jeff leopard

I've been enjoying the new four tet album, and the latest keiran hebden/steve reid collaboration

The BBC was based on three principles; to inform, educate and entertain. So yes, give the public something of what they want, let them be entertained. But tell me how much informing or educating will be done by Vernon Kay, Fearne Cotton and a bunch of non-celebrities and retired sportsmen learning to knit on ice. Convince me I’m wrong and I’ll declare you the winner, and think of you and call your name out every time I make a sex-wee. Do we have a deal? I think a similar thing is happening with factual/educational programming. It seems like it’s now all being shunted onto BBC4, freeing up all the other channels to spew out dross for plebs, I mean, give the great British public what it wants. But if BBC4 was then axed I couldn’t see the other channels changing their image to find a home for excellent documentaries on specialist music, science and the such like. On a wider topic, is it possible to discuss this without ending up sounding like an insufferable snob or clueless pleb, or both at once? Excuse me a moment PANCAKE!!! (that got it)

Absolutely I remeber him as the scruffy old guy who got whooped by Thatcher, but maybe he was just out of time and didn't fit into a new political order where looks and presentation take presidance over content. He was a very intelligent man though, a celebrated author and owner of a very sharp wit. Yes he would have persued a peaceful resolution to the Falklands crisis, and who is to say that would have been so wrong? We just ended up stealing the islands off the country we stole them off before, at a great cost. Lest we forget that first and foremost, Thatcher used the Falklands to resurrect her flagging political career.

i like these bits too. Whenever there’s something dire on Radio 4’s 6.30 comedy slot, I dip into Lamo's drive-time show and gleefully splash around in shameless nostalgia, but there are top tunes to be had, just recently he played The Folk Devils and The Pooh Sticks, they made me feel like i was 17 year old urchin, off to fight in the Indie/Acid House wars of 89, and they still sound pretty good. It’s all about Sundays though – Jarvis’s and then the freak zone, two wonderfully simple shows, neither of which would exist in the commercial sector. Booooo to Sky. Boooooo I tell you. Boooooo if you missed it the first two times.

Get rid of BBC3, that seems to be spending hundreds of millions of pounds only to out do channel 5 and ITV4 in showing pointless tabloid junk. The Beeb has to remember its a public service broadcaster, and pour its money into doing things that the commercial sector just wouldn't have the guts to do, like, ironically, 6 Music and the Asian Network. BBC1 is dire as well. And Radio 1.

Can you believe those bankers who want to buy Man U have called themselves the Red Knights? :smt043 I bet they’ve got a tree-house, secret passwords, midnight feasts and NO GIRLS!

Its been confirmed...stupid stupid mutha-funkers I’d happily defend the bbc from the joint forces of the tories/daily mail/sky to the cows come home, but scrapping 6 music is committing creative suicide. The far right press got on the case of Ross and Brand, but just think of Clarkson and Moyles, sack those annoying khunts and you’d have enough cash to finance 6 music for years. But no, they decide to axe the one station that had a bit of freedom and genuine variety. BBC1 – terrible BBC2 – very weak BBC3 – terrible BBC4 – decent Radio 1 – terrible Radio 2 – beige, boring, blurgh! Radio 3 – not my bag Radio 4 – love it Radio 5 - too many nut jobs but sports coverage is good Radio 6 – let’s not get swept away, some of it was average, but Sundays were just perfect Radio 7 – too many repeats I could go on. Complain here - trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk

I've been doing some research on the internet and i've put together a list of suspects

due to a constant stream of short-lived new teams, my league 6 is now weaker than the league 7 i was in several seasons ago I'm 6 points clear at the top, so the title is almost in the bag and, unless something pretty outrageous happens in the next few weeks, I have no excuses for not finishing with a 100% record. jobs-a-good'un

The Damned United – David Peace Not an autobiography but a (bad) trip inside Clough’s head, seeing the world through his eyes, and sharing his inner-most thoughts, a feverish stream of bile and bitterness, guilt and regret. Telling the story his brief tenure at Leeds Utd as a dark and tragic fairy tale is a stroke of genius which elevates the whole thing into the realms of art. Funny, sad and always fascinating, this is essential reading for everyone.

Yeah, the zombies in a theme-park idea was fun for a while but just got flogged to (un)death. Far too silly for its own good. The opening credits were brilliant though.

I watched Up last night and enjoyed it greatly, yet another top notch Pixar film with silliness a plenty and yet some real emotional meat on its bones which will have all but the coldest souls sobbing like children. It also reminded me of another film released last year which gained infamy for its intense emotional nature, Antichrist :smt103 Both films start with an emotionally wrenching musical montage which end in the death of a loved one. The protagonists become isolated from society in grief and decide they must disappear into the wilderness to face their fears and guilt head-on or die trying. Within this wild, scary environment they meet talking animals. And both films have shocking, bloody moments. They would make a great double-bill. I also watched Zombieland which is great fun in an ultra-violent Shaun of the Dead style. Lots of visual flare and humour, a great performance from Woody Harrelson and a top cameo from the king of "dead"-pan homour, but ultimately a bit too light and fluffy to be a real Zombie classic.

Is this for real? I’ve seen facebook groups about this but that’s no indicator of whether is a genuine concern or not. It would be very sad to lose 6Music. I only really listen to it on a Sunday but its great stuff. This raises two issues. Anyone who votes Tory is voting for the breaking up of the BBC, and whilst there will always be a BBC1 trying to out do ITV for bland tabloid telly, we will lose the great radio and internet output. How is it that there are thousands of radio stations in this country and yet 99.9% of them are absolutely terrible? Surely that represents a gap in the market.

it looks great anything featuring Box Elder is going to be worth a squirt or two

A 2am epiphany type thing where the answer is elbow. Hmmmm I'd ask for a refund, or at least another go

Watching you guys trying to educate dune is like watching half a dozen grown men trying to teach a dog to play scrabble, funny for about ten seconds and then thoroughly tedious. What is it with this forum, you have an interesting politics based thread, and within 5 posts its Blair vs Thatcher, again. Let’s get back on topic. The Brown as bully thing is strangely an indicator of how the wheels have already fallen off the Tory vote, and Labour are beginning to mount a slight recovery. When Brown came into power he was hit with the Stalin tag, and then Vince Cable came along with his Mr Bean line and Brown has been a laughing stock ever since. The fact the Stalin line is back should represent a small victory for Brown, and god knows, he needs every kind of victory he can get.

Will do. Schrader definately loves his Bresson. I watched Diary of a Country Priest when I was writing an essay on Taxi Driver as it was a big influence. Both are all about young men not having sex, they can't get any kind of spiritual or physical release so they stop eating and slowly go crazy as a loon. Not everyone's idea of entertainment but for some reason it does it for me The new Taxi Driver film does sound pretty unlikely as Scorsese/Schrader (and usually De Niro) have used this exact template time and time again - King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ, Bringing Out the Dead, all of which are great. I'm starting to get excited about Shutter Island, but part of me wishes Scorsese could make a 90 min film occasionaly.

My point exactly. Anyway, you're getting soft. A real man would have killed the c*nts

New Tindersticks album/cd 'Falling Down a Mountain' Brilliant stuff!!!

Like most people, I always assumed that you were nothing more than a tedious little twunt with a chip shop on his shoulder, impotently railing against the easiest and softest targets society can offer. But I’ve seen the light and now I’m calling your bluff, you’re a troll aren’t you? A meticulously constructed character representing the worst elements society has to offer, no less than a British Travis Bickle, minus his style, his sophistication and his way with the ladies (obviously). Bravo sir! I await your next instalment with baited breath. (p.s. excuse me for being forward, but your anti-student material is getting a bit stale and, dare I say it, predictable?)

:smt066 Have you heard if Paul Schrader going to write the screenplay? It’s only fair that he should as Taxi Driver was pretty much the story of his youth. He wrote and directed an unofficial sequel to Taxi Driver, called Light Sleeper, with William Defoe as the Travis character who, ten years on, has gone up in the world and become a high-class drug mule, now being driven around New York to deliver hard drugs to the rich and famous in the dead of night, turning a blind eye to everything he sees. And slowly going insane… Actually, Lars Von Trier will most likely write the screenplay as he only seems to direct his own stuff. Should be interesting (at least).

A mangy, blood covered fox looks up from eating its own stomach, it fixes you with its black beady eyes and bellows, ‘CHAOS REIGNS!’ Either you’ve just suffered a massive break-down or your watching Antichrist (or possibly both), the infamous Art-house horror film from Lars Von Trier, the man who gave us the Dogma neo-realist movement, Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves and Dogville. His films are always challenging and interesting, they often look very beautiful and stay with you long after they have finished. Part of me loves how unremittingly bleak his films are and how brave he is. But part of me hates him, there’s something too clinical about his work, it can feel like propaganda as he shamelessly pushes all your emotional buttons, like a bored teenager, leaving you feeling like Alex in Clockwork Orange, seeing just how much tragedy and pain you can be subjected to. There are parts of the film that worked brilliantly, after a very slow start there is an unforgettable fairy tale section in which everything comes together perfectly, the game of cat and mouse between the two grieving parents (the only characters in the film) works well, changing from husband and wife, to shrink and patient, to torturee and torturer. And yes, the talking fox, penetrative sex, rusty scissors & female castration and male masturbation & blood ejaculation are all good for laughs, but overall it’s just too hand-wringingly bleak to engage with. Plus, Antichrist is belligerent enough to allude to The Shining and Inland Empire, and whilst Lars is a good director, he ain’t no Kubrick or Lynch. Maybe if he’d stop hating his audience quite so much, he’d one day become a true great. (And he’s about to remake Taxi Driver apparently, with Scorsese’s and De Niro’s blessing) 6/10

Chris Morris was on the radio t'other day talking about how he'd spent the last three or four years researching the film, and mentioned one story they found where a hard-core BNP member got sick of just beating Muslim's up and realised the only way to really hurt them was to read the Koran so he could pick their beliefs apart. So he read it, converted himself and is now a fanatical Muslim. And that's really my worry with Four Lions, at this moment in history the most recent major terror situation was a failed exploding-pants attack. Terrorism is already way beyond satire.

Get ya leagues out! It’s the half way point of the season, and we’re sitting pretty. My new coach is starting to work his magic, my players like the new formation and they currently isn’t another side in the league that can take us on. We’ve only had one clean sheet so far, and in most games we’ve started very slowly and gone one-nil down, but then we’ve got our shizzle together and done the business, the old in and out. It’s looking good for automatic promotion, complacency is my only enemy (and smugness is my only defence against the weekend’s football goings-ons)

Cheers peeps, I hope you like it Oops, I take it there was a limit. Oh well, rules are made to be broken