Read:
Austrian interview with Amanda Palmer about the music industry.
Watch:
Charlie Brooker’s dissection of the TV news report featured on last week’s Newswipe, already earning more than 700,000 views on YouTube in under a week.
Listen:
Richard Bacon’s interview with Stephen Baldwin – an early contender for radio highlight for 2010. If anyone wants to listen to it after the download link expires, leave a message and I’ll consider hosting it myself.
I have to say I wasn’t expecting much of You Have Been Watching. I’m a huge Charlie Brooker fan but I thought that the format of the show would be confined and would not make good television. I was surprised at how good it actually was. If you like Screenwipe then you’ll love this because it is pretty much the same but in a panel show format to keep it appealing for the mainstream. The guests were decent too. Rufus Hound, who I’m sort of indifferent to, was very funny throughout, Richard Herring was great value and Jamelia was…Jamelia, but with noticeably larger boobs than I remember her having. Anyway, breast confusion aside, with the right guests this could be a real winner.
A collection of thoughts about various things. I may do this more often.
Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide To The Orchestra:
I was looking forward to this having found out about it during yesterday’s Simon Mayo show on 5live. I was a bit disappointed but not surprised that I was. Jokes fell flat a few times, there were a few re-uses of older material (EastEnders theme tune, Doctor Who jazz theme, news themes etc) and I didn’t laugh nearly as much as I have done during previous stand-up shows. Then again, I don’t think that was the overall point. As a ‘guide’ it was actually rather entertaining at points and the cowbell playing was to be admired. I was very impressed by that and a few other things.
Premier League:
As you were really. Manchester United win comfortably, Liverpool win comfortably and the rest of the fixtures don’t yield any real shock results. However, the big game is tomorrow when Middlesborough take on Newcastle United. I can’t tell you how much I want Middlesborough to win so that Shearer’s men go down but we’ll have to see. Either way, I’m still sticking with the notion that the teams in the bottom three at the moment will be the ones that go down.
The Great Escape:
On Thursday I received the glorious news that I have been accredited for The Great Escape this coming Thursday. For a person who is maintaining and writing material without any real help, that is some achievement. I’m very happy and I can’t wait to get stuck in on Thursday.
University:
I have one dissertation proposal and one batch of print work to finish off before the end of Wednesday. After this I am free of all uni work until September when I start the third year. It’s super scary that I’ve already gotten to this point in education life and am amazed that I have only one year of it left. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad.
Russell Howard:
He is getting a BBC3 show! Well, a pilot anyway. Apparently it isn’t going to be too dissimilar from what he does on Mock The Week in the sense that it is going to be topical news. He’s been one of my favourite new comedians of late and I hope the new show is a good showcase for his talent. Otherwise it seems like a wasted opportunity.
Books:
I’ve almost finished reading Charlie Brooker’s Dawn Of The Dumb. Compared to his other book, Screen Burn, this has had a lot more chucklesome lines in it though I would have preffered it if it was laid out in actual chronological order as oppossed to one section of TV columns followed by general opinion columns and then TV columns again and so forth. Once that’s done with I am going to start on America: The Book, which is written by the writers of The Daily Show. The bad news is that I can’t carry it on public transport because it’s a big ol’ hardback. Dang.
Computer woes:
Strange things are happening. Sometimes my computer will not load at all. It gets to the loadup screen with the teasing green bar at the bottom and either doesn’t stop loading or freezes up once it has stopped. Annoying.
Spotify:
I finally caved in and downloaded it. It ain’t bad and could be useful for The Musical Chairs.
Tomorrow I’m going to catch up on Sonic Dice reviews I think and try and get the majority of it all done before I head down south.
It’s not often that someone states an opinion on TV and everyone you know who has seen the program agrees with your exact same thoughts. Charlie Brooker, who was awarded Columnist Of The Year at the British Press Awards earlier this week, gave his thoughts of the Jade Goody saga on BBC4′s Newswipe and how the media and the public dealt with it. It was a brilliant segment, word for word and a perfect example of his often well-thought out, intelligent and at times humorous arguments and I haven’t really seen anyone yet criticise it (though I’d very interested if you do disagree). Also, he lays into Have Your Say, which is the biggest pile of horseshit imaginable.
Charlie Brooker is angry.
It’s all over. The politicians have finally shut us out of their game for good and we have nowhere left to turn. We’re not part of their world any more. We don’t even speak the same language. We’re the ants in their garden. The bacteria in their stools. They have nothing but contempt for us. They snivel and lie and duck questions on torture – on torture, for Christ’s sake – while demanding we respect their authority. They monitor our every belch and fart, and insist it’s all for our own good.
Read the rest of his brilliant column here. I think there is nothing in that article that can be challenged, and if there is then I would love to hear it.
