January 2009
“You think of Vegas as Sinatra and cigars and stretch limos and tall women...”
– Armando Iannucci writing in The Guardian on his experience at the Sundance Festival promoting his forthcoming political film In The Loop (cut from the same cloth as his brilliant satire The Thick Of It). He’s fantastic. That is my considered critical opinion.
Charles Saatchi to appear on X-Factor style show... →
Apparently he’ll…”be seen judging entries on the show but will not be heard speaking.”
I fully intend to send in some bizarre scrawlings or a sculpture of my own head made out of hair plucked from people’s toes.
“If you could take a drug to feel happy all the time...”
“I'd do it.”
“Wait. There'd have to be a catch. You can't answer until I tell you what the catch is.”
“I don't care. I'd do it.”
“What if you taking it meant someone else would die?”
“How could it? How could it make that happen?”
“It's hypothetical. It's a hypothetical question. A drug that could make you happy all the time doesn't exist.”
“Why would you get my hopes up like that?”
“Your future plan should involve the following:
Nothing to do with newspapers or...”
– a note from a friend about the future of journalism. Grim!
“Lily Allen is the only other person apart from me to say anything important...”
– - John “The Reverend” McLure of Reverend And The Makers in this week’s NME.
Sorry Barack Obama. Sorry Richard Dawkins. Sorry Shami Chakrabarti. The sages we need are John McLure and Lily Allen.
Break It Down.
jennabee:
The This American Life podcast that aired last week (#88: “Numbers”) ended with a reading of a Lydia Davis short story called “Break It Down” and oh my God it describes every love affair you’ve ever had perfectly. Full text here and podcast here; the story starts around minute 43 and you will see what I mean. Jesus, Lydia Davis. Man.
I loved that story. This American Life is my weekly...
“Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks...”
– John Lennon
Part 2 in today’s installment of Project Compare Myself To Geniuses And Become Slightly Disillusioned.
Ache
Yep, I ache today. Like an old man who’s been left on the bench outside his house too long, like a human scarecrow. If it’s possible to ache physically and mentally then I am currently doing that. I’m definitely not a fan of this feeling.
Will Oldman profiled in The New Yorker →
Saved for later.
Wasabi mashed potatoes. →
Reblogged from mascarah
Saved for future culinary use.
Film Four is making Chris Morris's film about... →
Chris Morris describes it as showing the “Dad’s Army side to terrorism”
And I thought the Brasseye Paedophile Special was brave.
“New Morrissey Album Gives Hope to Music-Making Elderly”
– NyMag Vulture blog’s top quality headline on their Morrissey preview.
“Using her experience as a life coach and her skills as a clairvoyant, Alison has...”
– one of my ex-girlfriends (who’s also a journalist) is taking a course of Psychic Love Coaching. The whole idea brings me out in hives. It costs £225 for a 4 week programme. I am now left wondering if I count as a “toxic relationship”. Something tells me I do.
“My grief carries no desire for revenge, which I know to be always in vain. But,...”
– from Gaza: The death and life of my father by Fares Akram in today’s Independent.
"The Cruise persona, like a junk bond, was never... →
“In case you missed the bulletin in your post-festive daze, let me bring you up...”
– Charlie Brooker on The Guardian website.
Anyone get the feeling he’s enjoying this a little bit too much.
Apparently today is the most stressful day of the...
…thankfully I went back to work on Friday, so today should be business as usual. I hope..
Labour ministers seemingly have a smart new...
…where they accuse the opposition parties of being ‘do nothing’ voices. It may seem like a good soundbite but when you unpick it, the fact is, only the party in government can do anything.
Liveblog: The Invasion of Gaza →
From the site that brings you the Celebrity Big Brother Live Blog…
I can see the point of this but branding breaking news on a conflict in almost exactly the same way as the forensic dissection of one of the most banal pieces of television ever made just makes my head hurt.
People quoting my music predictions as if I a)... →
“Most eyes seem to be on this West London foursome White Lies, with the frontman who sounds like Julian Cope. According to Q Magazine’s Mic Wright, their “doomy, Joy Divisionesque rock is going to be a good thing in a year of recession. The record is a great gothic pop album.”
Incidentally I did not say “going to be a good thing in a year of recession” but you know,...
“There’s a black crow sitting across from me; his wiry legs are crossed...”
– RE:Stacks - Bon Iver
They were my favourite lyrics of last year. I can lay that record on sadness like a sticking plaster.
Does someone who's brilliant at remembering lyrics...
Knocked Up (Kings Of Leon cover/remix) - Lykke Li...
Random Dylan Thomas Poem Generator →
“The whitewashed invisible skylark
Trotting by the washerwoman,
With the...”
– From BBC Wales’s Dylan Thomas Poem Generator. I like it, particularly the ‘barnacle-breasted statues’.
“The same number of times as Hemingway and three less than Norman Mailer.”
– Jay McInerney turns his formidable ego to assessing his fourth marriages in an interview with The Telegraph
Scarlett Johansson is only 24.
I always assume that celebrities are older than me somehow but the fact is, if you’re famous, your life holds greater resonance in the eyes of the world. Amy Winehouse is only five months older than me but her behavior is picked over far more than that of any ‘ordinary’ 25 year old. She’s expected to be a role model because she’s in the public eye. Scarlett Johansson...
The Times on Britain's tiniest radio station →
It’s the end of the breakfast show and a pre-recorded programme begins featuring Two Lochs Radio’s “interviews of the year”. First up is Mr Gray’s interview with another incomer, the new proprietor of the local newsagents: “Had you always wanted to run a shop?”
“She’s more nervous than a very small nun at a penguin shoot.”
– DCI Gene Hunt, Life On Mars