Back Baby.

I is back. It's been a while but my word-mangling ass has returned. I know it's been hard for some of you in my absence (well it has for Gav) but I plead them ol' extenuating circumstances. In March I moved from Edinburgh back to the big G(lasgow) and there has been a settling in period type of thing. However, now armed with my UGC card, an online Blockbuster account, a standing order with the good folks at A1 and a superfast broadband connection (feel by bandwith. FEEL IT!!) I stand at the precipice of a tidal wave of Stuff. Stuff of which I hope to regale you with astonishing, doesn't he have a life?, consistency. I shall begin again proper tomorrow (with a slight format change) but in the interim I've got the Faces blasting and I shall give you some things I have dug/have been digging in the time I have been away.

Taking up the biggest portion of my attention is THE HOWARD STERN SHOW. Had heard about the greatness of the man Stern from various Ameri-folk (Bendis goes on about him all the time) and had seen the movie Private Parts but had never heard the actual show. Well now, thanks to some kinds folks over by Torrentspy, I have been downloading his show and listening to it on the MP3 at the searing hellhole that is my work and - it's damn good. Howard, along with his cohorts Artie and Robin, makes the intolerable tolerable thanks to his great mix of seriousness and irreverence. One moment he can be fighting the good fight for speech, the next he can be making fart noises and the next theres a porn star riding the Sybian. It's great stuff and without it I may well have gone mad over the last month or so.

What else what else? Have been getting back into the habit of going to the movies. Have seen THE RINGER, V FOR VENDETTA, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and SCARY MOVIE 4. The Ringer was bowel-liquefyingly awful. I like Johnny Knoxville and he can be great in the right movie (see Walking Tall) but it was just a confused mess. Mawkish where it should have been funny and pacifistic and pussy-out when it should have been going for the jugular. Scary Movie 4 was funny in places and like the third benefited from being in the capable hands of the Zuckers rather than the Wayans. I always enjoy the manic way they stitch the separate movie parodies into a shambling semblance of a cohesive plot and the Brokeback Mountain Lionel Richie gag was cracking. V for Vendetta wasn't as bad as it could have been but it was far from perfect. The first twenty minutes was boring, there was a distinct lack of spectacle and Natalie Portman's accent missed England by a few thousand miles and hit Nordic country. It was at it's best when it was closest to what Sir Alan of Moore wrote and I thought Portman's imprisonment/rebirth was done very well. However it is further proof that they should never, NEVER adapt the Watchmen. I really, really enjoyed The Squid and The Whale (despite being dragged to see it). The subject matter could hardly be more mundane but it was done in a bitter, caustic and unflinching way that made it riveting. Jeff Daniels was excellent in a role that basically required him to be an arsehole but I did feel that Laura Linney got short changed a little bit in comparison. The movie is nearly stolen outright by one of the lesser Baldwins (Adam I think) who has a hilarious cameo as a laid back tennis instructor.

Having signed up for the online DVD rental malarkey have also seen a fair few DVD's of stuff I missed at the pictures. Pick of the bunch was HUSTLE & FLOW. Everything about the movie was perfectly judged and Terence Howard is brilliantly charismatic as the trick whoopin' pimp. You have to love a movie that has you rooting for one of societies least likeable scumbags. Also saw THE PERFECT CATCH which was predictable, but amiable. It helps that it stars the loooooovely Drew Barrymore - who I have to marry by the time I'm 30 or I owe some people some money (really do need to get on with that). Whatelsewhatelse...? Got BROKEN FLOWERS which I was fairly disappointed by. The whole thing had a faint air of pointlessness and while it's great that Bill Murray's getting some respect it would be nice to see him play a memorable, larger-than-life character again. Like Big Ern... ("These kids sure got Munsoned"). My girlfriend forced the rental of KINKY BOOTS but I must admit it was fairly enjoyable in predictable Full Monty kind of way.

Musicwise there a couple of new things that have caught my fancy. BE YOUR OWN PET's self-titled debut has been getting a fair few spins and while I can't honestly say I would like them as much if they weren't fronted by a hottie, the combination of said hottie's skewed lyrics and frenetic delivery with guitar-heavy Ramones-short punk blasts is one that I do enjoy. Also loving NEKO CASE's Fox Confessor The Flood. Girl can sing. Delving into the back catalogues, I have discovered Neil Young and am diggin the shit out of After The Goldrush.

Starting to tire a bit but I should mention some TV stuff. Am keeping up with WEST WING (Leo's death floored me), LOST (as bewitching/maddening as ever) and SCRUBS (just very funny).

Will leave comics for tomorrow and I do promise I shall return tomorrow. Honest.