Go jump down a black hole, Professor Brian Cox - with your 'Wonders Of The Solar System' and your pop star hair.
Stephen Hawking releases his 'Universe' DVD on 1 June 2010 - and you can damn well call him 'Sir'.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Remember, it's Stephen Hawking’s Universe – we just live in it…
Go jump down a black hole, Professor Brian Cox - with your 'Wonders Of The Solar System' and your pop star hair.
Stephen Hawking releases his 'Universe' DVD on 1 June 2010 - and you can damn well call him 'Sir'.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Man Or Myth?
Two new films released almost simultaneously. Spot any similarities?
Percy Jackson (above)
Perseus (below)
Hair Apparent
Nic Cage's hair is getting supernatural again!
Season Of The Witch (above)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (below)
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Keynsham, Mon Amour
Looks like the beloved Cadbury's factory at Keynsham, just outside Bristol is safe - for now.
But having fallen prey to a hostile takeover from Kraft, is it just a case of 'out of the chocolate and into the shit'?
Hands off our Curly Wurlys, you greedy Yanks!
Thursday, 17 December 2009
The Age Of Cage
He’s done it again! Check out this clip of Nic Cage in the bizarre new Bad Lieutenant film inexplicably directed by the great Werner Herzog:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/badlieutenantportofcallneworleans/
I particularly like the way he treats poor Eva Mendes like a prop. Her expression of bewilderment is a sight to behold.
Monday, 30 November 2009
La Belle Noiseuse
‘Belle de Jour’, the pseudonymous author of ‘The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl’, has allegedly been unmasked as Dr Brooke Magnanti a 34-year-old female research scientist at Bristol University, widely described as ‘blonde’.
Which is quite a surprise. Like most people, I’d always assumed her stuff was constructed by a committee of middle-aged men.
Actually, that’s not quite true. The only time I looked at her blog – about a year ago – I was convinced it had been written by a 30-something British woman of Indian origin. Why? Because her fixation on Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (and the fact that she went to see his film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in its week of release) suggested someone with intimate knowledge of Indian cinema.
Here’s the entry:
lundi, décembre 15
“Speaking of cinema, delighted to notice in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi that Shah Rukh Khan has a left-side fang just like mine! Wonky teeth rule. Also that in undercover geek mode he looks distinctly like my father's older brother - am now uncertain whether it is strictly kosher to continue fancying SRK.”
An authority on sex, neurotoxicology and Bollywood, Dr Magnanti certainly sounds like fun. We can almost forgive her for borrowing the name of one of our all-time favourite films...
Which is quite a surprise. Like most people, I’d always assumed her stuff was constructed by a committee of middle-aged men.
Actually, that’s not quite true. The only time I looked at her blog – about a year ago – I was convinced it had been written by a 30-something British woman of Indian origin. Why? Because her fixation on Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (and the fact that she went to see his film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in its week of release) suggested someone with intimate knowledge of Indian cinema.
Here’s the entry:
lundi, décembre 15
“Speaking of cinema, delighted to notice in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi that Shah Rukh Khan has a left-side fang just like mine! Wonky teeth rule. Also that in undercover geek mode he looks distinctly like my father's older brother - am now uncertain whether it is strictly kosher to continue fancying SRK.”
An authority on sex, neurotoxicology and Bollywood, Dr Magnanti certainly sounds like fun. We can almost forgive her for borrowing the name of one of our all-time favourite films...
Naboo For Lashes
Let us consider the mysteries of Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes.
Is she:
(a) an astral-voyaging musical genius from the other side of midnight.
(b) Natasha Bedingfield in a Halloween costume.
(c) Naboo from The Mighty Boosh.
(Only answers written in blood on a sheet of parchment will be eligible)
Cage Rage!
Unbelievably, a rumour previously reported in this blog has actually come true. Hollywood superstar Nicolas Cage really did turn on the Christmas lights in Bath last week!
However, there was apparently an unfortunate altercation between Mr Cage and one of the staff of Bath council. Someone captured it on film too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOpsbAUEe90&feature=youtube_gdata
Friday, 13 November 2009
Joss Stone – the white girl who just loves to mangle black music
Did anyone else notice that on the Jools Holland show this week, Steve Martin referred to fellow guest Joss Stone as ‘Josh Stone’?
‘Josh’ (pictured here shortly before being shot with a tranquilizer dart and released into the wild) wore a hideous gigantic hippie blanket and danced like a loon during the other artists’ performances.
She also spent a lot of time trying to chat up soulful blues-rocker Black Joe Lewis. Wonder if he asked her to give him back his cultural heritage.
‘Josh’ (pictured here shortly before being shot with a tranquilizer dart and released into the wild) wore a hideous gigantic hippie blanket and danced like a loon during the other artists’ performances.
She also spent a lot of time trying to chat up soulful blues-rocker Black Joe Lewis. Wonder if he asked her to give him back his cultural heritage.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Anatomy Of A Shirt-Rip Ritual
Remember that iconic gatefold image from the Smiths live album 'Rank'?
Well, it looks like ageing Smiths fans are still up for a bit of shirt-ripping action on former Smiths frontman Morrissey's current tour. Photographer Gavin Roberts took this shot at the Salisbury gig on Monday.
"At the end of the gig Moz threw his green shirt into the crowd," says Gavin. "There was a bit of the usual tussle, but nothing serious. The lights go on and there's about half a dozen separate groups, each with five or six people trying to wrestle control of tiny parts of the famed garment.
"The Security were at first a little bemused but as people stood their ground it went on for longer than they thought. Although it was generally good-natured, a few people were thrown out by Security. They seemed slightly baffled as to why grown men - and women - who should know better would fight so hard for a tiny part of a shirt worn by a greying 50-year-old indie crooner."
Well, it looks like ageing Smiths fans are still up for a bit of shirt-ripping action on former Smiths frontman Morrissey's current tour. Photographer Gavin Roberts took this shot at the Salisbury gig on Monday.
"At the end of the gig Moz threw his green shirt into the crowd," says Gavin. "There was a bit of the usual tussle, but nothing serious. The lights go on and there's about half a dozen separate groups, each with five or six people trying to wrestle control of tiny parts of the famed garment.
"The Security were at first a little bemused but as people stood their ground it went on for longer than they thought. Although it was generally good-natured, a few people were thrown out by Security. They seemed slightly baffled as to why grown men - and women - who should know better would fight so hard for a tiny part of a shirt worn by a greying 50-year-old indie crooner."
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Hurry Up, Simon!
Spotted near Bristol’s Christmas steps about ten minutes ago: Simon Amstell, floppy-haired, acid-tongued and quite possibly self-loathing comedian.
To whom we say: Get a move on, Simon! You’re due onstage at the Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells in a little over five hours...
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Call us immature...
...But today we are being amused by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons – otherwise known as BAAPS.
Friday, 18 September 2009
"I know it's dangerous - but it sure beats Rikers..."
This year we've already said goodbye to Lux Interior - wild-eyed frontman with The Cramps - at the age of 62.
Today I've been saddened to learn that Jim Carroll has died. He was just 60.
I must confess I haven't yet read The Basketball Diaries (famously filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Carroll). But Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries, detailing JC’s early ‘70s adventures with the Warhol scene, is a brilliantly evocative memoir of that place and time. A pre-fame Patti Smith used to bring Carroll donuts and chocolate milkshakes every morning for breakfast. And there’s an hilarious anecdote about Allen Ginsberg and a vibrator.
Although primarily a poet and author, Jim Carroll was also a musician. Fittingly his song ‘People Who Died’ is the most life-affirming song about death ever – and one of my favourite New York punk rock anthems. There’s a great version here:
http://www.myspace.com/jcarrollband
"I salute you, my brother..."
Today I've been saddened to learn that Jim Carroll has died. He was just 60.
I must confess I haven't yet read The Basketball Diaries (famously filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Carroll). But Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries, detailing JC’s early ‘70s adventures with the Warhol scene, is a brilliantly evocative memoir of that place and time. A pre-fame Patti Smith used to bring Carroll donuts and chocolate milkshakes every morning for breakfast. And there’s an hilarious anecdote about Allen Ginsberg and a vibrator.
Although primarily a poet and author, Jim Carroll was also a musician. Fittingly his song ‘People Who Died’ is the most life-affirming song about death ever – and one of my favourite New York punk rock anthems. There’s a great version here:
http://www.myspace.com/jcarrollband
"I salute you, my brother..."
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Geek Of The Week
Hard on the heels of cinema's current alpha nerd Michael Cera is the distinctly sensitive and unthreatening Jesse Eisenberg, who stars in two major films this month.
The first is Adventureland:
The second is, er, Zombieland.
Now that's what we call timing.
The first is Adventureland:
The second is, er, Zombieland.
Now that's what we call timing.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Mister River Lover
Described by its distributors as ‘Herzogian’ (Herzog-esque?), Amazon-swimming documentary Big River Man is on limited release in UK cinemas now.
Hmm. Judging by these pics, maybe it should be called ‘Weird Nipple Man’
Or perhaps ‘Small Speedos Man’
More from: www.bigriverman.co.uk
Hmm. Judging by these pics, maybe it should be called ‘Weird Nipple Man’
Or perhaps ‘Small Speedos Man’
More from: www.bigriverman.co.uk
Silly-Named Actress of the Month™
Step aside Tallulah Sheffield (our previous SNAOTM™), and let’s hear it for PORTIA DOUBLEDAY! She stars alongside Michael “same in every single film” Cera in the forthcoming comedy Youth in Revolt. The trailer makes it look quite funny...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/youthinrevolt
Friday, 4 September 2009
Trick Baby
Possibly the most heart-warming film of the year, Andrzej Jakimowski’s ‘Sztuczki’ (‘Tricks’) gets a UK release today, but only in London’s Apollo Piccadilly Circus and Curzon Soho. We earnestly implore you to go see this Polish feel-good gem, and not just because the poster image reminds us of ‘80s Prefab Sprout album cover art...
More info from here: http://www.sztuczki-film.pl
Masters Of The Geekiverse
Our favourite cult comic writer Rob Williams (of Cla$$war fame) has a new series starting in 2000AD.
It’s apparently called The Grevious Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And the Dead Left in His Wake), and Williams describes it as “a supernatural western with alt-country leanings”.
The artwork we’ve seen makes it look like a mixture of Deadwood, Cold Mountain and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (with maybe a smattering of High Plains Drifter). Consider us intrigued.
It’s apparently called The Grevious Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And the Dead Left in His Wake), and Williams describes it as “a supernatural western with alt-country leanings”.
The artwork we’ve seen makes it look like a mixture of Deadwood, Cold Mountain and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (with maybe a smattering of High Plains Drifter). Consider us intrigued.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Tonight I’m Going To Party Like It’s 1939
The world changed forever seventy years ago today.
Without tragedies and disasters we learn nothing, and 1939-1945 is arguably the greatest man-made disaster to ever afflict civilization. Not that there weren’t plenty of horrors leading up to ’39, in theatres such as Abyssinia, Spain and Nanking.
In his pithy new book ‘1939 – Countdown To War’ Richard Overy examines the factors that led to Britain declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939 (he views France’s subsequent declaration as something of an anticlimax).
What is surprising is how well Neville Chamberlain comes out of it. History hasn’t often been so kind to the ‘arch-appeaser’ Conservative Prime Minister, who was 70 at the time, and due to die of cancer the following year.
What seems to emerge from Overy’s account, however, is that Chamberlain had no illusions about what he was facing, and merely did his best to avert war for as long as possible. If he had an Achilles heel, it was simply the fact that he wasn’t a warmongering psychopath like Hitler and Stalin.
The real villain of the piece is Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister - a hateful bully whose despicable machinations were calculated to curry favour with his beloved Fuhrer. It’s some small consolation to know that this brute was hanged six years later, after ending up on the losing side of the war he did more than anyone else to start.
The other surprise is just how weak were the ties between Britain and Poland. Created in 1919 at the Treaty of Versailles, the modern Polish state had a reputation for belligerence. It had scored a major victory in seeing off a Red Army invasion in 1920, and had participated in the 1938 carve-up of Czechoslovakia. To some, Poland’s natural place was as part of a pro-Nazi, anti-Soviet bloc in Europe.
And yet it was Chamberlain’s decision to honour Britain’s treaty with Poland that led to his declaring war on Germany - although Britain and France gave virtually no aid to Poland, and never intended to join the fray immediately. Poland’s determination to fight lent some backbone to the Allied powers, but at an almost unimaginably devastating cost to Poland itself.
Without tragedies and disasters we learn nothing, and 1939-1945 is arguably the greatest man-made disaster to ever afflict civilization. Not that there weren’t plenty of horrors leading up to ’39, in theatres such as Abyssinia, Spain and Nanking.
In his pithy new book ‘1939 – Countdown To War’ Richard Overy examines the factors that led to Britain declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939 (he views France’s subsequent declaration as something of an anticlimax).
What is surprising is how well Neville Chamberlain comes out of it. History hasn’t often been so kind to the ‘arch-appeaser’ Conservative Prime Minister, who was 70 at the time, and due to die of cancer the following year.
What seems to emerge from Overy’s account, however, is that Chamberlain had no illusions about what he was facing, and merely did his best to avert war for as long as possible. If he had an Achilles heel, it was simply the fact that he wasn’t a warmongering psychopath like Hitler and Stalin.
The real villain of the piece is Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister - a hateful bully whose despicable machinations were calculated to curry favour with his beloved Fuhrer. It’s some small consolation to know that this brute was hanged six years later, after ending up on the losing side of the war he did more than anyone else to start.
The other surprise is just how weak were the ties between Britain and Poland. Created in 1919 at the Treaty of Versailles, the modern Polish state had a reputation for belligerence. It had scored a major victory in seeing off a Red Army invasion in 1920, and had participated in the 1938 carve-up of Czechoslovakia. To some, Poland’s natural place was as part of a pro-Nazi, anti-Soviet bloc in Europe.
And yet it was Chamberlain’s decision to honour Britain’s treaty with Poland that led to his declaring war on Germany - although Britain and France gave virtually no aid to Poland, and never intended to join the fray immediately. Poland’s determination to fight lent some backbone to the Allied powers, but at an almost unimaginably devastating cost to Poland itself.
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