Facades

[peterbirks]

It's official. Party is significantly fishier since the Monster Bad Beat Jockpit was introduced. How do I know this? Well, I have been running well; but that is not sufficient proof. The average pot per hand is up, but that is not sufficient proof. But when two of my regular "buddies" (one a lag, one the most loose-passive player I have ever seen appear on a table at this level on a regular basis) move up in stakes then clearly even the people whom I define as fish have found people whom they define as fish. Frightening.

So, I'm throwing into the mix a table of $3-$6 whenever one of my lifelong friends is around. This has an extra bit of added EV. It gives me twice the chance of qualifying for the $100K freerolls, since I am playing at two levels. Logically I should 4-table and play at four different levels or max number of players. Then again, what's my EV from the freeroll? $40 maxmimum I would think. Not really worth worrying about.

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I see that capitalism got to work earlier than even I thought. Within two days of the current airline restrictions being brought into play, the "airside" shops have been classed as "sterile" (i.e., you can buy stuff there). The alternative was to see them go broke within a month, I guess. I'd like to moan about this, but the relief of being able to buy a book, a pen, and similar vital accompaniments to air travel are such that my major feeling is one of relief.

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I must recommend "Time Trumpet" to people who were fans of Chris Morris in The Day Today and Brass Eye. Armando Iannucci is back on top form with this one, declining to appear before the camera, but adding his marvellously lugubrious voice to the commentary. Some of his satire really hits home, particularly at the "rent-a-comment" crowd who appear on theose Channel Four compilations. One typical snippet.

"So, do you watch much TV now?"
"Well, not really, maybe I'll take it out of my pocket and watch a few minutes of sport, but there's so much else to do now".
"It would help if you said that you watched a lot of TV."
"Absolutely, I watch TV all the time".

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Comments

Time Trumpet

[geoffchall.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that it's right to say that Armando is back on top form after the appalling failure that was The Thick Of It and his radio thing a few months back. The hierarchy at the Beeb seem to be giving him a very prominent role in the direction of their future comedy plans. He's talking about doing a sitcom which could be interesting if he can rein in the madness.

One review of Time Trumpet said it was clever rather than funny and it does give you more of a knowing chuckle rather than a belly-laugh. I'll be interesting if the Beeb pull the next episode (2009) which is very close to the bone as Charles Clark looks back at the panic of terrorism leading to the banning of all back-packs and then banning all buses and trains.

Sometimes it goes down the route of unpleasant madness (I felt the same way about Brass Eye despite it being Chris Morris's project rather than Armando's). Charlotte Church turning inside out being a case in point. I much prefer it when a apparently normal state of affairs is subverted by some passing remark or piece of surrealism.

But still - a comic genius to use a hackneyed phrase and likely to be far more influential in hindisight than his more-celebrated 'partners' Chris Morris and Steve Coogan.

Re: Time Trumpet

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Well, smack my gussetts and call it a Wednesday, how on earth did The Thick Of It slip my mind? I was casually recalling that half-successful TV series that he did to camera a couple of years back where he came over as some kind of mild-mannered Will Self (you know the one, where he spent a considerable amount of time talking to his barber).

The curious thing is, I found The Thick Of It so horrifically accurate that I didn't burst out laughing. It was more of a "it's about time someone showed it the way it is". I think that because it also seemed to bear some similarities to People Like Us that I tended to link it more with Chris Langham than with Armando. Cruel. "Time Trumpet" on the other hand, did have me laughing out loud on a couple of occasions, usually when some "name" remembered the past (I thought Trevor Peacock was excellent as Gordon Brown).

I sometimes wonder if Iannucci has eches of Milligan's manic-depression. As you say, sometimes the ideas seem to go off into realms of what can only be described as unpleasantness (remember the back-street dentists on The Day Today, or the televised execution of Patrick Marber in the USA, which I vaguely recall had some kind of seriously unplasant association?).

It takes an Iannucci to see the way that the wind is blowing before the Home Sexcretary blows the wind. Yes, why not ban backpacks? It's only an extension of the current madness, it's only a matter of degree. Will our Home Secretary, the Department of Transport, the US Department of Homeland Security, only be happy when we are all under a 24-hour curfew "for our own safety" and they are thanking us for our patience and co-operation in these difficult times? And will most of the public go along with it like sheep, casually approving the shootimg-on-sight of anyone who dares to venture outside?

I was thinking of trying to take a Holy Bible on the plane before they lifted the ban on books that you have bought "airside", on the grounds that it was a necessary item because of my religious beliefs and that to take it away from me breached my human rights. Unfortunately, my past self-professed atheist nature might have worked against me if the case had come to court.

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, If It's The Last Thing We Ever Do.

PJ

Re: Time Trumpet

[geoffchall.livejournal.com]

I think Patrick Marber's execution was to be performed whilst sitting on an electrified toilet in the manner of Elvis. The back-street dentists in The Day Today were amongst my favourite bits, although top slot goes to Doon Mackichan's brilliant Collaterly Sisters character.

And of course Mr Marber is a poker player of some note isn't he? The strange intersections that life brings.