Sam Richards 

Remembering Rik Mayall and the Colombian Breaking Bad – today’s breaking pop culture news

Hola, buenos dias and que pasa? Welcome to Tuesday's heads-down hurtle through the pop culture minefield. Today we're paying tribute to Rik Mayall, toking on some summer chillout classics and wondering what "Heisenberg" is in Spanish
  
  

rik
RIP Rik. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX

That's yer lot

Right, time to split. Gwilym and Lanre are your hosts for tomorrow – yes, we do this every day, so bookmark the Guide Daily series page to avoid disappointment.

I'll leave you with the new Plastikman album, the first in a decade, which Richie Hawtin has just uploaded to Youtube. It beats Celeb Masterchef, that's for sure.

Stuff to do tonight

If you're in Leeds, go and see leftfield R&B siren Jessy Lanza – whose stunning album made it into several Guide writers' best-of-2013 lists – at the Brudenell Social Club.

If you're in London, The Fall play the first of two nights at Under The Bridge (can't imagine Mark E Smith's going to be too thrilled when he discover's he's essentially playing at Chelsea's football ground...)

Meanwhile committed Fall fanatic Stewart Lee curses the scheduling of his work-in-progress shows at the Soho Theatre. Though presumably he's seen The Fall 863 times before.

If you're in Bath, go and see great indie hopes Peace at Moles.

And if you're in Belfast, go and see Dolly Parton at the Odyssey Arena.

On telly tonight: Phil Tufnell and Susan Calman Go For Broke, New Girl returns to E4 and Russell Grant, Jodie Kidd and Todd Carty are among the contestants for a new series of Celebrity Masterchef. Jeez, is there ever a week when some version of Masterchef isn't on telly? And are there any celeb challenge programmes that Grant, Kidd and Harty haven't yet been on?

Luckily it's a nice evening, so the other option is to sit in your garden with that nice Lone album we posted earlier.

Jumping from the Bridge

Bad news for fans of zip-up cardigans and cuddly Danish detectives – Kim Bodnia AKA Martin Rohde has quit The Bridge.

"We had different perceptions of the season's content," Anders Landstrøm of Swedish co-producer Film Lance told Sydsvenskan. "Bodnia was not happy with how the character evolved. It is a shame, but we must move on and accept it."

Seems Bodnia was unhappy with the idea that Martin had become a potential murderer and would most likely spend Season 3 rotting on remand, rather than cheerily teaching Saga how to tell porkies and slipping the odd length to comely female witnesses.

So now Saga is without a partner on the Danish side of the Øresund. With no obvious candidates to promote internally, they're going to have to recruit from outside. Wanted: one affable and faintly bearlike Dane to run the operation without having to expend too much physical effort. Surely, there can be only candidate.

Critical Mascis

Now, here's an American musical hero with a big grey beard who did once grant me an interview.

Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis has made a new solo album, and while unplugged Mascis is a bit like decaf coffee, this song is still pretty sweet. And it's got a fuzz guitar break to keep the headbangers happy.

Anyway, good to know that J is just as laconic even when talking to his best friends.

Licence to chill

Thanks for all your suggestions for Red Stripe-swilling summer soundtracks. Here are some of the best, should you feel like nicking off early today and topping up your yard tan.


Nominated by Luke Hyams

And an all-time deckchair classic:

Nominated by Thom Denson

Updated

Licence to grill

We've been trying to get an interview with Rick Rubin for ages, but he's proved elusive. And now I discover he's granted an audience to that chancer Zane Lowe! WTF Rick?!

To be fair, Zane did quite a good job with Rick's mate Kanye, which probably got him the gig. Whereas I'm not sure my Q&A with Rasmus from The Bridge, revealing as it was, quite cut the mustard with team Rubin.

I can hear you, Grim Fandango

A little nugget from Sony's E3 press conference: cult adventure game Grim Fandango is being "remastered" for PS4 and PS Vita.

Grim Fandango is fondly remembered as one of the first games to bring noir stylings, black comedy and influences from across the pop culture spectrum into the videogame medium, as creator Tim Schafer explains in this satisfyingly in-depth director's commentary.

Apparently, Sony's full press conference was getting on for three hours long, which is a cruel trick to play on thirsty videogame journalists. Handily, someone's edited the key announcements into a five-minute clip.

Updated

See Boyzone driving a German Whip

Not sure exactly what he's doing hanging around on Shane Lynch's Instagram, but my colleague Lanre Bakare has alerted me to this clip of Boyzone nodding along to Meridian Dan. That is all.

Stoned to the Lone

Searching for a superior slice of mood music to accompany this rather wonderful hazy summer's day? Then you need to get involved with Reality Testing, the new album from Nottingham producer Lone. It's streaming below, and you can read a Q&A with the man himself here.

It reminds me a lot of 90s chillout staple Smoker's Delight by Nightmares On Wax. At least, I can see it being used to accompany similar (lack of) activity this summer.

Which albums do you crack out on days like today, when the pace of life slows to a crawl? Do share.

Just do it

The standard of World Cup ads this year has been abominable, made worse by the fact that you know you're going to have to suffer them again and again. But finally Nike have come up with something watchable, circumventing the fact that footballers can't act/talk by turning Ronaldo, Rooney et al into Pixar-style characters. Neymar and Luiz as camp hairdressers is inspired casting, while Ibrahimovic steals the show (even though he's not at the World Cup) by desperately trying to flog his autobiography to disinterested motorists.

Alright, it's far too long, corny as anything and completely disingenuous as all ads for evil multinational corporations ultimately are – but it beats watching Joe Hart's shampoo shame for the zillionth time.

Yo no estoy en peligro. El peligro soy yo!

My colleague Kate Hutchinson draws my attention to the Spanish language remake of Breaking Bad, Metastasis, which started on American networks Univision, Unimas, and Galavision this week.

It's set in the Colombian capital Bogotá but otherwise most details remain the same, so Walter White becomes Walter Blanco, with seasoned TV actor Diego Trujillo even adopting Walt's schoolteacher tache and beige wardrobe. Obviously, though, as the series progresses, Metastasis may have its own points to make about the Colombian drug trade (and American interference therein).

You can watch the full (subtitled) trailer here, which shows just how faithful the adaptation has been.

Love Colombian Walt's carwash freakout – "why don't you wash these?" – even if it's not quite "fuck you and your eyebrows"…

When the Guardian first wrote about Metastasis last year, it suggested that reactions to early footage were mixed. Maybe our many Latin American readers can let us know how the final thing went down?

"Everybody everywhere – stop snogging and pay attention to me!"

There's been an outpouring of heartfelt tributes to the late Rik Mayall overnight, not least from his fellow comedians, which is always telling. Just the other week, Paul Whitehouse was on BBC2's anniversary shindig revealing how much he took from early Mayall character Kevin Turvey.

Stu Heritage has done a nice little roundup of Rik's finest moments, including his bravura performance of George's Marvellous Medicine on Jackanory. My personal introduction to the mad world of Rik Mayall was via the Young Ones' gleeful defacing of Cliff Richard's Living Doll for Comic Relief, back when the Comic Relief single at least tried to be funny.

He'll be missed.

Updated

Dunham did it again

Morning all. In perhaps the finest example of getting a celebrity to mime your song since Paul Simon hired Chevy Chase to lip-sync the You Can Call Me Al video, Sia spent the whole of her performance of Chandelier on last night's Late Night With Seth Myers lying in a bed while Lena Dunham enthusiastically adopted the role of righteous power balladeer. The girl Dun good.

 

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