Welcome Back Kotter has got me all nostalgic. Beer and brandy have got me drunk. But full of love. Love for Beer, brandy, and American sitcom themes...
(You'll need to hit stop on this first flash bastard. I hate flash.)
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Showing posts with label TeeVee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TeeVee. Show all posts
Saturday, November 03, 2007
'70's American Made
Friday, August 31, 2007
Magical
Could this be simply one of the greatest moments in television history ever?
David Copperfield Levitates Across The GrandCanyon - Funny video clips are a click away
I remember watching this when it was broadcast. All of his shows were such a big deal back then, each with it's showcase trick. He really was the perfect 80's magician, wasn't he? Which is to say, a bit shit.
Monday, August 27, 2007
You Bloody Muppet
What?
So anyway, I've been working my way through some more season two Muppet Show episodes and in episode 7, guest starring Edgar Bergen, I had another misty-eyed childhood regression thanks to this:
*sniff*
Also, in the following episode starring Steve Martin I had an entirely different kind of childhood reverie.
The set-up for the epsiode, y'see, is that the show has been cancelled for the evening and Kermit is auditioning new acts. Which made me think back to sitting on our lounge floor when I must've been around 6 or 7 I guess (maybe even younger), all excited about watching the Muppets. The very start is a sequence where Kermit comes out and announces that, bad news folks, there's no show tonight. At which point my dad got out of his chair (no remote control!) announcing "Oh well, it's not on tonight. Let's see what else is on."
I was distraught and disbelieving. "No, wait," I whined "It must be on!" At which point it cut to a shot of all the audience getting up and leaving the theatre. "There you go. They're all leaving. It's not on."
chuk chuk chuk *
Well, I cried, I'm not ashamed to tell ya. And even though years later (and while still a child) I got to see that episode, I learned two valuable lessons:
a) Contrary to my warm view of the Muppets as something we shared and enjoyed as a family, my dad did not, in fact, actually think too much of the Muppet Show, and
b) What a dick! (err...God rest his soul...)
"Heh heh heh...too easy...."*Picture, if you will, a chunky analogue dial, thunking its way around a series of preset tuning positions.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Good Times, Good Times
So two days ago - after it being nabbed by customs, slapped with VAT and then hit by an £8 Royal Mail handling fee - I received this!
Like season one, it's all very hit and miss. But there's a real joy to watching it. Case-in-point: I'm only one episode in (Don Knotts) and I already get a golden, locked-in-my-childhood-brain Muppet moment:
Sunday, May 20, 2007
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Oops, been a bit quiet of late. Not that there's been nothing going on, I just haven't been putting fingers to keys on it. I aim to remedy that over the next few days, starting with a new Gore Watch tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, a little round-up.
Over on my flickr account you may just spy some photos of the recent wedding of glamour mavens Claudia and Morgan.
A thoroughly enjoyable affair, all very civilised and low key. Actually, it really did occur to me that a small, intimate wedding is actually much nicer in a way than the usual big, raucous celebration. I've always been puzzled by the amount of anguish wedding planning causes people. Okay, so you want a special day, but is it worth all the grief? Anyway, check them photos to see the final acknowledgement from Morgan and Claudia that, yes, they are actually a couple.
And speaking of celebrations, we also moseyed along to add goodwill to Andrea's turn to the Brit side. Yes, my Singaporean pal is now my British pal. I didn't make the ceremony itself, but Alex went to administer hugs, and took a few photos besides.
We all met at moored boat/bar The English Maid before heading back to Andrea's for British foods. Needless to say I ate too much machine-recovered meat and wound up feeling the worse for wear. Nice evening though.
Also, as mentioned earlier I went to the Bristol convention for work.
On the whole a much more enjoyable experience than I thought it would be. Helped by the fact that the boss paid for everything over the weekend. Hell, even offered to pay us back for money we spent on drinks on the Saturday night. That felt a bit much like taking the piss, but I still spent virtually nothing over the weekend. Met a bunch of people (including a comic-creator studded dinner), sold a bunch of graphic novels, and drunk less than I would have hoped. Man, the service in the bar at the Ramada sucked.
On the viewing front, I'm currently working my way through Nigel Kneale's old ATV series Beasts.
The cover image, by the way, is from the story "Dummy", where a man who plays a rubber-suit Godzilla clone goes barmy. I do love these old British talky horror shows. At their best (and Kneale is one of the best) they offer a masterclass in psychological unease through dialogue, sound, and minimal practical effects. "During Barty's Party", for example, in which a couple are besieged by rats.
At no point do we see a rat. Rather, as the story develops, the sound of the rats beneath the floor of the house gets louder and progressively layered. Scratching, gnawing sounds, small at first, but ultimately deafening. Particularly unsettling is the moment the couple realise that they are being followed around the house, indicated by a rustling hiss of rat bodies chasing their footsteps. Great stuff.
And finally, I've been whiling away all my oodles of spare time on Lord of the Rings Online.
Indefensible in the face of all the things I should be doing, but I'm enjoying it a great deal.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Scattershots
Like a blast from shotgun, these are the days of my lives....
Just a few bits and pieces as they occur to me. It's a bit self-indulgent blog-like, so get out now while the getting's good. Otherwise, let us continue:
ITEM! I watched Event Horizon again for the first time in a long time last night. I was very excited to see the nifty new gimmick box set. I'm usually averse to gimmick box sets, as they're a pain in the ass to store anywhere, but it was £10 on Amazon so what the fuck.
Now, Event Horizon is a film that I have long defended as not being as bad as people make it out to be. I loved it in the cinema, and remember it as being flawed, but great looking and quite gripping.
I now must revise that opinion. It IS as bad as people make it out to be. But I still enjoyed it. Yes it is full of cardboard cutout characters and situations (largely taken from Alien and Aliens standees and lobby cards), yes the editing is jumpy and full of pacing problems, and yes the plot is riddled with holes and characters appear and disappear without explanation, but it's got a daft horror film sense of fun. And New Zealand's own Sam Neill.
Which is to say, if you have any 15 year old part of your brain that still jumps to the fore every now and then, there's plenty to like. The concept is great (ship with revolutionary star drive powered by black hole goes missing on it's first activation of the drive, shows up 7 years later as a ghost ship, team go to investigate, bad things happen, just where did the drive open a gateway to?), the gore is top notch, the scares are generally pretty good with some nice creepy set-ups, there are more than a few unintentional laughs, and yes it still looks great. While I'm disappointed that I can't still come out in as firm a defence of the film as I would like, at least I now know who I can recommend it to.
I'm talking to you, Bruce. You, Martin, and that bottle of whiskey.
ITEM! Going to see Sunshine today. Oh yes. Okay, so I'm expecting a little disappointment, but still hoping for good things.
ITEM! I was thinking last night about my job, and how nice it's been to work in a place where coming into contact with comics creators of all kinds is a fairly common occurrence. The idea, when I was 18 or 19, that I would one day be in a store where I wouldn't think it unusual (if still uncommon) to have Alan Moore walk in (mad-ass heavy metal rings and all) would have sent me over the edge.
I've met a ton of creators whose work I admire since starting at Gosh!, and the little geek inside me thinks that's just darn swell. It was a happy thought for me, and I thought I'd share it.
ITEM! Summer is nearly well and truly here. Last night I was wandering home, and there was that most heartening of London sights: people spilling out of pubs onto the streets. It really creates such a nice relaxed vibe.
ITEM! Where does all my fucking time go?
I'm writing again (a good thing), but that has taken over my morning coffee reading time (I make sure to stop in a park for 45 minutes or so on my walk into work every morning). This means my news reading needs to be done in the evenings before bed, supplanting my novel reading. So I'm trying to read more novels during lunch, but lunchtimes are often taken up with other things. This is all not helped by the fact that my reading pace has slowed to a crawl. Mind you, my retention is so shit these days that I don't know why I bother. And don't get me started on where I get time to watch films or read comics. Or write blog entries, which seem to take an inordinate amount of time to write even the smallest thing. Meanwhile the grim spectre of death looms ever closer.
Maybe I'm being a little melodramatic...
ITEM! Watched The Man Who Wasn't There the other night. I love that film. Billy Bob Thornton delivers one of the greatest ever film monologues: laconic and dry, but filled with a slow-burning sense of longing and loss.
It's a beautiful thing.
ITEM! Got the DVD & CD set of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on the Abbatoir Blues tour. I was quite excited, as I was at the Brixton Academy gig on disc one, and I'm happy to see they've put in the astounding version of Stagger Lee they did there. It'll knock yer socks off.
The whole package is pretty good actually, and well worth the money if you're a Cave fan. Less successful (on a couple of listens at least - it has the potential to grow on me) is the Grinderman album, which is basically the same band minus Mick Harvey. Nick Cave does garage rock. It's okay, but nothing really standing out yet, even though it does have the nasty, recorded in a shed feel that I so appreciate in music nowadays.
ITEM! I at last watched 3-part tv doco The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear the other day, which charts the origins and rise of neo-conservatism (and the architecture of modern US foreign policy) against the rise and fall and rise (sorta) of radical Islamism, from their common origin to their current meeting-point.
It's a great series, putting a wonderful sense of perspective on many things we are fed as a given in a blackly comedic manner, and features some astounding archive footage.
ITEM! Want to waste some time on the internet? You know you should relax more, and stop just using it as a tool for research and the betterment of mankind. Well, go to Fist-a-Cuffs, and vote on the outcome of battles between creatures created by a variety of artists for your gladiatorial entertainment.
The brain-child of Sam Hiti.
P.S. Vote for Blazin' Blades, The Delegates of Pain, and The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs Of Misery. 'Cos they're my friends.
ITEM! I'm just padding now...
Monday, January 08, 2007
Wire THIS!
So I've started watching the first season of HBO's The Wire. It's a crime drama set in Baltimore with a sprawling cast that covers both sides of the law.
SEE! The private lives of the hard assed cops who work narcotics and homicide!
GASP! At the dog-eat-dog world of dealing drugs in the projects!
TITTER! At the scenes set in the seedy strip bar!
Actually, it may sound like I'm taking the piss, but I'm one episode in and really enjoying it so far. The quality of the writing is pretty sterling, with many of the characters already developing quite distinctive voices, and the structure is a bit of a marvel to behold, bouncing about from one thread to the next.
It's "gripping", "astounding", "daring" and "brilliant", so how can you resist? Plus it's HBO, so there's lots of swearing! A sure sign of a quality modern tv show.
Watch!
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