September 15th 2003 - September 21st 2003
Sunday -
Saturday Don't bother
Friday Binge
Thursday True beauty
Wednesday Cultures clash
Tuesday Mudwort Smut
Monday Active
Saturday 20th September 2003
The teckie, an agreeable-seeming man named Mr Wilding, urged us to see these matters in the context of 'the hexidecimal format'. He added: 'I can explain that.'
Mr Dingemans QC, for the inquiry, in the kindest possible way, interrupted: 'Don't bother.'
Friday 19th September 2003
Not said much about my social life lately, have I?
That's basically because I don't bloody have one at the moment - too busy proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks at work.
In the last twenty days, I've had two drunken yet dull nights at ver 'wight Zwan, two as-per visits to the Vauxhall Tavern, and one highly amusing visit to Comedy Camp, downstairs at Bar Code.Come to think of it, this is classic binge-drinking. But I don't really see an alternative.
Thursday 18th September 2003
I think true beauty is to be found in the person who takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies.
- Maya Angelou, responding to 'You Ask the Questions' in today's Independent
Wednesday 17th September 2003
These are dark days for us terrestrial-TV viewers, what with no West Wing, no Sopranos and no Six Feet Under to carry us through.
Tonight's paen to Socialism, The Key, looked promising, but turned out to be a clichéd rant, almost but not quite complete with whippets.
Channel 4's Asianarama Second Generation was considerably better, not least for the luminously gorgeous Christopher Simpson. (He also played the twins in the TV adaptation of White Teeth, and had a walk-on in the halfway decent journalism serial State of Play. Funny name for an Asian actor you might think, and you'd be right: his full name is Christopher Crawford Gatsinzi Simpson, and he's the son of a Rwandan Greek mother and an Irish father. Apparently.)
But even Second Generation was ultimately disappointing. Once beyond the inevitable fascination of a culture (or rather cultures) whose depths I've never really plumbed, beneath its production values and references to King Lear, this was standard schlock-pot drama, up to and including the happy ending on the rooftops of Calcutta.
The culture of the Indian sub-continent (aka 'Asian' in the UK) is getting its fair share of mind-space here just now, what with the cascade of Bollywood unleashed by Bombay Dreams.
'Oriental' themes (aka 'Asian' in the US) have slumped below the visibility-line, possibly a reaction to a previous peak induced by the Hong Kong hand-over.
And 'Black' culture? Leaving aside BBC's lamentable The Crouches (yer standard sit-com, in black-face, with fouler language), current black media presence predominantly consists, tragically, of a series of tragic gun-crimes involving young women and children.
So I guess we can anticipate at least one hard-hitting drugs'n'violence drama series in next season's schedules (working title: 'Your Own BackYardie').
Tuesday 16th September 2003
Once in a while, you seethe to discover that somebody else got the job you'd have killed for, if only you'd known it existed.Elizabeth Holden got paid to produce a list of acceptable English names for up to 1,000 common fungi that would otherwise be known only by their obscure and unpronounceable Latin names.
Cinnamon Jellybaby, Redleg Toughshank, Mudwort Smut, Rancid Bonnet, Elder Whitewash, Birch Brittlegill, Silky Rosegill, Foxy Fibrecap, Feather Stalkball, Drumstick Truffleclub, Rooting Poisonpie, Skullcap Dapperling?
I could so have done that!
Monday 15th September 2003
Overheard at the office
A: I have a friend who's a cannabis activist...
B: Something of a tautology?
C: Not unless he's doing coke as well.
......previous week
