A lot has been written about pretty permalinks and using the domain name system properly. It all makes a lot of sense to have a decent URL (not that NTS is perfect, but that's another matter) - although for all the cries about making sites easier to navigate and making things better for search engines, all of which is absolutely true, a lot of it is just people being very anal - www.example.com/theitcrowd/episode1 just looks nicer than www.example.com/?p=3734. And yeah, I count myself in amongst the anal lot.

But there's something I noticed the other day with a site that's really odd. And I can't understand why they did it.

Continue reading "Cool Domains Don't Change" »

Continue reading "Gargoyles #1" »

Just a quick note to any NTS readers who are also LiveJournal users, to the effect that our syndicated LJ feed - which has been Broke and Rubbish ever since we relaunched the site - is now fully working and operational again. So if you want to get NTS updates on your Friends List, you can find the syndication feed here.

Continue reading "Panel Beating - 29th June 2006" »

He's not being ironic, sadly.

Continue reading "Alternate Cover - 28th June 2006" »

Continue reading "Oh Baby! Motherhood and the Media" »

It's not in the best quality yet, because it's just a low-bitrate version taken from a video camera in-cinema recording, but if you want it a few hours before it goes up in Quicktime on the Apple site... here it is, and you'll need this to watch it.

Can't really find the words to say anything about it right now, though, except... fucking hell.

ETA : GO AND GET IT, NOW. JESUS H CHRIST ON A STICK IT'S GOOD

The dti launches a terrible website.

Dan Champion challenges them using the Freedom Of Information act.

Pretty important stuff, as this involves £200,000 of taxpayer's money, and I applaud Dan for pursuing this. Dan and Bruce Lawson are working on some follow-up questions - it'll be interesting to see how the government manages to justify this complete waste of our money.

Of course, there is a further point - that £200,000 is a ludicrous amount for that kind of website anyway, even if it was the most accessible and beautifully-designed site in the world...

Attention stateside readers. Yes, both of you.

Phish is re-broadcasting their June 17, 2004 Brooklyn concert in select theaters for one night only. That night is July 10, one day before the DVD and CD of that concert is released commercially.

You can go here to see if it's playing in your local theater.

If you never got the chance to see Phish perform live, you missed what was--without question--one of jazzrock's greatest live acts. No two shows were ever alike, and this is as good a place to start as any. (Also: sexy hippie girls.)

Fear Her was always going to be a bit of an oddity. One one side, you've got the deliberately format-breaking Love & Monsters, guaranteed to provoke a strong reaction either positive or negative, and on the other side you've got the two-parter that the entire series has been building up to. In the middle of this, you've got an episode that would really have to pull out the stops in order to impress.

Continue reading "Doctor Who - Fear Her" »

"ITV cuts drama and makeover shows."

Alright, I can understand cutting makeover shows. I can understand scrapping Des and Mel (although I'd argue, trash as it was, that it was a show that had a firm niche, and a firm core audience - the success of Richard and Judy and Paul O'Grady tells you that). But cutting drama? Come on.

Continue reading "ITV Bid To Lose More Viewers" »

Continue reading "Protocol - Websites For ’Em" »

www.beautifulagony.com

Look for the free samples, or see YouTube. I'm pretty tempted to sign up, though...

Ah, Pulp. That's a lot cooler than Gwen Stefani.

And, effortlessly predictable though I might be, I do love Babies. Still, I hadn't realised that there were two videos to it - the original, and the re-release. And whilst the re-release one is fine, the original is one of the best music videos I've ever seen. I just love the way that with a few white on black captions, it manages to completely deconstruct and take the piss out of the entire thing. Brilliant stuff.

So why was it changed for the re-release? Apparently, it was because Island thought the original looked cheap. Oh, fuck off!

Recently posted to gotfuturama.com:

Right now, June 21st at 1:15am, Katy Segal was on Late Late night with Craig Ferguson, and the last question he asked her was "Is Futurama coming back?" and she said "Yes!" she continued to say that it was coming back on Comedy Central and not Fox, and in episodes. She said she couldnt recall if it was 16 episodes or 13. She said she didnt really read the contract, she just signed it because she was so happy to be back in the role. She also said that it was also coming to DVD, which I took as to refer about the movies... but the new episodes on Comedy Central... thats sure news to me.

Sounds like excellent news, certainly...one of America's finest comedies being resurrected. But has anyone seen the episode of Craig Ferguson in question? A direct quote from Katie would be great, but even some confirmation along the lines of, "Yeah, that's about what she said," would be great.

Fingers crossed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5106694.stm

We truly are living in a strange world if a fictional tale of two perfectly legal 16-year-olds can cause a fuss.

And Kidscape should mind its own business and concentrate on the real problem. Especially when on their site, they say:

"Kidscape works with children and young people under the age of 16, their parents/carers, and those who work with them."

Why don't people concentrate on the real issues about paedophilia, instead of wasting their time on this kind of nonsense?

Continue reading "Alternate Cover - 21st June 2006" »

Continue reading "Panel Beating - 21st June 2006" »

Continue reading "Doctor Who - Love & Monsters" »

The trouble with protest songs (and, of course, protest albums) is that it's very easy to either praise or dismiss the songs owing not to their quality but to their stance. Yet the protest song is very much a thing of the past. Gone are the days of rock-and-roll senators who really could make a difference in the world (or at least the public perception of the world) with a few caustic verses set to an uncompromising cycle of simple chords. Now protest rock has become a curio. It's an artifact...a throwback. And its current impact is questionable at best.

But here we are, with full-fledged all-out protest albums released just months apart by two very important (and very influential) artists. What do we make of this? What's the connection? Most importantly, are the albums actually any good?

Continue reading "Uh-Oh, Protest Rock Comes to Town" »

I am very sick of reading this on the back of DVD covers. Or, indeed, not reading it on the back of DVD covers, and then finding out that music substitutions have been made anyway. Yes, Life On Mars, I'm looking at you.

Continue reading "For contractual reasons certain edits have been made" »

http://www.myspace.com/kuntandthegang

(Thanks to Paul Kelly who posted this to NOTBBC.)

They're so going to kill her off, aren't they?

Also, according to OG, Stephen Fry's no longer doing his episode. Bugger!

Continue reading "Doctor Who - The Satan Pit" »

Continue reading "Ga-Ga!" »

I’m currently packing up various things, getting ready to bugger off on holiday early tomorrow morning (I should be in bed, really) and I’ve been going through some new albums to add to my iRiver (like an iPod but bestest).

Continue reading ""You little sod, I love your eyes"" »

I mean, for fuck's sake:

(Click image for a larger resolution)

It's bad enough that over intrusive DOGs actually exist just generally getting in the way, but when TMF actually feel it's necessary to impose their DOG *over the top* of VH1's, when they show a production of theirs, is just completely inept.

Do these people actually know how to do telly?

Oh bugger.

Hope it's back soon, as it's one of the best things bbc.co.uk have ever done.

I'll stand up for Gwen Stefani's Cool any time you want. I could go on about why I like the song, but what it comes down to is: I love a certain kind of pop - especially 80s and 80s inspired stuff. And if you actually listen to the lyrics, it's really quite a nice song.

What I do find slightly strange however, is how emotional I just got at the video.

That is: "Emotional".

I'm beginning to think that I'm really just a 13 year old girl, not a sweaty 25 year old male geek with dubious personal hygiene. Or at the very best, just have severe issues.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Rosario Dawson...

That's a little shameless, actually. I bet she doesn't dress like that in the film - I've seen her in promo pics and the trailers, and she's wearing the Mooby's outfit. Still, though - day-um.

Anyway. *Cough*. Meanwhile, I'm starting to wonder... could it be that this film, this sequel that should never have happened... might actually turn out to be really good? There's a tendency to bash Smith in recent years, a tendency that casually ignores the fact that he really hasn't ever made a truly duff film (come on, Jersey Girl wasn't without merit - it deserves credit alone for killing off J.Lo after only ten minutes). But he's not the kind of guy to come and outright lie on his personal blog about the reception the film got at Cannes and at its preview screening. If people - people who weren't just a room full of Askewniverse fans - genuinely loved it... then maybe, just maybe, we might have something really special on our hands.

And it's hard to feel aggrieved by there being another Askewniverse film after the now-false "ending" of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back for the simple reason that... well, come on. Look at the posters. Can anyone honestly say that it doesn't feel good to have Dante, Randal and - yes - the Gruesome Twosome back around?

Thought not.

Well, that explains that one, then (and yes, "WOT NO OTT?" is a better headline than I used).

For those of you who may have been wondering why one of the internet's only half-decent telly review sites hasn't posted anything new for a month, it's because Graham Kibble-White's had his computer nicked and so can't actually get on the site (save for the Blog) at all. Oh dear.

Still, it's nice to know it will be back at some point, and that the Blog will still be updated. 'Till then, I can't think where people might want to go for weekly Doctor Who reviews...

Continue reading "Alternate Cover - 3rd June 2006" »

Christ, it's been a while. Usually, at this stage of the game, I wouldn't have missed that much. But in the eleven days since my column last rose to greet you all (during which I've been working and going to gigs, so sorry about that), we've had three housemates leave, two new ones come in, the first round of nominations and Sezer having the smug look wiped off his stupid face. I'll try and start from the beginning...

Continue reading "Big Brother's Little Tosser - Day 19" »

The "base under siege" was such a commonly recurring trope in the original series of Doctor Who that I'm just surprised it took so long for Davis and co. to give us their own take on it. I suppose it's because in the past, this kind of small-scale story was usually cost-saving alternative to the more expensive location-based affairs, but the bigger budget for this series means the current production team can afford to produce an episode like this out of choice rather than necessity.

Continue reading "Doctor Who - The Impossible Planet" »

I like childish things waaaaaay too much.

Despite my whinging, I do actually enjoy SFX. And I especially enjoy David Langford's column, which he also publishes on his site once the issue is out of the shops.

Anyway, he wrote a particuarly good one the other month; Pride and Prejudice, an excellent piece in a similar vein to last year's Eye of the Beholder and As Others See Us - and, indeed, further back than that if you take a look.

No doubt some people will just see it as whining. But let's face it - he's absolutely 100% correct, isn't he?

The story behind this release has been well publicised - fan of the show sets up his own company, and releases the show himself. All extremely laudable, and the guy has to be praised for even getting this far. But the question remains - is the release worth buying?

Continue reading "Joking Apart - The Complete First Series (DVD)" »

Just a quick note for Stateside readers: Spaced, the brilliant (and brilliantly done) Channel 4 comedy series, is coming to BBC America. Their official blurb:

The new show is Spaced, written by Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Jessica Stevenson (Smack the Pony), chronicling the agony and ecstasy of two disillusioned Gen X-ers adrift in a world where reality is as subjective as their taste in shoes. Produced by Paramount Comedy and LWT for the U.K.’s Channel 4, it premieres with an hour-long special (two of seven 30-minute episodes) Friday, June 23, at 11 p.m. (EST)/8 p.m. (PST).

Frankly it's a definite candidate for "perfect show." But that's an article in itself.

It goes against everything I at least try to stand for in regards to my musical tastes. In reality, I should greet the arrival of Sandi Thom with the same disgust as similar warblers such as Joss Stone and the like. But... she's really bloody good, isn't she? I mean, this could actually mean she's *totally* different to Joss Stone and I'm wrong in making the comparison, but it seems like the same sort of pseudo soul, to me. It's just that Sandi seems to do it well.

Anyway, I've only heard one song (I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker) and I love it, that much I do know. On top of that her album is entitled Smile... It will Confuse People which makes me liker her even more.

Also, she's very pretty and lovely.

Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers wrote an article about Superman, which can be read here.

Courtesy of The Times, Baddiel and Skinner will be doing free podcasts throughout the World Cup! Anyone who saw Fantasy Football League in the BBC glory days will surely agree that David and Frank talking about football can be bloody hilarious. Those who saw the most recent ITV series in 2004 might disagree, but I'm still optimistic for these podcasts.

They're all on this site, which is a bloody atrocity. Just shut up! I don't need to hear David and Frank have the same humourous exchange every time I visit a page. I want to surf the net while listening to music or watching the telly, so just be quiet, you Macromedia whores. But the podcasts should definitely be worth downloading; there's a trailer up at the moment and the first one is released on Monday.

All together now: Saint and Greavsie talk about the Endsleigh League as if it's im...