I love Wikipedia:

"The world record for most aces in a match is held by John Isner, with 93 aces (although game still ongoing) in a first round match against Nicolas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on June 23, 2010 (Mahut holds second place with 80 in the same match)."

Four minutes later:

"The world record for most aces in a match is held by John Isner, with 93 aces (although game still ongoing) in a first round match against Nicolas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on June 23, 2010 (Mahut holds second place with 82 in the same match)."

About a week ago, I went to watch American: The Bill Hicks Story, at the Phoenix. I am an enormous Bill Hicks fan. Obsessively so. I think I have all the bootlegged concerts on my computer, and a DVD of rariety camcorder shows as well as enough official CDs and DVDs that I have basically all his material available in one form or another (there's a lot of recorded stuff from 1990-91 which is repeated on several shows, which I ususally refer to as his Drugs and Drink and Cigarettes and Porn set). I also have about three books - two biographies and a book of transcripts and scripts and other writings. So that's the background I took into this documentary.

First of all, it's a beautiful film to look at. There's the usual audio history going on in the background, but what the directors have done is taken still photographs and created pseudo-animated sequences to support the narrative. It's odd at first, but very quickly you stop even noticing that the still faces aren't moving in their animated environment. Very clever.

Secondly, where has all this new footage come from? There are several camcorder recordings which must go back as far as the early 1980s that I have never seen before. If a DVD comes out, the producers had better put the whole sets on as extras. There's some bits (about his father) which I'd never heard before which were used to accompany the section on his early shows. I don't think they are quite as old as that (he looks a bit older than 16) but it's not far off. Some of these early clips also show later material in an earlier form - like the fantasy about the grotesque death of woman that broke his heart seeing him on the Tonight Show as she breathed her last.

The best thing about the film, however, is they way everything is brought back to the comedy. With enough reading, you'd already know about the drug stories and the depths of his alcohol abuse and his tragic early death from pancreatic cancer. While all of these are important parts of the story, no-one dwells on the more sensational details, but instead uses them in partnership with recordings to show how they motivated what he was doing on stage. There's clips to show him drinking excessively on stage, clips about his growing dislike of governments (including from Hicks and Kevin Booth's trip to Waco in 1993), clips contrasting his raptorous reception in the UK (the huge rock and roll entrance of the Revelations show at the Dominion theatre) adjacent to the small audiences ("staring blankly back at me like a dog that had been shown a card trick) of a backwater comedy club in the US South. I like this because it feels like the best use of the documentary medium, and gives fresh insight into a topic I (and many other fans) already know well. I mean, I can read and re-read an autobiography of his life but only in a film can I really see the effect on his work. Very much recommended, for disciples and neophytes alike.

I went to see Murder by Death last Wednesday, and, as before, they were fantastic. I love how they will play any song from any album - looking over set lists from previous shows, they mix up the new stuff, pick and choose the old stuff and play the entirety of In Bocco over the course of any three nights. That's a band there - there albums aren't three singles and a bunch of filler, but twelve immaculately crafted songs, each one telling a story and standing alone. The new stuff off Good Morning, Magpie sounds tremendous live - the title track is heart-wrenchingly sad, whilst Yes and Dark Streets Below rock along disguising their dark lyrics. And they played Those That Stayed as an encore, which was their classic encore song before, you know, they wrote so many songs they could mix it up. And the Big Sleep (now also played by me, every evening, to my wife's chagrin).

Truly, this band has spoiled rock music for me. As a guy who mostly listens to different forms of metal, there are few rock bands I really listen to, and none of them are anywhere near as good as Murder By Death.

By the way, there are hidden links to songs in this post, if you can find them.

Murder By Death (AKA The Greatest American Rock Band of the Past Decade) are back in Oxford in June. In honour of that, here's some Murder By Death videos (AKA Videos of the Number One and Best Rock Music on the Planet):

Brother.
Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue.
The Big Sleep - make sure you get to the climax at 3:30.
Those Who Stayed.

Excitingly, I have had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Public Economics. This would be my first one. Go me. The world will now have to brace itself for the revolutionary impact of "Quasi-hyperbolic discounting and retirement: a comment" (forthcoming).

I've been enjoying Derren Brown's latest series. What I've enjoyed most is watching public reaction - and I'm convinced Derren is enjoying it as well.

After the lottery trick, the amount of time spent proving it was a trick was completely unprecedented. I can only assume that people feel the need to try to prove a magician is actually a magician, and not a wizard, because he's been so successful in the past at baffling people. His act often dresses up magic in the guise of being something deeper. He may certainly be better at controlling minds than other magicians (the Heist stunt, for instance, is no illusion) but he is still, at the end of the day, a magic act that use a wide variety of methods.

The anger at his explanation - I've seen people say they've written to advertising watchdogs because of false claims - was particularly amusing, especially if you really watch the show. The punchline of the show - after giving his obviously false mathematical explanation, and his even more absurd 'fix the draw' explanation that was designed to taunt the real cynics - was simply "I'll maintain that it was just a trick", a throwaway reminder that the idea is could be anything else is just ridiculous.

If anything, the reaction to the control the nation event was even better. Commenting on the Guardian's live coverage of the show, many people seemed keen to point out, in a tone that suggested they were in some way superior, that it had not worked for them. Quite frankly, anyone who tried it with that attitude was never going to experience anything else. It should be noted that there was a punchline at the end of this show as well - this time mentioning that all the tricks has nothing to do with subliminal messaging. Cath chatted the entire way through it, but I've got it on my DVR, so I'll give it another go later, and let you know how it goes. I deeply want it to work. I think that would be more interesting than standing up.

Booom.

Barney Frank murked that shit.

Update: Colbert adds joy to already joyous event.

Loading up the BBC News website is always more entertaining when the side bar tells you that science proves zombies could annihilate humans.

In such an event, says science, "only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures." (I think it's the word 'fictional' in the last sentence that makes it comedic art). Because, science reminds us, "it's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else... we are all in a great deal of trouble." (I would personally have added the word 'fictional' prior to the word 'trouble', but then I am known for overkill)

Of course, science may not have quite got the model correct - it failed to recognise that the alternative assumption about "zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever." So stop your (fictional) panicing right now.

Man, I love it when other people are funny for me.

Nirvana's Unplugged set is my favourite recorded musical performance - I like that DVD more than any of their individual albums. Their whole attitude to the thing is what makes it for me - eschewing the big hits and focusing on other lesser album tracks (Pennyroyal Tea is a highlight), inviting relatively unknown band The Meat Puppets to join them on-stage where the expectation would have been to play with another of Seattle's leading lights, and a bunch of fairly random covers.

The set finishes with a cover of Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night?, which remains a chilling, intense climax. Watch at 4:40 on the video where Kurt looks like he's about the explode. Sensational.

As requested, admittedly a while back, I'd like to point you, dear reader of these words, in the direction of another blog of equal import. My friend Tom is, amongst other things, an excellent stand-up comedian and is so far exceeding even my own high expectations in his role as director of our new improvised comedy project, The Four Gallants.

He is also, if not my favourite Tory on the planet (I have these parents), then certainly the one I would most willingly listen to on matters of politics. This, after a recent revelation that Andy isn't a Tory, despite wearing his shirts like that.

It is, however, strictly for people who are thoughtful and interested in all manners of the living. Warning: lovers of banality and mindlessness may be offended.

I've been reading a lot of Chuck Pahalniuk this year - Fight Club, Survivor, Haunted and Rant - and haven't read one yet that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Something I discovered after reading Haunted was that the opening short story (it's a book of short stories, about each of the characters in the main story), which is called "Guts" was often read to promote the book. Given the reported effects of these readings on its audience (causing people to pass out night after night), I wanted to hear it performed live. I found it on YouTube here (part 2 and part 3 follow on). Inhale. Take in as much air as you can. Have a listen, and tell me what you think.

Colbert on Berlusconi, a couple of weeks ago: "Still, Berlusconi maitains a solid 56% approval rating among his people, mainly because they're worried if his rating drops into the teens, he'll try and fuck it."

The whole thing is here.

I've been learning the play the guitar for a while now, and as my musical tastes and the acoustic guitar are not quite the happy bed fellows you at first might imagine, I like trying to find songs I enjoy and would listen to that could be played unplugged. Youtube is your friend in this situation, as there is no end of people posting their cover versions of pretty much anything. Anyway, I've recently been trying to find versions of Bad Religion songs, having seen a couple of tracks Greg Gaffin himself has done acoustically (Sorrow, already discussed, and God Song, both of which I can kind of sort of nearly play a passable version of).

There's some nice covers out there, but I just found quite a few performed by one girl (whose name is Emily, we're very close), and some of them are really great. This is not just because she has a strong voice and plays well, but because, if you know the originals (find the originals, know them, love them), you'll see they're not just carbon copies played on an acoustic guitar.

Anyway, have a listen - I recommend Faith Alone, Walk Away and You. I'll be stealing them soon. You should all be aware that I only try to sing along when I'm sure most of East Oxford is out.

In the aftermath of Sunday's performance of Correctness, I've been thinking (and Andy and I have been discussing) what happens next. I like sketch, and it is pretty much my ideal medium, so it's interesting to see what opportunities there would be. Sketch nights in London and festivals - though sadly not Edinburgh, this year - are on the radar.

In that vein, two articles, published independently but about the same topic, appeared in the Guardian and the Independent today. Interesting, the former seems to believe sketch shows no longer have any appeal, while the latter seems really excited about the blossoming live sketch scene in London. Let's assume the latter is true.

Anyway, I started having a look at some of the sketches and sketch groups who are on Youtube, and while there are a great many that I liked, here's my favourite: Women, by Idiots of Ants.

A link, especially for Tom, but also for anyone else that loves Stephen Fry. I love Stephen Fry. I often wish my first homosexual experience had been with him, but instead I had to settle for a girl.

Also, some jokes I thought of this weekend:

Race relations are changing. Look at America. Used to be if a black man was running for office, there would be people who wouldn't vote for him because he was a black man. Now when a black man runs for office, there are people who won't vote for him because he's an Arab.

I want to go hunting for zebras with a laser gun. I want to know if, when I shot one of them, it would tell me the price of zebras.

Here's an admission that will surprise hardly anyone who knows me (and complete stranger that are just good at this game): I'm quite a nerd. For things that I'm interested in or that catch my attention, I love getting details, reading opinions, and storing up knowledge so that one day I could explain to someone else a chronology of events (score) or maybe even compile a list (double score).

So, I hear a new band, and I want to know all their albums, which ones are seminal, how their sound evolved and how they fit into a particular scene or genre. Sometimes I'll do all this without listening to much of their actual music. It's the same for wrestling and for comedy, and for the last 10 months, it has been the US presidential elections.

I get a lot of information from this site, run by Ashish, which aside from covering a wide range of issues and opinions, has been excellent at summarising and collating polling data, and explaining what matters. The way they have fluctuated has been one of the most interesting parts of this process. And the way polls look now, it is going to be a whitewash on election day.

I also stayed up last night to watch the VP debate. I thought Joe Biden was statesman-like, which is probably a codeword for dull. Which is fine - its hard to criticise someone for being competent and knowledgeable. I thought he pulled punches, as was predicted - given expectations, he would have appeared bullying and arrogant if he'd gone on the attack at her. Instead, he established Obama's positions and pushed the line about McCain being the next Bush. He also managed to (finally) cast doubt of McCain's supposed maverick credentials, and their increasingly noticeable absence in this campain

Palin grated on me throughout, not just her voice, but also the way she treated the whole thing as an opportunity to pivot to any topic she has pre-prepared lines about. Maybe her folksy manner is appealing to some voters, but she appeared out of her depth.

And I'll tell you what else. She's lining for a run at the nomination in 2012. So much of what she said last night was about her and her record, not that of her principal. Plus, the way she, this morning, openly contested the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan - it's like she knows this race is lost, so its time to push herself forward.

(By the way, I've always thought I too have a folksy charm: the way you can tell is that I have the word "folksy" in my vocabulary, and use it to describe elements of my personaility. And it isn't just my charm that is folksy. I also have a folksy shouting at the elderly for getting in my way, and a folksy addiction to petrol fumes.)

Anyway, I'm going to miss all this come November.

The Levellers are playing at the Zodiac on Tuesday December 16th. I've seen them live before, and they put on a great show. I'll be booking tickets soon - so if you fancy some anarcho-hippy folk punk rock just before Christmas (the most anarcho-hippy of all the pagan festivals turned Christian holidays), let me know. Also, violins, harmonicas, a didgeridoo, and lots of underwashed people with dreadlocks who still think it's 1993.

What a beautiful day, I'm the king of all time. And nothing is impossible in my all-powerful mind.

Came across this last week, and I think it's great. It Bad Religion's frontman Greg Graffin doing an acoustic version of "Sorrow". Enjoy.

Went to see Murder By Death last night. They are a truly exceptional band. Aside from their considerable skills, their songs are full of drama and narrative and emotion. They don't really sound like anyone else I've heard - there's elements of post-punk and folk and gothic and post-rock and classical and PIRATES, and then on something like the stunning version of 'Dynamite Mine', the sort of sludgey rock you'd expect from the Melvins or someone.

As one of the non-metal bands I like, I wish they were more widely known. They are everything a rock band should be.

I went to see James Sherwood tonight, a comedian and musician, whose show, 'Songs of Music' is being taken to Edinburgh. Rachel and I thought he was excellent - he is utterly charming and likeable, and witty beyond belief - wit in stand-up comedy, a mostly scripted artform, being particularly hard to convey sometimes. But it was the little things that made him engaging. The eyes, the faces, the pauses, all adding a little bit of extra joy to the hour. On a number of occassions he smiled at one of his own lyrics, with a face that said, "how clever am I for thinking of that?". I love that, especially as he let the song peter out, without a punch line. And then when he repeated the lyric later, when something else got a muted response. Plus, some of his puns, wrying dropped throughout, were epic.

Definitely an Imps-friendly show. He is everything we love. And by we I mean the template personality we force all members to adopt. And by we I mean the people who should love James Sherwood.