Lord Macca of Loch Kodak on his appearance on The X-Factor: [Sir Paul McCartney] said he got some great reaction from people about his performance on the X Factor. “We got great feedback on the streets the next day. It’s my claim to fame now.”
Via Paulie’s “Shared Items” feed at Never Trust a Hippy, I read on the Democratic Society Blog one of the best “Did Magna Carta die in vain?” comments ever [see foot of the post I link to] and, on Tory Troll, an account of yet another FAIL by frontline interviewers. Here’s a tip for the meedja […]
Thank you very much to the PooterGeeker who sent me a Minolta SLR camera, lenses and other exciting goodies. You are star. I feel guilty writing so little lately when my readers are so nice to me. The person who sent me that amazing gift is someone I have never met in my life, which brings […]
This afternoon, I walked through my door and picked up this week’s local free newspaper, The Brighton and Hove Leader. Amongst the insert spam included today was a glossy advert for Forbes TV rentals, inviting me to hire a flatscreen TV in time for the Beijing Olympics 2008 and a brochure inviting me to come […]
In an effort to push through an extension to the number of days the police can detain you without charge (if you are suspected of being a terrorist), the government—sorry: “Gordon Brown”, because all current and future legislation is the work of a single overbusy Scotsman—is suggesting that it will compensate innocent suspects held under […]
OPRAH: I’d just like to say what a great privilege it is to have you with us on the show today, Barry. BARRY: Thank you, Oprah. I’m so grateful to God for my good fortune just to be here, but my good fortune is all the greater for my both being here and being here with you. […]
Stephen Pollard (under the title “Is the BBC out of control?”) and the Centre Right Blog at Conservative Home (under the title “Big Brother Corporation”) embed video of the recent, and undoubtedly threatening, ad warning unlicensed TV viewers of the completeness of the TV licensing authority’s database of UK addresses. In SP’s comments, Nicholas writes: […]
While I’m on the subject of Tories, this evening, I finally got round to watching the second part of the very good Michael Portillo documentary about Thatcher and the Conservative Party (The Lady’s Not For Spurning) that I downloaded from the BBC’s excellent iPlayer site. I put it off for so long because I was […]
Islam isn’t a race. Martin Amis isn’t a racist. This video is fun: [via The Ambrosini Critique]
Alan Tracy off Thunderbirds Rhydian Roberts off X-Factor
Not having a telly, I didn’t catch the latest from Richard Dawkins, but when I visited his Website to look for clips, I saw this photo of him: All I could think of was Michael Mann directing Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in an atheist actioner: [A convertible Ferrari screams through downtown in slow motion, reflections of streetlights […]
And now, a real horror video. Remember the media storms about racism on UK Big Brother? Keep them in mind as you check out Amber, a Jewish contestant on the US version, complaining, without any hint of irony, to the only black contestant on the show about “selfish, money-hungry” Jews. You can spot them by […]
I hope you are as appalled as I was by Dave’s mocking the frustrated devotional efforts [YouTube video] of the sincerely religious.
I think I should write a script that automatically generates a post linking to Shamer’s latest review of Question Time every week.
After this, Hamer Shawcross goes onto the ‘roll.
Just to prove I didn’t make it up, here’s a screencap courtesy of a Newcastle Utd discussion board: [click to enlarge] And there’s softcore panda porn over on the BBC News Website: The look on Bai Yun’s face—“female panda in heat finally gets seen to by toy boy bear”—is hilarious.
Am I hallucinating? Are any of you lot seeing this too? Right now Jeremy Vine is wearing a Harry Hill shirt and dancing to hip-hop next to a holographic Menzies Campbell. The caption behind him reads “MING’S BLING”. Has BBC Election Special turned into The Day Today? UPDATE: Iain Duncan Smith has just said of the […]
Not owning a television receiver, being an off-peak gym member, and having friends and relatives with small children, I consume TV in odd ways. I rarely watch the box on purpose, and when I do it’s usually breakfast, daytime, and/or children’s TV. Yesterday morning, as I stretched on a mat, I read the caption on Jeremy […]
I read a report in the Telegraph that provoked me to write something that was, by my standards, a steaming rant. Then I decided to check the details with the BBC Website’s version of events. This gave the story a completely different tilt so I spiked my blog post. I’m too busy to write a replacement. […]
Having enjoyed “Guido Fawkes’s” (dis)appearance yesterday evening on Newsnight over my lunch today, there’s only one thing I’d change about my post on political blogging from last week: I’d call it “Squeaky Man”. I recommend this Google Blogsearch as well. In particular, whilst ranting about Tories, “Hamer Shawcross”, another anonymous watcher-of-parliament, captures something of Fawkes’s blog’s […]
Controversially challenging the wisdom of the BBC, Andrew Skudder claims that Chris Squire is a better bass player than Sheryl Crow.
Last week I mentioned celebrity “people of colour” talking “po-faced rubbish” about slavery. I don’t have the time to wade through it now, but please do skim the drivelling of “Ms Dynamite” on the subject over at the BBC News Website. I’m proud to say I didn’t pay the BBC to pay this woman to […]
Jogging from the bank yesterday evening to catch Richard Brincklow’s in-store performance at Passenger’s launch of their new single [buy it now!*], I stopped to photograph this: Regulars will know that I am not an admirer of Banksy’s work, but circumstances and the shrewd planning of the staff at artrepublic temporarily turned the 2006 effort of […]
I don’t have a TV, but that doesn’t mean I don’t watch it. Having trained myself out of treating television broadcasts as audiovisual wallpaper, whenever I visit friends or relatives and there’s a TV on in the background I have to make a huge effort not to be hypnotized by it. The main reason I […]
Earlier today I linked to a picture of a cat in a box before linking to a picture of a cat on a man’s hat. That was before I discovered this animated image of a cat clinging to Jeremy Paxman’s hair.
[A New England meadow. A delicately beautiful Indian woman in a simple smock dress picks daisies with which to decorate her hair.] INDIAN WOMAN [singing to herself as she gazes into the forest beyond]: “बिछड़े अà¤à¥€ तो हम, बस कल परसों,” “जियूà¤à¤—ी मैं कैसे, इस हाल में बरसों?” “मौत न आई, तेरी याद कयों आई?” “हाय, […]
According to ITVNews the somewhat erratic former superstar and object of Osama’s lust Whitney Houston “is convinced that the 21-year-old [X-Factor TV talent show winner Leona] will be an international superstar and has even offered to mentor her.” Sister, you need Whitney Houston as a mentor like you need Michael Jackson as a babysitter.
Their Website’s tagline could be the most horrible “high concept” conceivable today: “Web 2.0 Reality TV” Their banner photo features a twentysomething in thick-black-rimmed retrospectacles and casual wear carrying a pile of chuggable soft drinks. Their About page contains the following phrases: “captures the promise, the perils, the pride, the pressure, the pain and pitfalls of […]
I refuse to believe that this man exists.
If you are familiar with the official French attitude* to the use of English in academic (and other cultural) settings, the appearance of a state-funded TV station, “France 24”, with an English-language feed might surprise you. It did me when I watched one of their online English-language video ads a few days ago. They also broadcast Arabic. […]