Welcome to the future! 2026 is, amongst other things, the year where Thunderbirds was set, so – please gather round in this recreated Tracy Island, help yourself to a refreshment, and tell us all – what have you been listening to, watching, reading, etc etc ?
All best wishes to everyone for the New Year!
A new Years resolution is to contribute to this particular post more than I did in 2025 after consistently posting since its inception. In fact @el-hombre-malo may recall we went to see The Jerry Dammers big band Sun Ra tribute after he had posted his very first one. Glad that it has endured so strongly.
SEEN: Part of December was spent in New Orleans and Bradenton, FL – I was lucky enough to see some great street bands in NOLA and also finally visit Preservation Hall at the third time of asking.
Also saw two epic Theatre performances in Bradenton/Sarasota – Come from Away is the story of commercial jets being diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 and how the local population welcomed them with open arms. I had wanted to see this for a while and it was a real treat and very heartwarming.
The other was All is Calm which recalled the Christmas truce of 1914.My friends in Florida asked if we would be interested seeing it – they had tickets for a later performance after we were due to leave but were prepared to change their tickets. I explained to them that my paternal grandfather fought at Ypres and that it would deeply resonate with me. I also told them the story that when I was about 16-18 I used to visit my nan and grandad and much to my nans chagrin my grandad would regale me with stories of his time in the army and at the front. He preserved his memory in a memoir that is highly cherished by my family. In it he described the horror of the trenches that were swarming with rats, lice and cockroaches. He said the trenches were more scary than the German artillery. Both the war and the trench horror were recalled in the play and my friends were amazed that this totally corroborated what I had told them. Excellent production.
READ:
Stephen King – The life of Chuck – really only a Novella but intriguing and quite entertaining.
Henry Hemming – Four shots in the night ,the story of Stakeknife a purported British undercover agent in Northern Ireland during the height of the troubles. Wasn’t aware of this story until it recently appeared in the news. Only just started reading it but it is going be a page turner – reads very much like a novel.
HEARD:
Treated myself to a couple of boxsets in December The Fabulous Thunderbirds The Jimmie Vaughan years, The Peter Hammill The Charisma and Virgin Recordings and also Soft Cell The art of falling apart box. An eclectic selection I guess but I love them all – will keep me busy for January that’s for sure.
I loved Mike Campbell’s autobiography Heartbreaker. In a rare moment when he was pissed off with Tom Petty he mentions secretly recording a solo album with a band he called Blue Stingrays called Surf n burn. Very hard to get in the Uk, I asked my mate in Florida to get for me and I would pickup from him when I was there. Glad I did as I absolutely love it. A tribute to Hank Marvin and Surf music in equal measure. All instrumental and all originals except a cover of Goldfinger.Happy to locate this.
Other purchases were mainly whilst I was in New Orleans -Tuba Skinny, The Dirty Dozen Band with Dizzy Gillespie and the last Lukas Nelson album American Romance.
Oh and Silberland III the latest Krautrock sampler in the Silberland series – this one is more ambient than its predecessors but very enjoyable nonetheless.
There’s an excellent series about Stakeknife on BBC Sounds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p0k39k84
Hola amigo! Yes – I remember that well, a great gig.
I love that Blue Stingrays album. Like you I discovered it whilst listening to the audiobook of Mike’s excellent autobiography. I’ve since bought a real book of it as I want to re-read it.
Thanks Steve, wasn’t aware of that will check it out.
Your grandad sounds like he was a great guy Mr T
I have that Henry H. book on my Kindle so I’ll make a start on it this weekend
That seems to go hand in glove with the book @fentonsteve
December was a whirlwind of activity, especially as I only worked half of the month before going on a three week vacation (this is the last week of it). But most of it was family stuff and a lot of cleaning and shopping and cooking for Christmas, so this shouldn’t take long to write (famous last words…)
Read:
Hardly anything, too busy with other stuff. I did read most of a biography of a Swedish king (Gustav III), but I got stuck at a dull period of war, and haven’t picked it up for a couple of weeks…
I wish the author had spent more time on other parts of his reign and less on the misguided and unsuccessful war stuff, but hearing it discussed on the radio, it seems that this view isn’t widely shared.
And of course, no Christmas is complete unless I read A Christmas Carol aloud in a few sittings, starting on Christmas Eve. I was very proud of myself this year, for not crying quite as much as I usually do. I almost felt professional for a minute…although as I only read it to myself, it really doesn’t matter much!
Seen:
A lot, but I remember very little of most of it. I did enjooy watching the Taylor Swift Eras Tour docu-series a lot, and a little less so a docu-series about a Swedish singer, now in her old age, throughout her life and career.
I tried to watch the film Mrs Harris goes to Paris but had to stop half-way through or so, worst bloody shite I’ve seen in ages!
Re-watched a few classic films, and a handful of more or less awful Christmas films.
Heard:
December is mostly a month for listening to all of the albums already bought during the year’s previous months, but I always try to find myself a new Christmas album.
Preferably either an unlikely artist singing the classic Christmas hits, or artists writing their own songs for the holiday, with varying success.
This year it was the latter; Old Crow Medicine Show’s OCMS Xmas. It’s more a miss than a hit, unfortunately. The “jolly” tracks are quite bad, some of the more sentimental country ballad-type tracks are OK, and my favourite (in comparison) track is about Krampus…a couple of unnecessary covers doesn’t add much to the mix. I much preferred the Billy Idol Christmas album that I bought a year or two ago. Oh well, makes a change from Mariah Carey and Wham at least!
AOB:
I took my sister to the gingerbread house exhibition at the Architecture and Design Museum – they have an annual competition that is open for anyone to enter and then they are displayed for all to enjoy. But anyone who has made a gingerbread house knows what happens after a couple of weeks…the sugar glue gets warm and pieces start to move or fall off, and things falling off hits other parts of the house and make them collapse. So what we saw were in part gorgeous sturdy houses (probably glued with super glue or similar), in part house ruins. I actually think it made the exhibition better – at least a lot funnier.
My mum spent Christmas Eve at my place as always. We have a very quiet day together these days; neither of us can enjoy much alcohol anymore, for health reasons, so there’s no booze in the Glögg and no Snaps with our dinner (and only 0% beer). Mum’s intestines can’t handle most of the Christmas food anymore, so we just eat gravlax, boiled potatoes and mustard- and dill sauce with the gravlax. We don’t give many gifts either – she can’t go gift shopping so has given all of my siblings 500 SeK and would have given me the same amount, but I said it was silly – I always give her 500 SeK for the taxi anyway, so no need to just exchange money!
But we still enjoy our Christmas together, and laugh a lot. Since dad died I’m acutely aware of having to enjoy every moment while she’s still around!
A couple of days later we had a Christmas feast at my sister’s house, just for us siblings and our kids (the ones who wanted to join us – they’re all adults now, so really only two showed up). We all bring food for a diverse and yummy buffet, and sit around for hours catching up and having fun.
I was invited to my brother for New Years Eve but declined – I’ve never really enjoyed this holiday, and prefer to sit in peace at home. And the new year started with a lot of snow, which is still coming down and will keep coming all weekend. Parts of the country are without electricity, flights are cancelled and some roads are in bad shape with traffic jams after accidents. It’s not as chaotic here in Stockholm, but we’ll be getting a ton of additional snow in the weekend. So I’m staying indoors, keeping warm and avoiding slipping and falling – don’t want anything to happen to the knee again!
Happy New Year, everybody!
Yes, I was underwhelmed by ‘Chopper Harris Goes to Paris’ when I saw it, and the half you saw was the best bit.
Rule of thumb at our local cinema is… if you have a choice of a British film or what’s on the other screen, you do the latter. Same price.
Every time someone (usually advancing in years) pipes up and says ‘I went to the cinema recently’, I know instantly which film they’ve been to, and it’ll be the crap British one.
They always say in a very unconvincing voice ‘Yeah, it was alright’. No it wasn’t!
Ironically, they rarely pick the occasional great British one (Urchin, Bird, I Swear)… a.k.a. ‘films that have young people in them’.
I think these are the people who voted for Brexit.
British films I enjoyed watching in 2025 included Hot Milk, the Conclave, Ballad of Wallis Island, We Live in Time, Joy, Mr Burton. and the Choral. My wife said Hard Truths was pretty good and my Irish social work lecturer friend was much taken with Pillion. Other audience members seemed to enjoy the films. Given all but one were watched in Cambridge, I doubt many Brexit voters were in attendance.
Hot Milk was truly awful. Wallis Island and The Conclave terrific, in the case of the former surprisingly so. Alas, I fear I missed Pillion, which, yes, sounds excellent but categorically is not the kind of film I’m on about. It has gays in it!!!
The only one of those mentioned by the Brexiters was The Choral. It was on, so you ‘knew’ if they’d been to the cinema recently, that was the one they saw.
I guess the film needs someone familiar in it, about a subject about local concerns, but not set in an urban area, and preferably with a connection to the past, ideally the war. Does that sound like The Choral?
Am I the only person anywhere who thinks Wallis Island was overplayed overdramatic hokum? I guess so ..
No, enjoyable but sentimental tosh. Possibly above reproach as not obviously a Brexit voting film fan favourite.
I found it cloying shite to be honest.
Wallis Island was great – a little sentimental but you could easily invest in the characters and a bit of feel good escapism.
So am I am to assume you didn’t see the other filsm I mentioned ( Joy! Mr Burton, We live in Time, Hard Truths etc), yet you are still able to pronounce on British film. Sorry, there’s nothing in your comments to justify your implication that most British film is a Brexiteer love in.
PS. Out of curiosity, I looked back to see which British made filsm I had watched in 2024. They included Blitz, The Outrun, The End We Start From, Bird, Wicked Little Letters, Aĺl of Us Strangers, Back to Black. Again, nothing obviously Brexit votertastic, given that even Blitx focuses on a mixed heritage boy and Wicked Little Letters used colour blind casting.
Spent much of the spare time during the month making judgments about 2025 releases, prompted by other contributions to the Afterword Album of 2025 and Iain A (fRoots) Anderson’s monthly Podwireless which I would recommend to anyone, as a wide-ranging musical smorgasbord taster. Some beauties ended up on my end of year list, notably Cosan Casta by Aoife NiBhriain & Cormac McCarthy and eponymous Black Hauge. The fiddle/piano instrumentation of the former, and lightly-worn jazz leanings into folk, inevitably lead to The Gloaming comparisons, but there are distinctions of clarity and trad sources and anyway, in my view, such comparisons are hardly a bad thing anyway. I was led to Black Hauge having had a high estimation of last year’s release from the Erlend Apseneth Trio, who here experiment with spoken word from the aforementioned Mr Hauge, one of Norway’s finest poets (it says here). Well, it is remarkable. The precision of the delivery can make it sound like you’ve accidentally happened on a Duolingo course, but I would be a multilinguist by now if language learning was such fun. There are clear reference points: 2011’s The Speech Project by Gerry Diver, who also snuck into my Top 20 for last year; My Life in the Bush of Ghosts; and the minimalism and looping of Steve Reich. All good signposts for me.
On safer ground, my one gig of the month was the Albion Christmas Band, the highlight of which was Kellie While’s take on Joni’s River.
Other than that, I managed five pub singing sessions – one of the great joys in my life – and ended the month with my first New Year spent in Scotland, with yet more singing and dancing.
In other news, I went out on a limb and asked for some unpaid leave for next year, just so I could keep doing all the many festivals that dangle their fruit in front of me; I was delighted when my request was granted within an hour. The long slow glide into retirement starts here, as 2026 will be the last year that I work full time, and I’ve just chopped 5% off that.
Loads and loads of music, including both of The Dream Syndicate extended re-issues (for Days of Wine & Roses, which is a more streamlined rock album, and The Medicine Show, which has more of that lovely sprawling guitar), and getting to know The Necks wonderful Disquiet. All three of these have legs, and will bear repeated listens.
I have not done a book update for a while, so recent excellent listens/reads have been Monsters , by Claire Dederer (thoughtful and thought-provoking on how to deal with the art of artists who were monsters), Project Hail Mary (excellent sci fi/thriller, works very well as audio book) and Empireland, which is gritty, challenging and an essential book on the rapaciousness of the British Empire. I also really enjoyed Stuart Maconie’s book on the people around the Beatles – With A Little Help From Their Friends.
We watched Wake Up Dead Man, which was rather plodding – I would have enjoyed it much more if it was 90 minutes long. But it was an hour longer than that, to no real benefit. I managed to catch the excellent Willy DeVille documentary when it was available on Vimeo – Heaven Stood Still. I’m a big fan, I knew some of the lifestyle challenges. As is often the case around addicts, many other people in his orbit ended up damaged, too – including his wife, the famous Toots. Chris Frantz was insightful in it – “Is this guy Dominican ? Puerto Rican?” – and the impact of West Side Story was well-told. One nice anecdote was from musicians who went to meet up with Willy when he had re-located to New Orleans – “He’s been here less than a week, and he’s telling us where to get the best muffuleta, where the good bars are …”. And a cautionary tale from Peter Wolf (which reminded me I need to find where I put his autobiography) – Peter Wolf was a fan from the start of Mink DeVille, and kept in touch. He having fun in a New York hotel room with Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards, talking about doo-wop and singing some. He thought “Hey – Willy would be a great fit for this”, but when Willy showed up he came with an entourage, some of whom were not people that Keith wanted to have around him. If Keith Richards, the great survivor, is telling you that these guys are bad company, it would be wise to listen.
In other business, pre-Christmas drinks with the Primevals and associated ne’er-do-wells was as hilarious and life-affirming as it always is. I am fortunate to have dear friends who are still in my life who I have known for more than 40 years, now. You can’t get new old friends.
The Primevals have got a few gigs lined up already this year – 30th January at the Arts Centre in Paisley, 11th Feb with The Godfathers at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh.
December was good, as in better than anticipated, given the rift plate in the family. Sadly no 11th hour rapprochement, but it’s still early days.
3 superb gigs, all different. Firstly the Men They Couldn’t Hang at the good old Hare & Hounds. The post Cush line-up has settled and gelled well, and they played a set of mainly favourites, together with some new, just to show they aren’t just coasting on past glories. Then Robert Plant’s Saving Grace, possibly the gig of the year. Absolutely superb, with Percy in fine voice, even if only the 3rd best singer in the band. Finally, a pre-Xmas knees up at Norton’s, one of the more progressive Irish pubs in B’ham’s Irish Quarter, featuring Toss the Feathers, the folk-rock band where a teenage Michael McGoldrick first strutted his flutes and pipes. He still meets up with his old cronies for a set of celebratory gigs each December, and this was a cracker.
New music was headed by the live farewell set from Niteworks, the exultant Solas Na Maidne, a live celebration of their last ever show, in Glasgow. Despite having all their other albums, hearing them in this setting brought back all the memories of their final London gig, that I had attended. But Glasgow got, as a finale, a resplendent rendition of A’Ghrian, the closing track on the album of that name, and a song I have never heard them play live before, let alone like this with a Gaelic choir to swell out the sound. Otherwise it was all folk related too, with the latest from the Haar, and excellent short solo trad set by Sam Carter, and belated listens to Sian’s Araon and more gaelictronica, Lineage LP, excellent stuff by an ex-bagpipe champion turned techno turntablist by the name of Cain.
I read a book! Receiving Faith, Hope & Carnage in my stocking, Sean O’Hagan’s recorded discussions/interview with Nick Cave, I was entirely engrossed. I can’t say I agree with Cave in many of his musings, but it is all deeply thought through and is certainly thought provoking. If somewhat at odds with another of Cave’s books, the scabrous and facile filth of The Death of Bunny Munro, another present and one I have only just begun.
Each were bought as we had watched and enjoyed, if that is the right word, the TV adaptation of the same. A vile depiction of toxic masculinity, it was well constructed, even with Dr Who playing Munro.
As Christmas encroached, so there seemed little else but various shades of Sci-Fi slash Horror to view. Some was watchable but mostly not. And those that started well, such as Welcome To Derry, lost it as they stretched into a second series, at which point we bounced. Pluribus, from the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul writer, started off OK, but, about 4 episodes in, attention was lost. Likewise for Fall Out, a post-apocalyptic which displayed some initial originality, ahead of too becoming tired. Snowpiercer series one we found OK, series two almost instantly becoming insufferable. (Sean Bean being largely to blame.) It did take us back to the 2013 original film, however, which had the virtue of being short and condensed, against the bloat of a to be boxset series.
O, and forgot about Amadeus. Which was fabulous.
Yes, I’m only three episodes in and enjoying it very much. The final 10 – 15 minutes of ep2 was really wonderful.
Guardian gave it one star. Guardian was very, very Wrong
Had a really busy few weeks and can’t really summarise it, so I will just say one thing here…
Waiting For The Out.
It’s on iplayer and it is absolutely superb, best TV I’ve seen in a long time. Everyone should watch it.
Seconded. As I will say next month. BAFTAs all round would be well deserved.
Shocking indictment of our patience and attention spans, but we have just started it based on these recommendations and after ten, lifeless, plodding, endless minutes got so annoyed with the portrayal of prison security that we bailed out. I assume it picks up?
!
I should add that we watched it immediately after a couple of particularly hyper episodes of Stranger Things, so we were on the TV equivalent of a sugar rush, but the opening was extraordinarily slow and dull, no?
I only read the first four lines of your post. Glad you’re watching, hope you guys enjoyed it. 😉
Well that was a culturally bereft month …
Stupidly busy at work as everyone remembered they promised to deliver stuff by Christmas, and so the world went mental trying to fit everything in.
~When it was finally over, I somehow went over the edge with cold/flu/hacking cough
(Dr Google suggested pneumonia or bronchitis. I think it neither of them because by 2nd January the clouds cleared, my appetite and strength returned – just in time to go back to work).
Heard:
* Wreckless Eric – England Screaming arrived early in month and is still spinning happily.
There was a recent thread about “late career greatness” – Eric is a solid contender for inclusion there.
* T.Rex Studio Albums 1970 – 77
Yes I have them on old vinyl, but bar a couple never got round to upgrading them all to CD.
No I have, and whilst not always a superb listen (some of it can be a bit slight or pretty disposable), at least I’ve got it all in one box.
Read:
* Talking Bottom – a deep-dive into all things Bottom. The Sitcom best described as Waiting For Godot with added nob gags and cartoon violence.
* Stiff Records Story – interesting read, their ambitions outstrips their success, but hey they gave it a try.
Seen:
Nothing in December to note/shout about to be honest.
Plenty of Only Connect was consumed
The Ricky Gervais – Mortality special on Netflix was watched, but just didn’t feel as wothwhile as previous outings.
The best things I found on telly happened on 1st January:
* Night Manager (BBC)
* Red Eye (ITV)
* Run Away (Netflix)
Is the Stiff Records Story worth buying? I got a book token for Christmas! And some socks, which went straight to the charity shop.
I read Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story by Richard Balls and thought it was very good, even though Robinson and Riviera wouldn’t contribute to it.
That be the full title and author, and yes Mr F it is worth a read.
In anticipation of reading the book, I ‘accidentally’ purchased a 3LP Chiswick Records compilation cheap (because of a dinged sleeve coner). Whoops!
Seen:
A fair bit of TV, most of it fairly ordinary, but the Paramount content of Dexter (after seeing the other preceding series a few years back) was good viewing. Once you get over the slightly ludicrous concept of a serial killer with morals this is a surprisingly absorbing watch and you do find yourself on his side. Other than that, I found a lot of the Christmas TV fare this year very disappointing.
Gigs wise… The Charlatans tour warmup at Kingston’s Pryzm (now renamed as Circuit) was OK, not brilliant, but enjoyable. A tribute night to legendary Clash Roadie Johnny Green, at Cadogan Hall, was a lot of fun…appearances by people who had worked with him included John Cooper Clarke, Richard Hawley, Phill Jupitus (surprisingly diva-esque I thought at one point) but best of all Stewart Lee, made for a great night out.
Heard:
Catching up with some of the end of year recommendations/best of year lists is always fun in December, and from sources like these I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the 2025 albums by Luke Haines/Peter Buck, Stereolab, The Liminanas and Ron Sexsmith. I’ve also been thoroughly enjoying some late period REM after never having really giving it more than a cursory listen before. Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are actually terrific albums definitely worth trying again with.
Read:
Dan Jennings podcast on all things Paul Weller was a reliably entertaining deep dive into all things Modfather (I’m in the “when he’s good he’s great” camp rather than adoring everything) and the resulting book, “Dancing Through The Fire” is excellent, drawing on the words of all those who contributed to the podcast…fans, industry insiders, ex band members, Weller himself (very open at times) plus family members are all quoted at length, making this as near to a full on autobiography as we’re likely to get. I got the Kindle version for 99p which was recommended by someone on here-many thanks, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
AOB:
Had a very enjoyable post Christmas/pre NYE few days away just outside Bath. What a lovely old city it is too. I usually go there once a year for away football games but never have time to fully investigate.
Johnny Green was the subject of Great Lives yesterday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002pdvq
Read:
Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock
This is half a good book which wasn’t cheap but took me two months to finish. It is a bit of a door stop, and the first half covers the background of the members and the NY scene with the help of school friends, family, etc, up until the recording of the debut LP. I learned quite a bit.
Unfortunately, all four members of the band declined to be interviewed (Jerry was keen but only on condition the other three did). So the second half covers the recording and touring years with no personal insights, everything taken from previously published works, and I learned almost nothing.
According to the pages and pages of acknowledgments, Tina is writing her own book. Yikes!
Seen:
Stop Making Sense in 4k. Still utterly brilliant, even if I think David Byrne must be hard work in person.
I’ve not posted one of these updates in a while, so this is a bit of an indulgent end of year review / catch up from the past few months.
The Holdovers
It’s set at Christmas in a prestigious boarding school in northeast America. It features a young man who appears arrogant and entitled yet who is filled with anger, confusion and self-loathing. Adults are variously shown as weak, unlikeable and mendacious. No. It’s not Catcher in the Rye, but Alexander Payne’s gorgeously retro Christmas flick. Wonderfully engaging performances, a script that’s by turns funny, heartwarming and achingly melancholic – but always whip smart. One of those films that they just don’t make any more.
Dark Winds
Crime thriller set in the early 70s amongst a Native American community. It’s a solid show, with some charismatic performers and a tasty plot that includes armed robbery, witchcraft, and inter-community tension. But as the show reached the climax, the action scenes, which should have been pacy and sharp, became rather flat footed. Shame.
Lioness
The show came out of the gates strong, with a whirlwind of a first episode. By the end of it we’d seen an undercover agent come to a grisly end and her replacement delivered from an existence of domestic abuse and a dead-end Mc-job into the heart of enemy territory. Yet, in the second episode the show became mired in soapy family drama (including sensitive dad and a petulant teenager), dreary macho military bros and a bizarre torture scene which was intended to determine the robustness of the new undercover agent – who had already been chosen and placed into the field during the initial episode. And that’s before we talk about Nicole Kidman’s immobile face or the fact she chooses to conduct highly sensitive debrief sessions in the middle of a busy restaurant. We gave up.
The Diplomat
Preposterous nonsense but still good fun. Although given the current state of politics, even the most gormless characters seem achingly competent when compared to real world contemporaries. It got a bit too soapy for my taste during the halfway mark, but things turned round nicely for a suitably tense cliffhanger ending. A big plus is that we get to see CJ and Josh from the West Wing back together again.
Friday Night Dinner
Very late to this one – but have finally worked my way through the 6 series. A nice combo of the mundane and bizarre – and Martin Goodman is a TV dad for the ages.
Stranger Things
Ahead of the last season, we went back to the beginning of the show to remind ourselves of the antics at Hawkins. I was a little disappointed with the first series – the kids are shrill and one note, and the plot is stretched thinly across the 8 episodes. It picks up in series two and by series three (Russians with a secret lab beneath a mall, the rat-monster, bad boy Billy going bonkers, the introduction of Robin and the burgeoning bromance between Steve and Dustin…) the show really takes off. I’ll post no spoilers here about season 5.
Nobody Wants This
The central couple have plenty of charm and a chemistry that is all too rare in screen partners. There is some nicely acidic snark and sarcasm that cuts through the syrupy moments. Season 1 was great fun; season 2, not so much.
The Roses
Reviews for this marriage drama were sniffy at best. But I found it a nicely played retelling of the War of the Roses. Cumberbatch and Coleman are on fine form as the dueling duo.
Gone Fishing
Such a gentle, warm and lovely show. With its bucolic scenes of the British countryside, light comedy and theme of male friendship it always reminds me of the Dectectorists.
Predator Badlands
Wonderfully entertaining sci-fi romp that sees a young Predator testing his mettle on a death planet aided and abetted by an android that’s missing its legs.
Alien Earth
Skin crawling alien monsters are not even the most horrible villains in this wonderfully immersive show. I can’t wait to rewatch this.
The Bear
I’m not sure that I have seen a show more in love with itself since the West Wing. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t wonderfully moreish. My favourite scene in this latest series was soundtracked by Dion’s ‘Only you know’ and made the presentation of a beef sandwich something profound.
Read
Kala
It is nicely written, very lyrical in fact. But sadly, I didn’t find the story or the characters especially compelling. At 400 pages it was something of a slog.
The Lottery
A series of short stories from the author of the Haunting of Hill House. It’s post-war America, with diners, milkshakes, rooming houses and cigarettes. But into the mundanity there are unsettling tales where meaning and motive are there, just below the surface. Amongst the menace there is a subtle sense of dark humour in place.
Catcher in the Rye
I read this first as a stroppy teen so of course I fell hard for Holden. I come back to this disaffected youth every few years and manage to find new things each time I do. What struck me this time was how (unintentionally?) funny the gauche young man is.
Heard
Have spent some pleasant afternoons and evenings revisiting the various charms of Goldfrapp (Seventh Tree), My Bloody Valentine (Loveless) and Blue Nile (Hats).
Diamonds in the dew by James Shakeshaft cycled round on an old playlist. Gorgeous tune that I played loads on a working from home day.
Then, from the start of December, we listened to the usual roster of festive songs that invoke such opposing feelings of happiness and sadness.
Post more often – that was excellent!
Agree with The Diplomat. I haven’t seen the new season yet, but the previous two improved as the characters settled in. Rory Kinnear excellent as usual.
I liked The Roses, Cumberbatch and Coleman in great form. Shrinking violet that I am I did find it bit crude in places. My girls are all adults now but I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the dialogue.
I find myself watching the final season of Stranger Things on my own – as I said the girls, unlike me , have moved on. Not finished yet but I’m enjoying the well produced nonsense. I finished Welcome to Derry last night which was a similar type of show. Good performances from young and old cast.
I love The Bear, but mostly for the supporting characters. Carmy can get a bit tiring.
Alien Earth also very good and The Holdovers was a good pre-festive watch.
I thought the Holdovers was absolutely superb.
Great acting and avoids bring too sentimental which could have been easy given the storyline.
December tends to be very busy at work. Simultaneously, the local arts scene tends to go a bit Christmas crazy, with a lot of very similar events. There were for example, three separate one-off performances of the Messiah in a single week. We went to see The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment, Clare College Choir and professional singers Mary Bevan, Hugh Cutting, James away and Jonathan Brown. Very fine it was to. We also enjoyed included Midnight Mass On Christmas Eve at Wells Cathedral and a fundraising show by Charles Court Opera in the 50 seat theatre upstairs at the Rosemary Branch, London N1. Six singers, a pianist and drummer flying through numbers from their Gilbert &Sullivan shows and annual pantos. The latter include the Odyssey, Napoleon and Beowulf. Thr absolute highlight was Jennie Jacobs remarkable performance of a song adapted from an Eminem song, the chorus of which is My name is, my name is, my name is …. Grendel’s Mother.
We saw the latest Knives Out at the cinema. Took a while to get going, but we enjoyed it well enough. We don’t much in the way of crime, so perhaps we are easily pleased. We also saw the It was Just an Accident ( set in Iran, but presumably not filmed there). Good, but bleak.
@ernietothecentreoftheearth It Was Just An Accident was indeed filmed in Iran. Amazing story really. The Director Jafar Panahi dare not go near the set as he would have been spotted by the police. So he directed remotely using internet connection.
The filming was mostly done in remote locations but late in the shoot they were discovered by the police who confiscated reels of film, fortunately the wrong reels of film.
The film was mostly assembled and edited in France, again under the Director’s remote supervision.
You may already know that the Iranian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Panahi. He is currently conducting promotional activities in the US but has said he will return to Iran to face the charges. He has previously been imprisoned and tortured, informing the content of this latest film.
Now might not be the best time to return, should the regime survive. I doubt they will be in a lenient mood.
Indeed
Watched some junk TV in December. None of it worth mentioning here.
For a change no TV at all was watched on Xmas day, which was spent at my sister’s youngest son’s house. Twelve of us present for eating, drinking, chatting and playing games. The TV never even got switched on. It was most enjoyable.
No movies were watched all month. This is becoming normal behaviour for me. I just can’t generate the enthusiasm for watching a movie.
No books read, which is unusual. It’s because I got stuck reading a book by a favourite author that I just wasn’t enjoying*. A couple of chapters in, I just stopped and haven’t restarted. I have other books I could be reading, both digital and physical ones, but …
What I have been reading is Private Eye magazine. The two current December issues and some of the backlog from previous months.
Went to a few gigs but not as many as usual due to financial constraints.
The Tabernacle Project at the Elephant Inn on Sunday 7th, which featured drum legend Richard Bailey and pals. A nice Caribbean and Southern African slanted jazz set.
The Tomorrow’s Warriors Winter Showcase free gig in the Clore Ballroom of the RFH on the early evening of the 14th, featuring the new Junior Band, Youth Ensemble and Frontline female band, plus the TW Big Band which featured some of the members of the other bands plus others. A good show.
My local pals Stanley Dee played their customary Xmas gig on the 20th at Watford’s Pump House Theatre Colne Room, to a packed house. Steely Dan tunes from across the decades plus one from Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album and 2 Xmas pop selections, Slade’s Merry Christmas Everyone and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. A good fun night.
The next night back at the Elephant Inn I saw up-and-coming saxophonist Donovan Haffner in a five-piece scratch band. Excellent.
A sizeable list of albums were listened to at home over the month, as usual. Some were new to me and some were not.
Including a couple of last-gasp post-xmas additions. My obsession with golden-age Blue Note jazz albums (1957-1965) continues, you’ll notice.
Alexandre Tharaud – Satie: Discoveries
Arvo Pärt – Silentium
Augustus Pablo – Lightning and Thunder
Benny Golson – Gettin’ With It
Benny Golson – Groovin’ with Golson
Benny Golson – Turning Point
Benny Golson Quartet – Free
Bobby Hutcherson – The Kicker
Bobby Hutcherson – Total Eclipse
Charles Lloyd – Figure in Blue
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Dynamic Maximum Tension
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Real Enemies
Don Was and The Pan-Detroit Ensemble – Groove in the Face of Adversity
Emma Rawicz – Inkyra
Evan Parker, Paul Rogers, Louis Moholo – Tebugo
Gerry Mulligan, Johhny Hodges – Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges
Hiroshi Yoshimura – Flora
The International Jazz Orchestra, Benny Golson – Stockholm Sojourn
Jackie McLean – Destination…Out!
Jackie McLean – Vertigo
Jim Hall – Live!
Jim Watson – Calling You Home
Joni Mitchell – Archives Volume 4: The Asylum Years
Kronos Quartet, Mary Kouyoumdjian – Witness
Lalo Schifrin – My Life In Music
The Necks – Disquiet
Pharoah Sanders – Love is Here: The Complete Paris 1975 ORTF Recordings
Pippa Blundell – Common Thread
Stan Getz Quartet – Getz at The Gate
Tony Coe’s Axel – What Say We Play Today?
Toshiko Akiyoshi – Toshiko’s Blues: Quartet and Trios 1953-1958
*Martin Cruz Smith – Tokyo Station.