• 11:32 Right, motivation time. Time to clear out the freezer of all the crap, get to the gym and on a decent diet again. Put down the crisps, fatty #
• 11:35 Secrets of Rock #1: Ringo was actually a really good drummer. #
• 12:00 My advice to celebs on social networks is not to draw attention to your 15 year old daughter unless you want her to attract pedarasts. #
• 12:22 The Vatican have condemned the new Twilight film as "deviant". Not just crap then. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT9xuXQjxMM #
• 12:32 How come I've bought three kettles in the last 24 hours and still haven't managed to keep one for myself? Kettle thieving bastards. #
• 16:01 Panic over. I have my kettle now. #
• 16:46 Embrace change. But don't get into heavy petting with it. #
• 17:14 Sometimes when you're depressed you feel you're going to be depressed forever. This is an illusion. You won't be depressed when you're dead. #
• 17:38 That's me done with Harry Potter then. Next: Twilight? Because 17 million readers can't be wrong! #
• 22:55 A moment of hissy emoness just snuck out there. Rapidly deleting all evidence, since it's well known I'm a manly man man. #
• 00:11 listening to "Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World" ♫ blip.fm/~gmzu2 #

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It's time to fall in love with another.



And, yes, I know, it's an easy target, it's a cheap laugh, everyone's doing it and there's hundreds of these damn things, but this gets full marks just for the Lost Boys clip.

And so the door closes on the Potterverse and my series of reviews on them, as I finish the last in the series.

Firstly, the book doesn't disappoint in many ways. It's as readable as the rest of the series, more so than some, the pace picks up considerably and builds to a climax that, while not flawless, is generally satisfying and certainly not disappointing. But the book's definitely not without flaws and as such is representative of the series as a whole.

The major issue is, as expected, another problem with pacing. It's once again horribly uneven. The book's action packed, wonderfully so, but suffers simply because, after two books of barely any developments, suddenly there's masses to pack into the final volume. As usual, there's the problems of drawn out chapters filled with unnecessary exposition or stumbling around one forest or another killing any pace, but then the action sequences kick in and it's all hunkydory again. But by trying to pack not one, but two quests into the final volume - both for the Horcruxes and the hitherto unmentioned Deathly Hallows - along with trying to build in an ultimately satisfying ending, it's too much for one book to contain. No wonder the movie makers decided to split things over two films. Trying to pack both quests into one book seemed a step too far - as I said in the last review, the quest for the Horcruxes deserved a novel of its own and shuffling around the previous two volumes could easily have solved that issue.

( More spoilery stuff under the cut. )

• 15:53 I'm shocked at Henry's hand ball last night. I thought the French only raised their hands to surrender. #
• 15:59 I declare today Question Day. Why? I hear you ask. It pleases me that you are getting into the spirit of things. #
• 16:07 Chasing the American Dream does not count as exercise. #
• 17:35 Someone break my fingers so I stop fiddling with this damn layout. #

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The second of this year's special episodes of Doctor Who (in place of a regular series as the BBC tried to bribe parliament into increasing the television license fee by holding back some of their top rating shows claiming they didn't have the cash).

RTD is one of those writers where the ideas are all too often better than the execution - For every Utopia there's been a Last of the Time Lords. For every Turn Left a Partners in Crime. The Waters of Mars is definitely closer to the top end of the scale after the last disappointing special which killed any excitement from the exotic filming locations with Lara Croft-lite and the flying bus. It's back down to essentials as the Tardis materializes near the first life-supporting base on Mars (slyly named Bowie Base One) and then follows the basic mold of the classic Who adventure and the standard sci-fi and slasher movies where a group of diverse and roughly sketched characters fight the monster du jour.

The only trouble with this is that the basic plot is a little too close to 42 or The Impossible Planet, following an almost identical mold. Still, it's a classic, but nonetheless, it's getting a bit creaky by now.

However, the subplot is what lifts the episode above the norm, thanks to guest star Lindsay Duncan, who adds real gravitas to her role, while Tennant gets the chance to bust out his acting chops once more, alternating between excited, sorrowful, vengeful and haunted with a rapidity that rivals Eccleston's quickfire mood changes. Certainly the most effective scenes in the episode are the two-handers between Tennant and Duncan. The darkness that creeps in, by the point most kids are safely hid behind the sofa, presumably, is surprising and it's understandable that the BBC chose to move this episode from Christmas day. Despite the splashes of snow, funny robot and a Marley-esque moment, it would have been too dark to be seasonal.

As has been repeatedly stated, this episode was set up as being the "beginning of the end" for Tennant's Doctor. I'm not sure it establishes that as clearly as the writers might have intended, but certainly the darkness that starts to creep in, then jump in with bloody great boots on, ensuring that everyone knows that something REALLY SERIOUS™ is to come.

So, with this special the game is stepped up and proves to be quite a compelling view, making the most of its guest stars (Shane from Neighbors joins Jim from Neighbors and Charlene from Neighbors in cropping up in a Whoniverse story) and a simple, but damn creepy design for the villains.

Even the (deliberately) irritating funny robot couldn't drag things down too far. But amidst all the cracking acting and dark turns there had to be something for the kids, right?

• 11:12 Watched Smokey and the Bandit last night. Wish Burt Reynolds did more high profile stuff again. Have a big soft spot for him. Revival time? #
• 12:54 Note to self: sister's birthday. Not good at remembering them. Mind you, she hasn't remembered my birthday in about 15 years, so not just me #
• 14:58 Yeah, when I saw that 2012: California Is Going Down! video linked, I thought I was going to see something else entirely. #
• 15:03 Hollywood's never going to start making fun, action packed, character-centric or epic movies again until someone takes the computers away. #
• 15:30 I think the final sign Scans_Daily made the right decision moving to Dreamwidth is being mentioned in the weekly newsletter. They wanted us. #

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• 14:01 RIP the legendary Edward Woodward, who, with The Wicker Man, became one of the great icons of British cinema. #
• 17:37 I seem to spend most of my life with blooming man flu. I should probably try sleeping more than five or six hours a night, really. #
• 17:39 And, yes, I do say "bloomin'" instead of proper swearing a lot of the time. But, no, I'm not a seventy five year old cockney. #
• 17:44 Mind you, I have started sating "Fuckitybye!" at the end of phone calls, in a Malcolm Tucker style, so it probably balances out. #
• 21:41 Why is it I can never get enough of movies about disillusioned hitmen? Or is it just the cowboy boots that attracts me? bit.ly/vduFZ #

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Well, the migration of Scans_Daily seems to have gone off without any major hitches and is now OFFICIALLY OPEN.

Thanks to the admirable efforts of my fellow mods skalja, schmevil and sandoz_iscariot and the admin at Dreamwidth, we've got a shiny new comm with, hopefully, fewer technical issues, more features and far better technical and legal support which should serve as a permanent home.

Our members are awesome and already there's some great stuff going up, despite only being open a few hours. Death's Head! Nextwave! Deadpool! Impractical costumes! Japan! Blue Beetle and Booster Gold! Funny smut! (Okay, the last one's mine, but it's still cool.)

I'm also pleased with the new layout that I designed shamelessly stole and tweaked is working out. There's still a few minor issues with it that hopefully we can correct, but the layout and header banner's been well received.

Functionality's much improved too. No more annoying cut codes since standard cuts are now working with the RSS feed - which, if you want to follow it here on Livejournal, is available as scansdaily.

Now go visit before I sic Madam Fatal on you.

I'll say this for John Barrowman - he's not afraid to make a complete twat of himself.

Although, it has to be said, sometimes he's just a little too keen to do so.

• 10:27 Good morning campers. Yes, I'm talking to you, even if you aren't camp. #
• 11:21 What kind of sick bastard puts cheese in an egg and sausage muffin, huh, Mr. MacDonald? #
• 12:25 So, Dollhouse got cancelled? Saves me watching it, I suppose. No doubt the fault of the evil corporations and not that no-one watched it. #
• 15:11 Onto the last Potter book now. Still a bit bemused why this stuff took off like it did, but they're inoffensive enough once they get going. #
• 15:23 I appear to be in a perpetual state of man flu. #
• 17:17 Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. www.lamebook.com/m-m-i-l-f #
• 17:47 Sarcasm: Even I can appreciate seeing a master at work - bit.ly/2eZiOe #
• 19:05 I remain unmoved by the discovery of water on the moon. Let me know when they've confirmed cheese. #
• 19:18 Hey, The Fall are playing just down the road from me next week. Should I go see them? Seen them once before and was disappointed though... #
• 19:25 What do you mean, "Who are The Fall?" Only Saint John Peel's favourite band, that's who. bit.ly/3L3oDn #
• 21:02 Just read the latest issue of X-Force. Damn it. Sean. :( #
• 22:58 Ah, The Big Country. "They don't make them like that anymore." Was Gladiator really the last true character-based epic Hollywood's produced? #

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Another Harry Potter book down and, although I found it an inoffensive read, once again I'm left to wonder why this series of novels got kids and adults salivating so badly. While there's stuff to enjoy here, it's undoubtedly the weakest of the series and frankly the series as a whole seems to have serious flaws, particularly with pacing and plotting, and this book's no exception to the pattern - three quarters filler with only the last quarter that seems to tie into the over-arching plot, stuffed with rushed action and extended exposition.

And the main problem I have with J.K. Rowling is the way she constantly builds things up over the course of a novel and then immediately deflates them. It's happened a lot over the last couple of novels. For example, in the Order of the Phoenix, the whole weighty novel builds around Voldemort trying to get his hands on a prophesy about him and Harry. The whole novel. And when it's destroyed, it's suddenly revealed that Dumbledore knew what was in it all the time. Not only that, but in this novel it's revealed Voldemort does too, since Snape overheard and told him. And then there's the fact that when Harry reveals the prophesy to his friends there's literally the line from Hermione saying "Yes, we thought it would be something like that." Well, if everyone bloody knew or guessed, why was it a big chuffing deal?

Similarly in this novel, there's the whole deal of Slughorn's missing memory. This is built up as being of utmost importance. Dumbledore insists that Harry discover what was in it, proclaiming it to be the most important mission Harry can have. When he discovers about the Horcruxes and reveals it to Dumbledore instead of the grand revelation, the rug's immediately pulled out from under the plot. "Oh yeah," says Dumbledore. "Multiple Horcruxes? I knew that already. Figured it out from that diary. Oh, and I've spent the last few months hunting them down and already found two, so, y'know, bit of a waste of your time, really."

It's frustrating because it basically negates vast swathes of the last couple of novels. The prophesy's not really important since Dumbledore and Voldemort already knew all about it. The two thirds of the novel that Harry spends trying to get the missing memory from Slughorn seems like a waste of bloody time. It's these plotting issues that really kill it for me. There's plenty of good in the books, but again, a hell of a lot of filler and then what plot there is is negated by pointless reasons for keeping Harry in the dark and sending him to discover what most of the characters already knew or had figured out. And the whole "mystery" of the identity of the Half Blood Prince, which is barely even a plot point, despite being the title.

That said, there's some good here - the Draco plotline's solid, there's plenty of dark and thrilling moments, the climax exciting, Slughorn's intriguing, the early chapters are atmospheric - but then it all seems to dwindle away. In a situation where Voldemort is murdering people daily, the danger is raised considerably, the bulk of the novel being about who wins which quidditch matches, who's dating who and other rather trite distraction is genuinely bewildering. Possibly not as bewildering as where the hell the sudden romances between Hermione and Ron and Harry and Ginny (who hitherto had the character development of a cardboard cutout) came from, but bewildering nevertheless.

I can sympathise with JK Rowling though. What she delivered in this novel was basically the same sort of stuff as previously. But expectations for the series seemed to be through the roof - far more than anyone can deliver or, in my opinion, than the series has ever delivered. There's some entertaining bits for sure, but the expectation that things would be kicked up a gear with the penultimate novel certainly aren't met. It doesn't work as a stand alone novel, like the early books did, and aside from the last fifth of the novel, it doesn't add anything much to the over-arching plot either.

And bad show for having all of my personal ship Luna and Neville's kick-assery happening off camera. Again. Would it have killed to have them appear properly as characters and not just mentioned in passing? I love those crazy kids and would certainly have enjoyed a page or two devoted to their battles alongside the Order of the Phoenix over another page of Won Wons.

How can you not love a song where the first verse goes:

Mention the Lord of the Rings just once more
And I'll more than likely kill you
"Moorcock, Moorcock, Michael, Moorcock" you fervently moan.
Is this a wok that you've shoved down my throat,
Or are you just pleased to see me?
Brian Moore's head looks uncannily like London Planetarium.

All hail Half Man, Half Biscuit!

For those who read this journal who might not be aware, scans_daily is on the move. After the forced migration from Livejournal to Insanejournal after the great strikethrough crisis a few months ago, the community's moving to a more permanent home.

From this Sunday, the community can be found at http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/

If you're not a member of Dreamwidth but want to be to follow the community, just message me for a link to the SD invite code generator, or look for the members locked post on Scans_Daily or noscans_daily.

Dreamwidth's admin have been fantastic helping set up for porting the community across, welcoming our members, and helping out with all the technical and legal issues involved.

My personal feelings about the move can be summed up with the following image:

So, last night I went and saw Rob Brydon live. For the colonials amongst you Rob's a Welsh actor, writer, comedian, radio and TV presenter and impressionist. And voice over artist (he worked many of his most "famous" ad voiceovers into a hilarious routine). Oh, and chart topper. (Okay, with a comedy cover of Islands in the Stream for Comic Relief, but it still counts.)

All in all it was an hysterical couple of hours of freewheeling knockabout comedy, blending traditional standup with anecdotal tracts (a section describing the home birth of his fourth child was particularly memorable), some music (including that cover of Islands in the Stream as an encore) and an awful lot of improvised back-and-forth with the audience.

In fact, the improvised stuff seemed to take up most of the two hours. While there were clearly scripted moments, the majority of the evening was based around banter with the audience, culminating in an improvised song about all the people he'd chatted with during the course of the night, including Greg, the self employed hog roaster ("Have hog, will travel"). He belongs in that rare group of comedians (like Eric Morecambe) who are just naturally funny and while his scripted routines undoubtedly had their moments, it was the off-the-cuff audience interaction that provided the real gold.

For this reason, the show felt like a genuine, never-to-be-repeated event. Be it the jabs at the lazy fireman who refused to use the pole and took the stairs, the vet who turned out to be an animal pathologist or the old-before-his-time furniture dealer. All too often going to see a comedian live is a disappointing even as they trawl out the same routine they did on that live DVD you own, with no variation. With the bulk of the show being improvised banter, you know if you went to see Brydon next week it'd be something completely different (possibly because he wouldn't be out of his mind on cold remedies).

There was also room for a few on-the-money impressions of Ronnie Corbett, Rolf Harris, Bruce Forsyth and, memorably, Al Pacino reading The Gruffalo (probably the highlight of the evening for me - "What... the FUCK... IS A GRUFFALO?"). Along with a few swipes at friend Steve Coogan.

The support act, Hal Cruttenden, was no slouch either, treating the audience to a very funny routine on how hard life can be for a terribly camp straight man.

A great evening in all.

• 11:54 As a child of the 80s, should I be ashamed that I've never actually seen more than ten minutes of The Goonies? #
• 13:31 "Let's roll some tits up the flagpole and see who gets wood." #
• 13:51 Yes, Malcolm Tucker is my hero. #
• 14:02 Now that's some marketing I can appreciate: bit.ly/2Ko4Zs She's threatening to sue, of course. #
• 17:33 Right! Off out for dinner and then to see Rob Brydon. Huzzah! #
• 22:36 Back from seeing Rob Brydon. Relentlessly funny. Haven't laughed so much in years. Highlight: Al Pacino reading The Gruffalo. #

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• 15:51 I think my nephew was shocked that my reaction to him trying (and succeeding) to punch me in the nuts was to smack him round the head. #
• 15:52 Apparently the ten times telling him it wasn't funny wasn't effective enough. I don't think I'm in sync with modern parenting techniques. #
• 15:56 Mind you, it's not as bad as that time I broke a kid's nose for calling me farty pants. That learned him. #
• 16:10 If I ever get married, this is how I want the ceremony to go: bit.ly/ahyn5 #
• 16:27 I'm rather amused that the first and only virus for the iPhone has one single effect: Rickrolling the desktop pattern. bit.ly/1CyIA1 #
• 16:46 Yahoo Answers at its best(?) bit.ly/4mqZ5Q #

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• 10:30 Comics - Not just for kids: bit.ly/gQ9q8 Apparently some people still find this surprising. #
• 15:14 I find the lack of poppies when I walk down the street to be disappointing. #
• 15:33 The story so far:
  In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. #
• 15:45 I'm assuming Joss Whedon's trying to be cute with the Terminator thing. But I'm leaning towards slappable. bit.ly/3o9OZd #
• 15:50 11 Photos Made Infinitely Awesomer By Lightsaber Photoshops - bit.ly/3RXrLV #
• 17:13 This lists thing may actually prove to be extremely useful. I like being able to read groups of users updates without having to follow. #
• 17:33 I ache, therefore I am. #
• 00:04 Major OS failure. Desperately trying to backup and restore, but looks like my computer's fatally choking. Consider me AWOL for the duration. #

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"Mr. Rafiel's bloodhound - his avenging angel. She looks so harmless, doesn't she? But her camouflage is perfect because she is partly just what she seems - a gossipy old village lady, but her logic is ruthless and her powers of synthesis formidable. And above all she never lets go."

I've recently been addicted to the BBC's adaptations of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories when I picked up the DVD in response to the star studded, but lamentable, recent ITV productions. I've always had a soft spot for Miss Marple, far more so than Christie's more famous creation Poirot.

Originally airing between 1984 and 1992 the BBC adaptated all twelve of the Miss Marple novels, featuring the superlative Joan Hickson in the title role. I remember watching many of the adaptations as a child (a good murder mystery is just the ticket for kids. I certainly recall being terrified by the chilling murderer in The Sleeping Murder, with their hands like "grey, monkey paws".) The complete DVD collection is 1,360 minutes of solid, glossy crime, with some fabulous scripts from playwrights like Alan Plater, a cast of great British character actors (Joan Sims, Peter Davison, Samantha Bond, Paul Eddington, Donald Pleasence, Liz Fraser, Josh Ackland and many others), and directed by some memorable directors, including the Boulting Brother's Roy Boulting.

Most impressive though is Joan Hickson, who's widely regarded as the definitive Miss Marple. (After seeing Hickson in an adaptation of her "Appointment With Death," as early as 1946 Christie reportedly sent her a note expressing the hope she would one day "play my dear Miss Marple.") She play Miss Marple not as a simpering twitterer nor as a comical eccentric, but as a rather stiff upright observer whose gaze can be unflinching. As she says in Nemesis: "He called me Nemesis, you know, and he wasn't being entirely humorous". You might invite Margaret Rutherford's Marple out for drinks. You'd probably wonder why sprightly Angela Lansbury was hanging out with all the fuddy duddies. You'd certainly pretend to be out if ghastly Geraldine McEwan battered on the door with a gin bottle.. It's Joan Hickson who you'd choose to solve your murder. Hickson quietly layers Miss Marple with the many qualities that make her a good detective and a good person—keen reasoning skills, a willingness to really look and listen, patience, a little sadness and cynicism, perseverance, and, of course, an ear for gossip. As Inspector Slack memorably states in one of the episodes, "She's a little old lady who knits and wears lace. She also has a mind like a bacon slicer. It's a very good disguise." And all the while quintesentially the grande dame of the village circle - unflinching and unforgiving, whilst politely sipping at her tea.

The collection of adaptations is excellent and, unlike the more recent ITV adaptations, true to the books with slight exceptions (the wonderful, unsubtle, long-suffering and insufferable Inspector Slack is slipped into a couple of the adaptations where he was otherwise absent), but there's none of the playing hard and fast with the stories or attempts to modernize them - the period detail is near perfect and feels true, rather than forcing political correctness onto a character that would undoubtedly be of her time. It's a strength of the performances and the screenwriting that even the most irritating Christie-isms, where red herrings crop up to the point of ridiculousness, don't spoil the enjoyment of the adaptations of a whole.

The boxed set includes The Body in the Library, At Bertram’s Hotel, The Moving Finger, Nemesis, A Murder Is Announced, 4.50 from Paddington, A Pocketful of Rye, A Caribbean Mystery, Murder at the Vicarage, They Do it with Mirrors, Sleeping Murder, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, of which my favourite is probably Nemesis, where Miss Marple is a fearless and unforgiving avenging angel in tweed.

All of which, with the unforgettable (trust me, I've tried) theme music makes this one of the most enjoyable boxed sets I've picked up in a very long time.

• 10:14 Support Royal British Legion, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! - bit.ly/4AZ9S0 #
• 10:18 Is deadline and Halloween over now? Is it safe to come out without getting attacked by a trick or bloody treater? #
• 10:23 Have to admit to being annoyed by the commercial attempts to Americanize Brits. They'll be trying to get us to celebrate Thanksgiving next. #
• 10:24 Although, I think we should celebrate Independence Day. For different reasons from the Yanks, obviously. #
• 14:59 I fear anyone who describes themselves as "a humourist". #

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There's a certain addictiveness with the Harry Potter books that's hard to deny. It's a sensible move that the novels mature with their audience, so by the time we get to this, the fifth book in the series, it's more in-depth, more teen-angsty than the previous outings with a nice line in dark and twisted moments.

However, in other ways it's a disappointment. The book's hard to put down and doesn't feel its length, but it's hard to deny there's an awful lot of prose that doesn't really add a lot to the plot. There's not as much pure filler as the last novel, with Hermione's house elf obsession thankfully shuffled to one side this time around, but there's undoubtedly a lot of time devoted to certain plotlines that, in the end, don't really tie into the novel's climax. Again. And what's all that repetition needed for? How many time does Harry have to lose his temper and yell at his friends? How many times does his stomach have to jump to show that he's somewhat in love with Cho? And how many punishments and disappointments does he have to suffer to show that his fifth year at Hogwarts is not an easy one? How many scrapes do Fred and George have to get into?

And all the extra wordage doesn't always help the characterisations. Take for example, Delores Umbridge. In the movie version I found her to be a wonderful, rather satirical villain. In the novel less so, since she's so obviously described as repulsive a toad-like and pantomime-villainous from the first rather than the semi-subtlety of Imelda Staunton's performance. Given her presence throughout the novel, I was expecting some kind of tie-in to the climax - instead she's a hindrance throughout and then is not-so-neatly shuffled aside to make room for the real villain to appear.

Then there's the disappointing way some of the old characters are used. While Snape and Neville finally get further developed and Hermione gets to demonstrate she's wise as well as smart, Ron is given nothing of interest to do and doesn't contribute to the plot at all, while Hagrid and Dumbledore are screwed over rather, with the former's repeated oblivious tendency to put his friends in mortal peril and the latter's unsympathetic and illogical reasons for being a jerk to Harry for most of the novel. And Sirius is pretty much only tolerable because of remembrance of Gary Oldman's charismatic performances in the movies rather than the portrayal in the novel.

Of course, Harry's whiny bad temper would be off-putting by itself, but since I've never found him particularly sympathetic anyway, I can't say it bothered me too much. In one way I rather liked that the heroes demonstrated more shades of grey and Harry wasn't portrayed as being the perfect, lucky bastard of previous novels and he and his friends aren't saved by some magical doohicky at the end of the book and there are losses. It's especially nice to see his "heroic" father and god-father had plenty of darkness in their souls and Rowling isn't afraid to show Harry himself as a typical teenager - making him aggressive, loud, irritating and out and out obnoxious at times. Whether there's much fun in that depends on your mileage, though.

So some good, mixed with the bad. The trouble is, while the earlier novels were light on detail, I found this one went the opposite way. I didn't care about the ins and outs of the quiddich teams or a daily breakdown of the character's revision timetables. And 25 pages of exposition at the end of the novel is rather too many, let's face it.

In fairness, however, despite its length and the amount of unnecessary storylines tagged onto the central plot, I didn't feel like putting the book down at any point. In fact, I found it rather addictive and read it a lot quicker and easier than I was expecting why I first picked it up. However, I couldn't help but feel that the tempo should have picked up rather more than it did - the return of Voldemort apparently meant nothing more than a few bad dreams for Harry and him attempting to hear a prophesy. Hardly the terrifying weapon we'd been hearing about and the confrontation with Voldemort isn't exactly gripping. For book five I was expecting a more climactic plot than I got.

From what I hear, and from the movie adaptation, I can look forward to more teenage soap opera in the next book and very little plot, but if the book's as easy to read as this was, despite its numerous flaws, I won't mind that much.

When people start to ask me what I'm doing for Halloween. At which point I like to steer them in the direction of this particular educational video from Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie:

• 13:39 As the media launch an attack on the BNP, one blogger asks, "Wait a minute, aren't you a bunch of racist A-holes too?" bit.ly/inlKX #
• 16:47 Well, that was two hours of my life I'll never get back. Thanks a bunch chronologically challenged Indian restaurant people. #
• 16:57 Okay, I should be getting back to work. But first, I think, a bit more Miss Marple with bonus Arthur Bostrom. #
• 00:08 Pisces: Try to avoid any Virgos or Leos with the Ebola virus. You are the true Lord of the Dance, no matter what those idiots at work say. #
• 00:26 Worth a read before the church of Scientology yanks it: bit.ly/F6ADB Director Paul Haggis quits over their support of Proposition 8 #

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A new music meme for you.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to. Feel free to snag if you like!

I'm on a bit of a nostalgic indie kick at the moment. Although not entirely.

The Wonder Stuff - Sleep Alone

From the classic "Never Loved Elvis" album, released in 1991. Damn I feel old. The soundtrack to my teenage years, though. RIP Rob "The Bass Thing" Jones and drummer Martin Gilks.

The Cardiacs - Is This The Life?

I can't remember whether I first heard this track on John Peel or Mark and Lard when they were on late night Radio 1. It was stuck on one of my radio-recorded compilations for years though. I still love how... out there it sounds.

Nirvana vs Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up

What?

Kirsty MacColl - There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis

A little before my time, really. I missed Kirsty's golden years. But I still miss her. She guested on a bunch of albums I did own, whether it was the Wonder Stuff, Billy Bragg, The Happy Mondays, The Smiths, The Pogues. Her tragic death in 2000 was a terrible blow.

Weird Al Yankovic - Hardware Store

Yes, I'm obsessed with this song. Still.

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Should I admit that I heard this for the first time a few months back in an Eastenders trailer? Probably not.

Carter USM - Do Re Me (So Far So Good)

Still appropriate, even if it's not 1992 any more. "Where are the songs about boozers and buildings,
banning the bomb and abusing the children?" Fruitbat's shorts and cycling hat, less appropriate.