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Showing posts from 2010

Keeping It Peel

Monday was "Peel Day", a chance to make a noise about new, local, live music across the country. It's also a chance each year (and quite rightly) to look back at John Peel's life and career. Like for most people, the great thing about John Peel for me was the vast majority of what was played was appalling noise, but just round the corner was the record that would change your life. I've just sat down for 10 minutes and noted down the music that comes to mind when I think of listening to John Peel and these are the 10 bands/artists that have stayed with me all these years. Stereolab - "French Disko" Man or Astroman? - "Eric Estrotica" Supergrass - "Caught By The Fuzz" Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "Kill Your Television" Pulp - "Razzmatazz" PJ Harvey - "Sheela-Na-Gig" Sabres Of Paradise - "Wilmot" Half Man Half Biscuit - "Bob Wilson Anchorman" The Wedding Present -

Clip Shows Ruined My Life....

....and I'll tell you why. Earlier today the tune to "With A Little Help From My Friends" jumped into my head. What was the first image that accompanied it? No, not the Beatles (either in Sgt. Pepper regalia or moptopped). What's that? Wet Wet Wet from the NME compilation "Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father"? No. Not them either! As a direct result of oft-repeated "173 Most Embarrassing Cheekbones" the first image that came to mind when I heard "With A Little Help From My Friends" was Kevin Keegan on Little and Large!! At this point I would normally embed a YouTube clip, however if I ever see the look of mock incredulity on Eddie Large's face as the Geordie Messiah ruins a classic again I worry my head might explode and I want the deposit from this flat back! Even now, Large's blue valour tracksuit and crap Mick Jagger impression is threatening my sanity! ....on a similar note, Richard Madeley's Ali G IS utterly embarrassing, but it&#

There was this dictator, right...

'Adolf Hitler is begged by his supporters to return to power after they discover he is still alive. After resisting, Hitler says: "I'll come back, but on one condition ... next time I'm going to be evil."' The comedy stylings of Silvio Burlusconi there.....speaking at a youth rally. No. Really! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/13/silvio-berlusconi-hitler-joke

Nightmares

OK, so what the BLOODY HELL does this mean? I've been having nightmares on and off now for 6 months but this one was by far the worst. After going to my brothers' flat in Reading town centre (they don't live together, they certainly don't live in Reading) I was followed home by a tall man with a shock of grey hair, looking not unlike Christopher Lee. From then on, at regular intervals, I would get notes about how he was going to kill me and make it look like suicide. After the 5th note the secret shadowy department of the police got involved. Note 7 was a grid reference of the location of my planned "suicide". Eventually the man showed himself while we were in Manchester Central Library studying maps with that grid reference. He was exposed as the location was found not to exist and the police unit all left with a swoosh shouting "It's a camera"! The man was then arrested and his daughter (who looked like Jerry Sadowitz) came round to my

Tweets of the Day

FOOTBALL TWEETS @KiranArora Recently I've been playing a lot of FIFA. Basically I sit in an office in Zurich and think of ways to ruin World Cups. @JustinEagleton Nice to see so many City fans dressed as blue plastic seats....#tumbleweed RADIO TWEET @xrrf Kershaw's back: Here's a piece of really good news: Andy Kershaw back on the radio : http://bit.ly/cfTGmV TWITTER TWEET @Matthew_Rudd Twitter wants me to follow Amanda Holden. Do I look like Neil bloody Morrissey? APPALLING TREATMENT OF CHUBBY BRETHREN TWEET @danwood_uk Be careful how much you eat on holiday. Man barred from returning to the UK for gaining weight http://bit.ly/9X817c TOP SERVICE STATION SPOT TWEET @DJChristianOC There is a hearse with coffin the back at Fleet Services! Maybe its what he would have wanted.. WE WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR BOBBINS SERVICE TWEET @Thomkirwin New Sky Sports News, Does HD stand for hardly different? MADE ME LAUGH TWEET @TonyCowards Got a book from the libra

How much do I want to pay for being a newsgeek?

There's a great little interview with Ally Ross from The Sun in today's Media Guardian. This bit of the article intrigued me.. "He doesn't get the same online feedback/debate/abuse as other papers' TV critics because his reviews – along with the columns of some of the newspaper's other big-name writers – are not on its website. I wanted to find out from the Sun why its best-known columnists are not online, and whether it is testing things out in preparation for an extension of the paywall, but no one at News International wanted to talk to me. Ross himself is remarkably unfussed about missing out on readers by not being online. He started in the industry before online news was popular and he leaves all that kind of thing to other people. "I trust they know what they're doing," he says." The Guardian like other news outlets have recently seems amazed by the decision by News International to put paywalls up for their online portfolio with

Tweets of the Week

There are a lot of tweets from VizTopTips.....which I don't apologize for! @Popjustice Diana Vickers told me last year that The X Factor reminded her of being nervous so much that the theme made her want a poo. @ VizTopTips DRIVERS. When you see those 'accident blackspot' signs you should speed up. You don't want to hang about in dangerous places. @leslie1976 @VizTopTips COUNCILS. Save money on safety equipment by shaving off workmen's body hair and painting them with permanent luminous paint. /via @HolyMole @markaustinitv Just heard on radio female student who got two C's and D instead of three A's. "well,I might go into journalism then". @VizTopTips SCHOOLS: avoid the annual controversy over whether exams are getting easier by using the same exam questions every year. @acatcalledfrank @holymoly The first guy singing needs to have an awkward conversation with his wife quite soon. @Scroobiuspipyo Id love to have seen the "We Buy

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

On my Google Reader, I had all the entries from the AMAZING "Man In the Morning" blog from a couple of years ago. I was just reading them and wanted to do so in order so I changed the view from "Newest" to "Oldest" and LOST THE LOT!!! AAAAARGH!!! Does anyone know who Zak De Luxe was?

I Love Lamebook part 1

http://www.lamebook.com/ Made me guffaw!!!

Get Off My Feed Mother----er!!

So Axl Rose had his Twitter feed hacked did he? If you've not been following this, @axlrose was updated over the weekend to say that GnR's roster of shows had been cancelled with immediate effect. Cue gnashing of teeth from the older Reading and Leeds ticketholders about the fact that the reason they paid £150+ had, once again, let them down. See, he's got form for this. Shows cancelled all over the place. On the few occasions he had deigned to turn up it was normally late and they would go off at curfew time making for a total performance time of 30odd minutes. Which is why when the "announcement" was made, few eyebrows were raised. The subsequent tweet suggesting that W. Axl had been hacked was more surprising. It would not surprise me if he did actually post the offending tweet only for the record company to go begging for him to reconsider. So it seems Reading and Leeds will get their dose of GnFnR.... ...I wouldn't put your house on it though.

Favourite Tweets - 12th August

@TheCowlicker Grammer is important : Capitalisation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse & helping your uncle jack off a horse @MJMcKean I say parole Mark David Chapman; but every Beatle fan in the world gets to kick him in the groin. He can take us alphabetically @GriffoRadio Didn't Fabio Capello start his career as game show host Guy Smiley on Sesame Street? He wears glasses now of course http://twitpic.com/2droyo @iainlee Reading a biography of de Niro that King of Comedy isn't very good! Bullshit. It's one of his best films. @anniemacdj There is no sensation I detest more than walking face first through a cobweb @EamonnHolmes Beckham - it's hardly a surprise it's over for him and England - but it just shows how bad bosses are in dealing with the workforce! @stephenfry It's official. iPhoners get more sex than BB or Android users. http://bit.ly/aR959i Who could have doubted it? @GrahamBandage @thesimonevans The Wels

Independence Day Thought

"11 - people killed in accident on oil rig leased by British company BP, resulting in four presidential visits, a $1.6bn clean-up and the establishment of $20bn compensation fund in two months. 15,000+ - people killed in accident at Bhopal plant owned by American company Union Carbide, resulting in 0 presidential visits, no clean-up and $470m compensation in 25 years" "Number Crunching", Private Eye 1265, June 2010, p5 Location: In bed, Swindon

Very Last Of The Summer Wine

So the BBC have announced that the new series of Last Of The Summer Wine will indeed be the last. Hands up if you realised that it was still going. I thought it finished years ago and that the last 11 years were all repeats. I for one can't see stone walls without imagining an old man in a bath whizzing past. Pub Quiz Question : What was Compo's real name? William Simmonite. What will Holmfirth do now? Will it have to close down? Why they have to merge with nearby Netherthong? http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2010/06/the-last-of-the-summer-wine.shtml

Greenie's April 21st

Unbelievably I'm mad busy today doing housekeeping stuff at work! Will blog later on...promise!

Random Rants - Friday 26th March

9.48 - simply because Ben Folds is a genius! 8.13 - Finally watched "Being John Malkovitch" last night. Utterly brilliant! 8.10 - Best line from the Heart Breakfast Friday song - "Jordan is writing a new book her publisher said. That means it will be autobiography 3, she's written more books than she's read!" 8.00 - This is briliant! http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1229243 7.46 - We're talking on the show about the fact that a new survey has revealed that men are happy to admit that they cry quite often, at the cinema, even as guests at weddings. Jez can't remember the last time he cried. For me it was after seeing Hayley (my best friend and ex) after the operation she had recently. I always cry at films. Always. It's embarrassing! Roo cries at the Dog Homes adverts on the telly. Oh dear! 7.21 - I'm following someone who is keeping track of their weight loss and he's publishing today that he's put on 50

Ashley Cole blames split on....

...Cheryl's career (Daily Mirror) http://www.3am.co.uk/cheryl-coles-x-factor-and-girls-aloud-commitments-made-ashley-cheat-apparently-/21247/ ...Cheryl's mum (Daily Star/The Sun) http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/123755/ASH-I-BLAME-CHERYL-S-MUM/ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2868032/Ashley-Cole-blames-Cheryls-mum-for-marriage-split.html ....his inability to keep his cock in his pants. (Erm....ah...)

It all makes sense....

There are times when I feel lost. When things run away from me and when nothing makes sense. These times are occuring more and more as time goes on and a lot of the time it's not my fault. It's nice after feeling like you're being lost that someone comes along and crystallizes your thinking, not exactly a kindred spirit but some affirmation that you are right. Things are not how they really should be. XFM's Marsha Shandur does a fabulous series of podcasts interviewing comedians, the latest of which is an interview with the amazing Stewart Lee. His views on comedy are, for my money, spot on. His attitude to his career and his "art" is refreshing and it's well worth downloading. By the way, as an aside, the podcasts themselves give me a bit more faith in my profession. The podcasts are fabulous and exactly the kind of thing XFM should be doing and are an arm of broadcasting that Global Radio should be proud of....I doubt they are. I doubt they know it's

Timbaland - Pet Detective

So I'm hideously out of touch with music at the minute and so I'm forcing myself to listen to every song in the Top 100. Only songs that I don't already know, obviously. So far 3OH!3 and Katy Perry and Chipmunk have failed to impress. Then there's the new Timbaland tune with SoShy and, surprise surprise, Nelly Furtado whose transformation to glamour-puss from smelly hippy is surely now complete (she looks particularly fit in the video). Right, the song is brilliant. It's one of those songs that I have had to listen to three or four times in a row because it's stuck in my head, the bloke is undoubtedly one of the best in the business. However....is he turning into Jim Carrey? I just ask because after seeing the video he seems to be gurning an awful lot. I'm not sure if he's meaning to do it or he's the victim some kind of uncomfortable multiple twitch disease. Don't get me wrong it's very entertaining and at a level of comedy posturing you jus