An excellent match day out - spoiled only by the actual match - quaffing these absolute classic pales:

Abbeydale - Moonshine
Osset - Silver King
Goose Eye - Chinook

Not sure how far out of Yorkshire they travel, but they are effusively recommended.

Swiss Army Man

Before co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert made the (for me) ultimately underwhelming Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, in 2016 they made this smaller film but which has much of the bittersweet, wildly absurdist elements of their breakthrough movie.

And my reaction was very much the same: aspects I liked (the hugely ambitious originality, one genuinely brilliant performance from Daniel Radcliffe, as someone who is apparently dead) but more facets which missed the mark (the tiresome, cheap, smutty humour, the vapid pop philosophising).

There's a good film in these guys if they can keep the sniggering schoolboys within them in check.

Whatever you think of this (or EEAAO), I'd recommend watching Holy Motors, which is similarly surreal and outrageous, yet done with a good deal more charm, craft and class in my opinion.

Rating: **

Steelheart - Tangled In Reins

All alone in the office and I'm making the most of it...wow, after a good few weeks of either listening to various genres of dance music or CDs of Greek lessons on repeat, it feels thrilling to be listening to some Rock again, and loud too. 

Steelheart were like Motley Crue but faster, harder and with superior chops.  Great stuff.   

Nightmare Alley

After this and The Shape Of Water, I'm increasingly of the opinion that Guillermo Del Toro is currently one of the most over-rated directors in the business.

You can't fault the magnificent production design in his films, however he takes a very long time to tell a very underwhelming and overly portentous story.

A shame, because there is a wealth of acting talent in Nightmare Alley (Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe and a magnetic Cate Blanchett) and they have some riveting scenes together.  But they are not terribly well-served by an uneven script that failed to truly draw me in.

Rating: **

Quote from: pdw1 on August 19, 2022, 06:39:55 PMMuse have just annoyed out door gigs for next June.
Milton Keynes here I come

They're coming to Huddersfield! And with Royal Blood, too!!

I'll set up a Twickets alert...   

Breaking Bad S1 Ep 1

Wow, they packed a lot into this pilot; I can imagine the brief: introduce the narrative style of the show with a classic cold opening hook, then establish the principal characters, send them straight into an engrossing, suspenseful plot, all so that the audience is ravenous for more by the end - and do all of that in under an hour.

I wonder if they originally had a longer running time in mind, but such is the brilliance of everything about this show they managed to successfully pare it down.

This being the second time around, and knowing what we now know of BB and BCS, there were things that struck me anew:

***SPOILER ALERT***

- Walter explaining chemistry to his class says it is "growth, then decay, then transformation", which seems to be a prescient comment on his forthcoming character arc;

- the hoodlum drug dealer Emilio who is caught pretty much red-handed by the DEA in the meth lab is released on bail very quickly; I wonder which lawyer could have facilitated that?   Of course, he comes to a sticky end, which brings me to:

- lo and behold, if it isn't the Emilio who is accompanied by Jesse on what is apparently their first visit to Saul Goldman's legal surgery in the penultimate episode of BCS...!

I seem to remember TNMS having a spoiler facility, at least at one time - was wondering if this is a possibility here, James?

Thanks either way! 

S6 Ep 13

And we're done.

The conclusion was nicely done, I thought.

Going to re-watch BB next...

Quote from: Slim on August 16, 2022, 10:51:19 AMVardy to United rumours. One year contract; he's 35. Temporary sticking plaster, if it happens.

Halifax Town have a double sell-on clause; so that's potentially massive for us.

Quote from: captainkurtz on August 16, 2022, 10:18:50 AMSaw Sadowitz a few years ago, after having enjoyed his stuff in the 90's when he used to be on very late night television.

He wasn't very funny, really.  His magic was crap as well.

I've seen pretty much nothing of his performances but am of course aware of his schtick; he's been bumped right up my to-see list due to my curiosity being piqued by the censorious. And it being on a Friday night helps.

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
Friday 17th Jun - YES, Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Wed 22nd Jun - YES, York Barbican
Sat 25th Jun - NILE RODGERS & CHIC, Halifax Piece Hall
Sat 17th Sep - KING'S X, Holmfirth Picturedrome
Fri 28th Oct - FM, Bradford Nightrain
Fri 18th Nov - JERRY SADOWITZ, Bradford The Studio
Sat 19th Nov - THE SAW DOCTORS, Leeds Academy

According to Man Utd season ticket holders I know, it's a case of a fish rotting from the head down.

Bring in owners who actually have the best interests of the club and its fans at heart, and the tide may be turned.

It's very, very simple why The Satanic Verses is considered by a significant demographic as offensive - it's because Islamists have extremely low offence and anger thresholds, by definition. 

And demonstrably they have many sympathisers and apologists, including - to their shame - a fair amount of Western "liberals".

Even the slightest tinkering of the narrative of Islamic sacred texts is considered a gross and inexcusable blasphemy, the punishment of which is often considered to be death.  This is why we see various sub-sects of Islam direct most of their hate and violence at each other, routinely and on a daily basis.

All religious groups have elements that knee-jerkingly find even the most factually-based, calm, measured, rational, insightful and astute scrutiny and criticism of their supernatural beliefs and ritualistic practises insulting in some way because, overall, as part of their devotion they also believe they are due automatic deference from everyone else, including the State, and believe any kind of vengeance is justified if they don't get it; this can take the form of demanding religious exemptions and privileges in laws, right through to slaughtering people in cold blood.

Why should non-adherents cede any ground whatsoever to this sort of bullying primitivism?  To do so is an act of self-harm, a surrender to de facto blasphemy laws in places that have long-since officially ditched them. 

When in Greece you occasionally get these brass-necked hawkers coming to your restaurant table - with apparent impunity - peddling trinkets or timeshares or whatever, placing their wares next to your drinks as if in some pound shop Dragon's Den pitch.

Fortunately, I am armed with seven syllables of perfectly-enunciated Greek which immediately sends them packing. 😏