TV Diary: everything I watched on 26/3/05
Top of the Pops (taped yesterday): It’s only a couple of hours, but I have forgotten most of what was on. I think Basement Jaxx was the only thing I loved. The Snoop/Timberlake/Neptunes/someone else (Ch[…]

The collected edition of Mick Farren’s DNA Cowboys trilogy is a fascinating social document. You can tell a lot about a time from its bobbins gonzo fantasy novels. And here we have a trilogy, steam written fuelled by drugs, coffee and an urge t[…]

An Open Letter To Trailer Producers Of British Comedy Films:
It has come to my attention that nearly any time a British comedy act make a film, for the big screen, there is only one trope that trailer makers seem fit to exploit. Namely how unlikely i[…]

I used to go to school with a girl called Saffron, whose family was not from the sub-Indian continent. This is apros of absolutely nothing, except that I went to the worst Indian restaurant I have ever been to in my life the other day, and it was als[…]

Lame Secret Identities in Superhero Comics
There are plenty of unlikely villainous names – “You mean the Riddler is really Mr E. Nigma? Holy stupid fucking contrivances, Batman!” – but since a lot of them were probably created[…]

TV Diary: everything I watched on 25/3/05
Zatoichi is covered in the Blind fighters post below. A very good movie.
Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas: An odd mix of animation styles, making some parts look as if they are in different realms of reality,[…]

I have never been to a Dr Who Convention, BUT…
It’s time I told you that I once attended something affectionately called an “Olympiad”. In my own head this is much, much less sad than a (say the word while spitting) “con[…]

Blind fighters
Warning: some spoilers.
There seems to have been a fair bit of this going around of late. I recall Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury as an ex-soldier who lost his sight and was trained to fight in Vietnam, but until recently I can’t thi[…]

The Physics Detective Part Ten — The Mystery Is Solved (and I Hate to Say I Told You So, But …)
I told you so.
We have now reached the end of this two-month mini-blogging journey. Now I can go back to writing to amuse others rather than t[…]

Is it cynicism that drives local voice casting in animated films? I felt it was in Shrek 2 (but then as one of the few anti-Shrek people I find almost all aspects of those films cynical). In Robots though the cynicism is probably so up-front and cent[…]