Film 2012 at dotmund - In praise of "The Big Bus"

Something to tide you over until Friday. I wrote a short dissertation in praise of the 1976 film "The Big Bus" over at dotmund's excellent blog.

You can read it here. There's a top five at the end.

If you like film then it's worth reading the other posts in dotmund's Film 2012 series.

Is that enough links for you?

Back Friday with a Xmas top five.

Laters.
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Top 5 Ideas I might try to keep this blog going next year

I've not been exceptionally busy these last few weeks but for one reason or another I've not found much time to get ahead with my top fives. It might have something to do with our new TiVo box. The arrival of this box of wonders has reminded me of when we got our first VCR. I seem to be recording hours of TV on the off chance I might want to watch it. Every time I take a look at my available shows there's so much choice it takes me 5 minutes to decide what to view. I've also found myself, possibly not entirely unrelated to the TiVo, falling asleep on the sofa quite regularly and then having to drag myself up to bed in the small hours.

This is a long winded way of saying I've not got a decent top five this week. It has, however, started me thinking about how I can keep the blog going next year. I like writing top fives and I like my current weekly schedule but I'm pretty sure I'll struggle even more next year to meet it. With that in mind, and knowing I have a few things planned for the new year, here are my "top" five ideas for keeping the blog alive. I'll still do regular top fives as often as I can (and I'll be all the keener for guest submissions) but one or two of these might help me fill the gaps when I've not had time to do one justice.

1. Anyone Can Play Guitar - I cannot play guitar. I've owned a guitar of some sort for most of the last 30 years of my life. I have been completely incapable of getting beyond strumming three chords, with painfully slow and awkward moments as I change between each one. I keep promising myself that one day I'm going to sit down and learn properly. I am now 43 and my chances of becoming a global rock star are getting slimmer every year. On a recent train journey with my pal Mark, we got into a discussion about how I'd be happy if I could just play five fairly simple tunes and sing along. Mark reckons I could do it if I really wanted and challenged me to do so by June 2013. It's clearly an achievable target and I thought I could blog about my progress, or lack of it, as I go.

2. 100 Great Films - I love films but I haven't seen enough of them. Whenever I get into a discussion about films it quickly becomes apparent how many pretty significant movies I've not seen. I've been inspired recently by @dotmund's brilliant Film 2012 series and of course @5olly's always amusing attempts to watch Channel 4s Top 100 War Movies. I'd like to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge, I just need to find a suitable list of great movies to tick off.

3. Chop's Book Club - My recent choice of reading material has been largely dictated by price or what's available in the library. A large part of my wardrobe is devoted to books I've bought from charity shops or because they've been particularly cheap from Amazon. This has actually worked out surprisingly well but I think next year I'd like to read a few more contemporary novels. I'm reading one of this year's Booker Prize shortlisted books right now and I've half an eye on reading the rest and picking out some more, well received, recent publications. Maybe if I pick a book a month you could read along with me and, if you feel like it, contribute to a discussion post about the book?

4. Gig Reviews - I track all my gigs through Songkick but I'd quite like to keep my own online record of all the bands I've seen. I may not go to quite as many gigs next year (major recession and all that) but if I do I may blog about each show I attend. This might expand into a separate blog to provide archive posts of all the shows I've ever seen ... then again maybe I should just make do with the Songkick record and stop making work for myself.

5. Interactive Top Fives - This would be awesome if I thought there were enough people interested. I'd pick a topic, everyone would send me their top fives and I could produce a combined post from the results. I used to contribute to a PRS run "focus" group that selected a top five on a different musical subject every week. It was brilliant - if a little distracting - and undoubtedly sowed the seeds for this blog. It's hard to maintain enough participants on a weekly basis but, like the book club idea, this could work on a monthly basis if enough of you are interested.

Feedback welcome. Let me know if you think any of these are good ideas. I'll take silence as being approval to do all five.
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Top 5 Reasons I didn't write a Top 5 last week (and haven't written a proper one this week)

I think last week might be the first Friday I've not supplied a top five all year. Not that it really matters to anyone else but me, but it has provided me with something to write about this week. Perhaps more a diary entry than a top five but hey, it's better than nothing, right?

1. Work, Work, Work - It only happens once or twice a year but I've had a couple of weeks of long days and weekend working. This has mainly consisted of a team of contractors arriving to wreck havoc on my previously working system while I try and keep track of everything they do. In the past I have enjoyed the extra pressure, but this time I've felt a bit useless. Uninvolved, frustrated and under appreciated. These are all signs I've been in this job too long. Typically for me I'm finally considering a change of direction when I'm over 40 and there's a massive recession on. Great timing.

2. George's 8th Birthday - After nine consecutive crappy days at work my youngest celebrated his 8th birthday on Tuesday. This came as something of a relief and I left work early for a change. A family outing to see "Johnny English Reborn" with a meal after-wards at Pizza Hut. We don't do this enough and it was great fun. The film was just about perfect for my frame of mind amusing but untaxing. Pizza Hut may only be a small step up from McD's but the boys enjoyed the food (especially the ice-cream factory) and Mrs Top 5 and I enjoyed the chance to sit and talk for the first time in ages.

3. Beer - Back to work the next day, then straight out for a few beers after with the install team. We'd hoped to go to the Twickenham Beer Festival on Saturday night but had abandoned this as that day went slowly pear-shaped. This was an opportunity to show the install team a bit of British culture and we visited a few of my favourite pubs in the world, followed by a very nice meal at a Thai restaurant up the hill (my waist line dramatically increasing as the week wore on).

4. Football - I was really struggling by Thursday evening. Candle burnt at both ends. Wislaw Krakow were in town for the 4th of Fulham's Europa League group matches. A pub meal and a visit to another of my favourite pubs livened me up a little and we headed down towards the Cottage fashionably late. The accents we heard as we strolled through Bishop's Park suggested that there were a lot of resident Poles taking the opportunity to see their team in London, but we were still surprised by the large numbers of riot police dotted around the stadium. More police than I think I can ever remember. The reason for this became clear when we entered the ground and could see that Krakow fans had not only filled the small official section of the Johnny Haynes stand but also most of the Putney End. They made a lot of noise all game, several hundred were in home areas and these were eventually relocated to the far end. The official section let a smoke bomb off halfway through the first half. For a minute we thought the stand was on fire. It was, at times, a bit intimidating but it definitely sparked the game into life. The players and home fans responded and an entertaining 4-1 win for Fulham didn't feel comfortable until the 4th goal went in with 10 minutes to go.

Photo © Andy Hooper

5. Music - Finally Friday arrived and I literally had to drag myself out to a gig that I'd booked long before I knew what sort of a week this was going to be. Had it been any other band I may well have stayed home, but this was to be Dananananaykroyd's last ever gig in London. They've been just about the best live band I've seen in the last five years and I needed to say goodbye. They didn't disappoint, I didn't get as involved as I might have done, but a last opportunity to join in with the mass hug that is the "wall of cuddles" saw me collect two unsuspecting punters and dive into the middle of the throng. Fun times.

Photo © Darran Armstrong

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My Favourite Albums on Dotmund

Just a little tidbit to tide you over half-term.

One of the joys of Twitter is the ability to discover like minded souls by following links from people you already follow. I discovered Dotmund via his excellent illustration work on the equally brilliant football site TwoHundredPercent. Following both via Twitter led me to Dotmund's personal blog and his recent collection of favourite album lists.

Obviously I couldn't resist that. Here's my Top 10 favourite albums. The extra five places made it harder then I expected. 

Think I might need to revist my top five again!

Easter & Royal Wedding break

No top five this week or next due to the Easter holidays and the Royal wedding. Hope you're able to make the most of the rash of Bank Holidays. If you're looking for something to do you might be kind enough to consider sponsoring Mrs Top5 who is walking over 26 miles in aid of Breast Cancer Research.

Top 5 Interlude - Do The Shuffle

Regular readers will have noticed the lack of top fives recently. Usual story, busy at work, busy at home, not enough time to spend doing trivial things that keep me happy. I'm planning to get a Christmas one up next week but in the meantime here's something a little different.

My friend Michelle recently passed this on to me via Facebook. Follow the instructions below and see what set of songs pops up. For me it was probably as good an indicator of my current taste in music as any of my Top Fives. I've tagged a few people via Facebook and will reproduce their replies in the comments section below. I reckon there is a Sony award winning radio show in this.

Most important rule - be honest. Don't keep shuffling forward for "cooler" songs.

1.) Turn on your MP3 player or the music player on your computer.
2.) Go to SHUFFLE mode. Hit the play all songs button.
3.) Write down the first 15 songs that come up - title and artist.
4.) If you're doing this on Facebook create your own note and choose 20 people (or how ever many you like) to be tagged. Please make sure to tag me! If you're just doing this via the blog let me know what you get in the comments box below.

Dave's 15 Shuffle tracks

01. Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley
02. Paper Planes - M.I.A.
03. The City Consumes Us - The Delgados
04. Addicted - Amy Winehouse
05. Daddy, Daddy - The Birds
06. Hold On, Hold On - Neko Case
07. Let's Get Funky - Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserocker's
08. Serve The Servants - Nirvana
09. China Doll - Julian Cope
10. I Saw Her In A Mustang - The Vandals
11. Monkey Gone To Heaven - Pixies
12. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle - Nirvana
13. No Feelings - The Sex Pistols
14. Stork & Owl - TV on the Radio
15. Two Beads At The End - Minutemen

I'm really pleased with the results, in my head this makes me look cool, eccletic and informed. In reality most of you will either be thinking "what a rubbish set of songs" or "who the hell are the Minutemen".

Has Michael Jackson died?

A little off my normal topic but this made me laugh. John Campbell's take on the media perception of celebrity deaths. So true. Check out John's other cartoons at Pictures for sad children.





Don't worry, it will all be over soon, there's the final of Big Brother to write about and it won't be long before the football season starts up again.