May to August 2007

May 2007

Spent the first week of the month using up all of my owed time by going for a short holiday with Emma in Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire, South Wales. This was the main holiday destination of my youth and I have always been very fond of South Wales as a holiday destination ever since. We stayed in a static caravan at Broadhaven and used this as our base to explore the rest of South Wales: Broadhaven (South), Tenby, St Davids (smallest city!), Pembroke etc. Mum and dad came down to visit us for a couple of days (brought nephew George and Boomer the Dog!). It was nice week (I just added to my Australia tan!) and it was nice to be back. You can see the inevitable pictures from the holiday in set 09 (the Holiday set) of the Gallery (there's a lot of them!).

Quite bummed by my holiday in that I missed the release of the new Rush CD, Snakes and Arrows. Well, a trip to HMV upon my return soon sorted that out. I must say that this CD is a very good piece of work, brimming with self confidence. The stand-out track has to be Armour and Sword - a very complicated bit of music with the drums right at the top of the mix. It also contains short instrumental tracks - a sure sign of a band enjoying themselves. Must get this on the iPOD and revised in time for the gigs!

Took Emma to see Spiderman 3 at Cheshire Oaks. Aagh, Dreadful! Whilst  I liked the first two, this has to be not only the worst of the three, perhaps the worst superhero film ever made (even worse than the Fantastic Four - that has inexplicably had a sequel made! Superman IV now looks like a flawed classic next to this) but certainly the worst close to a trilogy EVER! It could also even be one of the worst films ever made - a fact reinforced by that massive budget and numerous delays - $200m to turn out this? In fact, I can't believe I am even giving it slagging-off-space on my website by typing about it - just to warn people off perhaps? Well I suppose I should provide some sort of synopsis - Peter Parker faces the Sandman, Venom and the Green Goblin. He also has some relationship troubles with MJ. The whole thing plays as if scripted by an Australian Soap writer who has had his work mixed up with a superhero film writer, in fact, it is obvious that more time has been dedicated to the merchandising than to the script - they just had the script put together as an afterthought. This is Hollywood at its very worst: taking a good franchise and tearing its heart out to get bums on seats (why waste three good villains on one film for any other reason than to get people into the cinema?). The $375 million opening weekend in the USA serves as a terrible prophet of doom - one day all films will be this bad and make as much money. Thus, it follows the the more money we spend on films, the more money they will make, the worse they will get. So you can see, it's a vicous cycle. This film may well be the worst film you ever see - avoid like the ebola virus. The sad thing is, I swelled the coffers by going to see it - but at least I got to slag it off. When am I going to learn?

After the disaster that was Spiderman 3, I needed to see something that would make me feel good about the cinema again. I had been planning a trip to see This is England since it came out. Normally this would have involved a trip to the Cornerhouse in Manchester - it is a small Brit-Film and not likely to be of interest to many people. When checking out the times for Spiderman, I saw that VUE, Cheshire Oaks were also showing this - 0940 the next morning! I took Emma to see this and must tell you all that this is a great little film that is made with a fraction of the budget of Spiderman but more in the way of integrity, acting (an area where Spiderman 3 is a real squib and this film shines) and quality. Set in the early 1980's (apparently in the North West), it follows a young lad named Shaun who has recently lost his dad in the Falklands War. Feeling a bit alone he falls in with a gang of affable skinheads and everything seems to be going OK for him (he even gets a snog off the local goth-girl!). Now this is where the film crosses the line between Billy Elliot and enters darker territory. Up to this point, people who grew up in that time, such as I, will be laughing at the fashions and remembering the lads and lasses in school who made Fred Perry shirts a fashion icon. Then the group is joined by its former leader, Combo, returning from a stint at HMP. He draws an NF line across the group, causing half of them to leave. Shaun, however, finds himself in awe of Combo, following him to NF meetings and doing every stupid thing he says. Whilst this is a great film, it is not a comfortable watch. Racist abuse and violence ensues. Combo is played to the hilt by Stephen Graham and the performance is just pure evil. The performance by Thomas Turgoose (who is must be all of about 12 himself) is superb and in an ideal world he would be walking off with an Oscar. You should all go and see this. You see - we can make good films. Be warned - not a date movie.

Following my usual routine of waiting for ages to buy cool stuff, I finally got hold of a copy of Neil Peart's Anatomy of a Drum Solo. Once again, this was an E-Bay purchase - and for a very reasonable price. This DVD is about the Der Trommeler (drummer in German) solo that Neil performed on the R30 tour back in 2004. The drum solo has always been a part of the Rush show since the very early days. As time has gone on, the technology has been added to (as well as the legendary spinning drum riser) and the solo has evolved accordingly. On this DVD, Neil breaks down each part of the solo and has a go at explaining it to us mere mortals. Some hope. This DVD has just depressed me and I am considering taking up the washboard or something.

Emma spent a Sunday (I was at work!) discovering that we had a garage and not just an extended box room! Since we moved in here in September 2004, we have always been a bit embarrassed about the huge pile of boxes in the garage. Emma, using the local dump (7 loads - but then we have a Micra), has discovered that we have a garage. A few gems were found amongst the wreckage - like the Band of Brothers DVD that mum and dad got me for x-mas a few years ago and I contrived to misplace when we were moving house.

Once again, Our Lord Neil Peart finds himself on the front cover of Drum Magazine (a mag that you cannot get over here and have to buy in Borders). Of course I had to buy it as there is a nice long (is there any other kind for him?) Neil Peart interview on the pages inside, a map of his latest drum kit (the legendary R30  DW kit has been replaced by Aztec Red DW kit it would seem) but all remains the same set up wise. This mag was also fun as it had a prize of a complete Sabian Paragon set (the Neil Peart cymbals!) if you entered the draw when you sent off for a subscription (US customers only no doubt).

Really, after going to see Spiderman III, I did not think I would be stepping inside a cinema to see a Hollywood Blockbuster sequel ever again - Spiderman III really is that bad it could put you off them for life. Sadly, it did not put me off taking Emma to see Pirates of The Carribean III. I recall being well pleased with the first instalment, strongly disliking the second, but the standard has dropped so far with the (hopefully) last instalment that I cannot even summon up the energy to slag it off as much as I want. This is just long, poorly plotted twaddle that really does belong in a Disneyland Ride. It's almost as if they don't care how bad they are as long as they have a product in the cinemas - what if every tradesman put out work like that? So far, this is proving to be a very poor year for cinema - it's only films like This is England and The Lives of Others that are saving it from being a complete washout (300 was OK as well). Complete arse - not even Keith Richards could make a redeeming feature. Avoid like ebola. When will Hollywood stop making release dates and start making films again?When idiots like me stop going to watch them? Perhaps.

Farewell, you foul beast! The May bank holiday weekend spelt the end for the 'orrible 1980's brick fireplace that has been here since we moved in (and presumably for about twenty years before we moved in). Emma has talked about getting rid of it for some time, starting at 0900 in the morning we killed the fireplace at last. Emma did the hammering, whilst I took the remains of the brick-built beast to the tip in the Micra (no tipper was available so quite a few trips were required). Carpet also gone as well - good bloody riddance to that 'orrible old thing as well. Decorating coming along nicely.

After the massive disappointment that was the two big threequels I have been to see this month were, I decided I had to see something half decent that was not linked to either a previous film or a Burger King promotion campaign. I also wanted to see something that was long on police procedure and historical accuracy, very few special effects and certainly no computer game link in. Zodiac is about the Zodiac killer who terrorised California in the late 1960's and 1970's (though some people thought that he simply claimed responsibility for other peoples killings as well as his own). The Zodiac also sent cipher codes to the police to taunt them and even appeared (or it could well have not been him) on a phone in to a morning talk show. Such is the legend surrounding the Zodiac that he has appeared in film before - the Scorpio villain in Dirty Harry is quite clearly based on him. The film is about the people who dedicate their careers to the Zodiac - cops and journalists. This is great film, great cast (including Anthony Edwards of ER fame) and a very tight plot (I would not go to the toilet in case I missed anything!). The Zodiac was never caught (although most think a chap called Arthur Allen was the killer - despite there being no DNA or fingerprint evidence) and not all of the ciphers that he taunted the police with have ever been solved. Most agree that there are probably more victims than are credited to him. This is a great film - a proper bloke's cop movie. At last, a Hollywood film I like.

June 2007

There was so little happening in June, what with everything that was released in the cinema being complete twaddle, that I was happy when Bernard Manning came along, checked out, and gave me something to type about. I don't really want to speak ill of the dead but I didn't have a good word for him when he was alive. Let me just say that he redresses the balance of only famous people that I like dying (John Peel or Dave Allen for instance). No really, honestly, he was a great guy and a sad loss. Let's hope these things do come in threes and we can pick out another two famous people that I don't like to knock off - Noel Edmonds and Piers Morgan are my votes. In fact, Bernard caused a little controversy in death when the discussion board at The National Midday Sun (Rush-Nerd site) got so heated regarding his racist material that it had to be locked. And Rush fans are normally such nice people.

I had been looking for a means to play our iPods in the new improved living room (newly painted and carpeted after the destruction of the 'orrible fireplace). Emma had this one that was shaped like a cassette player but it basically had no balls and didn't look very good either. Went to Liverpool and found the above pictured Kensington. It is a little monster - the flat speaker in the front sounds good but the real secret to the massive sound is the pair of bass speakers in the back that reflect the sound off the rear wall as well. It also has the added bonus of recharging the pod whilst playing (something that my car transmitter has mysteriously stopped doing!). The price of this from Richer Sounds (top of Bold Street).... £29.95. Should have got two!

As a nice little footnote to the month, I did not go and see Fantastic Four 2 (the first was so bad that I would have needed sedating) or Shrek 3. Learnt my lesson at last? There was NOTHING worth seeing at the cinema - unless I fancied the spirit sapping trip into Manchester Oxford Road. Well - I didn't.

July 2007

After the entry about destroying the old 'orrible fireplace, It is now nice to be able to type about the completed living room refit. I have sat back and let Emma make all of the executive decisions about this. In fact, the only contribution you will see of mine is the Kensington iPod player in the right of the second photo above. Gone now is the old 'orrible carpet, fireplace and sofa. We now have the big old leather sofa (that looks like what Barry White would look like if he is ever reincarnated as a sofa) and some nice wooden furniture (from All That Jazz in Stockton Heath, Warrington).

Went mob handed with work mates to see the latest man-in-a-vest film, Die Hard 4.0 (or Die Hard, Live Free). Now I know that I have been slagging off the sequel culture as of late, but you see Kate at work is a big Die Hard fan so we all had to pile into the cinema to check this out (on the bigg-ass premium seats as well!). Now if you have been off the planet since 1987, you may not be aware of the Die Hard series. Basically, they revolve around NYPD Detective John McClean, who seems to spend most of the film getting his ass kicked, but still manages to plug all of the bad guys and save the day. Die Hard 1988: best of the lot, John gets his ass kicked but plugs some terrorists (actually robbers who pretend to be terrorists) who take over an incomplete tower block in LA (famously pulled from being shown on tv September 11th 2001). Die Harder (1990): very poor sequel set in an airport - John gets his ass kicked but still manages to plug some terrorists who shut down Dulles Airport in order to free an imprisoned Columbian drug lord. Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995): Great buddy film - John teams up with Samuel L Jackson, still gets his ass kicked but plugs the big brother of Hans Gruber (the head honcho from the first movie) who has some mates who want to empty a bank or something.

The forth instalment is about some government guy turned bad who decides to use computers to crash the country so he can download all of the financial information. Bruce teams up with a computer geek who unwittingly helped the bad guy do all of this - I am sure I won't be spoiling it to say that John gets his ass kicked but still plugs the bad guys. This one I must say that I liked - although it could have done with being a bit more believable - here I am especially thinking about the scene where a truck gets chased up a highway on-ramp by a jump jet! This ridiculous OTT script writing is known in the US as Jumping The Shark (I will let the earlier scene involving taking out a helicopter with a police car go as it was so funny). Not the best of the lot - but still good entertainment. A Bloke's film. Could be the last visit to the cinema for a while - nowt coming out that I fancy (well it is Summer, apart from the shite in the cinema, Big Brother, Wimbledon and no Match of the Day make it a fairly miserable time for me).

As is typical for me, I worked the passing of my 37th year. It is pretty cool now as I can say "I'm not old, I'm 37" as Eric Idle did in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Got loads of really cool prezzies: Emma bought me the book Remembered  - a very coffee table book about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a book by Ringo Starr about the postcards the other members of the Fab Four Sent him, and some other lovely goodies. Mark and Gee bought me Hot Fuzz on DVD and Emma's Mam & Dad bought me Brotherhood on DVD (top South Korean war film). My Mam and Dad bought me a bloody big picture for the new and improved living room. Sue and Adam got me a Borders Gift Card that I used to buy Letters from Iwo Jima on DVD (effectively the Japanese b-side of Flags of Our Fathers). Very nice time had by all - we ate curry at Emma's Mam & Dad's gaff to mark the day, closing with a Homer Simpson Cake (which can be seen above just prior to being hoovered).

It was round about this time that I dusted off Emma's old iPod Nano and started to use it instead of the iPod Mini. It's just a bit lighter in the pocket and does not come tumbling out of the transmitter in the car when you go over a pothole or a hedgehog. To my mind, the iPod is as significant as the invention of the wheel. In fact, Itunes has been a bit of a revelation for me - I have used it to discover music that I would not have normally gone near. Rather than buy a CD that you fancy, you can just dip your toe in and get yourself a track or two for 79p each. This has resulted in Pentangle and Fairport Convention turning up in my collection (part of the late 60's early 70's Folk boom). See, it's not just wall-to-wall Prog (but it mainly is - especially as a lot of people consider Pentagle to be progressive folk).

Went for a trip out to Manchester with Andy Hewitt. Andy, once a resident of Runcorn is now a resident of Old Trafford in Manchester. He is to be found on several pages within this site - mainly 1980's embarrassing ones (gallery set 1 refers). The last time he did appear on this site was way back in 2003 within this site- back then he was playing the guitar! Thankfully he has seen the light and is now back behind a drum kit (in fact I would have preferred it had he stayed with the guitar as he is an annoyingly good drummer). In fact he is back behind two drum kits - one Roland and one Pearl (the pic above is from the Manchester Piccadilly branch of Dawsons and is from behind a TD20 (this is not the Roland kit that Andy and I own!). Due to the camera coming along, Andy now has his own page within Gallery set 5 (the Guest Gallery).

My 'ickle Oirish nieces (Dervla & Orla) came over and Emma and I took them to Liverpool Museum - you see George likes the Dinosaurs (they have a few skeletons) so we took him along too. Rather liked the new rebuild of the Museum - this is mainly from the bit that was bombed during the war but brought back into use in recent years. This turned out to be one of the first decent days that we had seen for ages. Photos can be found in the holiday gallery.

It's nice to round off the month with more or less the same thing that I started it with. In addition to the 'orrible living room, the orrible kitchen has now been slain and replaced with one that we are not quite so ashamed of. The shots you can see above are the during and after shots. The fitters made the quite horrible discovery that the cabinets had no ceiling above them. Aagh! Disaster! Anyway, it was all solved by the hiring of a plasterer who went arse over head and fell through one of our brand new units! All was well in the end - as you can see from the second photo.

August 2007

Emma and I took our little nieces and nephew to see the Simpsons Movie in Runcorn. Now, if you have spent the last twenty years off the planet you will not be aware of one of the greatest things ever on television - namely the Simpsons. It seems hard to believe that this has been on our screens since.... 1987! It is also a bit hard to believe that there has never been a big screen version of it since that time either. Now I will spend as  little time as possible on explaining on the script - there is simply no point other than to say that it has tenuous links to an Inconvenient Truth (it brilliantly parodied the scissor lift scene). This is a brilliantly written film, referencing so many classic film scenes that I lost count very early on (it even finds time to reference the photographs taken of Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis!). Just like the series (that I have to try hard to find an episode of that I don't like), it is a work of perfection. Hope you all go and see it - and shame on Empire for giving it a bad review.

Emma and I went to see an old classic, Brief Encounter, at Ellesmere Port. Now I must concede that this film is my guilty secret and I have always been a big fan of it since I saw it for the first time a few years ago. If you have not seen it, it is the 1946 David Lean masterpiece about an affair between two happily married people who meet at a station. It is also worth noting that Noel Coward wrote the stage play back in the 1930's. It is for this reason that many have said that Brief Encounter is actually a metaphor for his own homosexuality at a time when it was illegal. This was actually filmed during the war - this explains the film being relocated to Carnforth (in Lancashire) despite the film being set in the south (you see, the south was getting hammered by flying bombs at the time). This has had the unexpected result of the station almost becoming a co-star in its own right. Why do I like this film so much? I suppose it is set in a world that is long gone  - station masters commanding respect, politeness and all of that good stuff. You could always catch this film on TCM but it was nice to see it up on the big screen.

Well, I had managed to go a few months without having to report the death of someone I liked but now Tony Wilson has gone and ruined it for me. Tony Wilson was the man behind Factory Records - the legendary Manchester label that once held the likes of Joy Division (later to become New Order), OMD and Happy Mondays. Many people credit him with being the man behind the Manchester Scene in the 1990's but, that aside, he has to be one of the few men in the business with any integrity (despite the fact that most people just thought that he was a Tw*t). Here's an example of his integrity - he never owned any of the bands in the traditional sense, they simply had the right to go whenever they wanted. Thus, OMD went to Virgin very early on in their careers (realising they might actually make some money there) and when everything imploded financially, Factory effectively had no assets, because they had no bands, no back catalogue and no money. The Hacienda Nightclub in Whitworth street (it's on your left as you pull into Oxford Road Station - now some very expensive flats) was the scene of his greatest downfall - losing the company a fortune as well as becoming a good place to see people get shot. If you want to check out the life of this great man (certainly not a Tw*t), you should check out the brilliant Steve Coogan film, 24 Hour Party People.

Just so you know what I am on about, I have put two links above for you to follow: the first is perhaps the funniest scene in 24 Hr Party People (arguably one of the greatest British films ever - FACT- no pun intended) where Tony Wilson (played brilliantly to the hilt by Steve Coogan) meets God, the second a legendary interview (albeit heavily edited) with Tony Wilson himself in Hulme, Manchester (scene of the legendary Russel Club).

Out in the Prospect (an old Weston Village Pub) on Friday night (24th) and who should I bump into but Steve Gough (Goffy!). Goffy is the legendary keyboardist and guitarist from the Scout Hut days back in the 1980's. It was really nice to see him again - sadly the Roland Jupiter 4 has stopped working. Goffy works in IT nowadays. To see more of Goffy, go back to the gallery set one (the first material I placed in the gallery, way back from when this site was simply going to be a collection of pics from those early days - I had a change of heart and put everything I could get my hands on). Above you can see Goffy in the YMCA centre with his Roland collection (a Jupiter 4 and an SH101) back in the early 1990's (when you have masculinity like Goffy's, you don't have to concern yourself about donning a pink sweater).

Well, it had to happen. I used my overtime to buy a digital camera. It is a Nikon D40 with an 18-55mm lense. Getting the photos developed and having to keep hold of spare films and such when I was out and about got on my nerves after using cameras for the best for of twenty years! I had vowed only to replace the Minolta when I could locate a camera of suitable quality without breaking the bank in half. The D40 has all of the features of my beloved Minolta but has them without having to prat about with film or finding somewhere that still develops film! Above are the first two photographs I have taken with the Nikon - me in the mirror and Tracey and Emma on their return from a particularly unsuccesful car boot sale at Sutton Fields.

It was round about this time that the visitor counter reached 7500. Thanks very much if you helped me reach this magic figure from Feb 2003 to Aug 2007.

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