If You Had Three Wishes, What Would They Be?

It’s time to bring you up to date on what I’ve been wasting my time on - let’s start with TV shows. I finished watching Arrested Development, which is definitely one of the best sitcoms ever, and switched to the UK side to watch Father Ted. I’ve got several shows on my to-watch list, including Californication, Red Dwarf and Peep Show, but they’ll have to wait until I’m done with Ted.

The show was written by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, and is regarded as one of the all-time best British sitcoms. Also, Graham Linehan has (co)written the great Black Books and IT Crowd, and keeps a simply delightful blog, so I just had to check out Father Ted. Here’s a great bit from the start of the second episode:

 

2008 Soul Nigga Within

This post is about everything.

2008 is shaping up to be the best year for music EVER. We’ve already had leaks of kickass albums from Mexican bizarro-proggers The Mars Volta and Swedish skull-crushers Meshuggah. Add to that the huge amount of releases that are to come, and I’ll mention some of my most anticipated ones: Opeth, Guapo, Katatonia, Yndi Halda, Univers Zero, Anathema, Black Bonzo, Russian Circles, VDGG, Midlake, dredg, maybe Cynic and Enslaved… yes, all the best bands in the world are coming up with new stuff!

This year is also going to rule (at least for me ) in terms of live shows. You should already know I’m finally seeing Maiden this August - but what I’m really pumped for right now is the melloboat. The lineup is amazing: in two nights I’ll be seeing Opeth, Comus, Katatonia, Anekdoten, Trettioariga Kriget and many others. Also present will be Fredrik Thordenal of Meshuggah, as a guest of the Mats/Morgan Allstar Team. Thordenal is a fucking monster, and I’m plotting to steal his hands and brain and implant them into a robot that I’m building, which will enable me to conquer the world!!! …but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s already a robot.

I finished Catcher in the Rye a couple of days ago, what a beautiful book. Everyone should read it, all the praise it’s received is justified as far as I’m concerned. My version was the Romanian translation, but I plan to buy the English version asap.

I’ve been indulging another obsession of mine these past few weeks, and that is British comedy. I’ve already told you about Darkplace in a previous post. Looking up other appearances by actors in Darkplace, I discovered The Mighty Boosh, a surreal comedy featuring Howard, a delusional jazz-loving softie and Vince, a lovable fashion-conscious guy with big hair and a way with animals. The first season, where the two are zookeepers in “The Zooniverse”, is the bestest.

Further investigations led me to discovering The IT Crowd, another hilarious sitcom, this time centering on the IT department of a large firm, featuring Roy and Moss, nerd duo, and Jen, the obligatory female presence.

This show isn’t directed towards geeks, in the same way that you don’t have to work a desk job to love The Office - in fact, a real geek is more likely to complain about various inconsistencies and stereotypes, instead of enjoying the infectious humour. If the two-guys-one-gal formula rings a bell, it should come as no surprise to you that the show’s writer is none other than Graham Linehan, co-writer of Black Books, yet another awesome sitcom which everyone should know and love by now.

The link between Darkplace, Mighty Boosh and IT Crowd are actors Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry. I love them both, especially Ayoade, but what’s up with Matthew Holness, the man behind Garth Marenghi, master of the macabre?

In case you hadn’t noticed, and shame on you if you hadn’t, the links to the various shows I’ve mentioned lead to the British Sitcom Guide, a great resource for… British sitcoms! Apparently the site will transform into the British Comedy Guide soon; I hope it’ll feature up-to-date info on all my favourite British comedians, that’d pretty much be the perfect website.

I watched Forbidden Planet a couple of days ago. A groundbreaking classic, I recommend you watch it if you’re curious about seeing young Leslie Nielsen, the very first miniskirt, or Robby the Robot.

Well this should be enough for now …oh and fyi, last.fm just saved music.

 

Watch Heima Now!

Seriously. Now!

 

The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

My gal Diana brought this to my attention, 8 minutes of pure TV brilliance. Watch it now!

If it weren’t for the bad file compression and less-than-perfect laugh track, this vid would be perfect. Still, it’s made me want to check out Mitchell and Webb asap, and so should you!

I realise I haven’t done justice to the phrase ‘bad movies’ beneath my blog’s title as of late. Mainly because I haven’t been watching too many movies, and I’m taking a break from mst3k and bad horror movies - I know, it’s a shame.

But on a loosely related note, I’ve been watching the 1967 UK allegorical science fiction television series starring Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner. This show is a mandatory watch for any Iron Maiden fan, seeing as how they’ve written two songs about it and sampled a bit of the opening credits as an intro to ‘The Prisoner’, the song. By the way, have I mentioned I’m seeing Maiden this year? They’re coming to Romania in August, yay

The Prisoner isn’t bad really, in that case I wouldn’t watch it. It’s got a good sense of suspense and intrigue, and it’s always fun to see No.6 (the main guy) walk around kicking everyone’s ass, talking in a loud assertive voice and outsmarting No.2 in every episode.

That said, I was expecting this show to be set in a bleak dystopian future, sort of like 1984. This isn’t the case - the environment isn’t as menacing as I’d hoped, and the fact that no.6 is immune to dangerous brainwashing experiments (due to the infinite value of the information he holds in said brain) kinda takes away from the feeling of insecurity and paranoia that the Village is meant to inspire.

Well, maybe not ripping off 1984 wasn’t a bad thing, but fact is The Prisoner does look dated. Also, it’s often silly, and I especially mean the deus ex machina twists at the end of some episodes.

All this certainly doesn’t keep me from watching the show (only 5 episodes left, yay) and it’s left me with a couple of kickass phrases I wish everyone would use in real life:

• “Be seeing you!”, coupled with a special hand-to-eye sign whenever you pass another villager.
• “Questions are a burden, and answers a prison for oneself.” - this actually is the way Maiden paraphrased it in their song ‘Back to the Village’, and it’s a great way of replying whenever somebody asks you a question you don’t want to answer.

Oh, I almost forgot the reason why I started writing this entry - to let you know I’m taking a small break from updating the blog. In the meantime, go ahead and watch the Digby Chicken Caesar video on repeat. Be seeing you!

 

OK, You’re Still Clean - I Mean, Metaphorically.

Sweet bongo of the congo, the new Futurama Movie is here! Bender’s Big Score is a new straight-to-DVD, 90-minute long Futurama episode, that is guaranteed to satisfy the hunger of all the fans that have been deprived of this awesome show for far too long. This review contains one major spoiler, but you won’t see it unless you select the text.

 

Not Only Has He Been Screwed by a Giant Eye, He Is Now Giving Birth

Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is quite possibly the best thing that’s ever graced a TV screen. It’s a parody of horror movies and 80s TV - if you have any experience with these at all, you’re bound to love Darkplace.

As with most works of genius, Darkplace ended too soon, with only 6 episodes produced. It did spawn a spinoff though (Man to Man with Dean Learner) and apparently there are plans for a full-length movie. The first 3 episodes are pure gold and that’s why I’m embedding them here. Feel free to look up all of them on youtube, or to buy the DVD.

 

Stewart Lee - Don’t Get Me Started

I know I left the impression that I won’t be updating again too soon and I’m really sorry, but I found this on the internet and I had to share. Stewart Lee is a brilliant comedian - a grizzled comic sage, according to a bald guy holding a beer on youtube - and co-writer of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

Following the negative reactions to this British musical from religious fundamentalists, Lee created a short documentary presenting the ever growing issue of intolerance and freedom restriction on religious grounds. I think it is, as Christopher Hitchens calls it, a poison in our society and this presentation is a sensible call to reason, as well as an enjoyable watch.

There’s the first part, and here come the next:

 

Moving Pictures

I’ve been pretty lazy in posting on the blog, so I thought I’d spice things up today and instead of uploading an incredibly awesome album, I’ll just tell you about 3 movies I’ve seen lately

Now, if you’re not really into reading about stuff, you might wanna just check out my criticker profile and find out how I rated various movies… and guess what, you can even make your own! Oh and I hope I haven’t plugged criticker here before

So, without further ado, here’s in reverse-chronological-order-of-watching:

 

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

I saw this movie some days ago, but I haven’t had time to write this, being busy with recording drums for my band’s album.

I have to say, this movie fully deserves its cult status, it was an extremely entertaining watch. Here’s three things I especially liked about it:

 

Zardoz (1974)

Zardoz is a film featuring Sean Connery running around wearing nothing but red underwear. That alone should make this movie worth watching - but wait, there’s also a giant floating stone head!

The story is a futuristic Wizard of Oz spinoff, the role of the Wizard being played by one of the immortal aristocrats who manipulates the barbarian masses with the aid of the artificial god Zardoz. Sean Connery plays one of the mortal warriors who penetrates a bastion of the luxurious immortals.