Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 498

Doing The Continental

I've always had a weakness for big summer stadium shows, and Jean-Jacques Goldman always knows how to put deliver the goods. This example is worth watching from the 4 minute mark, when the number literally takes off. You can work out how they did this if you look carefully.

Animal Farm – The Musical

Orwell's classic 1945 work, a lesson in the corrupting nature of power, is studied by English literature students across the country for its elaborate allegorical references to Stalinist Russia. But in the hands of Sir Elton John and Lee Hall, the award-winning creators of the musical version of Billy Elliot, George Orwell's dystopian novella is [...:]

Re:View – Mother

'Mother' has a primal title for a good reason – the bond that the unnamed mother in the film feels for her mentally slow son is unbreakable. The film makes perfect sense in an Eastern matriarchy (in this case, Korea) as it reveals to which a mother will go to help her son. Kim Hye-ja [...:]

The English Explained In A Single Clip

One of the fun things about YouTube is sorting through your childhood media influences, and for me (and I suspect many writers who use comedy to leaven darkness) Monty Python was a formative experience. But before that, of course, there was At Last The 1948 Show with virtually the same cast and mindset, and before [...:]

Enemies In The Backyard

Finding Enemies

Immigration is a topic that always rears its head in times of recession. Now that Republican JD Hayworth's law, which requires police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and makes it a crime not to have valid immigration papers on your person, is in effect in the state of Arizona, he wants to expand [...:]

What Happens On Facebook Stays…Er, Everywhere

'You see your accountant going out on weekends and attending clown conventions, that no longer makes you think that he's not a good accountant. We're coming to terms and reconciling with that merging of identities.'

This is Samuel Gosling talking – he's a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, who says that as more people [...:]

Amazon Messages You Don't See That Often

Dear Customer,

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We are pleased to report that the following item will dispatch sooner than expected:

Cameron Pierce "Ass Goblins of Auschwitz"
Previous estimated arrival date: August 04 2010
New estimated arrival date: July 27 2010

Finding Love Everywhere

Speaking of race issues (see previous post), here's proof that a positive attitude can turn anything around, as Randy finds himself a new love in the form of former superhero turned social pariah Mel Gibson. Expect some sweariness, naturally.

Heroine Of The Week

Shirley Sherrod was the virtually unknown Department of Agriculture official whose speech about how she didn't give a white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him save his farm back in 1986 got her accused of reverse racism. The result was that Shirley, the daughter of a leader of the [...:]

Hi Ho For Harrogate!

The French have dainty, succulent pastries decorated with chantilly creme. The North has rock cakes you could use as door-stops. More precisely, Betty's Team Rooms specialise in the kind of sturdy brown crack-your-dentures tea fare that epitomises the true horror that is the English cake, partaken of by tough old birds in winter overcoats and [...:]