Film Friday is a weekly recommendation of one video to watch this weekend.
Papa Swolio has one catchphrase – “go to the “f&^king gym!”
But I admire how many ways he has found to say it.
Films 2022 (Andrew)
Did we really need two films about Pinoccio this year? Or two films in 1998 about a giant meteor heading to Earth in Deep Impact and Armageddon? Or any of the other ‘twin films’ released each year where almost identical films are released at the same time, which happens more often than you might think?
Check out twin films for more examples, though some of the connections are very tenuous. Juno and Knocked Up are considered ‘twin films’ just because they both feature a pregnancy. However, if that’s the low standard required for a ‘twin film’ then I’ll submit two of my favourite films of the year: RRR and Everything Everywhere All At Once.
RRR is an Indian historical epic with the most OTT action sequences since John Woo said “we need more slow mo, and doves, and fire, and guns, and doves, and a baby, and guns, and don’t forget the doves!”.
In RRR, when one of the quietest scenes features a man throwing a tiger like a javelin, then you get a sense of how wild it can be. Throw a tiger like a javelin? That’s nothing! How about one man riding on the back of another man, while both of them fight of the entire British army while also throwing two tigers like javelins? RRR is ridiculously entertaining.
Everything Everywhere All At Once is all OTT but in a very different way. It throws ideas on screen, features scenes of rocks talking to one another, it jumps between different worlds and it tries to tell a story that violence and action are not the answer, while at the same time featuring a martial arts sequence with a fanny pack and a trophy placed in a plce where no trophy should ever go.
Yet, despite being nothing alike, both films are ‘twin films’ because both films feature a climax of the main character running along while riding on the shoulders of another character, which is enough for me to declare them ‘twin films’. Or twinbikerun films…
Other favourites :
Another Round – Charming Danish film about a group of friends who decide that life would be better if they were just a little bit drunk all day.
Fresh, Top Gun:Maverick and The Outfit – Three films that all had one thing in common: a proper satisfying plot no matter how outlandish the films became.
Cyrano – The best looking film this year. Every shot is stunning.
Pig – That’ll do, Nicolas Cage, that’ll do.
X – The best horror movie of the year. A satisfying old school cabin in the woods, let’s kill the characters off one by one, type horror.
The Batman – another film with not just a satisfying plot but a vital scene where Batman, after filming in Glasgow, could quite clearly be seen to drive down from the Necropolis, reach the junction beside the Royal Infirmary and be forced to decide if he was joining the M8 motorway or heading to town for his shopping. I can’t wait for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which also filmed in Glasgow, and which, from the trailer, looks like Indy will be riding a horse straight into the Greggs The Bakers on George Square.
Best Films 2022 (Iain)
Last year I wrote “The best thing that can be said about movies in 2021 is that it was a better year than 2020. “
Unfortunately this year wasn’t much better. Due to covid restrictions less films were made in 2021 and the ones that did should have stayed restricted.
The biggest disappointment was The Northman. A film that had great actors, a great director and a viking setting that you rarely see on film but the end result was a very boring film. One man at my screening turned to his friend at the end and said “A good review in The Guardian is not a recommendation, its a warning!” I think, even Guardian readers would have struggled to enjoy it.
The best documentary of the year came out in 2021 but I only saw it this year. The Rescue is the story of the Thai cave rescue. The plot is so unbelievable that if it was a film you’d say it was too unrealistic. But its all true. Later in the year it came out as a film starring Colin Farrell. Don’t bother with it, the documentary is much better.
The worst film of the year was Elvis. Tom Hanks starred as Widow Twanky from the pantomime…wait a sec. I’ve just read he’s supposed to be Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom. His performance was atrocious. His accent visited more countries than a Coldplay world tour. One minute he was dutch, then french, then woody from Toy Story. A truly terrible film. If the King wasn’t alive then he’d turn in his grave. Elvis is alive. Right?
Best joint film of the year is Everything, Everywhere All at Once. A film that reminds you that love is why we are all here. If you don’t cry at the bit with the inanimate rocks then you are a emotionless robot! Which I have been accused of. All I have to say to that is – “Syntax error – does not compute.”
And equally as good is The Banshees Of Inshireen,which asks the question what do you give up to do something you love and is it worth it? A question apt to anyone who spends there days training for races.
Film Friday – What is the best mountain in Scotland ? (Iain)
Film Friday is a weekly recommendation of one video to watch this weekend.
There are some great drone shots in this video. I don’t think I fancy the ridge walks!
Books 2022 (Andrew)
After I spent most of last year reading and re-reading my own books – more here – I thought I’d better read books by other people this year!
I also wanted to read more and I set myself the goal of reading a book every two weeks.
A good goal, I thought – but then JK Rowling released all 1000 plus pages of the Ink Black Heart and I could only have read it in two weeks if I’d taken a fortnight off and gone without sleep. However, on average, I met my goal as I also read a few books which were considerably shorter, including:
The Employees
136 pages of an HR report of employee interviews from a spaceship returning after *something* happens on an alien planet. A very unique way of telling what could have been a standard sci-fi tale.
Biographies
I enjoyed Brett Anderson’s Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn and Jarvis Cocker’s Good Pop, Bad Pop. One was filled with Britpop parties and heroin, the other working as a fishmonger in Sheffield. Both showed how singularly focussed you need to be to become a pop star. And how you really don’t want to take heroin. Or gut a fish.
I hated Liz Truss: Out of The Blue. if you want a trawl through 10 years of newspaper articles about Liz Truss, charting her career as an MP and minister, this is the book for you. If you want any insight, this book has been published too soon.
Classics
I’ve never read Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. I decided to read both to find out what actually happens in them. And the answer was nothing that matches any of the many TV or film versions I’ve seen of both. Frankenstein in particular was nothing like the story I thought it would be. No lightening bolts, no Igor, no flaming torches. No musical numbers. It turned out my idea of Frankenstein was almost exclusively based on the move ‘Young Frankenstein’. The book is not a Mel Brooks film.
Page turners
Emma Haughton’s ‘The Dark’ about a murder in the Arctic, is a cracking schlocky locked room mystery; Abigail Dean’s ‘Girl A’ is a gripping why done it; Janice Hallett’s ‘The Appeal’ is hugely enjoyable, but my favourite was Joseph Knox’s ‘True Crime Story’. A girl disappears in Manchester, and Joseph Knox tells the ‘true story’ of what happened, how he got involved and why it has nothing to do with him (or does it?).
Best Songs 2022 (Iain)
Years’ ago, I paid a small fortune for two tickets to see Adele in concert. I gave them to my wife for her birthday, assuming I’d get invited. That the unwritten rule… right? If I buy two tickets as a present then I get to go too. Everyone knows that… except my wife.
She took one look at my exceedingly expensive purchase and said “My friend will love this!” She immediately phoned her friend and told her the good news that they were going to sit on very expensive seats whilst listening to Adele perform.
Did I mention just how expensive these tickets were?
But I’m not bitter… maybe just a little bitter.
I share my Spotify account with my wife. Which is my excuse for why Adele features on my most played in 2022 list.
In this list, only James are someone I actually listened to.
2022 was not a great year for music. Lots of albums came out but most suffered from the modern problem of good single, crap album.
The art of making a coherent interesting album seems to have been lost.
Here’s three examples of songs I enjoyed in Albums that disappointed.
Film Friday – I tried to run a marathon in the hottest place on earth *without training*(Iain)
Film Friday is a weekly recommendation of one video to watch this weekend.
Is running a marathon in the hottest place on earth without training a good idea? Hell no but it makes for a good video.
Photos – November 2002 (Andrew)
The Sound of Football: Cheltenham Town (Andrew)
Every fortnight we cover the best and worst football songs from every club in the UK from our book ‘The Sound Of Football: Every Club, Every Song’. You can buy it here
Cheltenham Town
Nickname: The Robins
Ground: The Abbey Business Stadium
Stadium Capacity: 7,133
Song: No official song
Cheltenham doesn’t have an official song, but if it wants a suitably heroic anthem, we can suggest it should call on a local hero and former Olympian, Eddie’ The Eagle’ Edwards.
According to the Olympic spirit: “the important thing is not to win, but to take part“. One man embodies that spirit more than any other British athlete: Cheltenham’s Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards.
Eddie was the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping, a fantastic achievement when Cheltenham had neither snow nor hills to practice on.
His sporting ambition was also handicapped by a lack of funding, which prevented him from travelling abroad to train, and by his need to wear glasses, as he was near-sighted.
Glasses are a disadvantage in ski jumping – when Eddie jumped, his glasses would fog up. At the Calgary Olympics, he finished last, but the public took him to their hearts, and he became famous as a plucky underdog. At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organising Committee said:
“At these Games, some competitors have won gold, some have broken records, and some of you have even soared like an eagle.“
Unfortunately, other competitors didn’t have the Olympic spirit and complained that Eddie had made a mockery of their sport. They demanded the rules be changed to stop underdogs from competing. The International Olympic Committee created ‘the Eddie the Eagle Rule’, which requires Olympic hopefuls to compete in international events and place in the top 30 per cent or the top 50 competitors.
Eddie never competed in another Olympics. However, his skill in falling from a great height proved helpful when he went on to win the ITV celebrity diving show, Splash in 2013.
Cheltenham Town was founded in 1892. It spent the first three decades in local football, where it celebrated several championships and cup wins. Since moving to the football league, its trophy cabinet has been as bare as Eddie’s.
Eddie is not just a great faller; he’s also made several hit records. He recorded a song in Finnish entitled ‘Mun nimeni on Eetu’ (‘My name is Eetu’) even though he does not speak Finnish. Eddie’s less-than-perfect pronunciation added to its appeal. Later, he recorded another Finnish-language song: ‘Eddien Siivellä’ (‘On Eddie’s Wing’). Music doesn’t have an ‘Eddie The Eagle’ rule, but if it did…
Instead of a song, Cheltenham fans have several memorable chants, and perhaps one of them explains why they don’t have a song. If you visit the Abbey Business Stadium, you’ll hear fans sing:
“We can’t read, and we can’t write, but that don’t really matter
We all come from Cheltenham-shire and we can drive a tractor
Ooh arr, ooh arr, ooh arr, ooh arr, ooh arr!“
(Source: terrace chant)
Perhaps, when fans can’t read or write, it’s too much to expect a song from them too.
Buy the Sound of Football from Amazon.
Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon 2022 (Andrew)
The Balloch to Clydebank half marathon was one of Scotland’s least scenic races. Previously it started in Balloch; ran through the worst parts of Renton and Vale of Leven; popped into Dumbarton before running along the side of the A82; passed the betting shops of Bowling and Kilpatrick; and through an industrial estate in Clydebank before finishing at the bins of the Clydebank shopping centre.
Over the years it has improved. It moved the start to Loch Lomond, it swapped Renton and Vale of Leven for the Dumbarton canal but it always finished at the bins. Until this year. Or, technically, until 2020 as this was the postponed 2020 race which had been cancelled due to the pandemic. Instead, for the first time, the race finished beside one of the Clyde cranes in a newly re-developed area on the banks of the Clyde. We barely even passed a betting shop. A big change.
Unfortunately, while the race was improved, my time had not. I made two mistakes with this race. The first was to turn up at the start line in the wrong shoes. I had my trainers in the car but I forgot to change into them when I collected my race number in Clydebank and jumped on a bus provided by the organisers to get to the start line. Instead of running in nicely cushioned trainers I had to run in trainers with all the bounce of a brick wall.
Secondly, to make the race even harder, I was running after bruising my ribs two days before. Every time I swung my arms, my chest complained. Every time I took a step, my chest complained. Ouch.
Luckily, the new route is straightforward and very flat for most of the race so I was able to settle into a slow rhythm and get round without any yelps of pain.
The race normally takes place in March but was moved to September as it has been cancelled a number of times due to bad weather in early Spring, including one year when it was snowing. The change of date meant there were fewer people running so, if you’re thinking of a race late in the season, then do think of this one. It’s a great race, well organised, and it’s doesn’t end at a bin (any more)!
Twin brothers swimming, cycling and running in Scotland 