WATCHING, LISTENING TO AND READING

THE WRITER:

WATCHING: Breakfast at Tiffany's. The 1960s was full of bitter-sweet romantic-comedies and this effort from Pink Panther director Blake Edwards is the second best of the decade (after, of course, the peerless The Apartment). Obviously, you all know the story by now (and if you don't, what have you been doing with your life?), but familiarity does not breed contempt, mostly because of Audrey Hepburn's adorable performance as the iconic Holly Golightly. We'll gloss over Mickey Rooney's incredibly offensive Chinese neighbour Mr Yunioshi...

LISTENING TO: Bond songs. Okay, there are a few duffers (The Man With The Golden Gun, All Time High and License to Kill, mostly), but there's surprising quality to the 007 title songs. Monty Norman's theme is, of course, seminal, while the more modern numbers such as Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and You Know My Name are also toe-tapingling pleasing, mostly, it has to be said, because David Arnold is such a fan of John Barry. So, it's no surprise that the best songs belong to the man himself, with Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and the peerless On Her Majesty's Secret Service still sounding as fresh and funky as they did back in the 60s.

READING: The Call of the Weird, Louis Theroux. Originally published in 2004, Theroux's first book doesn't tread any new ground - in fact, it's nothing more than a catch up with the people he met during his Weird Weekends series back in the late 90s. But so sensitive and unexploitative is Theroux in his reporting that it feels fresh and invigorating, and it speaks volumes for him as both a human and a professional that the majority of his subjects are happy to see him return.

THE EDITOR:

WATCHING: The last film I saw was Clerks II, which I didn't particularly have high hopes for (hence not bothering to see it at the cinema) but I was very pleasantly surprised. The vulgar humour and geeky dialogue of the first is all still there, but the theme of 'growing up' is much more urgent second time around because Dante and (to a lesser extent) Randal are now really getting to the point where merely getting by isn't what society expects of them and they know this. What makes it a more satisfying experience than the first film is that there is a heart and a soul to it and for the last 20 minutes or so (basically after the donkey-sex scene finishes) we care what happens to them and credit Smith for achieving that for the first time since Chasing Amy.

LISTENING TO: As usual it's a strange and eclectic bunch. New albums by The Go! Team and Alabama 3 are up there and both of those are pretty good. However, you can't beat the two great older albums I've been listening to, Live Rust by Neil Young & Crazy Horse and The Future by Leonard Cohen. Great songs, great lyrics, great performances and just great artists at work. Speaking of which, we'll have an interview with Terrorvision's Tony Wright soon and their albums have been on rotation too. Not quite the same, but good fun and lots of teenage memories nonetheless.

READING: To be honest I've not really had time to read much recently so I'm still on the Jung Chang book, which is still very good. Not much more to say really.