:(

Today is rather crap. But Dr B is making everything good again. Apologies for the lack of bloggery for a while.

Stupid universe and it’s stupid order.</p

The usual Bafta nonsense

So the Bafta nominations are out, and, just like every other year, they make very little sense.

Exhibit A: Slumdog Millionaire is nominated for Best British Film and Best Film. Surely that automatically makes it the Best British Film, no?

Exhibit B: Mamma Mia is also up for Best British Film. Why? How is that British? And if it is British, why isn’t The Dark Knight?

Exhibit C: Freida Pinto is up for Best Supporting Actress for Slumdog Millionaire. The film is great, but she’s in it for ten minutes. In that time she manages to make a sandwich, watch television and have a bit of a dance. I could have done that.

Exhibit D: Along with the Golden Globes and the Oscars, Bafta are still incapable of acknowledging that more than three animated films are released each year.

Exhibit E: Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus nominated for best music for Mamma Mia. Is that really fair? Is it?

Exhibit F: Jonathan fricking Ross is presenting it once again. Don’t you miss the good old days of Stephen Fry?

There. I’m done. You may now go about your business.

An open letter to all printers

Dear All Printers

I’ve known for quite some time that 2009 was likely to occur. If I wanted a desk calendar, I would have obtained one several weeks ago. A nice one at that.

I don’t want yours. Come up with something a bit more imaginative that differentiates you from the five other printers who have also sent me desk calendars.

And if you are going to send me one, then at the very least send it to me before the middle of January. Receiving it now just tells me that I can expect all of your work to be at least two weeks late.

Thank you.

D. A. Gray Esq.

NY/HNY

Happy new year y’all. I’m back from New York which was both cold and amazing. That up there is a pastrami on rye from Katz’s deli in the Lower East Side. Quite possibly the tastiest sandwich I’ve ever had.

Anyway, I hope 2009 has started off smashingly for everyone. I’ll no doubt be posting plenty of random crap on Binky over the next twelve months. Enjoy.

16 random facts about me

This is Byronic’s fault. I don’t normally go in for all this whole meme business, but it’s Friday and I’m a bit bored. These are the rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose a few of the people you follow to tag. You don’t have to tag the person who tagged you. If you’ve been tagged, its because we want to find out more about you.

  1. I’m currently deaf in one ear thanks to the combined forces of a transatlantic flight and a sodding cold.
  2. As a spotty teenager, my more interesting after-school activities included photography, drumming, trampolining, fencing and drinking Hooch.
  3. My first ever hero was cartoonist Lew Stringer.
  4. I’ve worked out that if I sell everything that I own, and everything that my girlfriend owns, I still wouldn’t have enough money to buy an Eames Lounger. But I will have one, one day. (Interesting side-note: my dad once saw a discarded Eames Lounger on the side of the road, but didn’t pick it up because he had a lawnmower in the back of his car. True story.)
  5. I’ve just finished watching the first series of Mad Men and have decided I want a bottle of scotch in my desk drawer.
  6. When I was a wee boy, I really wanted to be in a wheelchair or be a dustman, or both.
  7. I have two large jars full of hole-punch holes that I have collected over the years and have no idea why.
  8. I love chorizo.
  9. I have a double crown, which means I will always have an infuriating bit of hair that always goes the wrong way.
  10. I have stood in between Seal and Amanda de Cadenet whilst queuing for pizza on Portobello Road.
  11. I have a strange synesthetic resonse to paperclips, in that they make me think of beetles, so they scare me a little bit.
  12. One of my pre-molars is about three times the size it should be.
  13. I’m really really good at the Playstation game Twisted Metal 2: World Tour, as I’ve been playing it for about twelve years.
  14. I manage to go through Cons and socks at an astonishing rate. I have vicious feet.
  15. My first ever albums, bought on my thirteenth birthday, were Achtung Baby by U2, Out Of Time by REM and – this is where it all goes wrong – Up by Right Said Fred.
  16. I was born next to where Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness begins. Make of that what you will.

So there you go.

Marvel's mess

Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’ series – all £250 of it. I wish the Big Two would just give it rest with the whole annual cross-title ‘event’. As with Civil War and 52, it’s just a long drawn out way of making very little happen, diluting the essence of all of the characters by sticking them in the same room together for months at a time.

If you want superheroes to look super, you have to surround them with regular folk, not each other. This problem applies to Heroes as well – but at least they aren’t doing a crossover with every other program produced by NBC.

New Who

Who’s going to be the next Doctor Who? There are a lot of names being thrown around – some of them for spurious reasons like “he’s worked with Stephen Moffat before” or “he’s Jon Pertwee’s son”.

Read More

This week, I have mostly been:

  • moving (still)
  • destroying priceless vintage heirlooms
  • wondering if I can start some kind of web campaign to raise money for an Eames chair
  • having inordinate amounts of fun playing Star Wars Top Trumps whilst drinking cider and sporting a rather natty Street Fighter temporary tattoo on my forehead
  • enjoying the patchiness of Fear(s) Of The Dark (for the record – the first bit and the last bit are the best bits)
  • disappointed, not angry, with Quantum Of Solace
  • reacting
  • looking forward to a weekend of pudding partying, wedding fun and Guillemotery.

Splendid '08

I stayed up last night and watched the whole thing – American cousins, I’m proud of you. Now let’s sort out the economy, leave the Middle East alone and start cleaning up after that promised cute little puppy.

Oh, and let’s stop using the word “energise” for a while, okay? It was used a LOT last night.

This week, I have mostly been:

  • fruitlessly searching for a Vertigo poster
  • having London escapades with the good Doctor
  • attending the rather splendid EDO debate
  • discovering the finest hangover breakfast (eggs benedict accompanied by butterscotch milkshake) at Tootsies on James Street
  • squeezing into American Apparel stonewash jeans
  • feeling really rather unwell in Whole Foods in Kensington, one of the best places on Earth
  • wishing the Long Blondes well
  • getting The Keys.