News has rather belatedly reached me that Dale’ Supermarket Sweep has been resurrected by an evidently desperate ITV.

This begs only one question: Why?

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/sweep.flv” title=”Will You Dance With Me?” /]

In the series opener of her US chat show, Tyra Banks takes on the media, complaining about a photo that was published of her under headlines suggesting she’d gained forty pounds. The tirade she unleashes was heavily promoted beforehand, and it is clearly something of a ratings-grabbing stunt. I’ve included a eight-and-a-half minute chunk of the programme below, to set the whole thing in context for the majority of my readers who may have missed the story. The much repeated tirade is in the last minute-and-a-half or so of the video.

It has to be said that this is an odd, odd piece of television. The creator and judge of America’s Next Top Model protesting at accusations she’s put on weight, whilst simultaneously claiming to think that ‘curvy women’ are ‘sexy’. The sentiment is very good, but the hypocrisy stinks: If curvy is sexy, then why is she so ‘humiliated’ by the idea of being curvy herself? She surely can’t have it both ways. She criticises others’ obsession with weight, yet knows her own exact weight from over two months ago. She says she’s no longer a model, yet shows pictures from her swimsuit shoot. She says perfection is unrealistic, yet admits that she has her photos retouched. It’s all just hot air.

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/tyra.flv” title=”The Tyra Banks Show (Warner Bros)” /]

Perhaps this video symbolises everything that’s wrong with the fashion industry. Everyone pays lip-service to the ideas that big is beautiful, healthy is good, and ultra-slim is bad, but nobody in the industry actually believes it. Which is odd, because I don’t think anyone in the real world finds Size Zero models attractive.

Fern Britton won an award last week for being the woman most men ‘secretly adore’. How sad it is that men don’t feel able to say they’re attracted to women like Fern, and that The Sun insists on branding her an ‘unlikely babe’. When we finally get over these silly mass-market produced images of beauty, and accept real beauty – beauty that lies in the eye of the beholder rather than the eye of fashionistas who decree the latest ‘sexy look’ – then perhaps we’ll be finally able to tackle the misery these ill-conceived perceptions cause.

A brilliant video explaining in simple terms the Web 2.0 concept and its impact.

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[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/blaircameron.flv” title=”Time Trumpet (BBC Two)” /]

If you have any good pictures or videos that deserve posting, then do let me know. You can comment below, email simon@sjhoward.co.uk, send mobile text, videos, or pictures to 60300 (start your message with the word ‘simon’), or call 0845 638 1916 and let me know where to look. To see more videos, click here.

For those of you who were too lazy to stay up for Bush’s State of the Union, here’s what you didn’t miss, as constructed from last year’s edition.
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Introducing Mary Poppins… As you’ve never seen her before!

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And also introducing the brand new sjhoward.co.uk video player – much bigger than the YouTube and Google Video versions I’ve previously embedded, and with a full-screen option built in. Enjoy!

Video courtesy of Eleni and Moviemker.

 Update: Most of the archived videos on the site have now been updated to the new format, and the ‘Videos‘ category page has a new look, as well as a link in the top bar.  How very technologically advanced!

For those who missed Sunday’s show, here’s how it ended:

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/dealornodeal.flv” title=”Deal or No Deal (Channel 4)” /]

Now, Laura, if you’re reading this, and you’re looking to support a penniless student blogger, I’ve got just the thing.

Update 23/01/07 – I’ve now altered this post to run on the new flash player, and so need to directly credit its creator, jamesb1919. The original broadcaster was, of course, Channel 4.

Today, I would like to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas. I hope it’s happy, peaceful, and brings you everything you could ever ask for. Even little green men…

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You won’t see the this on the Ten O’Clock news. But perhaps – just perhaps – it hints at the real story of what’s going on in Iraq, and the kinds of things that will always happen when ordinary young men are placed in extraordinary positions, with the power of life or death, in foreign countries. Or perhaps it’s fake.

A unique form of ‘American justice’:

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/iraq.flv” /]

Is it any wonder the Iraqi people want us to leave?

I don’t know if Stephen Ladyman reads this blog – I suspect not – but you do, Dr Ladyman, here’s the Danish solution you’re missing on the path to road safety:

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Anyone sniggering at Dr Ladyman’s name should be ashamed. 😆