Lopez Blogs

Hello dudes. Minor remnants of all my conditions remain but it definitely seems I'm on the mend. Back from the dead as it were. Like Jesus! As it's Easter Sunday, I thought there should be a non-sacriligious shout out to all those other dudes/lady dudes who came back from the dead - E.T., Buffy, Superman, Family Guy, most the high street banks, Kylie's career post Impossible Princess, Bobby Ewing, et al - I salute your improbable tenancity! Anyway, as I reported in Friday's post, I've been quite irritable all week so the things that took up my time either delighted me or got right on me norks. Here, in brief(ish), is what they were...

TOTALLY TOP-NOTCH POP:

• Delight: Yes, i'm still wearing primary colours as a sign of mourning for the ever cheerful Same Difference being dropped by their record label. However, pop is like Lisa Scott Lee - no matter how many times you exterminate that little critter, it still keeps crawling back. In this case, it is a very good thing. Robbie has been busy showcasing the talents of Irish pop group Industry. Both the tracks on his Chartrigger site are magnificent bundles of joy that will plug the SD sized hole in my heart and have been played an embarrassing amount of times by myself already :) Clearly I already have a new obsession. Cheesy, cheerful, upbeat, happy making, colourful - it made many a snotty moment quite bearable this week!
• Irritate: First of all Britney made her infuriatingly catchy new single If You Seek Amy almost incomprehensible by switching it to If You See Amy. Now another popstar du jour has changed her single plans because apparently some of the lyrics are too rauncy. Uh, your flange has been hanging out in most your pics for weeks luv, it's too late to worry about damaging the nation's youth. THE HYPOCRISY!

TWILIGHT SAGA:

Ok, I've decided I have a totally love hate relationship with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Some of it - the vampire mythology, when she cranks up the action, the werewolves - are quite good indeed and the first & third books were certainly quite decent. So this week, i submitted myself to what turned out to be the torture of the fourth and final book (please god) which turned everything that is bad about the series up to the nth degree. First off - Bella! How she got two supernatural dudes to fall in love with her is utterly beyond me. Moody, self obsessed and with such a massive oh woe is me chip on her shoulder it is amazing no one has smacked her down to size before now. Secondly - sullen sullen Edward Cullen. Lighten up geeza. Everytime Bella is in a hint of pain, there are pages of exposition about how the two of them can't live without each other. Geez. We bloody get it ok. They are in love. Thirdly - subtle mormon indoctrination of America by Stephanie Myer. The references are everywhere!! "As long as we both shall live" at the wedding?! Good gravy. And of course the distusting-no-matter-how-you-pop-a-bow-on-it practice of imprinting on infants is icky, gross and probably criminal in 47 states in America. And don't even get me started on that deus es machina ending they pulled out the hole. Thing is, I like the series (and the film - so far), but it has such moments of infuriating badness in it, that it's driven me (and of course by proxy poor Darren who more than once asked - why you still reading it then?!) insane. Had the final book been cut down by ooo 300 pages it would've been a much zippier read!

TITILLATING TV:

• Delight: Hurrah. I have finally caught up on most of Torchwood. It's ridiculous of course, but quite engaging with it. Ianto is an utter delight (his response to finding a monster who heals it's own flesh so could feed the world? "We could release a single") and Gwen the heart and soul of the group. The storylines are a bit iffy, but overall i'm glad i've caught up on this Dr Who spin off. I'm 3 eps from the end of season 2 and I smell bad things for lovely Tosh and Owen :(
• Irritate: Talking of Doctor Who, it was back yesterday! And not entirely brilliant at all. Some of the Easter Special was very good indeed (including the psychic woman's final words to the good Doctor) and as danP76 pointed out in his review, Lee Evans got a gun pointed at him. The fly things were dreadful (the thing tapping a monitor watching the bus turned out to be a bit of a red herring) and of course the real reason the Doctor didn't let Lady Christina in the tardis was her bloody dreadful accent. Good god. Not hideous over all, but the three at the latter end of the year promise to be much better. Knock knock knock knock.
• Irritate: Heroes is virtually unwatchable now. Horne and Corden pulled it back only ever so slightly this week, though the underutilisation of Kylie was almost unforgiveable. And seven minutes of previously on/coming this season on The Tudors was lunacy.
• Delight: Of course The Inbetweeners continues to be utterly brilliant and has amazing new words for me to use like "spaffle".
• Delight: If you want a true moment of talent show delight, then check out this dotty old(looking) woman on Britain's Got Talent. Build those preconceptions and watch the clip through to the end. Ps one of my fave all time musical songs too.

TOP 21 SONGS OF THE WEEK:

21 - Annie, Anthonio (NE)
20 - Alesha Dixon, Let's Get Excited (NE/BRILLO VID)
19 - Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You
18 - Lenka, Trouble Is A Friend
17 - Paolo Nutini, Candy
16 - Sugababes, Every Heart Broken
15 - McFly, The Last Song
14 - Girls Aloud, Untouchable
13 - Take That, The Garden
12 - Lily Allen, Not Fair
11 - Deborah Gibson, Already Gone
10 - Taylor Swift, Love Story
09 - Pet Shop Boys, Love etc
08 - Neo, Flower Power Super Girl
07 - Kevin Borg, Every Bit Of Me
06 - Infernal, Redefinition
05 - BWO, You're Not Alone
04 - Simon Curtis/Victoria Justice, Things We Do For Love
03 - Alcazar, Stay The Night
02 - Same Difference, All Roads Lead To Heaven
01 - Mans Zelmerlow, Hope and Glory (2 weeks)

Hopefully normal service (whatever that was) will return this week :) Reading The 19th Wife. Is very good!