alexsarll: (menswear)
Alex ([personal profile] alexsarll) wrote2007-10-13 09:54 am

Capri-Sun - like hope in a silver sachet

Technically adept types: would it theoretically be possible to make an Oyster card virus?

When I first saw that Virgin 1 was on Freeview, I was mainly excited about The Riches. Then I saw a trailer, and...I'm meant to take that accent of Eddie Izzard's seriously? Like I am Hugh Laurie's in House? There's no punchline? Yeah, maybe not. If I couldn't bear My Fair Lady or The Lady From Shanghai, no way can I take it in an ongoing series. So then I was excited about Battlestar Galactica until I realised it was the crappy original, and while I'd love to see Boston Legal, they've scheduled it against The Sopranos. But just before I dismissed this new channel as a bust, I remembered why I was recognising the name The Unit. It's the collaboration between Shawn "The Shield" Ryan and David Mamet about a US covert ops group (I would say Delta Force except these guys appear to be competent, so maybe think of them just as a US SAS), starring President Palmer from 24 as the operational commander and the T-1000 running things back at base. Tense and manly decisions are made, and stuff blows up. The other plot strand is basically Desperate Housewives except not achingly sh1t, with the unit's wives attempting to maintain both a semblance of normal domestic life, and the pretence that their husbands are in some boring logistics division and certainly not off about to get themselves killed in deniable ops behind enemy lines.
It is on Wednesday evenings. Thus far I have only seen one episode (the second of the first series), but I strongly recommend it.

Phonogram readers and the more-or-less sane will note that everyone interviewed in this piece about the Britpop revival is one of the era's war criminals. Why aren't Menswear touring? Why wasn't the return of Marion met with this sort of mainstream coverage?
(Still, even reading a Northern Uproar interview in 2007 can't be as sure a sign of the End Times as a really rather witty piece appearing in Observer Woman magazine)

Am more excited about Black Plastic later than I've been about a club in a while. I think it helps that this month's cover is the front of John Foxx's Metamatic, an album I somehow only discovered this month.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
It's not sold out, has it? I've been being disorganised about that too.

Ah, good old Witter (by which obviously I mean the opposite). Have I ever told you about the time I saw Louise Wener coming out of Muji? She was even worse, you could tell from her sour expression that she desperately wanted someone to come up to her and say 'Aren't you..?' so that she could act all tired of being recognised everywhere. As if. So obviously, I ignored her totally.

[identity profile] baphomette.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 10:12 am (UTC)(link)
Apparently not, no. Although if you haven't got a ticket either, there's a cheap pair on ebay I'm keeping my eye on - if they look like they're going for any less than face value I'm having them - I can earmark the spare for you if you like?

I would have said something like "Oh you're her, from that britpop band...Justine, is it?" and then denied all knowledge of Sleeper when she corrected me.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 10:25 am (UTC)(link)
You sadist. Then again, there was that time at early SB when Graham Coxon turned up, and I wanted to find him so I could tell him how much I loved the 'Country House' video.

Tickets - I'm not sure, I think I need to prod some other interested parties. But thanks for the offer.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 01:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, I just took a look at Finny P's new comic shop. It's...not great.

[identity profile] myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 10:46 am (UTC)(link)
Wener does writing workshops for the Arvon Foundation these days (the folk who do residential courses and keep many a poor writer in pocket money, they send me their brochures). Novel-writing and songwriting. Aish.

[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
A dear friend of mine has still yet to offer a satsfactory excuse for her possession of one of Wener's novels.
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[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-13 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
If I was in a lift with Bono, I'd probably just assume that it was someone who looked really like Bono. This is why I mostly fail at celebspotting.
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[identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com 2007-10-14 10:56 am (UTC)(link)
Fair enough, it's the lack of minders/entourage that often throws me.