Haven't done one of these for an absolute age, but it struck me recently that Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo, left, would be a shoo-in to play the young Micky Dolenz, right, should anyone ever get around to making a Monkees biopic... got to happen eventually, right? I'd watch it.
Speaking of Monkees biopics, if you haven't seen the B&W video on YouTube of Davy, Peter, Micky and Mike's pre-casting screen tests, you really should (stick with it, it's not all silent).
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| No 10's suddenly-departed former Commuincations Officer Lee Cain |
I was not surprised to read that Lee Cain had quit working for Boris. No doubt he realised that rather than working with wannabe-Bond villains like Johnson and Dominic Cummings, he might as well set up his own hollowed-out volcano...
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| Thorn in Bond's side Ernst Stavro Blofeld |
I haven't done one of these for a while (five years, as it turns out, almost to the day!) but I heard Memories by anodyne pop rockers Maroon 5 yesterday, and I was really struck by the chord progression - it was so familiar. Now I'm not well versed in classical music, so it took me a while to find what it reminded me of; in the end, it took working out where I'd heard the piece (at weddings) to help me track down Pachelbel's Canon. People get excited about whether Lana Del Rey ripped off Radiohead, and then whether Radiohead ripped off The Hollies; similarly, hitting Oasis with the Beatles stick is a popular pastime. Clearly they've all been doing it wrong, and Adam Levine's got it right: if you're going to plagiarise someone, pick a dead person who can't sue you, and whose work is all out of copyright.
Footnote: I am a very, very long way from being the first person to spot this (example), so apologies if it's old news...
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| The newly discovered, contemporaneous picture of William Shakespeare |
I read yesterday about the supposed sole picture of Shakespeare made during his lifetime (above). Is it just me that looks at it and thinks of the briefly viral, yesterday's news Hipster Cop (below)?
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| The Hipster Cop, Peter Swinger |
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| Miranda Richardson as Jude in Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game" |
Is it just me that wonders if Quentin had watched Miranda Richardson as Jude in The Crying Game before he styled Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction?
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| Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" |
I'm doubtless not the first person to spot a worrying similarity between Dr Bunsen Honeydew's lab tech sidekick Beaker (left, borrowing Dr Honeydew's glasses for disguise) and George Osborne's treasury sidekick Danny Alexander (right). Were they separated at birth? Perhaps more worryingly, have they ever been seen together? Or even in different places at the same time? No, I thought not.
I guess I could make a hackneyed, tired old joke here and say that those politicians in Whitehall, they're just a bunch of muppets, right? But come on, you expect better of me, surely?
Am I the only one not wondering where the designers got their inspiration for the Team GB Olympic team logo? Right down to the sticky-outy tongue...? I am? Oh. Alright then...
For completists: Separated at birth I, II and III.
Wow. Really glad I didn't waste my 300th post on something fatuous. And since I have probably just used the Olympic rings there without permission, my 301st post will probably be from the Tower... it's been nice knowing you, and all that.
I've done a couple of "separated at birth" posts before (here and here) but today's is a bit different, because it is based not on visual similarity but instead on voices. These two are vocal-a-likes, if you will. My evidence is below: the first is a video of Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove, being interviewed on Channel 4 news; the second features Gerald the Gorilla, giving his only known televised interview. Close your eyes and listen to the voices - uncanny, isn't it?
Do you watch Hustle? I usually find myself watching it on a Friday night, partly because there's naff-all else on and partly because it's fun, harmless, snappily made television. So what if the plots are borderline ludicrous? It's carefree, escapist TV in an age of bland austerity - no wonder it's doing so well. But anyway. I was watching last week when it suddenly struck me that Kelly Adams (left), who plays conwoman Emma, is the living spit of Antipodean perennial pop poppet Kylie Minogue (right). I mean, really, seriously, right down to the arch of the eye-brow, being short and having a rather lovely bottom.
It got me wondering, then - Miss Minogue is often the subject of much press speculation about botox use, but could the real reason she looks younger than her 42 years simply be that she is employing the more youthful Kelly as a stand-in? Or are they simply the same person? After all, who has ever seen them together? And they both have five letter names beginning with 'K'! Coincidence? Well yes, clearly, but I have to come up with something to base these otherwise-groundless conspiracy theories on, don't I?
So, Kelly and Kylie, separated at birth - what do you think? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.
Oh yes, and the "II" is because I've spotted something like this before...
I had the good fortune to see Anvil! The Story of Anvil on the uniformly excellent BBC Four recently. It's often described as a real-life Spinal Tap, and I get the comparison but it's much more than that: it's a conflict between hope and experience that leaves you rooting for two friends who have never given up on their dream, even when that dream has never been so far away. Good stuff, and an engaging way to spend 90 minutes of your time. Steve "Lips" Kudlow (left), the Anvil frontman, embodies tragedy and comedy in equal measure.