Just to be clear

If they're asking questions about you on Jeopardy, you're not really an alternative any more.


[via Brooklyn Vegan]

The illustrated Friends: Michael Miles

Let's get back to the people Adam Ant claims to be Friends of his. If you're just joining us, this is what it's all about.

Next up is Michael Miles. Given the song was released in 1979, a year after Halloween came out, casual listeners might have assumed that the guest list had found space for this chap:

But, in fact, Adam was chumming up to Michael Miles, former host of Take Your Pick. By the time of the song, Miles was already starting to drift away from the public consciousness - Take Your Pick was as far in the past from Friends as Going For Gold was in the future. But the format - and, in particular, the Yes/No interlude - never quite vanishes.

Miles had a crappy hand dealt him: Take Your Pick was dropped because the company that made it lost its ITV franchise; he suffered from epilepsy and, ashamed of his condition, would lock himself in his dressing room. That, though, just created rumours that he was an alcoholic. He died in 1971.

But can we find a tenuous bit of music? We had Mr Pastry dancing; we had an Adam Ant song directly inspired by Allen Jones. Surely there must be something?

Well... kind of. Take Your Pick was revived twice - once for a full series, hosted by Des O'Connor...

... and once, as a one-off as part of ITV's Gameshow Marathon. Hosted by Ant and Dec. Let's prove there is a downward spiral from Des, shall we?


[Buy: Des O'Connor - Inspired
PJ And Duncan - aka Psyche]
[Part of the illustrated Friends]

Bret Michaels: Ooh, spoilers

After all this time, we've finally found that Bret Michaels has won The Celebrity Apprentice, following in the footsteps of Piers Morgan.

It's now, then, been officially confirmed that having something seriously wrong with your brain will make you fit in better with Donald Trump's business style.

Gordon in the morning: Eminem's career must be on the slide

The whole suggestion that Eminem is begging Simon Cowell for a judging seat on the X Facor seems strange.

Sure, you can see why Eminem might need to try and find a way in front of a big audience again, perhaps with a caption saying "Yes, he's still going", but why would he set his back-to-front baseball cap at X Factor instead of American Idol? Or did he issue two statements, identical except for the programme name, tailored to each market?

Em believes he could judge better:

Eminem, real name MARSHALL MATHERSIII, said: "No disrespect to the current judges but you need people who are global, platinum-selling stars. You need to prepare contestants for what it's really like out there, and what sort of pressure you are going to be under."

It's not disrespectful, but, hey, your current judges are nobodies.

The big question is why, exactly, you'd need judges who know what it's like to be a mulit-platinum selling artist to spot a person who could successfully have a single number one before booking two seasons' panto in Northampton.

Given that Eminem's biggest gift to the world so far has been starting Dido on a career, let's hope Cowell quietly ignores him.

Justin Timberlake is the Jeremy Beadle of pop

Justin Timberlake has got involved with a new MTV gameshow:

Justin Timberlake is set to put his music career on the back burner and produce a new reality game show for MTV.

Somehow, we're finding it hard to believe that Timberlake's production role is going to be so hands-on that it might stop his music career from flourishing.

The gameshow is basically that old local radio stand-by, ringing a phone, seeing if someone picks it up and then asking them answer a question and win a prize. The only slightly modern twist is that instead of calling a phonebox, they'll be callling a mobile phone instead.

MTV is excited, of course. MTV are always excited:

Speaking about the show, MTV executive vice-president Tony Disanto said: "Reinvention is at the core of what we do, and The Phone does just that. Each week will be an action-packed mini-movie.”

We're not sure that flinging on a game show is a reinvention of MTV, which has been showing flim-flam that has little to do with music for years and years.

Weakest Link goes Britpop

We suspect there's no real plan to produce a Britpop Special edition of The Weakest Link beyond a vague idea and a Daily Star gossip columnist, but let's play along.

Naturally, the big idea is to refight Blur versus Oasis - yet again - this time as quiz; beyond Albarn and one of the Gallaghers:

[o]ther stars that bosses want to have on the show include Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Elastica's Justine Frischmann, Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield and Suede's Brett Anderson.

We suspect the best they'll manage is one of the Boo Radleys; Bonehead and/or Guigsy; Phil 'I was on Park Life' Daniels; the drummer from Echobelly and probably, stretching a point, Justin Hawkins.

It might be indistinguishable from a normal edition of the programme.

Embed and breakfast man: Tony Wilson

It seems appropriate this weekend to spend some time looking at some of the more obscure corners of Tony Wilson's legacy.

First, here's a slice of Remote Control:



More video stuff will appear over the weekend; a small menu will, as ever, appear here
The Wendys
The Railway Children
Northside
Durutti Column