I have these TV programmes I look forward to every week. At the moment one of the most anticipated ones is How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, the previously mentioned Pop Idol-y show where The Phantom (Lord Lloyd-Webber) and his Minions (Zoë "The Vocal Coach" Whatsherface, David "The Co-Producer" WhatshisfaceitsoundslikeIan and of course John "I still cannot believe he was voted out of Dancing on Ice" Barrowman) (yes, I know, I should know their names, but I'm not too embarrassed to admit I don't) try to find the next West End Diva, AKA who will play Maria in The Sound of Music at least six days a week starting...uhmm...when the rehearsals are finished, I suppose!

The programme is great fun and also shows the bitchiness in the participants (not just Graham Norton) and also in myself. I keep slagging a few of the contestants and come up with rather rude remarks if they're off-key. Let me tell you I played Singstar for hours last weekend and I'm not that good myself.

But then, I never thought I were, and I am definitely not aiming for a career on a West End stage. Not physically, anyway.

Another favourite at the moment is Prison Break. OK, so it's been a favourite pretty much from the start of the first season (at first much thanks to the bloody marvelous Peter Stormare), but I'm very happy it's back. I have also grown quite fond of Eureka, so I expect they will cancel that one soon. They usually do. Take Arrested Development, for instance. Finally some intelligent comedy, so of course they have to cancel it. And the Americans wonder why we think they're so thick.

I'm considering winning some money and go see Evita again. As you can probably see (*points at the list of most played artists in the right-hand menu*) it took me just about two minutes from posting "I cannot listen to Evita anymore, because it makes me sad" until it was once again top of my Zen's playlist.

It sort of annoys me that my Zen only has a 20GB hard drive, as I will now have to delete tracks if I want to add more. For instance, most of my cast recordings are left on my computer, whereas I at one point decided on moving ALL of my several gigs of Erasure and Beatles tracks to the Zen. Hence, no space for three of my favourite musical recordings; The Fix (there's John Barrowman again), Martin Guerre and South Pacific - which I discovered to my horror the other day as I embarked on yet another dreary ride on the tube.

The good thing about spending one and a half hours one way to and from work every day, is that I get to listen to a lot of music. Too bad I cannot read while on a moving train, otherwise I would be able to finally read all those books I have bought over the years and which are now merely collecting dust as I tend to choose "quick fixes" like telly and video games over books.

Unless we're talking Harry Potter. Funny it should grab my attention to such a degree.

It's very sad that I hardly read books anymore. I used to read loads upon loads of them. And an aspiring writer probably should read a lot. There's something called a "vocabulary" which has to be expanded in order to write professionally.

I sometimes wish I was Stephen Fry. But then I remember I'd have to host the BAFTAs, and that would probably not be such a good idea. However, I would be in his shoes, so perhaps I wouldn't mind after all.

Try not to think on an empty stomach. Speaking of which, it's about time I went to the closest corner shop and spent some money on lunch. Then I'll saunter back to the office and try to stay awake until I can finally go home and watch the Maria programme. I hope you are well.

Labels: comedy, evita, gaming, literature, Lloyd-Webber, music, musicals, peter stormare, theatre, TV