January to April 2006
January 2006
Started the year off with an epic. Peter Jackson, he of Lord of the Rings, made King Kong his own project after he finished the FINEST TRILOGY EVER - FACT. He had tried to get the remake made in 1996 but it never happened - so at least he was free to direct Lord of the Rings instead. King Kong is his take on the original 1930's version - not an update like the quite horrible 1970's Jessica Lange/Jeff Bridges version! Naomi Watts takes the Fay Wray (who only died in 2004!), Scream Queen role. The villain of the piece is Jack Black -a producer (the trip to the island this time being to shoot a film). I must admit that I very nearly put off seeing this when I learned he was in it - I just did not like him at all in Shallow Hal (but then he does sing the middle eight to Jacob's Ladder by Rush when he makes his first appearance in High Fidelity - so I will forgive him for that alone - and Rush get a mention in Rockschool). The main thing that has to be said about the film is that it is a very faithful update of the 1930's version - the corny dialogue has been left in for a start. I must say that it was not such a bad film - Mark thought that he had just seen the worst film ever. Let's say that it was not bad - but certainly not deserving of the 5 stars that Empire Magazine awarded it. The 2005 update of the iconic T-Rex fight (now mobhanded) is worth the price of admission alone.....
Since I have been plugging the iPOD into the Roland the amount of time I spend actually playing the drums has gone up (see the entry for December 2005). Sadly, this has also resulted in a number of injuries - my elbow feels like it has been wrenched off and my fingers hurt like mad - I have got my old hard skin patches back. I have also snapped quite a few sticks (I suppose I could just start playing them quieter). Best tracks to play along with and tackle are as follows:
Just goes to prove - iPOD, best invention ever. FACT. As significant as the wheel.
Went to see Jarhead at the Cheshire Oaks. Some of you may be aware of the book about one guy's experience of the 1st Gulf War. I must say that it makes for a pretty superb film - despite the rather luke warm reviews. The best way to describe this is to look at it as a rather sinful pleasure - a very blokey movie, whilst trying to be anti-war it falls a bit short - I just found myself gut-laughing to it. There is actually very little combat to be seen (a bit like the first Gulf War then?), making this film like Cross of Iron for the MTV Generation. The best bits for me involve the guys watching Apocalypse Now and singing along to the Wagner soundtracked Helicopter attack. Pretty good stuff. You should go and see this film.
Our good run on the pub quiz continues. This month has seen yet another victory at the Traveller's Rest in Runcorn - this one went to a tie break! Then later in the month, myself and several friends from work (Kate, Phil, Chris & Mike) romped home in the London Bridge (it's a pub in Warrington on London Road - above) pub quiz. This was done at a canter - Mike basically could have won the quiz on his own - we were but a supporting cast! Prize money not as good as the Traveller's Rest in Runcorn - it has to be said.
Went to see Munich with Mark. As this was Speilberg's latest epic, and also that I am a bit of a history nut, I decided quite a while before it came out that it would be essential watching. The film is based on the efforts of Mossad (the totally ruthless Israeli secret service) to eliminate the terrorists responsible for the murder of the eleven Israeli atheletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. In case you did not know, Black September broke (well - actually climbed over the fence with some atheletes - such was the informal nature of the security) into the Olympic Village and took a group of atheletes hostage, demanding the release of political prisoners in return. It seems impossible now but Germany did not have a special police unit for dealing with these sorts of things (now it has GSG9) and thus struggled to bring the whole thing to a satisfactory end. In this case, the end was a bungled rescue attempt (during which several of the selected German police walked off the job!) and all of the hostages and most of the terrorists dead. It did not take Mossad that long to work out who was responsible for providing the backing to such an audacious operation and proceeded to eliminate them.
In this case, Eric Bana (he of Troy and Black Hawk Down) plays the leader of a group of operatives who chase a list of names around Europe, using a mixture of bombings and shootings (including a particularly nasty use of a bicycle pump) to knock them off. I must say that this is a very good film and you should all go out and see it. The quality that you would normally associate with Spielberg is all there - including the light shining into the lens trick that turns up in all of his films. The highlight for me was the Mossad raid on Beirut, brilliantly capturing the utterly ruthless nature of Mossad. You would not pick a fight with these guys. Bana's character spends most of the film dreaming of the final hours of the atheletes - brilliantly done as well - and accurate. The symbolism of this film is more or less captured in the closing scene, the World Trade Centre (which would have been just completed back then) sitting far away on the horizon as Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush argue about the morality of killing for revenge. This is cinema for grown ups and you should go and see it right now. Meanwhile, try and get hold of a copy of the documentary One Day in September - it is the definitive guide to the events.
Rounded off the month with yet another quiz victory for Shark Sandwich (for that is the name of our quiz team). This time it was Chris Little, Greavesy, Mike, THE BOSS & little old me. Shark Sandwich - simply a two word review - Quiz Champions! Put the winnings on the Euro Lottery. We didn't win.
Also replaced the old computer. I decided to go for a custom built system this time - the first time I have done so. Current specs are 1GB of RAM, 3.0ghz Intel Pentium 4, 250GB hard drive, CDR - the first time I have owned something that was even remotely cutting edge instead of throwing in the towel and just going to Dixons. I decided to go for a local supplier - namely Hexel Developments on Knutsford Road in Warrington. Nice system - I will never look at a Packard Bell or Compaq again! Rot in hell mass produced plastic boxes. I recall my first system - bought by myself back in 1994 for £999 - IBM Aptiva, 4MB Ram, 270MB HD, SX33 Processor - how did we ever manage with so little - and for so much in cost? If you are in the North West and looking for a system then you might want to choose these over PC World or Currys. These are much nicer guys and girls to do business with. Had I won the Euro Lottery then I would have got a Cray Supercomputer, obviously.
February 2006
Went to see Walk the Line - the Biopic of Johnny Cash. Now I am not a great fan of Country and Western ("we got both kinds - we got country AND western"), but Johnny Cash has always had some kind of aura about him - I suppose his decision to do live gigs inside maximum security prisons gives him that - and he was the bad boy of Country, who upset just about everyone. The biopic takes us to the late sixties and mainly deals with his relationship with Joan Carter - who he ended up marrying - and his relationship with drugs (check out the priceless moment when he collapses onto the stage in Las Vegas after downing a heroic dose of booze and amphets - why can't all Country and Western singers be this interesting?). Joaquin Phoenix plays the great man - Reece Witherspoon plays Joan and they both put in convincing performances. If you do go and see it then you might be shocked to learn that both actors did their own singing duties rather than mime to a real singer - the sound is so good that I just assumed that someone had done the singing for them. This is actually a great little film - go and see it.
On the 12th I took my little sister (who is a massive Floyd Fan), Sue, to see Mac Floyd at the Limelight Club, Crewe. Mac Floyd are a Scottish Pink Floyd Tribute Band. I am a big fan of Pink Floyd myself, their music (especially Dark Side of the Moon which is quite possibly the greatest thing committed to vinyl by just about any band) getting many a mention within these pages. Pink Floyd occupy a strange dark place in musical taste - The Wall and Dark Side turning up in many a CD collection belonging to those who do not even own another rock album - small wonder DSOTM is usually in the top 100 of best albums of all time. I myself have been to see the real article (Earl's Court 1994) as well as the Australian article. Sue would probably like me to point out that she has been to see them way back on the Momentary Lapse Tour (at Manchester Maine Road of all places) as well at Earl's Court on the Division Bell. Whilst I went to see Australian Pink Floyd when they were still a bit low key, Sue went to see them at the Liverpool Proms when they had gained enough self confidence to pack out their show with female backing singers and a saxophone player (not long after Emma had bought me tickets to see Yes at the same event as a Birthday treat).
Mac Floyd are A VERY GOOD PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE INDEED. It was a shame on this occasion that they did not have their pair of girly backing singers with them - namely Sammi and Michelle (I think the smallish Limelight stage would have not been able to carry all of the band and the two backing singers anyway - they would have been clashing elbows and getting right pissed off with each other). However, what they did play sounded like very good Floyd to my ears. They are a large band even without the girlies:
The musicianship of this band was brilliant and best suited to this sort of stuff - I could not really see them playing straight 4/4. The highlights for me were difficult to pick out - they were that good. It was just a shame that they did not have the backing singers available to tackle all of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety (which they usually do) - but they did play Breathe, Time and Money - obviously Great Gig in the Sky would have seemed a bit limp without the wailing girls. Well impressed and I have put photographs from this event in set 03 of the Gallery (events and gigs).
Eventually the fact that I very rarely take any time off caught up with me. I got an e-mail from admin saying it might be a good idea to take some time off or lose it at the end of the financial year. OK - so rather than face this I took a week off and did not make any plans whatsoever to fill those days with anything. Well, the dog has been happy as this has meant massive walks for her (all at least an hour). The highlight of this was a trip to the Goyt Valley. If you don't know, this marks the border between Cheshire and Derbyshire and is on the road between Macclesfield and Buxton (known as the Cat & Fiddle Road). Several reservoirs were built here during the 1940's and 50's - this one ended up covering a village under the rising water. I came here quite a lot in my youth - it was just a nice walk up and down the valley. I also came here on a Geography field trip when during the 1980's. Halfway up the valley is the old home of a local mining family - the Grimshaws. They lived in this particularly big house (not quite a stately home but well on the way to being one), but it fell into disrepair in the 1930's. Nowadays it is a shell - but a very atmospheric one at that - think U2 Album Cover. Pictures are in the gallery under the Holiday and Day Out Set.
March 2006
Started off March 2006 in pretty much the same way. Took Boomer for another BIG walk on the A537 - the Cat & Fiddle Road between Macclesfield and Buxton. This time, there was the beginnings of snow in the area so I took her along an old bridle path that runs over the moorland from the pub that gives the road its name. Talk about wind chill - I had to wrap my scarf around my face and put on the trusty Russian hat (that's why I look like the Omar Sharif character in Lawrence of Arabia in the piccy above left). Boomer did not seem to mind it too much - but she kept running into snowdrifts and slipping over in the ice. Did get some nice photos (and a numb face from the wind!) - pictures are in the gallery under the Holiday and Day Out Set - proving that we had a very strange spring.
Mark and I went to see Syriana at Ellesmere Port - the only place that was showing it. George Clooney has done rather well for himself recently - since the total disaster that was Batman & Robin, he has started to be taken a little bit more seriously. Syriana is a film about the oil industry - specifically the USA's dependance upon it. If you have seen Traffic (a film about the drug trade) then you are going to recognise the style: lives of several unconnected people all interconnected through one business - in this case oil. George Clooney plays a CIA agent with murky connections in the Middle East, Matt Damon is a broker, Alexander Siddig (yes - Doctor Bashir out of Deep Space Nine) plays a Saudi prince with reform on his mind (probably why the USA spend a lot of the film wanting him disposed of). The one thing that has to be said is that this is a film that takes quite a while to put its stall out - it is a very long build up. I liked it a lot - though tightly plotted is a good description of what you are letting yourself in for - it is apparently based on the memoirs of a retired CIA agent. One word of warning - there is a torture scene involving pliers and fingernails (carried out by that guy who played Tosker in Our Friends in the North - crazy name, crazy guy). Not for the faint hearted.
Went to see V For Vendetta at Ellesmere Port. Now I have always been a fan of Alan Moore - the British Comics God who has put his name to some of the best comics ever written. Most will know him for Watchmen - the comic that many people have predicted as unfilmable - well it will be until Hollywood gets some guts. Watchmen has been talked about as a movie for years, with a certain Terry Gilliam being mentioned as a possible director. Alan Moore really is the prince of darkness - his material is so dark and horrible that when he went to DC Comics the powers that be had a cow and started to mark his work as Suggested for Mature Readers - which really annoyed Alan so he went off in a huff. Here's a good example of a Moore comic scene: main character gets attacked by a heavily pregnant Vietnamese girl who slashes him with a broken bottle, so he shoots and kills her. Fairly dark. So, when I knew one of Alan Moore's graphic novels had actually made it onto the screen (even one I had not read) I knew I was going to have to see it. If you do not know the story of V for Vendetta it is basically a very dark story of a very George Orwell-esque UK that is run by a fascist dictatorship. The comic is set in 1997 so the film was updated to 2020. V refers to a revolutionary hero, dressed as Guy Fawkes, who sets himself against the powers that be. The powers that be here are a fascist government that is propped up by a government approved media.
I must admit I was a bit disappointed. It simply was not dark enough - having not read the original I am a bit ill informed, but I just know that this is not quite what Alan had in mind. The fact that he does not even allow his name to be referred to in the credits should tell you a little about how he feels about the film. It was not quite a complete train wreck - it is dark enough to be closeish to what Moore had written - and it has been updated with plenty of references about keeping the population in fear and using the media to keep them that way (hmmmmm - sound familiar?) at least gives it some relevance - we are slowly edging towards the nightmare in the film. Natalie Portman is not that bad and Hugo Weaving (Elrond in LOTR) does a good job despite his face not even being seen. John Hurt seems worryingly suited to the dictator role (ironic as he played Winston Smith in the film version of 1984). Just mark it as worth a look - if you an Alan Moore purist then you are going to be upset.
Been a while since I have had some Neil Peart news to type on this site. The April 2006 issue of Modern Drummer had another interview (marking his millionth appearance in the mag I think) with Neil talking about drum solos - he actually writes an essay about the art of the drum solo - he is quite the wordsmith. His solo has always been a very important part of the Rush concert - if you look at the essential solo part of the site (go to Essential from the Lobby) you can see my listing of them. Neil has recently released a DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo - a part by part break down of the solo he performs on the R30 DVD. Elsewhere, top drummers rate their fave solos and the mag lists what they consider to be the best 25 solos ever made....
25. - Vinne Colaiuta - Chasin the Train
24. - Carl Palmer - Tank
23. - Dave Weckl - Master Plan
22. - Ringo Starr - The End
21. - Ian Paice - The Mule
20. - Terry Bozio - The Black Page
19. - Steve Gadd - Nite Sprite
18. - Sandy Nelson - Let There be Drums
17. - Neil Peart - Working Man/Finding My Way
16. - Michael Shrieve - Soul Sacrifice
15. - Billy Cobham - One Word
14. - Clyde Stubblefield - Funky Drummer
13. - Ron Bushy - In the Garden of Eden
12. - Ginger Baker - Toad
11. - Tony Williams - Agitation
10. - Ron Wilson - Wipeout
09. - Art Blakey - A Night in Tunisia
08. - Max Roache - Cherokee
07. - Elvin Jones - Outrance
06. - Cozy Cole - Topsy ptII
05. - Joe Morello - Take Five
04. - Louie Bellson - Skin Deep
03. - John Bonham - Moby Dick
02. - Buddy Rich - West Side Story
01. - Gene Krupa - Sing, Sing, Sing
All very impressive, but I am sure they could have found room for Roger Taylor's solo at the end of Now I'm Here off Queen Live Killers or his solo to Keep Yourself Alive on the We Will Rock You Live Video - and what about Dance with the Devil by Cozy Powell? Sulk. At least they found room for Take Five - which despite being brilliant, now seems ultra low-tech (you can hear the snares buzzing when he goes onto the toms - quaint). That's progress for you.
Found a new sport to occupy my time - Squash. Mark suggested that I have a go at this as he says it is a serious work out. I have to say that I agree - only played two times and I feel like I have run a marathon or two, my shoulder feels wrenched out of its socket and the soles of my feet feel like they have had a good rub down with emery cloth. So a result. This has all begun after I changed gyms and went to the Lord Daresbury in Warrington (or is it in Runcorn - who can tell?). For those of you who have not tried it, Squash really is worth a go.
April 2006
Had a decidedly average night at the London Bridge (Stockton Heath) Pub Quiz. Came joint second - so a tiny prize money of £6 was to be had (why bother?). The boss decided that this go on the Euromillions - if I don't tell you the result of this then just assume that we did not win. Chris would no doubt like me to point out that I stole his thunder by answering the RAM question before he could - but then I would point out that we only went with the Andes over the Himalayas because he seemed so certain - thus pushing us into joint 2nd and out of the big prize money (i.e a massive £12). There, I feel much better now - and I knew about Martello Towers and the year of the San Francisco Earthquake (1906 in case you are wondering).
Must tell you about my mad mate, Worthy (or Worf - he can be found in set 01 of the Gallery - under impromptu jam session). Seems that Worf has set himself up as a master of exotic weaponry (though he still needs the proficiency roll at the moment). I went round there once and he had a sword, the next time a bow. If it carries on like this then pretty soon he will have a siege engine waiting for me in his front room (and perhaps in a few years, a small tactical nuke). I'm not sure if the deed poll forms for the name change to Legolas have been ordered (he certainly has the hair). More about Worthy below - he deserves an extra mention as he came to the Mostly Autumn gig with me....
Took Worthy to see Mostly Autumn at the Brindley, Runcorn (Emma was ill). I was first alerted to the existence of this band by Paul Matthews at work. He had bumped into them when he was wearing his Strangefish-Roadie hat in London (name dropper that he is). Classic Rock Magazine is also full of them - usually adverts for their gigs - the gig advert that I have seen has a quote from Rick Wright of Pink Floyd who once said that he was listening to them a lot. I decided that a band that is so proudly prog (or classic rock if you prefer - I won't mind!) would have to be seen by me sooner or later. So when I found out that they would be playing right here in Runcorn, at our very own Brindley Theatre no less, then I would just have to see them.
There are many reasons why I must concede that this was one of the best gigs I have ever attended. Firstly, the high quality of the music - it would be easy to say that they sound like Pink Floyd with a female vocalist, and I suppose this would the best way to describe their music to someone who was not all that interested anyway. Mostly Autumn also have their own individuality to add to this - the songs have lots of depth and space - flute and recorder breaks being built into the mix. The musicianship is also spot on - which is more impressive when you count how many of them are playing together - two guitars, bass, two keyboards and drums. The songs are nice and long (as they should be - this is a prog - or classic - band after all). The best thing about was the friendly nature of the gig - the intro of one song was delayed whilst some audience members asked the guitarist, Bryan, if they could stand at the front - never seen that happen at a gig before. This is my kind of band and I am a convert! Also worth mentioning is our lovely Brindley Theatre - nice and comfy and not too big - loved that too. If this kind of music is your thing, then you really should be paying them a visit. Pictures of this gig can be seen in set 03 of the Gallery (also a link to their site)......
Had a day out in Manchester with Emma. Apart from the usual Starbucks (consumed within "our" Starbucks in St Ann's Square), Emma said it would be a good idea to go on the big wheel that is currently sitting on Exchange Square - I suppose it is a lower key version of the London Eye. Well, she thought it was a good idea until the bloody thing started moving and the little pod started rocking back and forth - enter Emma-Freakout-Mode. I must admit that I was a bit cold sweat myself as the wheel came to the top and stopped (to let some people off you see), but I heartened myself with the knowledge that if the thing toppled over I would, or at least any surviving relatives would, be able to sue their asses.
Nice little postcript to the month. Emma sent me this picture using her phone, having had a night out to see a band in Northwich. The band member in the middle is Matthew Corbett - legendary star of the Sooty Show. As you can see, Sooty, Sweep or even Sue the Panda could not be bothered to turn up - lightweights.
