April 10th - April 16th 2006
Sunday Gunpowder Court 2006
Saturday Spore
Friday Birthday
Thursday Fib
Wednesday Apprentice (Sharon)
Tuesday Biscuit
Monday Queerer Than Folk
Sunday 16th April
Gunpowder Court, Spring 2006
Saturday 15th April
If you haven't already seen it, have half an hour to spare, and are remotely interested in computer games, you owe yourself exposure to Will Wright's DICE presentation of Spore.
Wright is the man behind SimCity and The Sims, and Spore is the working title for a game that he has in development, which starts off by encouraging gamers to play PacMan with simulated micro-organisms swimming in a puddle of green goo.
As the earlier stages of the game progress, the micro-organisms evolve and you get access to a Creature Editor. Some claws? Not a problem. Teeth and vertebrae? On demand.
Now your creature gets to interact with other creatures, created by other gamers. Depending on what it meets, and how it reacts, it evolves the ability to move out of the water - and onto the land.
Once on land...but I don't want to ruin it for you.
Schedule a spare half hour, sit back and marvel at, if nothing else, the sheer stretch of a human imagination let loose with a big development budget and a team of dedicated hackers.
(Did I mention it's often also very funny: "Move along, nothing to see...")
Friday 14th April
Ironical of Gordon Brown to pledge £8.5 billion to fund primary education this week, of all weeks - when all non-lefties are busy celebrating the 80th birthday of a woman who never went to school but seems to have done alright for herself...
Thursday 13th April
Mad,
Bad,
Evil,
Dangerous.
This toxic word plague
Invented on the internet.
Wednesday 12th April
So this week on The Apprentice, it's goodbye Shazza.
Nothing, frankly, in her apprenticeship becomes her like the leaving of it, wherein she finally gets to deliver, to the hateful Syed, the line that all of us have toyed with on bidding farewell to a colleague:
"I think you're an arrogant wanker, but good luck."
Tuesday 11th April
Overheard at the office
Girl: OK. That's that done. Anything else?
Man: Nothing yet. Talk amongst yourselves.
Boy: I-Spy, anybody?
Man: I should have brought my pornographic dominoes.
Boy: As long as you don't invite me to play Soggy Biscuit...
Girl: What's 'soggy biscuit'?
Boy: I couldn't possible tell you.
Girl: Tell me!
Man: The thing that always puzzled me..
Boy: Yes?
Man: ...was what kind of biscuit?
Boy: Well it would have to be a digestive, at least.
Girl: What are you talking about?
Man: Not a Ritz Cracker, then?
Girl: Tell me! tell me! tell me!
Man: Frankly, I'm more of an Iced Gem man these days...
Monday 10th April
For his next project, dubbed MGM (More Gay Men), he plans to return to the domestic arena of Queer As Folk.
Nicola Schindler, doyenne of Manchester-based Red productions, is waiting patiently until he has finished Doctor Who - and he has signed up for at least two more series - to make the new drama, which will be "a bit more 40-year-old".
"I thought of Death in Venice. Like any 40-year-old, you start to feel like 20-year-olds are an alien race. It will be on BBC1 hopefully. I'm quite aware that the BBC hasn't got a big gay series and should."
Sadly, the interview in this week's media pages in the Independent doesn't touch on what, for me, is one of the more intriguing aspects of the career of Russell T Davies.
I refer to the incredible manner in which America's Showtime network picked up his original Queer As Folk concept, itself somewhat shocking to a UK audience, and ran with it to Pittsburgh, where they proceeded - in total contrast to our usual expectations of US makeovers of popular UK shows - to make it even more frank, even more bold, even more shocking.
You think I exaggerate? The third series of USQAF is currently being repeated (late at night) on E4. The on-off relationship between Brian and Justin is currently in an on phase, despite Justin's deep mistrust of Brian's campaigning work on behalf of family-values police chief Jim Stockwell.
This week's Episode 10 begins with Brian and Justin's plans for a night on the town being frustrated by the discovery that Stockwell has shut down just about every sex club on Liberty Avenue. The couple eventually settle (as you do) for an al fresco blow-job, up an alleyway, against a wall that just happens to be plastered with Brian's Stockwell posters.
After the basic minimum of moaning and groaning, Brian delivers Justin a bumper mouthful - which Justin promptly spits out all across Stockwell's family-friendly face..
I wonder if that's the kind of thing we can eventually expect to see when MGM arrives on BBC1? I do hope so.
......previous week
