7th May

A fairly nondescript day off work. Mostly football again, mostly end of season heartbreak again (with apologies to Blackburn fans). In other news, Emmanuel Macron has triumphed over far right bellend Marine Le Pen in the French election. This may prove scant consolation to those of us unhappy with the direction the Western world has moved in, but I'll take it for now.

I've still got post Mach Fest blues and still thinking about what I might do next. I am continuing to wear my tatty festival wristband as part of my stubborn refusal to move on. I think for certainly the past couple of months, I've been focusing on the deadline of my Mach Fest show and trying to put on a show worthy of inclusion at a comedy festival of considerable stature.

It has been a welcome distraction. With that out of the way, in the past few days my negative thoughts have returned to the fore. Or certain specific longstanding negative thoughts have returned. Negative thoughts don't ever really go away, it's more a case of management. I have several glaring problems that stand between me and the hope of ever living a life full of happiness and contentment. I feel that I am no closer to resolving those problems than I was five or ten years ago. The mental state where I'm most happy, or perhaps least sad, requires a considerable amount of denial.

In the short term, I have a retake a week on Tuesday and two days of Frank Turner's "Lost Evenings" festival at the Roundhouse to attend so I'll try to focus on those.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'll See You In My Dreams

 Today is the first day of the 2024/25 English football season. It will be the first season that begins without my Dad, who died four months ago on 9 th April at the age of 76. My Dad and I have shared football together for as long as I can remember. I fell in love with football largely because of Eric Cantona, who I remember thinking was the coolest man alive. I dimly remember him returning to action after being suspended for his infamous kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, scoring an equaliser against Liverpool and swinging around the stanchion behind the goal at Old Trafford. All of this subsequently led to me wanting to follow Manchester United. I am surprised in retrospect that this man from Houghton-le-Spring who spent most Saturdays in his youth at Roker Park to watch Sunderland AFC didn’t object more vehemently to this. Perhaps he saw it as a decent excuse to watch higher quality players than he was used to. Dad always wanted to watch good teams playing good football. ...
Read more

February In Film

  The Fabelmans The film follows Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), a young aspiring filmmaker dedicated to his craft who must negotiate the challenges posed by familial strife. Any resemblance to a real director is I presume entirely coincidental. One of my issues with the family early on is that they’re almost insufferably twee and not a great deal of interest seems to happen. The film’s central familial conflict feels somewhat implausible and is centred around Sammy’s mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams). I have enjoyed Williams’ work in the past but found her overwrought, hysterical performance here rather offputting.   Thank goodness then that Uncle Boris (Hirsch) arrives to drop a grenade into proceedings, explaining his own history with film and the arts and underlining Sammy’s forthcoming dilemma. He decides to get to work on his highest scale production to date, a war epic. These are the most joyous shots in the movie, teeming with invention especially in the deploym...
Read more

June In Film

  The Little Mermaid I have not seen the original Little Mermaid for something like 25 years. This probably aided my general enjoyment of yet another Disney remake, as I imagine that more diehard fans of the original would find more to fault here than I did. Having said that, some of the alterations worked for me such as the decision to give Prince Eric more backstory and a new song. Halle Bailey is perfectly cast as Ariel (regardless of what the internet’s worst arseholes will have you believe) and the quality of her singing is a match for the original. The highlight of the entire film is probably the moment when the crescendo of “Part Of Your World” hits, the waves crash against the shore and you’re fleetingly reminded of when Disney could still stir the soul. There’s an enjoyable performance too from Melissa McCartney as Ursula who brings a certain amount of fun to one of the House of Mouse’s greatest pantomime villains. Unfortunately, what these films lose in the transiti...
Read more