scaryblog

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020... #49 : White Riot Documentary about the groundbreaking Rock Against Racism movement that helped to stem the rising tide of far-right support in 1970s Britain, with its benefit gigs featuring the likes of the Clash and the Tom Robinson Band. OK kids - let's talk about racism.  Is it good or is it bad?!?  Well, if you're struggling to answer, then maybe this film is for you.  Although, to be honest, if you're struggling to answer, then maybe you just need to go and have a bit of a think about things rather than reading this, eh?  Either way, I'd not seen this film and whilst I can't claim to have been massively politically aware at the tender age of 10, I was vaguely aware of the rise of the National Front and the resultant Rock Against Racism counter-movement, so I was quite interested to watch it. And what we've got here is a very interesting story featuring some eye-opening footage both in terms ...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.03.30 : Permission To Land - The Darkness (2003) I remember this album quite well - not because I listened to it often, but because I didn't listen to it all.  Despite liking "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"  I knew there was little danger of me liking the rest of the album, so I never went there.  And so, having finally listened to it after 18 years, am I going to announce that I've realised the error of my ways and it's actually a great album?  Am I bollocks - it's not my thing at all.  I don't consider them a joke band - they do that thing they do well, but I'd just prefer them not to do it, thank you very much.  Although, unfortunately they did become a bit of a joke band after Justin ate all the pies (and drank all the beer to go along with the pies) and still tried to fit into his skinny catsuits - that was not a pretty sight.  I still like "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" though - it...

OK - so I enjoyed doing Empire's Top 100 Movies of This Century and I also enjoyed The Guardian's Top 50 Albums of 2020, so when I saw they also did a Top 50 Movies of 2020, I thought "what's the worst that can happen?".  I suspect it might take me slightly longer than the album list to work through though. #50 : Boys State This eye-opening film looks at a role-play event to teach kids how politics works, organised by the American Legion. Here the Texas version is scrutinised, with debates and power struggles reaching a crescendo in a mock election. A film I'd never even heard of (and this is going to be a common theme over the next few films at least).  So what have we got here?  A load of boys from Texas competing in a mock election - that feels like it could work out pretty badly indeed.  I couldn't help but feel there were going to be some pleasant characters and some exceedingly unpleasant, supremely ambitious characters - and I only needed one guess ...

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.03.25 : II - Moderat (2013) Again, I'd not heard of the album or artist but I took a sneak peak somewhere and saw Jon Hopkins and Burial mentioned in the same breath, so my suspicion was that I'd like it.  And yeah, if you like those artists, you'll like this.  I've not got a lot more to say about it than that really - it's bleepy and off-kilter rhythms which won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.   And there were g enerally positive comments from the channel as well (I'm beginning to suspect no-one ever said anything actually bad about anything until I came along) - apparently it's particularly good for writing up notes to!  A new statistic I'm including for amusement's sake (when I remember) is how many people left the channel as a result of the album - and this one managed to scare two people off, which was probably quite a high percentage of the population at the time. Wikipedia has th...

So, another list has presented itself as a review opportunity - the #album-of-the-day channel at work, where people select an album for the rest of the channel to listen to and comment on as they feel appropriate.  I've joined the channel approximately 14 months after it was set up, so there's quite a backlog to work my way through - and where better to start than at the beginning? 20.03.21 : Malibu - Anderson .Paak (2016) Not an album I've heard before - I'm aware of the man, but to be honest I don't have a lot of time for people with pointless punctuation in their names.  I can accept apostrophes and hyphens, but you need a good reason to have anything other than that (and I've checked and he has no such reason).  I knew this was a reasonably critically well-received album but suspected it would fall into my Frank Ocean/Kendrick Lamar cultural black hole, where I admire the output but can't bring myself to enjoy it and don't really see what they're...

Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.   And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Ezekial 25:17 This post came about as a result of a discussion I had with Mr Pointon back last year about Pulp Fiction, which basically went along the lines of "Yeah, but is it really all that good?!?".  Neither of us were entirely convinced, so I watched it again to find out - over a period of about a month, because a) I was quite busy listening to music and b) it's amazing how long it takes to watch a film and write about it at the same time.  I should possibly warn you that it quotes a fair bit of the film and they may be  one or two  rude words in there, so if you have sensitive eye...

Something new has popped into my inbox, so let's give this a go, shall we?   A violin concerto by one of the best-known English composers - well, best-known by me anyway since he happened to be my best man.  He's a fairly musical kinda guy, with grade 8 in the kazoo and triangle (I think) to his name, who likes to knock the odd symphony or concerto when he's not otherwise occupied in the kitchen, garden or elsewhere being creative.  The critical reviews for his latest work include such high praise as "nice", "beautiful" and "English music isn't dead" (whatever that means) - let's see if I can outdo such wordsmithery from my position of relative (ok, complete) ignorance. What we have here is a Violin Concerto in G Minor here (one of favourite keys, definitely) and there are three bits to it (they might be called movements, but what do I know, so let's stick with "bits").  They are marked up as Largo, Allegro and Andante, wh...

Having agreed that the whole idea of creating a list of the 500 greatest albums is absolute nonsense - what was missing from the list?  (I should warn you it's possible this post is one for the completists only) OK - let me firstIy say that I totally appreciate I'm coming at this from a very white, English-speaking, 80s/90s viewpoint - and there are undoubtedly loads of great albums I've never even heard of that are fully deserving of a place on the list, but I'm not in a position to comment on them, so please forgive my ignorance of them.  Additionally, my view on omissions is obviously a very UK-centric view in the way that the overall list is very US-centric.  However, to be fair, I would say there were probably more UK albums on the list than I was expecting - and some of the UK choices made were somewhat surprising (eg I certainly wasn't expecting to see Belle & Sebastian on the list) Missing/under-represented genres Dance This is the big blind spot for me ...