Three episodes in, and BCS, the sidebar prequel to Breaking Bad has become my tuesday night must-see show. Unlike other spin-offs – um, Tucker’s Luck, Joanie Loves Chachi – the quality’s there, and I’m eager to see how Jim becomes Saul Goodman. Lovely use of long-shots, especially in episode two when our hero was waiting for a pay phone call. My post-BB methadone, incidentally came in the form of Dexter, Misfits and Utopia (which also did a very good long-shot, though they tended to culminate in people being shot in the head). Anyone else enjoying BCS?

My new favourite TV series.

Based on a great concept: 2 KGB Operatives living in 1980’s US as a “normal” American family; 2 kids, suburban home, 9-5 jobs. All while undertaking the dirty deeds of the Kremlin in the time of Cold War hysteria.

Great lead performances from Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as the spies

Particularly enjoy Noah Emmerich’s understated supporting role as the FBI Agent who is involved in their lives professionally and personally.

So if you like thrillers with great characters, intelligent writing and accurate period details, you will love this.

Its also got John-Boy Walton in it…what more could you ask for?

From the same cloying, smug, PR-obsessed octopus, with its celebrity bottom-feeders hoping for a leg-up on their own project, that brought us the BBC Music “God Only Knows” travesty comes “Get Creative”.

Thanks BBC we would be lost without you

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31531887

Am I alone in feeling both depressed and concerned about both recent events on the Paris Metro, and the way the story is now being played out?

As surely everyone must know, on Tuesday night video footage circulated of a group of Chelsea fans preventing a black man accessing a carriage on a Paris Metro train, before chanting en masse “We’re racist and that’s the way we like it”. Obviously, this behaviour is both deplorable and indeed criminal.

It didn’t take long for social media and the op ed columns of the major media outlets to fill with people expressing their horror, highlighting Chelsea’s long history of issues with these sorts of views, linking the incident to the John Terry court cause of a couple of years back, and calling for the perpetrators to be identified, banned and punished. So far, so good.

However, the story has subsequently moved into a secondary phase, as such stories now always seemingly must. Images of the fans inside the carriage have circulated, with a plea to identify and help bring them to justice. From what I’ve seen, it’s impossible to tell from the still images which of the individuals were involved in physically » Continue Reading.

During the long hiatus over the summer hemisphere summer I took a road trip to Melbourne. On the way what should come up on the playlist but a Peel session by Delta 5. I’d not heard them for years and had mentally filed them away as a dour feminist outfit. Therefore I was quite surprised to hear how funky they were, and the humour in their songs. Since getting back home I’ve been trying to track down more of their stuff, but apart from a decade-old album of re-releases and a single Youtube clip there doesn’t seem to be much out there. I knew they were part of the Gang of Four/Mekons crowd at Leeds Uni and I think I might have seen them at least once (but I saw so many bands then it’s all a blur). Anybody got any idea what happened to them – the only info I can find is a few anecdotes from their former drummer, who said they would ‘never reform in a million years’.

If you look west into the sky just after sunset, Venus is as bright as you like at the moment. If you have a pair of binoculars and you look towards it you’ll notice the pinprick of red light that is Mars very close to it. Look east and the brightest object in the Sky is Jupiter, the best views we’ll have of it for eight years or so as it is in direct opposition to the sun.

That’s all, no charge for this service.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=geVR-YI0Tvc

just added a comment.Came back a minute later to edit and it said there were no posts to edit.

We all have those songs, stored somewheres in our heads or on a dusty cassette from long ago (if we’re lucky), that we hope we will someday, somehow, track down. Being a determined sort I’ve hunted down most of mine, though there’s 2 that have eluded me for years. Found this on another music blog today & am planning on using some of his methology to nail at least one of my elusive musical butterflies, & thought it might be useful to some to post it here too. Happy hunting. http://markfgriffin.com/2015/02/18/need-help-identifying-song/