This blog is being phased out, as is Bif musings. We're moving to WordPress and with that move will be other changes over the next weeks and months. All good changes I assure you.
So... if you read this blog regularly either on the web you may want to change your bookmarks to the homepage where all content will be from now on.
If you read this blog through RSS, you'll need to update your RSS readers... I recommend grabbing the new feed for BifSniff which will contain all the posts - cartoons, my posts, Bif's posts - the whole lot! Available here: The big BifSniff feed.
If for some reason you only want my posts, you can still do that... the link is: Frank's Feed.
And of course you can grab Bif's on it's own too: Bif's Feed.
Ages ago I bought a couple of odd things in Tower Records in Dublin - odd little creatures that came in a little plastic egg called 'The Stack Pack'.
I particularly liked the little red guy - up on top there in the image - and he sits on top of my computer monitor. When I opened up the egg to take him out there was a little insert with a drawing of him inside, which I liked almost more than the toy itself.
Today when I was checking up on what was going on at the Clamnuts blog I followed a few links which led me to the site of the creator of these guys, Tim Biskup.
Sorkin is the man who previously brought us the West Wing, but don't expect the West Wing here - it's not as smart as the West Wing.
But it's really good fun.
Yeah, it's entertaining, even if at times a but schmaltzy - but hey, the West Wing suffered from that too.
Several familiar faces in there, quite a few from the West Wing.
Mathew Perry is great (I didn't once think of Chandler), and Bradley Whitford's performance is just as great as in the West Wing - but his character is a bit Josh-like, just not quite as well written.
Check out this intro - and if it reminds you a little of Network News, rest assured they at least acknowledged that by referencing it themselves!
Damien got me thinking about the shows I used to watch when I was young and can barely remember them... The one that got me thinking was his Manimal clip, reproduced here:
This immediately reminded me, for some reason of Alias Smith and Jones:
And then Sapphire and Steel popped into my head:
Which reminded me of the Greatest American Hero:
How could I forget Remington Steele:
But there were other shows I used to watch that I can't remember - just snippets in my head. One had a psychadelic intro of two guys falling through time and space or something...
Oh, and one of my favourites, though it used to scare me to death... The Incredible Hulk. I still ove it and have several of the TV movies and episodes on DVD!
update: Conor O'Neill left a comment on Damien's blog linking to this:
Which I would have said was the one I was thinking of above but there's no psychadelia... hmmm, I think it was two older guys anyway, I'm not sure it was a kid - but I think it was the same kind of premise. Anyone any ideas?
update: Worzel Gummidge used to scare the hell out of me.
update: Conor O'Neill to the rescue - in the comments here he suggested the show I was thinking of with the two guys falling through space and time was 'The Time Tunnel'. I think he's spot on. I couldn't find any clips exactly as I remembered, but this is close, the two guys are right and I remember the titles - also the 60s type psychadelic stuff I vaguely remember is in the background on the Wikipedia page Conor sent me to:
I want to see Babel, the new film by Alejandro González Iñárritu who directed Amores Perros and 21 Grams.
It features, among others Brad Pitt, Gael García Bernal and Clifton Collins Jr.
"Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving six different families."
The user comments on IMDB seem very positive, which would indicate to me that it is as good as it seems from the trailer. here's an extract from one user comment I found encouraging:
If you – like me, and so many others – found 'Crash' (2005) offensively finger-wagging and dumb (its inherent message was: "Racism is bad."), Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel will make it up to you with refreshing intelligence, respect for cultures and crisp acting. The plot outline is difficult to do justice in one sentence but much like Crash it explores culture clashes in life by navigating multiple interweaving story lines.
Ages ago I bought a couple of odd things in Tower Records in Dublin - odd little creatures that came in a little plastic egg called 'The Stack Pack'. 
