Tv Of The Month

This month for me has been dominated by the amazing Game of Thrones on Sky. Each episode gets better, not just by a little bit but by huge leaps all the time, a great cast and a captivating story of family power struggles, personal feuds and political intrigues. It really is amazing stuff.

Secondly I've also been watching the ever hysterical 'Have I Got News For You' weekly on BBC1 though I usually watch the extended version on the very excellent BBC iplayer which I can access through my tv. It's been going for years but the format never gets tired with the very witty Paul Merton and Ian Hislop helped along by funny guests and iconic hosts.

Below is a picture of the Throne they are all making a play for in the awesome 'Game of Thrones'.

Song Of The Month

The song of the month for May is Primal Scream's 'Higher Than The Sun'. I watched a great documentary about the band earlier this month on BBC3 and I've always loved their seminal album 'Screamadelica'. It's one of those albums that puts things into perspective for me and contains some awesome musical styles mixed together. Enjoy!

The Hobbit Movie Titles Announced

The titles and dates for the new Hobbit movies (yes, plural... movies) has been announced today. I've know for a while that Peter Jackson had planned to make the book into two movies though I am not really sure why, the Guardian it seems, thinks the same. The Hobbit book isn't a long read, I would say it can be covered by an adult reader steadily in an afternoon and reading it to a child as an ideal bedtime story you could comfortably do it in a week.

The Hobbit 'An Unexpected Journey' is slated for December 2012 whilst the second movie is called 'There And Back Again' and is set to follow the twelve months later. Both films are being shot back to back right now.

My concern for the new movies as with the Lord of the Rings trilogy is not the amount of time they run for but the content they contain. I do love the Rings trilogy but I feel in my heart that Peter Jackson omitted content he should really have put in. There's no Tom Bombadil or Barrow Downs for a start and crucially one of the last chapters of the books 'The Scouring of the Shire' is left out. Instead we get a lot of boring stuff about the Elves that don't really add anything to the films. The whole point of the 'Scouring of the Shire' chapter is that the four hobbits finally come of age and after all their adventures have to deal with a very big problem (Saruman) at the end without any help at all from the fellowship. It very much illustrates at the book closure what compassion, bravery and capabilities hobbits are capable of and is a fitting end to their tale.

There's shortcuts and liberties taken within the three films, things that don't happen added to it and vice versa and whilst I can see why Jackson has done it on occasions on others it just doesn't sit well with me. I guess Jackson has to make movies that will appeal to the masses and to his credit he's done a marvellous job of making the whole Tolkien world of Middle Earth come to life and be seen by the world.

The reality is, I hold the Hobbit as a very special book indeed. I read it first aged about fourteen when I wasn't doing too well at school with little interest in anything academic at all. I think someone recommended it or I stumbled on it in the school library, I can't really recall but what I can remember is the book introduced me to a love or reading and creative writing ever since. I devoured the book pretty quick and moved onto the Lord of the Rings which I took on holiday to Scarborough and read it in rustic surroundings on a farm holiday home a few miles away in the hills overlooking the coast. The surrounding valley's, woods and distant sea views of the area inspired me to absorb the trilogy and imagine the amazing adventures within its many pages.

So, I guess I am hoping for many things from the hobbit movies mainly because it's a booked etched in my mind from childhood to this present day, it is also a book I hold dear.

On the positive side Peter Jackson has assembled a great cast, Martin Freeman will make a great Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage I'm sure, will make a dour yet purposeful Thorin Oakenshield. Andy Serkis returns as Gollum, the enigmatic Hugo Weaving is back as Elrond and of course it would never ever be complete without the amazing Ian McKellen as Gandalf. Some other actors are reprising roles from the trilogy, it's recently been confirmed Orlando Bloom is back as the elf lord Thranduil's son 'Legolas'. It's these reprisal roles that do concern me and I'm sure Jackson will add in many backstory appendices from the Rings trilogy (Dwarven and Orc wars etc) that apply to the Hobbit book, I just hope he doesn't go too far with things in this respect but something inside tells me they will be epic movies and to be fair Peter Jackson does seem very passionate about what he does. If I ever wanted to be in a movie with my real life hobbit stature it would have been as an extra in this one, alas the modelling thing last year never really came to fruition and I heard nothing from the agency, all I can hope now is that my favourite book becomes reality on the big screen and brings my childhood wonderment to life.

Martin Freeman (above) surely is the perfect casting for Bilbo Baggins

Step Down Mr Blatter

Fifa supremo Sepp Blatter is 75 years old and still wants to run unopposed for another term as president for another term. This is amid allegations of corruption and bribes currently circulating in the news. Mr Blatter has been the president since 1998 and worked at Fifa for 36 years, and he probably thinks he has ascended to his rightful position after years of hard work. I think at his age he should ideally step down and let someone else take the helm, then again power and money aren't easy things to give up - ask any dictator.

Beer Festival Fun

Here's a photo my friend Danni took, usually I don't take a good photo but I like this one, it was taken last night at the Newark Beer Festival and a cracking night it was too! From Left to right as you look at it are Dominic, Ryan and me!

Newark Beer Festival

I'm off to the Newark 16th annual beer festival shortly, it's an event I look forward to every year. There's always good beer and good entertainment, it's a cracking weekend and the organisers are to be commended for all the hard work they put in. I just hope the weather stays dry and they don't run out of beer too early this year!

Also the local Camra guys have put together a very novel beer guide to Newark pubs based on the London underground tube map. The actual map hasn't been uploaded to the website that creates them yet, so here is a scanned version of it. There's other pub runs on the site linked too, go take a look. If you click on the image below is does become larger. Please note, the Prince Rupert is what I'd term 'the end of the line' for several reasons.

Life Of Course - Goes On!

The 21st of May came and went like any other day for everyone worldwide. Harold Camping's prediction that the world would end and a 'Rapture' would take place, basically saving all believers and killing all non-believers with natural disasters.

Of course Mr Camping represents a minority that believed in all this hocus-pocus so it's not fair to blame all christians though I do honestly feel I can blame all christians for believing in the bibles silly stories in the first place. The end of the world was supposed to be 7000 years or so after Noah's ark first set out, and how ridiculous is that story anyway? All the worlds animal species on a giant wooden ship after a flood, it goes beyond logical comprehension. This alone should show Mr Campings theory was baseless to anyone with common sense.

What kind of god would wipe out everyone except chosen christians, I ask, is this a benevolent god, a god that cares about humanity and the planet he allegedly created? Obviously if there was a god then he'd be the most brutal kind of dicatator - worship me or die! And after creating mankind wouldn't wiping most of it out be an exercise in futility?

This is what religion is all about though, it's cogs and wheels are fear, wish thinking and control and such is its power it easily influences weak minds. Ironically Mr Camping hasn't been seen since the alleged end of the world and his followers are vexed and upset (and probably feeling profoundly stupid!). With all fanatical christians there's excuses though and Mr Camping error is seen as a test of some sort according to some reports.

The world will turn and turn again until mankind screws it up (likely) or the sun burns itself out in due course (likely but hopefully not for some time!). Rest assured it won't be a god that destroys it because gods are created by man and inevitably until the sun does burn out or some natural global disaster does happen then we are the architects of our own destiny.

I'm pleased atheists and sane people are having parties about this whole business, it does go to show that we are beginning to shake off the shackles of religion and believe in what is most important - ourselves.

Only A Few Hours Left (again)!

Only a few hours left on the planet according to this > article. I linked it on Facebook earlier this week, more religious madness! What is he going to say tomorrow I wonder? Oh well make the most of your last few hours as the world ends on Saturday allegedly (again).

Street Pastors - No Thanks.

I was in my local earlier, having a coffee and reading the local paper. I noticed an article called 'Pastors out on patrol' which on reading didn't sit well with me. Readers of my blog have probably cottoned on that organised religion does not sit well with me at all.

For people unaware of what 'Street Pastors' are all about then I'll explain. They are basically narrow minded interfering do-gooders acting in the name of the alleged big man upstairs. Other towns and cities have them, and they are on the rise seemingly, patrolling and helping people in distress or in need of help, handing out water or flip flops to drunken people who may have lost shoes etc.

On the surface of course this all looks good and helpful but beneath the patronising veneer as with anything in organised religion there's always an ulterior motive.

Firstly though, lets look at the reasoning behind my blog. My first point I will raise is that is Newark really big enough to warrant having street pastors? The simple answer is no, we don't have many pubs and bars, we only have one nightclub that of late has been heavily policed at weekends. With this in mind, go back to my point of ulterior motive, they in a practical basis aren't needed, so why are they here? They are here of course to patronise, to preach in subtle ways and to condescend.

Britain has had a drinking culture for hundreds of years, people get drunk, people get into difficulties and we have something called the 'police' to deal with incidents. More importantly we also have something even bigger group to take responsibility for drunken people in trouble, it's called the general public who can help or call an ambulance should they wish or have a moral inclination to do so. The Tories probably embrace street pastors as they can cut police on the beat and let their flawed big society idea take shape with blinkered christian busy bodies making people feel that what they are doing is of course morally wrong and if they need help they should find god. Basically street pastors in effect is a covert recruiting system, simple as. You only have to look at other christian based organisations (and I can name some) that help people with drink and drugs problems, the end goal is always the same - find god, join us, get brainwashed into believing a load of fictional rubbish.

People should be able to go out on the streets without seeing a presence of religion, if you have faith or want to worship - go to church. The majority of drinking adults are quite responsible when out drinking, of course people get drunk, have accidents or end up in trouble but that of course is part of the perils of alcohol but most of us can take responsibility for friends without any need for help. For more serious instances then we have the police, so why do we need street pastors?

What The Hobbit Found.

Today I threw myself into cleaning my flat, it was certainly well overdue. Washing, dusting, hoovering and generally moving things out of the way to clean behind etc. Whilst in the bedroom I discovered my old Sony cassette walkman in a box and it evoked fond memories. It was then I decided to seek out my original Nintendo Gameboy and conceived a plan to pair the two together on a future commuting jaunt to Nottingham.

I'm going to need batteries and I guess a little patience but I suspect it'll be an interesting retro experiment and something to blog about. I'll no doubt get some interesting looks on the train. Stay tuned!

What A Week!

This week started with strange mobile phone goings on, with my credit vanishing mysteriously and other odd things I couldn't fathom. It's funny how you feel lost these days when you can't actually use your mobile and it makes you wonder how we got by without them! (though we did fine at the time). The phone has been an ongoing episode all week and actually getting plain answers from Orange who are my provider has been less than easy, as their call centres all seem to be in India.

No disrespect to the Indian people on the phone but they are largely reading from scripts on their monitors and there always seems to be a language barrier as not all English sound like we are reading the news on the BBC ! The trouble with call centres is they know they have you at a disadvantage, (I know I once worked in one) and as soon as the phone goes down you are out of their hair and someone else will have to deal with you when you call back and explain it all over again. Certain promises from Orange have yet to materialise, but time will tell. It's the second time this year I've had problems with Orange, their staff in my local shop being particularly unhelpful a while ago. I'm probably going to switch to O2 network/provider in the near future, their coverage seems better locally anyway and deals look good.

This morning around 10am I got an unidentified phone call, well an 0845 number so I declined to answer it. It left a message which turned out to be my bank's fraud team wanting to talk to me. It turned out my card has been cloned somehow and there had been several attempts to draw cash from my account in Cairo and Bangkok! Thankfully all requests had been declined and they got nothing, fair play to my bank on this one, and their vigilant system. Still the whole episode makes you think about how secure things really are, especially in light of several million identity thefts happening on the Sony online network recently.

Alternative Vote

Well the alternative vote referendum and local elections are over. As predicted the Lib Dems lost heavily in local elections and to add salt to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's gaping political wounds the Alternative vote system was rejected. I personally was in favour of an alternative voting system instead of our current first past the post system but it seems many weren't, or were actually in fact ignorant to it, just putting a no down as they didn't really understand it. We are very much a nation that doesn't embrace change well at times.

Clegg, once a king maker now seems unhappy with his lot, so does Vince Cable who attacked the Tories bitterly this week. So could Clegg & Co have a hand in future Tory policy blocking or even demise or will the Tories remain in power with subservient coalition partners?

Ostentatious Drivel

Miracles, sainthoods, pomp, deluded heads of state, unsavoury dictators like Robert Mugabe in attendance, yep it can only mean one thing - a catholic 'beatification'. We seem to be having a lot of them of late. Sure evidence the dark age catholic powers that now be are raising their profile even more after recent revelations. Seriously, in my eyes today's events are just nothing but complete rubbish, a chance for the corrupt controlling catholic church to don its ostentatious hat and beguile gullible people with yet more superstitious drivel. Rant over!