estuary english

i recently read that queen elizabeth II once said that most of her grandchildren speak estuary english. the bbc recently publicized the travails of finding a young actor who could speak standard english (aka received pronunciation) to star in the play ‘the ballet shoes.’ well it seems they were ‘forced’ to emma watson ballet and dye her hair in order to fill one of the roles. has a form of reverse snobbery taken hold at uk drama schools? click here for more details.

fashion outlawed

saggy trousers are a big no-no in some areas of the u.s. a few small towns in the deep south have passed indecency ordinances to counter what the local politicians seemingly believe to be pornographic fashion. saggy jeans and the hip-hop look. others see it as a thinly veiled racism.

nokia's new online store

let’s not discuss a challenge to iTunes. basically, apple iTunes, the iPod, and the iPhone are overrated but well marketed stuff. nokia sells a few million handsets worldwide every day. its a non-starter. nokia isn’t challenging apple. there’s nothing to challenge. as they continue to rollout high capacity mobile phones that are multi-functional, the company will continue dominating the market it well, continues to dominate. whatever that means! no matter. people want to download music directly to their phones, not first to their computer and _then to their phones–which is the steven jobs iTune model. and the cheaper the download, the better. i’m a big fan of nokia. but i do realize that selling more music for 1 dollar, one euro or 60 pence in the long run drives a coffin further into the music industry.

in italy its against the law to praise criminals

fanny ardant might decide to avoid the venice film festival. she was recently quoted by an italian magazine declaring a convicted criminal a bit of a hero. but according to italian law, it is against the law to praise someone who has been convicted of a crime.

owen wilson versus ben becker

owen wilson co-writer of rushmore, can’t get a break. he barely misses making the cover of newspapers in german speaking countries because of what may have been a suicide attempt has coincided with what may have been a suicide attempt and/or a drug overdose by the german actor, ben becker. must be that time of year. summer was all about starlights driving drunk and being thrown in the slammer. fall seems to be all about male actor depression, drugs, and suicide attempts. whose next? tom cruise?

owen wilson, it's always the comics

according to the new york post, which says according to 911 records its obtained, they’re pretty sure the bit on the form which says ‘attempted suicide’ in santa monica points to owen wilson.

i’ve never seen an entire owen wilson film. i’ve never found his style of humour or his friend ben stiller’s style of humour remotely funny. but i do sort of like his brother luke wilson. remember the vampire episode of the x-files?

senior citizen rockers don't know when to quit

even when they are openly mocked by journalists and interviewers. that includes genesis, the rolling stones, aerosmith, and well, shall i go on?

up close and personal with sarkozy

french author, yasmina reza, who wrote the briliant play ‘art,’ was given unprecedented access to nicholas sarkozy during the run up to the french presidential campaign. her new book was released last week in france. you can read about this on focus in german, on liberation in french, and on the guardian in english. unfortunately, it will most likely take 6 – 12 months for an english version to surface. –if it ever does. although the german translation hasn’t been released either.

whatever happened to reporters and where news is going

it is generally accepted (by whomever these powers that be) that matt drudge, with the drudgereport largely reset the playing field for journalism when he broke the bill clinton/monica lewinsky story. although this bit of reporting happened in 1998, one can safely say that that was the year when news gathering entered the 21st century.

americans don't understand international football

apparently the powers that be with the l.a. galaxy are concerned about beckham’s international schedule. as beckham played a game wednesday for england at wembly against germany, then 30 or so hours later was back on the pitch scrambling for balls for the l.a. galaxy. this is how international football (soccer) works. perhaps someone should explain to them about the european championships coming up next year and the uefa cup and so on. maybe victoria beckham can do this.