WATCHING, READING AND LISTENING TO

THE EDITOR

WATCHING: Since last time, The Sopranos has come to an end on E4 and I'm still really digesting THAT ending (I won't spoil it here for anyone who is waiting for C4) and deciding whether it was the best thing ever or the worst thing ever. And indeed, what actually happened. But one thing for sure is that the show itself was awesome from start to finish, though I'm resisting the temptation to watch it from the start on More4 in the hope that someone will buy me the DVD box-set for Christmas and I can watch at my own pace. It's certainly the kind of programme that deserves much closer attention than you can pay to it over the course of six series in eight years. The plot-lines and characterisation are so intricate that I'm sure there's going to be loads that I missed first time around.

READING: As I had a week away recently I managed to read Michael Palin's Diaries: The Python Years, which much more interesting than reading one man's diaries from ten years of his life might sound. For one thing, it runs from 1969 when the Pythons were starting out, to 1979 when they had made Life Of Brian and were very famous and important and coming to the end of their work as a team. It's very interesting to read about the inner workings of it all and while Palin is as fair-minded as you'd expect from him, there's still some snide digs at Eric Idle and John Cleese to keep things ticking over nicely. Through in all of his trips to work on Saturday Night Live and all the famous and talented people he meets, and you've got a great antidote to the blog culture (yes, this is being written in a blog, so what?) of mediocre people writing about their mundane daily lives...

LISTENING TO: A bit of a hangover from WATCHING, but having seen the original Godzilla (Gojira if like) at the weekend, I bought off iTunes a compilation soundtrack of music from the Godzilla films between 1954 and 1975. With around 40 tracks, I did worry that it might be a bit repetitive, with lots of uses of the main theme, but instead it was quite the opposite, with Akira Ifukube using all kinds of different music for the various films in the series, making it very fun listening throughout. The only pity is that I now want to rent the rest of the films and virtually none of them are out on region 2 DVD. Sort it out someone, there's so much tripe out there on DVD that surely no-one ever watches, so why can't these be released?


THE WRITER

WATCHING: The last thing I saw at the cinema was In the Shadow of the Moon, a majestic documentary about the Apollo moon missions of the late 60s and 70s that pays fitting tribute to the men involved without descending into the overbearing patriotism or trite spiritualism that might have been expected. On TV, I’m currently enjoying Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s travel chronicle Long Way Down, which occasionally becomes a little too laddish but remains an engagingly intelligent watch. And on DVD I’m working my way through the magnificent third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which leads us nicely onto…

READING: Buffy Season 8. I had put off buying this official comic book continuation of the Buffy story until recently because I wasn’t too keen on the team of potential slayers that emerged at the end of season seven or the idea of them now being a sort of military organisation scattered across the world. However, just seven issues in, this is shaping up to be one of the finest seasons in the series’ history. The military idea is working surprisingly well, the various slayers are all getting enough page time to give them all individual personalities, and, best of all, the Scooby Gang has been reunited. Seeing Buffy, Willow and Xander together again for the first time since 2003 is one of my highlights of the year so far.

LISTENING TO: Amid all the hype over the download-only release, I struggled to get to grips with Radiohead’s In Rainbows on the first few listens. While I enjoyed it, it seemed to lack the stand out songs of their other albums. However, after a few weeks of solid listens, it emerges as one of their finest records, arguably challenging OK Computer and The Bends for all-time classic status. Bodysnatchers finds them rocking out in a way they haven’t done since National Anthem. Nude and Videotape are haunting little pieces filled with the band’s usual melancholia. And All I Need builds to the kind of ethereal crescendo of noise that only Radiohead can pull off. All in all, it’s a classic and I can’t wait for my discbox thingy to arrive next month.