I remember thinking it just wasn't terribly good. Same for Alien Resurrection.

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on March 25, 2022, 10:50:03 AM

Quote from: Slim on March 25, 2022, 09:57:14 AM

Quote from: Matt2112 on March 25, 2022, 09:46:08 AM

Quote from: Slim on March 17, 2022, 03:53:02 PMBut Manchester United is the biggest football club in the world.

By what metric? Genuinely curious as most citations I've seen have that as a two-horse race between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

History and importance.

That deserves a LOL

You can't beat a bit of footy bants.

Shame they're not tackling Sound Chaser - I was looking forward to that.

Quote from: Slim on March 17, 2022, 03:53:02 PMBut Manchester United is the biggest football club in the world.

By what metric? Genuinely curious as most citations I've seen have that as a two-horse race between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Enjoying a thorough ultrasound scan performed by a rather appealing Hispanic lady possibly more than I strictly was meant to.

An NHS admin mishap at post-op scans today extending my visit for at least an hour.

I'm often exasperated at the difference in my experience of the NHS when comparing the quality of their medical treatment (exceptional) and their admin, which is quite poor.

Quote from: R6GYY on March 21, 2022, 10:02:16 AMSome new Muse tracks. Won't Stand Down, and Compliance. New album "Will Of The People" due in August.

They're okay - they don't sound as strong as anything on Simulation Theory but they might be growers; we'll see.

Dan Reed Network - s/t

He had me the third time he mentioned "synths".

Fri 1st Apr - STEWART LEE, Leeds Playhouse
Sat 16th Apr - The Vaccines, Leeds Academy (chaperoning)
Fri 6th May - STEWART LEE, Bradford St George's Hall
Wed 22nd Jun - YES, York Barbican
Sat 17th Sep - KING'S X, Holmfirth Picturedrome
Sat 19th Nov - THE SAW DOCTORS, Leeds Academy

I think that's it.  That last one a completely unexpected announcement and I nabbed a ticket today; 10 years since they last played that venue - it was on my birthday as well..!

Seems to be a pretty substantial bounceback of cases after they were tumbling for a while. Of course, the real focus is on serious outcomes, and it looks very much like we're in a much better position on that score.

Got a message today from the host of a function I was at last weekend - apparently 12 positive cases amongst the attendees have been declared since.

I have absolutely no symptoms at the moment.  As far as I'm aware I've somehow dodged Covid, even including when I spent long hours during a week of daily visits to a Covid isolation room sitting by my mum's bedside when she was seriously ill last year (albeit with Covid, as opposed to from it).

There's still little room for complacency.

Dom is 100% correct on this.

I have plenty of time for CoS but consider it the weakest of their 70s-era albums; that said, whatever its flaws it also turned out to be critical in the evolution of their body of work.

Old Rush good, new Rush better. 

12 Years A Slave

Rating: ***

Been on the list for a long time since it won the Oscar for Best Film in 2014.  If the rating may surprise then I count myself among that number.  So I will explain, as briefly as possible.

First, the impressive and powerful elements of this film undoubtedly leave their mark, just as intended: Steve McQueen is a very accomplished director who has a particular talent for innovative camera movement that resembles Alfonso Cuaron, who is one of the masters of that craft, and despite the profoundly emotive subject matter this skill is utilised extremely well here;

Chiwetel Ejiofor is tremendous in the leading role - the pain and sadness suffered by his character evident in his eyes even in the scenes where he isn't being treated abominably;

and, speaking of the sickening violence and inhumanity unsparingly depicted on screen (in any other context this would not be a 15-rated film), I thought, as difficult as it is to watch, this was all portrayed appropriately, and some critics' accusations of over-the-top "torture porn" quite misguided (see Mel Gibson's ridiculous The Passion Of The Christ for a genuine example of OTT sadistic violence - or, rather, don't).

However, I can't overlook a couple of significant flaws, which really are technical but nonetheless often took me out of the story: some of the dialogue - in thick Deep South accents and often mumbled - is inaudible, which is possibly why some characters and sequences don't seem to have a narrative purpose.  So even though the film is almost 135 minutes long it still seemed choppily edited and I felt it could have benefited from more breathing space.  Another minor issue I had was with Hans Zimmer's score, which didn't seem to capture the depressing overall tone of the film very faithfully. 

I was prepared for a similarly grim experience as from watching The Painted Bird (my long review for that elsewhere now lost!) and this was often as harrowing; however, where that film had a cast iron grip and numbing of the senses for 160 devastating minutes, 12 Years A Slave for me didn't quite have the same impact due to some unfortunate shortcomings - nonetheless,  I wouldn't let that put anyone off.

Schoolboy error - I didn't put my gig diary on TNMS anywhere for safe keeping.

I've pinned a few e-tickets in my email account - Stewart Lee x 2, King's X, for example - but I'm going to have to reconstruct my list the long way round.

Quote from: Slim on February 28, 2022, 04:11:40 PMThere must be some acceptable way that he can be claim to have profited for his audience at home.

Does he not have pretty much complete control over State media - they'll obediently pump put any old horsesh!t claim he makes.

How much of the proletariat buy it is another matter.