These are the things that have occupied my mind these past few days. I resumed my game of Mass Effect which I started half a year ago. This led to some serious power gaming until my computer simply turned itself off. Oops. Need some proper cooling. Anyway. Then the newest Lynda LaPlante offering featured Ciarán Hinds with a very peculiar haircut. I was perhaps a little too focused on that to begin with, but got into the story after a bit.

I was going to comment upon the news item about the six-year-old boy who took his mum's car to drive to school, but after some digging around for the source, I just became depressed. What started as a funny, little story that I heard this morning on the Beeb, has now turned into a nasty POLITICAL DEBATE over in the States. For crying out loud, why do they have to twist everything to suit their own political views? Do they actually KNOW what happened? Or are they simply listening to whatever they're saying at the news on their TV station of choice? I was going to say that I found it strange that someone would let their kid play Grand Theft Auto--which is an amazingly brilliant game, but should probably be available only to those who actually understand the difference between fact and fiction--but if I do, that will probably just be taken into the long-winded, boring discussion about how games, films, music and just about anything else which is remotely entertaining, may or may not contribute to an increased aggression among those very few among us who are already aggression-prone.

Computer and video gaming is officially the number one pastime in Britain. Thus I vote for ten pages of computer news in all the major newspapers, every day, plus at least five minutes worth of gaming reviews and news on telly during every news programme. It's clearly more interesting to people than sport, so it's time we got the focus off of sport. I mean, this morning the news about Kevin Pietersen quitting as English captain was the third item on the agenda. Luckily they had the common sense to put the horrible situation on the Gaza Strip first, but only just, it seemed. Then there was something about the credit crunch again. But third? I mean, a lot of people care, but it should NOT have that sort of priority! Surely there are lots upon lots of more important stuff happening around the world? I believe, for instance, there is a list of forgotten humanitarian crises we could get back to before caring about some cricket player who just couldn't take the pressure.

By the way, have I mentioned how little I can stand people who slurp when they eat and/or drink? Unfortunately I have a few of those working nearby me, and they have like three meals a day while at work (seriously!) and lots of cups of god-knows-what (probably tea). Their meals are usually stinky fish, noodles or smelly soups or stinky, smelly noodle fish soups, so there is a lot of slurping going on and it's making my blood boil.

Labels: ciàran hinds, current affairs, gaming, personal, sport, TV

Finally got to watch There Will Be Blood yesterday, and I have to admit Daniel Day-Lewis is a very good actor. And what haunting music! Of course, the end music was very familiar and to my great surprise I discovered I only have one song by Brahms, so naturally had to run out (i.e. go online) and buy his Violin Concerto in D on CD.

The film reminded me a bit of Lost in Translation; slow-paced and not too much happening, but compelling viewing nevertheless. Of course, There Will Be Blood had some action sequences and there was the matter of the increasing madness to follow. Oh, and of course it had Ciarán Hinds in it, which is always a plus.

Anyway, good to see Paul Thomas Anderson back on form. I'm still not quite sure what Punch-Drunk Love was about.

Labels: ciàran hinds, film, music

Having trawled around my blog archives to find last year's list of favourite this and that, I have decided to use that as a template and add (or possibly even (gasp!) retract) categories as I go along. So, here is...(cue fanfare)...

My Top This and That of 2005!

Coolest Villain of the year
Ralph Fiennes, strangely enough for both Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit!

Norwegian Album of the year
Surferosa: The Force

Indie Album of the year
Gorillaz: Demon Days

Album of the year
KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope

Funniest New Series
Man Stroke Woman, BBC (UK)

Funniest New Spoof Series
Broken News, BBC (UK)

Craziest 19th-century Character of the year
Phil Davis in Bleak House, BBC (UK)

Most Disappointing Comedy Series of the year
Extras, BBC (UK) (there, the cat's out of the bag)

Most Annoying I-knew-this-would-happen-so-why-did-I-bother-starting-watching-it-in-the-first-place Moment of the year
The last ten minutes of Love Soup, BBC (UK)

Favourite Comedy Series Character of the year
(Much like last year:) Anne from Little Britain, BBC (UK)

Best Cliffhanger of the year
The series finale of Waking the Dead

Most Anticipated Film of the year
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Most Anticipated Game of the year
The Movies

Best Game of the year
Civilization IV

British Film of the year
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Best Play or Musical of the year
Talking to Terrorists, Royal Court Theatre

Would Have Most Wanted to See
Dennis Storhøi in Death of a Salesman, Oslo Nye Teater

Most Hilarious Roman Outfit of the year
Ciaràn Hinds's in Rome (HBO/BBC)

Most Anticipated Book of the year
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Most Annoying Yet Strangely Catchy Song of the year
The Pussycat Dolls: Doncha

Worst Idea of the year
Producing Ben Elton's new autobiographical and very boring "comedy" series Blessed, BBC (UK)

Worst Idea That Led to a Very Funny Incident of the year
Inviting Gérard Depardieu to Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, BBC (UK)

Scariest Moment of the year
21 July, the second terrorist attack on London

Best London Moment of the year
6 July, when we beat the French and got the 2012 Olympics

Best Moment of the year
1 June, when we moved to London

Seems like the Beeb are responsible for both the ups and downs of the telly year!

Current track: Nothing

Labels: ciàran hinds, comedy, current affairs, dennis storhøi, film, gaming, lists, literature, music, personal, tamsin greig, theatre, trevor eve, TV

OK, so this NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) thingamabob started at midnight...so I went to bed. But I finally found some time to write now, after another disastrous visit to the bank (it's official: They really don't want my money) and a more uplifting one to the grocery store. We've been without a landline for two or three weeks now, and our phone company don't seem to do much about it.

And just when I started writing that novel, I was booked for no less than three job interviews. Jeez, don't ruin my concentration like that! Who needs a job when they have the arts? I'm half joking, half serious. One day I shall be able to utter that sentence and not worry about my financial situation at the same time.

On top of everything, the lift has been broken since Friday. No one seems to care. Our leg muscles are expanding, though.

Brilliant new spoof news programme starting yesterday; Broken News. We laughed a lot. And tomorrow sees the much awaited first episode of Rome. Ciàran Hinds as Caesar = whoop, whoop!

Oh, and I had to turn on word verification for the comments because some twatty spammer started leaving silly messages about an American TV programme which has nothing to do with this blog.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: ciàran hinds, personal, TV, writing