REPOST: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Tertiary Phase

Originally posted on The Unpleasant Lair Of Spank The Monkey 13/10/2004. Reposted now because the radio show's producer, Dirk Maggs, has just adapted another one of Douglas Adams' books for the wireless.

A six-part dramatisation of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency starts on Wednesday October 3rd at 6.30pm on BBC Radio 4, and each episode should be available via the above website for one week after its initial transmission. Most of my concerns with Maggs' adaptation of Hitch-Hiker stemmed from him trying to hammer a literary novel into a pre-defined audio format. As this one doesn't have to fit an established structure, maybe it'll be more successful. I hope so, anyway.

Night Of The Robot Pilots: Terminator vs Bionic Woman

It's like they say on the anti-piracy adverts: I wouldn't steal a handbag, I wouldn't steal a car, and I certainly wouldn't steal a movie. Stealing a TV show, on the other hand, seems like fair game to me. I'm not sure why I feel more relaxed about torrenting television programmes than I do with other media, though it may have something to do with me being rubbish at it. Time and again I've downloaded entire seasons of the latest American hits, only for them to still be sitting unwatched on my PC by the time they legally make it to UK TV: more often than not, the only time I use the files is as an occasional fallback if I forget to set the video.

Still, these two are a little bit different: the pilots of two of the most hotly anticipated shows of the US 2007-8 TV season, which have been flying around the internet for several months before transmission. It almost feels as if these have been leaked deliberately, just to get people talking about them. And rumour has it that both of them are going to be reshot substantially prior to their official air dates, so it probably isn't as bad to watch illegal copies of them. Well, that's how I'm justifying this to myself, anyway.

Halfby: Side Farmers

If there's one good thing that the Edinburgh International Film Festival did just before it moved to a June slot and out of my life forever, it's this: introducing me to Halfby.

Film 2007 with Britney Spears

Hi! It's Britney, bitch. When I'm not shaving my head, divorcing rednecks or exposing myself in the back of limos, I like going to the movies just like anyone else. And you know what my favourite kind of movies are? R-rated ones. All that swearing, violence and nudity just gets me so hot.

I think it's great that this year, they've started making R-rated trailers too, so that they can keep all that good stuff in the trailer without any character development, dialogue or all that sorta crap getting in the way. The problem is, they can only put these trailers on the internet, and the way they make sure under-17s can't see them is by putting an age gate in the front - checking your details against a US Government database before letting you into the site. Which isn't much use to you if you're one of the few people in the world who doesn't live in America.

Anyway, as a recent article on the Empire magazine website points out, there's good news for anyone who doesn't have a valid US ID to enter these sites. You can use mine instead!

Simian Substitute Site for September 2007: Stoop!d Monkey

Well, that's Edinburgh over for another year. In case you missed it, the Postscript appeared on the site yesterday, featuring additional comments from some of Spank's Pals. I'm expecting at least two more contributions over the next few days, so keep watching the page for new material.

And to answer Nick's question: yes, I'm definitely hoping to be back in Edinburgh for 2008. 2009 is another story, however...