THE RICKY RICKY RICKY TRICKY QUICKIE QUIZ PRESENTS THE ROMPER STOMPER ALBUM COVER STUMPER! You've all rested your brains long enough. So here is a little brain teaser to test your knowledge of album covers. All identifying scratchings have been removed from the covers; all you have to do is tell me whose album it is and what the album's called. Simple, yeah? If you're adventurous, please leave your answers in the comment section. After a decent amount of time, I will post the answers here as well. So in order to avoid any spoilers, get yourself a pencil and paper and write down your answers before looking in the comment section (where the answers will be). Good luck, musicologists.

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1960: SOME FAVOURITE FILMS FROM 50 YEARS AGO. Every year I post a little listing of my 10 favourite films from fifty years previously. Note that I do not say best films but just the ten that are my particular favourites; films which I have revisited again and again like old friends. So here is my 1960 film festival. Grab your popcorn.

THE APARTMENT - Funny, acidic, touching. The best film Oscar winner for 1960. Directed by Billy Wilder with trademark sourness coupled with a paradoxical light touch for comedy. Shirley MacLaine has never been more effective on the screen (with the possible exception of THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY). Jack Lemmon has seldom been more heartfelt. Fred MacMurray has seldom been slimier; not even in DOUBLE INDEMNITY.

BREATHLESS - Jean Luc Godard's tradition-shattering, ground-breaking film which carried the banner for the French New Wave. It initially left me a little cold but subsequent viewings have warmed the film to me. The radical editing style truthfully changed the way films were made. Jean Seberg rocketed to international stardom with her American-accented French while Jean Paul Belmondo became a cinematic god; rubbing his Bogartian lip and sneering at life.

CITY OF THE DEAD - Unofficially the first Amicus film in everything but name. Intensely moody modern witchcraft tale with more than a passing echo of PSYCHO; however both films were being made almost simultaneously and apparently there was no cross-pollination (especially knowing the locked-down Hitchcock set seems to have been impervious to leaks). Dripping with fog and an almost Lovecraftian atmosphere of dread.

HOUSE OF USHER - The first in the ultra-successful line of Poe films helmed by Roger Corman for American International Pictures, USHER started as it meant to go on. Vincent Price, with bleached-white hair to indicate his ultra-sensitivity to everything, was perfectly cast as Roderick Usher. The best of the Poe films.

JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY - The very first concert film ever made. A (perhaps too artfully-shot) document of the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival featuring towering giants of music such as Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Chuck Berry, and many more. Some "intimate" shots of audience members were, admittedly, staged but the glorious colour photography of the surrounding Newport location (capturing the boat races as well) is lipsmacking. And, of course, the musical performances are to die for.

L'AVVENTURA - The first in the loose trilogy of existential films helmed by maestro Michelangelo Antonioni, this film must have been something of a bombshell upon it's original release. The normal expectations of a film audience were completely smashed and filmic storytelling was forever altered. The emergence of Monica Vitti as Antonioni's muse also makes this film monumental. Breathtaking black and white photography.

THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN - Quite simply one of the best "caper" films ever made. Top notch cast of British character actors and a sure hand of directing from Basil Dearden. An absolute classic and probably very influential on all caper films to come.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - Classic western with a classic cast. Based, of course, on the classic Akira Kurosawa film SEVEN SAMURAI. Yul Brynner was famously upstaged at every turn by Steve McQueen. Ably directed by John Sturges. And then of course there's that iconic music!

PSYCHO - Admittedly one of the most influential films on the horror genre. For some years I was somewhat less impressed due to extreme familiarity but in recent years the almost jewel-like craftsmanship of the film rewards repeated viewings. Classic Bernard Herrmann score perfectly elevates Hitchcock's black and white "nasty" movie.

THE VIRGIN SPRING - Often held in less esteem than many of Ingmar Bergman's other films of the period, JUNGFRUKALLEN remains a film that hits hard with a powerful punch. And truth be told, the eponymous scene in the final reel actually brought an audible gasp from me. How many films can you honestly say have done that?

So there they are. The 10 films from 50 years ago I like the most. Time to fire up the DVD player and watch 'em!

A FEW WORDS ON MATT SMITH. I must say that I was EXTREMELY dubious when I first learned that Matt Smith was taking over for David Tennant as the new Doctor. I had already seen him co-starring (prophetically) alongside Billie Piper in the 2006 BBC-TV Victorian production of THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE so I was fairly familiar with him. My first reaction was that the 26 year old actor was cast as the new Doctor simply because he was so young in the hopes of appealing to the teenybopper demographic. Then, after seeing his brief first appearance as The Doctor after he regenerates at the end of the (rather poor) final David Tennant story "The End of Time", my apprehensions were not really soothed. Ah well, it's always tough to judge an actor on the first few moments after his regeneration because the performance much needs be always rather over-the-top. So it was not until the official "first" new Doctor story "The Eleventh Hour" that I felt I could judge Matt Smith objectively. And now, after having seen his first two episodes I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised. Already I think Matt Smith is a terrific Doctor and, in fact, quite a bit better than David Tennant. While I am not a Tennant basher and quite liked him as the Doctor, I've always said that he was a step down from Christopher Eccleston's portrayal. And the thing I think makes Matt Smith a much better fit as the Doctor is the fact of the actor's genuine quirky eccentricity. David Tennant as an actor and a person is simply not naturally "quirky" or "eccentric" and he therefore "acted" the Doctor as quirky and eccentric. There was always a false note there -- and in fact Tennant often barrelled way over the top in that department and needed a director to rein him in sometimes. Matt Smith, however, appears to be actually quirky and eccentric as a person before he steps in front of a camera; this natural eccentricity comes through in a natural, genuine and unforced manner. This makes all the difference. I mean, most everyone's choice as the best Doctor is Tom Baker (certainly mine) and there was no one more "eccentric" in real life than he. Matt Smith has the same quality. However, he is certainly no one note clown; he has already displayed a remarkable dramatic quality as well: notably in the second episode "The Beast Below" in which he evinces a powerful rage and pain one would not expect from the same guy eating the fish fingers dipped in custard in episode one. The scene culminating in Matt Smith's disgusted roar "Humans have nothing to say to me today!" was probably one of the hardest-hitting performances in the series. I mean EVER. The new creative team at the helm of the "new" new Doctor Who series has so far hit two episodes out of the park. Splendid, splendid episodes. Let's see if they can keep it going. Matt Smith certainly deserves the best they have to give him. As things now stand, Smith has the potential to become a candidate for the best Doctor ever. And that's saying something. And no one could be more surprised to hear me say that than me!

THE PENGUIN AWARDS THAT NEVER WERE . . . ARE. At last the results of our 20th anniversary celebration of the Penguin Awards. With much soulful agonizing and several monetary bribes, I have finally awarded Penguin Awards for the 1980s. If you're just stumbling by or have been incredibly unobservant, the nominees for each year of the 1980s are down below. However, it's not fair to those talented artists who are holding their breaths and postponing concert tours so that they may see whether or not they have won the coveted Penguin Awards. So here they are -- in yearly disorder -- the Penguin Award winners for the 1980s:

****

1989

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

WHAT IT TAKES - Aerosmith

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

MEGATOP PHOENIX - Big Audio Dynamite

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:

NOTHING COMPARES 2 U - Sinead O'Connor

DUET OF THE YEAR:

KID FEARS - Indigo Girls & Michael Stipe

****

1988

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

I HATE MYSELF FOR LOVING YOU - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

STAY AWAKE - Various Artists

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:

BLUE SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL - Syd Straw

DUET OF THE YEAR:

TONIGHT/LET'S DANCE (LIVE) - Tina Turner & David Bowie

****

1987

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SONG OF THE YEAR:

4TH OF JULY - X

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

RAINDANCING - Alison Moyet

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR: HAZY SHADE OF WINTER - The Bangles

DUET OF THE YEAR:

SUMMERTIME - Barry Manilow & Diane Schuur

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1986

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

I WANT TOMORROW - Enya

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

SO - PETER GABRIEL

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THE BRIDGE - Billy Joel {It's A Tie!}

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR: SUSPICIOUS MINDS - Fine Young Cannibals

DUET OF THE YEAR: CODE OF SILENCE - Billy Joel & Cyndi Lauper

****

1985

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

GOODBYE - Night Ranger

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

HOUNDS OF LOVE - Kate Bush

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR: DANCING IN THE STREET - Mick Jagger & David Bowie

DUET OF THE YEAR:

WRAP HER UP (EXTENDED MIX) - Elton John & George Michael

****

1984

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

JAM ON IT - Newcleus

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

2:00 AM PARADISE CAFE - Barry Manilow

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:

YOUNG BOY BLUES - The Honeydrippers

DUET OF THE YEAR:

BLUE - Barry Manilow & Sarah Vaughan

****

1983

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

I'M STILL STANDING - Elton John

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

WAITING - Fun Boy Three

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:

YOUNG AT HEART - Wild Man Fischer

DUET OF THE YEAR:

WHITE LINES (DON'T DO IT) - Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel

****

1982

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

WISH YOU WERE HERE - Fleetwood Mac

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: TIME AND TIDE - Split Enz

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR:

HAPPY TRAILS - Van Halen

****

1981

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

GHOST TOWN - The Specials

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

MOVING PICTURES - Rush

COVER SONG OF THE YEAR: THE SEA NAMED SOLARIS - Tomita

DUET OF THE YEAR:

UNDER PRESSURE - Queen & David Bowie

****

1980

****

SONG OF THE YEAR:

REDEMPTION SONG - Bob Marley & the Wailers

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

THE TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD - The Alan Parsons Project