TV I just discovered Spooks on DVD. Actually I knew it was good all along, but because I missed everything but the very first episode, I didn't see the point in jumping into the random repeats that turn up on UK Gold. It's probably some of the most exciting television Britain has produced in a good five years and I'm glad I've broken into their office. The DVD is especially good, with funny but fact-packed commentaries and useful mini-documetaries. I'm especially pleased to hear a third series in the works. This Beacon Journal article reviews the US release of the DVD (look at that price in dollars -- I bought it in the WHS Smiths sale for £12.99) and talks to a couple of the actors and talks about the differences in the shows presentation in the US. The name was changed to MI5 and ten minutes are lobbed out of the show for commercials. I'm assuming they're mostly scenes about characters, which is a shame because in the first season at least they were some of the most effective moments. [via tvtattle]
Weblogging Ooh look. It's the Fourth Annual Weblog Awards, and they're looking for nominations. Can't think why I'd link to that ...
Life In one of those spare conversational moments at work today I mentioned to someone that I was turning thirty in October. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened. I interpreted as shock, but I could pursue for an actual reason for work related reasons. But this isn't the first time this has happened over the past couple of months (since I took on the mantle of 29).
I'm coming to the conclusion I don't look my age, and I don't act my age. But more importantly I don't feel my age. Which is something everybody says and is a bit of cliche, but they're saying it through mountain sized responsibilities which they heave about every day. Unlike Emily and Vicky, who through the usual blogging co-incidence have also talked about this today, my actual situation, other than in work terms hasn't changed since my early twenties. I'm not married. I don't have kids. I don't even have my own place. Christmas this year was much like every other year.
But does that mean that by now I lack some vital essence of maturity which should propel my life forward? In a strange co-incidence Emily and Vicky are writing about similar things today as well, but they seem OK with it. I don't even have those distinguished grey hairs. It's almost as though I can't age, like some mid-life Peter Pan (although that would mean I'm Robin Williams in the film Hook so perhaps that not such a great comparisson).
Every now and then I look at Maslow's Hierarchy and wonder where I am on the triangle. Self actualistaion seems like a long way to go. The point is probably that not many people actually get there, and who gets there is perfectly random. I say I'm happy but it isn't often I can put my finger on why. I'll let you know in ten months whether I'm finally Gary in thirtysomething or still Brian in My So-Called Life.
I'm coming to the conclusion I don't look my age, and I don't act my age. But more importantly I don't feel my age. Which is something everybody says and is a bit of cliche, but they're saying it through mountain sized responsibilities which they heave about every day. Unlike Emily and Vicky, who through the usual blogging co-incidence have also talked about this today, my actual situation, other than in work terms hasn't changed since my early twenties. I'm not married. I don't have kids. I don't even have my own place. Christmas this year was much like every other year.
But does that mean that by now I lack some vital essence of maturity which should propel my life forward? In a strange co-incidence Emily and Vicky are writing about similar things today as well, but they seem OK with it. I don't even have those distinguished grey hairs. It's almost as though I can't age, like some mid-life Peter Pan (although that would mean I'm Robin Williams in the film Hook so perhaps that not such a great comparisson).
Every now and then I look at Maslow's Hierarchy and wonder where I am on the triangle. Self actualistaion seems like a long way to go. The point is probably that not many people actually get there, and who gets there is perfectly random. I say I'm happy but it isn't often I can put my finger on why. I'll let you know in ten months whether I'm finally Gary in thirtysomething or still Brian in My So-Called Life.
Film A free movie preview on the classic fm website for the new Tim Burton movie Big Fish. Well it's got to better than Planet of the Apes. I'm going to get my tickets tomorrow, because for once there is a show in Liverpool at a cinema I can get to...
Obituary TV Cream pay their respects to the late Bob Monkhouse, one of those people you never thought could ever not be there. So sad that we'll never get to see an episode of Have I Got News For You with him presenting. Everyone feels desperately mortal when someone like Bob goes away.
Technology I mean I could buy an ipod mini with my Christmas money, but it just seems like something I could lose very easily.
Press The Guardian is beta testing a Digital Version. It's free to anyone until it - well - goes out of beta (a quick registration required), at which point it's £99 a year, so go and enjoy the gravy train while you still can. The two main innovation are the ability to see the photos that they have the repro-license for and be able to see all of the content, not just the selected articles which appear in the free site. It loads surprisingly quickly on a dial-up and a .pdf version is available for broadband users with BIG monitors (note: the photos appear in pop-ups so you'll need to use your usual work around to see them).
Music That came around quickly. Alanis Morissette's new album So Called Chaos Is out 23rd February (in the US at least). According to The Independent, "(She) apparently wrote all the songs for her forthcoming album in under half an hour" although I'm assuming he means half an hour for each otherwise it will take us longer to listen to the album than it took to write it, and that can't be healthy. Less filler this time please Alanis and a rockier sound. More Hands Clean less Thank U.
TV I'm currently semi-addicted to a Freeview channel Price Drop TV. Not that I'd actually buy anything from them (it's mostly crap) but there are two elements which make it compulsive viewing.
Firstly, there is the gameshow element. When an item appears a guide price is offered, £250 for a set of golf clubs (which appear with some regularity). There are fifty items, and as someone calls them up and offers their plastic the price goes down. Except this seems to be an entirely random process. Whatever price the item is at when they're all sold is the price all of the customer's pay. Now I'm pretty naive so I assume nothing underhanded is going on. So on the few occasions that something actually quite good turns up I will the price to drop so low that all of commerce could implode in on itself.
The other allure are the presenters. Unlike QVC where they have to talk about the same item for hours on end, here the host(ess) only has about five minutes. The problem is, more often than not, they don't actually know anything about the item their selling away from the little description tag. At times it's a bit like me giving a football seminar ('Yes! They play two matches a season against each other. Home AND away. And there are two teams!') The other night I watched someone plug a different make of golf clubs to the ones on display for five minutes (they really do sell a lot of those) and then just shrug her shoulders and carry on as though they're all the same...
Rather like air hostesses they also seem to use the same pointy body language. I assume that like a call centre, they've had to do a month's course in on-air presentation. Some seem more comfortable at it than others. The brunette with gravelly voice who works all hours (seen her in the evening, seen her in the morning) is the most comfortable but even she looks ungainly pushing down on the giant button the channel has to hand to announce the next 'lot' (think massive Boggle).
It's on Sky somewhere I imagine as well, between that channel which sells tat for doing handycrafts and the God Channel. Be sure to catch it during one of their technical hitches when they broadcast no sound. One of these days I just know the presenter is going to resort to sign language and I can't wait to see what that looks like and how many fingers they've been trained to use.
Firstly, there is the gameshow element. When an item appears a guide price is offered, £250 for a set of golf clubs (which appear with some regularity). There are fifty items, and as someone calls them up and offers their plastic the price goes down. Except this seems to be an entirely random process. Whatever price the item is at when they're all sold is the price all of the customer's pay. Now I'm pretty naive so I assume nothing underhanded is going on. So on the few occasions that something actually quite good turns up I will the price to drop so low that all of commerce could implode in on itself.
The other allure are the presenters. Unlike QVC where they have to talk about the same item for hours on end, here the host(ess) only has about five minutes. The problem is, more often than not, they don't actually know anything about the item their selling away from the little description tag. At times it's a bit like me giving a football seminar ('Yes! They play two matches a season against each other. Home AND away. And there are two teams!') The other night I watched someone plug a different make of golf clubs to the ones on display for five minutes (they really do sell a lot of those) and then just shrug her shoulders and carry on as though they're all the same...
Rather like air hostesses they also seem to use the same pointy body language. I assume that like a call centre, they've had to do a month's course in on-air presentation. Some seem more comfortable at it than others. The brunette with gravelly voice who works all hours (seen her in the evening, seen her in the morning) is the most comfortable but even she looks ungainly pushing down on the giant button the channel has to hand to announce the next 'lot' (think massive Boggle).
It's on Sky somewhere I imagine as well, between that channel which sells tat for doing handycrafts and the God Channel. Be sure to catch it during one of their technical hitches when they broadcast no sound. One of these days I just know the presenter is going to resort to sign language and I can't wait to see what that looks like and how many fingers they've been trained to use.
Film Another ten then. This time for the latest Empire Greatest Film Poll:
When Harry Met Sally
Waking Life
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Walking and Talking
La Raine Margot
In The Bleak Midwinter
Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence
A Matter Of Life and Death
Groundhog Day
The Seventh Seal
Yes I know it's an infuriating list (no action films, too many romantic comedies or relationshippy films) but we already know either Star Wars or Lord of the Rings is going to be at the top and it would just be really fun for something like Martha to make the list at all. Plus it's stupid to ask a cineaste for his top ten films -- top five hundred more like. It's a High Fidelity issue really, theming being the key. Much easier to ask for my top ten films for cheering yourself up. Which I might need what with my first day back at work tomorrow...
When Harry Met Sally
Waking Life
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Walking and Talking
La Raine Margot
In The Bleak Midwinter
Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence
A Matter Of Life and Death
Groundhog Day
The Seventh Seal
Yes I know it's an infuriating list (no action films, too many romantic comedies or relationshippy films) but we already know either Star Wars or Lord of the Rings is going to be at the top and it would just be really fun for something like Martha to make the list at all. Plus it's stupid to ask a cineaste for his top ten films -- top five hundred more like. It's a High Fidelity issue really, theming being the key. Much easier to ask for my top ten films for cheering yourself up. Which I might need what with my first day back at work tomorrow...
Film Just watched The Shining for the first time (or rather finally) and amid my usual issues with Kubrick as a film maker (too long and extensive to go into at the moment) the real problem was I felt like I'd seen it before. Not because I'd forgotten, but because of the number of clips and parodies I'd seen in other films and television shows. I spent much of the time in a kind of backwards referencing stupor, recognising moments I'd seen before in places like Spaced, The League of Gentlemen and The Simpsons.
Yet there were still enough moments to keep me fairly creeped out but again these had little to do with the plot. I can't imagine how long this film took to be made, but Shelley Duvall is either a tremendous actress or they really dragged the humanity out of her. In the shots were she drags her feet through the corridors she's hardly holding onto that kitchen knife, as though it isn't in her hand at all, almost hover a few millimetres away. Had the trainers of the horse Red Rum seen this film and was that another massive film reference? And to be honest it's a shame I know that all of those extra-ordinary tracking shots were accomplished using a steadycam. Such things would surely have been hidden from the audience at the time, and if nothing else I would have spent half the time trying to work out how the crane or tracks passed under the doorways or around the corners. I mean why has no one throught to turn the shots of the little boy on the tricycle into a racing game for the Playstation?
Yet there were still enough moments to keep me fairly creeped out but again these had little to do with the plot. I can't imagine how long this film took to be made, but Shelley Duvall is either a tremendous actress or they really dragged the humanity out of her. In the shots were she drags her feet through the corridors she's hardly holding onto that kitchen knife, as though it isn't in her hand at all, almost hover a few millimetres away. Had the trainers of the horse Red Rum seen this film and was that another massive film reference? And to be honest it's a shame I know that all of those extra-ordinary tracking shots were accomplished using a steadycam. Such things would surely have been hidden from the audience at the time, and if nothing else I would have spent half the time trying to work out how the crane or tracks passed under the doorways or around the corners. I mean why has no one throught to turn the shots of the little boy on the tricycle into a racing game for the Playstation?
Music A group email thing has just asked me to list my top ten albums. Here is what I came up with...
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette
The Rough Guide to Paris Cafe Music
Tom Lehrer - An Evening Wasted With
thirtysomething - Original Soundtrack
Lisa Ekdahl - sings Salvadore Poe
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin
Badi Assad - Chameleon
REM - Automatic For The People
Astrid - Boy For You
the audience - a pessimist is never disappointed
Wierd what you can pull out of the hat when you're hard pushed. Good mix of the mainstream and ecclectic though.
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette
The Rough Guide to Paris Cafe Music
Tom Lehrer - An Evening Wasted With
thirtysomething - Original Soundtrack
Lisa Ekdahl - sings Salvadore Poe
Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin
Badi Assad - Chameleon
REM - Automatic For The People
Astrid - Boy For You
the audience - a pessimist is never disappointed
Wierd what you can pull out of the hat when you're hard pushed. Good mix of the mainstream and ecclectic though.
Space For some reason the latest post at the Beagle 2 weblog feels like the sadest moment in British space history: "The Beagle 2 team wish NASA's MER team all the best with the landing of the Spirit rover tomorrow morning GMT (8.35pm PST 3rd January 2004)." I know that in science we're all in it together, but still.
TV So Joey and Dawson have finally done it (for British terrestrial viewers anyway). But they've been talking about it for so long I'd forgotten it hadn't happened already. In the end it seemed cheap somehow. For me, Dawson's Creek has always been about romance, about the magic which surrounds the act rather than the act itself. The most passionate moment of the series up until this point was their kiss at the end of the first series. Perhaps the genius here was that when the central core unrequited love of the series finally became requited it was pretty ordinary, no ice cream, wax or extra bodies involved. At least now, just as the conversation was flagging, they'll have something to talk about for the next five or six episodes at least.
Elsewhere in the show as the six and final series begins, it's mostly business as usual. Audrey has been granted regular status after two series (still a great character) and there are signs she'll be getting her own storylines (and her own special episode - how we wish it had been her in that mugging episode last year - no chance of her singing along with the dying man). There also seems to be a new found ability to have fun with the Jack character who seems to be enjoying his sexuality now rather than torturing himself. Speaking of which, favourite character Jen seemed far too sunny but I was always happier when that was the case - I was never happy when she was an Elizabeth Wurtzel knock off - she always worked best with some deadpan humour and nothing more embarrassing than sitting next to your grandmother in a lecture. And suddenly in an attempt to make him seem more mature, Pacey sports a goatee beard which looks a bit wrong but we'll get used to it.
But the problem is that the show has said everything it can about the subjects it's trotting out. I've an idea of the upcoming plotlines and they really feel like reruns of old stories. The very English waitress and musician Emma Jones could have been an interesting character if she hadn't stolen her accent from the potentials in the last season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, but she's another Gretchen or Amy, someone to buzz around the main characters, create complications, let Pacey save her (possibly), then buzz off again. It's tired and tiring. We're getting into the same territory as late X-Files - how much more can we surprise the audience? But I'm not jumping ship yet like I did with that series. This is something I'll be following to that bitter end, if only to see how Kevin Williamson, series creator, and writer of the final episode, handles his characters all grown up. Plus I'm still 'in love' with Michelle Williams and you have to allow your self some guilty pleasures now and then between the Truffaut movies.
Elsewhere in the show as the six and final series begins, it's mostly business as usual. Audrey has been granted regular status after two series (still a great character) and there are signs she'll be getting her own storylines (and her own special episode - how we wish it had been her in that mugging episode last year - no chance of her singing along with the dying man). There also seems to be a new found ability to have fun with the Jack character who seems to be enjoying his sexuality now rather than torturing himself. Speaking of which, favourite character Jen seemed far too sunny but I was always happier when that was the case - I was never happy when she was an Elizabeth Wurtzel knock off - she always worked best with some deadpan humour and nothing more embarrassing than sitting next to your grandmother in a lecture. And suddenly in an attempt to make him seem more mature, Pacey sports a goatee beard which looks a bit wrong but we'll get used to it.
But the problem is that the show has said everything it can about the subjects it's trotting out. I've an idea of the upcoming plotlines and they really feel like reruns of old stories. The very English waitress and musician Emma Jones could have been an interesting character if she hadn't stolen her accent from the potentials in the last season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, but she's another Gretchen or Amy, someone to buzz around the main characters, create complications, let Pacey save her (possibly), then buzz off again. It's tired and tiring. We're getting into the same territory as late X-Files - how much more can we surprise the audience? But I'm not jumping ship yet like I did with that series. This is something I'll be following to that bitter end, if only to see how Kevin Williamson, series creator, and writer of the final episode, handles his characters all grown up. Plus I'm still 'in love' with Michelle Williams and you have to allow your self some guilty pleasures now and then between the Truffaut movies.
Life Post Christmas blues then. All of that build up, all those shopping days out, all that careful selection of presents, all those decorations up and it's over within a few hours. We don't have a large family really so there isn't the extended excitement of more visits and more presents on all the days afterwards. My new Smoothie Maker is pretty excellent and is a great way eat fruit whilst simultaniously offering a handy alternative to water. I Ask'd Metafilter what I should spend my Christmas money on and they suggested Tivo (no longer available in the UK) or the adoption of a goriila. Thanks guys. I still don't know if a Playstation 2 is such a good idea (I mean if I want to play games I have this computer) but I don't really need anything else. I'll probably do the sensible thing as always and save the money until something inevitably conks out (my old mobile phone is looking increasingly crusty) but that just seems so boring ...
Film Rachel Weisz is one of those actors who I'm always pleased to see in a film. I saw two of her recent performances for the first time this week. In About A Boy she plays a single mum which Hugh Grant understandably falls for in quite a touching comedy which I'd put off seeing for far too long. It feels like a male companion piece to Bridget Jones, but this time it's about what happens to a man who's listlessly drifted through life not making any great ties and somehow not managing to find a purpose (so no great empathy with that character for me then). Also the casting director somehow manages to feature a child actor who's good without being cheesy, skilled without being forced (take note M Night Shyamalan). To be honest Rachel's the typical English rose here, the kind of thing she was born for.
Which is why her work in Neil LeBute's The Shape of Things is pretty startling, showcasing her versatility - an ability to be lovable and utterly sinister at the same time. She plays an artist who meets a geek who works in an art gallery (again so similar to my own life) and cleans him up, gives him some self esteem (again this could be my autobiography) supposedly driving him to be a better person. The geek is played by Paul Rudd (last seen dating Pheobe in Friends) and it's actually quite fun watching him slowly work towards being the actor we recognize. His disapprove friends are played perfectly by Fred Weller (The very definition of 'Hey, it's that guy!') and Grechen Mol (Rules of Attraction). The chemistry in particular between Rudd and Mol is just lovely.
It's based upon LeBute's stage play which did well in London a few years ago and features that opening cat. Now if you look at something like Rotten Tomatoes the typical criticism is that -- "Sadly, the film never overcomes its stage roots." Erm, that's the point. In many an interview LaBute has stated that he was essentially committing the stage play to film, the same pacing and roughly the same performances, the only real obvious change being the real locations. For me this works absolutely excellently, and it's approach which I've seen used just as well on other occasions (the version of Michael Faryn's Copenhagen which appeared on BBC4 last year for example). For me if a play flows perfectly as it stands there really isn't a reason not to leave it in the same structure for the filming. The are different adaptation considerations at play here, and LeBute is actually to be respected for not chopping things about for no reason other than to try and 'open' the piece out. The landscape which now surrounds that actors does that perfectly well. And with Weisz left to her own devices your left with the feeling that in The Mummy she was just having some fun. She's got a very strong career laid out in front of her, and I can't wait to see what she does in The Runaway Jury opposite Cusack, Hoffman and Hackman.
Which is why her work in Neil LeBute's The Shape of Things is pretty startling, showcasing her versatility - an ability to be lovable and utterly sinister at the same time. She plays an artist who meets a geek who works in an art gallery (again so similar to my own life) and cleans him up, gives him some self esteem (again this could be my autobiography) supposedly driving him to be a better person. The geek is played by Paul Rudd (last seen dating Pheobe in Friends) and it's actually quite fun watching him slowly work towards being the actor we recognize. His disapprove friends are played perfectly by Fred Weller (The very definition of 'Hey, it's that guy!') and Grechen Mol (Rules of Attraction). The chemistry in particular between Rudd and Mol is just lovely.
It's based upon LeBute's stage play which did well in London a few years ago and features that opening cat. Now if you look at something like Rotten Tomatoes the typical criticism is that -- "Sadly, the film never overcomes its stage roots." Erm, that's the point. In many an interview LaBute has stated that he was essentially committing the stage play to film, the same pacing and roughly the same performances, the only real obvious change being the real locations. For me this works absolutely excellently, and it's approach which I've seen used just as well on other occasions (the version of Michael Faryn's Copenhagen which appeared on BBC4 last year for example). For me if a play flows perfectly as it stands there really isn't a reason not to leave it in the same structure for the filming. The are different adaptation considerations at play here, and LeBute is actually to be respected for not chopping things about for no reason other than to try and 'open' the piece out. The landscape which now surrounds that actors does that perfectly well. And with Weisz left to her own devices your left with the feeling that in The Mummy she was just having some fun. She's got a very strong career laid out in front of her, and I can't wait to see what she does in The Runaway Jury opposite Cusack, Hoffman and Hackman.
That Day So yes, Happy New Year and Christmas for that matter. I hope you enjoyed this year's review. A big thank you again to all the contributors, best wishes to you all. I'm going to post a sort of special features / epilogue soon so if anyone has at all has got any comments don't hesitate to get in touch -- the vacuum is stifling.
We'll catch up properly in a couple of days. In the mean time, I contribute a little bit to this year's Off The Telly year end television review (an embrassingly little bit actually -- Christmas and some other project sucked up what time I had so I didn't actually present as much as I would have liked). Luckily my incoherent mumblings about the John McEnroe gameshow 'The Chair' didn't make it in so I didn't embarass myself too much. Can I also suggest a glance through this Google News search. Where else can you find out about how 2003 went for the Monroe Courier or The International Sailing Federation?
We'll catch up properly in a couple of days. In the mean time, I contribute a little bit to this year's Off The Telly year end television review (an embrassingly little bit actually -- Christmas and some other project sucked up what time I had so I didn't actually present as much as I would have liked). Luckily my incoherent mumblings about the John McEnroe gameshow 'The Chair' didn't make it in so I didn't embarass myself too much. Can I also suggest a glance through this Google News search. Where else can you find out about how 2003 went for the Monroe Courier or The International Sailing Federation?
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