Last Night's TV

I didn't watch Lost yet, so shut up about it. I taped all three episodes, and I've scheduled a Lost jag for some time later in the week, though coming so soon after my 22-episode Alias jag, it's got a lot to live up to. ITV rather embarrassingly scheduled one of the incomprehensible Matrix sequels against Lost, and came a bit unstuck. According to MediaGuardian:

BBC2 helped deepen ITV1's blushes with the third and final part of its whimsical archive documentary series The Lost World of Friese-Greene, which got the same audience as The Matrix Reloaded - 3.1 million viewers - and a share of 14% between 9pm and 10pm.

Yes, we enjoyed The Lost World. It was poignant and fascinating, although John O'Groats looked a bit of a dump. Why do people bother?
I missed last night the second part of The Perfect Home on More4, realising that there would be "another chance to see" it on Channel 4, when it's repeated at the weekend.

The guy had an interesting thesis about the shocking state of British architecture, and I agree with him wholeheartedly when he lays into the pastiche housing that goes up all over this country like some kind of plague of housing boils. On the other hand, when he went back to the concrete monstrosity he grew up in in Swissland, you did sort of baulk. Man, it was ugly. Concrete can be pretty (as the Le Corbusier chapel in Ronchamp proves), but this house wasn't.

I like modern architecture. We've all enjoyed seeing those fantastic, light, open, places being built on Grand Designs. I would lurve a Hus house, or even a Hus garden shed. But one of the problems I have with the modern style is the insistence on Open Plan.

Yeah, we all love it. Open plan is cool. It's lovely for young trendy couples and older trendy couples. But in the middle you've got families with kids. And kids are noisy. Sometimes, it's a sweet relief to be able to close a door to shut out, or at least diminish, the noise. Furthermore, when I cook, I like to listen to the radio. Which means, in an open plan house that anyone trying to watch/listen to anything else is going to have to deal with yet more background noise.

So let's not chuck out all the chintz just yet.