MUSIC: ROCK: SINGLE ARTIST ANTHOLOGIES

WHY BEING MIDDLE-AGED IN THE NEW MILLENIUM IS A GREAT TIME TO BE A ROCK FAN.

I’m 62 and in the last 10 years I’ve probably bought more Rock CDs than ever in my life and in real terms, as a proportion of my income, it’s probably cost me much less than it would in my youth when I bought vinyl. Many people in their 50’s and 60’s will be finding the same thing. Their kids, if they had any, have left home; they’ll be receiving legacies from relatives (usually, sadly, their deceased parents); they’ll have paid off most, if not all, of their debts such as the mortgage; their incomes, if they’re still working, will be at their maximum; and, if they have any sense, they’ll be the beneficiaries of a private or works pension.

But that is only part of it. Let me tell you a short story. 

Just about a week ago I came across a mention of J J Cale. I can’t remember exactly what it was –I may have seen it as an Amazon recommendation- but I had heard of him before and did a little digging to find out more about him. The obvious place was All Music Guide -http://www.allmusic.com/   which is probably the best one-stop music resource on the Web and I use it a lot. From their I went back to Amazon and listened to samples from a collection of his. Before I’d heard  more than ten I put the CD in my basket and ordered it. Anyway The Wind Blows is a massive 50-track anthology, first released 1997, covering 11 albums from 1970-1993, includes a decent booklet (always a plus) about the man and his music, and it’s fucking amazing. Now I’ve got all his albums since then, plus a collaboration with Eric Clapton, to look forward to hearing. You could describe Cale as Americana in the same way Johnny Cash is. Cale is Rock for sure, with a little Blues, and a little Country, and a little bit of this and that, all played in a deliciously laid-back rolling style though, as the introduction points out, “A fast song could be laid back as easily as a slow one.” 

I imagine when this anthology first came out it would have retailed for around £15.00 plus. I got it for £3.99. Yes, that’s right, one penny less than four quid which works out at 8p per track. While this is outstanding value in both quantity and qualitative terms, it isn’t all that unusual. It’s very easy to pick up excellent single artist anthologies for a very small outlay and that’s what I’ve been doing a lot of during the last ten years. I’ve had the opportunity to pick up music by artists whom I’ve liked but financial constraints in the past have prevented me from picking up.  In many cases, as Best Of (or Ultimate, or Essential) is all I want to hear of that artist. I’ve got the really good stuff and, to quote Donna Summer on one of my all-time favourite tracks, “enough is enough is enough is enough.”

What follows is a sort of companion piece to my 100 Favourite Tracks that I posted in June this year. (That itself was an early draft and the full revised piece can be found in my fanzine Siddhartha 8 on efanzines.com). This is a selective list and I’ve omitted almost all Blues single artist compilations and numerous others (or the list would be twice the length at least) for reasons which seemed good at the time but it is a pretty comprehensive list and does cover most of the Rock, with a few others thrown in for variety. I’ve included a few albums covers to break up the text plus some explanatory notes or comments. Now while most of this list I obtained relatively cheaply (say, under £7.50), a number are in the £10-£20 range and a handful over £30.00.

It’s arranged alphabetically from my ITunes list which means Bob Marley and Blondie are both under B. I could have done it by surname but that would have been too much like hard work .

A

The Animals: The Complete Animals. 2 CDs. It’s the 1960’s, it’s white-boy Blues, of course I liked it, it just took me 45 years before I bought it.

Aretha Franklin: Respect, The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin. 2 CDs.

B

The B-52s: Time Capsule. 1 CD. Weird, wonderful, funny, I love it.

The Beach Boys Platinum Collection. 3 CDs. Comprehensive and cheap too.

Big Country: Through A Big Country. 1 CD. See my Top 100 Tracks.

Blondie: Atomic.  CDs, one of which is a collection of remixes.

Bob Marley: Legend. 1 CD.

BB King: Vintage Years. 4 CD.

BB King: King of the Blues. 4 CD. Both massive and expensive compilations, each with a lavish booklet, and surprisingly little overlap.

Bob Dylan: Essential. 3 CDs. Dylan, like Bruce Springsteen, is one of those artists I buy an anthology to supplement my existing collection of his albums. In neither case I’m a completist but enough of fan to want a good selection of their material.

Bonnie Rait: Best Of. 1 CD.

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: Cornology. 3 CDs. A rather tatty copy, though the discs are fine, I found about to be chucked out in our charity shop. This is the sort of diamond, or example, of the reason why people scour charity shops in search of the overlooked treasure.

Booker T & The MGs: Best Of. 1 CD.

Bruce Springsteen: Essential. 3 CDs, one of which contains  previously unreleased material.

Buddy Holly Memorial Collection. 3 CDs. An excellent anthology for a fiver but misses out my favourite song of his –Bo Diddley- which I had to buy & download separately.

The Byrds: Essential. 2 CDs. The Essential series (from UA, I think as they’re in the loft, and not to be confused with any other Essential titles on different labels) is a generally excellent series and this is no exception.

C

Canned Heat: Uncanned. 2 CDs. Great booklet, massive collection, wonderful stuff. Boogie on!

Chuck Berry: Have Mercy, the complete Chess recordings 1969-74. 3CDs, sadly including 3 versions of My Dingaling, but otherwise excellent.

Chuck Berry: The Ultimate Collection. 3 CDs. Like the above this also displays just how versatile Berry was and that there’s so much more than just the hits.

The Clash: Essential. 2 CDs.

Credence Clearwater Revival: Chronicle. 2 CDs.

D

Dick Dale: King of the Surf Guitar. 1 CD. Any explanatory comment seems somehow superfluous.

Donna Summer: The Journey. 2 CDs. See my Top 100 Tracks.

The Doors: The Very Best Of. 2 CDs.

E

Echo & the Bunnymen: Crystal Days. 4 CDs. Truthfully, I borrowed this from the record library and copied it. A few years later I then bought a selection of the remastered and extended originals, many tracks, but not all, are on this lavish box set.

F

Fairport Convention: Meet On The Ledge. 2CDs. Live at the BBC. 4 CDs.

Fela Kuti: The Best Best. 2 CDs. "FEH-LA! FEH-LA! FEH-LA!" as I used to drunkenly shout out at a friend's house in the early 70's in order to get him to play a Fela album. One of the greatest African musicians ever. A short track is one under 10mins. Some of his double-backed albums on one CD contain only two tracks. But they’re great.

Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions. 6 CDs packed with false starts, alternate takes, studio chat.

Frank Zappa: Strictly Commercial. 1 CD. The lighter side of FZ. I’ve stopped listening to Bobby Brown when I’m out of the house because people stare at me when I burst out laughing; every time.

G

Gary Moore: Best of the Blues. 2 CD.

George Thorogood: The Baddest of George Thorogood and the Destroyers. 1CD.

The Grateful Dead: The Golden Road 1965-73. 12 CDs. Beyond Description 1973-89. 12 CDs. All the original major label albums remastered with extra tracks which sometimes doubles their length, plus extensive booklets, and both in a box which really is a solid box not a thin piece of card. The most expensive box sets I’ve ever bought with both costing over £80.00, but worth it.

H

Heart: Essential. 2 CDs.

The Hollies: Greatest Hits. 2 CDs. Back to the 60’s with one of the greatest British pop bands. Slick and professional with a string of great songs and great singing.

Howlin’ Wolf: The Genuine Article. 1CD. See my Top 100 Tracks.

The Human League: Very Best Of. 2 CDs.

I.

Intermission: What makes a good single artist anthology and how do I find it?

With popular and even not so popular artists there are probably more anthologies than you can count. Just look at Jimi Hendrix for example who has many more compilations available than he had original albums issued during his life.

The easiest way is to go to All Music Guide and type in the artist you’re interested in and then select Compilations. I don’t always agree with their reviews of individual albums (Trans, anyone?) but there’s more of a consensus on compilations and I’ll often take their recommendations. However, their highest rated compilations might be an expensive multi-disc set when I just want a mid-price 2-disc set at most. Also there may be different editions of the same compilation. The Cale set below is available in a single disc fillet (with a different title) at an Amazon price more than twice the 2-CD set. Also AMG, being an American site, it may not list or review good compilations available only overseas like the UK.

The next step is to check out what’s available on Amazon and read the buyer reviews which can be a good guide and sometimes they can’t. Rabid fans can either be hypercritical or sickeningly fawning. It goes without saying that you can trust my reviews implicitly. There’s also the advantage of often being able to listen to samples.

As for what makes a good anthology, that’s also subjective. Mostly a 2-CD set and sometimes a single CD is enough for me as long as it covers all the best known/popular tracks. Unreleased tracks are aimed at squeezing money out of the die-hard fan and aren’t necessarily a plus for the casual buyer as, with honourable exceptions (e.g. Dylan & Springsteen), they almost certainly aren’t the artist’s best work. I also like a good booklet about the artist and his work. In this respect the Cale anthology, which finally got me round to writing this piece, is exemplary. It’s cheap (though it wasn’t when it was first issued), it has a lot of tracks which end at 1993 leaving plenty of his later work to explore, there’s a good booklet, and it has 6 unreleased tracks. All of which makes it a great introduction to Cale’s work.

J

J J Cale: Anyway The Wind Blows. 2 CDs. See the introduction and above.

Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child, The Best Of. 2 CDs. There are umpteen Hendrix collections available. I’ve checked and this is probably the best 2 CD around and the price is good.

Johnny Clegg and Savuka: In My African Dreams. 1 CD.

Jonathan Richman: Roadrunner, Roadrunner The Berserkley Collection. 2CDs.

K

Kirsty MacColl: From Croydon To Cuba. 3 CDs.

L

The Levellers: One Way of Life. 1 CD. I have phases when I play this a lot. One of the best single disc compilations around.

Link Wray: King of the Wild Guitar. 1 CD. Some artists are best listened to in small doses otherwise they get a but repetitive. Wray is one of them.

Lou Reed: NYC Man. 2 CDs.

M

Marvin Gaye: Very Best Of. 2 CDs. No Marvin Gaye, no soul.

Mike Oldfield: Boxed. 3 CDs. Oldfield, the Ralph Vaughan Williams of Rock?

Muddy Waters: Hoochie Coochie Man, The Complete Chess Masters 1952-58. 2 CDs. There are so many Muddy compilations available, but for the price and the quality, this is one of the very best. It also comes in lovely thick card covers with a good booklet containing a short but good essay by Mary Kathrine Alden and some vintage photos on grainy stock paper. Lovely package.

N

Neil Young: Archives vol 1 1963-72. 6 CDs. Despite the great music, this comes as a disappointment. Check out my Amazon UK review for why. I got my copy from the States at a price much cheaper than over here and later sold it on Amazon Marketplace for a small profit. After copying it to my Ipod of course.

Nils Lofgren and Grin: Best of the A&M Years. I CD. A guy who was decorating our house last week heard me playing Trans and recognised it. He told me he was a fan of Lofgren, who has played with Young, and seen him live several times. I thought: why not? The only track I actually remembered from the 70’s was the excellent Keith Don’t Go. After playing the CD once, it still is.

O

Osisbisa: Best Of. 1 CD.

P

Pat Benatar: Greatest Hits. 1 CD.

Paul Butterfield: The Elektra Years. 2 CD set. Amazon UK  charge a ludicrous price for this but I got it at a reasonable price on Ebay.

Pentangle: Last Flight. 2 CDs.

Pet Shop Boys: Discography. 1 CD.

Peter Gabriel: Hit/Miss. 2 CDs.

Phil Collins: Hits. 1 CD. Okay, tell me you don’t have a Collins track or ten somewhere in your collection. Oh, you don’t, okay then.

Prefab Sprout: A Life Of Surprises. 1 CD.

R

The Ramones: Hey Ho Let’s Go. 2 CDs.

The Rolling Stones: Singles Collection, The London Years. 3 CDs. Check out my recent review in this blog. 40 Licks. 2 CDs.

S

Sandy Denny: Boxful Of Treasures.  5 CDs. See my 100 Favourite Tracks.

Santana: Ultimate Collection. 2 CDs. I like it but a true definitive Best Of has yet to appear.

The Searchers: 40^th Anniversary Collection. 2 CDs. More great 60’s pop music and beyond. Takes me back to my teenage schooldays and heated arguments about Del Shannon and Dionne Warwick. Hated the former, loved the latter.

Sheryl Crow: Very Best Of. 1 CD.

Simple Minds: Best Of. 2 CDs.

Steeleye Span: Spanning The Years. 2 CDs.

Steely Dan: Showbiz Kids. 2 CDs.

Stephen Stills: Turnin’ Back The Pages. 1 CD. A very good filleting of his 70’s solo albums, plus good booklet. I used to own a couple of the vinyl albums.

T

Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is. 2 CDs.

Z

ZZ Top: Rancho Texicano.  2 CDs.

 

If you've found this interesting, why not do something similar and let me see it. 

Very special thanks go to  Greg Pickersgill and Mark Plummer for their unexpected but very welcome responses to my revised fanzine version of 100 Favourite Tracks.

DVD: THE DISTURBANCE

It seems as if I'd saved the best till last with the third and final DVD of the Rare Flix box set and it's surprising that this film isn't better known.

While playing beachball on a beach, the cosily attractive nice girl Susan (Lisa Geoffrion) finds herself drawn to the nearby geeky dude who's building a complicated sandcastle. Susan and Clay (Timothy Greeson) start going out which turns out not to be such a good idea. Clay has already been in a mental institution, he has hallucinations of a demon haunting him, he may or may not be committing a series of rape-murders (we only find out if these are real near the end), he has vivid and explicit sexual fantasies which we see, and his behaviour often otherwise odd. Once while he showers, he imagines his mother laughing at him and he attacks her with a pipe which isn't good news for the family cat. When Susan finally dumps him, he's incapable of accepting or even understanding what has happened but it does trigger the violent climax.

Given that this is cheap exploitation it's much better than you'd expect. Greeson and Geoffrion are both believable in their roles and the one explicit sex scene between is tender and touching rather than luridly gratuitous. Greeson is particularly good and the depiction of his madness and the terror of his delusions are light years from the usual drooling  psycho slasher fare.  He is truly insane but is portrayed as a victim of his madness than as monster. The lurches into hallucination are particularly well done and jarring, notably a scene on the beach when Susan is creating a sandcastle and Clay has to drag her violently away from it as an arm made of sand reaches out from underneath to grab her.

I've really rather enjoyed this Rare Flix collection of C-movies. While I can't honestly say that they are good movies, though The Disturbance comes pretty close, I've definitely found all three engaging in different ways and so I've ordered volume 2 from the States. If the standard is up these then I'll be well pleased.

DVD: POSED FOR MURDER

This is the second of the Rare Flix DVDs I've watched (see the cover on the previous post). This one is, I suppose, a slasher though, while there's lots of slashing, there isn't a whole lot of gore.

The setup is this: someone is very possessive about a pinup girl who is trying to become an actress and kills anyone who seems to be taking an unhealthy interest in her. Charlotte Helmkamp, the lead, actually is a former Playmate of the Month and knows a lot about nude modelling which she does very well on a couple of occasions during the movie and she plays a girl trying to get away from modelling and become an actress and during the early part of the movie she gets the lead role in a cheesy cheap horror movie entitled Machete Men from Mars. Is this meant to be post-modern irony? Nah, didn't think so. 

The first part is the setup where we meet potential slashers and potential victims. Who might it be? Well, there is some ambiguity as to the identity of the killer early on -I wanted it to be the best friend who secretly has a lesbian crush on Charlotte and is killing any man who shows an interest but as she gets killed early on it isn't her. In fact it quickly becomes obvious who the murderer is -DVD Delirium also annoyingly gave it away.

This isn't a bad bad movie, in fact it's mostly quite competent with some interesting bits in it and, like Death Collector, kept me watching. The DVD also has, like the other one, a selection of interesting (and different) trailers.

DVD: DEATH COLLECTOR

My favourite movie reference series is DVD Delirium vols 1-4. Vol 4 was only just released a month or so ago and I eagerly plowed through it looking for weird and wonderful DVDs to buy. The above set is about the second thing I've bought after The Dead Pit and The Hanging Woman and I watched the first one -Death Collector- last night and I wanted to share this with you.

Over the credits sequence are clips from old westerns but the film itself is set in the near future when the American economy is collapsing. Our hero comes over like a character from b/w 50's teen movie with his blonde hair and gee-tar as he sashays into a bar in downtown decaying Shithole, Nowhere and serenades the ladies who melt at his good looks, including our heroine who, unfortunately, is the doxy of the local ganglord, sorry, I meant owner of the local insurance company which, in the near future when banks sabotage each other, is the same thing. Just as our hero is about to get down to some serious shagging, the bad guys arrive and several people are killed including the hero's sheriff brother. However, as the bad guy is in charge it's our hero who gets sent down the river.

Five years later and just about everyone's bankrupt including the government, the prisons are shut down and our hero is released. Returning to the bar, with a gammy leg, he finds everyone sitting where he left them, dressed the same, with haircuts the same. It's almost as if the scenes were shot at the same time. Still, it's not long before he's wowing the ladies with his singing and gee-tar playing and pissing off the bad guy (to whom everyone pays life insurance premiums and owns the local economy) and his English chief henchman. (Don't ask me why the villain of Shithole, Nowhere would have an English henchman.)  There's an assault on the bad guy's place by our hero with the gammy leg, the heroine, and his ex-cellmate who proceeds to slaughter a massive number of well-armed guards.

(Talking of guards, I could have sworn, until I saw the credits, that one of the prison guards was Nathan Fillion wearing shades but, as the credits give a different name, it's not credited to him on IMDB, and he was only 18 at the time, I have to be wrong. Damn, I thought I might have a scoop.)

Badly-made and often badly-acted and frequently just badly bad, I was never tempted to skip through it and I sorta strangely enjoyed it.

DVD/CD REVIEWS

Here we have the protagonists from the Swedish film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which I watched last night. Like several people before me, I prefer the original title of the novel which translates as the far more appropriate The Men Who Hate Women. I've also read the novel, all three of the trilogy in fact, only a few months ago so they are relatively fresh in my mind which meant there weren't any real surprises for me in the film. More a case of: ah this where such and such happens.

It's a faithful, albeit relatively filleted, version of the book, excising major subplots such as the protagonist's complicated private life and numerous supporting characters, making it a two-hander and also a showcase for actor Noomi Rapace as the complicated and not a little disturbed Lisbeth Salander the genius computer hacker. Rapace is now poised as a breakout international movie star.

It's well-made with some lovely photography of the wintery Swedish countryside, the pace is sedate and action sequences are few and far between. I started watching the dubbed version because I thought I'd need to follow the plot quite closely without an added layer of distraction but quickly switched to Swedish with subtitles as I found the American accents just too irritating.

Like Let The Right One In (the brilliant Swedish vampire movie), it's currently being remade in America. Unlike that one, however, the location is staying the same which makes this remake even more redundant than the other.

This is the cover to Neil Young's Trans, one of his most critically derided albums, and one of my favourites of his. By 1982, no-one was sure what he'd come up next except that it would either be a rocker or a more acoustic folksy set or maybe a little of both. What no-one expected was a mostly synthesiser-vocoder dominated set which not only transformed Young's voice into something unrecognisable but also his guitar albeit less so. There are a couple of more standard Young songs such as the final Cortez the Killer style workout on the excellent nine-minute Like An Inca and the opening jaunty number Little Thing Called Love.

But after the deceptive opening we get Computer Age with terrifically Trans-formed vocals and nifty guitar work. After that we get a series of songs about transformational (computer) technology and what also seems to be a look into the soul of the machine. I think it works brilliantly and the songs are all of a high standard. I love it.

Oh, and the reason I'm reviewing it here and now is because I've only just bought the CD two decades after getting rid of all my vinyl albums. It's as good as I remember and hasn't dated at all which you might think it would bearing in mind that it's 28 years old. Young singing, while altered drastically, is still recognisable. I love it.

WHY I HAVEN'T BEEN BLOGGING MUCH LATELY

A DAY IN THE LIFE

4.00am. Wake up and go to the toilet. Try to get back to sleep. Daisy, the 6 month old kitten, climbs on top of me and purrs loudly.

 

5.00am. Ted wakes me up either by miaowing or touch my nose or both. I get up and let him out. Try to go back to sleep.

6.00am. Get up, go downstairs, let cats our, put outside any cat litter trays which have been heavily used. Put food down for cats. Eat cereal while trying to fend off Little Bob the 3-month old kitten.

 Little Bob 

 (handed in at the shop two weeks ago and taken home by me)

6.45am. Switch on computer and check emails for any overnight Amazon marketplace sales. Read the Daily Mail Online hoping to get righteously annoyed by some of their over the top right-wing pronouncements. "Red Ed, the new Labour leader, refuses to condemn all strikes outright!" I paraphrase but that is the gist.

7.15am. Get dressed, make Susan a cup of tea, let cats in, put down more food, clean out litter trays and replace litter. Collect cat from its overnight stay in a cage in the garage; clean out its used litter tray, put it in the van.

7.40am. Arrive at Raich Carter Sports Centre for a half hour swim.

8.20am. Drop off cat at Williams and Cummings vets for neutering.

8.40am. Pick up cat from Carol's and take to W&C to have staples removed from its tummy at 9.15.

9.30am. Put cat back in van and go back inside to wait for Susan who is bringing Little Bob for 9.45. Little Bob has been sick a couple of times and has developed extremely runny diarrhea and we're worried about him.

10.15am. Take cat back to Carol's and go home to clean out more cat litter. Do some housework. (Oh yes I do, Susan!). Check emails and potter about on the Internet checking some of my favourite sites.

12.00. Tired and decide to take a nap.

12.05pm. Phone rings.

12.06pm. Tired and decide to take a nap.

12.10pm. Phone rings.

12.15pm. Make a couple of sandwiches and have a cup of coffee.

 Most lunchtimes I watch an episode of a tv series I've taped (i.e. recorded on the black Virgin box's hard drive) from the night before. Currently recording as I'm typing this is Waterloo Road. Others include: Smallville (current series coming to an end), The Vampire Diaries (just started and much better than people who haven't watched it realise), True Blood (waiting for Season 3), Glee (waiting for Season 2), Skins (waiting for series 5), Castle (with the great Nathan Fillion without whom it probably wouldn't completed its first season and the only thing worth watching on the Alibi channel), and stuff I've forgotten.

1.45pm. Susan rings and tells me to pick up some stuff from a house round the corner. I call in at the shop before I realise she means that I have to get some  stuff from a house round the corner not pick up stuff from the shop to deliver to the etc. I get some bedding for Carol while I'm there and then go get the stuff which I take back to the shop.

2.30pm. I collect the cat from W&C and take it to Star Rescue (actually defunct but they still help out occasionally) at Seaburn from where it will be transferred to a new home  in Newcastle the following day. It's a nice little black and white two year old female in case you were wondering. Then it's back up the road to Roker Park Vets to collect two cats I'd left there the night before. One had tests of various kind. The other, Megan, a surprisingly active 21 year old (and that is not a typo) long haired tortoiseshell had a lump removed from her back which manifested itself as an open wound. The lump is probably cancerous but the operation will give her a few months more at the very least. she now looks like Frankenstein's cat having a bald central patch with a long stitch from her ribs, over the spine, and down to the other set of ribs. Both go back to Carol's where is pick up a dozen black sacks full of used smelly bedding and take it to the council tip. All this takes me up to-

5.00pm. Make a cup of coffee, feed the cats, clean up any used cat litter, check my email, etc.

5.45pm. Head off for Houghton-le-Spring four miles away to pick up a cat. To be honest, I don't usually have evening pickups to do but this is a fairly accurate record of my activities on one day this week. I collect the cat from an elderly lady who seems to take in local waifs and strays and take it back home to spend the night in a cage in the garage.

6.30pm. Can't be bothered to cook so I get some fish and chips on the way home. After eating it and watching a bit tv together, Susan goes upstairs to watch tv (Alibi channel or any crime series showing) in bed and I go on the computer.

9.00pm. Slide in a DVD and pour a glass of wine (and later a couple more). I'm currently rewatching the Firefly box set, Joss Whedon's brilliant. SF series. 

I could, if I had the energy or the interest do a blog called DVD A DAY as I do do that every evening at the same time (except on the couple of nights a month when I go out for a drink). I don't always watch a complete DVD disc every evening as it may be a tv series box set as in the case of Firefly (starring the great Nathan Fillion, see above) or Glee, but usually it's a movie which, if it's too long or I want to watch some of the extras (this latter being infrequent as I usually don't bother with them). Often it's Horror or SF or Fantasy but not neccessarily.

Here's what's on my to watch shelf: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish, read the book and its two sequels), Gone Baby Gone (thriller directed by Ben Affleck), Hard Revenge Milly (Japanese action/gore), Exte (Japanese horror), Red Cliff (epic John Woo Chinese historical), Ran (Akira Kurosawa's historical epic based on King Lear), The Good the Bad and the Ugly (and if you don't know what that is you're reading the wrong blog), The World At War (complete 11-disc DVD documentary series remastered and to be reviewed for Amazon Vine), and Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki's latest animation). But tonight, Firefly continues.

The crew of Firefly

Some time between 11.00 and 11.30pm I go to bed.

Post Script.

I've put in a couple of things that happened on different days and it might be a little more packed than a normal day but it really isn't untypical. It's a lot of little things separated by varying spans of time which aren't really long enough for me to settle down and get my head into doing something constructive (like actually writing more of the novel which I write mentally while I'm swimming, and blogging, and several other things I keep putting off doing).

Today I took Daisy, our second newest cat to be neutered, then Carol rang and I had to take Clara (which recently had to have an emergency hysterectomy) to Roker Park as she thought there was something wrong with its side. The vet couldn't find anything but he did discover a very erratic heart rate and has kept her in overnight to X-ray her heart under anaesthetic in the morning.

There's always something unexpected.

(This is also being posted in my Cat Rescuing blog.)

POLITICS: THE DAILY MAIL GETS THE KNIVES OUT

For whom, you may ask, as if you didn't already know. It's for this innocuous looking man.

Whose name is Ed Milliband, or Red Ed as the DM calls him, and he's just been elected leader of the Labour Party. 

The DM hates him for a number of reasons, not least of which being that he isn't his more moderate brother David who lost by 1.3% of the votes. Another is that he won because the majority of union votes went to him. He also quoted as saying that he would not condemn legal strike action by an union attempting to save jobs and that his view on any particular strike would be dictated by the circumstances surrounding the strike. Mind you, I can understand the DM's outrage at this; after all it's been at least 15 years since a Labour leader said that.

How absolutely outrageous!

And did you know that over 35,000 votes were declared invalid? Shame! Um, except that these were almost entirely union votes and the unions were the ones who preferred him anyway so if they had been counted he'd probably have had a larger majority. Sorry, DM, can't have your cake and eat it.

A majority of party activists and MP's preferred brother David; only the unions got Ed in. This may be true and it doesn't make any difference. The unions are the major source of funds for the Labour Party so it's only right that they have some say in voting for the leader. 

The voting system, in case you weren't aware of it goes like this: The ballot paper has a list of candidates and voting is by preference =1,2,3 etc. The candidate with the least votes has his second choices distributed appropriately among the remaining candidates, and this goes on until there are only two left and the one with over fifty per cent of the vote wins. This does mean that a candidate with less first choice votes could win over a candidate with more first but fewer second choices. In practice this means that a middle of the road candidate is more likely to win over someone who polarises the voters.

I've taken no interest in this election until the actual announcing of the results but I will be taking more now that it's over. All I can say, especially after the DM started sticking the knives in, is: Go, Red Ed!

TV: WATERLOO ROAD

A few months ago I discovered the pre-Watershed school drama series (which had been on the go for five years) and decided it was pretty good. The new series has just started and there are some new characters including a single parent who had, until recently been home-educating his two kids -a very bright girl and a 16 year old boy who just wants to be normal. New Head Amanda Burton has persuaded him to join the staff and this week's episode focussed on his first day as a new teacher. 

And something happened that disgusted me so much I almost stopped watching. First, however, is a photo. Our new teacher is  on the far left.

In an encounter with a parent, he spoke the following words:

"I didn't mean to infer that your son was stealing."

I'm sure you can imagine how I felt on hearing this. Remember that this is a highly educated man who is very ambitious for his two children and yet he actually spoke this sentence. Given what we know about this character it is as likely that he could say infer when he meant imply as it is that he'd stick his head up Amanda Burton's arse.

It also means that the writer should be put up against the wall and shot because s/he clearly doesn't know either.

Post script

Neither does it seem does the director, editor, any of the cast or anyone else who might have been involved in the production.

NEW AMAZON REVIEWS

An Amazon 4 star review.

Just what I always wanted-

which was an Ipod dock/speaker system. If you're reading this for the Iphone it won't be of any use to you.

On the other hand if you want it for your Ipod (mine is a 160Gb Classic) it seems pretty good. It's small and very portable, though I wouldn't carry it around with your Ipod plugged in. Once it's on a flat surface the connection seems pretty secure. I have tried with the case on and it does slot in but it's easier without it. I drive around a lot in a van for our local animal rescue charity which only has a cassette radio installed and I don't have any cassettes or listen to the radio much. This works fine on the seat and on the floor with the sound clear above the engine noise.

And it does sound pretty good to me, though I'm not one for subtleties and tend to play Rock a lot of the time. The bass sound in particular is very good. I have tried a couple of classical tracks and Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries will blast your head off as well as any guitar solo but you'll have to turn the volume up for quieter pieces, though I should tell you that I'm a little deaf. Can't give you any techie details I'm afraid but if you want something portable to play the music on your Ipod this seems fine to me. It's small enough to fit on most flat surfaces -I can see me listening to it while I soak in the bath- and loud enough for anything but the noisiest parties. I don't know how long the batteries last and it was a little fiddly getting them to work at first but that might have been me.

I've only had it just over a day but I like it a lot as it really is just what I wanted. Recommended for everyone except demanding music snobs. 

An Amazon 4-star review.

For serious film and fantasy enthusiasts, 

Let's make it absolutely clear what this book isn't.

It isn't for the novice and it isn't for the casual fan.

It isn't a comprehensive survey or intended as a reference book.

It isn't intended as any form of definitive statement on fantasy film.

It isn't a light read.

What it does seem to me to be is both an introduction to fantasy film (and literature) for the intelligent novice and an opening of the debate of what exactly is a fantasy film. As such it is aimed at those with a serious interest in film such as students and academics rather than the general public. The opening chapters cover the history of fantasy (literature and film) and an analysis of what exactly fantasy as a genre is as opposed to its bedmates Science Fiction and Horror. It then continues with a critical analysis of ten fantasy films (including Spider-Man which I would argue is SF, unless you want to create a separate genre of comic-book movies). You'll probably have a job finding it on the shelves of most public but not university libraries.

The author, Katherine Fowkes, has read widely while researching the book and quotes liberally from numerous writers. As these writers often have different ideas on the nature of fantasy indicates clearly that she is interested in opening up the debate on the subject thus the book is most effective as a source-book of ideas. That it is so much about differing ideas is what gives the book its strength allowing the reader to do their own evaluating and on this level it's very stimulating albeit sometimes a little hard going.

For some reason, which I can't quote chapter and verse on, I have the feeling that she doesn't really get the written form of Science Fiction, at least not at its high end; she does have a grasp of. that hideous conflation, Sci-Fi which is generally applied to SF films, very much the low end of SF, though I'm displaying my own prejudices here.

For its target audience this is an excellent learned and thought-provoking book though, as its author I'm sure would be the first to admit, it's not by any means the final word on the subject.

These were picked  by me from the monthly freebie for review list from the Amazon Vine programme. This in no way influences my reviews. Actually most of my Vine reviews tend to be less enthusiastic than the stuff I buy as I would rarely have actually bought any of the stuff offered on Vine. Having said, I've been pipped at the post several times before for an Ipod docking station as I really wanted one as I said in the review; I just wasn't convinced they were actually worth it. They are.

A couple of months ago Viners were offered the remastered World At War tv series and many (including me) grabbed it and weren't we disappointed when it just turned out to be a sample single disc. The complaints were numerous. Me, I just reviewed the one disc on the basis it was just the one disc. Then suddenly, after we'd ordered from this month's list, it appeared again on our to review page. Two days later it arrived -all the discs but just in paper sleeves and some discs without a proper label. I imagine those few naughty people who like to sell stuff on (which is against Amazon's rules) were really disappointed.

GUEST POSTING FROM BARRY SPENCE

This is a response to an article in the Daily Mail (online edition), a (cough) newspaper neither Ian nor I rate very highly.

As usual, I am missing something.

This champion of the sacred institution of a free press seems to condemn as
bigotry spoken freedoms (or any communicated in any way other than the
press) by the rest of us. If anyone objects to the visit (for whatever
reasons) are they bigots for their reasons of for nothing more than daring
to object in itself?

He seems also to reckon that we welcomed without protest in the past many
blood-stained, butchering tyrants and terrorists, plus genocidal criminals,
mass rapists, mysoginists, homophobics and true religious and/or political
bigots. A far greater crime to him seems to be suppression of a free press! This
"non-objection policy" may be only generally correct due to our apathy, but quoting Ceausescu

and Zuma as examples was unwise - I clearly recall many objections to their

specific presences here. We actually have objected to many others, such as
Thatcher’s best pal Pinochet (the mass butcher of The Disappeared) as one notable example. But presuming he is right - that we never objected to anyone before

- his logic is that we are obliged to continue not objecting, that we lose

by default the right to invent the idea of objecting for this one more visitor.

"Two (or more) wrongs DO make a right", do they?

Ye and me - plus a surprisingly large number of growing moaners - object to
the visit, but we have taken no consideration of past visitors' track
records and how they were welcomed. We should not do so, as the objection is
only to HIM, NOW. Is there some mythical "bigger picture" that I'm missing,
or am I as bigoted as you?

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING...." (Clint Eastwood)

I actually object to the increasing abuse of the word "bigot" because it
became a precedent when applied to mind-reading by the gifted magician
Gordon Brown. He dismissed a woman as a bigot BEFORE she even brought up her
views on "immigrants from Eastern Europe" - views that WE never heard, so
could not judge her on. However, Gordy obviously knew the full contents of

her unspoken mind in order to be able to pass judgement. Some people are now branding
others as bigots, basing this on their PRESUMPTION of what the victim of
their supernatural probing thinks. Very dangerous..... I always thought a
bigoted (or not) person had to be judged solely on what thoughts they
EXPRESSED to others! Again, what am I missing?

Thought Police rule!

SOCIETY/RELIGION: THE POPE'S VISIT. WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND STRONGER OPINIONS.

Here is a brief tongue in cheek exchange of emails between myself and my good friend Barry Spence. His is reprinted without his knowledge and I hope the phrase 'my good friend' continues to apply after this.

I sent him the following email:

Hi,

Does the Spence agree that the government should spend an estimated £100,000,000.00 of taxpayer's money on the visit of a cult leader who is responsible for:
the increase in AIDS cases,
the increase in the number of unwanted children,
maintaining prejudice against and repressing the moral right of homosexuals to engage with society as full members, and
covering up the crimes of large numbers of paedophiles solely because they belong to a select group?
Does the Spence even agree that this person should even be allowed into this country when so many of its taxpayers emphatically disagree with the actions of this member of the Hitler Youth?

--
Ian

To which Barry replied:

The Spence sees a current economic situation where the downtrodden peasants (= anyone whose income is less than that of an MP) have been ordered by the wise and experienced Cameron and his 100% millionaire cabinet to sacrifice some of their already low income to fund an attempt to correct the damage done by previous governments and bankers. Said MPs tell the peasants they must cough up to avoid national bankruptcy. Many projects (such as hospitals and schools that would benefit the peasants in the long run) worth less than £100 million have been cancelled.

Therefore, squandering what (according to the above) we cannot afford is a wasteful one-off short-term project that will help nobody long-term but inspire current resentment in a fair number of thinking, sacrificing citizens -but not a majority. If this visit is so important, shouldn’t the Church of Rome pay the bills? They have much more wealth than a near bankrupt minor European Hellhole!

To clearly separate his past from his present – current policies concern AIDS, unwanted children, homophobia and – sorry folks, I don’t believe it suddenly stopped – paedophilia and cover ups. Past sins include paedophilia cover ups and Hitler Youth, but you forget about 1940s apathy towards The Final Solution and a large organization in bed with the 1970s Mafia.

On PAST issues, we shouldn’t refuse this person entry on a visit – if we were to do that, over half the world’s leaders would never get in! We also have home-grown leaders (past and current) with pasts just as bad.

On CURRENT issues alone, over ongoing Church of Rome policies, we SHOULD refuse entry to he who represents it and takes full and final responsibility.

Since when did the opinions of the taxpayers (who provided the £100 million) matter a toss to those in power?

 The Spence

 PS

I need an explanation from The Roman Catholic Church based on your words below:

maintaining prejudice against and repressing the moral right of homosexuals to engage with society as full members

How come this is ongoing official policy, yet that same outfit permits (some claim they encourage) paedophile activity by its employees (not all homosexual, just the majority) and then covers it up, skilfully using a complex network of power abuse? Is this “One law for us – another for you” - or can I just dismiss it as raging hypocrisy?

Me again.

Just so you know exactly who we're talking about here's his picture.

Sorry, that was below the belt. Here's the real photo.

Hmm. Spooky.

Just in case anyone thinks I've got it in for the old Nazi supporter, I should make it clear that I hate all organised religions. The worst mistake Man ever made (Women have more sense) was to invent God. Christianity and Islam just made it much worse.

As for the Pope, fuck the old bastard.

Post script.

It appears that the Pope's visit will only cost the taxpayer £12million not 100 as I stated. As far as I'm concerned, his anachronistic paedophile-ridden hypocritical church should pay  for it and one penny of taxpayer's money is too much.

SCIENCE FICTION: SFX MAGAZINE

I've been reading SFX since around issue 50 and started subscribing about twenty issues later. Round about issue 150 a certain person who shall be nameless wanted me to cut down on my spending so I didn't renew my sub and only bought the occasional issue which became even more infrequent when the better Deathray, with its more intelligent approach, came out. Sadly, Deathray didn't last and so when I found myself with a little spare cash, subscribed to SFX again. The sweetener which sealed the deal was a freebie Stanley Kubrick DVD box set.

And I waited for it to arrive.

And waited.

After about six weeks I emailed the subscription dept and received an automated reply telling me I'd be contacted by a human being.

And I waited. For two weeks and sent off another email and received an automated reply.

And I waited. For ten days and sent off another email and received an automated reply. And a couple of days later promising that all would be sorted.

And I waited. And nothing happened so I sent off another email threatening to cancel my sub and demand a full refund and received an automated reply. Followed by an apologetic letter saying SFX would be in the post very quickly and although they'd run out of the Kubrick box set, if I rang a certain number I would be given a choice of whatever was available.

And within a couple of days I received the previous two issues of SFX, neither of them subscribers copies without all the words on the front but at least I got them and then a week later the latest issue (see above) a subscribers copy. I was too apathetic to phone the number and also annoyed that I'd have to spend money to claim a freebie.

In that issue one of the regular staff writers wrote the Soapbox feature about what a good idea it was to subscribe....

So I wrote in agreeing with him, in theory, but...

A couple of days later I received a very apologetic email from the editor himself telling me that they'd recently changed their subscription company to avoid things like that and that he'd look into it. In my reply thanking him I asked if it would be possible to email me a list of the freebies so I could make a considered choice rather than a hurried one over the phone.

This happened and I picked Smallville Season 8 (I'll write about this series some other time) which I received last week and I'm currently watching. Then today I received a large box which I wasn't expecting. It contained three of their expensive specials and five books, three of them hardbacks, by way of an apology. This is a very gracious gesture which of course I'll reply to and thank them.

Nice one.

NEW REVIEWS: MUSIC & MOVIES

So I've been playing classical music for the last two weeks and enjoying it but I'm suddenly in the mood for getting down and dirty again.

Wait!

What's this packet on my doormat?

Why it's Ten Years After Live At The Fillmore East 1970.

Two hours of rock'n'roll, white boy blues, and lo---ooo---ong guitar solos featuring Alvin Lee on vocals and guitar. Lee was never rock's greatest vocalist or guitar stylist but he and the band can hold an audience even when playing some really long songs. And there are some really long tracks on this 2-CD set. Willie Dixon's modest Help Me (a rip-off, with added lyrics, of Green Onions that he gave to the second Sonny Boy Williamson) stretches out to 16 minutes. I'm Going Home, the number which electrified Woodstock audiences with its intensity, comes in at just under 12. Spoonful which closes the album is a relatively modest 8 minutes. But the standout is the medley Skoobly-oobly-doobob/I can't keep from crying sometimes/Extension on one chord extends to 19.30 and, astonishingly, it's the best track. 

The reason these long tracks work is because of dynamics and structure. Lee and the band throw in acknowledgements to their heroes. In Skoobly, Lee, apart from simply varying the pace and tone of his solos, plays tributes to his guitar heroes and includes classic rock'n'roll tributes. In Going Home, we get an Elvis medley. Great stuff and a terrific live album. Well, apart from the 11 minute drum solo track The Hobbit. Only the twin drumming/percussion maestros of The Grateful Dead, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart  can ever get away with that.

It's hard being a dedicated Rolling Stones fan (which I'm not) because much of their early catalogue exists in different versions -UK and USA- in terms of albums and singles in that tracks are different or different versions or even an album (the UK e.p. 5*5 became an album in the States with extra tracks). Now while I'm not a dedicated Rolling Stones fan, I do like the band. In the 60's you either preferred The Beatles or The Stones which itself became a paradigm of an individual's musical tastes. As I'm writing about the latter you guess where I fall. I've got the best of collection Forty Licks, the classic Exile on Main Street (not long before the extended version appeared; bugger!), and a download of the extended Get Yer Ya-yas Out which was over £30.00 cheaper than the box set. But 40 Licks doesn't cover all their best and is notably weak on very early stuff. The Rolled Gold collection, while partly making amends for that, has too much of an overlap to make it worth gettting.  However, just a few days ago, I found this on Amazon for £8.99.

Which collects all thing singles issued from 1963-68 including the different b-sides from the UK and US singles. When generally getting rave reviews on Amazon -if the single was in mono then it's mono here- there is some carping by serious fans in that it's a bit inconsistent. Most of it's carping and the only valid criticism is that it doesn't include the contents of 3 EPs which it would be nice to have been included. If you're interested you can check out the reviews themselves. As far as I'm concerned, while I'm still missing out on the odd track I'd like, this 3-CD, three hour set pretty much fills in most of the gaps that I wanted filling in my modest Stones collection and the informative booklet is excellent, especially as their keyboard player Ian Stewart is finally credited as a member of the band as he always should have been.

Like District 9, I was a bit late coming to this one and, like District 9, I'm glad I finally did catch up. This is probably the most light-hearted and entertaining zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead. Our hero is a gauche, awkward student who should have been played by Michael Cera and I'm sure that in a few years time when someone who's seen the movie thinks about it they'll swear that Michael Cera was the lead. But he isn't, it's Jesse Eisenberg.

By accident he pals up with redneck gun-totin' zombie-killin' Woody Harrelson who seizes his role with enormous cheerful gusto and there's good support by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as sisters who don't trust anyone. And that, apart from two cameos, is the entire cast -I'm not counting the various stunt persons who play zombies. Great fun and very funny. Must watch again soon.

This isn't a movie and it isn't a tv show. Originally a web series it's now on DVD with lots of extras and there is one important name missing from the cover -Joss Whedon who scripted, composed the songs (it's a musical), and directed it. Nathan Filion plays smug and self-satisfied like no-one else can and Neil Patrick Harris is just superb as the wannabe supervillain who just doesn't have it in his heart to be evil. It's barely 42 minutes long but never mind the length feel the quality.