Night Class Two

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.

The New Chelsea Gaffer

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.

Most people have come up with the answer, ‘naw’.

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.

The Real Radio Renegade

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?

Night Class

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.

Penalty!

For no real reason other than it came into my head, here's a famous penalty taken by Johan Cruyff for Ajax in December 1982.

Black Cape # 24

Call Now

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."

Some Superbad Guys

Here's an interview from the New York Times with Saturday Night Live and Superbad's Bill Hader.

Hader also appeared in Knocked Up and here is the New York Post's excited review of the Knocked Up DVD.

Below is the stars of Superbad appearing on the Rove McManus talkshow in Australia.

England Go Out

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.

Duckman

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'.

In Search of Steve Ditko

WARNING: It's another post about comics from the guy on here, who's not into comics.

Last night I watched In Search of Steve Ditko on BBC4.

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.

Bell also has his own Steve Ditko website.

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.

Finally Ditko's Wikipedia page.

If you missed it, it’s repeated at 12.30am on Wednesday night on BBC4.

UPDATE: Here it is on YouTube. This is the first of seven parts.

The Funniest Film of the Year

I saw Superbad (*****) over the weekend, and as the Tom Stars rating suggests it’s one of the best films of the year. When I posted the trailer back in April my expectations for it were high. Usually when you highly anticipate a film that much it lets you down. At least a wee bit. Superbad doesn’t.

Bringing up to date films like Porky’s and Weird Science with a little touch of Dazed and Confused thrown in, it’s the story of three geeks out to get laid on the last day of High School.

Gag-packed it crams in cracking line after cracking line, squirming incident after squirming incident. If you don’t like hearing a hundred variations on the act of lovemaking then it’s probably not for you.

I couldn’t get enough of that brilliantly baffled look on Michael Cera’s face as George Michael in Arrested Development and the character he plays here isn’t a million miles away from that.

It’s a film similar to things like Anchorman and Dodgeball that will probably improve on repeat viewings.

Black Cape #23

Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive

Go listen to Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive on the BBC's Real Player Listen Again service. It's there until Sunday. The guests on this episode include Dave Gorman and Lucy Porter and it's worth listening to for Iannucci's suggestion that the UK and the US share the same relationship as Paul and Jonathan Ross.

Kelman's Early Days

Nicola and I are going to see James Kelman at the Mitchell Library this evening. So I thought I would link this good piece from The Guardian from last month. In it Kelman discusses his early days of writing and his attempts to get his books into bookshops.

Some of what I encountered in those early days prepared me for later struggles. But the blatant elitism encountered by so-called working-class writers still surprises me. I can never predict it. I assumed that anybody who thought about art and writing would know that my finished work was hard won.

Fact Checkers Unit

If you've ever wondered how Bill Murray gets himself off to sleep at night, this video should end your days of wondering.

A Grimly Compelling Story

Over on the Guardian's blog Jonathan Freedland has written an intelligent and balanced article on the Madeline McCann case.

"Even to conceive of them as the suspected killers of the daughter whose loss they have been grieving is to experience cognitive dissonance.

Which is why people don't know how to react. Suddenly we have to hold two entirely contradictory thoughts in our head at the same time."

Stephen Hawking on The Simpsons

The History of British Comics

On Saturday The Guardian's Guide magazine featured a history of British comics in cartoon form by Bryan Talbot. It was to promote the show Comics Britannia, which aired on BBC4 on Monday night. If you didn't see it it's worth a peek below.

Torrent Tom

While reading today's Independent I discovered that I'm an expert on Bit Torrents.

Films

Here's my round up of some of the films I've seen over the last week or so.

Year of the Dog (****)
From Mike White, the writer of Chuck and Buck and The School of Rock, comes a story of one woman's descent into madness. Molly Shannon turns in an understated performance, totally different from her manic turns in Saturday Night Live, as a woman whose life revoles round her little dog. When he dies she struggles to find something to cling to, but when she meets Peter Sarsgaard, she thinks she's found it. It's really downbeat and it's not for everyone, but it's charming and a strong supporting cast helps it along.

Two Days in Paris (****)
July Delpy writes, stars, directs and edits this film about a French photographer taking her insecure boyfriend back to meet her insane family. It's entertaining stuff. Delpy and Adam Goldberg make a good couple and a lot of the bickering and jealousy rings true. It's been compared to Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's comedies and that's not a bad comparison.

Hallam Foe (***)
Jamie Bell stars as the eponymous peeping tom, convinced his stepmother offed his mum. A lot of this is pompous middle-class folk I couldn't really give a toss about, but enough humour and intrigue pokes through to make it worth the time.

Run Fat Boy Run (***)
Far funnier than you may expect, Run Fat Boy Run, is certainly corny, but there are a good number of laughs in it. Simon Pegg turns in a terrific comic performance and co-star Dylan Moran has a few funny moments himself. David Schwimmer's directorial debut and co-written by Pegg and Michael Ian Black it tells the story of an overweight loser trying to win back his former sweetheart. As a love story it's not really believable, but as a comedy it works. Pegg has a lot of charm and there's enough laughs to make it worthwhile.

Atonement (*****)
A big sweeping epic set in the lead up to, and during, the Second World War. I found it completely compelling from the get-go. James McAvoy and Keira Knightley are both great in the lead roles, though the entire cast is strong. I chose not to read too much about it before I went in, having never read the Ian McEwan novel, so the twists and turns were surprising to me.

The film also looks gorgeous and the 5 minute continuous take on the beach at Dunkirk is stunning. One of the best films of the year it's the kind of film that while you're watching it, you're thinking about seeing it again.

Buckfast Cocktail

One of the things I thought I would like about Katie writing a column in the Evening Times, was that I could read about some of our mutal friends in the newspaper. Today's column is one of those occasions. The photo above is from the Buckfast tasting experience that Katie writes about.

Giant Plum Davidson At It Again

'Pish regular and everyone's favourite cheeky-chappie racist Jim Davidson has been in the news again and guess what? Its not because he's come up with a cure for cancer.

No, its because once again, the fact that its not 1975 anymore has bitten him roundly in the ass.

So, what's he done this time?

Well, it would seem that Jim has managed to add homophobia to his already impressive repertoire after verbally abusing Brian Dowling on the set of daft ITV moron sedative "Hells Kitchen".

Considering Jim is a racist, a drunk, a wife beater and a bankrupt, one has to wonder if adding homophobe to the list makes JD Britain's most versatile living embarrassment?

The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories

The Perry Bible Fellowship is my favourite cartoon strip and since I first blogged about it, about three years ago, it features in the Guardian as well as many other newspapers.

There is now a book. The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories. It's a crazy £6.65 from Amazon.

I kind of agree with Mark Millar. This is my favourite cartoon strip since Calvin and Hobbes. Go buy it.

Saturday Night Fry

I spent a big chunk of Saturday night watching BBC4's repeats of their series of programmes on Stephen Fry.

It led me to look for a few things online. One of those things was Saturday Night Fry.

A radio series which parodied the media, it went out in 1988 and featured Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson.

All the episodes are available for download here.

Also on that link you can get the entire run of the Absolute Power radio series.

Black Cape #22

Black Cape #21

Fears Grow For Branson's Balloon Friend

Here's Armando Iannucci's column in today's Observer. Worth reading for the bit about Richard Branson alone. What the online version offers that the print version can't of course, is an enormous amount of bickering comments.

Who Really Wrote Shakespeare?

A number of actors including Sir Derek Jacobi are questioning who really wrote the works of William Shakespeare. Along with the Shakespeare Authorship Coallition, they are opening debate about the thoery that Shakespeare's works were written by a group.

Conspiracy theories have circulated since the 18th Century about a number of figures who could have used Shakespeare as a pen-name, including playwright Christopher Marlowe, nobleman Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon.

"I think the leading light was probably de Vere as I agree that an author writes about his own experience, his own life and personalities," Sir Derek said.

The declaration, unveiled at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester, West Sussex, also names 20 prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Orson Welles, Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin.

I love the thought that a group of intellectuals could have credited their combined works to a local everyman.

Similarities

Without wanting to get into any discussion or speculation on the Madleine McCann case, I just thought it might be worth pointing out (though I'm probably not the first) that what's happened has a lot in common with the case of Azaria Chamberlain.

How We Write

More from Ken Levine. This time on how he and his writing partner David Isaacs write.

Inside Frasier

Ken Levine has a good little inside story from Frasier up on his blog. Who would have thought regular John Cassevetes collaborator Ben Gazarra would be insane?

Football Wars

In 2004 Ioan Viorel Ganaea, while playing for Romania against Scotland, broke Celtic player John Kennedy's leg in a tackle.

Well now he's made the headlines for some first class bammery. Recently, while playing for FCU Politehnica Timişoara he attacked an assistant referee after he was sent off for violent conduct.

Have a look at the incident here.

Stranger than Fiction

This is quite the odd story from The Guardian.

Polish author Krystian Bala was sentenced to 25 years in pokey for the murder of a man who was sleeping with his ex-wife. What makes it remarkable is that he wrote the story of the killing and published it in his bestselling novel 'Amok'.

The police had no clues until an anonymous tip-off suggested they read the book.

The Sitcom is Not Dead

Ken Levine says that 'the sitcom is not dead.'

"There is no other genre of television programming that is a bigger cash cow in success. Warner Brothers will make more off of FRIENDS than their big summer blockbusters combined. How much moolah do you think 20th Century Fox has raked in from MASH? It has been paying off jackpots for over thirty years with no signs of stopping or even slowing down. Compare that to AMERICAN IDOL…."

The Squirming Effect

Larry David talks about the forthcoming sixth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

'He goes after "sample abusers" at ice cream stores and disputes the "law of dry cleaners" — which dictates that you inevitably lose some clothes, but you win some that aren't yours — when it comes to a beloved Yankees jersey.'

Glue in Edinburgh

We're back doing You Owe Me Glue very soon. We're doing a short spot at the Ramshorn Theatre on Friday the 21st of September then we've got our own show at The Stand in Edinburgh on Tuesday the 16th of October.

There will be a good bit of new stuff in the October show, though no doubt rushed rehearsals. No idea how much it'll cost cos the whole thing's a wee bit hurried. But why not come along and see us if you're in Edinburgh? We'll be funny. We promise.

Cinema Commentary

Audio commentary for films is now pretty much standard on most good DVDs. Screenwriter John August is taking it one stage further. For his latest film 'The Nines' he has recorded a commentary that you can now download, stick it on your mp3 player and play it while you watch the film in the cinema.

It's not a bad idea. Everyone has an mp3 player these days and with cinema loyalty cards, for a lot of people it won't cost any more money to go see the film a second time in the cinema. I think I would give it a go once, to see if it worked.

Writers Getting Superbad

Here's an interview with Knocked Up star Seth Rogan and his writing partner Evan Goldberg, talking about the upcoming 'best fucking movie ever' Superbad.

Evan Goldberg: Growing up we were both influenced primarily by Calvin and Hobbs.

Seth Rogen: Yeah, that was probably the first funny thing I ever read when I was like eight.

Evan Goldberg: It was just the in-your-face sarcasm. I'd never experienced anything like that.

Seth Rogen: I went back and read it recently, and it's like he's the most cynical kid in the entire universe. Rereading it again I realized, “Wow, this is where I drew my entire sense of humor.” And then The Simpsons was as influential as anything could get humor-wise. It's been around almost our entire lives.

Late Summer Movies

I've been to the cinema a couple of times in the last week. While I'm still an unemployed bum I should spend a bit more time in the cinema than I do.

Anyway first of all I saw Knocked Up (****) it's a really solid comedy. Much as you would expect from Judd Apatow, one of the smartest guys in American comedy. It has plenty of laughs, has characters that you can root for and a strong screenplay that has all the right ups and downs. It's a film that I couldn't stop thinking about even a day or two later. It may well be, as some of the reviews state, the summer's best comedy.

The other film I saw was Breach (****). Chris Cooper plays the real life disgraced FBI man Robert Hanssen. That link tells you all about his crimes, but the film starts off by revealing what happens to him, so therre's no shock ending.

Breach is directed by Billy Ray, who also made Shattered Glass, another story of a man living a lie, who was ultimately brought down. This plays out in a similar fashion. It's a strong, absorbing thriller with excellent performances from Cooper, and Ryan Phillippe as the agent sent to bring him down.

Patton Oswalt Roasts Flavor Flav

Again NSFW. Patton Oswalt roasts Flavor Flav, but it's Brigette Neilsen that gets the worst of it.

Greg Girlado Roasts Flavor Flav

This is NSFW. Greg Giraldo roasts Flavor Flav. But first he roasts Ice-T, Brigette Neilsen and everyone else on the stage.

This Generation Sucks

Doug Stanhope, from his new DVD 'No Refunds'.

Black Cape #20

A great job from Iain here on this minor milestone edition of BC.

Find all our Black Cape adventures here

Black Cape #19

This one is pretty graphic folks, you have been warned.

Black Cape #18