Tag Archive for 'the x-files'

i wake pies and make the dead;

Published on January 27, 2009 in aff the telly. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

How I learned to stop worrying and love the BitTorrent: when I became far too impatient to wait for the second season of my beloved, yet sadly cancelled, Pushing Daisies to air this side of the Atlantic. It was only after I burned out my laptop and wolfed down the ten episodes that have aired so far like the most delicious of pies that I discovered the show was actually back, over here, on Friday night on ITV1. I could have it all still to look forward to.

But, in a way, the quirky series saved my January so I can’t really complain – besides, there are three episodes still out there (and a potential movie, if Kristin Chenoweth is to be believed) and at this rate there’s a good chance we’ll get those last three episodes before our transatlantic cousins.

You know, I’d rather see my favourite shows cancelled than outlive their welcome, but the loss of Pushing Daisies leaves a hole no other show can really fill. It’s bright, smart, sweet and slightly wicked; I love Anna Friel’s wardrobe and co-star Lee Pace just has the loveliest little face.

Sad news though elsewhere from that other show I loved: Kim Manners, who directed 52 episodes of The X-Files including some of my absolute favourites, died of lung cancer on Sunday. Kim worked most recently on Supernatural and will I’m sure be sadly missed. I shot yesterday’s self portrait in tribute to the man whose potty mouth was satirised in his own show, and some people kinda liked it.

tough times for jobbing gunmen;

Published on August 11, 2008 in aff the telly and art & culture. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

zomg langly!

Yesterday evening I got Dean Haglund, aka Langly from The X-Files, to autograph my ticket to the movie premiere with this would have been better if I was in it. I don’t think he was too keen, both because it was a little mean and also because as I didn’t want it personalised he probably thought I wanted to sell it on eBay. Nae chance. I now own a unique, and entertaining-only-to-me, piece of X-Files memorabilia… and with that, I think my credentials as Grand High X-Files Nerd at least among my friends are secured for another year.

I don’t tend to go in for much stand-up. Comedy is such a subjective thing that it’s rare for me to find something I relate to in a live setting. I do like to catch something at the various Edinburgh Festivals though, not least because I love the atmosphere in the city in the month of August. You do have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy the crowds though: “Bloody arts students,” Jay could be heard to mutter as we declined another flyer.

Since his last long-term gig finished, Haglund has been busy. We know this because he told us so, in something akin to a commercial break in the middle of the show. There’s his podcast, his comic strip and most importantly of all: the ChillPak, his nifty invention to keep your laptop computer cool and speedy during use. And there’s the comedy of course, with a residency in LA and the touring success of X-Files Improv.

The premise of the show is simple. Each performance, with the participation and suggestions of member of the audience, Haglund creates a unique and frequently hilarious X-File. It wasn’t simple enough for a couple of ladies in the audience though, who took seats in the front row but kept their heads down throughout. Part of Haglund’s act is to hone in on those who don’t look as if they’re having a good time and, well, force them to really… which might explain why Jay was roped into the first task – providing sound effects for the pre-title sequence.

The eventual storyline? A giant herpes-infected alien from Jupiter runs riot, killing debt collectors – and can only be stopped with an elusive, AIDS-infected Furby. Doesn’t sound that funny? You kinda had to be there.

alphabet soup: two fingers on the pulse of culture;

Published on August 6, 2008 in aff the telly, art & culture, music, quizzes/memes and travellin'. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

“What’s happened to you? You used to know about everything before it happened, now I have to keep you in the loop.”

Just to set the scene: I received the above text message from my brother about a month ago, standing at the bus stop in the driving rain, and I’m paraphrasing because it probably contained more swearywords. And the unmissable event he was referring to? The new Oasis album, on its way in October, which I suspect I can be forgiven for missing out on in the mess of information that is the amount of Internet I read on a daily basis.

But how come I didn’t know about X-Files Improv With Dean Haglund, aka Langley from the show, at the Edimburgh Comedy Festival? I knew that Haglund had an improvisational show of course, but I had no idea he was appearing just down the M8 until browsing through Jehane’s photostream last night. I’ve booked tickets now of course, for Sunday, but it’s the principle of the thing. I’m not sure if I have any more hours in the day to devote to trawling the internet for nuggets of news.

You did know that Aidan Moffat is writing a sex advice column for The Quietus though, right?

Today’s letter selection is taken from Fear and Loathing on the Campain Trail by Hunter S. Thompson, at P207.

Y is for Your City.
“What did I most likely miss seeing?”
Submitted by: Ed P.

To be honest, I’m not the best of tourguides. I’ve commented before that it’s the people who live in a city all the time who take it most for granted. At least when Whitney was here, we managed to catch a photography exhibition at the Kelvingrove to give her trip some kind of cultural edge (I say that flippantly, but Scotland’s largest museum is well worth a visit – the building doubled for Grand Central Station in the movie adaptation of The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson).

On your next trip to Glasgow, look me up and I’ll show you all the best places for food, drink, bands and music shopping, and take you to Celtic Park of course!

To be honest, the best things about this city aren’t the things you’ll find on any map. There’s a randomness that follows you around if you just keep your eyes and ears open; like the busker who looked like Jesus on the bus home on Saturday night, who kept playing until there was actually no room to move.

P is for Prolapse…
…”the Scottish band. Careful how you Google!”
Submitted by: Kate

Ugh, ugh, ugh! Who calls their band after a collapsed uterus? Oh, the same lot of attention-seekers who “aim[ed] to be the most depressing band ever“. Please go away, and take such other cleverly-monickered troupes as Holy Fuck and Anal Cunt with you.

…oh. You split in 2000? Job done then.

I is for If…
…you could replace any member of any active band, who would it be and why?
Submitted by: my dear American friend.
BONUS ADVERT! New Fresh Cherries covers single available today!

This is probably the hardest question I’ve been asked so far. My first thought was that I’d want to be in Sleater-Kinney, but of course they’re not an active band and I wouldn’t want to replace anybody: I’d want to hang out with the rest of the girls.

It’s this second aspect that makes this question particularly difficult. On first thought, I’d love to be in one of my favourite bands but if I was to replace somebody I’d be messing with a dynamic that I love. If gender and talent were no object, I could grow a twirly moustache and take over Franz Nikolai’s keyboard duties in the Hold Steady because that looks like the most fun, but I’d be robbing their live show of one of its most entertaining spectacles.

Could I replace Thom Yorke and turn Radiowank into a bar band with soul vocals? Or, and here’s a serious answer, I could play fiddle for Old Crow Medicine Show.

i see a darkness;

Published on August 1, 2008 in film. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Ahhh, internet. How did I ever survive without you in my life? About five seconds after updating my Facebook status to reflect the distressing news that I had lifted the Bezzer’s phone charger instead of mine, my good friend Jon Who Writes For The NME had offered me a replacement. Incidentally, Jon also writes one of my favourite blogs, and thanks to him I will be able to read it on my phone on the bus again.

Thanks too, to Fiona from my work who also brought me in a charger albeit of the wrong type. She has requested that readers vote for her bunny, Louie, in the Daily Record’s PetChamps competition as best looking “Other Pet” and cutest pet. You do have to register, but it’ll only take a second.

After the jump, some spoiler heavy thoughts – coherent or otherwise – on The X-Files: I Want To Believe. LJ readers – flee! Or go see the movie, which is on general UK release from today. And then come back. Please, please come back.

Continue reading ‘i see a darkness;’

alphabet soup: the adventure continues;

Published on July 29, 2008 in books & literature, current affairs, film and quizzes/memes. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

My mother called me last night, from a patio table overlooking the Mediterranean. “I didn’t realise,” she said, “that when you said you and Lola had tickets you meant for the actual film! Make sure you come home with a photo with David Duchovny!” And when I explained to her that I had no idea how tomorrow was going to work, and if we were even going to get near the stars, she reminded me that as her daughter I was blessed with the gift of the gab.

So there you have it, kids. My mum thinks I’m a blagger. And also, realises just how much tomorrow is going to mean to me, regardless of what the movie is like.

I’m heading to the airport pretty much straight from work tonight, as the awkward time of my flight means there’s no point heading home. Squeezing enough makeup for two days into one clear plastic bag was a bit of a nightmare. Anyway, have something from the alphabet meme to keep you going while I’m gone. Today’s letters are brought to you by Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality by John Darnielle, at p69.

K is for Kevin Spacey…
…is probably my favourite actor of all time. Who is yours?
Submitted by: tenderhooligan.

Not actually David Duchovny, although as the star of the show that shaped my formative years he’s one I have a lot of admiration for. It’s difficult to class somebody as your favourite actor when they only have one facial expression. John Cusack and Maggie Gyllenhaal deserve that particular accolade, both of whom excel in quirky roles and who light up the screen whenever they’re on it.

A is for American Presidential Election.
“Bit obvious, but I’d like to hear what you think anyway.”
Submitted by: Jonic.

Here’s an exclusive, guys: if I was American, I’d vote Democrat. No really I would!

I watched the nomination process with some interest, much as everybody in this country did – well, it beats the snoozefest that the Scottish Labour leadership contest will undoubtedly be. I like both Obama and Clinton, but was won over most by the former’s charisma (and campaign t-shirts). My American friends are I think exclusively Obamamaniacs too, which certainly doesn’t hurt as I would never claim to have much of a grasp of the finer points of the electoral process, or the issues that matter to the average American. I’d love to see an Obama/Clinton ticket too – I think Hilary Clinton waged a great campain, and has a lot to offer in terms of her experience and insight.

R is for Reading.
“Do you get time to? What do you like to read?”
Submitted by: Fuchsia.

Not a lot of time, it has to be said. I’m a pretty fast reader (not as fast as Kaite, right enough) but I don’t like to pick up a book if I don’t think I’m going to have a decent window to get caught up in the story. I’m easily distracted by always-on internet and prone to headaches, so I tend to do most of my reading either in the bath, or while travelling. My “read” pile for 2008 so far is pretty short, but I reckon my trip to Australia should just about double it!

The books I enjoy tend to have a few things in common: strong, realistic, well-written characters, great dialogue and scenes and situations that I can relate to in some way (not necessarily scenes or situations I have experience of). This means that my reading transcends genre (arf!) although in practice much of it occurs in a contemporary setting. Douglas Coupland and Neil Gaiman are my all-time favourite authors, and I tend to love autobiographical books about music or journalism. I’m not so keen on historical or fantasy books (I know Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are classified as the latter, but I mean proper dragons and swords stuff, or fucking vampires), unless there’s plenty of witty repartee and social comment thrown into the mix.

There are still three letters left by the way, if you are so inclined. Actually, my intrepid blonde companion snapped them up in the time it took me to type this! Sorry.

i, fangirl;

Published on July 22, 2008 in a little more personal, aff the telly, film and music. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , .

i, fangirl
Cineworld just had to get the You Suck At Photoshop poster…

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Use Myspace? Into music? My good friend Fiona, who is writing a dissertation on Myspace as a music promotional tool, would like to hear from you.

The first review of I Want To Believe is out… and it’s not a good one (also, spoilery). But, you know what? I’m fully anticipating, after the way my little show ended, that it will be dreadful. But I really don’t care. I sat through Season 8, and Scully-centric Season 9, after all. I’m so excited to see Sculder and Mully on screen together again after all these years that they could dance the funky chicken for two-and-a-half hours and I wouldn’t even care.

Although… I could do with a good movie after the howlers I’ve seen of late. We’re seeing The Dark Knight at the IMAX on Friday night, but since I fell asleep during the last one it’s hard to slaver over it like the rest of the internets (that picture of Maggie Gyllenhaal on the front of today’s Metro though? Hawt). Then there was Wanted, of course, and yesterday: Wall-E.

Now, I fully expect to be a voice crying in the wilderness on this one, and from a quick glance at Rotten Tomatoes it looks as though it’s just me and a reviewer from the Financial Times, of all places, against a world of OH LOOKAT TEH CUTE WIDDLE ROBOTS!! I suspect that any and all films that deal with similar themes have been spoiled for me as I end up having flashbacks to a particular horror starring Will Smith which had a bit of an affect on me. Wall-E was I Am Legend, only with robots. I Am Robot, if you will.

Okay, it wasn’t as bad as all that, but I don’t go to see Disney for their take on the dystopian nightmare. I can’t watch monosyllabic robots fall in computer-generated love when humanity has devolved to the point that they’re zooming around a space station on automatic beds while their bones have wasted away. Also, holy RECYCLING GOOD! OBESITY BAD! message shoved down the throats of my generation’s childen, batman! Although considering the only family in the cinema were munching their way through jumbo-sized tubs of popcorn, they probably needed to hear it from somebody.

Still, at least we got the trailer for High School Musical 3 out of it. Later, Whitney disappointed the neighbourhood children by admitting that yes, she is American but no, she doesn’t know Zak Efron.

She goes home tonight. I’m pretty miserable at the thought, having her here has felt like a holiday.

Also, my Web Hedgehog introduced me to Favtape.com, a Muxtape-inspired site that automatically creates a playlist of your Last.fm favourites. Here’s mine – conveniently, since I am once again running late with Monthly Mix Club.

i always dream of a unified scene;

Published on July 18, 2008 in a little more personal, aff the telly, film and music. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Via Stereogum: comedian Andy Kindler interviews Craig Finn of the Hold Steady on Letterman (“You look like me! Why am I not a rock star?”). This is one of the reasons why I love the internet: although I live in a country where such televisual delights are not broadcast, the wonder that is YouTube means I don’t have to miss out. The big reason I love the internet is, of course, without it I wouldn’t even have heard of the Hold Steady.

I woke up to a lovely email from Jason in Boston, who caught the first night of the band’s US tour in Cleveland. The official word is that the show was “phenomenal… the only thing that kept it from being classified as perfection was that they didn’t play ‘The Swish’.” Here’s hoping they’re back on European soil before the end of the year (you’ll know when it happens because this blog will explode with squee).

In fact, the only thing the internet’s done to annoy me this week (because, without the internet, I wouldn’t have lovely Whitney in my living room right now: she is being treated to proper Monkey Towers-style hospitality, mostly involving Irn Bru and episodes of Top Gear) happened because I wasn’t paying enough attention. X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz has a blog, where he has been keeping us obsessives who kept the flame alive all these years up to date with the latest on the forthcoming movie. In my post-festival haze, however, I missed the most important announcement: a fan contest to win tickets to the London premiere.

I’m not bitter though. I’ve had my (ridiculously cheap) flight booked for weeks and wasn’t expecting to get anywhere near the screening, so the fantastic, fannish day I had anticipated with my best friend will go ahead as anticipated. And, you never know: maybe in the next couple of weeks it’ll emerge that all of the winners are dafties from Venezuela who couldn’t get flights. Maybe there’s still hope!

we’re gonna build something this summer;

Published on June 29, 2008 in a little more personal, aff the telly, film, music, photography and work & writing. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

341 of 365: Constructive Summer

I have had something of a constructive Sunday, actually – I’ve managed four pages today, but I think it took a particularly squeal-worthy phonecall to cheer me up:

SHE: Why are you stressed?
ME: mutter mutter something about having to rewrite a particularly crap article from a contributor mutter
SHE: So you won’t want to help me plan my wedding then?

But I haven’t just been working, for all magazine and no play makes Lis a dull pixlet. Yesterday I ran the same gamut of “squee – naw – HOLY MOTHER OF WHAT THE FUCK” during Doctor Who that you did, and had my first play on Rock Band. I thought I sucked, but Fi said she’d never seen anyone such a natural on the drums – the less said about my guitar skills the better, which is a shame as “nobody wants to hear you play the drums at 3am at a party”.

(I had to set Fi right on that one – nobody wants to hear my brother play guitar at 3am at a party, either.)

So, you know how you’ve been wondering why I haven’t properly reviewed the new Hold Steady album yet? Yeah, you probably haven’t even noticed – but it’s because I had promised to do so on my dear American friend’s Proper Music Blog.

And in other exciting news: I’M GOING TO THE X-FILES LONDON PREMIERE! Although I should stress that I won’t actually be seeing the film, unless any competitions come up between now and 30th July, but rather I will be standing in Leicester Square in the rain screaming obscenities at David Duchovny. Hurrah for cheapie Ryanair flights!

PS Looking for Last Month’s Mix for June? Um, yeah, I’ve been far too busy, sorry. It’s going up on Tuesday. I know that’s 1st July…

[PHOTO: Day 341.]

x in the city;

Published on May 29, 2008 in a little more personal, aff the telly, current affairs and film. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I woke up this morning, such as it was, clutching my mobile phone as if I had been trying to access the internet in my sleep. I tell you, one day they’ll be prising it from my cold, dead fingers. She was trying to update her Facebook status, they’ll say.

Whoever “they” are.

We had a couple of friends round last night for a lovely dinner of fajitas, nachos and the most decadent chocolate fudge cake you could ever hope to taste (sticking with the Mexican theme there, clearly), after which we lay around on the sofas watching Grosse Point Blank and a little bit of the news.

We heard a snippet about the psychic monkeys, able to control a robotic arm by the sheer power of their monkey brains, which we found tremendously exciting given that all of my friends are secretly fifteen-year-old boys at heart – even the girls. However, now I’ve read up a little on the background, the entire procedure seems closer to “cruel” than “cool”: apparently they drill holes in the monkey’s skull and attach electrodes to its brain. The lurid tabloid headlines conjure up images of some all-powerful Dark Overlord Monkey and not a sad laboratory. At least, that’s what happens in my head. Poor monkeys. I’m sparing a thought or two for them today – they’ll know because they’re psychic, of course.

A post on the LiveJournal X-Files community, which thanks to the new movie is undergoing a timely renaissance at the moment, got me thinking. The question was when did you start watching The X-Files, and as I started to type out my response (my dad used to tape the late-night repeats, he sat Dom and I down to watch the second season finale and I was so hooked I begged for the conclusion on video for my birthday) I realised that that happened in 1995, a couple of weeks before I turned thirteen. I’m now a week and a half from 26, which means that show has been a major part of my life now for half of it.

Sad? No, not really. I was reiterating that I have only ever seen two episodes of Sex and the City – one of which was because it had David Duchovny in it – to a friend, and I started thinking about what a year 2008 is turning into for “event cinema”. I’m looking forward to seeing Carrie Bradshaw’s big screen adventures with friends because it’s a cultural phenomenon that has managed to sell out two major Glasgow cinemas to the predominantly 20-something/30-something female demographic on opening night. When was the last time you saw that? Not the Star Wars prequel midnight showings, certainly. While the movie spinoff of my own little show won’t get anything like the same amount of media attention in a couple of months, I think it’s fantastic to see people getting excited about a medium they keep claiming is dying a death.

mad, bad and just a little bit paranoid;

Published on January 15, 2008 in film. 17 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

169 of 365

So that bloody film won at the Golden Globes but no matter – so did Titanic after all. I don’t really understand my venom towards Atonement – it doesn’t normally bother me to be the dissenting voice crying in the wilderness – except perhaps in this case I really do seem to be the lone dissenting voice. It’s as if I wandered into a different film; one with fake-looking sets and in which Keira Knightley’s one facial expression was an irritant rather than symoblic of an almost aristocratic stiff upper lip.

It doesn’t matter. The real Last Year’s Girl-worthy news from the Golden Globes was David Duchovny’s win for Californication. And the best bit? Rather than watch the televised news-programme-in-place-of-ceremony, he went to the movies. I kinda didn’t want to watch, he’s quoted as saying. It would just make me tense or nervous. I knew if my phone was ringing when I walked into my hotel room that I would have won, and it was. Nobody calls a loser.

Ah, my beloved X-Files. It makes me sad that there’s not much info out there about the second movie (the one that’s CURRENTLY FILMING OMG, like I don’t think about it almost every day), beyond that one set photo that doesn’t even feature Gillian Anderson – much as I have the Studio 60 love for Amanda Peet, it just doesn’t compare – but I shall amuse myself until then by speculating as to just how the film will undoubtedly disappoint me.

TOP TEN THINGS LIS “DOES NOT WANT” TO SEE IN XF2:

10. Bees
9. Dream sequences
8. Mexican goat suckers
7. Super-soldiers
6. Very obviously fake cats
5. Diana Fowley
4. The dubious return of a long-dead character by means of some plot device or other
3. A Mulder/Scully sex scene
2. Babies
1. John Barrowman

I am hyper. I was more hyper last night, since I missed the bus back from my mum’s and thought that rather than stand and freeze my butt off for half-an-hour I’d be as well walking until the next bus caught me up. I walked at least two miles. The knee’s a little sore today, funnily enough. Anyway, I got in and ranted about Atonement for a while, before opening my mail and switching the focus of my ranting to my new biometric passport.

My reasoning was this: I am an intelligent person (shut it at the back there), and I was unaware that: a) the passport I was applying for was going to come back with a bloody great computer chip in the back despite reading all the accompanying small print; and b) I had to Google the word “biometric” to find out what it meant. It’s to do with facial recognition software apparently, and thankfully not samples of DNA or anything frightful like that. What? It’s not paranoia if thay actually are out to get you, sho’.

It’s a “chip antenna” in fact, but I can’t find any explanation as to why one might need an antenna in one’s passport. Does this mean my government could potentially track my movements? Those complete spanners in the Home Office who regularly chuck people’s personal details in the bin or the post? I’m not nervous of new technology – in fact I like to consider myself an early adopter of such things – but I barely trust this government with my name and address, never mind anything else, and with good reason. So no, I’m not happy with Gordon Brown’s microchips.

I was going to make a positive comment about the SNP here, but have decided I can’t be bothered. Now, back to updating my Facebook profile.

[PHOTO: Day 169]