Month: June 2005

  • Le Tour

    Rather than depressing myself terribly with all this ID Card stuff, I thought I’d brighten up and remind anyone still reading that The Tour De France starts on Saturday. It’s Lance Armstrong’s last tour and he wants to finish with a seventh win in a row. As usual ITV (well ITV2), are covering it as…

  • Brian Wilson

    I was very lucky last night to get a chance to go and see Brian Wilson play a concert in the rather lovely surroundings of Hampton Court. What a fantastic night. The weather was obviously excellent, and it was a shame that we didn’t bring a picnic like just about everyone else. The concert itself…

  • Sin City: The Hard Goodbye

    When I saw the film I mentioned that I hadn’t read any of the comics, so recently I picked up this first volume. Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez used this and a couple of other stories as the basis of the film and it’s quite remarkable how closely they kept to the comic. Indeed I…

  • Kingdom Of Heaven

    Just a brief entry to mention that some weeks ago, I did actually see this film. And guess what, it’s not as bad as some will have you believe. It’s not Gladiator, and Orlando Bloom isn’t Russell Crowe, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, I’m a big Ridley Scott fan, but don’t think…

  • New York Times in the UK

    For years, it was always really difficult to get hold of proper US newspapers in Britain. Certainly you could get the International Herald Tribune, and also USA Today. But not The New York Times. Tower Records used to carry quite a few papers but they weren’t cheap and were limited to the Sunday editions. WH…

  • Live Aid Documentary

    On Saturday night BBC2 broadcast a documentary double bill of two 1.5 hour programmes about Live Aid. The first programme looked at the run up to the day, and the second covered the day itself. A few observations from the programmes. Like the C4 documentary of the new Airbus 380 earlier that evening, these programmes…

  • Soaked Tom Cruise

    So if you were UIP, what “sanctions” would you be placing on Channel 4 right now after soaking Tom Cruise at a premiere last night? How about pulling advertising for a start, and then withdrawing access to stars for their programming? That might hurt a bit. I’m sure that whatever this new programme is, it’s…

  • F1 Fiasco

    Well the most ridiculous F1 “race” ever is under way. Between them, the organisers and FIA have managed to con 120,000 paying spectators and millions of TV viewers out of a proper race. Instead just six cars are “racing” around with some of the teams competing seemingly more interested in picking up points rather than…

  • Aung San Suu Kyi is 60

    Not such a happy birthday for her as she “celebrates” her 60th birthday under house arrest. Incidentally, I still get annoyed that The Economist insists on calling Burma “Myanmar”.

  • Live 8

    No ticket for me, but then it’ll be better on the TV anyway. Andy Kershaw, writing in today’s Independent, is very angry. When Bob Geldof first announced the line-up for the Live 8 concerts, African artists were notable by their absence. And this whole thing is about Africa after all. But a week or so…

  • QI

    To the London Studios to watch a recording of QI which I believe is for transmission later this autumn. I haven’t been to a TV recording for years, and when I realised that I was going to have to leave work at six, I did consider that they might be recording two shows over the…

  • The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

    The other day, I mentioned this piece about the writing of a book called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. Well, on Monday evening I paid a trip to Waterstones to try to find it. First stop was the large 3 for 2 tables that most people seemingly don’t get past. No luck. None…