Hello dudes! What a day it's been! I waited in all day for our new sky plus box (tivo) to arrive and of course they never turn up when they promise. Then the chain smoking installation guy absolutely refuses to come up as he can't find anywhere to park, so makes me meet him on the corner (i thought that part of my career was over!) of the street behind the building and just shoves the box into my hand, like some dodgy dealer. I then, with excessively limited technical skills had to install it myself, which of course led to me being on hold to the premium rate customer service number, who were then most unhelpful and blamed me for setting it up incorrectly. I was not a happy bunny. Still i can now pause live tv and record whole series at the click of a button. Darren has wanted it for ages but had to bum-sex me into submission before i acquiesced. We then spent the evening shopping for new trousers for work (darren) and the new julia golding book (me). We also both spent far too long running up our mobile phone bills catching up with friends (hello Cat! Bernice! Ruthless!!) and then i was on the phone being interviewed by a major gay publication (can't say what yet!!). So all in all a very phone-centric day, but lots of fun in the end :) Suppose I should get on with today's picture heavy post!!
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THE THINGS I DON'T GET:
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Some things I will never understand - the appeal of Fergie, Gwen Stefani's second album (outstanding interview in Instinct not withstanding of course!), how Epic movie took $20 million in it's first weekend and how Charmed lasted 8 seasons (I'm guessing lots of breasts). Somethings I think I will get because I am on board before it even enters existence - Robbie Williams' Rudebox and Keane's Under The Iron Sea I was all excited for then they arrived and after months of seriously trying I am still only marginally impressed (and if it takes that much effort is it really worth it? Music is meant to be a pleasure not a chore!) And then there are acts who appear to be globlogally loved that I just truly don't understand. So I have to get this out the way - I've done extensive research on this singer. Rob(o)pop sent me a comprehensive study of this singers career. XO alerted me to key tracks and I even purchased their latest EP (but ultimately flogged it on Ebay). But (never start a sentence with But - and hands off my bad copy D'Luv ;) ) I still don't understand the universal jizzfest that takes place everytime Robyn's name is mentioned. And I'm not even exactly sure why that is - something about the whole package just doesn't do it for me. I'm not saying it isn't good or great - it's just not good or great for me. And that should be ok - i'm sure i like plenty of people that other people don't get. Darren still raises an eyebrow at my undying loyalty to Deborah Gibson! But in the interest of fairness I just listened to Rakamonie EP again as I typed this. Nothing! Still, you can't say I didn't try...
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THE BOOKS THAT BECAME FILMS:
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I have to admit that I'm partial to my children's serialised books. For tweens and teens. Or continuing stories for independent readers as Borders in NYC called them (did I mention I've been to NYC recently??)... Anyway, when they are translated into films, they seem to have mixed results. it's a risky business isn't it? Some fan will probably moan that a line of dialogue on page 328 has been cut which will completely alter the theme of book 17 should it ever get made. So Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Series of Events (despite GREAT casting) was a bit hit and miss because 3 books worth of plot were squeezed into one film (when clearly it should have been a mini series of 13 one hour animated shows on Nickelodeon). Eragon (of the Inheritance trilogy) was much like the book - trying to be too harry potter meets Lord of the Rings. And some of the coming of age charm of the novel is lost on celluloid. For me, I've always been quite pleased with the Harry Potter films. Order of the Phoenix is out in July and thanks to director David Yates promises to up the ante on the political thriller aspects. Cue months of "ooo it is so much darker" before the release date! And of course Philip Pulman's The Golden Compass (from His Dark Materials) - the books are amazing so hopefully the film won't fuck it up! PS ~ Narnia and Lord of the Rings are about as perfect adaptations as you can get :)
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THE MUSICALS REVUE PART TWO - THE ALTAR BOYZ:
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The Altar Boyz may well be the greatest fake boyband ever. So much better than the australian parody everyone is raving about. And wasn't there something similar on MTV a while back? I mean, I was the mormon equivalent of an altar boy growing up. I don't really recall there being that much choreography involved, and the emphasis was on not rocking out. So not much like this stage show and its aces soundtrack then! But it may have been a lot more fun - the boyz (Matthew Mark, Luke and Juan) are called by God to go forth and spread the word with catchy songs, anoint their hair with product and gird their loins with pleather! I mean, it's boyband heaven - the songs perfectly parody the type of music BSB and N*Sync were doing in the late 90s and songs with lyrics such as "Jesus called me on my cell/no roaming charges were incurred/ he told me to go forth and spread the word" and raps about the miracles of the new testament can't fail to raise a smile and get you singing them for days afterwards! And if you can stop laughing and wishing all boyband "albums" were this much fun, then you'll actually find a quite universal message - stick up for your friends, be true to yourself and make the world a better place. Quite.
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LINK: The altar boyz homepage
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THE TIME OF THE MONTH:
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At thezapping central, we love the beginning of the month because we love getting all the new magazines. And by thezapping central, I mean our lovely little apartment with stunning hardwood floors. And by we, I fo shizzle mean DazPleaseSubscribeIt'sCheaper and myself. And by love getting all the magazines, I mean I buy loads and Darren raises his eyebrow at how I can spend so much on disposable products while still getting a daily starbucks. But I think you get my drift. This month, being in NYC (did i mention i had just got back?!) I got to pick up two magazines I can't get in England - Instinct (because it's a saucy read - great article on ex gay camp this month - and i think the managing editor does a sterling job) and Player (above - mainly for the foxy milo ventimiglia pics in it). Rar, etc.
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But hurrah - attitude hasn't folded and mcfly are still as naked as ever! Bonza! Bless those adorable little rogues! And thank god the 'Tude is still on the stands. It makes the world such a brighter place :)
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And of course, Inside Soap has got the whole skinny on HollyBlokes going all gay on us again. Not before time I say either. It must be a haven of homoeroticism back stage at their studios. I would probably get the vapours from all the testosterone. Which is a-ok. Oh and come back tomorrow for 3 more magazines I am loving this week!
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QUICK BITZ/BLOG WATCH:
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~ ooo, ooo and something kinda ooo! While Dannyboy Radcliffe gets his kit off inappropriately if you ask me for some play about being obsessed with horses, JK Rowling does the decent things and announces July 21st as the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. How exciting and kind of sad. Cut to me texting my friend Simon and us both being thrilled to sticky white love piss as the countdown begins...
~ the artists formerly known as The Modern are back with a new video for Discotheque Francais and you can see it foxy arjanwrites...
~ somehow the world will carry on, but the beautiful south and rooster have both split and I for one am quite sad and somewhat sad respectively...
~ check out the quite good new song from No Angels posted by the brilliantly named Mary Cherry at the always sexy Don'tStopThePop...
~ lets look at the many ways we adore Electroqueer - he hangs out with tommy page, he has brilliant rants on his page and he loves longtime zapping fave Switch22 - and quite rightly so. The boys are lovely and have promised to buy me a drink at their next show ;) Mine's a tia maria and orange juice please!
~ XO has the new modern slash matinee club video too, and he's proper bonza in a michael hutchence-pre-autoeroticasphyxiation sort of way :)
~ Congrats to Dan's daughter Anna on her first written words :) When's the blog?! PS - i so need to check out casey stratton. but what excited me the most that Dan's 3rd most played tune recently was a Big Fun track :)
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Coming Friday ~ some more magazine stuff; something on the spin off blog; where some of my picks for 06 are now; some ace new tracks i'm loving...
PS ~ check out my updated charts to your right and head over to the holiday diaries for some vintage vegas!
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Right then... Robyn... Do not dismiss her just yet. I just couldn't understand what the palaver was. I thought she was a bit irrelevant to the UK. That was until late last year. Maybe you haven't heard 'This One's for You' (a Girls Aloud track, maybe an album track) and maybe you haven't fully understood 'With Every Heartbeat' and it's remixes in all it's glory.
Although the 'Rakamonie' EP was quite patchy (everything after the second track is pants), she might just make it here in the UK?
As for Hollyoaks, Crazy Buzz Stads rule!
And while those are not technically Anna's first written words (she's been able to write her name for quite some time now) they are definitely the first ones that she has written where I saw her brain working with the sounds. It's phonics, man!
Dan
I don't even know what bonza means, but I'll take it as a good thing.
I am here to tell all that Paul De Zappin is very tall! I did not expect that.
Robyn does 'okay' vocals on that Kleenex song, but I've always thought his haircut was tres gay.
There's no denying "Show Me Love" is a great tune, though, and it helped put Max Martin on the map.
I think I remember seeing a sign for the Altar Boyz while I was in NYC waiting for the ferry that takes you past the Statue of Liberty--and I wanted to know what it was about, but forgot about it until now...look who's becoming the Veronica Mars now ;)
So the McFly picture is confusing me--though I am much happier to see them clothed now, did they just have them stand in the same pose twice, one with clothes and once without? Or photoshop clothes on? I know they added more clothes to the Pussycat Dolls using photo editing, but this case seems like too much clothes to just add on using a computer. Of course, maybe it's not even the same pose, but it looks similar, from what I remember.
Aaaahhhh about having a new Harry Potter book! Can't wait :) Is there new news on the Golden Compass movie? I remember cutting out some article from a newspaper about it what seems like six, seven-ish years ago.
Hurrah for attitude not being dead after all, even if it takes itself a bit too seriously sometimes, it still gets the big names and hot guys in it ;-)
Hollyoaks gays - I've been following this very closely, JP is so sweet. From what I've heard it is not him that intiates the kiss which makes things even more interesting!
Finally, welcome back mister :-)
Dan - still very cool. What an adorable little kid :)
XO - i am quite tall. but you are michael hutchence so it all balances out in the end!
D'Luv - i keep forgetting Robyn did Show Me Love. that one is alright!
Google Girl! I can't be veronica mars as she is a woman ;) I will have to be a hardy boy. ooo tv so needs a hot male veronica! Anyway, yeah the mcfly pic confused me too - i read somewhere it was 2 photo shoots but im not too sure of the source. I think the Golden Compass is out in time for Christmas as narnia isn't tying that slot up til 2008 where it will go against 6th Harry so christmas 2007 is wide open!!
Will - viva attitude and the hollyoaks gays!