Month: December 2008

  • Surviving Gaza

    Wow. Channel 4 has an interesting and incredibly timely programme on next Monday. I assume it’ll detail how to survive on the Gaza Strip when you’re being bombed daily by the Israelis. Wait a minute… My mistake. It’s actually called “Surviving Gazza“, and is about the famously off-the-rails footballer. Of course this is scheduled after…

  • Three Fun Articles To Read

    Well one article and two blog posts really. First off, Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, writes at length about how the media is effectively now unable to examine things like whether corporations are avoiding tax legally. We know that the UK’s libel laws are absurd and encourage libel tourism (everything is effectively “published” in…

  • Copyright Extension

    In just four days, we could begin to see the first of Cliff Richard’s singles re-released without Richard himself either profiting or having any say over what’s released. That could happen, although as I write, I can’t see any forthcoming releases at Amazon. Indeed he’s recently released a celebratory 50 years anthology, and gave away…

  • Happy Christmas

  • Fears Grow For Doctor Who

    As seen on a London Evening Standard billboard today. Perhaps they’ve had a preview of the Christmas special? They do know that he’s a fictional character don’t they?

  • Voting Fun

    If Strictly adopted the US voting system as I’d advocated, then it’s incredibly unlikely this weekend’s incident would have occurred. This isn’t, of course, important. Votes placed will still go to viewers’ favourite dancers. So everyone who’s saved the BBC or Ofcom’s phone numbers on speed dial to complain at the drop of a hat…

  • Lucia

    I took some photos of Lucia yesterday in the London Swedish Church. You can see the rest of them here. The bloke next to me took some better ones.

  • Safety First Investment

    I love it when tube stations are being refurbished and old posters are uncovered before the new LCD panels go up in their place. Yesterday evening I saw this wonderful Abbey National poster from goodness knows when (it looks quite old to me even if the colours are quite vivid). I suspect that Abbey wouldn’t…

  • Media Talk on The Guardian

    Matt Wells had something of a moan this week about what he called an advert for DAB that he’d heard on the BBC this week. He saw it as a straight ad for BBC viewers and listeners to go out and buy a DAB digital radio. A couple of things Matt: The BBC did exactly…

  • Changeling

    J. Michael Straczynski is someone best known to me as the creator and driving force behind Babylon 5, a series that was almost certainly ahead of its time. Now comes Changeling, a superb new film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie. Straczynski dug up the story – infamous at the time – based…

  • Recent TV Bits

    So a few interesting things are going on in television at the moment. I’m going to come back to Kangaroo because I think it deserves a bit more detail. But I’m not exactly impressed by Five’s recent hiring of Richard Woolfe from Sky One. But then Dawn Airey herself fills me with dread a bit.…

  • Televised Sport Update

    Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that it wouldn’t award the EBU the rights to the 2014 winter Olympics and the 2016 summer games. In the past the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has collectively bought the rights to the Olympics for the past fifty years. All the public service broadcasters chip in and…