Music I miss pop up video as well. Does anyone know if they ever actually released any of those pop-up video style film dvds. I heard 'The Breakfast Club' was going to get the treatment 'Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall also appeared together in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles' 'Emilio Estevez is the brother of Charlie Sheen who appeared in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off' that sort of thing.
Over here we have 'VH-1' and 'VH-1 Classic'. Both tend to play wall to wall 'classic' videos, although 'VH-1' tends to theme them, so today we had 'Greatest Hits of the 90s' and 'Greatest Hits of the 00s'. Now and then they have day long documentaries such as 'Top 100 Men', 'Top 100 Women' or '100 Shocking Moments'. They sometimes show films like Grease or Flashdance, and have a logo in the corner of the screen advertising them for a week before (bit distracting).
You might like to know (if your not sick of them) that 'I Love....' is a format which was bought from the BBC. Their tie-in sites are here ... some have been originated online ... but they give a pretty good idea of UK culture ... our version of 'I Love 1977' was introduced by Carrie Fisher.
Music tv is quite diverse on Satellite tv over here. It's roughly split into four sections:
Mtv are still the market leader and run 'Mtv', 'Mtv Hits', 'MTV2' (Rock / Indie), 'MTV Base' (Drum &...), 'MTV Dance', 'VH-1', 'VH-1 Classic' and newbee 'The Music Factory' (which is basically an Mtv Hits clone created for a terrestrial digital service, Freeview, (see this article which I'm shamelessly including because I wrote it). 'Mtv' has an awful lot none music programmes, and 'The Osbournes' and 'Jackass' seem to be on all of the time.
EMAP used to be a magazine publisher but they branched out into music radio not too long ago and set about buying up a large number of commercial local radio. Now they've branched out into TV. Their prototype was 'The Box' (chart music) which was so popular they've turned some of their radio stations or magazines into stations. So there is Smash Hits! (chart music again), Kerrang! (rock), Q Music (anything and everything, a lot of mixes lately), Kiss (Dance, R&B) and Magic (old chart music). They're run on a video jukebox model (do you have these in the states?) were you select the video you want via the telephone, then wait two or so hours for it to appear.
Sky tv itself stole the head of Mtv UK to run three music channels the oddly titled 'Scuzz', 'Flaunt' and 'The Amp'. To be honest it's very difficult to tell them apart in genre terms, but their quite distinctive in that they tend to play videos from artists you've never heard of for songs that'll never chart. Utterly bizarre.
There rest are indies. In the non-interactive corner we have Chart Show TV is just like most of the other channels, while it's sister channel The Vault feels like 'Mtv' when Mike was in charge. 'Classic FM TV' based on an national commercial station which features music promos for Classical Music. There are a couple of pay channels 'Channel U' is mostly R&B and 'P-Rock' (you get the idea).
The trouble with so many channels is the playlists are very limited. Yesterday afternoon the same Christina Aguilera video was playing on three different channels simultaneously. The other criticism is that although happy to emblazen them with massive logos, hardly any context is provided. To be disinctive I'd have my channel offering information about the video or artist while it was playing -- not pop-up video, more in the style of those DVD text commentaries which are becoming quite common. TV music journalism is mostly dead.
Here is a handy list of all the Channels on UK satellite ... scroll down to see the music channels and links to their official websites.
[Originally posted here. Time travelled into the past from 12/09/2003 12:36am]
Review! Johnny Vegas at The Edinburgh Festival seen by Brian Logan of The Guardian: 'When he's off form, he is just a bore. Perhaps he's seeking too emphatically to attack the pre-packaged professionalism of fringe comedy. But when he begins imploring the front rows, "What do you see when you look at me?", the show spirals into witless navel-gazing.' Sorry, could you explain it to me again?
Review! A Cool Dry Place is a startling film in many ways, not least because for a piece of such gentle genius it's amazing that not more people are aware of it. Vince Vaughn is a single tied between the needs of his son and the need to live his own life. He's fallen for Joey Lauren Adams (who could blame him) and everything is going swimmingly until his ex-wife Monica Potter shows up. It's an intelligent film filled with nice performances and strikingly ironic moments. Think 'The Closer You Get' with a faster pace and lawyers.
Interim Statement Just a quick update to let the three people at least who I know must be visiting everyday that I am still here. Currently indulging in a kind of outside broadcast in blogging terms from the EasyEverything Internet Cafe in the centre of Manchester, where for a pretty reasonable pound you can surf for about an hour (depending how busy they are - classy eh?).
Ugh! Lucas names fifth Star Wars 'Attack of the Clones'. Attack of the Clones!?! You'd think he might have realised his mistake when he saddle the first film with 'The Phantom Menace' which is still a terrible title three years later. At least if he'd called it 'The Clone Wars' (which I think we all might have been expecting) it would have made sense and respected the opinions of the fans. People often complain that film trailers have a habit of giving away the plot. Does this mean we're ushering an age when the title does as well? By this thinking 'A New Hope' would have been 'The Death Star is destroyed by a farm boy', 'The Empire Srikes Back' finds itself saddled with 'A Visit to Cloud City' and 'Return of the Jedi' becomes 'A New Death Star Is Destroyed (Again)'. Oh well AotC it is then. Aaaah!
Ugh! This is a large crisis! So I finally get around to writing a blog, get a couple of people interested and . . . something goes terribly wrong. Yesterday afternoon, I noticed smoke belowing from by computer that strange smell you only get from burning plastic. Turned everything off. At first I thought it was a processor, but its on now and I definately think my the power pack is fitzed. Hopefully it won't blow up while I tell you that this Blog will be - shall we say - intermittent for a few days until I get it sorted out...
Review! On the day Coyote Ugly is released on DVD, let's revisit the 'ol IMDB user review page: "This is the worst s***e so far this year. Ok, it was made last year, but I have been able to avoid it until today, when we didn't find anything interesting in the shelves...The cast is not even actors, just pretty girls.. The only actor in this movie is John Goodman, that doesn't do a great part like he does when the Coen brothers direct him, but still keeps his honor. The music is awful, this chart-music shite. OK, I can see why my friend in my old school loves this movie, it's kinda told in a woman's view, not that I'm saying it's something wrong with THAT, but it's just so bloody bad." Actually, 'Ugly' is one of my guilty pleasures - I should hate is and everything it stands for, yet when those girls get on the bar...
Ugh! Metafilter is on holiday or rather its creator, Matt Haughey. By way of satiating our need for links, he's posted a list of members and their sites. Over the coming weeks, feelinglistless will be bringing you some of it's curios. Neuki.com seems from outward appearance to be quite a normal blog - neatly coded, and in a nice shade of green. Dig deeper and we find a projects section...and the gaping madness of 'Suzen Green - What a babe-a-rama'. Who is this girl? Does she know about this page? Has she heard the song? Neuki - we love you...
Hair! I've started cutting my hair really short. I used to have swathes of it, but what with the new job and everthing I won't have time to go to the barbers. I believe I now have a 'number eight', which feels about as long as my eyebrows. The unfortunate effect is on my image to other people, especially about town. With my frame I now look somewhat 'hard' or 'spoiling for a rumble' - and I'm not that kind of person. So if you see me in a pub, please don't try it on. I couldn't take your laughter when I try and slap you like a girl...
Chris's Edinburgh Festival Diary My friend, Chris Jones is playing in a band for a show at the Edinburgh Fringe. A diary of his time there will appear here sporadically. For a start, however, here is the cast of the show, from the Royal Holloway Music Theatre at the BBC's website plugging the show. No comment. [real video]
Embelishment Dublin Stories is part of a network of sites collecting stories by people living and visiting cities across the globe. Well I had to leave something at the readers section.
Review! Rush Hour 2 through Roger Ebert's eyes. "Tucker's scenes finally wear us down. How can a movie allow him to be so obnoxious and make no acknowledgment that his behavior is aberrant? In a nightclub run by Hong Kong gangsters, he jumps on a table and shouts, "OK, all the triads and ugly women on one side, and all the fine women on the other." He is the quintessential Ugly American, and that's not funny." Total Film magazine once splattered 'Warning Chris Tucker movie' in red ink across one of their reviews. It was for a good reason.
Sundays Spending a quiet day in watching animations and listening to music. Really should start reading a book.
Parade opens Edinburgh Festival and suddenly I start to get nostalgic. Spent probably one of the best weeks of my life there two years ago. I shall return!
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