Curb Your Enthusiasm

I’m on a flight recently, and I settle in with my headphones and watch an entire season of a sitcom in one gulp. I’ve not upgraded for the movies and meal – but in the end I didn’t feel like sleeping or reading, so I scroll the TED Talks and docos and other free options. […]

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November 19, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 215

Shelley Berman, A Personal Appearance (1962) I love listening to old stand-up comedy records – so out of date in so many ways, but find a good one and you can revel in the storytelling, the timing, the performance (even if the material doesn’t stand up). If the material isn’t overtly sexual or political then […]

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November 14, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: The TED.Danson Talks

* I first knew Ted Danson from Cheers. He played a guy called Sam Malone. But he could have been named Ted Danson. * Ted Danson had been in a load of TV before Cheers – rubbish soaps and sitcoms, a walk-on here, a bit part there. But he was in Taxi… it was […]

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August 8, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong: Seinfeldia – How A Show About Nothing Changed Everything

Seinfeldia: How A Show About Nothing Changed Everything Jennifer Keishin Armstrong Simon & Schuster Seinfeld – the “Show about nothing” – is now revered as a comedy classic. It wasn’t even a modest hit at first, it could have gone the way of Herman’s Head and those sorts of late night nearly-cult shows…its network did […]

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March 8, 2012 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 1590

Radiohead, Radiohead…Before Computers (1999) Remember when Radiohead was almost a shoegazer band? This bootleg compilation does! It’s of more interest to me now than listening to the Itch EP or Pablo Honey (nothing wrong with them – just done to death for me). This takes tracks from the band’s very early “On A Friday” demo […]