Pun based title, when I think of one

Just as the penultimate series of Game of Thrones ends, I want to give a shout out to another, vaguely similar but very different fantasy series from long ago, Hordes of the Things . GoT wasn't a gleam in anyone's eye when this was created, in 1980, but The Lord of the Rings definitely was. Hordes of the Things was a direct parody, in four half hour episodes. It never made much of an impact, partly because a few months later BBC Radio embarked on an ambitious and very successful straight adaptation of Tolkien's saga. As you can see, because here is its cover design, the BBC did release the series on cd, but this had to wait until 2009. Hypocritically, I'm going to recommend it. If you like parodies, humour which is sort of in the same ball park as Hitch-hiker , and scenery chewing of a high order, then this will entertain you. My hypocrisy relates to the fact that I've just recorded it on cd myself. I'm in the middle of another bout of throwing things ...

This is a very physical film. Yes, I saw it in IMAX, as recommended by reviewers, hence why I used this poster image rather than the host of others you'll find on Google. It's been a while since I've had the IMAX experience, and it is special; and I'm glad that there seems to be a trend for 2D films to get the IMAX treatment, and not just 3D films. But extraordinary though the cinematography of Dunkirk is, that isn't what makes the biggest impact. It's the sound. The score, I should say. Hans Zimmer is hugely instrumental in making this film what it is. It's odd to talk about the score, because there's very little music on it, but there it is, pinning you down and pummeling you. I actually began to feel a little sick; I could partly put that down to the early morning rise, hasty porridge, and walk down to the station to get to this showing; but there's no doubt that the physical power of the soundtrack was producing this state. And it never let...

That's Finnish for the great crested grebe . I've hardly ever seen these birds, in my whole lifetime, but a few days ago I saw this pair only a short distance from my house. You see, I've taken to doing a short daily walk, just for a breath of fresh air really, because I realised I was spending too many days hardly going outside at all. Until I get back into a proper cycling habit, this is unhealthy. This walk couldn't be more local. Just a few metres outside my house, there's a route going up through my nearest new housing estate (a lot of these in my area), which used to be fairly wild but also scraggy and not very attractive to be honest, so I don't really mind these new houses. Especially when a few metres further on, they've preserved another shady and quite pretty path up through the trees next to a stream. The only downside of that is that it's muddy after rain. At the top of the hill, next to a few new industrial buildings and a service area whic...

So, I sometimes find I bring interesting things back from a trip. This particular lot is a nicely eclectic collection, even more noteworthy because of the industrial action at Helsinki-Vantaa airport which forced me to take only  carry-on luggage . And I'd paid extra to check it in. The original plan, as per normal for trips to Finland, was to fill another bag with sweets and stuff for the suomikoulu to sell from the school's shop. Frustrating. I threw a lot of things out in my room at Hotel Helka the day before the flight. On top of the nearly finished toothpaste, shaving gel and shampoo, out went a variety of oddments like nail clippers and assorted foodstuffs. Unimportant, but wasteful. Here's the Finnish cultural loot from my March 2017 trip. You might want to click on the picture to embiggen it. Somehow, I gathered rather more than I'd expected. You'll quickly spot the biggest challenge as far as the cabin bag is concerned. That's right, an actual vin...

This relates to something pleasingly odd which happened last week, but bear with me for the moment. Right - Ikara Colt in Preston, 2004 Like you and most people, I've seen some music acts more than once. I don't go to concerts so much now. Gigs. But I'd never rule out further outings. The melancholy truth is that it's less a matter of age, than that most acts have a short shelf life. At least two acts I saw quite a bit of were very open about it, saying things like, 'People shouldn't be playing rock music after 30' (That, frankly, is nonsense) or 'Five years and that's it' . I did a list some time ago on my old website, and this is how it totted up, by the end of the 2000s, with a few extras achieved since. Ikara Colt      9 times, 2003-2004 The Raveonettes      5 times, 2003-2007 Sahara Hotnights      4 times, 2003 The Washdown      3 times, 2003 Jeff Beck      2 times, a few years apart Bi...

The inverted commas are because this isn't going to be that at all. When I had a blog before, like a lot of people I would present my own lists of the year's best films and music though I don't think I ever got round to doing a books lists as well. I hope I never pretended to be demonstrating any kind of definitive judgement. For one thing, who except for a professional critic can claim to have seen/listened to/read enough of a year's output to be qualified to cite the 'best'? This year in particular has been thin for me as regards new films or records. I've only been out to see a handful of films, and I only bought two or three records. As for books, oddly enough there are encouraging signs of a revival of my reading, but not of new books - I find it really hard to get interested in the marketing of the publishing world, even more than in the music industry. However, I'm not impervious to pop culture around the movie industry. I regret this, beca...

I enjoyed this, but felt at the same time that it was a standard Bourne -by-the-numbers plot. Maybe the swerve away from the usual style of title in this film series, to simply stating his name, underlines that. I found the Bourne series addictive from the beginning, but with this film I wondered if I'd rather they'd let it lie. Oh, if they make another (ha ha - that's the first spoiler, isn't it - Bourne doesn't die in this film!) I'll definitely go and see it, but hoping against hope that they can come up with something more surprising than this one. Let's pick at a few points. First, I'm supremely unimpressed by yet another girlfriend being bumped off (2nd spoiler, sorry), purely to give Bourne some motivation. Just as I liked Franke Potente's Maria, so I liked Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons. Both of them great actresses, who made their characters interesting. There's a point in the film where it looks like Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee i...