Time at the bar

Apparently, the change in Britain's licensing laws this time hasn't altered people's drinking habits!

Pubs, clubs and shops were all allowed to apply for licence to stay open even later than 11pm. As it turns out over a third of those that did were supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainbury's, with most pubc deciding it wasn't worth the extra cost and hassle of applying, and employing extra staff as well.

So the lesson is: 12 months isn't long enough to change 60 years of wartime-at-the-bar-ding-ding-quick-get-another-one-in-haven't-you-lot-got-homes-to-go-to drinking culture! I need a drink.

Death of the Chinese tea house

Fascinating series of photos on BBC Online today, on traditional Chinese tea houses struggling to survive. Pictures and words by Matthew Pistono.

Fox News launching conservative Daily Show

Just heard that the 'fair and balanced' (their quote) Bush-licking news channel Fox News is thinking of launching a right-leaning version of 'The Daily Show'.

Yes, after only 10 years of The Daily Show on air, they've decided that what the American public needs now is more support for Bush and Cheney- in no way linked to their recent mid-term spanking and the Democrats finally gaining back some balance of power.

But they're kind of missing the point, aren't they? Comedians and satire have always aimed at 'The Man', especially when he treats his subjects with indifference, as though they're getting in the way of The Grand Plan, and disdain bordering on contempt, like some power-drunk Roman emperor.

This might be why 'The Daily Show' won best new programme at the Emmy's a couple of years again, beating all the big networks (including Fox). It is cutting, satirical, and always makes a salient point even when it's being silly. I've watched Fox News in the US, and in all honesty the only reason I can see for its success is that it willfully distorts the news to provoke a response above and beyond its station, typified by head ranter Bill O'Reilly. I give the programme a fortnight.

Review: The Magic Numbers, Bristol Academy, 15 Nov 06

Chubby funsters The Magic Numbers came to town last night, touring their new album 'Those the Brokes'. And from the off, the sell-out crowd were clearly up for a good time, cheering and joining in every chance they got.

In keeping with their music, the whole evening was very bright with the lighting up high throughout, and it was a bit like seeing them on Top of the Pops (had they not walked off!)

Things seemed to go a little flatter when they tried songs from the new album (at least near the back where I was standing), which to be fair has only been out little more than a week. But they soon got people swaying and singing again when they came back with a favourite such as 'Forever Lost'.

The only other bum note came from the drumkit, which had either been badly set up or was suffering from drummer Shaun's over-enthusiastic bashing. Meanwhile bassist Michelle was by far the most active of the group, swinging her guitar and hair around like nobody's business. Singer Romeo concentrated on belting out the words (and yes, they can belt), but it was keyboarder Angela that stole things, with huge cheers every time she opened her mouth, and a warm, wonderful sound came out when she did.

The support group were invited back on stage to cover a Bob Dylan classic, and while the jammin' finale seemed to finish three or four times, people left with what they'd come for - a warm glow and huge, broad smiles.

Oasis flies high

There's been a lot written in the media and online since the new airline Oasis launched, but I have to say I've been very impressed.

Although the flight time was changed to leave two hours earlier from Hong Kong (apparently because of the continued refusal by Russia to let them fly over their airspace), it then actually left 40 minutes later than that. This meant that I still missed my coach home from Gatwick. So with the next coach full and facing a four hour wait at the airport, I bought an extra £53 ticket and jumped on a train.

I e-mailed the CEO (as he was inviting feedback on their website) asking if they'd be good enough to refund me the extra ticket cost, as they'd assured me it would arrive in good time. They replied, not to refund the ticket cost but offering me another free economy return to Hong Kong with them! Very nice too, and I can even transfer it to someone else if I'm not planning on going back so soon.

And this is the impression I get from them overall: new, learning but always keen to help and to right wrongs, whether they are theirs or not. So I'd recommend them completely, even if their flights are currently two hours longer in the air, which they say they are in the process of sorting out by Nov 26. Incidentally, rumours fly whether the 'Russia' problem is down to Oasis, the Russian authorities or perhaps a rival airline greasing palms to ensure permission is not forthcoming...

Oasis takes off

Well, I'm in Hong Kong this week- thanks to the new airline Oasis which took off this week, after the Russians eventually let them fly over their airspace.

Or so media reports said. My flight three days later, and according to the website all others till further notice, will take up to 1 hour 10 minutes longer than scheduled due to "re-routing". Mine actually took a full 2 hours longer, but luckily I ended up with a row of three seats to myself and so I could sleep better than others.

Everything on board is all clean and new, with purple seats and bright orange uniforms the order of the day. The cabin crew are best described as young. All wide eyed and and very helpful, but a little 'green' when it comes even to reading the safety instructions or standard 'Welcome to Hong Kong' messages in English. Not great at putting nervous flyers at ease, I'd imagine.

But the food was better than you had a right to expect- I had a tasty chicken with rice, then a tomato and cheese ciabata before arriving- but no sign of the choice of Asain or Western food, nor the chance to pay extra and upgrade your meal. Entertainment was a good choice of recent Hollywood and Asian films, but they are the same ones as shown on the way back so I have to pace myself.

But overall, very good for the money and more than you really have a right to expect, with no RyanAir feeling of 'you'll shut up and put up' here.

Review: The Departed

There may be bigger films this year, but there isn't going to be one as big as The Departed. From the opening minutes when almost all the main star cast are introduced, you know that there's going to be a lot on screen from Martin Scorcese.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a tense performance as seconded trainee Boston cop Billy Costigan, sent undercover as a mole in the city's major Irish-American crime gang, led by a crackling Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) with muscle from Ray Winstone's Mr. French.

Meawhile, brilliant but bent cop Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is also playing mole within Martin Sheen and Mark Whalberg's Special Investigations Unit, helping Frank stay one step ahead of plod. So the race is on for each side to uncover the traitor in their midst, whatever it takes.

Scorcese plays the story for all its cinematic worth, with huge performances, acres of eyeball-to-eyeball stand-offs and tense moments, not to mention more than the odd flash of extreme violence and bloodshedding.

If there's any criticism, it's that not all of the complicated plot turns are fully tied up (at least on first watch) and it's a little overlong. It also seems that all villians in Boston study the Penguin Dictionary of Classic Quotations, ever ready to drop in a bit of Freud or Wilde when the occasion demands it- normally before, during or after giving someone a damn good going-over or shooting them in the head.

But you're never not watching, wondering who'll make it to the end and who'll get whacked. Big, brutal and bloody brilliant.

Review: Little Miss Sunshine

After 'Crank' (below), Little Miss Sunshine is exactly that - a warm ray to restore your faith that there is someone up there making positive, life-affirming films.

The blue-collar Hoover family of misfits take their daughter from Alberquerque to California to perform in the Little Miss Sunshine contest, and learn more about themselves and each other on the journey.

Although pitched as an indie film, the cast has a solid A-list of actors, rather than stars. led by frazzled mum Sheryl Toni Collette, who has yet to turn in a bad performance in a film, whether playing Aussies (Muriel's Wedding), Americans (The Sixth Sense) or Brits (About a Boy). Then there's dad Richard (Greg Kinnear), who believes he's struck gold to market his shonky nine-step positive thinking programme. Sulky big brother Dwayne hasn't spoken for nine months, but perfers to communicate through scribbled messages such as 'I HATE EVERYONE'.

Meanwhile Granpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) is quite content to see out his days smoking heroin and cursing like a trooper to anyone who tries to cross his path. That means on-the-brink depressive brother Frank (Steve Farell), who is left under his big sister Sheryl's supervision. And of course the family is completed by Little Miss Sunshine Olive herself.

What follows on their journey is a series of mishaps, disasters and general bottoming out for everyone in the custard yellow VW Camper van they ride in, which is as temperamental as the rest of them. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris frame the whole trip very matter of fact with natural direction and long pauses, showing us Arizonan gas stations, the LA fringes and Californian costal concrete intersections with the same love and affection. In all but a couple of scenes they keep what could have been a nudge-wink farce or engineered tearjerker into a piercing thoughtful image of a very unnormal, normal family learning to rub along together and appreciate the little things in life.

Review: Crank

First of all, apologies that this review is so late. If i thought that a single other soul had been hard at work, then decided to spend some of that hard-earned money on going to see this film, then may a thousand misfortunes plague me for eternity.

I can't remember that last time I really felt like walking out of a cinema- in fact, i don't think I ever have. After all, how can you criticise a film you've not seen all the way through? But two-thirds of the way through 'Crank', the latest with gruff whispering shorthouse Jason Statham, I was so gasping for daylight and real human contact that i almost- almost - did.

But let's be fair- Jason Statham's only mistake was saying 'Yes' to this film. After all, Transporter I and II weren't bad. Fun even. The real criminal prosecution should surely be served upon writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, previously ad men who clearly have issues.

But what can be so bad, you're asking? Well, the plot is simple: JS has been injected with a lethal cocktail that will mean he will die if his adrenaline level drops. So far, so Speed. But what could have been a clever, real-time race against town starts off that way, then suddely decide it would be more fun to shock and offend everyone who might be watching.

Statham's character quickly shows himself to be really not very nice at all. Yes, he's a hitman but he crashes through a hospital knocking patients out the way and pointing guns at doctors. He then steals an Arab man's cab and to distract passers-by, throws him to the ground and yells "Al-Quaida!". And then, when his girlfriend doesn't believe his story, he decides the best way to prove it would be to basically to rape her outside in front of hundreds of people.

But when the directors aren't trying to make the teenage Beavis and Buttheads in the audience grunt with laughter, their style is so frenetic it makes your head spin. But all the handheld camera shots, 80's Nintendo graphics and use of Google maps just try and disguise the unrelenting awfulness of this film. And the 80's straight to Betamax finale and poorly CGI'd final scene feels like a huge 'gotcha' to the audience- 'ha ha, we made you watch it all!'

You can wash, but after watching this film, you won't be clean.

Review: John Legend at the Royal Albert Hall

On Monday night I caught John Legend live at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in a special one-off gig before a bigger tour later in the year to support the new album, 'Once Again'.

Firstly, for me it was a concert of two halves really. The first five or so songs was spent up in the Gallery at the very top of the famous dome. While the view up there was great, the sound was dreadful, echoing and booming around the roof.

So we asked if we could move down into the half-empty main floor, where the orchestra normally sits. And we weren't the only ones- the ticket desk was a steady stream of people asking how to move or even asking for their money back. But they happily swapped our wrist passes and let us in, and- what a difference.

Clear and warm, you could hear every note and what John was singing & saying perfectly. Only a dozen rows from the front, it was great to see and hear him go through songs from the first album and the new one, which sounds just as good.

But the place really erupted during 'Number One' when KanYe West strode on stage to deliver his rap live! John picked it up with him, the two swapping sides of the stage, and he stayed to sing on just one other song.

John spent the rest of the set switching between standing at the mic and sat playing the piano, ending with a croud-silencing rendition of 'Ordinary People', sounding better live than on the album.

The gig was clearly a pre-promotional event as well. It was streamed live on MSN and also looked like it was being filmed for TV or a DVD as there were cameras everywhere. Also, the lighting was much brighter than you'd normally expect for a gig, presumably again for filming, and there was more than a few drunken 'VIPs' out on a corporate freebie to see John SomeoneOrOther.

John name-checked the album and release date very clearly twice (for the kids at home?) and, of course, KanYe West putting in an appearance doens't happen every day!

But with what sounds like another good album on the way, John looks sure to build on his reputation as the man, the Legend. :)

Review: Volver

There's a lot said and written about Pedro Almodovar, with praise heaped on him with every new film, to the extent that he's become a sort of Iberian Woody Allen who can virtually do no wrong.

But with 'Volver', he's really onto something special. Instead of elaborate and flamboyant but often unbelieveable characters , in 'Volver' we have a warm, funny and achingly touching portrayl of real, rounded and caring people.

The story is the 'volver'- return - of the mother of Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas), who had both believed she was dead. Living hidden away in a Castillian village and keeping a family secret, Sole at first believes she is an apparition and hides her in her flat, telling visitors she is a Russian immigrant.

But Volver is the return of much more as well. In the case of Raimunda, it is the return to her childhood village and the discovery of family secrets, but also the return of her passion for life. After her oppressive husband dies, she re-opens the barrio restaurant to great acclaim, and finds again a passion for singing that even she had forgotten about.

As is typical Almodovar, (straight) men play a fleeting, and often negative, role in this film. But in Volver, this allows the female characters to breathe and develop, in such as way that suggests Pedro as a writer director is finding a much more confident, personal and human voice than ever before.

Review: A Scanner Darkly

Director Richard Linklater ('Before Sunrise'/'Sunset', 'School Of Rock', 'Fast Food Nation') has tackled Philip K. Dick's famous novel of substance abuse and paranoia 'A Scanner Darkly' and, from what I can tell, has done a pretty good job.

I say from what I can tell for two reasons: first, I haven't read the book, and second because if his intention was to create the feeling of being drug-induced while watching a film, he's done a pretty good job.

Keanu Reeves plays Bob Arctor, a cop who is so undercover he wears a scramble suit, a cloaking device that constantly changes to disguise his appearance. But when Bob is assigned to investigate a suspected high-level dealer of an addictive drug called Substance 'D', he finds he's spying on himself. So far, so trippy.

But it's the rotscoping animation overlayed on all the actors that really messes with your mind, forever ebbing and shifting. Add to that the petty, confused babblings of the characters Bob lives with- played by Woody Harleson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane and, best of all, Robert Downey Jr.- and you can feel both the film and your head going sideways very quickly.

Towards the end, the film shifts tone and alludes that the private company controlling the public's rehabilitation from Substance D may actually also be the ones making and peddling it. But this feels a little rushed given the rest of the film's stoned tone, like spending 15 minutes discusing how a second-hand bike seems to have had half of its 18 gears "stolen".

But overall, a trip worth taking.

Sabotage marketing

Seems I'm a bit late on the uptake on this one, but there is a strategy to target consumers called 'sabotage marketing'.

I'd call it reverse marketing, and once you've heard of it, you sense you've probably known about it all along. The idea is this: that products and services are deliberately dressed down to encourage those who can afford it to 'trade up'.

The experts at this it seems are Starbucks, with a drink called the 'short cappuccino'. It's cheaper, stronger and technically more like a proper cappuccino than the Grande, Venti or the other silly-named one. But it's not on the menu board and the cup isn't on display with the others on top of the counter.

The aim is this: people who can afford it or who don't even look at the prices will blindly buy those on display. Only those who are watching what they spend will ask 'Do you have anything smaller?', implying they don't have the money like the rest of us. It's like assuming youwant to super-size on your meal unless you ask to 'go small' please. Coffee Republic do the same thing.

And when you stop and look around, shops and other names are doing it all around us. Another example is the 'Tesco Value' lines. Deliberately designed to look basic, they were all in fact 'normally' packaged products some years ago given a downmarket makeover.

This way, Tesco look like they're helpfully serving the financially challenged, while actually persuading everyone else to 'trade up' and buy their higher priced, nicely packaged products or name brand equivalents. Nearly all of the UK's other supermarkets pull the same trick, such as Sainsbury's 'Basics' and Asda's 'Smart Price' ranges.

Airports are another example often given. Lounges are designed to be not as comfortable as they could be, to encourage well-heeled travellers to fly Business or First Class so they can relax in the Member's Lounges. And of course, computer companies, car manufacturers and beer makers are known to make a standard product, then slow the processor, limit the engine or water pints down and market the result as a more basic product.

This tactic says two things really: how companies systematically try and extract more money from consumers for essentially the same product; and just as tellingly, how most of us are quite happy to go along with it and pay up every time.

Cluster fuckers

Not content with coating the bottom of the Eastern Mediterranean sea in up to 4 inches of oil by bombing a costal power station (click here for a satellite image), the Israelis spent the last 3 days of the recent war dropping thousands of cluster bombs on southern Lebanon.

The action, condemned today by the UN, has left an estimated 10,000 unexploded cluster bomblets scattered in the countryside and in or near residential areas. This goes completely against the Israeli Defence Force line that they used targeted weapons to pick off strategic targets. Cluster bombs are the exact opposite- innacurate, dispersed and indiscriminate.

Every Israeli- and any anyone else from that matter, which means you United States- who supported this action should hang your head every time an unexploded cluster bomb kills a man, woman or child long after fighting has stopped. Shame on you.

Review: Snakes On A Plane

'Snakes on a Plane' was always going to be a hit because all the online hype, and the following offline hype about the online hype. But is it actually any good?

Well, it's basically it's one melon-farming missed opportunity. Even from the name, fan boys are sat waiting for the barrage of funny quips from Samuel L Jackson, the characters you just know are going to die in inventive ways and perhaps a twist at the end to show it's not all over.

But what you get is a very straight, flat done-on-a-budget disaster movie. Plane takes off, snakes get loose, snakes attack, people fight back, Sam Jackson loses his rag, plane lands, most folk make it.

What is well known about the film is that lots of scenes were added on the suggestions of movie fans on internet message boards. And my God, do they stand out. Look out for any scene where there's extra gore, or one actor is stood against a strangely plain background. Check the close-up of one guy who suddenly starts foaming at the mouth, then in the long shot its all gone; Sam's famous "no more motherfucking snakes on my motherfucking planes" line, and even the pointless surfer ending.

But without these scenes of extra gore, nudity or potty mouthing, you do wonder what sort of film this might have been. Who would have wanted to be basically stuck on a two-hour plane journey with some fairly unpleasant and irritating people, who get cleanly picked off by some polite reptiles? Aside from Sam, ER's Julianna Margulies is the only one who even holds any sympathy from the audience.

This film should have had a life of multiple drunken midnight viewings at the multiplex, followed by cult worship for evermore on DVD. But instead, it will probably spawn a thousand similar lazy copies. Everyone involved should be made to sit and watch 'Tremors' and 'Lake Placid' one hundred times each.

Katrina: One Year On

It's been a year since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Southern Gulf Coast of the United States. President Bush is visiting to talk up how his government is doing all it can with the usual outdoor folksy speech and a choreographed walkabout.

There's debate as to how much has changed, and of the parts that have, whether it's for the better. The racial mix in the city has shifted- a year ago, around two-thirds of its 485,000 population was black. Now its less than half the number, and less than half black. A growing Hispanic population are filling manual jobs.

While this might not seem important, the impact on the future of the city's culture, mainly jazz and blues, is yet to be truly felt. This was touchingly illustrated in the recent BBC Four documentary 'Saving Jazz' that followed legendary photographer Herman Leonard around the city trying to salvage some of his shots of legends including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald.

He pointed out that one rich source of the city's future music was the school marching band, and that these had dropped from over 200 to around 20 today.

But there are continuing issues with the quantity and quality of housing and basic services such as electricity. It's clear that even as a self-proclaimed 'Southern President', the action to rebuild the city and the surrounding area is still much too little, much too late.

Hello Moto

Stopped at a motorway services today (a Bank Holiday), which was absolutely rammed. Still, what struck me is how different these places are from just a few years ago. And Moto, formerly Granada, have done the most to help change their image.

This services, at Leigh Delamere on the M4, has a big new (to me) Ritazza coffee lounge, a Upper Crust baguette stand, a new WH Smith newsagent and a Marks & Spencer Simply Food shop, which was handy and I did a mini shop.

So more and more High St. names are getting in on the act, or are being mimicked by the operators. For instance, Ritazza is a motorway/airport/ train station only coffee shop in the UK, and was owned until June 2006 by Compass Group, the world's largest food services company with a turnover of £11 billion.

They've all now been sold to spin-off Select Service Partner, which also owns Upper Crust, Millie's Cookies and the franschise to run M&S Simply Food in travel sites in the UK. So basically, stop there and your money's theirs.

Strangely, the place that looked most out-of-date and tired was the Burger King. At another services on the M1 a few weeks ago, I noticed that there was a large queue for KFC, but no-one at the Burger King opposite, probably in a mistaken belief that their chicken is healthier.

What's most interesting about motorway service areas is all the things they have to do as laid down by law. Apparently they have to stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (inc. Christmas Day), provide free toilets and parking, and fuel. And 50% of their profits are taken as tax by the Government. No wonder a cheese and ham toastie is £3.85.

Magners mania

Pint bottles scattered on beer garden tables! Pubs running out of ice!! Chuffing adverts on TV and every bus shelter in the land!!!

Yes, everywhere you look, people are necking pints of this summer's scrumptastic drink of choice, Magner's Cider.

Here's five top things about the yuppie tramp juice from this article on BBC Online.

1. Magners is apparently known as Bulmers in Ireland, which is, strangely, an old name already well-known in England. Calling it that would probably mean they couldn't give the stuff away.

2. Serving it with ice is 'its USP', like putting lime in a bottle of Corona. But the reason for this is purely from the days when pubs in Ireland didn't have fridges and it was just the only way of making the stuff cold.

3. It really is a pint bottle, despite all the late night arguments I've heard about it being bigger/smaller. A pint is 568ml. Check your milk.

4. The traditional Oirish advert, all CGI orchards and fishing boats bobbing around in an emerald-sea'd harbour, was actually shot in New Zealand. Beauty.

5. While it's true to say it's definitely the 'drink du summer'- thanks in part to the blazing hot spell earlier in the year- it's also true that no-one will be seen dead drinking it this time next year.

Review: Nacho Libre

Jack Black is back, in the film I've been waiting to see this summer more than any other. After the flaming ginger quirk-fest that was 'Napoleon Dynamite', the idea of Jared Hess directing JB as a Mexican luchador sounds like a guaranteed slice of fried box office gold.

And on many levels, Nacho Libre doesn't disappoint. Hess's flat direction leaves lots of pauses for Jack Black's face to fill, whether it's seducing the new nun at the orphanage or about to get low-kicked in the wrestling ring by a couple of feral werewolf midgets twins.

What falls short - at least on first viewing - is the sense of place that Hess gave to Napoleon Dynamite's high school world. Although set in Mexico, there's hardly any actual Mexicans in the film, apart from fulfilling a few cliche roles like troop of wandering mariachis. It goes no further than the same 'ay ay ay' view of Mexico as Bumblebee Man from 'The Simpsons'.

Jack Black's accent can be quote offputting, which wanders through Mexican, Spanish, English and even a sort of 'mama mia' Italian at several points. I'm sure this is intentional, but does snap you out of the mood of the film when he breaks from his friar character into his snarling 'School of Rock' face and voice now and then.

But really - what's not to love about Jack Black in stretchy pants? He really does take to the role, and the limited supporting cast do too. The wrestling scenes are great fun and much more full-on that you might expect. And while Jess's direction could leave you not connected with the characters, there's real warmth in the ending.

Jack's next up in the Tenacious D movie - rock on.

Kermode on FiveLive

Still continuing to enjoy (the good Dr.) Mark Kermode's weekly movie review podcast from BBC Radio FiveLive.

One of the few reviewers I regularly agree with, particularly about just how long, tedious and overblown Pirates of the Caribbean II was and, oh, the death of narrative cinema as we know it.

Find it via iTunes or here.

Diana Monday!

If it's Monday, it means there's an exclusive Princess Diana revelation in the Daily Express!

Yes, after her untimely death a mere 9 years ago, she is still making the front cover of the poor man's Daily Mail routunely. The editor, Peter Hill, even freely admits Diana is slapped on the cover because pictures of her still sell papers and Monday is a quiet news day.

Back in May, The Guardian even useful compiled a list of the Express's Diana headlines since the start of 2006. It's long.

See how many you can spot, kids.

George Bush: T.W.A.T

George Bush and his patented The War Against Terror (or T.W.A.T. for short) took another blow yesterday when a federal court ruled- unsurprisingly- that tapping people's phones and recording their conversations without a warrant was against their human rights.

The administation press secretary Tony Snow- looking more and more like the janitor from Scrubs- apparently said the White House "couldn't disagree more with the ruling". I know who I believe.Bush's approval rating is continuing to drop- even this poll combines those who say he's doing a 'fair' job and those who think he's doing a 'poor' one-. Last time I checked, a fair job is a positive thing.

Fopp

Paid my second visit to Bristol's newest Fopp on Whiteladies Road, the magic music, DVD and book peddler.

Ever since I first wandered into a tiny record shop called Fopp in Leamington Spa years ago, I've been hypnotised (and made not a little poorer) by their great prices, canny choice and obvious love of music and other stuff.

It was pretty empty for a Saturday, which is good as you can take your time browsing to come up with that 50 quid stack of CDs everyone seems to carry round. This one also has a cafe, which again is good and reasonably priced, doing coffee, toasties and cake (click image to see the menu).

Apparently, they're now the fourth largest record retailer in the country. They see to get it right so easily, which begs the question- what it is it that HMV, which is struggling, could get so wrong? Don't know, just know that they do. Typically, I'm sure their (or someone's else's) way out of the hole will be to try and buy Fopp before too long, and ruin what everybody likes about them along the way.

Unless of course, it happens the other way round- which judging by their new flagship branch on Tottenham Court Road in London that I visited the other week- it could well do.

Tesco land grab

Seems like Tesco, the supermarket that apparently takes around £1 in every 9 that Britons spend through its tillls, is too greedy even for its own good.

The BBC reports that one store near Stockport in Manchester hasn't actually got planning permission, as it's 20% bigger than the one on the plans they submitted.

Not to let that stop them, it's been up and running since 2004 and reportedly raking in over £1m a week. They're now applying for proper planning permission- easy mistake to make I suppose, probably not got many people on this side of the business, bless.

More ammunition for campaigners over at Tescopoly...

Review: Miami Vice

Even though I'm a child of the 80's , I never really caught the original TV series of 'Miami Vice', so all I know about is all the usual references about neon, rolled up jacket sleeves and slip-on white Espadrilles.

But that fashion disaster is nothing compared with Michael Mann's latest, in which he finally gets to over-indulge his career-long fetish for blue lighting, sunsets and beachfront homes.

Jamie Foxxoxxoxx and Colin Feral play Crockett and Tubbs, going deep undercover (man) to bust a Columbian drug baron or something.

There's just so. Much. Male posturing. Foxxoxxooxx and Feral look less like partners, and more like semi-finalists facing each other off in the town brooding contest. They barely speak to each other, or anyone else - in fact, the whole script must have looked like an itemised supermarket till reciept.

And Colin, Colin, Colin... when he wasn't stroking his hillbilly 'tash/goatee non-combo, or trying out a new Trans-Atlantic-American-Southern-Irish accent, he was dancing- which drew more than a few giggles from people in the cinema. Foxx at least carries his part, and his love scene, with some credibility.

And this is very much a male film, in the worst sense. The two main women characters - one Foxx's professional and personal partner, and Feral's Asian drug baron squeeze - are there purely to get in the way and put our besuited male leads in harm's way.

There are some great open cinematic shots- of both personal jets and powerboats in flight- but the hazy night-time city feel that worked so well for 'Collateral' just becomes like permanent insomnia here. Almost everything seems to take place at night, spot lit by arc lights, in the same way Bruckenheimer/Bay action pics seem stuck on permanent sunset.

Miami Vice is unashamedly all about the visuals, and obviously a pet project for Michael Mann- let's just hope he's got it out of his system and gets back to making movies with stories.

Great Scott!

Walking along in Bristol , you see lots of cars. Old hippy vans, flash city motors, and lots with wing mirrors hanging off.

But it's not everyday you actually see Marty McFly, or at least a bloke with a Back to the Future-style DeLorean and waaay to much time on his hands. Hats off though, it looks good- particularly loving the Mr. Fusion chute at the back.

It was stuck in roadworks, but couldn't see if Einstein was in the back and definitely not doing 88mph.

BA cancels all flights

Crazy fool!

blogging tool #1

My first tool for keeping this blog fresh will be this: the Nokia 6280 camera phone.

I'll be snapping pics as i go and uploading them here.

Size wise, it's somewhere between a packet of three condoms and a packet of twenty cigarettes- fitting as it's damn good fun but probably quite likely to kill you eventually.

This will be my fourth -yes, 4th - 6280 in a month, after sending back the others with dust in the screen, loose slide and wonky camera function- wish me luck with this one...!