2059 Easter 2011 Films and TV

It has been a good Easter, alone but not lonely, although mindful of what might have been and what was. The adult fantasy imaginings involved with A game of Thrones have been replaced by a mixture of television and film experiences, the first of which was the sad reality of the last episode of the first series of Treme.

As the events of the previous episode signified Mr Goodman in his role as the intellectual voice of New Orleans has departed, giving up and throwing himself off the ferry and where a few days later his body is found washed up, and then his car with a handwritten note telling his wife that he loves her, forgetting that he was needed by her and their daughter in particular. They were an ill matched and unlikely pairing in reality so it would not surprise if the produces decided that John was out or he wanted out when a second series was agreed. His sense of failure in not having overcome his writer’s block or being able to communicate with his university students, led him to believe running from the reality of life was best for everyone, and being a student of people in fiction he must have known he would remain condemned without salvation for his selfish action. His departure is not mourned but the grief of is fictional wife and daughter are.

Finally after the family tomb was repaired Daymo had his funeral and the Second Line, the march back with a jazz band where the mourners struggle to move from grief to joy at the everlasting release from the trials and tribulations of life as well as the individual celebration of one life. The difficulty finding fun from the celebration was marked by his sister and by John’s wife who refused to arrange a Second Line for her husband as he had wished, but nevertheless followed behind the family and friends of Daymo, in which we are treated to flashbacks of events on the day in which he is picked up on the Bench warrant which had not been cancelled and make his one call to his sister only to find the family has fled the advancing hurricane and he is left a prisoner and to his fate.

For Davis fate is to deal him some better cards after spending a day trying everything to persuade Janette to stay in New Orleans bringing tasty morsels to her door at dawn with a ballad singer plead, taking her out on the town, making love, constantly reminding of what she will miss and what New York is like. He fails and she still makes the flight to her parent’s admitting to them and to herself that she failed.

Annie returns to the apartment of Sonny after her friend asks her to leave for a few days as the owner of the apartment where she is crashing is returning. Annie finds another woman in what had been her bed and goes off a take up Davies on his invitation. Davis cannot believe his good fortune. He has failed to get all the funds required to turn his EP into and LP disk and goes back to being a radio station DJ promising to cut out all the things which made the management previously let him go despite their audience popularity. Sonny has admitted to Annie she is a better musician than he, and after realising his behaviour has blown the chances of her return he smashes the mobile keyboard and then gets high on some drug.

The episode also marks the day of the Indians and we see the costumes which Albert and his crew have worked on as they go on a day of traditional dance and song, but also high on drugs so that when the police arrive late night it is the community relations officer who steps in and forces his colleagues to get back in their cars and drive away. Albert’s son also catches the same flight as Jeanette to New York after having a modern jazz swing session with his father. Antoine the trombone player attends Daymo’ funeral and you sense that the casual relationship which developed between him and LaDonna has not in fact run its short course. He loses the substantial earning from the latest gigs at Poker, mainly to the female vocalist and tries to convince his mistress and child that the fault of why he brought back so little lay with the event organiser. Her face registered disbelief. The band plays on.

I was less irritated by the last episode of Lewis- The Gift of Promise than the previous three in part because the basic plot ingredients satisfied although there are so many queries and questions which may be my fault that I did not pay close enough attention or memory failure after less than twenty four hours. The front story is that of an amazing sixteen year old already taking a first degree at Oxford and the annual winner of scholarship from an organisation supporting the gifted child; she has a close relationship with her history tutor whose essay subject for his tutorial group is the Irish Civil war following agreement to create the separate six counties which make the North. Her father runs a publishing company and has a close association with the woman who runs the bright child organisation charity, and who is murdered. Daughter suspects mother of having a secret affair from behaviour which she tests only to find she is meeting up with a stranger who is the publican of a strong Irish republican pub. The former female head of MI6 arrived in town for a book signing giving a copy to the Sergeant.

Another member of the tutorial group who came to the university as did the tutor at the beginning of the year from the same USA university college, is a natural acrobat, who lives on the roof of the college and is having hallucinations. The acrobatic friend falls to his death attempting to jump from one roof to another and finding it impossible to descend a spiral staircase.. The college tutor nearly dies from arsenic laced into his coffee over at least a month and the father of the genius daughter is murdered on his way home after a late night meeting. So what can be made of all this?
The story goes back to the Troubles during which a British placed IRA commander was officially presented as killing a young woman called Mary, a former fellow student, in order to protect his position. At an interview question and answer session with the former MI6 leader, the acrobatic student accuses her of writing a book of lies and the book publisher receives a copy of the book with a hand written insert Who killed Mary? The publisher is then found to have made a sudden visit to Ireland to undertake research at the university attended by Mary, related to a Graduation Year Book, especially photos having been cut out from the copy of the book. The Republican supporting publican is known to have had a sexual relationship (from photos discovered) with the murdered Bright child charity organiser as did the acrobatic student. These are red herring aspects.

The first breakthrough is that the woman who serves coffee on a regular basis to the college tutor since taking the post within the past couple of months is found to be the aunt of the killed girl, Mary who she regarded as a daughter. The official driver and lover of the MI6 former leader is found to use a motorcycle which is traced to following the publishing father of the bright girl on the night of his death. Nearly too late the detective pair find out the truth after bullying the former MI6 to reveal the truth. Not only was the tutor their man in Northern Ireland, since given a new identity and returning to the UK only after a period of exile in the USA, but he did not kill Mary who was also given a new identity and is the wife of the killed publisher and father of the bright girl. Wow, none of surprised and was signalled for those paying attention. The two were lovers but Mary has made a new life and has no interest in the tutor who having indirectly killed the acrobatic student because he had worked out who the man had been and the girl’s father because he stood in their way, he threatens to kill them both and then himself when she rejects him.
As I say I remain confused about several aspects of this story so may have got much of it wrong and have no inclination to see again to get right. Of particular interest is the empathetic relationship which developed between the Sergeant and the bright girl as she recognises that he is as sharp and knowledgeable as she and was in fact in a similar position to herself. She, with the help of her parents has attempted to have a rounded experience. He did not. There has been no more talk of both leaving the service and indeed it looks as if the relationship between the woman who undertakes the scenes of crime investigations and autopsies has ended as quickly as it has begun and she is taking an interest in Lewis again. Another series? Perhaps the ratings have reduced with each series, rapidly falling from the inaugural 11 million pilot episode to under 9 for the second and to now below 6.

Billed as whimsical film, I thought that Neil Jordan’s, Ondine set in a small Irish fishing village was to develop with elements of the Troubles. The revealed aspect is in fact middle/east European Drug running. Colin Farrell whose performance I enjoyed so much in In Bruges plays a single handed fisherman divorced from his wife, he a recovering alcoholic with his ex wife played by the wonderful Dervia Kirwan in Ballykissangel and then the 1940’s wife in Goodnight Sweetheart. Here she plays a boozy wife with a boozy traditional male new partner who rely on Colin to play his part in caring for their young daughter who has a bad liver (the irony of this will be overlooked by some) and requires regular dialysis and medical checks.

Colin is having a lean time in his fishing until he nets a barely alive young woman who wants to be kept out of sight of everyone and who refuses to disclose her origins, go to hospital or see a doctor. He takes her to live in the isolated cottage previously the home of his mother and which has a sea mooring for his boat. His catches improve and he tells his daughter about the arrival of the woman from the sea in the form of a story she requests during a dialysis session. She is allocated an electric wheel chair which she quickly learns to use and visits the home of her grandmother to find out about the sea maiden whom she is bright enough to work out is a real person.

The sea maiden and daughter become good friends and while being taught to swim they discover and then bury something covered in sea weed which the maiden brings from the sea bed. With aspects of Ballykissangel featuring in the film Colin goes to confession for the first time in decades to talk to someone about the situation he finds himself in. We the audience are made aware that the couple are under scrutiny from strangers. Local teenagers take the chair away from the daughter and put it in the water damaging the mechanisms which the step father attempts to repair, but later the brakes fail and the daughter falls into the sea during the local festival and is rescued by the sea maiden. She recovers and Colin and the sea maiden become lovers.

Colin tells the Priest that he is afraid that something very good or very bad is going to happen and he priest says that coping with success, happiness, is in fact just as difficult if not more difficult than coping with failure. The slow paced lyrical tale then has a dramatic change of pace. Colin takes his daughter to her home only find that she is locked out and has to take her down to a pub on the sea front and in a drunk state the wife attempts to drive home and their vehicle is in a major collision in which the step father is killed with his kidney being a match for the step daughter who survived and with her mother now left in a wheel chair. She asks Colin to have the full time care and on returning home one day he finds the sea maiden and his daughter prisoners of two middle/eastern European men and we learn the story behind the story. The sea maiden was the partner one of the two men in a drug run in which their boat is surrounded by custom’s craft. The girl swims underwater with the drugs so there is nothing for customs to hold the vessel and the man in charge. The sea maiden takes them to where the drugs found on the sea bed have been buried in garden but they are not there. The daughter has removed and hidden them in one of lobster pots hung of the side of the boat under water. She did this in order to prevent the maiden going off. At this point the authorities arrive and the maiden is taken into custody. One of the men has been killed and the other captured. We learn from a subsequent discussion between Colin and the Priest that when the girl is released from custody she will be deported unless she can become a citizen by marriage. They marry and live happy ever after.

It could have all worked out different. Colin at one point goes off the wagon after being pushed into taking a drink with his ex wife. For some reason which I am still not sure, Colin takes the sea maiden and leaves her on a light house rock but returns to find that she has swam across to a rock outfall used by sea lions. After being told the story of sea maiden in the net the daughter had gone to the local library for books about mermaids and sea creatures. She had decided that Ondine (of the sea) was a selkie, a seal lady creature of Celtic mythology who may temporarily become human by removing her seal coat, but must later return to sea. It was enjoyable lunchtime Bank Holiday Monday fare.

A very different kind of film unreality is The Long Hot Summer with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Lee Remick and Orson Wells, Anthony Franciosa, Angela Lansbury and Richard Anderson.

Orson Wells is the archetypical southern bid daddy, a widower, who dominates his two children, Joanne Woodward, an outwardly prim school mistress with high standards and expectations, and Anthony Franciosa as an embittered always failing to please son who is yet to produce the longed for grand son with his lacking respect wife Lee Remick. Big daddy has a regular girl friend Angela Landsbury who is desperate to make the relationship permanent. Into this mix comes Paul Newman a drifter, known to several in town because his father was an incendiarist. He hitches a lift from the daughter and her best friend whose brother has been courting, in a fashion, Joanne, for half a dozen years. Big daddy who owns half the town takes to this brash, confident, smartalec of a young man.

He sets him up in a dilapidated small holding and gives him work in his main store much to the increasing resentment of his son who becomes even angrier when Newman is moved into the family home. The anger reaches boiling point and the son threatens to kill Paul who buys time by telling him he has found the stash of gold treasure which legend has it is buried somewhere in the area he is living. They go back and find an old sack with more of the coins like those which Paul had in his pocket. The son has bought out Paul’s interest for a couple of thousand dollars which he thinks is a bargain until his father points out he has been duped because the coins are not of great historical value but minted in the 20th century and those he found were likely to be the only ones.

Woodward cannot stand Newman but equally has become increasingly frustrated at the lack on initiative taken by her young man who lives with his demanding mother. He shows nothing of the passion of Newman and at the local fair only bids up to sixteen dollars for the right to have a private picnic with the girl when Newman offers fifty. However the event does not go well and the young man takes her home but also makes it clear he is not interested in marrying at that time. Father mistakes what she says later and the following morning visits the young man and his mother to organise the marriage only to find she has been rejected. He then decides that she and Newman will marry but before this happens the son attempts to kill, his father by locking him in the family stables and setting fire, but he changes his mind and rescues resulting in the two establishing a new relationship. The local firebrands (hee hee) decided that the cause if the blaze will be the son of the incendiarist and march on the family home where they learn that the blaze was caused by Big daddy dropping his cigar. There is then a lively exchange between Newman, Wells and Woodward in which she reveals that he is the man for her.

The significance of this 1958 released is that this was the first time Newman and Woodward acted together and after the film they were married, a marriage which then to last until his death 50 years later. He was previously married with a son and two daughters. The son died from a drug overdose after several film performances and led to the creation of a prevention centre by Newman who went on to have three daughters with Woodward. His most famous quip when asked about his devotion to Woodward was why got out for a hamburger when you have steak at home. The couple and his children from both marriages are known for their social awareness and responsibility.

The final film in this session is Prince of Persia, The Sands of Time, a film which at the time of its release to theatres appeared to be in the mould of Indian Jones, I thought. Ok for a family outing with teenagers but not adult interest. I now understand that the film is based on a video game which is interesting as usually this is the other way round. The film has three great character actors Ben Kingsley as the baddie, Alfred Molina providing some light relief and Ronald Pickup as the King ruler of Persia who is impressed by the antics of a young street tearaway played by Jake Gyllenhaal who is brought up as another son and Prince, th Prince of Persia, with the two other sons of the King. They are persuaded by Ben Kingsley who is the Kings brother and family adviser to attack a sacred city on the grounds that weapons are being manufactured for use by enemies. The city kingdom has a beautiful female Princess as head who is the guardian of a special dagger which is in fact a device which if special grains of sand are inserted, Sands of Time, can reverse events back a few minutes enabling events to be altered which only the holder of the dagger is are aware of.

Ben Kingsley is aware of this and has manufactured the excuse to invade to capture the device for himself with the intention of using the device with the full Sands of Time beneath the Palace in such a away that he will reverse time to the point when his brother will not have existed, and therefore married with sons and heirs and he will be in charge. However if he is in error with his timing the risk is that that in effect time will be reversed to the extent humanity as it developed will permanently cease to exist- The sands having run out into a vortex within the centre of the earth.

To begin the process he tricks one of his sons to give a prayer cloak to his adopted brother to give to their father. The young man has acted in such a way to minimise death and destruction in taking the city although his father says that he should have stopped to attack all together knowing that it was against his wishes whatever the circumstances. The cloak has a magical property which means once it is worn it seals in the body and has been treated in such away that wearer is burnt to death. The brother under the pressure from the adviser blames the adopted son who barely escapes with his life and only with the help the help of Princess who seeks the dagger he has taken from the person she entrusted to take where it will find sanctuary. Why it cannot be hidden anywhere else is not disclosed.

She persuades the adopted Prince to help her return the dagger to the place of sanctuary and to do this and avoid their pursuers they need to enter a valley pass with a dreadful reputation but this is front for Alfred Molina’s operation providing Ostrich races and gambling. The Prince and the Princes are also being chased by a group of warriors under the control of King’s brother less by a man with exceptional strength and powers and the combination of trying to escape from the pursuers and the Molina enterprises results in the enterprise being wrecked, so they are then hunted with a view to being sold for the bounty attached to them. As they reach the place of sanctuary for the dagger, crossing the Hindu Kush is the borders with India they are captured by the youngest of the King’s sons who they convinces of the treachery of their uncle only for the brother to be killed. They lose the dagger to the Uncle’s men and it is taken back to the City’s capital where his agents are working below to reach the portal enabling a major reverse in time. The Prince and Uncle fight enabling a return in time to the point that that the brothers have entered the city but before the arrival of the King so only the adopted Prince is aware of the subsequent events. He is able to convince the elder son of the treachery of the Uncle who once threatened exposure reveals his true motivations and ambitions and is defeated. The brothers apologise for their hostile entering of the city and the Prince is offered as a marriage partner for the Princess who accepts and to whom he gives the dagger which had come into his possession. Ah another happy ending.

The film lasts just under two hours and doubled its budget at the box office despite only about a third of the critics being positive. As I suspected it is suitable viewing for young people which the parents can enjoy with nothing too scary or likely to produce nightmares in younger children allowed to watch. Is not a spectacular film by today’s standards and techniques.

In the evening of Bank holiday Monday I watch a recording of the Antiques Roadshow and then the first of three programmes on the final of Master Chef. I leave the second episode of A game of Thrones until after writing about the recent cricket.

2058 As good as the Lord of the Rings? Perhaps not

It has arrived, all 800 pages plus another 40 plus of information appendices, George R R Martin’s A Game of Thrones, paperback edition. There will be time to discover the past and present of George Martin R R and my approach will be to read only the parts that have been used to each television episodes and then report the relationship between the two. I will begin with the positive that the first episodes and the opening chapters of the book are as one in all respects except for the most minor

Scene one of the TV production commenced with three members of the Night Watch guards exiting the long dark tunnel from the great wall which separates the 7 Kingdoms from the haunted Forest The size of the rock wall covered in iced snow is impressive, more impressive than the Great Wall of China in terms of its impact and dwarfing the Roman Wall when it was constructed or the latter day attempts to keep people out and sometimes people in, The Berlin Wall or that now between Israel and Palestine. Howver there is no immediate description in the Prologue and which jumps us past the TV to when one of the Watch takes his officer and another guard to where he had seen the bodies of the wildlings- the creatures that live in the forest but which have now vanished. The book explains that the wildlings were cruel men, slavers, slayers and thieves who consorted with giants, ghouls, stole children, drank blood from horns whose women folk lay with the Others and bore half human children. Thus we deduce that the Others are not humans.

From this point the storyline is identical in that the officer does not believe what he has been told or heed the warning and he and the other man perish in some instant and violent way. We also learn from the book that the men have travelled 8 to 9 days away from the Wall. In the book and in the TV we are left uncertain whether any of the men have survived. We have established that there is some dark force the other side of the Wall, deep into the Forest,
In The TV series we first see that one of the men survived and is captured by a part searching for the missing guard. This is followed by a part of men riding out to a place when the same man is beheaded for returning from his mission. Sean Bean in charge of the situation and clearly the Lord/chief or King, discounts the man’s stories of demon killers saying that it is several thousand years since such creatures were in he land and that regardless of the circumstances the law is law, and the man must die and he having issued the sentence has a duty to carry it out. It had insisted that his middle son Bran is present and one the older men with the boy warns that he must not avert his eyes for surely his father will know.

In the Book’s opening chapter it is not established that the executed man, a Night Watch guard deserter is the same as the terrified member of the trio in the Prologue, although this is confirmed in the front page of the Wiki within a Wiki containing over 3000 articles on the published series of books todate. The books does announce on page 14 that the execution is being carried out by Lord Eddard Stark, subsequently known to his family as Ned, of Winterfell and Warden of the North on behalf of Robert of the House of Baratheon, the First of his name, King of Andals, and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms of the Realm. There is talk of the Others-The Others appear as tall, gaunt humanoids with chalk white skin and eyes of blue so deep it burns like fire. They wear reflective armour that shifts in colour with every step, and wield thin crystal swords that seem to give off a bluish hue. They ride corpses of dead animals. They are unknown in the land for some 8000 years. If they have returned then the Kingdom is indeed under great threat.

The banner of the House of Stark contains the silhouette of a grey direwolf, a creature several sizes larger than ordinary wolves. It is one of these then discovered in the forest with part of Antler embedded in the throat and with five cubs recently born searching for food at its mother’s teats. The five are taken for each of the five children of Lord Stark with those present promising feed and train and take full responsibility. A sixth is then discovered, an albino, who is cared for by Starks illegitimate son, Jon who was given the name of Snow, as are all those without a father given name. The fate being without a father’s name I share

The third scene commences with the laying in state of the Warden of the East, Chief Adviser to the King, a man who raised the King and Lord Stark having no children of his own and who regard him as their father. The wife of the King observes the ceremonial and is joined by her brother who warns her to be careful. She says her brother should have been, should be the Adviser and Warden but he rejects this, but is scornful of her husband putting lechery and hunting before the interests of the kingdom. In the book, the third chapter, headed Catelyn, the wife of Lord Stark is featured and who we learn was born in the south where the Godswood was full flowers, birdsong and was bright and airy whereas here, as she approaches her husband, she feels the place is unwelcoming to her, a primal place untouched for 10000 years. She has gone because the scene opens with a black bird arriving at the Castle, bringing a message, we now learn from the King, to confirm the death of the adviser and that the King has set forth with court to visit his former comrade in arms. It is nine year since they have met and journey will take at least a month. In the TV episode there is brief reference to the likely purpose of the visit with great discussion in the book and concern about managing to feed and entertain the Court.

It is at this point that the TV series and raised the ages of the children of Catelyn and Ned from those in the book to enable adult actors to perform as children. The couple were only married 15 years before and on the same day the man who Ned regarded as his second father had married Catelyn’s sister. The eldest child, Jon the illegitimate is talked of in the book as a boy as is the eldest son. Sansa who plays a major part as the betrothed of the son of the Queen is only 11 in the book but presented as older in TV series and Bran who is only even is presented as a couple of years older. The youngest son is three but is presented as five year old. The eldest boy Robb is only fourteen and presented as a young adult.

Daenerys or Dany of the House of Tragaryen is of the old family of Dragon Kings, formerly of one of the seven Kingdoms within the Kingdom and who ruled for some three centuries until the death of Mad King Aeries by the House of Lannister. Now aged thirteen years she was born after the dethronement and death of her father and where her mother who was also the King’s sister died in giving birth. The only other surviving claimant to throne is her older brother Viserys because the eldest brother and original heir was slain by King Robert. His wife and son and daughter, next in line, were also slain. Dany is said to be a late physical developer although the implication of what is written in the book and intimated in the TV series is that she is sexually experienced, although it is not clear if this has been with her brother. As we learn shortly incest appears to be common among several of the family competing to be King and Queens. Since the loss of their Kingdom brother and sister have been guests in the Free cities in the region of parent’s former country. Now, the latest, is only a short channel crossing away and her brother with the help of his host has organised his sister should become the wife of a local warlord with 40000 warriors at his command. The brother inspects his sister closely, more directly in the TV series than the books and tells her she must be perfect for the visitor, marry and please him, warning that he would whore her to all the man’s men if this was the way to gain the return of his Kingdom. The visitor, Khal Drago is so rich that his slaves wear gold collars, and he is a man of his own mind as well his word. Whereas in the TV episode Viserys appears set on the marriage without any hesitancy over the choice of husband for his sister, in the books he asks if Khal likes women as young as his sister, given the tribes reputation for boys, horses and sheep and their liking for only taking partners in the fashion of beasts. Dany is unhappy at the prospect and begs to be allowed to go back to their present home. The brother angered says she will return to their and his homeland with men of Drago and the day will be mentioned by historians as the start of his reign.

The fourth chapter and major TV scene sees the arrival of the King and his retinue of 100 men, perhaps a dozen to a score in the TV production. In this the boy Bran demonstrates his ability to scale the walls, battlements and rooftops of the citadel, something which is only referred in the book later on. The chapter ends with Ned noting the change in the King from when they set out to defeat the mad King after he had called on their guardian to kill them. The king has gained at least eight stone and looks worse for wear. The king asks to visit the crypt to pay his respects to the great love of his life the sixteen year old sister of Ned who had died from fever after unmentionable treatment from Dany‘s elder brother in the war. The king comments that he thought they would never arrive as it had taken so long, forgetting the vast emptiness of the North Kingdom, as large as the other six together. Ned apologised for the late summer snows adding that the winters are hard and Kind urges him to come south because of the delights of the summer. These include that the girls who wear little to nothing in the heat, abandoning all modesty. The King is dismayed that his love lies in such a dark and cold place, but Ned explains this was her dying wish to him.

It is at this point that we learn in the book that their surrogate father’s wife had gone to her family home taking the sickly six year old son with her, despite the King being his protector and making an alternative arrangement. Ned offers to take the boy as ward as a compromise but the King is insistent on his plan adding that the Queen Cersei of Lannister is furious. It is then the King announces his wish for Ned to return South with him and become his right hand man, defending the Kingdom and for his eldest daughter to become engaged to his son. Ned knows he must yield to the King’s bidding but a great foreboding fills him.


A character who it appears will continue to feature is the illegitimate son of Lord Stark, Jon who was allowed to join in the family feast for their visitors but at the back with squires of Knights with his father at the top table with the King and Queen, just below which sat his half brothers and sisters and those of the Royal family. It is at this point in the book we are introduced to the Queen’s other brother, often referred to as the Imp, an ugly dwarf given to licentiousness. In the TV production we meet him being entertained by an almost naked woman at a brothel and his brother enters the room to remind him of the evening requirements, bringing three other semi naked women so that his brother could satisfy himself fully before having to meet their hosts and his family. This is all additional to the text.

As he drinks more and considers his position he is joined by his uncle, the brother of Lord Stark who evidently has a high regard for the young man. He is also impressed when Jon comments that his father is not enjoying the event and that earlier the Queen had been angry when her husband had insisted in going with Lord Stark to the family crypt. Uncle Ben comments that the could no with such an observant young man on the Great Wall Team although in the TV production it is John that initiates the idea of joining the Night Watch and his uncles who strongly dissuades because their conditions and role means they cannot enjoy family life. He advises Jon to wait until he has experience with women before volunteering for the life at the Wall. Jon is insistent that he ready, capable and willing. In the book the emphasis is on his youth but the boy draws attention that one of heroes of the House of Targaryen conquered one of the states of the Kingdom when he was 14. The uncle draws attention that the conflict took the summer had the loves 10000 men to take the land and another 50000 deaths to hold it. War should never be viewed as a game; He then draws attention to the nature of the commitment that would be required. He also makes thee point that he would never father a bastard or risk doing so and with the rest of table falling silent in attention he made his excuses and left. The conversation take place just between the two in the TV production. On leaving he is met by the Imp, Tyrion Lannister who refers to him as the bastard, not out of malice but from sympathy, He expresses interest in the direwolf and the Wall. Jon says that he did not even know who is mother was, something which I also shared until going to preparatory school and not knowing anything of my father until my fifty ninth year was ending. The chapter concludes with Tyrion arguing that that while all dwarfs may be bastards, bastards need not be dwarfs. Now there’s food for thought!

It is Catelyn who is given the distinction of first having a second chapter in the book titled with her name, and we learn that while the land is frozen and bleak the castle is warm because it was built over hot springs and that her bed changers are one of the hottest places in the building. This reminded her if her former home while her husband could not bear the heat while the Starks were made for the cold thus signalling that for her husband to go south and she to remain in the north would be a challenge for both of them, in addition to the loss of each other and the separation from their children however this was to be insisted on by their king.
It is here we learn that the her youngest child, Rickon is three years old and that she hopes their love making will have led to the creation of another child. While Ned wants to stay in the North it is his wife who counsels that he must obey the king or put his family in peril as well as himself. She thinks of the symbolism of finding the dead direwolf with an antler in its throat. She is also pleased that her daughter would one day be Queen while in the TV production it is the daughter who pleads with her father to accept the offers from the King. In the book Ned points out to his wife that their eldest daughter is only 11 years of age

The talk is disturbed by a visit from Ned’s counsellor trusted family friend who says that box has arrived in his observatory that must has come with someone from the King’s party containing and which in addition to containing lens which bemused Ned but which his wife understood was important because a lens enabled us to see more than we could through natural eyes. The adviser then produced a message hidden in the false bottom of the box which was marked for attention of Catelyn. She froze in fear letting her nakedness show which Ned mentions but she reminds that the adviser helped deliver her children. The message is from her sister who says the King’s adviser, her husband was murdered by the Queen. Ned does not believe the news saying that these are words from a woman over come with grief. She tells him that now there is no choice, He must go South and establish what has happened. Ned is alarmed. His father had accepted the summons from the King to fo south and had not returned. The Adviser says that the times are different. Ned accepts but says his wife must stay to govern in his place until their eldest is old enough to take over. Robb is then only 14 years. She must help her son to learn to rule. He must be ready when the time cones. He tells the adviser to help his wife and son The youngest will stay with her but he would take the daughters and Bran with him to the court of the King. In the TV production it is he adviser who takes the lead in saying that Ned must accept the offer of the king and it is wife who expresses the caution. There is no reference to what should be the fate of their children. Nor is their specific reference to the role of the Queen, only that the Lannister’s were responsible and that the life of the King is in danger. It will be two weeks before he is ready to depart.

The nest chapter of the book is headed Arya, Lord Stark’s youngest daughter their tom boy with hands like a blacksmith according to the needlework teacher who congratulates the elder sister, Sansa saying her work is exquisite. In the TV production Sansa is congratulated by the Queen on her dress and when the girl confirms that she made it herself the Queen asks the girl to make one for her.

There is a brief visual reference to this situation much earlier in the TV production. In the TV production Arya is shown turning up at the reception to greet the King wearing a battle helmet to hide her hair and Bran is shown struggling to hit any part of the target with his bow and arrows while she hits the bull’s eye from a greater distance. In the chapter the seamstress is congratulating the daughter of the King whose work is as unsatisfactory as that of Arya. The eldest sister was talk of the Prince Jeffrey with whom she had sat at the feast while Arya had to sit with his fat younger brother. Arya us then brought t tears by the seamstress and leaves the room noting that while her sister is beautiful and possess all the arts she has not head for figures and hopes she will have a good steward to manage her affairs if she is to marry the Prince.

She goes off to watch the boys at their fight training and is chided by Jon for not being at her stitches. They exchange words over the fact that although girls are not allowed to fight they are entitled to a coat of arms while bastards can fight but have no coat. Joffrey is told to fight another round with Robb but protests that it is a game for children and when reminded that he is a child he retorts that he is a Prince and is bore with using play sword. There is an argument over the use of swords with blunted blades and the adult use sword. Both boys want to use the full sword but are refused because of their ages and the risks. A rivalry between the two boys is therefore marked Arya finds that on returning into the Castle her mother and the seamstress are waiting for her. These aspects of this chapter are not included in the first episode of the TV production.

We now come to the catalyst chapter in the book from what the rest of the story develops. Head Bran it describes his love of climbing. The relationship which has developed between himself and the direwolf cub and the use of creature to indicate danger something which is referenced in the TV production before his assent to the roof by climbing the outside walls. As in the TV production he hears a man and woman talking in a windowless room high up in the castle where we see that it is the Queen and her brother making love. In the book they are talking although the twin brother has only one thing on his mind.

In the book Bran cannot se who is talking and it is the talk which startles and frightens him because the woman is expressing concern at the decision of the King to demand Lord Stark be his adviser. The woman says her brother should the Adviser as the appoint of Stark is a major threat to them because the King will listen to him. The brother is not interested and says the king is only interested in whore and hunting animals accusing him also of perhaps wanting to hunt whore and of bestiality. He also dismisses concern over the role the dead man’s widow could play, not knowing, or does Bran that Lord stark and his wife are already warned of the couple’s treachery, but not of their sexual relationship. It is here that the Queen reveals one cause for her anxiety. She comments that her husband still hankers for the dead sixteen year old sister of Stark and that his penchant for young girls means that he could soon want to set her aside for someone much younger. It is at this point in the book that the twin brother and sister couple observed by Bran who is then seen by the Queen. It is his sight of them together that cause the Queen to demand action be taken against the boy in the TV production while more appropriately it is overhearing their talk which requires action in the book. I will make the obvious point that given the King‘s predilection and the general couplings within families of the royals in this fictional world, the King would not be surprised by this aspect. The threat to his life is another matter.

I have not read the next chapter which is headed Tyrion in case it is covered in the second TV episode and move to that headed Daenerys to discoverer if I learn more than portrayed in the first episode of the TV production. The chapter begins with the wedding of Dany to the Drago who had summoned all forty thousands men and their women to attend the event. Only a handful are shown in the TV production although their liking for taking women whenever and wherever is visually portrayed as is some violent deaths during the celebrations where the comments is made that a minimum of three deaths is needed to indicate the festivities are going well.

The chapter is primarily concerned with revealing the extent of Viserys’s ambitions, his discontent as having to play second fiddle at the wedding, sitting below the bride and groom and his anger and frustration on learning that his brother in law will not march on the Seven Kingdoms to reclaim his throne immediately the festivities are over. He will have to wait until the Drago is ready. The chapter also reveals the violence previously experience from her brother and her hope that through marriage she would escape this. The wedding day proves to be an orgy from dawn to dusk with the men and women naturally bare chested, drinking and eating, fighting and coupling. Dany had felt never as much alone and with all this going around her. She was given three handmaidens by her brother, chosen with the help of their host who no doubt also paid for them, one to teacher her riding, the other the language of her husband and the third the art of love making! She was also given a history and songs of her the Seven Kingdoms. He host gave her gave her large box cloths, the finest from the Free cities and three large beautiful eggs, dragon eggs which had been turned to stone through the ages. We also learn that while the gifts were expensive they are a trifle to the number of horses and slaves he received from arranging the marriage. The relatives of her husband provided three great weapons which as instructed she refused so they might be given to her husband. She was also given a vast array of jewels and gowns including one made from the skins of a thousand mice,

The her husband produced his present which took her breath away, a grey white horse which took her breath away with her beauty. She was bid to get on the animal and ride only a little way if she wished but on mounting she felt free and unafraid, perhaps for the first time in her life and at one point jumps a fire returning she asks that her husband be told he had given her the wind and this bring a smile for the first time to his lips and there is then a description of how their relationship developed and tenderness in which her husband approached her and that she gives her herself willingly to him, indicating to us that although enforced the relationship could prove a good one, adding to the frustration and anger of her brother and his ambitious aims. There is little indication of this in the TV production although having read the book first perhaps the episode will have been viewed differently with less emphasis on the crudeness of the orgy. The book does tell us there were 12 deaths during the day, more than the required three thus also a good omen.

2057 Listening to cricket on the radio and enjoyable TV catch up on Maundy Thursday

Having mentioned that Game of Thrones was like Sopranos in Middle Earth, I viewed the real thing last night and after the more introspective recent episodes the series took off as Soprano’s world commenced to collapse around him.

He is called to a meet with the corrupt local detective who advises that one of Soprano’s closest firends and partners in crime, Pussy Bonpensiero, has been wired by the Federal Bureau Investigating Team. He explains that the comrade was picked up while allegedly on holiday when he was pressured into acting for the state as he faced an indefinite sentence because of his previous record. Recently the so called safe joint owned by the criminals was turned over by the Feds who knew in advance that a large stash of weapons was kept under the snooker table. Pussy was then bailed by his wife, something of a surprise at the ease in which this happened especially as he had tried to run away. The other crime partner Jimmy Altieri is only released on bail after his lawyer argues that when the property was purchased the table was already there and therefore they had no idea that weapons were stored beneath the table.

Tony is reluctant to believe that his friend has turned traitor. The programme commenced with the captains visiting one of their brothels and a girl runs in to tell the Madam that a client is having a heart attack to discover that it is Pussy saying his back is out. Later a colleague tells Tony that although Pussy went for medical attention the doctor was unable find any cause of the problems he was having. Tony discusses the situation with his pychiatrist who in general terms agrees that worries and stress can result in physical reactions. She also mentions the presure of keep secrets.

The two other close associates Pauli Walnuts and Silvio Dante also have difficulty in believing that Pussy has been turned informer and press Tony to get evidence. One mentions that they know that the Detective owes Pussy $30000 dollars gambling debts. There is then a raid on brothel while the Detective is enjoying its services. He is suspended and throws himself off a bridge to his death. We suspect that Tony was behind this. The death appears to convince him that the man was right about Pussy and tells Paulie he will deal with the matter. Paulie says that it one of the perks of being boss is that others will do the dirty work. Tony tells him to be sure that Pussy has a wire before he kills him. Paulie invites Pussy to join him in a private Turkish bath session but Pussy declines saying he has been told not experience any kind of heat (which is of course nonsense in his circumstances) but he is not forced by Paulie. After the release of Jimmy, Tony is convinced from his manner that he is traitor. In the last scene we see Tony speculating to himself about who is the traitor and what he is to do.

However little does Tony know this problem is minor is the one about to break over him. Early in the epsidoe Tony and his wife hold open hosue but his mother does not attend, as has happened in the past. His wife visits the mother to express Tony’ disappointment. The woman rejects the fruit pie Carmela had prepared for her and when she rejects this Carmel suggests that her hisband’s brother Junior who she knows visits regularly will enjoy if she does not. Livia takes offence interpreting the remark that she is having a relationship with her husband’s brother. Later she tells Junior how upset she is that Tony has sold her home and Junior is not sympathetic. She then tells Junior that Tony and the other captians have hasd meetings at the residential home together with someone from the New York syndicate. In fact the Capo’s have there when visiting their mothers and because it is a good place to meet without the Feds taking interest. Junior is incenses and indicates that he has to take action to exert his authority. Livia denies wanting to be the cause of trouble between him and her son, thus demonstrating what Carmela said to her that she is a manipulative and controlling woman who likes to wield power. She could have added, wicked, to the point of evil. There is also a scene in which one of Junior, junior criminals tells his woman that he is anticipating promotion within the organisation and that Tony Soprano is on the way down and out. He is either Mikey Palmice or Chucky Signore told by Junior to arrange the death of Tony. So much for honour among thieves!

I decided against going to the cricket on the Thursday although listened to the Sussex led radio broadcast on the Internet. I did go for an early swim returning for the anticipated arrival of four oft he first five already published Fire and Ice series of Gothic novels on which the new TV series Game of Thrones is based on book one. The cricket is reported separately but alas I had to wait in until afternoon before the novels arrived. There was s dense sea mist over the coast as I drove for the swim and which had only slightly eased on the return journey. It did lift a little during the day but in late afternoon it returned and by the close of play had covered Lumley Castle.

I enjoyed Blue Bloods more than expected and on reflection it proved to be one of the better episodes although continues to stretch overall credulity. The main subject is the death of the son of a Little Russia/Odessa crime boss at his engagement party. The father was the subject of a major crime investigation in which the Commissioner played a major part and was disappointed when the man escaped with only a four year sentence. He visits the crime boss to advise him to mourn his son but to leave capturing the culprit to the police. The man ignores this advice and the owner of the club where the party is held is tortured before being killed. The son was found in a part of the club where the CCTC camera had been switched off. The main suspect is a former teenage delinquent who expressed interest in the bride to me when at high school and who pursued the girl against her wishes at the time. He is now working for a Florist. He is blown up shortly after being questioned by the Detective son of the Commissioner and his partner. He survives. Just.

He is not murderer which turns out to be mother who had married one of the crime syndicate men as a young woman but separated/divorced. She wanted to do anything and everything preventing her daughter making the same mistake. The husband to be was very much his father’s son involved in a number of criminal activities and had been persuaded to by one of the guests at the party to accompany her to the planned location where photographs were to be taken in an attempt to prove to the daughter what he fiancée was really like. However the mother had decided that she could not risk this not working and had killed the man. The daughter is distraught. The theme of the week is therefore parents take to protect or further the interests of their children.

Fortunately for the Police Commissioner, the bomb maker is traced with evidence to convict him and he is persuaded to give evidence incriminating the gang leader because of the threat of being treated as a Terrorist and therefore being subject to the dearth penalty or a life imprisonment. The man gives up the crime boss.

There is a similar giving up in the secondary case of the episode. This involves the daughter assistant DA, She is assigned the case of a deputy Mayor or leading political figure in the Mayor’s office for corruption. He was arrested on the limited evidence of an assistant which is not regarded as strong enough to gain a conviction. The father of the Police Chief as well as the number 2 in the D.A’s office who is over stepped for the case to go the Commissioner’s daughter draw attention that the decision is a political move because the DA is standing against the Mayor for his position at the next elections. The daughter is very successful in the case by exerting pressure on an accountant and through her on the main witness to ensure that he provides hard evidence to secure the case. This result in the D.A expressing a personal interest in his assistant, taking her out for a celebratory kiss and insisting on seeing her home ending the evening with a kiss. Oh my. Grandfather makes her amends for questioning the judgement and ability of his grand daughter with a large bunch of flowers.

I enjoyed the semi final of Masterchef in which the four remaining competitors were reduced to three. The programme gave the impression that the decision would rest on the final dish prepared for the two core judges in which instance the lovely Italian lady Sara, now living in York would have been eliminated because he judges valued her dish least, especially against Jackie who pulled out all the stops and drew great praise from the judges, however she has consistently shown master chef skills and cooking for a select group of dinner guests at the Royal Society he dish was the only one which everyone adored without any criticisms and she received a standing ovation when she entered to meet them for the excitement of freezing a sorbet at their tables to the presentation and content of her pudding dish and which indeed looked delicious and worthy of would have been the commercial cost.

Finally the evening ended with the latest round of American Idol, in a season where no one is outstanding in such as Leona Lewis or the lad from South Shields in the British version. Lauren Alaina is only 16 with a southern drawl and could loose a couple of stone and i still trying to find who she is and not someone I expect will win the title, nor do I anticipate the other youngster, Scotty McCreery is 17 from North Carolina and is a natural country and Western singer with an unusually deep voice (Tennessee Ernie Ford) who has a wide following because of his youth and I who I am attitude,

One possible winner is James Durbin 22 from Santa Cruz who wore a tail effect to mark his difference at first similar to a British rock performer whose names I cannot remember. He is a great crowd pleaser and over recent weeks has shown that he is more than a one trick pony. Jacob Lusk 23 has a wide vocal range ands his performances are commanding and moving and could be regarded the one everyone else has to beat. He will command the religious and mum’s vote. Casey Abrahams 20 is a multi instrumental jazz and swing singer who also knows who he is and insists in trying to educate the pop public with good music. He is my outsider. Haley Reinhart is the only other female left in the competition with an undoubted strong voice without being the character of some of the others although she is growing in confidence and gave the performance of her life to ensure she stayed in the competition knocking Stefano Lengone who was never in my top ten and who saw himself as a lady’s man, I suspect without much success.

2056 A dubious new TV series,one dubious and one awful fim and some good cricket

It is another glorious April morning without the hint of shower after a misty start with the shipping warning horns sounding. The poll was busy on arrival so I waited, read the paper and a little more of New Lives for Old before having the pool to myself for over half the 50 length swim challenge.

I then had one of my moments in that I filled up the car with petrol and then realised that although I had brought with me the replacement credit card for the one mislaid and reported missing, I had not brought the new code and only had a twenty pound note for the £41 bill. The only thing I could think of was to leave the car, get the bus and return with the cash using the bank card. However the manager of the petrol station was able to key in the number old style and I only had to sign and therefore everything was fine.

I return home, got the information, and had a cereal breakfast, having started off the week with a kipper and therefore marking the start of no bacon rolls, sausage and mash or cooked breakfasts for the rest of the spring and summer. At Asda two of the credit card machines did not provide for the change of pin but the third one did. I decided to stock up on two made salads £3, two cartons of sliced melon £2 and 2 apple turnover pastries £1.40 for food for Wednesday and Thursday £6, 40 supplemented by coffee and soup. On return it took time to set up the computer because of two new updates and effect of new Window Explorer 9 is to slow everything down to less than snail pace.

In frustration I went out into the back did some more clearing of the flower boxes, baskets and pots until 11 and coffee time. I will do the from this afternoon and more of the back for in addition to possibly four days championship cricket there is also the first one day game against Scotland on Sunday and then a break of only one day before another 4 day championship two days before a repeat of four days championship followed by another 40 over game on the Sunday and then a break of a week before a third home championship game in succession.

I have made good progress on getting the patio ready for plantings in three session of about a hour during the day I have to complete clearing to hanging baskets, washing the main table and clearing some grass and other material from a guttering that is within reach. There are to areas of wall which need some work with one an eye saw from where I sit. I also made preparations for cricket, repairing one sun hat, getting out the white blazer and repairing one of the cloth bags for life. I have also undertaken the weekly wash and dry.

The annual statement of income and tax paid as well as the new 3.1% pension upgrade also arrived and I did some checking on tax coding and while there are issues on balance it is not worth pursing.

In the evening tired from two levels of activity which revealed the extent that I am overweight I became very tired and slept through the opening minutes of Newcastle’s home game against Premier Championships Manchester United. United were never able to get into their top gear, in part from the excellent preparation and tactics of the home side who could have taken the lead from a golden opportunity early on in the second half. I struggled to stay with the game which ended 0.0, shortly after which I was in bed and asleep.

I enjoyed a large piece of fish for lunch with new potatoes, baked beans and tinned tomatoes with herbs and in the evening a spicy soup, a half quiche with bacon pieces, the rest of the salad selection and three plums. Overall I was satisfied with my day but need to radically improve my body and energy stamina without taking fatty foods. I had been looking forward to a new USA Sky Atlantic import called Game of Thrones which someone has described as the Sopranos in Middle Earth, because it featured Sean Bean in a major role, representing the House of Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North in the land of Westeros with his family who all feature in this first episode of what is said to be a faithful reproduction of the first of book of the same name 807 pages published in 1996 under overall title of A song of Fire and Ice. Three other volumes have been published since in 1998 969 pages, 2000 1128 pages and 2005 with 978 pages, the fifth planned for July of this year and two others to follow.

My first impression of head of house Eddard or Ned Stark (Shaun Bean) is that he is a realist as well as a man of honour and loyalty. He is also satisfied with his role in what appears to be a cold and barren landscape with a loving wife and six children, one of whom by another woman. He is a devout follower of the Old Gods, Gods of the first men, those who live in the forest and the original inhabitants of the Kingdom.

He is a friend of the King with whom he was brought up at wards of a Lord who was ordered to kill the young men after which they launched a rebellion and the Lord is now the chief adviser to King

The series opens with three night guards leaving the city and finding a scenes of violent in the forest which appears to have been caused by White walkers, a kind of undead, and one of the guards flees with the other two are killed. He is then captured by the Bean’s men who severed head for desertion in order establish the law. Although. Although there are signs of wild killings of animals after the other bodies have disappeared, the account of the re-emergence of the undead is not believed, as according to Bean it is thousands of years since they terrorised the living. One of the animals, a wolf has six cubs and there are taken for the children and my understanding is that the creatures will have significance.

Bean insists that his ten year old middle son witnesses the execution. The boy appears not very good at learning to shoot arrows while the youngest daughter appears an expert, tomboyish and a scamp. Not much has registered about the older brother but the illegitimate son does feature as someone brought up within the household but always an outsider in terms of recognition and position (I know that feeling well).

Bean’s series wife arrives at one of his favourite spots to announce that a raven has delivered a message from the Kingdom’s capital to say that the man who raised them both has died and that the King with his family is on his way to visit. The Queen’s oldest brother suggests he should be the adviser but he says this is not a job he wants. The King and his retinue arrives, greeting each other’s members of the family with the exception of the younger brother of the Queen who has made his way directly to the nearest brothel where he engages in visible sex. The king announces that he wants Bean to be his adviser and later admits he is also concerned at the way their father figure died and other threats to his rule. This persuades Bean to go but leaving his wife and family with the eldest son taking on the role as Warden of the north.

The king also suggests that the 11 year old daughter of Bean, Sansa, who in response to a question from the queen says that she had not yet bled, should become betrothed to the Kings son. The young people like each other and the daughter pleads for the marriage to be agreed so that one day she will become Queen. So far so good.

The scene switches to another kingdom where an effeminate claimant to a throne, Viserys Targaryen whose family once riled the Kingdom, is a guest which his 13 year old sister who has recently grown into womanhood after her body is inspected by her brother and where the family have a tradition of incest line perpetuation. He announces that Daenerys is marrying the head of a race of warriors with a force of 40000 who will be used to regain the former lands. He tells the girl he would have given her to all 40000 to be enjoyed if this was needed to regain the kingdom. There are scenes of debauchery and killings at the wedding feast and the girl is graphically taken by the warrior leader.

The ten year old son, Bran, has one skill, that of climbing the walls of the castle much to the horror of his mother who tries to make him promise to stop. Knowing that he has no intention of doing so. The first episode ends with boy undertaking another climbing venture to watch the departure of his father with the Kind. For some reason the rest of the family stay behind and thus the boy catches sight of the Queen and her brother in a comprising situation and she demands that action is taken because they have been seen. The brother pushes the young boy off the wall, presumably to his death, commenting the things ones does for love!

Thus it is a tale of paedophilia, incest, rape, execution without trial, families plotting to take power against each and within families, demons and so on. I can understand why the books became popular and the description of the books as the Sopranos in Middle Earth. I shall view more.

Also about magic of a more human kind, was the film A Touch of Hope, also based on a book about a Healer given the name Dean Kraft to protect his identity and location. The end notes admit that the facts of the story have been changed but the individual does exist and is helping hundreds if not thousands of patients to recover or improve from serious and medical conditions. The man is possessed of energy which if he directs towards a particular patient, embracing their pain and suffering he can bring about sudden dramatic “cures”. The film portrays his struggle to accept his power and the implication for how he will spend the rest of his life. Because of the reaction of a male work colleague on disclosure he does not talk about what is happening to his girlfriend or family, but does agree to participate in formal testing trials when approached by a doctor exploring the effectiveness of alternative medicines.

Although he has great success with a patient with a degenerative condition which prevents her walking the inability to save his father who experiences a severe heart attack and a stroke leads him to reject his powers and abandon participation in the trial until approached by a mother who daughter has remained in coma since being temporarily trapped in icy waters until rescued. It is then revealed that the girl is the daughter of the Medical Director of a hospital which authorised the investigation of alternative therapies after standard medicine failed to revive the child. All the previous investigation failed after raising hopes so the M D refuses to give permission for the man to experiment with his daughter despite the intercession of his wife.

The man is convinced that he is able to control the force within him sufficiently to help the girl although in doing so his own heart stops beating and he has to be revived. As sub stories there is the relationship between the man and the girlfriend and this is said to end happily ever after and the failure of the man when a child to save his younger brother in a swimming accident, Whether any of this is true is another story, except that there is an individual with curative powers through the use of his hands and the focusing of mental strength somewhere in the USA and how much of this is faith healing or some measurable energy is also an open question.

A nonsense, pass the time, film is Con Express whose ingredients are over familiar. A middle manager customs official in Northern Alaska is tipped off of the arrival of big contraband which turns out to be ordinary looking metal barrels filled with a chemical or biological weapon. The successful finding involves the capture of the Russian behind the operation and a Soviet agent determined to bring the man to Justice in the Soviet Union. A small detachment of US soldiers arrive to accompany the dangerous cargo on train journey through Alaska and presumably Canada rather by special military plane which in fact is what is used to transfer the Russian villain the Soviet and USA agents and the custom’s man who is required to go by his boss. The villain engineers a mid air escape with inside help and the Custom’s man survives the plane’s crashed landing with the help of the Russian agent. They then are able to make their way to the train as does the villain and his men who are all on hand. The US military on the train and defeated but the train becomes a runaway and is only stopped by creating a major avalanche in a ravine and bringing the dangerous cargo and the villain in millions of tons of snow. The customs man has jumped of the train at the vital moment but the Russian agent does not appear to have done so!

Back home the Custom’s man has worked out that in fact his boss is the real villain and has switched the barrels which he is selling of multi millions to the original purchaser. He is stopped with the money as are the Northern Korean/Chinese looking purchasers in their plane which begs my original question. The story is ludicrous, the acting is pathetic and my impression is that cuts were made to make the film available for children’s viewing. A waste of time but I was in one of half awake spells

2055 Durham at Yorks, Master Chef, Treme, Solomon Kane and Lewis

The horrible weather of November and December has been overlaid by some glorious days of sunshine over the past ten days. Yesterday without knowing what kind of weather day it was going to be other than dry I had a great change of mind on waking and decided to set off for Headingley Leeds to watch Durham in the third day of their county championship against Yorkshire.

I considered going to Headingley for all four days of the game prior to the seasonal Travel Lodge sale, but after the disappointment of the game and weather last year, and the inability get low cost accommodation, I decided to wait and see what happened in the opening games. Encouraged by the Durham’s near win at the Rose Bowl the York’s clear win at Worcester was noted after their successful third placed season last year. Listening to the opening day commentary I was struck how defensive were the commentators making the point that Worcestershire was woeful and that Yorkshire without their outstanding opener Jack Rudolph and with injury to their bowlers Bresnan and Shahzad would find the season difficult depending on the their new opening partnership.

Durham won the toss and elected to bat and after a great morning with 100 runs on the board there was a collapse both sides of the luncheon interval from 105 for no wicket to 136 6 and 196 7, Di Venuto had made 74 but it was Richardson (67) with Plunket, and then Plunket with Thorp (41) who edged the total to a respectable 327 with Plunket undefeated on 66.

Yorkshire started disastrously with Lyth out first or second ball and with McGrath out when the total 43 Durham were on top. A stand of over 50 runs eased the position until immediately after lunch 7 wickets fell for 33 runs and the team were all out at 149, 16 runs later 198 behind. Everyone expected Durham to apply the follow on but they batted again, with difficulty with wickets lost at 21, 25 and 53 and although the overnight total reached 62 or 64 without further loss making effectively 250 for 3 with two full days to play the outcome of the game was by no means certain. Nevertheless as the sun came up immediately with the dawn I determined to set off.

I had some selected salad and once on my way went to the supermarket for some French bread to make up lunch and tea, having prepared a flask of coffee and soup; I added a carton of melon slices and two light Danish pastries. I then had to return home having realised I had left my credit cards at home, and also then forgetting a hat and sun tan and not remembering until parked at the ground.

The journey was enjoyable although I also forgot to bring with me one or two of the cricket CD’s of Fred Truman or Dickie Bird. I stopped almost as soon as setting off for a cup of coffee and one of the Danish and getting to the ground and being able to park close by became a worry when a sign came up that the A1M was closed at Leaming Bar over the Saturday and Sunday. However it had not closed by the time I reached the junction and I was able to park at the end of a road with the Sir Len Hutton ground across the main road opposite. I enjoyed the rest of the coffee and the second Danish and entered the stadium just after 9.45 when it was open to non Members. I paid £10, a concession; although it would have been only £5 if purchased in advance and after a comfort break made my long way round to sit behind the bowling arm close to the horrible new Green coloured stand which also serves as a teaching block of the Leeds Metropolitan University.

At lunch I investigated and found that it is now possible to walk all the way around the ground and therefore it was a short walk to the gates and over to the car where I first enjoyed the soup and then three quarters of the French Bread with a salad of Feta Cheese, black olives, spicy salami, coleslaw and some pasta, cucumber pieces and dried tomatoes. After this I spilt the can of coke and when removing the double floor mat noticed the missing phone from earlier in the year which I thought was long lost. Amazing. T has been a week for losing and findings.

As for the cricket Durham laboured slowly during the morning losing two more wickets to 135 5 with no one doing themselves new credit. However my this time Benkenstein was getting the feel of the pace and together with Richardson they launcher an assault which saw some great strokes and some hard hits so that the former and reinstalled captain reached another hundred for the county and went to 150 before going out to a catch in the deep top end the innings leaving Richardson in his first premier county game 73 not out so he is second in the county average with 140 to Benkenstein 150 with stokes at 95 which shows the batting strength so far this season.

However Yorkshire did not find the pace attack such a problem second time round and although two wickets were lost for 80 odd runs by the close I was pleased I had not decided to stay overnight because I suspected Sunday was going to be a long day of toil if the sun continued to shine. A drink to Pepsi at the club cost me £1.80, outrageous and even more so was a small cup of coffee, sufficient for me from the Costa stand or a name similar for £2.39.

Although the sun shone with the dawn and continued all day Sunday I was not tempted to repeat the trip to the cricket and listened to the commentary for parts of proved a long day in which Durham struggled to obtain the necessary wickets. Pyrah 87 with Bairstow 81 lifted Yorkshire spirits took the score from 158 to 225 and then 323 raising hopes of a draw and Durham the prospect of not winning two away games in succession when the odds favoured them doing so. However as the last hour of play was reached despite hold out for 11 overs with last man Ashraf Pyrah was out to young Borthwick, one Durham’s three promising youngsters with Richardson and Stokes the other two. The win took Durham above Yorks by 8 points at the top of the Championship but Warwickshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, the current Champions all with one win from their only game the next two rounds of matches should provide a more accurate perspective. Yorkshire host Nottingham and Durham Sussex on Wednesday and a week after are at home to Warwickshire. Win both games or a win and a draw should indicate if first game form marks a third good season for the county out of four, similar to Sussex whose four championships were divided by a failure.

I love watching Master Chef with the food extraordinary sometimes delicious as Wednesday and sometimes making me angry at the expense and luxury living of those where the food is a way of life. Most of the food on offer at the start of the finals was exceptionally desirable commencing with the creation of a Croquembouche for its creative designer Michel Roux. This consist of a tall pyramid structure of some sixty individual balls of choux pastry filled with crème patisserie in a cylindrical pyramid cone and held together with brown sugar which also includes a sugar web. Three of the four contestants failed in the composition of the choux and or the crème but all managed to create a look alike pyramid. The exception was the female contestant of Italian background whose work resembled a pyramid but scored top marks for both her choux covers and their contents. Roux then demonstrated some of his favourite puddings including one of summer fruit which involve a juice of sweet wine and a little red, topped with champagne

The last four then prepare a pudding dish each with three treats to delight the Duke, the Duchess and Dowager Duchess of Bedford at Woburn abbey. They impressed with one exception,

Finally they served sandwiches and pastries for 16 Battle of Britain Heroes at the former the form RAF station at Northolt. Tempting were smoked salmon and caviar finger sandwiches, Whisky-cured sea trout, lapsang souchong and maple mustard sandwiches, Prosciutto and fig finger sandwiches, Lancashire cheese and reds onion marmalade sandwiches, orange and jasmine tart, goosenargh biscuits with chocolate garnache filling, and a medley of mini sables.

I was in the Mood for some good Jazz and Treme after finding that the Summer Whitely Bay Festival held at a hotel some distance away from the town for a number of recent years and scheduled to and last year is returning for a weekend in the autumn. I cannot say I enjoyed the programme as the story took a decisive twist into disappointment, but I presume only because of a decision of John Goodman not to participate in a second season. In the programme John has an attractive wife and delightful daughter. He is a Professor of English at the University and had written successful books although his publisher has been waiting several years for the completion of his next work having paid out a large royalty for the work. Goodman was an active participant in the first of two m carnival events which have been shown so far, had developed a following for his rants on You Tube about the way city and national government was treating the City after Katrina and the failure of the flood defence system.

Last episode he could not get into the spirit of Mardi Gras and returned home on his own, got drunk and upset his wife with his boorish behaviour. This time there signs that something was building up when the gulf between him and the majority of his students widened as they criticised having to read an old book and appeared to have no appreciation of what the books was about or Goodman’s analytical approach, His expression said what am I doing here. It was then evident he had reached a stonewall in trying to write his required work afresh. He appeared to have sorted out the demons when he complements his daughter on her appearance and gives his wife a loving kiss of goodbye. He is then seen taking the cross river ferry and cadging a smoke from a stranger who is struck by the behaviour of the big man. When he checks to see what John is up to at the back of the ferry, he is not there.

Annie continues to be turmoil over her relationship with Sonny telling him she wants to play with other musicians. A friend tells her that this was a slight more personal than promiscuity and is not surprised he has asked her to leave, which he does. She starts to play with his as he does. She is invited to a party for the release of his latest record organised by Davis who sends out flyers calling for musicians to participate and hot women. She has an engagement but says she will call another time hinting at a developing relationship after they shared Maris Gras day.

Sonny contacts and says he made a mistake and wants her back but while she continues to be torn between head, heart and body suggests they meet for coffee.

Albert who is Chief of an Indian Tribe of which there are about score in New Orleans ranging from half a dozen to a couple of dozen members. They dress up once a year on Saint Joseph’s Day, and because of this and my associations with St Joseph I take a special interest. They are called Indians because they wear self made elaborate Native American Indian costumes to show their support and identification as former slave Negroes with the plight of the original owners of continent and the events has had is riotous moments coming into conflict with the police. Albert is now being watched carefully by the local authorities and the security at the empty Caillope projects has been strengthened to prevent further access.
He is approached by two local community relations officers who admit he will be a target on the day and pleads with him not to respond to provocation and that the same message is being delivered to his colleagues on the force.

Toni wants an independent autopsy for Daymo after being contacted by a relative of his who was telephoned by the police/prison authorities to say they had her son, who she explained was sitting before her and therefore the assumption made is that while they had the correct surname they had got the wrong Christian name which adds to Toni’s view that the situation including cause of death requires further consideration. LaDonna refuses to delay the funeral for an autopsy as holding one will not bring her brother back or alter the situation. She has to delay the event because discovering that the family tomb has been badly damaged in the flooding and requires two and half thousand dollars to repair. Antione offers money which she accepts on the understanding that their sexual encounter at Mardi Gras will not progress. She has to seek further financial help from her estranged husband.

Janette continues to operate her successful mobile catering business and impresses her parents by her efforts although are keen for her to return home, marry someone such a lawyer and produced grand children. She says that the contents of her restaurant will produce some funds to reimburse the financial help given by her parents. She is engaged to provide food at a major outdoor concert event but after a great start it goes wrong because of a violent storm. She returns home to find water coming through the roof and decides this is the last straw and will accept the parental offer. She meets Davis and complains that he has not been in contact. They still sleep together. She is determined to leave nevertheless.


Solomon Kane is a the character is a 1928 work of fiction and also a comic book He is a Puritan out to vanquish evil in all its forms and inhabiting a world fo devils, sorcerers, and evil men without redemption.

In the 2009 released film the story begins before Solomon became a Puritan and was an adventuring mercenary fighting in North Africa in 1600 and encountering a demon, the Devil’s Reaper who announces that because of his life the hero much accompany him to Hell. Solomon escapes saying he is not ready and returns to England where he takes sanctuary in a monastery in the countryside where he finds contentment until the Abbot has dreams which reveals the man must go back to his family estate in the South West. He meets a Puritan family on their way to the New World who offer him a lift but he declines and is set upon and left for dead, but then found and treated by the Puritan Family.

On their travels they encounter a villages where everyone appears killed except for a little girl but Solomon is justifiably wary and giving her a cross to hold she leaves a mark on the daughter who cared for Solomon before turning into a demon and going off.

He accepts the invitation to accompany the family to New World but on an overnight break he and the younger son of the family observe a murderous group taking villagers into slave captivity and they are discovered and they and the rest of the family are captured. Solomon despite having renounced violence is forced to taking up arms as the men kill the younger son and then the other members of the family with the exception of the daughter who is taken into captivity and the mother who he leaves because her husband before he dies tells Solomon to rescue the daughter and in doing so he will find his salvation.

He engages in battle with some of the men but encountering one group he is told she is dead and this means he has failed to gain redemption and turns to drink. However at the Inn he is recognised men who served with him in the earlier life and who believe he is the one man to stand up against the forces now engulfing the South West counties of Devon and Cornwall.

The community is attacked a Solomon is captured and crucified but while on the cross he is recognised by the daughter who is passing in a prison cart and calls out to him. He breaks down from the cross and he is cared for by a pagan woman until his wounds heals and he is told that a sorcerer called Malachi has taken control based on a castle owned by Solomon’s family. As no more than a teenage boy he had been involved in a dispute with his older brother who had accidentally fallen off a cliff top to his presumed death and Solomon blaming himself, or being blamed had left home. Because it is the family home he is able to lead a small band into the castle where he finds his father imprisoned. The head soldier for Malachi wears a mask and has the power to turn the brains of men into slave fighters. This man was responsible for ordering Solomon to be crucified. Now his father tells him that the man is his brother, He had gone to the sorcerer after his son has been found injured and in a coma but the price of the help had been more than he could cope with and he asks his son to kill him and break the spell the sorcerer has over the people.

It is at this point that that why the demon left a mark on the daughter is revealed. This is to signify her innocence and that use of her a drop of her blood will open a portal to release a great fiery demon which nearly gets the better of Solomon. He manages to shoot Malachi in the head but it appears that his soul, that of Malachi, his decapitated brother and the demon are drawn in Hell. Howver true to the forecast in saving the girl he is redeemed. The mother is found and with her daughter they set off for the New World. Solomon now commences his new life attacking evil wherever it can be found. The late Pete Postlethwaite plays the Puritan father.

The third episode of the fifth series of Lewis failed to impress again. The story is the equivalent of the Agatha Christie house party murder. A controversial psychiatrist is testing an anti depressant drug for a pharmaceutical company on vole enters who have taken over a small college during the summer holiday. One of the volunteers is found dead below her bedroom window but evidence of murder is established. One of the other volunteers is subsequently found murdered and the wife of the psychiatrist is deliberately knocked down off a bicycle and will be in a coma with a broken back fr the rest of her life.

Kevin is hostile to all psychiatrists after his experience being required to visit one for counselling after the death of his wife and unfortunately finding someone who lacked the skill and insight to help. From my experience there are a few who fall into this categorical but the majority are not. His scepticism is shared by his Sergeant although more from taking a personal dislike than rejection of the whole profession.

Kevin comes under pressure from his boss who is under pressure from the girl’s father who had previously lost his son in Afghanistan. He believes the Psychiatrist is to blame and comes under suspicion for the hit run after appearing to stalk the psychiatrist and mistaking the wife for her husband as they use the same outfits when cycling. The psychiatrist is the prime suspect for several reasons. It is found that previously he had been the subject of inquiry for having an affair with a student/patient(not sure which). The case was dropped. This is because the girl refused to make a complaint and turns out to be his present wife.
She also becomes a suspect after she reveals as does the father of he dead girl that they had both received notes saying that the Psychiatrist was having an affair. The dead girl is not specified but a confidential tape, rather like the Big Brother House talk box, reveals that the girl was in love with the psychiatrist. There is a discussion about transference and counter transference. The girl had been pursued by one of other volunteers who becomes the prime suspect when he breaks out of the accommodation and takes one of the frequent coaches to London and his stalker behaviour becomes known tot he authorities. However early on it was evident to me that the most likely culprit was the assistant to the psychiatrist who it only emerges at the end of the two hour epic had turned her love worship into hate on finding that her feelings were not reciprocated and set out to kill the women in his life and to destroy him professionally and personally.

The saving grace of the series has been the relationship between to the two police men and he examining doctor. Unlike Morse although a bachelor embarked on several romantic relationships which could have ended H.E.A . Alas poor K W lacks the romantic nature or sex appeal and therefore it is no surprise that the good doctor is spotted by the Sergeant on a romantic night out with someone else. Kevin true to character is philosophical and wishes her well. It would never have worked.

2054 Films and TV while listening to a radio cricket commentary

I am again setting to one side writing to and about Margaret Humphreys, the Child Migration Trust, the recently released film, the books and my knowledge before and after being reminded. I need to finish the books and other reading and then write from different perspectives worthy of the issues involved. So I will attempt to become up todate in my viewing of films and television and reporting on my continuing evolvement into a writer and contemporary creative artist. I also opened another door yesterday to the Second World War, the Pacific Theatre of bloodshed and human misery. The series -Pacific, originally shown on the Sky Film channel is being re run on Sky Atlantic but yesterday struggling to get the internet to work effectively in general and transfer from lap top to TV I found that the series is available on Sky Anytime Internet and watched the first two episodes. I will leave this subject until I have completed Empty Cradles, Sunshine and Oranges and the rest of the emotional wringer I have set for myself, trauma upon trauma of others and my own. It is 7 am on 14th April 2011 and I have drunk my first cup of coffee, after deciding to gives the Leisure a miss and need some food. I begin with one of several films- The Blind Side a gooey mash of sentimentality and how America wants to see itself based on the true story of Michael Oher, the offensive left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. The true story is far better and more important than the film, and in fairness the reality is also of good Christian people whose standards are maintained consistently. So instead of beginning with the film and then moving onto the reality, I begin with the reality. Michael was born Michael Jerome Williams Jnr 28th May 1986, the year that Margaret Humphreys became confronted with one aspect of the horror of the British record by state and religious based bodies to provide appropriate care for children in need. His father was a criminal, who shared a cell with Michael’s mother’s brother and who was murdered and pushed over a bridge when Michael was in High School. His mother is an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict who produced thirteen children. What has happened to his brothers and sisters before Michael was helped to make a different life for him and what is his present relationship with them and his biological mother is not known to me. Nor do I know the extent to which his subsequent foster family who became his legal guardians have used their wealth and position to make a difference to his siblings and to others in a similar situation. In comparing stories and roles this could be the difference between the Tuohy family and Margaret Humphreys who after being confronted by one situation devoted her life with her husband and children to as many people with the same issues as money and time were available to her. This is not to belittle the Tuohy epiphany contribution to the life of Michael Oher but to place his story and the film in the true perspective of the reality of the USA today. The country remains racist and segregated, has failed to tackle drug abuse and alcoholism and prides itself on its vast differential between rich and poor. It remains a fundamentally hypocritical and unchristian practicing nation although under President Obama it appears to be attempting to put his own house in order before attempting to lead the free world while supporting feudal dictatorships, the extermination of men women and children, together with their starvation and death from treatable disease. The republican supporting majority of the country is not willing to improve the balancing of the budget in a humane way or to embrace a national health care programme which enables all to receive the minimum care when needed. The danger of the Oher story and film is that it make good people feel comfortable and accepting they do not have to do more, every day, and sometimes at great personal cost to maintain present levels of civilization let alone make the required progress. I also pose the question would this couple and their children have devoted themselves to Michael and continued to do so if he had not shown potential as an American football player. In fairness this is a question posed in the film and I presume also in the book and which it is possible to answer with evidential support that first and foremost the Tuohy’s provided Michael with a Christian education and loving family home and while they were keen for him to do well in sport as they were with their biological children what happened to him was down to his High School Coach and Football star spotter and recruiter Tom Lemming. Before encountering the Tuohy family, Michael was taken into care, placed in a number of foster homes from which he ran away and attended various schools somehow managing to grow tall and large. The film attempts to answer how he managed to survive while the majority do not is that he shut out the negative aspects and development a great sense of protective caring for others, greater than the majority of human beings possess. What his story also suggests given that his academic ability progressed from significantly below average to above average is his parents were victims of their social circumstances rather than of predestined criminality and personal and social inadequacy. The man first responsible for changing the future life of Michael was Tony Henderson, known as Big Tony who decided to enrol his son in the Briarcrest Christian High School, a non denominational fee paying school, in order to fulfil the dying wish of his grandmother/mother, and that because he had known Michael, who sometimes stayed at his home, and who attended that same public school as his son, suggested to the head of Briarcrest that they also ought to take the young man because of his potential in sport. The purpose of the school then, as now, is to provide a Christian education first; to make an all round good citizen, and this required everyone to also have a good college education. This is what the parent’s were prepared and able to pay for. This meant all pupils had to have a good record of academic ability and Michael did not by a long way and before he would be accepted he was required to successfully complete a home study programme which he failed to complete. The then Principal confirms that he was persuaded as the Christian head of a Christian school with few black pupils to take Michael anyway. His school life started badly with several teachers believing he was unsuited because he did not have the basics and his performance was appalling. On some respects his lack of basic knowledge was similar to my own although I had managed to cope with some of the basics better than Michael by his age on admission. However fortunately there was Jennifer Graves who ran the programme for students with special needs and she saw in him potential and was not prepared to give up and ensured that he was given a chance and which is where Sean Tuohy and his wife enter the story. While the film concentrated on the role of his wife, the book written by Michael Lewis and summarised in the New York Times, under the title - the Ballard of Big Mike 24th September 2006 prior to the publication gives equal prominence to Sean, a man socially aware who made a fortunate and an upper middle class lifestyle through owning a chain of 60 fast food restaurants for the likes of KFC, Taco Bells and Long John Silver, He also had been an able basketball player at university and in the minor league and he maintained involvement doing commentaries and took an interest in anyone also trying to work their way up. He had taken in interest in the poorer students at the school, and these were predominantly black, helping to fund their scholarship and encountering Michael and working out the boy was not eating on a regular basis arranged for him to have a paid for lunch each day. His daughter was becoming the state pole vault champion (not covered in the film) which concentrates in her membership of the cheer leader’s unit, and admits she was afraid of his size until she found worked out that he was more afraid of the other students. One cold and blustery morning on seeing Michael leaving a bus wearing shorts and the same T shirt he always wore, Sean mentioned this was the boy he was helping by proving regular lunch and when the boy said he was on the way to the gym because it was warm in there, his wife got upset and Sean knew that they were to become more involved. That his wife immediately took an interest was against the family grain as her father was a racist US Marshall who had taken her out of public school to Briarcrest because of desegregation. When she decided to buy him a wardrobe she had no idea she would one day become his legal mother. During the autumn of 2003 Michael stayed with various families and one night after a track meeting attended by Leigh Anne Tuohy she saw Michael and gave him a lift the 30 miles to a trailer where he slept on a blow up mattress which tended to loose air as quickly as it was blown up. She took him to her home where he used a couch for two weeks during which time she visited the places where he had stayed collecting clothes that had been given. He then moved in with his own room and bed and quickly became a close friend of the young son Sean Jnr. It is at this point I introduce the role of Tom Lemming and why the book and film is called the Blind Side. Michael now plays as a left tackle offensive, a role similar to Orlando Pace who in addition to his standard role had developed the ability to protect the quarterback‘s blind side, something which failing to do had led to the end of the career of well known quarterback. The article explains just how important finding an offensive left tackling linesman with the ability to protect the Blind Side of the quarterback had become in the game with the average National Football League player in the role earning $5.5 million a year in 2004 while by 2006 Matt Hasselbeck had signed a six year deal worth $8.2 million a year. By now it would be surprising if the figure has not reached over $10 million What emerged in the article and the film is that one of leading recruiters of new American Football talent from High schools, Tom Lemming, had followed up a tape of Michael’s play sent to him by the ambitious school coach, and became intrigued as well as interested because the high school had no record of providing Division 1 college players and the young man was unknown outside the High school for having ability and potential or having the kind of social life which potential stars normally experienced, and that when he got to interview him at school, the boy did not know who he was, did not consider himself a football player or had played in the role of left tackle which Lemming viewed him as a result of seeing the tape. I like this because it is evidence that the Tuohy’s were providing foremost a loving and secure home. The consequence of Lemmings appreciation of the boy’s potential is that when he notified 100 head football college who provided first division programmes On the first afternoon of Spring practice Briarcrest staff noted the arrival of coaching staff from five universities, something that had never had happened before. They could not say anything to him directly because of the rules which prevented approaches until July of an athlete’s senior year. At the end of a play involving Michael visiting coaches all went off to make private telephone calls. One of those visiting handed the team coach his card saying a full scholarship was available for Michael. The Tuohy’s were not immediately convinced that football was the future for Michael especially because of his lack of natural aggression. He was successful in playing basketball and in throwing the discus. (Having debated whether to go to Headingley for the first day of the game between Yorks and Durham after getting an accommodation voucher worth £15 a night at Travel Lodge, I decided to stay and see what happens over the first possibly second day. There was a little regret when Durham won the toss and decided to bat. Will Smith former captain that led Durham to their great championship win before he lost confidence and resigned after last year’s year disastrous start has returned as opening batsman, because of an injury to Stoneman. Captain Mustard is also out with injury and I have learned that Steve must have been hit on the arm and broken a bone with his second ball at the Rose Bowl last week. Smith is showing his nervous tendencies with De Venuto on 28 and Smith 21 50 without loss in 12th over). The next problem was Michael’s record of academic performance with a history of D’s and F’s which meant there was no prospect of his being eligible for a University Placement. He needed to somehow raise his grade average from .6 to over 2.65 by the time of graduation. The family hired a private tutor to help Michael 20 hours a week and with her assistance he undertook a number of intensive Internet courses at the Brigham Young University (something not mentioned in the film) and which took him over the minimum requirement for college. Michael was courted by the Universities of Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi and in choosing Mississippi caused an investigation by the National Collegiate Athletics Association which organises and regulates programmes and scholarships at over 1000 institutions. It is not known who complained and why, but the issue centred on whether Michael had been pushed into accepting Mississippi because it was the University of his adopted parents and that his High school coach was then given a post with the University soon after Michael agreed to go to the University where he obtained a grade I scholarship meeting the academic standards because of the Internet work with Brigham Young. In the film the inquiry does cause Michael to question the extent to which the family took him in because of his sports potential rather than his individual qualities. The NCCA did not close its case on suspicions of collusion and the High school coach was found guilty of secondary violations by contacting University staff before becoming a member of the staff. The film ends with Michael’s graduation and visit with his family to start at Mississippi. Michael was likely to be the only graduate without a baby photo for the year book and the best Leigh Anne could achieve was one when aged 10 years taken by the state child care authorities. Her solution was to use the best appropriate photo of a black baby so he did not miss out. In the film she also warned what she would do if made a girl pregnant. Mrs Tuohy has her own Interior decorating business after attending Mississippi University where she met her husband then a basketball star. Sean was educated in New Orleans where a gymnasium is named after his father a longstanding basketball coach at the school. He is included in the University of Mississippi Hall of Fame. He continues to broadcast report Basketball games as well as enjoy the income from his now 80 strong restaurant franchise chain which also now includes Pizza Hut. Also in the film Sean Jnr attended the various meetings between the University coaches and Michael before his decision as to which college he accepted. He asked about his ability to keep in contact with his older brother and the offer from Mississippi included the ability to lead the team out as a mascot for the first game. The film the films then ends with live film and photos of Michael being signed by the Baltimore Ravens as the 23rd pick of the 2009 draft having gained Michael on an exchange with New England Patriots for their first and fifth round selections. After his opening performances he signed a five year $13. 8 million contract as a right offensive tackle although during 2009 he played 5 of the 16 games as left tackle a position which became permanent for the 2010 season when he again played in every game. He is co authored autobiography I beat the Odds, from Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond has also been published. I will look out for his progress next season. (Durham lost Di Venuto just before lunch quickly followed my Gordon Muchall first ball. Although 110 for 2 there is now need for Smith to rebuilt the innings with in form 19 year old stokes who hit a century against Hampshire and five sixes in one over. He needs to do this again and again not to be one of those who in the past promised much early on and failed,) Much has been written about the Russian directed 2008 film Wanted with James McAvoy as the man wanted, Angelina Jolie in the role of a female assassin and Morgan Freeman as the Assassin master. Other involved included Terence Stamp and Thomas Kretschmann. The film is about the Fraternity, a ancient band of Assassins with special superhuman abilities including the capacity to shoot a bullet around an object or individual to hit another or catch a shuttlecock at play in a loom. The mission of the Fraternity is to remove bad people so that society may function overall in balance and those to be killed are revealed in a code embedded in weave produce by one of the looms- The Loom of Fate! While it is implied this had some truth in the past, Morgan is now controlling the names produced in the loom for money without caring whether the individuals deserved to die or not. McAvoy knows nothing of the Fraternity or that his father was a member as he works in an office where he has a bullying female boss and a girl friend that is cheating with another office colleague. Such is McAvoy’s condition that he requires anti anxiety medication. An event is staged between two members of the Fraternity played by Jolie and Kretschmann which result in McAvoy being told he is the son of an assassin with special powers killed by Kretschmann and after the young man become unconscious he is taken to meet Morgan who explains that he has his father’s powers and if agrees to be trained he will be given his father’s fortune which unsurprisingly is all too much for McAvoy who returns to work until the pressures mounts and he finds that several million dollars have been added to his bank account. He takes revenge on his boss and the colleague cheating with his girl friend and goes off to be trained. This involve being badly beaten up repeatedly by members of the Fraternity including Jolie in order to build up skill and resistance. The violence is gratuitous and enjoyable by those like gratuitous violence! However the hero has reservations about killing until he sent to kill Kretschmann which involves tracing a bullet maker to Moravia and a fast action sequence in which the hero crashes a car into a moving train which is then derailed into a ravine, with Kretschmann saving McAvoy’s life only to be killed by McAvoy but before then revealing that he is in fact McAvoy’s father. Jolie then admits that McAvoy was recruited because he was the only individual Kretschmann would not kill and that having accomplished the mission her task was to kill him. He escapes and is rescued by the bullet maker, played by Terence Stamp, who takes him to his father’s apartment where explains that his father had worked out that Morgan Freeman was creating the names of those to be killed for money pretending they were on some historic mission and he had set out to kill Fraternity members and to keep them away from his son. His father’s wish was that his son would grow up free and without violence but the young man discovers his father’s weapons and decided to complete her father’s mission. As the finale progresses McAvoy breaks into the compound armed with a truckload of rats, many fitted with time explosive devices which destroy the premises. Freeman explains to the surviving assassins that the reason why he stopped implementing the Loom of Fate was because all their names came up; Jolie who believes in the code because of her personal experience uses a curved bullet to kill all the remaining members including herself with the exception of Morgan Freeman who escapes. In the final sequence Morgan appears to have got the drop on McAvoy but this turns out to be a look alike decoy and he is killed by his nemesis at a distance and then McAvoy appears to break the screen to address the audience saying What the fuck have you done today? The film made a lot of money. The film is based on a comic book and a sequel is planned. It is not recommended unless you enjoy this kind of rubbish. The 10th first episode of the Sopranos-A Hit is a Hit. The episode begins with a gangster hit as Christopher Moltisanti joins Paulie Gualtieri and Big Pussy kill a drug dealer in a hotel room as a warning to his organization to stay away from the New Jersey Soprano territory. They steal a huge quantity of cash which Tony states should be used legitimately to broaden the role of Family. He and the others celebrate with whores in an hotel room while Christopher goes off to celebrate with his girl friend. After taking her to a show in New York for some inexplicable reason Christopher queues for some fast food boxes and as we know Christopher does not like queuing and insists on being served which draws his attention to a well known Black Rapper Massive Genius who amazingly are also in line with his assistants who take exception to Christopher’s racists comments. Also in line is a city cop who advises the singer to be careful mentioning that Christopher is part of the D’Meo family. The rapper invites Christopher and his girlfriend to a party at his home where she attracts the attention of the rapper and this encourages her to follow her wish to become a music producer of the work of an ex boyfriend who fronts a band Visiting Day. Christopher puts up the money for a demonstration record but realises that the man has not recovered from an accident and has problems, and after taking the completed work to a member of the fraternity who had been responsible for the development of Black artists in the past but who now develop their on work , he tells Christopher that, “A hit is a hit,” is not a hit! Massive G disagrees although Christopher notes the continuing interest in his girl friend and then Massive reveals that he is a relative of a deceased artist who he claims is owed $400,000 in music royalties to the artist's elderly mother by the man who Chris consulted. When the contact refuses to pay, Massive responds with a threat of litigation and the man with a counter-suit over the unauthorized sampling by Massive G's music label of a song that his record label still controls, leaving them at loggerheads. As Massive fumes over the impasse, Tony and his crew comment on the irony of modern-day celebrities like Massive Genius being idolized as "gangsters", with Paulie summarizing it as "fucking depressing". This brings to the other main aspect of the story, the attitude of Tony neighbours and Dr Melfi’s friends to having a notorious gangster living among them. He lives next door to a doctor Dr. Bruce Cusamano, the family neighbour and family physician who referred Tony to Dr Melfi because of the anxiety panic attacks and gives him a box of illegal top notch Cuban cigars. Cusamano invites Tony to play golf with him and friends at the private country club of which Bruce is a member. After some initial hesitancy, Tony does so. Later, at a barbecue with Dr. Cusamano and his friends, while Tony is looking for stock tips, Carmela receives one from one of the wives, and invests in the company. The company's stock soon splits 3-for-1 and Carmela is pleased explaining to her daughter that they must take steps to achieve separate final independence in case something happens to her husband. Tony regrets his decision to play golf with Cusamano when he realizes the other players want to hear his stories about life in the Mafia. They even ask him if he has ever met John Gotti, which he jokingly says he has. He tells them a story, completely made up, about Gotti's fondness for a certain kind of ice cream truck. Cusamano and his friends are enthralled by the story. Later, Tony discusses the incident in therapy with Dr. Melfi, and how he felt used for the amusement of others, much like his speech-impeded high school friend with a cleft palate, Jimmy Smash, whom they would make fun of because of his speech impediment. As revenge, Tony fills a parcel with sand and asks Dr. Cusamano to hold on to it, in an attempt to worry him and his wife. The box is a source of concern to the Cusamanos, who think it may contain drugs or a weapon. He has advised Tony that Membership has been closed and will only be available when an existing member leaves or dies. Dr Melfi has attended a dinner party at the Doctors house where the talk is of the neighbour and his activities. The doctor explains that it is good to have such a neighbour as their is no crime, no one dares. Another dinner guest says that there is little difference between Tony and most of the business men he knows except that Tony probably is involved in murder from time to time. Something which of course large corporations never engage in except in the cinema and on GTV! When Tony’s wife attends a charity raising barbecue with the neighbours they mention their involvement in the stock market and that they are successful. It is evident that one of the husbands is involved with insider information which is passed on to thee wives. Thus the episode can be said about the greyness of behaviour in a world where we like to divide people and actions into simple black or white. At the dinner party Dr Melfi had made an excuse to fo to the toilet in order to take a look at Tony’s house and hear an alarming tortured sound emanating. She asks Tony about this and denies knowledge. The episode ends with Tony weight training in the basement uttering excruciating cries! Little Fish is the 11th episode of Blue Bloods. Danny is at home in bed after a tiring shift when he receives a call from a frightened woman who he had given his phone number but tells her first to call emergency and then when he regrets saying this she rings off. Understandably and rightly he feels guilty when her body is washed up in the river. Brother Jamie with his Sergeant are at the scene when a detective arrives who Jamie is advised was the partner of his killed brother and this arouses Jamie’s interest and concern as what happened and why. Arising from a witness friend of the dead girl Danny is able to arrest the boss of the escort agency which employed both girls. The Judge at the custody hearing is unhelpful and gives Danny the weekend to substantiate the case refusing to hold the man in custody. Understandably the witness withdraws her statement and Danny is left with the prospect of the being released unless he find something nee to hold him. He reviews available tapes involving the escort girls and their clients and one face appears familiar so he asks for the car used to be traced only to find that it belongs to the judge in the case. He therefore is able to have the judge removed waiting until the morning of the adjourned hearing to do so. Meanwhile the Commissioner is contacted about a case form 25 years pas which he and his partner investigated of a missing child and where the remains have now been found behind a false wall in a building close to the area where he lived and disappeared. Frank visits the mother and promises to find the killer. This proves to be the former caretaker from whom he obtains a confession The cricket has been a day of mixed fortunes. Durham took the score to over 100 without loss and then just before and after lunch collapse and 136 for six. There have been three saviours with wicket keeper Richardson making 67 and Thorpe 41 and with Plunket not out 65, the total 326 for 9 and with the match balanced. If tomorrow Durham can gain another 25 suns for the 4th bonus point and restrict Yorks to 250 then an unexpected win becomes possible. Yesterday I enjoyed the first programme in the final of Master Chef where the remaining four, two men and two women undertook three tasks over the week involving pastry and which merits separate attention