Is it bad that I didn’t realize that my wife had had a new haircut until she mentioned it on her facebook profile 24 hours later.
Yes. Yes, I think that probably is bad.
January, 2008:
Saturday Review
A periodic look at stuff I’ve been consuming recently.
DVD: The Phil Silvers Show 50th anniversary edition
It is a crime against humanity that you are not able to buy all 143 episodes of Sgt. Bilko on DVD, yet you are able to get every single episode of Top Cat, Hanna Barbera’s Bilko rip off. Where is the justice! Why aren’t people rioting in the streets over this issue? Is there no cure for this apathy that plagues our lands?
Still, the 50th anniversary edition DVD is pretty damn good. You get 18 classic episodes of Sgt. Bilko (yes, we all know it was really called The Phil Silver’s show, but I can’t be bothered to be all pedantic about it) and a pretty generous splattering of special features and documentaries. When I saw it was on offer for just £10 I just couldn’t resist.
I would like to know the name of the BBC 2 executive who made the decision to show programs like Bilko and Laurel & Hardy shorts during school holidays in the late eighties/early nineties. That person shaped my sensibility and taste for classic comedy. God only knows what would have happened if he had chosen to show plays by Chekhov and Brecht, I’d probably be typing this in a beret and cravat.
Phil Silvers was, quite frankly, a comedy god and every single episode of Bilko is as fresh today as it was when it was broadcast. Which is more than can be said of a great many of it’s contemporaries, most of which feel dated and kitschy. You really need to buy this DVD, if only to encourage them to release the other 125 episodes.
You can buy The Phil Silvers Show 50th anniversary edition at Amazon.co.uk for £9.98.
Western consumer goods
I took the day off work and de-christmased the house yesterday. It wasn’t so much the taking down the decorations that took the time, it was the finding places for all the toys to live. I’ve decided that next year we will put out an edict that any gifts to our children must not be over 0.25 cubic meters in volume and preferably be stackable. Which may prove a problem if Amy want’s a bike.
Of course such rules will not apply to me. As second in command to the supreme leader, my position in the household grants me certain perks. For example I am allowed to stay up as long as I like, have pudding even if I haven’t eaten all my dinner, and am allowed to spend my Christmas money on whatever crap I want.
My parents and my in-laws, who all very generously showered me with cash this year, may want to look away now or else run the risk of feeling compelled to tut and shake their heads. Because while I did buy a few practical and sensible presents for myself (waterproof coat and trousers, and a couple of walking sticks so I can emulate my hero Oli), I also went a little mad at the Amazon.co.uk DVD sale:
Just in case you can’t make them out that’s:
- Sherlock Holmes Complete Jeremy Brett TV series collection.
- Agatha Christie’s Poirot collection 4 & 5
- The Complete Jeeves and Wooster (series 1, 2, 3, & 4)
- Babylon 5 series 1 & 2
- The Phil Slivers Show (Sgt. Bilko) 18 classic episodes
- Morecambe & Wise series 3
- The IT Crowd series 1
- Visionaries complete collection
- 300
- Casino Royale
In my defense I must point out that all of these were absolute bargains and I fully intend to get my moneys worth out of them. I’ve been a very busy beaver ripping them to my iPod, and am pretty confident that my viewing will be sorted out for quite a while to come.
But that isn’t all I bought. On Christmas Eve Oli lent me a portrait lens for my camera, a Canon 50mm f/1.8 if that means anything to you. I fell in love with it instantly (mmmmmm blurry backgrounds), unfortunately I have to give it back to him today as he’s going back up to Scotland. I therefore scoured the internet and, taking advantage of the current weakness of the dollar, bought one from the American branch of Amazon for a paltry £35. Another bargain!
In order to avoid paying import tax I had it delivered to my friend Greg in the USA, who agreed to post it on to me labeled gift. I thought myself very clever indeed and was most smug in my self satisfaction at beating the system. Until, that is, Greg published a photo of his daughters “processing” the parcel:
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. That man is a comedy genius.
An amble along the canal side: an annotated photo
- Notice I am wearing my Boston Red Sox T-shirt that was most generously sent me by Dan Leone, a god among men. He informs me that they were the winners of the 2007 World Series. It’s strange, but I don’t recall the United Kingdom having an entry in this international tournament. Perhaps we were knocked out in the early stages; we usually are.
I have yet to build up the courage to inform Dan that his team have made an error in the printing of all their merchandise. You would have thought that someone would have noticed they misspelt “socks” by now. - I was initially concerned that Amy’s reluctance to walk at anything faster than 0.1mph would hold back the hike. However I needn’t have worried as it appears Paul travels at a net speed of 0.09mph due to feeling compelled to stop every three meters to photograph pieces of wood.
- Oli brought his walking stick with him, and I was rather surprised that it did not appear to make him look like a prat. I am increasingly tempted to apologize to Greg so he’ll send me that customized, collapsible, titanium trekking pole with a ruby eyed Bucky the Marmoset head on it that he got me for Christmas.
- This was the first official outing of the walkie-talkies I bought in November. We gained much enjoyment messing around with them, although mine didn’t seem to work properly and the others deliberately changed frequency of theirs without telling me. The bastards.
- Dave chose to prove his manliness to us by forgoing the offer of a lift to the starting point and walking four and a half miles from his home before we even began. He was pretty quick to accept a lift back though so it appears his testosterone only holds out for about eight miles. I’m pretty sure his voice was getting higher towards the end too.
Cross posted at The Dales Walk blog