Archive for the 'TV' Category

Holy Crap! I’m 38…

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on July 6, 2008
in Larks, Movies and TV
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Birthday Cake

…How did that happen? Well, having celebrated more than plenty on Friday night, I opted for a quiet night in on the day itself. “Let’s stop in with a DVD” says I, “Something light and fluffy. Nothing too heavy. A romantic comedy perhaps…” But instead I ended up watching “Reign Over Me” which is a movie about friendship, and about loss and it does have a lot of light humour in it but also what you might call a deep sea of sadness. I recommend it. Don Cheadle is always good but Adam Sandler’s performance was outstanding. Rent it! Here’s the trailer:

That was a really good movie. The chocolate cake and champagne I had after was nice too… AND・・・Thanks very much to my sister Sheila for the You Must Celebrate! Dalek birthday card. That made me laugh out loud! Oh, and I just watched the last episode of Doctor Who tonight (glad to see that I’m not alone in that), and I’m glad (yet sad) at how all those loose ends got tied up. Davros was supramegalomaniacally excellent. The bit with Rose choked me up. Donna’s exit from the show did my head in totally… I’m glad David Tennant is still the Doctor. And I’m gutted there won’t be a full series next year… Saturday’s just aren’t the same without him, eh? I’ll definitely be home with the family for the Xmas Special.

Here are a couple of pictures from Nakano-kun’s second Takoyaki party last Wednesday, that I haven’t had a chance to post till now. Below are left to right: Miyazaki-san, China-san, Miyabe-san, some daft git in glasses and Nakano-kun.

Takoyaki

And here is the same bunch but with Yamamoto-san on the far left. We had a good time!

Takoyaki 2

Sentiment

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on June 30, 2008
in Movies, Music, TV and Whales
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Here’s a nice story I spotted on Japan Probe today: Elementary schoolers watch whalemeat processing.

Clutching a notebook and a pencil, Yuna and her classmates occupied the front row of the crowd Wednesday, bending forward to watch a 10-metre (33-foot) animal — the town’s first catch of the three-month season — be dismembered.

“Look! That’s her heart!” Yuna said to her friends with her face half covered by her hand. “Oh no, so much blood is gushing out.” LINK

Which totally reminded me of this old strip from the Perry Bible Fellowship: The Golden Ticket.

I went to see Indiana Jones at the weekend. “I’ll probably cry at the end - it being the last one.” I joked, just before going in. And then right at the end, as the stirring strains of the Indiana Jones theme started up for the last time and Harrison Ford seized his hat from “Junior”’s hands before striding out the church, and because you know there is, and can only be, one Indy Jones to wear that hat or crack that whip, I felt little pin-pricks of moisture spring to my eyes and trickle down my cheeks. I enjoyed the movie (although it did have some incredibly silly moments). I don’t think it’s as good as the earlier Indiana Jones movies but it’s still a good addition to the series and I enjoyed it.

Then last night I was watching the penultimate Doctor Who of this series and it does look an awful lot like the Doctor is regenerating. But then, there’s no word on the net (nothing I can find anyway) about David Tennant quitting or anyone else taking over the role so… is he? A shame if Tennant does quit, because he’s a good Doctor. That and as the last two Doctors have been really good, I’m afraid the next one will be a Colin Baker type or even worse… a Sylvester McCoy. Eek. By the way, never watch Doctor Who just before going to sleep. I had the Doctor and Indiana Jones running through some very vivid dreams last night and woke up completely exhausted this morning.

Here’s the latest song from Michael Franti. Not one of his best but still Michael Franti, so who cares?

Doctor Who

Published
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on May 21, 2008
in TV
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There’s a fresh post up on Deep Kyoto tonight of Nest; a wan-chan cafe for dogs and dog-walkers.

The big news for Doctor Who nerds is that Russell T. Davies is stepping down from the helm and handing over the reigns of power to Steven Moffat. A wise move as pretty much everything Steven Moffat writes for the series seems to win some kind of major prize or award (scares the crap out of the kiddies too). LINK

I’ve been watching the current series over the last few weeks and I am very happy with it. Since the demise of Eccleston’s 9th Doctor, the writing has been quite patchy, but with the exception of last week’s episode it has all been top-notch; they’ve brought back UNIT, travelled to distant planets and ancient Pompei, reaquainted us with the Sontarans (old enemies from the classic series)… and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble has (surprisingly) proven to be an excellent companion, bringing the Doctor right down to earth (so to speak). However, last week’s episode seemed a bit crowded to me. We had Agatha Christie and a real murder mystery for the Doctor to solve - did we really need a giant (and rather silly) wasp from a far distant galaxy to be the perpetrator? Regardless, I remain a loyal Doctor Who otaku and shall watch Mr. Moffat’s next scripted episode in one week’s time with eagerness and glee (and possibly a bottle of sweet summery ramune). LINK TO TRAILER.

Why Don’t You…?

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on October 22, 2007
in TV
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tv-links.co.uk disappeared a couple of days ago and I was assuming it would be right back up soon but then I read this and I’m gutted. I’d just got started on Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. How else am I going to watch it out here in Japan? Darn.

Looks like I’ll have to go back to Japanese variety shows and figure out what all this “どんだけ”　hullabaloo is about.

The Thick of It

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on September 26, 2007
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Up on Deep Kyoto today, a fresh posting on the famous folky peacenik cafe Honyarado.

My old friend Simon Blackwell wrote to tell me that there’s a book of scripts out for The Thick of It, the political sitcom he co-writes, and thus he is listed as an author on Amazon for the first time - ever. And about time too! Simon tells me it’s “an ideal Christmas gift for any relatives who love swearing”. Now I was trying to find a nice funny clip on youtube with no swearing on it and I found quite a lot of funny ones but they all had lots of swearing. So no embedding I’m afraid. You’ll just have to click here for a very funny (very sweary) clip. Or watch some episodes up here. Or order your book of scripts for Rude Aunty May over here.

Enough links for ya?

Harry Patch

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on July 30, 2007
in TV and War
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I was reading today, about the last surviving veteran of the WWI trenches, the magnificently named Harry Patch, and I was thinking that this remarkable man, at 109, and having all those memories that no-one else living has, he must be feeling pretty lonely. And here’s the thing, he never spoke about the war until he reached a 100 years of age. He’s in a nursing home now and the light coming on in the room opposite his bedroom was what made him break his silence.

If I was half asleep – the light coming on was the flash of a bomb. That flash brought it all back. For eighty years I’ve never watched a war film, I never spoke of it, not to my wife. For six years, I’ve been here [in the nursing home]. Six years it’s been nothing but World War One.

Harsh.
War, he says, is a “calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings”.

It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of a couple of lives let alone thousands. T’isn’t worth it … the First World War, if you boil it down, what was it? Nothing but a family row. That’s what caused it.

Which reminded me of a little history lesson from Edmund Blackadder:

Monday’s Bit’s and Pieces

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on June 11, 2007
in Music and TV
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Just a few bits and bobs tonight:

There’s a fresh (very fresh) restaurant review up on Deep Kyoto now, for all ye who are interested in falafel (those golden balls of goodness).

And…have you heard of Tv Links? Some time ago my good friend Philippe introduced me to TV Links. It’s a curse. I’m watching TV all the time now. I’ve gotten through all of Black Books (which I love), revisited the entire Father Ted (brilliant!), and am now wading my way through Firefly and Casanova (both of which I heartily recommend). Basically, I’m catching up on all the good stuff I never got to see because I’m out HERE - adrift in Asia…

Now, I was watching Casanova last night and I was thinking: “that’s funny”. What’s funny is that the actor who played Casanova (David Tennant) now plays Doctor Who and both series also had the same writer. No, actually that’s not especially funny, what’s funny is that David Tennant seems to be playing both Casanova and Doctor Who as exactly the same person complete with all the same verbal ticks: “Ah! - Erm… Yes! - Sorry! Nice to meet you! I’m Giacomo Casanova/The Doctor. ” (Invariably folowed by inane grin). But whereas, Casanova was well-written and had Peter O’Toole in it, Doctor Who has pretty much gone to the dogs (in the writing department) ever since Eccleston left. The only thing holding it up really is David Tennant’s boyish charm… and big Scottish eyes. And well yes, the occasional good episode, because the last one “Blink” was actually quite a nice wee tale and those weeping angels were well spooky.

Anyway, enough of geekery.　Here are my all-time rock-n-roll heroes performing a classic (albeit not as good as Beretta):

Stuff

Published
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on June 3, 2006
in Flowers, TV and Teaching
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It’s June, it’s getting hotter and stickier and my lolling students are melting all over their desks. “Hot” they murmer, “Sleepy… hungry…” they gasp, and that old favorite “I don’t know…” is often whimpered as their heads sink deskwards. None of this is said in English of course. No fear of that.

I’ve started growing stuff on my balcony, herbs and flowers and things. Right now I have a carnation, some chamomile, rosemary and an orange flowery thing I don’t know the name of but it took my fancy when I spotted it on the way home this afternoon. “Is it a present?” said the shop assistant. “Yes,” I said, “It’s a present for ME.”
Below: Yu Gyong (visiting from Korea), Je Un and Hyon Ju, sedate yet… silly.


Meanwhile, my friends have buggered off to Eigamura again today (see: http://mikeylambe.blogspot.com/2006/05/recent-larks.html) leaving me to enjoy a sunny Saturday on my tod. Well, fine. That’s no problem. Eigamura is a dreadful bore anyway. I’m going to do far more worthwhile stuff instead like erm… writing this blog and rereading Asimov’s “Prelude to Foundation” (for the first time since I was 13) or watching stuff on youtube while my brains rot out my ears. Chris Cotter was good enough to send me this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4S2BIqoHY and I thought “That’s brilliant! What’s this Black Books thing then? I must find out!” and so I ended up watching more stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-UaOc8_J-Q&search=black%20books and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OdCdcEuUAo&search=black%20books which was also brilliant (and brought to mind a Nigel I once knew). And then I mentioned it to my friend Rik and he said “I love Black Books! It has Bill Bailey in it!” And I said “Who’s Bill Bailey?” and I ended up watching stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U5xwIYzs9Y&search=bill%20bailey. Youtube is eating my life!

Oh, and I’ve bought a webcam and a speaker, so if you get onto Messenger you can actually SEE me and if you have the right stuff too, I can see YOU and even SPEAK with you, like I did with my good buddy Dave Rogers in Canada, the other night. Why, it’s almost as if we’re living in the 21st century. Now where’s my flying car?

School / Doctor / Links

Published
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on April 26, 2006
in TV and Teaching
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School
Good day today. I’ve had a bit of trouble here and there with some students seeing what they can get away with, with the new teacher, so this morning I adopted Leilani’s “give ‘em a good bollocking” approach, and changed the seating plan around too. I’m happy to report the 3rd years are under the thumb. What a relief!

Brown Sheets Up and Down the Land
I have words to say on the new series of Doctor Who (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/). The first episode, “New Earth”, was total pants. The conclusion of the story where the Doctor says “I know a bit about medicine” and produces a miracle cure by mixing up a bunch of vari-colored intravenous drips in a bucket – what’s that?

However, last Saturday’s second episode “Tooth and Claw” was back on form. You can’t beat a good werewolf story and the humor worked better this time too. Although I’m still not sure why 19th century Scottish monks would be so proficient in kung fu, I am sure that the wonderfully grisly sounds of fangs grinding meat, gristle and bone as the wolf mauled and devoured one victim after another gave lots of tiny tots up and down the British Isles horrible nightmares. Hurrah! That’s what we want!

Now for some reason in the next episode they are bringing back the Doctor’s erstwhile companion Sarah Jane Smith and the robot “dog” K9. Why would they bother? I can clearly remember watching Doctor Who in the 70’s and thoroughly despising Sarah Jane Smith. All she ever did was get into trouble and scream and wail and whine and then scream a bit more. Maybe she and Rose Tyler could have a fight. That would be good. Rose could wipe the floor with her. But then she could wipe the floor with me too.

And I’d probably like it.

And K9. Yes lovable K9. K9 was lovable in the seventies but we were young then and it was the seventies. K9 is a robot who can’t climb stairs. Click here to see how far we’ve come: http://asimo.honda.com/inside_asimo_movies.asp

By the way, if you click on this next link and then scroll down the page to where it says “ Watch a clip from the Genesis Of A Classic documentary.” and then click on that, you can see a great clip of Tom Baker being brilliant. Click here first:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2006/03/17/30405.shtml Tom Baker, by the way, hated K9. Great man.

More Links
Now, onto more important things: here are some links to blogs more interesting than mine:

This chap’s in Osaka: http://anenglishmaninosaka.blogspot.com/
This chap’s in Tokyo: http://tokyoblog.livejournal.com/

And here’s a site I thought was kind of dumb at first but after reading a bit I soon found myself hooked: http://www.unphotographable.com/

He sometimes takes actual photographs, which are quite nice too:
http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/port/7.shtml

And for those of you who STILL haven’t seen it, here’s that sushi video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4946101556303618610&q=sushi