Just a day after we had our Strictly 2008 line-up revealed, the BBC has released a (cinema) trailer for the other Saturday night biggy, "Merlin". Strictly Come Dancing starts in earnest on my birthday - 20 September - so let's hope this does too.
Looks a lot more promising than "Robin Hood" which I quickly gave up on. Colin Morgan looks pretty cute despite the haircut and big ears, and so does the actor playing Arthur.
I know I'm not the only blogger to be perplexed by how people find me, but some of yesterday's crop had such bizarre combinations of search terms and landing sites I thought I'd share some of them.
I'm a little disappointed that the next series of "Strictly Come Dancing" is rather low on male totty - the only one I go for is 'veteran' swimmer Mark Foster, last seen at the Beijing Olympics, where he held the Team GB flag in the opening ceremony a mere 20 days ago. Anyway, we've got no less than three ex-Eastenders too and that woman from "The One Show" out to raise her profile. Official preview clip below, taken at the shoot for the opening titles (hence the green screen).
I'm a bit perplexed by my visitor stats of late. I thought it was the Olympics stealing away my readers but now that's over and the slump isn't (the dip around 17 Aug was self-inflicted when I changed the blog template and temporarily switched off the counter).
Up until this month, my stats recorderded around 800-1000ish page loads per day regularly - now it's half that! My returning visitor counts is also down. What happened folks?
It's 15 years ago now, and my fave show of the year debuted here on Sky One this month - Deep Space 9. I remember this kicking off my Sunday nights followed by a pint or two at the World's End pub in Finsbury Park, admiring the Australian barmen.
Sean Maguire is the totty pick. He appeared as Aidan Brosnan in "Eastenders" from January to December 1993, narrowly missing a Christmas Day demise. Sean later went on to star in "Dangerfield" and "Sunburn" here before gaining stateside credits in "The Class" and fronting "Meet the Spartans". Least said about the pop career the better ...
Apache Indian's "Boom Shack-a Lak" ended up as my favourite track of the year, even though he has since suffered the humiliation of a "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" line-up. This week the parent EP was at No6.
Departing the top spot for No2 was Freddie Mercury with a posthumous hit - Living On My Own.
Culture Beat had toppled the Queen frontman with this dance hit - Mr Vain.
4 Non-Blondes featuring songwriter Linda Perry dropped to No9.
Billy Joel enjoyed something of a comeback with "River of Dreams" - this week down to No5.
My tennis-themed post with Gregory Yuri in June has not left my top 10 most popular list so here's another Brazilian beauty, baring this time on the golf course. Enjoy.
Unless you're reading this on a feed you can't help but have notice I've changed the formatting on the site again. Should be stable for a while now as it achieves the compromises I wanted. I had to go outwith Blogger for the template and it was a bit fiddly but I rather like it. It works best on Firefox and Safari - looks a bit odd in Internet Explorer from what I've seen.
Some people have noted that the 'naughty' blog had gone - it hasn't but it will. The link just moved from the topmost part of the page but still remains lower right (now in black). However, I'm putting in far too much effort for, frankly, zero feedback and I'll probably stop updating from the end of this month. All is not lost though as the latest posts from ALL the blogs I subscribe to on Google reader are now in a similar panel, in the near right column. Note that this means I haven't picked the posts that appear specially, so beware what you might see. All these posts now come with a credit for whichever blog they appear in.
Seeing as we're not travelling back far this weekend (a mere SIX years), here's a spot of double-retro by way of the cameo strewn opening to the third Austin Powers film, "Goldmember" which was on release this week in 2002.
The Sugababes dislodged Darius' Colourblind and enjoyed a solitary week at No1 with this, but it was my fave track of the year - Round Round. It was written by no less than 12 people (including the girls themselves)! Just who toppled them from the top will be revealed when I put up the Retro Totty for 2002 ...
Also falling - to 18 - this week in 2002 were Scooter with a cover of The Logical Song (aka Ramp!). I quite liked the novelty of this at the time, before this squeaky/thumping style became annoyingly dominant for the likes of Cascada and Basshunter, destined mainly for ringtone culture.
Dropping to no20 was Nelly with a suitably summery observation - Hot in Here - one of the ubiquitous background tracks of the year. Well, the lyrics do lend themselves to certain situations ...
In the album chart, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers remained at No1 with By The Way. The highest new entry was at no9 for Royksopp - Melody AM.
On your tellyboxes, the first revival of Crossroads was in it's last few breaths (before the second, desperately camp, revival in early 2003 really nailed the coffin lid shut). The titles are above for those of us who enjoyed this version the best.
Something else by the same name was about to do very rather well though.
Also of note was that we were between two high watermarks of reality TV. Big Brother 3 had ended the previous month and the housemates were enjoying their limited shelf life. This was the one that was won either by Kate Lawler or Jade Goody, depending on your perspective. But reality TV fans were just about to be tickled by the debut of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" - the first zelebs were flown out to Australia this week.
Camper than a row of tents this one - not released as a single, but one of my favourite numbers from the Village People movie, "Can't Stop the Music" which was in cinemas in August 1980. This is a rather overlong edit (I'd start at 2.20 mins) of "The Milkshake Song", featuring 'all-in-white' and kiddie versions of the band. Arlene Phillips choreographed the dance sequences.
Going in the other direction is Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love", which rose to No16 this week but eventually topped the chart. I remember those backing dancers, who were always dressed even more ridiculously than Kelly herself. Remarkably, the song was originally earmarked for Elvis Presley, but he died before it could be recorded.
Another Scottish lass, Sheena Easton, rises to no3 with '9 to 5' - which infamously clashed in ethos with the rather more feminist "Modern Girl" which was about to rejoin this track in the same chart. Easton got very lucky with breaks after this, soon singing the next Bond theme then going on to star in "Miami Vice" and work with Prince.
I get the feeling jumpsuits and spandex were in that summer ...
William Higgins did about five of these 'school' themed features a few years back. Like 'Airport Security' they seem to have died a death, but this is my favourite I think.
