Stourbridge pubs yet again! Two new ones to add - The Weavers - friendly staff, decent booze; and the Hop Vault a very focussed trendy place with a few cask ales on and million (it seemed ) bottles and cans of esoteric brews on sale. Also fine but nowhere near as good as the perennial favourite and leading contender for best pub in the world Royal Exchange. Stopped off for a pint of Jaipur and a share of a Brummie pizza (keema, tandoori chicken, minty yoghurt, peppers) at the Colmore in Brum on the way home . Tasty.
Tufnal park has an Italian / indian fusion pizza/pasta place, tikka masala pizza or prawn madras spaghetti, strangely works
Havoc on Netflix, Tom Hardy is really making some **** last few years. Lining his pockets, but making dross well beneath him. He could've made a 2nd series of Taboo instead of all this turd !
Has anyone been to the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere, Hampshire? Just seen it in an (old) Michael Portillo train travelogue and was stunned - huge murals painted by Stanley Spencer in the 1920’s, echoing his experiences as a medical orderly in the Great War. Looks, on telly, staggering. Irritates me that I drove past the place almost daily while commuting to Basingstoke for six years, and was in total ignorance of it.
Simon Schama's Power of Art series. I've caught a couple of these recently whilst unable to sleep, and they're really good. Brilliiant descriptions and appreciation of the art by Schama, interspersed with dramatic depictions of the artists and their lives and relationships. I've seen the Caravaggio and Bernini episodes and they were both excellent. Schama's interpretation of Bernini's St Theresa sculpture was fascinating. please log in to view this image
Just on to episode 2 of Your Friends and Neighbours, with Jon Hamm as a sacked stockbroker/trader who starts stealing from his ex neighbours to support his ex wife and family. Elements of his Madmen Don Draper persona in Hamm’s role, but that’s no bad thing for me. Episode two starts with a (female) fence teaching the big shot trader how to negotiate (for a stolen watch) in the real world, in a great piece of writing and acting. I also appreciate that Hamm has fattened up over the years, just like a normal human man. Grown up, intelligent, witty TV. Doubtless if popular they will stretch it out to a thousand episodes and devalue the idea to nothingness.
Sounds like Ray Donovan with Liev Schreiber, the early episodes were great and then it jumped the shark and lost all sense
I’m appreciating the almost complete lack of violence in Friends and Neighbours so far - 3 episodes - to date he has punched his daughters boyfriend in the balls and immediately apologised, a bloke broke his ankle playing basketball and there was some mild threatening of a pawn shop customer with a gun. In three hours remarkable for modern TV. There is a lot of (non graphic) sex though as all these thoroughly unlikeable rich people cheat on each other and get divorced. To its credit the show is taking the piss out of all of them.
Update. Yeah, started going downhill episodes 4 & 5, but still not bad. Also, podcasts. Correct me if I’m wrong but these are simply radio programmes which you can listen to on demand on the Internet. From what I understand they are cheap to make because they are usually just a couple of people talking about something they might actually have expertise in, or just bombarding us with their opinions. The only one I’ve consciously listened to is Atletico Mince by Bob Mortimer, who I love but I got bored with it quite quickly. This is really something I don’t want to get into (I hardly ever listen to the real radio, let alone a pre recorded version). Strikes me that the ease of making a podcast is almost a guarantee of a flood of low quality dross that people I’ve never heard of are trying to monetise with a few jewels tucked away. If you know of a jewel let me know, otherwise I am putting podcasts, along with thousands of content free TV channels and possibly music streaming into the ‘decline of western civilisation’ bucket. The only question is whether they are a cause or an effect of the decline.
Old geezer alert. I'm always confused when they say, 'Avaialble wherever you get your podcasts'. I wouldn't know where to get a podcast.
I listen to a lot of podcasts - have a lot of time driving to sites all over the place and even I can need a break from listening to music sometimes. There's a lot of **** out there, but these are some that I listen to regularly... Open All Rs...QPR podcast that has some great guests on. Clint Hill is on a few times a season. Clive from LFW is on quite often too. The guys that run it are very QPR focussed, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. Conflicted - a firm favourite of mine, the dwarf ambulance man is also a big fan. Ultra knowledgable deep dive in to global conflicts, especially the middle eastern arena. Aimen Dean, ex al-Qaeda and MI6 double agent along side American Thomas Small. Some stand-out episodes include the one on Yemen in Season 1, Russia in Season 2 and a special about Israel/Hamas. Grounded with Louis Theroux ....these started during Lockdown on BBC Sounds, and now continues on Spotify...different guest each week, interviewed in Louis laid back style. The Spy Who....excellent series, delving in to different spy stories from WW2, the Cold War, post-Soviet era and many others. Normally four or five episodes per story. The Coming Storm - on BBC Sounds, investigation in to the rise of QANON, 4Chan and the dark underbelly of America that led to the Capitol Hill riots in 2021. Things Fell Apart - On Sounds, John Ronson investigates some strange stories from culture wars, primarily in the US. Others I've enjoyed - The Missing Crypto Queen, The Lazarus Heist, some of the Gangster seasons too on Sounds. There was a thread on here during Lockdown with podcast recommendations, be many pages down now I'd think
'Seniors', we're the new teenagers Podcasts eh? I like this one https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2/episodes/downloads Extremely interesting and short episodes
Dept Q, Scottish police procedural on Netflix. Unrelentingly dour, appallingly written and shockingly acted.
Oh well....we were gonna watch that when we get home from holiday...saved me a few hours of drudgery, thanks
As you might have noticed, my judgement can be swift and unforgiving…and not always correct. But in this case I think you’ll agree. It really is stunningly bad. Just read a few reviews online. They are universally positive. Sometimes I wonder about myself….
