Overheard while watching The Transporter:
Chairman: "Who wrote this film?"
Hay: "Luc Besson."
Chairman: " Ah, the bloke who wrote The Sixth Element?"
Hay: "The Fifth Element."
Chairman: "I was talking about the relatively unknown sequel. It has Barry Wossisface in it."
Hay: "Bruce Willis."
Chairman: "That's right - Barry is his middle name - Bruce Barry Willis."
Has anyone ever tasted soy milk cheese? I've heard reports that it tastes nothing like cheese, in which case why call it a cheese?
Why is it that the vast majority of people like paintings by famous artists, yet hardly anyone will put a copy of an Old Master on their wall? The prohibition doesn't seem to extend as much to copies of modern artists and it's not that unusual to see a copy of, say, a Lichtenstein or a Kandinsky on someone's wall, but it's always made obvious that it's a print (as if it could be anything else). It would seem that if we can't have an original, we'd rather not have them on our walls at all, despite universal acclaim to the fact they are beautiful paintings. It's seen as gauche - I wonder what it is about our psychology that makes it so?
I'm led to believe, from the news, that the Eurovision Song Contest was on TV last night. Does anyone still watch it? I haven't had the vaguest interest in it since Terry Wogan stopped presenting it, and even then it was more to do with his irreverent and laconic commentary than the acts. I suppose it does provide a populist a view of geopolitics, but only between the countries that enter. I find it all rather cheesy and would obtain more entertainment value from a documentary on tractor making in Uzbekistan.
Hay and I are addicted to The Bridge - we've watched all three previous series on iPlayer over the last month. Belgian, Scandinavian and Dutch TV series have now become our staple - the plots are excellent and the production values are unrivalled, even when compared to the BBC. The added advantage for me is that I can go and make a cup of tea and still keep up with the plot - maybe not as much with the Scandinavian ones, but it is surprising how many words are common with Dutch. We can't wait for the French spy series, The Bureau, to start again. Live TV on our house now consists of the news and that's about it - the rest is Catch-up, Netflix or Amazon. The vast majority of what passes for entertainment on 'live' TV is cheap dross. More choice, when virtually everything is funded by the same pot of advertising money, can only mean cheap and worse programming.
Think we're going to have to change our Sunday paper from The Sunday Times to something less right wing and with more news in it. The magazine this morning is just The Rich List, which I have no interest in whatsoever; I never even open the Style magazine and the only bit I actually get any information from is the Culture supplement, and that's only about new books. Suggestions on a postcard for a non-partisan newspaper with a good spread of news, both domestic and international.
Hay: "Bruce Willis."
Chairman: "That's right - Barry is his middle name - Bruce Barry Willis."
Has anyone ever tasted soy milk cheese? I've heard reports that it tastes nothing like cheese, in which case why call it a cheese?
Why is it that the vast majority of people like paintings by famous artists, yet hardly anyone will put a copy of an Old Master on their wall? The prohibition doesn't seem to extend as much to copies of modern artists and it's not that unusual to see a copy of, say, a Lichtenstein or a Kandinsky on someone's wall, but it's always made obvious that it's a print (as if it could be anything else). It would seem that if we can't have an original, we'd rather not have them on our walls at all, despite universal acclaim to the fact they are beautiful paintings. It's seen as gauche - I wonder what it is about our psychology that makes it so?
I'm led to believe, from the news, that the Eurovision Song Contest was on TV last night. Does anyone still watch it? I haven't had the vaguest interest in it since Terry Wogan stopped presenting it, and even then it was more to do with his irreverent and laconic commentary than the acts. I suppose it does provide a populist a view of geopolitics, but only between the countries that enter. I find it all rather cheesy and would obtain more entertainment value from a documentary on tractor making in Uzbekistan.
Hay and I are addicted to The Bridge - we've watched all three previous series on iPlayer over the last month. Belgian, Scandinavian and Dutch TV series have now become our staple - the plots are excellent and the production values are unrivalled, even when compared to the BBC. The added advantage for me is that I can go and make a cup of tea and still keep up with the plot - maybe not as much with the Scandinavian ones, but it is surprising how many words are common with Dutch. We can't wait for the French spy series, The Bureau, to start again. Live TV on our house now consists of the news and that's about it - the rest is Catch-up, Netflix or Amazon. The vast majority of what passes for entertainment on 'live' TV is cheap dross. More choice, when virtually everything is funded by the same pot of advertising money, can only mean cheap and worse programming.
Think we're going to have to change our Sunday paper from The Sunday Times to something less right wing and with more news in it. The magazine this morning is just The Rich List, which I have no interest in whatsoever; I never even open the Style magazine and the only bit I actually get any information from is the Culture supplement, and that's only about new books. Suggestions on a postcard for a non-partisan newspaper with a good spread of news, both domestic and international.
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