MONDAY KAREN CARPENTER
IT'S 25 years today since Karen Carpenter died of heart failure at her parents' home in California. The LA Coroner gave the cause of death as "heartbeat irregularities brought on by chemical imbalances a
ssociated with anorexia nervosa". Carpenter had gained weight and seemed to be doing well in her battle to recovery from anorexia – but the combination of drugs she was taking to speed up her metabolism put pressure on her fragile heart. At the time, the world knew little of anorexia – but a quarter-century and many millions of words later, have we come far in understanding it better and treating it appropriately? Probably not.
Karen is, of course, best-known for being one half of the Carpenters with brother Richard, and for purveying some beautiful honey-sweet pop songs like Close to You, Goodbye to Love and We've Only Just Begun, Rainy Days and Mondays, Top of the World, Yesterday Once More and Please Mr Postman – and a cover of the Beatles' Ticket to Ride, which betrayed Richard Carpenter's love of the Fab Four. He cited the Beach Boys and Burt Bacharach as his other prime influences.
There are lots more good songs there than you might think – you could also add A Kind of Hush and that piece of wonderful madness Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft. Originally written by Klaatu and released by them in 1976, the Carpenters covered it a year later, using a crew of 160 musicians. I heard it on the radio recently and couldn't believe how utterly bizarre it was, with soaring guitar solo, alien voices, vaudeville piano in the middle and massive build-up to Karen's final 'We are your friends', with harmonies building to a crescendo behind her. John Woloschuk, a member of Klaatu and one of the song's composers, said the idea came from an event described in The Flying Saucer Reader, published in 1967. In March 1953 a group called the International Flying Saucer Bureau sent a bulletin to members urging them to take part in a 'World Contact Day' (15 March 1953), where they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words 'Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!' Go and have a listen on YouTube – it's brilliant.
After Karen's death, The Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation was set up to raise money for research on anorexia nervosa and eating disorders. It's now known as the Carpenter Family Foundation and also funds the arts, entertainment and education.
MONDAY STEPHEN MERCHANT
I CAN'T think of Stephen Merchant without recalling a scene from Extras. Andy Millman, Ricky Gervais' character, goes into office of his agent, Darren (played by Merchant) who is, ahem, pleasuring himself behind the desk. The object of his arousal is a pen with a picture of a pretty lady who undresses when you turn it upside down. Highly mature.
Merchant is 6ft 7in tall and once appeared on Blockbusters. There is no record of him asking: "Can I have a p please, Bob?" Gervais has described him as "an upright lizard being given electro-shock treatment" and a "stick insect with glasses".
Tonight, Merchant joins Richard Herring, Pappy's Fun Club and others at The Comedy Store for Scene & Heard, a children's charity that offers inner-city kids the chance to write and perform plays. Not about pleasure pens, presumably.
WEDNESDAY FRANCIS BACON
YOU either love Francis Bacon's work or you hate it – there isn't much middle ground. If you love it and have a spare few million quid, you might want to be at Christie's this week to bid for Triptych 1974-77. (A triptych is a picture or carving on three panels joined by hinges to form a single work.) This is the last Bacon triptych in response to the death of lover George Dyer. Christie's says it is a "great, strangely open, Baconian landscape… with sequential images of dark ominous umbrellas and George Dyer writhing and struggling on a near-deserted beach overlooked by the spectre of two terrifying monochrome Orwellian witnesses".
THURSDAY KEELEY HAWES
LOTS of words have been written about Philip Glenister returning as DCI Gene Hunt in Ashes To Ashes, the milk-a-cash-cow follow-up to Life On Mars. In case you'd missed it, Keeley Hawes is his co-star, playing DI Alex Drake who travels back to 1981 with a curly perm. Hawes, who was 31 on New Year's Day, is perhaps best-known for her roles in Spooks and Tipping The Velvet. She also voices Lara Croft on the Tomb Raider games and has three kids under eight, which is probably much harder work than dealing with sexist cops.
MONDAY KEN LIVINGSTONE
LEZ goes live in London today – and it's not the laconic 1970s comedian Les Dawson (who had a show called Sez Lez) coming back from the dead. LEZ stands for Low Emission Zone and today, Mayor Ken launches the scheme. It will see operators of lorries, buses and coaches that do not meet the LEZ standards being charged at a higher rate for driving into London. Eventually, drivers of the cars with the highest greenhouse gas emissions could be paying £25 for entry. LEZ will be phased in until January 2012.
ALSO THIS WEEK…Today: Jeff Koons, the world-renowned artist, has a new show at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, which isn't far away and it's worth seeing.
Probably not worth seeing is film The Hottie And The Nottie – starring Paris Hilton, Joel David Moore and Christine Lakin… about a young man who moves to LA to seek the woman of his dreams, but gets thwarted by her not-so-hot best friend.
Tomorrow: It's Super Tuesday in the US as the race to win the Democrat and Republican presidential nominations enters its final stages.
Wednesday: It's a big day for Alex Salmond and John Swinney – the final (final) vote on the SNP's first budget at Holyrood. Isn't it funny that they are just the SNP now, and very rarely referred to in full? It's 90 years since legislation was passed giving British women the right to vote.
Thursday: Lord (Joel) Barnett, of Barnett Formula fame, will move an amendment in the Lords to the Liaison Committee report setting up an ad-hoc committee to review his formula, which is used to calculate funding for Scotland.
Friday: Presidential elections in the Czech Republic and the first round of the Davis Cup, with Great Britain looking highly unlikely to beat Argentina without a certain Andy Murray.
Saturday: Scotland travel to Cardiff for the second game in their Six Nations campaign.
