TV

Dara O Briain Talks Funny: Live in London [TV version; 1st half]
The first thing I've properly watched on BBC HD in my new place... and recorded too. Rather surprised, and somewhat pleased, to discover that because I've got my Surround Sound system hooked up to my V+ box it forces me to use it (it doesn't send any sound whatsoever to the telly), which is a very handy and obvious reminder to turn it all on and receive the extra quality.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
8x07 Best of British Special
Something a little different for Cats (though they did a Movie Special earlier this series, which I annoyingly missed).

The Mentalist
1x15 Scarlett Fever
A relatively slight episode, though a couple of scenes did stand out.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Articles

His time has come: New Doctor Who Matt Smith begins filming with his gorgeous young redheaded assistant by Daily Mail Reporter
(from Mail Online)
Well, the headline tells most of the story, but the pictures also give our first glimpse at his costume. They seem to be going for the Old Man In A Young Body thing, which is probably for the best. Only eight or so months til these episodes start airing...

TV

Mock the Week
7x02 (16/7/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
13x05 (19/7/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Top Gear
13x03 (5/7/09 edition)
Michael McIntyre! Yay!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
16x24 (17/7/09 edition) [U2 interview]
Bono really is quite insufferable, isn't he.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Guilty [2nd watch]
More repeats, but this is a great one-off: certifiable genius and national treasure Stephen Fry chats about the things he loves but thinks he shouldn't. Intelligent and fascinating as always.

This Morning
17/7/09 edition
Fern Britton's last show, after 10 years.

You Have Been Watching
1x02 (14/7/09 edition)
Had been intending to watch this sooner but completely forgot. It's absolutely brilliant though, perfectly positioned on C4 to be cuttingly funny without anyone moaning too much. It's also surprisingly, pleasingly long. Quite why there's a vague quiz format tacked on is a mystery though -- surely four comedians/experts taking the mick out of the week's TV is fine by itself? (Though at least they acknowledged it was just bolted on.)
This particular edition is particularly notable for commentary on the coverage of Michael Jackson's memorial -- suitably irreverent.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

School safety 'insult' to Pullman
(from BBC News)
"How dare you check me, I'm famous!" One rule for them, etc etc. I can almost see where they're coming from but, to be frank, they're wrong. Following this article I have a lot less respect for Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo and Anthony Horowitz.

Poem of the Week: Starting from Scratch

by Ingrid Wendt

In honour of last week's Poem of the Week being put off by my move (as was the whole blog, of course), here's a poem about that very thing. (Moving home, I mean, not putting off blog updates.)

To begin with, none of your neighbors began here.
Everyone moved in years before you moved into
a pattern you found yourself part of
before you intended: flowers, fences,
attention to details your mother always took care of,
duller than film on dishes it was always your job to wipe.
Nobody spoke about courage.

Nobody said you could choose this life.
It happened, it didn't, the fact
you could choose to remain would become
what's yours to control: hours
of sleeping and waking, meals, the home
you need to go out in the world from.
Neighborhood customs you know you can count on.

Recipes, grapes exchanged for zucchini, the garden
someone will know when to plant.
The book you suggest. The pattern of limits
no one has asked for, told over coffee, lives
like yours you could have become
starting from scratch. Each day
the way you will live before what comes next.

Starting from Scratch is taken from Wendt's collection Moving the House, which features a number of poems on this subject. I'm uncertain of its copyright status, but the whole thing's available online for free here (with some copyright info that may or may not be relevant). There's also biographical detail and the like there if you're interested, and a list of years, one of which it will have been written in.

TV

Derren Brown: Trick or Treat
2x06 Episode 6 [2nd watch]
Love Derren.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TNT Show
1x06 (16/9/09) [2nd half]
Oh dear. This is rubbish on so many levels, not least the laughter track that's been obviously, unnaturally stuck on at points where there was meant to be a joke. I only stumbled across it waiting for the Derren Brown repeat; I suggest you make an effort to avoid it.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD. But I recommend you don't.]

Articles

Legal row over National Portrait Gallery images placed on Wikipedia by Maev Kennedy
(from guardian.co.uk)
"The National Portrait Gallery has threatened legal proceedings for breach of copyright against a man who downloaded thousands of high-resolution images from its website, and placed them in an archive of free-to-use images on Wikipedia... Photographs of works of art are protected by copyright in the UK, but not in the US, where Coetzee lives...
the photographs were only taken for the NPG as part of a £1m digitisation project in the last couple of years. The gallery... said it would be happy for the online site to use low-resolution images but was "very concerned" about loss of revenue from copyright fees for the high-resolution versions, which form a significant part of its income"

TV

Dragons' Den
7x01 Episode 1
Always good to have back on our screens. The battle over this week's final pitch feels set to be a particularly memorable Den moment.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
7x01 (9/7/09 edition)
With Virgin now more or less installed, it's time to catch up on some of the stuff I've missed in the last week or so... starting, semi-ironically, with a topical news quiz.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Five Outrageous Reality Shows from Around the World by Stefanie Lee
(from tv.com)
Penitents Compete? Japanese Tetris? Sperm Race? You know you want to know more.

Rose Byrne: Star Wars TV Show To Be a Family Drama by Seth Abramovitch (from Movie|Line)
and
Star Wars Live-Action TV Series Casting Underway by Eric Ditzian (from MTV Movies Blog)
She's not in the series and she only had a small part in one of the six films ("I’m literally like an extra in that film."), but it seems Damages star Rose Byrne can't help letting slip little details on the forthcoming Star Wars live action TV series.

Steven Soderbergh: 'I can see the end of my career' by Henry Barnes (from guardian.co.uk)
and
Does Anyone Direct More Movies Than Steven Soderbergh? by Kyle Buchanan (from Movie|Line)
Apparently this news has caused a bit of a stir -- unsurprisingly -- but it is phenomenal how many films Soderbergh has directed in such a short space of time. Read the second article for some comparisons to other prolific directors -- Soderbergh leaves them all in the shade.

Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert by Julia Kollewe
(from guardian.co.uk)
"Report on young people's media habits written for investment bank by teenage intern causes huge interest in the City"
It's interesting that this has caused such a stir, because you can read the full text of his report here and see it's really not much cop -- a decent enough piece of work for a 15-year-old on an internship, maybe, but certainly no more than that. I'd also be prepared to wager it shows no more than the opinions of his group of friends -- at best, because it may just be what he thinks, lazily knocked out in half an hour. There's at least one glaring factual error in there, for example:
"Most people have Virgin Media as a TV provider. Some have Sky and some have Freeview"
It's a cold hard fact that the number of people with Sky is several times bigger than those with Virgin.

I'm back!

My Cultural Experience is back online!

Our new Virgin service was installed today, and while it sadly hasn't gone flawlessly (a duff V+ box means I can currently only watch the free channels; though there are phone sockets throughout the house they're mostly BT, so there's only one I can actually use), the Internet works just fine (and the installer man was very nice and helpful, and the installation process itself was painless... I just need a new box under my telly). Speed tests show it operates close to its 10Mb promise too, despite our new house being relatively distant and residential. Upload speeds are a tad pathetic though.

Anyway, what this means for you, dear reader, is that updates should be more or less back on track. Hurrah! And I may even get round to watching some more films...

Articles

Half-Blood Prince stars imagine post-Potter future by Breeanna Hare
(from CNN.com)
No big surprises, really, but it must be odd to have been doing something for the majority of your young life and then have it ending. It'll be interesting to see if they can make the leap into being Proper Actors (leaving Potter behind as something they did when they were young) or if they all flounder and end up only being known for this.

TV

Gavin & Stacey
3x00 Christmas Special [2nd watch]
One slightly odd side effect of having so many channels begging for so much content is that some do things like this -- repeating Christmas specials at any time of the year. We're almost as far as it's possible to be from Christmas (almost equidistant between the last and the next), yet BBC Three still merrily repeat this (or various Doctor Who ones). Maybe their schedulers really do wish it could be Christmas every day...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Mark Lawson Talks To
Liz Smith
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
13x04 (12/7/09 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
1x06 Brighton [season finale]
Despite his admirable love of Queen, I'm not much of a fan of the Pub Landlord, which made for a somewhat disappointing end to an otherwise outstanding series.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Torchwood
3x05 Children of Earth: Day Five [season finale]
Depressingly believable, and uncompromisingly excellent with it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Poem of the Week is on holiday

Due to the moving issues previously mentioned, Poem of the Week will return next week.

TV

Torchwood
3x04 Children of Earth: Day Four
An outstanding episode on every level: scary, exciting, surprising, funny and heartbreaking. Torchwood has really, finally come into its own with this miniseries (or maxi-episode, as I heard it described today, and it seems an even more fitting term). While it might be nice to see a return to 13 individual episodes next year, in many respects this format is even more exciting. Lord alone knows how they could top it though!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]