Dollhouse

Just watched episode 1 of season 2 of Dollhouse, one of a couple that I missed. Has there ever been a darker tv series? It is presented lightly with lots of explosions and surface glamour, it could almost be the heist of the week show that Fox probably thought they were buying. But it is dark, dark, dark. Every episode shows nice people struggling with moral dilemmas and failing utterly, while subjecting other people to unimaginable but all too believable abuse. Eliza Dushku is terrific as the lead character, but like so many of Joss Wheedon's shows this is an ensemble piece. Overall the guy who plays Victor is incredible - playing a huge range of roles and being totally believable in all of them. To be watched.

An odd sense of achievement

A while ago I had to change my i-tunes library from the PC to external hard drives. In doing so I ended up resetting the play status of a lot of songs. Coupled with quite a lot of ripping from CDs, I ended up with over 2100 songs marked as unplayed. Following a quite dedicated programme of only playing "unplayed" songs, I have got that down to below 500. (Which is still about 50 albums worth). It has been enjoyable, but not always as easy as you might expect. Crossing the broad steppes of Radiohead took forever, no matter how brilliant they are. The mountain range of Kristin Hersh and 50ft wave were full of highs and lows. The slough of Leonard Cohen takes self confidence. Still to come are the fields of Joy Division.

It gives me a rather odd sense of achievement.

Vote, vote, vote

Today is likely to be a big change in the country. Obviously. It is election day. The signs are not good nationally and although I have some hopes locally, the reality is that the damage has probably been done and we will be lumbered with our incombent MP for another term. Which is depressing.

The best we can hope for is a hung parliament with "call me Dave" denied an absolute majority. Which is a shocking performance on his part. In the teeth of a once in a century recession he has failed to make the case for the Conservative party. And his call for change failed to consider that people could also change to the Liberal Democrats... oops.

limping to the end

A tame and lacklustre end to a terrible season. The Europa cup would have been some return, but we didn't deserve it. Good luck to Fulham - hope they can do it and Roy Hodgson gets the recognition he deserves. The rumour is we are looking at him to replace Rafa.
To be honest I fear a firesale before Hicks and Gillette sell up - cashing in on Torres, Gerrard and Mascherano might net them £100m, and would it change the value of the club? Their strategy has failed though - now we cannot finish in the top 4 and are out of the European Champions League, will we ever regain that position? Will we now slip down to take the traditional Spurs role - pretty good, may win a cup, but can't attract or keep the strongest players and so cannot crack the top 4? It is an ominous thought.

Still there is a perverse pleasure in our feeble performance almost certainly denying the Premiership to Man Utd. But that is a pathetic way to go.