Rude Words

Communications Tom Baker Says ...

It had to happen, and thank goodness the site is genius. Here, Tom covers Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles. The way he says the word 'symphony' sounds awfully familiar ... [via]

bobble

Games Bubble and indeed bobble. What do you think are the chances that Soderbergh has thought of this sequel? [via]

fired

TV "I don't have any popcorn," whispered Sir Alan noisily as Lorraine Heggessey squeezed into her seat beside him in the viewing room. Then, Roly Keating got up and made a breezy speech by way of introduction to the first episode, imploring the press not to reveal who gets fired, and admitting that this, in fact, was the first time even he was going to see who'd be taking that lonely cab ride to oblivion." -- Graham Kibble-White at the press launch for the new series of The Apprentice.

circa

Film Teaser poster for Woody Allen's Scoop. Really I didn't ever think I'd see those four actors on the same poster together. Doesn't Scarlett look like Mia circa Hannah and her Sisters. I'm not sure if they're joking but JoBlo are under the impression that that's Geoffrey Rush not Woody holding onto a mobile phone. Actually the whole thing has the smell of a Michael Winner film from the Eighties. Perhaps it's a period piece?

sings

Music "Actress Scarlett Johansson, "Moulin Rouge" star Ewan McGregor and "Desperate Housewives" principal Teri Hatcher are among the actors who will put their own spin on famous tunes on "Unexpected Dreams: Songs from the Stars." Due April 11 via Rhino, the album features songs like Billy Joel's "Goodnight My Angel," Elton John/Bernie Taupin's "The Greatest Discovery," Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" and the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers." -- Katie Hasty at Rueters.

So Victor Garber sings Sondheim, Ewan McGreggor sings Sade (or Shaaaday). Everyone seems surprised that Jeremy Irons sings Dylan. But really after you've seen him perform the theme to Playaway, anything's possible... [via]

mail

That Day "I received the most interesting card in the mail this morning." -- Modi is sent a valentine which is about as straightforward as an episode of Lost. I really have no idea about that code...

ridiculous

Film "So if people are writing on the Internet about how my movies were big failures, it's because these people are amateurs and they have no idea of the reality of film-making and film selling. I get bashed as the worldwide enemy number one in film-making by people who are working at Starbucks and who also want to make movies. It's ridiculous - it's completely idiotic because they're hitting on a guy who actually made it happen, but I started my career in the same position as anybody else." -- Uwe Boll answers his critics. Seriously though. Really? [via]

special

Health Agreed. Special hell territory.

played

Obituary Andreas Katsulas has passed on. For Babylon 5 fans he was G'Kar; in Star Trek he played Tomalok and he was the one-armed man in the film version of The Fugative. [imdb]

territory

Elsewhere


SFX magazine have been ambiguously sarcastic to me! In the latest issue!

That's another one off the list ...

displacement

Life Predictably I spent most of the day trying not to feel so conspicuously single. Although philosophically I know that today is really just another marketing push for card shops and Woolworths, when you've visited the local library to pick up a dissertation related book and an Arriva bus pulls up outside with the words 'Joanne -- will you marry me?' on the front instead of a destination, it's really difficult to think of it as just another day.

Amongst the displacement activities was actually finally getting myself a Young Person's Railcard at the age of thirty-one because I'm a full time student. It's actually a liberating experience because places which seemed massively expensive to get are actually less so. I also began work on my dissertation research outline -- I'm focusing on metafiction in key Woody Allen films and the process is really in discovering what that means and what I can add to research and writing which has already been carried out.

This evening there was a visual dialogues seminar with Hugh Brody, the film director and author and husband of actress Juliet Stevenson. The interview/talk focused on his early work with the Inuit people of Canada and Native Americans. He began as an anthropologist before moving into filmmaking as a way of expressing and addressing some of the political and sociological issues he saw in his work. Since then he's moved into fictional film, although his most recent film was developed in conjunction with the sculptor Antony Gormley as the artist put together his 'Inside Australia' work. A transcript of this seminar will apparently be online soon, so I'll link to it when it appears.

It's still raining. It's a good thing.

sunday

Elsewhere At AskMeFi: "I've stopped being able to work out what to do with Sundays. I know it's supposed to be a day of rest and that's ok, but I always feel like I've wasted the day no matter what. What does everyone else do?" Also elsewhere, a musical Tube map and other wierdness.

Wierdness

TV Some Sunday morning weirdness.

Noel 'Mickey' Clarke mentioned in this Observer article about emerging home grown talent. In the four paragraphs dedicated to the actor, for some reason his most visible appearance on British television isn't mentioned even though is says "He has done The Bill, Casualty and Holby City.."

Covers have been released for US dvd release of Genesis and Revelation of the Daleks which remind me far too much of the random covers for the Target novelisations during the Peter Davison era. Shame they didn't go the Japanese route. Are those meant to be Daleks?

parking

Archaeology "It's not in the most glamorous location, but British archaeologists are still excited about the remains of a 500-year-old royal chapel that have been discovered under a parking lot in the Greenwich district of south London. [...] The ancient tiled floor emerged by chance when a bulldozer's bucket scraped against some brickwork three weeks ago." -- Kate Ravilious for National Geographic

break

Theatre "Point Break LIVE!, the absurdist stage adaptation of the 1992 Keanu Reeves extreme-sports blockbuster, surfs into Galapagos for an exclusive one-month engagement. [...] Best of all, the starring role of Keanu will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards!" -- Dana Bushman

Oddly enough when I was at the Edinburgh Festival, oh so long ago, I saw a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible which sounds just like this. The actor playing Reverend John Hale fell ill and the director, who obviously hadn't had time to learn the script himself had to fill in the part himself. They valiantly solidiered on and even with his stilted, sometimes wierd line readings it wasn't completely awful. The man playing Proctor was amazingly effective.

showgirl

Film "Despite the English rose looks, there is a chameleon quality to Kelly Reilly. This year alone, she's been a tart with a heart opposite Johnny Depp in The Libertine, a 1930s showgirl in Mrs Henderson Presents and a bitchy Miss Bingley in Pride & Prejudice. Soon we'll see her in Cedric Klapisch's Les Poupees Russes (Russian Dolls) opposite Audrey Tautou and new heart-throb Romain Duris. The film topped the French box office for three months and Reilly has been nominated for a Cesar. 'I do have this other secret world going on in France,' she jokes." -- My latest favourite actress mentioned in another of The Observer's zeigeisty pieces.

She certainly does. In the UK she's only vaguely known but I'm reliably informed that in France she's very, very famous. I'm hoping that since it has been nominated for awards, The Russian Dolls will get the release here, but I've checked the imdb and nothing is listed yet. Also: "She is currently filming a remake of A for Andromeda, a role that Julie Christie originally played, for the BBC." Oh lord, that's random...