Friday, February 22, 2008
Zzzz...
A six-minute nap can boost your memory, but 'daytime dozing' can give you a stroke. What to do?!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Non-news
This is a great bit of non-news from Cornwall. The headline reads ‘Man hurt after prince leaves club’ which from a news perspective implies the man was hurt at the same time the prince left – perhaps in a connected way. But of course read literally it means ‘after the prince left the club, a man was hurt (sometime later)'. Which is actually what happened.
An hour and a half after the prince left there was a fight and someone got hit. Unless the prince said something that took an hour and a half to be understood before the men could react, I don’t think the quote of, "We can categorically say neither the prince nor his party were involved” is really that necessary.
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Since I wrote this up earlier more stories about it have been coming up form a variety of papers with more details which make it more of a 'story' - although whether or not the prince's presence in the club had anything to do with the incident is questionable. I would suggest, as an ex-resident of Cornwall, that a 1-pound party night in Newquay yields injuries on a fairly regular basis.
An hour and a half after the prince left there was a fight and someone got hit. Unless the prince said something that took an hour and a half to be understood before the men could react, I don’t think the quote of, "We can categorically say neither the prince nor his party were involved” is really that necessary.
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Since I wrote this up earlier more stories about it have been coming up form a variety of papers with more details which make it more of a 'story' - although whether or not the prince's presence in the club had anything to do with the incident is questionable. I would suggest, as an ex-resident of Cornwall, that a 1-pound party night in Newquay yields injuries on a fairly regular basis.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Anything to Declare?
The furore over MPs expenses and the incredible fact they don’t have to produce receipts for any claims under £250 and can claim £400 a month against ‘food’ expenditure (more than the highest state pension over a month) really underlines some of the archaic practices operating within our government. The argument they don’t want people to have a “peephole” into their lives, (the word(s) of Resources Boss Andrew Walker), doesn’t hold weight as what can they be doing as MPs working on ‘our’ behalf that couldn’t be made public?
No business in Britain would run a system where employees could claim expenses of up to £250 without any form of receipt, but for MPs to be able to do so, and get back, effectively, ‘our’ money is so outdated and open to corruption it defies belief.
The Scottish Government now has an online section where you can search for any expenditure in any available category claimed by minsters. If SMPs are doing their jobs and claiming legitimate expenses they incur, then what is the problem? If the Westminster MPs are so ‘honourable’ what have they got to fear?
No business in Britain would run a system where employees could claim expenses of up to £250 without any form of receipt, but for MPs to be able to do so, and get back, effectively, ‘our’ money is so outdated and open to corruption it defies belief.
The Scottish Government now has an online section where you can search for any expenditure in any available category claimed by minsters. If SMPs are doing their jobs and claiming legitimate expenses they incur, then what is the problem? If the Westminster MPs are so ‘honourable’ what have they got to fear?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Some Good News
Arrested Development to return? Let’s hope so. The best comedy of all time? I think so. And with a 9.7 average from over 20,000 votes on IMDB so do a lot of people.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Oh Dear
Cliff Richard's interview with Q sounds like it was an odd affair.
Like many people Cliff Richard has mistaken ‘most’ for ‘best’. Because he sold more records than The Beatles and Elvis he assumes he is ‘better’ than them. This of course ignores the fact his music is more middle of the road than white lines and his audience is that entire strata of the population who have a music bypass in their brains.
He’s even attacked George Harrison’s guitar solos as ‘out-of-tune’. Strange that it took 50 years and the incredible musical talent of Cliff Richard to point this out. You would have thought classically trained musicians, or uber-keen fans, or even fans, or even the band themselves would have noticed this in half a century of listening. But no. Everyone else is an idiot and Cliff is a bloody genius and only he can point these things out.
Why stop there Cliff? Come on, you’ve got all these outlandish opinions let’s hear them. There’s a whole 50 years worth of popular music to slate with ridiculous claims. The Rolling Stones (too loud); Bob Dylan (too wordy); Simon and Garfunkel (too many harmonies) – nothing compared to you Cliff.
I mean this is the man who set the Lord’s Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. Genius. Cliff is so sure of his own brilliance he calls himself the UPS – Ultimate Pop Star. A term he has coined because no one else has. Odd that.
Like many people Cliff Richard has mistaken ‘most’ for ‘best’. Because he sold more records than The Beatles and Elvis he assumes he is ‘better’ than them. This of course ignores the fact his music is more middle of the road than white lines and his audience is that entire strata of the population who have a music bypass in their brains.
He’s even attacked George Harrison’s guitar solos as ‘out-of-tune’. Strange that it took 50 years and the incredible musical talent of Cliff Richard to point this out. You would have thought classically trained musicians, or uber-keen fans, or even fans, or even the band themselves would have noticed this in half a century of listening. But no. Everyone else is an idiot and Cliff is a bloody genius and only he can point these things out.
Why stop there Cliff? Come on, you’ve got all these outlandish opinions let’s hear them. There’s a whole 50 years worth of popular music to slate with ridiculous claims. The Rolling Stones (too loud); Bob Dylan (too wordy); Simon and Garfunkel (too many harmonies) – nothing compared to you Cliff.
I mean this is the man who set the Lord’s Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. Genius. Cliff is so sure of his own brilliance he calls himself the UPS – Ultimate Pop Star. A term he has coined because no one else has. Odd that.
Friday, February 01, 2008
I Closed My Eyes
There is something unsettling about the fact Andrew Lloyd Webber has admitted he ‘planted’ his next Maria in Hollyoaks three months before she started her role in the West End. It’s just another example of how TV land views its public. First the numerous phone-in scandals, showed utter contempt for the viewer, and the recent show(s) Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper, demonstrated that those in TV think people not only want watch trashy, clichéd ridden soaps, but also how these soaps get made. Lloyd Webber's revelation is another example of TV slapping itself on the back and thinking it's jolly clever.
British television can produce some wonderful stuff – comedy, documentaries, nature shows – and I accept that more ‘lightweight’ programming has its place and its audience. But when you have a show on Channel 4 providing screen time for an actress who will star in a west-end show for a man who has mystifyingly taken over BBC1 with nothing more than jumped-up karaoke shows, and with more to come, it just becomes too much to bear.
The next show Lloyd Webber will be inflicting on to a strangely accepting public will be “I’d Do Anything” for a role in Oliver. An apt title I feel.
British television can produce some wonderful stuff – comedy, documentaries, nature shows – and I accept that more ‘lightweight’ programming has its place and its audience. But when you have a show on Channel 4 providing screen time for an actress who will star in a west-end show for a man who has mystifyingly taken over BBC1 with nothing more than jumped-up karaoke shows, and with more to come, it just becomes too much to bear.
The next show Lloyd Webber will be inflicting on to a strangely accepting public will be “I’d Do Anything” for a role in Oliver. An apt title I feel.
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