Sunday 23 December 2007

The Hour is Nearly Upon Us

Sunday 23rd December: The presents are wrapped and, mostly, hidden.

The beer is in the fridge, keeping more than enough food company.

All that remains is to wish anybody reading this a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Cheers!

It's Behind You. Oh, No It Isn't...

Saturday 22nd December: The last Saturday before Christmas and time for the annual trip with friends to York's Theatre Royal pantomime.

Sadly, this year's turn-out was quite a bit down on previous years. One couple weren't able to make it and the husband of another friend was still posted in Basra. Numbers were slightly increased by Elizabeth's first presence (although not her first pantomime - that honour went to the Grand Opera House, which she attended with a school friend's family earlier in the week).

For anybody not au fait with the famous Theatre Royal panto, it's not quite like all (or most of)the others. There's no big names, usually very little plot and it's more for the adults than the kids (although there is a bit of slapstick every year).

What there is, however, is a small, dedicated group of people (friends??) who come together every Christmas to provide brilliant entertainment. They are led by Berwick Kaler - writer, co-director and the best Dame out there. He should be, he's been practising for over thirty years. His script leaves plenty of room for ad-libs (usually his own, in an attempt to both get the rest of the cast laughing and to take the mickey out of his nephew, who gets better every year.)

This year, said nephew played the titular Sinbad and there was, surprisingly, quite a complex plot. As usual the cast, especially regulars Martin Barrass and David Leonard, were excellent and, in a bizarre synchronicity with our contribution to the audience, were missing a couple of regulars and had added a newcomer in the form of lovely Scot Julie-Anna Castro (Donna Kebab). The jokes came thick and fast, as did Kaler's naughtiness. The slapstick had been toned down but the sets were fantastic and seem to get better every year.

I used to go to the panto every New Year's Day, with the rest of my family and friends of my parents, until we were deemed "too old" to go. A few years back, we started going with the aforementioned friends and I now look forward to taking Elizabeth for as long as possible.

Epiphanic Rock

Friday 21st December: My last day at work before the New Year and, due to a lack of team Christmas night out, I decided to spend the (late) evening listening to a band with the core of the FNFS (Friday Night Fibbers Squad).

With nothing to whet the appetite actually appearing to Fibbers, we decided to meet at the Roman Bath to see rock covers band Freeway. I'd not seen these before, but had heard good reports. They were excellent, playing a mixture of Whitesnake, Guns 'n' Roses, Free, UFO, Bad Company and a rather good Deep Purple medley. They were joined in the second set by Livvy Sparnenn (Breathing Space, her dad is Freeway's drummer) and she sang a ZZ Top song, which I didn't recognise, and Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll.

It was towards the end of the show that I had a bit of an epiphany. I was watching the old (well, past middle-aged) men dancing and hand-banging at the front, thinking how slightly ridiculous they looked, when I realised that it was about twenty-five years ago that I saw Whitesnake themselves performing Slide It In (my second ever concert) and that, age-wise, I'm not that far behind them.

Good job I'm still to self-conscious to dance like that, though...

Friday 14 December 2007

No bang, a whimper and two leaks

Monday 10th December: Well, my birthday came and went with less of a bang and more of a whimper than usual. For the first time in years, I didn't take the day off work - Debbie was at college and Elizabeth at school and sitting at home seemed a bit pointless. So, after opening the pressies (clothes, smellies, the new Babylon 5 DVD, Queen Rock Montreal on CD, a shower radio, a book of classic album covers and selections of beer and chocolate) and dropping Elizabeth off at said school, it was off to Twork. A high-profile project kept me there longer than I wanted to be, then it was back home to spend the evening with the women in my life.

Tuesday 11th December: Today is a day off. One of two this week. The main aim of this one is to see Elizabeth in her school Nativity play this afternoon. She's a dancing angel and has been practicing her song for a few weeks now.

Before that, though, it's time to try to stop some of the upstairs chipboard floors from squeaking so badly. Armed with a rather large screwdriver and a box of screws, I spent the morning trying to pin down where the squeaks are coming from and screw down the floor to eliminate them. Things go well for a while. Then I spot a corner of one sheet which moves alarmingly when pressure is aplied to it. There isn't a screw or nail within inches of it. Without pause, I move in to fasten the chipboard down. The screw goes in easily. After all, it's only going through chipboard...

...and the copper hot water pipe beneath it. Another (yes, I've done it before. Last time with a saw and a plastic heating pipe) dash downstairs to the kitchen to turn the water off is followed by much swearing at my own stupidity.

Luckily, there is a heating engineer/plumber working at a house at the back of us. Debbie sets off to (metaphorically) bat her eyelashes at him to see whether he will offer assistance. He does although, after a quick visit to check out the problem, he admits that he won't be back until later in the afternoon as it's his son's Nativity just after lunch (not the same one). So, a few hours later the leak is fixed and I have vowed to give up DIY. Or, at least, be more careful. The squeaking is really getting on my nerves.

And the Nativity? Very entertaining. A group of four and five-year-olds singing and dancing on stage very confidently. Elizabeth managed to forget about the cough she had had for a couple of days (or, at least, not let it affect her). The performance was enhanced when we spotted one of the teachers standing on a table at the back of the hall, prompting lines and dance steps. Until then we had been very impressed that all the kids new every step. At one point, I looked across at Debbie to find her in floods of tears.

I thought I was going to need the plumber again...

Friday 7 December 2007

So good, I saw it... twice??

Wednesday 5th December: Tonight, I saw Beowulf. For the second time.

It's not that often that I see a film twice at the cinema. It either has to be very, very good or it's part of a multi-bill (for example, when I went to see all six, at the time, Star Trek films in one day).

Beowulf is neither very, very good, nor part of a multi-bill. There are two reasons that I saw it twice. The first is that both Debbie and a friend that I haven't seen for some time wanted to see it and neither were available on the same day. The second is that when I saw it originally, after a hard day's Christmas shopping, followed by steak and eggs at the Flying Legends, I actually fell asleep. One minute we had just been introduced to our titular hero, the next (or so it seemed) Debbie had given me a quick nudge and Beowulf was already in Heorot, bragging to Hrothgar and his people about the time that he defeated nine sea monsters.

It turns out that I had missed a good ten minutes...

For anybody who doesn't know, Beowulf is based on the ancient Anglo-Saxon poem dated from around the 11th century. Real actors (Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie, etc) were filmed using motion capture. The finished film resembles a computer-generated cartoon but the characters, for the most part, look uncannily like the actors. There are problems with the process - eyes tend to look lifeless, for example - and some sequences look a little like bad animation but, on the whole it works well. Some cinemas are showing it in 3D, using a new method which does away with the cardboard specs prevalent in the 80s. It's supposed to be very good. Unfortunately, York has only got it in 2D.

There are a few questions which seem to turn up in most reviews - why use motion capture to film Ray Winstone and then turn his on screen look to be more like Sean Bean? Why use known actors with incorrect accents? (In the film, Hrothgar, a Danish King, is obviously Welsh and Beowulf, a Scandinavian, is Cockney - "I've come to kill your MONSTA!!"). Unknown actors with Scandinavian accents would have worked just as well, if not had the box-office draw.

Overall the film is entertaining. The final battle in which Beowulf takes on a dragon is spectacular. The opening sequences, in which the demon Grendel attacks Hrothgar's mead hall and Beowulf defeats Grendel, manage to make the demon both terrifying and pitiful. However, ultimately, it's a little unsatisfying. The middle section drags a little and there were, for me, too many unexplained, ambiguous details - for example, Beowulf is originally portrayed as a bragging liar rather than the hero he turns out to be. Hrothgar himself may be portrayed as part-demon after he falls to his death, but no reason is given. Maybe I just need explanations rather than having to think for myself. Overall, I would give it 6/10

Saturday 24 November 2007

Emotionless Fibbers, Emotional Swan

Friday 23rd November: Another trip to Fibbers was on the cards (Friday nights out are getting more and more regular, just like these postings.

First on was Ishtar - all the guys except me had seen them before and knew what to expect. For about thirty minutes, the four guitarists and one drummer played either one tune (there's no singing) or, possibly, three tunes which segued into each other perfectly. Apart from the drummer, there is little movement on stage and very little emotion shown. Very good, though.

Second was The Falling Spikes. Competent if uninspiring music but the vocals were fairly dull. The singer was constantly leaning down to reach the mike - either he didn't realise that the stand was adjustable or he was trying for some sort of reverse-Lemmy effect - and had an expression that was halfway between angst-ridden and about-to-burst-into-tears. Of the five songs, three sounded the same and only the last one revived quite a dull set.

Finally, an L.A. band called The Warlocks. I had listened to snippets of their music on myspace during the day and was looking forward to seeing them live. Their profile said they were an octet with two drum kits - how were they going to fit on Fibbers' stage?? From my vantage point, I could see the two drums kits but only five musicians, including the female bass player who, like Ishtar, appeared completely devoid of emotion. For some reason, the sound man had cranked the volume about to about 12, resulting in a bit of early feedback and some quite unnerving bass vibrations. Trouble is that we didn't know whether they were supposed to sound like that. After all, unless the sound man had gone home or was totally deaf, he didn't seem to think there was much wrong. Anyway, while the music sounded like it could have been good, the vocals were totally inaudible. I would like to hear more, though, so may seek out one of their CDs.

After that it was on to the Swan for what could be a duet of farewells. Tom, the landlord, was moving on and the full Hazzard County (except for Chris) were playing what, apparently, had been advertised as their last gig. To celebrate, it appeared that Tom had given the regular staff the night off and that everybody who had ever been a member of the Hazzards (except for Chris) got a stint in front of the mike or playing some sort of instrument. It got to the point where a scorecard was needed to work out who had played what with, at one point towards the end, Tom (the landlord, not the drummer) having a go at the drums. While it looked a bit chaotic at times, it was a cracking performance overall and, due to me getting a lift in, one I was able to see right to the end. There were emotional speeches from Tom and lots of applause when he announced that, if he managed to find another pub in town, he would continue to book live music. We were finally kicked out of the pub after 1 o'clock this morning.

If that was the Hazzard's last gig, it's a damned shame - the more I heard of them, the more I liked them. And, how many other bands have been together, even with changes of line-up, for something like thirteen years. Strangely enough, though, there was no farewell from them.

Sunday 18 November 2007

Music 0, Football 1

Friday 16th November: No trip out to see any bands tonight - the guys didn't fancy anything on at Fibbers, so were heading to the Roman Bath to see Freeway. They are a heavy metal covers band which, under normal circumstances, would be well within my tastes. The problem with the Bath is that the bands don't start until sometime after 9pm (usually), which means that my usual plan of catching the last bus home means quite a strange time-out-to-travelling ratio and could lead to me missing the end of the show. Given that I had been out for three Fridays in a row, I decided to give this one a miss.

Saturday 17th November: Leeds United v Swindon Town. A couple of pre-match pints were livened up when some of the local "yoof" saw that quite a few Swindon fans had found their way to our watering hole. Nobody inside seemed to mind, even when they started singing their team's virtues and predicting a 2:1 victory. However, being of little brain, those outside decided to throw multiple somethings at the windows, causing a surge to the bar (in case anything decided to come straight through) and a bit of a scare for the ladies sitting next to said windows. Fortunately, the police appeared in record time and no further trouble ensued.

On the pitch, Leeds managed a 2:1 victory - the Swindon fans getting the score right but result wrong. One nil up at half time, after Beckford's penalty and with Swindon looking poor (but their keeper looking good), we looked to be very capable of winning by a margin until the second half started and Matt Heath was passed down the wing as if he was standing still. Three Swindon players were queuing up in the box to equalise. The lead was restored just a few minutes later when Johnny Howson played a long pass out to Tresor Kandol, who knocked the ball down to Beckford to score his second. As good a goal as you will see in this league. Swindon did have the ball in the net a second time towards the end, but it was disallowed for off-side. Good job, really, as the ball was definitely put over the line by hand and the "scorer" would almost certainly have been sent off.

A card-happy referee spoiled the game a little, but Howson was a revelation. Not somebody I would normally class as a Dennis Wise player, he managed to run our midfield better than anybody else has this season - spraying balls out in all directions and riding tackles like a seasoned pro, belying his relative youth. Leeds ended the day in fourth place. My guess is we'll be top well before Christmas.

Saturday 10 November 2007

An Ill-Fitting Tribute?

Friday 9th November: My wife was having a Body Shop party at our house tonight so I had known for some time that I would have to vacate the premises. My choices? Go to the pub, on my own, to watch Leeds United play their first ever match in the first round of the F.A. Cup; Mostly Autumn, live at the Grand Opera House, again on my own; Whole Lotta Led at Fibbers, with friends.

In the past I had expressed disdain (bordering on contempt) for tribute bands. If they are that talented, why limit themselves to playing one group's songs. To me, it smacks slightly of laziness. However, because a) I didn't fancy standing on my own in pub watching what could have turned out to be one of LUFC's biggest embarrassments and b) wanted to avoid being in close contact with Mostly Autumn CDs (because they are all on my Christmas list...) I decided to head to Fibbers.

Sort of a bad choice, really. The vocalist was obviously having problems with the sound (apparently he couldn't hear himself. At times I though that was probably a blessing...) and, overall, I thought the performance was a bit nondescript. They certainly weren't as good as I had been led (no pun intended) to believe. Being completely honest, the two best bits of the whole show were when the musicians were probably being themselves. The instrumental section of No Quarter rocked and, while I have only heard two version of what is my third favourite Led Zeppelin song, it sounded nothing like either. After a rather bland version of Stairway to Heaven, the band kicked into Moby Dick, featuring an absolutely brilliant drum solo. Again, I don't think it was supposed to be a copy of any particular Bonham solo and I have no idea whether it was technically good. What it was, to this totally non-musical music fan, was truly impressive - I don't think I could move my arms continually for the length of time that this drummer did, let alone keep to the many rhythms he used. I like to watch drummers but, unfortunately, couldn't see much of this one from where I was standing.

At the end of the show we wandered round to the Swan to see Hazzard County. Before anybody points out that they are also a covers band, they cover lots of artists and are, therefore, not a tribute band. We arrived just in time for the first set to end and wondered for a few minutes where Chris was, before realising that he was probably playing keyboards round at the Grand Opera House. The second set proved that they were as good as ever and that they were almost totally ignoring the play-list on the floor. Thankfully, we had taken our usual position just in front of the band so, when Tom started his staccato drumming for Who Do You Love, I was able to watch him in full flow.

So, a night of two halves, really.

Oh, yeah - Leeds were held to a nil-nil draw away at Hereford.

Saturday 27 October 2007

Coming Up For Air

I'm not really getting the hang of posting frequently, am I?

Last weekend was a bit of a downer for sport, what with the Rugby final (which I watched half-heartedly) and the Grand Prix (which I have absolutely no interest in at all). Still, Leeds won on the back of another poor performance. Unfortunately, I was working so didn't get to hear the full match. What I did hear sounded pretty dire. At home to Millwall today, so will be trooping off there this afternoon.

The half-term break saw Debbie and Elizabeth spend a couple of nights with Debbie's parents, freeing my evenings up to catch up on a couple of recent film releases. The Dark is Rising is OK, but should have been so much better - I marked it 6/10 over on Yahoo. The Last Legion is a film which ties the last days of the Roman Empire into Arthurian Legend and tells the origin of Excalibur. I'm a sucker for Arthurian Legend, so probably enjoyed it more than I should. It was clumsy in places and very similar to King Arthur (the Clive Owen starrer from a few years back) in others. 7/10.

On Friday morning I went (with Debbie, Elizabeth, Elizabeth's friend Cathryn and her mum) to see Ratatouille - the latest Pixar offering. As usual it was up to their high standards, with laughs aplenty and the odd tear-in-the-eye moment. It's hard to see how animation can get any more detailed than this. 8/10.

Friday evening (with Elizabeth away again) Debbie and I went to the Post Office Social Club for the CD launch of Coming up for Air, by Breathing Space. It's a slightly more upmarket venue than Fibbers - we could drink hand-pulled beer in proper glasses and sit at tables while the band played. Unfortunately, we chose to sit near the bar - too close to those who had paid their £7 ticket money to try to talk over the band. Muppets! The band played two sets - songs from the first album during the first set, followed by the whole of the new CD. It all sounded very good, except for a couple of times when the sound went a bit dodgy. For most of the gig it was hard to hear what Olivia was singing - that might of been her lack of vocal power, bad mixing or simply that the brain wasn't filling in the missing lyrics because it hadn't heard them before. I picked up both CDs and a limited edition Amberstone one as well. I have high hopes for the Breathing Space pair, but Amberstone is an unknown quantity at the moment.

Finally, a confession... Breathing Space is the breakaway project by Iain Jennings, ex-keyboard player of Mostly Autumn (and Olivia is still their backing vocalist). I only came across Mostly Autumn a few weeks ago but, since then, The Gap Is Too Wide (from their second album) has become one of my favourite pieces of music. It is stunningly beautiful and full of emotion. It was written by Iain Jennings. Apparently, it is no surprise to people who have seen Breathing Space before that it is also their encore song, so I got to hear it live last night. Afterwards, I'm afraid I turned into a bit of a fanboy and gushed praise, for writing the song, at Mr. Jennings while getting him to sign the new CD. I blame the beer!

Sunday 14 October 2007

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

I'm not a huge rugby fan (either code) but have just watched England progress to the final of the union World Cup, beating France on their home turf. I find games like this mildly exciting and always think that understanding the rules would probably help my enjoyment immensely. However, it still looks like legalised mugging to me. I'll probably watch the final next weekend. That'll be three games I'll have watched in four years.

England also won at football, beating Estonia in a European qualifier. I didn't see this one as, being a season ticket holder, I was at Elland Road watching Leeds United. Ignoring the fifteen point deficit we were handed at the start of the season, this was effectively top of the table versus third place (Leyton Orient). It probably lived up to that billing, in a strange way. An early goalkeeping error gave Orient the lead from a free-kick that they should never have had and, not long after, our keeper again watched the ball sail over his head, this time to hit the bar. Orient's scorer was sent off in the first half for using an elbow, so Leeds spent most of the game trying to break down a team of ten men. Unfortunately, we only managed one goal (Seb Carole with a curling shot from a corner) before Orient contrived to miss an open goal and have an apparently good goal disallowed (couldn't see it from where we sit but everybody who could says it was a goal, except the linesman...) A missed penalty from Tresor Kandol added to an exciting, but frustrating match and once again Leeds ended a match with more points than they should have won, even if this time it was only a single point. We stay in 12th place, just six points behind top spot, but teams behind us now have a game in hand...

Last night, I met with a couple of mates to see The Travellin' Band at The Roman Bath. A four-piece with a combined age greater than most football teams. They dressed the stage with Confederate flags and performed covers of Bob Seger, the Van Zandt brothers and others. Good guitar playing and drumming but the vocals were, for the most part, not that good.

I'm reading two books at the moment - I'm two-thirds of the way through Terry Brooks' "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" trilogy. The first book was much the same as the previous trilogies but the second left me a little disappointed. Every since the first Shannara book, way back when, there have been hints that the world they are set in used to know technology. I know that the latest trilogy is explaining what happened to that but "Antrax", the book I've just finished had the first instance of the druid Walker and his companions meeting (and fighting) that technology in the form of an ancient A.I. To me, it just didn't work - swords and magic versus lasers and robots and none of the characters really seemed too phased by what to them would be the complete unknown.

Because I have the trilogy in hardback and wanted something to read while cycling at the gym today, I started Stephen Donaldson's "The Real Story", first in his "Gap" series. At about 200 pages, it's probably one of the shortest modern SF books, but the other four books in the series more than make up for it. I haven't got far into it, but it seems an easy enough read.

Friday 12 October 2007

A first time blogger

"Hello!" to anybody reading this. (There are people (or even a person) reading this, aren't there???)

As the title suggests, I'm new to blogging and this first entry is as much of a test as anything else. I hope to use this to share thoughts on my many interests (films, TV, books, comics and music basically covers them) but who knows how often that will be.

Why "The Druid's Thoughts"? Well, about fifteen years ago, back when I still had hair, I wore it very long and colleagues at work nicknamed me "druid". Even tho' the name is no longer valid and I never get called it now, it's always been my favourite nickname and I still use it when I can. Sadly, I've never spent a solstice at Stonehenge.