A thread related to the other two on films.

There are a few films that I found astoundingly good and affecting but I don’t think I could watch again. In my case the three that immediately spring to mind are; Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo’s truly harrowing and disturbing (to me as a late teenager) anti-war tale, Johnny Got His Gun, Eraserhead – watched at a late night showing a few years after its original release – on stuff I shouldn’t have done, given the content, and Ai No Corrida (In the realm of the Senses), again a late night show, not the sex but the ending…

Any films you couldn’t put yourself through again?

The England squad for the forthcoming test matches against Pakistan has been announced with Root as captain, recalls for the previously discarded Pope and Lawrence and an underwhelming bowling attack other than Archer… thoughts? To be fair both the returnees have had good seasons in the County Championship.

Ok dumb question, most of us will listen to favourite albums dozens or hundreds of times, but which album have you listened to the most? Not necessarily your favourite album

News filtering through that John Douglas of the Trashcan Sinatras has passed away after a short illness. Some may know him as Eddi Reader’s better half and I think he was a very occasional poster on this forum, keeping us up to date with TCS news. Particularly devastating as the Trashcans had just released their latest album after the usual long hiatus. RIP John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrNVdMCDAUM&list=RDLrNVdMCDAUM&start_radio=1

Very AW friendly line up announced for The Albert Hall, London in honour of Bob Harris.

Messrs. Plant, Daltrey, Wakeman and Weller are present and correct. As are Beth Nielsen Chapman and Judy Tzuke. Together with many of Bob’s later discoveries in Americana.

I wonder if Van could be persuaded to re-enact his Whistle Test interview….

Full gig line-up/ poster is hopefully in the comments.

Big Puss (Vincent Pastore) has died. Such a good actor in The Sopranos. ‘Not the eyes Tony, you give me that?’.

I don’t really have much to add on the subject of the death of Rod Liddle, aside from that that’s one less column in The Sunday Times I am closer to buying it again, but does anyone remember the beef between Hepworth, Ellen, Word Magazine and the alleged satirist and actual wife beater? Was there a healthy exchange of opinions?

As a companion piece to Tigger’s thread on books, it seems only sensible to consider those films that you have compulsively re-watched even though you know the ending and can probably quote the dialogue. Some might be comfort watching, some might reveal new insights on each re-watch, others might just be darned clever, elusive, beautifully photographed, directed or feature your favourite actors. The list could be endless, but I’ve restricted myself to just 10 films that I’d be quite happy to watch again tomorrow.

Casablanca – Bogie’s finest hour, and the noir’s noir. Brief Encounter – English stiff upper lips were never stiffer, but this is a beautiful film – with trains. Picnic At Hanging Rock – Unsettling and compulsively watchable Peter Weir drama – see also Walkabout The Night of the Hunter – camp southern gothic, Robert Mitchum’s finest hour. Fanny and Alexander – beautifully photographed Bergman masterpiece. Schindler’s List – One of the best films about the Holocaust. Ralph Fiennes is superb, See also The Zone of Interest. Sophie Scholl – compelling film about the German Resistance. Hidden (Cache) – Michael Haneke film with Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil. Mulholland Drive – David Lynch’s best film. The English » Continue Reading.

Fifty nine listeners! While some stations would fear the director general or shareholders wielding their axes on receipt of such audience figures, for my imaginary Spotify station, which started here, it’s a small triumph. Not only does it represent three new listeners getting on random old shite train this month, it is also almost certainly more than yours truly attained as a 12-year-old “jock” on Chorley Community Radio (actually a pirate, run from someone’s spare room); or on college radio (Airthrey, on the AM, broadcast through rotting cables as far afield as Murray hall); or Soul 24/7, with my sidekicks Gary Barrell and shoegazing’s Nat Cramp, left to our own devices to explore the “soul” sides of Deep Purple in a ridiculously well-appointed studio more used to pumping out George Benson and Anita Baker. There have been other even smaller ventures on Mixcloud (20 years, five listeners; that sort of numbers), but also a couple of stints on late-night and early-morning BBC London with Sean Rowley and Gideon Coe which must have been listened to by someone?! Heck, even my appearance on Billy from that station’s Nostalgia of the Future podcast must have easily had 59 listeners. I suppose what » Continue Reading.

I didn’t speak any English until I was around six. I was brought up in Welsh. Once, on holiday with my parents in Ifracombe as a five year old, I got lost and was rescued by an old chap who kindly led me back to my relieved parents. He apparently said something like “He’s a very talkative young chap, although to be honest I couldn’t understand a single word he said.” Of course, at five, I though the whole world spoke Welsh. Ah, English. TV and pop music taught me the basics. Then school and Philip Larkin did the rest. Now, thoroughly (and somewhat smugly) bi-lingual, I’ve become greedy and want a third. I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year. I get one-to-one zoom lessons every week with Sensei Masato and, my God, I never realized how difficult picking up a language could be. Maybe, as kids, we find it a lot easier because our brains are more of an empty page. Anyway, I’m finding Japanese fascinating as I’ve always been interested in the culture and so I wondered if any amongst our number here were similarly currently engaged in learning a foreign language and, if so, what prompted » Continue Reading.

Who? OK, most here will know the name, but ask around at the next family gathering, and most won’t. Phil Ochs, I refer to, the singer. Onetime peer of Bob Dylan, and, at the time, in much the same mould of civil rights champion, with songs of protest and righteous anger. Think battered acoustic guitars, hoarse polemic and Pete Seeger on next. But the songs are really good and, worryingly, apply equally well to the current climes of suspicion, wars and flag-shagging. I will admit I was unfamiliar with other than the name until recently, despite knowing, from somewhere forgotten long ago, a song or two of his. It is down to Phil Odgers, he of The Men They Could Not Hang, that I write this. He, in cahoots with John Kettle, of Merry Hell, and the Tansads before that, has just released a 2nd album, celebrating the songwriter, who took his own life in 1976, aged 35. The album, which concentrates on Ochs’ anti-war rhetoric, is wonderful; Odgers has never sung so strongly and with so much passion, and the accompaniment is never less than complementary, acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, that sort of thing. It is called ‘The War » Continue Reading.