Going Live

Near a TV in the mornings? Able to pick up Five (the channel formerly known as Channel 5)? Then I recommend Brainteaser on Tuesday 4th May, 11am.

Arts of pleasure (do you see what I did?)

So I went to see Franz Ferdinand's Leeds gig on their tour, or rather their second Leeds gig: they played a secret set the night before under the cunning pseudonym The Black Hands. Except news got out and a thousand people tried to get in to a venue fitting three hundred.

The less eventful gig I attended was at the Blank Canvas, an apt description of an unfurnished (save for a bar and stage) tunnel in railway arches under Leeds City Station. Uneventful also describes the two support acts, who weren't helped by a feedback-infested sound system (which surprisingly fixed itself for the headliners). Sons and Daughters were hard to hear and didn't leave the impression of being anything special. The Fiery Furnaces (I think that's what they were called) were a little better, but used the cunning ploy of segueing their songs together to avoid unenthusiastic applause between them. As a result we weren't sure if they played ten similar songs or one slightly odd one.

Franz Ferdinand themselves dwarfed their support. They were confident, clear (impressive given the acoustics), and classy. The crowd, who took little warming up, bounced away to Take Me Out and their other two singles. After a long and pretty exhaustive set, they returned for an encore of This Fire and Shopping for Blood. The combination of different vocalists works well live (unsurprising for a band that grew as part of their own live music scene in Glasgow) and the songs were was, needless to say, terrific.

This was my first gig since I said goodbye to Suede. The musical invention, wry lyrics and live performance showed promise that Franz Ferdinand can lead the renaissance of British indie. Their challenge now is to produce a second album that builds on, rather than just repeats, the first.

Let me tell you a little bit about Miss Uma Thurman...

Went to see Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Sunday. I had been surprised how much I'd enjoyed the first half and the second half didn't disappoint. As other reviews have noted, the second part is more character based with less of the audacious action scenes of the first, but it retains its fair share of comic book violence (and yay to that). I'm not a film studies scholar so I won't even pretend to be able to witter about the intertextuality (see Martyn, who makes some interesting points), but suffice it to say that the film is sumptuously photographed and thoroughly enjoyable. The very ending was a little obvious but that didn't matter, and in the few moments where it almost started to drag, Tarantino's non-chronological style jumped in to hold things together. Darryl Hannah was very good (I'd only seen her previously in Splash) and the fantastically OTT Pai Mei should get his own series (as Bill, of course, had).

I've never been keen on her performances, but with Kill Bill Uma Thurman has redeemed herself. Her conviction for The Avengers is finally spent.

We are the champions

It's been a fair while since I was on a team that won a pub quiz, so I was particularly chuffed at our success in the University of Leeds Centenary Quiz, hosted by former Leeds Student editor and fellow Leeds alumnus Nicholas Witchell. The team consisted entirely of former student union sabbatical officers. Trust Kathryn to know that the Union sells a million pints of beer a year. Our prize was a copy of University of Leeds Monopoly, which I helped to design a couple of years ago, and tickets to that evening's alumni club night in the Union.

Coming Soon

Been ridiculously busy over the last week. Tune in later for tales of Franz Ferdinand, Uma Thurman and Nicholas Witchell.

One Man, One Vote, 100% Turnout

Very disappointing news from the Electoral Commission, who have rejected the idea of lowering the UK voting age to 16. One of the more ridiculous reasons for this was that 16- and 17-year-olds might (or even would) use their votes less than the average and this would lower turnout. What they would actually be doing would be lowering percentage turnout - the number of people turning out to vote would go up!

If you follow this logic, the Electoral Commission shouldn't run voter registration campaigns in case the people they register don't use their votes. We should, in fact, kick off the electoral register anyone who hasn't used their vote in, say, the last four years. That would dramatically increase turnout in future elections. What a success.

While percentage turnout is a useful measure for comparing individual elections, of course it depends on the current level of enfranchisement. (That's why turnout in 2001 was only compared in the media to elections back to 1918.) Turnout might drop (or it could go up) the year the change is made, but from then on you have a new baseline.

And, as many people have written many times, it is neither fancy gimmicks nor fixing the way it's counted that will resolve the issue of falling turnouts, it is engendering in the population the feeling that their vote actually matters. That means a voting system that doesn't treat you as an irrelevance if you live in a safe seat and a Government that doesn't introduce policies that directly contradict explicit manifesto commitments.

Take Me Out

Been away in London (with no PC) for an LDYS Exec meeting this weekend. Got back to find the Franz Ferdinand tickets are here so I'm off tomorrow to see them.

How disappointing

Which Blake's 7 spaceship are you?




You're the convict transport ship London,
slow and still reliable--but only just. You carry
criminals bound for lifetime exile on unpleasant
planets like Cygnus Alpha and Exbar, and a crew
who don't mind whether the bastards all get there
as long as the paperwork's filled out properly.

Take Vila's quiz (pictures by Avon)


Nicked off Sara's and Iain's blogs.

I'm not too impressed at being a knackered old prisoner transport. However...



Which Blake's 7 rebel are you?
this quiz was made by Auntie Krizu(:>)

Go on, give it a try

Via Nick Barlow and Iain Coleman:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions

Helping Families in Family Centres is the book I have no interest in that happened to be nearest. So:

"How can the whole thing begin to make sense?"
Deep.

I don't think it's really Edward Woodward

I put Bad Girls on despite my better judgment, but only as background noise. As a result, I was watching ITV - sorry, ITV1 - again. Edward Woodward's appearance in a trailer for Yet Another ITV Detective Series reminds me of an excellent scene in an episode of The Lone Gunmen I caught a bit of at the weekend. The Gunmen have received an e-mail with a cry for help. Edward Woodward plays the voice on the recording. (Quotes lifted from http://www.redwolf.com.au/lgm/season01/1aeb05.html.)

Recording: "...We are victims of experimentation meant to alter the structure of our brains. Don't allow me to die in this hateful, and immoral captivity. Please, help me to escape."
Jimmy: "So, what do you think?"
Yves: "I think that's Edward Woodward." <The others looks blank> "Edward Woodward, the actor. He played The Equaliser on TV."
Jimmy: "The guy from The Equaliser is being held by government scientists?"
Yves: "No. I think, perhaps, somebody is having a bit of fun with you."
Jimmy: "This Equaliser guy, why is he messing with our heads?"
Byers: "Jimmy, I don't think it's really Edward Woodward."

Well, it was funny at the time.

Off to the Smoke

In London today for an LDYS Conference Committee meeting, just to show that I don't spend all of my time in front of the TV. Although I did watch an episode of 24 on the train down, and will probably catch up with some more on the way back.

Finished the first series of Bugs last night. The last episode was quite good, which must explain why they decided to feature Jean-Daniel as a recurring character throughout series two. On the whole though, the series was a bit ropey - but I doubt that will stop me getting the DVD of series two.

Oh, and excellent music news: I think I've managed to secure a ticket to see Franz Ferdinand next week. Fingers crossed...

A Pop Culture Shopping List

Leeds was like a ghost town this afternoon. Most of the shops were closed - annoying as I wanted to pick up a copy of the Franz Ferdinand album. Been watching a lot of music TV - most The Amp - this weekend and now the tunes in my head are like an Xfm playlist. The new FF single Matinee has grown on me very quickly. I'm also inclined towards In the Shadows by The Rasmus, although their lead singer (along with most of their fans in the video) needs to get a haircut and lay off the mascara. I'm also favouring Take Your Mama by the Scissor Sisters, whose lead singer appears to be Timothy Claypole off of Rentaghost.

Finished watching the second series Babylon 5 DVDs. Some really good episodes - The Long, Twilight Struggle was a particularly laudable one that I had forgotten. Already cracked open the third series.

Also finished off the third disc of Blake's 7 series one. That's another series which doesn't have the apostrophe on screen - bit torn about whether to use it. (These things are important.) Speaking of which, I'm also now three episodes into the first series of Footballers Wives. Unfortunately, there are some annoying, "serious" characters who will, apparently, be with us until the end of the second series. Donna and Ian in particularly should Go Away.

Sadly, I have only managed one episode of Bugs this weekend. As well as Footballers Wives' Jesse Birdseed, the episode in question also featured John Leeson from the Blakes 7 episode Duel. No-one from Babylon 5 was in it, although one B5 episode I watched this weekend did feature Father Ted's Bishop Brennan as an alien doctor.

Now, who said I wasn't cultured?

You wait for a cameo and then six come along at once

Well, Shaun of the Dead (aka Spaced: The Movie) was extremely good and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Very funny (although it helps if you've seen at least one George Romero Living Dead film), great cast (assembled mostly from TV sitcoms), and loads of zombie-thwacking action. Full to the brim with cameos (including one set of simultaneous hilarious cameos), and look out for the gag at the end at the expense of 28 Days Later. Top stuff - see it now.

Good Friday

So called because I get the day off work. Which is a Good thing. And because Shaun of the Dead opens today. Which is also a Good thing, although I'll have to reserve judgment on the film until I've seen it.

I can't believe it's not Sunset Beach

I'm sure I'm not the only one who transferred late to Earls Park, arriving for the third series of Footballers [sic] Wives, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll be devastated this evening once the last episode is over. Tacky (while stylish) and melodramatic, Footballers Wives is a breath of fresh air in a schedule of dumbed down documentaries and dreary dramas. With Ross Kemp in. Or John Hannah.

It also brings back memories of seminal US series Sunset Beach, an incredible, over-the-top show in which half the cast were trying desperately to make their careers and the other half were playing it for laughs. As far as I know, it was the only soap to have characters artificially aged by cursed jewelry, but I won't surprised if I find that's par for the course in American soaps.

Footballers Wives occasionally seems to think it's pushing the boundaries, which may be slightly over-stating its importance, but there will nevertheless be a Wednesday-night-TV-shaped gap in my life next week. Fortunately, my local library appears to stock the videos of the first two series. Good to see my council tax is doing some good.

To lack two looks like carelessness

It was somewhat unexpectedly that I found myself on BBC Radio Five Live last Wednesday. They couldn't get a LibDem MP on to take part in their top-up fees debate and so, prompted by a friend, I phoned in. Within minutes, I was standing in a quiet street in Westminster debating higher education funding live with Tory MP Charles Hendry and Labour MP Kevin Brennan.

It was more unexpectedly that I found myself at BBC Television Centre, home of said radio station, on Thursday. The NUS, this time, failed to offer a speaker to discuss political protest so the production team decided to call on "that good LibDem we had yesterday". The debate was good fun, in the studio with Simon Mayo, although less adversarial than Wednesday's.

Anyway, just to prove it, here's a picture of me in the studio (in the corner) courtesy of the Five Live webcam.

Jumping on the blogwagon

I feel like a shameless victim of peer pressure, but I guess that's unavoidable. I am now a blogger. I'll try not to post too often for fear of raising expectations.

See you in a few months then.