2258 Birthday weekend 2012 number 2- 2 The Taming of the Shrew, Sunderland FA Cup game and Inspector Montalbano

I am impressed by the inside of Theatre Royal Nottingham which appeared to be to be better proportioned with more comfortable seating than its North East namesake although after the major refurbishment undertaken as part of the Newcastle Gateshead bid for the becoming a European City of Culture won by Liverpool, the Newcastle Theatre has a rich feel interior. I had a previously reported behind scenes tour of the theatre after the refurbishment. The outside of the Nottingham establishment is being renovated at the present time. The theatre is run by the City Council jointly with the adjacent music auditorium.

I had a two course meal in the theatre restaurant beforehand and which with a small glass of wine and coffee worked out at £21 a head another £4 for three courses. You can have olives or baked breads as a prelim if you do not want to rush to the first course or are waiting for other members of the party to arrive which the situation was noted at one of the dozen tables providing for between two and eight diners. The Appetizers included Whitebait which was tempting although I like these small fishes especially sprats wrapped in unhealthy crunchy batter. The Whitebait was served in a good heap with a tartar sauce. There was also soup and ciabatta bread, a Rillette of duck with a caramelized oranges and a mozzarella cheese and tomato salad with pesto oil.

I chose a Lamb shank in rosemary and recurrent jus with Lyonnais potatoes and season vegetables with the veg too crunchy for my taste but there were two piece of chunky lamb which was greatly enjoyed. Also available was chicken supreme in a creamy tarragon sauce with crushed new potatoes and seasonal veg, a Nile perch in fresh tomato salsa with a timbale of pepper rice and a Risotto of the day. Additional veg or a salad was available as side orders.

While the apple pie was tempting served warm with crème anglais and Gourmet ice Cream or sherry trifle. I settled for a Chocolate tart served with a white chocolate covered half strawberry. As this level of food goes and prepared for those with a Theatre show start it was neither the best or the worst encountered and being able to stroll over to good aisle seats in the dress circle after listening to a woman pianist gently playing tunes was a bonus, especially as the heavens opened outside as had been forecast and making an uncomfortable arrival for the majority.

My knowledge of the plays of William Shakespeare is no longer what it was during the years in which I attended the seasons of the Royal Shakespeare productions to Newcastle and visited Stratford twice. I also only have a vague memory of the 1988 production of the Taming of the Shrew at the Theatre Royal Newcastle although I remembered more the subject matter of play and the criticism which boiled over into understandable hostility on the part of feminists because in this version of the battle of the sexes the intended outcome in the subjugation of women by men which makes the play a clarion call for the Taliban. I have also seen the play at Oxford. Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor did a film version as Kiss Me Kate.

This year’s Royal Shakespeare Touring company production is a bawdy version with the actors speaking in the original English rather than the kind of Laurence Oliver pronounced Oxford.

Christopher Sly is fat, fatter than me, although this is not saying a lot and a drunkard with sexual ambitions and at the start of the play is thrown out of the alehouse scorned by a woman described as Hostess who is not inclined to invite him into her bed.

In the present production the woman director has chosen to use the rest of those in the alehouse to become the pack of hounds of an unnamed Lord and his huntsman who then encounter Sly in his stupor and hit on the idea of making an entertainment of him by removing his clothing and dressing him as the Lord and pretending that he has been deranged for over a decade in his bed. These kinds of devices are common to the Comedies. They also dress up a page to be his wife and who is told to express delight at having her husband seemingly restored to her. The disguise is so effective and Sly so drunk that he seeks his conjugal rights leading to a merry chase under the huge covering of the entire steeply slanted stage out into the auditorium.

It is at this point the Lord finds that there is alternative entertainment available as travelling players offer to give a performance of a play, The Taming of the Shrew with Sly and his “wife“ watching from different vantages points during the first half observed by the Lord from a box at the side. They disappear from significance until the end when Sly reverts to his former life.

The action of the play takes place in Padua, Italy. Hortensio can be described as a gold digger, Gremio is old and rich and Lucentio is new in town. All three men want to marry Bianca who initially appears beautiful and graceful. Her father Baptista Minola won't let anyone marry Bianca until someone marries her elder sister Katherina or Kate. Known as a shrew Kate is moody, fiery and has no desire to marry. In fact Bianca becomes something of a wanton as the play develops while Kate’s gestures match the sexuality of the language until eh end when they kinda switch roles.

Petruchio arrives in town and visits his good friend Hortensio. Petruchio's father has died and he is determined to marry any woman who is rich. He doesn't care how old she is or what she looks like. He is told of Kate and her fortune. Petruchio vows that he will marry her despite her reputation for “her scolding tongue.” He wants her fortune and the challenge of catching and taming her appeals to him.

At the Minolas' house Kate has tied her sister Bianca up and is making her cry with her vicious behaviour. Their father frees Bianca from Kate's bullying grasp. Kate accuses her father of loving Bianca more than he loves her. Kate is enraged that she will have to marry anyone who comes along just so that Bianca can have her dream wedding. She shouts at her father: 'I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day / And for your love to her lead apes in hell.'

Petruchio meets Baptista Minola who warns him that wooing his daughter Kate will be difficult. Petruchio assures him he is up to it. Meanwhile Hortensio poses as music tutor and goes in to teach both Kate and Bianca. The class does not last long, Kate swiftly smashes an instrument over Hortensio's head. Petruchio finds this encouraging: 'It is a lusty wench; / I love her ten times more than ever I did.'

Kate is brought to Petruchio. They have a fierce battle of words. He calls her a wasp. She replies: 'If I be waspish, best beware my sting.' Kate hits Petruchio who shouts: 'I swear I'll cuff you Katherina if you strike me again.'

Kate calls him 'one half lunatic'. He tells her they will marry on Sunday and she absolutely refuses and leaves. Both Hortensio and now Lucentio pretend to teach Bianca whilst they are really just desperate to spend time with her. Lucentio's servant Tranio pretends that he is Lucentio's master. The wedding day arrives. Kate waits for Petruchio but he is very late. Kate fears that he is going to stand her up on her wedding day. She feels abandoned and livid and hurt.
But when Petruchio arrives he is dressed like a tramp and rides an old horse and is everything that is the opposite of romantic. Kate is humiliated but he insists that love is not about clothes or image. They marry and then Kate tries to take Petruchio to the wedding feast but he refuses. He won't let her go to it either. Instead he drags her back to his home. Once they are in his house he starves her of food and sleep. He says she must become gentle and obedient before he will feed her.

He brings a tailor with a stylish dress but he finds fault and breaks into pieces. He gets her to say the sun is the moon and vice versa as a prelude to demanding complete obedience to his views and wishes

They travel to Padua to see her friends and family. Petruchio asks her for a kiss in the street and she does not object. Tranio persuades a visiting schoolteacher to pretend that he is Lucentio's father Vicentio. He will assure Bianca's father of Lucentio's wealth. Now the real Vicentio turns up. But Lucentio and Bianca still get married and are very happy. Hortensio marries a wealthy widow. Petruchio and Kate come back to town. Petruchio.

The play culminates in a bet between the husbands about their control of their wives. Hortensio and Lucentio have a bet on whose wife is the most obedient and wager a hundred crowns on it. Kate wins the contest and everyone sees that she is a changed woman. Kate lectures the other wives on obedience. And so the Shrew is tamed.

There is some humour in the work for those who like bawdiness and it can be argued that this is a work about the power of sexuality which both sexes use to try and conquer and control each other. As a statement about the role of wives it is appalling and to be condemned. The acting as one expects by the RSC is of the highest standards
I was able to watch Sunderland at Everton live on the Saturday lunchtime quarterfinal of the FA Cup. Sunderland have not had a good record playing Everton in Cup games or playing Everton in general. I was therefore apprehensive about the outcome.

For first fifteen minuets Sunderland dominated play with Everton seeming unsettled. Phil Bardsley scored the first goal with a powerful free kick at 12 mins. Goodison Park remains one of the original grounds similar to Anfield and West Ham where the supporters feel close to the play, the sense of being on top of it with steep side stands thus creating a tremendous atmosphere unlike that which has developed at the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, the Stadium of Light and St James, and the two Manchester grounds where getting the roar mighty and the ground rocking has become challenging.

The manager of Everton is celebrating ten years in charge and along with the Managers of Arsenal and Manchester United are the only managers to have survived more than a decade with the same club. There is therefore added incentive to round of his season with some silverware, something which has eluded throughout his time. The Sunderland manager has several trophies in his personal cabinet but not the FA Cup so that both Managers and clubs knew that upon this result the rest of the season depended. It was therefore not surprising that Everton were unwilling to surrender and Tim Cahill equalised on the 23rd mins and after this Everton looked the more likely to win. Towards the finals minutes Sunderland goal keeper Mignolet made a brilliant leap to prevent the ball dipping under the bat into the net and then rose quickly from the ground to parry the next shot delivered quickly at him. While the saves will not be remembered in the same way as those of Jim Montgomery when Sunderland won the cup in 1973 his performance was better and could still become a legend if the team is able to progress. The scoreline remained 1.1 and therefore the teams will replay the game next week.

I had hoped that if they progressed the Wembley Semi Final would be held the weekend that I was in London for the cricket game between Durham and Middlesex at Lords. Alas it is the weekend before. An omen? But of what kind? If they win they will play Liverpool in the semi. I have been to three Cup Finals, two in two years which Newcastle losing both and once for the contest between Liverpool and Wimbledon where I went along as a Wimbledon supporter and they won by the only goal.

Sunderland were away at Blackburn on Tuesday evening and need at least a draw to keep their position in the top half of the table as a number of teams are now catching up with seven teams within three points of each other. Alas they had their worst performance since Martin O’Neil became manager in part because of giving so much on the Saturday and also because key players are missing from suspension. They lost 2.0 and eased Blackburn’s relegation worries in so doing.

I was out a theatre when an event occurred during the game between Tottenham and Bolton which was then abandoned just before the half time. The Bolton midfield player aged 23 years Patrice Muamba had a cardiac arrest and has been in a critical condition ever since. He is in the specialist chest hospital in London which takes care of those whose hearts having stopped but have been restarted. They have reduced the previous death rate by half although in the present instance he is still in critical care although he was able to move his arms and legs under his own control and to speak during to day asking to see his three year old son. Bolton were due to play tonight but the game has been postponed. Liverpool beat Stoke 2.1 and Chelsea Leicester 5.2. Bolton had been drawing 1.1 when the game was abandoned.
I watched the highlights of the Newcastle game at home against Norwich. They should have put the result beyond doubt with several chances in addition to the first class volley by Cisse at 11 minutes. The goal keeper made some excellent save. Norwich had a much better game in the second half and also had their chances. Newcastle still have a chance of making a European spot but need to displace Chelsea in the table unless Chelsea go onto win the Champions League and release the available place for one of chasing group which Newcastle lead 5 points ahead of Liverpool who have a game in hand with Swansea 8 point behind on the same number of points.

As previously mentioned Sky have introduced a Formula 1 racing channel although it was the BBC recording of the Australian Grand Prix that I watched on Sunday in which The UK’s Jason Button won after making a great dash for the first corner to get ahead of his team mate and also former World Champion Lewis Hamilton. There was a good prospect for a one two for the McLaren Mercedes team but an accident and the appearance of the Safety car resulted in current World Champion Sebastian Vettel taking the second spot with the consequence that the UK team ended the day only 10 points clear of their rivals 40 -30 instead of 43-27.

Warrington were playing on Sunday, they are on TV again this coming weekend on Friday .as are Newcastle on Sunday at 4 and they scraped home 32 30 after trailing a fighting Wakefield Trinity for most of the game and who are anchored with only 2 points with three others at the bottom of the table. Warrington were desperate for the win after the loss the previous week against Leeds. They remained second in the table to inform Huddersfield but there are several teams able to take a commanding lead at the top if they can get a good run of wins together,

I enjoyed a roast chicken meal on Sunday and again on Monday lunchtime with apple pie and custard on both occasions to follow and a little red wine on the Sunday.

I did not view this week’s episode of Inspector Montalbano until returning home which may have been called the Artist’s Touch and which involved the relationship between two brothers where there was bad blood arising form an accident 30 years before and a dispute between the young men over the affections of a girl. The girl had gown up with the young men and the trio had become inseparable.

The episode begins two years after the teacher who lives in the same beach side town as Montalbano and who nearly commenced an affair with her after she became a person to provide assistance in a case. She visits her aunt and sees smoke coming from the workshop of a goldsmith who is one of the brothers. There she finds that he appears to have committed suicide in an elaborately created electrical execution which also set his workshop on fire. She had some contact with the man who she always found kind and interesting and with a positive outlook despite being confined to a wheel chair in his large house which he had acquired with his inheritance. By coincidence Montalbano’s mistress at a distance also knew the Goldsmith from whom she bought a piece of jewellery each year. On hearing of his death she visits for the funeral.

They attend the funeral at what appears to be a clear case of suicide. The first of two witnesses appear to confirm that a fast moving vehicle left the premises in the early hours injuring the leg of an animal where its owner is an insomniac and who had gone for one of his regular cannot get to sleep walks. The vehicle is subsequently established as that of the man’s brother, a physics teacher who teaching in class we overhear before the arrival of the Inspector to arrest him saying significantly- Every action has a reaction. And that the reaction often occurs when you least expect.

The man appears not to be surprised when the police arrive but quietly states that he did not kill his brother. The evidence against him appears to be a hand written Will leaving everything to him but is proved to a fake. It is then established that material used for the death was sent to the address of the brother or ordered by him (I am not clear about this aspect) but the combination of various pieces of evidence suggested an elaborate murder including that the brother had not received any inheritance from his father and appeared to have become short of money.

However having first persuaded the judge that it was murder and not suicide Montalbano now attempts to establish that it was not murder but a clever suicide to blame the brother. The first major clue is that the hand written Will was not necessary as the brother was always going to inherit the estate of his brother and vice versa something worked out with the family lawyer years before when neither brother married or had children. Similarly the decision to pass the parental inheritance to the invalid brother had been decided years beforehand.

According to the housekeeper who did not live in but had been with the Goldsmith for some thirty years since his move away from the family home, the Goldsmith has become disabled in a riding accident when he had fallen down some steps from an out building in the grounds of he family home and where it was alleged he had been pushed following a quarrel over the girl who was seen in one instance kissing both men at the same time. He had received a visitor a few times over recent months, someone she did not kno. It remains unclear if one brother pushed the other or the injured brother developed he belief that he had been pushed and that his accident prevented the relationship with the girl.

In fact she had married someone different, a wealthy man but within the past year she had become a widow. She attended the funeral in the presence of the surviving brother but he had given up interest in her after the accident although he had remained strong in his feelings for her.

Running alongside this investigation his deputy has an unsolved murder of an electrician on his hands and although I immediate suspected there was a link given that the Goldsmith had been electrocuted. I was right but wrong on the connection!

The deputy is puzzled by the fact that the electrician appears to be making several visits to some of the households visited and that his income appears to be greatly in excess of his business interests. It becomes evident that the man was a loan shark but none of the victims appear willing to admit their involvement until Montalbano recognises a woman sitting in the office of the deputy as the woman who has a girl played fast and loose with the affections of the brothers.

At the home of the suicide he discovers and album of photos with his brother removed from anywhere the girl was also present. He had first visited the abandoned family home with the family lawyer to identify sites in the photos to confirm the site where the accident happened. The woman admits that she had borrowed money from the loan shark in order to pay some of her husband’s debts on the maintenance of the house and that her former friend had helped her and they had become reacquainted.

It is when Montalbano takes his mistress to the home of the Goldsmith and sees that it has already been rented out and that a TV aerial is being fitted that he works out the truth of what happened. A witness passing the property in the evening had heard shouts suggesting a row between two male voices. In this respect the surviving brother had lied because he had explained the row as an incident in a television programme. However Montalbano had found out that the man did not watch live TV but videos. There was no aerial at the property. Therefore there must have been a row.

The teacher admits that his had heard from his brother a few months before after no contacts for over a decade. However when he visited the brother had admitted that that he maintained a grudge for what having happened saying that the man had ruined his life in terms of the accident and the love of his life. However he had not killed his brother who had attempted the elaborate suicide to gain revenge.

I cannot remember the reason for the contact between the brother and the woman but this is where the plot thickens and the connection with the loan shark electrician is made! When Montalbano undertook a detailed examination of the property of the Goldsmith he had noted a gun and a box of cartridges registered to the dead man. It would have been just as easy to have shot the brother and made this look a suicide that the elaborate creation of an electric chair.

What emerged is that the teacher had taken the gun and used it to kill the electrician thus ending the debt for the woman, and in fact the man’s torment of his other victims, and had returned the weapon to the house and left as had been witnessed but without discovering his brother’s suicide, with the circuit shortening and the fire commencing only later. Indeed there had been a reaction when he had least expected.

As with every episode the relationship between Montalbano and his mistress is always bubbling up from under the surface. In this instance his encounter with the woman who live sin his neighbourhood has its impact but it is solving the case that potentially harms his relationship with the mistress when on their way to a holiday he calls in at the police station and becomes so involved that he forgets he has left her sitting in his car. Previously he had left her at the bus terminus waiting for him to be collected, having previously said he would collect her at the airport. He returns home to find her asleep waiting for him on the veranda waiting to serve him the meal she has prepared. He wakes her and begs her not to berate him until the morning.

2257 Second Birthday weekend 2012-1 Midlands here I and Sopranos

I commenced my second 73rd birthday celebration weekend in succession at seven in the morning without a plan for the time before travelling to the Midlands with the aim of arriving at 3pm the earliest booking in time without paying a premium.

My first reaction was to decide to undertake some writing until nine but on inserting the new USB storage device to transfer any work completed from desktop to lap top for continued working I discovered an application for debugging and speedy up operations and this eventually required me to reboot having closed down the desktop overnight.

I used the process time to sort out the dried washing up and prepared a food bag for the trip after putting out the general rubbish. The food bag is only for emergencies except for a prawn salad en route as otherwise there are four three main meals out including one combined with a theatre visit, possibly four or with one in doors so to speak plus two other meals provided, I have access to a microwave for the breakfasts of mushrooms and tomatoes and or porridge. There was one hiccup in that I put the general Wheelie out before taking the shells off the prawns, always a messy process, and the heads stink out the house waste bin if left for only a couple of days.

I decide to write until about nine, then pack and then vacuum the floors and wash the day room and kitchen floors which is a bit like wearing clean underclothes whenever one leaves the house in case one has an accident or becomes ill and requires medical care. I take the decision to leave around eleven to eleven thirty.

Last night I enjoyed the third and last of three Master Chef Final programmes because the individual I liked most won. Most of the time I fail to comprehend the ingredients used or appreciate the emphasis on balanced flavours and the complex process involved under time pressure plus the extraordinary presentations are mind boggling. Earlier in the week the winner was preparing starters which included truffles at 90 Euros’s each individual plate. Next week I will begin the Leveson reporting again which will include the detailed examination of expensive hospitality offered by journalists from various newspapers.

There were two other programmes enjoyed last night although I used the fast forward button going through American Idol which should have reduced the number of contestants by one but where in fact another was eliminated because of warrants for his arrest after giving not once false particulars but several times and having been identified from his stage appearances and having failed to disclose to the programme makers there was no alternative but to expel him and wish him well and this was followed with photos of him leaving to be picked up by the appropriate authorities.

The main viewing was a catch up on the Sopranos which I hope to cover before departure. As the series has progressed into its penultimate series the violent departure of Tony’s closest allies continued coupled with the disintegration of his family life. The fourth episode of the season commenced with the elimination of the New York couple caught up the war between the three rivals trying to take control of the Carmine crime family interests

The fate of Tony’s wife Carmela was much to the fore as she decided she no longer wished to cope with her son A.J ( Anthony Junior) and then embark on an affair she has previously verged at the brink, with a Priest, and two associates, the last being Furio who Tony is now having Italy scoured to bring retribution for having dared to fancy his wife. Carmela’s problem remains that of Catholic guilt and living off the proceeds of violent crime together with living with a man who has regular sex with the girls at the strip club and also attempts less clinical relationships with any woman who takes his fancy and reciprocates interest. About the only thing in favour of Tony is that he is not violent towards women, surprising given the way his mother treated him.

Son AJ continues to show all the signs of following his father and has become your average teenage scumbag, lying, cheating, make use of everyone to further his interests. This time in All Happy Families he is told to go and stay with his sister after a concert in New York City and not with his friends in a city hotel. Meadow is not enthusiastic as she is with her boyfriend so when AJ telephones to make excuse she covers for him and he and his mates get drunk and do drugs with the outcome that he wakes up with his face stuck to the carpet and his eyebrows shave off. When he uses the F word she decides to pack him off to Tony.

Having got Meadow into college she has the same ambitions for A.J who shows every indication of having no ability or interest. When his grades are below the minimum requirements for entry the parents are summoned to the Principal of the High School and he and Carmela have an instant sexual attraction so she accepts an invitation for a private lunch and later dinner.

Being Carmela she discusses her growing carnal desire with the latest priest who understandably advises against sin and suggests they talk the situation over with Tony. She cannot accept the strictures drawing attention that to her husband’s continuing infidelities in addition to his criminal activities which she feels are being sanctioned by the church.

A passionate sexual relationship develops in episode six of the season, Sentimental Education, in which the Principal leans on the Grade’s Director to fix it so that AG gets the minimum required. Understandably the Principal feels guilty about allowing his sexual passion to override his professional integrity and when Carmela begins to exert more pressure this time on helping to get AJ into a good college, he snaps and breaks off the relationship. Carmela who had briefly warned him about the implications of a relationship if Tony found out does not take the rejection well and utters a threatening warning.

Meanwhile AJ has quickly tired of being with Tony and pleads with his mother to return home. Earlier Tony has bought AJ the latest four wheel drive jeep vehicle built like a tank after hearing that a couple of kids from the High School were killed joy riding. AJ is told he can take the car out once and then it will remain in the garage with his mother holding the keys until he improves his grades. AJ’s solution is to cheat.

Tony is not coping well without a regular woman and he sends Dr Melfi a large basket of toiletries suggesting he wants to return as her patient. She discusses the development with her therapist and he suggest Tony is attempting a cleansing so as to start again. She is upset because the letter with the delivery indicates that he continues to blame her for what happened. He eventually apologies, profusely, and she takes him back as a patient where he admits his attraction to Christopher’s woman Adriana.

What I had no appreciated before is that her club is located in New York City and which perhaps explain why Tony and his crew use the office at the club to conduct meetings and other business under the misguided belief that as Adriana has no criminal previous the Feds would not be interested in her and therefore in them meeting there. It was when Tony and his crew were using the office for a private Poker game that attention of the group is focussed on what a desirable creature is Adriana. When Tony arrives one evening to use the office she is taking a snort of cocaine and invites Tony to join her. They talk and she admits she wishes he had been her father because of his kindness and understanding

Dr Melfi is pleased when Tony talks of his attraction before getting involved which she tells him is a sign of growing insight and maturity. As when Carmela discusses her situation with the priest and others she lists all the arguments against involvement but is seeking permission and approval. In Tony’s instance he subsequently makes his way to the club late evening bumping into his daughter Meadow who is there with boyfriend and other college friends who comment about her father’s commitment having said he has an office in the building (episode Irregular Around the Margins.)

Adriana is pleased to see him and expresses the wish that she could do a line of cocaine and Tony says he is not adverse so he drives her to her family home neighbourhood when she knows someone who can supply them. There is every indication given the lateness of the hour that a physical relationship is also on the agenda, However they have a major accident and while Tony escapes without a scratch she is badly bruised on her face and neck caused by the car seat belt. However that Tony was not injured but she was, becomes the immediate cause for gossip that she had been going down to him while he was driving. Just about everyone is laughing at the concept.

By coincidence Christopher had been sent away overnight on a job for Tony and when he returns he quickly learns of what is being said and goes ballistic. He collects the injured Adriana from the hospital and then beats her up and goes looking for Tony. In truth Adriana was being nice to Tony under pressure from the Feds to find out what he and his crew were using the Club for. She had also been suffering from irritable bowel syndrome brought on by stress which had not helped with her sexual and general relations with Christopher. She had become vulnerable and open to anyone paying her nice attentions, something which Tony has capability.

When Christopher goes for Tony the crew take him to a deserted spot with the intention of whacking him however Christopher reluctantly accept the explanation. They hijack the emergency doctor when he is coming off shift in order to convince Tony further. He takes his cousin, the one training to become a professional masseur who gets the doctor to admit that the injuries were consistent with those from a car seat belt. In order to cement the understanding Tony takes Carmela, Christopher Adriana, and a couple of others out for meal at a result where other crew members including the principal gossip, a fellow captain are also having a meal by prior arrangement. The gossip comes over to greet Tony’s party and he and Christopher shake hands. However there is every indication that bridges have been burnt, the die has been cast, etc.

My immediate memory is of two other stories. Tony is increasingly irritated by the behaviour of released from prison crime boss Feech La Manna who is always dominating conversation with tales of his past exploits. Because of his improved insight and a comment by Carmela Tony has been alerted that his crew humour him because he is the boss and they are afraid of they can do. She feels this is the same of the wives towards her. This is partly why she feels isolated and hankers for a meaningful relationship.

In addition to the garden work incident Feech does a deal with Johnny Sacks, the former New York Underboss who is part of the three way fight for control of the Carmine family interests. The daughter of the Jewish doctor and gambling group member is marrying and at the wedding Feech and his crew bring a car transporter and their weapons and load up the most expensive cars in the pound. The doctor appeals to Tony to find out those responsible and if he can rescue the vehicles. When Feech is summoned he brings Tony a cut saying that he got a better deal from Johnny than Tony would have offered using his joint operation with the Russians and Sicilians.

Tony discusses the situation with his associates and decides that he will not make the same mistake as before in giving people chances and will nip the situation in the bud. His advisers suggest a different approach to whacking him. Christopher calls one day on Feech to bring a bespoke suit he had promised. They are invited to drink wine with peaches but Christopher explains that they have to take some hot large flat screen TV’s to a garage. Feech cannot resist rising to the bait and offers them the use of his own garage lock up for a fee. His Parole officer supervisor arrives having been tipped off and demands to see inside his garage. We see Feech on his way from court back to prison where presumably he will now have a further long stretch to complete his originals sentence and contemplate revenge.

The other story also concerns another of the parolee’s, Tony’s cousin. He works hard at the Chinese Laundry and at gaining his professional Masseurs certificate. His boss is impressed with his effort that he offers to set him with his own business. His wife is delighted with his rehabilitation and in the first episode the couple with their two sons are invited to use the pool at the former Family home of Tony and Carmela although he is present for the event. Their new life is short lived. Tony the cousin finds $12000 and starts to gamble heavily at night as well as working to prepare the premises owned by his former boss and now partner. When the couple row and the partner visits Tony’s anger spills over and he beats the man up thus ending the relationship. In the final scene we see him meeting with boss Tony asking if the job Tony had mentioned with the crew is still open.

I did not set off until after 11.30 so hungry pulled into a lay by after leaving Ryhope and before joining the A19 and enjoyed salad although with the portion small I was quickly hungry as the day progressed. I resisted the temptation to snack and my intention of losing another stone before the end of the cricket season commences in earnest.

The rest of the journey continued without incident although there congested traffic in the opposite direction in the area before Nottingham. I stopped for a comfort break and a drink from a can of Pepsi brought with me. I only consumed part of the can before depositing in the bin. The traffic from the A 38 M1 turn off towards Mansfield was busy with mid Friday afternoon traffic.

I arrived at the Travel Lodge just before the start of Cheltenham Gold Cup. I have only ever been to one live horse race, the Epson Derby taking my bike when fifteen or sixteen and to a Point to Point even earlier in which a relative was riding. I had switched from listening to a double CD on the music associated with the John Thaw Police Detective Programme Morse only to find the Film reviews were only available on Digital or the Podcast with Five Live devoted to Cheltenham. I have mentioned that in the new Sky series Luck with Dustin Hoffman, a trackside syndicate had won over $2 million with a an accumulator. Some at Cheltenham, a visiting Irish man had won over £1 million with a five horse accumulator win which had ended with combined odds of 163000 to 1.

Running in the big race of the week, the Gold Cup was a horse who had won the race in the previous two seasons, a feat not accomplished before. I listened to the race in car as arriving at the site there was no time to book in and turn on the TV. The horse was second favourite but was pulled up unharmed before the half way mark in the race.

I then went to the convenience store for a new can of shaving gel and a new pack of disposable razors. Although I had shaved I looked and my face felt that I had not. I had been experience this for several days now which I believe was due to a cheap supermarket brand form can. Certainly using the gel and a new razor I looked and felt better. The two items had only cost £2.83.

I unpacked and set up the computer before going to a restaurant for an arranged meal. My companion for the evening was delayed so I had opportunity to watch a large number of early evening diners arrive. The place offer two two course meals for £9 during the day, previously £8 for several years, if taken weekdays before 5 otherwise it is one of those two for one restaurants where the main courses cost between £9 and £15 if ordered on ones own so it is inevitable people come in groups with a large percentage of families. Although located along a countryside main road with only villages in the area it is very popular at weekends and there were few tables available when my companion arrived. However the establishment is well staffed and organised. I enjoyed a large chicken breast crown smothered in barbecue sauce, with coleslaw, corn on the Cob and potato chips, with a Pepsi while I waited and good American coffee afterwards. Back at the Travel Lodge I enjoyed another coffee. Across the way there is a Bakery that provides Bacon rolls in the mornings except Sundays but now the Lodge is offering Hot Panini’s and Muffins on a 24 hours service at £3. I resisted and will continue to do so over the weekend.

Tomorrow there is a prebooked pre theatre meal and evening show so I had hoped to go to bed late and have a good night’s sleep in order not to tire during the show. As I am finishing this off in the middle of the night the plan has so far gone awry

2256 Birthday weekend 2012-4 Montalbano, Blue Bloods, the Falkland War, Ayrton Senna and sport

I seem to have lost several notes on matters which were to be part of Birthday weekend 2012 which is irritating. This has happened partly because I am so far behind the original plan which had included writing once or twice about important Leveson developments and finishing the Le Carré novel, The Russia House. It is was three thirty in the afternoon on Tuesday before I commenced and now in the evening of Wednesday as I finish up.

I begin with the latest episode of Inspector Montalbano which I have seen twice having partly slept through the original showing on Saturday. It was the best yet but required close attention and a second viewing to fully appreciate. I have considered how best to present what is also the most complex and intriguing plot full of clever side issues which I shall now spoil by explaining the story from start to finish.

As with a previous episode the story also concerns an invitation for Montalbano to meet with the boss of a Sicilian Crime Family and as on that occasion there is an issue between the old order and their sense of honour and the new who have none. The man in question is ninety years old who has served a prison sentence for 20 years for the killing of 30 people members of his own or other crime families. The conversation is difficult to understand and he appears to be asking Montalbano to arrest his grandson so that he will live, albeit in prison rather than be killed by forces in the new order. He uses a priest to advise one of Montalbano’s closest associates to advise of location where the son can be arrested but when they find the location where he is been hiding, he is dead, his throat has been cut. Later it is established that in fact it is the Mafia family head who has arranged the killing of his grandson before the grandson killed him.

Why this is also the explanation for other mysteries of the episode will be revealed.

The story also involves the death of a young man who has left home and lives in an expensive apartment block. He has been killed by someone he knows having turned to face the person who called out to him as he was about to enter the apartment building where he lived. In the apartment he had the latest computer, camera and audio equipment, including a wide range of pornographic films. He also had half a dozen home made videos which are of sex with individual women.

Montalbano sends the station front office man and general factotum and something of bungling clown but who came top of the computer course to investigate the contents of the computer and he finds that there is only a large number of letters of a sexy nature written to one woman without identifying details and a novel. The man stays all night going through all the large quantity of CD and DVD Roms but is told to leave the videos.

Montalbano is also approached in the office by the son of a couple who have disappeared and at first he passes the case to a colleague until he is told the couple live in the same building as the murdered young man. There appears to be no immediate connection between the two events or with his meeting with the aging Mafia boss.

While these events occur his deputy is away and later the man calls at the home of Montalbano requesting whisky and advising that he is going to marry, the girl is a police Inspector, they both drink a bottle of whisky in celebration. What the deputy has not said is that they have decided that he will seek a transfer rather than the other way round. Their policed chief boss was delighted with the news saying it would break the mafia type band Montalbano leads.
The Inspector arranges with a friendly newsman to announce the disappearance of the couple and the concern of their son. This leads to the information that the couple had taken a coach trip which had stopped twice but also for a third time on the way back at the request of the couple who had stayed in the coach on the previous stops. They had sat at the back.

The coach driver operates two money making schemes. He bans the travellers from using their camera and then takes pictures which he sells to them. This includes a photo of the couple who appear to be looking at what appears to be a following car. It is arranged for the section to be blown up to enable the number plate of the following car to read. It proves to be that of the young man murdered outside their apartment block. Later the couple are found murdered, also shot in the head, at close range and holding hands as if they knew what we to happen to them.

Montalbano is also able to establish that the couple had dramatically increased their savings although the bank book had disappeared. According to the son they had visited an estranged sister shortly before her death but this did not appear to explain the sudden increase in their wealth. Montalbano calls on the former tenant of the sister who inherited the home in the Will and a copy of this reveals that the couple had been left a piece of scrub land and former stable and derelict building of no worth.

The other source of income for the coach driver is from a university student who tries to sell kitchen pans and ware from which he takes a cut. Montalbano arranges to meet the student in a restaurant and when his deputy arrives with information the Inspector senses their an immediate connection between the two so he suggests that the young woman repeats what she has said to his deputy while he has a meal and then make a formal report back at the station thus building on a possible relationship and taking him away from the attachment to the police Inspector who when she rings to contact the deputy Montalbano makes no effort to advise where he or get a message to him.

The sexy love letters appear to be written to a married woman hence the secrecy of the relationship, letters which were not posted but handed on meetings to spice up their relationship. The Inspector works out that because of the secrecy, any video of their relationship will have taped on an overprinted commercial tape but after the first ten minutes. This proves the right theory but still there is need to identify the woman. One of his colleagues suggests that that Montalbano should approach the former Nordic wife and swinger he encountered in a previous episode. She who offered herself but the Inspector resisted, with difficulty. The idea is she will know where a woman would go to have pubic hair professional removed. His colleagues arrange for them to have dinner but Montalbano is late back.

He has visited the former stables, isolated on the coast and locked up as a fortress. He has great difficulty in breaking in which includes trying to shoot the look out. The one lack of credibility in the episode is that he carries in his car the implements for breaking and entering including hacksaw, hammer and chisel. Given his behaviour in general perhaps this is not surprising. He notes that although isolated the place has a strong telephone and electricity connection and inside he finds a large disconnected power box with the inside otherwise seeming to have been cleared.

Injured from his efforts he struggles home to find the woman of his dinner date waiting for him. She administers pain relief lotion. She immediately recognises the woman in her video. It is a friend. The woman like her was a national from another country. She is married to an internally recognised transplant surgeon with an exceptionally valuable picture collection. Two weeks ago, that is before the murders she had suddenly returned to native land.

They sleep in the same bed clothed but there is innocent cuddle but nothing more. Later they have lunch after she has spoken to the woman in the video who has explained that has happened. She said that she taken her lover back to their home believing that the husband was away at his clinic and not returning home but he had and found them together in bed. She had been surprised by her husband’s reaction in that he had said nothing to her and she and the impression he was already familiar with her lover who he had driven home, He had then said she must go away and not return unless he said it was OK for her to do so. It is established that he has closed down the transplant critic who was heavily secure before and now there are armed guards. The man himself appeared to have become a recluse in his home.

The Inspector is then contact by the Mafia boss and this is the penultimate piece in the jigsaw he says he is in urgent needs of a liver transplant because his own is failing and that with the closure of the clinic of the famous transplant surgeon his life is doomed because there is a waiting list of 10000.

Montalbano also reads the novel which appears to be about Robots but when it ends he is sickened by the implications of what he understands to be the story.

This is what is worked out. The new Mafia order looking for new ways to make money had recruited the transplant surgeon with his liking for the expensive pictures to undertake transplants for the rich and famous in the circumstances of security and confidentiality. This would have been legitimate if was not for the use of captured able bodied men, women and children whose bodies are then buried or dumped in the ocean. The murdered young man had been a computer specialist and he had rented the use of the property owned by the couple living in the same block as a communication centre for the enterprise.

I did not understand how the young man had come to met the wife of the surgeon or why he was successful in persuading a number of attractive women not just to have sexual relations with him but to be filmed in such and open way given the lengths to which the criminal undertaking was being kept secret and the way it operated. I also did not understand why the operation had been brought to a sudden end because the surgeon discovered that his wife was having an affair with the young man. However the consequence was that it led to the closure of the operation and the elimination of everyone who could provide a lead to the providers and to past customers.

Montalbano assumed that any attempt to take action would be sat on because of the level and power of those involved as customers as much as providers and he works out a way of achieving the objective. He breaks into the home of surgeon late a night in an attempt to threaten the man into confessing, although there is also the suggestion that he was driven to kill the man because of what his greed had led to. He was being followed by his closest colleagues who intervene in whatever he was doing and takes the man into custody and is sufficiently scared to reveal all that he has been involved with.

The Inspector the wakes up his TV news contact and gives him the story of the arrest of the surgeon and also the connection with the death of the grandson of the Mafia Family boss, and which under his instruction he had kept out of the news until then. His only requirement was that the announcement should be made on the main lunchtime bulletin of the day in order to ensure that there was world wide reporting and therefore it was impossible for the authorities to attempt to cover up the connection with the illegal transplants and the Mafia.

The episode closes as his deputy announces his engagement to the university student the Inspector had introduced him to. They have had a whirlwind romance which the Inspector has encouraged at every opportunity. He was also most affected by the case where the organs of able bodied children had been used for the rich and the powerful. He had called his mistress and she had sensed she was needed. She suggested they could also get married at the same time as the deputy. He agrees. They are at a romantic location but one wonders if this will in fact happen.


Because of the time I am taking to write the weekend I am including TV show which took place last night and technically outside the weekend.

This is the latest in the Blue Bloods series and which concerned miracles in the Catholic use of the concept. The episodes consider the issue in two ways. The Commissioner is approached by a leading City Catholic companied by a priest from Rome and advise that they are investigating whether a priest known to the police chief should be put forward for the process of Sainthood. As it happens I know something about the process and the instance proposed in the episode is most unlikely. An individual is not considered just because of the good works undertaken during their lifetime and that investigation has shown an unblemished record of conduct. There has to evidence that the individual was involved in more than one miracle and then the process can take years if not decades of investigation and consideration.

It is not clear why the support of the Commissioner is needed but he refuses despite pleas to him as a good Catholic rather than as a policeman. His refusal is because of knowledge of the man who he believes assisted someone who was a terrorist associated with the peace movement to escape to Canada. This kind of deplorable right wing conservative extrapolation associated to non violent peace movement to which the singer Joan Byez participated for example and which included a visit to North Vietnam with terrorists acts involving loss of life and serious injury is a feature of some USA films and series and needs to be highlighted and condemned whenever it is encountered.

I mention Joan Byez because of an excellent 90 mins documentary on her life which she narrates. I will view again and do a special piece which her life and her music deserve. I am listening to the Farewell Angelina album where I have a copy of the original LP followed by the House of the Rising Sun Album plus another of highlights.

In fact in this instance the Commissioner flies to Canada to make contact with the man who escape and had confirmed that the priest had aided him, after consulting a woman parishioner with whom the priest had a relationship, but a relationship which had remained within the boundaries permitted by the church. Again there were aspects which I did not understand and seemed to add to the lack of credibility. The commissioner surprises the representatives of the Church by saying as a consequence his investigation he will endorse the proposition which the Church had said it was pursing because it came to light that the priest had been involved in a second miracle, a situation where a parishioner had been cured of the same disease which the priest had contracted and died soon after.

Running parallel with this story is a suicide murder investigation in which the daughter of the woman rushes it the scene to accuse the step father of a crime hen the evidence is of a heart attack. The woman claims that she was out on the Hudson River promenade when she looked up to a tree and God spoke to her, she is a Jewess. Understandably hard nosed Danny is sceptical but later he pays attention when the young woman mentions that the man’s first wife also died in suicide and that he had inherited her wealth as a consequence, just as he was now doing.

His inquiries of the first suicide leads nowhere although there is the suggestion of lack of investigation because the man had donated heavily to police charities and his efforts to gain a search warrant through his sister fail. He accompanies the daughter on a visit to the site when the voice spoke to her and he suggests she uses the opportunity to think hard about anything which might help him to pursue inquiries and she says Berlin after looking up at the tree.

He finds that two weeks before the suicide a patient called Berlin died prior to being operated on and when he visits the hospital he finds that the medical officer involved is having a relationship with the husband. He talks his way into a check of the drug records and finds that a drug which can cause heart failure if injected in too big a dose had been take before the operation and not returned although the operation has not taken place. The man and the woman previously interviewed have been hostile threatening lawyers and obstructing inquiries. When Danny and his partner present the evidence the doctor states that she had used the drug as a pain killer to help the man because of his condition and that she had said he had to be careful because to great a dose could lead to heart failure.

By this time he is telling her shut up and not say any more but she knows she is fighting for her life even if her career has gone bust. Danny looks up at tree when he next passes.

A very different form of talking to God was mentioned in a moving programme about the reality of Falklands War where the 30th anniversary is being marked, the programme revealed how close the task Force were to failure. This was a political decision based on the view of one Admiral who by passed the system to get to the Prime Minister. It took three weeks for any craft to arrive and those on the scene were not prepared in terms of armour, defence systems or disciplined attitude for the conditions and the ability of the Argentinean Airforce who used British supplied weapons. Had eight of the thousand pound British provided bombs exploded instead of being defused it is likely the action would have been halted. The second error was to put all the four large helicopters designed to shift men and gear quickly onto to one supply ship which was then successfully bombed. The consequence was that the men had to take monster packs which they could barely lift on a route march of 60 miles before confronting the heavily guarded peaks before the Port Stanley in the depths of winter and without food. The night before the action commenced a commanding officer had advised the men to speak with their God, I must write up the full story one day.

I now turn to what was a mixed sporting weekend. The Highlight was the radio commentary followed by extended highlights in the evening of Sunderland’s hard fought 1-0 win against Liverpool at home. Liverpool aware they had an important derby with Everton midweek kept Gerrard and Carroll on the bench. There was not much good football in the first half and the goal had a strong element of good fortune. Frazer Campbell hit the post and the ball rebounded off the keeper to Nicklas Bentner who side footed into the net. His reaction was excellent and skilful. Liverpool then through their kitchen sink but Sunderland held out. Sunderland whose impressive recent run had made them the form had halted with a draw and two defeats from the previous three games are not firmly in the top third of the table and rivalling Newcastle for the top team in the North East although there remains a gap of 7 points to make up. They are now joined by Everton who they meet in the FA Cup on Saturday. Newcastle could have widened the gap on their visit to the Gunners on Monday night which was shown live on Monday and in 3D.

Hatem Ben Arthur bought for five million is a talented midfield player but with tendencies to be caught in possession as he tries to make that extra touch. He has an amazing left foot which enables him to shoot with force at tight angles and it was such a run which achieved the first goal at the Emirates to stun the home crowd in the fourteenth minute. It was only sixty seconds later that Van Persee took a pass from Theo Walcott and the score was 1.1.

Newcastle then fought a rearguard battle for the greater part of the rest of the game although they also had opportunities, although significantly less than the home side. It looked as if there was to be a point from the draw as goalkeeper Tom Krul performed great athleticism to push a looping ball which looked as if was about to slip under the bar into the net away and out of danger. However a super fast move saw Vermaelen get the winner in extra time. The three points mean that Arsenal is now jockeying with North London Rivals Spurs for the third position in the table when not long ago the gap was 12 points and three points clear of Chelsea outside the top four for the first time in yonks with the consequence Chelsea has have parted company with yet another manager and for whom the reputed to have paid £15 million to prize him way from his previous club.

Sky also showed the visit of Warrington to Leeds last Friday and the game lived up to the billing as the clash of the season so far despite a slippery ball in the wet. It was Warrington who made the greater number of mistakes especially at the end. Leeds looked as if they were going to take the game with a 12.0 lead before Warrington respond to take the score to 12.12 at the interval. They lost 26.18.

I missed England’s 24 22 win in the International Rugby Union against France in Paris which reported to have been an excellent and exciting win which augurs well for the future after a mixed fortunes start with the loss to a rampant Wales at Twickenham. Having lived close to the ground in the sixties before it was developed it is one of my regrets not have ever visited. England could still finish alongside Wales in terms of total points if they win against Ireland on Saturday but I anticipate Wales will win against France in Cardiff to rightly take the honours with five wins from five matches. They are some 38 points better than England whatever happens this weekend.

I also missed on the Olympic swimming Trials which were held at the new stadium and were open to public with some 2000 present of the 17000 who will be present for the Games. It was amazing to see the out best ever twice Gold Medal Winner Rebecca Ardlington ultra nervous as she stormed to win the 400 and 800 freestyle events and therefore has the prospect of another two wins which if she achieved would make the greatest of the great British swimmers. As a result of the trials 38 swimmers have been named for the team with a second opportunity for others to join them later. Reports suggests that a number of the established swimmers were given a close run by a the next generations, some of whom may be given the opportunity to experience what for everyone concerned will be the opportunity of their lifetime.

Sky had added a new sports channel dedicated to Formula 1 racing and which in advance of the new season is showing wall to wall programmes on the shirt of the sport, covering seasons, famous races and drivers and the cars. It was therefore fitting that to mark the event Sky is also showing the midsummer 2011 documentary film on the life of Ayrton Senna the Brazilian racing driver who was killed on track in May 1994 aged 34 years. This is a film which merits being seen by all sports fans and indeed by those who may not be interested in motor racing or professional sports.

Senna was open about the fact that he came from a privileged background with his Italian background parents owning land and factories and resulted in establishing a genuine concern for the less fortunate, especially the education of children which continues to this day through his sister.

At the age of 21 he came to England to race in Go Karts which had been his love from an early age and has become the standards way for young drivers to learn their art. His stay was short lived because of pressure to work in the family business. Before returning home he was offered a contract to race Formula 3 cars and won the Formula Ford Championships in 1982 and then won the Formula championships in 1983. In 1984 he tested for a Formula 1 drive with a number of teams and commenced with a comparatively new team of Toleman and he amazed everyone coming second in the Monte Carol Grand Prix because of his skill in wet weather conditions having commenced 13th on the grid. He achieved two podium finishes and came 13th in the driving table at the end of the season. It was a performance bringing him to attention of major teams.

It is important that this is in the era before the use of technical wizardry both in the preparation and running of cars and in communication between the driver and the team regarding vehicle performance, race positioning and tactics. It was the skill of the driver in learning and driving the car which won races.

He moved to Lotus for the 1985 season and again in wet conditions he won his first race in The Portuguese Grand Prix, the second race of the season. He won again in Belgium also in the wet and this was followed by finishing 4th in the table a position is also held the following season with 55 points improving to third with 57 points the following season. He had become a recognised top rank driver but not yet in the frame for the world championship.

With the approval of World Champion Alain Prost he moved to the second car for McLaren Team but the good relationship was short lived and quickly developed into one of the fiercest rivalries there has been in motor sport. They won between them all but one of the sixteen races in 1988 with Ayrton winning his first World Championship, just. The rivalry commenced when Prost accused Senna of forcing him out of the lead as they approached the first corner at the start of a race.

Relations became strained to breaking point the following season when Senna needed to win a race for the championship and the cars touched and Prost crashed. Senna was forced into an escape lane but was able to continue and win the race. However Prost immediately complained to the Race Stewards after the incident and this led to the disqualification of Senna. There was a bad odour about the decision because was known to have a close relationship with the then head of Formula 1 Race who was also a Frenchman. Prost joined Ferrari for the following season.

There was a further confrontation towards the end of the following season also at the Japanese Grand Prix which was the location of the first clash. What happened is that Senna arranged with the race official that should he finish in pole position they would change the pole position because the nature of the track gave advantage to the second vehicle. The president intervened reversing the decision so Senna had charged holding the preferred line with Prost refusing to give way again crashing and was so incensed that he considered giving up racing. The outcome is that Senna won and took the championship and then again the following year, the year in which he also won the Brazilian race this turning him into the famous Brazilian of the decade and a legend since his premature death.

The problems commenced in 1992 because his car was outclassed by the new electronics used by the Williams Team result in a fourth position in the championship. Because of the reactions to the growing use of electronics the governing body made changes in 1994 after the cars had been redesigned. The impact was that they became unstable and Senna was one of several drivers who forecast there would be disasters.

His team mate Barrichello suffered a broken nose and arm after crashing in to the barrier. The Austrian driver Roland Rozenberger in his first season was killed outright after crashing into a concrete wall at maximum speed. It was then Senna turn to be involved in a major accident and there was devastating bad luck because he was uninjured except that the right suspension frame was sent stabbing back into the cockpit with a piece penetrating his helmet and causing fatal skull fracture.

Given the acclaim he had received in Brazil the death shocked the nation who saw in their young hero hope that the country would rise from its political problems and the poverty. There was three days of national morning. Some three million people descended on his home town for the funeral the largest recorded group of assembled mourners in recent times. Among the pall bearers were Alain Prost and Britain’s Damon Hill. For the next race the first two positions were empty painted with the Brazilian and Austrian Flag. Legal preceding followed the accident for years with McLaren investigated re possible manslaughter the more positive impact is that major changes were made to the cars and to the tracks to reduce the possibility of further fatalities.

Sienna was a devout catholic reading the Bible and able to quote from it and his beliefs led to development an extraordinary concern for the welfare of children in his homeland and to devoting the greater part of his personal fortune to their education and general help. When he first became famous is donated to those requested his help and personal appearance but he decided something more substantial was required any by the time of his death he had established what became the Instituto Ayrton Senna and managed by his sister with the advice of Bernie Eccleston Frank William Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger investing some $80 million in various ventures and which has led to the education over 100000 children. His spirit and endeavour therefore lives on in his homeland.

2255 Birthday weekend 2012 3-The Winter of my Life

The highlight of my 73rd birthday weekend was a 3D performance of Madame Butterfly with the Canadian Chinese Zhang Liping as Madam Butterfly and the experience was then followed by listening to the soundtrack of the stage musical Miss Saigon which is based on the Madam Butterfly story and where I have seen the stage show four times such was my enthusiasm for it.

It was a glorious sunny and warm day as I set off to go through the Tyne tunnel and indeed not a day for the inside of anywhere. I set off down the hill and was astonished to find that Ocean Road, the main thoroughfare between the town centre, passing the row of over a bed and breakfast hotels on one side and a similar number and more of restaurants on the other was blocked off.

On Monday morning because of a forecast of another good weather day I walked down and alongside the park before turning into ocean Road from the park end I discovered the cause of the blocking. The former public house and over recent year’s nightclub bar has almost been demolished. The closure of the building was no surprise as a number of other similar establishments have also been closed with one presently being turned into offices although even this work appears to have come to a halt. The demolition of the building is a surprise.

As I rounded the corner on my way to the Health centre for a blood test I was not surprised to see the John Wright centre boarded up. It was one of the first multi use centres for those with disabilities and in my time a chapel and a bar lounge had been added although its use was reduced with the creation of a modern work centre for those with a learning disability and the of visual disability creating their own centre. Given that in my time a purpose built centre embracing people with disabilities and the able bodied had been created in Jarrow and then in the late 1980’s a state of the art centre for multi disability use and for the elders was purpose built in Hebburn the financial justification for the three centres disappeared long ago if it ever existed. That they did reflect the finest aspect of a people based local democracy.

The exploration of what was going on meant I arrived later than intended at the Health centre and found 12 others before me although by the time the second block of ten people were called into the waiting area for the tests the 29th individual had been reached. However even with only two chairs the process was speedy and I was out within half an hour of arriving with time to head for a bacon roll and coffee at the Wetherspoons’ and an excellent coffee it was and then some shopping at the supermarket.

On Sunday I used my new Tyne Tunnel electronic payment disk for the first time. This is a solid plastic disk which fits to the windscreen with a sucker and which registers at the any of the barriers as having paid £1.24 instead of the cash charge of £1.40. One adds amounts in minimum of £15 which provides 6 return journeys about my average need for a year giving and overall saving of only £2 but more significant if not having to find the small change and a faster passage especially now that queuing has been eliminated with the opening of both tunnels. The tag costs £11.40 to provide and is made in China, where else?

I have re-examined my previous reporting on Madam Butterfly where I first saw a relay also on a birthday three years ago. That was a live relay from the Metropolitan New York and then I watched again on Internet connected TV. The 3D version is a filmed event specially constructed to give the impression of a performance before a live audience but where the need for close ups and on stage movement makes filming with the special cameras impossible with an audience although the audience reaction is added at the end.

There is only a limited build up this time and at one level nothing of the audience excitement before the raising of the curtain. Similarly there were no intervals with only a brief pause between the three acts so the performance lasts two hours instead of the usual two and three quarters although traditionally the opera is performed with only one interval. However this had the impact of increasing the emotional tension and sense of dooms despite everyone being familiar with the story as few in the well filled cinema theatre were under fifty. For some reason there was no lighting which made locating seats a problem as a consequence.

The two productions are significantly different with the Minghella production creating a vivid visual presentation which included the use of puppets and dancers as well as a fair size chorus of wedding guests of relatives and Geisha girl friends. His widow attended the New York Metropolitan Performance.

All the action in the Covent Garden production takes place within the confines of the minimalist rented home with the no furniture apart from mats for sitting or sleeping, storage facility under the stage and the occasional use of a small table.

One could argue that this is the one Opera where 3D has nothing to offer although I thought the impact of the additional dimension is that that one has a greater sense of the dramatic and of being on stage rather than as a member of an audience. This is also true for the 3D Carmen production but where the action enables great camera and visual creativity.

It is important not to forget that is the story of an innocent 15 year old Geisha trained Japanese girl Cio Cio San and a mature Naval Officer who these days would be accurately described a paedophile sex tourist and whose conduct is far more reprehensible that of the innocent GI in Miss Saigon when the new bar girl is bought for him by his best friend.

Butterfly was played Patricia Racette in the New York Production, a bulky opera singer but who nevertheless acted with the innocence of an adolescent, a waiting lover and a young mother prepared to sacrifice herself for her child. Zhang Liping is now in in her early forties having played the role to great acclaim in her early thirties and like Racette has the remarkable ability to act with the mannerisms of a young girl, but nevertheless is aware she is far from the child bride to which Pinkerton is drawn.

There was an important difference in the performances of Marcello Giordino as Pinkerton and that now of James Valenti. Giordino is also a bulky opera star which made the relationship in the Met production somehow more plausible if one forgets the difference in ages. Valenti is strikingly tall and very much the educated and sophisticated naval officer. My only problem was the lack of a connection between him and Butterfly You did get the impression that he felt passion for his bride although he is convincing about his guilt and remorse later.

In the opening of the Opera Captain Pinkerton makes it plain that he considers this to be a fake marriage, an experience before he settles down with a wife family in the USA. The girl is sold to him by an unscrupulous marriage broker who is not different from the Bar owner in Miss Saigon, finding virgin in the countryside who will become his premium Miss Saigon bride for the endless stream of lecherous GI’s. Moreover Pinkerton is warned by the Consul that the girl is taking the relationship seriously especially when she is denounced by an elder and who insists she is cut off from all her relations. This makes Pinkerton a dislikeable man from the outset. He is in a rush to complete the formalities and aghast when the relatives arrive and cannot get rid of them quick enough. Although 15 his bride has been trained as a Geisha with appropriate social graces and a personal maid and companion Susuki and while the performance of Helen Schneiderman is world class it cannot compare with that of Maria Zajick, the extraordinary Mezzo Soprano whose signature role are those in Aida but also of Susuki.

The first Act comprises the arrival of Pinkerton at the rented House on a hill overlooking the Nagasaki Harbour; I have always felt there is great irony here with the two rapes of the population of this once fair city. Pinkerton is brought by the marriage broker played by Robin Leggate and the US Consul to ensure the proprieties are maintained and who is troubled by the proposed marriage because he understands the different cultural perspectives.

Unlike the majority of the girls who understand the impact of being a Geisha on the rest of their lives, Suzuki comes from a wealthy family of standing who have fallen on hard time, and waiting in the wings is a young Japanese warrior of good birth wanting to marry her. In this production he is played as an older business man seeking a young attractive mistress no different from Pinkerton.

In Miss Saigon the girl is also from a village whose family fall on hard times with the death of her father. She was promised by to a young Communist warrior who wants her as a proper bride and not as a concubine. They are to take different paths in Opera and Musical.



The American Consul, the marriage broker and Pinkerton are all aware that the wedding ceremony is a façade to enable him to enjoy the experience of the young woman while he is in port, and that whatever he says or promises he has no intention of returning or establishing a permanent relationship. He admits his love em and leave them, a girl in every port, approach, the Consul who warns, from his knowledge of the girl that she is likely to put all her trust in him and take the marriage seriously. Pinkerton notes that the contract can be terminated by him at any time without notice or penalty. It is important to appreciate the cultural and language divide between the two, and the role of the Geisha in Japanese society at that time. This is the tragedy of the opera story.

The situation in Saigon is very different and apart from the exotic location there are have always been bars and bar girls as well as brothels catering for the soldier as there are now for the sex tourist. The soldier here is just as inexperienced of life as his paid bride for the night and for him this one night becomes just an important as he is to her. This is the difference between an experience based on infatuation rather than lust. Pinkerton says all the right words but we know from the outset he does not mean them.

A major in ingredient to the first act is that Madam Butterfly as she has become is that in order to adapt and fit into her husband’s life she has gone to the local mission to become a Christian thus alienating herself for her uncle, the Bonze (Buddhist Monk) who is also one of her uncles and from her other relatives. It is this aspect of the relationship with horrifies her family and alienates her from them not the likely temporary nature of the relationship. It is the way of things just as street children have become the way of things in Indian cities.

Suzuki quickly becomes her confident, mother figure and ally. Cio Cio San has had some education and on being told that she is as beautiful as a butterfly by Pinkerton she responds from knowledge that some men in the West collect Butterflies destroy Butterflies to which Pinkerton explains that they do pin them so as to stop them flying away.

Minghella divided the second act into two parts, which the usual way the Opera is presented in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. In the first part of the second act three years have passed and Butterfly has remained constant in love and expectation that what he said about returning was truthful and she spends time taking note of the arrivals in the port from her vantage point in the hillside. Suzuki is loyal but sceptical and tries to help her to be more realistic especially as their money begins to run out. The marriage broker brings the young warrior who wants to marry her despite the relationship she has had with the American. She sends them both away. In the Convent Garden production he brings the business man who makes it plain she is to be his concubine and she sends him away clinging to her belief in Pinkerton and that the USA and not Japan is her country.

It is in this middle part of story that the musical Miss Saigon significantly changes. The young man is besotted with the girl and with the help of his friend and with his savings goes to live with her effectively deserting marrying and with the intention that she will become his lifelong woman. It is only because of the impending fall of Saigon and the sudden departure of the Americans that their relationship ends. He has to take one of the last helicopters out of the city while she is among the hundreds left behind to their fate.

Before this the man with whom she was betrothed as a child arrives and is horrified to find out what has happened but his feelings for her remain and he warns both about their fate. The bar owner in Saigon is also on his way out to the closest place where he can continue to trade. Both young women are abandoned but for very different reasons and both wait. It is in Madam Butterfly that she sings one of the great and much loved Operatic Arias of all time One Fine day “Un Bel di”. There is a similar musical number in Miss Saigon although of very different quality but is nevertheless as haunting.

There is also the visit of Warrior in Miss Saigon. This is one of the colourful and subsequently moving moments in the stage show. He comes to take her full of the triumph of the Communist success in driving out the invaders from his country is then is horrified to find that she has a blue eyed son, her pride and her joy and her reason for surviving. He had come to take her and not the child. Her solution is to kill the man with the revolver given to her by her husband before he was forced to leave.

The same scene is played differently in Madam Butterfly with the Consul coming to say he has had a letter in which Pinkerton is explaining his intention not to return but she misinterprets every word which the Consul tries to explain to her and he cannot bear to tell her the truth. When she produces her son all he can do is to leave and report the position to Pinkerton. The child is blue eye and fair haired and adorable. He is destined to break many female hearts on stage, in film and in life in the future.

Pinkerton’s ship arrives and the two women prepare for his visit. Susuki who had her doubts and expresses concern over their rapidly diminishing funds and favoured the match with the businessman as a solution is caught up in the excitement and goes to collect flowers from thee garden to cover the inside of their home. She, Butterfly and child sit waiting expectant for hour upon hour and throughout the night. There is the famous humming chorus and her aria of belief and hope, with similar number in Miss Saigon

In the stage show the war has ended and the Bar owner has discovered the girl and her son and sees this as his ticket to the USA. It he is who alerts the friend of the husband who is visiting to help the children of G’I left behind with an important political song about their fate. It is he who in turn informs his married friend and who in turn admits the relationship to his wife of three years and to whom he has said nothing of his affair and local marriage. There is an important exchange between husband and wife in Miss Saigon that we would expect in the 20th century. It is the expectations of the bar owner which takes the musical into the number The American dream symbolised by a Cadillac is brought on stage.

Butterfly, exhausted goes to bed with her son and Pinkerton the Consul with Pinkerton’s wife waiting outside arrive early to talk to the maid and asking her to break the news to Butterfly and that he has come her son. Although devastated and heartbroken for her mistress Suzuki agrees. Pinkerton is consumed with guilt at what he has done and cannot cope with the reality of the situation and goes off leaving his wife and the Consul talking with Suzuki but before they can leave Butterfly arrives and immediately senses correctly what is going on. She agrees to hand over the child on condition that Pinkerton comes in person for him. As he approaches she commit suicide using the knife which her father used, “to die with honour.”

This is where the Opera when brilliantly sung and acted can devastate an audience no matter how many times they have seen the show and know the story. In its own way Miss Saigon also has a similar impact because the audience has been caught up with the beautiful music and glittering sets and there is horror and universal guilt at the death of the young woman sacrificing herself so that her child will be taken to the USA and have the kind of life she once dreamed for herself.

In many respects it was not the kind of experience for a celebration weekend and affected me as I emerged into the evening sunshine. It was spring but I saw the winter of my life.

2254 Birthday weekend 2012-2 Three black comedies

The Sunday morning of my 73rd birthday weekend started off well with some successful game playing against the computer and then some solid writing up of two interesting and engaged black comedies experienced yesterday and then I somehow managed to wipe the work with any recording. It is perhaps an indication of my resolve, patience and new found sense of purpose and sanguine state of being that I then got myself ready for going out to see a 3D production of Madam Butterfly, did the washing up and prepared lunch and then commenced to rewrite before the planned departure at 1300 for the 1400 performance using my you pre paid pass for the Tyne Tunnel crossings.

I commenced to write this second weekend celebration memory with some cool sounds from the Modern Jazz quarter on Deezer with All the things you are, Vendome, La Ronde where I had the original 10 inch LP with Rose of the Rio Grande and the Queen’s Fancy, Delaunay’s Dilemma, Autumn in New York, In a Sentimental Mood and The Stopper, Almost like being in Love, No Moe and Django(on original LP) One base hit and Milano(on LP) La Ronde Suit , Ralphs New Blues and All of me.

I also enjoyed the semi final of American Idol in which 25 hopefuls were cut to 13, 6 ladies and 7 men. My problem is that the ladies are collectively better than the men but because of the pubic voting which favours the men, it is likely that the winner will from them.

In the first show where the lowest public supported male and female will vie for the one place from the judges there were some outstanding performances and the group are significant better than any UK competition.

The present front runner in terms of singing voice is the Spanish American Jessica Sanchez only sixteen years from San Diego. She presently lacks the stage presence to guarantee a place in the last three.

The other twelve before the first sending home were Deandre Brackens a 17 year old from San Jose California who as a high voice in contrast to Jermaine Jones from Pine Hill New Jersey a 25 year old with an exceptionally deep baritone. Both will do well from a novelty aspect. The outstanding male is Joshua Ledet from Westlake Los Angeles with a gospel poor family background Phillip Phillips is a talented 21 year old musician from Georgia Lessburg musician who puts his own slant on whatever number he is asked to sing. He has confidence and stage presence but the voice is limited and with distinctiveness.

The potential dark horse is the Chinese Heehjun Han 22 from Flushing New York who is something of comedian but has a surprisingly seasoned swinging crooner’s tone. Colton Dixon 20 from Murfressboro Tennessee entered the competition last year and did not make it to the finals and this year came to support his sister but was persuaded to enter him. He made it and she did not. He has the looks and a vulnerability which should attract support from the young girls and their mums. There is also a highly emotional overweight 19 year old Jeremy Rosado who was rescued by as a Judges pick last week but without public support I forecast he would struggle this week.

There are three other outstanding female singers who I expect to reach the latter stages of the competition. Although she is unlikely to win my favourite is Skylar Laine 18 years from Brandon Massachusetts who has the natural voice of a country singer with the strength of a rocker reminding of Janice Joplin, Tina Turner and Loretta Lynn rolled into one. 18 year old Hollie Cavanagh form McKinney Texas has extraordinary powerful vocals while married Ericka Van Pelt at 26 from South Kingston Rhode Island is a strong professional lounge singer as is Elise Testone 28 from Charleston South Carolina. The six foot tall with taller parents sixteen year old Shannon Magraine from Tampa Florida found the Whitney Houston number too much and disappointed so I anticipate she will struggle in the public vote. It was of no surprise that Jeremy Rosado received the lowest public vote and they also held back Joshua Ledet. However 16 year old Shannon received the Florida vote over Elise and from there it was inevitable that Rosado was the first of the Finalist sent homes. It was the best result.

I now turn to the three black humour comedies of the weekend with the most interesting Limitless where the subject is the extent of our unused brain power. It is a subject week covered in recent fiction films and television programmes, particularly the series the 4400 but also episodes in the X Files, Star Trek and Babylon 5. There is a new BBC series starting about the same subject where it is argued that we only consciously use about one fifth of the brain operating and storage power with the main function our subconscious accumulating information and memory banks in addition to parts which do not use and who purpose remain unknown.

I have previously expressed the view that perhaps we also genetically inherit the memories of ancestors which accounts for individuals believing they have lived before including recounting experiences under hypnosis. Even the interactions of those who do not have children live on in the memories of the others.

In Limitless Eddie is a writer and similar to you will meet a tall dark Stranger he has encountered a writer’s block. His publisher is anticipating a completed novel and he has not written a word. He has also separated from his girlfriend having been divorced from the ubiquitous Anna Friel. It is a chance meeting with his former brother in law, a man with whom he has nothing in common, which is to change his life in dramatic ways.

The man claims to have found a mind expanding designer drug and later Eddie is tempted to try out and is amazed at the impact. The brain becomes hyper sharp and active with the capacity to grasp the significance of vast quantities of information. The mind begins to function like a super analytical computer. He completes the first 90 pages of a book before stopping for sleep and his publisher is ecstatic and cannot wait to see the rest.

He visits the home of his brother in law to see if more of the substance is available but while he is out on an errand the man is murdered and the apartment ransacked but fortunately the stash of drugs remains to be found.

He decides to put his new powers to making money on the stock market and is so successful that he turns to a loan shark, a Russian mobster for a loan of one hundred thousand dollars. It is interesting the tendencies for Hollywood to now make the mobsters Russian rather Italian, Irish, Jewish or Spanish American. He quickly turns the money into two million attracting publicity and the attention of a speculating company trader, a kind of Wall Street, Wall Street Michael Douglas character.

They meet and he is offered the opportunity to test his ability with a mass of information about a company where the speculator wants to force a merger. Edie makes the mistake of increasing the dose and this send him on a wild period of eighteen hours, full of hallucinations, a fight in which he reproduces various boxing, Kung Fo and other Marshall Arts abilities from the memory of what he has seen performed by others, he goes dancing in a night club and stays over night with a woman he meets up.

There are three immediate consequences of this experience. First he has re-established contact with the girl friend that is impressed by his drive and success, speaking fluent Italian at a restaurant, or it may have been French. While they are not living together she is concerned about his sudden loss in contact and begins to questions his new persona.

Secondly the woman with whom he spent the night is murdered and it takes a lawyer to ensure that when he comes under suspicion there is no evidence against him.

He is reluctant to attend the meeting arranged with the head of the firm to be merged because of his condition but the research undertaken arouses his suspicion that the man had also discovered the properties of the drug and has become a user to explain the rapid development of the company. However he is able provide the guidance to achieve the merger on favourable terms and for this he is paid 40 million which means he can progress from a bodyguard to a fortress penthouse,

There are then a number of developments which appear to put his new position and wealth in jeopardy. The Russian wants his money back with interest which is no problem but in the process he tries one of the tablets and is most impressed by the experience and understandably wants more.

He has contact with his ex wife who reveals that she had also taken the drug provided by her brother but had managed to come off before it killed her. What he does is to acquire a lab to produce the drug but also to re-engineer to avoid the side effects. He reduces the dosage taken by making soluble and injecting which also has an impact quicker but lasts longer.

When asked to attend a line up re the murdered girl he changes his suit at the suggestion of the lawyer but when it is returned he finds the tablets in a secret pocket have been taken. He then sees the lawyer on TV acting for the man owning the merged company. There has also been an advance leak of the merger affecting share prices which the man who hired him takes exception believing he is the author and send him the chopped hand of his body guard as a warning.

He has been shadowed by someone who turns out to be the chauffer of the Merger Man who correctly was after a new supply of the drug. After the loss of the supply from his suit he asks his girlfriend to bring some stored in her flat and she intercepted by the chauffer and agrees to take one of the tablets to enable her to escape and reach him safely. The experience is sufficient to break off the relationship.

The Russian now breaks into his apartment mob handed for the drug and there is a fierce fight in which he manages to stab the Russian and although wounded he survives and overcomes the rest by drinking the blood of the dying Russian.

The Merger man dies and Eddie contacts the chauffer and advises that his employer was double crossed by the lawyer who had kept the drugs for his personal use. The man agrees to steal back the drugs taken by the lawyer.

A year passes and the book has been finished and published and is great success. He is standing for the Senate and all the Polls indicate a landslide victory. He is back with his girlfriend. He is approached by the lawyer who says he has acquired the firm with the lab preparing the drug which he has shut down. He will reopen if Eddie agrees to do favours as he becomes more and more powerful as a politician en route to the White House.

He refuses to be blackmailed. He says that he is now 50 moves ahead of the lawyer and all rivals. He had sent up other labs for such an eventuality but in any event as a result of work on the drug and his careful use he has reached the point where his brain functions at the highest level without the substance. He tells the man he has a serious heart condition which required immediate surgery.

The film ends with a celebratory meal with the girl friend and he now impresses her again by speaking fluent Chinese. We the audience are left wondering if he has become drug free or is remains as dependent as before. The film can be argued as one aspect of the American Dream,

The Middle Men is an important film for although it is also billed as a comedy it is full of truths about one aspect of contemporary society and although a work of fiction presented as a true story one suspects it is closer to several truths than will be admitted by the powers that be.

The film is also the story of another normal Middle American white male who in this instance has a flair for problem solving and agrees to help out someone in the process of creating a nightclub bar half way across the states from his family. He has married a local girl and has two children and they struggle to live at the level which their background and education has equipped them for.

He solves the problem and creates an effective business which he comes to own employing a group of heavies who he is able to call on for help when he asked to taken on another assignment of different proportions although this is not immediately apparent.

Because the lawyer contact is under Federal investigation he is asked to help sort out the business affairs of a couple of maniac college friends who allegedly created the US based Internet Porn business. One with a high IQ is a former NASA scientist, former because he became a crack head, and is alleged to have worked out the first programme which enabled people to buy goods and services on the Internet using Credit Cards. He does this in order to provide the first Internet Porn site originally pictures scanned from magazines. When this proves successful they have the idea to create their own porn film business and visit a local pole dancing club to do a deal with the owner, not appreciating that the club is owned by the Russian mafia. They do a deal in which they have unlimited access to the girls for 25% of the profits. The project is so successful that they make millions of dollars but fail to make any payments to the Russia and getting beaten up. The oversight was not intentional but they have become so involved with sex, drugs and drink and have no organisation or business sense. One point they leave an uncashed cheque for two million among other papers in a drawer.

Jack (Harris) played by Luke Wilson does not want to become involved with pornography but the lawyer explains that it is being a middle man like hotel owners who provides adult film channels. Jack then has the idea of creating business acting for the production companies and their Internet sites, including the TV channels where the purchase is itemised in a neutral way disguising the true purpose. For this they will charge ten percent offering the provider a vastly increased market as a consequence.

His first task is to buy out the interest of the lawyer who introduced him into the deal for two hundred thousand. His second is to broker a peace deal with the Russian Mafia boss who sends his Uncle for the outstanding amount which is said to be four hundred thousand to which he adds fifty thousand more as a good will gesture. Unfortunately the relative of the Mobster arrives in an aggressive mood and the leading heavy for Jack strike a blow to the man’s head which proves fatal. They dump the body at sea and Jack realises he is now committed to keeping a close watch on the partners because of their instability and tendency to talk.

The Russian is suspicious and there is a confrontation with a settlement of 50% of profits and the threat of severe retribution if it is discovered they had a hand in the disappearance of their relative.

At first he resent the time spent away from his family but over the years he becomes more and more attracted to the life and establishes a relationship with a young porn star nearly half his age.
His marriage breaks up and the porn star moves in with him, and despite giving 50% to the Russian they are each worth in excess of a hundred million with a major commercial and production centre. His now teenage son gets into trouble and Jack flies back to the East to blackmail those preventing the charges being dropped by revealing their record of Internet porn transactions.

At the race track he meets the Russians who advise that he is being watch by the FBI as well as themselves. They have someone trailing the FBI trailing them and overheard their interest in Jack. He arrives home one day to learn that the FBI have called on his mistress with a proposition which they then put to Jack when calling at his office, They have discovered that certain terrorists have become addicted to the site of his mistress because she does not have sex with others. They suggest she uses uniforms and weapons in her act and keeps them informed when she launches direct contact video services. They use internet tracking to locate the terrorists and carrying out successful strikes for which the government is appreciative for their efforts on behalf of the American people.

Everything then changes when the FBI arrive to advise that they have discovered the production company in which he is a partner is providing a child porn site and that in due course those involved will be prosecuted and sent to prison, including himself unless he can find a way out. They are not concerned about the manslaughter of one less mobster.

The situation arose because the lawyer introduced the partners to a contact who was able to provide more challenging sites and unbeknown to them this included those under age. Although alerted and intending to close the site they had forgotten to do so and then they spot the FBI meeting with Jack and assume he is selling them out over the child porn site when they see a handshake.

Jack visits the man responsible for the site at his mansion and finds a large sex party. He attacks the man and shoots him in the leg. He then sees his mistress with two hunks. He has her bags packed when she returns home and although has often said she feels no guilt about her life she pleads to stay needing the stability of normality of their life to counterbalance her professional life. He refuses.

He also discovers that the lawyer has been acting for the Russian mobster. It was he who persuaded the relative to seek double the amount which was owed and it he who introduced the partners to the child pornographer. The lawyer has remained aggrieved at being bought out so cheaply and has suspicions about the disappearance of the Russian. Now as pressure builds up in the partners about the child pornography and fearing the sell out to the FBI they share their knowledge of the disappearance with lawyer who in turn informs the Russians.

The consequence is that they set out to abduct his teenage son but instead take the young child of the Mexican housekeeper. Nevertheless decides to meet the demands for the release of the boy which is a huge amount of money. He fears for his life and has a talk with his son on the basis he may not return. He is asked to relinquish all his holdings to the new syndicate and agrees but asks for the contract to be backdate a year to avoid taxation on his earning of the year. This is agreed.

He returns the boy to the parents and he and his wife are reconciled. The partners are indicated for their involvement in the child porn site and try to take jack down with them The FBI point out that he sold out his involvement six months before the start of the criminal site. The Russian has also disappeared presumed to back to his homeland. It is another form of the American Dream

Since returning from the opera I have been listening to Miss Saigon while writing and have reached the point towards the end of the musical with the number the American Dream. One of those interesting coincides of life.

The third black comedy is enjoyable rubbish the Oliver Stone film U Turn which is the name of the town in the desert which gangster money owing drifter Sean Penn as Bobby visits to find a garage where he blows his hose and he engine overheats. Here he meets the odd ball garage owner mechanic played by virtuoso Billy Bob Thornton who takes him as far to the cleaners as he is able. He has no other role except to undertake work which will have a crucial bearing on the outcome of the film.

Penn’s journey is to deliver a substantial cash sum borrowed from a gangster in California. With a few hours to kill he takes the money from the back of the car but leaves his gun which given his overall circumstance is stupid but this is a loser Sean Penn who deserves every misfortune that is to come his way.

He goes for a cool drink but first sees Jennifer Lopez armed with parcels of new drapes (curtains) and he follows his trousers unaware that she is a cold blooded calculating manipulative bitch. She invites him to her home for a shower and unaware that she is wearing a wedding ring he gets as far as a kiss when husband Jake, (Nick Nolte) arrives home and starts to beat the crap out of him, understandably, but also offers to drive him back into town knowing that the man will die in the desert midday sun. However he has an ulterior motive as he would like the stranger to kill the scheming bitch for a substantial fee.

In town he goes into the convenience store which is then attacked by two gun slinging robbers but who are no match for the store owner who zaps them with her blunderbuss destroying most of the money in the effort although Penn is so anxious about the situation that he leaves the remains of the money behind. He then cannot pay for the work on the car which is impounded by Thornton and the stupid Penn having left is gun in the boot cannot do anything about the situation other than go back into town and try and raise money, including contacting the owner of the money for another loan who sends someone to sort him out.

He goes to a bar and is approached by the local jail bait whose ten foot tall three foot wide boyfriend takes exception to the fraternization and starts to beat the crap again although worse damage is prevented by the arrival of the Sheriff. He drops the beet outside and encounters a blind Indian played by Jon Voight with a dead dog who bullies Penn into getting him a drink,

Back at the garage Nolte is doing more work on the car and says he will not release the vehicle until the growing debt is paid. There is nothing for it but to take the commission to kill Lopez by throwing her off a cliff to suggest suicide. However instead of carrying out the plan in he starts to have sex with her whom she cuts short and explains that she is not just Jake’s wife but his illegitimate daughter who he sexually abused as a child and married after her mother committed suicide falling from a cliff. Grace asks Bobby to kill her husband and share his money. This appears to be a dream.

He manages to get a bus ticket out of town and evades the man sent to sort him out as the Sheriff arrests the individual for speeding. Just when he believes he can escape he is confronted again by the boyfriend of miss jailbait( Joaquin Phoenix) but this time he manages to beat up the man after his ticket has been ripped up and eaten.

Penn then goes back to the home of Jake and Grace to kill Jake who is having sex with his daughter/wife and hears the arrival so he changes the story and says he has come to kill Grace but she overhears and attacks them with a tomahawk which eventually leads to the death of Jake. They find $200000 and celebrate by having sex.

He goes for his car and he and Grace drive off with the body in the back. They are stopped by the Sheriff who has been having sex with Grace until the arrival of Penn. She shoots the Sheriff whose body is also placed in the trunk of the car.

They get rid of the bodies over the cliff and then Penn gets his gun back by hitting Grace in the face saying he does not trust her but will split he money when they reach California. Grace manages to push Penn over the cliff and makes her way to the car only to find that Penn has removed the keys. Although badly injured he manages to strangle her when she arrives back and gets himself to the car with all the money. However he has not driven very far when the radiator hose bursts again and he dies from sub exposure in the car. And the moral is?

My 73rd birthday coincided with the launch of a new Formula 1 channel on Sky in HD and which promises racing without advertisement breaks. Before the start of the 2012 there is wall to wall programming featuring previous championship, championship drivers and the evolution of the Formula I racing Car. It is interesting that like Horse racing there are dedicated channels and no a generic channel on Association Football, although a few clubs have their own channel. There was also a showing of the film about the life of Ayrton Senna- Senna. I will review this tomorrow along with the 1945 film cornered, Madam Butterfly in 3D and Miss Saigon the Sounds track the musical together with a sport update. First thing though there is a blood sugars test at the General Hospital and then Leveson which I need to concentrate my reporting subsequently before a trip away at the weekend.