1.25pm: Kick off.1.26pm: Boost bars are unwrapped.We make our way down Vicarage Road onto Fordhouse Lane - from Kings Heath to Stirchley - as Clare writes: "I don't like Stirchley, or the innermost layer of a Boost." By contrast, I'm inordinately fond of Stirchley. Having lived there during the mid-90s, I've always loved the fact that the nearest train station from my old stomping ground was Bournville. When you left the station you would look out upon this idyllic, picturesque vision of England. You'd see nice, polite chaps playing cricket while shoots of ivy climbed up the sides of their [...]
Be warned: the following contains personal minutiae that might be deemed offensive or, possibly, inconsequential.At about 12.45pm (-ish) Clare and I grab a bite to eat at the Wetherspoon's pub in Kings Heath. We swap Brum pub war stories, including my elaborate and unproven theory that the decline in the standard of the clientele at a certain city centre branch of a certain national pub chain was not unrelated to the filling-in of a nearby wino-infested traffic island subway. The food was tasty.Clare decides that we should grab a pair of Boost chocolate bars from a nearby newsagent. At the [...]
I said I'd do it and today I did. I took part in Jon Bounds' mad-but-inspired plan to spend eleven hours of the eleventh day of the eleventh month on Birmingham's number eleven bus. Much to my surprise, my significantly better half Clare decided to tag along, too. She enriched the day significantly by keeping me company, feeding me chocolate and providing a steady stream of comedy-rich comments and generous slices of fried gold observations. She really is much funnier than me and I have every intention to plagiarise her aplenty over the the coming posts. My people-watching partner in [...]
From Variety:Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early discussions to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-Park's Oldboy. DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and the new pic will be distributed by Universal.
The other day I watched Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly's sci-fi slapstick satire Southland Tales. The reason why I watched it was because I'd recently bought it on DVD, and the reason why I'd recently bought it on DVD was because the Asda in Perry Barr were selling it for £3. In the days, weeks and months ahead this process may determine the future course and contents of my DVD collection.Southland Tales received what you might call a fairly mixed critical response. The Guardian said it was "frustrating and finally rather pointless" while The Independent raised the stakes and declared it [...]
"I have this feeling that whoever's elected president, like Clinton was, no matter what promises you make on the campaign trail - blah, blah, blah - when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumf***s that got you in there, and this little screen comes down... and it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll.... And then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president:"'Any questions?'"'Er, just what my agenda is...'"- Bill Hicks, 1961-1994
