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After a decent, albeit slightly haphazard, start, Fringe began to excel around the episode 10 mark, peaking in the fantastic "Ability" (ep14) and maintaining a very high standard right up to the season finale, "There's more than one of everything".

Fringe has quickly turned into one of my favourite shows on TV, and I'm relieved there is finally something that looks as though it can fill the huge gap in my TV schedule when Lost ends after next season. Fringe does brilliantly to combine individual interesting X-File like mysterious occurences each episode with overarching sci-fi lost-esque themes. The initial episodes were good, but it looked like it could be a down the line run of the mill cop drama with some sci-fi weird events going on. By the last few episodes it was clear this was nowhere near what this show is about. Like Lost, (although Abrams has little creative input into that show anymore) the show has already changed completely from where it started. While Lost took 26 episodes for a major game changer, Fringe introduced teleportation in episode 14 and the big mysterious powerful corporation (Massive Dynamic, to Fringe what Dharma is to Lost?) was introduced very early on. William Bell (sorry to keep comparing it to Lost but...Jacob?) took one season to appear...Jacob took 5. I wont spoil the final episode, but Fringe is firmly in the sci-fi territory now, the last scene was one of the best i've ever seen. Anna Torv, playing the main character Olivia Denham, deserves alot of credit, and has improved loads over the season.Joshua Jackson, John Noble and Lance Reddick were also brilliant.
If you've not seen it, use the long summer without new TV to start. Stream it on Fox if your in the US, or ninjavideo if not. DVD is out this autumn.

Season 2 has been confirmed. Aparently Kirk Acevedo has quit or been sacked. He plays Charlie Francis, a character that has been slightly underused...
Here is the trailer for season 2, beginning september 17th on Fox



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Starting next week, Lostpedia, DocArzt and a load of other Lost fansites are partaking in a Lost rewatch involving watching 3 or 4 episodes each week leading up to the start of Season 6 in January. I rewatch everything every hiatus, and after very significant developments in the s5 finale now is definitely the time to go back and look for clues. Every single monster encounter, every odd character action, every dark/light reference can now be reanalysed.
Loads of bloggers will be posting about the episodes weekly, check out the Lost Rewatch homepage on Lostpedia here
I still want to rewatch all of s5 before i start rewatching the series, i might end up doing it simultaneously.
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Jack Peñate returns with the second single (Be the one) from his new album entitled Everything is New out next month.

Summer 2007 I got a bit obsessed with Jack Peñate's Spit at Stars EP and the demos that had been released building up for his debut, Matinee. Matinee was then hugely disappointing, the old demos sounded shit on the album. But he's returned with something different and new, and its promising. Tonights Today, released in March, is brilliant, and so is the follow up single, Be The One....here is Be the One.
Jack Peñate-Be the one (mp3)

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I'm admittedly 5 days late on posting about this, but it doesnt matter. Q-Tip headlining the JazzWorld Stage on the Friday! It's going to be amazing. The line up is brilliant, here are the bands im excited about.
Maximo Park, The Specials, Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Regina Spektor (:D), Bloc Party, Friendly Fires, White Lies, The Maccabees, Mr Hudson, Doves, Jamie T, Jack Penate, Q-Tip, The Streets, The Big Pink, Dan Le Sac, Annie Mac, Chipmunk, Timo Maas, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal, Pendulum, Paulo Nutini, Pete Doherty, Peter, Bjorn and John, Passion Pit, Gaslight Anthem, Bon Iver, MWard, 2 Many DJs, La Roux, Wiley, Eric Prydz, Badly Drawn Boy!, Blur, Madness, Tom Jones, Amadou and Mariam, Prodigy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, GoodBooks, Black Eyed Peas, Roots Manuva, Calvin Harris, High Contrast etc etc

Although there will be some baaaad clashes, notably Maccabees/Regina!
Q-Tip will play at least 3 or 4 Quest songs! Aparently he's played Check the Rhyme solo before, though im not sure how that'd work without Phife. Scenario is a definate, verses from the abstract, electric relaxation, award tour, bonita applebum are good bets.
Here is a live vid of scenario with Busta, absolutely sik.
the crowd goes so mental for Busta
Q-Tip is a great live performer from the vids ive seen on youtube. If the NERD rumours are true, i wouldnt be surprised to see Pharrell bust on stage and if Kanye makes an appearance with Hudson he may well come on for Q-Tip!
On Q's version of the line-up De La Soul were on the JW stage before Q-Tip, but not on anyone elses line-up. If its true...Buddy!
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Death Cab for Cutie - Little Bribes from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

or watch it bigger screen here
This is seriously amazing, there are some quality fan made DCFC vids out there, i remember a wicked Coney Island one on youtube...
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First part of a round-up of releases over the past 11 or so weeks

The Maccabees-Wall of Arms
Yes yes yes yes yes. The best release of the year? Pretty close. I really love this album, showing brilliant progression lyrically and musically from the pretty much immaculate Colour It In. Gutted I missed out on their tour and may well miss out on their October tour as well! My current favourite from the album...
The Maccabees-Can you give it? (mp3)

Maximo Park-Quicken the Heart
Mixed feelings about this one, Maximo's albums are always growers for me. I didnt really rate A Certain Trigger on first listen, but it became one of my favourite albums of all time! And Our Earthly Pleasures has improved a lot in the 2 years since it came out. I fully expect Quicken the Heart to be the same. At the moment, although the album has some quality tracks (Calm, The Kids are Sick Again, The Penultimate Clinch) it is let down by the less than average I Haven't Seen Her in Ages and Overland, West of Suez...For me it doesnt match either of the bands first two albums. I saw them on Friday and they were brilliant as usual, but the old tracks were sooooo mcuh better than the new ones. By the end of the year, I could be fully in love with it, but at the moment i'm not.
Maximo Park-Calm (mp3)

Eminem-Relapse
After 2 listens I really like Replase, it shouldt even be spoken about in the same sentence as the piece of shit that was Encore. I dont think Eminems ever going to match the brilliance of his fiorst 3 albums, but he does well to try. His flow is still ridiculously good when he wants it to be, but sometimes verges on the Ass Like That silliness that came to represent Encore. Randomly, a stand out track for me is My Mom, Dre's awesome production and Eminems top form throughout make up for the fact that he's talking about his mum AGAIN.
Eminem-My Mom

Jamie T-Sticks and Stones
Song of the year? His best so far? Cannot wait for this album/seeing him next month!
Jamie T-Sticks and Stones (mp3)

Passion Pit-Manners
Only listened once, I like it. Sleepyhead is by far and away my favourite, but the Reeling is also pretty good.
Passion Pit-The Reeling (mp3)

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A couple of weeks ago Scrubs "ended", below i give my brief thoughts on the finale, season as a whole and then potential for season 9

My Finale was a triumphant, brilliant piece of television. As a pretty big Scrubs fan, this episode was incredibly important for me, and they delivered. It was enough of a balance between comedy, genuinely poignant goodbyes and of course a bit of cheesiness thrown in; the combination that has made Scrubs what it is over the years. All JD's goodbyes were awesome. I'm glad Elliott and JD's relationship had been resolved a long time before so the finale didnt have to deal with that. The set up by Sunni for Dr Cox's speech on JD was so brilliant and that goodbye was great, as was Turks and the Janitors. Strangely enough though, it was Dorian's understated farewell to Carla that was the best of the lot. Carla has been underused over the last 2 seasons, but this scene harked back to seasons past and the development that JD has undergone throughout the course of the show guided alot of the way by Carla. Howver corny it was i loved all the old faces appearing in the corridor! Mandy Moore and Masi Oka were notable exceptions, oh and Tara Reid! And the weird screen thing into the future was ultimate cheese, but quality. The Finale was a perfect ending.

Season 8 overall was awesome. Started strongly, a bit of a dip in the middle but the end run of episodes was outstanding. It far surpassed season 7 (it amazes me how such a bad season was made by a crew/cast that have made such a good tv program), and probably season 6. JD became a real character again rather than a ridiculous caricature, and Elliott was almost back to her peak. This season contained some of the best patient storylines in a long time, harking back to the first few seasons where the patients stories clearly shaped the staff of Sacred Heart. My Last Words, My Lawyers in Love and My Finale were all brilliant, as were the 2 episodes in Barbados. Randomly, my favourite episode of the season didn't feature JD at all. My Full Moon was pretty much all Elliott/Turk and patient interactions and it was classic Scrubs. Seson 8 was a brilliant end to a brilliant TV program.

Then the news came that Scrubs would continue into a 9th season. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!!? I don't know anyone, especially hardcore Scrubs fans, who are happy with this news. JD and Elliott will return for 6 episodes in "transitional roles" whatever the hell that means. Turk, Dr Cox and the Janitor are all series regulars, and the interns are being promoted to starring status. This is not going to work. All the major characters are made by their interactions and relationship with JD, the show without him cannot fucntion. If they want to create a new show entirely about the interns, go for it. Call it something different. It isnt Scrubs. I will probably end up watching it. I dont know if Bill Lawrence is even gonna be involved, he has a new pilot with Courtney Cox in next season. If it is heavily intern based, then Jo/Denise had better be the central character, as she was by far the most ijnteresting character and best actor of the interns introduced in s8. I seriously cannot see s9 being a good thing, after the whole show was rounded up so well.
ah well, we will see.

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its possibly a little hip-hop biased...and i decided to only include one song per artist otherwise it would pretty much have been the tracklisting of Ready to Die...

Top songs:
Aim-Good Disease feat. Stephen Jones
Its all about those soft trumpets and his awesome voice, brilliant chillout music.
Amy Winehouse-I heard Love is Blind
Winehouse at her lyrical peak, this song makes me laugh every time. The light guitar works perfectly with her voice and delivery.
Death Cab For Cutie-The New Year
It's taken me maybe 100 listens and 6 years to work out how good this song is. Amazing
Fleet Foxes-Meadowlarks
Its all about the voice on this. They will own Glastonbury
Jack Johnson-Banana Pancakes
In Between Dreams is pretty much essential beach music...and he has the knack of writing simple but quite beautiful lyrics.
Jay-Z-22 Two's
Ridiclously good.
Justin Timberlake-Take it from here
Is it sad that this is one of my all time favourite songs? He needs some Neptunes production on his third album because thats what made Justified what it is, a classic pop/r&b album. Take it from here combines chilled, brilliant guitar with Tmberlakes soft, smooth voice. Brilliant
Kanye West-Diamonds from Sierra Leone (remix) feat. Jay-Z
Both merk this song. Late Registration is an amazing album.
Mos Def-Do it now feat. Busta Rhymes
The only track on Black on Both Sides to rival Mathematics. The sparring between them is like a more militant version of Q-Tip/Phife Dawg, great prodcution by Mr. Khaliylas well.
Nas-The World Is Yours
My current favourite on Illmatic.
Notorious B.I.G.-Machine Gun Funk
The best rapper of all time. Only Jay-Z and Nas can come close.
A Tribe Called Quest-Electric Relaxation
Q-Tip might be playing glasto!!!
Zero 7-Destiny
Amazing song. Amazing lyrics. Brilliant.

Top albums:
The Notorious B.I.G.-Ready to die
Jay-Z-Reasonable Doubt
Zero 7-Simple Things
Kanye West-Late Registration
Frank Turner-Love, Ire and Song

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The most talented female artist of her generation releases her 5th studio album, Far, on the 23rd of June. 2 songs (Laughing with, blue lips) have been released to the internet so far, both streaming on her myspace page
Listen to them here
She has got some European tour dates in July including T in the Park/Oxegen/Latitude...still hoping she'll play Glastonbury. Very excited for the release of this album.
Tracklisting:
1. The Calculation
2. Eet
3. Blue Lips
4. Folding Chair
5. Machine
6. Laughing With
7. Human of the Year
8. Two Birds
9. Dance Anthem
10. Genius next door
11. Wallet
12. One more time with feeling
13. Man of a Thousand Faces


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the most satisfying lost death ever? phil was a dickhead

after an amazing 10 weeks away im back in Sheffield, back home. lots and lots to catch up on tv and music wise. yesterday i watched 9 episodes of lost back to back. it was amazing, im gonna do a whole season review/round up but probs not til june when i will have rewatched it all. all ill say now is that the incident was my favourite piece of television ever. lost continues to amaze me. ive also seen the last half of season 8 of scrubs which i loved, thought it was brilliant...ill be writing a season review soon...and thoughts on the plans for season 9...so ive got fringe, heroes and skins to watch and write about now...

...and music wise. eminem, maximo park, the maccabees, death cab, passion pit, jamie t, conor oberst and more have all relesed new material since ive been away and ill round that all up in one mega post soon enough. and im gonna see whats been hitting the charts as well (tinchy stryder has been number 1! for 3 weeks, something i could not have envisaged 3 weeks ago)...
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