Two forces combining:

January 22, 2008 at 11:03 pm | In Cycling, DVD Rental, Film, Star Spot, Star Spotting, Tesco DVD Rental | Leave a Comment
  • spotting Jon Snow chaining his bike outside the ITV offices on the Grays Inn Road while I was on the 17 bus
  • me restarting my DVD rental

Both have inspired me to start posting again. I nearly switched to Love Film rental after I was given one of those free for 90 day vouchers. But because I’d already used Tesco for rental (Love Film runs Tesco’s rental service) I couldn’t use the free 90 days. This was a shame as I preferred the Love Film online experience; they had more features such as news, reviews and an email service. One consolation however, is that I don’t have to re-input a new queue of films as luckily my Tesco account details had been saved from before.

So yesterday I had The Good Shepherd and The Illusionist waiting for me when I got home. The Illusionist I’ve already seen, so that can go straight back, and I didn’t like it much anyway. I haven’t seen the Prestige yet, but can only assume it will be better. The Good Shepherd I look forward to viewing.

Best Star Spots

August 17, 2007 at 9:40 am | In Actors, Celebrities, Star Spot, Star Spotting | Leave a Comment

A friend of mine mentioned that he spotted Orlando Bloom in London yesterday – that’s a pretty good ‘Star Spot.’ That got me thinking of my best Star Spots. A few that spring to mind are Todd Carty (actor) parking his car in Crouch End, Paul McGann (actor) looking at hats in John Lewis, Bobby Gillespie on several different occasions, Paul Morley (music journalist) walking around Archway N19, Jarvis Cocker drinking in a pub in Camden, Jon Snow (newsreader) at Camden recycling centre emptying rubbish out the back of his Volvo.

However perhaps my best Star Spot(s) was first seeing Edward Fox in Embankment Gardens, quickly followed by a lonely looking Richard Harris drinking in a pub near the Savoy Hotel, which makes sense as I do believe Richard Harris used to live in the Savoy.

Perhaps the best Star Spots aren’t just the people you see, but the circumstances in which you see them.

Holmsey

August 14, 2007 at 2:56 pm | In Sherlock Holmes, crime | Leave a Comment

I’ve been abroad on holiday and starved of most media apart from tabloid headlines and books. My main book for the two weeks was a set of Sherlock Holmes stories ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes.’ Apart from the old-fashioned references, the stories were real page-turners with tight writing and a great sense of atmosphere.

Holmes might be the greatest detective of them all, but he also must be the most arrogant; never getting anything wrong and treating Watson like a child/ subordinate poodle. He also suddenly reveals expertise just when it’s required – such as being a proficient boxer when he gets in a fight in a pub (the guy he beats up goes home in a cart), and having knowledge of the tread of over 40 different types of bike tyre.

What’s ultimately great about Holmes is that he doesn’t usually take money for his services and agrees to take on a crime based on its merits, regardless of the status of the person asking. As Watson points out; Holmes is an artist and solving crime his art.

Penguins and Barley

July 21, 2007 at 8:34 pm | In DVD Rental, Film, Television, Tesco DVD Rental, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Not sure what is going on with my Tesco DVD rental queue at the moment. Managed to borrow the complete second series of the The Wire from a friend and therefore needed to eliminate the same series from my rental queue before I was sent any further discs. To my relief I received email notification this morning that I’d been sent ‘The Wind That Shakes The Barley’ and ‘March of the Penguins’.

However when I logged on Tesco DVD rental to eliminate The Wire from my queue – it had already gone! How efficient is that; telepathic DVD rental from Tesco. Perhaps there is some kind of sophisticated Orwellian data thing going on that I’m not aware of, or maybe Tesco think I’ve been watching too much of the same and I need to be offered a bit of variety.

Anyhow, hopefully I might be able to find time to fit Barley and Penguins around the battle between Baltimore cops and crims.

In the detail

July 4, 2007 at 11:49 am | In Detail, TV, Terminology, The Wire, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

Detail is another term that keeps coming up in The Wire. A Detail looks to be a group of police – ostensibly plain-clothed, pulled together from different departments for a one-off case for a set period of time. A colleague of mine who has a background in open source intelligence, tells me that a Detail has similarities to a military task force, specially created for a specific mission. In the case of the Wire, the Detail in the series acts a useful narrative function that allows the ensemble of characters that featured in the first series to be once again reunited.

Back in the day

July 3, 2007 at 11:41 am | In Back in the Day, Jane Doe, John Doe, TV, Television, Terminology, The Wire, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

I’m getting stuck into The Wire series 2 and I’m pleased to say it’s as good as the first. All characters from the first series are featured, with a handful of new characters as series 2 setting takes place primarily down in the Baltimore Docks.

A few snippets of jargon that keep coming up are firstly:

John Doe or Jane Doe

At first I actually thought that Jane Doe was the name of a murdered female, but this is US crime jargon for an unidentifiable individual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_doe. Not sure how widespread these terms are in the UK, but I can’t recall it being used in any UK crime TV/literature.

(While setting up my MS Office Communicator at work, I noticed they used John Doe as the default password name in the set-up instructions).

Another term of rather phrase that keeps cropping up is Back in the Day a phrase that I’m more familiar with, perhaps comparable with Old Skool. Looks as if several Hip Hop acts (Missy Elliot) have used back in the day as song themes and titles.

I suppose ‘back in the day’ refers to the recollection of childhood and eary life experiences, with an emphasis on positive nostalgia.

There’s a great scene in series 1 when street criminal and “stick-up” man Omar Little realises that he went to the same school as homicide detective William “Bunk ” Moreland. A ‘back in the day’ exchange takes place and Bunk confirms that Omar must have watched him play lacrosse at school, and explains how he was the school’s first black lacrosse player.

The Wire and floods

June 18, 2007 at 9:19 am | In DVD Rental, Subtitles, TV, Television, Tesco DVD Rental, The Wire | Leave a Comment

Ok, finished watching The Wire series 1. I’m trying to recall ever having seen a UK/US crime series that’s better then this – as far as TV goes this series is unbeatable. Attention to detail in the script and strength of charcterization and acting are what gives the programme so much weight, plus intricacy of plotline…. And yes I still kept the subtitles on.

It’s now my intention to try and document some of the slang/ dialogue that I found interesting or couldn’t figure out for myself. Another area that I thought was great was character names – ‘Bunk’ ‘Stringer’ ‘Poot’ Bubbles’ to name but a few so I may well list some of those also. Now have to get to task and update my Tesco DVD rental list for the next series – if I had some extra cash I might even invest in some box sets, but unfortunately don’t think my budget stretches that far at the moment.

Keeping slightly on the criminal tip: A work colleague IM’d me earlier and explained that part of their home had experienced some flooding over the weekend (here in the UK we’ve been having heavy rain), she explained that the Fire Brigade had to come round and Pimp out part of the flat… I didn’t realise the Fire Brigade’s services stretched so far.

…. take me drunk

June 14, 2007 at 8:38 pm | In Drink, Slogan | Leave a Comment

On the esculator at Holborn underground station saw a guy wearing a t-shirt with this written on it:

“I’m home, take me drunk,”

which I think pretty well sums up the British attitude towards drinking.

Switching subtitles on

June 14, 2007 at 1:36 pm | In Subtitles, TV, Television, The Wire | 2 Comments

I’ve recenty been watching the HBO Cop/ Crime series The Wire. Absolutely superb. I’m now nearly through the first series. As is often becoming the case when I watch TV/DVD’s etc, I’ve been switching the english subtitles on when I watch to accompany the visuals. Not sure if other people do this, but I find it really useful in-case I miss a piece of dialogue, or something said that is important to the plot-line.

This is especially useful with something like the Wire - the programme is packed with slang spoken by criminal gangs, but also by the Police who use plenty of work-related jargon.

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