Started re-watching Black Books again – what a weird, twisted and funny series. If any of you have seen either of the Simon Pegg comedies Shaun of the Dead or the more recent Run Fatboy Run – you will recognize Dylan Moran as the crazed Irishman in both – but in BB, he’s the star. He plays Bernard, (effectively) a sociopath who owns a bookstore but hates customers and wants to be simply left alone to smoke, read, and drink wine all day. His friend Fran (Tamsin Greig) minds the gift store next store and alternatively joins in the craziness/smacks Bernard upside the head when he’s gone too far. The always funny Bill Bailey plays Manny the assistant/comedic straight man to Bernard.

It took **way** too long for this series to come out on DVD (originally saw it on a business trip to London back in 2000) but now that it’s finally here, it was definitely worth the wait. Surprised it hasn’t made it to PBS to follow other BBC classics such as Monty Python and Black Adder (my fave being by far B.A. the 3rd – if you want to see Hugh Laurie a.k.a. House, in one of his most ridiculous roles as the stupid German prince, Black Adder 3 is a must watch). But Black Books is probably on the ruder and more anti-social side vs the other two, so likely more an acquired taste. If you like Conan, Letterman, or The Simpsons – you will probably like Black Books, too.

Just one thing to remember – don’t put The Little Book of Calm anywhere NEAR your soup mug! 🙂

candybowl

Couldn’t resist a Spinal Tap reference when a ‘henge’ is involved. Just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Icehenge sci-fi novel. And as the wiki entry notes, it is similar in many ways to his later Mars Trilogy, although with different characters and plot. The book is divided into three sections, based around three central characters that live in three successive time periods, but have inter-weaved history with one another as you progress through the book. The book touches themes of separation, revolution/resistance, and friendship.

One common feature of this book and the Mars Trilogy is the very long life given to the characters based on advances in medical science (the books in both cases take place at least 100-200 years from now), which adds a new dimension to their experiences and perspective – again explored much more thoroughly in the later trilogy. Given that we don’t presently live over 100 years (and most often not even that long), the way the main characters deal with these situations is interesting and unique. Sci-fi has long discussed extending life through a variety of means (read about Lazarus Long in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children for one of the earliest, best examples) but I still think the perspectives in these Mars books is a unique one on the subject.

I liked it. If you like this book, you probably would *really* like the Mars Trilogy, because there is a lot more going on, across three much more detailed (and longer) books. And in that series, the interplay between the various lead characters is pretty diverse and definitely not all harmonious (I read the series several years ago, been meaning to re-read it someday again). This is a quick read, too – in some ways it kind of reminds me what the later Mars-related plots of Babylon 5, specifically seasons 3 & 4, might have achieved with a little more detail (and in many cases better dialogue and less silly melodrama). Check it out and see what you think!

candybowl

Looks like it’s a done deal for Conan and his staff. I think this article way oversimplifies things and gets several wrong – Conan wasn’t any more a ‘flop’ than any of the others in that slot had been when they started (and arguably better than some – e.g. Jay?) but simply wasn’t given a true chance. If he had similar ratings after two years – ok, flop. But 7 months? Even s**t-com pilots get at least that much, and don’t have to air 5 nights a week, either?

NBC, I hope you’re happy. Zucker, I hope you are selling bibles door to door like you belong, very soon. Comcast, time to clean house! And Craig Ferguson – beware any network that says it wants to ‘promote’ you by moving your timeslot earlier – run screaming to Comedy Central, and fast!

candybowl

This Blows.

I hope the d-bag Jeff Zucker ends up in the hot place not long after Comcast takes over and fires his sorry ass. Norm McDonald must be experiencing at least a little schadenfreude about now… 🙂

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Conan vs. NBC

While I don’t think the new show is as funny as the old – that has as much to do with the timeslot and different guest demographic than anything else. NBC are *idiots* to screw him and try to shove Jay back in there. Either they should have not promised this to Conan in the first place and waited for Jay to leave, or, just pat Jay on the back and let him go – his show sucks! Maybe Jay can replace Simon Cowell at A.I. But 7 months is ridiculous! They just paid Conan a ton of money, moved him to L.A., built a huge new expensive studio, and moved the staff out there (and hired Andy back – yay!) – at least give it a couple years, you idiots! It’s good he’s backing Jimmy Fallon too, like Lorne Michaels did when Conan first took over Late Night (and almost got cancelled bef. he was allowed to build his audience).

Go Conan!

candybowl

Watched Scanners again this past week. Like other David Cronenberg flicks i’ve seen in the past, it’s an interesting study. On the one hand, you have good ol’ #6 himself, Patrick McGoohan – who sadly passed away almost a year ago (!) as one of the central characters – not unlike another famous limey, Oliver Reed, a few years earlier in The Brood. While I really like P McG a lot – this role is more subtle and muted than otherwise normal for him – not a ton of dialog, a bit disappointing. This movie really had people talking back when it came out, but it really hasn’t aged terribly well. Like other DC movies of that time (The Brood and Videodrome come to mind), it’s kinda low budget and relies more on suspense and nefarious motivations than a lot of special effects – although there are some particularly gory parts – see title of post 🙂 And of course Michael Ironside makes one of his first star turns as one of the all-time best bad guys out there in moviedom. I was about to write “It’s too bad he never faced Chuck Norris” but then I see from his IMDB record he WAS actually in Walker, Texas Ranger several times – I hope he got in a few good kicks ‘in the groonies’ before Walker was required to win the fight scenes (of course).

Anyway, Scanners would be a good ‘nerd’ party movie these days – probably a bit plodding for those not geeky enough. I’m hoping DC comes back with some better movies in the future – despite Ralph Fiennes (on his way to some serious bad-guy cred of his own of late), Spider was pretty boring, and A History of Violence had its moments but was too conventional and a bit predictable. Bring back the crazy ‘computer/nerd takes over the world’ evil plots and offbeat leading men like Peter Weller or Jeremy Irons! Now **that’s** some entertainment! 🙂

candybowl