Sunday 2 November 2008 Chat

The 22nd movie in the James Bond cannon, Quantum of Solace (the title of which doesn't sound nearly so bad now we're all used to it) has broken box office records on its UK opening day.
The movie took £4.9m on Friday, beating the previous record for a Friday opening, £4.025m, held by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. That's going some.
The success of the new Daniel Craig epic can be judged when compared with his earlier outing, Casino Royale, which took £2.9m on the first day of release just two years ago.
Casino Royale and Daniel Craig went on to win acclaim among both fans and critics and the film became the most popular of 2006, taking more than £50m that the British box office alone.
As James Christopher, writing in The Times said, "Really, nobody does it better than the new 007."

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Ex studio band for Stax-Volt Records in the 1960s, Booker T and the MGs have been inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
The band played on many hits including, Sitting on the dock of the bay, Hold on (I'm comin'), Try a little tenderness and Soul man before establishing a reputation in their own right with the instrumental, Green onions, in 1962.
Named after their young keyboard player and an MG car belonging to record producer Chips Moman, the band backed Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, The Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett and many others.
While Booker T was away studying music at Indiana University, Isaac Hayes would sit in, although never an official member of the group.
In 1967 they had another hit with Hip hug-her, followed by Doin' our thing and Soul limbo, famously used for BBC Test Match Special.
In 1969 they had their second biggest hit with Time is tight.
Called the most influential stylists in modern American music, Booker T and the MGs were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked the group 93rd in their list of 100 greatest artists of all time, and in 2007 they were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
My personal favourite? - their version of Winter wonderland.

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Alas and alack, it has been announced that David Tennant is to stand down as Doctor Who.
This is a bitter blow for fans of one of the most popular Time Lords ever, even if his recent outings with the Royal Shakespeare Company did perhaps suggest the tardis may have lost something of its sparkle.
Tennant took control of the BBC police box and sonic screwdriver in 2005.
The 10th actor to play the Doctor, Tennant replaced Christopher Ecclestone, who reinvented the role after a broadcast gap of almost 20 years.
This week that role won Tennant the outstanding drama performance prize at the National Television Awards for the third time.
He'll appear in a Christmas special, The Next Doctor, before filming four more specials in January.
"They'll be the last four stories that I do," he said.
The question now has to be who will replace Tennant at the helm of the tardis, and whether, with executive producer Russell T Davies also leaving the show, another change of Doctor may be a regeneration too far.
This is the Doctor and time alone will tell.

Sunday 3 August 08 Chat

It's been announced that R&B singer Alicia Keys and Jack White, the rocker from White Stripes and The Raconteurs, have recorded the theme song for the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.
An unlikely coupling on the face of it, but no more so than the now successful artistic pairing of jazz diva Amy Winehouse and DJ Mark Ronson, who, let's not forget, were in the running to compose the new Bond song until Amy's demons surfaced once again.

We'll have to wait until November for the 22nd Bond movie and Daniel Craig, while the film of the moment and proclaimed 'artistic crime of the century' is the astonishing Man on Wire.
This is the much applauded feature-length documentary about the exploits of Frenchman, Philippe Petit, who in August 1974 and 1350 feet up, wire-walked between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. Eight times.
Petit, now 58, was never prosecuted for the illegal act. Rather his bravery was recognised with a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers observation deck.
At the time he can only have expected the Towers would outlast him, but as we now know they were destroyed by terrorists on 11 September 2001. Which makes Petit's amazing courage and this film all the more poignant. See it if you can.

If you haven't been to the cinema this past week perhaps you've been to something a little more humdrum, such as the famous Hen Races at Bonsall near Matlock in Derbyshire, where the 'World's Fastest Hen' was crowned on Saturday.
As well as being a lot of fun (chickens have been known to run back to their owners rather than to the winning end of the 2-meter course), the event at The Barley Mow in Bonsall raises money for the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, which as a committed supporter of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chicken Out campaign to see chickens reared outdoors, is also endorsed by yours truly.






As well as homing ex-battery chickens through the Trust, for £17.99 it's also possible to sponsor ex-bats and ensure their free-range future.

Mum & dad, I've got news for you: you've got everything you could possibly need so I've bought you a ex-battery hen from BHWT for your anniversary... The good news is that with sponsorship you'll never need to clean up the mess on the carpet.