Words Dept.: category

Compare and contrast Britain with North Korea. One has a state-controlled media, news blackouts and pages and pages of congratulatory and uncritical PR puff about senior members of a privileged, unelected elite. The other is North Korea. Boom boom. The BBC has been justifying its decision not to report for the last ten weeks the [...]

I’m watching GMTV again. The section called Entertainment Today, or just ET, as it was introduced. (Sadly there are no aliens, unless there’s something we don’t know about Jenni Falconer.) They just featured an interview with Antony Cotton off of Coronation Street, who was discussing the storyline in tonight’s episode. I fully understand the purpose [...]

I’ve had, for the first time, an e-mail from a PR promoting a magazine. She says that since I am a “keen online commentator in the media arena” (pffffft!), I may be interested in the decidedly pretentious sounding publication she is promoting, which includes a photo feature on “The new heirlooms”, shot by Mary McCartney [...]

I stumbled across this press release from Edinburgh council today. It made me snigger like a child: Fish merchants have recently been making unsolicited calls on residents in the Inverleith area. Two men who have been calling on homes in the area are described as having North East English accents and were wearing jumpers with [...]

Someone sent me a croissant and some jam in a lunchbox today. It’s about the weirdest thing I’ve ever been sent in the mail. It also came with a mug, a teabag and a sachet of instant coffee. Luckily there was a letter to explain. The idea was that instead of dragging me out to [...]

This is a real beauty. Somehow, the Liverpool Daily Post has got hold of an e-mail from Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley to council chief executive Colin Hilton demanding that the chief executive of the Liverpool Culture Company, Jason Harborow, should resign over the fiasco involving this year’s Mathew Street festival. Gleefully, they have printed [...]

Witness the power of hype. This mystery trailer has echoes of Blair Witch Project and is causing similar ripples. It’s a film that doesn’t even have a title yet but is sending YouTube theorists into a frenzy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Project Slosho/Cloverfield/1-18-08 as it’s variously known, is produced by JJ Abrams of Lost fame – a [...]

I fear Doctor Who is running out of steam a bit. What other excuse can there be for two BBC press releases on two consecutive days revealing “celebrity” involvement in forthcoming episodes? Yesterday it was Kylie, today it’s Catherine Tate. (Cue excessive coverage on the main BBC TV and radio news bulletins… and not much [...]

I could be wrong, but I’m sure it was no more than about six weeks ago I saw Mel “Melanie C” Chisholm on that vaguely annoying Sunday morning cookery programme with Tim Lovejoy, saying she would never be part of a Spice Girls “reunion” because she didn’t want to destroy the memories (man). She admitted [...]