Heard tons of stuff - I've been away a lot so I've had the iPod working hard. The new Fleshtones album Brooklyn Sound Solution is a disappointment - definitely meh, baby. Too many nondescript instrumentals, not enough Peter Zaremba. I've really enjoyed Chain & The Gang's Music's Not For Everyone, and the new Grails - Deep Politics. Both bought on lovely thick vinyl from the excellent Monorail Records in Glasgow.

I also bought a great CD of Etta James b-sides and out-takes Who's Blue? - her leftovers are better than many singers' main body of work. And a 5 CD set from Fopp - 100% Blaxploitation great funk and soul. A steal at £5.

Read I had skimmed the second part of Rob Young's Electric Eden on previous reading, this time I read it thoroughly with a suitably folky accompaniment. If you have any interest in folk music, this is a must-read. I also enjoyed Roy Hudd's autobiography A Fart In A Colander. Light, but amusing.

Seen Well, not really any films or TV. But I did manage to get to the Tate in London to see the Watercolours exhibition which was very good - particularly Thomas Girtin's The White House At Chelsea

AOB I thoroughly enjoyed getting along to the London Mingle on the 25th. A lovely friendly entertaining bunch of people, spreading joy & bonhomie, sharing cake & pies and music & friendship. I must say again that all the chubby-checkers are looking quite a bit more slender than when I last saw them - well done everyone!

I'm hoping to meet up again with some of you when the Primevals head south and on to France.

Heard: Loads of stuff. Thanks to El Hombre for introducing me to The Grails with Black Tar Prophecies. Loved it so much got their new one Deep Politics. Equally as good and I am surprised they are not more well known.
Latest Lucinda album is a bit of a sloweburn but the tracvk Buttercup is a deceptively excellent song. Deceptive because it initially appears to be one of her throwaway songs but it really has some great lines.
As a result of SXSW I was introduced to Hays Carll and his album KMAG YOYO is first class.There is a call and response song on there callerd Another like you, very much in the vein of John Prines In spite of ourselves but ballsier by far. Excellent stuff.
Also thanks to Dog Faced Boy I got to finally hear the bootleg cd of Richard Thompson and David Byrnes joint tour from the 90's. Their duet of Who were you thinking ofg?/96 Tears is an absolute gem and includes some Spanish guitar flourishes from RT that are breathtaking even by his high standards.

Seen: Moe bans than I can remember at SXSW which was an absolute belter.
Of course with so many bands in a short period of time there are inevitable classhes and some disappointments. Unfortunately I couldnt get to see North Mississippi Allstars seemingly because there was an enormous vip guestlist. That was a bummer but seeing the likes of Jesse Malin, Jim Jones Revue and an acoustic Edwyn Collins band was great and it is an experience I will repeat again.

Read: I am halfway through ....an on piano Nicky Hopkins a biography of him by Julian Dawson. Dawson is a singer songwriter himself and Hopkins played on one of his albums. He only knew him a short while before Hopkins passed away prematurely. He must have left some impression as the book was 12 years in the making. Dawson read excerpts from it and recounted some tales at Waterloo records whilst I was in SXSW. I was impressed and got a signed copy of the book and chatted for a few minutes with the author. When I got home I searched his name on Wikipedia and found that he had played with one of my favourite bands Plainsong although not on the Amelia Earhardt album. Had I have known I would have asked about his work with Iain Matthews. Put it down to a missed opportunity.

Heard

I must confess that I haven't been listening to all that much music recently, but I find myself drawn inexorably to Chess Pieces: The Very Best of Chess Records. I love those songs so much. Woman of the Ghetto by Marlena Shaw is my current favourite.

Read

I have, however, been reading a lot. Greatly enjoyed The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams, a scholarly yet highly-readable investigation into the origins and meanings of Upper Palaeolithic cave imagery. And I also loved Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s, Alwyn W. Turner's excellent appraisal of the politics and culture of that pivotal decade. I'm currently about halfway through London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew, which is just fabulous. His detailing of the lives of The Smoke's costermongers, rat-killers, bone-grubbers and mud-larks is simultaneously deeply moving, richly informative and comic. I was astonished to learn of the strange tale of the race of wild hogs that, according to certain shore-workers, lived in the sewers beneath the streets of Hampstead.

Seen

Watched a couple of series I hadn't seen for a while on You Tube - I found myself snorting with mirth at Nathan Barley, despite loathing nearly every character in the series. Less successful, but great in places, was Catterick, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's surreal situation comedy.

I also got round to seeing Andrew Marr's The History of Modern Britain and The Making of Modern Britain. Overall I thought they were really good, but with certain reservations. The fact that Marr himself was on camera a hell of a lot of the time started to really grate on me, as did his dressing up in all manner of costumes. This is typical of contemporary television's obsession with foregrounding the presenter, something that is quite unnecessary when the subject matter is as riveting as that.

Read -

Philip Kerr - March Violets

Crime thriller where the protagonist is a PI. Set in Berlin before the 2nd World War. I got half way through it and had to start again as I was getting confused with the characters names. It's fine but I found it hard going....there are another 2 stories by the same author in the book. I will read them but I'm in no rush.

Ben Kane - The Road To Rome

Another novel set around the time of Julius Caesar. Sex, betrayal, murder, gladiators, slaves, conquer, gore.......you get the picture. An easy bedtime read.

Seen -

The Sopranos - I've finally got right through it all! It's a great series, though I must be counted in the folks who didn't like the ending.

Heard -

New stuff - Lucinda Williams, Ron Sexsmith, Justin Townes Earle and Teddy Thompson. I'm enjoying their most recent offerings and I have to say I'm enjoying Lucinda's the least...which I find surprising.

Old stuff - Dave Brubeck, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan....all timeless!

Whilst working in the garden a lot the other week, I put my mp3 player on *tracks* which plays the tracks in alphabetical order. I liked what it threw up much more than when it's set to *shuffle*. Also, if you have different versions of the same song or cover versions, then they're played right after one another....I had these phones on for about 5 hours a day. They do become annoying but I wouldn't be without them.

I forgot...I finally got Neil Young's latest one. It's in the car changer so I've only heard it twice...don't like it much so far.

AOB -

My son is involved with various bands at his and other local schools. Because of the bad winter, the Christmas concerts have now become Spring concerts. These, along with school competitions, means that I've been at concerts twice a week for the last 3 weeks. I never ever thought I could be interested in brass quartets, piano solos, bagpipes or Baroque music etc, but how wrong I was! I now have the programme of music played over the last 2 nights and I'm investigating it all further. I'm actually amazed to discover that there are so many talented young people around...they were all fantastic! Teachers, in general, have a tough time of it but they must feel it's all worth it when it comes to events like these...I suppose it's the reason they do it. Hat doffed!

edit....since it's not quite the 1st Friday of the month. I just listened to a couple of the DID archives. If I was ever shipwrecked and had to live on a desert island, I hope I'd land on Andy Kershaw's rather than Colin Montgomerie's...and at first I thought you'd all think the same....but maybe not?

Heard

- Josh T Pearson's new album, Last Of The Country Gentlemen is great. He's been eleven years in the wilderness since Lift To Experience split up, he played a brilliant gig at Stereo in Glasgow, and this album is a must for anyone who likes odd, harrowing, singer songwriter, country, visionary stuff.

- The Reunion - Radio 4. The latest episode had Sue MacGregor reuniting guys who hung out at the 2i's Coffee Bar at the dawn of British Rock and Roll. Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, Terry Dene, Bruce Welch from The Shadows and Clem Cattini from The Tornados are all guests. It's on The iPlayer. Go on, you know you want to! Plus I helped make it. (sorry Fraser, plugs are dodgy but this is Word friendly stuff).

Read

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. I read this in my teens and picked it up again because I found a really cool old edition going for 50p in a charity shop. It's rare that a book I loved as a teen stands up to a grown up re-reading but this does. Mad Men fans, strangely enough, would probably love it.

Field Gray - Philip Kerr
Latest Bernie Gunther book. A fascinating one in that it deals with Bernie's war time experiences, which have been hinted at but not explored in the last few. It's really good, but the structure is bloody confusing and I got the feeling that Kerr was straining to emulate John Le Carre and not quite getting there. One for Gunther addicts though.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again- David Foster Wallace
Collection of essays. Some are mind bogglingly brilliant (like the title essay) others are just mind boggling (the ones about literary criticism). But reading these is like hanging out with a genius friend who you are struggling to keep up with, but who you think is worth the effort, even when he leaves you in the dust.

Seen
James Yorkson at St Giles, Soho
I am a huge fan of Mr Yorkson, and this was brilliant. Oddly enough, Phil Selway was the support. He was ok. Lisa Knapp, the other support, was ace.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer series 6
I am just not getting to the cinema or seeing films at the moment. Third time round watching Buffy from the start.

No new music since the last time I wrote. Just loaded up the phone with this month's choices, so I suppose I'll be writing about them in May.

Seen nothing of note. Read Stewart Lee's "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate", which is fabulous, and has kicked me into watching "90s Comedian", "41st Best Stand-Up Ever!" and "Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle" again. Although, obviously, I only pretend to like him.

so, quickly…

Read -

Just about to finish 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell for the second time and wouldn't you know it's even better this time around. I'm going to be reading his latest whilst on holiday next week, yippee!

Heard -

Nothing comes close to 'Soundway Records Presents Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound of Colombia 1962-72' http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Soundway-Records-Presents-Ca...

Everything else I've heard since this just sounds a little flat by comparison. Wonderful, wonderful album.

Seen -

The best thing on telly at the minute is 'The Big C' starring the amazing Laura Linney. Honourable mentions to second series runs of 'Nurse Jackie' & 'Modern Family' which are both fabulous.

AOB -

Only that Adam & Joe start a new 12 week run on 6Music this Saturday. Well, you don't want to miss it!

Heard:

'17 Miracles - The Best of Rainer Ptacek'. Thanks to the generosity of Steve Turner who burnt me a copy. (I'm keeping him waiting for some JJ Cale. iTunes has only let me burn one). Deep blue tortured guitar playing alongside plaintive lyrics. 'Losing Ground' is the highlight for me and it says it all.

'Before The Frost...' The Black Crowes. I've developed a sudden interest in this lot. I've seen them live 3 times but didn't really consider myself a devotee until I came across a Youtube clip of them covering 'Sweet Nuthing' Suddenly they hit the spot. The clip came from their Cabin Fever dvd - which is a film of their recording this album. Old fashioned? Derivative? You betcha. It's excellent.

Read:

'Black Swan Green' by David Mitchell. Read immediatley after the gargantuan Cloud Atlas it's an entirely different animal. An episode with no defined beginning or end. 13 months in the life of a stuttering 13 year old in 1982. He wins, he loses, he experiences. Drawn in by the illustrations of stammering and the mental games played to bypass the triggers. All genuine (I know, I stammer) given that Mitchell himself has the affliction. An interesting piece but not vital.

'Parrot and Olivier in America' by Peter Carey. My first Carey. Dickensian, almost, in period, scope and style. Olivier, a French aristocrat, is despatched to America to examine the prison service in that new enlightened nation during the period of restoration after Napoleon. Parrot is his servant, a thwarted English artist. Deeply resentful of each other their huge misfortunes and equally huge good luck bring a type of acceptance to their lives. Evocative. 'Illywhacker' is meant to be the one however.

Seen:

'Jeff Beck's Rock and Roll Party' Don't be fooled by the naffest of naff cover, it's a gem. Jeff Beck and a selection of musicians play tribute to the late Les Paul on what would have been his 95th birthday. Beck emulates his style and sound as effortlessly as you might imagine but it's guest vocalist Imelda May that picks the show up, puts it up her jumper and steals it. What a singer! Phrasing, delivery, pezzazz, range. She's mesmerisingly good.

AOB: We soldier on. Mrs B gave me the Lorraine Pascale 'Baking Made Simple' cookbook for my birthday, amongst other things. It will kill me. The Victoria Sandwich recipe calls for 300ml of whipped cream and icing sugar as a filling. I've made 2 already. Don't tell Drakeygirl (though I did 'fess up to the effects on the Chubby Checker thread). Thats the thing though - I bake cakes but because I'm losing weight I have to give them away. At first our immediate neighbours seemed pleased. Now they just seem to be out all the time, or I hear things like, 'Christ, it's that fat twat from next door with another fucking cake. Tell him your diabetic. Anything...'

Heard: not too much new - the Peter, Bjorn and Paul album (under whelmed) and Lykki Li (which I reckon is very good. On old stuff I've bene listening to lots of Kraftwerk and the Eno and Schwalm album, which I had missed orginally but really like.

Seen: finished series 3 of Mad Men, just in time for the next series coming out. On TV I've really enjoyed Friday Night Dinner and Twenty Twelve. The latter has had lots of plaudits, but the former deserves them at least as much.

Read: Duel in the Sun - the tale of the greates ever Boston marathon race. My running obsession continues. A great race after which neither runner was ever the same again. Also, Another Green World from the 33 1/3 series - okay but nothing great. Started the Millemium trillogy on the back of many recommendations; but my lack of interest in fiction continues and so I gave up after 100 or so pages

Heard
Old: I've been working this week in Prague. On Monday my host proudly announced that we were being based in the former headquarters of Radio Free Europe, and thanks to that I've the REM song in my head all week. Today I gave in and listened to Murmur for the first time in years.
...and new (to me): Erland and the Carnivals new one, Roxy Music - Stranded and Cave Singers - No Witch (on my current favourite record label: Jagjaguwar - it just needs to be said out loud).

Read
Nothing this month, too much work on to settle to anything.

Seen
Quite a bit of the old town of Prague, but today on my day off I went out of town to Sedlec Ossuary:

... a chapel in Kutna Hora, about an hour outside of Prague. The grounds were sprinkled with earth from Golgotha which made it a desirable place to be buried. After the black death thousands of burials had been made but construction of a new chapel meant they were exhumed and stacked. A woodcarver was employed to arrange the stacks and used them to decorate the chapel interior. I've wanted to visit this place since seeing Jan Svankmayer's short film "Kostnice/The Ossuary" (I've not put a link here but its on youtube). The chapel is thankfully much more peaceful than the film which is really unsettling, even by Svankmayer's standards.

... and hello again to everybody I spoke to on Friday. As ever, great company and great cake.

heard this month I have mostly listening to the Hard Candy elpee by Counting Crows - a underestimated album by, what I think are, a underestimated group. Also played A very Cellular song by the mighty ISB many times. SO appropriate for spring.

Read I think you may get a flavour of The sacred book of the werewolf by Victor Pelevin if I tell you the main character is an immortal female werefox passing herself off as a prostitute in Wild East Moscow who can make her tricks descend into hallucinations using her bushy tail. Its not as good as some of his earlier books, but it still mines a vein of bizarre humour and political satire that is reminiscent of The Master and Margarita.
Also read Desmond Leslie, Biography of a Irish eccentric. Leslie is probably best remembered for his actions in this clip:

The writing is a little mundane, but his life really is astounding. (I would imagine) he was the only ex-Ampleforth schoolboy with a satanist godfather, who was also a former WW2 Spitfire pilot, novelist, UFO-propagandist, and country squire to the sixties gentry. Oh and not to forget he was also a pioneer of electronic music (an album of his is available on Trunk Records), whose first wife - Agnes Bernelle - ended up singing with Mark Almond.
Seen This month it's all been about The Killing really. Bit disappointed about the ending to begin with, but the more I thought about it, the more satisfying I thought it was. Oh, also saw another subtitled crime tale.The jail-set French film A Prophet is up there with Goodfellas. Yes, it is that good.

Seen
I watched a depraved slice of hardcore Scandinavian snuff called, er... How To Train Your Dragon last week. Yes, it was fluffy and predictable, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable way of spending an hour and a half.

Read
I'm having one of my not-reading-many-books-at-the-moment phases, but devouring magazines and websites as much as ever. So, The Word, When Saturday Comes, The New Yorker, Top Of The Pops magazine (purely for research purposes) and the peerless Popjustice.

Heard
I'm enjoying the new one from Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx, and I've rediscovered the first album by The Concretes. A young lady of my acquaintance from my teenage years had the album and used to play it all the time, and it's only upon hearing it again I've remembered what a fantastic record it is. If you don't like Seems Fine, then I don't like you.

New purchases from Ben Folds (Songs For Silverman), Edwyn Collins (Home Again) and the latest Elbow record will probably keep me ticking over for a while, as will the Deutsche Elektronische Musik compilation I bought on Tuesday. I'm also very excited about the new Katy B album.

AOB
I love you. You're my best mate, you are.

SEEN: "AWAY WE GO" - touching, funny and romantic little movie with great performances by Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski. One of the highlights of the year for me as it tells the story of a couple ( the wife is pregnant ) searching for a place to put down roots.

"THE ROAD", I found it hard to imagine anyone capturing the bleakness of the novel, but John Hillcoat does a pretty good job. Viggo Mortenson is fantastic, as usual. Music by Nick Cave, adding to the bleakness.

Banksy´s fascinating doc "EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP" which was intriguing and hilarious all at once.

Knee-deep in the brilliant " THE BIG BANG THEORY" and season three of " SONS OF ANARCHY"

READ: Not much, as I have been plowing through the driver´s code , as I attempt to pass my driving test theory exam. Oh, and I am reading it in Spanish

HEARD: been listening to some Bert Jansch and have discoverd the works of the Holmes Brothers, gospel and RnB all rolled into one. Been enjoying The Decemberist´s latest opus and have reacquainted myself with REM and their new album ( manfully defended by Vorgongod on the blog ) is a cracker.

AOB: Finally finished painting the upstairs rooms and set up the baby´s room , and now all I need is for the little monster to make his appearace.

Seen

The Box

"Silly flawed movie, but enjoyable hokum
This film has a very bad reputation. The general opinion seems to be that the first half hour, about should they or shouldn't they press the button, is good. Unfortunately the rest of it quickly descends into incoherent nonsense after that. Unlike most people I've never cared for the director's first film, Donnie Darko, and I couldn't finish his terrible second film, Southland Tales. So my expectations were very, very low. Which might have worked in my favour.

It was a bit slow, a little plodding to begin with but I eventually found myself strangely gripped by it. I was expecting to quit after they press the button but I was really engaged and enjoying the film so I continued with it.

It's fair to say that what follows is more than a bit silly, although it was tempered from being laughable by having an eeriness to the atmosphere. The tone, and to a slightly lesser extent the subject matter, reminded me of 70s paranoid conspiracy thrillers and of the more cerebral horror films of the early 80s (David Cronenberg films, not slasher films).

Visually it's a very good looking film. I saw large hints of Shinning era Stanley Kubrick (the sets and the use of space, how the camera moves through those spaces, is very similar to The Shinning). I also saw more than a hint of Brian De Palma's visual style circa Blow Out, but without half the flashiness. The library sequence is like a melding of Kubrick and De Palma.

The film is set in the 70s for two apparent reasons. One; to explicitly link the film to those paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the era. Two; so we can all recoil in horror at some of the wallpaper and furnishings in the lead characters house. I also saw some resemblances in their house to the home in The Exorcist, most specifically the hallway and stairs at the front door.

The film does get a bit silly as it progresses. The choosing between three identical gates and the final set of choices given to the lead characters are particularly contrived and childish feeling. It could also be said that the film flirts with redundant pointlessness by the end. I'm not surprised if some people come away from the film wondering what the actual point of it was? I didn't mind it as I was enjoying myself anyway, and was happy to roll with whatever happened as long as it wasn't outright bad.

***SPOILER IN NEXT PARAGRAPH***

I assume the ending is deliberately open ended as I didn't think it was completely clear if they made the right choice or not? That another couple pressed the button, and it coincided exactly with one of the lead characters actions makes me think that they didn't choose from their own free-will. If the couple pressed the button but the lead character didn't act, who would have died instead; someone else or no one? To me the ending is a little garbled as I see nobility and cowardliness in both choices.

It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it doesn't come apart after the half hour point, as long as you're willing to accept a little sci-fi creepiness. The final half hour gets pretty silly, but I think it manages to keep it together well enough to not undo all that has gone before.

Overall a decent film that fans of the various sub-genres and directors I've mentioned above should get a lot out of. It is flawed, and many viewers are just simply not going to be able to stomach the plot all the way to the end, but if you're in the right frame of mind it can work a treat.

The film it most reminds me of is Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (the stand alone film that has no connection to the Michael Myers slasher films that make up the rest of the series)."

Operation: Endgame

"Solid action film with a comic book vibe
This turned out to be an enjoyable straight to rental style low budget action film. It has a strong comic book vibe to it to such an extent that I was mildly surprised that a source graphic novel wasn't credited at the end.

It's a silly little action movie with two teams of rival assassins trapped in an underground office complex that's been rigged to explode sooner rather than later. Each character has been named after a tarot card, although oddly no one is called Death. What ensues is a short 79 minute competently put together series of action scenes. Nothing particularly inventive or memorable happens but it was always entertaining and enjoyable. Which is something that I can very rarely say for B-movies; films that are almost always better in theory than in reality.

The script is basically just a string of action sequences without much plot to drive it on and make sense of it, to give it purpose. Some viewers might consider it all to be a bit pointless and random. As it was well paced, well enough made and had a cheerful sense of humour to it I enjoyed it.

The cast is pretty impressive for this sort of thing. Rob Corddry (the bald jerk from Hot Tub Time Machine) impressed the most. He stole the first half hour with his unpleasant demeanour and his very funny ranting at a security camera. Ving Rhames also got some funny lines as he tries to put his codename into everything he says. Ellen Barkin, probably the most famous name in the cast, was very good and over the top. Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) wasn't given much to work with so I feel he was slightly wasted. Zach Galifianakis (the bearded guy from The Hangover) did very little, and what he did do wasn't very good, so he's the most disappointing thing about the film.

I quite liked the movie. I'm not saying it was good, but it was comfortably a notch or three above most other straight to rental films. I watched it all, enjoyed myself and I didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time. If you think you're inclined to like this film then I would recommend it."

The Happening

"A kid movie version of a disaster film
This film is much maligned to such an extent that it is potentially in the running for the biggest turkey of the decade. It was laughed at, mocked, ridiculed etc for being a misconceived dud of notable proportions.

So when it turned up on TV I had to see it for myself, along with someone else so we could laugh at it together. Sadly the film did not live up to expectations. It's poor but it wasn't laughable (although I can easily imagine the mob mentality of a full cinema turning vocally against the film). Even the most famous moment of stupidity, when Mark Wahlberg talks to a pot plant, was reasonable and fine. I thought the moment worked and the realisation that it was made of rubber was mildly amusing.

The first half hour was okay, just a bit stiff and stilted. It was oddly undramatic and rather low key, as though the stakes weren't all that high. There's a curious lack of hysterics among the endangered crowds. Everyone, with a few mild exceptions, seems to stay calm and polite. This gives the film a strange tone that doesn't feel right to me.

It remained okay until they leave the roads and start walking through the fields. It then started to become silly. If this was a low budget straight to rental B-movie then it probably wouldn't come across that badly. As it's a well financed A-picture, with some famous actors, it looked a bit stupid to see groups of people terrified and running away from some wind in the trees.

It's silly but watchable enough (the lawn-mower death scene is the single most silly part of the film) until they come to a house with an isolated old woman. From here it just becomes pointless and drab. The film wastes some time and then climaxes with a deeply undramatic ending that is almost stunning in its banality. Overall a feeling of pointlessness hangs over the film due to this anti-climax.

A large problem with the film is M Night Shyamalan's direction. He clearly meticulously storyboards his set piece sequences and gives very specific directions to the actors. This gives the film a stiff, stilted and dated feeling. The camera work is often flat and uninspired, and the editing rather slow and ponderous for a modern film. The actors all give strange performances without an ounce of naturalism. The film feels dated to the 1950s. Remove the modern technology like mobile phones, give the colours that garish Technicolor sheen and it could pass as a film from that era (also the violence and language is so restrained that it feels like it had to pass through censors from the 50s).

The film it most reminds me of is The Birds from 1963, complete with a similarly disappointing non-ending. In some peoples opinion comparing this to The Birds is high praise. I don't think it is. It's also worth noting that Alfred Hitchcock, a director who's style and technique was shaped in the 40s and 50s, might have been one of the greats, but his films are dated and very much of their time (compare Family Plot from 1976 to even a film five years before it like The French Connection).

Overall it was a poor film with a dated visual style and theatrically mannered acting throughout. Although not the mega-turkey I was expecting, and in my opinion it's not laugh out loud bad, it was pretty silly. Instead it was just a run of the mill bad film. It's perhaps best thought of as a disaster movie for preteen kids."

Harold and Maude

"Boring cult movie that doesn't do much with what it's got
This is a cult film of some renown. I first saw it over seven years ago. I didn't care for it then as I struggled to finish it.

It was named as the favourite film of the Cameron Diaz character in There's Something About Mary which I recently watched. So out of curiosity I thought I'd give the film another go.

I shouldn't have bothered. I was right the first time. A very unengaging light weight semi-story, weakly underdeveloped characters and a pointless conclusion. A great film it is not.

The majority of the movie is made up of uneventful languors. Thankfully it is broken up from time to time with a few amusing moments, most involving mock suicides by the male lead. Those bits are genuinely funny, but they're not enough as they're merely short blips in a long plateau of nothing.

Even when something does happen, like the motorcycle cop sequence, it's filmed in such a downbeat, flat style that you've got to actively try to squeeze pleasure out of it for yourself as the makers aren't going to help.

Okay, so it has very little to no plot. It's a characters piece. Sadly it's a character piece without well realised characters. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't pick up many signs in the writing or acting of interesting, independent people interacting together on screen. The sum total of all the characters can be covered in a few simple broad-stroke descriptions. These are not complex characters full of enigmatic depths and surprises. They are standard types who have each been given a quirk that defines them, and that is the only interesting thing about them.

I thought the film's conclusion was badly handled as it left me less than satisfied. I struggled through all that for this? It felt botched, lacking any pathos, any impact. Just a total non-ending. A pointless film topped off with an even more pointless ending.

I did not enjoy the film at all. It was a struggle to complete it and it definitely wasn't worth the effort. I can imagine the film could be delightful if you can get on its wavelength, but it's clearly not for me. Some funny blips in a sea of underwritten banality is not enough. Not merely a bad film, but a very bad film."

The Informant!

"Interesting idea poorly realised
The idea of a comedy about a compulsive liar working as a corporate whistleblower for the FBI sounds very promising to me. The reviews have been poor, and I wasn't expecting miracles, but I think I was better placed than most to enjoy it.

The critics were right. It really simply doesn't work.

It's not a cinematic story. Why they thought this had to be made I can't imagine as it's a film of people sitting or standing in rooms talking about an obscure subject. I'm not sure if the audience is meant to understand what is being discussed and what is happening, but I was constantly in the dark. If you had asked me an hour into the film if the price fixing was real or something made up by the whistleblower, I would have cautiously said it was made up. I would have been wrong. A title card at the end said that people went to jail for price fixing. Is the film meant to be this confusing? I'm not sure but I doubt it.

If you're the kind of person who gets easily lost in films then you won't have a chance with this one. I dread to imagine what it would be like to watch it with someone who keeps asking questions in the mistaken belief that you're following it better than them.

The story, the subject itself, is so vague and watery (as in you can't grasp it) that it renders all the potential drama inert. Dramatically the film is dead.

I did laugh or chuckle a few times even though there really isn't that much humour in the film. To call it a comedy is stretching things by quite a bit. I understand why it's called a comedy but the dramatic content, what little there is of it, feels more dominant than the feeble laughs. The film's idea of comedy is giving Scott Bakula a silly hair cut and skin tone. Not the very definition of quality comedy.

Oddly I didn't find the film to be boring. It floated by harmlessly so I can't say it's hard to sit through.

It's a nice, if rather bland, looking movie. They maybe over used the white lights burning into the film stock effect. There is a strong 70s vibe to the film but it's set in the early 90s so I'm not sure why? Perhaps they're imitating similar movies from that era that I'm unaware of.

Director Steven Soderbergh has a few excellent films (Oceans 11 and Out Of Sight) and a lot of dull duds to his name. This definitely falls into the duds category. Having said that, it's not his worst film by some distance (Oceans 12 or Solaris?).

It's a rather drab, uncinematic story told in a drab, uncinematic way. The makers didn't aim for big drama or big laughs and have ended up with a mediocre movie. No one needs to see this film and I expect it to be a footnote in the careers of everyone involved. The best the film has to offer is some minor, confusing drama and a few mild, tepid laughs. It's better than nothing but it's not exactly something to get your heart racing."

12 Monkeys

"Nearly perfect, dramatically bold time travel story
They say it's easier to write a sad song than it is write a happy one. The same goes for reviews. A flawed, or terrible film gives you plenty to moan about. A movie were everything about it ranges from good to sublime leaves you with very little to say. And so it is with 12 Monkeys were the only complaints I can dredge up are tiny little niggles.

I'm not saying the film is perfect, but it's very close to it. The story is properly compelling, it's well told, well paced, well acted etc. It's also visually one of the most interesting looking films I've ever seen. There is often a surreal quality to the images with extensive use of Dutch angles (camera slanted to put most things in the frame on a diagonal slope). I wouldn't call it a pretty film, just that it's visually inventive and constantly attention grabbing in a pleasing way.

I think the director himself once said that the acting of Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt has a tendency to split audiences. Most people think one gives a great performance and the other one a weak, overly mannered one. I've previously thought Brad Pitt's acting was a bit fake and unconvincing. Over time I've grown to think he's good, not outstanding or anything, but appropriate for a mentally unstable person.

The child actor during the airport scene is a minor weak link as he seems to be over-emoting like crazy with his eyes. He's not bad or annoying, he's just not note perfect.

Logically the film is not one hundred percent watertight, though I doubt many, if any, time travel films ever are. There might be some holes, but the film is too good to be affected by them. Why don't they go further back in time and correct there own mistakes (the airport scene at the end throws up a few questions along this line)? A question like this is kind of pointless as it's simply more dramatic and poignant the way it is.

This is one of my all time favourite movies. The script and direction are as good as any film I've ever seen. Bruce Willis gives his best performance and basically everything else about the film is either good or borderline perfect."

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Heard

Daydreams and Nightmares by Those Dancing Days

"Competent, slightly bland album from a previously very distinctive band
They appear to have become good, or at least competent, musicians since their debut album in 2008. Sadly this seems to have come at the expense of their identity. They created such distinctive music (borderline unique) on In Our Space Hero Suits, so it's rather disappointing for them to deliver a competent but rather bland 38 minute second album.

The better musicianship I assume has sanded down a lot of the interesting rough edges and two of their most distinctive features have changed - no more cheap organ and the lead singer's girlie voice has changed, although that's probably a natural thing that she has no control over.

1. Reaching Forward (5 out of 10 stars)
Synths instead of the cheesy Hammond organ - shame as it was such a large part of their sound and identity. Competent modern pop but a bit bland and faceless. This could be by anyone. Also the lead singer's voice has matured, which again robs them of much of their unique identity. The lyrics, aimed at a vague mid-distance, reminds me of U2 without the pomp.

2. I'll Be Yours (6 out of 10 stars)
Nothing great and it's again rather faceless. It does have a very nice one finger plinky keyboard part in it from time to time.

3. Dream About Me (6 out of 10 stars)
Another competent pop song of no great distinction.

4. Help Me Close My Eyes (6 out of 10 stars)
Slightly more sparse sounding song. Decent.

5. Can't Find Entrance (8 out of 10 stars)
Rocks out a bit and the simple repeated lyrics are effective. The song works very well. For me it's the highlight of the album.

6. F*ckarias (7 out of 10 stars)
Good track. Sonically it's quite crowded with a lots of loud instruments fighting for space.

7. Forest Of Love (4 out of 10 stars)
A weak song. The pace has slackened, there's not much melody and the lyrics aren't up to much.

8. When We Fade Away (4 out of 10 stars)
Very similar to the previous track and just as indifferent, even if it is slightly better.

9. Keep Me In Your Pocket (7 out of 10 stars)
Quite a strong song - at least it feels substantial and holds my attention better than some of the previous songs.

10. I Know Where You Live (Part 2) (7 out of 10 stars)
Nice use of gang vocals, which adds a hint of AC/DC to this rockier track.

11. One Day Forever (6 out of 10 stars)
Surprising duet with a man (Orlando Weeks). The plinky keyboard sound from track two (I'll Be Yours) makes a welcome return. This track stands out more for sounding different because of the male vocal than it does for being a well written song. It's okay, just nothing astounding and it seems too short to make any big impact. I can't escape the feeling the song would have benefitted from a singer who could impart a sense of humourless, severely judgmental authority like Johnny Cash or Nick Cave.

I like to make EP playlists out of some albums on my iPod. Tracks 5, 6, 9 and 10 made the cut.

I don't expect these songs to particularly jump out at me when they come up on shuffle, but they will certainly be very enjoyable when they do turn up.

It's a decent, fairly good album. It only has a few weak spots, but also unfortunately only a few high points.

In my opinion it's not a patch on their debut, which remains one of my all time favourite albums. It's no disgrace, but then again it's no massive triumph. I assume it will be commercially much sturdier (ie. less quirky) with signs of staying power so I'm sure it will do what they want it to do for their career.

On a side note I have to say that the album cover isn't very good. They should have used the drummer's hand drawn artwork (which is all over the booklet) as again it was a distinctive part of their identity. It's almost like they're trying to wipe their own fingerprints off the album.

6 out of 10 stars overall for it as an ALBUM of songs to listen to in a particular order. 8 out of 10 stars for it as a set of songs to come up randomly on shuffle.

If you like this, and especial their ramshackle debut, then I also highly recommend a French group called The Plastiscines who are also struggling with basic competence, and are all the better for it.

NOTE 16/3/11: I played their two albums together on shuffle. I'm talking nonsense about the singer's voice changing, as she sounds exactly the same on both albums."

Living With The Ancients by Blood Ceremony

"Excellent Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull psychedelic groove metal
I was very pleasantly surprised by how good this album was. It's turned out to be oddly addictive as well as I've been playing it a lot more than is usual. I'm not even that big a fan of Black Sabbath.

It's very derivative of Black Sabbath, there's no doubt about that. Although they don't do anything original with the basic Sabbath sound, apart from maybe adding some bucolic Jethro Tull style flute, they have lucked into a substantial amount of mysterious and inexplicable X factor. Somehow it just gels together and is more than the sum of its parts.

The lyrics are so-so but it doesn't matter. The groove, the forward propulsion is what matters with this band. She has a nice singing voice that slots in with the music in an unobtrusive way. I've been told that Ozzy technically sang like a girl, so female vocals on this type of music might work better than you may think. As I don't pay too much attention to the words, and I'm usually a lyrics first type of person, I find this album works as great ambient music.

There are no slow tracks, but there are dynamics within the songs so it's not just one paced throughout.

The 51 minute album is a bit samey sounding but the songs are strong. It might be unoriginal and locked in an early 70s time capsule, but in this case that's not a bad thing.

1. The Great God Pan 7:30 (9 out of 10 stars)
A great, very satisfying track to open the album. Perfectly formed heavy blues, prog-tinged metal music.

2. Coven Tree 4:47 (7 out of 10 stars)
Lots of flute on this track which brings to mind Jethro Tull. The song is also a bit more verbose.

3. The Hermit 2:34 (9 out of 10 stars)
The flute is the lead instrument taking the place where a screaming guitar is usually found. Very melodic instrumental.

4. My Demon Brother 4:48 (8 out of 10 stars)
More melodic than is usually expected for a metal song. The lyrics don't really go anywhere but it doesn't matter, they're there to just add some satanic atmosphere, not to tell an engaging story.

5. Morning Of The Magicians 6:58 (5 out of 10 stars)
Has a disjointed feel to it like it hasn't been fully completed. Sounds to me like a jam that isn't as good as everyone thinks it is. It's as if it hasn't been refined into something more streamlined and palatable. They failed to organise it into something melodic that has a groove. It's grooveless. It's not bad, but it's average at best. It does have a nice acoustic sounding coda which feels tacked on to extend the track for its own sake.

6. Oliver Haddo 8:12 (7 out of 10 stars)
The vocals seem a bit more pronounced but she doesn't really have anything to say. Which again I'm not bothered about. Good song but there's nothing really notable about it.

7. Night Of Augury 6:05 (7 out of 10 stars)
The churchy organ is the lead instrument. It even gets a solo that turns into a long instrumental passage for the whole band to slowly join in one at a time. The lyrics are the usual indifferent but competently decent stuff.

8. The Witches Dance 0:40 (5 out of 10 stars)
Harmless instrumental interlude. Too short to be either good or bad.

9. Daughter Of The Sun 10:10 (8 out of 10 stars)
Very effective extended track. The lyrics aren't up to much but they're among her more memorable ones. The guitar sounds very David Gilmour like at the 9 minute mark.

I like to make EP playlists out of some albums on my iPod. Tracks 1, 4 and 9 made the cut.

The album is not just for people looking for retro soundalike rock music. In my opinion the album transcends its obvious influences.

Overall 9 out of 10 for the album."

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Read

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

"Great book about surviving the worst conditions imaginable
I wasn't personally completely convinced by the look of the book. It looked a bit, not boring but not one hundred percent interesting. I was wavering on starting it but a strong recommendation made me give it a shot.

It starts with banal memories of being a tearaway borderline delinquent. Perhaps we're supposed to be amused by his antics? I just thought he was annoying. This section is just about ten pages long so it's mercifully brief.

He then takes up running which takes him to the 1936 Berlin Olympics after breaking various records. This section feels fairly long (roughly pages 13 to 47), but in comparison with the rest of the book it's actually pretty short. It isn't very interesting, but it's not boring so it's an easy to digest piece of stodge.

He joins the army, undergoes training and is then made a bombardier on a plane in 1943. He doesn't see much action according to the book. Only one bombing run (of Wake Island) and in turn one bombing of his own army base are recounted. It's good stuff but I've read better on this type of men in war subject (the Vietnam memoir Chickenhawk by Robert Mason springs to mind). This section lasts roughly between pages 51 to 114.

He is then involved in a plane crash. This is when the book starts to grip tightly. For many pages (125 to 175) his struggle, along with two other survivors, on two little rubber dinghies in the Pacific Ocean over many, many days is told in great detail.

This section alone is reason enough to read the book. They fight starvation, dehydration, the sun, sharks and madness among other things. If you have any interest in castaway survival stories then this will rivet your attention. The only negative I can say is that I find the very quick dismissal of cannibalism hard to believe.

Eventually they are picked up by the Japanese and put into the prison system. What follows (roughly pages 179 to 329) is a catalogue of cruelty and brutality. This makes for very, very interesting reading.

I did have one minor qualm with this section. For a whole slew of pages we are told of the extreme dehumanisation and restricted freedoms the prisoners endured. This would often then be followed with a rather jolly sounding paragraph of some japes they got up to. It just seemed to me that the author might have overstated the sometimes hard to believe levels of cruelty they suffered. I'm not saying these things didn't happen (it's not like I'm sitting on a stash of historical documents that proves otherwise). I'm simply wondering if the catalogue of cruelty has been compressed together to seem unending and relentless when it may have been more intermittent with periods of calm. For such beaten and dehumanised people I find it odd they could maintain diaries.

The war ends and the remainder of the book (roughly pages 333 to 398) concerns his post-war life, and the fates of the various people he had met. Which is sort of quasi-interesting, but also really just a footnote in comparison. It's not boring to read, it's just not exactly fascinating when recounted at length. I would have preferred a quick bullet points only round up of what happened to everyone who survived.

The bulk of the book, pages 51 to 329, are great and I fully recommend the book for those pages alone. The remaining pages on either side are alright, but if you're doubtful about how much interest you have in them, I would suggest skipping them as you won't be missing anything vital.

It's a big book with small text. I estimate it took me eleven hours to read. It's not the best military history book I've ever read as very little of it concerns actual fighting. Having said that, I doubt I'll read a better book about surviving extreme conditions or about the experiences of POWs.

The writing style is very crisp and well paced. She had many sources, both written and alive to talk to her, from which to draw upon, including the main subject himself. The story is covered comprehensively and as exhaustively as can ever be expected. It's an authorised biography but it doesn't seem to have impacted upon her ability to tell the story correctly, as I rarely got a sense that she was not allowed to write about something (the lack of cannibalism on the raft perhaps?)."

Heard

Still very much in catch-up mode. The latest Peej is still on heavy rotation and I have just bought White Chalk which passed me by at the time. I bought King Crimson's Red on a whim in January, overturning the anti-prog tendencies of (cough) several years, but it was mislaid and still in cellophane until a few weeks ago, and then, lo and behold, The Unthanks cover "Starless". Is the revival upon us ? Anyway. Red's best things are terrific, though some of it is still on the wet side for me. The Anna Calvi has had a positive first spin. Plus the ever-frisky Ace Records have released Before The Fall, a collection of originals covered by Mark E. Smith and co.. Any CD which has Leadbelly, Henry Cow and Sister Sledge is frankly irresistible. Lovely package too. Not getting on with the James Blake debut, which seems like dubstep on a trust fund.

And Who's Next.

Also, since I picked Spain out of the hat for the next CD compo for the Manchester Mingle I have been looking out for all things Iberian on the shelves (meaning I am cheating by including a couple from Portugal). In the past I have overlooked the often austere sounds from yer actual Spain in favour of those of their flashier cousins in the Americas, but I have enjoyed messing about with what I had, and beyond, and the prototype platters have dominated my jalopy listening in the last few weeks. I may post details of this soon, as I may not be able to produce even my usual sloppy cover this time round.

Seen In

Telly has rotten lately which discourages me from even turning it on, with more messing about on the PC with you lot. A lot of football, I suppose : Champions League and there have been an awful lot of Old Firm games. There has been some catching up on the backlog of accumulated DVDs on the cold winter nights. Chabrol's La Ceremonie, which I commend to you, and The Secret Relationship, the third of Michael Sheen's Tony Blair depictions, which I don't. I came late to The Killing, so backed off and will be pestering my local library for the box set next week.

Seen Out

Nothing much except...The Primevals !. This was in a spot at the Punk All-Dayer at the 13th Note in Glasgow. I didn't recognise El Hombre Malo at first, be-hatted as he was , like his compadres. Now they may not (or may !!!) have been the youngest beat combo on the bill but the crew at the Note clearly thought they make an impressive racket, and that includes your correspondent. Highly commended to y'all ( and that is not just me sucking up to Tom !).

Otherwise work madness got in the way of The Unthanks at Manchester Cathedral, so I will see them in Liverpool next Thursday instead.

Reading

On the back of World Book Night I was passed a copy of Agent Zigzag by Ben McIntyre. Looking good so far.

Seen
March was the busiest month for ages for gigs and all were the first time I had seen any of these artists. Saw The Decemberists rock the beautiful De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill followed a week later by The Unthanks at the same venue. I really didn’t know what to expect but Rachel and Becky not only sang like angels but also had an entertaining line in self-deprecating between-song chat. The clog dancing was an unexpected treat. Sarah Millican at the Assembly Rooms in Tunbridge Wells was very funny and filthy. We’d heard a few of the gags on various TV appearances but not so many as to spoil the show. Last was our first trip to the O2 to see Elbow who were perfect. Our experience at the Union Square restaurant beforehand however was dismal.

On DVD, just started Season 1 of Justified, which I bought on the strength of the DVD review in The Word and I’m really enjoying. On TV Season 5 of 30 Rock has started, which never disappoints. Favourite Alec Baldwin line so far: “Shoulders back Lemon, we’re not welcoming visitors to castle Dracula”

Read
Very little recently – I have a pile of books by the side of the bed that I haven’t touched for months, although I did finally get to read Bad Vibes by Luke Haines which is every bit as good as everyone says.

Heard
The new albums by The Decemberists and Elbow have been on heavy rotation in the car. A trip to a second hand shop in Bexhill landed back catalogue gems from Goldfrapp; Muse and the late Gary Moore for £3 each. Podcasts are my other main source of audio nourishment and The Word / Guardian Football Weekly / Mayo and Kermode continue to be the ones that make the commute to London bearable.

Seen Like you all, The Killing. However, I am only on Episode 10, and have no idea when I'll catch up. I've still not been spoiled by the ending, as I have warned any of my friends who tell me the end will be hunted down. It's a sparse, slow-burn, wonderful thing. But then you all knew that. Still delighted with Nurse Jackie, which packs more in 28 minutes of TV than some whole series could dream of. The Big C hasn't quite fulfilled the early episodes promise, but is decent enough.

Animal Kingdom: Not an easy watch, but bloody hell. You should.

Benda Bilili: The film of the group. It's moving and gripping. Even if you don't like the music much. If you do like the music (like me), then fill your boots.

Les Diaboliques: Clouzet's 1955 Hitchcockian thriller, made at a time when the French film community were making the case that 1930's/1940's Hollywood made great films not just commercial churners. It is genuinely scary in places, and an evening cinema crowd always enhances the watching experience for me (funny films are funnier in a crowd, scary films are scarier etc). Worth going to the flicks for.

Saw The Decemberists live. There's been enough discussion on here, so won't go on, but suffice to say I'm more a fan now I've seen them live. Definitely.

Heard Thanks to El Hombre Malo's 2010 The Year In Review, I finally bought the Mavis Staples LP. I'd resisted thinking that I had plenty of 'old'. But it's really good. Thanks, Mr Malo - I owe you! No other new purchases, but played the Decemberists LP a lot (see above), and still trying the James Blake. Sometimes I'm really keen on it and other times it seems cold, aloof and unengaging. I truly can't decide on it, which I suppose makes it interesting at least. Been listening to the Disco Discharge LPs I didn't listen to much when I first bought them. Pink Pounders and Disco Divas particularly. Marvellous stuff: made for dancing around the house to.

Read Oh God. I am NEVER going to read a book again, am I? I've read websites, blogs, Word, Vogue, Harper's and Private Eye. I MUST read books again, but just haven't.

Going to see them in Birmingham in May - I heard they are playing the film before the gig so will look forward to that. El Toro played me their album the other week and it sounds great so should be a good night.