What's Up?
In the last few weeks I have had an abundance of wild mushrooms, runner beans from my garden plants, new season Golden Wonder potatoes, freshly picked apples from friends' trees and a host of other harvest season delights. The wife had hot cross buns for her breakfast on Sunday morning... Yep, it's September.
One of the best things about May is fresh English asparagus. Not this imported rubbish from Peru or Mexico, which has no taste and has travelled more food miles than most of us will ever travel. Also in May, June and July there are Jersey Royal new potatoes and both these vegetables, if you want seasonal, are available for a limited time and that's what makes them so special.
You can buy strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit all year round; we import so much fruit and veg from other countries that the idea of seasonal has all but disappeared. One of the joys of the past was waiting for the special seasonal treats to come along and having lots of them - overdosing on the splendours of our own harvests.
Capitalism has ruined this for most of the our seasonal treats. We can always buy something that's similar; something that is now cultivated rather than growing wild; pale imitations from a different country, satisfying someone's needs or desires. If it's autumn here, then it's spring somewhere else and vice versa.
I remember talking about seasonal food around the time of the Brexit vote. People complaining that we would have to be more reliant on our own food production and I saw this as one of the only benefits of leaving the EU. Except, that didn't materialise. We still import so much food from all over the world and we wonder why the world is burning.
I live in a place where many people, who probably would be called New Age Hippies, champion and campaign for locally grown or made produce; encourage and promote growing your own food and buying locally and I suppose that's one of the brilliant things about living in a place like this. My dinner today is going to consist of potatoes grown 25 miles away, runner beans grown 25 feet away, a cauliflower grown in Ayrshire and a main course that does involve some food miles, but was constructed in my kitchen, by me and not bought, pre-made, in a supermarket. Too many people in large towns and cities have forgotten how to be local and that's to their detriment...
Disclaimer
Oh, by the way, for TV shows that are ongoing I try to avoid any spoilers; for old TV shows that we're finally watching, there might be spoilers, but, hey, the review is of an old show so... For movies, if it's a new film then I will avoid spoilers; if the film is over two years old then not so much.
The Breakdown
It has been over 30 years since I last watched
Falling Down, the film which, I think, cemented Joel Schumacher's career as one of Hollywood's top directors and featured the talents of Michael Douglas and Robert Duval. It tells the story of a fragile, possibly mentally-unstable man - Douglas - driven to the edge of his mind by the injustices he sees every day; finally breaking and lashing out against mankind. It also tells the story of a retiring police officer - Duval - who in his own way is dealing with the same daily problems as Douglas. This was a groundbreaking movie when it came out because for more than half of the film Douglas's character was almost seen as an anti-hero, a man pushed over the edge by a rapidly fracturing society (so imagine if this film were made in 2026 instead of 1993?). It is dated, but only in its look and feel, the themes are probably just as prevalent and relevant today and while Douglas's character tips over the edge in full blown psycho mode, you can't help but root for him at times. 8/10
Falling Down...
[Did you see what I did there?] ... About two years ago, I heard this expression; 'fallen down an Instagram rabbit hole' and dismissed the idea as some ludicrous Gen Z nonsense. Then I discovered that falling down an Instagram rabbit hole is much easier than you can imagine and robs you of time like nothing else. The thing is, Insta has become my go to place for films; there are loads of clips of movies on there and the algorithm has worked out that I like watching clips. So about 50% of the movies we've been watching recently are ones that Instagram has played a part in. It's just a sort of recommendation thing; if a film has a lower than 6 IMDB rating then I'm going to avoid it - mainly - but it has turned up a few things I wasn't even aware of, so the procedure, while alarmingly time wasteful, does have its uses. Just, for the sake of your soul, don't go there unless you want to lose yourself in it...
Bad Optics
I've got to be honest, there is an element of
Lanterns that I'm not getting, although I think I'm following it a little better than the wife. The reason for this is, I think, my understanding of the Green Lantern Corps, which I actually believe you need to have an understanding of to fully appreciate what is going on - with the internal Lantern politics, etc. The mystery aspect is quite simple; the town of Rushville hate Green Lanterns because Green Lanterns were responsible for the end of prosperity in their town and the destruction of so much of it and the deaths of loads of people. It didn't matter to them that the Manhunter they were harbouring was a galactic fugitive, she brought peace and wellness to their community and therefore the Lanterns were to blame, even if she caused much of the death and destruction. This sixth episode is the start of trying to find out how and who killed Hal Jordan - something we've known since the epilogue of the opening part. Despite it being a pivotal episode, it felt a little like a scene setter, even with a guest appearance from Guy Gardner.
Smooth Operator
There have been two albums in the 21st Century which have firmly been regarded by me as two of the best.
Sea Change and
Morning Phase, both by Beck, an artist I have never liked. However, these two, arguably Gene Clark influenced, albums have been remarkable additions to my record collection, with the latter of the two one of my favourite albums of all time. Dreamy almost country themed beauty, full of fabulous songs and toe-tapping brilliance. So when I heard about
Ride Lonesome I immediately thought about getting it and also started to worry that Beck might not score a hat trick. As I said, I don't like Beck's work; I don't understand it. Every album he's released - apart from the three mentioned - just makes my blood curdle. I don't get it. But give him an acoustic guitar and some country lite themes and you get true works of genius. This album is no exception and on the first few listens, I'm wondering if it might actually be the best of the three. It will take a lot to shift
Morning Phase but this doesn't appear to have a weak track on it, even the one I like the least is still pretty fucking awesome. It's strange that an artist so well known and commercial should fall onto my eclectic radar, but if it hadn't have been for my mate Tony, I would never have found these gems. An astounding piece of work that deserves a 10/10.
For Heaven's Sake
In just over a month, Paul Bettany will be back on our screens as Vision in the first MCU/Disney series for a long time. Back in 2010, he starred in a really quite dreadful biblical apocalyptic tale called
Legion. He played Michael, a fallen angel, who comes to earth to protect a pregnant woman from the wrath of God, who will send an army of angels, possessing human bodies, to kill the woman and her unborn baby. It also stars Denis Quaid, Adrianne Palicki, Kevin Durand and some other people, all being set up for some kind of horrific fall. It's a film that starts, gets to the middle and then ends later on. It makes little sense until it starts making no sense and then it has an implausible ending. It has a poor rating on IMDB and was on Film4 last week and I just felt compelled to record it and watch. I should self flagellate next time I get these urges, maybe wrench my eyes out with pliers. 2/10
Risky Business
The wife and I have been vegetarians for a long time; over 35 years for her and just over 30 for me, so watching a movie about the rise of McDonalds didn't seem to be the most suitable Saturday night viewing, but
The Founder proved to be one extremely interesting biopic. Michael Keaton played Ray Kroc, the man who discovered Dick and Mac McDonald's new 'fast food' restaurant in San Bernardino, California, 14 years after they opened it and turned it into what we see today, a company of questionable ethics that literally sell more burgers per minute than you will take breaths in your lifetime. The really interesting thing about this is for the first half of the film, the story of how Kroc persuades the slightly naïve McDonald brothers to franchise their business using him as their manager seems like a really great example of the American Dream, but the strange thing is where you expect this to end up almost like a 'paid content' advert for the burger kings, it starts to get nasty and Kroc turns out to be an absolute shit burger. A man so driven that he screws just about everyone over to get what he wants. It's an absolute eye-opener and I'm sure The McDonald's Corporation were not happy with the end result. You will be. 8/10
Share Option
In this week's thrilling episode of
The Roy & Keeley Show, there's a special guest appearance by Ted Lasso! He's not saying much, yet he's putting across a stoically benign stand against upset women. Higgins discovers someone is aggressively buying up shares in Richmond FC and Rebecca thinks it's her ex-husband, who, of course, is now dead. Not her fictional husband, but the bloke who plays him in the TV show, thus causing a temporal rift which threatens the entire existence of the WSL League 2. There's a couple of ludicrous scenes with supposedly wide cars and as we edge towards the season finale, Juno Temple's tits are just bursting out of this week's dress. Film at 11.
The Nice Face of Racism
A few years ago, I noticed the wife had programmed the set top box to record
Hidden Figures and I asked why? "I don't remember seeing it," she said. "We watched it a few years ago." But she recorded it and we watched it a second time. A couple of months ago, I saw the pre-programmer had
Hidden Figures highlighted to record. "We've seen that quite recently," I said. "It's a good film, I thought we'd watch it again." So we did. Three times in about ten years is pretty good going. It's such a good [read: seen numerous times] movie I can actually quote lines from it, now. It probably romanticises how it was really like for these black women in the early 1960s, but it does give the impression that racism at NASA was mainly indifference with a dash of indignance and the black women didn't mind it, really, because it was like that in the USA. Which, might have been how it really was for most people when black, brown and any other race other than white was treated like dog shit, but I doubt it. It's still a great film. 8/10
Huh?
Every so often, I sit down and watch something and it simply disappears. I either don't feel any kind of connection or it has so little affect on me that I actually, physically, struggle to write something about it. Danny Boyle's Trance is one of those films. It lost me very early, I struggled to stay awake during it and at the end I didn't care what I'd seen. Made in 2016, this is the story of a heist, or is it? James McAvoy might be forgetful or he might be trying something on. Rosario Dawson gets her kit off and Vincent Cassel acts very badly (literally, not metaphorically). It's about memories, psychotherapy, hypnosis and bullshit. It felt like a music video at times. I wouldn't watch it again. 2/10
I'll Be Back
The barrel is being scraped. You're watching it in real time. Each week, another entry in the 'WTF?' column. You, the reader, getting to an entry and thinking, 'Huh?' Is this some kind of punishment he's giving himself? Who can say? But I watched
Terminator: Dark Fate and realised two very important things. Linda Hamilton cannot act to save her life and Terminator movies are an absolute donkey swamp of turds. There is no purpose for them and they should have been stopped. They aren't entertaining or interesting. AI taking over the world is far more sinister. 2/10
What's Next?
Well, that would be the Wigtown Book Festival, which is currently underway and will still be when next week's blog comes out - although that will be the second Saturday and the end will be in sight. It's not that I have any problems with the Book Festival, apart from the way it takes over the town for two weeks and feels like the town is a hindrance rather than the venue. That might have to do with the people who, oddly enough like me, have nothing to do with the book side of where we live. Wigtown is much more than a venue for a literary festival that the BBC has never deemed to exist, but ITV does a feature every year. It will be what it always is and it's also going to be greener...
Nope, not as in energy, but in colour. By the time the Book Festival rolls around, autumn is in full swing and we get shite weather to compound it. This time it's like summer is hanging on for dear life and it might not be particularly warm, but it's not been cold either. We have an awful day of weather forecast for Sunday, but the rest of the coming week seems to be very reasonable. Good weather brings more people out...
Anyhow, that means the wife is on long days and early nights and this will no doubt be born out by whatever shite we watch this coming week.
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