Excited semi-lucid ramble the first

Some people might know what rhubarb is, but me, well I think of Roobarb. And why not? Life is good. You know, since I was last here I've been working, sleeping, eating, rehearsing, drinking, listening to music (mostly Andy Gaunt, a guy I know, the Beatles, Barenaked Ladies, TISM, some Tori Amos, a group I took a punt on when I found their CD cheap called Antediluvian Rocking Horse (they're experimental, and weird), and best of all Jewel, who I'd forgotten was so awesome, though her new CD sounds like it's all dancey and she's lost her edges - I mean, this is the girl who wrote Pieces of You, Adrian and Who Will Save Your Soul, and now she has songs called things like Run 2 U and You & Me = Love...) You know, all the good stuff that human beings do. I have two new housemates, one of whom I already know (she's awesome) and another who seems really cool. I have found a job I really want, and all I need to do is convince the nice people of Darebin to let me help run their libraries. I think this is something within my mighty powers of persuasion. I have recently finished reading Ian Stewart's pretty good Flatterland and JK Rowling's meringue-like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've been playing Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, which is like plugging a cable into my head which is labelled "Give Ben Pirates" and flipping a big switch marked "On." Tomorrow is the first meeting of my next show, and rehearsals continue for the Hartwell Players season of short plays, which opens at the start of August. My friends are doing really well in theatre too, with Theatre In Decay rocking everyone's socks off with All of Which are American Dreams, and Ben Ellis continues his usual high standard of work on Falling Petals, which is also getting rave reviews. Next week is Eddie Izzard week - I'm ready, Julian! - and any week now, the best film ever made will come to meet my face in glorious colour: Pirates of the Caribbean. I could pretty much only be happier if I was making love right now, but hey, I'll get some of that in when the right girl comes along.

Oh, and I wrote some answers to those questions from Xian, but I spent about three hours editing and revising the bastard things and then saved them somewhere at work, so they'll be posted when I find them. Plus a big hello to the nice girl who added me as a friend, you seem to know the Morgatron (Hi Morgatron!) and Kate (Hi Kate!), so you must be cool. This post is dedicated to you.

Oh right, I almost forgot: there's this cool guy, maybe you've heard of him, he's named Richard E. Grant and he's the star of Withnail & I and he's the fucking new Doctor Who baby! Yeah. I almost forgot.

PS I decided you could all be lazy and looked up links for all the most interesting things I mentioned above, that's what the underlined bits are.

"I say, that when a thing completely surpasses my comprehension, I am accustomed not to dwell on that thing, but to pass to another. Is supper ready, Signor Pastrini?"

About the new Doctor Who thing

I am a little jaded about new Doctor Who. To paraphrase theshnook, if I had a punch in the cock for every news article proclaiming so-and-so as the new Doctor Who, my grandchildren wouldn't be able to have kids. But the thing is, if you'd take the time to read the article I lovingly linked to for you guys, then you would know two things:

1. Richard E. Grant is the official new BBC Doctor Who.


2. The new production in which he will star is not a television programme, or even an audio adventure (there have been a smegload of those in recent years, starring old Doctors), but an Internet broadcast cartoon with audio on BBCi, the BBC's web site. They've done this twice before, once with a new story starring Sylvester McCoy, and once with Paul McGann rerecording a story originally written for Tom Baker.

So, you can put your TV licenses away, and indeed see the new Doctor from wherever you are in the world in November, in time for the 40th anniversary (November 23rd). In the meantime, check out Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death for some visual Richard E. Grant as the Doctor action - and some funny, funny stuff.