thelump.net

This Week in Lumps
#18 [18/09 - 24/09]

· Well would you believe it, it’s that time of the year again. Summers now officially over for another year, the nights are drawing in, and we’re just a month away from the clocks going back, and Halloween. All hope of an unexpected Indian Summer have passed on, and you start realising how quickly the year has gone. It’s also around this time of year that TV schedules get a big shake up, new shows start appearing, and, dare I say it, adverts regarding the C word start appearing, and everyone complains that “…it gets earlier and earlier every year“.

Autumn is a very underrated season I find. Sure, the weather gets colder and wetter, and you have to dig out your hats and scarves that have been in hibernation for the last 7 months, but once you’re wrapped up warm, I find that the colours of the leaves on the ground adds a kind of romantic feel to everything. It’s also due to the lack of sun that we start spending more and more time indoors, and BBQ equipment is packed away for another year, and you settle down on the sofa hoping to find something decent on the TV.

The BBC has a very interesting plan over the next 2 months, before the ‘December specials’ appear, and here are just a handful I’m looking forward to during October and November:

Following on from the widely acclaimed The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, Stephen Fry embarks on another deeply personal journey in Stephen Fry – HIV and Me. The QI host delves into the world of HIV and the effect it has had on his friends – many of whom have died of the virus. He will also interview other celebrities, including George Michael, Erasure’s Andy Bell and Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic about their own stories and will also take an HIV test himself. HIV and Me will be aired on BBC2 on Tuesday 2nd October at 9pm.
In Under the Knife, Louis Theroux travels to California, the home of nip-and-tuck, where a few thousand dollars and the flick of a knife can turn people into whoever they want to be. Using his own money, Louis decides to undergo a procedure himself, rather than experience it from the sidelines. On the advice of a plastic surgeon Louis undergoes liposuction on his stomach and love handles. Under the Knife will be aired on BBC2 on Sunday October 7th at 9pm.
Star of Look Around You, Hardware and Spaced (and also the voice of Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode 1), Peter Serafinowicz gets his own comedy sketch show, cleverly titled ‘The Peter Serafinowicz Show’. Also landing a new stand up show is British-Iranian comedian Omid Djalili. Multi-award winning Djalili has not only completed US and UK sell-out tours but has appeared in numerous Hollywood blockbusters, including Gladiator and The Mummy. The Peter Serafinowicz Show will also be aired on BBC2 on Thursday 4th October at 9:30pm, while ‘The Omid Djalili Show’ is due to be on BBC1 in a yet-unnamed slot on Mid-October.

Also, current shows will be returning for new series, including Top Gear, Murphy’s Law and Have I Got News For You, as well as a second series of Jack Dee’s Lead Balloon. Keep ‘this week in lumps’ bookmarked for the future for news about the autumn line ups for Channel 4 and ITV in the coming weeks.

~

· For those of you who are still weeping at the demise of Sex and the City, fear not: the movie is on its way. The show, which gained a very strong fan-base due to it’s plots about four professional women discussing sex, men, relationships and everything in-between, is being turned into a film set for a 2008 release, and filming is already underway. Michael Patrick King, an Executive Producer on the original show, has written the script and plans on directing this upcoming film.

During its six-year run, Sex and the City won six Emmy awards and eight Golden Globes. The conclusion of the show’s plot showed Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, get back together with Mr Big; their on-off relationship became a recurring theme throughout the shows. The last episode drew 4.1m viewers on channel 4 back in 2004, whilst that figure reached 10.6m in the US a month earlier.

The shooting of the film currently includes all four original girls, as well as Mr Big (Chris Noth) and Jennifer Hudson, who will play Carrie’s assistant. Some publicity shots of the film were released late last week, and other pictures have found their way to fan sites and blogs.

Not much more I can say on this; I’m not entirely sure of the plot of the film right now, I’m hoping that it wont be a big let down, and a terrible way to finish the chapter, but with the same people both in front and behind the camera, I feel it will avoid this pot-hole. I admit, I used to watch it more often than not, despite my gender, and initial reaction that it was aimed and based at women. In all honesty, despite the obvious jabs at men at general, the show can enjoyed by both sexes, and many of my fellow straight male friends have admitted to watching it on TV. Even if it is to admire the feminine wonder that is Kristin Davis.

~

· ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace‘ is the sixth album by US rock band the Foo Fighters, which hit UK stores yesterday. The album is produced by Gil Norton who previously worked with the group on their second (and arguably their best) album, The Colour and the Shape. In an interview with radio station XFM, Grohl admitted that the band was eager to expand on their signature sound:

“So the album that we’re making sounds like a Foo Fighters album, but it’s definitely moving in a few different directions. It’s cool man, I love it.”

Soon this week you may find yourself in the record store staring at the new releases shelf, contemplating if you will like this album. If you’re a Foo’s fan, then ‘Echoes…’ will definitely find a place on your shelf; it’s an album with a few proper, balls-out rock songs that makes Bon Jovi sound like Alanis Morissette, and full of passion-felt screams right next to acoustic numbers. The first single ‘The Pretender’ is the stand out track, ‘Cheer Up, Boys’ is a surprise present in the belly of the album, showing flicking memories of days of yore, while the lyric-less ‘Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners’ is a step in a different direction, but handled with care and delicate stature. Rest assured, the singles will get airplay, and the videos will be on MTV constantly. Nothing new there.

However, if you’re expecting something akin to the first two Foo Fighters albums you’ll be sadly disappointed; those days are long over. Tracks like ‘My Poor Brain’ and ‘My Hero’ are examples of what is absent from this release; it misses a defining edge, it needs a bit more of that special something that made those albums must-haves. If you had planned to expect a heart-string squeezing song like ‘Everlong’ or ‘Aurora’ then again you’ll be gutted; the acoustic songs seem to fly past without much of a blink of an eye, and before you know it, the album is over, and iTunes has moved on to the next artist.

Okay, maybe a change of direction: comparing this release to their previous work may not be entirely fair. But compared to some select 2007 releases, such as Neon Bible, Because of the Times, and An End Has a Start, the album seems to fall just short on more than one level. ‘Summers End’ is awkward and unsettling, ‘Come Alive’ didn’t raise a smile, let alone raise the dead, and although being a reasonably likable piano-based ‘lighters-in-the-air’, type song, ‘Home’ is wrongly placed as the last track, leaving us with a goodbye, rather than a “We’ll be back” feeling that you get when you see them live.

Heaven forbid that this review is suggesting that the Foos have jumped the shark. I’m confident that there’s a lot of life left in them yet, and they will continue to tour and release albums delighting new generations for years ahead. But as far as Echoes goes, it draws strong comparisons to Zeitgeist: Despite all the hype, and despite both having amazing drummers and charismatic front men, both new releases seem to leave the listener wanting more.

~~~

That was the week in lumps, a week in which: UKTV G2 turned into… um, ‘Dave’, Sigur Rós announce details of a new compilation album for the autumn, Digg gets friendly, the Last.fm cleanup stats are starting to surface, and for all you marijuana fans out there: Stoners in the Mist.

To complete another week, a story of the stupidest thief of the century. He broke into a business, stole a few items, including a laptop. Got home and basked in his glory. Sadly, his cockiness came back to bite him on the ass, as he uploaded photos to his Flickr account… which later turned out to be the Flickr account of the laptops rightful owner.

Priceless.

ttfn
x