Baker Street Irregular

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.

Foxy

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.

And They Say Kids TV Is Dead…

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).

Arse In Chains

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.

Hard Facts and Emotional Truths

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…

Without A Paddle

Reading this piece from todays MediaGuardian, I can’t help thinking: why??

1. Six bags of horse manure isn’t very much (look at the picture). Six tonnes, now you’re talking.

2. Climate Rush make a big deal about how politicians and business leaders are not paying enough attention to what is happening in the world. So targeting Jeremy Clarkson, now that’s really making  a statement

3. “I think it is very selfish of him not to take responsibility for climate emissions,” said Millie Forest, 19. Well, I (amongst many others) drive a car as well Millie, are you going to dump a bucket of shit on my doorstep too? Clarkson, despite his big mouth, really isn’t the problem.

I think what partly irritates me about this is the sheer childishness of the stunt (because that’s what it is). You can imagine them giggling around a table marvelling over their oh-so-witty-yet-revolutionary plan.

What annoys me the most though is that it doesn’t achieve anything at all. I have no sympathy for Clarkson, but he wasn’t even in! Even if he had been all he would have done is said something to put them down. Targeting a high-profile broadcaster who has a reputation for not giving a damn about stuff like this only makes the perpetrators look like foolish and naive crackpots and it harms the image of more serious campaigners.

Well done ladies, what a waste of time. You could have put that manure on some roses and contributed to the environment instead. I don’t have a problem with what Climate Rush stand for, simply some of the pointless things they do.

And let’s be honest, if you had the opportunity to leave a mound of steaming dung on someone’s doorstep whilst they’re out, you’d choose someone more deserving than Clarkson. Robert Mugabe or the directors of MG Rover perhaps. Or Justin Lee Collins.

Imagine a Black and White World…

Quite excited tonight, as I got an advanced copy of Jasper Fforde’s new book, Shades Of Grey.

Imagine a black and white world where colour is a commodity. Where the colours you can see dictate your status, your career, your fate.

Where life must be lived according to the Rulebook.

Where spoons are illegal’

Where people are sent to an Emerald City to ‘reboot’.

“No-one could cheat the Colourman and the colour test. What you got was what you were, forever. Your life, career and social standing decided right there and then, and all worrisome life-uncertainties eradicated forever. You knew who you were, what you would do, where you would go and what was expected of you. In return you simply accepted your position within the Colourtocracy, and assiduously followed the Rulebook. Your life was mapped. And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones…”

Eddie Russett lives in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see, with Violet at the top, and Red at the bottom. Below the Colours are the Grey underclass who can only see tones of black and white. It is also a world of rules and regulations – a place of merits and demerits, prefects, bullies, snitches, sports days and over-boiled cabbage. Eddie is pretty happy – he thinks he can see over 70% Red, so will be able to marry up-spectrum. But then he meets Jane, a Grey: alluring, exciting – and dangerous. But she’s not his only preoccupation. Eddie is awarded so many demerits his dowry is wiped out, and the only way to turn things around is to take a trip to High Saffron, an expedition from which no one has ever returned …

How We Used To Live

Today, I have been listening to the newly released double disc re-issues of Saint Etienne’s 1993 album So Tough and 2000’s Sound of Water. They are beautifully packaged, contain lots of b-sides and rarities and sit nicely alongside May’s re-issues of Foxbase Alpha and Continental.

If you’re not a fan you’ll probably not understand why I’m wittering on about them (try this and this and read this) but when they released their first single in 1990, Only Love Can Break Your Heart (a spectacularly cool Neil Young cover) I was 17 years old and everything about them just swept me along for the ride. The music, the quirkiness, the British love of nostalgia and, of course, Sarah’s beautiful voice.

20 years later and we’re all still here – and they are as brilliant, imaginative and creative as ever.

Who Wants To Live Forever?

Oasis are splitting up. Boo-bloody-hoo. Good riddance. Like Big Brother, they’ve been around for too long subjecting us to the same old tiresome drivel – and I for one will not be mourning their passing.

Like zombies, vampires, Daleks and Heather Mills, I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear from them but we can hope…

It’s All Over But The Crying

I don’t think it will come as any surprise to learn that Channel 4 are expected to confirm today the end of Big Brother when their contract with Endemol expires after series 11.

It’s had its moments over the years but as audiences have dwindled drastically I’m just surprised it’s taken so long. My interest faded after series 4 and although I watch the opening night every year, to see just what sort of shallow, publicity seeking nightmares would sell their self-respect for Z-list ‘fame’, I can never bring myself to watch much further (bar the occasional mad moment that drags you back in).

The original conceit used to draw people in at the beginning, the ’social experiment’ tag, was a thinly veiled one and soon disappeared when the production team realised that what really drew in the ‘great’ British public was nudity, humiliation, drunken arguments and the possibility of sex and/or someone flipping out and going on the rampage with a specially sharpened fork (probably provided by Big Brother).

I doubt very much if this is the last we shall see of BB, however perhaps a rest and a rethink is all that’s needed.

More importantly for Channel 4, what on Earth are they going to fill their schedules with now?

Curse of the Lesbian Werewolf Vampire Lizard of Doom

I’m hugely interested in British cult TV, radio and cinema history and I’m going to start recommending a few (of what I consider to be) excellent reads for anyone wanting to know more.

First up, a staple of British cinema; Hammer Films. There are many, many books on this subject. Wayne Kinsey’s excellent pairing; The Bray Studio Years and The Elstree Studio Years, both of which are extremely detailed and well worth getting hold of. However, if you’re a beginner looking for a way into the history, or an established fan looking for something a bit glossier, Marcus Hearn’s The Hammer Story is excellent value, as is the forthcoming Hammer Glamour.

Although originally started in 1934, Hammer is best remembered for it’s films between 1955 and the early Seventies: the Horror Years. And one of the most well-remembered aspects of their output in that time (apart from Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee) are the women of Hammer.  Iconic figures mixing sex and horror with style, panache and barely-restrained cleavage these actresses helped to make the small British company world famous.

And for anyone who knows the genre and fancies some beautifully put together homage of Hammer and Amicus, I thoroughly recommend getting your hands of a copy of Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible.

And Another Thing…

Back in September 2008 it was announced that best-selling childrens author and long time Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fan Eoin Colfer had been given approval by Douglas Adams’ widow, Jane Belson, to write a sixth instalment in time for the 30th anniversary.

I really wasn’t sure about this. Did we need a new Hitchhiker book? Adams’ humour and style were unique, so what was to be gained by someone else ‘having a go’? Also, it felt very much like a cashing-in opportunity. I read these books as a child, so I felt almost stupidly proprietorial about someone else giving these characters life.

However, Colfer himself said he was “terrified” by the prospect. “But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams. I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books, and that is why I am bloody determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written”

So, as a long time fan of the books, radio and TV series myself, could I conquer my own misgivings about the project and give it a chance? Well, I got home on Sunday night after a weekend away to discover that a proof copy of Eoin Colfer’s And Another Thing, had landed on my mat.

Curiously Penguin have issued it in a newspaper style format and have tantalisingly only provided the first half of the book.

Am I going to be delighted or disappointed? Strangely enough, despite my initial misgivings, I’m quite excited by the prospect of finding out. I’m four chapters in and so far I’m very impressed…

UPDATED 21.08.09

Honestly?

I really enjoyed it. To be fair, it’s only the first seven chapters and there is obviously much more to come. However, so far it does what I hoped it would do and revisits the characters in the correct tone of HHGTTG but in Eoin Colfer’s own style.

There are nods and winks to Adams’ earlier works that won’t alienate a newcomer but will make a fan chuckle, there are some surprising returns of familiar faces and some interesting twists of ‘established’ lore but this feels like Colfers’ book, not Adams’ and yet at the same time feels like both. Which probably makes no sense.

I think I can sum it up best by saying that I am not disappointed, I am in fact very pleasantly surprised and I really want to read the rest of it. Slightly put out by the fact I have to wait until October though!