During these three weeks I:
1. Complained as the snow quickly turned to slush and the
streets seemed to be permanently iced up, which made my morning walk slightly
hazardous!
2. I listened to LCD Soundsystem’s American Dream, which
really underwhelmed me. I’d kinda given up on LCD Soundsystem as their last two
albums disappointed me as they didn’t match up to the highs of their first
album. But there had been loads of positive press for American Dream and a good
performance on Jools Holland, but the album itself is kinda flat and dull.
After my first listen I couldn’t remember any of the tracks, I couldn’t
remember after the second or third. In summary, American Dream is meh, don’t
bother with it.
3. It make up for the meh American Dream I brought some decent
albums (and single):
Pop Will Eat Itself’s ‘There Is No Love…’ catches them
halfway between their old school indie days and their using samplers and
technology days, Reach Up – Disco Wonderland is a glorious mix by DJ Andy Smith of old school
disco, Elvis On Stage is classic Elvis live and direct, before he got tired out
by the constant live performances, the Jerry Lee Lewis compilation is ok, but the
stand out tracks are his big hits (Whole Lotta Shakin’, Money, Great Balls,
etc.) and the rest sound kinda tame nowadays, New Order’s Technique is ok, but
sometimes the songs sound great, but the lyrics don’t or the lyrics are great and
the songs sound not so good, Spiritualized’s Fucked Up Inside is a great live
recording, all dreamy and fuzzy and angelica, and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine’s
‘Hello, Good Evening…’ live album highlights what a great band they were and
how anodyne modern pop is.
4. And some DVDs:
In summary, Mark Thomas is very funny and touching, I’d
forgotten how good Cop Land is and how many great actors are in it, I watched the Terminator films and Terminator
and Terminator 2 are great, intelligent action films and 3,4 and 5 aren’t as
bad as some people say they are (3 has a great downbeat ending, 4 is a full out
future war flick and 5 goes crazy with the time twists), Smokey and the Bandit
I and II are still funny (although a number of the jokes are very dated, from
‘a different time’ and rely on sexual and/or gender stereotypes), The Ward, although
the story isn’t new, it is well acted and directed and scary and well worth
your time, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a fun
buddy-spy flick, Brawl In Cell Block 99, a well written, directed and acted modern
exploitation flick, and Dracula 2001, a fun vampire film, like a modern Hammer
film.
I also brought DVDs Little Big Man, Anatomy Of A Murder and
the Person Of Interest boxset, but I haven’t watched them yet.
5. Brought and read some excellent comics:
6. Did all my Christmas shopping.
7. Had a pre-Christmas Pay Day Pint and caught up with some
old friends.
8. Spurred by my recent Pop Will Eat Itself listening I got
a copy of the great ‘The Eight-Legged Groove Atomic Dustbin Will Eat Itself’, which
brought back fond memories of the late 80’s and 90’s
9. On Christmas Eve, as per
Christmas tradition, I watched Die Hard 1 and 2, watched the Doctor Who Xmas
Special on Christmas Day, it wasn’t bad, a nice send off and counterbalance
between the first and 13th Doctors, and as per New Year’s Eve
tradition, on NYE, I watched Fight Club, to set myself up right for the new
year.
10. And saw Star Wars: The LastJedi. It’s a pretty good Star Wars film, let down by a couple of ‘plot holes’,
such as light-speeding into the First Orders ship (although that is probably
the best-looking sequence in the whole film) or how it ignores/throws out plot
points from The Force Awakens.
