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May 31, 2004
flirting
Lost Glove -another Funky Pancake moment - (he's always taking pictures of lost gloves. But I made more of a compositional meal of it.)
by groc at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
What I don’t watch 2
Mutant X. I don’t watch this program for a lot of the same reasons I don’t watch Smallville.
I get the impression that for quite some time TV execs had been eyeing the phenomenal success of Buffy with much envy, (or rather at the huge rating figures) and decided they needed a similar program of their own to appeal to that same ‘yoof’ demographic. Unfortunately like any other sad soul who’s only watched the occasional Buffy episode at a very superficial level (and have usually decided to dismiss it out of hand without ever knowing what they‘re missing) they’ve come away with all the wrong ideas from it. This series also tries to sneakily draw on the success of the Matrix and the X-men movies but again totally misunderstanding the point of what really made those movies such big blockbusters. So they got in Marvel comics man Avi Arad to do a ‘X-men lite’ for them. (Bizarrely also missing out what used to differentiate Marvel from DC in the sixties*, which was ‘realistic’ superheroes with far more personal problems than super powers) The resulting formulaic mess is a show featuring pretty glamour model boys and girls (whose hair gel has far more acting talent than they do) with wish-fantasy super powers having their own jet plane and their own secret island filled to the brim with lots of fancy hi tech toys to play with. They then have to do the regular obligatory kung fu style fight sequence at least once an episode. Their only real worry in life -since they’re not living with their parents, or have to go to college -or keep down a job, (they don't even have bad teeth, acne or short-sightedness to contend with!) is that they’re being pursued by a dreary mock Andy Warhol look-a-like baddie. Well, that is, they were up right until the point when the producers eventually twigged (and it took them long enough) that he was more than a bit crap really and so put him into cold storage - literally. After all it was a major flaw having a villain whose only other distinguishing attribute, aside from being a Warhol clone, was his total lack of an immune system. Someone you can defeat just by breathing on them -doesn’t exactly fill one with fear and dread does it?
What other qualities have they’ve missed out? Well, for a start any attempt at characterisation. These are all extremely tedious individuals, not one of them has any personality whatsoever. The stories are pedestrian and beyond pathetic. All the most hackneyed clichés are trotted out with absolutely no attempt to play around with them, subvert them, or even -godforbid laugh at them. Every episode: the villain hatches some lame plot or pits one of his tame new super mutants to pit against ‘Team-pretty’ they fight, (featuring lots and lots of flying wire work) they foil his plot, then pout prettily, the villain vows he’ll get them next time… Roll credits. Stifle yawns. Psychpathic Andy-alike master villain aside it doesn't even have any kitsch value.
by groc at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)
Bud ha ha ha
one of the ugliest Buddhas ever... and a close-up.
River ratty. (Pooh. I didn't realise you have to register just to see the pictures. That's lame. There's only two up there any way so don't bother. But I'm leaving the link here so I can find it again. I'd lost it. If I put up any movies at a future date it might prove handy....)
by groc at 12:00 PM | Comments (3)
May 29, 2004
incredible
(Is Edna Mode based on Edith Head I wonder.)
Couldn't they have given her a better costume (sorry about the ad-heavy site) and that stoopid cowl -yeesh. And how come she's 'Patience Philips' and not 'Selina Kyle'? I fear the worst.
by groc at 11:57 PM | Comments (1)
gay TV -revisited
Hey! Stop stealing my ideas you bastards.
(I'm lame -I never got around to doing the mock TV schedule I was going to do. I think Xmas got in the way or something. There is now a GayTV but I've been told it only shows rubbish soft porn.)
[Just a sudden random thought why don't we have italics that lean backwards as well as forwards - I'm sure they'd be useful for something.]
by groc at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)
Ghost world/Art World
I seem to remember in the comic book and the film 'Ghost World' one of the characters -Seymour (Steve Buscemi) collected old 'Sambo'/blackface/minstral advertising for 'the Coon Chicken Inn' pointing out it's place in American history as in the film the Coon mutates from the offensive blackface to a inoffensive 'Cook's Chicken Inn'. Well blow me -I've just found an Artist who deals in much the same subject matter and has been subjected to as much knee-jerk criticism for it as is the main character Enid (Thora Birch) in the film. Is this all coincidental or what? Did Daniel Clowes know about Michael Ray Charles beforehand?
I'm going to have to watch this film again soon, and I ought to buy the book at some point.
by groc at 08:19 PM | Comments (4)
a queer eye for a queer eye for a straight guy
Why Johan Hari hates 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'.
by groc at 06:18 PM | Comments (1)
BT Spam Yahell
I know I've moaned about BT Yahoo before and I'm sorry to have to do it again. For month after month now I've been suffering from this one particular highly aggressive porn site spammer, first it was the ‘Paris Hilton’ videos, then ‘Jessica Simpson’ and now it’s a constant steady stream of mis-spelt teen girl slut cams etc. It used to be 'only' 30 to 40 a day, now it's more like at least 150 a day! They say that spammers work on the principle that for every million spams sent out if just the one lands a punter it’s a success. This particular spammer hasn't quite grasped that concept and seems to think that they’re supposed to send out a million spam messages to the one single person and it’s that which does the trick. In my case I expect that as soon as I receive that very last one millionth spam message from them upon that very moment I'll instantly change my sexuality and develop an all insatiable urge to visit that particular site for all my teen girl porn needs. Yeah right. That’ll happen.
Now BT Yahoo web mail has a 'report spam' function. Despite it's seemingly total uselessness I use it constantly. I do so in the vain and forlorn hope that one day Yahoo will eventually wake up to the fact that merely relying on Bayesian filters alone is not nearly enough. Obviously this spammer knows all the tricks to get round it and does so with a large measure of success - false names - various false subject lines (they only have to add a number or letter to their small range of stock false lines and they get through) random words and book quotations in the text body. (It’s staggering to see all that intelligence (cough) and sheer effort being used to get around the filters and yet they’re not smart enough to twig that if sending out one, or ten spams to the same people hasn’t worked -then neither will thirty nor will a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand or a million. Argh!!! For gods sake can they not put some effort into finding other email addresses to send their vile crap to? Oops - sorry. I had a moment there.) This spammer makes use of a dictionary list of addresses, so at home with just the one filter on Outlook Express and Thunderbird on the to: and CC: lines I used to catch most of the spam easily. (Why haven’t Yahoo caught on to that trick yet?) Only now with this wretched web mail they’ve forced onto me -what doesn’t end up the main mailbox as non spam gets stored in their stupid bulk mail folder when it is. Meaning I now have periodically to log onto the web mail system to deal with it all. There isn't a 'delete all' or empty button on the main inbox so I have to go through page after page of it -marking it all and reporting it as spam... it's very tedious.
Other spam busting companies use a honey pot trap -it’s where they set up various false addresses over the internet. They then know that any mail sent to that address is unsolicited and so likely to be spam. Why aren’t BT Yahoo using that trick for their spam filters? They could use my address now it has become exactly that. It now gets nothing but spam sent to it. No problem you’d think - just get rid of that address. But not so. Guess what. Despite repeated attempts over a number of weeks to delete that account and even after a complaint to BT Yahoo - it steadfastly refuses to let me. All I ever get is a message telling there’s ‘been an error and to try again later’. Maybe the spammers are paying BT Yahoo so that when do I get that last final last millionth spam for teenage cum sluts…
by groc at 02:02 PM | Comments (1)
Golden Age ---going, going....
So I've just sat through yet another slice of the mini golden age of TV end tonight. *Choke sniff* since when does one get so upset over a sitcom ending? Fraiser is next to go sometime in, I think June. I'm getting worried now -because what new good things am I going to watch? I just don't do the soaps. (me recovering addict -mustn‘t ever go near.) There are still a few good British sitcoms -but they only make them six at a time once or two years at a time -if we‘re lucky. There's Will & Grace still - but ummm. Can it go the distance? I somehow think it’s popularity has already peaked and even now it’s on the beginning of a long slow downward slope. Give Karen her own spin-off show now. Hell, give Megan her own sketch show and totally ditch all the rest of those annoying talentlesss losers, while they can go on to do something else - probably off-off Broadway, where we don't ever have to see them again.
by groc at 01:03 AM | Comments (6)
May 28, 2004
Another woman and a piano
cover another version. Get it now.
by groc at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Tamagotchi
Watch out. Beep beep. (I'll be waiting until the fad has long passed and hope to buy them from the pound shop like I did last time round.)
Bonus links:
by groc at 02:59 PM | Comments (4)
Mr Triton
by groc at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2004
Beckham as an Auton
Beckham in Dr Who as a villain? Ummm. Somehow I bet Mr. Russell T Davis just fancied a chance to meet him in the flesh.
and here's a link especially for Ian. I'll be trying *not* to watch it myself.
by groc at 06:31 PM | Comments (1)
shoes
(I had a sort of funky pancake moment.)
by groc at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2004
How terribly unfortunate
and yet somehow I can't bring myself to care very much. Surely the real art was in all the tabloid headlines, the long stream of (mock) outraged articles and the hype and the fantastical amounts of money that Mr Saatchi threw around. After all that the actual art objects themselves don't seem to matter that much.
by groc at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)
May 25, 2004
nnnnoooooooooo
Is this the Bonnie Langford of the 00s -Billie (Because I want to Chris -Because I want to) Piper to be the new Dr Who assistant? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Was Michael Grade behind this I wonder?
Via Over your head.
by groc at 07:34 PM | Comments (6)
purple tones
by groc at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)
No, not us Gov.
It's not our fault this whole Iraq thing. We was stitched up like a kipper we was.
Pull the other one it might have WMD bells on it.
by groc at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2004
America is so screwed
Susan Sontag on the Abu Ghraib photos.
And if this is true - then, I'm sorry -but the American people need to get their fat arses out into the streets and start a revolution against Bush and his cronies. Just how much more right wing do things have to get over there?
by groc at 03:00 PM | Comments (3)
Are you annoying enough?
Oh, I tried watching a bit of Sky’s ‘How Gay Are You?’ last night. But it was just too annoying. They obviously have confused the word ‘Gay’ to mean variously: ‘being empathic and sensitive’, ‘not being a total jerk’, ‘taking care of your appearance’, ‘not being a complete slob’. They can’t have met some of the selfish/insenstive/obnoxious/slovenly/stinky gay men I’ve had the misfortune to have had the acquaintance of over the years, who haven’t had any of those qualities. Stereotyping -dontcha just love it?
(Funny how they’ve changed the meaning of ‘gay’ to imply being ‘a tad bit effeminate’ rather than to be ‘someone who enjoys having a regular bit of hot man on man action‘. Why haven’t they any questions about that then -rather than whether or not they use a bit of moisturiser? )
Lookee where they probably got the idea for the program from...
by groc at 12:22 PM | Comments (3)
"The first casualty...
...in war -is the truth."
Of course - the answer is simple. The systematic abuse, humiliation and torture of Iraqi prisoners/detainees doesn't happen - if we don't know about it. What we don't see won't concern us then. Of course they could try things like -oh, I don't know, maybe respecting everyone's human rights and treat these people humanely, and in so doing show the rest of the world that they're not every bit as bad as Saddam ever was. But that's probably way too difficult. No, not after they've spent all that time and effort demonising the Iraqi people to the US soldiers so they're happy enough going in bombing and shooting all those godless 'towel-heads'.
by groc at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
movies
In searching for info about 'Seconds' -the Rock Hudson movie that was shown tonight on BBC2. I also found a little more about the upcoming Stepford Wives remake. Pooh that there was a missed opportunity that it could've been a Tim Burton film - I'm sure he'd have managed to get the right balance between humor and horror, with a side order of social commentary exactly right. Although I'm still wary about Hollywood's cannibalistic tendancies of remaking (and more often than not thus ruining) perfectly good classic movies.
(Reading off the same page -hints of Nicole Kidman playing Samantha in a possible big movie adaptation of Bewitched? That's an interesting idea...)
by groc at 02:13 AM | Comments (4)
May 23, 2004
Blunkett is just evil
Evil and downright inhumane. It's not enough that he's actually sent asylum seekers back to their deaths. He's denied housing and subsistence benefits to three people simply because they failed to claim asylum as soon as they entered the UK. Presumably he just simply expected them to quietly starve to death on the streets whilst cluching their ID cards to their chests so the police know what names to put on their forms. Luckily the law courts disagreed with him, but that doesn't matter. He's appealing to the House of Lords to try and get his own way still .
by groc at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
Angel
Nooooooo. I've just watched the last ever episode of Angel. (Hey, I've got a broadband connection and I'm going to use it.) Noooooooo, it's too much like the last episode of Blake's seven. Nooooo.
Another little piece of a mini golden age gone.
by groc at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
Blue jeans
Things I don't understand: Shop bought brand new worn holey old looking jeans.
Cooo. My last post was the first thousandth on this blog. Yay me.
by groc at 02:06 PM | Comments (1)
May 21, 2004
A woman and a piano
Get it now before I replace it with another one. I'm not made of bandwidth you know.
(PC people: right click and save as...
MAC people: -I dunno what they have to do, cry probably. But not before telling anyone who'll listen how great and how very pretty their macs are. Yawn.)
by groc at 06:43 PM | Comments (4)
Commercials - give me a break
Why are Sainsbury's still using Jamie Wotisname in their commercials? So bored now. So very bored of his pudgy face, his blubbery lips and tired of his irritating cheeky mockney ways. Oh and I'm pretty sick of wotsername (Sybil out of Fawlty Towers) in those Tesco adverts too. She's normally such a good actress it's a crime for her talents to be wasted like this.
by groc at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
ID cards are so old hat
This is the next stage - Spanish night clubbers show the way forward.
We're all living in a science fiction novel now aren't we?
by groc at 11:27 AM | Comments (4)
May 20, 2004
2 men from Worthing
lob a condom full of purple dye at Blair during question time.
[via Dave Denyer]
(Wonder how long it'll be before Blunkett claims this could never have happened if only we had ID cards).
Bonus link: How ID cards would stop a terrorist attack.
by groc at 09:24 AM | Comments (1)
May 19, 2004
well...
Which echoes similiar results in Australia not so long ago where initially people were all in favour of an ID card until they got to know more and more information about it and what all the possible implications were - by then 90% were against the idea. And that card wasn't even a fully featured all-singing all-dancing technological biometric-containing marvel like the sort Blunkett wants us to have.
You'd think -wouldn't you, that our Government would be able to learn from other countries' experiances without having to go through all the pain (and not mention the vast expense) of making all the same mistakes over for itself. But there you go...
by groc at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2004
subject: seismograph
lustful anastomosis perpetuate teal beadle
sleigh flatus phenomena, brow alike
aflame fulton, cobweb sprawl phalarope.
Indeed.
and
transmitter diabetes, insoluble atop orbital. personal lundquist, spidery frisky, priggish barrow gladiator haas al radon.
Isn't it odd how computers can easily generate gibberish but can't detect it. I guess it'll take proper A.I. for that.
by groc at 10:39 AM | Comments (2)
What I don't watch
Y'see, when I was a kiddie growing up I used to buy a huge amount of comics from a market stall. Most of them were from the 60s, so Superman to me and (especially Superboy) belongs to at least that early era and before (there were a lot of reprints from the 'Golden Age') -so in my mind a kind of amalgam of the 40s 50s and very early 60s is mixed together to make up this whole mythical/nostalgic comic book time and place where all the stories take place*. In my head Cary Grant in round thick black rimmed spectacles would have made the best Clark Kent ever, (exactly like he looked in 1938's 'Bringing Up Baby'. Although I'd have to have someone else playing Superman**). It was actually a big hard push for me to accept the 70s Christopher Reeves Superman films. Likewise for the ‘Lois & Clark’ (or ‘the New Adventures of Superman’ as it was known in the UK)TV series.
Now this Smallville business - I just can't connect to it. If he's Superboy living now in the present day - then who was that Superman played by Dean Cain in the 'Lois and Clark' series? I know, I know, this a whole new clean slate Superboy - but my brain isn’t having any of it. The Superman character and his mythology has been around too long for that. The other thing I can't stand is that everyone in it is just way too good looking - they're nearly all fashion models dammit. Years ago I had a friend making the somewhat dim and offhand comment that everyone on 'Buffy' looked too plastic. No. Wrong. If you want plastic looking - here it is. In spades. The only one who looks dodgy is -of course, Lex Luthor's daddy and he's evil. All that money and he can’t afford a haircut and a shave - or any good grooming? Come on now, pull the other one. Yup, in ‘Smallville’ anyone remotely normal or 'plain' (as the Americans like to call ugly) looking is either a hopeless victim or a villain. Whhhoo, subtle hey?
The other thing is that (from what precious few episodes I’ve sat through) it seems to take itself far, far too seriously. There’s been a complete humour bypass in the scripting department. That makes the whole show a bit plodding and dreary to me. I’m sorry, but with all those super powers how can anyone take Superman seriously? It needs some humour there. To me Clark Kent has always been a comedy figure not a angst-ridden teen, he should be all geeky and awkward and be wearing glasses and being beaten up by the bullies at school the whole time -he should be the last one anyone suspects of having super powers. Not this absurdly good looking hunk with finely chiseled cheekbones but who's got as much personality and character as a log that's over-dosed on elephant tranquillisers.
There’s also the thing that I’ve never been that much of a Superman fan - feh. I’ve always liked Batman better. Let's face facts here, even with the silly bat ears he is so much cooler.
Bonus link via Timemachinego: trying to reinvent Superman.
*And that would have made more sense in light of the whole 'why doesn't anyone notice Superman looks exactly like Clark Kent without his glasses' issue.
**So can you imagine how totally thrilled I was to see Tim Burton creating a whole 30s/40s retro-future world for his Batman. That was so exactly the right thing to have done. Genius.
by groc at 02:34 AM | Comments (6)
May 17, 2004
let us entertain -the hets
Sky One has been advertising this ...what is it exactly? A game show, a interactive quiz show? to be shown this Sunday 10pm... "How Gay Are You?" and I've just stumbled upon this program which is to be shown on the American FOX TV network "Seriously Dude, I'm gay" in which "For one week a pair of straight guys will immerse themselves in “the gay lifestyle”. Each will move into separate West Hollywood lofts, complete with three gay roommates, to experience what it’s like to live life as a gay man.” Of course there's a cash prize at stake.*
"Our failed attempt at humor was ill-chosen and inappropriate," the network said.
Hmmmm pity they didn't think that when the proposal for the show was made.
Oh hum. So we're still being classed as light frothy entertainment for the heterosexuals then. Nice.
*Found via queerpopculture.
Update: After I wrote this I saw Southpark doing their own take on the whole metrosexual thang tonight. Yes, the Queer Eye folk they are the Crab people - it all makes sense now.
by groc at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
Yesterday afternoon.
by groc at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2004
ID
Which would be better to help prevent crime and potential terrorism -ID cards or 60,000 extra policemen? Wendy M. Grossman on ID cards.
The people who are really going to benefit from ID cards:
Terrorists: The 9/11 hijackers had ID, the bombers in Madrid had proper ID etc. I don't think suicide bombers will care much about whether they carry their own true ID or someone else's. (Update: [Blunkett] ...also acknowledges that 65% of known terrorists use their own identity.)
Criminals -a card will actually make their lives easier. If you have your wallet or purse stolen -they'll now have your address handy to come round and burgle you later - it'll probably also make it easier for them to be able to use your credit cards and cash cheques and open new accounts etc. (There have been tests proving that many people don't even look at the photos on the various existing ID cards.) Not to mention this whole new revenue stream organised crime will now get in the making and selling of forged IDs.
The Treasury. £35 at least for the basic card -ker-ching. £77 (or more) for a biometric passport and/or driving license -ker-ching. and I wonder how much they'll gouge you for a replacement everytime it gets stolen or lost. Let's face it - the ID card is a tax. It's a national citizen tax. Then there's all the income from the ridiculously huge fines they intend to bring in for such things as not notifying the Government when you change your address, or if you neglect or forget to inform the Government when it's been lost or stolen, not to mention when it does eventually become compulsory being fined if you ever go outdoors and forget to take it out with you. (You can imagine the police harrassing someone using that proposed law can't you? Popping across the road to the shops, or taking the rubbish out, "excuse me Sir/Madam, may we see your ID." Ker-ching. Ker-ching. Ker-chimg.)
The IT companies must currently dancing on table tops not being able to believe their good fortune at all the vast amounts of money that will be rolling in. They've just been given a blank cheque. (hell no, they've actually been given a whole pre-signed blank cheque BOOK.)
Sigh. Can Governments not get into into their heads yet that technology is not the answer -computers aren't magic boxes that can solve all problems. In fact they're more likely to cause and create far more problems than they solve.
Register articles:
How to fool ID card system - give a false ID, say UK gov.
Blunkett risks ID card battle with EU.
Guardian article. Here's looking at you.
Privacy org: FAQ
by groc at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2004
No.
[via the b3ta newsletter.]
by groc at 03:08 PM | Comments (2)
Rate this...
See, I told you I thought that the Nielsen ratings thing that American TV execs use to justify cancelling otherwise perfectly worthwhile new TV series was deeply flawed didn't I?
It's unbelievable that this is an industry that bases so many of it's decisions on collected data that is only now waking up to the fact that people use video recorders and PVRs and TiVo to *gasp!* time shift their viewing. They're going to start collecting the information on that now. Errr, how long have most Americans had video recorders?
How clueless do these people have to be before they stop breathing altogether exactly?
by groc at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
mirror mirror
As the whole Gulf War/Sept. 11th/Iraq occupation thing has been unfolding I've been finding it harder and harder to tell what the differences between Saddam Hussein and George Bush are supposed to be. Both got into power under highly dubious circumstances. Both invaded countries they shouldn't have. Both had armies that were/are given carte blanche to detain and torture innocent Iraq people in order to keep them in line. Both are maniacs believing that they can do no wrong. Both are steeped in various shady business dealings with Saudi Multi-millionaires...
Hey, maybe America needs an occupying force from another country to liberate it's people from their power-crazed leader? After all Mr Bush really does have WMD and has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt he can’t be trusted with them. And for various reasons there's no reason to suppose that the upcoming elections are going to change anything. (Saddam himself got back into power with 100% of the vote. Remember?)
I wonder if Finland is up to the job?
by groc at 01:52 PM | Comments (4)
May 13, 2004
something else
for my wish list...
by groc at 02:49 PM | Comments (2)
I don't get it...
Spain has had ID cards for a while now. Madrid had a terrorist attack. ID cards did nothing to prevent that. ID cards didn't even have anything to do in helping to find the perpetrators. So why then are we being told that as a result of the Madrid bombings we absolutely must have expensive ID cards forced upon us as soon as possible?
How can we ever trust any Government that's so willing to twist facts to suit itself and take advantage of a massive tragedy to push through it's own dubious agenda?
Just because Mr. Bush has done it -doesn't mean we should be following his lead.
by groc at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2004
Quote of the day
"I wish I had chicken balls though."
David Archontic
Tonight I am very much *not* watching the Eurovision Thing contest. It's just another one of the missing 'way of the gay' chromosones I simply do not possess. The last one I ever saw was when I was a teeny tiny child when Abba won with 'Waterloo'. That was enough.
Instead I'm watching about comic books on the Biography channel. Much much more my cup of tea.
by groc at 07:12 PM | Comments (4)
camera phone
by groc at 07:03 PM | Comments (6)
Donnie
A director's cut of Donnie Darko? Oooh ooh ooh.
by groc at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
Andy
photos by Billy Name. (via the cartoonist.) If I was a wealthy groc I would so be buying a lot of those pictures.
“I know that they are going to be looked at and loved”
by groc at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
want
I want one of these (but with a much more capacious HDD). Just imagine if you could hook it up to a monitor or TV. I can see a day when the big noisy clunky beige box computer will be long gone - to be replaced with a myriad of small handheld devices that can output to any size of flat screens. Yay for the future. Mind you -then I'd be always losing the wretched things...
Oooh this is even nicer...
Or a there's even a digital video recorder for Sony memory sticks...
by groc at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)
new photos
of freaky weird things taken by me here.
(Sigh. One day I might, just might get my digital photos of San Fran off Kevin's work laptop. You know, one day when he can be bothered like. Sigh again.)
by groc at 06:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2004
phone home
I actually saw one of these on sale in San Francisco. I wish, I wish, I wish I'd bought it now.
I've been harvesting more Spongebob links:
About the creator:
Articles
Nicktoon Games
Merchandise:
SpongeBob SquarePantsTM Telephone Talker
Dodgy black SpongeBob Valentine Card
Popsicles and more popsicles.
toothpaste. Glow in the dark plasters.
by groc at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)
May 10, 2004
Rocko
Found this good interview with Joe Murray - creator of Rocko's modern life.
by groc at 10:42 PM | Comments (1)
92
by groc at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2004
i want my iMP
Hello, when I wrote this entry about wanting to see the death of broadcast TV... someone over at the BBC must've been taking notes. TV on demand that's what we want. When do we want it? Now. Not just when the broadcasters decide to trot it out...
Then I read this and sigh. No, they are emphatically NOT losing £45 million in sales. That's a figure they've plucked out of the air. I can do that - 'I lost two million in sales from all the cartoons, photos and writings that have been downloaded from my various websites over the years. Boo hoo, boo hoo.' See?
And let me tell you -if the Industry ever tried to sell you copies of TV programs and films at the wretchedly low quality you can usually download from the internet - they'd be lynched.
by groc at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)
Crude 2
If we dug a lot less oil out of the ground we might treat our plastic goods with a lot more respect.
by groc at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)
happy snaps
Digital cameras change perception of war.
Which kind of makes those black and white, well composed, well staged, well focused photos of the Mirror's look all the more iffy. You can easily imagine a few sadistic redneck soldiers with camera phones taking a few quick snaps and sending them to friends for 'a laugh' only to have the pictures fall into the 'wrong hands'... (because they weren't quite intelligent enough to realise the same pictures would count as evidence against them. D'oh.) but those Mirror pics looked to me like they'd came out of a gay S&M pornography session.
by groc at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)
May 07, 2004
Crude
Petrol prices are going up are they? Mmmm oh well, get used to it - things are only set to get to get a lot worse. [Via Codshit.] (Now if I was one of those Texan Oil billionaires that are financing Bush (and indirectly this whole Iraq occupation thing) -I'd be getting out of oil and into renewables, and into financing of research and development of other alternative energy sources, because that's were the money of the future is going to be. But then I've got a brain and clearly many of those shady characters haven't. No, really they haven't, they've got way too much money and power and influence but plain old common sense and intelligence? The cupboard is bare.)
by groc at 10:43 PM | Comments (4)
Madam Fatal
-an old Lady superhero! Who's actually a man in drag. What's that about then?
by groc at 09:06 AM | Comments (2)
NHS to trial linux
Oh look, a glimmer of sense in a wicked bad world... because I for one can't help thinking that our NHS/taxpayers money should *not* be going towards making that obscenely rich American Mr Gates even richer.
[via meriwilliams]
It's oldish news, so I'm wondering how they've been getting along with that. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft salesmen haven't rushed over there and started offering deep price cuts and other freebies to try and keep the NHS hooked... because that's how Microsoft operate.
by groc at 07:37 AM | Comments (3)
May 06, 2004
gay tedium
Queer Eye for Straight Guy US -good.
Queer Eye for Straight Guy UK -bad.
Very bad.
The queers are far more irritating and stereotypical and younger and a lot creepier than their US counterparts.
More of the same on the same day:
I tried to watch a bit of 'Fairy Godfathers' on Channel 4 but got bored very quickly and gave up on it.
Sigh - I remember when Channel 4 did their famous Out series many years ago. What happened?
by groc at 10:25 PM | Comments (2)
ID card guide
The Register's pub bore's guide to everything you never wanted to know about the UK ID card.
What? teething problems in the trial -already? Who could have seen that coming?
Oh, and they'll be no error checking and no way to rectify any errors or false information once they've been put in the database? How lame is that?
by groc at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
Note to self
3 days of having strangers stomping around my flat is actually more than I can bear...
by groc at 07:52 AM | Comments (2)
Dear Living TV,
Look, it's bad enough that you're been using a sound clip from Suede's 'the beautiful ones' to (over) hype your upcoming UK version of 'Queer Eye for a Straight Guy' and which now sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it -not that I ever liked Brett's horrible whiney voice in the first place. But tonight to do that split screen business over the end part of an episode of Will & Grace to play it again -thus totally obliterating the dialogue of a classic Karen & Rosaro scene was unforgivable.
As a matter of fact I always hate it when a channel cuts into the end credits of any programme and either has an announcer blathering on inanely - or worse does the split screen thing so you can't even read the credits. It might surprise them to know that there people (like me) who occasionally like to read those things to find out what actor played what role - or what piece of music they used -etc. But that W&G was particularly bad.
by groc at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2004
horror
oooh ooh ooh I get the Horror channel (sky 330). really bad, really cheap, really badly acted horror films -how I love thee.
by groc at 01:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 04, 2004
kitchen
a new kitchen is being installed.
why do buildery type people start work so hideously early in the mornings?
the noctural groc meets the early bird -it's not a pretty sight.
...and has there been a lunar eclipse this evening? the moon has been up to some very odd things tonight. I've taken a video if I'd known beforehand. dammit.
why was somebody searching moi blog for any entries about "eric carlin"? I haven't seen or heard anything about him for years. if it's eric say hello. if it's not and you know him say hello from me.
by groc at 11:16 PM | Comments (3)
yoghurt drink makes you hyper?
They're still showing it after all these months so I have to say... everytime they show that 'Actimel' advert on TV the one were the woman goes up to complain she's been drinking it for a week and doesn't feel any different... I'm thinking there's NO way in hell I'd drink that stuff. Why not? Because to me they're as good as saying as soon as you buy any -the 'Actimel' company will be watching and recording your every last movement. Obtaining CCTV footage of you -yourself going about your everyday business even at work -and by the look of it being hyper manic for some reason. All incase you try to get your money back, and they've even got their own 'heavies' to call on if they don't like your face...
It looks like Bg Brother has nothing on Actimel.
by groc at 04:02 AM | Comments (2)
Simps
I just caught sight of the actress who does the voice of Bart Simpson in 'Maximum Overdrive' and it got me thinking...
How does the Simpsons work? Because usually networks run a proper series of something and you get a whole crop of brand new programs over the season. But that doesn't ever happen with the Simpsons. Sky just shows a hodge-podge of repeats taken seemingly randomly from older and newer seasons thrown together - which makes things very confusing. One program will tell us Ned Flander's wife is dead yet the next episode - no, there she is all alive and running about ... oh no, turns out it's an older episode shown after a later episode…(unless it’s the Halloween special one where she appears as a scary ghost.)
So any new Simpsons episode is doled out once every so often during which time they take great pains to let you know that it is a brand new one. Is this just how Sky has decided to run things in the UK and in America land they get treated to a whole proper series of new ‘toons - or like us do they too have to put up with the occasional new episode being trotted out irregularly?
I want to know.
by groc at 01:39 AM | Comments (2)
May 02, 2004
a gay ghetto - but only for the wealthier homo
America's first gated rich gay ghett o. (You might have to watch a stupid advert to be able to read this.) Um. Gyms, dinner parties, conspicious consumption and materialism? Sounds like a gay version of Stepford (as in Wives) in the making to me.
by groc at 04:36 PM | Comments (2)
May 01, 2004
WS
Eurgh, why has the Mirror got a large photo of some water sports activity on today's cover. Oh it's soldier peeing on some helpless Iraqi prisoner. Suddenly I have visions of young children up and down the country going -"let's play war, let's do Brit soldier and Iraqi prisoner" and thus the seeds of a lifelong fetish are planted. It's how all that sort of thing starts you know.
"Abuse of power comes as no surprise" -Jenny Holzer.
by groc at 01:40 PM | Comments (1)