Some of the problem here is that the stuff at TV Centre is a bit too posh for me.
Westfield so nearly works, but it’s just a tiny bit too far away to walk there, eat, and get back on a lunch break. But as I’n operational, maybe I have more problems there than most people?
What was that bar which closed there? W12?
It really feels like a management issue at White City Place. If I was working there I’d be asking serious questions about why they can’t retain anything.
(This is why I when everyone was going on about it being amazing to work from home, I got a little sulky, because some people were acting like if you pointed out any downsides, you were on the side of the ultra-rich. But for people who HAVE to be on-site, it really has hurt some things.)
Sadly not. Dumped due to coronavirus making it apparently uneconomic.
I believe ITV have something on their floor, but it’s only for ITV staff.
Yeah, it’s kinda weird that my best bet for food at lunchtime is to order food to be delivered.
(Coco Di Mama is great, to be fair, their breakfast baguette keeps me going all day.)
I honestly would love there to be something like a Pizza Express or a Nando’s at White City Place. Somewhere not extortionate, and where you get enough food to see you through the day, not “small plates” nonsense.
I see Dear Grace has closed at White City, continuing the generally dreadful record of restaurants and bars there. At least they lasted longer than most.
They often seemed very busy, so you have to wonder what the problem is. Rent? Or just not busy enough?
Hard to believe it’s 35 years since the deregulation of the TV listings
If it helps, I hate all of them and everyone on them
Said this before, but Arthur Askey's first TV appearance was on Baird's experimental transmissions and his last was on Channel Four
I struggle quite a lot with titles, and once you add rules against obnoxious clickbait, it gets even more difficult.
I often resort to quotes, and I’m not sure that always works.
#OnThisDay 9 March 1988
CUT COSTS - OR ITV WILL GO BANKRUPT
ITV must cut its costs or face bankruptcy if it is to survive in the new world of multi-channel television, according to a report today . . . Local ITV programmes are more expensive than any other type of programme . . .
Point of order: all the above is not about terrible clickbait YouTube videos. I wouldn’t waste my time railing against those.
It’s about how GOOD stuff people have recommended to me also uses those tropes, and how off-putting it is.
But that’s why you’ll often see me deliberately undercutting or underselling things in my writing, unless it’s a genuinely big revelation (which I do manage occasionally).
I just have an allergic reaction to all this. It doesn’t help sell my work, of course. Oh well.
One thing I worry about quite a lot when writing is patronising the reader. Portraying a very obvious thing as some big revelation, for instance.
This is something YouTube clickbait seems to do all the time, and I’ve never understood the appeal. Don’t act like I’m stupid!
In short, everybody should do what I do, call their work “The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Prod. #7001”, and then get zero hits.
Worse though, is the video’s title: “Why this Movie from 1952 is STILL so Important Today”.
Like… I don’t need convincing of that. At all. So even though I’m sure the video says loads of things that I don’t know, it sets me off on the wrong foot immediately. It is the opposite of appealing.
The thumbnail has the phrase IT CHANGED SPIELBERG in large letters, and I entirely understand that YouTube clickbait works and more people will click than not click because of it, but I just find it immensely irritating.
Been recommended what I’m sure is an excellent video that is well worth my time, but the I find the thumbnail and title so irritating that I struggle to bring myself to watch it.
Letterboxd itself has been more welcoming of adult content since a policy change a few years ago that one must opt into. I think the themes and nanogenres are provided by a third party service, so they're not directly responsible in this case, but it's a good point
letterboxd.com/journal/sex-...
I do understand why services are terrified of becoming too associated with pornography, but ignoring entire harmless categories is a bit silly.
Top themes: Horror, The Undead And Monster Classics Creepy, Chilling, And Terrifying Horror Crime, Drugs And Gangsters
Top Nanogenres: Gory, Sinister, Gothic Chilling, Gothic, Menace Eerie, Horrific, Menace
I am amused that Letterboxd REFUSES to acknowledge I watch a lot of sex comedies.
I’m not sure Mamie Van Doren would appreciate the below categories.
Calamity James goes to post a letter and sees the postman there, emptying the pillar box, with his back to him. He slips on a Little Squelchy Thing and falls inside the pillar box, as the postman kicks the pillar box door shut.
Here is my highly anticipated post on the history of Calamity James. cwickham.blogspot.com/2026/03/oh-c...
You probably all saw it last weekend, but in case you missed it, there’s a new piece on my blog about the connections between Dennis Potter and Doctor Who:
thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/when-denni...
I always think this helps explain my claustrophobia. I hate not having the choice to just walk out of any given situation immediately.
In fact, I watched it early on iPlayer, like a HEATHEN
Yeah, I hope my use of "fanboy" and "BUY BRITISH" indicated to people that I know it's complicated too.
But there is a real point behind it all!
In fact, I was thinking of ARM-based computers.
But even then, of course there was loads of American involvement (VLSI, etc). I was not writing an essay covering every detail!
