Pure Pulp

Artwork by: T. Anderson,

Margaret Brundage,

Virgil Finlay,

Frank R. Paul,

and Howard V. Brown.

The Beat goes on

In the dim and distant past ( the 1980's ) when I was a teenager, the most exciting musical movement was the ska / 2 Tone explosion ( I was just that bit too young for the first wave of Punk ) - which brought us such great bands as The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and The Beat.

And Bad Manners.....

2 Tone was the product of a bunch of pissed-off, often unemployed, kids taking inspiration from classic 1960's ska and bluebeat and welding it to some Punk speed and attitude. In those dark days of rampant Thatcherism, rising unemployment, and growing civil unrest, 2 Tone was positive, challenging, political, danceable, and - crucially - multi-cultural. The most commercially successful bands were The Specials and Madness, but just behind them were The Beat, a band who were often a more authentic, "roots" alternative.

Fast forward 30 (!) years from their first album, I Just Can't Stop It, and The Beat are playing to an adoring crowd of old rude boys and young kids in Gloucester Park. ( Well, a lineup of The Beat without original singer, Dave Wakeling, but with most vocals handled by MC / toaster Ranking Roger. ) I'd seen Madness waaaay back in 1985 and The Specials (AKA) about 10 years later, but I'd never seen Roger and the boys. Now they're here and they're pumping out the songs and skanking like a band half their age. It'd be rude not to join in.....

They play all the old classics like Mirror In The Bathroom and Hands Off... She's Mine, songs I'd completely forgotten about like Best Friend and Doors Of Your Heart, and even anti-Thatcher tirade Stand Down Margaret. ( Presumably the old witch has enough trouble standing up nowadays, but we'll ignore that for the sake of nostalgia. )

Ranking Roger is still the charismatic and cool frontman he always was, even whilst wearing a cavalry jacket on a muggy July evening. His son, Ranking Junior ( really! ), steps up for a few songs and impresses with some motormouth MC-ing which edges the band towards a more modern, drum 'n' bass sound.

Things are getting hotter, the crowd are getting wilder, and Roger realises they've forgotten a song: "How could we forget this one?" It's their cover of Smokey's Tears Of A Clown.....

And the place goes mental!

Before we know it, it's all over. Roger has thrown his T-shirt into the crowd, causing frenzied scuffles, and we're left with a message of "Peace, Love and Unity" - well, why not? It's been a great, sweaty, feelgood gig: even Sarah who doesn't usually like this sort of music has had a good time, but like I always say - you can't Beat a good gig!

Royal International Air Tattoo 2010

Just a few pics from last weekend's Fairford Air Show, the largest of its kind in Europe. Sarah and I went along with my cousin Paul, who is very knowledgeable on the subject of aviation and was a great guide. He also got us into the exclusive Civil Service enclosure - free tea and coffee all day and a laminated pass! ( I'm easily pleased. ) The weather was quite grey unfortunately ( as pictures show ) but we still had a great day.

The first two pictures are of the Avro Vulcan B2, "The Spirit Of Great Britain". This venerable Cold Warrior has been painstakingly restored to full flight capacity and was absolutely stunning to watch taking to the air.

Next up, another iconic ( and infamous ) product of the Cold War, the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress. Watch the skies!

Bang up to date now, with the Typhoon F2 Eurofighter, a truly awesome piece of kit, which performed its own fantastic display and also a "heritage flight" with the Supermarine Spitfire LFIXc. This was the climax of the day's programme and brought a real lump to the throat.

This beast is the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, a surprisingly nimble transport plane.

The Swiss Acrobatic Team in Northrop F-5E Tiger IIs, the second best team of the day before the French and the Jordanians, but beaten by a certain patriotic crew.....

The nose of the B-52.....

.....and two strange people posing in front of it.

And here they are: the Red Arrows, the RAF's Display Team in their BAe Hawk T1/T1As, the finest display team in the world.

Another shot of the Vulcan, graceful but deadly in flight, with bomb bay doors open, but thankfully no bombs :-)

And finishing with the Red Arrows, bringing a bit of colour to the grey English skies.

Possibly the biggest hit of the show was the awesome Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor, star of Transformers and Iron Man. Unfortunately I haven't got any really good photos of this incredible plane..... mostly 'cos it was so damn fast! Suffice it to say the Raptor was an unbelievably loud, exciting, thunderous bolt from the blue ( well, grey... ) and came complete with a cheesy commentary from an over-excited USAF captain/carnival barker. There's plenty of footage of the Raptor on YouTube if you want to check out its stunning power and speed.

We'll definitely have to go back next year, for the show's 40th anniversary. Let's hope for some blue sky next time around :-)

Sweet Dreams: Inception Inspection

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realise something was actually strange."

In my dream last night I drove to a house I'd never seen before to pick up someone I've known for over 20 years, then we drove to some waste ground where we saw a rat appear and disappear, then I joined a queue to be given a kids' Shrek soft-drink cup, and then we climbed some stairs in the dark to watch Chris Nolan's new film.

And then I woke up and it was all real.

Let me first say that Inception is a bugger of a film to review, especially without giving too much away. I could say it's a Bond/Bourne movie by way of Eternal Sunshine with a dash of Matrix, but that would be selling it short. And I wouldn't dream of doing that.....

The ( high ) concept of the film is spelled out in the trailer in an exchange between Dom Cobb ( Leo Di Caprio ) and Ariadne ( Ellen Page ) :

Cobb: "We create the world of a dream. We bring a subject into that dream and they fill it with their secrets."

Ariadne: "Then you break in and steal it?"

Cobb: "Well, it's not strictly speaking legal."

Cobb and his crew are experts in extraction, the process of stealing information from people's dreams. They're offered a tantalising job offer by Ken Watanabe's corporate king, Saito - plant an idea in his major competitor's dreams, a subconscious instruction to dismantle his own business empire. This is the supposedly impossible art of inception. Cobb is sure it can be done; he's done it before. What his associates don't know is the price Cobb paid before, and what price they will all pay this time.

If this all sounds too cerebral, forget it! The concept is a hook for Nolan to hang on some of the most exciting, outrageous action scenes and gob-smacking dream sequences you've ever seen. Or ever dreamed of. There are car chases, foot chases and shoot-outs that out-perform Quantum Of Solace; there are beautiful, surreal images of landscapes twisting, bending and shattering around the protagonists ( including a dream-Paris being destroyed yet again ) ; and the mind-bending concept of dreams-within-dreams - Cobb's crew all fighting different enemies whilst ascending and descending seemingly endless layers of dreams, with the "real" world at the top and a subconscious "limbo" at the bottom level.

Nolan masterfully orchestrates all this mayhem - the zero-gravity battles, the Bond-esque assault on a snowbound fortress, the collapsing dreamworlds - and grounds it in the simple plot-thread of Cobb's desperate desire to return to his estranged family and country.

"I think I found a way home. And this last job, that's how I get there."

Well, it's not that simple. Cobb's wife, Mal, is an initially enigmatic character whose explosive appearances throughout the story lead up to the shattering emotional truth about Cobb, his family and his world. As played by the luminous Marion Cotillard, Mal is a dangerous and heartbreakingly sad character, the walking, talking, borderline-insane testament to the perils of inception. Di Caprio, who is surely now one of America's finest actors, is at his intense best in his scenes with Cotillard. No matter how surreal the dream worlds become you care for these characters and hope against hope it will work out for them in the end.

There are also fine performances by Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy, with a seriously under-written Michael Caine turning up to do very little.....

.....And then I write some more, but my fingers become clumsy at the keyboard, my eyes start to close, my breathing slows, I start to dream.....

I'm writing a blog about Chris Nolan's new movie. Do I call it "Inception Inspection" or "Inception Dissection"? What's my perception of Inception? Why is the room starting to move around me? I look out of the window..... things start to collapse.....

Soundtrack: Life's Rich Pageant by REM.

( Remember when they were one of the best bands in the world? A long time ago?)

Trailer Time

Exciting, intelligent thrillers coming out of Hollywood? Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Of course, if the best thing about these movies turns out to be the trailers, I'll change my name, start wearing dark glasses and a fedora, move to a fleapit hotel, and resume blogging by scrawling on the walls in some indeterminate fluid or other.....

4th Of July

Happy 4th of July to all our friends across the Pond. Cheers from the UK!

Cinemania!

Hi to new Follower Dezmond, from the blog Hollywood Spy! This blog does everything it says on the tin: the latest news on all things film, with loadsa photos of Hollywood's beautiful people.....

and Robin Williams.

Check it out!

And why not?

Just been watching Kylie on the Radio 1 webcam.....

*Sigh*

Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang ( review with spoilers )

The end of the series. The end of the universe. The end of my increasingly late reviews. ( For now. )

Steven Moffat draws all the strands of his complex arc plot together ( well, most of them ) and delivers a dazzling, exciting and emotional finale. Two episodes that give the loyal viewers what they deserve: a terrifying threat to the universe, some truly epic visuals, moments of high drama for the regular cast, a satisfyingly complex story, and River Song in very tight leggings.

Via an amusingly absurd, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey message from the dawn of the universe, the Doctor and Amy are drawn to Roman-conquest era Britain, and to the Pandorica itself, buried under Stonehenge. After some wonderful moments which reference Indiana Jones ( the Pandorica's chamber ) and The Thing ( ancient Cyber-technology on the attack! ) we discover that the Doc's been tricked by a Secret Society Of Who Villains into a trap from which he can never escape, fashioned from Amy's memories. Poor old Rory, who has "died" a few times already, is brought back for a touching reunion, only to be revealed as a deep-cover Auton who kills Amy just as she remembers him. The Doctor is dragged into the Pandorica, as the assembled hordes of Daleks, Cybermen, Judoon, etc. etc. look smugly on, ignoring his cries that only he can save the universe from non-existence. The only person who could possibly save the day is River, but she's trapped in the Doc's Tardis, just as it explodes. So, basically.....

end of the universe.....

..... not quite. The second part of the story is less of a sugar-rush of huge moments, but smaller and more personal in scale. As far as any story about the death of the universe and a second Big Bang could be called "smaller scale".

The universe has gone. All that remains is the Earth, a small dot in the infinite darkness. Young Amelia Pond spends a Night At The Museum, where she discovers fossilised Daleks and the legendary Pandorica. Which opens to reveal..... Amy Pond?

"OK kid, this is where it gets complicated."

The Doctor has escaped from the Pandorica with the help of Plastic Rory, young Amelia and a total disregard for the laws of cause and effect, which can obviously only be bypassed when the timelines are crashing, the universe is shrinking, and the writer has a deadline to meet. There's also a mop, a soft drink and a fez involved ( a fez? ) but thinking about all that just gives me a headache.

The Doctor plans to reboot the universe by using the Pandorica's "Restoration Field", powered by that exploding Tardis. But first he has to get the time-loop-trapped River out of said blue box, which is exploding. In space. Oh yeah, and the Restoration Field has a habit of rebooting fossilised Daleks too, which doesn't help. Of course the Doctor manages to save the universe and set it back on track, but at the cost of deleting himself from history. He must stay behind that bloody crack in time for it all to work. ( Sorry about that "bloody crack" phrase. Ouch! )

Matt Smith has some truly wonderful scenes as the Doctor sees his life rewinding when the timelines are reconfigured. He tells young Amelia a bedtime story about the Raggedy Doctor, "the daft old man who stole a magic box".

"When you wake up you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well, you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. That's OK - we're all stories in the end."

We finally get to see Amy and Rory's wedding. All her family and friends are there, yet someone's missing. With a little help from River's Diary ( Spoilers! ) Amy remembers who ( or Who ) and calls him back to reality, for a spot of post-wedding dad-dancing. And the fairytale that is Season Five / Thirty-One / Fnarg comes to an end with a fairytale happy ending: the prince and princess say "Goodbye" to their old lives and run away with the strangely young-looking old wizard, for more adventures in ( and out of ) his magic box.

Five Bow Ties Out Of Five.

or

Five Fezes out of Five. ( "Fezes?" What is the plural of "fez"? )

Chinese Burn ( Wheatsheaf gig 26/06/10 )

Last night Sarah and I went to see the mighty Chinese Burn in action at the Wheatsheaf pub in Cheltenham. Hardly the rock 'n' roll centre of the universe, but a decent little venue with a good sound system and a nice beer garden outside.

After all the stress and worry of recent weeks it was good to go out for a few drinks with mates and watch some of yer actual Punk Rock. Chinese Burn were on top form, banging out old favourites like Defending Stalingrad, Shut Your Mouth and You Can Never Be Sure, along with the controversially-titled I Wonder Who's F***ing Her Now? ( One for the mums and dads in the audience! )

So, all good fun, but quite a short set - a couple more songs would have been good. Maybe next time, lads?

The headliners were Noise Agents, a street punk/ Oi! outfit, formed from the ashes of legendary Gloucester band Demob. They play a very basic, shouty, Cockney Rejects-type racket, which I would probably have loved when I was about 14, but which sounds a bit old and sad nowadays. My mate Glenn tells me they're very nice guys, so good luck to them anyway.

We made a sharp exit after a couple of NA songs and went for a Chinese ( takeaway not Burn ) before heading home. A top night out and something we definitely needed.

Antoni Gaudi

To celebrate the birthday ( in 1852 ) of the great Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, here are some of our photos of Gaudi's Parc Guell, taken in 2008. This beautiful space with its fairytale architecture and fantastic views over the city is a definite must for any trip to Barcelona. Sophie's going back there on a school trip in October, and we're all going to try and squeeze into her suitcase. Shouldn't be a problem :-)

For more Barcelona pictures see here, here and here.

Reunited

Pete ( 2nd Feb 1931 to 6th Dec 1995 ) and Marlene ( 4th May 1934 to 10th June 2010 )

And so to bed.....

Tonight the Pandorica opens.....

"There was a goblin.

"Or a trickster,

"Or a warrior.

"A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies.

"The most feared being in all the cosmos."

"Nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it - one day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world!"

So, my best guess for the occupant of the Pandorica ( "A box, a cage, a prison" ) is.....

drumroll please.....

The Doctor himself. ( And probably not Bonnie Langford. )

To all the Doctor's foes, who seem to be massing in their thousands around the Earth, according to the Next Time trailer, the Doctor himself is all the things mentioned above. Steven Moffat has said that this story will show us the only way the Doctor could fall, and all his world will crash down on his head. We'll discover his fate tonight. The Pandorica is waiting for him.....

( Of course if I'm wrong and the Pandorica turns out to contain the Taran Wood Beast or a Mandrell I'll deny I ever wrote this post. )