Paul's Culture Diary

3rd April 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 1 Wolves 0

2010-04-06T06:13:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-23T17:11:00.003-07:00

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

2010-03-23T17:11:00.001-07:00

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

2010-03-23T17:10:00.003-07:00

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.

9th March 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 5 Porto 0

2010-03-23T17:10:00.001-07:00

A nightmarish first leg, fortunately, left us in a good position to win this tie. After Bendtner's catalogue of misses on Saturday, he turned hero today with his first Arsenal hat-trick. His first was an easy finish from 12 yards after a loose ball squirmed out from between Arshavin and Porto's keeper and right back, his second, a tap in after a mesmerising Arshavin run and his third, a penalty in the dying seconds of the game. It won't prove the naysayers wrong, but Arsenal fans have seen the man put in good performances, full of hard work and decent ball-keeping ability that have won us over. If Arshavin can perform like he did and Bendtner can get in the right place, then he can be a very important player for us. Our other outstanding player was Samir Nasri who, in the absence of Fabregas, has really stepped up a gear. Playing more centrally, he's more direct and therefore influential. His goal, beating 3 defenders all at once before sliding it beneath the keeper was sublime. The other goal came from a Porto corner, Arshavin running half the length of the field to play in Eboue, who rounded the keeper before scoring, continuing the once-booed man's renaissance. Despite the scoreline, the result was not so emphatic. For long periods of the game (after the first goal, the first 15 minutes of the second half) we looked lost, seemingly not sure whether to attack or defend, and Sol Campbell had some nervy moments. But to criticise after this performance would be churlish. Stiffer tests will come, for sure, but this was a night to remember.

6th March 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 3 Burnley 1

2010-03-23T17:09:00.001-07:00

This is proving to be a very strange season. We've lost embarrassingly to Chelsea and Man Utd twice and yet, we've struggled past average sides and somehow, we're still in with a shout at winning the title. And this was a laboured victory against a very poor side if ever there was one, largely due to a hat-trick of I-could've-scored-them-misses from Nicklas Bendtner. The first half was a dull affair, lit only by Walcott's over reaction to a strong tackle (good to see in all honesty) and a great goal, fashioned by the excellent Nasri, who chipped over a crowded defence to find a perfect Fabregas run, which he duly dispatched with a neat volley through the legs of Brian Jensen. We started the second half on fire, with Walcott making mincemeat of his marker time and again. It's just a shame his work was met by profligacy on a massive scale by Bendtner, who left the field to applause, not in irony but in appreciation of his hard work and maybe an acknowledgement that it simply wasn't his day. We were made to pay for those misses when Nugent sprung a creaky Arsenal defensive pairing (any pairing that involves the name Sylvestre is by definition creaky) to loop the ball over Almunia. Fortunately, Walcott capped a fine performance by putting in a fine effort. The final 10 minutes were torture as we wafted around not knowing whether to sit on the lead or try and nick another. Eventually we did, with Arshavin scoring right at the end. Unconvincing but it's the 3 points that keeps us in touch with the title that's important.

I feel I must mention the Emirates crowd. I came to this match expecting a good atmosphere after the week we've had, which has involved criticism from most quarters after one of our players had his leg snapped in two by a player who's already broken 3 legs in his short career. But no, it was lifeless inside the stadium. I guess the match didn't help, but still. The fact that the ground was 3/4 full with 5 minutes to go and the match finely poised at 2-1 is absolutely baffling. Who goes to a football match and doesn't care about the result? Madness. Will they leave to beat the crowds if we win the league, I wonder?

5th March 2010, COMEDY: Josie Long, The Old Red Lion Hotel

2010-03-23T17:08:00.002-07:00

I'd seen Josie Long once before and was a little disappointed so it was great to see her for a second time and leave smiling from ear to ear. The show was a work in progress that tried to make sense of whether being nice is the same as doing good and the confusion doing good can bring. The first 45 minutes or so were straight stand-up and was just fantastic. She has a lovely way about her and her subjects were unusual and sweet. Then, there was a point where it changed emphasis. I struggled a bit for a while. I'm extremely aware of the idea of being preached to and the transition between the two sections of show wasn't smooth enough to not have me feeling a bit anxious there for a while. But once I realised that it wasn't preachy at all and that everything she was saying made total sense and tied up with what she'd been talking about before, I relaxed. It's storytelling comedy that makes you think, in a way that suggests that she's not so far away from some of Daniel Kitson's previous work.

25th February 2010, GIG: Shearwater + David Thomas Broughton, Scala

2010-03-23T17:08:00.001-07:00

When David Thomas Broughton takes the stage, you really don't get any idea of what's coming. He looks normal, for a start. The first surprise comes when, after a few seconds of folky acoustic guitar, he sings. Woah! He has the voice of Antony Hegarty with a Yorkshire accent. Incredible. Next surprise is when after looping some guitar and voice rather pleasantly, he records the sound of him hitting his guitar, discordant, out of time and, eventually, utterly fucked up. In much the same way as Wilco chose to wilfully render At Least That's What You Said (from A Ghost Is Born) 'tough listening' with a squall of guitars, here Broughton does the same. And it's a trick he uses repeatedly, by looping his own heavy breathing, the sound of his scarf against the mic, headbutting the mic and using a tape walkman on fast forward/rewind to mess up his fantastically experimental folk. Nothing fits quite right in the world of DTB. His lyrics, you'd expect, would be flowery, folky, about the earth and maidens. Instead, he sings about his balls, a bear turd and how "god loves a murderer, because there's so much sin to forgive". At watching a performance so intense (DTB stares, he does freakish hand gestures that make him look like he's just realised he exists and sometimes he crouches, fist against forehead, earnest rock star-style), it's odd to hear audience titters and all out laughter at his lyrics. When Shearwater join him to provide the backing vocals of "joke...joke...you're just a joke...joke" for the final song, it's no longer a surprise. By this time, you've learnt to expect the unexpected and for it to be utterly brilliant, totally captivating and quite like nothing else you've seen before. If John Martyn passed the baton on to anyone, he passed it on to David Thomas Broughton.

Shearwater were always going to struggle to match Broughton's invention. But what they lack in experimentation, they make up for with sheer drama. Their songs are powerful in their earnestness, mainly due to singer Jonathan Meiburg's voice, which as with Broughton's, sounds wrong coming from a man so slight. His voice ranges from a clear, ringing holler to a gentle whisper and never once faulters. Unfortunately, Shearwater just don't have the songs to carry them through a whole set. The middle section of their set sags badly, with a raft of songs that inspire indifference as much as anything else. They pull it back round though, ending triumphantly, with this audience rapt. Special mention must go to their drummer also. A man who looks like a member of Iron Maiden's road crew, he shakes audience hands as he leaves the stage, introduces the band (forgetting one member in the process) and generally looks like an 80s rock god. He plays the oboe. He's called Thor.

21st February 2010, FOOTBALL: Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0

2010-03-23T17:07:00.003-07:00

After the hideous debacle of our defeat in Porto, I'm not sure too many people were looking forward to this one with much excitement, especially not when it was announced that Silvestre started in the back four. However, as has so often occurred this season, Arsenal went and proved me wrong. Walcott started and gave a commendable performance, Nasri actually did stuff, providing penetration rather than the usual sideways passes, Bendtner caused problems and even the man Silvestre was pretty much faultless. Special mention surely though goes to Emmanuel Eboue for his man of the match performance. His direct runs into the area caused panic in the Sunderland defence, he defended well and he made the first goal. We should've and could've scored more and had a particularly tense 20 minutes or so where it felt like we could've thrown it away but a last minute penalty from the under-performing Fabregas sealed it. All in all, this was a hugely enjoyable match. We showed promise, with more incisive play than usual but also left ourselves open to danger (Jones should've scored at least once for Sunderland, who showed occasional threat but little else) and our failure to kill the game off made for a hugely entertaining afternoon.

20th February 2010, COMEDY: Tim Key, Soho Arts Theatre

2010-03-23T17:07:00.001-07:00

Tim Key won the 2009 Edinburgh Comedy Award and, on this evidence, it's easy to see why. Key is a comedian and a poet whose rhymes are often a bit silly and always surprising. He's a laid back performer that you can easily warm to and his audience interaction is always on the pleasant, rather than nasty, side. The great thing about his show is the way that he combines comedy and wordplay. It's never clever-clever, he doesn't try and get serious and he mixes it up enough to keep you constantly interested and highly amused.

17th February 2010, BOOK: Notebooks Of A Naked Youth by Billy Childish

2010-03-23T17:06:00.001-07:00

I picked this up at a book swap (I'll be honest, I didn't actually give any books so technically, I stole it) because I'd heard of Billy Childish as a musician and he always seemed an interesting character, even though I've never heard his music. The book is a pretty intense read. It's told from the point of view of a William Loveday, a frustrated teenage poet and writer, full of self-importance, self-hate and teenage angst. It's split into 3 parts each, frankly, as dark as the other. The first he lives at home obsessing over a schoolgirl, in the second he lives in a dirty bedsit and suffers from weeklong blackouts and the third he's a triangle player in a band on the strip in Hamburg. The amount of suffering, abuse and degradation Loveday goes through makes it a tough read. His irritating arrogance doesn't help much either. In parts though, it was impressive. The first section's how-low-can-you-go feel and the final section's impression of a debauched, low-life seedy city in particular, work well. It's not for the faint of heart though or the impatient though.

15th February 2010, FUN TIMES: Aqua Terra Turkish Baths

2010-03-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Continuing the birthday celebrations, we popped down to the Turkish Baths near Old Street for a few hours. I was kind of expecting it to be a bit luxurious. I was wrong. The baths are council-run and upstairs is a normal leisure pool. Downstairs though, they have hot, hotter and hottest rooms, an icy plunge pool, a steam room, a 'relaxation' area and a TV room. It's kind of creaky down there. Everything's a bit run down and crap. But you know, steam rooms are steam rooms and I went in the icy plunge pool, which was a first, and it felt good. The relaxation area was just a bunch of beds where you could hear the noisy cartoons from the TV room and a woman detailing some angry altercation she'd just been in. Not very relaxing. Quite amusing though.

13th February 2010, FUN TIMES: Bake-A-Boo

2010-03-23T17:04:00.001-07:00

As part of Mrs Paul's birthday celebrations, we went to Bake-A-Boo, a teashop in West Hampstead for afternoon tea. Amazingly, they do a gluten-free version, which turned out to be terrific. You get as much tea as you want (and they have loads of choice), we got egg mayo and cucumber sandwiches, scones with jam and cream and cup cakes with strawberries dipped in chocolate. Stuff like this, when gluten-free, can sometimes be a bit rubbish, so it's pretty commendable that they do it so well. If you're offended by flowery, girly, pink stuff everywhere, you might want to avoid Bake-A-Boo though.

12th February 2010, COMEDY: Jonny Sweet

2010-03-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'd heard of Jonny Sweet because he won the Newcomer Award at Edinburgh last year and he'd appeared in The In-Betweeners, a programme I'd seen once and found annoyingly childish. For his show, Sweet plays the character of a posh, innocent yet foolish man who's paying tribute to his departed brother. The character seemed to owe a certain amount to Rob Brydon's Keith from Marion & Geoff, certainly in his buffoon-like sayings and complete lack of self awareness anyway. Sweet was likable and played the part convincingly. It took a bit of getting used to but there were moments of brilliance, most of which came when Sweet used audience members as props. Overall though, I found, for the first time when watching comedy I have to say, that the comedy may have been aimed at an audience younger than me. His repeated catchphrases and goofing around seemed to go down well with the kids but left the other half of us alienated slightly.

10th February 2010, ALBUM: First AId Kit - The Big Black And The Blue

2010-03-23T17:02:00.001-07:00

Rarely have I been so confused by a record as I have been by First Aid Kit's debut album, The Big Black And The Blue. The first time I’d heard of this band was last year some time when I saw a youtube video of them doing a cover of a Fleet Foxes song in the woods, which I found to be quite sickening in its earnest, saccharine way. They were good but they were like ickle kooky pixies, all innocent, white and pure in the forest singing airy fairy hippy dippy folk. So yeah, I was interested in this album for sure. The opening track is 100% pure and simple Fleet Foxes rip-off. And I think my feelings towards this song match my feelings for the album. It’s a great song, it sounds rich and lovely, their voices blend together in harmony and it soars. But the Fleet Foxes did it first. I mean, it’s total pastiche. And because of that, it’s as easy to take seriously as Mark and Lard’s Shirehorses project. They’re only young so maybe one day they’ll use their talents for something original and meaningful, but for now, I’ll do my damndest to avoid them.

10th February 2010, FILM: Juno

2010-03-23T17:00:00.002-07:00

Tonight I watched the film Juno on DVD. I had quite a weird and strong reaction to it. This, I think, is because whilst I quite l liked it, I also had some major problems with it. Let me explain. Everything about this film screamed INDIE. It felt like it was a film that had taken the stance of ‘we’ll let the mainstream films have their mainstream audience, but by god are we gonna sew up the indie audience’. And they did. The comic book-style credits, the kooky ‘outsider’ protagonists, the minor key plotline and worst of all, the soundtrack was so on-the-money indie, it was perfect. The soundtrack I think, was my keenest bugbear, comprising of a zillion carefully-chosen tracks, seemingly designed to prove that somebody has good taste in music. For me, a soundtrack should be there to compliment a film. At its best it shouldn’t be noticed, merely adding background colour and texture. With Juno, a new song began virtually as every new scene did and it constantly jarred with me. I was left feeling that the music was there a) to hit their demographic, b) to sell CDs and c) for the CDs to get more people to watch the film. All very cynical. Which is a shame because I thought the film was alright. The lead character started out annoying and then became likeable, in a similar way to the main character in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, the story was unusual and played out nicely. All enjoyable, in a nice, low effort kinda way. But the chief feeling I was left with post-viewing was a sense of the film being as completely cynical as any big budget Hollywood blockbuster.

9th February 2010, GIG: The Good Natured + Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, The Social

2010-03-23T17:00:00.001-07:00

Apparently Ezra Furman have been around a while, but they don't look it. They have that gawky US college kids thing down pat. And on stage, they're great. Ezra is a cracking frontman, his voice is brilliant, all growly and Dylan-esque, and his moves are top. Especially the one where his big tongue kind of lols out of his mouth. His bandmates are great too, but everyone here's stretching to see Ezra. The songs too are cool. It's indie-rock, sure, but it's exciting and fun when mostly these days, it's boring.

Seeing The Good Natured is a strange thing. There's two of them, a camply-dressed synth playing boy and a peacock of a female singer, made up like an amateur Alison Goldfrapp. Clearly these kids have heard and enjoyed Florence And The Machine and it's hard to imagine that, right now, their songs can match the commercial punch of Florence's, but they are good, much better than they should be. It's a bit weird watching a girl so young pout and pose and wrap herself in her microphone but, to their credit, they just about get away with it.

7th February 2010, BOOK: Big Sur by Jack Kerouac

2010-03-23T16:59:00.002-07:00

I'd read On The Road and didn't really enjoy it all that much. Big Sur took me an absolute age to get through. In fact I gave up on it once halfway through. But I'm not so good at giving up on books so I persevered and got there in the end. And it was really worth it. I think we're so used to standard narrative arcs that when you get something as far away from the norm as Big Sur, it can be quite difficult to deal with. Which is why this book fell by the wayside with me at first. Once you've realised that it doesn't matter if its not making sense or that you can't follow it, you can just go with the flow. And Big Sur really flows. Apparently the book was written in 10 mescaline-fuelled days and it shows (not that I know what the hell a mescaline-fuelled day is like, you understand). It rambles, sentences go on for pages and after a while, it's like one of the Big Sur waves has hit you, carrying you away with it. Big Sur is like a poem and, if you stick with it, it's a stunning ride.

6th February 2010, RESTAURANT: Saf

2010-03-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

The venue for this meal was chosen because one of our party was vegan and one coeliac. Saf have a completely vegan and almost completely gluten-free menu so, despite the pricey menu, was as good a choice as we were likely to find. We ate late, which meant that we were given the last remaining table, which is normally used as some kind of special table where you can pay to watch the chefs cook. Ace. We were higher than everyone and we could see into the kitchen. I'll be honest, not much happened in the kitchen. This, quite possibly, is because the majority of the food available at Saf is raw. So, not much cooking there, more just putting stuff on plates. It seems some people think it's healthier to not heat your food above 48 degrees c. And it might be, who knows? Whatever, the food here was fantastic. The menu was kind of hard to take in, because although many of the dishes were familiar (canneloni, thai curry etc.), the descriptions were quite alien. Anyway, choose we did and with each meal presented to us we were given an explanation of what we had and how it came to be by the waitress. This was probably my favourite bit. The descriptions were amazing. I didn't understand most of it and could hardly take half of it in, but you got carried along with it, convinced that the food in front of me was some kind of incredible experiment. I had 'cavier' to start with. I put the '' in because obviously no fish eggs were involved. Instead the 'caviar' was made from apple and beetroot. I'm pretty sure algae was involved at some point too. They came on these biscuit things and with sauces that were lovely. For main, I think I chose badly, going for the thai yellow curry, which was fine but unremarkable. The others had dishes that were way more bizarre than mine. i sometimes think that vegetarian restaurants make more of an effort and this was no exception. A brilliant meal.

4th February 2010, FILM: A Ma Soeur

2010-03-23T16:58:00.001-07:00

This evening, me and Mary rented the film A Ma Seour. Something of a random choice from the excellent DVD shop in Angel, it turned out to be an interesting and typically unpredictable French film. Centring on two sisters, one aged 15, one 12 who, on the surface, hate each other, but slowly are revealed to have a deep understanding, on holiday with their disinterested parents. The elder sister meets a boy, spends a lot of time on the holiday with him and eventually loses her virginity to him. All seen by the younger sister, forced to tag along by her parents. The dad eventually flies home, leaving the girls to drive the journey. Stopping for a break to sleep in a motorway services, the family are attacked by a man who axes the elder sister in the head, strangles the mum to death and rapes the younger sister. The end. Woah. The film is a short, sharp shock. The relationship between the sisters is always interesting, the parents are horrid in their casual indifference and the ending is probably the biggest, most shocking twist to a film that I've ever seen. Confusing, unexpected, unexplained and bizarre. Excellent.

2nd February 2010, FILM: Bicycle Thieves

2010-03-23T16:57:00.001-07:00

I first saw Bicycle Thieves when I was studying film A Level in 1994. We got shown this Italian film from 1948 as part of a module on Italian social realism when, to be honest, I think that most people in the class would've preferred the new Die Hard film or something. However, I loved it. I'm not saying I had brilliant taste and everyone else was a fool (I am) but I think maybe this is where my love for films in which not much happens, miserably, comes from. In the film, set during the post-war Italian depression, an unemployed man pawns his bed sheets in order to buy a bike so that he can take a bill-posting job. On his first day at work, his bike is stolen. Throughout the rest of the film, he, along with his son and various friends look for the bike in a vain effort to find it. They don't. It's a beautiful film where not much happens but the sense of pride and loss of the main character is so keenly felt, it's impossible not to be moved by it. A special mention must go to the son, played by Enzo Staiola, who has a truly incredible face that seems to convey the entire sadness of the whole film with just one look. I'd love to know what became of him. Also, this special screening was notable for the attendance of quite a few Italians. This made me see the film in quite a different light, as they laughed along at some of the overplayed Italian characters (and especially the exaggerated arm-waving) and moments which, without them, I'd probably not have realised the humour of. See this film if you can, it's a classic.

27th January 2010, FILM: Fish Tank

2010-03-23T16:56:00.001-07:00

I'd heard that Andrea Arnold was a burgeoning voice in British gritty drama. And while Fish Tank doesn't exactly blow you away with originality, it ticks all the right boxes of the aforementioned genre in a good way. The story is of a young girl growing up on a council estate with a younger sister and a mother who doesn't care. When the mother gets a new boyfriend, things seem to change for the better. It's one of those films where the girl, excellently played by Katie Jarvis, has such a hard time, you're rooting for everything to work out OK, although you of course know that it won't. And it doesn't. Fish Tank wears its realism on its sleeve and does a good, if not outstanding, job of drawing you into its grim world.

24th January 2010, GIG: Frankie And The Heartstrings + Swanton Bombs, The Lock Tavern

2010-03-23T16:55:00.001-07:00

Was annoyingly late for this free gig (part of Huw Stephens' Happy Huw Year mini-tour), which meant that I missed seeing Islet, the one band I actually wanted to see. Instead, I got Swanton Bombs, a very young two-piece with little imagination or enthusiasm and Frankie And The Heartstrings. I'd seen a lot of people talking about FATH so was a little disappointed with them. I was expecting rockabilly excitement and got sub-Futureheads fare. Still, they put on a great show, you can't take your eyes off of them and their performance alone was enough to win me over, despite their averager than average songs.

23rd January 2010, THEATRE: Trilogy

2010-03-23T16:54:00.001-07:00

I don't let anyone tell me I've not got an open mind. Which is why when my friend Lisa said that I 'probably wouldn't enjoy Trilogy', I said I definitely would like to go. Even though Trilogy is a 3-hour feminist theatre/dance production. I'll be honest, I was quite nervous about what to expect here. But what I got, in the most part, entertained me greatly, even if some of it seemed a bit oblique to me. The show begins with 40, maybe more, 'normal' women, ie, women who had replied to an ad for 'normal' women who wanted to take part in a dance production whilst naked, dancing naked. It was quite overwhelming. Basically, they danced and jumped and generally went mental, shaking their bits all over the place. It was odd to see women of all shapes and sizes do this kind of thing but the way they danced made it impossible not to get carried along with the joy of the whole thing. After that, there was some stuff between the main cast members that I didn't really get, some bits of a film of a feminist conference thing in the 70s that was brilliant, some hypnotic but strange movement pieces and, finally, a dance where people, actually women only were allowed, from the audience got up on stage, got naked and sang Jerusalem. This did take me out of my comfort zone, I'll be honest, but in the main I had a great time.

22nd January 2010, FILM: Moon

2010-03-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Firstly, the poster for Moon is brilliant, enough to make me want to go see it alone. Also, the idea of a low-budget British sci-fi with nods to Bladerunner was enough bait for me too. The film, about a chap working alone on the moon with just a computer (played by Kevin Spacey) for company, who soon encounters weirdness galore, turned out pretty good too. Not a film that'll knock your socks off, certainly, but one that had enough ideas and good performances to keep things ticking over.

13th January 2010, FILM: White Ribbon

2010-03-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

After a glowing recommendation from Mark Kermode on his Radio FiveLive podcast, I went along to see White Ribbon. A German film, shot entirely in black and white that focusses on a community in pre-1st World War Germany, this is a film full of tension. Bad things happen within the community but you're never really sure why. The film offers few answers to what it's all about or what is actually happening and somehow, this leaves you wanting more. And you're not really sure of why you want more either. As far as beautifully shot, gripping, serious films go, White Ribbon is right up there. It's not much fun, but it's hard not to be drawn into it's weird world.

9th January 2010, STUFF: Weekend In Cardiff

2010-03-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I’m currently on my way back from what is now my previous home in Cardiff. Had a brilliant, brilliant time. On Saturday myself, Lisa and John drove to Wick, parked up the car and went for a big old walk. 10 miles in fact. We walked to Nash Point lighthouse and then all the way back round. It was great. Very, very cold, lots of snow, a friendly horse, a frozen solid frog, a crashed plane, a castle, a funny bird, a mild fear of getting lost and dying in a snow blizzard drift and then a meal at the good for food, bad for drinks pub, The Plough and Harrow, capped an excellent day. In the evening, we did Little Christmas. Hosted by Carl Chapple in his lovely house in Barry, we had a grand time eating, drinking, chatting and playing Boutros Boutros Ghali. From Secret Santa I received some pants, chocolate, a smart book of London facts and a ticket to see a feminist play/naked dance thing, Trilogy. Today, we drove to Bristol to a giant indoor picnic, which was lovely. They had music, blankets, craft making classes, swap shops, a human jukebox and lots of picnic food. I’ll be honest, I didn’t take full advantage of the delights on offer, choosing instead to play Jenga for the first time ever with Jonny and Andy. Loved it and didn’t lose once in a whole two games. Came back and went to the new Chapter for a couple of hours Scrabble Sunday, which was ace.