Month: November 2002

I’m bored. I’m hungry but not bothered to actually go out and get some food in so toast it is.

I hate tables. They just do my head in.

I haven’t talked about this much, but I completely support the fire-fighters. Given that a 40% pay increase will only bring the average wage up to £30,000, I don’t see how anyone cannot support them. They go into burning buildings to help people for fuck sake and they only get paid £18,000 a year? There is something wrong there.

One comment in particular this morning admittedly from the leader of the Fire-fighters Union, but to the effect that Gordon Brown can earmark a billion pounds for a possible war against Iraq but can’t give the staff of the Fire Brigade or the teachers or the nurses, etc. any more money.

Bollocks. Perhaps the UK needs to think about looking after its own problems before going to war at the request of George W. Bush.

So I was right. Paula dies giving Mason the information he needs. No interaction between Jack and Nina this hour, just a few words between her and Mason leading to a pardon. The wedding plot might just work out now, but it would be no great loss if there was no more Kim with the obvious exception of her being very nice on the eyes.

The season will end with Jack killing Nina. Other than that, it appears to be all to play for. I like Mason quite a bit and I hope he hangs on for another few hours.

I’ve just been catching up on some of my tv shows. I’ve watched 24 season two 10am till 12pm. Not bad stuff at all. My interest in 24 keeps waning and I’m never in a rush to watch it, but when I actually do, its a whole other story.

A couple of excellent episodes ending in what everyone has been waiting for. There was never going to be anyone else in the photos, but I was sitting here going, it has to be her, they can’t bring in anyone else, it has to be her. And it is. I’m about to watch the next ep. The return of Nina Myers and about time too. Again the Kim subplot is unnecessary and the whole wedding plot looks like it might get interesting but the main plot and having CTU getting hit was damn good. I suspect Paula will die. We come to like her very quickly as a character and then boom (literally). She should die, it would work within the story and indeed within the show.

Oh look two geeky tv show postings in a row, welcome to my world.

In the third season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer several new characters were introduced. Notably in the episode Faith, Hope and Trick where a character named Faith, a character named Hope and a character named Trick were given to us.

Faith would soon if not instantly become a fan favourite. It helped that she is played by the extremely sexy Eliza Dushku and that as the show went on, she wore lots of leather and was the definition of ‘bad girl’. This only helped, what really worked was the role. Faith the character brought a lot to the show, eventually moving it into a darker path for the season.

Across Buffy and its spin off Angel, the return of Faith is always a major event and current signs are she will feature majorly the in the conclusion of both shows current seasons. This I look forward to.

There was another character introduced in the third season of Buffy, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce played by Alexis Denisof. Brought in to replace Giles as Watcher for Buffy and Faith. Wesley was a wuss for lack of a better word, he was a pompous Englishman respected by no-one and unable to handle any situation on his own. When each slayer took their separate paths, Wesley was lost for a time. By the end of the third season he got it together enough to try and help, but was soon injured and taken away.

In the midst of the first season of Angel, Wesley was reintroduced as a ‘rogue demon hunter’. It was at first a comedic role. But as the seasons rolled on, Wesley has had more character development than anyone else. In the course of the second season, he even took over Angel Investigations. It was the third season which brought the most change. Wesley went up against his friends for the right reasons, but damaged his relationships with them quite badly. In the fourth season, fate throws them together again.

There is a difference. Wesley has by sheer character development reached Faith levels of cool. In the latest episode when no-one can stand against The Beast, he pulls out and unloads two pistols straight into its chest. Following this with a pretty decent Terminator impression with a shotgun merely confirmed this. Wes is currently the epitome of cool.

I am looking forward to seeing how he gets along with Faith on her return.
</buffygeek>

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tommorow, no tommorow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
‘Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

—
Possibly the best use of a piece of music ever in a movie. Gary Jules’ haunting cover of Tears for Fears Mad World at the end of Donnie Darko. I’ve just grabbed an MP3 of it and wow.

I have a ticket for Bruce Springsteen in London in May. This makes me happy. I was damn annoyed to have missed tickets to the gig a couple of months ago.

Also picked up tickets for Avril Lavigne in March. I quite like her album, its pretty soft but works well overall. Tickets were an entire £15 and its just down the road.

To match up with that, I have tickets for Vanessa Carlton in February. Just before that and to not quite top tickets for Springsteen but close, I have tickets for Sigur Ros in February. The gig is not even 10 minutes walk away from work.

Fuck me I have to browse ticketmaster more often and damn if that is not a good start to the year musically. Tower Records have a motto/tagline which I am particularly fond of.

No music. No life.

Not only that but a while ago I mentioned I wanted to see a play on in the West End called Slueth. I looked into it and it was way too expensive. £35 plus fees for a bad ticket. Well there is a special on this week so on Thursday night I’m going to my first Wend End show, indeed my first real (ie non kiddie) theatre experience.

‘Tis a hectic week now. The play on Thursday. A birthday party on Friday night for 3 people at work, one of whom is a good friend, another birthday party for a good friend from work on Saturday night and then David Gray on Sunday night. Hmm Monday off sounds good to me. Use up one of my days and take the time to relax and have a break after a few days on the go.

So Moby in Wembley Arena. Not bad, not great. I think Moby’s stuff works better straight from CD as it was meant to be heard. Saying that, a few of really nice live songs including my personal favourite Moby track: Southside having a surprisingly good harder live version and We are all made of Stars also working really well live. I think all 6 albums were represented tonight with most tracks coming (unsurprisingly) from Play or 18. It was nice to hear the Bond theme done again tho.

Another highlight was Moby apologising in no uncertain terms for the US president. I laughed. The low light would have to be the guy sitting next to us…he was kinda freaky.

Postcards From Planet Google:
Dave gave me a heads up on this article from the NYT Technology section, its interesting reading. It is also a damn good thought and something I would love to be able to see first hand. Tracking some stuff like that must be fun.

A 60 acre spider web…fuucck.

and people they fall apart. A title and topic for another post. Soon I hope.

It would appear that my long rant against the press in this country may not in fact be necessary and everything is scurrilous internet rumour which has simply reached high levels.

So last night I was talking to my flatmates friends who are staying with us. They have stayed before and I get on with them both. It came up in conversation that not only does one of them know the entire cast of The Sorpranos but that the phone number of Jamie-Lynn Sigler (that would be the cute as fuck daughter: Meadow Soprano) was sitting on my table all night last night and indeed will be until the end of the week.

*sigh*