The Locked-Room Lecture

Two coffins of the way through The Three Coffins(aka The Hollow Man) the author, John Dickson Carr, breaks into the narrative through the words of his serial detective Dr Gideon Fell. Fell responds to a question:

“Because … we’re in a detective story, and we don’t fool the reader by pretending we’re not. Let’s not invent elaborate excuses to drag in a discussion of detective stories.”

He then let’s the reader know what counts as contravening his/her rights regarding the possibilities in solving a locked-room mystery:

“the low … trick of having a secret passage … so puts a story beyond the pale that a self-respecting author scarcely needs even to mention that there is no such thing. We don’t need to discuss minor variations of this outrage: the panel which is only large enough to admit a hand; or the plugged hole in the ceiling through which a knife is dropped, the plug replaced undetectably, and the floor of the attic above sprayed with dust so that no one seems to have walked there.”

Then proposes a taxonomy of locked-room solutions. First where there was no murderer in the room:
1. It is not murder, but a series of coincidences ending in an accident which looks like murder. eg a crack on the head from a piece of furniture. “the most popular object is an iron fender”
2. It is murder, but the victim is impelled to kill himself. Gas, poison, induced hysteria.
3. It is murder, by a mechanical device. Mechanical trap, concealed guns, hidden poisoned needles, “Even” says Fell ” a glove is electrified”. Er, ok. … read on …

Freaky Trigger and the Lollards of Pop - Series 2, Week 3

Toby Keith is The Angry American. Arno Peters is a lyingmisleading swine (and German), the size of Brazil, the world in the shape of a heart. The sound of rattling pots and pans “Dude, this is Resonance”. Tanya targets the murderer Richard Marx. Sporting National Anthems. The amazing Hey Say Jump’s World Volleyball Championship Theme. The role of bumpkins, poachers and yokels. The midweek number one - congratulations to Swell Maps.

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Poptimism - Lesson Forty Eight

Fling - Girls Aloud

Sweaty - Muscles

Guilty Pleasures - Cobra Starship

Clumsy - Fergie

Dat Girl Right There - Usher ft. Ludacris

This Summer Night - Bertrand Burgalat w/ Robert Wyatt

The Question Is What Is The Question - Scooter

Hutch - Rob Gibson … read on …

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Freaky Trigger and the Lollards of Pop - Series 2, Week 1

Freaky Trigger’s radio escapades continue to The Next Level. Here’s the episode as originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM between 7 and 8pm earlier this evening.

HAIR, sprouting from a new location. Hosted by Mark. What has gone before? (And why?) Britney has a plan. Kat’s entirely explicable Victorian hair fixation and a dubious graph. Magnus’s doffable clothing. New Seeker’s Pinball Wizard. The Teen Forecast. 2 Unlimited. Katie susses sunseed. And announcing the Midweek Number One…

Specially brought to you from us, the good people at www.freakytrigger.com :-)

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Poptimism – Lesson Forty Seven

Because I’m Awesome - The Dollyrots

Breakin’ Up - Rilo Kiley

Whats It Gonna Be - H20 ft Platnum

Cubique - Human Resource Vs 808 State (Soulwax remix)

Weed Bag - Wayne Marshall

Mystical (State Of Grace) - Britney Spears

Not Clean - Ghostigital feat. Mark E. Smith

Damn, You Look Good and I’m Drunk (Scandalous) - Cobra Starship … read on …

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Poptimism - Lesson Forty Six

Careless Whisper - The Gossip

I Got It From My Mama - Will.I.Am

Headstrong - Ashley Tisdale

Call The Shots - Girls Aloud

Dead Drummers - The Rogue Element

The World Is Outside (Stellasound Remix) - Ghosts

Amigo Vulnerable - Enrique Iglesias

I Like Mike - Jay Spears

Shoppers’ Paradise - Carter USM … read on …

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The Freaky Trigger Top 100 Tracks Of All Time: No. 52, Joe Jackson - It’s Different For Girls

Look over there! Where? There in wikipedia where it tells you that Joe Jackson has been putting out records (but not cigarettes) constantly since the late 70s. Not just those two songs once. Yes JJ is one of those unfortunate artists that you know more of their songs than you realise. “Stepping Out” that was him too — a song I know very well, but didn’t even know the title or that it was by him until 20 minutes ago. (Go find it on youtube.) But that was later, smoother 80s JJ — you don’t get more dinner-party-smooth than playing piano for Suzanne Vega, and Stepping Out is even on one of the GTA soundtracks - so perhaps the right phrase is “Mondeo Pop”. If it is I have to insist there are no pejorative connotations. Good, that’s settled.

Anyway. Earlier in 79/80, It’s Different for Girls, and Is She Really Going Out With Him?. These merge into one another in my head. Partly because, well , they do sound the same (they do!), but also because they are in a particularly malleable bit of my memory (someone find me a JJ megamix plz!). The late 70s was the environment that formed my own pre-teen musical tastes … read on …

Poptimism - Lesson Forty Five RPM

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Can I Get Get Get - Junior Senior

Doing It Right - Go! Team

Me, Myself And (I) - Darren Hayes

Her - Kissy Sell Out

You’re Out - Dead Disco

One More Chance - Candie Payne
– — – — – … read on …

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Your Fat Cats, show them to me

I was a bit confused as to why pics of fat cats was news worthy of the BBC. It appears to be a follow up to Fat cats facing soaring diabetes, which is PROPER NEWS.

Considering that previous BBC news ’send us yr pics’ have ended up including notorious and filthy internet pics (disguised as logos, children’s art, etc) it looks like the editors have given up and are asking people just to send in the 35% of the internet that is cat pics anyway. b3ta i’m sure are all in a lather. But, MUST TRY HARDER — THESE AREN”T FAT CATS AT ALL … read on …

East Meets Kanye West

If you have seen the Kanye ‘Stronger’ video but never seen Akira, here’s what you need to know:

More screenshot comparisons here

I disagree with almost everything on that site. “There’s a lot of stuff in this music video that doesn’t make any sense”. REALLY! In a music video? What’s weird is that despite the blatant homage, despite DAFT PUNK being in it, it’s still not all that great a video :-(