The disordered mad of a brain man

The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" lasts 2 min 11 seconds.

Wagner's "Rhinegold" takes 2 hours and 35 minutes to make the same point.

Still worth seeing though, particularly at ENO. I saw their concert version (= singers on a bare stage, sometimes moving about a bit) a couple of years ago, and this year they're staging them all (= sets and acting too) with (I think, but haven't checked) the same cast. It does make a difference.

On the way to pick up JoJo last night, the District Line train I was on got into Victoria at 5:17. Hmm, the train from Victoria is at 5:19, and two minutes isn't enough time to get from the tube to the platform at the main station.

OK, stay on the train and get the 5:35 from Blackfriars (when using public transport in London, always have at least two options). It should get to Blackfriars by 5:30, and I can get from tube to platform there in a minute.

Tube train leaves Victoria. Stops at St James Park. Some people get off, others get on. Train leaves SJP. Stops at Westminster. People get off, including the man with no front teeth standing in front of me, and someone sitting beside me. Others get on.

"Is this your bag?"

Oh no, the person beside me had left her bag – something bland, size of a large handbag.

Of course, someone had to pick the 'push the emergency button' option, and so after five minutes faff, I got off this train and onto one going back to Victoria to minimise how late I'd be.

"Mandy Rice-Davies applies", from one of the quotes of the Profumo affair in Britain in the 1950s.

When it was put to her that someone had denied her allegations, MR-D said, "He would, wouldn't he?"

For as long as I can remember, it's been a common response on cix to, for example, Geoff Hoon denying anything was his fault, ie total disbelief of what someone's said. But it can also be used when pointing out someone has a (often undeclared) interest in the outcome of something they're disputing.

[cixen: it'd be interesting to do a search to see who said it first and where they got it from.]

Clearly, it's not that common an acronym outside 🙂

While we're mentioning Hoon, anyone want to bet he has the full confidence of Tony Blair in a fortnight's time?

I was looking on imdb for some things I remember from long ago and would like to see again.

There's The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It, a one-off John Cleese TV special done in 1977, two years after Fawlty Towers. Everyone at school saw it. I don't remember it ever having been shown on UK TV again. In part, it's because some of the humour is 'dated' – let's say you could imagine Kilroy co-writing some of the jokes. Turns out it's on DVD in the US. Hmm.

Then there's Death Warmed Up, possibly the first splatter horror film to come from New Zealand. Fab and an undoubted influence on Peter Jackson's early (and more fun) career. Saw it at the London Film Festival that year. I don't think I've ever seen it on TV. Turns out it's on DVD here. Hmm.

Looking for it – all I could remember was the general year and the country of origin – I was browsing horror films when I saw an Italian rip-off ("We can make Zombie 2, but never Zombie 1…") film with a rating of 3.5. "Gosh, I thought, just how bad does a film have be to get that low a rating?"

I nearly fell over when I saw that the third one I was looking for, 1977 Canadian film Skip Tracer has a rating of… 3.5

My ghod! I'm another one who saw this one on TV in the 80s – BBC2 had Canadian movie seasons almost every year.

OK, the acting was ok rather than great and its low budget sometimes showed, but twenty years on, I can still remember how good the script was. If you were looking to remake a film, this would be one to go for. Not available on VHS or DVD anywhere. Disgraceful.

The writer/director went on to do… Friday the 13th, the TV series and other odd TV episodes.. What went wrong?