everyone hails it as progress

celebrating the blair/brown era of "classless britain" is this new calendar of "british style".

that'll do nicely.

most amusing christmas gift received so far

one small, 8 months past use-by-date, block of german milk chocolate (with gross raisin filling), with original price tag ($3) attached. wasn't intended as a 'joke' gift either. pure hilarity nonetheless.

top that, napa valley.

bold or brazen?

it could be the most daring programming decision of all time. one of the commercial tv networks has lifted the kooky soap "the bold and the beautiful" from its regular bored-housewife, mid-afternoon slot and parked it in prime time, monday through friday. one naturally fears for the job security of the person who made that decision.

that's a lot of soap suds for melbourne audiences to chew through.

there was an awful moment the other night when the fellow playing the forrester patriach was almost called upon to act (that's him in the obligatory coma). it was a scary moment. would he or wouldn't he? thankfully, at the last minute minute he reverted to type and resisted the impulse. still, it was an unsettling experience. he was seconds away from actually acting. then who knows what might have happened?

brand new baritone

the only advantage of getting a bug (in december, for crissakes) is that i can talk like barry white if i want to. oh, yeah.

cracking film, gromit

typically film and tv 'product' arrives in oz long after it has screened in the northern hemisphere. no one seems to know why. but owing to a rupture in space-time continuum, or a disturbance in the force, or some such, the latest wallace & gromit featurette "a matter of loaf and death" has premiered here in advance of its english broadcast. and it's swell. the sets are superb. it also features a terrific villainess, piella bakewell, who is built on the sturdy lines of 1950s english womanhood. the hairstyle looks to have been lifted from the prim proprietor of the railway teashop in "brief encounter". and just look at that tremendous pair of cankles! grand, eh lad?