Redbul

Band of Horses: Cease to Begin.

The Jim Jones Revue: Here To Save Your Soul Some good thrashing rock to get rid of ear wax accumulation.

I'm having an Underworld moment....but the weekend has been a bit techno for some reason. I've just been listening to Dubnobasswithmyhead, Second Toughest In The Infants, Beaucoup Fish.... Earlier I was giving Spooky Found Sound a spin and then Starseeds Parallel Life and Salt Tank Science and Nature and Wave Breaks.

Seven Samurai over 2 nights though.... At 3 1/2 hours long this is an epic. But what an epic. Arguably the greatest film ever made. I've heard many people say that Rashomon is Kurosawa's best but the 2 cannot really be compared, they are too different. The story has been imitated (The Magnificent Seven for example) but can never be bettered. Yes the film is long but there is not one redundant frame in the entire film and the pace is perfect. Basically, a masterless samurai (or ronin) answers a village's call to help protect them from bandits who have threatened to come and steal their crops after the harvest. A further 6 'combatants' are enlisted and together they teach the villagers basic defence techniques. The culmination of the film is a frenetic battle to defeat the bandits. And that's it. But.... Everything that goes on to get there is a masterclass of cinema, the outline of the plot at the beginning, the development of every character, the emotion that is generated through this empathy, the cinematography; every scene must have been painstakingly storyboarded, and the slow but inexorable increase in pace towards the denouement. It is a truly brilliant film and the battle at the end (and the strategy developed by the samurai) is enthralling. There are parts of the film that can only have been done in Japanese cinema where the culture is different; the painstakingly and methodical crossing out of the circles that represent the killed bandits is one example; there is much that is conveyed in the film through silence. 9.9/10

I read the book years ago at the height of the Cold War, it's an incredibly powerful and disturbing ending from what I can remember. Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to dig this out again.

David Bowie; Hunky Dory Just listened to this on vinyl. I got this in 1971 as a birthday present I think. Just converted it to MP3. You just can't whack the mellow qualities of vinyl. Sorry to sound like a Luddite (which I'm not) but there is something else there with vinyl. And I don't mean the crackling between tracks.... I hope this mellowness translates to MP3.

Bl00dy hell, that must be, what? Twenty years old? I've only got DC on vinyl, but Mrs. R bought me one of those vinyl to MP3 decks for my birthday; I'll have to do a spot of converting. I'm just having another go at Deer Tick; Born on Flag Day. A good dose of alt-country. John McAuley could voice double for Billy Corgan without too much effort.

That's pretty spot on. It used to be the only way you could get to see a game at the Dell. Nick does have a point but everyone has their own priorities on what they lay out their cash on and there is a recession which makes it even harder for some. For me, I am pleased at the numbers attending matches at SMS in Div 3, it could be far worse; look at some of the attendance figures for some clubs in the Prem, stadiums are getting less full all the time so I think we're doing okay.

Watched Dead Man's Shoes last night. Okay, it's a bout 5 years old now but without a shadow of a doubting Thomas, this is Shane Meadows' finest film, and all his other films are superb. It's the old story of harboured grudges and retribution but set in a northern town where two brothers return to put right wrongs done a few years previously with violent and graphic results. It has some truly very funny moments but it is also painfully sad as the relationship between the brothers and the slow untangling of the historical events slowly unfolds. Paddy Considine co wrote (with Meadows) and plays the leading role in the film. It's a Brit flick not to be missed.

Just been told that my nipper's school is shut again tomorrow; 3rd day on the trot. I can only ever remember having one snow day off my entire school career and that was when a boiler burst and there was no heating. So why is there so many school closures nowadays? Do teachers live that much further away? Aren't heating systems as robust as they used to be? Is it the fear of litigation? I think we are more risk averse, if there was no public transport (buses nestled in the nadir of Lordswood Road ) we used to walk and think nothing of it. I don't know, but I remember winter as being one of the most fun seasons at school; massive polished ice slides from one corner of the playground to the other, the 2 mile walk to school and back broken up by snow ball fights, bombing down hills on bin bags or tin trays....

Hot on the heels of the Mush debate, I used the expression "I'll be on Shanks's Pony" yesterday to indicate that I would be walking to work. I was amazed by how many people didn't have a clue what this meant. Is this local explression or is it more widely know? Another one is "It's a bit black over Will's Mother's" meaning the sky looks a bit dark over yonder and I do believe we may be in for a spot of rain.

What SuperMikey said.... Ref the Hollywood remake, graphic and fairly violent as the Swedish version is, the Hollywood version may choose to keep Hakan's character (Eli's 'guardian') as he has a much larger role to play in the book. Although Oskar is a victim of bullying, he too is depicted as a much more malevolent character. So, much I frown when I hear 'Hollywood remake' there is scope to make a good job of this.

In fairness you'd have to dig up your cat's **** before you could put it in a bag....that's smacks of a mild perversion to me!!!!

Cheers Box, but I meant in the Online ticket sales thing on the OS....sorry, my bad....

Don't mean to be a pedant, but didn't we lose that game after only scoring 2? But yes, Ronnie Rosenthal.... I was on telly at that game with my head in my hands when Jergen Klinsman slotted in the 6th.

Only where irresponsible f***tards let their hounds give birth to mud monsters in communal spaces and then can't be arsed to clear it up. And read my post again, it wasn't my Dad, although given the circumstances that'd be the sort of thing he would have done too.

Have they ever done a bad film? My favourites, I mean the children's favourites ***ahem*** are Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Also, good to see so many people watching Let The Right One In. It was one of my favourite films of last year. Film is very gentle, but the book is very dark.

I didn't know that Mrs B.... Me and the missus climbed up Glastonbury Tor after she'd given birth to our son (quite a while afterwards actually....). He was in one of those off road type wheel chairs and we really struggled and strained to get him and oursleves up this near vertical grassy bank....only to discover when we got to the top that they'd put a tarmac path in on the other side. :confused:

It was six years on the 1st of January. Don't like the smell of a lit cigarette and I really don't miss them. Honestly I don't. But I still love the smell of an unlit cig and I still like to roll them.

The 'ball' invasion at the Archers/East Stand corner....loads of different sized and different coloured balls got lobbed over the stand roof during a game. What was all that about?

Oof, cycled that a few weeks ago after doing the Itchen Navigation to St Catherine's Hill. Tres hilly....

Done, cheers for that. While I'm here, does anyone know how to edit your 'friends' list? There's only an 'Add friend' link, not 'Delete friend'. I know, that sounds a bit like you've just ordered an online hit, but you know what I mean!!!!

Obviously never played football on a municipal pitch then or played up Southampton Common or Sports Centre or similar when you were younger and had to contend with dog eggs that had been left to get 'trodden in'? Never had to clean dog sh1t off of your football boots or running shoes or trodden it into your carpets if you haven't noticed that you've trodden in it? I hope you were being ironic with your response otherwise you sir, are the biggest tw*t on here. If I see anyone let their dog sh1t on a pavement, on a pitch, playground or other communal space and walk away I have no problem letting them know what a selfish c**t I think they are. A mate of mines Dad noticed some woman let her dog log off onto his path just inside his gate. He picked up the steaming dreadnought with a little coal shovel, caught the woman up and deposited it into her shopping basket (hopefully onto her freshly bought cottage loaf) along with a few choice words in her shell like. Irresponsible dog owners? W*nkers.

That's a good half marathon that is....what route did he take? He could register it as the Great Bint Run or something and get loads of people on it.

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