Music Assembly: Escape

It took me a while to track this down but as ever the inestimable Tunefind came to my rescue. It's Escape, an orchestral piece by the composer Craig Armstrong. It starts with anticipatory strings, almost menacing, the sort of thing you might hear as background music in a Craig-era Bond movie or a Nolan-helmed Batman. But as more and more voices get added, the scope of the piece swells too - it takes on grander proportions. And then the percussion kicks in around the four and a half minute mark. The whole thing ends up leaning heavily into "epic" territory.... which is probably why it got picked up for this old Top Gear review of the BMW M5, where I first heard it. So here it is is context, from Clarkson pressing the M button at 1:05

And here's the piece in its entirety. How does Armstrong not do more soundtrack work?

TV times...

Christmas television is not what is was in our younger day, quality content diluted across so many channels and platforms.

So here's an alternate viewing schedule for you, comprising videos I've squirelled away in my YouTube Watch Later list but never really found a reason to post about individually. Start this straight after Christmas lunch and this little lot should see you through to bedtime. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals...

1. Alice Roberts | Morals Without Religion: the Unholy Mrs Knight and the Hypocritical Humanist - in case you've had too much religion this week (43:53)
2. FT Drama starring Stephen Fry | Is AI going to change who we really are? - short thought-provoker, feels very now (13:43)
3. BBC Archive | Big Jim's Boozy Bike Trip to Braemar - a reminder why Nationwide was better than The One Show (7:05)
4. The Jam | Danish TV Concert Special - nicely remastered TV special from 1982 (38:00)
5. CBS Mornings: R.E.M. on songwriting, breaking up and their lifelong friendship - proper Christmas feelgood (41:20)
6. BBC | "Call My Bluff" S11 E5 (1977) featuring Gabrielle Drake, Tom Baker, Miriam Stoppard, Alan Coren - tea-time telly with (70s sigh) Nick's sister Gabrielle... (29:56)
7. Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones | The Homemade Xmas Video - my concession to the fact that it's Christmas, after all (32:54)
8. The Royal Institution | The harsh reality of ultra processed food - with Chris Van Tulleken - something to digest as you, er, digest... (57:53)
9. Documentary | He's Starsky, I'm Hutch - be honest, you're already hearing the theme tune in your head (44:40)
10. DUST | Limbo - nothing says Christmas like a short film of Black Mirror-esque dystopia (24:22)
11. Fearne Cotton's Happy Place | Minnie Driver On How The Meaning Of Life Can Fluctuate - I could watch Minnie all day (54:54)
12. The Diary Of A CEO | Jimmy Carr: The Easiest Way To Live A Happier Life - love him or loathe him, he has some interesting things to say in this long-form interview (1:40:28)
13. Graham Norton | Robin Williams - unrivalled late-night chat show fare (37:42)
14. Television Archive | If I Ruled The World - late-night panel show comedy from 1999, if you still don't want to go to bed... (29:23)

Blue Friday: Four Friends

Four Friends was written, produced and conducted by Ennio Morricone for the soundtrack to Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. Long-term readers will probably know that I love everything about that film. You may also recall that, of the four friends this piece is named for, only two make it out of the story alive.

It's a beautiful, beautiful, achingly sad piece.

Catch me

You might have seen the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, and, if you have, you probably know it is based on the true story of teen conman Frank Abagnale. Well, here is the real Frank being interviewed by US chat show royalty Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, all the way back in 1978. This is classic time-capsule TV gold. And yes, I am clearing out my YouTube Watch Later list.

That Was The Year That Was: 2025

Incredibly, this is the fifteenth time I've recapped a year like this (for completists, here are the others). Fifteen times, blimey ... God alone knows what we are both still doing here...

But since we are hanging around, still, I'll crack on with this nonsense, whilst you gaze in wonderment at just how staid, parochial and predictable I am.

It'll keep us both busy, if nothing else. Having said that, I've written noticeably less than in years gone by, so I won't keep you for long - we can all be thankful for that.

Best album

Well, there have been a couple of stand-outs for me this year: the unexpected joy of More by Pulp, and Antidepressants by Suede, who continue to surprise us all with the excellence of their third age.

Also noteworthy are Bowerbirds and Blue Things by Jetstream Pony and Find El Dorado by Paul Weller, the latter proving what a great reinterpreter he has always been.

Best song

Many of the songs I've heard for the first time this year are old, just new to me. But of 2025 releases, I've been impressed by Masquerade by Cardinals, Bonnet of Pins by Matt Berninger and Disintegrate by Suede. Oh, and a late dive for the tape was made by The Light Won't Shine Forever by Aussie band Floodlights. The nod, though, goes to Apple Green UFO by Andy Bell, which makes me feel about 30 years younger than I am. Who could ask for more? Here's the full length version to luxuriate in...

Best gig

As good as the usual suspects (The Smyths, From The Jam, The Wedding Present) have all been, and as good a night out as Roger Daltrey (morphing into Warwick Davis) was, the nod here, unsurprisingly, goes to the Gene reunion show at the Hammersmith Apollo in October. Literally everything I could ever want from a gig.

Best book

Like the song category, this has been tricky because most of what I've read for the first time this year has been old: Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie was very enjoyable, but was published in 2005. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, though an astonishing work of memoir, is even older (1999). But of course I can always rely on Stephen King - Never Flinch was not only published this year but also dependably enjoyable, even if not his best work.

Best film

The year was bookended by stand-outs: Dylan-goes-electric biopic A Complete Unknown at one end and Edgar Wright's ever-so-slightly-disappointing take on vintage King (as Bachman) The Running Man at the other. In between, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey deserves a special mention, for really making me think, whilst Brad's F1 and Tom's Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning both delivered predictable thrills without reinventing cinema. I must also mention Nina Conti's brilliant surreal simian road movie, Sunlight. Oh, and as a dad, it was lovely to share movie nostalgia with Amusements Minor with the live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon.

Best theatre

I haven't seen much on stage this year. Does an NT Live cinema screening of Dr Strangelove count? Steve Coogan was excellent in four roles. Also noteworthy was the 30th anniversary on-stage gathering, for performance and anecdotes, of The Fast Show ensemble, minus the late Caroline Aherne. Aren't end-of-year round-ups brilliant?! Oh, and I finally got to see the Jon Ronson: Psychopath Night stage show. Entertaining and thought-provoking stuff.

Best television

I feel like I must have forgotten something, because this reads like a really slow year for TV. Finally got Wednesday 2 on Netflix, which was good but inevitably not as good as the first series, despite a liberal sprinkling of Joanna Lumley. Like the rest of the nation, Amusements Towers got into Celebrity Traitors, despite never having watched a single moment of the regular, non-celebrity version. Apologies if there's a theme developing, but Celebrity Race Across The World also hits the spot in our house. And as I write this, we're half way through Stranger Things 5, so far living up to the almost impossible levels of expectation.

Best sport

I enjoyed Liverpool FC winning the Premier League, even if it felt anticlimatic. Just as well, because they've blown up a bit this season. Other notables included Iga Świątek at Wimbledon and Georgia Hunter Bell at the World Athletics Championships (both awesome), and the Lionesses at the UEFA Women's Euros.

Person of the year

Well, it's not a person but a thing: the NHS. Fourteen years of Tory underinvestment have left it on its knees and, as a result, it's pretty far from perfect these days. Yet still it goes on, against the odds, delivering care and services to our sick and injured. It's easy to point out when things go wrong in the NHS, and to be frustrated by bureaucracy and poor communication... but it gets so much right, still, even in the most trying of circumstances. We'll miss it when it's gone, you know.

Tool of the year

Trump again, obviously. Not content with sending troops into US cities for paper-thin, politically motivated reasons, claiming to end wars that have not ended, failing to touch the sides of what's going on in Ukraine, bulldozing bits of the White House to make way for a huge/vulgar ballroom (compensating much?), not sending anyone of any status or significance to COP 30, doing anything to divert attention from the Epstein files, pardoning people he doesn't even know, expressing interest in somehow running for a third term, presiding over the longest shutdown in US political history, finally promising to release those Epstein files and then not, and so much more besides... he's ended the year by going after the BBC and giving himself a sports day peace prize medal at the World Cup draw. That's a sequence of words I never conceived would be necessary or even feasible to write. What a desperate, sad, insecure, delusional little man he is ... and/or a colossal orange prick.

I hope that was worth it but know, deep down, that it wasn't. Reader: how was 2025 for you?

Music Assembly: Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, M. 83: II. Adagio assai

In which I continue to haemorrhage readers...

I don't know much about Maurice Ravel, to be honest, aside from the one thing everyone my age knows: Torvill and Dean and Bolero. But this piece has nothing to do with ice dance or Sarajevo or 1984.

Perhaps if I'd paid more attention in actual Music Assembly at school, I might have learnt something else about Ravel. As it is, I learnt about this piece by listening to Stephen Mangan's Desert Island Discs on Radio 4. Stephen talked movingly about sharing it with his father during the latter's last days, and described it as a musical embodiment of living moment to moment. I don't think I can add much to that, really, other than to say I think it is a beautiful thing. Oh, and there's a bit about five minutes in that reminds me of Howard Shore's soundtrack to David Fincher's The Game, a film I absolutely love. So it works, for me at least, on multiple levels.

Adagio assai is a musical direction meaning very slow. It's like being back in Music Assembly after all.

You can hear the lovely Lauren Laverne casting Stephen away right here. And if this piece isn't to your taste, there's always yesterday's post...

Hi, Lloyd. Little slow tonight, isn't it?

It's amazing the things you find when you're obsessed with something.

Moving right along

Robert Redford may have played a slight second-fiddle to Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (though he got the girl), and taken a chance flexing his thespian muscles next to Dustin Hoffman in All The President's Men, but The Sting was his movie, in my book. No mean feat given Newman and Robert Shaw as co-stars. Example: it's a low-key sub-plot, but I love Johnny's interaction with Loretta ... who turns out (spoiler alert) to be Salino.

RIP, Robert.

Sunday shorts: Game of Pricks

If you haven't already consumed the entirety of animator and film-maker Steve Cutts's YouTube channel, what are you waiting for? He has an excellent, dark sense of humour that I very much appreciate, and think you might too. Here's an example, the first short film of his that I saw.

There, that was good, wasn't it? The music used therein is Game of Pricks by Guided by Voices. Here's the full track in all its 93-second, retro-sounding, Sunday short glory.

May the fourth be with you ... always

I'm very aware of my somewhat sombre tone of late (what do you mean, "of late"?), so maybe some levity is in order. We're not going to push any musical boundaries with this, or change any lives, but genuinely here is a song that, once heard, is never forgotten. And never not funny ("That log had a child!"), as long as you have at least a basic knowledge of Star Wars... which everyone does, right?

Altogether now, "Hmm-ha, hmm hmm-hmm ha ..."

All of which, of course, explains this:

And if you, ahem, "enjoyed" this bad lip reading, you might also like this, from The Last Jedi. With added bacon references.

What you like, not what you are like

It's an unbelievable 25 years since the cinema release of High Fidelity.

Directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack as Rob, it remains an object lesson in how to adapt and change a successful book into an equally successful film. Nick Hornby didn't have a problem with the story relocating to Chicago, after all, so why should we? And it has a brilliant soundtrack (as a film set around a record shop should) and quotable dialogue (example left) by the mile.

Most of all, the film endures so well because of how it speaks to Generation X men. No, not Billy Idol. Blokes like you and me, born between 1965 and 1980 (Wikipedia confidently asserts), blokes now properly into their fifties, getting on a bit yet still waiting for that moment when they figure it out... it being life. Life is complicated. In the film, Rob excruciatingly re-examines his romantic history, trying to understand what went right and (mostly) wrong. No spoilers (not that you haven't seen it already) but he mostly works it all out, with a little help. Of course it is a fiction - if only real life were that simple.

Maybe it's because of that complexity that the quote on the left resonates - people are complicated but you can tell a lot from a person's likes and dislikes - the books, records and films that float their boat. That is why these things matter, at least to our generation. I wonder if the same will be true for Generation Z and later, now that books are electronic, records are all played through a phone's tinny, tiny speakers one track at a time ("What's an album?") and your choice of films is dictated by which streaming service you sign up to. But for us - for me - these things still matter.

You'll note, of course, that I haven't included Rob's next line of dialogue in the screenshot, in which he admits this assertion is "fucking shallow".

Anyway, we never get to find out, in the film, what Rob's Top 5 records are, though there is a clue: in his apartment, he has these records on the wall, hung in frames:

• Maggot Brain by Funkadelic
• Tonight's the Night by Neil Young
• Wild Honey by The Beach Boys
• Goo by Sonic Youth
• Double Nickels on the Dime by Minutemen

I don't know whose choices these were - Frears', Cusack's, Hornby's... some set designer's. Who knows? But it's an excuse for some songs, and hence a blog post - see what you think. High Fidelity is having a limited cinematic re-release to celebrate its birthday; why not go along? I think I might.

And the impossible question: what's your Top 5?

And lo...

...a generation of introverted indie boys fell for Zooey Deschanel, just like that. Obligatory sigh, etc.

For completeness, here's the parody she and Joseph Gordon-Levitt gamely did for some Josh Horowitz show or other. "You like The Shat?"

Enough with the RIPs

Seems like barely a day goes by at the moment without someone dying that gives pause for thought. As I write this, the circumstances of Gene Hackman's death are unclear, beyond that he, his wife and their dog were all found dead together at their home.

For some, Gene will forever be Popeye Doyle. For others, he may be the definitive big-screen Lex Luthor. But for me, he will always be Little Bill Daggett, the role that garnered him a second Oscar. Unforgiven is a rare thing, just about a perfect movie, something that I always watch whenever it is on, regardless of how often I have seen it and despite also owning it on DVD. All the principals in it are superb, but none more so than Gene.

And I haven't even mentioned The Conversation.

RIP Gene and Betsy.

On the dark side of the road

I went to see Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown last night, and very much enjoyed it. Other bloggers with more Bob-knowledge than I have written about it already (I'd especially recommend Swiss Adam's post at Bagging Area) so I won't do a full review. I will say I think the cast are uniformly excellent. Timothée Chalamet (or Tomato Chalamuffin, as Amusements Minor calls him) inhabits his role, and will be hoovering up nominations come awards season, I have no doubt of that. Edward Norton's supporting role as Pete Seeger is also noteworthy. But beyond the performances, both acting and musical, part of this film's strength is the authentic recreation of early 60s New York. Obviously I wasn't there, of course, but it feels very right, somehow. Watching felt like time travel.

Of course it's not flawless - what is? I'm no Bob expert, we've established that already, but even I know the infamous cry of "Judas" came at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in '66, not the '65 Newport Folk Festival. There's a whole slew of such creative variations but that's fair enough; after all, this is a dramatic retelling, not a documentary statement, and a little licence adds to the story. So even though Suze Rotolo didn't go to Newport in 1965, we get to see Sylvie Russo (an undisguised avatar for Suze) attend with Bob, and finally realise she can't be with him, because it serves the film's narrative arc. And that's okay - it's a story based on truth, not the absolute truth, after all.

Other issues? Well, Toshi Seeger's character is ornamental throughout, almost to the point that you wonder why she was even in the film. Her sole dramatic moment is to stop husband Pete hijacking Bob's electric performance. Critics have been quick to point out that there was a hell of a lot more to Toshi than this... but this is a film about Bob, not the Seegers. The lack of depth in her character was noticeable but not, for me, detrimental.

Anyway, where was I? The film is very good, go and see it if you haven't already. Chalamet is exceptional (see Adam's later Bagging Area post for videos of Timothée performing Dylan songs live on Saturday Night Live, both electric and acoustic), and the whole thing will have you scurrying to revisit your Dylan collection.

Speaking of which... one track I have always loved got a brief, subtle airing in the film, around the halfway mark. Bob and Sylvie's relationship is starting to unravel, there is tension in the air. Whilst they skirt around having a full-blown argument, Bob starts finger-picking the intro to Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. He doesn't sing it, just plays the intro. It's a neat bit of foreshadowing, of course, for Don't Think Twice... is a next-level break-up song. "I give her my heart but she wanted my soul" indeed. From 1963's Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, here it is.

Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If'n you don't know by now
And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It'll never do somehow
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm a-travelling on
But don't think twice, it's all right

And it ain't no use in a-turning on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was something you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
But we never did too much talking anyway
But don't think twice, it's all right

So it ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
Like you never done before
And it ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
I can't hear you anymore
I'm a-thinking and a-wondering, walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child, I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

So long, honey babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
Goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say, "Fare thee well"
I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind
You could've done better, but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

Postscript 1: guitarists, learn how to play the song - though it's not quite as easy as this guy makes it seem.

Postscript 2: Adam at Bagging Area makes the excellent suggestion of watching Scorsese's No Direction Home on iPlayer, after the Chalamet movie. I intend on doing that, tonight. Might I also suggest watching the Coen brothers' brilliant Inside Llewyn Davis before the Dylan biopic too? It's total fiction but will get you in a 1961 Greenwich Village mood from the outset.

Was That The Year That Was? 2024

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

This would normally be the fourteenth time I've recapped a year like this (for completists, here are the others) ... but here's the thing. As you'll remember from this, I've been on a blogging sabbatical, and every post you've read here in 2024 was actually written and scheduled during December of last year. So how can I recap the year, twelve months in advance?

Well, I can't, obviously. Instead, as 2023 draws to a close (This might get confusing - Ed.), I'm going to write about the things I'm maybe looking forward to for 2024 and then, when this actually gets published in twelve months time, maybe I'll drop into my own comments section and update with how reality compared with hope. Because there's always hope, right? Even for this desperate blog...

So enough prevarication - let's get the crystal ball out.

Best album?

Well, if the advance singles are anything to go by (especially Night of the Hunter), then the forthcoming Libertines album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade might be alright, and certainly better than the health of its chief protagonists might have led us to hope. What else? Well, by the law of averages Paul Weller will probably have a new album at some point in the year, that I will inevitably buy and find something to like on. And this is in hope rather than expectation but I wouldn't mind another solo album from Graham Coxon, but I might be pissing in the wind on that score. Who knows?

Best song?

This looking forward lark is hard. Most of the new songs that have featured on this blog in recent years have been serendipitous finds, and how do you predict that? So I'm going to take an absolute punt and say that my best song of 2024 will be something I haven't heard even a snippet of yet, by some band that is completely new to me, and will probably be on Bandcamp. I know, brilliant insight, eh? Bet you're glad to be reading this...

Best gig?

Well, this might be a little easier to look forward to, because I've already started booking tickets and planning trips. For example, I already know that I will be seeing The Smyths and From The Jam, and I can confidently state that I will enjoy both very much. I hope to see Sea Power too, touring the anniversary of Do You Like Rock Music? (which is on the Every Home Should Have One masterlist, lest we forget), although the nearest they come to me is on Valentine's day, so that might prove challenging, let's say. There's a chance I may also get to the Suede and Manics double-header tour, which is bound to be something, plus I note Pixies are touring briefly, playing Bossanova and Trompe le Monde in full. Plus hopefully there will also be some festival action, either Latitude (with Duran Duran headlining one day, no less) or CarFest. So there's lots of potential here, basically. More good gigs to go to than I can realistically afford. And I haven't even mentioned the annual pilgrimage to see The Wedding Present, which is bound to happen at some point...

Best book?

Another one that's hard to predict. I know that Stephen King has a new collection of short stories coming out in May, because I've already pre-ordered You Like It Darker. And I already know that I will like most if not all of it, because I always do - even when he's not firing on all cylinders King keeps the pages turning like few other authors do for me. I'd also love it if there was also something new from the simply wonderful Sadie Jones and the criminally underrated Michelle Paver, because I love their respective bodies of work. It might be a bit soon after Amy & Lan for Sadie, but there hasn't been any new adult fiction from Michelle since Wakenhyrst, so fingers crossed there...

Best film?

I'm going to cheat a bit here because Wonka has just come out at the time of writing, but I haven't seen it yet. Based on trailers and the fact that the team behind it gave us the Paddington movies, I'm not really going out on much of a limb here when I predict it will be quite good. But what else? Well, novelist-turned-director Alex Garland's new film Civil War looks interesting (and hopefully not prescient), and stuntman-turned-director David Leitch is bringing The Fall Guy to the big screen, hopefully without dumping on our childhood memories (I'd like a Lee Majors cameo please, David). Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black will either be terrible or excellent, as will Beverley Hills Cop: Axel F (yes, really). Actually, 2024 looks like being the peak year of sequels, most of which, on paper, leave you scratching your head and wondering "why?" and "please don't be terrible", to whit: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Beetlejuice 2 (only 30 years too late), Joker: Folie a Deux, Gladiator 2 (yep, really), and an as yet untitled Alien franchise movie. Leave the horse alone, why don't you, it's dead already... And director Richard Eggers is remaking Nosferatu for 2024 ... really, what could go wrong? Oh, and spoiler alert from December 2023 - I don't actually get to the cinema very much any more, so I probably won't even see half of these. Boo.

Best television?

Well, I'm going to need something new to fill the holes in my televisual life left by Ghosts and, since I've just given up my Disney+ subscription because of ridiculous price hikes, Only Murders In The Building. I don't yet know what that something will be. The final series of Stranger Things is coming, and had better arrive in 2024, else the young cast will all be too grown to pass for teenagers. The second series of Wednesday is coming too - so far, so Netflix. In the interests of balance, apparently Blade Runner 2099 is coming to the small screen courtesy of Amazon Prime, with Ridley Scott involved, so hopefully that will be good. Oh, and there's a live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender coming too (Netflix again) that will be a must-watch for Amusements Minor (and, by extension, me), so hopefully that is better than the famously awful film adaptation from 2010. On terrestrial TV (do people still say that?), the BBC brings us series two of The Tourist, which I plan to watch, and the intriguing premise of Nightsleeper, a six-part real-time thriller set on a sleeper train from Glasgow to London. I have high hopes for that.

Best sport?

Well, I'm going to go out on another limb here and predict that the best sport of the year will also, in a way, be the worst, as England threaten to win the Euros but ultimately fall agonisingly short, probably on penalties. Staying with football, I'm hoping for a Liverpool title in the Premier League, but won't mind if it's Arsenal, not least because my old man's a Gooner. Moving down the pyramid, I'm also hoping that Norwich City will somehow (and despite themselves) sneak into the play-offs, but if so they'll undoubtedly revert to form and miss out, whilst watching their noisy neighbours from down the road get promoted as champions. Sigh. In other sport, I hope that Ronnie O'Sullivan prevails at the snooker world championships in May, to stand alone on eight titles in the modern era. And I'm praying for some kind of comeback from Emma Raducanu - such talent, such promise, hopefully to re-emerge in 2024. And of course it's an Olympic year, so I'm hoping that Katarina Johnson-Thompson scoops the heptathlon gold her career so richly deserves. Oh, and is one more title for Lewis Hamilton too much to ask? Probably, but it doesn't hurt to hope.

Person of the year?

Well, it's Keir Starmer, hopefully. Since the next general election must take place on or before the 28th of January 2025 at the very latest, I really need Keir to have a good year, because we need the Tories out more than ever. I know Starmer is not perfect, occasionally misses open goals, and perhaps lacks some charisma ... but I also think he is, at a fundamental level, a decent man, and that's what we need right now. So here's to a year of no gaffes, no own goals and no scandal, a year of side-stepping the offensives the right-wing press will inevitably launch against him, a year of Labour by-election victories and Conservative implosion, and a year that ultimately culminates in a landslide electoral triumph, with a compassionate party of the people back in government, where they remain for a generation. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, internationally, I'm also desperately hoping Joe Biden has a good year because otherwise...

Tool of the year?

As I type this post, at the tail-end of 2023, I have an awful and inescapable fear that repugnant man-child and morality-vacuum Orange Don will somehow evade all attempts to rein him in, whether in the courts or in the Republican party, and that not only will he contest the 2024 presidential election as a free man but that he will also win it. It chills my heart to think of him back in power, but I can see it happening, I really can. I just pray that in the twelve months that elapse between me writing this and you reading it, something legal, conclusive and incontrovertilbe happens to prevent him: either he is convicted of something, or the Republican party realise they don't have to remain in his thrall, or the Democrats find a way to beat him, or the US electorate come to their senses. I can't think of too many things more dangerous for the world than a stupid, immoral, entitled person with ultimate power but little accountability and even less care. It is a hideous, but very real, prospect for us all.

Well, that's the future foretold. Hardly a cheery note to end on, but really, what else did you expect from me? I wonder what you'll make of all this in December '24? Blimey, I wonder what I'll even make of it...

This is how I will remember her

An unscheduled RIP post for actress Teri Garr, who has died after a long battle with MS.

She had a long and varied career, often in light, comedic roles, but this is how I will remember her - the put-upon, long-suffering Ronnie Neary in Spielberg's excellent Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

As ever, the Beeb has a proper obit. RIP.

All good things...

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Today is the last day of the school year for Amusements Minor. Which means it's close enough for government work, as the saying goes, for me to mark the anniversary of when I left school. Okay, I would have to dig out my old diaries (shudder) to be sure of the exact date, but it's pretty much 35 years to the day since I finished the sixth form and got the school bus home for the last time. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then but I can honestly say I have only happy memories of school days, and only good things to say about my alma mater and its staff. I sometimes feel sorry for people who had a different experience of secondary education, and I accept I was fortunate enough to go to a brilliant school, with a unique spirit, at a special time. Not fortunate to gain a place there, because I earnt that, but fortunate that the place was there to be earnt, I suppose. And of course I met and befriended The Man Of Cheese there and the rest of that, as they say, is history.

There was no end-of-school prom for us, like there seems to be at the drop of a hat for schools these days. No. Instead TMOC, Roachford, a third boy (whose nicknames would no longer be considered appropriate) and I went into the city in Roachford's Allegro, for a spot of lunch; on the way, we popped into the hospital to see another boy - let's call him Horse - who was in for a hernia op, if memory serves, and so was missing the last day. After a fry-up lunch in Sarnies we went back up to school, via a quick pub stop for a pint, for an afternoon of "mingling" on the school field with the rest of the upper sixth and a few staff. I wandered around with a point-and-push Halina camera, taking a few pics of those that had hung around for the end though, truth be told, not everyone had. It was all decidedly low-key by today's standards.

I'm glad there was no prom for us though. I was terribly shy and so almost certainly would not have enjoyed myself. That said, I love this little clip from Spiderman: Homecoming in which Peter gets nervously excited for his prom (and date), perfectly soundtracked by Save It For Later by The Beat.

As I may have mentioned before, I also love the reinvention of the Tom Holland Spiderman era that allows me to fancy Aunt May...

...but enough about Marisa Tomei. When I arrived home from school that last time, Mum met me at the gate and took a picture of me with that same point-and-push. In it, I am trying to smile but look sad. I think I felt life was, if not over, certainly up in the air. I didn't know it for sure at the time but university was waiting, and a whole other adventure that is also full of almost exclusively good memories. But at that precise moment, as I came through the old front gate with my hands in pockets, trying and failing to look cool, I looked like a boy who'd not only had the rug pulled out from under him but had then been forced to watch whilst the rug was trampled on, shredded and finally set alight. That's how much I loved my school days.

Anyway, it's not from 1989, the year we are commemorating here, but it is from the 80s and it is good, so let's hear that Beat track in full:

More to follow, no doubt, when I have another "getting old" anniversary to ruefully acknowledge...

Farewell Wendy

Yes, yes, sabbatical-schmabbatical. But I can't regularly and overly praise my love of The Shining without commenting on the passing of Shelley Duvall, can I?

For sure she had her problems in later life - her mental health struggle was publicly over-documented, I would say. And she had a full and varied acting career beyond Kubrick's 1980 masterwork. But if she had only ever brought Wendy Torrance to life, that would still be something, wouldn't it? He she is, firstly getting some feedback from Kubrick, and then talking to the inestimable Barry Norman about the film.

RIP Shelley, with an emphasis on the "P".

Watching from periphery

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Fallen For You by Sheila Nicholls is just one of many songs that I was introduced to by the High Fidelity soundtrack ... which, in case you were wondering, is outstanding. Go and buy it.

As an aside, can anyone think of a better use of "periphery" in song lyrics?

Another one gone

Another sabbatical break for another RIP post. Donald Sutherland has died, aged 88.

Most obits will rightly wax lyrical about his role in the excellent Don't Look Now, or about his fantastic turn more recently as tyrannical President Snow in the Hunger Games trilogy. But of all the films he made or was involved in, the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers will always be my favourite. This first clip features a cameo from Kevin McCarthy, who starred in the 50s original.

And of course there's the famous ending:

Such a good film. Avoid all subsequent remakes, you can't top this.

As for Donald, RIP. I think his son Kiefer summed it up perfectly; a life well lived indeed.

With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more… pic.twitter.com/3EdJB03KKT

— Kiefer Sutherland (@RealKiefer) June 20, 2024