You will not see a better made film this year than Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. There’s been more than one occasion when I’ve felt that Spielberg has squandered his gifts so casually that I’ve left the cinema jumpy with irritation at him. I didn’t yesterday evening. At a certain point craftsmanship becomes so […]
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20May05 — 0
My Shame
Forgive me, reader, for I have sinned in my thoughts and in my words. My shocking Yazzmonster-style confession is that a tiny part of me had hoped there would be a lower turnout at the UK General Election. I wanted to do a PooterGeek post featuring an Iraqi TV reporter interviewing British people talking about […]
Read More19May05 — 1
Oi, Torygraph, No!
Frequent PooterGeek commenter Tim Newman looks at the output of the media’s instant Uzbekistanologists and decides the perpetrators deserve a slap. Oh, and another thing.
Read More18May05 — 1
Let Us Not Speak Ill Of The Famous
In a development unprecedented in the history of the unholy media, Pope Polly Filler XIV begins the Dianafication of Kylie Minogue within 24 hours of her diagnosis of breast cancer being announced: THE GIRL WHO FELL TO EARTH She seemed almost flawless, an otherworldly embodiment of physical perfection. But now, like thousands of ordinary women […]
Read More14May05 — 0
A Beautiful Moment
Fareena Alam, editor of British Muslim magazine Q-News is on Any Questions. I enjoyed a delicious frisson listening to the campaigner against racism and for the right of young women in the West to wear the hijab (er, even on passport photos) complain that young people wear hooded tops in order to commit crimes without […]
Read More14May05 — 2
Aagh, My Eyes!
The Jews blew up the Twin Towers using Bush’s depleted uranium technology stolen from the spaceship that crashlanded in Area 51! And Blair lied about it! As a mumps epidemic rages across Britain, the BBC News feedback facility flares with the magnesium-bright burn of public stupidity: “What a convenient epidemic! Why didn’t it happen last […]
Read More13May05 — 7
Dial 419 For A Transfer
Dear Mr Hussein I am Barrister Ife Giza. I represent “Gorgeous” George Galloway, the recently deceased rightful ruler of the People’s Republic of Bethnal Green. I write to you in good faith based on information he gave to me in person during a meeting with him in his office in the Houses of Parliament before […]
Read More02May05 — 9
As Hip As A High Court Judge
The Economist‘s bold, white-on-red poster campaign has run for years. It started, if I remember rightly, by playing on readers’ insecurity—its message was that digesting The Economist was the best way to avoid dinner party embarrassment—a subscription would ensure that you were always informed of Important Matters. Currently their approach must be based on flattery. […]
Read More02May05 — 0
Good Sport
Ms Taylor obviously has a sense of humour. She might have been rude to ‘Bloggers en masse 😉 , but she was very polite to this one in particular. She would like to point out that she is neither middle-aged, nor confused by her iPod. Thank you again for your nice email about my post […]
Read More26Apr05 — 11
Staying In Touch With Your Inner Electorate
Even Tony Blair’s biggest enemies have got to admire his willingness to sit in a studio full of publicity-hungry voters and patiently engage with their rants. My head would explode with frustration after five minutes of listening to inarticulate, ignorant, and illogical challenges, but he keeps on doing it. The bigger a fight he has […]
Read More22Apr05 — 0
Shawcross Nails It
Oliver Kamm quotes an admirably restrained letter to The Independent by William Shawcross. Earlier this week I read the original article that prompted the letter and expressed my disgust with it so noisily that I was forced to explain myself to one of the Campus librarians. Unlike the Bodleian, the Sanger library doesn’t require you […]
Read More20Apr05 — 2
Celeb Kneels Before The Power Of The Poot
Since I wrote this post, mithering on about how unattractive I find Kylie Minogue, even when writhing around sweatily on an electric horse dressed in her skimpies, and how this saucy schtick of hers was going to become more embarrassing with her advancing years, there has been a couple of interesting developments. Firstly, one of […]
Read More12Apr05 — 4
That Labour Party Election Broadcast In Full
[Tony Blair and Gordon Brown face each other in painfully close proximity, like an Alas Smith And Jones head-to-head. A clumsily applied blurring effect is intended to shift our attention from one part of the frame to the other as they take turns to speak. This also keeps the pile of dirty Blair household laundry […]
Read More06Apr05 — 1
Good Sit-Com Shocker
Clare In The Community is a radio adaptation of a Guardian comic strip about social workers. Given that description, you’ll probably be amazed to read that it’s also very entertaining. Listening to the fifth of six episodes I laughed out loud several times.
Read More31Mar05 — 1
Armageddon It
While I’m on the subject of accomplished corporate music monsters, this 10-year-old review of Def Leppard by Andrew Mueller is entertaining, if perhaps a little long and squintily typeset to be read from the screen all in one go. It’s clear that, like me, Mr Mueller can’t help but admire the band—for all their over-produced […]
Read More27Mar05 — 1
My Fellow African-Americans
One evening during my recent week off ‘Blogging I was working with the radio on and heard an advertisement for 1 Xtra, a (relatively) new digital radio station extending the celebrity-/booze-/shagging-obsessed tabloid youf franchise of Radio 1 to Britain’s blacks. The ad’s female voiceover trailed a “documentary” about Condoleezza Rice with the words, “She has […]
Read More13Mar05 — 0
Who’s A Clever Girl?
If you’ve got Macromedia Flash installed on your computer this video is deeply entertaining [via The Motley Fool].
Read More07Mar05 — 16
The Last Outpost Of Traditional Rule
The ever-temperate front page of The Independent screams, “IS LEBANON WALKING INTO ANOTHER NIGHTMARE?” Without a copy to hand, I think you can imagine the name and the roseate visage that make up the byline beneath the headline. Because the Indie charges for access to the online version of its output I can only quote […]
Read More07Mar05 — 4
Wonderful Gifts
I had some superb birthday presents this year. I’d especially like to thank Judith for Keane’s Hopes And Fears, Leasey for Ultraviolet, and the Anonymous Economist for the Pierre Marcolini chocolates. Despite the cliché title, Hopes And Fears is a real delight. It’s indie rock descended from the Radiohead-Coldplay line, but without the guitars. She […]
Read More06Mar05 — 4
Spaced
In today’s Observer [via Hak]: On Tuesday the BBC launches the return of Doctor Who after an absence of nine years. The first episode of the new series, by Russell T Davies, writer of Queer as Folk and Doctor Who’s new creative director, will be screened at the end of this month… …this time the […]
Read More06Mar05 — 0
Hold The Front Page
I’ve just heard a radio ad for the annual national Comic Relief campaign. (For one day every year Brits get themselves sponsored to do silly things for charity.) The radio spot featured thanks and testimony from a previous beneficiary of the fund: Yousef, a gay asylum seeker who sought refuge in Britain because homosexuality is […]
Read More04Mar05 — 5
TD-ous
The Genome Campus library subscribes to several publications that I have to force myself only to skim read. If I don’t there’s a good chance I’ll throw them across its outer reading room and stamp on them and Joan the Head Librarian will have to report me to Security again. One, obviously, is The Independent, […]
Read More01Mar05 — 3
The Price Of Imperialism
Under the headline “Asylum Falling Around The World”, The Beeb reports the United Nations reporting that: “The number of asylum seekers coming to the industrialised world fell by a fifth in 2004 to its lowest level in 16 years, according to the United Nations.” . . . “…the number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and […]
Read More01Mar05 — 1
Star Trek: The Next Imperialist Neocon Zionist Conspiracy
“TrekUnited” is an organisation that claims to be dedicated to stopping the cancellation of the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise. It is holding rallies in New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and London. Need I say any more?
Read More27Feb05 — 2
Punk Slam Dunked
Effra, the first commenter on this story at Harry’s Place says most of the things I’ve felt about punk for the past twenty-plus years. She does so as she compares that musical movement of late seventies to this Web movement of the mid-noughties. She’s right about punk, but her assessment of ‘Blogging is about as […]
Read More27Feb05 — 0
Is There No End To The Boredom?
I’ve added months of old posts. (See the Archive section over there –>.) I couldn’t even be bothered to go on a nostalgia trip and read any of the content, so sick am I of the sight of a computer monitor. There’s still a big gap between April 2002 and March 2003, but who cares? Laugh […]
Read More24Feb05 — 1
You Will Be Assimilated
This evening I tuned into a new radio station called Chill. Apparently the music I make belongs to the chill-out sub-genre. And apparently this accidental “movement” is now big enough to be a genre in itself. I am accidentally fashionable—or rather I am accidentally a few years behind the curve, because it’s mainstream now. The […]
Read More19Feb05 — 0
Coren-ation
Much as I disagree with his politics, I have to concede that Jeremy Hardy was on superb form on The News Quiz this week. He even managed to justify the existence of Alan Coren. The latter seems to have taken up the role of Hardy’s straight man, setting up gags for the Second Funniest Man […]
Read More18Feb05 — 0
Via Slashdot
Those Americans, eh?: “The UK is known for many things, great food, a wonderful climate and beautiful women. However, according to a story on The Guardian, a new study puts the UK ahead in one more category: it leads the world in TV piracy, accounting for 38.4% of the world’s TV downloads, with Australia coming […]
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