The State Of British Comedy

When did British comedy hit such an all time low? I am unsure of the exact moment of this decline but it has continued for several months. I feel very disappointed in the quality of recent brand new comedies on television. Now, I do not have Sky, so perhaps I am missing out on the top quality material (such as the return of The Kumars at No. 42) but I refuse to shell out a big fat subscription fee every month. Particularly as my viewing habits are actually limited to a set number of shows and channels. Back when my parents had the service, we still watched a minimum amount of material and even that was when there was something available. In most cases, even with hundreds of channels available, sometimes there was nothing worth watching and we would switch back to free-to-air terrestrial.

Before I got any further an honorary mention must go out to Citizen Khan which broadcast last August on the Beeb. The trailer was cut well but the overall comedy value was low. Extremely low. It was like being taken back to the 1970s. The world has moved on a great deal since the time before I was born! They had to bring in housewife favourite, Kris Marshall from recent BT adverts and BBC sitcom My Family as a Muslim convert just to appeal to Middle England. Proof that a Muslim comedy could not apparently perform without some kind of outside ‘established actor’ help. I did not want to watch any minute beyond the first episode, however we decided to revisit and watch the entire series. Give it a chance, was what my wife, Michelle said was the best option. We had another reason, as we had seen one the stars, Maya Sondhi (who plays daughter Shazia) perform at The Tara Arts Centre with Ali back in December 2011. The BBC have renewed Citizen Khan for a second series, which I am willing to give another chance. However, this is the exception to the rule. I am just not sure if the original Citizen Khan shorts featured in another programme, Bellamy’s People was the ideal avenue for Adil Ray’s talent and a full blown series was too much too soon.

Plebs had been heavily trailed on ITV2, so I watched first episode. However, please note I watched the first episode, several weeks after it aired on television. My wife is a big fan of Celebrity Juice and we have recently started watching The Only Way Is Essex. As these are jewels in the crown of the channel, we were bound to get a great deal of exposure to Plebs. I was extremely disappointed in the comedy. Maybe I am a little outside of the target demographic but that does not mean I am banned from watching. The plot was limited, the jokes were poor and the overall taste was extremely low. This was comedy for the brain-dead generation. I could not stomach watching another minute, so gave up. If you are going to heavily advertise a new British homegrown comedy please please ITV ensure the quality of the writing is up there with the best comedies on television. Even with guest stars such as Danny Dyer, I believed this show was flawed from the start. Transferring modern day twenty-first century life into Ancient Rome, with the ultimate of socially awkward guys outside of the in-crowd trying to meet pretty girls. Sure not much in modern day Britain has changed and most boys of a certain age, are attempting the same thing in bars, pubs and clubs in towns and cities across the country.

I did not know that Ben Elton was working on a new comedy until I read an article in The Guardian one lunchtime at the office. I was looking forward to catching The Wright Way when it finally aired. However, due to my work life balance, I am usually in bed at 9:30pm. I would record the show on my Humax PVR and catch the following evening. I did not watch any further than episode two. While I really love David Haig as an actor, I am sure even he appreciates that we have moved on from 1996. He appears to perform this new role, as Health & Safety Council Office, Gerald Wright in a carbon copy format of Inspector Grimm from The Thin Blue Line. Ben, surely you have honed your technique over seventeen years. Try new ideas, formats and even actors. Do not get me wrong, I loved The Thin Blue Line, it was my favourite comedy when aired, but that was in the previous century and we have moved on a great deal since.

Back to ITV with their late night comedy, The Job Lot. The situation here is a job centre in the Midlands. This proved for me a little funnier than the other comedies I have mentioned. Mainly for the inclusion of a larger talented group cast and the fact that in this environment you can have many different characters appear to sign on the dole. In particular I was looking forward to seeing Zahra Ahmadi, whom you may recognise as Shabnam Masood from Eastenders. However her part was relatively minor and after episode four, I gave up once again. While it began well and did have some funny moments, the comedy fell back into the comfortable rhythm of type. Routine, we all enjoy but not from comedies, particularly those that are supposed to be fresh and brand new. I enjoyed seeing Sarah Hadland step out of the shadow of Miranda Hart and perform a comedic role in her own image. She was good but it was not enough to keep me hooked. Far too quickly the characters returned to type. Look out for one of the actors from Four Lions.

People constantly ask me why I watch some much US imported television. I rest my case. I just hope this is a minor blip and better talent is in the pipeline.

Aural Fixation

My viewing habits are well documented, the majority of my blog posts begin or lead to a moment from the television screen. My wife and I tend to focus on watching television shows during the week and save our movies for the weekend. However, sometimes an old classic is shown on Film4 or ITV2 and you just cannot resist the temptation to watch. A prime example was the 1980s action classic Total Recall last summer. On Wednesday night, we decided to watch Pitch Perfect. I had toyed with the idea of watching at the cinema but as the saying goes, you snooze you lose, so by the time I had actually thought I would go and see it, screenings had stopped. Never mind, I perhaps would have a felt a little short changed if I had spent money on cinema tickets (even on Saver Tuesday at our local Empire).

My expectations were a family unfriendly extended episode of Glee, in a college rather than high school environment. I like a capella music but am not particularly fond of mash-ups (see previous blog post). However, putting that to one side, this movie was great fun! I was unaware that Brittany Snow was one of the leads. An actress I have only come across in the last few years. Although I had heard about the movie John Tucker Must Die I actually had not seen it until it was on television a few years ago. Michelle told me it was worth watching and very funny! Unfortunately there is zero trace of me noting watching the movie sometime in 2011 on Twitter, Facebook or this blog. This was the first time I came across the beautiful actress Brittany Snow. I will sidestep the topic of her amazing body and instead focus my attention on her acting ability which was fantastic but we have to give the caveat that this was just a high school teen movie. The reality is, I should not have been watching this movie so close to my 30th birthday. A few months later, we watched Prom Night as the 2008 remake re-imagining was on Film4. I recall during this time we were going through an Idris Elba phase (Michelle in particular), watching Luther on television (stupidly season two before watching season one a fortnight later). I wonder if he will become the next Bond after Craig?

As a big fan of Glee, I was the ideal audience for Pitch Perfect but my expectations of a gross-out comedy in the vain of Bridesmaids, were quickly put to bed. This was going to be a fun ride and all the performers were actually extremely good singers in their own right, we just had not seen any of them sing before. Rebel Wilson steals the show as Fat Amy! The soundtrack was excellent, particularly some of the older songs from the 1980s. Some of the mashups were good but I was disappointed that some of the songs featured so prominently in the movie were neglected from the album. While the movie is centred around Anna Kendrick’s character, Beca I feel the supporting cast steal the show in many scenes. Character development is much further down the list of priorities but as an audience we tend not to worry about such things. Particularly if the film is entertaining enough! Great fun and highly recommended. Do not just take my word for it, the movie is rated as 80% fresh over on Rotten Tomatoes. Particularly watch out for one of the actors from The Treble Makers who has a close resemblances to my brother-in-law.

While reviewing Wikipedia as you do after watching a movie, particularly one you have enjoyed, it was great to see an update (as recently as yesterday) that a sequel has been green lit and Rebel Wilson as actually signed up for another two movies. A movie dedicated to Fat Amy, now that I would pay money to see!

Never As Good, Second Time Around

Have you been watching ITV2 on Thursday nights at 9pm. Purely just the fact that Andi (with an ‘i’) Peters narrates this nostalgic trip down musical memory lane from the turn of the century, should be enough for most people. I am of course referring to The Big Reunion. The broadcasters attempt to bring back a selection of pop groups for a reunion concert at The Hammersmith Apollo. Ultimately the draw for me, was Liberty X. I was a big fan of their music, having watched them get rejected on ITV’s The Popstars (for mediocre Hear’Say) to winning a Brit Award and beyond. My second favourite band (based on number of songs I personally like) would be 5ive. I did not like their initial material but towards the later part of their career, before they hung up their microphones, I enjoyed Keep On Moving and Closer To Me. Finally, out of the other bands, it has to be the Honeyz. If they had released more material (or probably just been around longer regardless of line up changes) they would have been my second favourite. As as aside, I was a passing fan of Solid Harmonie (Mariama Goodman left the band to join the Honeyz) around 1998-1999 when they appeared on the Nickelodeon’s comedy series, Renford Rejects.

My dearest wife made the comment, that nostalgia has a way of tricking us into the illusion that it was better back then, than it really was. In homage to this conversation, I have used her exact phrase as the title of this blog post. Dedicated to the UK pop scene at the turn of the twenty first century. Were we truly spoilt as much as this? I am yet to be convinced but I do recall a period in the late nineties and early noughties when there was a different number one single almost every week!

Perhaps I was a little old to be into this cheesy brand of manufactured popular music, first time around. The reality, which I have no problem admitting, is I till love my pop music. No matter how cheesy and lack of credibility that may come across for a man almost thirty two years of age. It is not the only music genre I listen to it but I enjoy it for what it is. I was looking forward to the show most for the concert at the end, but it was great to hear about all the stories from the band members themselves. Unaware at the time what was truly going on, as we were just fed whatever the record label machine was pumping out onto the airwaves and television screens.

It is the Honeyz that I feel the greatest deal of sympathy. Having signed to Def Jam records, they were on the bring of international stardom. For a member of the act to just walk out, would have left me completely devastated. Now I appreciate everyone will have their own reasons and we have to respect everybody’s desire to do what they feel is right at the time they feel it is right. Turning your back on what could have been an extremely successful recording career in the States and beyond, should not be a decision taken at the drop of a hat. Who knows what they would have achieved as potential rivals to Destiny’s Child.

Boybands only came onto my musical radar in 1999, when Backstreet Boys released I Want It That Way. Since that point, as a young first year college student, I have never looked back. In 2003, I created an album exclusively of boyband tracks. I have been listened to it again recently due to the fact that Glee in episode sixteen of season four, “Feud” pitted two of the biggest American boybands of all time against one another in a sing off come mash-up. Now, let me set you straight, I have tended to strongly dislike the mash-up concept, particular the songs used in Glee. However, on this occasion, the songs surprising do contrast each other well and we had pop perfection performances from Will Schuester and Finn Hudson. My only complaint is that the song is not long enough. After a difficult few episodes, I believe Glee is back to it’s best. I probably have spoken to soon and the show will wants again hit the buffers. We catch the show on Sunday mornings while eating breakfast. It is perhaps the perfect pick me up to get you through the remaining hours of the weekend. In our case, we have to complete our weekly food shop at the supermarket as soon as the show finishes.

The Next Karate Kid

Identifying Songs

When I hear a song I do not know, I have to quickly identify it. For a while, when my HTC Desire was brand spanking new (late 2010) I had Shazam installed and would use it at every available opportunity. However, over two years later, my Desire lacks the memory space to hold any useful apps, so I have Shazam installed on my Nexus 7, not the most mobile of devices but it does work perfectly – most of the time.

Let me take you back five weeks, to Friday 25th January. My colleague Harps offered me a lift home in his beloved white BMW 330d cabriolet. (Surprisingly this was the first ever time he was giving me a lift home, even though we have worked together for almost exactly a year!) The journey started off with Luda (who else!) but Harps was switching to various songs on his MP3 CD. It then switched to an Unknown Artist – Unknown Track (I of course, would never have such an epic fail on my audio collection, all my ID3 tags (v1) are fully compiled). The song was instantly catchy and I asked Harps to name the artist, when he could not, so I switched on my tablet and Shazam’d (is that even the adjective?). This song would be the soundtrack to not just my weekend but the rest of the month! I downloaded the song from the internet and then had it burnt onto CD for a drive to Oxford (via Aylesbury on Sunday afternoon). The song, which is of the RnB persuasion rather than HipHop, is called Who Booty (Remix) by John Hart featuring French Montana.

Glee has been a mixed bag of late, at times becoming a parody of itself in this it’s fourth season. However, in places the quality has improved, as the the new characters develop and make bonds with each other. Episode eleven, “Sadie Hawkins” we had very low expectations for, but it actually proved to be quite a good visit to Ohio, not just for bringing in some interesting movement to the plot but also some fantastic songs! The highlight for myself was the cover of TLCs 1999 comeback hit “No Scrubs”. However for my dearest wife, it was the cover of the much more recent Bruno Mars – Locked Out Of Heaven (even if some of the lyrics are risqué for a family friend television show). Straight after the girls performance, a song kicks in on the dance-floor but apart from a few patchy lyrics, there was no way for me to identify the song. The audio volume is just far too low and with characters (Kitty and Puckerman) talking there was no chance of me identifying the song. I noted down a few lyrics after listening a few times and then went over to Google. My searches were rather fruitless but I was not the only person whom had noted the song and wanted to know who the artist was. My first port of call was TV.com, registering and leaving the question as a comment. I had little response, so a few days later I tried entering the few lyrics I could make out into Google and sure enough was taken to a Glee forum. Sure enough, I was not the only person looking for this unidentified song, but so far the trail had run suddenly from hot to cold, as all the suggested songs were not the song in question. We were left thinking that this was an unreleased song, which had been produced specifically for the show. I had lost hope of ever finding out the artist and track name. This was until Thursday morning, when I happened to go back to the forum to check if there had been any updates. There had and the answer to the question that had been on my mind for the past few weeks was finally there on the web page. The artist was Rae, the song was 305 and it featured, in a slightly different mix on the Hop soundtrack. Mystery solved.

It does make me think, how much harder life was before the interweb. How did we ever get the answer to more deep and meaningful questions, rather than some random song played within the context of a high school prom on a television show. Back in June 2005, I had a similar problem with a song I heard on my portable DAB radio. It did not take me that long to find that song, as I actually had the title of the track from the chorus. Do you not just love this connected, always on world we live in, with the possibility of so much at our fingertips? I sure do!

You would class “305″ or is it “The 305″, as bubble gum pop, whereas I prefer to use the term pure pop! The lyrics and overall production remind me of the opening track from the Resse Witherspoon movie, Legally Blonde. The track which plays during the opening credits is Perfect Day by Hoku. The 305 even includes the lyrics, “It’s a perfect day” in reference to the older song by Hoku – pure coincidence perhaps! It is almost seven years ago since I was naming checking this romantic comedy, the song and even quoting the lyrics on my blog!

Selective Amnesia

As most people know I consider myself a connoisseur of the creative medium of music videos, having amassed a collection beyond the one thousand barrier. I keep a look out for new music videos from time to time, although I tend not live on YouTube as you might expect. Without MTV at our flat (a wrong, I will indeed right at some point in the future with MTV HD) I tend to watch Viva or 4Music from time to time at the weekend. The odd time they are not showing general programming (which tends to be the weekend mornings). They have both morphed into general youth entertainment channels. How many re-runs of The Fresh Prince can you watch? Another location that will always play music videos is the gym.

At EasyGym we are not blessed with MTV or even the Freeview babies mentioned above, no they can do better than that. There own dedicated music video channels (there are two, but only one is visible on the TV) the other is accessible via the equipment (bikes, cross trainers etc). When I am on the bike, I tend to watch Sky News to catch up on what is going on around the world. Being a news junkie, this is perhaps the only time apart from weekday mornings and the odd Saturday morning that I am watching a rolling news network. However, I am not completely sad, I keep an eye out on the music videos being played on EasyGym 1 (they also pump out the music of the same song on the internal PA system, although at times this was not always the case). I quickly switch over to Channel 4 on my bike if I see anything I like.

During the Christmas break trips to the gym were always going to take a hit but I did attend on the penultimate day of 2012! It was on this occasion I spotted a fantastic video on Easy Gym 1, however I was on the rowing machine, and so the awkward viewing angle meant I did not catch the artist. To some a problem but I had spotted Timbaland in the video, and so it would be something I would look up later. As usual with the grand plans I make in the gym, I never acted upon this imaginary task on my task list! However I should really explain what drew me to this video in the first place. For context remember I have my own mp3 player playing my gym playlist so cannot hear the actual song. I am going on images alone! The singer, Rosette is shown in her lingerie but her body is blurred out. Now it is quite clear she is not naked so I do wonder why the EasyGym version was censored. Perhaps the management wanted to take into consideration the demographic of the location but still this was rather extreme. How many lingerie billboard posters did you note around the place just before Christmas? Around Reading station, I noted at least 4, around Slough Bath Road, 6 (the majority (if not all!) for H&M!). In any case, I only remembered the song again on Monday (14th) evening as I was in the gym carrying out a quick cardio session. The video is quite tame, if you consider a music video, which nearly knocks former Prime Ministers from the rowing machine. I noted down in my memory banks the artist on this occassion and finally got hold of the song on Tuesday evening. It has been playing practically non-stop on my mp3 player ever since. Unfortunately, due to a clinch in the Rockbox audio scrobbler, it has not picked up my multiple listens of the same song, so you will not find any evidence on my Last.fm (it is on the right menu of my main blog page). I know many people would get bored listening to the same song all day and for hours at a time. However I am unique in this fashion. Back in PBD (pre blogging days) I recall a car journey in my Mum’s Mini Mayfair when I listened to Pure Shores by All Saints on loop, driving my passengers mad! (For the record I have still to see the movie, The Beach).

Off on a little meandering tangent now but it will be worth it, trust me. If you are of a certain age (early thirties) you may recall an extremely popular television show called Sabrina – The Teenage Witch. My sisters and I were big fans and did watch the show up to the last season (when Sabrina went to college and the show pretty much jumped the shark). However, I am refering to one from season one. The episode featured many famous guest stars, including Thomas. F. Wilson (you will be familiar with him as Biff Tannen from the Back To The Future trilogy). However the ladies out there will remember it for the appearance of Beverley Hills 90210 star, Brian Austin Green. He was created using Man Dough and christened with the fantastic name, Chad Corey Dylan. The perfect, “Dream Date”. This week and probably for a few months, I will forever be saying, “Michelle, I really really love this song!”

The Dagobah Knight Rises

Sometimes when it comes to technology I am actually rather foolish. Foolish is perhaps not the right adjective. I need something stronger from my limited vocabulary. Senseless would perhaps be the best word to use. The saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Sometimes I can just not help myself. My trusty server, Dagobah (all network attached devices on my home network are named after the science fiction opera) has been delivering me excellent service for the past three years. I even managed a full Ubuntu software upgrade on my own, with no assistance from superhero, MightyMouse. My server is headless and I login using Putty, which I can even do from my trusty HTC Desire. For the past few months I had the regular nag message that an update was available to download. I ignored this to begin with but something triggered in me the need to run the upgrade. What was the worse that could happen? Surely I could run an update during a Saturday evening, from my bed.

Firstly I had not anticipated so many screens and attended options but the ultimate result was a dead server. I had left it downloading packages and applying updates overnight. However, after discussion briefly with Hussein over Twitter that my data was safe (a RAID Type I) mirror had been in place which effectively means that each file has copies placed on two different independent drives. I rested easy but the bigger challengers were to come.

My server is headless. To those non geeks out there (99% of my audience) this means there is no screen attached to my box. Generally not an issue if you are going to have web based utilities and login in via a secure shell. However, when things go wrong and you cannot login and web services will not boot up, you need need to know what is happening. I had two options. Bring over a mouse, keyboard and monitor from my parents or just like Mohammed and the Mountain, take the server to my parents to fix there. I opted for the safer option of taking the box away.

I am a relative newbie to the Linux operating system, having been a lover of Microsoft and Windows all my life (it started with DOS back over twenty years ago). (Funny how things pan out!). However I was confident that with the power of Bing Google, I would find the answers I needed and at the very least get my data back. At first I did. I used a liveCD to boot up Ubuntu environment and attempt to mount the RAID then realised I was way out of my depth. However, eventually I was able to access my data and should have been able to rescue the important files. I needed to call for some further assistance. I decided to call on some work colleagues. Who they were, even they didn’t know at that moment in time!

We have a mailing list at work for all things social. I joined soon after I started working at the software manufacturer I mean service and devices company. I have even posted a mail from the group on my blog back in February. I have used the list to offer my hard drive caddy to those people in need of recovering data and advice on web hosting and mp3 players. I now had to call on them for help with my server.

Did I tell you that I work for Microsoft? Some people are still shocked when they find out I work for a global household name. Honestly it makes a big difference when the company you work for actually advertises on TV. Even my relatives in India know the company by name (and reputation). On Wednesday 3rd October, I sent out a mail on MS Social asking for help from the mailing list. Two people responded, one of whom was Myles Grindon, an intern. He was to be my saviour, I just did not know it yet.

He contacted me via Lync (our internal IM client) and also e-mail before then providing me with help via G-Mail. While not to bore you with the technical details, I had gained access to my data but had no ability to transfer it anywhere. Each time, I had everything setup in my parent’s lounge. Therefore I also had limited time at the weekend to try and get everything done. My plan was to get remote access sorted, so I could at least complete the setup in Slough. In the end, it took several trips before everything was sorted out and I even brought home the monitor, keyboard and mouse, to give my server a “head”. Myles provided fantastic support but in the end, there was little chance of me recovering my system in Ubuntu, so therefore he offered to take my hard drive and caddy, recover what he could. (Mirror RAIDs are difficult things to understand let alone fiddle with). Over a weekend, he was able to recover the photos which were my main source of angst in this whole affair. TV shows, music videos and movies can all be obtained again. He recovered what he could and then I had to begin the process of rebuilding Dagobah but this time with a stable release of Debian. Phase two of the project began in earnest over the past few weeks.

Myles provided excellent documentation on the steps I needed to do to complete the installation. Once I had secure remote login via my laptop (or mobile phone) sorted I could complete the installation at home. The only main stumbling block was network access, which in Linux itself is a difficult subject matter to learn and implement. These mails covered everything extremely well and finally on Sunday evening, I had remote access to my data. My Humax PVR could see Dagobah, so I could start watching 21 Guns by Green Day. However, there was a note against one of the screens on my TV (do not delete). You would think after everything I had been through I would understand not to create a new share (using the built in settings) and delete the old one. No, all the data on my server (well the shared directory at least). Had I just lost all my data once again?

The main thing is that I have my beloved server back and can now dance around the lounge watching and listening to my beloved music videos and episodes of Glee. What has changed since last time? Well I was using the internal bit torrent client on my Humax but was running out of space (only 500gb). Plus nothing was ever organised the way I wanted it to be. Now, I was back in control. Have I seen this week’s episode of The Big Bang Theory.

One Headline, Why Believe It

Mid to late September is a crucial time for the US television networks. As the nights begin to draw in, the television schedule kicks off again with all of our favourites and some new shows to consider. Glee, now in series four, started a few weeks back and the majority of shows kicked off this week. Thursday 27th September (yesterday) being the season opening night for many shows. This works perfectly for me, as I can then plan to catch the shows on Friday evening and over the course of the weekend.

There was a time in my life I would hide the fact I am a certified Gleek! Instead I am posting online for the world to know that I adore the show and in particular two characters Blaine and Santana (for two very different reasons!). Episode four was screened this week and opened up with my one of my favourite songs of all time. The moment I heard the opening guitar rifts, I jumped up from the sofa and put the volume up. My favourite singer – Blaine Anderson was about to cover Tears For Fears. As my wife would note later, “His voice is just perfect for 1980s songs!”. True.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World probably sums up the whole decade in four minutes. In context here though, it takes on a very different meaning. How do you keep yourself busy when your boyfriend lives on the other side of the country? Just when you thought Glee may be losing some of it’s sparkle (some students have now graduated so their stories are fragmented from the remaining New Directions) it comes along and surprises you from the opening minute. Long may the trend continue.