Hello everyone. I found out something very interesting over the weekend: If you publish posts, traffic increases. Marvellous. Now that I realise exactly what this space is for, let’s keep doing…that thing that it’s for. Incidentally, the other thing I found out over the weekend is that a coalition UK government is quite clearly doomed.

This is based on a highly scientific experiment which involved consuming a coalition glass of red wine – majority shiraz, minority pinot noir. Then the beers wanted to have their say…and then gin called for shot-glass proportioned representation and…the result? Complete alcoholic fallout. It could be some weeks, or even months until any of those parties will be elected again.

Anyway, onto writing matters. The fine people at Den of Geek have allowed me to have a look at the new footballing film: One Night in Turin, a revisiting of the events surrounding England’s tumultuous journey through the 1990 world cup. You can wince at my footballing pun in the intro, and read the rest of the words after it here.

If you do, thanks. If not, well thanks for getting this far. If you didn’t even get this far, then you smell. And if you just read that as you smell, well don’t worry about it because in reading it, know that it means you don’t smell. Blimey, now I know how hard those Choose Your Own Adventure writers had it.

One person who clearly did choose his own adventure, is a gent called Tom Perkins, of  film vid-blog FILMXTRA. This morning he found himself drenched in a plagiarism downpour of which The Following Preview blog has all the details. Do read that post, it’s very,  very interesting.

Essentially Tom took film reviews from several sites and writers and read them allowed to camera in a presenter style, truly fit for the 21st century YouTube generation. What he didn’t do was ask anyone if he could present their views, and went about claiming the reviews as his own. Oh sorry, I’ve made a typo. He read the reviews ‘aloud’, it wasn’t ‘allowed’.

Den of Geek was one of the sites affected, but there were others who are also a tad disgruntled at his brazen attempt to make a name for himself, and his blog, off the back of others’ works. Bizarre, it really is. Tom has since ‘apologised’…in a way, but the matter will probably end his film review ‘career’. Similarly I feel a little sorry for him in a way. But not in much of one. ‘Til next time.

Kev.

Yep, you read that right, and if you’re interested, The Muppets will be releasing this as a single. Err, I can’t really say much more (except, thanks Simon for consistently reminding me that I should post this – it being far more important than any of the other Picks Of The Week….clearly :)

Click here to view the embedded video.

I don’t know why it is that I’m so tired either – surely not the one hour lost last weekend? One sleep related event did occur last week though which can account for my tiredness earlier on this week. After a successful night out up town in Camden, I and a few friends decided to push the evening into the morning and head to a bar. After the bar we headed to a club (Fabric), and after the club we headed to the train station for the  first train home. Yes. That early. The train left London Charing Cross at 5:14 and should have pulled into our station at about 6:00. We got on the train; we fell asleep.  

Imagine our surprise on waking up at 7:00 only to have moved two stations – a distance that normally would take ten minutes. And if you’re not laughing by now, you should know that our watches weren’t wrong  and that there were no delays to the train service. So early was it in the morning we were alone on the train with no do-gooders to check where we wanted to get of..so yes…we fell asleep on the train, went all the way to the end of the line (18 miles or so as the crow flies) and back up again before waking up! Oh, how we fretted through our aching eyelids. Still, that was almost seven days ago. 

Now I’m still tired and I’m not sure why, but is does mean I’ve been listening to dream-like music this week. My YouTube pick of the week reflects this in ‘The Servant’ by Cocosuma:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The other thing of note you might be interested in is my review of Becoming Batman for Den of Geek. Good book that, though not what you might expect. 

Right, nearly the end of the day for me and then onto the weekend. Have a good one. 

k

Regular visitors will know that occasionally I post a YouTube pick of the week, and that once or twice before I’ve delved into the world of musical covers. Well I’ve decided to combine the two today, as a whim earlier on made me head to the trusty Tube of You and look for an unreleased and little known cover by Jamie T of Billy Bragg’s classic, ‘A New England’. In some ways Jamie T can be compared to a modern day Billy Bragg (‘working class hero’, though I’m not a fan of that overwrought phrase), and in fact he has many, many times. Yet it’s in the covering of Bragg’s track – which, I think I’m right in saying, is a result of rather than the reason for the comparison – that the similarities become legitimate.

Neither are particularly ‘honed’ vocalists yet it’s the tonal style and attitude of each of them which fits the content and genre of their respective musics. I’m getting a bit carried away though, because where I want this comparison to lead us is to Jamie T’s cover of ‘A New England’ , which, though the ‘T one’ has been quiet in releases since his 2007 album Panic Prevention, is a fine demonstration of the style he brings to his music. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

A double header for today then, because it would be criminal not to include Bragg himself  in this post. The question is though, which incarnation of his famed track? The answer: Two of them. The first is the collaboration with the late, great Kirsty MacColl (yes, she of A Fairy Tale In New York fame), which signals the coming together of two very fine artists. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

The second, a more recent creation, forged from the talents of Bragg and Kate ‘because I am so bittaa’ Nash (I say that affectionately, I’ve seen and enjoyed her live music and poetry, [and she's a bit of a looker as well y'know]).

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, are you thoroughly ‘A New England’ outed? No? Me neither, cracking isn’t it? 

That about wraps this up for today and leaves me only tosay that if you didn’t come here via a link from Den of Geek, allow me to offer to direct you over there to check out my look at good debut for a new British feature-length writer.

Independence Day – (1996)

Will Smith’s (first) alien-smacking adventure remains, to this day, the only film I’ve seen at the cinema twice. In my younger years, the optimism I had for a humanity that could pull its resources and strike back at a menace that sought to rid us of existence was in its prime. Combine that with my fondness for the style of the geek-chic Jeff Goldblum (I knew he was right all along), the ‘embodiment of humility’ President as played by Bill Pullman, Will Smith at his effortless peak and the dog-fighting scenes featuring any aircraft humanity declared fit for flight, and it had me hooked. Indeed it still does and, if I ever need a moment of cinematic history to visualise, the destruction of Independence Day’s White House is enough to send shivers down my spine.  

Click here to view the embedded video.

For the Den of Geek article go here  and for a cracking review (not written by me) of the upcoming  Watchmen, go here

More from me later I think. I feel a poem coming on.