I may be a homophobe but I'm no badger-baiter

[alexsarll]

I'm doing a bit of DJing early on at Feeling Gloomy later, but please don't let that dissuade you from coming down to check out the newer, shinier Luxembourg and all the other attractions.

Peep Show just gets more painful every time, doesn't it? Meanwhile, I only tried watching Roman's Empire because I used to vaguely know the lead back in the midlands; as such, I was a little jarred to find one scene filmed on my London road, out front of Rowan's. It's not a *bad* programme, but nor does it quite seem to gel, even with a good supporting cast including Nathan Barley and Roy from The IT Crowd.
One comedy which definitely doesn't live up to its early promise: Mike Judge's Office Space. After starting off with ten painfully accurate minutes which are almost too The Office to be fun, the real laughs ensue: our hero is left under hypnosis with no guilt or inhibitions, and stops giving even the semblance of a toss at work. Yes!, you think, This Is The Stuff! But then, like far too many US comedies, it starts pandering to conventional sentiments. Having established, very sensibly, that *all* work is rubbish, it pulls back, falters, flakes out. The scheme to rip off the employers (who sorely deserve it) falls apart for no particular reason. Our Hero's hypnosis starts wearing off, again for no particular reason. Convention is restored, normality asserted, the status quo survives. What looked so promising a denunciation of all work ends with a cliched paean to the dignity of manual labour. It's a terrible, middlebrow waste of what started so anarchically well. It's like when Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead veers away from the hijinks which should ensue and instead forces the oldest kid to get a job. Oh well, perhaps I was a fool ever to hope for greatness from any film where Jennifer Blandiston is the unattainable object of desire.

White Mischief last night had enough that was splendid to do great credit to a first attempt. Evil Genius were their usual charmingly demonic selves, and Flipron filled the bigger space as effortlessly as they do the smaller venues in which I've seen them before. True, Tuesday Weld were rather let down by Stephen's voice and poise not being up to the usual standards (he may just have been ill), and I'm afraid Kunta Kinte are no Catch - the Laurel Collective do this sort of thing much better (though Toby still only looks about 16, so it's not as if he's got no time to pull it all back together). The vast majority of the crowd had made an impressive effort, and the space was almost right, but I fear Conway Hall just doesn't have the edge of darkness which would suit a night like this - nor does it help having a Polonius quote over the stage (silly humanists). The most astounding entertainment I've seen in quite some time, though, was The Great Voltini. Several wise men and women of this parish having concluded, some time ago, that the mark of a great pop video was fire and/or breasts - last night I saw a fire started with a breast. Is this where the young folk would say 'FTW'?

Comments

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

Hey! You stole my title from last week!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Arse! I knew that line had particularly jumped out at me for some reason, sorry. So how come you'd seen it in advance?

[perfectlyvague.livejournal.com]

It was a bit jumpy outy. It was quoted in some arts review programme on Radio 4 last week and I got very excited.

[thedavidx.livejournal.com]

Ooh, are you gonna play AFACD?!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I've burned it on to the CD I'll be alternating with the Gloomy mixes, so assuming I can get away with it...

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

I find it's simply a case of waiting until Carl walks out of the room (though last time my sets were rather too populist so this time I shall be attempting to be more interesting)..

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

You can get away with almost anything if you're on during the bands - I've played David Devant, Orlando, TRTW and Jeays. Though it might be worth humouring him if you want a more substantial set.

As for later, quite, just wait until he disappears, though there's a risk that he'll come back, disapprove, take over, and kill the dancefloor.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, I was going to do a fair bit from the Gloomy CDs too. Apart from anything else, saves me having to bring a bag.

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

They have some surprisingly obscure and interesting stuff in there actually :)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, one track I'd burned was already on the CD that was in when I took over!

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

Natch, you have to give the people what they want, but it's nice to shake it up a bit..

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

In which respects, this song has the added advantage of being very short.

[exliontamer.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how early I can get in with my +2 as they have told me they only need me from 10.30, but I will aim to be there to see your DJ skills!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It'll be quite novel attempting to play songs more than two other people want to hear...

[godcreature.livejournal.com]

And for my next trick I'm going to shove an electrode RIGHT UP MY ARSE!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, call me vanilla but I never thought I'd watch a man engage in anal antics with a Tesla coil.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

lies...all lies....

what time does gloomy actually start?

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

And he licked it first!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

More sucked, I'd have said. But in a way isn't that less perverse than ramming it in dry?

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I'm intending to be at ksta's birthday curry... See you there later though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Pah, you may have escaped me this time, beingjdc, but just you wait... [shakes fist, &c]

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

I recently saw a clip in which a girl's breasts were set ON fire, in some hilarious tequila jape gone wrong. I can't find it, but have had an entertaining afternoon attempting to do so...

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Were you just searching youtube for 'fire + breasts'?

Actually, maybe I won't go out today after all...