Music while I laze
Caustic Love : Paolo Nutini. I’ve been waiting around five years for young Mr Nutini to make a great album. He has now.
Doomsday?
Commiserations to my Hibs supporting friends on snatching relegation from the jaws of safety yesterday.
It’s an inconceivable scenario for the numpties who run Scottish football, but it will happen. Next season, the top tier in The SPFL will be missing not only Rangers but both Edinburgh clubs as well. Bereft of visits by three of the top five, the financial consequences for everyone but Celtic could well be dire.
Doubtfire no more
It was almost overlooked because of the outstanding performance of Rory the L*** R** (sorry kid, didn’t mean it) at Wentworth, but a great day arrived yesterday. Colin Montgomerie, Old Grumpy himself, finally won a major championship, the US Senior PGA. Twenty years too late, Big Man, but well done, and on to the Grand Slam.
Liberation
Back in L’Escala for a few weeks, I join a band of Brits dismayed by the disappearance of UK Freesat TV, after a recent satellite move to one with a smaller footprint. Sky is still there, but BBC, ITV1 etc are gone from that platform too.
Sure, there’s a school of thought that says, if you move to another country you should embrace all of it, and leave your former culture behind you. There’s an alternative school of thought that says, bugger that for a game of soldiers. And there’s another, one that I intend to promote actively, that poses a question. If citizens of European Union nations can move freely across its internal borders, where is the logic that denies the same flexibility to television signals?
Vale of tears
Last weekend, Olivia Colman picked up a merited best actress TV BAFTA for Broadchurch. You’d get very short odds on Sarah Lancashire picking up the same gong in 2015 for Happy Valley. I know, it’s violent, too violent for many; even I find myself thinking about it well into the night. I know also that British TV drama stands accused of being infected by the wave of ‘Scandi-noir’ that has swept across our screen in the last few years. However an actor can only do their best with the script that he or she is given.
Of all its virtues, I’m most impressed by the fact that it is the work of Sally Wainwright. The same mind that gave us Last Tango in Halifax also created Happy Valley, a diametrically different vision of the same location: astonishing.
The ego is landing
It’ll be all right now. Van Gaal is coming.
I’ll reserve judgement on that.
Janus
I have also been following the Icebreaker affair in which Gary Barlow, Gabby Logan etc, have been shown to be engaging in active tax avoidance. David Cameron thinks that Gary should keep his OBE, but voluntarily pay additional tax.
What do I think? As always, the Prime Minister is being duplicitous. Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is not. Indeed, it is an industry, one which exists because of regulations that have been put in place under the watch of this and previous governments. If blame is to be attributed it should land at the door of those ultimately responsible, Cameron, Osborne and their predecessors in office.
Political incorrectness
I have been following, from a distance, the Richard Scudamore affair, in which the chief exec of the English Premier League has been pilloried for forwarding allegedly sexist emails.
Here’s my take on the MPs and others who have been stirring this: Get a ******* life.
The Street
Thanks to Marina, and everyone else who turned out at Waterstone’s Sauchiehall Street today. Glasgow’s changing; needs a dose of Skinner.
Same bookstore different town tomorrow evening. Almondvale, Livingston, 6:30pm. There may be refreshments!
Wild west
Quiet Monday, then tomorrow I’m looking forward to a visit to Waterstone’s in Sauchiehall Street, 12:30pm.
Brief respite
Another football league season gone, apart from the last knockings of the play-offs, which could see the top tier in Scotland without either of the Edinburgh clubs, an unprecedented and financially dangerous situation, and in England, the return of the ‘Wally with the Brolly’ to the Premier League. The first ever Scottish Premiership ended in controversy, with the mighty Motherwell emerging once again as the best of the rest, thanks to a last minute, and perfectly legitimate, goal against the sore-losing Aberdeen. The first ever English Premier League without Fergie was the poorer for his absence, as were Manchester United, who may be gone for a while if they abandon continuity in favour of the much-travelled veteran Dutchman who has been anointed by the media as the next manager. Top four next season? England: 1 Man City 2 Chelsea 3 Tottenham 4 Liverpool. Scotland: 1 Celtic 2, 3, 4 Pick any 3 from 11.
So on we go to the World Cup. QJ’s forecast: Argentina to beat Portugal in the final, Brazil to win the third-place play-off over Germany or Belgium. England? Get to quarter-finals, lose to Brazil.
PC DC
I heard Dave Cameron quoted as morning as expressing his support for a woman as the next chair of the BBC Trust.
Would that be any woman? I hope that the choice will be the best person for the job, regardless of gender.
Location location location
Halfway through the Hour of Darkness tour, I’d like to thank all the kind people who have turned out at my events . . . even the lady in WHS at the Gyle who was grumpy about Skinner’s move to Glasgow. As I told her I don’t do tourist manuals; my books are about people first and places second.
Googly
A few people have told me of problems with cancelled transactions on pre-orders of Hour of Darkness on the Google Play ebook platform. We’ve been on to Google, to be told that these were the result of a glitch in its system. It’s fixed and the book is back up there for sale (at a giveaway offer of £4.68), but customers whose pre-orders fell into the hole will have to purchase again . . . the original transaction will not have been debited.
It’s out!
Yes, I know some shops have been selling it early, but this is the official publication day of Hour of Darkness, the twenty-fourth Bob Skinner novel.
Absolutely no spoilers, but this is a very significant chapter in the life of the guy who lives inside my head for half the year. I’ll be signing copies today in Costco, Edinburgh, at 2pm, and in Waterstone, Kirkcaldy from 7pm. Somewhere along the line I’ll get to eat too, or not, as the case may be.
Music while I work
Stacey Kent : The Changing Lights. Another pitch perfect performance from one of my favourite singers.
Question
What’s the difference between a street artist and a vandal?
Could it be that a street artist is good at it?
Back-firing
Start the weekend with a laugh, that’s my principle. No problem today, thanks to the telly news, which led with the pantomime horse that is the two Eds, Millipede and Balls, visiting Scotland to campaign against independence. Thanks guys. Please stay among us for the remainder of the debate.
If that wasn’t funny enough, they were joined by the Director General of the CBI failing to explain why his organisation, which was resolutely against the Yes campaign ten days ago, has withdrawn its opposition. I came to that from watching Twenty Twelve, the classic spoof TV series. I couldn’t tell the difference.
Too bad
I’ve been wishing for David Moyes’ departure from the Man U job for a few months now, but I take no pleasure from it. As for his succession, it should always have been Guardiola, but now the timing is wrong for him. Anyone but Van Gaal; he’s nearly as old as me, he didn’t stay the course at Barcelona, twice, and he’ll be ripped apart by the English media.
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