Category
Culture & Entertainment
Consumable media, probably consumed by me.
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06.22.07Feeling Festive?So in 2001, I wrote a post about how you could recreate your very own Glastonbury festival experience in the comfort of your own home. Given that six and a half years have passed, and things have moved on a bit, and in honour of the festival's arrival this weekend, I thought it might be worth looking at updating it again. So, building on the previous post, and without further ado, here's DIY GLASTONBURY 2007 Continue Reading...
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05.03.07Televisual Gold, GuaranteedAttention TV commissioning Editors (especially those from BBC3/Channel five/Sky three/ITV3): the summer's on its way, and before you know it, it'll be sunny and warm and that means that commissioning new and interesting programming for the autumn season is just going to get in the way of long liquid lunches and hanging around with your sleeves rolled up in Soho Square. But fear not! I have the answer to your problem, in the form of this handy mix'n'match show title generator. Using literally minutes of brainpower, combined with a lifetime of passive couch-potato activity, I've distilled the essence of winning ...
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04.27.07Something for the weekendIf you haven't already seen it, there's a great opportunity to catch An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's double-Oscar winning film about our environmental crisis, this Sunday afternoon, 29th April. In fact, if you haven't already seen it, then this might be your last chance to do so on the big screen, as it's no longer available on general release. There's a special charity screening at The Tricycle Theatre, which is a great little independent place, on Kilburn High Road in NW6. It's handy for the tube/north london line train and loads of buses go up there. Here's a map. The screening starts ...
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04.02.07Too close for comfortWhen The Office appeared on our screens a few years ago, I barely watched it. This is because despite there being some very perceptive - and no doubt funny - writing, Ricky Gervais makes me want to grind my teeth into sand but also, and probably more significantly it was, in some ways, too close for comfort. The thing is, anyone having worked in an office environment, whether large or small, can identify with and recognise the reality in many of the situations it depicts - team bonding training days, bosses who want to be liked and feared at the same ...
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03.16.07Funny-Ha-Ha, not Funny-PeculiarIn 1989, I made a birthday card for the second red nose day, and ran around collecting signatures and money for it, with visions of being able to present the card live on air - you know, like they do with those big charity cheques. (In this archive photo, above, you can see me aged 15 - I think Red Nose Day was actually on my birthday that year, which is why the birthday card seemed appropriate), my friend Melissa holding the card, and my sister Anna (who would have been 12), raising money by being sponsored to wear her ...
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03.13.07You Make Me Feel Like DancingPicture the scene: I'm walking down the street, or sitting on the bus, minding my own business and listening to my iPod, through headphones. Then a song comes on, and I have an almost uncontrollable urge to bust a move, right there, despite the fact that a) no-one else can hear the music b) the song is naff or otherwise cheesy c) I can't dance. Some of the songs that have made me do this recently: Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Starship - We Built This City Mittwa from the film Lagaan Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen Cheb Mami & K Mel - Parisien du Nord Level ...
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02.19.07Book recommendations neededWhen I travel, I like to read things which are set in the location I'm visiting. I enjoy travel guides, personal travelogues and social histories, too, but I also look for books which will suit the landscape and culture I'm going to be reading them in - even if only slightly. Given that we're off to the Bay Area and Northern California this weekend, I'm looking for recommendations of books set in or around (or loosely based on) San Francisco, wine country and the Northern California coast, extending as far as, well, basically any of the Pacific Northwest. Also, works by ...
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02.08.07Being a list of films I watched between January 2006 and January 2007Before we go any further, can I just point out in my defence that a) I spent a lot of time on planes last year, and when on planes, I watch crap b) I spent a lot of time being stressed last year, and when stressed I tend towards mindless pap on DVD, a cat on my knee and a nice cup of tea c) I spent a lot of time last year craving big comfy cinema seat, total blackness, popcorn and an immersive bigscreen experience. Sometimes I'll go and see things at the cinema just because they're on. d) My DVD rental service ...
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02.05.07Musical odditiesI'm sure I've written about this before, but I can't find it on the site, so excuse the duplication. My entrant for worst musical bridge ever? The bit in the middle of Lionel Richie's Say You, Say Me. It's at about 2:50 in this clip: Thing is, SYSM is a plodding, end-of-the-school-disco kind of smoochalong song. It's not very exciting, but then, it's not supposed to be. It only exists to go on romantic soundtrack compilation albums and to provide a backing track for teenage acned fumbling. Except suddenly, nearly three minutes into the croonfest, Richie suddenly decided to insert a segment ...
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01.29.07Tales from the OCD-esque music frontlineThis is where I reveal slightly too much about my OCD-esque tendencies when it comes to music. Although it's been a while - too long - since I had the pleasure, there's something unspeakably pleasing about flicking through a stack of LPs, standing heavy vinyl in their smooth carboard sleeves, succumbing to gravity as they tip past your fingers. I can almost hear the fluhmpf of air escaping as they tumble to rest against each other. A sensual pleasure. And although CDs are rather unloveable in their plasticness and ubiquity, there's something weirdly calming about seeing row upon row of one's own ...
recent posts
- Another city, another event, another night alone in another hotel.
- Is this the emergence of the Twittering classes?
- Noises off
- Music for Rail Journeys
- Being a list of songs relating to the switching on of the LHC
- A moment’s pause
- In search of a simple sandwich
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