Category Archives: Messaged from the Outhouse

Embarassing Evan

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This morning I was lying in bed, in that wonderful state between sleep and full awakeness and had Radio 4’s ‘Today programme’ yelling at me gently in the background. Then, suddenly:

Evan Davis interviews Shakira.

Pardon me? On the today programme? At 7:23 am?

What followed were the most cringeworthy 3 minutes in recent BBC history. I have no idea whether the chap actually did any preparation for the interview at all (or what a pop starlet has to do in the most important News programme of the nation) but after 3 minutes I was wide awake and seriously thinking of switching to Wogan.

But the Wog won’t be there much longer either, so maybe I’d rather listen to a recorded version of Radio New Zealands Morning Report.

Dear Radio 4.

I really, really like you. You are one of the few reasons I am living in this country.

But if you ever let Evan Davis with a microphone near a pop star, I’ll leave.

Sincerely, FB

John Schuck

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Last night I watched Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H for probably the 50th time (well, it did happen to be on, so why not watch it?). I still find it inherently funny and I’m still discovering new lines that I haven’t picked up before (thanks to Robert Altman’s habit of having 5 conversations within one scene going on at the same time) and as usual I had a wonderful time. It’s probably like seeing one of your favourite grandparents: they will always tell you the same stories, but you enjoy yourself anyway, even if you heard them fifty times before. It’s not the actual stories, it’s how they are told.

borrowed from flattland.com

Anyway, while watching M*A*S*H (btw, no comparison to the dreary sitcom that came later), I suddenly had an epiphany:  John Schuck, a.k.a. Capt. ‘Painless’ Waldowski (he who is significantly endowed) played the lead in one of my favourite seventies cop shows. I was certain about that, I just had no idea what it was called. All I knew that it was all about a grumpy policeman and his polite sidekick, an android who looked remarkably like Capt. Painless. A quick hop to IMDB confirmed my suspicions: John Schuck was indeed Gregory ‘Yoyo’ Yovonovich and the show was called ‘Holmes and Yoyo‘.

Pic from Timstvshowcase.com

According to the reviews, it was one of the worst shows ever and was cancelled after one season. My nine year old self certainly would disagree.

But John Schuck popped up again and again in my personal panthenon of risibly rubbish TV and movies: There was ‘Misfits of Science’, then a role as the Klingon ambassador in Star Trek IV AND VI, and even in Babylon 5. One might say that he appears as much as William Shatner in my DVD collection.

Which is maybe the worst thing I have ever disclosed on this blog

New Music from the Noughties.

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Today’s ‘Observer Music Magazine’ sent me soul-searching by reviewing the best music of the decade. I wasn’t actually aware that the decade was already over, but these things happen when you’re getting older. There were some excellent reviews and interviews with artists I generally ignore or despise and for some reason none of the stuff that I discovered over the last ten years.

Now, as my friend C. regularly tells me, I have the worst taste in music ever. In the whole universe. Which would make my selection of favourite new artists from this decade probably rather unrepresentative. But what’s ‘new’ music, anyway? Does music count that I heard for the first time over the last ten years but was made forty years ago? Probably not. It has to be music by artists who released new material for the first time in this decade. Ever. But I can always open up a new category. So, let’s scour the ipod:

Fordiebianco’s favourite artists releasing their first material ever in the Noughties (in no particular order)

  • Goldenhorse
  • Old Crow Medicine Show
  • The Klaxons
  • Hot Chip
  • Jazzanova
  • Hollie Smith
  • Anika Moa
  • Steriogram
  • Che Fu

…and next week we might compile the even more compelling list of artists who have been around for yonkers but who released some really cool stuff in the last ten years.

INDO!

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Atmosphere Aplenty

I work in the East End, and all around me, pubs are dying. That means that these days I have to venture ever further to have my once a week post work pint. So today I walked for 30 minutes before finding it. I ended up at ‘INDO‘, and I don’t think I’ll ever leave. The punters might be a bit different, the music might be on the rubbish side of ‘ecclectic’, but the beers are heavenly, it’s quiet on an weekday night and it’s better than everything else around.

Praise indeed.