3rd April 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 1 Wolves 0

After Barcelona, it was always going to be difficult for the team to pick themselves up for this. So, the insipid performance that we saw wasn't altogether surprising. An erratic performance from Walcott, a few stinkers from Eduardo and an anonymous return to the starting line-up for Rosicky characterised the match. Wolves defended stoutly. We created the odd half chance but lacked a cutting edge. The real story of this match though, for me, was Wolves' time wasting, which started at roughly 3pm. There were two incidents, both occurring towards the end of the match, that summed up the absurdity of the situation. A Wolves goal kick, the ball lands on the edge of the area. Walcott, in a rush, grabs the ball for Wolves keeper Hanneman, placing the ball on the spot. Hanneman walks past Walcott to where the ball previously laid, then turns and shrugs his shoulders, as if confused that the ball might've moved from its spot before lolloping back towards the six yard box and, with the speed of a tortoise, moves the ball to the other side of the goal before taking the kick. Later, Wolves have a throw-in. The ballboy throws the ball to the player who, seemingly, has lost the use of his hands, as twice he lets the ball hit his chest and fall to the floor. When opposing teams dash your hopes in the final and 5th minute of injury time added because of your anti-football tactics to, you deserve everything you get. I should also mention the sending off of Karl Henry, which, I have to say, looked like a yellow card challenge to me. Rosicky made a meal of it and the player was dismissed. I don't like to see Arsenal players doing that (or imploring the ref to send a player off) but, hell, name a team that doesn't employ those kind of tactics and you'll be naming a team who don't win much. Henry's post-match comments were idiotic. Arsenal are not now treated any more fairly than before because we've had some bad injuries. But yes, it's entirely likely that our players may well be a bit more sensitive to bad tackles when they've seen team mates legs' recklessly snapped in two so often.

2nd April 2010, GIG: Daniel Johnston + Jeffrey Lewis, Troxy

Having only found out about this on the day, I was surprised to see that it wasn't sold out and even managed to buy front row seats in the circle. First of all, the Troxy is an amazing art deco theatre with a huge balcony that has little booths with tables. Wish I'd got one of those. The first band on were a massively inappropriate group from Belgium who peddled dull, 'impassioned' singer-songwriter fare. It went down like a lead balloon. Then on came Jeffrey Lewis who played with the accompaniment of Fran from The Wave Pictures on what was possibly a ukelele. Jeffrey Lewis, in my experience, is never less than brilliant. He has a laconic, New York drawl I could listen to all day and his lyrics really must be heard. He did a song about Sitting Bull with home-made visuals and finished with a gangster rap about mosquitos. Superb, I implore you to go see him if you've not done so before. Daniel Johnston then took the stage alone and played three or four songs in his typical style then left the stage to be replaced by an 11-piece big band who played some weird cartoon jazz stuff without the main man for a bit. When he did re-take the stage they backed him in a variety of styles. With mixed results. Some of it sounded a bit of a mess, some songs, in particular the more croony ones, were just plain odd (if you've heard Johnston's voice, you'll know he's no crooner). The slower ones, where the band sounded more like a small orchestra, were most successful. His songs are good enough to stand up to such accompaniment and they did. It's hard to explain the appeal of Johnston to those who aren't familiar with his back story and sometimes I wonder if it's actually all about the back story. When he performs he visibly shakes throughout and twice asked what city he was in. There's definitely an element of the freakshow going on for sure. He can't play too well and his voice, of course, is as rudimentary a voice as you'll hear. But you don't go to see Johnston for technical artistry. His songs appear to me as 100% lacking in cynicism. There's not a drop of it there. And you don't hear that too often.

Note: This gig was mildly spoilt by a man who took exception to Johnston's band. He showed his displeasure by shouting "you can do better", "lose the band" and "we want more" so loud Johnston actually heard him. Most people around him took exception to him and told him so, which meant he changed his shouts to "CASPER...CASPER...CASPER" after every song. Twat.

2nd April 2010, ART: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, The Barbican

You might know this as the thing with the birds that play musical instruments. That's all I knew anyway. We arrived at the Barbican to find a quite huge queue, backed up to a sign that said it was one hour's wait. We joined. An hour didn't seem too long since we'd made our way there. Two hours, however, did seem too long. And it was. Two hours. Boring. Once in though, it is fun. In the enclosure are a load of extremely cute zebra finches and some upturned guitars and cymbals mic'd up and often with bits of foliage on them. When the birds land on said instruments, they inadvertently make 'music'. The birds love getting up and making a bit of skronky avant-garde noise it seems. They also enjoy landing on people's shoulders and shoes. They are really cute, honestly. There was an amusing/borderline-horrifying incident when one finch landed on Mary, causing her to trap the poor little blighter between her coat and neck, as she flinched in fear. That would've been an awkward situation, had death occurred. After 10 minutes of amusement, we were done. Worth going to see. Not worth queuing 2 hours for.

31st March 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 2 Barcelona 2

Football can be a strange game and tonight's match really was. Barcelona, frankly, ripped us to shreds. Their quick passing, comfort on the ball and speedy wing play meant that the game could've been beyond reach by half time. That it wasn't was down to some stupendous goalkeeping from Almunia and Barcelona's wastefulness, most often on the part of Ibrahimovic. However, we had some bad luck too, losing both Arshavin and Gallas to injuries before half time. The moment the 2nd half began though, disaster struck when a long ball caught our defence napping, Almunia raced off his line and Ibrahimovic cleverly chipped into the net. On an hour, things got worse. Again, the defence were too slow and let Imbrahmovic through again to make it 2-0. In all honesty, this was the scoreline the game deserved. And it could've been so much worse. But, it wasn't all due to Barcelona's brilliance. The aforementioned bad luck, a referee who appeared to bow to every Barcelona whim and a performance from the Arsenal midfield that, at times, beggared belief all contributed. We gave them so much space and with alarming regularly we simply gave them the ball. The worst culprit here being Diaby, who put in a retched performance. At 2-0, the visitors visibly took their feet off the gas. Enter Theo Walcott who, within minutes of his introduction nipped into the area and blasted past Valdes. Suddenly, Barca were rocking. Theo, although pretty clueless, was giving them problems with his speed. A nice bit of play between Bendtner and Fabregas in the penalty area resulted in Puyol bringing the Arsenal captain down, as he was poised to shoot. A red card for Puyol, quite rightly, and an equalising penalty from Fabregas. Incredible. We deserved to lose purely because of how they outplayed us for most of the game and yet, the goals we gave away were soft. Somehow, we've given ourselves a glimmer of hope for the 2nd leg. Although what they might do to us over there if they have their shooting boots on hardly bears thinking about. Henry, on as a substitute, left the field last to a stunning, emotional farewell. I'll admit, my eyes moistened briefly. The man is a hero.

20th March 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 2 West Ham United 0

This was a chance for us to return to the top of the table, if only briefly, and was a match that looked set to do just that after only five minutes when Denilson played a lovely one-two with Bendtner before placing it neatly around Rob Green. However, the 'goal difference' game that we were hoping for never materialised. We looked a bit like we thought we'd won it already and, despite a few half chances, never really threatened to increase our lead. Then, in first half injury time, a ball was sent over the top for West Ham's Franco to chase. Side by side with Vermaelen, the Mexican went down. Penalty, and as Vermaelen was the last minute, a by-the-law red card. There were no complaints at the time and it looked fair enough from where I was sat, but replays have since shown there was precious little contact between the players. Diamanti's penalty though, was saved by Almunia. See! The guy can save a shot. And we were bloody glad he did. A man down in the second half, we put in a fantastic performance once Wenger replaced Bendtner with Diaby and sealed the points at the death with a Fabregas penalty after Upson had handled. Alex Song was outstanding in midfield and as a makeshift centre back, Denilson put in one of his best performances, Campbell was immense and Diaby won so much of the ball in the second half, we almost dominated. A really good game and, for once, a good atmosphere inside the Emirates. Bit of a worry that we'll be without Vermaelen away at Birmingham on Saturday though, especially if he plays Silvestre.

19th March 2010, FILM: Disgrace

I'd read the book Disgrace by JM Coetzee some time last year and wasn't sure how well it could be translated to the screen. So, I was relieved to find that Steve Jacobs had done an excellent job and with a great performance from John Malkovich, turned out a decent film. The film is about a University lecturer sacked due to an affair with a young student and his daughter, who he visits in the South African countryside. When the two are brutally attacked by some locals, they're forced to face up to their pasts, their relationship and their current life situations. The attack itself is played out well, as thoroughly shocking as it should be and Malkovich's turn as an awkwardly unsociable, troubled individual carries the film. Disgrace has some complex themes - South African politics, race, sexual politics - but deals with them subtly and well enough to make you think about the issues as the film unfolds, without resorting to obvious tactics or preaching.

17th March 2010, GIG: Spectrum, The Luminaire

When you go to see Sonic Boom's Spectrum, you're not going to see a display of musical virtuosity, you're going to see a bunch of feedback and, at most, three chords. So, what this requires, most importantly, is decent sound. It needs to be loud. Otherwise the walls of guitar noise and feedback that build up or suddenly appear don't have the impact that they should have. This gig, sadly, wasn't loud enough. It might sound like I'm being some kind of audiophile geek or something, but really, it was kind of hard to be interested in Spectrum when the sound just didn't hit you with any oomph. It's supposed to be a wall of noise that you can get lost in, that can carry you along and if it's not, it's a bit pointless. His set was a varied one, some new stuff, some Spacemen 3 stuff (an early and surprising Set Me Free a highlight) including Revolution and Suicide (of course), a couple of Sonic originals and a load of covers. I'm sure it would've been great had the sound been right, but it wasn't, so it was a bit rubbish.