Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Jon MW]

There was a bloke on TV last night waffling about arty bollox I have had to endure this man on Radio 5 every Friday afternoon as a film critic he talks in long never ending sentences without pausing for breath or intonation and he just prattles on for ever and ever with his head completely rammed up his arse talling bollox about films and he speaks just like I have written this post and he gets right on my tits because he is so bloody pretentious & he loves the sound of his voice and nobody must ever interrupt or disagree with him.....

Truly, that IS how he speaks.

And here's the thing. When I saw him on TV last night, he looked EXACTLY as I had imagined he would.

His name is Mark Kermode, & I'm pretty sure that Lord James Hartigan will be in his Fan Club.  Film bores stick together, see?

The chap's name is Mark Kermode. Commode more like, the shite he comes out with.

I often wonder whether I'd make a good critic. You have to be able (these days at least - you could probably have got away without it a few years back) to have an opinion on everything. It has to be the best or worst in at least one department or respect hat you've ever seen.

If it is a film or an album, it has to be better or worse than their last film, better than their best, worse than their worst or (if all else fails), "a middle of the road, safe effort".

You are rarely challenged when you give your opinion, because:
1) You're only there to give an opinion
2) You're the immoderate guy on a moderate show, so that's your job
3) More than one loony on a show gets a bit cluttered
4) Everyone expects you to behave like that
5) It's only TV/radio dahhhhhhrling...

You can be remarkably personal about people's appearances and may do so without even the faintest hint of irony.

I think I'd struggle to keep up the pace of finding new reasons to love or hate everything.

That covers what most critics do - to be a good critic you should have in depth knowledge of the whole industry and it's history so that you can frame a proper context for whatever you're reviewing. For film in particular you should have technical knowledge of film making so that you can accurately assess the quality of how well made the film is as well as how good the film itself is.

Obviously nearly all critics don't cover any where near this level of expertise and can be safely ignored.

[Tal]

Fairly put, Jon.

[Eso Kral]

PS - OK, I actually quite like him.

I must stop with the busting of balls for fun.

Some twerp complained today that I need to stop dissing Eso Kral. I happen to be a huge Eso Kral fan, & we do a lot of stuff, off-Forum, together, & I happen to like & trust him completely.

I guess twerps gonna twerp.

What a lovely compliment!

Thank you and obviously for the Twerp's info I love the banter.

Oh I did tell Dubai there was no need to message you though 

[titaniumbean]

We got there - Ellen Reid, of Crash Test Dummies.

The lead singer, Brad Roberts, had a very odd voice. He had a bad car accident, which means he can no longer play guitar, but I believe they Toured as recently as 2011.

I still cant upload You Tube Videos properly, but see Miss Reid in all her pomp & prime here......the track, "God shuffled his feet" has extraordinary lyrics, imo.

Sigh at links of pictures referenced to me not working so I cant see my own bants from 15 pages back!

Cant help but say I laughed at the bolded above quite alot. now time to catch up rest of this and other threads. where's dat sleeze

[bobAlike]

PS - OK, I actually quite like him.

I must stop with the busting of balls for fun.

Some twerp complained today that I need to stop dissing Eso Kral. I happen to be a huge Eso Kral fan, & we do a lot of stuff, off-Forum, together, & I happen to like & trust him completely.

I guess twerps gonna twerp.

Sounds like next years sex scandal is bubbling away nicely

[Jac]

You've lost 2 stone. Yeah, whatever.
What's really impressive is that you got down to 1 latte a day!
I'm totally addicted to them now.
Still, at least I don't have any other vices. Well apart from the drinking, gambling and smoking.

After you supermarket check out rant, I was wondering what your thoughts were on this?
All the big coffee shops seem to have moved away from the "have a nice day" stuff to now say " So, are you having a nice day?"

Firstly , I want to say to them as you pointed out before, that the "so" really isn't required. Secondly, I feel like replying "could you care less?" to the monotone, incredibly bored looking person stood in front of me.
As it is, I tend to just say "yes thankyou"

[pokerfan]

I do a nice line in hugs.

Blokes £5 each. Ladies £4.50.

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[Machka]

6am start tomorrow, to drive up to the Midlands & sort some personal stuff out.

Regards has loaned me a replacement 3-Series whilst mine is Serviced & MOT'd. Proper nice it is, too. He tries to flog me a new one about 3 times a year, but I just blank him. So he got well cute this time.

"Look, borrow this one whilst we sort your one out, OK?"

That was last Thursday, & I've had the new one, a 62 plate with 3,000 on the clock ever since. It's bloody lovely.

So today he rings me. "Your motor is ready. Did you like the loan car?"

Yeah yeah John, loved it.

"Well I could do you a right good deal, bla bla bla......"

He's too clever by half, that Regards.

Sytner Leicester tomorrow it is, then, but I plan to resist his overtures. I'm way too old to be buying a new motor.

Best/worst thing about using the loan car since last Thursday is that I can't/don't smoke in it. Pretty pricey way to quit smoking though.

I've been thinking of changing my car lately and have been looking at BMW 320d's.

One thing I do like to dither over is changing car, I'll probably still be thinking about it in 6 months time.

Changing from my current petrol 32 MPG car to a 52 MPG diesel BMW will save me about £1500 a year alone!

It'll pay for itself as the saying goes.

[Supernova]

Was given THE perfect gift yesterday, am chuffed to bits.

Jealous much?

A hugely enjoyable book.

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Favourite shipping area?

Personally I have a fondness for North & South Utsire 

Hebrides for me, purely because of the stunning natural beauty of Fingal's cave on the Isle of Staffa. Formed by Hexagonal columns of basalt in a similar way to the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim. We have such amazing places of outstanding natural beauty in our Isles.

[tikay]

Have you seen the new Diary by "tomsom87"?

Well worth a read, he writes beautifully descriptive stuff, & seems a remarkable young man with his feet very much on the floor.

It is here.....


http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=61034.0

Anyway, he reminded me of a place I used to visit, & I thought I'd post some photos, it is all a bit hardcore & off-beat for his Diary really, whereas it is expected here.  


I had a contract in Middleton Mine, Derbyshire which was actually dug into a mountain, or big hill. It was THE most incredible place, you'd never believe it until you went inside. "Tonka trucks" could pass each other in the internal roads, they were so wide, & there were 27 miles of road inside there.

The temperature inside is constant at (I forget), & there is no plant or animal life in there whatsoever, so it was prohibited to take food inside the place. These days it is rented out to people like British Aerospace who store, incredibly, aircraft parts inside it.

I had a permanent pass, so could access it with a vehicle 24/7 (as long as the vehicle had an exhaust scrubber) & I used to take a young lady friend of mine in there on Sunday evenings. And you may think that was a pretty boring thing for a young lady, but the place was completely deserted, & had ice cool crystal clear lagoons.  We were not there for sightseeing purposes. There is something incredibly exciting about being completely alone in a huge place like that with a young lady.  

Anyways, just look at these amazing photos of the mine. Who'd have thought such a place existed in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, of all places?

The last photo gives an idea of the scale of the place.

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[AndrewT]

Conversation at work on the Monday morning.

Young lady's friend: 'What was your date like last night?'

Young lady: 'A massive bore'

[Tal]

Man leads young lady to deserted cave.

[tikay]

That Razavi runs well - he just got engaged.

Congrats Sam.

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[kinboshi]

Tikay, you might like this book:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Fittest-Anatomy-Physical-Performance/dp/0224075071

Dr Mike Stroud, friend of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, is the author.  Talks about all sorts of things that the human body is capable of, and talks in some detail about age not being synonymous with 'feeling old'.  A good read.

I don't "feel old". But I am.

And there is no doubt that age-related things do affect me now. May as well face the facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_Quaas



She's on her late 80s!!

[AndrewT]

Here's something for you - colour footage of London in 1927.

Apart from the transport, it looks very familiar.

http://www.bankholidaycomes.com/2013/05/london-in-1927-in-colour/