"I wiped my arse in the faunt!"

'Tis fucking raining like the proverbial...

Rang the Inland Revenue this morning to enquire about something and other, but was told their system is down - nice to see our taxes are being used to pay people to work on Saturday when they can't actually answer any queries, and told me to ring during the week. Great.

Anyway, what's with the title of this post? I finished watching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (the quote is from "The Apes of Wrath" episode :) ). Absolutely sheer comedic genius - if you haven't seen it, then pop out now and get the dvd - or purchase it online from all good dvd retailers.

Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade are just fantastically funny has Garth and Dean Learner (his publisher) respectively. In fact, I'd say Ayoade is funnier - it takes a good actor to play someone trying to act, really badly.

But, Darkplace works because of the whole thing: the lighting, design, music - everything is reminiscent of those rather dodgy 80s television programmes that seemed to pop up, then disappear almost immediately (for some reason, Manimal springs to mind - anyone remember that? God, that was awful...)

And Garth himself - if you're fan of horror writing, then you'll instantly recognise who Holness and Ayoade based him on, an amalgam of Shaun Hutson and James Herbert (but there's also a bit of Ramsey Campbell in there too.)

Well worth watching, along with their new series - Man to Man with Dean Learner, which is essentially a late-night chatshow where Ayoade (as Learner) chats with various celebrities who he has worked with. It's currently broadcast on C4, with two episodes thus far: the first, with Garth, and last night's with Steve Piser (also played by Holness, in an almost note-perfect impression of Nigel Mansell - though it did remind me of Steve Coogan's turn as the boring night attendant from "The Pool" documentary that was shown within the superb The Day Today).

So, what is planned for the remainder of the weekend? Hopefully the rain'll ease off so that I can pop into town and drop off my parent's PC for a second-opinion (it's dead, but hopefully not terminal). I also need to stock up on some beer, and possibly something watch this evening - yes, it's all go in my life!

So, until next time...

btw, a bunch of kids knocked on the door last night, all dressed in those masks from Scream, "happy hallowe'en!" and then they expected me to part with some silver. I think the little oiks were hoping I was as thick as them, and were rather taken aback when I retorted with, "but Hallowe'en is on the 31st... come back then!" and closed the door.

Cheeky fuckers.

Adios.

APPENDUM: This was written earlier this morning, but for some sodding reason it couldn't be published... but since then, it is still raining like the proverbial, but I've ventured out, stocked up on beer, bread and learnt that parent's PC is indeed terminal and will require a new mo-bo plus processor and and memory. Oh fucking joy!

Still, 'tis cheaper than buying a new one, and it is my father's birthday on Wednesday - I'll probably split it with my mother. The cost that is, not the PC.