2007 — 23 Apr: Cheer up, it's Monday!
Still get a kick out of that. Sorry, Len, and thanks for the tea yesterday afternoon. We've watched the next episode of Boston Legal with our jaws quite near the ground. The show, sadly, seems to be in the process of jumping the shark.1
Steal yourself!
When one steals (as I do) one should always steal from the best. Remember that Coleridge line about "Prose, — words in their best order; poetry, — the best words in their best order."? Today's Guardian editorial balances Olympics funding and the robbing of the "Arts" by Tessa Jowell, who is intent on stealing "another £675m out of the national lottery fund". This is on top of the £410m she already plans to snaffle, by the way. But back to the editorial; it kicks off nicely:
Mammon is traditionally the artist's enemy. As the late poet Ian Hamilton observed, any writer who even flirts with solvency faces open season on his work: "He's got a what? A mortgage? Well, I have to say I always had my doubts. I mean, his line-breaks did seem a bit arbitrary."
Meanwhile, spotted on the packaging on a recent acquisition:
No? Look more closely!
We liked "Kingdom"
Like a comfy pair of shoes. It's like Doc Martin but without the grouchiness. Meanwhile, Rounders is busily copying itself across to a DVD-R. Confessions of a trickbaby will be next, but it's so far proved resistant to editing to remove the ad breaks. The Pioneer's UI is not fully bent to my will yet. But it was bent far enough to capture this afternoon's showing of The League of Gentlemen (thank you Channel 4), though it's my fault the first four minutes or so are missing as I wasn't quite quick enough on the uptake. Since that film gets off to a stodgy start, no great loss.
Nor is Linux, but I have plans to fix that. I've decided to trash the Gateway back to bare metal, re-install XP2 Home, then start experimenting with the Xubuntu 7.04 that just happened to burn itself onto a CDROM earlier today.
But it's nearly time for a random fish (sea bass — yummy, if bony) supper, and the BBC4 stuff on Edith Nesbit (plus George and Weedon Grossmith's Pooter which should be / was well worth a look).
Doctor! My eyes!
I have an enormous amount of respect for DJ Annie Nightingale. But, somebody should take her quietly to one side and point out just how hard it is to read the track details on her new Y4K CD. Small print (I estimate 6 point) in white set on a pale yellow background. I mean, does that say "Media Studies graduate" or what?