Ooh, "State of Play" is being re-aired on BBC America starting tonight. ("The cast is so loaded that a very young, baby-faced James McAvoy doesn't even get mentioned in the opening credits.") Even some of us who unhappily suffer with no BBC America HD are going to record this.
This Gorillaz song is not so much for me. (I miss "Clint Eastwood," from back in 2001. Very different!) But the video, an undersea adventure like a Jacques Cousteau movie (or, more recently, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) is definitely right up my alley. Look out rising UK singer-songwriter hailing from Manchester Daley! Sharks!
68. Rupert Scrivener
67. Sue Birtwistle
66. Clive Swift
65. Ridgewell Hawkes
64. Vincent Brimble
63. Talfryn Thomas
62. Nigel Plaskitt
61. Felicity Gibson
That whole "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing-which would have been a Tumblr if it hadn't taken place in 1994-actually pans out in real life, in an exclusive ground-breaking BBC science experiment in which a whopping 3 out of 40 parcels around the world made it to some egghead in Boston in 6 transit steps. (The vast majority of people are too lazy to care about science or other people or packages.)
Saturday morning, after picking up my kid from his art class, I was walking with him on East 11th Street, across from St. Mark's Church, when we came upon a boy, looked to be about ten years old, lying on the sidewalk. His eyes were closed, and though I could see him breathing, for a moment, I wondered whether something bad had happened—whether I would have to call 911, and whether my own kid was about to witness something much heavier than I would ever want for him to witness. Three guys walking in front of us had fanned out to step around around him, slowing to inspect the [...]
"We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively, which was… and you know we'd been told to reach the airfield and take a hold of it." —This is very weird. In 1999, British singer James Blunt "prevented World War III," as the BBC puts it, by refusing Nato Supreme Commander Europe General Wesley Clark's orders to attack a Russian battalion in the confusing war in Kosovo. Why would he do that, only to go on six years later to record and release "You're Beautiful," which surely did at least as much damage to humanity as full-scale war between nuclear powers would have?
It is unbylined, so I'm not sure who deserves the credit for it, but the BBC's daily press roundup is one of the great joys of my morning. Today's edition, which focused exclusively on the Sun, was particularly good. Give it a read, I think you'll like it.
Always wanted to work for the BBC but lacked the right family connections or fancy university degree? Well, now you can! A new show called "Your World News" is looking for a few good contributors:
Almost everyone in the English-speaking world has a friend who regularly recruit others to indulge in the wonder that is the television show "Doctor Who." This friend is annoying, at best! (Also likely unhygienic.) May I give it a whirl though?
In the rebooted show, the Doctor, as even you likely know, is a fast-talking, friendly and adorable time-traveling alien who tends to pick up women, indulge them in bizarre adventures throughout space and time, after which the duo will teeter on the verge of romantic affair and then he will fling them back to their ordinary lives (for, ostensibly, their own good). This sounds terrible and very silly! [...]
Tonight at 9 p.m., PBS will air the third and final installment of the short series “Sherlock," created for the BBC by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatis, both of latest-iteration “Doctor Who" fame. “Sherlock" stars the stereotypically named Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Sherlock Holmes and “The Office"’s Martin Freeman as trusty sidekick and audience surrogate Dr. John Watson. The mechanics of the show should be familiar to anyone who’s ever encountered Holmes in literature, radio, television or film. A series of murders and crimes confound all authorities and laymen. Enter Sherlock, master of logic and deduction. He knows all, finds clues others can’t, and ties [...]
"the recommended way to open doors after washing your hands is to use the paper towel you used to dry your hands to turn the knob. Unfortunately, many public places are now using blowdryers for hands, so I just grab some extra toilet paper."
Some of the most delightful reading on the Internet can be found in the letters section of the BBC's Magazine Monitor. There was a great one yesterday wondering about the declining usage of the word "shan't."
