Urban animals

For some strange reason, I love the sight of lone animals trotting down urban streets. They can be pet cats just out for a stroll, or more commonly, an urbane fox doing its version of the Italian passeggiata.

Some years ago, I was walking home one night in north Kensington, when I sensed a small animal trotting alongside me. Thinking it was a cat or dog, I looked down - only to find a fox, carrying a box of KFC in its jaws. It looked up at me, as if to say, "What are you looking at?"

Animals on city pavements make me smile, because they remind me that we humans do not own the streets. We are not alone, and that's why strolling pussy cats are absolutely wonderful.

As his friend and collaborator Neil Gaiman puts it, Roger Avary's seemingly authentic tweets portray 'jail in 140 characters'.

I've been hooked, to the point where anything I could possibly tweet pales in comparison. Suddenly, my latest favourite film or newest discovery seems inane when you read about how Avary and his fellow inmates scramble for 'meds': 'Ambien, Xanax, Mobic, Valium, Benzodiazepene, etc. '

Avary is currently serving a year-long sentence for DUI. After successfully collaborating with Quentin Tarentino on such projects as Pulp Fiction, he has been working with Gaiman to bring the cult Sandman to the screen.

If it doesn't kill him, jail could be the making of Roger Avary. His pain could be the foundation for even more prize-winning projects, and his next film could make The Shawshank Redemption look like Disney.

Maybe more screenwriters should skip Robert McKee's classes (good though they are) and go straight to jail. They'll collect a whole lot more than $200.

Royal Pain

The best part of a mail strike is no junk mail, and you won't see your bills for a while. Sadly, I am green and do not receive either without a strike.

But I have been getting my Time Out since forever, and it's been somewhat disconcerting to get issues from say, two weeks ago. It's nice knowing that a certain band or favourite comedian was in town - a month ago. Of course, I must hasten to add this is not Time Out's fault.

After phoning Time Out's customer service line, I began getting electronic versions of the mag emailed to me. Despite the undoubted greenness of this and the convenience, the damn thing is just too hard to read. Zooming in on cinema listings lands you smack in the middle of the page, whilst turning an enlarged page will reduce it to its original size.

So while digital books and magazines may be the future, I suspect that it will be a while before they replace the real thing.

Acceptable substance abuse

As reported in the news, alcohol and coke don't mix - even if the former prolongs the effects of the latter. Still, there are no shortage of people snorting what is really rat poison/worming powder/chalk on a Friday night in the West End.

I have never seen the point of rat poison/worming powder/chalk, and I'd object to being ripped off. Plus, I have never met anyone who wasn't a wanker whilst being coked-up.

But I have always wondered why alcohol - a legal, but no less dangerous, substance - is considered more acceptable by society and lawmakers than coke. As anyone who has ever witnessed a drunken brawl in the West End knows, alcohol can be just as lethal as Mexican marching powder. But why?

The answer, suggests Gill Hornby, is that this is all about money. Coke fuels the Colombian economy, not ours. In a land where manufacturing is all but gone, alcohol is possibly the only thing that's keeping the UK economy going - otherwise, no one would even bother going out.

Halloween

After the non-existent 'summer', it's already Halloween. And typically, I still haven't really decided on a costume for a party. For some strange reason, I want to go as Carl Fredericksen from Up. However, there is the question of all those balloons and tying a Boy Scout to me is impractical, to say the least.

But check out Sarah Schneewind's really cool Halloween idea. Have a happy and safe Halloween - I'm off tomorrow to This Is Playful.

Box-ing clever

Couch potatoes of the world, rejoice! Some months ago, it was announced that Sky Player would become available via Xbox 360. Starting from today, you can watch footie and play a bit of GTA.

But what's really interesting is that instead of having more set-top boxes (they're called STBs in the trade) , they look as if they might eventually disappear altogether. As online TV becomes more prevalent (Last.FM just announced their new service today), who knows if we will even need traditional televisions.

Sony Ericsson have developed the concept of 'televisionaries', who can provide Individual Television Experiences - HDTV, mobile and online all in one package. So a TV won't just be a TV and content can be consumed whenever and however one chooses.

But apart from the fancy jargon, doesn't it already exist? Last night's U2 streamed concert was already available to users with internet access via a phone, PC or TV.

Back in Black

Welcome back to the new and revamped edition of Scout's Chronicles. It has been a VERY long time - looking at my last post here, things sure have changed.

Apart from a rather severe recession and Barack Obama's election, I no longer listen to Virgin and have become instead a die-hard BBC6 junkie. To be more specific, I can't get enough of Shaun Keaveny, Adam & Joe, Jon Richardson and Iyare.

Technology has moved on, so that blogs have become the elder statemen of social media. And I tweet too, @lesliealee.

So what's big, three years on? Some things haven't changed - people are still trying to work out how to monetise content. Traditional media is in meltdown, with Murdoch closing thelondonpaper and making noises about charging for online content. Shame that the Times Online finished behind The Mail and The Daily Telegraph websites in the latest set of viewing figures.

Search is big, thanks to Bing. Everyone is racing to find the way to figure out what you're searching for, before you've even begun looking. See Evan Williams' take on this: http://bit.ly/q4bX8