Talk About Talk About The Passion

Apologies for silence on the blog again but that would be because I've been doing a shedload over here:

So if you'd like come and have a look and let me know what you think, that'd be very much appreciated. The whole site and style is still being developed as we go but we figured it was a better idea to have something worth reading up there first and foremost. And I think there's some genuinely great new material for you to ogle on the site - not just by myself but Tim Worthington, Garreth F Hirons, Chella Quint and Justin Lewis with a selection of facts, trivia and personal favourites that we find fascinating and maybe you might too...

http://www.tatp.org/blog/

Ben, Ken And The Scheduling Men

I suddenly just had a thought - do I need to explain my blog title?

Its admittedly not that obvious a pun or play on anything specific - at least if you're under thirty. For those who are older or - like me - are obsessive comedy spods, you'll most likely be familiar with "The Kenny Everett Video Cassette", which was cuddly Ken's final series for Thames, following the almost identical "The Kenny Everett Video Show" and a million forgotten TV vehicles in the late sixties (these include: Nice Time, Not So Bad Time, Absolutely Bloody Horrible Time and Time To Get In A Good Lawyer, Pal.)

This final ITV run from 1981 was probably the best of the lot with the effects beginning to catch up to the imagination of Kenny and his cohorts Ray Cameron (father of Michael McFisheries from BBC TV "Michael McFisheries 'Comedy' Roadshow") and Barry Cryer, at this time working on new combinations of the white hair / black beard / pederast glasses look that was popular with Barry Cryers at the time. Plus it was very very funny.

However, the show was moved from its now traditional Monday 7pm slot (can you imagine such a thing now in the Emmerdale position? Also: can you imagine such thing as an Emmerdale position? Ew.) to Thursdays opposite the ever popular Top Of The Pops which naturally for such a hip show as Ken's shared a lot of the same audience, with both featuring musical turns (not to mention the dodgy writhing dancer types, courtesy of Dodgy Writing Dancer Types' Arlene Phillips.)

And so Ken, Cryer, Cameron and characters all pottered off to the hip, exciting BBC (see above) where five series of varying quality - and some rather fantastic specials - took pride of place from 1981 to 1988 - often just after Top Of The Pops to boot. Hopefully these will eventually see the light of day on DVD at some point when the Beeb realize they've literally NOTHING ELSE left in the cupboard. Not even "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs" with extra dinosaurs.

As for me, I thought adding "Dirty" in front of "Video Cassette" would be suitable for a podcast I made in 2007-08 in lieu of having any proper ideas of my own. I may even put some of those up one day, but don't worry, its all done...in the best possible taste*!!!!!!!!11

*Except for when I say cunt and accidentally drowned that Alsatian. Obviously.

Great Comic Panels Of Our Time: Number 3 - Korky The Cat

I was searching for interesting comic rarities as I am often want to do recently when I came across this Korky The Cat panel from The Dandy. I'm not sure its possible to get a weirder, more out-of-context picture, whilst still being hugely blase about smoking A GIANT FUCKING STOGIE and looking massively pleased about it into the bargain. In fact, taking most Korky panels from the old days seems to result in some plain good ol' fashioned fucking weirdness...

Still I suppose at least he wasn't pervy ol' Biffo the Bear at least...

Scuttling along sideways slightly to The Dandy's sister paper, I was delighted to see these titles again from the 1993 straight-to-VHS release "The Beano Video". My friend Phil owned it and I made a cheeky pirate copy (that will still be in the spare room somewhere I'm sure) which I watched relentlessly - but to part more than the title sequence which was just so bloody EXCITING. All your comic favourites (all = some. Also: The Three Bears) interacting WITHIN THE COMIC PANELS. 

...and instantly I'm 12 again. Although that doesnt mean you can do that, Biffo. Dirty Biffo.

Wah! 

And Its Beautiful

Here is "Twilight" by the late Elliott Smith being played live and acoustically (with Smith mimicking the backing synths with his mouth) back at the stage it was still tentatively called "Somebody's Baby". One of the most beautiful voices in pop and a song that never fails to make my bottom lip quiver, whilst simultaneously soaring through my heart. It has an additional sting especially as it was never released in Smith's lifetime following his suicide in 2003 - issued posthumously on the incredibly essential 2004 rarities / unreleased tracks collection "From A Basement On The Hill".

If you like it and want to search out more then I particularly recommend his 1997 album "Either / Or" which never steps a foot wrong with some of his strongest pop moments, although it would be his follow-up "XO" after signing to Dreamworks Records and having several songs appear in "Good Will Hunting" that saw him truly breakthrough to a real mainstream audience.

Failing that, the cheap and cheerful "An Introduction To...Elliott Smith" is an equally welcome starter guide to his work, mixing the rawer and acoustic-driven moments with some of the later more commercial tracks (although bizarrely only one track from XO and an earlier version of the Oscar nominated "Miss Misery".) If you want to hear the song as it was mixed then I've provided that for you too.

Please enjoy.

A Trip To The Bradford Media Museum (In Pictures)

My (Little) Brother Jake

Wednesday was an interesting sort of day for me. It began on Friday ("blimey! thats some long Wednesdays!" - reader, "Put some damn pants on" - me) when Kat, my girlfriend sent a text to ask if I'd be up for looking after our friend Claire's son Jake. I've met Jake a few times and like him a great deal. He's 12 years old, a high functioning autistic and, most importantly, a really genuinely nice kid. Of course, I said yes straight away. I then preceded to worry about this for the next four days.

Not that I didn't think he'd enjoy the experience - kids seem to like me in general which has probably got quite a lot to do with the fact that I wear Muppet T-shirts, have a house full of cartoons and toys, listen to loud music and generally look like a boy in an ill-fitting adult suit. This could open the window for being one of the town's leading pederasts but thankfully I'm not all into that scene. Hell, I barely like most children so the idea of being even more close to the snotty, unpleasant beings...no thank you.

Thankfully, Jake isn't at all like that having been brought up properly and I knew we'd have a good day...but still in the back of my head was the thought that I was this young person's sole care giver for the day and I'd better not fuck this up. I thought of a few DVDs he might like to watch - not the easiest task with a 12 year old, despite what you'd assume - and figured we might play a bit of Xbox. Beautiful Katamari, LEGO Harry Potter, that sort of thing...

In case you don't know what Dead Rising 2 is. Well, there's some zombies. Lots of zombies. And blood...so very much blood. Its an 18 certificate full on Romero-homaging mall-centric 'smoosh em up' and a lot of fun to boot (although still glitchy, suffocated by tightly-timed missions and missing a proper two player mode, Zomb-o-game fans!) but probably not what a highly impressionable preteen lad should be spending a beautiful sunny day bashing away at. 

When I was 12, I was still terrified by the flesh coming off the animated skull on the countdown clock used on CITV's "Knightmare" and the box-art for "Ghoulies". So zombie apocalypse? Surely that cant be a good thing? Do I be a boring adult about this? Its making him happy and he didn't seem to be especially warped by the admittedly cartoonish violence. I let it slide but all the time couldn't help feeling I was being an awful babysitter though and tried to at least get him onto a nice calming 15 certificate game like "Batman: Arkham Asylum". But to little avail. 

When he asked to plug in the headset, I figured it'd be fine as the game is a year old and there'll not be many people about at 9am UK / 1am US playing it. And mostly I was right as only two people were about and he managed to piss one of them off when he accidentally threw an axe through their head. As you do. 

The other player stayed on for a while and it was soon clear Jake was having a proper conversation with someone, asking them tips and the like. This genuinely put the fear of god into me as it could have been any old creep and certainly was unlikely to be a kid at this time of day so I suddenly in one fell swoop understood why parents are such idiots, particularly after reading newspapers. As it happened, it WAS a kid - an American 13 year old to be precise - or at least that what they said anyway but here was definitely no responses along the lines of "3 inch on the slack, why do you ask?" so I figured it was probably alright.

Eventually, he came off the game and even ate his packed lunch after several attempts. This wasn't because he was defying me in any way but rather that he was genuinely so excited to be at my house, playing cool games and feeling a bit special that he was behaving like a giddy meerkat with ADD. It felt nice to be an adult if just for a few hours - I like the idea of kids more than actually ever having my own. Giving them back at the end of the day is just A-OK with me.

And I think Jake went home basically the same shape as he arrived in...

...Ish. 

Non Plussed

Hello. I am on Google Plus now.

Personally, I always preferred Google Men and Motors myself but at least its not Google Breeze... If you're on there, you can probably quite easily find me. If you're not, I don't as yet see any specific reason you'd need to rush. It took about four months for Twitter to seem worthwhile and I'm not sure Facebook has even kicked in yet. (Bitter about them taking away Literati? Me?!!?)

That said I've been toying with giving up my main Twitter account for a while now. Partly because its a distraction (as - like facts about European waterways - it can be dangerously fascinating) but there is part of me that loathes the element that's seen it become a miniature comedy forum. I've no issues with people who use them but I deliberately swore off all forums a few years ago for a very good reason - I'm fed up of being told I'm wrong by people I don't know. Or worse still, people I do.

I'm trying the private account thing for now which is as tedious to type as it was to read. Lets have some exciting words in bold now. Knocker! Front porch! Harold Wilson! - Phew, that's better... So, yeah, find me on these social media sites if you really want. Or not. Absolutely nothing of any value will occur regarding either decision. Unless you're a murderer and you want to choose someone for a good old murdering, in which case....don't? Hope this helped!

Goolge.