Something For The Weekend 1

Last Friday in the pub, my pal Dave approached me, swaying slightly from the powerful after effects of having quaffed TWO WHOLE BOTTLES of Miller Genuine Draft (“Easy there Tiger!”) and said something along the lines of, “Hey Edge! What the f#ck are you doing with all that spare time? There’s been nothin' on that blog for two f#ckin' weeks now and it’s doin’ ma head in. Geddout yer pit and review somethin' for me cos I’m f#ckin' wallowin’ in a black sea of cultural nothinness here and I need you to be tellin’ me what to think. Music, gigs, pizza, whatever… just get me summa that good learnin’.”

At this point I should say that Dave is a very polite young man and rarely peppers his sparkling conversation with such profane cussin’; I just added it here to make him sound (and feel) like one of the guys and also because I promised not to mention his tendency to execute an excitable little gay handclap during moments of high stress. Judging by the email I received from him yesterday morning, things seem to be heading along the right track.

From: poochieman@bestemployerinScotlandforgays.co.uk
To: neil@neilwritestheworld.com
Subject: Meme....
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:02:18

I have spent the morning reading your blog. I am proud of this fact. I prefer ones like this which actually make me think and have some big words within them as I look like I'm concentrating real hard and doing some impressive work – “contrivance PSP”....what??

I am defo more Han than Luke as I'm always stroking my Wookie. Tremendous. (Can you hear the distinctive handclap in the background?)

Anyway, 2 blog updates in quick succession. You must be spent. Take it easy over the next few days and I'll see you soon Captain Edge.

Cheers, Pooch

All of this got me to thinking that perhaps I should utilise my time in between Starbucks and napping to broaden at least one young man’s cultural horizons. Henceforth, I shall be dedicating each and every Friday to getting Dave the good learnin’ he desires with music recommendations, movie reviews, literary appraisals, perhaps a recipe or two and more frequent use of big words such as ‘henceforth’.

In Dave’s honour then, we’re going to start today with something short, sweet and simple; some extra curricula reading to be exact by way of a blog recommendation.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/ "The world as seen by a TV comedy writer."

I first discovered Ken’s blog last year through Gordon’s site and it’s kept me thoroughly entertained ever since, always very funny with regular laugh-out-loud-whilst-spraying-screen-with-hot-tea-gushing-from-nose moments. In a career that’s spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on shows such as THE SIMPSONS, CHEERS, FRASIER, MASH, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG and WINGS and his behind-the-scenes recollections of these shows, together with his observations about contemporary television, are fascinating.

Dave – Hopefully you can access this at work but if not, it’s worth tracking down when you get home from your leisure time in the office. I know you were just a wee baby dressed up in a bright pink frock because your parents really wanted a girl when some of these shows first aired, but I hope you enjoy reading about them (and others) as much as I do and that it inspires you to spend more time watching Paramount Comedy rather than playing with that filthy PSP contrivance.

And finally, if you’re new here and wondering why Dave calls me ‘Edge’, you can find an explanation by clicking on these nice green words that are underlined.