Random Rambling Musings

[TheFatBuoy]

Absolute genius things on the telly recently:

Extras - you either love or loathe Ricky Gervais, but personally I love this latest series. Brilliant. Particularly the way every single celebrity/other character (i.e. the BBC producer guy, Chris Martin) is portrayed.

That Mitchell and Webb Look - absolutely superb. Brilliant. Love it. Can't believe I never saw Peep Show (featuring the same two guys, but not fully, or maybe at all, written by them). That's Numberwang! Some <run out of adjectives meaning 'really rather good'> tongue-in-cheek observations on a lot of modern TV.
The new Little Britain? Quite possibly, though without the cross-dressing.

Armando Ianucci's Time Trumpet - A brilliant satirical look back at current times from about 30 years in the future, interviewing celebrities from the current day as people 30 years older than they currently are (what time does to you). Lots of moments of pure genius - particularly David Beckham, with the vagina he had sewn into his arm, just to be the first.

Older stuff I've been watching that I got using this new fandangled torrent malarkey:

Mark Thomas Comedy Product - Bloke's a legend. 'nuff said. He's touring at the moment apparently - google for him. He's also got a book for sale exposing loads of shit to do with the arms trade.

Old QI shows - the combination of Stephen Fry and Alan Davies never fails to entertain.

Back to the Future Trilogy - 80s classic filmery. Poptastic.

Books that are probably worth a mention, if only I'd bothered to buy and read them:

The World of Karl Pilkington - pure idiocy, introduced by Ricky Gervais.
That book by Mark Thomas about the arms trade.
Anything by Danny Wallace or Dave Gorman - always good.
Roman Abramovich's autobiography - probably quite an interesting read.
Ronnie O'Sullivan's autobiography - ditto.

Comedian well worth seeing live:

Russell Brand (seeing him in Reading on Friday) - absolute nutter. Superb. One of the most original stand-up comics I've seen in ages. Will be able to comment more on his live stage act after I've actually seen him.

Bands well worth seeing live:

Misty's Big Adventure. Just look them up on myspace or google. The myspace address is what you'd probably guess it'd be, bearing in mind that web addresses don't "do" punctuation. Fantastic band, once described very inaccurately by me as "A cross between a three-piece jazz combo and the Polyphonic Spree", and featuring a frontman that looks like a cross between Bill Bailey and Michael Gambon, called Grandmaster Gareth ("A name I chose to improve my hip-hop credibility. It hasn't worked."), and a bloke with a red suit with loads of gloves sewn onto it that dances and does human beatbox, described by me as "A Bez for the 21st Century". Listen to them. You'll thank me. Or say I'm strange. Seriously talented band though, if you ask me, and if nothing else, you'll piss yourself laughing at the sheer strangeness of it all, if you were to see them live, which I'd highly recommend.

The Killers. I think they're fantastic. Retro-sounding 80s synthiness combined with a great band and great frontman. Their latest single grows on me every time I hear it, and "Mr Brightside", since I discovered it literally ages after it was first released, is probably on my top <insert not-completely-known number here> songs of all time, if I'd compiled such a list. A mate of mine tells me that Hot Fuss is one of the best albums of the last decade, and I really should buy that and their new album.

Some live performances I've seen of theirs have been a bit shite, with the vocals really not being all that great, but they were on the Friday Night Wossy Show a few weeks back and I thought they were absolutely superb. That, and their one-song-set at Live8 was the most I've ever seen anyone ever make of getting to play just the one song. And their London shows are completely sold out, apparently. Bugger.

Random amusing fact:

The other day I googled for "overwhelming sense of apathy" (with the quote marks) and it returned 158 results.

I then googled for "underwhelming sense of apathy" (again, with the quote marks) and it returned just 2 results.

That amused me.

Random amusing phrase:

"Vegetable with soft drink extracts."
(All my own work. I thank you.)

Sad thing:

Paul Hunter passed away today. Taken by Cancer at the young age of 27. Last I heard about him, I thought things were looking up. Dreadful news - a brilliantly talented snooker player, and could well have been world champion at least once within the next few years. My thoughts go out to his family and friends, in particular his wife Lyndsey and very young daughter Evie Rose.

[londongirl]

Back to the Future and QI getting massive thumbs up there. I would like to add the category.

Brilliant things coming to tv soon

Torchwood!!! Starts 22nd of October. Trailers look absolutely brilliant, seems to be a fastpaced but less smiles and roses than Doctor Who.

[Going Underground]

Some good stuff there Pete, just a touch of the "i-blogs" about it.....

Have to agree on the sad and shocking news about Paul Hunter.
Like you say it seemed he was fighting back and on the road to recovery but these neuroendo-crine tumours would seem to be paricularly nasty ones..
As Stephen Hendry said it does put things into perspective and the game of snooker has lost a great talent and a very nice person.....