September 21st, 2005
John Banville, Screwcaps, Franz Ferdinand and that guy from Airplane
Today I’m pondering the following things…
* Why people have been giving out about the Franz Ferdinand single Do you Want To. I like it a lot. Currently listening to the new album, You Could Have it So Much Better. I think it’s stomping stuff and I’m usually allergic to bands that are super-hyped. I’ll post a review at some point.
* Why I was dreaming about John Banville last night. Is this some sort of omen that he may win the Booker Prize? Personally I think it’s because I read Part One and Part Two of Mark Sarvas’ excellent interview with Banville over on The Elegant Variation in one go yesterday. Either that or I should get myself over to Paddy Power and stick a tenner on him to win.
* Can it possibly be true? No more Cliff Richard records? I’ll be forced to loiter around Tesco and Dunnes if I want to catch a festive bar of Mistletoe and Wine in the run up to Christmas. (I googled ‘Misteloe and Wine Cliff Richard’ and only TWO entries came up.) Poor Sir Cliff, he’s disappearing already.
* How blogging and its eddies of communication can result in getting to know all sorts of interesting people you may never have known. Damien McNicholl found Sigla via Slugger O’Toole and has sent me a copy of his book A Son Called Gabriel which I’m really looking forward to reading.
* Why Robert ‘Ted Striker’ Hays (above) of Airplane fame doesn’t appear in movies we’ve heard of anymore (cheers to my bro for sending me that pic this morning).
* If anyone can recommend some decent screwcap wines. Two reasons for this: I had a glass of a very nice South African Merlot (Evolution) last night and because Caoimhe had a bad experience of gut rot screwcap wine recently. Food and Wine editor Ernie Whalley tells me there’s plenty of good ones, but then he supports Manchester City, so I don’t know whether to believe him or not.
September 21st, 2005 at 11:31 am
I’m very, very much in love with “The Fallen”, “Eleanor Put Your Boots On” and “Outsiders”. I need to hear the rest of the album a few more times before I’m ready to admit to loving the rest of it. But it’s good.
Off to see them in December.
September 22nd, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Sinead,
On the topic of screwcap wines, there’s a reason you can’t find a good one and it’s the same reason that they make you more hungover than wines with a cork; chemicals are added to screwcap wines to make them last longer and these chemicals interfere with the taste and also give you severely bad hangovers.
Was at a wine lecture last year by one of the senior guys at Berry Bros. and Rudd and he explained this phenomenon so it’s not an urban myth, it’s true!
September 23rd, 2005 at 11:30 am
Amazing how Cliff Richards’ career has spanned the years. Younger than Peter Pan, and no anti-family smut or innuendo either it seems. Now Julie Andrews of Sound of Music schmaltz managed to change her image in later years.
September 24th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
god i feel so vindicated! i’m really digging the new franz album, even if it’s not cool to say so
the outsiders in particular is bloody fantastic!
September 24th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
p.s. i also had a dream about john banville - but in fairness i had just spent all that day in bed reading the sea so that *may* have been why :p don’t waste your tenner - it’s so gonna be julian barnes!
September 28th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Sorry to be a smart arse.. but if you spelt mistletoe correctly you would find there are a lot more entries - 46,000 plus!
September 28th, 2005 at 10:01 am
You know I thought that was a bit weird - Cliff’s a bit sad, but he’s more googleworthy than two entries. I blame my zombie-like typos on John Banvillle disrupting my sleep.