My blog post labels (or tags, if you are so inclined):

Top 20

1. personal 267 (yes, I am the most important person in my life)
2. TV 246 (pretty important, too)
3. film 225 (rather important)
4. theatre 152 (yes, please)
5. current affairs 150 (because I get all riled up very easily)
6. musicals 127 (whoopdie-doo)
7. comedy 125 (I cannot imagine life without)
8. gaming 117 (see no. 7)
9. music 107 (see nos. 7 and 8)
10. humour 104 (haha)
11. Norway 80 (because, despite everything, I am a patriot)
12. philip quast 76 (yep, top spot among my favourites)
13. time wasting 63 (at least I'm more interested in PQ than in wasting my time)
14. technology 59 (geekdom)
15. greg proops 49 (in merely eight months)
16. literature 45 (well, I pretend to read from time to time)
17. dennis storhøi 43 (so The Fab Three are all within the top 20)
18. sport 36 (surprisingly)
19. computers 34 (more sport than computers???)
19. evita 34 (well, it was the event of the year)

Labels: lists, time wasting

OK, I have to admit I'm surprised Douglas Hodge will reprise his role as Albin, but Denis Lawson as Georges? I may have to go and see this! Although I probably won't bother. Luckily it was not exactly breaking news that Philip Quast won't return. Any news on Les Cagelles? ;-)

Labels: musicals, philip quast, theatre

So Frankie Boyle couldn't shut up long enough for his own team mates to get a line in sideways in tonight's Mock the Week...no surprise there, then. Still, Greg Proops looked nice and had at least a couple of new routines (and some old ones). Let's just hope he's left the country by now (well, he has a show in LA on Saturday, so I'm guessing yes--years of travelling between the two countries must have left him with at least an inkling of how unfunny jet lag can be), and then I can concentrate on other things.

Like my new CDs; Alphabeat, Sara Bareilles, Eric Johnson and last, but not least: Verdi's Requiem, a 2001 version with the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Claudio Abbada and featuring Angela Gheorghiu, Daniela Barcellona, Roberto Alagna and Julian Konstantinov, as well as the Swedish Radio Chorus. A beautiful and powerful performance. BBC's series Maestro is doing wonders to my classical collection. I mean, I have kilos (tonnes would be exaggerating) of all sorts of classical music, but they keep bringing up music I don't actually have in my collection (the horror!). The concept is brilliant; eight celebs trying their hand at conducting an orchestra, with relevant judges and also no phone voting! It's like a new era. I guess it would only work with such a matter, though. I mean, who the hell would be watching Big Brother series 453 without having any say in the results whatsoever? Wait...who would watch Big Brother? (OK, I've watched one celeb version, but they're (luckily) much shorter than the usual run.) (Excuses, excuses...)

Let me just share with you my glee at this autumn's game releases (all preordered a long time ago):

Tomorrow: The Sims 2 Apartment Life
5 Sept: Spore
19 Sept: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
26 Sept: Colonization
3 Oct: Order Up
30 Oct: Little Big Planet
31 Oct: Fallout 3

I guess I won't be going to Oslo to see Vi menn, hehe! Dennis will just have to do without me...something with which I am certain he is familiar already.

Labels: comedy, dennis storhøi, gaming, greg proops, music, TV

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Gamer/Computer Nerd   You enjoy the visual stimulants of a video game, chatting on AIM, or reading online comics. Most of these types of nerds are considered dirty who lack hygeine, of course they always end up being the ones who make a crapload of money. And don't worry, that's just a stereotype; I'm not calling you dirty. ^_~
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Drama Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Musician
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I actually do wash, though.

Labels: personal, time wasting

I woke up at eleven today, much to my surprise, but hey, bank holidays are usually quiet. Started watching an episode of Takin' over the Asylum (David Tennant and Angus Macfadyen á la 1994). Had brunch (Chinese leftovers from two days ago, no less). Watched another episode. Surfed the net for a bit. Started watching Glory, which I know isn't good for me, but it's such a wonderful film and it's been about a decade since I last saw it. At 3.30 we went downtown to have an early dinner at TGI Friday's. The food was surprisingly bland, which was a huge disappointment because I normally like it there.

At 5.30 we joined The Comedy Store Queue (TM), which was even longer than last time, even though we were there a whole 15 minutes earlier this time. Within minutes about 14 people had joined the queue behind us. Now, people, I have to point out that you really, really should buy tickets in advance. Because, basically, what happens is that you will be ushered in ahead of everyone else in the queue, meaning you get first pick of the seats. It's called VIP. Vastly Impertinent Pricks.

So this time we got seats in the middle of the second row; moving three rows forward from our last two visits. I ended up next to Amazingly Broadshouldered Geek Boy, who wiggled about in his seat about a million times, brushing against me every fucking time. Then there were the three people on the row behind us who, when asked by the usher to move towards the middle of the row so that two of the five seats they occupied would be available for other patrons, said 'but we're playing cards!' I think I'm losing all hope.

Anyway, about 150 minutes after we first entered The Comedy Store Queue (TM), the show started, surprisingly (to me) with a rather excellent Richard Vranch (bear with me; as a Comedy Store novice my only knowledge of him comes from the fleeting moments he is shown playing the piano or the guitar during the UK version of Whose Line, and so I just didn't know he did verbal improv as well) trying to get the audience to snap out of their catatonic state. The other players were Lee Simpson, Steve Steen (yay!), Andy Smart (yay!), Steve Edis on the piano, and of course Greg Proops (duh--otherwise I probably wouldn't have been there). It was fun. We got to flex our abdominal muscles again. Very healthy. I'll live till I'm 100+, I'm sure. ;-)

My flatmate, whom I had dragged along again (this time I actually paid for the ticket, I was that desperate to see The Proopster again before he went back to Pico-Robertson), went out for a cigarette, and for once this proved to be fruitful rather than detrimental, as she came back with Greg's autograph with my name on it. Cheeky bitch. :p However, since this was the highlight of the show/year without a doubt, the rest of the show kind of went by in a blur, so I cannot really report on it, other than mention that they did this fabulous musical rendition of a Jane Austen novel, called Sweat and Perspiration. I never knew her novels could be so raunchy! You learn something new every day.

Anyway, back to watching Glory. I'll listen to the show again some other time (shhh!)

Labels: comedy, greg proops, personal, TV

Right now, I'm in a very good mood, but that's because the best part of the weekend or year (all depending) still lies ahead of me. Hopefully. More about that tomorrow/Monday. Touch wood.

Today I've been watching through tons of episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway? to figure out which episodes I actually have taped and which ones are still missing. Five US, you seriously have to start showing the seventh series, as I have no episodes from that year, yet my eighth series collection is complete. Go figure. But I was very happy to find the elusive episode with Robin Williams among the millions (ok, 139) I had taped. Still missing 89 US episodes, though. Many of which feature Greg Proops, so this is important, damnit!

Still...after having spent about eight hours watching WLIIA I finally sat down to have the first meal of the day and watch an episode of Sharpe. I then tried to take some photos with my new camera, but I have a long way to go before I'm fairly happy with my artistic abilities.

Last night we watched Would I Lie to You? and then tried Singstar for the first time. I've had the game for four years but been too self-conscious to try it out with anyone else within earshot. Well, until yesterday. Probably brought on by the recent surge in interest for Guitar Hero III, but who knows? Anyway, turns out it wasn't too bad; it was actually kind of fun, even though my singing voice lacks a certain something (precise pitch, perhaps?)

Labels: comedy, gaming, greg proops, personal, TV

I have no idea what that is.

Last night was a very social event (considering my very unsocial nature, that is). I ran to the train straight after work (ok, "ran" may be an exaggeration) and got to the Comedy Store Queue (TM) at five past six or so. Luckily my flatmate was already there, because the queue was getting longer by the minute. Just about. The poor people having their dinner at TGI Friday's were probably glad to get rid of us by the time we were let in at 6.30, as we had been blocking their view quite efficiently. For some reason the queue had changed directions since we were there on Sunday, but hey, that's how wacky and random we Comedy Store patrons are! Hahaha...ok, calm down.

Since we already had tickets booked, we pretty much got in there rather quickly, and even got the very seats we wanted (as we're not among the Loudly Squeeing Fangirls, we didn't feel the urge to sit up front; in fact, I'd be much too embarrassed for that). We then had to waste 90 minutes. Which meant we would have to...*gasps*...talk to each other! The first post on the programme was to decide how to refurbish the Comedy Store itself, because it's not going to look like that for much longer after I've bought it! So there. I'm very happy with the first draft, and with some improvements here and there, I'm sure we can turn the place in a successful one. I mean, it's only been in business for 29 years, and I'm 30, so clearly I have more experience!

Well, as my flatmate is a filthy smoker (if she hadn't been a smoker, she'd just be filthy), she went upstairs a few times to have a fag, and I must have had a stroke or something, because I turned to the girl next to me and started talking to her! Of course, it must be mentioned that I knew she was American, and as we all know, Americans are very open and chatty people when they're abroad, so I thought "at least she wouldn't just look at me with disdain and start tut-tuting". So we had a long chat while our "other halves for the evening" were away doing their thing (I don't want to know what went on there, frankly). I also spoke with the girl on my other side during the interval, but this time she started talking to me first (she was English, btw). I guess we were just too wacky and random to care! OK...once again, calm down.

Oh yeah, the show? Great. But I am highly biased and would probably say it was great even if I didn't mean it. Neil Mullarkey wasn't as annoying this time around! Maybe we were just having a bad day, the both of us, on Sunday. And it was lovely to see Steve Steen in the flesh; he absolutely ruled, by the way, so well worth a visit the next time he's there (which, incidentally, I see will be the next time I'll be there; quelle coincidence!) They played out this gothic horror musical, among other things, about The Beetroot of Death, where the awfully posh, Welsh 87-year-old Doctor Van Housing, played by Josie Lawrence, went to Transylvania with her assistant Chip (Andy Smart) in order to warn the evil, vampirical Count Cuncunti (the name changed several times during the course of the musical, but I choose this version), played by Greg Proops, about The Beetroot of Death, which actually was The Beetroot of All Evil, it turned out. As this musical will never come to a cinema near you, I'm not spoiling anything by mentioning that it also turned out that Doctor Van Housing's assistant Chip happened to be the long-lost previously-conjoined twin of Count Cuncunti's assistant, Splurge (Steve Steen), whose mother had died in a horrible, horrible beetroot accident when they were young.

The evening ended with a brilliant game of Three-headed Expert (which is the name I have given the game; I don't care about the actual name), where Greg interviewed someone (the name escapes me), played by Andy, Josie and Neil (they were not allowed to utter more than one word at a time, and had to speak in sequence), who was there to talk about quantum physics and sex. It was so funny Greg eventually ended up just repeating whatever they said, with the pitch in his voice going higher and higher, desperately trying not to laugh. Or so it seemed. We learnt some very interesting things along the way. Did you, for instance, know that Einstein had a theory of naughtiness? Apparently, it's the exact same formula as the theory of relativity, and yet it works differently. The correlation between quantum physics and sex, however, can be boiled down to "Lubrication equals momentum". So there you go.

Ooh! And my flatmate's suggestion of Ibsen as a style of theatre was picked up (eventually) - and they played it exactly like I had predicted; moody, dark and with Swedish-sounding accents (with lots of "Ø"-sounds ("Ø" just about equals an English RP "err") - or perhaps that should be "Ö", since it was in Swedish :p ). Great fun was had by all.

All in all a perfect night out. I would recommend it to anyone with a sense of humour and fifteen quid in their wallet (seventeen fifty if you go through Ticketmaster).

Labels: comedy, greg proops

Uhmm, yeah, well, I bought the ticket in early May on the completely unconfirmed rumour in a blog that Greg Proops was going to appear at The Comedy Store here in London on the 17th of August, and boy, was I nervous all yesterday! The nerves vanished when I could finally rest my gaze at...the back of his head as he went past us about an hour before the show was about to start. I knew he was there due to the sudden whiff of increased oestrogen in the air (ew?), mixed with a lot of "OMG! He's here!" shouts emerging from the crowd of mostly female weirdos students (products of the fact that the apparently neverending re-run schedule of Whose Line programmes are shown mostly during the early afternoon here these days) in front of me. I was happy I didn't know them. Sure as hell, though, one of those was the one starting the aforementioned rumour, so I should probably send out a big "hello and thanks" to her.

It was definitely worth it. I laughed so much my stomach still hurts. Really. I guess I should have stretched before going to bed.

Someone had to suggest "an ocelot" for one of the sketches; not a huge surprise as the audience consisted of what seemed to be mainly Proopstermaniacs, and ocelots being one of his trademarks...sort of. Kind of like Eddie Izzard being awfully fond of Jeff, jam and James Mason (you know what I mean, if you have seen his shows).

Andy Smart was very funny, Neil Mullarkey annoying (but funny at times), and Steve Frost and Josie Lawrence two real treats. Loved to hear Josie swearing. Steve's 'tache kind of scared me. Oh, and the venue itself did not look like I have been picturing it for the last eight months. Tsk, tsk.

Labels: comedy, eddie izzard, greg proops