At the end of last year, I wrote a few words about the departure of Jimmy Young from BBC Radio 2. His replacement started yesterday and, unfortunaelty, I was working and unable to listen but I thought I should post a link to this review of the show at The Guardian.
2006: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Gotta Go Back In Time
2005: 2004 In 100 Pictures
2004: Hello Dermot and Mark Fans
2004: Oops, She Did It
2003: Poison Find
2003: A Blog?
Top story, as journalists are heard to say, is the discovery of the poison ricin in a flat in London. Obviously, a very worrying find but I am not sure what we, as individuals who live in London, can really do. However, there is one thing I am sure about – talk shows and newspapers will be looking for somebody to blame. I wonder how long it will take to blame the “illegal immigrants”, the refuees or even the channel tunnel. I don’t expect it will be too long after that before we hear that it is really a government consipiracy to back their “war on terror” or keep us living in fear. At this stage nobody really knows what the inention of the posion was but one thing is certain – the fear of this kind of attack will cause anger, hate and blame. If we are not careful then those who seek to launch this kind of attack will have won long before they actually do anything.
2006: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Gotta Go Back In Time
2005: 2004 In 100 Pictures
2004: Hello Dermot and Mark Fans
2004: Oops, She Did It
2003: Jeremy Vine
2003: A Blog?
There are several interesting descriptions of weblogs around, but by far the most accessible and best introduction to the concept of the blog that I have read for some time has been put together by Phil on gyford.com
2006: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Gotta Go Back In Time
2005: 2004 In 100 Pictures
2004: Hello Dermot and Mark Fans
2004: Oops, She Did It
2003: Jeremy Vine
2003: Poison Find
This morning, London’s news and talk stations, LBC, came back on air. Of course, LBC is not really new nor has it really been away. The Chrysalis Radio Group have acquired the London speech licences from London News Radio and are continuing to use the LBC names (LBC being the original London commercial news station).
Sadly, while using the name with a heritage of almost thirty years, day one seemed a bit shambolic. The most noticeable and irritating part for me is the constant paper shuffling that goes on when the presenters are on air. I suspect, back when the news talk version was on AM, that this wasn’t that audible. Now, it’s irritating. Then there are presenters whispering to each other but still clearly there. It’s as if there is no off button on the microphones. This evening, there seems to be no off button the computers that play out the commercials as poor Clive Bull seems to be suffering from the fact that the advertisements keep starting and he seems blissfully unaware that they are about to play.
Still, I am pleased that the rolling news format has moved to AM. Not because it’s on AM but because it means most of my portable radios (which are FM only) have the more interesting of the two talk stations. These early teething troubles will, hopefully, be rectified and we’ll have a decent commercial talk station for London again (although, IMHO, BBC London seems to have been doing a fine job). I just wonder who is going to listen to the rolling-news on AM.
2006: Who Are You?
2004: Same Sex Partnerships in 2004
What a fantastic film! Michael MooreÂ’s Bowling for Columbine is as good a piece of film making as any I have seen for several years. It is also a documentary that means, I guess, that few people will go to see this. Well, you should.
ItÂ’s an investigative piece that looks at the United State of America’s love of guns –in all their forms. While it appears many Americans think it’s a constitutional right to protect their family with a shoot first mentally, Moore contends that this obsession with the freedom to bear arms results in unnecessary deaths (accidental and intentional). Contrasted with Canada – similar gun laws and ownership but considerably fewer deaths it seems Moore may have a point.
The statistics played out on the screen are not always given a context and some of his points rather laboured but Bowling For Columbine has some moments you’d think were fiction (the final K-Mart statement -– I wonÂ’t spoil it) yet are horribly real.
And yes, the clip that’s been doing the rounds of the film shows that has Moore getting a free gun when opening a bank account appears to be very real. Funny, it really does appear that these things really do “only happen in America”.
2006: Starting Again
Having enjoyed the Chicago The Musical, I went to the cinema to see the long awaited film version. And what a cinematic treat it is, thoroughly deserving many of the great reviews it’s been having on the web.
There are some who feel this is better than the musical but I would disagree. It’s a superb film but, and there are always comments to be made, it sticks a little to closely to the stage version, not using the different medium to its full extent. That said, the music is still there and – while not pushing the genre’s boundaries like Moulin Rouge – it is some of the best music to have made it to film. The air is filled with the jazz sounds of 1920s Chicago, the perfect backdrop to the nightclub singers and the murders the perform.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is a superb Velma Kelly, Renée Zellweger perhaps not as sassy as the Roxie I have in my musical memory but she certainly plays the vulnerability card well and the surprise (to me at least) was Richard Gere who plays suave Billy Flynn brilliantly (and it definitely seems that he can sing and dance).
Some commentators have suggested that the directon is limited due to director Rob Marshall’s TV backgorund. I can’t say that it was noticeable to this viewer although perhaps my comments about the medium above are related. Chicago tells the tale in an elegant way; conveys the essence of 20s and moves along at a decent pace.
If there was one major disappointment it was the down playing of the Mary Sunshine role (in the musical it’s played by a man) and the omission of her song (A Little Bit of Good). Nevertheless, one to recommend.
2006: Coffee To Get Me Going
2005: Links Of The Day
2005: Now We Know
2003: The Grand Old Duke
It is often said that those of us who call London home do not benefit from the great advantages that the capital city brings. People have been heard to suggest that Londoners do not use London. Well, glancing through a copy of this week’s Time Out I came across the backstage tour of The Duke of York’s Theatre on St. Martin’s Lane and decided to go. The tour wasn’t very expensive and lasted almost two hours and I reckon it must be one of the best value guided events around.
It is a fascinating tour of the old London theatre that was built when the area was underdeveloped and helped transform that side of Charing Cross Road into the entertainment area it is today. It’s the theatre that first staged Peter Pan, the theatre that first saw actors agree to the forming of UK Equity and it has seen many greats play its stage since.
I can now say that I have appeared on the West End Stage, and standing on the stage looking into the auditorium I was surprised at how close theatergoers would appear to the actors. I was also struck by how small the stage area really was and by how big the under stage area is. Also intriguing to know that Capital Radio once owned it.
A lesson leant, that’s for sure. I will be spending more time each week with the what’s on listings and try to take advantage of some of the things this city has to offer.
2006: Coffee To Get Me Going
2005: Links Of The Day
2005: Now We Know
2003: Chicago
You say it here and it comes out here. Well, not really but the comments attached to the article on BBC News about The Pepys Diary site are interesting.
Actually, I am much more interested in the way products like Moveable Type are making personal publishing so much easier. The Pepys Diary site is quite complex and uses multiple blogs to string it all together. Even if I can’t work out the whole trackback thing, they seem to have it working there! There’s a little on the how it all came together here.
I mainly went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because I needed the ticket stub to qualify for Odeon Cinema’s two-for-one January offer so, perhaps, I am not the best person to be commenting on the second instalment of what, it seems, will be an annual event to rival Bond films on ITV and cold turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day.
Also I hadn’t seen the first one – although I had attempted to read the book. The Philosopher’s Stone was the first book in a very long time that I have not been able to finish reading. So, again, my perspective may be a little warped.
However, I was sad that I did not enjoy it more. Unlike The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, this film seemed to drag endlessly. I felt there were parts that served no purpose in the film and didn’t add anything to your understanding of the characters or progress the tale. Why, for example, was the whole spider sequence in there? It may work very well in a book but it didn’t translate to the film and just kept me wishing for the end which, when it eventually arrived, was also something of disappointment. When we finally meet the bad-guy he stands around like a wet fish.
There are some redeeming special effects which I thought were, in the main, superb but sadly the whole experience made me realise that, above all, these really are movies for kids.
2006: Resolution
2005: The Incredibles
2005: Shaun Of The Dead
2004: Honoured for HTML
2004: Unexpected Movie Gems
2004: 2003 In Summary
2003: Mirror Picture
Boxing Day was a bright breezy day for me in Spain. I tried to be clever taking a picture attempting to capture the sun on the swimming pool water. I failed but captured myself in the swimming pool steps. My first submission to The Mirror Project.
2006: Resolution
2005: The Incredibles
2005: Shaun Of The Dead
2004: Honoured for HTML
2004: Unexpected Movie Gems
2004: 2003 In Summary
2003: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets