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The Future is Then
From the day that I saw Kenneth Kendall reading the BBC news on one in Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey, I wanted widescreen TV. Up until then, I’d no idea that the industry had domestic widescreen in its sights. But given the meticulousness of Kubrick’s research, I imagine that the notion was there on some…
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What’s in a Band Name?
Ever wonder why new bands always have such weird names? Because the simple ones are all used up, is why. Google for just about any common noun and you’ll find at least one band using it, usually with a MySpace page. They may not have any track record, they may not even have any songs…
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Stand by for Action
Okay, maybe that’s a bit too dramatic… but there are some changes ahead. I started this blog almost by fluke, not really intending to do anything with it, hence the dumb name and the dumb picture… I’d created a Google identity so that I could comment on other people’s postings, and one day when I…
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Children’s TV: a Rant from the Past
Both my website and this blog are being lined up for a design overhaul, and with content in mind I’ve been sifting through some old material. I don’t know what occasioned this rant, but the Thunderbirds movie reference dates it. I could have made changes… but nah. The few times I’ve brushed up against children’s…
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The Artisan Thriller
“Walking into her apartment, both of them laughing at something he’d said, the man made a mock bow for her to precede him, his eyes already seeing the room, darting around it, looking for something to kill her with.” So begins Tony Kenrick’s Neon Tough, a novel published in ’88 and set against the backdrop…
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Saw it/Heard it, Can’t Quite Believe it
To put it delicately, what passes for normal in LA can seem a little bizarre when you move it out of context. While I’m away from home I tend to email back the odd observational nugget just to liven up the correspondence. Here are a few examples from last month. “Coming up next. They’re blind…
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Evolution of an Idea
I’ve been organising my files and came across this short piece that I wrote about Eleventh Hour for some purpose or other. With Chimera‘s impending DVD appearance (news on those features soon, I promise) I thought I’d put it out here. It offers a kind of join-the-dots demonstration of how my thinking went over the…
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Bootleg Corner
One of the bootleg Eleventh Hour boxed sets has come my way. I won’t say how – it’s not a trade I’m here to encourage – but it wasn’t difficult to get hold of. At first glance the Chinese DVD packaging is way more attractive than the ‘official’ version, though on closer inspection it’s hilarious.…
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The Simpsons and Me
If you read my ‘back in LA‘ post a couple of weeks ago you’ll know that while walking in one of the city’s State Parks I was met by two Golden Retrievers, dripping wet and happy to share, closely followed by anxious family. And if you read on into the comments section you’ll know that’s…
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Pretty Good, Show Us Your Bum
When we went on Splash Mountain in Disneyland last year, that’s what my kid told me to listen out for in the ride music’s lyrics. Hear it for yourself… You can look up the actual words online, but where’s the fun in that?
Hauling Like A Brooligan
Stephen Gallagher
