The Last Post

..of 2012. This Christmas has been the worst weather I can remeber , it's not even interesting , just the SAD inducing rain and grey skies. Having said that met up with some great people and had some good nights as well as having a quiet Christmas eating excellent food , doing catch up TV and recuperating for the stresses of everyday life.

Radio 6 has been on constantly while I've been working and I inted to see in the next year with friends as well.

It's quarter to four and lights are coming on. Elvis Costello's "Good Year For The Roses" is playing on the radio. I remember thinking how much I should hate it because it was country music , but as I dug into the album and periphery I discovered many jewels not least a couple of versions of "Stranger In The House" and the excellent "Psycho". It's great when life throws you unexpected pleasures , just brightens things a little and I am going to dig out my expanded copy of "Almost Blue" ... Happy New Year

Bill Shankly

  'The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don't know the game.' 

 Just reading the papers this morning and this thought came into my head reading about the problems that Brendan Rodgers is facing at Liverpool. We have had a brilliant book and film about Brian Clough in "The Damned United" , Clough portrayed excellently my Michael Sheen. One of the reasons for this , apart from Clough's track record in football , isthe things he said , his attitude , giving a veritable goldmine for journalists and scriptwriters alike.

Alex Ferguson , Pep Guardiola , Franz Beckenbauer wer all better and eventually more successful managers , but that's alls they were. Jose Mourinho is possibly the only modern manager who is on a par with Clough as a perfect media darling.

Which goes back to my original reason for writing this , why no film about Shankly? His quotes are legend and he took Liverpool from being a nothing club to a dominant force , a legacy the club still seem to be living off.  If  you want some quotes check here.

I think it would makegreat viewing for any fan of football , and barring the afformentioned Damend United what other films have there been about football that have actually been worth watching. I can't think of any. Shankly would be a worthy addition.

There Goes Christmas

Another Christmas has gone , and back to work tomorrow. Glad I don't work in retail or journalism or else I wouldnt have stopped.

Desipite all of us expecting to have time off at Christmas spare a thought for those who can't have a day off , especially the emergency services , utility workers , television providers and the like. On Christmas Morning we expected the power to be on and water to be running and if , god forbid , there is an accident we expect there to be someone at the end of the 999 call.

On Christmas Eve I rushed into to town and thought the shops were open . They weren't. It was staff staying late getting ready for the Boxing Day sales. How mouldy is that?

The Retail world is become more pernicious toward society leeching away our quiet time in the form of 24 hour supermarkets and Sunday Opening. People used to go to Church , now it's the local B and Q or Garden Center.  While I like to be able to get what I want when I want , I dont want to ruin someone elses life just to wait on my convenience.

Anyway hope everyone's Christmas has been brilliant and the New Year will be even better. Christmas has provided me with a few blog posts this year so I can't be too curmudgeonly about it.

A Very Merry Christmas to Starbucks and Manchester United

For all those corporation that governments allow to get away with paying little or no tax , while demonising the low paid and unemployed by cutting benefits and increasing taxes to make up the shortfall.

We cannot criticise these corporations because the decision makers would be crucified if their share holders found out they had paid taxes when the law allows them not to. Blame governments and law makers for this , doubly so when they then blame the people who don't have the financial clout  to actually fight back.

As well as Starbucks , don't forget Manchester United and City who run at a "loss" on paper and therefore don't pay any taxes . I don't hear them being pilloried like Starbucks , when it's about time they were. How can the most profitable football club in the world get away with paying no tax.

And how come Cameron and Osborne can never do anything when it's people like this taking the taxman to the cleaners rather than some immigrant or benefit cheat? Well will soundtrack it with A's Starbucks.

Christmas Day

It's been a weird and wonderful day, totally relaxed , recovering from various health rigours and have an excellent Christmas tea with chicken , brussels sprouts and all the trimmings prepared by Fiona. The watching , interspersed with each other Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows and my favourite Shakespeare play The Tempest featuring Helen Mirren as a gender swapping Prospera and Russell Brand as a quite excellent Trinculo , you wouldnt expect Brand and Shakespeare to cross , but they do rather well.

Family phonecalls and getting rest from work has made it a most excellent Christmas day.


Looking forward to a comedy night at the Stand with the excellent John Scott and Gavin Webster , followed by Lord Rochester at The Schooner on Saturday. This could be a most excellent week ....

4G No Ubiquity ... Yet

Just a short post on EE 4G. It is excellent to be able to stream TV on applications such as iPlayer , but you do need to have a constant signal. Cable provides and uninterupted flow , and did anaolgue TV and now Freeview through the airwaves.

BBCs iPlayer on the iPad allows you to downlaod episodes to watch when you are not connected , but the Android version I have on my Samsung Note 2 doesnt sem to have that option. This means that when you leave the 4G area in Newcastle on the way south your program stops , not a great customer experience caused by the face that you cant download when in the 4G signal range.

When 4G is ubiquitous streaming will be find , but even free media apps should provide the option of downloading when in a good signal area.

The World Ends Today

Thought the art of John Martin, soundtracked by Aphrodites Chid performing The Four Horsemen from their 666 album ,was an appropriate watching for this post.

Someone once said there's two things certain in life , death and taxation. There's also the obsession with the end of the world . The Mayan one is interesting in that it looks a significant date 21/12/12 asssuming you use the correct format and notation, but the Mayan's were on ourt calendar and sometime in the middle ages we lost a big chunk of time to correct the calendar.

Any way there will be billions of blog posts about this , some like this not expecting it to happen , others telling you to prepare by building a boat or hitching a lift on an alien spaceship. And if it doesnt happen there will be some kind of excuse offered about a slight miscalculation. The irony of course that if it does happen , the ones who got it right cant say "I Told You So!".

Anyway here's mty apocalypse playlist , I'm sure lots of peole have done this , hope you can enjoy it.

For some people the end of the world is always nigh , for people in Newcastle it's at the end of the Metro line ... Sunderland !!