It does get addictive, it's so NOT the type of TV viewing I ever tune into but it's got me alright.

Ax

I've really enjoyed this series of We Are Klang. I like the unashamed silliness of it.

I am watching America's Next Top Model, and the photo challenge was embodying different races - essentially they blacked up the white girls and whited up the black girls, in the name of art.

I'm stupidly addicted to this show.

I'm watching some of the Reading footage on BBC Three. Little Boots can fuck right off.

She can fuck right off in my direction. I love her pop.

Actually concluded tonight that she's a mini clone of Sarah Blackwood of Dubstar & Client.

Fallout Boy. Now they can really fuck off.

I don't know what it is about her that bothers me. Her music just annoys the hell out of me. Admittedly only New In Town has made me want to jam knitting needles into my ears Ichi The Killer style, but the rest of it doesn't do anything for me. Just a divergence of taste.



Yeah, they're really quite dire.

Is it a new series?

The American one is so much better than ours.

For someone who is clearly talented with a great voice (see her covers and Tenori-on skills on YouTube) she writes surprisingly nasty, tacky pop music. You'd expect her, as part of this new breed of tech-savvy musical ladies to be more classy, like Bat For Lashes, or cooler, like Ladyhawke, but she writes annoying tunes for 12 year-olds which wouldn't be out of place in the High School Musical films. Bah!

No, Living have been showing Cycle 4 at 7pm every day this week.
It's on every day when I get in, it's an easy addiction.
And Janice Dickinson can go fuck herself.

I think you've nailed my problem with her much more succinctly than I have been able to. She does seem to be quite an interesting talent but she doesn't put it to good use.

You grumps. My addled old brain loves her album. But then I do think Shampoo made one of the best albums of the 90s.

She should come out of her bedroom and listen to what other good people are doing.


Maybe it IS an age thing. My boss went to see her live; he's tone deaf and in his 40s.

Yeah, let's do young people things like vomit and stab people.

The other night I heard some youths shouting about "shanking" each other. I like to think I'm slightly more civilised than that, but not as senile as Sostie.

In my day we did proper sicks and stabs.

Maybe it's got a new meaning, maybe they've made it a portmanteau of ''shaking hands'' and ''wanking''. That's a hell of a greeting.

Like soggy biscuit.

Did that ever really happen?

No.

We used pitta bread. It maintains its structural integrity when a biscuit would crumble in a gooey mess.

In my day we used proper biscuits. And they were drenched.

Covered in Man-houmous.

I love Shampoo, I found their style inspirational

We never went to a Lil Chris gig together Sost, I feel we may have missed the boat. He may have already joined the ranks of great forgotten and unappreciated pop.

You should have t-t-t-taken your chances.

And so to bed.

I'm still scanning the listings. Even though the little tyke annoyed me with his last CD. He won't be forgotten by me. One of the greatest debuts ever. And I'm including the likes of The Beatles and Little Boots.

He dj's now, according to Lord God Wikipedia.

I was toying with using the phrase ''cum-mous'', but decided against it.

When he cried, I never noticed
When he lied, I never noticed it
When love died,I never noticed
I guess its true...
I never noticed you (Lil Chris)

That song is an epic of eighties teen movie proportions

The fact that you mentioned Lil Chris post a discussion of soggy biscuits makes me feel a little nauseated. Poor Lil Chris should Sostie ever meet him and take him under his 'digestive-drenching' wing.

Watched the fist series of The Office last night and whilst it is great there is a lot of tosh said about it. In one of the talking heads Ben Stiller said it had invented something new then in the next sentence said how it was just like Spinal Tap. Even Peter Kaye was doing the whole docusoap thing a couple of years before it.

I preferred Operation Good Guys.

I preferred that office documentary on The Day Today

Four Weddings -
I liked that one bride thought that the Irish wedding was a bit too Irish? And that the colour green that they had picked was nice and not at all 'bogey' green. All types of classy.

Ax

That Irish bride's phenomenally up herself though, and coming to the final girl's wedding in what was essentially a lace bridal dress was rude.

I think it was pretty much a given that you don't wear white to a wedding. It was rude, besides that the dress was a tad old fashioned looking too. I liked the wedding planners wedding, although the Irish girls wedding did look amazing.

I was amused to discover earlier that the French version of The Office is called La Bureau, which reminded me of that other great The Day Today sketch.

I'm closing the bureau...for an hour.

"This is supposed to be a high class Bureau de Change! Not some two bit Punch and Judy show down on the seafront at Margate!"

Coogan's finest moment.

Pack your bags - You're out!

Is it because I'm gay?

When did "People Like Us" air? That was before The Office, I think.

Yep.

The Shock Doctrine

Michael Winterbottom's documentary based on the book by Naomi Klein about the influence of the theories on free markets by Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys (most famous for their part in the creation of the free market systems in Chile under the US backed Pinochet) and the theories on "coercive techniques" as shown in the KUBARK manual and the work of the psychiatrist Ewan Cameron have had on the creation of free markets around the world for the last forty years. Basically it claims that these free markets, where everything that can be denationalised is sold off to private companies, are only able to be created under periods of national shock, everything from military dictatorships to periods of war, anywhere were the populous can be coerced, were the people are either too distracted or too intimidated to stop it from happening.

The documentary covered a lot of the same ground as John Pilger's War On Democracy, about the US's role in oppressive regimes in South America, and a lot of what's covered in the documentaries of Adam Curtis, most notably The Trap, whilst not actually being as informative or as entertaining. Considering this was made by a bone fide movie director it's surprisingly bland. There isn't too much evidence for a lot of what is claimed, instead we are given information pretty much on faith. And certain things are rushed through, were things like Thatcher's privatisation of national institutions were initially met with anger but were then able to go through under the distraction of the Falklands War are supposedly the same process as the torture of dissidents under military juntas.

It does however come up with some interesting things like the rise of the disaster capitalism complex in the wake of 9/11 where capitalism has flourished because of the Gulf War, the South Pacific Tsunami and possibly even Hurricane Katrina. It also had nice little tidbits like the growth of the national security industry in America to where it is now bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined, or that Iraq under Saddam had almost double the literacy rate of New Mexico.

But for all it's claims it just sounds like good old fashioned capitalism, just now it's evolved into a much leaner machine. The rich have always screwed the poor, it's just now they're even better at it. I mean, after the biggest economic crisis in nearly a hundred years we're in a situation were people are paying taxes that are going to some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, the very people who are responsible for the crisis in the first place, now that's kinda clever.

There may have been many "mockumentarys" before The Office, but The Office id by far the best. I don't think any of the others had the character's as aware of the camera, and Brent certainly wouldn't have been as interesting had he been viewed voyeuristically (sp?) throughout. The camera is a catalyst.

Plus there aren't many as brilliantly written and performed.

Except Operation Good Guys, which is better

I'm watching Don't Tell The Bride - Boggles the mind why these control-freak women sign up to it, but this edition was really sweet, and it's made me bloody well cry.

Star Trek dancing. £1.

Please let me never watch Shooting Stars with my flatmate again. He nearly ruined it, rolling his eyes and being painfully aware of his own bemusement. If Reeves and Mortimer don't make you laugh like a dick you don't understand it, and don't need to comment on it. This did not stop me laughing like a dick at Greg Wallace dipping his nuts in things to wake the mathematician.

My older Brother used to do that when I watched Big Night Out or The Smell. It's annoying.

Yeah - if you don't get it, you don't get it. My sister's fella loves R&M and he is French!!! Never seen him laugh so much in my life.

I'm the only one in my family who likes them as much as I do. One of the first times I laughed until I hurt was watched Big Night Out at my Nan's house on a family holiday, and they all thought I'd lost it.

Nans worry about everything I think. My sister (she of the Frenchman) and I remember watching the first BNO on Channel 4. It was an epiphany. My mum still randomly says the word Uvavu every now and again. Apparently one of my brothers is a bit like Bob. So we are a real family of R&M afficionados.