This looks interesting… another brain-teasing show from ABC – and it’s nice to see that RTÉ will be airing it here!

FlashForward looks like it’ll be the new LOST, with it’s first season running alongside the last season of the iconic island show and with ex-hobbit and LOST star, Dominic Monaghan now on board to take up a regular cast slot too!

(From Wikipedia-) A mysterious global event causes most people to simultaneously experience, for two minutes and seventeen seconds, his or her life six months in the future. When it is over, many are dead in accidents involving vehicles, aircraft, and any other device needing human control. Everyone who survived is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen.

Didn’t see this classic Saturday Night Live sketch the first time around (almost 9 years ago) and I don’t remember the phrase “gotta have more cowbell” getting into the ‘zeitgeist’… but am heartily laughing my ass off now at it… and now you can Cowbellify (yeah, it’s a word…) your own MP3’s at MoreCowbell.DJ.

So, eh… yeah! Enjoy!

I’ve been listening to classic episodes of the ground-breaking BBC comedy radio show from the 50’s and 60’s, The Goon Show – and, while I’m not old enough to have heard it the first time around, I remembered listening to it back in the early 90’s when it was played again on RTÉ Radio… and I was a huge fan of it (along with Scrap Saturday).

A lot of people don’t seem to realise the absolute importance of a show like this – the Goons (Spike Milligan – the man who looks a lot like my uncle, and who threw himself so much into creating and writing the show, he had a nervous breakdown, Peter Sellers – the man for whom the words ‘versatile comedy genius’ were first strung together, and the literally irrepressible shouty little man, Harry Secombe) having been one of the first and greatest radio comedies of all time (still!) and one of the biggest influences on more modern comedians such as the Monty Python crew, Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly.

More about the Goons can be read here. Here’s how they ended it… The Last Goon show of all (in a trilogy of five wonderful YouTubey parts), recorded as part of the BBC’s 50th anniversary celebrations:

I’m impressed with a few people actually…

I was impressed with the people that turned up at football tonight in our local sports centre – enough, finally, that we didn’t have to call it a day and not play any more. I was impressed with how well they played – and somewhat impressed with myself that I made it through the night, could still hack it with the youngsters and that I actually managed to score a few goals! Good work football playing fellahs!

I was impressed with RTÉ’s new 4-part documentary, Bertie, (or what little I saw of it, at least) which documents the life and times of our last Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. It was made by the same (also impressive) team (Miriam O’Callaghan’s company) who made “Haughey” – about our most infamous Taoiseach. Part two goes out next Monday night. Good work, telly production fellahs!

I was even impressed to learn that there’s an Irish version of Wikipedia… although I guess I should have realised that ages ago… Good work, language loving online encyclopedia localisation fellahs!

I’m somewhat impressed by Barack Obama (as, it seems, are both Damien and Fergal) and would like – and expect – to see him become President Elect of the United States within the next 36 hours. Good work, America’s first black President fellah!

Incidentally, I’m also impressed with Damien himself, in all honesty – with the incredible work he did as Ireland Offline chairman – as well as his creation of both the Irish Blog Awards and the Irish Web Awards. Good work, hard-working comms consultant fellah!

Speaking of awards – well done to Michele Neylon, who won two of the gongs at the NetVisionary awards recently – those being the awards for business blogging and Internet marketing. Good work, ISP running net visionary fellah!

I’m impressed by a few radio DJ’s too… particularly with Today FM’s Ray Foley and his sensible stance on the Brand/Ross controversy. Honestly – it’s a ridiculous situation that’s been blown out of proportion by bandwagon jumping complainers who, for the most part, probably never even listened to Russell Brand – or possibly even to the excellent BBC Radio 2. Seriously – read Ray’s blog post on the issue – it’s clever and well written, and while the story is still unfolding and we have yet to see the results of the BBC’s investigation into the incident, I find myself agreeing strongly with him… so good work, just-a-bit-of-fun-for-your-lunchtime fellah!

At the same time, while he doesn’t want to comment on the controversy itself, Rick O’Shea brings up another point that’s well worth considering… where do we draw the line? How far is too far in comedy? What rules should there be? How should the BBC react? … and so on… Good work, hairy-whiskey-drinking-good-point-making-DJ-slash-blogger fellah!

Finally, more DJ’s I’m impressed with are these two lads from CKY Radio, Montreal – who prank called Sarah Palin in a way that helped showed off her… erm… “qualities” even further. (Good work, prank-calling Canuck fellahs!) As if everything that Saturday Night Live has done to her (not to mention her own performances) hasn’t walloped her credibility hard enough, here she displays her incredible (and I mean “in-credible” in the literal sense) intellect when she believes she’s talking to President Sarkozy of France.

Canada seems cool…

(Yeah, this has just been a post of links… sorry.)

Not long after the character he played was brutally killed off, while his (*ahem*… so-called) “religion” was belittled in a pivotal episode of “South Park“, Isaac Hayes, the voice of “Chef” and singer of the theme tune to Shaft, has died in Memphis at the age of 65.

I just noticed that this image appears on his official web site:

It’s a photo of Bernie Mac (who died on Saturday), Isaac himself (who died just about 8 hours ago) and Samuel L. Jackson (who is very much alive, as far as I know). It links to this page which reports that Hayes was due to play himself in an upcoming movie along with the other two.

This photo would be extra freaky, and the production itself clearly cursed beyond belief if Samuel L. Jackson were to die within the next day or so. Let’s hope, of course, that this doesn’t happen as surely there’s bound to be loads more motherf*cking deadly creatures for him to get off some motherf*cking modes of transport…

R.I.P. Isaac. Scientology and all that bollocks aside, you were still a soul legend.