Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 475

Anti-Semite Beck Rocks Fox

I try to keep US politics to a minimum in this blog but its extremes fascinate me, and if I was an American citizen I'd be very worried right now. First we have Alaska's own Edna Kravitz peering round her net curtains to eye her chances on the world stage (where she'll be eaten alive). [...]

Killer Performance

Can Male And Female Writing Be Told Apart?

I was reading a piece in the Independent, and halfway through it I stopped and mentally checked what I was reading with this thought; 'Oh, it's a woman writing – a man would never think that.' Can male and female authors be told apart just by their writing?

A Noel-Levitz study examined a massive 97,000 students [...]

Celebrity 14: The Worst That Could Happen

A few last nip 'n' tucks have been made to the script, but I still have no idea how long our play is – sometimes it's an hour and half, sometimes shorter, depending on whether the cast relax or go hell for leather. As it's a comedy, I think it's important to be slightly short [...]

Celebrity Now Half-Sold Out

If you're thinking of getting tickets for 'Celebrity' (see articles passim) you might want to make the call this week. We're selling fast and press publicity has yet to start. Ads go into the Evening Standard from Friday, and Time Out will shortly feature the show. Plus we, the team behind the play, haven't put [...]

Flavoured Coffee? Who Cares?

You know it's nearly Christmas when they start selling sickly-sweet gingerbread coffee in Starbucks. But given the choice of coffee shops and coffees now, I get lost in a world of double-decaf macchiatos and frappucinos, and apart from being too sweet they're incredibly fattening. Usually what I'd like – really like – is a nice [...]

Sex In The Supermarket

A friend of mine is a wine buyer who sells to the big-name supermarkets. In order to find out what customers look for when they check out wine labels, his company arranged for shoppers to be fitted with eye-height cameras, to see what grabbed their attention on the shelves – did they prefer old labels, [...]

Simply Dismal

Warning; rant coming up.

When I was a little boy, there was a programme on (quite late, I think) called 'Come Dancing'. Is was horrible, and featured cheesy samba couples in ridiculous tight clothes looking like the kind of acts you'd expect to find on a cruise ship full of old people from Florida. It came [...]

Missing Movies

I'm a film freak, and my vast collection of movies will probably have to be donated to a museum when I die, because I'll have spent my life geekishly collecting films and soundtracks that nobody remotely likes anymore – plus the technology will have changed again, so it will all be obsolete.

One of the things [...]

Having Fun With Big Ben