I'm an ex-pat living in California. I drive 100 miles a day, in San Francisco Bay Area traffic, to and from work. I subscribe to quite a few podcasts, mostly footy, British comedy, British newspapers etc.

The absolute highlight of my week is seeing The Word podcast in my iPod. It's my favourite by miles.

However, I've worn out the volume knob on my car stereo, turning it up and down, up and down, every time David speaks at -99db, then the guest speaks at +99db.
If I kick in a few bucks for a couple of extra mics, would it help? :)

Then you can hear it all and get a good sense of a number of people in a room.

Welcome back, that and the spurs show in 1 week
does it get any better!

Baz no likey animation? Shame on you
it's always been a pleasure when I used to meet dom and you were there
I'm going to have to reconsider that opinion! ;)

COYS

When I think of my anger and dissatisfaction at cinemas and cinema audiences in the last decade, I'm astonished at how many of these feelings have arisen from screenings at this particular venue. It's been one of my locals for 12 years, and I avoid it at all costs.

'Peek', surely?

I feel massively vindicated, yet somehow petty.

My friend was enjoying a relaxing sauna in a public fitness centre recently. She was slighlty perturbed to see a fellow user wander into the humid steam room carrying a large bucket of chicken and proceed to munch their way through the reeking contents obvious to any appeals to desist.

Subtitles: having watched the Wire mainly on the Tv (live) I've never used the subtitles (not sure my laptop has them) and not missed them apart from the odd bit of slang. The meaning of the scenes were mostly clear. Usually any slang becomes clear later in the show.

Oddly the only time I felt the need for subtitles is last night's episode based in the newpaper, the first five minutes of newsroom slang was totaly incomprehensible!

lastly the one bit of the Wire I was slow on the up take on and just wanted to check, did anyone else think "Snoop" was a bloke ( I thought she was some sort of 14 year old hitman for several shows!)

Talking about getting onto the web whilst on holiday - I took my netbook with me on the basis that I would look up places to visit in the Dordogne.

Couldn't get a wifi connection in the gite or in fact in most towns down there - or if you could you had to be a subscriber to a particular ISP.

Anyway - we were saved by Mcdonalds who apart from selling questionably healthy artery cloggers - had whizzy and free wifi. So apart from collecting a number of free glasses - my son could log on and check the status of his pet frog - which made his day.

Plus Mcdonalds in France have this screen ordering system where you can order your burger (in multiple languages)without having to queue for ages and converse in a foreign language.

Something positive to say about mcdonalds.

PS I refuse to buy cinema food and drink cos its a rip-off. Buy your sweeties before-hand from a supermarket pick and mix and smuggle in some cans of coke or something stronger - who will see you when the lights are down! Certain chains get arsey about taking in your own food - but I keep reminding them that they are running a cinema and not a restaurant ;0)

Have watched the whole thing twice now and haven't used subtitles. I sort of tuned in to the dialogue after a while. Watching on DVD helps, in that you can go back and check what is going on if you feel the need. If people feel that subtitles help them enjoy it, however, why should that be a problem? Maybe I'll use them next time to see if I missed anything that matters.
Yes, I also assumed Snoop was a boy, but knowing otherwise I wonder how that was possible.

Barksdale: Sit your backside down young man.

D’Angelo (Sits in booth): I am fully aware that matters have not gone as they should have. However in my defence I must stress that the gentleman known to us as Pooh caught me off my guard. He lunged at me like an escaped lunatic!

Barksdale: So you shot the devil!

D’Angelo: I must again persist in my assertion that the aforementioned gentleman was behaving in an extremely confrontational manner towards me.

Barksdale: You were, at the time, located in a building controlled by our organisation. You had reliable men posted on both staircases and reinforcements gathered around the exterior of the property. Furthermore you had a gun. What I fail to understand is how in the name of the King George you shot a gentlemen of Afro-Caribbean descent in front of a sentry post and a large crowd of witnesses.

... good to have ye back.

heaven, normality is restored, all is well again

phew

and great to hear more Big Star stuff - I remember David's great story of spending time with Mr Chilten long ago. However Chris Bell had left before they made Third as far as I'm aware so I'd be interested to know what album Dickinson was talking about.
Agree wholeheartedly with the general point though. Imagine Prince with an editor!

Have you noticed the Guardian Media Talk podcast seems to have copied the 'what have you learnt this week' segment from Word?

In the podcast David Hepworth says that Inglourious Basterds is "four times" as long as Tarantino's earlier work. Although at 153 mins, it is 54 minutes longer than Reservior Dogs, Pulp Fiction was 154 minutes, as was Jackie Brown, while Kill Bill vols 1 and 2 clock in at a combined 247 minutes. Tarantino just seems to prefer the longer form.

I think Dylan's claim that he's able to do this may explain much of Van Morrison's notorious, er, personality issues. He seems to hate and resent being famous, seeing it as the tax he's forced to pay if he is to continue doing what he wants to do, which is to write and sing R&B songs, whether anyone happens to be listening or not. Dylan protests that he's not a prophet, but Van Morrison goes further, hankering after a life as a non-public figure that he simply can't have.

If you think about it, it's actually a terrible bind to find yourself in: to be an intensely shy person with just one vocation in life, but, unlike cabinet-making or book-binding, it's a vocation that necessarily involves being recognised and, in consequence, deified or dissed by millions of people all over the world.

"Leave me alone and I'll live a happy life, but I can't live any kind of life if you don't attend my concerts and buy my records." Oh, bugger.

Regarding limiting the time and budget of photographers to get better results, I think the best comparison is with music videos.

My favourite music videos at the moment are these, of the Jim Jones Revue, a small-time rock 'n' roll band with a big sound and a great stage presence:
http://tinyurl.com/mgswgx
http://tinyurl.com/7xt3uj

No budget was needed to show the band and the songs at their best - just the skill and imagination to put the camera in the right places at the right times. No other video could possibly do a better job of promoting this product.
Would Duran Duran have survived this kind of raw exposure of their abilities?

Agreed. They are an astoundingly good live band. The last few times I've seen them play they had Mick Jones and Bobby Gillespie going semi-mental in the crowd.

I am a bit of a latecomer to these podcasts and have been playing catch-up lately. I have listened to 84 podcasts in the last two weeks in the bath, dog walking, driving, shopping but mostly in work where i have my own office, and have to lten with one headphone in my left ear in case the boss walks in where i casually scratch my ear and deposit said headphone down the front of my shirt. So far so good and if i'm not caught i'll be up to date by the weekend (if i don't get sacked beforehand).

.

Having just registered for the site - although read every issue of the mag - can I just say how wonderful the cover CD is this month and the lovely surprise of a Stackridge track. Made me buy a copy of their new CD straight off - even though there wasnt a Word review to confirm it's brilliance. and IT'S BLOODY GOOD TOO

Thanks for the pointer and now going to check out more by Angel Brothers, Joe Henry and Young Rebel Set. YOu'll be hearing from my bank manager if you keep up this standard

When BBC America show Ashes to Ashes they add subtitles for Gene Hunt's dialogue. Not for any of the other characters, just Gene Hunt. The subtitles are sometimes bowdlerized.

Myself and some friends have seen two football-related films this year at our local picture house. On both occasions, we have smuggled drink in, purchased from the bar across the street.

The staff of said bar even allowed us to test out various cans and bottles to see if we could hide them about our persons without them being detectable.

For 'The Damned United' I opted for two bottled lagers in my front pockets but when it came to 'Looking For Eric' I switched to two cans of LCL in my back pockets, combined with a large untucked shirt.

I am 37.

To give some substance to Barry's claims about deaths in August from the heat, some years back when we visited Memphis, Tn and were being taken by a local guide to Sun Studios he claimed that Sam Phillips death was not due to the complaint he had been hospitalised for, but because the air conditioning in the hospital failed. This was just a few months after Sam's death. Strictly speaking he died July 30th July, but its close enough.
Living in Noth London just where it's starting to get hilly and being a cyclist I can confess to those smug feelings Mark Ellen mentions when passing other cyclists on hills. Especially those who have spent vast amounts on their bikes but have not got a clue about how or why to use their gears.