Current Pages Written: 11 (Still on target)

As well as continuing as I mean to go on, tonight I’ve also been working at finally finishing the compilation I’ve been promising Jonic for so long it’s no longer funny. Suffice to say though, at three cd’s in length, it’s going to be the best thing ever. I shall shortly reward such dedication and perspiration by watching the most recent episode of Heroes, so I shall be caught up with American television.

My bank have finally deemed me worthy to receive a cash card that I can use to actually buy things in shops, my last one being so useless that the lack of a nearby cashpoint rendered me as useless as Chris O’Donnell playing Robin.

I man really, isn’t that just the campest attempt at being a superhero ever? He looks like he’s trying to cower from some unseen foe. And look how shiny that suit is! Look at the attempt at emotion on his face! And is he farting?

I’m catching up on the most recent episodes of the OC (as you do at 2 in the morning on a school night) and I’m so perplexed as to how these kids get so regularly into trouble? Taylor has decided to woo Ryan by becoming his (wait for it) sleep therapist, and Summer has gotten into trouble at University by, you guessed it, stealing an overweight bunny rabbit. And they wonder why it got cancelled.

It’s also not hard to see why Aaron Sorkin’s amazing new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is in trouble.

Not only is it far too intelligent for mainstream television, but it is 40 minutes every week of brilliantly scripted and delivered deconstruction of the bizarre workings of the American television industry, but a scathing attack on the ridiculousness of the religious right’s dominance of popular culture. And Matthew Perry is brilliantly deadpan in a role that finally sheds Chandler. Not that any of this matters when it cannot possibly be allowed to survive. It was fine for Sorkin to point his arrows at Washington, but it seems that Hollywood is unable to take the joke when they are the target. It may be poor ratings that sunk it, but it was almost certainly a lack of support that sent it staggering down the street with a knife in its back.

So I know the blogosphere (truly one of the worst terms ever conceived by man or beast) is filled by unnecessary, irrelevant and obnoxious opinion, but I just thought I’d add some of my own. First, I was most disappointed to find that the so-called ‘next Lost,’ Heroes, was going to be shown on Sci-Fi, before being shown elsewhere, if at all. So I have procured the first half of the first season and I have to say that on the strength of the first few episodes the ‘Lost’ comparisons do it a huge disservice. Better written, more interesting, with an underlying disjointed eeriness that speaks more to a Lynch influence than anything else. It is, to be frank, excellent.

I’ve decided to have a nice night in with televisual treats and wine. What more could I want? Quite a lot actually, but never mind. Oh, and has anyone else been totally drawn in by E4’s Skins? I’m quite shocked by how much it’s continued week upon week to improve, and this week’s bizarre drugs hell tale was actually reminiscent of Trainspotting for its dark, bleak humour.

Well, I bought the fifth season of 24 on DVD, and I’m ashamed to say that it has eaten my life. Oh well.

One of the joys of YouTube is searching for random artists and finding gems, such as this one:

More postage once I know what happens at the end of the season.

I think it’s very encouraging that the American media seem to have lifted the veil of partisanship that’s cloaked them throughout the Bush presidency. One example would be this excellent interview with Dick Cheney from CNN, in which Dick Cheney is basically made to bend over and apologise for being a naughty boy in Iraq. Well, maybe not quite that bad…

I didn’t see much of the State of the Union last night, but Greg Palast has a pretty insightful take on some of the minutiae of the speech, which is well worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing. Which I am. The whole thing just makes me miss having the West Wing to watch.

I would comment on the Oscar nominations but to be honest, as interested as I am, I really haven’t seen enough of the films to comment, and I am slightly narked that because I don’t have Sky, I don’t get to watch them. By combining these two topics into one friendly post though, I do get to post this picture:

Right, i’m off to go and watch the last few ever episodes of Lois and Clark on DVD. Be truthful, you envy me don’t you?