New music while I work
Thanks, Dom, for introducing me to Nuria Graham, a half-Irish half-Catalan lass, with a big guitar and a big voice. First Tracks, her demo album will be available for sale soon on her website,
http://www.nuriagraham.com/en#!index
More than a Katie Melua clone; much more.
A tall ordure
It’s all football today.
I see that a former FIFA World Player of the Year has left Madrid and gone back to AC Milan. Probably just as well; here in Spain nobody was ever too keen on inviting ridicule by wearing a replica shirt with ‘Kaka’ on the back. It reminds me of the time Celtic signed another Brazilian, name of Scheidt, and had to plead with the Scottish media to call him by his first name, Rafael.
¿Que?
I am reasonably up with it on football matters; I played the game in a very minor way until only a couple of years ago, when my body suggested that it might like a rest, I watch a lot and I read a lot about it and all its modern intricacies and intrigues. I have just finished a book called ‘I am the Secret Footballer‘ and soon I will start another called ‘The Secret Player‘, which my friend Martin, who edited it, assures me is even better.
For all that, there is one thing I cannot understand. Leaving the cash involved aside, for that is just silly and a reflection of the fact that today’s industry is mostly about screwing money out of the fans, can someone please explain to me how a presumably sane man could pay more for Gareth Bale than for Cristiano Ronaldo?
Double fault
Anyone noticed that Rory McIlroy’s decline has been more than matched by that of his girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, once the No 1 player in her sport, now well down the rankings?
I have a theory, and it is this: mixed doubles involving golfers and tennis players never work for either party.
Deja vu
It seems that we are being told, on the basis of top-quality US intelligence, (Does that ring a bell?) that the Syrian President possesses weapons of mass destruction, and has used them against his opponents, killing innocents in the process.
It seems also that our government is going to join the US and anyone else who can be recruited in ‘punishing’ him, by launching massive missile strikes against his country, a tactic which will lead inevitably to the deaths of still more innocents. Change a few names and we could be back where we were ten years ago.
Will a missile strike bring back the dead? No, it will only add to their numbers. Will it bring the regime to heel? Unlikely; but it could provoke them into doing the same again . . . that’s if it was them in the first place and not the rebels. So why has David Cameron suddenly become a war-monger? Hasn’t he cast an eye upon the haunted figure that is Tony Blair today, to recognise the danger to his reputation?
Can we have the referendum now please, before Scotland is sucked into another Westminster War?
Meldrew mode
Okay you’re going to call me a grumpy old ******* but here goes anyway.
Yesterday evening we flew from Newcastle to Girona; on a rough head count as many as 20% of the passengers were children of school age, holiday bound. It may be they were all going on five day breaks and will be back when the English schools reopen on Monday, but forgive me if I doubt that. Yes, I know that holidays are more expensive in July and August than in June and September, but parents are legally obliged to present their kids at school during term-time and, I would suggest, morally bound also.
I would suggest that UK-wide education authorities should station observers at all airports, because for too many people, when it comes to a choice between sunshine and education, stupidity rules.
Pointed
Someone in Pointless must have read my post earlier today! Nonetheless your record still isn’t good, folks.
More music while I work
Georgia Lee ; Tom Waits, from the album Mule Variations. Not a happy song, but the man’s a genius.
Provocative question of the week
Why are there no black contestants on Pointless? Is it made by the same folk who used to make Midsomer Murders, till they got caught?
Thank you all
Finally, now I have a chance to draw breath after a hectic weekend, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined me in the big tent at the Edinburgh Book Festival last Thursday afternoon, and also to the guy on my right, my friend and chairman, Brian Taylor.
I enjoyed it; hope you did.
Sergio Leone
Truly
I have just seen the idiot of the week on Pointless, a man who thought that Treasure Island was written by Hans Christian Andersen
Emo!!!
“I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”
That has been voted the funniest joke at this year’s Fringe. Eh? You want funny, try this:
Cumpleanos, Guillem
It’s Bill Clinton’s birthday. Does he look older than me, or younger? Answers please.
For a horse
Thank you BBC for The White Queen, great gripping knights in armour drama. Fiction rather than history, yes, but bloody good, especially the barking mad Margaret Beaufort.
Too bad there can’t be a second series. They’d pretty much run out of Yorkists at the end.
Great
And so farewell, Top of the Lake. Almost two months of mesmerising drama; it got everything right that Twin Peaks got wrong. Its absence will leave a hole in my Sunday evenings.
Dans la merde jusqu’au cou
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23742476
When you’re apologising to the fans after your first game, you are in trouble, no matter who you are.
Beware
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10241770/Barcelona-worst-city-for-holiday-scams.html
This is not news; Barcelona has been this way for ever. Eileen and I were in a taxi last year going past the foot of the Ramblas, when our driver said, unprompted, ‘Un carrer muy peligroso,’ or in English, ‘A very dangerous street.’
Egalitarianism
My non-Facebook friend Kenneth Roy, back to his perceptive best; read it to the end.
Another boycott coming?
It’s no secret that I’m an SNP supporter, and so it shouldn’t be surprising that I am 100% behind the party in its demands that Westminster should legislate to tackle the scourge of payday lenders.
However I have an eye for an anomaly, and find myself sympathising with Alex Salmond, the First Minister, given that he’s a prominent Hearts fan, and their shirt sponsor is . . . Wonga.com.
