MAN ABOUT TOWN

Via Life, Doctor Who & Combom comes this BBC promo pic of the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) and companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), which suggests that trailers and teasers for Season Five of my favourite TV show can't be far off!

Just when I'd started to think that RTD had run out of steam, based on the previous two Doctor Who specials, which had their moments but were overall, kinda naff, tonight I watched - and loved - The Waters of Mars . Brrr. What a cracker of an episode. It's scary to see how far hubris can humble a man, and I think we're about to see just that in the next two specials, which The Waters of Mars has set up beautifully.

Squeeeee!!!! *Ahem* Sorry about that. Go here for more formal details of this breaking news. *goes back to squeeing around the flat in a state of wild fanboy excitement*

The first thing I did this morning, once I'd woken up, was to plonk myself down in front of the computer and watch the new Doctor Who Easter special, Planet of the Dead . And what a marvellous romp it is - far stronger than the Christmas special, The Next Doctor , with sterling performances, a great script, and some truly exciting moments that had me squee -ing with fanboy joy. If you want to watch it, but don't want to break the law by downloading the program illegally - and after all, who'd do a naughty thing like that? - then I advise you to click here and visit the excellent blog, Life, Doctor Who and Combom where you can view the entire episode embedded via YouTube. Hurrah! Now we only have to wait several more months until the next special - The Waters of Mars ... As to when Planet of the Dead will air on the ABC, they're still not saying anything other than "'Planet of the Dead' will air on the ABC over Winter this year. An exact date will be announ...

I can't wait...

This Saturday night at 5:35pm (UK time) the BBC will announce the name of the actor who is to play the latest incarnation of our favourite Time Lord on Doctor Who , once the character regenerates later this year with the departure of David Tennant from the role. In a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential (the behind-the-scenes program which usually details the makings-of the long-running TV program) entitled The Eleventh Doctor - retitled from The Ten Doctors only a few hours ago - the BBC will look at the various actors to have played the role since the program's inception in 1963, and now promise that: The name of the actor who will replace David Tennant in Doctor Who will be announced on Saturday. Tennant said in October that he would stand down from the show after filming four special episodes in 2009. His replacement - the eleventh Doctor of the TV series - will be revealed in a Doctor Who Confidential programme on BBC One at 17:35 on 3 January. The casting was confirm...

Thanks to excellent film blog My New Plaid Pants , I've just discovered that producer par excellence Christine Vachon has greenlit a new film called Kill You Darlings , which is based on a little known murder that helped catalyse the birth of the Beat Generation: the 1944 killing of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr , the youth Kammerer had ardently pursued (read stalked) for several years. Both Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were connected with the murder, indeed Kerouac was jailed as an accessory after the fact; an event which he touches on in both his first novel, The Town and the City, and many years later in The Vanity of Dulouz . Interestingly, a novel which Burroughs and Kerouac co-wrote about that murder, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks is about to be published by Grove Press next month. Yeah, daddy-o!

Popcorn Taxi are hosting a screening of BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT in high definition digital at The Astor next Thursday November 15. To say I am pants-wettingly excited is a serious understatement. Anyone wanna come and see it with me?

So, the Rodent has called the election at last, after stalling for weeks in the vain hope that the polls might suggest a closing of the gap in terms of Labor's lead. No such luck, Johnny-boy. So, please make sure you're enrolled to vote and your address details are up to date by Wednesday, so that you don't get squeezed out thanks to the Coalition's sneaky reductions, and get ready to vote the fucker out. BRING IT ON!!!!! Oh yeah - final Fringe updates and first Melbourne International Arts Festival details coming soon; probably tonight...

Just received a media release announcing that Bjork will be playing the Big Day Out @ Flemington Racecourse on MOnday January 28 next year, alongside Arcade Fire (woooot!) , Rage Against the Machine (yawn), Billy Bragg (hmm), Paul Kelly, LCD Soundsystem, and UK hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal (yay!) among others. OMG OMG OMG I am so definitely there. Tickets on sale Friday October 12. Like, yay!!!!

Last night was the launch of Fringe Furniture at the Melbourne Museum; marking for me, my own personal start of all things Fringe (yes I know the festival started officially on Wednesday, but shush). But tonight's the big one - the opening of the Festival Hub & Club at North Melbourne Town Hall: gala entertainment, music, drinks, friends, VIPs, shows, talent, drunken late night dancing, and art art art! Are you coming?

I can feel it building.... I've just submitted my list of media complementary ticketing requests for the Melbourne International Arts Festival; and this Saturday I have a meeting with my fellow Melbourne Fringe Festival judges to thrash out a schedule for the multiplicity of events I have to see. Night after night of circus, dance, cabaret, comedy, visual arts, puppetry, floating silver pillows, Sigur Ros and Merce Cunningham, passionate conversations in The Famous Spiegeletent, indescribable art hybrids from around the corner and overseas... I can't wait!