The Stanford Prison Experiment - On Ice!

[alexsarll]

Oh, Internet, I really thought we had something! In spite of the slash and the spoilers and the people on the BBC's Have Your Say pages, I liked you, and part of that was because you always told me about the new stuff first. But the news that Pixar are doing a John Carter of Mars trilogy? Well yes, you can give me a link now, but I learned about this from some dead trees! What do you have to say for yourself?
What's that? You have some spoiler-free mini-episodes of The Wire?
Oh, dear Internet - how could I ever have doubted you?

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland didn't leave me feeling massively festive, but I think the weather may have been to blame for at least part of that - rainy but warm is surely the antithesis of all that is meteorologically christmassy? I was more impressed by the impromptu excursion afters to Itsenaisyyspaiva which if you didn't know, and I didn't, was the 90th anniversary of Finnish independence. Good night; global warming, Eschaton and Putin permitting, the centenary should be awesome.

An edited Torchwood transmission for the tinies? This strikes me as a bad idea. Either you're saying that the adult content is tacked-on - a few swears and breasts thrown in to spice up a Doctorless Who spin-off - or you're going to end up with disjointed stories that don't make any sense, like those godawful teatime transmissions of Angel on Channel 4. Neither is good.

Those of you on the SB board will already have seen this, but for the benefit of everyone else - my albums of the year. There was some really good stuff out, but nothing as OMG THIS IS AMAZING as the top albums of last year, where stuff like Amy Winehouse, The Long Blondes, Muse and Neil Diamond genuinely startled me with sheer radiant magnificence.

1. Year Zero - Nine Inch Nails
2. The Magic Position - Patrick Wolf
3. The Regional Variations - Swimmer One
4. Super Taranta! - Gogol Bordello
5. Blackout - Britney Spears
6. Robyn
7. It's A Bit Complicated - Art Brut
8. In The Salpetriere - Paris Motel
9. Giant - Herman Dune
10. Two Gallants
11. Grinderman
12. Stardom Road - Marc Almond
13. Tangled Up - Girls Aloud
14. Retox - Turbonegro
15. The Good, The Bad & The Queen
16. In Our Bedroom After The War - Stars
17. Galore - Dragonette
18. Good Girl Gone Bad - Rihanna
19. Girls And Weather - The Rumble Strips
20. Cookies - 1990s
21. Profit In Your Poetry - Butcher Boy
22. Lady's Bridge - Richard Hawley
23. Finding Forever - Common
24. Prayer for the Weekend - The Ark
25. The Cost Of Loving - Jason Webley
26. Forward March! - The Strange Death of Liberal England
27. I'll Sleep When You're Dead - El-P
28. The London Book Of The Dead - (The Real) Tuesday Weld
29. Eat Me, Drink Me - Marilyn Manson
30. Home Again - Edwyn Collins
31. The Crane Wife - The Decemberists
32. Magic - Bruce Springsteen
33. Boxer - The National
34. Challengers - The New Pornographers
35. Gaslight - Readers Wifes
36. Volta - Bjork
37. Narcissus Road - The Hours
38. This Fool Can Die Now - Scout Niblett
39. Cosmos - Murcof
40. Our Love To Admire - Interpol

This year also brought a lot of albums which I was expecting to be a lot better than they were, and which baffled me by convincing most people that they'd managed it - I'm thinking about the samey New Young Pony Club effort, LCD Soundystem's deeply patchy Sound of Silver (three great songs, but taken as a whole it's not even the best LCD Soundsystem album of the year - that was 45'33"), and Siouxsie - which wasn't a new departure, or more personal, or anything but a particularly dull Banshees record. Or maybe even more, one of the late Creatures ones which were neither quite Banshees nor Creatures proper, nor necessary.

And remember, kids - last Black Plastic of the year tomorrow - don't miss out! Or get sufficiently drunk and engrossed in Graham Greene beforehand that you end up in a small home counties station which later investigation suggests doesn't actually exist!

Comments

[my-name-is-anna.livejournal.com]

There was not one sex scene in Torchwood that didn't look contrived and thrown in to 'adult' it up, I thought.
And all of them were silly, not sexy.
Eg: that bit where the fighter pilot bloke gets a snog off Jack (OK I know it's not a 'sex' scene as such, but anyway) and all his squadron stand up and start clapping. How unlikely.

[my-name-is-anna.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh and the annoying Welsh woman starts having the affair with Mr Guppy and they all stomp about the place looking all serious about it. I'd forgotten how annoying I found Touchwood!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I thought it started very badly but then improved a great deal, so until this news I had high hopes for the second series.

[my-name-is-anna.livejournal.com]

Oh no now I've remembered how annoying it was! I used to sit on the sofa almost biting my fist because it was so embarrassing. Sad thing is I will most likely watch the new series too, just to check!

Spooky / alien things happen, then this Scooby Doo gang turn up, (in a flipping SUV!) run about looking all important and serious, occasionally stop to have sex with each other / themselves / other species / alien races, of course save the day then go home to brood about why alien swatting isn't turning out to be a fulfilling career / why they can't die / why their marriage isn't working etc... OMG I can't discuss it anymore! It's just too silly!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good summary. I watched most of the first series and tailed off towards the end.

[stu-n.livejournal.com]

And then the last episode was utter bollocks, unfortunately.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It was a bit too Buffy but there was good stuff in there too.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That was a little silly, but perhaps not *as* silly as a lot of people complained it was. Some of the others, though, I thought worked really well - expressed character, moved plot forward, occasionally were even a bit sexy with it.

[my-name-is-anna.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any bit of shagging in it which actually needed to be there for plot purposes.
Even when they didn't actually do it it was still really embarrassingly done eg: Jack and the Welsh looking bloke discussing how they were going to use a stopwatch in presumably a w@nking race or something? Yuk!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The whole dynamic of Gwen feeling increasingly alienated from boyfriend and drawn into team in spite of on some level hating it would have been impossible to get across without her sex (or about-to-sex) scenes with Owain.