Writer's Block

Do you ever get the feeling that maybe 52 decent quality weekly blogposts would be better than 365 rubbish daily ones? I have some sympathy with that point of view. But I'm too far gone to stop now. My friend Chris pointed out that my assertion that "if there's anything more inevitable then England losing in the knock out stages of a major international tournament, then it's losing on penalties to the Germans in the knock out stages of a major international tournament" doesn't make sense. Because the second scenario also involves England losing in the knock out stages of a major international tournament. Thus, it cannot be more inevitable than the first scenario. Chris is very intelligent man with a highly analytical brain which is an asset to him in his profession in academia. His unremitting sense of pedantry does however cost him a considerable amount of goodwill in his personal relationships. Anyway, Germany won the Under 21 European Championships ton...

6 hours of college and 5 hours of work today. I feel flattened and dispirited by both. I'm quite happy to throw my support behind the theory that "You never stop learning" but I am sick to the back teeth of still being in classrooms at the age of 29. It still feels like a personal failing to me, but so many things in my life do. This is the first time that I've tried to study a course whilst doing (let's call it) 3/4 of a full time job. I have struggled throughout this whole process and feel that it is exceedingly unlikely that I will get where I need to be in the 14 days before my final exam. Said exam is an onerous and unwieldy beast that deviates considerably from the others which preceded it. It'll be six weeks before the results come back. With all that considered I am probably better served chalking this one up to experience and studying through what remains of the summer for the probable retake.  This has thrown together all sorts of thoughts of ...

England lost on penalties to Germany in the semi finals of the Under 21 European Championships today. Of course they did. If there's anything more inevitable then England losing in the knock out stages of a major international tournament, then it's losing on penalties to the Germans in the knock out stages of a major international tournament. It is our destiny. I can only assume that if England ever scored a winning penalty against the Germans in a shootout in a major tournament then the fabric of our reality would immediately be torn asunder. I wore a shirt depicting cult animated character Sterling Archer from "Archer" yesterday and got approving comments of recognition from three dudes. I said to one of them that I was waiting for the latest season to go up on Netflix having grown weary of tracking down dodgy links online. Well, speak of the devil, it's now up there. It is on a basic level a ludicrous spy spoof but also so much more than that. I would recomme...

I suspect that 26th June 2017 will mostly be remembered as the day Theresa May agreed to pay the DUP £1 billion for their support to form a government having humiliatingly failed to gain enough Conservative seats to do so herself in an election that she did not need to call. Having been told amongst other things that there is no "magical money tree" to support our public services and public service workers, I can understand why people might consider this to be a slap in the face. Strong and stable? This is calamitous and shambolic. But I spent 26th June 2017 resting up before heading into town to take in some comedy. Specifically it was Edinburgh previews from Jayde Adams and Spencer Jones downstairs at The Albany. I had thought that the venue had been shut down a few years ago but I'm delighted to see that it's back in commission as it's a nice intimate comedy room. I'm loathe to review other acts really but Jayde wowed the audience with her virtuoso operat...

1. Damage. 2. 23 3. A Praise Chorus 4. Bleed American 5. The Authority Song 6. Big Casino 7. Futures 8. Invented 9. Dizzy 10. Blister 11. Kill 12. Polaris

1. Ballgame 2. A Flatline Blur 3. Tapdance 4. No Time Flat 5. Just Stay 6. The Burning City Smoking 7. Lord, I Know We Don't Talk 8. Carnival 9. Luxembourg 10. Private First Class 11. No History 12. Cotton Crush

Mary Adler (Mckenna Grace) is a seven year old girl who lives with her uncle Frank (Chris Evans), following her mother's suicide six years earlier. On her first day of school, she shows a remarkable aptitude for mathematics. Despite this, Frank turns down the opportunity for her to attend a school for gifted children on a scholarship. Mary's grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) enters the scene and launches a custody battle against Frank. This doesn't feel like an especially original story but it is well told. It's Grace and Duncan who provide the strongest performances of the piece. Grace is believable as a child genius. Mary is precocious but not insufferably so (she sagely notes at one point "Nobody likes a smart ass"). Her anguish, confusion and frustration at the situation are real. Irrespective of her abilities, she remains a kid. A lesser film would have depicted Evelyn as the villain of the piece, by attempting to separate Mary from her beloved uncl...

Beloved lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne Johnson) heads up a team known as Baywatch in Emerald Bay, Florida who run trials for new recruits on an annual basis. Buchannon's boss puts considerable pressure on him to admit Matt Brody (Zac Efron), a double Olympic gold medalist who badly damaged his reputation due to an unsavoury incident at the Games. The arrogant Brody consistently acts recklessly, much to Buchannon's chagrin. But the two must join forces with the rest of the team to shut down a drug ring. I have a lot of time for Dwayne Johnson and he gives it his best shot here with an underpowered script. His consistent boyband related ribbing of Brody yields decent returns, including an on the nose reference to one of Efron's previous enterprises. Efron is ludicrously ripped but needs to do more than simply be eye candy, even in a film set in the summer at the beach. I feel like I've seen him play exceedingly similar characters in various things for the past five y...

The Coheed and Cambria gig on Sunday night threw up more gig related issues. I won't go over my criticism of Koko in Camden as a venue for live music again, but it's essentially a nightclub unsuccessfully repurposed as a concert hall. The sight lines are poor and there's little room on the floor, leaving very little room in which to manoeuvre in a sold out show. It is exceedingly common for people to attempt to move past you at shows. I don't have a problem with this persay, assuming that there is room in front to move into. What these people don't seem to realise is if this is not the case, the people you have moved past will suffer and be pushed back. I would have liked to be in a position nearer the stage but to push into that space would be massively disrespectful to the people who got there earlier than me and have a right to stand in front. I do have a modicum of sympathy for those who have gone to get drinks for their friends and are trying to work their wa...

The warm weather eased off a little bit today. It will apparently be the hottest June day since 1976 tomorrow though. So that's something to look forward to. I have mainly been hibernating like a bear and binge watching the new season of Orange Is The New Black. It does require you to not so much suspend your disbelief as entirely throw it out the window. But the drama is often compelling and there's a reason why everyone I know watches it. It was unfortunately the end of the road for Fweshfromthesesh tonight at the Greyhound Derby at Towcester, succumbing once more to Clare's Rocket (who I strongly suspect will win the whole thing), Astute Missile and Bruisers Bullet. Still, it's a young dog with a lot of potential and there's always next year.

Prog rock veterans Coheed and Cambria returned to London's second worst live music venue for the final two shows of their most recent "Neverender" tour, playing their third record "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness" in its entirety. If "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3" was the band's breakout record, Good Apollo cemented their position in the rock mainstream. The absolutely enormously riffed "Welcome Home" is dispatched early doors as the record's second track and I start headbanging before the opening riff has even concluded. Watching Claudio Sanchez shredding on his double axe in the gig's early moments is worth the price of admission alone. The chorus of "The Suffering" indicates a band capable of writing giant radio friendly hooks as well as ambitious conceptual pieces, whilst "Wake Up" is a soulful ballad exhibiting the depth of Sanchez's vocal talents. ...

Six consecutive placeholder blogs. I've certainly violated the spirit of the "blog a day" enterprise if not the actual rules. But this week has been pretty full tilt, getting on for fifty hours at work plus a day at college. I threw in a couple of extra-curricular activities which probably wasn't too clever an idea. I need to make time to rest and recover during these particularly high intensity periods. I do tire a lot more easily than I used to, although undeniably that is linked to my physical condition. I think my dyspraxia also puts a dent in that, although it's not something I've thought about all that often. I've basically been proceeding as though I'm still 18-21 and can bounce back from anything, instead of someone who is approaching 30 (LA LA LA I AM NOT LISTENING LA LA LA) and is reluctant to take the risk of drinking alcohol anymore for fear of it putting them out of commission for half a week. So basically I need to rest more and exercis...

It was warm today. Exceedingly warm. Hot even. Enough to reconsider my long held belief that it is unnecessary to ever wear sun cream in the United Kingdom. It was a beautiful day for an 11.5 hour shift. I did get to see plucky underdog Fweshfromthesesh secure a second place finish in the third round of the Greyhound Derby at Towcester, knocking out third favourite Priceless Brandy in the process. The race was won by Clare's Rocket who was second favourite to win the Derby outright at the time of racing yesterday. All in all a decent night's work for "Team Herbert", as they were described on Sky Sport's coverage of the event last night.  They've been drawn against Clare's Rocket again in Tuesday's quarter finals, so it gets a bit more arduous from here but if you've got to the last 24 I think you're going pretty well. The dog has exceedingly decent pace but also possesses certain positional issues that may stop it progressing any further. S...

I headed to Angel on Thursday night to attend a Daniel Kitson work in progress gig at The Bill Murray, London's recently established "community centre" for comedy. I think that's how I heard it described anyway. Essentially it seems to be a place where comedians of all levels can put on shows and develop ideas, which I'm sure you'll agree is a terrific idea. Predictably it was rammed to capacity, as Kitson gigs invariably are. Kitson is performing "Something Other Than Everything" at the Roundhouse from 12th-29th July at 9pm. I sense that Kitson does much of his writing on projects in the month before the finished article is performed. I therefore wouldn't be surprised if the show is radically different from what I saw on Thursday evening. It might have been me, but it felt like a more subdued gig than I'm used to from him. Part of the joy of Kitson work in progress shows is him riffing off the audience, getting sidetracked and digressing f...

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington quickly spread through the entire block of flats and burned for several hours. As of Sunday afternoon, 58 people are believed to have lost their lives although this is not considered to be the final death toll. Many have been quick to politicise the issue. It is undoubtedly a political issue, but I'm not prepared to hold Theresa May responsible irrespective of what I might think about her. In the short term, the survivors must be rehoused in the borough and their needs must be met. The response from the public in terms of offering donations and assistance has been outstanding and not for the first time. Those resources must be pooled and implemented as quickly as possible.  A full and proper enquiry should follow and those responsible should be held to account. From what we already know, the failings were numerous. Residents warning of a potential fire risk last year. A lack of functioning fire alar...

I went to the gym today for the first time in three months, which was in turn the first time I had been since the start of the year. Two visits in six months would seem to imply that I've lost motivation. I have found it more difficult in 2017 to make time for it than I have in the past, although if you're especially desperate to do something then one can ordinarily find the time. I also weighed myself for the first time since my last visit, resulting in a three pound weight gain. I'm always surprised that it isn't more, although at this point my consumption of food fells akin to throwing rubbish into an overflowing bin. Anyway, I felt better for having got a couple of hours in. I used to hold grand ambitions of going to the gym every day but it feels a distant goal at the minute. If I can go once a week and build up from there then it would be a start.

I said some time ago that England would never win the World Cup in my lifetime. I am delighted to have been proven wrong as the Three Lions triumphed in the U20s World Cup Final in South Korea with a 1-0 victory over Venuezela. I've only caught snippets of their matches in the tournament but what I have seen has been impressive. Those young players have bags of pace and strong positional sense. I look forward to all of them becoming corrupted by the game's ludicrous riches and failing to fulfil their potential in the years to come. In other news, Adam West has left us at 88 and I will be doing the Batusi in his honour. Not many people get to be Batman and he was the first. Frankly that's enough for me to leave a remarkable legacy. But as an animated comedy enthusiast it would be remiss of me to not mention his latter day popularity as Mayor Adam West in Family Guy, a lunatic who would baffle and delight with his surreal non-sequiters. This was probably my favourite . I th...

Philip Ashley (Sam Claflin) is taken in by his cousin Ambrose when his parents died as a child. When Ambrose goes through his own period of illness, he goes abroad to Florence to aid his recovery where he meets and falls in love with his cousin Rachel. When Ambrose passes away a short term later, Philip has reason to believe Rachel may have been complicit in his death and goes to Italy in search of clues to her whereabouts. Rachel reappears in England and after spending time with her, Philip's concerns appear to fade. But is Rachel all that she seems? It's that question that drives much of the narrative here and it's the extent to which you can be invested in the answer that will determine your enjoyment of this film. With his cousin's passing, Philip is the lord of a big country estate complete with land, horses and staff and it's all very evocative of a particular time and place. Claflin plays him well as a somewhat pampered, naive young man approaching his 25th...

As my friend Chris put it this morning, "Well that's a turn up for the books and no mistake". Theresa May's snap election, designed to establish a cast iron mandate for the forthcoming Brexit negotiations, backfired horribly on the Conservatives as they lost their majority and will need to rely on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party to form a government. She could have adopted a conciliatory tone in her speech this afternoon but elected to bury her head in the sand, still continuing to peddle hollow lines about stability in this country amidst what might generously be described as an embarrassment for her and her party. I resented going back to the polls and clearly I wasn't the only one. May only really has herself to blame. Her campaign has been absolutely dreadful and her refusal to engage her opponents in meaningful debate and constant attempts to undermine Labour rather than offer positive solutions of her own have contributed to her downfall. Yet ...

Diana (Gal Gadot) is one of the race of Amazon women who live on Themyscira whose duty is to protect mankind from the god of War, Ares. A plan piloted by Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes off the shore and he is pursued by German soldiers. After the Amazons battle the Germans, he reveals that the First World War is taking place and that he is an Allied spy. Diana believes that if she follows Steve to the war, she will be able to find and destroy Ares.  I saw this film on Sunday night. I'm struggling to string any of my thoughts together into coherent paragraphs because I'm tired and there's too much distance between the write up and the screening. So here are some stray observations as the AV Club would call them. 1. Gal Gadot is very good as our titular hero and at expressing how she comes to terms with a world she knows very little of and learns of the good and bad of humanity at large. 2. She has good chemistry with Chris Pine who also puts in a solid showing. 3. R...

The fifth instalment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise sees various parties once again chasing after Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), whilst Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) seeks the Trident of Poseidon to break his father's curse. In the US the film is called "Dead Men Tell No Tales" which is glaring obvious as Henry says it before the title screen appears. Why is it Salazar's Revenge over here? Who knows. I've not been keeping up with the comings and goings with POTC since the first two films which I considered to be rather decent swashbuckling fun in my teens. It's difficult to make a case for their being a fifth outing of any series and Salazar's Revenge becomes something of a slog after a while. Even Javier Bardem as the titular Salazar doesn't look like he's having that much fun in a role that is clearly ridiculous. When the zombie sharks show up, you get the sense of a movie attempting to throw everything at the wall to see what...

"Sachin: A Billion Dreams" is a documentary on the life and career of Sachin Tendulkar, a man who is pretty much universally agreed to be one of the best players in the history of cricket. Two quotes from the film particularly stand out for me: "Sachin is not just a man, he is an emotion" and the late Donald Bradman's "I never saw myself play, but if I had, I imagine it would look something like Tendulkar". Praise indeed from statistically the all best batsman in the sport. It's a story mostly narrated in Tendulkar's own words, with a dramatic reconstruction of how a mischievous young kid grew into a supreme sporting talent. It probably shouldn't work but it does and alongside archival footage you get the sense of a man who has a supreme sense of confidence and faith in his own ability. OJ Simpson has been in my head a lot of late and feel Tendulkar's journey is an interesting contrast. The movie touches upon the idea that India was...

A couple of passings today that it would be remiss of me to not touch upon. Peter Sallis has left us at the age of 96. For many he was best known as Cleggy from Last Of The Summer Wine, appearing in all 295 episodes of the series over 37 years. It's difficult to imagine such longevity in a TV programme these days. But for my generation he was Wallace of Wallace and Gromit fame. I don't know anyone who doesn't love Wallace and Gromit and who hasn't taken the adventures of the bungling inventor and his canine sidekick into their hearts. As Nick Park commented on BBC News tonight, Sallis brought such a brilliant sense of warmth and humour to the role and by all accounts was a pleasure to work with and to know. In much more sad news, the former Newcastle and Ivory coast midfielder Cheik Tiote collapsed and died during training today with Beijing Enterprises. He was 30 years old. Tiote was a big, physical no nonsense sort of player. The kind of guy you'd demand to be b...

I headed down to Pippingford Park (somewhere near Uckfield/East Grinstead) for the first Byline Festival, a celebration of independent journalism hosted by the publication of the same name. I got there in time to hear what was described as a "keynote rant" from John Cleese on the subject of press regulation, on which he made a number of salient points and showed that he hasn't lost his sense of comic timing. Also, it was John freaking Cleese. He returned later for the Bad Press Awards, honouring those who had besmirched the reputation of journalism in the previous year, alongside the likes of Hardeep Singh Kohli and Joanna Scanlan. It particular, Scanlan's article recaps were excellent, wringing every drop of humour out of absurd pieces. Exposing the blatant involvement of Eharmony was one such highlight. I had gone to the festival to support Sophie Cameron who appeared as part of the Livewire Salon late on Saturday night. I always enjoy Sophie's stuff because...

Having said that I would ration my intake of House of Cards, I've watched something like six episodes in the past 24 hours and thus I expect my dreams tonight to start with time lapse footage of Washington DC. Congratulations to the owners and trainers of "fweshfromthesesh" who are frequent punters in my shop and watched their dog triumph tonight in its heat at Towcester in this year's Greyhound Derby. Which as I understand it is a competition they run to determine who is literally the top dog. I was told that the name stems in part from a desire to appeal to banterrific youths who will bet on the dog in part due to their fixation with binge drinking. Regrettably, I agree that this is both logical and plausible, even if I cannot forgive that "w". It was a good run and I can understand why they're upbeat about the greyhound's future prospects. It has decent starting pace although it veered across the track during the midway point in the race which...