Break me you covetous creature

I'm getting quite obsessed with tote bags, and I really want to add this one to my collection.

If it was in purple, it would be even better.

All i'm saying pretty baby, la la love you, don't mean maybe

Countdown is progressing. Release date in the UK is tomorrow, and I heard a pretty positive review of it on Front Row of all places (apparently the language is really great). And in spite of missing Jason on the red carpet because I was too engrossed in my gym workout, I'm all set.

Bring on the bromance.

Think of a number, divide it by two, something is nothing, nothing is nothing

I have been a most remiss blogger of late. But time to rectify that.

I've been watching a lot of TV just lately. In the hiatus that I have until the fourth season of How I Met Your Mother gets released on DVD, I've managed to discover some gems to keep me going. Top of the list is The Wire. I'd heard a lot about this, so decided finally to put Love Film to good use and check out the first season. It's so good, and lives up to the hype. It's NYPD Blue for a new generation. It seems to take what that established and take it up a notch. The language is wonderful too. It's full of street slang and cop slang (I have to confess that I have watched a few of the first episodes with the subtitles on!), and it has the largest amount of swearing that I have ever heard on a TV series. The characters are engaging, and not everything gets wrapped up neatly and happily. The hero (or should that be anti-hero) is a screw-up, yet he has you rooting for him and willing him not to do what he inevitably does. But at heart, he's good police. And it possibly has one of the most chillingly polite villains of all time, at least so far. I watched Season 1 at a reasonably leisured pace (in that I could only have one disc at home at a time), and then a very dear friend who has the DVD boxset (apparently, the sales of this in UK are huge, probably because until very recently it has only ever been on satellite here) loaned me Season 2, which she had just finished watching. Well, I burned through them and had watched them within about 4 days (no wonder I have no time to blog). So now I have to wait until she finishes with Season 3, or else I watch it every night on BBC2, whichever comes first. Sigh. It's also amazing that two of the main characters, who sound as American as apple pie, are actually English. And it has also reminded me of how I just don't get Tom Waits. He wrote the feem toon and sings the feem toon for Season 2, The Blind Boys of Alabama doing Season 2. While I would sing along quite happily, or at least leave it running while I made a cup of tea, with Season 2 it's a scramble to get to the remote so that I can fast forward through the opening credits. He makes my ears bleed. Can someone please explain what is so great about him?

Carrying on in the vein of old Etonians doing on-the-money US accents, I've also started watching Life, with Damian Lewis as a cop who was framed for murder and has now been exonerated and is back on the force. I was slightly unsure watching the pilot, as I couldn't quite work out whether it was supposed to be completely tongue-in-cheek or not. But by the second episode, I was hooked and I can't wait for the second installment to plop on the mat (maybe tomorrow?). I like the little documentary aspects and Damian is as superb as ever. I have high hopes.

Lastly, I am working my way through My So-Called Life at a brisk pace. Loaned to me by my oft-mentioned friend, I missed this first time around, although I had often heard it mentioned. It's great. While it must have been amazing to have watched this when you were the actual ages of the main characters, I can still (sadly?) draw plenty of parallels between their lives and mine, in spite of the fact that I am far nearer the parents ages than the kids. The incidental music is wonderful (lots of Lemonheads and Juliana Hatfield, who I believe shows up in person in the Christmas episode) and it was really cool when the main character gets asked who are favourite bands are and she lists a Who's Who of 1995. Very much of its time, but not dated in any way. And of course, any programme which has someone hold up a copy of Rolling Stone, with one of my favourite pictures of Kurt on it, and says "Oh, I still can't look at him" gets my vote. Plus Ricky just has to be one of the sweetest characters ever. I think I probably like Freaks and Geeks more (and no, before anyone says it, not because of that), probably because of the humour. But this is really great, and finally I properly understand what Rachel in Friends means when she says Clare Danes would play her in the movie of her life.

Know what? I love TV.

Haggerties and swamies Pacific palisades

Things that annoy me - an occasional series

No 2.

Crowdsurfers. It's really annoying when you are standing in an audience at a gig and some idiot thinks it is a good idea to crowdsurf and then you are expected to guide them as they roam over your heads.

Why? What makes you so special? Just watch the gig like the rest of us.*

(*there is the tiniest chance that I could make a special dispensation if Josh Homme decided to do it, but then I couldn't promise that I could keep my hands to myself).

Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun

Can anyone guess what I will be buying tomorrow?

Yes I know the city like a lover Good or bad it's hard to love another

I was watching Taggart last night. I love Taggart. It makes me nostalgic for home and the days when I lived in Glasgow. I love trying to spot bars that I know (even now, when Glasgow has changed a lot) or even better, spotting when they are inside a particular location, and then they come outside to the wrong exterior. It's the kind of thing that you notice only if you've lived in a place (the same thing happened in Trainspotting the film. Near the beginning when Ewan McGregor is tearing down Princes Street and then suddenly he nearly gets run over by a car. Well, firstly Princes Street is long, and it is unlikely in the extreme that he could keep running at that pace until the point at which he meets the car. Secondly, the street that the car apparently comes down is a dead end and the car could not have garnered that much speed either).

But I digress. Back to Taggart. Last night's episode was as enjoyable as ever, but was also remarkable for another reason. They said fuck - three times. Now, I am pretty unshockable when it comes to the use of the F-word. I'm no shrinking violet, and I have even been heard to cuss myself on occasion (unless my parents are reading this, in which case, of course I haven't). Yet, when DI Robbie Ross (swoon) said it the first time, I did a double take and thought "did I hear that right?". When he said it the second time, I realised that I had heard right.

So, what was the big deal about it? Well, the thing is, they never say it normally. Yes, the script will be peppered with a few bastards and a couple of shits. But nothing stronger. In this episode, it's sporadic use was in tense scenes, where the character was being pushed to his limits and struggling to keep control. And it was all the better for it. In these situations, a person doesn't say "get lost" or "I shall jolly well come after you". I really hope they made a conscious decision to have him swear. It reminded me of when I saw the film Casino and Robert De Niro's character called the Sharon Stone character a..., well, this is pretty much the one word that I won't use, but suffice to say it starts with c and rhymes with runt. I visibly blanched when he said it. The film had countless of other swear words, but this stood out and, my feelings about the word aside, made an impact.

Sometimes tho' the converse is true. I've started watching the Wire (well, having now finished Season 3 of HIMYM, I have to wait patiently for the current season to come out on DVD, and I need something to take its place). It's wonderful, but the language is something else. As I said before, I am largely unshockable (c-words aside), but the violence of the language in this I find quite shocking. Not off putting, just shocking. I think it is down to the sheer volume of it. But strangely, it hasn't made be desensitized to it, so it must be down to the subject matter. There is probably just as much swearing in some of the comedy films I watch, but whereas in those it is funny, in the Wire it is brutal and relentless, certainly for a TV series.

So even now, a well-placed swear word can make a powerful statement.

Words are working hard for you

I make my living from words, so it stands to reason that I have to remain pretty neutral about them. Yes, I do have my favourites, but I try to take each word or phrase on their merits. Whether I think a word is stupid or not doesn't really matter.

So, I found the story that certain words have been banned by the LGA hilarious. Some of these words are fantastic, especially when you try to analyse what they mean and come to the conclusion that the answer is nothing.


The full list is here. At first glance, and used in isolation, some of them seem fairly innocuous. Is there really anything wrong with the using the words agencies, collaboration or enhance? But then, when you consider the whole idea of predictors of beaconicity, you start to understand their thinking (try as hard as I can, I have still not managed to work out what on earth a predictor of beaconicity is or does). And I am very pleased that my own personal favourite word is on their list - functionality. Has there ever been a more ridiculous word? I'm afraid with the best will in the world, and try as hard as I might, whenever I hear this word being used, I see blackboards and long nails.

I am starting to sound like my dad who is often heard to lament "you know, someone gets paid to sit and make up these words". He'd be proud.