Goldfish & Paracetamol

too young for the bowling green, too old for ecstasy…

Baker Street Irregular

Posted by Paul on Wednesday, October 21, 2009

As a Sherlock Holmes fan of many years standing, every part of my fannish body is screaming at me to hate the forthcoming Guy Ritchie movie. However, I really liked Lock Stock… and Snatch (we’ll skip over the others), the two trailers – see below – are very good, and, even though I hate Jude Law with a passion you could only dream of, I would pay money just to see Robert Downey Jr reading the phone book. And it does look like fun…

So here’s the first trailer – and the latest one.

Posted in film, video | 1 Comment »

Foxy

Posted by Paul on Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Yesterday I received an email telling me that the fanclub release of Foxbase Beta, Saint Etienne’s Richard X re-produced 2009 version of their 1990 debut album Foxbase Alpha, had been posted. And this morning, defying the gloom of the forthcoming postal strikes, it dropped onto my doormat!

And it’s lovely…With cello and string arrangements, choirs and re-discovered lyrics adding an extra layer to an already excellent album.

Some might say; why bother? But it’s a nice thing and although it won’t change my opinion of the original (awesome), it’s a great companion piece and Girl VII, Stoned To Say The Least and Like The Swallow are awesome in their new forms, the latter in particular feeling like an epic with it’s beautiful child chorus.

Posted in music, saint etienne | Leave a Comment »

And They Say Kids TV Is Dead…

Posted by Paul on Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Yes, call me a saddo if you like but I’ve loved Doctor Who since I was a kid and one of the best things to come out of it’s high profile return is the spin off. No, I don’t mean Torchwood. Hardly…

No, I mean The Sarah Jane Adventures. This reminds me of when kids TV was genuinely exciting, fun and imaginative rather than an endless stream of cartoons and quiz shows. The third series starts this week and here’s an amazing trailer (with a certain D Tennant making his presence felt).

Posted in tv, video | 2 Comments »

Arse In Chains

Posted by Paul on Monday, September 28, 2009

From Digital Spy…

Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney has compared the recent leak of their new album to ‘being raped in prison’.

The Seattle rockers released their new record Black Gives Way To Blue today, although the LP surfaced online over two weeks ago. Kinney told Chicago radio station WKQX-FM: “It’s like going to prison – you’re know you’re gonna get raped, but you’re not ready for it. You think you’re all prepared for it, but you’re not really prepared for how violent that rape is. It’s like, ‘Wow! He’s really giving it to me’.”

Yes, that’s exactly what it’s not like, you tit.

Posted in general stupidity, music | Leave a Comment »

Hard Facts and Emotional Truths

Posted by Paul on Thursday, September 24, 2009

I’m currently reading Halfway to Hollywood, the second volume of Michael Palin’s personal diaries. Here we cover the post-Python and pre-travelogue years of 1980-1988. The Missionary, Time Bandits, A Fish Called Wanda etc are all covered here and, if anything, I’m finding this more interesting than the Python-centric first volume (although Python, naturally enough, is still very prominent).

One of the things I’m really enjoying are Palin’s thoughts and comments about HandMade Films. Having recently re-read Robert Sellers’ excellent book about the spectacular rise and fall of that company, Very Naughty Boys, it’s fascinating to match the two.

The only thing I’m not enjoying is the hideous, hideous cover. I thought we’d left the days of this sort of cut and paste jacket far behind…

Posted in books | 1 Comment »