Anything

[fenris]

It was widely reported in the news last week that one of the four major supermarket chains - Tescos, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons - gets planning permission for a new store in the UK every single day (with Tescos leading the pack by a mile). It reminded me of this;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfSi0D7KESk&feature=related

[fenris]

Nov 8, 2006 22:01:09 GMT fenris said:

I read last weekend that American actress Adrienne Shelly had been found dead, having apparently committed suicide by hanging herself. Today I read on the internet that despite the initial reports that she'd killed herself, the police have actually declared she was murdered, and a 19 year old construction worker who was working in her apartment building has been arrested and charged.

For the last couple of decades, it's been common practice in America for TV movies about real-life murders, other major crimes and high-profile court cases to be filmed and screened as soon as possible after the event has occurred, to cash-in on all the interest and publicity that's been generated. Such films often go into production while the trial is still on-going, with the verdict and sentence incorporated into the script when they're announced. Due to the haste involved, the quality of these movies often leave something to be desired (one of my favourite lines of dialogue in the serial killer movie Se7en is when Brad Pitt's hotheaded detective - angered by John Doe's grand pronouncements about what he's 'achieved' - tries to dismiss him by snarling "You're just a TV Movie of the Week").

Recently, some of the various cop shows that currently dominate US television (Numb3rs, The Mentalist, NCIS, Lie To Me, Criminal Minds, the Law & Order and CSI franchises, etc), have also started to occasionally adapt real-life murders as storylines, although their producers have - so far - had the (relative) good taste and decency to wait a few years after the event. One of the CSI shows has had an episode that was a barely-disguised recreation of the deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and her son, and this Friday (20/05/11) at 22:00, Five is screening the Law & Order episode 'Melting Pot', which uses the murder of Adrienne Shelly as it's template.

Law & Order recently came to an end in America, after a twenty year run (a record for a primetime drama). Adrienne Shelly had actually appeared in a tenth season episode of the show.

[fenris]

Dec 13, 2008 16:40:40 GMT fenris said:

When Guinevere Turner's script was eventually filmed in 2005 as The Notorious Bettie Page, Gretchen Mol played the title role.

The Notorious Bettie Page is being shown on BBC2 this coming Friday (27/01/12) at 23:50.

[fenris]

As a tribute to Davy Jones of Sixties pop group The Monkees, who died suddenly of a heart attack last week at the too-young age of 66, here's a link to footage of him giving a tremendous performance of 'Daddy's Song' in the movie Head (1968). The girl he dances with is the famous singer/actress/choreographer Toni Basil, best known in the UK for her hit single 'Mickey' in 1981.

RIP Mr. Jones.

[fenris]

Sad news, courtesy of the Arrow in the Head website;

Always a sad day when we lose a genre legend; that's the case today as we learn that Robert Fuest has passed away at the age of 84.
Fuest directed the great Vincent Price horror-comedy The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again. In addition, he helmed And Soon The Darkness (which was remade a few years ago with Amber Heard), Revenge Of The Stepford Wives, and the wild 1975 horror freakout The Devil's Rain, which stars Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerritt and William Shatner (seriously, check that one out if you've never experienced it). He also worked on several TV shows and specials.
Fuest grew up in London and served time in the Royal Air Force. He eventually moved into copywriting, with an eye towards getting into the movie business. In the late 1950s he joined the art department of Associated British Television, and became the art director for the legendary TV series The Avengers. Two producers of the series, Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell, wanted to move into movies themselves, and chose Fuest to direct their debut effort, And Soon The Darkness... the rest, as they say, is history (must give credit to IMDB for that information).
R.I.P. Robert Fuest.

Source

The Avengers remains one of the best and most quintessentially British TV series ever made, while the Phibes movies are both undisputed horror classics with Vincent Price in his most iconic role. Thank you, Robert Fuest. RIP.

[fenris]

American character actor Richard Lynch was found dead in his home earlier this week. It's been reported there were no suspicious circumstances in his death.
Instantly recognisable due to his scarred features (a result of accidentally setting fire to himself while tripping out on LSD in 1967), Lynch was typecast as a villain throughout most of his career, and memorably played bad guys in numerous TV shows, action movies and horror/sci-fi films, predominately in the Seventies and Eighties.
Although he had appeared less frequently on our screens in recent years, Lynch kept acting until the end. Having had a cameo in Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween, he was cast in one of the leading roles in Zombie's Lords of Salem, which is currently in post-production.

Richard Lynch was aged 76. RIP

[fenris]

My favourite news item of the week;

Handcuffed Woman Rescued From Northampton Bed By Firefighters.

Published on Monday 18th June 2012, 09:30.

A fire crew was called to a bedroom of a home in Northampton after a woman was unable to release herself from a pair of handcuffs. They used bolt cutters to quickly free her.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service were unable to speculate how the woman came to be in that position.

Source

[fenris]

The best joke I've heard this week;

"This is the end of the ten minute freeview of the Olympic Women's Beach Volleyball. If you want to watch the rest of the game, ring the number on-screen and one of our friendly operators will take your credit or debit card details. This service is totally discreet, and the words 'Beach Volleyball' will not appear on your bill or bank statement."

[fenris]

Supercar. Fireball XL5. Stingray. Thunderbirds. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Joe 90. UFO. Space 1999. Terrahawks.

Thank you, Gerry Anderson. RIP.

[fenris]

Earlier this week, just a few hours after they'd performed the final date of their Ten reunion tour, Girls Aloud announced on Twitter that they've split up. Although I'm a middle-aged relic, I've always been an unashamed fan of the group. There's a place for manufactured mainstream pop, provided it's done well, and the Girls have worked with some the best producers and songwriters in the business. One thing's for certain - not even the most optimistic observer could have predicted the amount of success that the Girls would achieve when they originally emerged from the Pop Stars: The Rivals TV series, especially considering the fate of HearSay, the previous group churned out by the show.*

True, Girls Aloud never made it in America, like the Spice Girls did, but they never attempted to do so (Wisely, in my opinion. The history of pop and rock music is littered with numerous internationally successful, big name bands and solo artists who have wasted large amounts of time and money trying and failing to break America. It's now become fashionable to mock the Spice Girls, but it's been forgotten that they achieved something truly remarkable - not only did they make it in America, they made it look easy).

A perfect indication of the cynical and production-line mentality of the music business is that while Girls Aloud were at the very height of their success, their record company were already trying to create their successors, manufacturing not one identikit girl group but two, the assumption presumably being that at least one would find favour with the public. And that logic proved correct: The Saturdays are currently doing very well for themselves (although they have yet to reach the same heights as Girls Aloud), while their label stablemates Girls Can't Catch swiftly faded away after an initial flurry of interest.

* Liberty X, the group consisting of the five contestants who were voted out of Pop Stars, famously enjoyed considerably more longevity and success than HearSay did. Sadly, lightning didn't strike twice, and Clea - the group formed out of four girls from Pop Stars: The Rivals who weren't picked to join Girls Aloud - failed to make an impact.

[fenris]

Back in the late Eighties when I was a messed-up teenager, my favourite band was We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Going To Use It. As far as I'm concerned, over twenty years later we've still seen nothing else like them, although Nineties duo Shampoo and (in the last decade) the Dolly Rockers arguably came close to capturing the same ethos and spirit.

Anyway, browsing the 'net a couple of days ago I was saddened to discover that Fuzzbox's bass player Jo Dunne died on 26th October last year, following a short illness. Jo always stood out from her bandmates due to the fact she permanently wore shades, and - during their 'Big Bang' phase - kept herself covered from head to toe in black leather while the other three were clad in matching outfits that revealed increasing amounts of skin (especially when worn by lead singer Vickie Perks). Jo's older sister Maggie also in the band, playing guitar and keyboards.

Here's a link to the video for my favourite Fuzzbox song 'Self', which raised eyebrows at the time, due to Vickie going some interesting things with her microphone stand. RIP Jo.

Mar 23, 2013 22:04:16 GMT fenris said:

Sadly, lightning didn't strike twice, and Clea - the group formed out of four girls from Pop Stars: The Rivals who weren't picked to join Girls Aloud - failed to make an impact.

Some more info: departures from the group resulted in Clea becoming a trio and eventually a duo, whereupon they changed their name to LoveShy. After an unsuccessful attempt to become the UK's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, they finally disbanded in 2008.

[orokiah]

So a forum upgrade is approaching, according to the message at the top of the screen. I've seen the sleek new V5 look on other Proboards forums, and I really quite like it.

Can it possibly go smoothly without a mod to oversee things, though? There's no one left here who can tweak the board even slightly, if anything goes pear-shaped...

[fenris]

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween.

.

[fenris]

I don't get many opportunities to get out of the house anymore, but last week I managed to briefly pop over to a nearby open-air shopping centre and found that the Blockbusters situated there is closing down (the chain having recently gone into administration for the second time this year).
It's been a fixture there for as long as I can remember, and although I never rented any movies there, it was a regular haunt of mine in years gone by, due to having a large DVD retail section which often came in handy when buying birthday and Xmas presents. I'd last called in there several weeks ago, and found that the new owners were trying to re-invent it as a general entertainment store, with books, CDs and posters for sale alongside the DVDs, Blu-rays and computer games.
Having a few minutes to spare, I nipped inside. Despite everything being reduced (even a battered metal filing cabinet had been dragged out of a back office and had a '£30 - Sold As Seen' sticker slapped on it), there was a surprising amount of stock left. I guess people are wary of buying DVDs, CDs and games knowing that if they turn out to be faulty, the shop might be gone before you're able to return them. I know I was, so I just looked in the books section and decided to get It's Only A Movie by Mark Kermode as a belated birthday present to myself (I'd received his subsequent book The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex as a gift last Xmas and enjoyed it). The girl behind the counter asked if I wanted a receipt, and I immediately realised that the administrators must have vetoed the purchasing of everyday supplies - such as till rolls - and they were having to make what they had left last until they finally close. I told her 'No'.

[orokiah]

Apr 19, 2013 16:24:43 GMT orokiah said:

So a forum upgrade is approaching, according to the message at the top of the screen.

The big change has finally arrived, then. Shame it ate the banner.