I tend to think that all screwball comedies of the thirties are a priori better written, directed and acted than any comedies being made these days. The awful truth is that this is not the case, and actually the superior batch are a small bunch (Pres[…]

Just as we long ago nicked the idea for the Focus Group from ‘legendary’ US zine Radio On, so the Focus Group itself has now been borrowed by Stylus magazine for a weekly feature in which a panel of the great and good – now includin[…]

I really, really did not expect to see the set pieces directly in the novel. Mrs Robinson naked and the whole race to the church at the end are so visual, such staples as classic cinema that it comes as quiet a shock to see these described almost ide[…]

Akwid – “No Hay Manera”
The EMP pop conference mixes journalists and academics to good effect. They form a continuum whose parameters are argued and sketchily defined over three super-stimulating days. At one end of the continuum ar[…]

You will notice:
– a new logo.
– the staff Top 10 is back.
– we are going to be an MP3 blog from now on, except for those entries when we’re not. We’re going to try and think of interesting ways to present and discuss MP[…]

It’s not that complimentary to be known as a “good politician” (cf the phrase “he got off bcz he had a good lawyer”) – but is the victor in an election simply by DEFINITION the better politician? process-heads woul[…]

I stumbled across The End on BBC3 last Thursday, and a more jolly, optimistic programme you could not imagine to find in the schedules. An hour long show, predicated on Groundhog Day where a scientist trying to get to America to run his potentially w[…]

yech
i have to confess it is stuff like THIS which turns me most chomskyish abt the uk press: i find it reactionary, intellectually corrupt, cynical, diversionary ect ect PLUS ALSO NEVER EVER CLEVER OR FUNNY!!?![…]

“Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love” says Kevin Smith. At no point does he say “It’s daaaaaarrk, innit”[…]

We had an offsite middle management meeting in Croydon yesterday. It was everything you might expect an offsite middle management meeting in Croydon to be, including the dread words on the agenda “interactive game”. When you are a small c[…]