links for 2008-07-31

Waiter Rant revealed.
Hey Steve!

A lifetime of lost playlists
Martin Belam has offers a personal history of music formats and describing how he made playlists with each of them. I'd love for his conclusion to become a reality.

Last night I saw ‘An Education’ for the first time…
Nick Hornby on the latest film adaptation of his work. Translation for us clued in Doctor Who fans: 'Look it's Carey Mulligan!'

American Teen: The Downside of "Reality"
Thoughtful review of the new documentary about kids at a Louisiana school: "Apparently there was a bidding war at Sundance for "American Teen" and I can't blame director Nanette Burstein (who also made the excellent "On the Ropes" and "The Kid Stays in the Picture") for wanting her film to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. After spending a few million for the American rights, I'm sure Paramount had their marketing wunderkinds working overtime to come up with a plan that would get the film into the multiplexes. But is pitching it as a modern-day "Breakfast Club" the best they could do?"

BT (Hello Geoff) & More BT
Customer service fun: "Somewhere there's a team of experts who are meant to be called in whenever a case reaches 48 hours... but as not one of the less qualified staff I spoke to decided to escalate my case even after 96 hours (and I think that includes speaking to 4 managers) it's impossible to imagine this crack squad of engineers actually doing anything. They have their best people sitting on their thumbs while an army of less qualified people sit feeling harassed and exhibiting various blends of disruptive/incompetent and dishonest behaviour."

Radio Leads to Riches, But Only If It's Country
Jewel goes some way to explaining her change in direction. I'm still looking forward to hearing this, but the import copies I've seen have been horrendously expensive. Ooh, ebay!

Right place, wrong time
Simon Waldman on how the BBC failed to have much on the Weston-super-Mare pier fire whilst you could watch the whole thing on other channels: "We watched the fire raging - live - on a...err...rival news channel, who had the good fortune to have a cameraman/sat-truck operator living not far from the town. And boy, did they make the most of that stroke of luck! It was an uncomfortable hour, to be frank."

Russian to the rescue
Canadian interview with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko. They play the BBC Proms tomorrow night.

Hollywood Has Finally Figured Out How to Make Web Video Pay
I'd wondered what Rosario Dawson had been up to lately. Though buried in there is a description of one of her forthcoming projects: "soon she'll start rehearsals for Seven Pounds, a Sony film in which she plays a desperately ill heart patient Will Smith falls in love with". I suspect if it was any other actress that would be hideous.

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