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Raise The Ramparts High
Apr. 14th, 2007 12:42 pmAn amble through some news archives turned up the news that Star Trek is the series that people in the UK most missed. This item was from the end of 2005, and the BBC has since taken to reshowing various episodes, as is their wont, at varying times, putting it on some weeks, not putting it on other weeks. This is the BBC's idea of how cult programmes should be broadcast -- as inconveniently as possible They performed similar horrors with Arrested Development, Malcolm In The Middle, The Simpsons (before it was correctly taken away from them) and Seinfeld. With Arrested Development, they not only buggered about with the broadcasting times, but the stated broadcast times were self-evidently a lie, since only 20 minutes was allocated. This was a bit of a problem, since each episode was 22 minutes long. Unlucky if you tried to record it according to the official broadcast times.
I came upon the Star Trek TNG article because of the news that an episode entitled "The High Ground" is to be shown at an Arts Festival in Belfast. Why is this notable? Because this episode has never been shown by the BBC. And why did the BBC never show it? Because in the episode, Data recalls that Ireland was reunified in 2024.
Now, science fiction TV fans should not be confused with fans of the literary genre. Although both have their fair share of fanatics who seem to refuse to watch or read anything else, SF tube watchers can beat any SF book reader hands down when it comes to lunacy. God knows how many google alerts the mere mention of Start Trek will set off.
A mere look at the top ten most missed series illustrates the keenness. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was the second-most missed series, while Blake's Seven, Babylon Five and Stargate were also in there. I once had a girlfriend who was nuts on Babylon Five, and it was a bit like meeting Emo's Southern Baptist 1914 Tennessee Chapter fundamental Christian. Not only was non-SF heretical, but so was non-Babylon-Five-SF. You can only be a fanatic in a very narrow field, and SF is just too wide.
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An interesting tax exemption was mentioned by Geoff in his latest newsletter. It would appear to me that what I need to do is recategorise any business that I run under the heading of "professional musician". Then I buy a three-hundred-grand violin or piano (or trumpet or saxophone, although these items don't seem to generate such works of art, or at least, not ones that make such prices at auction...) and promptly term it "capital expenditure". As cognoscenti of UK tax rules will know (an area which, ever since I have owned houses, I fear I have strayed into) capital expenditure for small businesses now generates tax relief at 100%.
This makes sense if you are buying computers and suchlike, but the brilliant thing about buying expensive violins is that they go up in value. Therefore (provided your business is making as much a year as the cost of the violin), the "capital expenditure" means you get a tax gift from the revenue. Of course, when you sell the violin at auction (hopefully at a profit) the revenue wants its money back. But it still works out as an interest-free loan. And, if you then buy another violin, you can roll over the gain. Brilliant.
Of course, what you really want to do is to wangle this into something that you can really use (as a violinist really uses his or her violin). Real estate is the obvious possibility, if that can be termed capital expenditure. But there are other areas that occur. Cars (if you like luxury cars, become a luxury taxi business), boats, and so on, could all be used, although these do not have the advantages of real estate and classical musical instruments, in that they actually do depreciate.
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ITV 4 is rebroadcasting the Larry Sanders episodes again (2.45am, Tuesday night, I think), although ITV 4 has a habit of shifting the broadcast times without notice, forward or backward half an hour, so any recording has to allow a lot of leeway in either direction.
I've missed the first five episodes, damnit, but that still leaves a considerable number that I can put on DVD that I do not currently have.
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Being a fan of Marmite is a bit like being an alcoholic. Once other people know that you like Marmite, they seem to assume that it dominates your life. Any visit to their house overnight will see the Marmite being specially brought out from the back of the cupboard, dusted down and placed next to the bread bin, as if you never ate anything else for breakfast. It's a bit like all the alcohol being carefully removed from public display (because, like, we don't want to put temptation in your way, is the unspoken message, as if one isn't surrounded by alcohol consumption every day of the week in any case).
Well, for all you non-Marmite eaters out there, people who eat Marmite don't necessarily eat it all the time. It's just something that I fancy occasionally -- less often, to be truthful, than I like honey on toast, and far less often than I like cheese on toast. "Oh, so you like sweet things too!" they say, amazed that anyone who can cope with Marmite can also cope with anything sugar-related.
+++++++++++
I don't know if there is some kind of hidden artist in me, but I'm a sucker for children's artist sets. I mean, £7.95 for 12 crayons, 8 water colours, 12 colouring pencils, and bundles of other stuff. Brilliant! You can just get some A4 paper and draw away in psychedelic colours to your heat's content. Very therapeutic.
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It's not often that I fall back into my old ways of watching horse-racing. After nigh on 20 years of the stuff, I've had quite enough of betting shops and horses, thank-you-very-much.
But I make an exception for the Grand National, a race that I have always loved. A detailed five-minute examination of the runners this year have led me to select Longshanks and Bothar Na.
There's very little that is scientific about my picks these days. I like horses that Ladbrokes seems unkeen to lay, which carry less than 11 stone 2lb, which are aged nine or ten, which are not overraced, which have jockeys with experience, and which look like they might have been "laid out" for the race.
Perhaps a modest 50p each way on each is in order....
I came upon the Star Trek TNG article because of the news that an episode entitled "The High Ground" is to be shown at an Arts Festival in Belfast. Why is this notable? Because this episode has never been shown by the BBC. And why did the BBC never show it? Because in the episode, Data recalls that Ireland was reunified in 2024.
Now, science fiction TV fans should not be confused with fans of the literary genre. Although both have their fair share of fanatics who seem to refuse to watch or read anything else, SF tube watchers can beat any SF book reader hands down when it comes to lunacy. God knows how many google alerts the mere mention of Start Trek will set off.
A mere look at the top ten most missed series illustrates the keenness. Buffy The Vampire Slayer was the second-most missed series, while Blake's Seven, Babylon Five and Stargate were also in there. I once had a girlfriend who was nuts on Babylon Five, and it was a bit like meeting Emo's Southern Baptist 1914 Tennessee Chapter fundamental Christian. Not only was non-SF heretical, but so was non-Babylon-Five-SF. You can only be a fanatic in a very narrow field, and SF is just too wide.
+++++++++++
An interesting tax exemption was mentioned by Geoff in his latest newsletter. It would appear to me that what I need to do is recategorise any business that I run under the heading of "professional musician". Then I buy a three-hundred-grand violin or piano (or trumpet or saxophone, although these items don't seem to generate such works of art, or at least, not ones that make such prices at auction...) and promptly term it "capital expenditure". As cognoscenti of UK tax rules will know (an area which, ever since I have owned houses, I fear I have strayed into) capital expenditure for small businesses now generates tax relief at 100%.
This makes sense if you are buying computers and suchlike, but the brilliant thing about buying expensive violins is that they go up in value. Therefore (provided your business is making as much a year as the cost of the violin), the "capital expenditure" means you get a tax gift from the revenue. Of course, when you sell the violin at auction (hopefully at a profit) the revenue wants its money back. But it still works out as an interest-free loan. And, if you then buy another violin, you can roll over the gain. Brilliant.
Of course, what you really want to do is to wangle this into something that you can really use (as a violinist really uses his or her violin). Real estate is the obvious possibility, if that can be termed capital expenditure. But there are other areas that occur. Cars (if you like luxury cars, become a luxury taxi business), boats, and so on, could all be used, although these do not have the advantages of real estate and classical musical instruments, in that they actually do depreciate.
++++++++
ITV 4 is rebroadcasting the Larry Sanders episodes again (2.45am, Tuesday night, I think), although ITV 4 has a habit of shifting the broadcast times without notice, forward or backward half an hour, so any recording has to allow a lot of leeway in either direction.
I've missed the first five episodes, damnit, but that still leaves a considerable number that I can put on DVD that I do not currently have.
++++++++++
Being a fan of Marmite is a bit like being an alcoholic. Once other people know that you like Marmite, they seem to assume that it dominates your life. Any visit to their house overnight will see the Marmite being specially brought out from the back of the cupboard, dusted down and placed next to the bread bin, as if you never ate anything else for breakfast. It's a bit like all the alcohol being carefully removed from public display (because, like, we don't want to put temptation in your way, is the unspoken message, as if one isn't surrounded by alcohol consumption every day of the week in any case).
Well, for all you non-Marmite eaters out there, people who eat Marmite don't necessarily eat it all the time. It's just something that I fancy occasionally -- less often, to be truthful, than I like honey on toast, and far less often than I like cheese on toast. "Oh, so you like sweet things too!" they say, amazed that anyone who can cope with Marmite can also cope with anything sugar-related.
+++++++++++
I don't know if there is some kind of hidden artist in me, but I'm a sucker for children's artist sets. I mean, £7.95 for 12 crayons, 8 water colours, 12 colouring pencils, and bundles of other stuff. Brilliant! You can just get some A4 paper and draw away in psychedelic colours to your heat's content. Very therapeutic.
+++++++++
It's not often that I fall back into my old ways of watching horse-racing. After nigh on 20 years of the stuff, I've had quite enough of betting shops and horses, thank-you-very-much.
But I make an exception for the Grand National, a race that I have always loved. A detailed five-minute examination of the runners this year have led me to select Longshanks and Bothar Na.
There's very little that is scientific about my picks these days. I like horses that Ladbrokes seems unkeen to lay, which carry less than 11 stone 2lb, which are aged nine or ten, which are not overraced, which have jockeys with experience, and which look like they might have been "laid out" for the race.
Perhaps a modest 50p each way on each is in order....
