Tapping The Wire

Posted on July 22nd, 2007 at 4:03 pm

UK viewers can now watch the spolier-free documentary Tapping The Wire at The Guardian.

Charlie Brooker and Stevie Wonder

Posted on July 17th, 2007 at 10:44 am

Charlie Brooker’s Screen Burn column was always a good reason to buy The Guardian on a Saturday but with the advent of this internet thing you don’t even need to buy the thing. And it’s legal apparently. But never before have I realised that it is actually me who is Charlie Brooker. Yes, I’m not John King at all.

Anybody who’s knows me well probably remembers my dish of the day was always a Frey Bentos pie. There was always at least 5 of them stacked high in my kitchen cupboard. Now days I know how to cook real food. I’m also a big fan of The Wire and think it’s the best thing thats been on TV for over 10 years, well US TV anyway. Here’s part of Charlie Brooker’s latest Screen Burn column.

“You know what I miss? Fray Bentos steak and ale pies. I haven’t had one in years. But as a student, I ate them all the time. I thought they represented grown-up cooking. After all, this wasn’t your average takeaway slop. No. A Fray Bentos supper required preparation and patience. You had to shear the lid off with a tin opener, and chuck the pie in the oven for half an hour. The end result was sublime.

Except it wasn’t. Having wolfed down better, fresher meals since then, I now realise that what I was eating tasted like piping-hot dog food by comparison. At the time I just didn’t know any better. Now I couldn’t face one. I’ve been spoiled. You can’t go home again.

I’m starting to wonder if obsessively watching The Wire - a show I’ve recently revisited as a result of doing a short programme about it (Tapping The Wire, Mon, 9pm, FX) - has similarly spoiled me in terms of TV drama. By now, the sound of yet another person blasting on about how good The Wire is probably makes you want to yawn your soul apart, but really it’s so absorbing, so labyrinthine and bloody-minded, it makes almost everything else seem a bit… well, a bit Fray Bentos.”

Oh, and here’s your Stevie Wonder. Just check out this drum solo:

I HAVE won a watch

Posted on July 12th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

My new Uniqlock Casio watch arrived today and very lovely and red it is too. By the end of the Uniqlock campaign there will probably be over 20,000 people enter this competition and I’m the fifth winner (out of 60), woo!!

Uniqlock Winner Watch

You can check all the worldwide competition stats at a special section of their website.

New Movies

Posted on July 11th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

Two movies that I’m really looking forward to seeing.

First up is the temporary titled 1-18-08. You can see the trailer here. Created by J.J Abrams, the person behind Lost, this movies seems to have a sufficient amount of explosions to keep anybody happy.

Next we have Black Sheep which is a Kiwi movie with effects from the Weta workshop. And what looks like a little bit of Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste thrown in for good measure. Love the final sequence in the trailer.