Writer's Block

With dispiriting inevitability, another of my favourite bands plays Koko and I've begrudgingly agreed to go back there. This time it's prog-rock heroes Coheed & Cambria who will be playing their third record “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness”* in full in June. My favourite Coheed record is "In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3"* but there are a number of stand out tracks on it including "Welcome Home" which is pretty much a modern classic. I use the word riff far too often on this blog to try and disguise the fact that I know nothing about music or how to write about it, but my God, the riffs in "Welcome Home" are sensational. I have already seen Coheed play the record in full as part of their "Neverender" run of shows in 2008 at the much missed Astoria. It feels incredible to me that that was nearly a decade ago. Anyway I was a relatively new fan of the band at the time and will probably get ...

 Blah blah something about football blah blah. I'm limping towards a week off and my 29th birthday. One of those I'm looking forward to more than the other. Obviously everyone knows by this point that Moonlight won the Oscar for Best Picture last night, after La La Land was erroneously announced as the winner. A total shambles that pretty much ruins the moment for everyone involved in both films, although Barry Jenkins didn't seem to mind. Leaving that aside, a terrific and well deserved achievement. Mahershala Ali, Casey Affleck and Emma Stone were worthy winners of their respective gongs. Go and see Moonlight and La La Land and Manchester By The Sea if you still have the opportunity. There are still lots of films out that I'd like to see but can't find the time for at the moment. I'm particularly intrigued by Logan, Hugh Jackman's swansong as Wolverine. Anything that's a superhero movie that's not really a superhero movie, I can get behind.

It's the Oscars tonight. The Oscars aren't really that important but they provide an opportunity for journalists to pontificate about films and what they supposedly mean for our society. This unbearable piece of self-righteous wank from David Cox is a case in point . It's not enough to enjoy something for what it is. Everything must be analysed from every angle, in minute detail, to meet implausible standards. He comprehensively misses the point of this film*. Cox also uses the terms "jazzsplain" and "mansplain" which is reason enough to dismiss someone as a tedious bore. It's possible to both acknowledge the problems caused by the dominance of heterosexual white male culture and decry the use of these idiotic portmanteaus. Cox believes it's a film for narcissists. It isn't. It's a musical. With big, brilliant, superbly crafted songs that stand up to repeat listens. It's not perfect. There are plot holes. You need to suspend your di...

As I said in the last blog, I find The Divine Comedy difficult to categorise. Wikipedia have gone with "orchestral pop", which tells some of the story. Generally I'd say that at his best Neil Hannon writes dense, eloquent, beautiful songs with a sort of orchestral indie sensibility*. Last night they returned to the London Palladium to play their first full band show in the capital since god knows when. Support came from Lisa O'Neill who opened with a Galway folk song, setting the tone immediately. Her Irish accent gives her songs a distinctive feel which elevates lyrics as banal as "He's a nasty, nasty man". Some of her songs are fortunately more ambitious and by the end of her half hour set she's charmed the crowd. The Divine Comedy take to the stage and open with the dischordant thrashings of Sweden, a song I don't much care for, but it's difficult to deny that opening a show with the line "I would like to live in Sweden" give...

Moonlight is a coming of age story that depicts a boy named Chiron in three early stages of his life (depicted by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes) in Liberty City, Florida. The film is split into three acts to cover these stages of his life (Little, Chiron and Black). In the first section, Mahershala Ali is superb as Juan, a drug dealer who finds Chiron hiding, fearful both of being confronted by his bullies and returning home to his emotionally abusive mother (Naomi Harris). It's difficult for me to envisage Ali as anyone other than Remi Danton from House of Cards but is nuanced here, eventually forced to confront his complicity in Chiron's unhappiness despite his well meaning attempts to mentor him. His schoolyard torture continues into his teenage years, leading to a scene with a brilliant and devastating breaking of the fourth wall, as Chiron begs to be noticed. Moonlight is important film in terms of telling stories from underrepresented groups but its...

I've thrown out my planned blog for the day to discuss Claudio Ranieri's sacking as Leicester City manager this evening, nine months after taking the team to a historic and completely implausible Premier League triumph. Once known as "The Tinkerman" for his frequent alterations of both tactics and personnel, he had become the talisman, turning a group of journeymen and untested players into champions. But since then, they've tumbled to 17th place in the league, are a point off relegation and the statistics are damning. They've had one win in fifteen matches in all competitions. To put that into some sort of context, Sunderland are the joint worst team in the league and they've picked up three wins from fifteen. They're yet to score a goal in the league in 2017. Sunderland scored four goals in a half against Crystal Palace on 4th Febuary. Leicester have scored three goals since 10th December. They have been dreadful for months. And I know dreadful. ...

Having noted my mother's birthday earlier in the month, it's only right that I acknowledge my father's. There are no informal societal rules about asking a man his age, so I have ascertained that he is 69. The most hilarious of all the ages, as Daniel Kitson recently posited. I bought him a Sunderland tankard as a reminder of the curse he bestowed upon me. He's doing alright at three score and nine, other than doctors poking him a bit. I hope he's got a few years left in him, but I guess you never really know. Sorry, bit maudlin. Yesterday was quite jam packed. I watched both Moonlight and 20th Century Women before heading to the London Palladium for The Divine Comedy. Reviews of those things coming soon. Well, I find it difficult to describe TDC's music and my feelings on both films are not clear cut. So perhaps not that soon. I got home shortly after midnight and struggled to sleep, probably not getting more than 4 hours. Consequently I found myself at bes...