The National Lottie

Midnight is the witching hour – if you believe that kind of thing, and most people won’t admit it if they do.

Midnight is the time when a door opens from our world into the next, and we are visited by dark spirits of the shadowlands. The incubus, the succubus, the old hag.

Visitors are known by many names, but each story bears the same marks. The demons come after midnight in the first three hours of the new day, when we are alone and vulnerable, deep asleep and helpless, when we cannot move. They lay on us, press on us, suffocate us, take from us what is most precious: our lives, our love, our sanity – our sleep.

If you believe in that kind of thing.

[From the script of The Sarah Connor Chronicles which sadly has not been picked up for another series. ]

It has gone all wibbelly wobbely timey wimey and I am worn out.

Every fibre of my being is screaming to me “just walk away, leave it Lottie, just leave it”.

But the thing is, I have dedicated what, five years of my life to this? I can’t just give up now. No matter how much I might want to.  Surely we can work this out. 

What are we on? Series 5? After the latest episode I wonder if it just going to be another case of history repeating. Didn’t I give up on it last season?  Will I be sitting here in another five years time, pulling out my hair trying to figure out what the frack is happening?

What year is it? Are they all dead? Is it purgatory?  Is it just Alice in Wonderland retold? Will those crazy kids ever work it out? Is John really dead? Are any of us really alive? Is Sawyer the new Ben? No, what if he is Jack’s father? Who is Jack’s father? Didn’t yer man from Neighbours do well?   Is it all some alien experiment?  Or a crude reality TV show in Truman style? Is it a giant advert for American Airlines? What happened last week? Hang on, is that Michelle Desler?  What would Jesus Do?

Fuck it all anyway. It still has the best love triangle square ever and I’ll still watch it next week.

At least Sawyer is still hawt!

Mmmm, Yummy!

# Albert R: “I performed the autopsy on Jacques Renault. Stomach contents revealed, let’s see, beer cans, a Maryland license plate, half a bicycle tire, a goat, and a small wooden puppet. Goes by the name of Pinocchio.”
# Cooper: “You’re making a joke!”
# Albert: “I like to think of myself as one of the happy generations.”

David Lynch’s mind is a weird weird place.

We sat down to watch the first couple of episodes of Twin Peaks series 2 this afternoon having finished series 1 over three years ago.

First aired in 1991, Twin Peaks was one of the first TV shows I ever really fell for partly spurred for my affections for the bad boy Bobby.

The worst and yet best, most identifiable soundtrack, ever.

A bizarre and creepy mix of horror and humour.

A deranged killer who to this day is one of the scariest TV villains and still gives me chills. Brr!

Half of the town is involved in mysterious doings and the other half is certifiably insane.

The main character is a mixture of Walker, Texas Ranger, Dudley Do-Right, and Mr Bean.

There’s a cliff-hanger at the end of every episode.

The owls are not what they seem. But then, nothing is.

Monday night sees the final of the Irish Apprentice and we will discover who becomes Bill Cullen’s protégé. Only Brenda and Nicky are left after last week’s firing of Orla and Stuart.

As with previous weeks, we will be live blogging the event. At 8.45 on Monday evening, check out DarrenByrne.com, AnthonyMcg.com, Darragh Doyle or TheNationalLottie.com to participate in the event.

Help us slag off the receptionist, Jackie’s dress sense, Bill Cullen’s clichés and, of course, the contestants. See you there…

However, on Monday night, Catherine is holding the Launch Party for the blogger book, Homepages, in Le Cirk on Dame Lane. Due to the Apprentice, it looked like we wouldn’t be able to make it. However, Le Cirk have kindly offered to set us up with an area to Live Blog from, with a TV and internet access.

So, if you are around city centre on Monday eveing and you want to join us for a double celebration, the launch of Homepages and the final of the Irish Apprentice, come along to Le Cirk .

“Because You Left“, episode 1 of Lost (Series 5) returns to US TV screens on 21st January 2008

Image via Holy Taco

I have never noticed before but Marty Whelan has a serious OCD. In the space of two and a half hours of filming the guest presenter of the Panel must have removed and replaced his glasses over 200 times. I promise this is not an exaggeration. Perhaps over the years his technique of looking supremely interested while also trying to pull of a Magnum PI impersonation has become such a ritual that he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it. But I did. Marty there is medication for this sort of thing.

This weeks episode, third in the series, was guest hosted by Mr. Whelan. I use the term hosted loosely as Neil Delamere did all the heavy lifting. Joined by guests John Drennan of the Sunday Independent (painfully uncomfortable particularly when he called panelist Mairead Farrel “a hearty girl”) and Solicitor Gerald Kean.

I have now decided that I want to be Gerald Kean when I grow up. I mean the man’s 50th Birthday Party was a pre-revolution French aristocrat fancy dress shindig with carriages and dueling. I have much to learn.

Check out the Panel which has now moved to RTE 1 (there really is only one RTE – “RTE 2″ will always be Network 2 to me.) at 10.15pm for much curse evasion.

Apprentice Ireland  – Episode 3.

Live Blog will begin at 8.55pm.

Do my eyes deceive me?

Could it be that RTE have managed to combine two of my favourite things – The Panel and Ray D’Arcy? It’s better than a Ben & Jerry’s chocolate and marshmallow creation.

See here for the full story.

Did anyone watch The (Irish) Apprentice tonight on TV3? Thoughts?  I think Bill Cullen was great. Alan Sugar has established his TV personality now and he’s become a bit dull. You know what you are going to get and there few surprises. Bill Cullen is the new master for the Irish show and he is the true Irish Businessman through and through.  See here for a brief biography on the Boss Man.

It was interesting enough, the gender-divided teams were each allocated a sum of €350 and sent to Moore St. for the day to make a profit. It was all very polite for the first episode, the true personalities only showing in the final elimination. I was half expecting to see someone I know up as a candidate for the prized position but instead what we got were some real prospects for some drama.

AJ over at Le Craic ran a live interactive commentary on the show, which livened up the show allowing everyone to have their say on the contestants and the tasks at hand. Debz will run the live feed next week and I will try my best on Monday 6th October.

If anyone else is watching and fancies alleviating AJ of some of the burdon of coverage of the show drop him a line at aj@lecraic.com.