!POP! KORN

I am a voracious knowledge and media junkie - I am happy for you to stage an intervention as long as the entire process is recorded on DVD, trascribed into a book, and made into a hit album, and the launch of all three is featured on E!, Entertainment Tonight, and Larry King Live (CNN) preferably live, and all backstage scenes are filmed for a later reality TV show - and as is the way with us 21st Century movie/music/book junkies, there is an ever expanding cast of favourite drugs of choice, and so here, with as much flourish as a lack of a massive drum intro will allow (must remedy that - is there a CD available?), are this week's darlings:

MUSIC

'X & Y' (Coldplay - EMI)

Not since ABBA captured my complete and undivided attention back in the 70s, when I was ridiculously young, has a group so commanded my attention and loyalty....and so like the (insanely young, barely able to enunciate words - OK I was 14 but since 40 is the new 30, that makes me really young doesn't it?) child waiting for 'Voulez-Vous' to make its long delayed arrival back in 1979, I wait ed a whole 2 hours on Sunday 5 June before rushing the local HMV and grabbing my copy of their new CD. So was it worth the wait? Well, I have a habit of getting incredibly excited about all manner of things, and then occasionally being disappointed when the anxiously awaited object of my hoped for affection isn't quite what the uber-fan ordered. (Some of my cooler headed friends think I should never get excited about anything thus removing any possibility of disappointment but that kind of thinking horrifies me...with great feelings come great risks, and I would rather pay the price sometimes than risk the sweet rewards that arrive most of the time).

So it is with 'X & Y'. A brilliant album by any standard and suffused with the exquisite melodies, hauntingly aching vocals of Chris Martin, and superb songcraft that are Coldplay's trademarks, but sadly, not much of a Great Leap Forward (Mao's lovely excursion into the psychosis of dictatorship when people were killed and imprisoned, sent hither and yon to be re-educated, and society was treated as one big brave new world, none of which Coldplay has shown the slightest interest in thankfully) in creativity as a very successful tinkering with the status quo, so wonderfully distilled in 'A Rush of Blood to the Head', the previous CD. I am listening to it like it is going out of fashion, and hit the re-play on songs like "White Shadows", "Talk" and "X & Y", but while I suspect I am being unfair with Coldplay to expect ever greater heights of glorious creativity from them (and I remain a loyal and dedicated fan who would happily stalk them if it wasn't so expansive, and uh, illegal), this is not one of those CDs that has captured my complete and undivided attention, and I can hear Keane & Snow Patrol nipping at Coldplay's heels even as I type.

BOOKS

'Atlantis' - David Gibbins (headline)

I have about 6.3 million unread books cluttering my shelves, which I buy and stockpile with monotonous regularity on the basis that I may forget their titles and never buy them, ever, and what a tragedy that would be for all mankind,or specifically me really, and yet yesterday on a whim I bought this book after giving it the cursory two page, is-this-author-complete-crap-or-not test, to read this Queens' Birthday long weekend. Ignoring the dark stares of the paperbacks and hardcovers crowding my shelves on the bookshelf equivalent of Kolkatta or Sao Paulo - you know you have an imagination with way too much time on its hands when you start anthropomorphising books - I sat down and started on this thrilling ride that emcompasses the discovery of the real Atlantis by men who love the purity of knowledge and discovery for its own sake, and the battle to hold on to it when men who value the purity of an exceptionally large bank balance over that knowledge race in to take their slice of the pie. The book's jacket, in a style typical of hyper descriptive copywriters everywhere, breathlessly describes the book as the 'Da Vinci Code' for a new generation, which is hilarious when you realise that the generation reading the Da Vinci code is oh.....EVERYONE...NOW! That bit of hyperbole swept away, suffice to say this is a great, intelligent read, and it definitely puts the thrill in thriller, which is a good thing since if there was no thrill in thriller, you would be left with 'er' which isn't much of a word at all really, and makes you sounding vaguely demented if you say it over and over. Which I have no plans to do since I have reading to do. Oh OK maybe just one time then...... you know, it is kinda fun :)

MOVIES

'Mr & Mrs Smith'

The chief publicity for this movie has been tabloid gossip about the fact that the movie supposedly broke up the divine union of Brad Pitt and JenniferAnniston, which was blessed by the gods of Hollywood, and perfect in all its ways....amen, and I wouldn't have been surprised if the movie was a complete turkey after the nightmare that was 'Gigli' (Ben Affleck and J-Lo's tribute to the banality of complete mediocrity) where another power couple took their love to the silver screen....but it was actually a lot of fun and Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt fired off each other with all the chemistry you need to carry a romantic comedy/action flick if you really want it to sparkle and crackle. The actual storyline is reasonably slight, but what do you expect from this type of movie? The key is the delivery of the witty one liners, and whether you give a damn about the characters, and on both scores, this movie carried itself off wonderfully. It was one of those movies that was a pleasure to watch, and left you with a grin on your face, and the incessant desire for witty banter with your viewing mate afterwards.....which I mostly kept in check for which Tracy is no doubt happy.....

>>>> OK so go forth and listen/read/watch and be happy! Or something.....