April 2012
3 posts
5 tags
Paul Merton: The Series
My voyage of comedy discovery continues with Paul Merton’s Channel 4 show, Paul Merton: The Series (1991-1993) back in the day when he was young. These days, he does mostly travel documentaries and, of course, the excellent political satire panel show Have I Got News For You. But he’s someone with quick wits fashioned thanks to an obligatory background in stand-up comedy.
Paul had...
6 tags
6 tags
Abhay - Koyal Se Mili
Trawling through my old...
October 2011
4 posts
5 tags
5 tags
Stephen Merchant: Hello Ladies
Being a massive fan of Gervais-Merchant (The Office and Extras are ground-breaking pieces of TV comedy, in my opinion), I was extremely excited when I heard Stephen Merchant was going to embark on a stand-up tour this year. At first, I was disappointed to discover that he was not going to grace with his presence the Grand Opera House in York which is part of the national stand-up comedy...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-9-25) →
London Philharmonic Orchestra & David Parry (21)
A.R. Rahman (12)
The Rolling Stones (5)
Comedy.co.uk (5)
Finghin Collins (4)
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8 tags
August 2011
10 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-8-28) →
Elvis Presley (57)
Yann Tiersen (49)
Jimi Hendrix (10)
Led Zeppelin (7)
The Rolling Stones (3)
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6 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day Six
Final day at the festival. To be fair, I was absolutely knackered and although I could have crammed in more shows today, I only went for the two I already tickets for.
Alun Cochrane: Moments Of Alun
I was back the The Stand to see a grumpy misanthropic comic moaning about everything in life. Cochrane talks about his life and stuff that annoys him. Pure and simple. It was a haphazard collection...
9 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day Five
Penultimate day of the festival! I even missed a great match to be at a show. But ultimately, it was probably my best day at the Fringe!
Robin Ince & Michael Legge: Pointless Anger, Righteous Ire 2
Anger can make for great comedy. This was a mostly improvised show where Robin Ince and Michael Legge went through things that made them angry. There was a lot of audience participation. People...
9 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day Four
It was a marathon of shows today. Managed to squeeze five in even though I started at around 2pm!
Jon Richardson: It’s Not Me, It’s You
Jon Richardson is instantly likeable. He’s got a funny voice, he gets irritated very easily and has OCD. I saw him for the first time on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and he was impressive. His show at Edinburgh this year, though,...
6 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day Three
I am amazed I have lasted three days on this whole Fringe blog thing, but today is why I came to the festival for. I got to see my headline act tonight and one other show from a very promising (relatively) new comedian.
Phill Jupitus: Stand Down
You cannot imagine how excited I was to see this colossus (both literally and figuratively) of a man getting back on stage for stand-up. I...
6 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day Two
Quiet day on the Fringe front for me today as I had other business to attend to during the day. I only managed to catch two shows in the evening, both of which I was really looking forward to.
Imran Yusuf: Bring The Thunder
Imran Yusuf has had a great year, appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and has got his own BBC show in the pipeline. I am not a fan of comedians who make...
5 tags
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011: Day One
Yes, I am finally here. I am really in Edinburgh because of tutorials for my next set of exams, but it all worked out nicely so that I could also enjoy a festival I had been dying to attend.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. It showcases various forms of art, ranging from dance and cabaret to theatre and musicals & operas. But there was only one art...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-8-14) →
The Rolling Stones (17)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & David Parry (13)
Louis Armstrong (8)
Amit Trivedi (5)
Yann Tiersen (5)
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-8-7) →
The Rolling Stones (31)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & David Parry (13)
Louis Armstrong (11)
Muse (5)
ChannelFlip.com (4)
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4 tags
Super 8 (2011)
A few months ago, I saw Joe Cornish’s edgy and beautifully shot and written, Attack The Block. This evening, I caught up with the bigger and more explosive American response to it, Super 8. Produced by Spielberg and directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek the film), the story is about a group of kids, fanatical about Super 8 films, who are thrown at the deep end in a mini-alien-invasion...
July 2011
7 posts
6 tags
Dhobi Ghat (2011)
In a desperate attempt to regain some of my meagre credibility as a huge Bollywood fan, I thought I should stop postponing it and just watch the critically acclaimed Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diairies). This is the directorial debut of Kiran Rao (sometimes known as Aamir Khan’s wife). She’d been an assistant director for the Oscar-nominated Lagaan as well as Mira Nair’s...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-7-24) →
A.R. Rahman (29)
Amy Winehouse (19)
Thomas Newman (18)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & David Parry (16)
Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard (13)
Imported from Last.fm…
3 tags
Harry Potter And The Last Of The Series
I am not really a fan of Harry Potter. Actually, I used to find it childish when it came out (I think I had just started secondary education then), probably in an attempt to resist conforming to the new craze and look cool (failing miserably obviously). I have now read the first 4 books and watched, I think, 7 of the 8 films. I saw the last one, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 today...
3 tags
Cemetery Junction (2010)
Now, I am a big fan of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, so I will be very gentle with their big screen directorial debut, Cemetery Junction which didn’t really impress a lot of critics. The film, set in 70s Reading (where Gervais hails from) and a coming-of-age comedy drama, is encapsulated by one of its quotes: “What if the world is having another party and we’re missing it...
3 tags
The Tree Of Life (2011)
Given the enormous amount of hype post-Cannes where it won the Palme D’Or, I was a bit cautious about seeing reclusive writer and director, Terrence Malick’s The Tree Of Life. Whether you like/enjoy a film or not depends significantly on your expectations. Some films are universally praised and liked. Some are panned by critics, but then, when you watch them with low expectations,...
3 tags
Potiche (2010)
Because I didn’t want a headache, I went to see my first French film since Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Potiche instead of Transformers 3 3D. Potiche stars two legends of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu and is the story, set in the 70s, of a potiche (trophy-wife) who decides to take control of her life rather than remain “on a shelf” at home.
...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-7-3) →
Ray Charles (23)
Yann Tiersen (10)
Jimi Hendrix (9)
A.R. Rahman (6)
Amy Winehouse (6)
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June 2011
7 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-26) →
Caro Emerald (15)
Thomas Newman (11)
Michael Giacchino (8)
The Rolling Stones (6)
Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant & Karl Pilkington (5)
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4 tags
Four Lions (2010)
Another film from last year that I should really have seen when it came out. This was the first film of Chris Morris, the brilliant British satirist from Brass Eye and The Day Today. It’s a black comedy about a bunch of clumsy British Muslims engaged in what they think is jihad. Five guys (one of them is called Barry…) with typical cockney accents from London have had enough of the...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-19) →
Caro Emerald (18)
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis (12)
Hum Dil de chuke Sanam (9)
Elvis Presley (8)
The Rolling Stones (3)
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3 tags
Bridesmaids (2011)
The main reason I went to see Judd Apatow’s new comedy, Bridesmaids, was because I didn’t want to see Green Lantern, the 345734th superhero movie of the year. I also like some of Apatow’s past films: Anchorman, 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up amongst others. You might think that that’s a lot of pink for a comedy movie and that it’s instead a chick flick. You are...
3 tags
3 tags
Another Year (2010)
Finally got around to watching Mike Leigh’s Another Year. The DVD had been lying on my desk for weeks. This British film had awesome reviews last year and it’s quite clear why it did. It was described as a comedic drama, but I found it quite intense, most of the scenes are brilliantly written to convey incredible tension and generate empathy. It’s basically a year in the life...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-29) →
Vishal Bhardwaj (4)
Kasabian (3)
ChannelFlip.com (1)
Rekha Bharadwaj (1)
guardian.co.uk (1)
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May 2011
6 posts
4 tags
4 tags
Manchester United parading the Premier League...
triciarkg:
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-22) →
Elvis Presley (20)
Led Zeppelin (7)
A.R. Rahman (4)
Howard Shore (3)
guardian.co.uk (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
5 tags
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-15) →
Yann Tiersen (16)
Elvis Presley (12)
Jimi Hendrix (8)
Raphael Beau (8)
Max Steiner (6)
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-1) →
Noah and the Whale (11)
Muse (8)
Thomas Newman (7)
Amy Winehouse (7)
Louis Armstrong (7)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
April 2011
7 posts
5 tags
“I know those lads better than anyone. I found them. I nurtured them. I stood...”
– Jimmy Murphy (played by David Tennant) when told by the club chairman that the club was going to close for some time because of the Munich disaster, in BBC film, United.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-24) →
The Rolling Stones (26)
Elvis Presley (22)
Thomas Newman (16)
Raphael Beau (14)
Paolo Nutini (11)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
4 tags
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-17) →
A.R. Rahman (14)
Amit Trivedi (8)
The Rolling Stones (8)
Jimi Hendrix (8)
Yann Tiersen (7)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-10) →
Noah and the Whale (17)
Kasabian (13)
A.R. Rahman (9)
Queen (8)
Elvis Presley (7)
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2 tags
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-3) →
Jimi Hendrix (11)
Noah and the Whale (11)
Raphael Beau (8)
Led Zeppelin (6)
A.R. Rahman (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
March 2011
4 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-3-27) →
Yann Tiersen (12)
Nino Rota (11)
Noah and the Whale (9)
Led Zeppelin (5)
Amy Winehouse (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
3 tags
2 tags
1 tag
The Secret of Kells
The Secret Of Kells is a 2009 Oscar-nominated Irish animated feature with French and Belgian collaboration. It is dramatisation of the creation of The Book of Kells which is a sacred Irish manuscript. It is magnificently and meticulously animated with intricate details.
The story is pretty simple and short with much more emphasis on the graphic side of things and awesome music with a Gaelic...
