DISCUSSION ABOUT CLASS - SPOILERS...

I think it was this forum where we were talking about Aberfan earlier?  Apols if not, but if you want to read about it, you won’t do better than this from one of my favourite bloggers:

Aberfan: the sorrow and anger of fifty years

My thought’s???  Jeez, and I’m usually the apostrophe police…   My thoughts.

https://cathannabel.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/tears-of-rage/  If anyone’s interested, my thought’s on Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize for Literature…

@puroandson Re BTL comments on Hillsborough, things have improved markedly since the Review and the inquests.  For many years virtually every comment would be blaming ‘drunken, ticketless, late arriving Scousers’ for the disaster.  What I noticed since the inquests was some bright sparks who haven’t bothered reading the coverage of the findings s…[Read more]

@puroandson Started the blog over four years ago – it’s somehow turned out to be a lot more political than I envisaged originally!  I blame Events.  Anyways, thanks all for kind comments, @jimthefish et al.

It’s so brilliant that Son is getting so much out of this Forum, above and beyond the Who content.  The notion that, thanks to discussions he…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave Just spotted a typo that entirely changes the gist of what I wrote above (#54185) – what I actually meant to say was ‘having more time to read and write stuff is a joy‘!  Can’t even blame auto-correct…

@blenkinsopthebrave Thank you so much!  Re retirement, I’m still working out in many ways how to do it.  I had to be so fearsomely, fanatically organised all my working life to do the stuff I did, that I didn’t want to carry that over into retirement, but I do now need to plan my time a bit more, so I’m trying to find the right balance.  Having sa…[Read more]

@puroandson  Many thanks for your kind words and support.  And a wave to Son!

More than happy to share the blog with anyone who might be interested!  This is the link:

https://cathannabel.wordpress.com/

Must catch up on all the discussions on the site – haven’t yet visited the new pub yet!

@ichabod Yes The Returned was wonderful.  And v v French as you say!  I loved the second series too – it didn’t provide neat explanations or resolutions (which made some viewers rather cross), and the ending left us with mysteries and ambiguities, as well as an acknowledgement of the circularity of the process of life, death, birth and r…[Read more]

@ichabod @janetteb @puroandson

I get what you say about zombies not being inherently interesting – they have no motivation, no malevolent intent, they just exist and eat.  The terror lies in their insensate inexorability, rather than in any notion of evil.

For me TWD is less a zombie drama than a post-apocalyptic drama.  The focus is on what h…[Read more]

@puroandson

Re TWD, I think the fundamental problem is that it’s hard to see a long-term arc.  We’ve established that not only those who get chomped on but anyone who dies joins the ever-growing ranks of the undead, so it’s hard to see how any future series can do anything other than go round the same loops.  Unless there’s some really creaky phl…[Read more]

@puroandson Re TWD, yes I have lots of thoughts!  I had a lot of problems with the last series, although nothing on this earth would stop me watching the next one…  I’m attempting to gather those thoughts and write something moderately coherent, so (assuming I can still get in to the site – it’s a bit hit and miss even via VPN!) will post l…[Read more]

Thank you @pedant for the suggestion re using a VPN, it worked straight away.  I was getting worried that I might be shut out from this lovely place for ever…

I’ve been making the most of my membership at the local arthouse cinema in recent weeks, and have had an excellent run of movies:

Two quite dark films:

Childhood of a Leader – (see also comments on the Music thread) – really interesting and powerful but loses its way (IMO) in the final act.  It’s a debut for the director, so will watch future…[Read more]

Thanks @puroandson for the nudge!  I’m back…  had a few problems logging in but some helpful soul on the Website comments forum put me right.

Music – seeing the pic of Scott Walker reminded me that he did the soundtrack to a film I saw recently – Childhood of a Leader

Doesn’t feature his voice but I…[Read more]

This is quite a strange mix – perhaps because it’s the Christmas special.  But how dark a version of Christmas can you get – with malevolent murderous Santas and a Xmas tree transformed into a weapon.  And then to top it all, the ultimate cliche of Xmas-set family drama, ‘quick, come outside, it’s snowing!’, which is always used to create a s…[Read more]

Watching live coverage of the Hillsborough vigil now.  I half meant to go to that match (as a Forest supporter), but instead I was in my kitchen, just across the valley from Hillsborough, wondering what was going on, and why the football had stopped and weeping and weeping as the death toll climbed through the rest of that day.  I have never u…[Read more]

Oh, The Walking Dead – I love it.  When I started watching it I didn’t have high expectations – zombies aren’t per se all that interesting, after all.  But of course it’s not really about the walkers, its about the survivors, about community, loyalty, what one might have to do to survive and the point at which that becomes too much, loss and l…[Read more]

Been listening to Bowie since we got up this morning.  Cried so much my face was wet.  No other musician has been as much part of my life, for over 40 years, and still doing new and great stuff (we listened to Black Star on Saturday night and it was brilliant).  Managed to gather my thoughts enough to write so…[Read more]