The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

So, after four decades, Top of the Pops has been dumped of BBC1. I can’t say that I am surprised. For as long as I can remember TOTP has been facing the axe.

The rot actually started back in 1996, when the show was temporarily moved to Friday, to accomodate the Euro96 Football Tournement. The ratings must have shown an upwards blip, and the temporary move became permanent. Naturally ratings have been bad ever since. Top of the Pops is a youth orientated programme, so this is the worse possible night for it. On a Friday night, TOTP’s target audience is out enjoying itself.

It is funny, but Top of the Pops is one of the BBC’s best exports, the only country that does not watch it in large numbers is its home country, the UK.  Moving TOTP to BBC2 on Sunday evening is the coup de grace, the final killing blow.   If the BBC are really interested in saving TOTP, they should move it back to where it belongs, Thursday Nights.

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It looks like after a wait of 25 years, Jeff Wayne has finally got the backing to make a full scale theatrical motion picture of his 1979 concept album The War of the Worlds. I have this album on black vinyl, I have it on CD and I have seen two stage productions at the Saint David’s Hall in Cardiff. The album took H. G. Wells’ classic early SF novel about the invasion of Earth by a more powerful species from Mars by the horns, and made a piece of magic. The narrative of Wells’ novel is cut down to the bare minimum, with a few sparse pieces of dialogue, as the story told by the narrator, played by Richard Burton. The plot is advanced in a series of wonderful songs and evocative pieces of music.

I wonder what changes will be necessary for the film? If the film will use the original Richard Burton narration or if it will have someone else telling the tale of the great colonialists getting a taste of their own medicine? Extra dialogue will have to be added, as what worked for a 1970’s concept album might not work on the silver screen. I have no doubt that the songs will be re-recorded using contemporary talent, just as the original album used the most talented people of its time, after all, the film will need to sell to a new audience. I hope that there will only be the barest of tinkering in soundtrack, as it is such an iconic piece.

Of course, the only reason that Jeff Wayne has now got the financial backing for his version of War of the Worlds is because Stephen Spielberg and Tom Cruise are about to start work on their blockbuster adaptation of Wells’ masterpiece. I am not hopeful about the Spielberg version, rumour has it that he is changing the temporal and geographical location from Victorian England to the contemporary US, and adding cute kids to the plot. Independence Day was such a great contemporary version of War of the Worlds, why do they have to do another? Surely a filmmaker like Stephen Spielberg can cope with a location as exotic as the English Home Counties in the 1890’s?

I am not happy, some idiot is constantly spamming this web log. You must have seen it, every so often a comment will appear tacked onto an article, which will invite you to visit all sorts of sites related to nefarious things. As soon as I spot them, I delete them, but it is a pain in the 屁股¹. So as far as I am concerned, the person doing this can 跟猴子比丟屎² as there is no way I am going to let his/her filthy spam stay on this web log.

On the other hand, I welcome genuine feedback. If you have read this web log, and want to make a comment, make my day and let me know. I know that more people are reading this web log now, when I click on the page counter at the top of the page, I can see that there are more real visits, lasting longer than 0 seconds.

¹Pi Gou
Pee Goo
Arse
²gen hou ze (bi) diu shi
gun HOE-tze bee DIO se
Start a shit slinging contest with a monkey

20six Comment

John Coxon / (28.11.04 11:38)
I think I had a 20six account once but I don’t know if it’s active still or not. I’m one of the people who reads the syndicated version on LJ. I enjoy your blog and I sympathise with the spamming thing – it should be considered high treason and then we could shoot them.

Today being Thanksgiving in the US, I can now start my countdown to Christmas. I have been busy getting my house ready. The covers on my three-piece suite have been removed then washed and ironed before being put back on the furniture. The attic will be raided for decorations tonight, not that they will go up until next Wednesday, it is just that they are now more easily accessible. I have decided to have my Christmas Tree in the corner of the room this year. Last year it was in the bay window, behind one of the chairs, but as I have rearranged the room, that won’t work this year. Also, this year, I am hoping that I will have more Christmas Cards to put on display. I will hang them on pieces of coloured ribbon with little plastic pegs.

Which reminds me, I have to start writing my Christmas cards. They are really nice cards this year; I bought them back in January when they were being sold off cheap.

The papers have published the provisional schedule for Christmas, and there is no sign of Doctor Who. Good, I really didn’t want the big launch lost amongst the festive holiday.

I am rather pleased with myself. I have upgraded my mobile from my old Sharp GX-10i to a Sony Ericsson P910i. Being a modern mobile phone, it has a built in camera that takes both digital stills and digital video, but this is not the main reason I bought it. The P910i is one of those new smartphone, which means it kills two birds with one stone, as I really wanted a PDA, and this contains one built in. The address book software is a proper database that stores names, addresses (snailmail and email) and phone numbers. There is a cut down versions of both the MSWord word processor and the MSExcel spreadsheet software. The memory on this phone what was would have been considered huge a few years ago, it has a 32Mb Memory Stick Duo PRO card fitted.

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On Monday night, I completely missed a dose of Epilim, so I was 200mg down for the day. If I do not take my medication every 12 hours, bang on 8:30am and 8:30pm, then I become very maudlin. On Tuesday night, however, I felt so miserable, it was unbelievable. Lying in bed wracked with sobs, crying for no discernible reason. I think I gave my mother one hell of a fright, as I decided to go up to her house for some company, to see if that would help cheer me up. Instead, I sat on her settee, balling my eyes out, and neither she nor my sister Carolyn could cheer me up. This is crazy, Sodium Valporate might be an anti-depressant, but missing a single dose should not have this effect on me.

Thank gods I am seeing the consultant on 21^st December. I might get some sense about my medication. I have been reducing my dosage of Epilim since January, as it has never been more than 80% effective at counteracting my symptoms, and I should have seen a specialist in July to have a shot at something different. Unfortunately, due to staff shortages at the University of Wales Hospital Epilepsy Unit, I have had to wait since July, on a wholly insufficient dosage of Epilim, which has had no effect on my symptoms, I feel tired all the time. When I wake up in the morning, I am as tired as I was when I went to bed, which is really soul-destroying. Going down to the UHW three days before Christmas is going to be emotionally challenging, but at least some good should come of it.

It sounded so mouth-wateringly wonderful in the shop. Spicy Butternut Squash Soup, with lemon grass, garlic, red chilli and of course butternut squash; with an ingredient list like that, how could it fail to entertain. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to the promise. One word springs to mind, and that word is bland. Only the occasional overpower blast of lemongrass cut through the nothingness of this soup. I can only sum it up as tedium in a tin.

Last night, the vet found a tumour in stomach of Winston, my sister’s pet cat. It was inoperable. As a result, Winston was put to sleep at 10am this morning. Today has not been a good day. If anything happened to my cat George, I would be heartbroken, so I can sympathize with Carolyn.

Winston came from the local Cat Refuse, and was extremely skittish when she first had him. In fact, even after five years, he would only let Carolyn (my sister) stroke him. He was no kitten when my sister first got him, he was a fully grown black tom, pure ebony from tip to tail. And he has never been the healthiest of cats, suffering from Arthritis. However, he was her cat, and she will miss him.

I have been going to Armadacon, a small convention in the extreme South West of England since Armadacon 6, a decade ago. This was when the convention was being held in the Astor Hotel, a grotty hole up on the Hoe in Plymouth. This convention is now a regular fixture of my year, if I only get to one convention a year, it will be Armadacon.

Friday, 5^th November

My bags were packed; my hunger slated by a plate of scrambled eggs all was ready. I was off on my annual pilgrimage to Plymouth for Armadacon, I was in an extremely good mood. Off to Treherbert Station to catch the 1001 train to Cardiff, the first leg of the journey.It was quite a pleasant morning, so I really did not need to have a lift over to the station, I could have walked there. However, my mother wanted to take my nephew William out for a few minutes for some fresh air. So he was put into the baby seat in her car, and my case went into the boot, and off we went, with at least 10 minutes to spare, over to the station. He got really excited as the train pulled into the station, and wanted to get on with me. My mother had other plans, so she held him tight as the doors of the train closed, and was carrying him so that he could see me as the train pulled off. (more…)