Pieces of a Man Think it. Do it. Be it. Embellish.

67.68.69.70.71.72.73.74.75.76 77.78.79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86 87.88.89.90.91.92.93.94.95.96 97.98.99.00.01.02.03.04.05.06 07.08

Last night was a bloody farce. I think it's time to live in Sheffield, work in Manchester or stop drinking;

1700 Go for quick drink after work.
1000 Stagger out of pub.
1015 Catch train. Promptly fall asleep.
2300 Miss Stockport station
2310 Wake up at Manchester Piccadilly.
2314 Jump on Sheffield train back to Stockport.
2320 Train bypasses Stockport.
0020 Back in Sheffield. 2 hours until next train. Go for chips.
0215 Return to station. Entrance locked. Miss train.
0430 Wake up freezing on a bench.
0530 Get train, fall asleep, miss Stockport again.
0715 Finally get home (via Manchester again).

Labels: 2005

Fulham 6 Norwich 0: Witnesses state that the dream was machine-gunned at close range then doused in petrol and set alight before being thrown under the wheels of a passing train.

Labels: 2005

Took the kids for another day out in North Wales today so Jo could get on with her DIY in peace and we could get on with grabbing some sun.

It was great. We had a picnic on the beach, then went for a few rides on the funfair - Oscar especially liked riding the motorbikes with Yani right behind him in a truck, honking her horn the whole way round.

Yani got to have a ride on a donkey, which she really loved, nearly as much as she loved chasing Oscar round the beach covering him in wet, cold sand. He didn't seem to mind either. My favourite picture is Oscar on the sand getting
to grips with buttons. He's been practicing a lot lately.

Labels: 2005

"At the end of a long and turbulent season, Iwan Roberts reveals the real life of a footballer at the sharp end: goals and injuries, house moves and long car journeys"

Labels: 2005

Nick's in the Cup Final this weekend with the Capital Canaries;

Though this generation is a little bit quicker and a whole lot younger than their creaky forebears, for five senior survivors - Manager Andrew Higgins, Nick Seecharan, Ken Wylie, Matt Semple and David Lemmon - May 14th will go someway toward rewarding a decade of cross-London travel to play on the blasted heathlands and drowned Paschendales of corporation pitches.

Labels: 2005

Jakob Nielsen again describes something that seems obvious when you think about it in his latest Alertbox;

Search is such a prominent part of the Web user experience that users have developed a firm mental model for how it's supposed to work. Users expect search to have three components: a box where they can type words, a button labeled 'search' that they click to run the search and list of top results that's linear, prioritized, and appears on a new page.

There are plenty of information skills workshops delivered in HE entitled There's more to life than Google, but for most people that just isn't true, and this is just another bit of evidence that suggests perhaps energies would be better focussed on living with it rather than trying to shout at the rain.

Labels: 2005

Norwich 1 Birmingham 0
Palace 2 Soton 2

• (16:55) Unbelievable! Equaliser at Selhurst. I've definitely shit myself!!
  
• (16:54) Yeeeeeeeeeessssss!!!!!!!!!! Full time. 1-0.
  
• (16:51) Injury time. Birmingham hit the bar twice in a minute. I think I just shit myself.
  
• (16:40) Palace ahead. Fuck it. They just don't know when to quit.
  
• (16:22) Still winning and level at Palace. Christ, this the longest 45 minutes of my life.
  
• (15:48) YES!!!!!!! 1-0, Ashton penalty and I've found coverage on the web. Time for a wee celebratory smoke and drink at half time.
  
• (15:39) Bollocks! Palace 1 Southampton 0. No, wait... Southampton penalty! Come on... YES! I always liked that Peter Crouch.
  
• (15:35) Woo hoo! Birmingham down to ten men. We're not gonna get a better chance than this.
  
• (15:17) "Norwich nervous, Birmingham impressive." What are we waiting for?

Labels: 2005

Well, here we are again. D-Day. Last chance saloon. I have to say I've been unable to shift a sense of resignation since last week's reversal at Southampton, but who cares? There are five hours till kick off and I imagine reality will leave the building sometime about 2pm with my foot in its arse, and matchday hysteria will arrive shortly thereafter on a flying chariot drawn by a thousand thoroughbred Canaries.

Labels: 2005

I doubt I'll ever get to see Pink Floyd, but seeing this lot at the MEN Arena tonight seems like a damn fine substitute.

Several generations of stoners packed the place out. It was like a father-son day out in places and was all very chilled, certainly more than my last visit, anyway, which involved The Tweenies and hundreds of kids high on sweeties.

Money was the first track that really got the crowd going, then Us and Them continued to tap Dark Side of the Moon (an eminently wise plan). I can't have been the only person in the place wondering whether they'd even dare tackle the female vocal on The Great Gig in the Sky, and I can't have been the only person who had tears in their eyes when one of their backing singers sang it to near-perfection. They say the original was done in a day for £30 by a session singer (£15/day piece rate, but double time as it was Sunday). Well, that was the price of the ticket last night and that solo alone was worth the money. It was just awesome.

An extended bass intro for One of those Days allowed time for the inflation of Skippy, the band's giant pink kangaroo mascot, who started to bounce along with the rest of us when the track kicked in. The set closed with Another Brick in the Wall - chorus provided by the Whalley Range School choir in lovely purple blazers - then Comfortably Numb along with a spectacular light show that absolutely pulled out all the remaining stops.

At times this bunch produce perfectly faithful Pink Floyd. If I had a gripe it's just that it's a bit disorientating to hear some of the tracks plucked out of the context of the whole album, but it's a small price to pay to listen live to some of the most enduring and inspiring sound ever committed to vinyl;

Set 1: In the Flesh | Keep Talking | Money | Us and Them | Sorrow | Sheep

Set 2: Shine On You Crazy Diamond | Welcome to the Machine | Learning to Fly | Time | The Great Gig In the Sky | One of These Days | Happiest Days of Our Lives | Another Brick in the Wall | Comfortably Numb | Run Like Hell (Encore)

Labels: 2005

Finished reading this over the May Day weekend in Middlesborough. Not entirely sure how it won the Booker Prize, but it was a cracking read.

The story takes a while to get going. Life in Pondicherry Zoo doesn't seem that relevant, but it's beautiful and it plants ideas about the relationship between animals and man that later anchor the unbelievable story.

The tale of Pi (Piscine Molitor) Patel and a tiger, Richard Parker, stranded in a lifeboat, is imaginative and funny. Appeasing the moody, seasick beast against all the odds is a driving source of intrigue that turns the pages. Obviously it requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but it's worth it.

However, Yann Martel pushes his luck towards the end. The cannibal island segment crosses a line between creative and ridiculous. Worse still, the twist at the end. For me, it serves little purpose, and those who suggest it cleverly invites re-evaluating the story overlook the large parts of the story that don't then make any sense at all. It's seems like an afterthought, perhaps an editor's contribution, and I think it cheapens a great book.

Reflecting on these flaws, the word 'overrated' occurs, but gives the wrong impression. I'm just a bit surprised it got the biggest thumbs-up from the Booker Prize judges. Ten for artistic impression and five for technical merit would be more appropriate.

Labels: 2005

If there's any justice in Middle Earth then the hobbits should have spared at least one Oscar for Lost in Translation, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.

It's disrespectful to call Sofia Coppola's surprise hit a romantic comedy; it's sophisticated, moving and thoughtful in a way that's far beyond the usual Hollywood dross. It would be inaccurate too, since the romance is uncertain and the comedy somewhat secondary.

Bill Murray plays Bob Harris, an ageing Hollywood actor filming a lucrative whisky commercial in Japan (as many stars have secretly done before - check out japander.com for a laugh). As we see Bob tiredly discussing carpet and wallpaper with his wife back in the States, we realise he is also stuck in a marriage that's lost its spark.

Jetlagged and drowning his sorrows in the hotel bar, Bob falls into conversation with sensitive young philosophy graduate Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson). Neglected by her photographer husband, she passes the time listening to self-help CDs in her room and wondering what she wants out of life.

Both are at personal crossroads and feeling lost in different ways, but over several days together affection develops as they help each other pass the time.

Japan provides the perfect backdrop for the story. Not only is it culturally both familiar and baffling in a way that mirrors the characters' inner confusions, but their excursions into the frantic, neon nightscape of Tokyo are a rich source of humour, too.

We see Bob undergoing the humiliation of a Banzai-style game show, grappling with the intricacies of Japanese cuisine ("What kind of restaurant is it that makes you cook your own food?") and bewildered by a prostitute with poor pronunciation ("Lip my stockings, Mr Bob-san, lip them!").

The filming of the whisky ad is perhaps the funniest scene. The crazed director harasses Bob at length in Japanese, intent that he evoke Roger Moore's 007 and sip his whisky with ever more ridiculous intensity. Bob just wishes it were real whisky; Bill Murray's trademark weariness has never been more effective. (Coppola reputedly stalked him for a year to make the film and wouldn't have done it had he declined.)

I won't reveal what happens between Charlotte and Bob, but US critic Roger Ebert points out: "Lost in Translation is too smart and thoughtful to be the kind of movie where they go to bed and we're supposed to accept that as the answer".

This film doesn't try to provide answers. After all, life has no easy answers to these kinds of feelings either, and this is perhaps why so many people seem to identify with this film.

At some time or another everyone feels like Bob and Charlotte -- wondering who they are and what it all means -- but what Lost in Translation makes you celebrate are the unexpected connections with people along the way that change you and help you get a little bit closer to working it all out.

Labels: 2005

Spent the day on the beach with Alison and Colin. It was grey and cold and rainy, but it got out later and we managed to pack in the whole British seaside seaside experience while the sun was out; fish'n'chips, ice cream and hunting down crabs. Highlight of the day for Oscar was finding a picture of Robin Hood on the side of the ice cream van. It doesn't take much to make him happy.

Labels: 2005