who is really excited for American Idol since it’s been announced that Ellen is going to be the new judge?

It was a totally unexpected reaction for me.  I never really had an opinion about Ellen, but I think she completely fill the gap left by Paula and will totally regenerate the show.

I can’t wait until the season starts!  Roll on January!

The horror show of girls wearing leggings continues.

Yesterday I saw a pair of artfully ripped leggings.  WTF!  How many fashion don’ts do you have to cram in an outfit!

Stop this crime against fashion before it gets any worse!  Join me in the fight against leggings!

The U.K. recession is going to end in 40 days.  At least, that’s what it says on the front page of the Metro today.  So, everyone mark it on your calendars: the U.K. recession is going to end of September 28th. 

Think of this period like Lent.  Only instead of giving up sweets or chocolate, you’ve given up money.

I’m already planning my End of the Recession Day Party. 

I wonder if they have any greetings cards…

At the end of the new Black Eyed Peas video one of the final scenes shows a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies being taken from the oven.  Someone then bumps the tray sending cookies flying all over the kitchen floor.  The song insists that “Tonight’s gonna be a good night”.  Having my freshly baked cookies dropped on the floor is not my definition of a good night.  It is, for me, the definition of a very bad night.  If that happened at a party I was hosting, I would kick everyone out immediately and lock all the doors so they couldn’t come back in.

Ruining freshly bake chocolate chip cookies is a crime against humanity.  FACT!

RIP John Hughes

You’re movies are legendary.  So much of how I think of the 1980s and view them are through your images.

Good news for all economy news watchers, the BBC graphic for the economic downturn has changed from a giant arrow point down to a giant arrow point slightly up.  Okay, it’s not even at a full 45 degrees, but it is definitely starting to point upwards.  Also, the BBC are no longer calling it an economic downturn, it’s now the “UK recession”.  With RBS announcing small profits today certainly these are definitive signs that we are no longer in a economic downward spiral of doom.

In other good news, new cases of swine flu are down this week.  We’re all no longer going to die!

Call off the four horseman of the Apocalypse, the end is not nigh!

Possible the worst pair of leggings ever spotted on a girl by the bus stop yesterday afternoon.  These leggings had ambitions to be trousers.  They had a belt and a faux fly detail.  Even worse, the girl had her t-shirt tucked into the leggings so the fabric of the leggings unattractively bunched up.

Remember girls, friends don’t let friends wear leggings!

Morton Harket from A-HA is 50 this year!  Have you seen him lately?  He looks 35 at the oldest.  Definitely still one of the most attrative men in pop.

He must have a very aged looking portrait in his attic…

Vampires are not sexy!

The novel Dracula is, according to literary critics, an allegory of male sexual paranoia and ever since it was published people have been operating under the notion that vampires are irresistibly sexy.  This is not true.  Sometimes, the actors who portray the vampires are sexy, but a vampire in of itself is not.

Vampires have become increasingly popular in recent years.  Buffy, Twilight and True Blood have all served to make vampires look cool and attractive.  But if you really think about what they are and what they do, vampires are actually rather gross.

Here’s some tough facts:

1. They’re dead.  As in the opposite of alive – as in they once were alive then they died and then they became vampires.

2. They want to eat you.  I know in Twilight they are vegetarian vampires and in True Blood they drink synthetic blood, but they all still crave human blood.  So the whole time you are out on a date with a vampire they are probably trying not to think about how tasty your blood is.

3. Even if the vampire you are dating doesn’t want to suck your blood, their friends probably do, and they will probably try to lure you away in order to suck your blood.  I know it’s difficulty that faces a lot of couples; groups of friends don’t always blend.  But honestly, if you are dating a vampire, you could never go out with they’re friends.  It would be too dangerous.

4. They bite you during sex and suck a little blood.  That could make you anaemic.  That would make anaemia a STD.  STDs are not sexy!

5. And this is in my opinion is the worst of them all: you will age but your vampire lover won’t.  They will inevitably leave you for a younger human.

So, here’s a suggestion girls: don’t date vampires, stick to humans.

As loyal readers of this blog will know, one of my favorite activities is complaining about The Culture Show.  However this week, I come not to dis The Culture Show but praise it. 

This week’s episode was great.  I loved the debate between Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo about music biopics.  The was a great piece on Tony Wilson and Factory Records.  Best of all, it was hosted by Tim Marlow not Lauren Laverne.  Hur-rah!  Finally a presenter that actually knows about culture.  Please, BBC, keep this format.  It was how The Culture Show should be.