Looking for an anesthetizing jab of teen-pop, I was drawn by Tom’s description of Smash Hits Radio like a kindly old man to a nursery. I don’t, however, “have digital,” as they say here in the UK (and as US people will no doub[…]

SIDEBAR ADDITION: to Television Without Pity, formerly Mighty Big TV, formerly Dawson’s Wraps. It hosts such brilliantly bitchy and excruciatingly funny Dawsons Creek recaps that quite frankly, one doesn’t even NEED to read the show, and […]

Interesting piece from comics writer Steven Grant in the wake of Spider-Man 2 about the supposed dumbing down of cinema. It meanders a touch but soon gets to the interesting thesis that cinema, as a social lubricant, is all about getting people into […]

The first tale of glory from Copa America
Extended highlights are on Sky every night after games, this one should be watched methinks[…]

Inventions That Changed the World – The Computer (repeated, I think, last night on BBC2)
A show that has Jeremy Clarkson talking to Kevin ‘Cyborg’ Warwick? How awful can it get? At one point I was charitable enough to think Clarkson[…]

Corny Pastiche
Shrek 2 is a giant patchwork of film pastiches, and even this list of related trivia on IMDB doesn’t catch them all. (Contains a ‘spoiler’ right at the end). I’m pretty sure there was a subtle Matrix reference, […]

FT Top 100 Films
68: THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
So you’ve made a low budget horror movie, received well, regarding the fears of a woman Irena (Simone Simon) who believes she turns into a cat when aroused. Despite this she enters into a relatio[…]

The new Dizzee Rascal single (“Stand Up Tall”) is very pop, very fast, pretty incoherent, more “Lucky Star” than anything else he’s done, and the backing reminds me more than anyone else of… Komatrohn![…]

Alas Hits: to while away a journey recently I bought a copy of Smash Hits. I am so far outside the target market for SH as to be on an entirely different archery range, so the following grumblings can, maybe should be dismissed as the drool of a sad […]

ADDIS ADDENDUM – BOUZE EXTRA
The third and final post about last Friday’s disasterous Ethiopian excursion brings us on to the drinks. I noted below that from an extensive list of beers, including Casablanca and “mystery Ethiopian&#8[…]