Archive for July, 2007
Friday, July 27th, 2007
Live-blogging the Big Brother 2007 evictions for MediaGuardian.co.uk
This, the first week where they couldn’t in all conscience NOT let the public evict her without radically changing the rules of the programme, she will of course go.
Meanwhile, I got a bit bored on the train, and started writing poems for Charley.
Charley you are very shouty
And quite ear-hurtingly shrill
In many huffs you have been pouty
And now I think to leave you will.
Yes.
8.27:
Apologies there, I went all ‘Yoda’
My point still stands; you’re off tonight
And so to move from WAG freeloader
To setting the d-list world alight.
For about a week.
Sorry, I’ll stop in a minute, I promise. Unless you all want to join in, of course.
Full live-blog here
Television, Minute by minute reports |
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
Being able to turn the traditional conception of high school inside out has always been, like, a totally phat example of how great a punk-guitar band is, right? Like Nirvana? And Green Day? I mean, Linkin’ Park, Blink 182, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Britney Spears, My Chemical Romance, I couldn’t name an important nu-metal band of the last 15 years that HASN’T at some point subverted the high school stereotype!
It’s one of the things that make us all so totally individual and unique, right? Right! Party on!…
[Find the full deconstruction, with pictures - the only way it makes sense, really - here]
Humour, Pickard of the pops |
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
[For Guardian Unlimited Arts]
The high passion and technical ability of Strictly Come Dancing combined with the dedicated high camp of the Eurovision Song Contest? I can’t wait.
Full piece here.
Television |
Friday, July 20th, 2007
Live-blogging the Big Brother 2007 evicitions for MediaGuardian.co.uk
8.38: We’re stuck into the highlights show. The housemates were clearly filmed asking themselves a question they might want to ask themselves several weeks into the show (um?… Yes, no, I’ve read that over and it makes sense, I think)
Ziggy’s prerecorded question - “Do you think she enjoyed it as much as you did, Ziggy?” - causes enormous embarrassment and general squeaking. From the noises, and the resulting fallout of people mumbling, being slightly outraged, we are left convinced that “Chiggy” have been merging more than names, and doing the dance of the horizontal wannabe all over the house. Making the D-list celebrity with two backs. Like bunnies.
I think they’ve been having sex, basically.
Sorry, I wasn’t sure if I was being a bit subtle.
Full live-blog here
Television, Minute by minute reports |
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
WhooooooooOOOOOOOOOSH! With the flaming trail of a speeding comet, and the immediate familiarity of a Daft Punk sample, Kanye West’s new video begins.
Oooh, this is exciting! I like Daft Punk, and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is working well over this thumping beat. And the video, so far, it is all futuristic atmosphere. It will be exciting indeed to see what the incredibly popular and talented Mr West will do with all these elements!
(Clue: not much)
[Find the full deconstruction, with pictures - the only way it makes sense, really - here]
Humour, Pickard of the pops |
Friday, July 13th, 2007
[Live-blogging the Big Brother 2007 evictions for MediaGuardian.co.uk]
Here we are again, but this time it’s all wild, and crazy and different. That’s right, it’s the climax of Big Brother’s ‘Fake Week’, and after a week of fake Australians, fake tasks, fake revelations, and fake body parts (though admittedly only as many as the week before) we’ve been leading up to this. Whatever ‘this’ is.
That’s right, it the most convoluted theme-week in history, and if there’s been any watercooler conversation about it, it’s mainly been along the lines of ‘No, I don’t know either…’. We’ll be here from 8.30-9.30, and then for the ‘fake eviction’ at 10. Or WILL we? Perhaps we WON’T! Maybe it’s all a big FAKE!
No, of course it isn’t.
Though I did consider blogging the First Night of the Proms instead, just to get in the spirit of things…
Full live-blog here.
Television, Minute by minute reports |
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
Come with me. It is 1984. Duran Duran - young heartthrobs with glossy torsos and rippling hair - are at the forefront of the musical genre that would later become known as “Really Eighties-sounding Music”.
Already finding musical-visual success with the fledgling MTV, the Durans are persuaded by their frequent collaborator and video director Russell Mulcahy to write a song to fit a video he is envisioning. (True story)
This done, he will show this video to large Hollywood studios as a kind of pilot, or teaser, and they will commission a full movie to which Durans shall provide the rocking soundtrack. It is a great idea. But what is this movie that they dreamt of? The details have been hazy. Until now.
Hushed reverent silence. We remember we haven’t pressed play. We press. The video begins.
[Find the full deconstruction, with pictures - the only way it makes sense, really - here]
Humour, Pickard of the pops |
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
[Live-blog for Guardian Unlimited Music]
So here we are, entering the final furlong of this marathon live blog, having watched countless top pop stars save the earth through rocking out, we’ve only two and a half hours of planet-saving stadiumised entertainment to go, and then everything will be better. Yay!
9.57: I was told we were getting the handy bendy queen of pop, and instead, I have Terence Stamp, quite literally droning. Drone drone drone. Like a big bumble bee. Nono, you know who you need when you want to deliver a message like this?
Brian Bloody Blessed. THAT’s who you need.
Big corporations are a problem, apparently. Says the big bee.
10.00: OH! Wembley’s having a moment of darkness! So Will I! I’m going to turn off all my lights, and the computer. And turn the television off.
I will be back when they are.
10.02:
10.03:
10.04:
10.05: Whoopies. There was an obvious flaw to that plan. I clearly didn’t think it through.
Now switched back on, and Madonna seems to be half way through a song. Or, in fact, at the end of her set, which is usually when you wheel the school-kids choir out, isn’t it? Well, that and Christmas.
I like Madonna’s dress.
(Guardian Unlimited Blogs: all the important facts you need to know, as you need to know them!)
It’s really nice.
[Full live-blog post can be found here.
Television, Minute by minute reports |
Friday, July 6th, 2007
[Live-blogging the Big Brother 2007 evictions for MediaGuardian.co.uk]
9.02: More highlights. Chanelle and Ziggy are apparently on the brink of breaking up. Again.
For the love of Pete, people (Pete, you know? He won last year? It all ties in, oh yes) - for the love of Pete, these people CLEARLY don’t like each other in the slightest - watching this is torture… It’s like watching a whole twenty-year marriage on fast forward, but without the fun naked bits. From first attraction, sucking in, the flirting, the happy times, the sucking face, the boredom, the petty jealousies, and then the slow, dirty disintegration into complete mutual hatred.
God I’m depressed.
Full live-blog can be found here
Television, Minute by minute reports |
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007
The video begins. There is a hint of a beat. In a darkened room, a 12-year-old with massive headphones is fiddling with some kind of nth-generation gaming console with lots of buttons and sliders and things. Kids, eh?
Hang on… that’s no 12-year-old! That’s Mark Ronson, wunderkind producer of such acts as Amy Winehouse and Christina Aguilera. Sorry, that should read: “That’s no ORDINARY 12-year-old.” He may be one of Producing Weekly’s Hot 100, but he’s still 12.
Wunderkinds, eh?
[Find the full deconstruction, with pictures - the only way it makes sense, really - here]
Humour, Pickard of the pops |