Goin to the Pictures

Before I start, I've still only got 2 followers and one of those was me pretending to be my wife (not in a weird way)...so actually I've really only got the Incredible Mr Ford. Thanks for sticking in there fella. I've been on other people's blogs and they have dozens of followers so what's going on. Rich and Mr Black, I think it's just you two out there so I will keep it up for us. How do the professionals do it? The set-up instructions talked about monetizing my Blog and adding adverts that earn me money every time one of the readers click on the advert. A nice thought but I think it would cheapen my efforts and it requires lots of followers. I don't want to monetize the Blog but some more hits and followers would be good for my faltering e-ego. Does anyone have any ideas? Other blogs seem to be focused on one subject and attract hits based on subject matter. Perhaps mine is too varied. They say that you should write about what you know so maybe I should write about music all the time. At least you two (Fordy and Bri) will read it anyway and you both like music, but I don't want to restrict myself.

I'm writing this from our brand new iMac. Very sexy it is too. iTunes works much quicker and downloads the CDs in a jiffy. Why don't I get the album artwork each time? One of you must know the answer. Garageband is a great application too. I think I will be the next Aphex Twin and make millions from the comfort of the batcave.

Tracey and I were thinking of going to the pictures tonight but there's nothing on. Well, there is, but we've already seen Harry Potter, Julie and Julia and The Ugly Truth. The latter is very funny, by the way, in case you haven't seen it although Gerrard Butler's American accent is awful. Anyway, it got me thinking about films I've enjoyed over the years so here's a few recommendations:

Big Night; a story of the owners of an Italian restaurant that serves excellent food but few customers. It stars Minnie Driver, Ian Holme and a few other's you'll recognize but it's one of those films that you never forget, for the right reasons.

Trainspotting; still a brilliant film (and even better soundtrack).

Notting Hill; I love Hugh Grant films. I don't know why. He plays the same character in everything he's in but I can watch them over and over again. Is this a guilty pleasure or does anyone else like them too? Perhaps it's the scripts. I don't know.

Hi Fidelity; the story of a record store owner so I was hooked before I saw it. Lot's of great tunes including the Beta Band and a great performance by Jack Black.

24 Hour Party People; this is the story of Factory Records and the Hacienda. It has a cameo from Mark E. Smith and has Steve Coogan playing the infuriating Anthony Wilson.

Gregory's Girl; I remember seeing it in the cinema when I was a kid and enjoying it and then watching it years later on the TV and finding it brilliantly funny.

300; I love the fact that this heroic Greek king has a Scottish accent. Maybe it's because it sounds more aggressive than an American one.

Angel Heart; Rich and I watched this with Morgan Bath at University and I loved it, especially the twist at the end. I wonder what Morgan is doing now. 

About a Boy; another Hugh Grant film but one with a Badly Drawn Boy soundtrack. 

As Good As It Gets; Jack Nicholson at his best playing a crabbit old guy and his growing relationship with his gay neighbour who he can't stand, and the waitress at his favourite cafe.

Kelly's Heroes; the best war movie ever with Donald Sutherland playing a hippy driver of a Sherman tank.

So I Married An Axe Murderer; one of my favourite movies, particularly the scenes with the Scottish father. One of the only acceptable Scottish accents from someone who doesn't normally have one that I have ever heard.

Meet Joe Black; strange but wonderful.

OK, that should keep you going for a while.

Quick update on the Big Read top 100, I finished Pride and Prejudice and started on War and Peace. It's 1000 pages of very very small text so I should be at it for a long time. Need to stick at it though because I want to be able to say I've read it one day. Jane Austin's novel was good but the style of writing took a few pages to get used to. I'll have to see the movie now that I've read it. I never used to like period dramas but I think I'll make an exception.

OK, back to downloading The Fall into iTunes.

Getting Better

It has been quite some time since my last Blog, due in part, to a week away in Nelson where we spent a week with my cousin Heather and her family and chilled out as usual. The kids have the space to roam around and Heather and Brain's boys keep them occupied which means that Tracey and I have the time to relax, read books, drink coffee and look at the spectacular scenery. Thanks guys for a great week.

The other reason for the delay in writing has been the fact that I have been struggling a bit on the medication. The neurologist had to change it because when I didn't have caffeine induced work to keep me awake during the day I was doing a great impression of a zombie, but without eating people. That wouldn't have been very popular. I'm now on new medication and seem to be back to normal in terms of my energy and the ability to stay awake beyond 4pm. When the meds were changed I had a couple of weeks on both as I was weaned of the old ones and gradually introduced to the new ones so the latter part of our week in Nelson saw me more tired that ever but since our return I'm back to normal. Let's hope it lasts.

So I have spent the last couple or three weeks continuing to buy CDs in Thrift Stores in Vancouver, something that we have been doing for the past year or so. Due to the advent of iTunes and other digital music sources, people appear to be ditching their CD collections to create space so audiophiles like me, who actually like to have an actual product to pick up, can add to their collection...for next to nothing. There's also a few record stores in Vancouver that have used CD sections where you can buy them a little cheaper than stores like HMV. Tracey and I found another one today on Commercial, in East Vancouver, and I picked up some more: Primal Scream, Money Mark and Super Furry Animals. They had some 7" singles pinned to the wall behind the counter. They had one King Kurt single, "Zulu Beats", (remember that one Donald) for $99.99. I was convinced no one in Canada had heard of King Kurt, let alone be prepared to part $99.99 for 2 songs. When I was paying for the CDs I heard that the Shuggie Otis album had been released on CD so that will give me something to search for. I read about him in the book "1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die" but never expected to find it anywhere because he released it at the age of 18 and promptly disappeared into obscurity. He influenced the likes of Prince and OutKast so I am keen to find it.

We need to support our local record stores around the world and give me somewhere to visit when we wonder round the shops. I can't wait until we have our own house (when when when?) so that I can get the rest of the collection over and buy a stereo...with a record player. I am delighted to hear that vinyl has had a sort of resurrection in recent years with bands releasing new records on heavy vinyl. It must have an impact on the way they react to the stylus or something...more stable on the turntable. The tone is far warmer that CDs but you can't play them in the car. Talking of cars, Tracy and I saw a brand new Roller today. I'd never seen one before, but it looked awful. It's a huge ugly bulky clunky looking car. Not that I ever linked Rollers much anyway but it struck me as a shame that these classic shapes had been re-engineered into bricks on wheels with shiny bits.

I spotted another bastardisation recently - they've released a book called "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". It takes the basic text by Jane Austin and adds a new storyline about a plague of zombies roaming around the country eating people and forcing the Bennet family to train their 5 daughters to become ninja zombie killers. I guess it's classic literature for the comic generation but it seems a shame to spoil the original. It prompted me to buy the original and start it. Then I remembered that our friend Yvonne Wallace had emailed a list of 100 books (http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/) last year that the BBC had created after seeking recommendations from the viewers. It had Lord of the Rings at No. 1 and lots of other well-known classics and I was ashamed to see that I had only read 12 of them. So I have committed myself to make my way through as many of them as I can. I've started looking some of the out in the same stores that I buy my CDs and have so far procured War and Peace, Little Women, Moby Dick (not on the list but I thought I'd give it a go), Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Brigette Jones, Dune, David Copperfield, Birdsong, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Anna Karenina and Emma. That should keep me going for a while.

I wonder what the average number of books from the list people have actually read?

Mine's a Pint

Master Black asked me what my favourite beer was last weekend and, despite my inability to enjoy the stuff for the next couple or three years, I thought I'd blog about my favourite tipple for your delectation.


I started tasting beer when I was a small boy, tasting it from Dad's pewter mug at parties. As most small boys will attest this experience is rarely enjoyable because their taste buds have not developed a taste for much, let alone beer, and certainly not for a pewter mug. Metallic beer.... ! At the age of 15 or 16 I started going to pubs (sorry parents) with my pals, usually before the football at Tyncastle so that the smell of beer had departed before the half hour train journey took me home to Stoneyburn. It's amazing what 3 or 4 pints will do to a 16 year old when downed in an hour, but, whilst the social aspect was enjoyable, the beer still wasn't. We used to meet at the Auld Hoose in Williams Street, Edinburgh (now a Bert's Bar) because the bar maid (Yvonne I seem to recall...amazing how I remember) served us without asking any questions. The pub was made out inside with a hug fake tree that we used to sit in the branches of. You had to be there. I can't remember the mass produced rubbish I drank back then but I remember hating the stuff. As my teenage years progressed we would start going to parties at the club next to the Playhouse and drink Grolsch. I hated that too but the bottles came with a cool flip-top so I gritted my teeth and drank it. I eventually started drinking whiskey and ginger because it didn't give me the dry boke every time I tried it. Next came university in Liverpool where we were fed watered-down beer, a new one on me. This time it was Tetley Bitter or Guiness. I couldn't stand the bitter at that point in my life and especially not watered down, so I pretty stuch stuck to Guinness. The Incredible Mr Frost and I would occasionally mix Creme de Menthe with it and we had minty Guinness. Our favourite haunt was Flanagan's Apple in the same street as the infamous Cavern Club. This was an Irish pub on 3 levels that had folk music in the basement and 2 other floors of bar area. The Guinness there was great.


It wasn't until my late 20's that I started to like beer in it's own right. I remember being in an Asda in Liverpool where they had a deal; 4 bottles of beer for the price of 3, so I picked 4 I had never heard of before and took them back to Tracey's parents and drank them all during a relaxing evening.


Fast forward to our home in Glasgow and the off-licences nearby, Peckhams and Odbins where you could buy bottled beers from all over the world. I discovered Australian beers, American beers, beers from Germany and Belgium and a variety of Scottish and English beers from microbreweries (breweries that produce up to 15,000 barrels a year). Microbreweries have become more popular in recent years as drinkers searched for different beers from different styles that actually tasted of something more than the mass produced fizzy pop that the big breweries have been producing for years.


So here's a list of beers that I have enjoyed and still enjoy in Canada today. You may recognise some of them, but they are in no particular order:

- Innes and Gunn, Oak Aged Beer http://www.innesandgunn.com/ this stuff is aged in oak casks that used to be used in the whiskey trade and you can definitely taste whiskey, but only if you drink this from a glass and give the oxygen enough time to get to the beer. Don't try drinking this out of the glass or you won't taste it.

- Little Creatures, Pale Ale http://www.littlecreatures.com.au/ the brewery building used to be a crocodile farm in Western Australia and now produces a number of ales. I've only ever tasted the Pale Ale as that was all that was available in Glasgow. I've never seen it in Canada or the US but hope springs eternal (assuming i ever get back to drinking it, that is).

- Sierra Nevada, Pale Ale www.sierranevada.com this is another beer that I found in Glasgow but have now tasted the draught version in San Diego. Not sure whether I have seen it in Canada yet.

- Unibroue, Trois Pistoles www.unibroue.com this beer is sold in large bottles in the liquor stores in BC and it packs a punch at 9% ABV. I used to enjoy a bottle of this on a Friday afternoon when I got home from work. It certainly relaxes you after a hard week at work.

- Cairngorm Brewery, Trade Winds www.cairngormbrewery.com this beer isn't brewed all year round so if you see it in the shops in Scotland or on draught in the pubs you should give it a go.

- Badger Brewery, Golden Glory www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk this is a light beer brewed with peach blossom and you can taste the subtle hint of peach when you drink it. Hall and Woodhouse is an independent brewery in Dorset.

- Lewis Richards', Home Brew I'm sorry but this brewery is way too small for a web-site but if you ever have the opportunity to taste his IPA, take it. Very nice fella.

- Granville Island Brewery, Kitsilano Male Cream Ale www.gib.ca Granville Island is a fun place to visit for the day whether you live in Vancouver or are just visiting. This beer is my favourite, but their others are great too. We've been on the tour (very short - very small brewery) and you have the chance to taste their beers afterwards in their taproom. A tip - sign up when there are fewer visitors because they give you a small tasting glass but bring the beer in pitchers so the fewer the guests, the more beer you get.

- New Belgium, Fat Tire www.newbelguim.com this is a very refreshing beer in California where it tends to be warmer than anywhere else.

- Timothy Taylor, Landlord www.timothy-taylor.co.uk I've never been one for listening to what Madonna has to say but I heard her recommend this beer and decided to try it in Glasgow. Very nice.

If you're really interested in learning more about beers I would recommend the following web-sites

- www.beeradvocate.com
- www.beerhunter.com

Beer Hunter was either started by or inspired by Michael Jackson (the beer journalist, not the occasional singer) but now that he has died I suppose it has been carried on by others. Michael wrote a number of books on the subject, the best of which is Ultimate Beer, a review of over 600 beers. Tick them off as you taste them. I used to do that. Hey ho.