I’ve heard all the furor and joy over BB, but not watched it yet (other half not really into the genre). But will have to slip a few episodes in and get into it. Definitely feels like I’m missing out on a classic
I didn’t, and whilst I can match Robert’s girth, sadly much of my hair has done a Beale having made an unwelcome departure. More chance me being confused with Uncle Fester than Robert Smith. There were a few tragic clones there though.
Sorry mate, I can't remember what you wrote. I'm getting old and forgetful. My apologies. Please refresh my memory, there was no intention to ignore what you said, I was just a bit slow in catching up with Uber's suggestion. I don't like watching war film's anymore because of the the pointlessness of it all. I had to force myself to watch it. A baker has to kill a fellow baker at close hand combat with a bayonet because a politician told him to do so. ( Feel free to add in any other occupation.) ****ing hell! Btw, I'm still thinking of this film weeks after watching it, which sadly is more than the incidents I attended in real life. I feel bad.
Just watched aqotwf Whilst it's filmed beautifully and the battle scenes were well done it left me feeling underwhelmed Maybe I'm just missing something
On the subject on films about war, I can highly recommend Overlord, a 1975 British film about D-Day directed and co-written by Stuart Cooper on a tiny budget of just £125,000. I watched this last night having never previously heard of it and found it incredibly powerful and intensely moving. The film uses actual archive film sourced from the Imperial War Museum intercut with dramatised scenes shot by Stanley Kubrick cinematographer John Alcott, who used old camera lenses and grainy black and white film stock so that his footage closely resembled the archives. There are no battle scenes, other than the archive footage, just the narrative of a young soldier going through basic training and building up to his deployment on D-Day. The sense of forboding as they approach the beaches is overwhelming - the young soldier says to his mate, 'I don't think I'm going to get through this. I can sense it, just like you know when you've got a cold coming on'. There's also a very moving moment in the archive footage as one soldier comfortingly pats the back of the comrade in front of him as they wait to climb out of the landing craft. So moving, and more powerful in many ways than blockbusters like The Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan. I caught this on the London Live channel last night, but will seek it out to watch again.
Just watched 71 Never heard of it till tonight Came up as a recommendation after aqotwf Was actually not bad
This one stroller Looks a bit cheesy but am willing to take your word it's good and might give it a crack tomorrow
Random reviews: Wine - Amarone (2017) with Christmas dinner. Outstanding. This is a hefty drink. Book - not a Christmas present, been reading it for some time - Rip it Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds - Post Punk 1978-1984. For those interested this is a huge, and brilliant history of how different people in different places took the fragments of punk in incredible new directions from PIL, Pere Ubu and Devo to Cabaret Voltaire, the Fall etc etc. Really enjoying this, and listening to loads of old music that I had forgotten about. Wire might not be to everyone’s taste, but man were they exciting and new. It’s a very big book. Gadget - Sage (Breville in some countries) bean to cup coffee maker. Had this a few years, looks like a mini proper Italian bar coffee maker. Has served us well, used several times a day. Recently the pressure has been playing up a bit, and no amount of fiddling with grinds etc has improved it, or even made it predictable. Culminating in it virtually exploding this morning, shooting the portafilter across the room and spraying hot coffee everywhere. Built in obsolescence perhaps but a bit of an extreme signal to get a new machine. Not recommended, I’ll be getting another make for the next one.
I had an old NME cassette - god knows where it is now, probably lost it in the divorce settlement - but I recall it had a Wire track on it 'I am the Fly' - 80's weirdness
Having just listened to that song again, quite wonderful in a jagged, spiky, way, it strikes me that Blur totally ripped it off for Girls and Boys. Not surprising as Elastica ripped Wire off for Connection and paid for it. This is a band which hired their own tribute act to open for them, playing exclusively old material, which meant the real band could play the new, often unreleased stuff. In 1985.
I'll defo look up that book, right up my street. I received Bez's autobiography (must be a ghost writer, no way he'd be able to string two words together on paper!) and Stuart Braithwaites' Spaceships over Glasgow - a story of rock and roll on the road with Post-Rock masters Mogwai. Wish I'd bought them with me as we're stuck in chronic traffic on the M6 near Stoke travelling to see my fam...
****ing hell, I can do a lot better than that. Ever heard of classical music, or high brow theatre? Watch this space….. I’ve just read the chapter on ‘industrial music’ especially Throbbing Gristle, who I thankfully missed first time round, though I was aware of the reactions their ‘gigs’ generated. I’m scared to listen to what they and the groups which followed them, produced. From what I read it’s not music and the ideas and themes they majored on are not at all pleasant. Uncompromising.
