America: thank you. And thank you BBC for coverage which trounced any of the US networks', not just in the increasingly irascible presenters but in the quality of talking heads. Jay Macinerney looking old! Gore Vidal looking even older! An atypically sober but still venomous Christopher Hitchens eviscerating Elizabeth Dole was good, but Simon Schama's effortless superiority when faced with The Bad John Bolton, his spurious outrage and his improbable moustache was even better. I was worried that starting the evening with the Vichy Government's annual London show might be bad juju, particularly when their new song 'The Man Delusion' echoes my own fears about humanity's inherent limitations, but last night, the US - or enough of it, at least - rose above that. Not enough that there wasn't some booing from McCain's viler supporters as he conceded - which, to his credit, he was having none of (like Michael Howard, nothing became his political career so well as his leaving of it). But against that - well, like the man said, we have the audacity of hope. Also: new puppy! Bless.

Also - RIP Michael Crichton. You may have been a climate change denier, but DINOSAURS! Also ROBOTS!

Didn't think much of last night's Life on Mars - it annoys me that after gradually building a tense but respectful working relationship between Sam and Gene in the first series, we now seem to be going by sitcom logic where they're back to being stuck in an unchanging loop of exasperation with each other. I also found it deeply distracting that two key characters were called Patrick O'Brian and Frank Miller.

As powerful a mind as Milan Kundera's is still prepared to go along with the lazy consensus that Tristram Shandy is "inadaptable", a theory happily disproved by A Cock And Bull Story. This was one where I waited for the DVD because I knew I'd want to explore the extra layers the format does so well (I'm expecting the commentary to be a gem); so far I've only seen the film itself, but it's perfect. All you need to do to adapt Tristram Shandy is make a film as chaotic, sprawling, human, self-indulgent and apparently undisciplined (but magnificently nuanced) as the book itself, one which wanders off and loses the book just as the book loses Tristram. And it helps that the cast is packed past the point of sense with top talent. I don't just mean the marquee names like Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Dylan Moran and Stephen Fry (magnificent though they all are); even minor roles are played by the Tory MP from The Thick Of It, Errol from 15 Storeys High, Ian Hart, James Fleet and the like.

"A man accused of a stealing underwear from a shop in a knifepoint raid believed he was a female elf at the time, Belfast Crown Court has heard." Fair enough, but of all the games to take over your life and corrode your reason - Shadowrun? Meanwhile, South Korea moves towards the real world implementation of Laws of Robotics, though since they seem to be proposing the pre-emptive prohibition of sexual human/robot relationships, it's a terrible start.

Listening to the new Arcade Fire album (streamed on nme.com for those of us unsure about buying it), I think I'm one of the moderates. Some of the early mutterings that they'd totally lost it are unfair, but it's certainly lacking in the electric 'What is this? It's awesome!' that I instantly got from Funeral. I suppose it's always hard to keep going at such an exalted level after you've hit with a debut that good - and even if you manage it on the second album, that'll only make the crash with the third that much worse; just ask Mike Skinner.
edit: Damn, I think I'm coming to the same conclusion about the second LCD Soundsystem, and I've heard nothing but good things about that one so was really looking forward to it. Still, hurrah for the brave new world where we can discover these things, legally, without paying a penny.

Would have very much liked to catch myfirstkitchen and Nemo at Tesco Disco tonight, or maybe Jason Webley again, but realistically I was never going anywhere except my bed.