So this Qtrax thing. Good or bad? Not ipod compatible sadly.

Guardian's asking folks to comment on what they think are sexy songs (not songs just about sex - just songs that get you in the mood as it were)

most of Goldfrapp's Black Cherry is mentioned, but I'd be inclined to go for Utopia. Also they do a mean remix of Halo. linking in to Depeche Mode - In your room has that feel. In terms of classics Diana Ross Love Hangover, more obviously Bolero (it was used in 10), and possibly more weirdly Pink Floyd 'Welcome to the Machine'.

all i can think of at present.

Had a post apparently deleted from earlier on, in which I talked of the incompetence of the people from Qtrax, and the casting of Jamie Hector in Heroes. Which subject caused the bods confusion I do not know.

But anyways, Hector is a solid actor playing dead eyed psychopaths, lets see what he's like in something more mainstream. Assuming he isn't playing someone equally dead eyed, that is.

Paul, who notes that some of the earlier Cure stuff, like Close to You and Letter to Elise might have worked their magic in years gone by. I never understood why Barry White got so much praise. While I don't claim to be an expert in the Motown field, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye would surely be excellent places to start. Bah, though, and humbug. Too old for all that now!

CH are playing the national arboretum - who fancies it?

Jamie Hector seems very deadpan in general (the interview in giantmag springs to mind) - Heroes would be interesting - I'm eagerly awaiting the appearance of Richard Schiff who was rumoured to be cast while vol 2.

g, who in amongst the daily ramblings of work mused what sort of person it must be to like and not like the Wire.

Like - Deep, not easily offended, able to analyse, relatively poor, smart

Not like - offended by bad language, rich or powerful, content with unchallenging television and put off by anything with detail.

that sounds smug - it's not meant to be.

garbarek wrote:

quote:

Guardian's asking folks to comment on what they think are sexy songs (not songs just about sex - just songs that get you in the mood as it were)

To say anything by Massive Attack/Portished would be a cliche but "Angel" and "Glorybox". Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" and Bjork's "Play Dead" I like Motown but it always feels more on the poppy edge of soul. Aretha Franklin's stuff on Atlantic is a different matter - "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)". Embarrassingly I like Kylie Minogue's "Slow" (do not rate Kylie at all and am quite bored of her deification) And speaking of The Cure - "Lullaby".

For shame, I can't think of a single U2 song that fits the bill.

About two seconds after I posted re Qtrax it all seemed to fall apart. Oh well.

quote:

CH are playing the national arboretum - who fancies it?

I would love to but why in the middle of nowhere? I'm looking at the various dates (Liverpool as well as of yesterday). Midweek is bad too.

Why does Winehouse get a visa when your average person would be told to get lost if she had a possession conviction in the same year as applying?

I remember a story on the news about a British woman who had married an American, had three kids and had lived there for over 25 years but was threatened with deportation because of a possession conviction (£10 fine in 1970 something) before she moved to the US. I think they only let her stay because she did good works in the community.

Can't see Winehouse doing good works whilst there (well other than districting the paparazzi from poor Britany's travails).

Back to Portishead. Reunion/comeback a good idea? I read a brief review of the album yesterday, which suggests progression. I'd hate to be disappointed.

Also love how the music press aren't even pretending that they don't see Adele/Duffy as "Winehouse lite" (well neither seem to be so dedicated to the tortured girl singer role that they'd (allegedly) take up crack) just waiting in the wings.

Charlie Brooker likes Skins. What am I to do with this? Everything about the show (which I have never seen) tells me it will rot my brain.

garbarek - Bizarre but I've just found cover versions of Bille Jean and Sexual Healing by Neil Finn. I will not post the name of the site where I found the links but I think I emailed it to you a while back.

quote:

Originally posted by snarkygirl:
garbarek - Bizarre but I've just found cover versions of Bille Jean and Sexual Healing by Neil Finn. I will not post the name of the site where I found the links but I think I emailed it to you a while back.

I've got Billie Jean.

Listening to story of HBO as presented by Stephen Merchant - just covered sopranos SATC and now on the Wire.

quote:

Originally posted by snarkygirl:
garbarek - Bizarre but I've just found cover versions of Bille Jean and Sexual Healing by Neil Finn. I will not post the name of the site where I found the links but I think I emailed it to you a while back.

Have I mentioned before that Shawn Colvin does a good cover of private universe, but she also does a nice version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy.

anyone else send questions in for Clark Johnson's Q&A on yahoo?

garbarek wrote:

quote:

anyone else send questions in for Clark Johnson's Q&A on yahoo?

Where? Is there linkage?

Sorry should have sent this sooner - chance has been and gone

Jim King who does the H:lots links to the sites website, also has a yahoo newsgroup, and I subscribed to mails for that. It was a e-mail address you send your questions to, but the deadline was midday today.

Anyway, I sent the following questions:

Numerous people have said recently that the Wire is not representative of Baltimore as a whole (Mayor Sheila Dixon, Kurt Schmoke), and others have questioned David Simon's objectivity (John Carroll and William Marimow, and Jeffrey Goldberg and David Plotz of Slate magazine to name a few). As someone who knows Simon well, how do you view the criticism, and the apparent feud that has been characterized in the wire in the past 2 seasons?



Outside of the character of Baltimore the City, and Gus, who is your favourite character on the show?



Would Homicide have been as graphic as the Wire if it hadn't been on a network show?



How does your experience directing SWAT compare to directing TV shows like Shield, L&O, Homicide, and The Wire?



Following the Homicide TV movie, there were rumours of subsequent movies following on from Bayliss' apparent incarceration. Do you think Meldrick will ever appear on TV again, or is Homicide completely done?



It's been said that Kurosawa was a big influence on your directing style, are there any other directors that have inspired you?

they're probably rubbish, but off hand that was all I could think of, he actually answers the first one on YT to some degree in the Balto premiere (there's some footage on there)

I've switched from Newshosting to BT, because they are free, but it tells me that there's an error getting the article 480: authentication is required.

What do I do?

garbarek wrote:

quote:

Jim King who does the H:lots links to the sites website, also has a yahoo newsgroup, and I subscribed to mails for that. It was a e-mail address you send your questions to, but the deadline was midday today.

Jim also posts at a yahoo ath offshoot and posted about this there but I rarely check in now so missed it.

My question would have been "Do you have Reed Diamond's number?"

Did any of yours get answered?

quote:

I've switched from Newshosting to BT, because they are free, but it tells me that there's an error getting the article 480: authentication is required.

What do I do?

It's a password issue. Check that your username and password are in the settings (and tick the box that means it saves them). I'm not sure what your set up is but I used to use Forte Agent (there's a free version) but obviously it goes through your ISP's server. You can do usenet via google groups but it's a pain.

Did anyone see the BBC surveillance drama thing the other day? Was it worth it?

quote:

Originally posted by snarkygirl:


Did any of yours get answered?

don't think the answers have come up yet

talk of a wire movie and spin-off has been baulked at by critics, and there is a major, MAJOR backlash to this season, which really does surprise me.

See what happens when HBO don't give him 13 episodes.

it's been his point all along - doing more with less, and perhaps Simon will feel vindicated that the reaction has not been as positive as season 4.

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I've actually enjoyed the mirroring of the serial killer storyline between the cops and the reporter, and how the lie gets away from them.

tv.com has the synopses of the last 2 episodes and with some of the detail I think it is possible to put two and two together for the ending.

That's all I'm saying.

I am avoiding spoilers, recaps, any chat. I'm on Ep 4 with a couple more saved to watch.

I didn't know my favourite convict was in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Not keen on the haircut though. Did enjoy it despite the fact that it skews the timeline.

Also started watching ER again now it's on a Saturday night (not a ratings winner then?).

The Last Enemy was over-complicated and a bit unbelievable. I wasn't sure whether I should be scared senseless by the technology or in awe of it. A bit of both really.

haven't seen the last enemy yet, so can't comment.

However, have just watched all of damages, and it was pretty great actually. Good to see Ivanek getting a meatier role, and surprising to see how well Ted Danson did as an utterly despicable man.

Won't get spoilerish as you may be catching the BBC run, but I thought it was all well thought out and pretty good. looking forward to more, really.

Paul, who has seen No Country for Old Men (which was great), Rambo (which was very gory, but actually pretty entertaining in a way that made me feel kind of wrong for enjoying it kinda way) and Cloverfield, which was shakycamtastic, with a nice line in images I had never seen before shown via the wonders of Betacam or whatever camera he was using. Pretty ridiculous conceipt, that he would carry on filming while all this stuff was happening, but then I can forgive them that because it was done pretty well actually.

And, PS, just got Ep 9 and am about to enjoy.

so Jim King has a Q & A planned with David Simon after the final episode next week (on demand) or week after (normal HBO).

Anyone have any suggestions for questions?

It feels weird that it's ending, it feels weird to be the only one in the office, in my home, so totally invested in a 'TV show', considering it feels more than that. It seems so identifiable with the daily struggles within the institutions we work in, and how they fail to serve us - which I think was Simon's original intention?

Question is, once it finishes, and the shield finishes - what are we going to talk about - how long will we have to wait for Generation Kill?

quote:

Originally posted by garbarek:
It feels weird that it's ending, it feels weird to be the only one in the office, in my home, so totally invested in a 'TV show', considering it feels more than that. It seems so identifiable with the daily struggles within the institutions we work in, and how they fail to serve us - which I think was Simon's original intention?

Question is, once it finishes, and the shield finishes - what are we going to talk about - how long will we have to wait for Generation Kill?

I've long since given up on the idea that my mates will watch good TV. They are all too busy with kids and families to have time to watch an hour a week of quality TV. If they get any free time, its footie or rugby, not a Wire marathon. I have some geeky work colleagues who'll watch Spooks, but they think its the most realistic thing out there and brilliant, and all I do is rip it to bits for being stupid, because I've seen the real world and its the Wire! But they just don't get it.

The thing with the Wire is its a really hard sell. I was sold straight away, just on the name , but try explaining it to anyone not in the know, and its tough. Its about cops and drug dealers, its an examination of inner city America, its about institutions and their affect on the people that work within them, its the best thing you will ever see and it will make you a better person just for being seen in its company! I have since decided that it is best to let people find it on its own - I am currently getting my niece hooked on X files (hey, new movie soon!!) and Buffy season sets, so maybe one day I'll sneak her the Wire and see whether a 16 year old can get it!

Paul, who can't think of any good questions to ask Simon, apart from maybe how he reached the conclusion that Dominic West was the right lead for the show, or why so many Brits make a cast for a show set in and peopled by Baltimore natives. But I am sure he's already answered that a hundred times already.

Maybe now this is out of his system, a romantic comedy?

Alan Sepinwall has a great blog on the Wire (and other TV)

i'm actually thinking about writing a piece and submitting it to the dormant garbled on when i get my own site of the ground (did the dreamweaver course, just need the software and fireworks to design it.)

I like your summary of the wire, i may with your permission lift it wholesale to summarise what the wire is about, but you feel you can go into too much detail on the slightest aspect that it would only be for die-hard fans anyway.

i do disagree with the majority of critics that season 5 has been a disappointment, though.

While Garb and I talk The Wire on email so as not to spoil, I thought I'd throw a few words in here about some other shows of note.

Apparently, Levinson and Zamacoma are remaking The Saint with James Purefoy in the lead. I loved him in Rome, so am now officially looking forward to this.

Moving swiftly on, Ashes to Ashes is an oddity really, and I can't make up my mind about it. I really like Life on Mars, and I thought the ending was great until I read that actually it meant that Sam was dead and the car going of into the distance was him dying. I preferred to think that he carried on fighting crime with Gene, and this thing seems to suggest that that is what he did. Which I like.

I also think they have a plan for this series, more so than they did for the first one, and are approaching it from the notion that she is in a coma, and this is all made up, so she is playing some fantasy game in her mind. Which is fine, as long as it goes somewhere.

But why, in the name of all that is holy and good in the world, does she have to dress like a hooker the entire time. I mean, she's a DI in the eighties, this is the time before Prime Suspect, and she flounces about the place in her off the shoulder number and her leather jacket like they swept her off the streets of New Cross on the way to the office. I mean, its ridiculous, and as much as I like looking at Keeley Hawes dressed in this way, its beginning to annoy me. I know, its a fantasy, but would the future Keeley with the bullet in her head have considered dressing like a hooker to be her fantasy role model. She hasn't even had a change of clothes yet - its weeks since she's been there, so she's living a life and all, but no chance to pop off to M&S for some proper business wear for the career woman in the eighties?

And too much of the Mum in this thing as well. Unless she is actually going to prevent her parents death, I really don't see the point of the obsessing with it. Still, they have a plan, so I guess I'll wait till it plays out before passing judgement.

And more of the clown. He's creepy.

Gene and the gang are still a joy, but are more caricature this time, which is still fine. Definitely more played for laughs, though.

Paul, who wonders whether anyone watched The Whistleblowers on ITV last year. Its been on me Sky Plus for forever, and I'm wondering whether it was worth watchine.

Evening all.

One of my former colleagues watches The Wire. I know no one else who does despite encouraging everyone I know to watch it.

War stuff is not usually my thing but I might get the Generation Kill book.

Mad Men was okay. Their attitude towards women was astonishing and what was worse was that some women colluded in it with the their treat-them-like-gods simpering.

Quite enjoying Damages now that I know that no one in it is telling the truth.

Saw the U23D film. Like sitting right in front of a 50" tv with the odd 3D moment. Kind of worked.

Paul wrote:

quote:

While Garb and I talk The Wire on email so as not to spoil, I thought I'd throw a few words in here abou