.com/showcasetv
www.showcase-tv.co.uk


So let’s recap. I get to go to a TV studio and perform for 60 seconds. So that’s a few one-liners from my stand-up, or a quick YOMG sketch. All I have to do is hand over £100. I could even have my own five minute slot! Wow! And it’ll only cost me £500. Regular too! So it’ll only cost me 500 quid a week, almost 5 times what I make in a week! What a great opportunity. And on a backwater satellite channel too!

Not only am I now not being paid for my work – I’m paying them. This is a supposedly reputable TV company’s idea of how to get entertainment on the air.

Quite rightly this thread was met with scorn and ridicule by the folk on Chortle. After a barrage of abuse this comment was posted by someone who signed in without using their real name.

"As the 'simpleton' ( I believe that was the politest term used in this protracted debate) that produced this concept, I thank you for your interest shown and your many amusing comments . Keep it up and well done, some of you might even make a career out of being funny one day."

What I love about this comment is that this idiot is giving himself a warm pat on the back for what he thinks is a ‘concept’. Is this the standard of TV production today? You’ve no fucking ideas at all. Not a one. So some muppet thinks, ‘I know I’ll get no hopers to pay money to be on our channel’.

These fuckers produce DVDs for Joe Pasquale and Gary Bushell for fuck’s sake. Gary Bushell!

I sincerely hope this ‘concept’ falls on its arse and those responsible soon find themselves working in a call-centre.

Thursday 11 January 2007

Lookwell

This is a sitcom pilot that never got made into a series. Lookwell was written by Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel. It stars Adam West as a clueless, washed-up TV star turned detective.

Tuesday 9 January 2007

Phantom Limb

I’ve been playing this a lot recently, so I thought I’d stick the video on here. This is The Shins with their new single Phantom Limb.

Monday 8 January 2007

loudQUIETloud

Nicola and I went to see loudQUIETloud – a Film About The Pixies at the GFT last night. A documentary on their 2004 reunion, it proved to be quite entertaining. As Nicola will tell you it’s not about much other than their reunion and nothing all that dramatic happens in it.

All the members seemed quite happy to get the band back together. Not least drummer David Lovering, who was on the brink of being penniless, when the call came in.

Dave provided most of the film’s amusing moments, mainly with his new career as a magician and his hobby as a metal detector. He also becomes addicted to valium during the tour, a fact that disgusts his bandmates.

Kim Deal takes along her twin sister Kelley in order to keep her from falling back into drink and drugs. Kelley also provides a few amusing moments along the way.

It’s not a massive groundbreaking documentary but for anyone with more than a passing interest in The Pixies it’s well worth a look.

Magnus Magnusson 1929-2007

Britain’s favourite quizmaster has died at the age of 77. I once held a door open for Magnus Magnusson. As I recall he didn’t say ‘thanks’. It was at the BBC studios in Glasgow in about 1989. I had gone to see the recording of a sitcom pilot.

Norman Lovett, had written his own series I, Lovett where he starred as an eccentric inventor. In the pilot there was a sequence where he appeared on Mastermind. Hence Magnus Magnusson’s involvement. The series was made 4 years after the pilot aired.

Nowadays there’s no end of gameshows and quizzes with moronic presenters and contestants, but along with Bamber Gascoigne, Magnus Magnusson set the benchmark for gameshow presenting. Presenters that you actually felt could answer the questions they were asking.

I noted a few years ago that Chris Tarrant adopted something Magnus Magnusson once said when asked if some questions on Mastermind were too easy for certain contestants. “It’s only easy if you know it.”

Thursday 4 January 2007

The Bootleg Superman

Here’s an interesting little TV curio. Over on News From Me, Mark Evanier discusses this article about a bootleg Superman.

Actor John Frederick claims that he made 18 full episodes of Superman when George Reeves was giving the studio bother.

Frederick, now busy in retirement in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., says he filmed 18 episodes of the popular television series in the late 1950s as a studio threat to Reeves, who was increasingly unhappy in the role and felt he was being type-cast and excluded from better parts. Reeves allegedly was threatening to walk out on the series, Frederick says in his autobiography, "Name Droppings on Your Head."

It’s an odd tale and Mark Evanier, for one, thinks this story is far fetched. I’m sure he’ll follow it up in subsequent days.

Here's Frederick's IMDB entry.

Librarian Stills

You may (or may not) remember that I took part in a short film last year called The Librarian. Well it’s been edited and assembled and a DVD arrived through my door a few days ago.

So here for your delight are a few screenshots.




Wednesday 3 January 2007

Twinkies


On her return from her Christmas visit back home to New York, Katie brought us all at work, a box of Twinkies.

She also brought in Butterfingers and Cheese Doodles.


Shame I didn't think to ask her for a can or two of Dr Pepper Cherry & Vanilla.

New To Me Movies

As a follow up to Tom’s post, I thought I’d round up some recent films I’ve seen.

I don’t get to the movies anymore of course – this is largely due to being skint, having a wean who still, after 3 long years, requires constant supervision and my longstanding hatred of watching a film without being able to have a fag.

I did get to see about 20 mins of “Happy Feet” the other weeks there, my daughter Jodie’s first ever trip to the cinema. This ended in disaster when, after mildly crying at the 30 foot across images suddenly dangled before her for the whole film, she totally lost the plot when the movie’s protagonist “Mumbles” (or whatever), the baby penguin was waylaid and threatened by some pretty nasty looking crows. We took our leave forthwith, having stuffed 14 quid firmly down the tubes.

I did see a couple of noteworthy recent films though, namely “Art School Confidential” and “Nacho Libre”.

I was confident “Art School Confidential” would be well worth a watch, coming as it was from the Clowes/Zwigoff stable that had given us the very enjoyable “Ghostworld” a while back.

But naw, it was pants. Written by Clowes, it’s a thin story based on a short from his comic Eightball and it lacks pretty much everything.

The main character was a complete cipher, with virtually no characteristics, flatly played by the appalling Max Minghella who mistook intensity for squinting throughout.

The source material provided all the comedy, but since that was a 3 page comic filler short, there is a totally unconvincing and dull love story tacked on and a ridiculous murder scenario chucked in as well, manifesting itself firstly as a distraction until the other strands of the tale totally run out of steam and the whothefuckcareswhodunnit plotline takes over.

Considering how talented Danny Clowes is, this is a surprisingly dull mess and I have to say that while I enjoyed his sneering arrogance when he was a struggling cartoonist, it’s a lot less endearing and amusing now he’s a big success.

John Malkovich for example plays a hack artist/professor whose character is sneered at throughout, despite the fact that he doesn’t really do anything to deserve it other than produce “bad art”. Quite the irony.

In stark contrast sits “Nacho Libre”, a daft yet quirkily original comedy from the makers of “Napoleon Dynamite” and Jack Black.

This is brain meltingly stupid in places but it works mainly thanks to the original production design and pacing and the fact that everyone knows they are making a daft comedy. And of course Jack Black throws himself totally into the daftness, somehow making his cod-performance entirely convincing.

Ok, it’s not the greatest film ever made but it blends dumb comedy extremely well with the endearing fascination with ordinary people that made “Napoleon Dynamite” so watchable.

New Year Movies

The last film I saw in 2006 and the first film I saw in 2007 could not have been more different. Container is a Swedish film by Lukas Moodysson, who made ‘Together’ and ‘Lilya 4-ever’.

"A silent movie with sound" it chronicles the life of a fat man who wishes he was a woman. There is no dialogue except for a stream of consciousness voiceover, spoken by Donnie Darko’s Jenna Malone.

A lot of mad pish is about the only way to describe it. It’s completely off the scale in terms of Tom Stars. There were some bits I quite liked and it felt relaxing in places, but really it’s mad arty pish.

"A woman in a man's body. A man in a woman's body. Jesus in Mary's stomach. The water breaks. It floods into me. I can't close the lid. My heart is full."


Mad pish.

So into 2007 and The Holiday (**). A love story for the festive period it features Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black in the romantic roles.

The Cameron Diaz/Jude Law segments were really boring, but the Kate Winslet parts were quite good. It’s obviously daft, romantic nonsense, but it does really sag in places.

Handy that all the characters were rich and had tough, but glamorous jobs that would let them up sticks whenever they wanted to. No one would ever want to watch a love story where a couple of the protagonists were on minimum wage eh?

I find it a bit odd that Jack Black is now playing straightforward romantic leads. He’s a guy you would think would be destined for the best pal or loser roles, but here he is playing opposite Kate Winslet.

The one actor in the cast I found most watchable though was Eli Wallach. Shame that he was in such a boring film.

The Thick of It

Some more film reviews to come but the best thing I’ve seen in the last couple of days was on TV. Last night’s special edition of The Thick of It was easily the best thing I watched on TV all over the festive period.

With Chris Langham opting out of the show until his numerous court cases have been resolved, the show did not lose a step without him.

Adding the Opposition into the mix, it never failed to be funny and fast moving. Junior minister Ben Swain’s blinking interview on Newsnight was hilarious and Peter Capaldi deserves every award going for his roaring performance as Malcolm Tucker.

It’s a rare phenomenon on television, a show that you’re still thinking about long after it had finished.

It’s probably the most intelligently written comedy (or perhaps in any genre) on British television.