Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I Told You I Was Freaky - Flight of the Conchords
"Some people say that rappers don't have feelings. We have feelings," raps Brett McKenzie on the opening track of Flight of the Conchords' second album. Sounding vulnerable and miffed, he continues, "Some people say that we are not rappers," with colleague Jemaine Clement adding defiantly: "We're rappers. It hurts our feelings when you say we're not rappers." Read more...
Britain's Best Brain, Wednesday 8pm, Five
For viewers of a certain age, Britain's Best Brain will prove both exciting and depressing. Why? Because it reunites Zoë Ball and Jamie Theakston, the duo who presented Saturday morning children's show Live & Kicking in the '90s and, slightly less memorably, Channel 4's The Priory.
Zoë and Jamie were presumably paired up in the first place because next to either of them, anyone else would look like they were kneeling down, and it's comforting to see they're both still very tall. But, like the rest of us, they do look older. Sigh.
Anyway, the show. "This is not a quiz show," Theako tells us, proudly. It sort of is, really, but the challenges are all geared to test different parts of the brain – so it's not something you can revise for beforehand, unless you count gorging on fish and blueberries.
The studio audience greet the five contestants like they're heroes returning from war, despite the fact that, as in every show like this, they're just normal people with ages, jobs, and one anecdote each.
The first round has contestants trying to answer fairly simple maths questions while heavy metal plays in their ears and disembodied voices shout numbers at them, while staring at a screen of swirling integers. It's that sort of thing.
The parts you at home can take part in – the memory tests, say – are reasonably fun, but the ones you can't – like the one where you have to watch someone wrestling with an egg timer while they're whirled around in a giant gyroscope – aren't so much.
Meanwhile, BBB's slightly clinical approach – the challenges are "each scientifically designed to test a primary brain function", we're told – means it's quite hard to root for anyone; it seems to be reducing the idea of human endeavour to something more random. In summary, then: when's the Trev and Simon revival due?
by Will Parkhouse, Tuesday 27 October 200
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Zoë and Jamie were presumably paired up in the first place because next to either of them, anyone else would look like they were kneeling down, and it's comforting to see they're both still very tall. But, like the rest of us, they do look older. Sigh.
Anyway, the show. "This is not a quiz show," Theako tells us, proudly. It sort of is, really, but the challenges are all geared to test different parts of the brain – so it's not something you can revise for beforehand, unless you count gorging on fish and blueberries.
The studio audience greet the five contestants like they're heroes returning from war, despite the fact that, as in every show like this, they're just normal people with ages, jobs, and one anecdote each.
The first round has contestants trying to answer fairly simple maths questions while heavy metal plays in their ears and disembodied voices shout numbers at them, while staring at a screen of swirling integers. It's that sort of thing.
The parts you at home can take part in – the memory tests, say – are reasonably fun, but the ones you can't – like the one where you have to watch someone wrestling with an egg timer while they're whirled around in a giant gyroscope – aren't so much.
Meanwhile, BBB's slightly clinical approach – the challenges are "each scientifically designed to test a primary brain function", we're told – means it's quite hard to root for anyone; it seems to be reducing the idea of human endeavour to something more random. In summary, then: when's the Trev and Simon revival due?
by Will Parkhouse, Tuesday 27 October 200
Originally published on Orange.co.uk
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Slits and pieces
The Slits: a scary interview prospect indeed, what with them being 1) the original all-grrrl '76 punk band an' all that 2) responsible for one of the best cover versions ever 3) fronted by a singer whose stepdad is none other than Johnny Rotten and 4) one of only three artists to make the Goose funeral songs playlist.
But, of course, they turned out to be completely charming. The finished interview is over on The Quietus - and here are the pics I took after Ari and Tessa got all excited about a graffitied wall we happened to wander past.
But, of course, they turned out to be completely charming. The finished interview is over on The Quietus - and here are the pics I took after Ari and Tessa got all excited about a graffitied wall we happened to wander past.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Zorbingo
Oops, first post this month. It's important, that's why: I've come out of retirement for YOU, Stornoway, even though you are the most nervous and awkward band ever to have a microphone thrust face-wards, because 'Zorbing' is one of the songs of the year and YESYESYES now we have Britain's answer to The Hidden Cameras. IN YOUR FACE, JOEL GIBB.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Official matters
I've become kind of addicted to The Office: An American Workplace of late, thanks to ITV2, Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra repeats, and the joys of PVR technology. Since it ditched the Gervais/Merchant template, it's been hitting whole new heights. Oh, speaking of hitting...
Friday, September 18, 2009
Return to the End of the Road
Oh, it really is the best festival there is, and I've been to them all (NB: I haven't). Yes, End of the Road rolled around again and the weather was peachy, the cider appley and the company bananas.
Who did I see? These ones: David Thomas Broughton, Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo, Dirty Projectors, Herman Dune, Sarah Benetto, James Dowdeswell, Robin Ince, Josie Long, Darren Hayman, This Frontier Needs Heroes, The Boy Least Likely To, The Acorn, The Broken Family Band, Okkeril River, Fleet Foxes, the Richard Hawley-Jarvis Cocker DJ set, Whispertown 2000, the Where Is My Mind? pub quiz, Dan Sartain, Neko Case and The Hold Steady. I saw a lot, missed a lot, danced a lot, drank a lot, forgot a lot, whamalot bamalot.
Here are the snapshots.
What happened last year?
Who did I see? These ones: David Thomas Broughton, Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo, Dirty Projectors, Herman Dune, Sarah Benetto, James Dowdeswell, Robin Ince, Josie Long, Darren Hayman, This Frontier Needs Heroes, The Boy Least Likely To, The Acorn, The Broken Family Band, Okkeril River, Fleet Foxes, the Richard Hawley-Jarvis Cocker DJ set, Whispertown 2000, the Where Is My Mind? pub quiz, Dan Sartain, Neko Case and The Hold Steady. I saw a lot, missed a lot, danced a lot, drank a lot, forgot a lot, whamalot bamalot.
Here are the snapshots.
What happened last year?
Friday, September 04, 2009
Friday night lights
It's a Friday night and although I felt like a drink, no one else did, or at least not with me, so, sensing that I'm set for at least one spell of boredom this evening, I thought I'd write about the view from my bedroom window. It's our bedroom window really, but Sarah's away touring the landmarks of Stockport, so for the moment it's mine (unless our landlady emails later to demand a retraction).
About five minutes ago, the sun was shining through the clouds and actually creating that Ascension into Heaven effect you see in old Italian paintings, but it's one of those fast-changing September sunsets and the black clouds have hustled in, as if to say, "Nothing to see here." They're doing a shoddy cover-up job, though; the sky is still dazzlingly bright, at least for my sensitive retinas.
It's a mess of a skyline, frankly – green-netted scaffolding seems to be growing over every other building – but there are some interesting details: you can see the switched-on floodlights of the Oval to the south-west (or "left", if we're being panoramic); the reflection of cars going past in the tall windows of the large office opposite, its roof perfect for a Hong Kong action flick's gun-pointing tableaux; a distant flag blowing in the wind, which could even hail from north of the Thames; and, closer by, one of Westminster's towers tantalisingly just visible behind the large lopsided Sycamore, which has recently been garlanded by small blue lights which apparently only come on between 9 and 10pm. We often stare out at them, wondering why.
About five minutes ago, the sun was shining through the clouds and actually creating that Ascension into Heaven effect you see in old Italian paintings, but it's one of those fast-changing September sunsets and the black clouds have hustled in, as if to say, "Nothing to see here." They're doing a shoddy cover-up job, though; the sky is still dazzlingly bright, at least for my sensitive retinas.
It's a mess of a skyline, frankly – green-netted scaffolding seems to be growing over every other building – but there are some interesting details: you can see the switched-on floodlights of the Oval to the south-west (or "left", if we're being panoramic); the reflection of cars going past in the tall windows of the large office opposite, its roof perfect for a Hong Kong action flick's gun-pointing tableaux; a distant flag blowing in the wind, which could even hail from north of the Thames; and, closer by, one of Westminster's towers tantalisingly just visible behind the large lopsided Sycamore, which has recently been garlanded by small blue lights which apparently only come on between 9 and 10pm. We often stare out at them, wondering why.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
The wall guy
I took precisely zero photos of the picturesque views of Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside - not doing very well at the moment, am I? - because I kept leaving my camera in the B&B. Did get this nice one of a wall at Crewe Station, though. Wait, come back!
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