400 Quidditch?

To commemorate the release of the new Harry Potter film my eight year-old daughter has produced another of her fantastic pieces of art, which I reckon I should probably make available in limited edition signed prints.

I'm really thinking she could make us very rich if she could churn out 9 or 10 of these babies a day...

Tweet

Things I Have Learned This Week

LOVELY, LOVELY PEOPLE

1. Scottish couple Colin and Chris Weir won £161m on the Euromillions lottery. People are already crowing that their plans to spend it are pretty modest, and therefore they are undeserving of such a huge win. I say leave them alone: they seem like lovely, lovely people, who I am sure will use the money to do a lot of good things . On a completely unrelated note, I desperately need a ...er..brain transplant which will cost around £780,000, which I don't have. Sure I'll think of something...


2. Tweet of the week: 

3. Driving on the motorway this week for the first time in a while, I got stuck in a jam for ages. I was really grateful to finally get moving again and see this sign up ahead >
Refreshingly honest branding too.





4. I was somewhat taken aback to see that I was being followed on Twitter by this guy from Slimmers Forum:

WHAT AN INTERESTING VARIETY OF SUBJECTS HE COVERS

Call me paranoid but I have visions of him going through users' profile photos and thinking "He looks a bit podgy: POTENTIAL CUSTOMER!". As a result I am editing my picture thus:

5. Amidst all the appalling publicity that the hacking scandal has brought upon News International, I can't help feeling that it has got a little harder to dislike Rupert Murdoch, as he seems a touch more cute and cuddly than I recall. It's been bugging me all week what the new look is that he is rocking, and it has just clicked:

.

Tweet

Ulterior Motif

I have long had a keen interest in graphic design (though you may think otherwise looking at this site), and instances of either very good or very bad design often catch my eye when looking at magazines or browsing the web.

Remember all the fuss when the London 2012 Olympic logo (below) was launched? Mostly I think people were just incredulous that it could have been created by an adult, let alone a professional designer. 

  

The uproar seems to have died down now, as everyone has moved on to whining about ticket allocation. But anyway, it could have been a lot worse if they'd hired the guy who did this one ê for the Brazilian Institute of Oriental Studies:

It is, of course, a Japanese-style house in front of a rising sun. You should be ashamed for thinking that.

Tweet

The Greatest Songs You've Never Heard #004: Climax Blues Band - Couldn't Get it Right

Climax Blues Band were formed in 1968 and a line-up of the band is still touring today. Funky and bluesy at the same time, the song is about being on the road in America, looking for a motel to bed down for the night post-gig: "...kept on looking for a sign in the middle of the night...".

Released as a single in 1976, it reached #3 in the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 in the UK chart.

Click below to play 

Visit the Climax Blues Band official site

More Greatest Songs You've Never Heard

.

.

Tweet

Things I Have Learned This Week

REBEKAH BROOKS

1. It has been a momentous week in the British Media, with the phone-hacking scandal bringing about the closure of the 168 year-old News of the World. Amazingly, while hundreds of journalists who weren't even working on the paper during the period of the allegations may be made unemployed, this woman, who was the paper's editor at the time and now News International's Chief Executive, has so far kept her job. All in all, it's yet another example of a public figure giving us gingers a bad name (see also Raoul Moat, Chucky, Anne Robinson). I feel I should redress the balance with this.

2. The replacement paper for the News of the World on Sundays has been announced. Think it might be a winner with the NOTW devotees... 

3. As the final Harry Potter film premieres, the lead actors console themselves with the knowledge they can now devote more time to their Smallbone Kitchens franchise:

4. Lots of people getting emotional about the last space shuttle mission. Can't understand the fuss myself: 135 launches and never actually been anywhere? I know parking can be difficult when you have a large vehicle, but that's just ridiculous. And now the news that Mission Control are playing Coldplay to the crew to wake them up. Clearly the NASA boffins know f*ck all about music.

5. Ladies and Gentlemen, take your partners for the Shameless Dictator Hoedown:

BFFs - THEY SO DESERVE EACH OTHER

Tweet

Drawing a Flynn Veil

Humour, and more specifically comedy, is obviously a very personal thing. What makes one person laugh can easily leave another stony-faced.

Northern Hell

Which brings me to In With the Flynns, the latest offering in that sub-genre which The BBC seems to feel obliged to flood: the family comedy. Starring Will Mellor (previously known for Two Pints of Lager, and being Ryan Giggs’s brother’s best friend), this show does at least break the previous cast iron template of featuring a middle class family with really irritating poncey kids, with jokes that are inserted with a crow bar, and where no-one you would ever want to spend a moment with ever appears. Well, it’s got most of those things, but they’re (gasp!) Northern. And a bit common.

Bad though it is (oh it really is), it still has some way to go to plumb the depths of the programme it replaced in the Wednesday night 8.30 slot – Life of Riley, starring Caroline Quentin and Neil Dudgeon. Real belief-beggaring stuff that one, not least that it has survived 3 series.

Middle Class Hell

It's recurring tale of a recently wed couple who each have children from their previous relationships, creating the kind of situations and problems that many of us can identify with. They’re DYSFUNCTIONAL - okay? A limitless rich seam of material in the right hands, you might think. Hmmm.

Of course, this sort of stuff has been on our screens for 40 years or more, but the Seventies were more innocent times, meaning we make allowances for programmes from that era, looking back fondly on certain examples. For new shows of this ilk to still be commissioned, and for My Family to now be in its 78^th (I think) season begs the eternal question: WHO WATCHES THIS CRAP?

I’ll tell you who: my 8 year old daughter. She thinks Life of Riley is bloody hilarious. I know she’s only 8 but frankly I’m disappointed in her and am considering sending her to boarding school as a result.

It was all going so well – she likes Frasier and The Simpsons, and has recently enjoyed films like Groundhog Day and that football (soccer if you must) film that Will Ferrell starred in. She used to watch Hannah Montana (and likewise her older sisters when they were her age were fond of shows like Saved by the Bell), programmes intended for kids. Why does a programme which is screened at 8.30 in the evening feel like a step backwards in her development?

Clearly the viewing figures must suggest that it isn’t just Sophie and her age group that tune in to these shows: there must be actual adult fans. Makes you worry about your country really.

The Real Deal

In general, the Americans do family comedy so much better, but it’s not that the Brits or the BBC in particular can't make something to be enjoyed by the same people who love The Simpsons or Roseanne. Indeed it exists: Outnumbered is the absolute antithesis of the usual bland-athon we are presented with in the UK. For me it’s all about the writing, and while the likes of In With the Flynns are seemingly churned out by lethargic robots, Outnumbered, with its similar family set-up, is written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who have CVs as impressive as it is possible to have in British comedy.

The grown ups who adore My Family or Life of Riley would doubtless hate it, which is probably as good a reason as any to give it a chance if you haven’t yet.

.

Tweet

Vintage Video - 4th of July Special

To mark US Independence day, a couple of  unconventional but brilliant performances of the American National Anthem:


Marvin Gaye - The Star Spangled Banner
Recorded at the 1983 NBA All Star game, just over a year before his tragic death.




Jimi Hendrix - The Star Spangled Banner
Live at Woodstock 1969 (actually starts about 1 minute in)

This is the only video of this performance currently on YouTube. Presumably they get taken down for copyright reasons, so enjoy it while it's there.




.

Tweet

Things I Have Learned This Week

IT'S WHAT HE WOULD HAVE WANTED - POSSIBLY

1. Wills and Kate have been going down a storm in Canada. Hardly surprising really, as the Canucks are somewhat starved of entertainment. The last Brits to tour there were these guys >

 

2. How times change. The greatest weapon of the anti-establishment movement these days is Photoshop. I for one am glad, if it means I get one of these.

3. The news that Thomson Airways will be using old chip fat to power its flights means changes to their planes' livery:

I WAS RUSHED OK?

4. After the "right-on" politics of Glastonbury last week, the Ku Klux Klan are out in force at Kent's Hop Farm Festival:

5.

Lord Hutton: I didn't recommend pension contributions hike

Tweet