Archive for November, 2007
Following on from Clair’s “stupid kids’ names” post earlier this week, I spotted a billboard poster for the new Philip Pullman adaptation The Golden Compass*
Walking past this billboard, I was looking at the star names appearing in the movie. And one name in particular stood out: ‘Dakota Blue Richards’.
Yup, this is the girl who plays Lyra Belacqua in the film and, contrary to my original assumption that she was American, actually comes from deepest, darkest, err, Brighton.
Her British origin aside, she surely joins the list of people who were born to be famous. I mean, if you’re born with first names ‘Dakota’ and ‘Blue’, you’re going to look pretty silly, if you end up working in a solicitor’s.
With a name like that, she was destined to be a movie star. Other stars who fall into the same camp include Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning – names that are impossible to forget, either by the general cinema-going public, or casting directors.
Then there’s the Phoenix family. All five of the siblings were given a great start: River, Joaquin, Summer, Rain and (the forgotten) Liberty.
In their case, they were onto a winner with a surname like that, but how different it would have been, if they’d try to get somewhere with their birth name: Joaquin Bottom doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
Anyway, with genetic testing moving forward apace, surely there’s something to be said for having in mind the career you want your child to take, when it comes to naming them.
* I could Google it, but why has this been changed from the original novel’s title ‘The Amber Spyglass’? Surely, it’s not to do with the American market again, is it?
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I’ve been offline for a while what with child illness and lack of sleep.
Today I returned to this space and thought about what to post and absolutely nothing came to mind. So I did what I always do and look at the regular blogs I check out.
One particular post caught my eye on Web Worker Daily, concerning making money through your blog.
I can understand that people are out to make a fast buck, and there are specific niches and areas that could make money, but seriously, do some people blog deliberately to make money?
Sure, I know you can stick some ads up and hope that your traffic nets you the odd dollar or six, but I thought most people blogged for the fun of it, not as a revenue stream.
God knows, if I tried to make money through this blog, I’d probably owe Google/whoever a cheque or two, not be waiting for one.
The WWD post does make this point and also suggests that people blog to raise their persona and make connections… hmm, I guess this is true, although if anyone I know workwise actually bothered to read this blog, they’d probably never employ me in an editorial capacity ever again.
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A survey last week revealed that 1 in 3 office workers would prefer that a colleague stayed at home, rather than struggle in and infect everyone else with their germs.
Boy, do I bet the co-workers of the guy I saw this morning think exactly that?
As the buzzer sounded on my train, the usual couple of last-minute interlopers squeezed through the closing doors, crushing even more those of us who had just about managed to find a square centimetre of room for ourselves.
One of them was a tall blond chap with a beard, carrying his mac in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
The instant I saw him, I realised it was going to be an uncomfortable journey. He was sweating profusely, his hand was shaking, not quite uncontrollably, but enough to worry that I was in danger of minor burns from split coffee, and he immediately propped himself up against the door, looking as if he were ready to faint at any second.
As the journey continued (mercifully, I was on a fast train), he wiped his face three times to clear all the sweat, and looked as if he was about to be sick on several occasions.
All I could think, though, was why on earth are you even on the train?
He was clearly heading into work and his presumed dilemma made me realise how ridiculous it is that people who are obviously at death’s door still feel the need to punish themselves by hauling their bodies into the office, so they can undergo more stress, answer a few not-that-urgent emails and phone calls, and kid themselves into thinking they’re indispensable.
In Japan, people wear gas masks as a way of avoiding pollution. Perhaps, commuters in the UK could be given them to avoid the germs of those suffering with colds.
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There are TV programmes you can look back at realise how many stars it produced (the original Comic Strip on C4 is a good example).
Then there are the programmes in which some of the participants go on to greater things, while at least one of the ensemble gets cruelly forgotten.
I was reminded of this recently when I saw the new advert for SpecSavers which ’stars’ an actor called Matthew Cottle.
His big TV break was appearing in the so-so BBC2 comedy Game On in the mid 90s, alongside none other than Ben Chaplin and Samantha Janus.
These two went onto bigger and better things (movies alongside Nicole Kidman/EastEnders), but poor old Matthew’s career nosedived and he hasn’t really appeared in anything for longer than one episode since. That’s gotta hurt.
It also put me in mind of the early-80s sketch show Three Of A Kind, which starred Lenny Henry, Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield – who?
Lenny Henry is, of course, now one of the UK’s best-loved comedians, while Tracey Ullman went on to have huge success in America and her show was the launch pad for a rather insignificant comedy called The Simpsons. Copperfield did pretty much nothing else and is now a mere Gagfax in the annals of TV history.
How many more nearly-rans are there out there?
* Image courtesy of Wikipedia
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