Lads, international break, something to distract for a bit. I would love recommendations to keep me occupied until the next game, including a couple of long flights. Some stuff I probably would not have heard of would be nice.....here's mine: Books non-fiction Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies - fascinating histories of European states that no longer exist, including many that I had never heard of - like the Kingdom of the Rock, a semi independent state of Welsh speaking Britons that existed for centuries after the Romans until the Normans in Stratchclyde... Fiction - The Restraint of Beasts, Magnus Mills. Genius, deadpan description of the work of high tensile fencers who have the unhappy knack of killing people by accident. Then going to the pub. Film/TV Sans Soleil/Sunless by Chris Marker. Utterly impossible to categorise, not fiction, not documentary, joined up images from Japan, Europe, Guinea Bissau with a voiceover. 99% of people will hate it. Whole film is on YouTube. Or Aguirre, Wrath of God by Herzog. Mad conquistadors try to find Eldorado. TV more mainstream, but I am loving the new version of House of Cards (US remake of the early 90s UK classic) on Netflix only with Kevin Spacey - much darker and nastier than the original. Worth paying 6 quid to Netflix for a months subscription - no ads, you can watch all 13 45 minutes episodes in one sitting if you want. music Been so many music threads on here, I suspect most bands have been referenced. But if you want to chill, try David Sylvain's "Secrets of the Beehive". Or for a category all of their own, the Super Furry Animals. Place not much use to me, but if you ever have a spare 30 minutes in central London, wander to Postman's Park near St Paul's (its actually behind St Botolph's church off Little Britain). An oasis with a heartbreaking wall of tiled memorials to Londoners who have sacrificed their lives saving others. There you go. All recommendations welcome, no need to follow my lead add or subtract categories at will....
Very cultural today SB Films I've recently watched 'searching for sugarman' a fantastic documentary on the 'lost Dylan of Detroit'. A truly wonderful story. Highly reccomended. Seven psychopaths was awful despite a stellar cast and I'm halfway through 'killing them softly' but the jury's out at the moment. Music It's going back a couple of years but if you haven't tried the Isobel Campbell & mark lanegan collaboration perfected on their album 'Ballard of the broken seas' then you've missed out. Of recent issues I can reccomend alt-j's 'an awesome wave' and of course nows the time to dust off Bowies 'hunky dory' Books I'm currently between three. I'm trying to crack Pynchon's 'Vineland' again. I've started wade Davis 'into the silence' an in depth study of Mallory & irvines doomed attempt to climb Everest in '24. Lastly I'm reading beryl bainbridge's 'every man for himself'
Film - Dude, Where's My Car? Music - Now That's What I Call Music 83 Book - The complete works of Where's Wally
Cheers Wubba. Saw 7 Psychopaths on a plane - a real disappointment after In Bruges. Forced myself through Pynchon's 'V' once, will have to build up strength for more...... Thanks Grove. I've struggled with the Wally oeuvre, must give it another go.
Current 20th March Book: F**k it therapy by John C Parkin Film: Cloud Atlas have a good copy and need to watch it again later in bed Music : Station To Station ... Bowie and Depeche Mode new stuff off album Delta Machine (stream) out on the 23rd Place: Off to town Saturday Night : Brixton Cyprus next month and back to my favourite place Olargues France. TV: I love to rant at the BBC News Anything with Fishing goes straight on if i see it
Books Non-fiction : I like books that I can dip into and out of, a non-fiction book has to be really gripping for me to get through to the end. Examples of where I've been hooked in were On The Edge, Richard Hammond's autobiography after his crash, and Spike Milligan's war diaries. Other than those, stuff like The Dangerous Book For Boys (great fun and very informative) and anything WW2 related. Fiction : Big fan of Pratchett's Discworld books, Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books, the original Bond novels by Ian Fleming - especially Moonraker - and everything PG Wodehouse. Film : Big fan of 80s movies, especially the John Hughes films - Some Kind Of Wonderful being my favorite. other great films from the decade are The Sure Thing, Real Genius, The Secret Of My Success, and Streets Of Fire. Old Ealing Comedies, classic comedies like Some Like It Hot and It Happened One Night, sci-fi stuff like Logan's Run and Silent Running, and well-done Dreamworks / Pixar animation (although these are few and far between now, due to sheer overkill. TV : current TV = Top Gear, Wheeler Dealers, Time Team, Mud Men, Mythbusters, Auction Hunters. Classic TV is comedy stuff mainly such as Allo Allo and Python, but I like old sci-fi shows like Battlestar Galactica (all incarnations) Star Trek (except DS9), and The Tomorrow People. Music : ABC (Anything But Country). Although if it's too manufactured, I switch right off. And One Direction are bland pap. Current favorite bands are The Police, The Psychedelic Furs, and The Foo Fighters. Place : Love being at home. That's the best place in the world. Outside of the house, London is the best city in the world, but could do with a clean up. My single favourite place to be in the whole world is Central Park in New York. I could happily live there forever.
Dave didn't you think cloud atlas was just a load of tosh? Awful film SB I forgot to mention that it's worth checking out the Felice Brothers if you haven't already done so. Their seminal work 'whisky in my whisky' sums up the lo-fi alt country sound. I've also dug out some old sonic youth CDs and try '100%' on YouTube and name the famous skater/actor in the official vid
Got to watch it again as I can't make it out but i do that I love to watch films over and over: I fell asleep at the cinema watching Inception and woke thinking I was in it for the next three days! I have to soak in it to understand it as I am very slow. I watch Napoleon Dynamite at least 6 times a year and see something different each time ... for me that's total art ...anyone agree? [video=youtube;Hzh9koy7b1E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzh9koy7b1E[/video] [video=youtube;qfI0WmqjowA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfI0WmqjowA[/video] [video=youtube;L3LHAlcrTRA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LHAlcrTRA[/video]
Books:- Non-fiction... You are not so smart by David McRaney. A psychology course with all the boring stuff taken out. It explains why your memory is mainly fiction, Why your in love with your new smartphone and many other ways in which your deluding yourself. Fiction:- I'm re-reading The bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. Written in 1927 it is a simple but poignant tale of several people who die in a rope bridge accident in Peru. A friar attempts to find out more about those that perished in an attempt to discover why they died. This story is very thought provoking and will resonate with you long after you have turned the final page. Music:- After DT's Bowie thread, I've revisited some of Bowie's classic tracks and I'm attempting to transcribe them so I can play them on my guitar and bass. I've nearly worked out Heroes and I've just started on Ashes to Ashes. TV:- Don't really watch it much. But I have recorded Ricky Gervais's ' Derek .' It's brilliant, it's astounding how this man can make you laugh at one scene and have you crying in the next. Genius. Place:- I can appreciate that it's not readily accessible but Jacob's Cove in Bermuda. But in acknowledgement to SB's London theme you can't beat the view east and west from Waterloo bridge. Day or night.
Comedy: Tim Vine and Sean Lock stand-up. Can't really do anyoine else, and actively avoid anything that starts with either 'Keith Lemon...', 'Michael Macintyre...' or 'Fresh from Britain's Got Talent....'
Keep it coming chaps, some stuff I will definitely investigate on here. Wubba - check out Sonic Youth's version of Into the Groove, masquerading as Ciccone Youth. Was is Jon Heder in the vid? DT - I am proud to say it was my kids who brought Napoleon Dynamite to my attention a couple of years ago. Brilliant. Nines - last year we had a 'team meeting' in Central London. I made several Americans, a Canadian, a German, a Portuguese and a Japanese stand on the footbridge from Charing Cross to the Shell Centre at dusk for 15 minutes, looking around. Nobody complained, though I agree Waterloo Bridge would have been better. I could have sung Waterloo Sunset to them, although the complaints would certainly have started flowing then....
IF anyone has iTunes running and a good set of earphones then click here and enjoy a masterpiece : http://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=DepecheMode
Dave Weird fact #3 - I have the exact same name as a member of depeche mode. When my kids put me on Facebook I got inundated with fan mail from DM fans in Mexico City? They were convinced I was an 80's synth pop god
Book: the 100 year old man who climbed out of his window and disappeared - brilliant read, annoyed the mrs by laughing out loud whilst reading it on the beach Film: Django Unchained, Argo, The Impossible
I watch Dr Strangelove...about once a month...pure genius I read in Cold Blood by Trueman Capote .....once a year And I live to the sound of the Levellers And I cry (in sadness and in joy) over animation on a regular basis ...(Hazel's death in Watership down, the falling of the last petal in "Beauty and the Beast", the first 10 minutes of Hunchback of NotreDame ...the Triplet of Belleville, the cat came back....Up, These are a few of my favourite things.......................
I defy anyone with any human feeling to watch the first 15 minutes of Up without choking. It drains your precious bodily fluids.
