October 2009
5 posts
Downhill Racer
I had the great pleasure of seeing Downhill Racer for the first time this weekend. I know- I’d never heard of it either, but it’s really quite great. It comes out on Criterion Collection next month I think, so get it then and check it out. Or, be cheap and illegal like me and download it. Why is it so great?
Well, it looks amazing. I love the look of the New Hollywood era anyway...
Fashion Look Book: Key Inspirations for...
Well people, autumn is well and truly here. And while I might be a little late, I’ve been looking around the stores & boutiques looking for some inspiration for to get my fashion right for the season. Topman was exciting- the new giant disco ball on the new floor upstairs really caught my eye. Too bad the clothes there were pretty boring. There was little there that caught my eye...
I have been raising some important issues on YouTube’s ELEVEN part serialisation of the film “Innerspace” This part being 5 of the 11.
[YouTube]
Interesting fact: watching “Annie Hall” on Youtube in 10 parts made it a lot more bearable. But not “Manhattan”, though
Pizza Restaurant, opening soon
So, I’m opening a pizza place. A bit like an alcoholic opening a cocktail bar- you’re eating the profits!- but hey. Sloganwise, it’ll be something along the lines of:
“Where a 4-cheese is a regular”
It’s “We Try Harder” all over again, right? A lot of cheese on our pizzas is going to be the business plan.
Blogged Up
I wonder what percentage of blogposts in the world are about why the blogger hasn’t been posting as much lately? A good blog worth following I guess never does that type of post because they’re always posting… so guess what I’m doing now! September was a slow month I admit- something of a nadir period- but the tailend of the year promises to look more interesting. Maybe. I...
September 2009
2 posts
Now that's magic
Ali Bongo is the new president of Gabon?
(the same Gabon you’ll of course know that’s tipped to become “Africa’s answer to Costa Rica”, at least touristically)
August 2009
1 post
Hey- you'd be this smug too if you could play a...
I think about his smug-looking chops in this video more then I should. A constant source of amusement.
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FRANKENSTRAT! “IT”S ALIVE”!
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There isn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t want these hands on their body
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I worked out that statistically, 78% of this video is hair. Funny how that the threat of CFCs (i.e. hairspray) declined...
July 2009
4 posts
List-o-mania: FIVE ACTORS IN THE TV SHOW 'GOSSIP...
1) Blake Lively
2) Leighton Meester
3) Penn Badgely
4) Chase Crawford
5) Ed Westwick
The Collapse of Socialism*
(*=No, not quite a thorough article about the demise of the particular political theory, but instead a blogpost about something else entirely but with the same kind of the importance and magnitude.)
During some research for my previous list-based post (thanks McSweeney’s! You filled up one very boring morning at work. And through inspiration, you helped fill up the internet with even more...
List-o-mania: FIVE TOWNS IN ENGLAND THAT COULD...
1: Ottery St. Mary
2: Buckland Filleigh
3: Symmonds Yat
4: Chudley St. Knighton
5: Western Lullingfields
June 2009
11 posts
My Memories of MJ
The King of Pop has relinquished his crown, at least on this mortal plain anyway, I think to Lady GaGa now- who or whatever she is. A tragic loss of course, but I am pleased to say I actually met Michael as this photo shows:
Ah, good times! Looking at this picture, I know what you’re thinking; the King of Pop is stood in front of you… and you’re more concerned with shaking...
Just saw the trailer for Cold Souls, and boy let me tell you!
…let me tell you how I would like these quirky, existential, modern, po-mo films that seem to be released every week now erased from my mind/investigated by existential detectives/sent on a trip to India to find their father/imprisoned inside of a self-reflexive world which is actually inside of Ralph Macchio.
Getting off the the ol' Horse
Second day, free of Facebook! God, I totally know how Keith Richards and Jimmy Page felt in the late 70s/early 80s. I’m trying to cut back on using “the old brown” because it wasn’t doing me any favours emotionally… And I dare say I barely miss it. I’m not dying to go on there, but it’s weird not having it part of my “browsing habit”, you...
In South Africa, I found this newspaper called…
The Mail AND Guardian. W-e-i-r-d? Imagine if there were some sort of merger between the two most diametrically opposed forces probably ever. What a weird hybrid that would be…It would be serious “crossing-the-steams-in-Ghostbusters” black magic if happened. Would it probably would create the greatest newspaper of all time?...
Stuck in Gear
The TV channel Dave is having a bad day- I just watched one repeat of an of Top Gear and then now straight afterwards they’re showing the exact same episode. Again.
Today is up there in the top twenty countdown of The Worst Days of My Life
Power & Style
I’m far from condoning the man, but whenever I hear his name I always laugh because to me it sounds like it could almost be “Ahma-dinner-jacket”
Tube Strike
Yeah, so, tube strike, blah blah blah. Walked 3 miles today, whatever.
An extremely reductive view is this: tube drivers want 1.5% wage increase this year. They don’t get it, so they strike for two days. But two days missed pay is roughly equal to… 1.5% of their salary, maybe?
Am I missing something here? Except the feeling in my legs?
Twitterally Mental
My idea for a TV show today: The Apprentice, but for football. 15 aspiring footballers, one dream starting place in the starting eleven of a major Premier League team. They play 5-a-side games every week to see who’s the best, and have to do other footballer tasks: buy cars, negotiate more money, know the Bosman Rule inside out. Sir Alex Ferguson is Sir Alan. The winner gets to come on for...
UnTwittingly
So, yes, something of a late breaking news item: I have deleted my Twitter account. I know- what about using it as the launchpad for my freeform experimental poetry?? I’m sorry to say, but people-you are just going to have to be missing out. The reason I got rid of it is simple, and doesn’t require more then 160 characters to explain(!): the whole thing is ridiculous.
I mean, if...
May 2009
5 posts
Synecdoche? Gesundheit!
So, last night I got to see the Synecadoggie. It hasn’t got a huge release (weird, right?) so I ended up having to see it in a proper “art cinema”: the Curzon- a place where there are “films” and then there are “movies”. Having never watched a film in such an “cinemaphile” place, my overall feeling was that I would really have to play along and...
Mad Men: Mediations in an Emergency
Sigh.
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“Any conflicts?”
“Well, Mona isn’t too happy about my engagement”
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“There may be some… re-dun-dan-cies”
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For all that happened in the finale, there was surprisingly a lot about about Pete. I still don’t know whether his words to Don about Duck’s takeover were out of...
Twitterpoem-ohdear.com
Mad Men: The Mountain King
So… all the hullabaloo over who was what, where was that going to, what’s going to happen with so-and-so, it all just came out. You know-I’m getting pretty bored of reading people gushing over how great this programme is. Saying that though, it is the greatest thing to have happened to me ever.
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A disclaimer: I have seen the episode after this one (the finale) and I...
Life Thru a (sexist) Lens
I was looking through old camera instruction manuals today (did I mention I’m single?!), and I found a particular one which I have taken these hilarious stills from. The manual was accompanied with these ”helpful” scenarios of a couple who have, like you, bought the camera. No doubt Canon used illustrations so women wouldn’t be put off having to read lots of long,...
April 2009
10 posts
Mad Men: The Jet Set
Just a great episode.
Oh, Joy! She was one of the reasons why.
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“Peter Dykeman-Campbell- have we met?”
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Wow!
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“I don’t think that means the same thing as it does here”.
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“…or maybe I’m just a very good spy”
WHY can’t Eurotrash nomads whisk me away? Especially Joy. That...
Noughties- schmorties
Did you know, you can get Trivial Pursuit 90s? And did you know that there’s also one for the 80s? I haven’t played them, so I can’t vouch for how much fun they are, but they probably are a ‘bit’ of fun, in a ‘wow! That Hanson song, eh?!” kind of way. The idea of a decade just being reduced down to a few elements or even one theme certainly isn’t a...
Hipster Grifter Grief
The Hipster Grifter phenom is more-or-less perfect. The tattoos, her hipster patter- she even used to work for Vice magazine. But as sad as it is to be fascinated by the whole sorry train wreck- and as sad as it is to be blogging about it- I have some degree of pity. The thieving of friends money through dodgy cheques is horrible, 100%; in that situation I most probably would be like, “you...
Mad Men: "The Inheritance"
Although I didn’t take any pics from it, the previous episode- as well as the last one I did- were real gems. Some of the best ones I’ve seen. But this one… Well… Again, it’s Betty, that’s my problem. But she got interesting towards the end, particularily with the heart-to-heart chat with Helen Bishop. Three episodes to go! Is it worrying that I won’t know...
Robert's Sideways and In-depth look at an...
Whoa- it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. Checking the archive, I think the last time I performed my little textural autopsy was probably in August last year. You know, the end of LAST summer? Seeing as we’re more-or-less just getting into summer this year, I thought oh Lordy- it’s been too a long time indeed (it’s weird I always seem to start these...
Mad Men: A Night to Remember
So, sorry I didn’t screengrab the previous episode- I was too busy repressing my desire for Kenneth “Printed Author ” Cosgrove. But, as I had alluded to earlier the series has really picked up and it’s riveting stuff right there. SO good. There were times in last week’s and this week’s in particular where I almost couldn’t watch it it was so stressful. Not...
March 2009
11 posts
Vice Vice
I have a big problem with Vice magazine and then an even bigger problem with the scene that’s associated with the Viceworld. Yet I found myself on their stupid website tonight (what can I say? When you’re down, you’re down.) I really could go on easily for another 2000 words about why I near enough hate everything around the Vice world, but it mainly revolves around how desperate...
Mad Men: "Maidenform"
“Every woman- a Jackie or a Marilyn”
Spot the theme in the show!
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I love show sleezy/self-important Pete can be
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Your Roger Stirling moment: “Your wife seen her yet?”
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“I told you ‘stop talking’” Such a James Bond moment.
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I’m annoyed that I always seem...
Down The Tubes
What did Travis Bickle say about a rain coming and washing all the filth from the streets? Why am I building a pop-out gun into my sleeve? The answers to those questions are related.
The rain I think has actually come. It washed all the grime into the gutter, and so it ran from the gutters into the drains- or as I am coming around to realising, the London Underground network. Yes! Another rant...
Mad Men: "The New Girl"
In an up-and-down series, an up-and-down episode. A bit of slack beginning lead to a kinda gripping ending. I say “kinda” only because… well, I find Donnie recently a bit overdramatic. Like the American Airlines 1963! pitch revelation. In this episode, there was the restaurant scene in particular where Bobbie opinioned “finding the job you want and then becoming the person...
Check out my (actual) Twitter! →
I’m sorry, blog. It’s on a week’s trial- although I can tell you now, having that nagging feeling that the internet needs updating with my life’s trivialities DOUBLED is… well, pretty amazing. I think that I’m going to metre my personality and Tweet only interesting things dripping in noughties irony anyway, so me- the REAL me- will only be live and exclusive,...
Pocket / Window
I am currently in a pocket/window of time where everything around and involving me is not breaking down or turning to shit- and it feels pretty good. Maybe this is what happiness feels like? If it is, it feels a lot like Coca Cola on an empty stomach- and that never turned out well, regardless of your age.
Mad Men: "Three Sundays"
“Shel Keenealy got fired this morning”
This part made me audibly gasp with shock. Lame!
But not really. Good episode this one.
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…especially the Roger Stirling parts. “Brooks. You come to a decision regarding our immediate future?”
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“Let’s pretend we know what 1963 looks...
Check out my Twitter! →
Film
I was talking to someone about films we’d seen recently today, and I brought up that I’d seen this really intense love scene recently, and I specifically remembered how powerful it was. I went overboard describing it, saying how blown away I was by the scene- not just because of it’s “sexy” nature, but just this force the scene conveyed.
But I couldn’t for the...
Who Two? Oh, U2!
Believe it or not, that’s U2 playing a gig right there. Even though as a band they’re pretty inconsequential, it was pretty inspiring stuff. Like, in 10 years this sort of thing will never happen.
Enjoying the music! Woo! U2 are on the balcony of the furthest building back, to the left of the big block that’s below the big radio mast. My overriding thought was that in a...
February 2009
10 posts
Mad Men "The Benefactor"
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Sorry, but… Betty Draper doesn’t interest me as a character at all. Bit of a strange episode.
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Great scene. I squirmed with Don when he was asked where he was when Ken called for him.
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Go 350!
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“You look so profoundly sad”
“It’s just that my people are...