from Pantperthog to Knockando
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Snack of the Month - Air Nuts!
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Facing a childhood fear in the Moomin Shop
Thursday, April 04, 2024
Another "fantasy" game? Are you ready to rumble (slam)!
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
When it went down in Abertillery
At the end of last month Cathy and I went to a gig in Abertillery. It was in the Metropole Theatre, an historic venue dating back well over a century. It even had Charlie Chaplin perform there back in the early years of the twentieth century.
There's a series of information boards charting the history of the building in the corridor by the conveniences. I was waiting there and this reproduced newspaper clipping caught my eye. It was in a section about how the Metropole was built as the town's Market Hall was no longer considered a suitable venue for public events, following scenes like this:
I have so many questions... who was Dr Price? In what way was he "eccentric"? What was he lecturing about? Why did it result in the "unwashed" reacting violently?
But hey, the "hooting" and object throwing helped drive forward plans to build a theatre so maybe it worked out for the best.
Tuesday, April 02, 2024
Football recap of the month - March 2024
Getting into the business end of the season now. I had two football-free weekends at the start of the month but made up for it in the latter weeks, setting a new record for the month of March with a total of six games.
Game 46: Pontypridd United 1-1 Barry Town
Bit of deja vu for this game as I went to the same fixture in phase 1 of the Cymru Premier season. Managed a very rare photo of a goal going in - in this case, Barry's equaliser.
Game 47: Cymru C 1-0 England C
My friend Steve drove us to Stebonheath Park in Llanelli for this C level international. This pitched the best Welsh players in the Cymru Premier against an England team selected from the National League. Cymru's goal was an excellent free kick. Former Barry goalie Kelland Absalom pulled off a world class save in added time at the end of the game to ensure Cymru won.
Game 48: Taff's Well 1-2 Caerau Ely
My second game in a week with Steve, under the Friday night lights at Rhiw Dar. Entertainment was provided by a contingent of Finns who had watched Finland play Cymru the night before. They were good-natured and boisterous and worth the entry fee alone. It was the tenth time I've seen Caerau Ely and I got a badge when I checked in on Futbology.
Game 49: Cardiff Draconians 2-2 Pontyclun
It was a brisk, sunny Saturday once the hail stopped! Pontyclun took the lead, then the Dracs scored twice and then Pontyclun equalised. One of those games that either side could have won, and neither did.
Game 50: Barry Town 0-0 Penybont
My first nil-nil of 2024, but a draw that felt more like a win after Barry had two men sent off in the second half. I would charitably describe the referee as out of his depth.
Game 51: Caldicot Town 0-1 Risca United
Caldicot hit the post twice and had a goal ruled out for offside. Risca took home the points despite being second best for most of the game. My friend Ben was playing for Caldicot, and his dad, uncle, two brothers and two year old nephew were all in the stand watching him as well so it was lovely to catch up with them.
Ben makes his point |
Monday, April 01, 2024
Miles and memories - happenings in March
A dragon for St David's Day! |
Cathy and I covered lots of miles in March. I had a couple of days off work because we had an appointment at the specialist clinic in Cambridge (we have been heading over there annually for about six years now, pandemics notwithstanding). This year we decided to go via Shrewsbury and see Mum on Mother's Day weekend. I went to church with her (and most of the rest of the family) on Mother's Day and got to say hello to lots of old friends.
Our Mother's Day dinner plans were thrown awry by the restaurant phoning up to tell us they were having a software problem so they couldn't process any food orders or payments. So we ended up with a stack of takeaway pizzas instead. In a weird way, it was a nice reflection of how resilient we are as a family that we can adapt to a situation and still have fun.
Mentioning resilience makes me think of how we have adjusted as a family following the loss of my dad. This March marked the fifth anniversary of his sudden death. I found myself thinking of him quite a bit. I went to a Wales 'C' International football match on the day itself - I think he would have liked that.
On the Monday after Mother's Day we set out to Cambridge. We had a trouble-free journey and after checking in at our hotel we went for a little trip to Newmarket. It's a horsey place with lots of horsey businesses and also a cracking toy shop!
After our hospital appointment on the Tuesday we headed home to Cardiff. We stopped in Oxford and saw our friend Ella on the way.
We got home about midnight. The next morning I was on the 7.23am train to London for an all day meeting. I was also incubating a cold. Gotta admit, I wasn't at my best in that meeting.
Before I came home I met up with my baseball buddy Gawain in an American sports-themed restaurant under Waterloo Station, in a warren of railway arches covered in graffiti.
Selfie on the way to Waterloo |
Meeting up had seemed like a great idea when we made the plan. By the time I got there though I was beyond exhausted. However, Gawain is very good company and we had a great two hours chatting before I had to get the train home.
All that excitement was just in five days. The rest of the month has been a bit of a blur. I made it to my first Keep Grangetown Tidy litter-pick of the year. Fiona who organises it took a picture as proof.
I also made my first foray to the cinema in 2024, watching Dune Part 2 (which I blogged about here). And we went to our first gig of the year - to see Tony Wright at the Metropole Theatre in Abertillery. It was on Easter Sunday, so we took him some Easter eggs, which Cathy presented to him afterwards.
We even had time this month for some ice creams in Victoria Park with the Wootten family. Spring is here. Summer is coming!
Friday, March 29, 2024
Book of the Month - Malcolm X speaks his truth
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who is for or against."
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Dune Part 2 - finishing telling the tale of Muad'Dib (for now)
In 2021 I saw Dune Part 1 with Bryan. Here's what I wrote about it then:
Broadly speaking, I thought Dune was an excellent capture of the essence of the book. I realise if someone hadn't read the book then it might be hard to follow. But, you know what, the book was published over 50 years ago so people have had plenty of time to read it. For once it was nice to watch an adaptation that didn't dumb it down for the non-reading masses. My only criticism was that it had a score by Hans Zimmer, whose one trick is big, blaring atonal noises to signify vastness. It could have done with more subtlety, because everything is vast in the Duneiverse so there were lots of atonal blarts throughout the film.
Now, after several delays and changes in release date, Bryan and I have finally seen part 2 of Dune. I have a few thoughts about it. Spoilers follow below the image...
Part 2 picks up where Part 1 left off. Paul Atreides and his mother, Jessica, are fugitives in the desert, seeking asylum with the oppressed indigenous Fremen after the massacre of their people. This is quite an early point in the book so there was a lot more of the story to pack in to the second 'half' including Paul's growth into Muad'Dib, the messianic guerrilla leader foretold in Fremen prophecy.
In among all this is galactic-level intrigue and power politics. Dune Part 2 manages this quite nicely by actually turning the Princess Irulan into an actual character with something to do. In this case, exposition. But sometimes a bit of exposition works, and this is one of those times.
In contrast, the character of Feyd Rautha is rather diminished. In fairness, Feyd is played in this film with a level of intensity that would almost be impossible to sustain for long without it slipping into parody. Maybe the director could have made him more subtle, and his true malevolence be less immediately obvious. It's a bit heavy-handed giving him a cannibal harem.
I read one comment about the film saying there seemed to be no suspense. When Paul sets out to ride a sandworm, we all know he is going to succeed. There wasn't any jeopardy. But I think that's the perspective of someone who hadn't read the novel. As a reader of the book, I already knew he would ride the worm and I knew why that was important in the development of the story.
I guess that's one thing about going in knowing the story - I was more interested in how they told it. Did they show the mechanics of worm-riding? (Yes, they did.) How much exposition would that need? (Turns out, none.) Is the director's vision of what Fremen riding giant sandworms would look like match my idea of what that would look like. (Yep, it was close.)
Of course, knowing the story has its drawbacks. One major divergence from the book is the time-frame. The desert war goes on for years in the book. Paul's sister, Alia is born and is sort of a superhuman because her mother, Jessica, drank the Water of Life while pregnant. Paul has a son with Chani. The reunion with Gurney Halleck is after some years apart, not a couple of months. And so on...
I was left feeling a bit nonplussed by the ending which felt like it was setting up a third movie. That has apparently been mooted and presumably will be based on Dune Messiah. Fingers crossed it will get made. The first two have been massive box office hits, so it seems likely to get greenlit.
I'd also repeat the point I made about the score for the first one. Hans Zimmer only seems to have one trick - very loud atonal blasts. For everything. Shai-halud breaks the surface. ZIMMERBLAST! A spice harvester explodes and crashes. ZIMMERBLAST! An atomic bomb goes off. ZIMMERBLAST! Sometimes less is more, Hans.
But overall, it was very good. It's brave to take on a novel that's often been described as unfilmable, and when previous attempts have had a mixed reception. Again, I have no complaints about the opacity of the story. It feels like it was done for people who know it already and its nice, for once, not to have something diluted for people who don't care about it.