Hole - Celebrity Skin

The video of “Celebrity Skin”, by Courtney Love’s band Hole, features the group miming the song on stage, Courtney with a pink electric guitar, as women wearing purple ball gowns descend slowly from the ceiling. As they meander around the stage, the models begin to hoist up their skirts. There are many close-ups of Courtney, showing her vivid green eyes, and also of bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. I get the feeling the clip is taking a pop at Madonna’s video of “Material Girl”, itself a tribute to Marilyn Monroe. When Hole performed at The Big Day Out in Australia, Courtney went topless for almost the entirety of the song’s duration! She managed to retain her bra at Glastonbury, however, even though she still succeeded in losing her shirt!!

After much consideration, I’ve decided to make this my last post and would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my blog over the past two-and-a-half years as well as those who have also left numerous interesting comments. Thank you. And, to finish, making reference to Jewish moneylender Shylock in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” no less, here are the lyrics of the Hole song “Celebrity Skin”…

Oh, make me over
I’m all I want to be
A walking study
In demonology

Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, so glad you could make it now

Oh, look at my face
My name is might have been
My name is never was
My name’s forgotten

Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, there’s only us left now

When I wake up in my makeup
It’s too early for that dress
Wilted and faded somewhere in Hollywood
I’m glad I came here with your pound of flesh
No second billing ’cause you’re a star now
Oh, Cinderella, they aren’t sluts like you
Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses
Can you stand up or will you just fall down?

You better watch out
Oh, what you wish for
It better be worth it
So much to die for

Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, there’s only us left now

When I wake up in my makeup
Have you ever felt so used up as this?
It’s all so sugarless, hooker/waitress
Model/actress, oh, just go nameless
Honeysuckle, she’s full of poison
She obliterated everything she kissed
Now she’s fading somewhere in Hollywood
I’m glad I came here with your pound of flesh

You want a part of me
Well, I’m not selling cheap
No, I’m not selling cheap

I Will Be Kring!

I’ve fallen in love with Nora Zehetner, who plays Eden McCain in BBC2 series “Heroes”, only to discover her time on the show is limited! While most other guys will, no doubt, be drooling over Hayden Panettiere, as schoolgirl cheerleader Claire Bennet, or pining for Ali Larter, as single mom and internet porn star Niki Sanders, I find myself more-attracted to the supporting player, which is fairly-typical of me! Hayden looks too old for the part she’s playing, even though she’s not yet eighteen, while Niki’s back-story is the usual salacious scenario to try and hook males of a certain age group! Nora/Eden is more like the quirky Björk/Kate Bush pixie type-of-character that appeals to those prepared to look beyond the blonde hair and blue-eyed stereotype that all men are supposed to fall for. She’s the Wendy Padbury as opposed to the Billie Piper! I’ve seen Nora before in another American show called “Everwood”, not something I watched fastidiously but the few episodes I did see probably played their part in my taking notice of her in “Heroes”. The top picture shows Eden with geneticist Mohinder Suresh, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy, as they discover his father Chandra’s note book concealed in the laptop he has just flung carefully across the room, when perhaps it should’ve been thrown with a little more abandon!!

Thus far, Mohinder and Eden have forged an old-fashioned Doctor/companion relationship, while it transpires she seems to have known his father a lot better than he did. Mohinder’s the serious scientist with the searching mind. But, from what I’ve read, there’s more to Eden than presently meets the eye and she’s due for a showdown with resident villain Sylar, Zachary Quinto, presumably in episode eleven. Incidentally, Mr Quinto has just been cast to play the young Mr Spock in the next “Star Trek” feature so I’m wondering if his days in “Heroes” are numbered too. Ali Larter has put her film career on hold, as filming the NBC series takes up nine months of the year, which would suggest Zachary is leaving “Heroes” if he now has time for other things. Having much more fun with his role is Masi Oka, playing Hiro Nakamura, stealing comic books and cheating at gambling in order to fulfil his destiny. I like the way the geek is portrayed positively while ballplayer Brody Mitchum, played by Matt Lanter, whom all the chicks fawn over, is revealed to be the high school sleaze. I hope I’m not starting to sound too American, goddammit! I wonder why these guys are so revered by the ladies when, as is shown here, science fiction fans have much more imagination!!

Anyway, if you want to see why I have the hots for Nora, you can catch her in just five more of her eight episodes, beginning a week on Wednesday with episode six, “Better Halves”, and picking up again a fortnight later with episodes eight through to eleven, namely “Seven Minutes to Midnight”, “Homecoming”, “Six Months Ago” and finally “Fallout”. She didn’t feature in episode one, “Genesis”, she’s not in this week’s fifth instalment, “Hiros”, and isn’t included in “Nothing to Hide”, the seventh chapter. So, make the most of this lovely lady while you can! As you can see, I’ve got it real bad!!

Be Still, My Beating Hearts!

The BBC has released the first publicity still for season four of new “Doctor Who” and, I have to say, my response to it comes as something of a surprise. How like Sarah Jane does Donna Noble look was what immediately ran through my mind. Catherine Tate’s facial features definitely seemed to have softened, somehow, since “The Runaway Bride”! Of course, a photograph doesn’t talk and if she retains the same brusque manner, as in that earlier episode, then no amount of positive marketing will induce me to watch. But then Sarah Jane could be quite curt when the mood suited!! I showed my father the picture and, before I explained it, he asked if it was Sarah Jane!!! So, it isn’t just me with that initial reaction. I would be only too happy if Catherine Tate turned out to be another Elisabeth Sladen!

Elsewhere in the production of series four of the good Doctor’s adventures, imagination is running low! The Time Lord is to meet the creator of “Miss Marple” and “Poirot”, popular whodunit author Agatha Christie. I moaned last year about him meeting Shakespeare, having already met Dickens, and now the Doctor is to meet yet another writer. Talk about creativity!! Can’t Russell, tiresome dictator that he seems to be, come up with something other than that with which he is already familiar or doesn’t he want to spend time researching maybe a meeting with a scientist or a musician? A little (“Enigma”) variation wouldn’t go amiss! My guess is that when James Nesbitt takes over the keys of the TARDIS, for series five, the chances are the eleventh Doctor will meet a writer too, probably Robert Louis Stevenson!!!

It’s also been rumoured that Sir Ben Kingsley is to appear in next year’s series as Davros, fictional creator of the Daleks in the original series. Again, this is so predictable. During the era of the first Doctor, the Daleks were established as the main adversary and, naturally enough, they were the principal villain reintroduced in the first year of new “Doctor Who”. With the second Doctor came the Cybermen. Year two of new “Who” and, behold, a new breed of Cyber-buddies! Time Lord menace, the Master was pitted against the third Doctor eight times. Series three and up pops John Simm! Down boy!! Then, Dalek history was rewritten and fourth Doctor Tom Baker meets their maker a couple of times with each successive Doctor, over the next three incarnations, also squaring up to the crippled scientist. Why resurrect THE major villain from each era, of the classic series, one per year in the new series in chronological order? Talk about creativity! Oh, I’ve already said that!!

It shouldn’t be assumed, by the way, that just because Davros is returning the Daleks will follow. There has never been a televised Davros story without his demented offspring in tow and RTD’s notion of imaginative writing is to rework an old idea out of its usual context. Perhaps viewers will witness the decline and fall of Davros, pre-“Genesis of the Daleks”, discovering how he became shrivelled and wheelchair-bound. We saw Sec released from the confines of his casing and it might be interesting to see the process in reverse… If you’re interested in seeing what kind of villain Sir Ben might portray in “Doctor Who” then, as luck would have it, you can catch him in this Saturday’s ITV1 teatime movie premiere as the Hood in a very poor live action retelling of Gerry Anderson’s most-popular puppet series “Thunderbirds”. It also features Madame De Pompadour as Lady Penelope, Mr Magpie as Parker and a closing theme song by the god-awful McFly! You have been duly warned!!

Shakespear’s Sister - I Can Drive

Hey boys, it’s a steal
You’re hanging on, by your finger nails
As usual, the king is dead
Long live the queens
Hey girls, no big deal
Your fifteen minutes
Start right here, so baby let’s go
Let’s go…

I’m watching the world,
Taking my time
I’ve waited my turn
I’m gonna shine

Heroes take their toll
Hog your dreams, then crush your soul
And take you out, out to dinner
Roll on the original
Highly strung out, spaced out individual
Terminal sinner

I’m watching the world,
Taking my time
I’m waiting my turn
I’m gonna shine

And all the pretty people that I used to see
Have died or moved away
Or they’re in recovery
And all the buildings where the faithless used to play
Have crumbled into clay
And I don’t know what to say,
I just don’t know what to say,
I don’t know what to say

I’m watching the world
I’m taking my time
I can drive…
I’m waiting my turn
I’m gonna shine

I declare my innocence,
I’m worth more than sixty pence
Look, I’ve got a shiny car,
I can drive, I can drive
Yes, baby, I’m for real
That’s just the way I feel
I can take you anywhere,
Anytime, anytime

Everything I pass is old,
Everything I touch is gold,
Now I see the world unfold,
I can drive, I can drive
Yes, it’s a steal,
Nothing that you see is real,
Get yourself a pair of wheels,
Get to drive, go and drive
Come on, come on, I can drive

Hyde Who?

So, if Steven Moffat replaces Russell T Davies as Executive Producer of “Doctor Who”, after season four next year, it looks as though “Jekyll” and “Cold Feet” actor James Nesbitt will succeed David Tennant in the title role of the long-running science fiction series and become the eleventh actor to play the Doctor! I’m not really sure what I think about this. The idea doesn’t repulse me in the same way that the prospect of Catherine Tate nagging for thirteen episodes does! I gradually warmed to the actor’s performance in Moffat’s take on Stevenson’s horror classic and have previously enjoyed him getting to grips with a certain Billie Piper in “The Miller’s Tale” episode of “The Canterbury Tales”!! The possible casting of Mr Nesbitt does still seem a far cry, though, from the way I perceive “Doctor Who”. Sadly, the show isn’t meant for thoughtful and analytical types, anymore, but for those who prefer their entertainment wacky and zany in a manner far-removed from Tom Baker’s supposed eccentricities. New “Doctor Who” is for those who favour munching on a Big Mac to savouring a well-cooked meal. I wonder if Tate, and the returning Noel Clarke, will be gone by the time of Jimmy’s arrival and, if so, will he be “Coupling” with “Blackeyes” in the TARDIS or pulling (a pint with) the “Bionic Woman” in the old Queen Vic?!!

“Remember me to Destiny”

It may surprise regular readers of this blog to learn my initial posts, two-and-a-half years ago, weren’t on the subject of “Doctor Who”! The first two pieces I wrote were on “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet”, to give it its full title, and so think it high time I revisit the Hypermarionation series. It’s currently being simultaneously rerun on ITV2 and CITV, early weekday mornings, with a repeat an hour later on ITV2+1. The series consists of 26 half-hour episodes which were originally aired from 2005 as two seasons of thirteen episodes each. This computer-animated show is based on the 1967 puppet series “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” also created by Gerry Anderson with his then-wife Sylvia. The opening two-part story of the revamped “Captain Scarlet”, “Instrument of Destruction”, went out a month or so before new “Doctor Who” first appeared on our screens and was therefore considered something of a rival. But new “Captain Scarlet” didn’t receive the same amount of publicity as the BBC ONE series and was buried in ITV’s schedules on Saturday mornings as part of the children’s strand “Ministry of Mayhem”. I think that’s a shame because “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet” is everything I’d like new “Doctor Who” to be… “This is the voice of the Mysterons! We know that you can hear us, Earthmen…”

Tough and no-nonsense, “Gerry Anderson’s New Captain Scarlet” is populated with numerous characters, the Spectrum agents each with a colour coding. Captain Scarlet, aka Paul Metcalfe, becomes indestructible after a misunderstanding on a mission to Mars. His friend and co-astronaut Captain Black, Conrad Lefkon, misinterprets an alien scanning device as an act of hostility and destroys the Mysteron complex only for it to reconstruct itself through the power of retro-metabolism. The Mysterons vow they will be avenged and, in failing to make Scarlet their agent, take over the body of Black. Conrad leaves behind grieving girlfriend Destiny Angel, Simone Giraudoux, who, as the series progresses, begins to fall for Scarlet. This ménage à trois never gets in the way of the action, unlike the current crop of over-domesticated “Doctor Who” companions, but underpins it with an urgency-of-purpose highlighting what makes humanity something worth fighting for. Spectrum operates out of Skybase, formerly Cloudbase in the original Supermarionation series, and have a range of vehicles at their disposal. Destiny, for example, heads a squad of five Angel pilots using Falcon Interceptors as one line of defence. Scarlet is usually teamed with Captain Blue, Adam Svenson, under the command of Colonel White, Sir Charles Grey, and he, in turn, is assisted by Lieutenant Green, Serena Lewis, who has a soft spot for Blue. The series isn’t perfect, by any means, but it is tight and well executed. It’s the last episode today but, fear not, the series begins all over again from tomorrow!

Hey Who?

Kylie Minogue, in costume as Titanic waitress Astrid for the 2007 “Doctor Who” Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned”, leaves Morgan’s hotel in Swansea, post shoot, by the tradesman’s entrance but is still captured by the waiting photographer! This snap was taken only two days ago, on Monday. Apparently, Kylie was mistaken by an elderly customer, having no idea who she is, for a member of staff and promptly asked her if it was too late for a cup of tea? It’s believed the Australian actress-turned-songstress-turned-actress-turned-domestic replied, “It’s never too late”! But, it might well be in the case of “Doctor Who”!! And, there was me thinking this particular ship was unsinkable!!!