Been dragged in for a few hours work tonight doing **** all so i thought i would watch a movie watched civil war expecting a mind numbing gung ho american shoot em up couldnt be further away from it last 10 minutes excluded what a fantastic movie
Found myself listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 by mistake. Now has Emma Barnett as a presenter, and in a brilliant reverse takeover she has turned it into Woman’s Hour. She spent a long time disapproving of the (female) editor of the relaunched Loaded magazine (something no one needs which I doubt will last long) and then an age sucking up to a woman who has written loads of TV programmes which Emma clearly likes, the latest being one being about Benedict Cumberbatch and a puppet, or something. Meanwhile all the politicians interviewed dodged questions or lied. Not missing any news at all if you miss this garbage, as I will do my best to do in future. Only need the on the hour news headlines for things which have actually happened.
I’ve had enough of opinion for money based commentary and waste of space interviews I’m afraid. I get my updates from stuff I can read, and the pure news bulletins. Saves a load of time.
Following on from previous travel log..... Granada - fine City if you're in the lower part but a sod if you're staying up by the Alhambra as we were.... huge up hill slog from City centre to hotel in 34 degrees of heat.... Still bucket list ticked spending a day at the Alhambra, magical place and a must see.... Also Granada is the only place in Spain as far as I know that if you order a drink in a bar they bring you a place of tapas gratis..... Córdoba - We thought Granada was hot but feck me sideways Córdoba was like an oven.... hit 40 degrees on Thursday.... it was still 38 degrees at 9 pm..... Another must see place though is the Mesquita- Catedral de Córdoba, an incredible building dating from 6th century.... stick it on the bucket list..... great food in the old town, would liked to have seen more but heat made it almost imposible to do anything after mid day..... saw more of air conditioned hotel than originally planned... Jerez - Arrived here yesterday and it has become one of our favourite places in Spain...oozes class. Some magnificent buildings, also really cheap to eat and drink well.... Although it's hot, 31 degrees there's a cooling breeze as we're only 20 kms or so from the coast, so is far less stressful getting around.... The driving from Granada has been through some lovely scenery, mile after mile of sunflower fields and olive groves.... However from Almería along the coast all you could see were industrial polly tunnels growing all the fresh food that Spain, mile after mile after mile, they looked like shanty town..... quite sad really.... Final installment next week....
Just been watching Anatomy of a Fall on Amazon Prime. A French film, but largely in English, about the death of a bloke and whether his wife did him in, courtroom drama plus. Very highly praised, Oscar and Cannes prize winner. During a flashback scene of an argument between the couple, about an hour an half in, I commented that it was a shame they didn’t do each other in and get it over and done with. We checked and there was still an hour to go, abandoned at this point. Very densely written, acted very well, relatively intriguing plot……but no sympathetic characters which meant that the outcome was irrelevant, I couldn’t care less if the wife was guilty or not. And I won’t know now anyway.
Sounds a bit like The Staircase, which was originally a documentary series following the arrest and trial of a writer accused of killing his wife, who was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their house. There's subsequently been a dramatised version starring Colin Firth, who I can't stand, so haven't seen. The documentary series is well worth seeing though, as you really do become invested in it.
Darkest Hour on the telly. While I have no idea how accurate it is (the scene on the tube is definitely fantasy) Gary Oldman is a magnificent actor in absolutely everything he does. Apparently he smoked £30k worth of cigars making this film and gave himself nicotine poisoning in the process.
Just thinking the same about Oldman. A stunning performance. Have you seen him in Slow Horses on Apple?
I’ve seen a couple of episodes, but have also read a couple of the books, and the combination didn’t work for me. Oldman was great (and Scott Thomas too, as she was in Darkest Hour) but knowing the ridiculous story in advance didn’t help. On Darkest Hour it seems that Tories backstabbing each other is a genetic inheritance.
Not having read the books, I really enjoyed Slow Horses - fourth season due out in the winter. Oldman is superb in it, and has rightly been nominated for some awards for his performances
