Blog! Michelle Kinsey-Clinton's sapphireblue is something of a legend in blog circles - the Madonna of this whole business. I think mine is one of the few sites which doesn't have a permanent link there (must rectify that). As well as being carefully designed, it's also sexy, sassy and funny, and it's more than likely that the blogger you read regularly (other than this one) has been to Sapphireblue first. Looking at her profile she may well be one of those fabulous people we discussed earlier...
Chris's Edinburgh Festival Diary Chris and his cohort Simon took the plunge and saw stand-up comedian Johnny Vegas. Renouned for his pre-show cocktails, it came as little surprise that the show would massively over-run. What the audience would never have been prepared for would be that our comedian would feel the need for a bar break and giving the microphone to Simon and actually left the show in his capable hands. As Vegas stood at the bar downing Aftershocks, Si entertained the audience of the main auditoria of The Pleasance with dirty jokes and putting down any would-be hecklers. Just as extra-ordinarily Johnny then proceeded to do the rest of the show wearing Simon's coat. Now, where ever Chris and Simon go in the fair city, they are being stopped by people who were that night. Another career beckons...
Hey! Still reading? Busy day... After my request a couple of days ago to hear from you, the email has flooded in. So a big hello to 'stavrostheWC' who dropped in via Metafilter. Have a great time in Sidney and Seoul - and don't forget to write...
Review! Planet of the Apes, reviewed by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian: "Everything here is just that bit less sophisticated: the acting is outrageous and the plot lacks opposable thumbs. Who would have thought that in a modern movie we would need to see the year-numbers spinning round on the spaceship dashboard, like a petrol pump or something from HG Wells, to tell the stoopid audience that we are going forward in time - or that we would need to give that away so early in the plot anyway?" No wonder.
Blog! apathetic genius dot com has a design which infuriate some but delight others. The web equivalent of theatre in the streets, follow the arrows to the interesting bits, and suddenly feel nostaligic for you bored school days when you'd doodle during class with a biro through the varnish on your desk.
Erm... I've had a really Dean from Big Brother kind of a day, actually living up to the name of this site (four visitors yesterday - who could blame them). Which is a good link into the news that the man who should have won (yes really) is playing the V2001 festival. In a tent, with two songs. Well, it's a start.
Erm... Are they hot or not?, the back door to Hot or not is finally trying to sell up. The most curious aspect of the list is how predictable it all is. At the top we find obvious models who's agencies have flooded the site with images. At the bottom, your Auntie. Sexist? Definitely. But every so often that student's holiday snap might find itself climbing the chart.
Blog! and Review! The Evil Twin Theory reviews The Seagull in Central Park, New York. 'Twin' (real name withheld) is a prodigeous writer (and presumably fast typer) who always seems to eak something from his busy schedule (know the feeling). Insanely jealous that he could just drop into the local park and get that cast, that director doing that play. The most action you get in our local park is the cast of Hollyoaks.
Review! Anonymous Juice on The Real Vagina Monologues "Vagina monologues?” he said. “What does that mean? I’ve had a few monologues to vaginas in my day, you know what I’m saying? Get right down there. Get talking to them, delivering the speech. Vagina monologues? People are paying for that? That’s London, man. What else is there to do in this rain but talk to a vagina? ‘How are you? I’m fine. How are you? I’m a vagina.’"
Ugh! Modern art is a 'con', says Harris It used be the royals, especially Charles who could be relied upon to signal the chagrine about modern design, now Rolf is at it. The crux of his argument seems to be that people won't visit art galleries because they don't understand contemporary art and it frightens them away. But surely the only way to get people understand pieces such as Tracy Emin's 'Bed' (not all that great but not worth singling out for attack) is to get them to see them in their natural 'habitat'?
Blog! The simple design of the GirlHacker's Random Log belies a sophisticated, intelligent and often touching work which daily presents interesting and unusual stories not found elsewhere. And again, another fabulous web address - must get around to that...
Commuting Tales My morning train trundles across bridges and above canals. This morning I noticed that a number of narrow boats seem to be moured permanently in an inlet very close to the city centre. I watched as one of the inhabitants, a middle aged woman, stepped from the inside and stretched on the roof of the boat. On the edge of the canal a 'garden' had been set up: big red garden bench; kitchen equipment; child's swings. Seems like the perfect life. Of course, I'd need somewhere to plug in my modem...
Ego-publishing I used to have about fifty photocopied pictures from a variety of magazines blue-tacked to my ceiling, from newspapers, film publications and Sunday supplements. About five years ago, pre-internet, I was bored I wrote my annual (and I do mean annual) poem. And here it is. List of images. Can't be much simpler. Contructed the actual page some time ago, but you should have some fun trying out the links to the right.
Commuter Life I've finally taken the plunge and started carrying my portable CD player (bought five years ago and a Matsui) around with me so that I can listen on those long trips to Manchester every day. Hopefully at least if fellow passengers hear the tinny mess through my headphones, they'll be hearing Gershwin not Destiny's Child. I actually started work this morning in something approaching a good mood. If anyone has any suggestions for the perfect music to listen to on a train, let me know and I'll post it here.
BLOG! Anyone whose registered this URL has got to be worth visiting, just to see. The web-goddess.co.uk is an American living in London, and her blog leaps happily over the cross-cultural divide.
Chris's Edinburgh Diary Chris is having a brilliant time, between dodging Mini-me at pub quizzes and rickshaw rides. His show 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' has been getting rave reviews and packed houses.
Blog! Sidney's Lost In London is probably the only blog you'll find with a picture of a London Taxi.
Ugh! This could well be the worst video box set ever produced. Surely they're playing with our minds. No one could be buying this - could they?
Blog! Raki drops off some Meaningless Drivel now and then. For people who like looking at the pictures...
Review! It’s actually quite difficult to put your finger on why ‘The Secret Life Of Us is as addictive than its genre contemporaries. After all we’ve been here before, in 'Cold Feet', This Life’, ‘Metropolis’ even ‘Friends’. In fact whole scenes seem to have been dropped in from ‘Party of Five’. You hope it isn’t just because it’s from Australia for a change – although that’s an obvious attraction. The show has much of the same allure as ‘Love and other Catastrophes’ – the same funny dialogue, the lovable characters; it’s probably actually because here we have a perfect drawing together of US and UK programming making. The overlapping plotlines, glossy locations, hip dialogue of NBC, with the slightly grungy characters, ironic humour and unexpected twists of Channel Four. We may have finally found a substitute for the late lamented ‘North Square.’
I'm back! Or rather my machine is. I somehow managed to reconnect all of the right cables so now my PC rests soothingly with a new power pack - which as yet hasn't blown up. Thanks then to the two people who have been checking back every few days to see how I am - you can rest easy. Normal services can now resume.
Review! The NME on Sophie Ellis-Bextor's new single: "''Take Me Home' shows Bextor dodging her eventual destiny as a presenter of Tomorrow's World with a tune that sounds like it fell off the back of the same lorry as Steps' unnervingly good 'Stomp'." Which is a bit unfair - after all who would you rather see in the charts - someone with a bit of cynicism or Posh Spice. Still give me shivers that this is the girl and her birth was the reason Janet Ellis had to leave Blue Peter...