The Muffuletta

The Muffuletta is a Sicilian specialty sandwich that is affectionately called The Muff. When the Italians came to America The Muff was adopted by the southern states and specifically New Orleans. The Muff was made famous in 1906 by the Central Grocery shop of New Orleans. The Muff is like the ultimate club sandwich and then some. The Muff is made of a 10 inch wide round loaf or ciabatta. The loaf is traditionally hollowed out and stuffed full of cured meats like Parma ham, Mortadella, Pepperoni and Milano salami layered upon eachother. Then add a couple of different types of cheese like mozzarella and provolone and to finish it off with an olive salad made up of sundried tomatoes, black and green olives, capers, basil, parsley and extra virgin olive oil. Idealy you make up an olive salad the day before to let the flavours marry.

Once The Muff is made press it all down, wrap in shrink-wrap and leave in the fridge for 2-3 hours. It is best to add some added weight to compress the sandwich and so that the oils and flavours get absorbed into the meat, cheese and bread. I think the type of holed cheeses I used enhances this process. I like it warmed slightly in the oven for 5 minutes so that the fats run out of the meat into the bread and the cheese melts. This creates the ultimate warm ham and cheese sandwich or manwich might be more accurate. Apparently warming the sandwich is a big no, no for a Muffuletta. I also made mine more into a Mediterranean sandwich and not strictly Italian. I added Chorizo and Serrano ham, mainly because I couldn't’t get Parma ham. I also added German peppered salami and Jarlsberg and Emmental cheese. I have seen Peter Gordon do a version were he added some beetroot and carrot, I guess to put a New Zealand spin on The Muff. When I did mine I added the roasted beetroot, but not the carrot. The addition of the beetroot adds a wonderful vibrant colour to the layers when you cut into The Muff. Making and eating this sandwich is an experience, one that needs a napkin for all the juices that dribble down your chin.

Hope you like the slideshow and that it inspires you to give it a go.

My ingredients bill came to about £15, a proper sized sandwich will feed four, or 2 really hungry people.

Peter Griffin's Side-Boob Hour

This is one of the best clips from Family Guy

I have seen this clip countless times and it still makes me laugh

PTV is a great episode , possibly the best.

I Found this on Wikipedia:
While exclusively airing the sixth season of Family Guy for British audiences, BBC Three aired this episode as part of the Family Guy 100th Anniversary special, declaring it to be "The Best Episode...So Far."

PTV was originally from season 4.

The FCC Song is a blast




My favourite line is when the FCC have started censoring some of Peter's favourite shows like Threes Company and the one with the guy from Mary Poppins.

"The D**K Van D**E Show Starring D**K Van D**E"

Why I Love Bread

I have lot say about bread, so I am gonna do it in 3x parts over the next week.

I love to make my own bread, by hand. I find it really rewarding, when you put in the time and hard work of kneading and to see it rise. Then to taste the first slice, still warm with melting butter, for me that is heavenly.

I don’t really look down my nose at people that use bread machines. As I played about with my dads machine, way back when . It is partly what got me excited about bread and made me want to advance to making my bread by hand. Ultimately they have done some good as it leads to people not buying as much poor quality supermarket bread.

People have been baking bread for thousands of years, taking what they grew in the fields and turning it into food and nourishment. Bread was the building block of societies past and present. That’s why it was mentioned in the lords payer and the Magna Carta. You only need to look at how we have adopted Bread into the English language and into a multitude of sayings like, "Bread-winner", "Putting Bread on the table", "Greatest thing since sliced bread". "Upper crust" is derived from how the well off took the top half of the loaf , the softest part and the harder and often burnt base was given to the less well off. Bread was used as a currency, that explains why bread is often used as slang for cash/money.

Bread is the cornerstone of one the most important foodstuffs we put in our mouths……The Sandwich.

Check back for Part 2: The Sandwich in a few days.

Did I Mention....

I Love Star Wars.

Whenever I look up from my PC for a rest or some inspiration I get to check out some cool Star Wars posters. I love the various classic Empire Strikes Back posters, however I opted for the eye-popping colour of the radio drama poster.

Plans To Change and Other Fables’

On Friday night, I didn’t have a pizza, didn’t watch the rugby, instead I went to a poetry and acoustic music night at Hull Uni. I would never normally go to such a gathering. However my sister was launching her first book of poetry ‘Plans To change and Other Fables’. The turn out was good for a student Uni bar, considering the students were away. There were about 30 people there, mainly made up of family and friends.

My sister had some good talent supporting her from Alex Stork, Fudgey, and Tom Gorringe. There was a good mix of original material and some choice covers like Dolly Parton’s Jolene (Fudgey), Tom Gorringe did three that stuck out, Paolo Nutini’s New Shows, Green Day's Time Of Your Life and Elton John’s Your Song. Alex Stork was in the Hull Daily Mail this weekend, as he won a contest to appear at a Bob Dylan tribute festival.

As part of the open mic Mike Watts, was king. He has a real way with words, I would describe him as a kind of street poet come rapper. It was quite refreshing that he took pride in been from Hull and had a passion for the city. My brother Steve and his friend Bob got up and did a turn. My brother did a pretty good cover of Dire Strait's Sultans Of Swing and an original song about Kiefer Sutherland’s 24 character Jack Bauer. Bob aka Bob Cassidy of the Sheffield band The Interiors performed 2-3 self-penned tracks, before he lost the battle of keeping his guitar in tune.

My sister of course did some readings from her book. I was quite surprised; she didn’t come across as nervous and had plenty of confidence on stage. I think she has done a few readings previously at poetry weekends. Her banter between poems was first class as she tried to add context to some of the poems. The best was trying to explain what an ankle pit was, she thought it should be a word and that it should be in the dictionary. Or possibly an anatomical medical dictionary and it would read: The Ankle Pit, like an armpit, but located somewhere around the ankle. She had us laughing, as if she was a comic. It has to be said, she has a comedy style all to her self. I think she should have recorded the gig, to give to those that couldn't make it, or to sell on her site or giveaway with the rest of the books.

My sister has been writing and saving up the money for the book for two or three years now. She published the book herself through an online publisher and got 250 books printed up. She even has a few copies in the Hull branch of Waterstones. To help sales on the night she offered a free cookie with the book. I think she was confident judging by the pile of cookies, I think she made about 200. That is easiest the biggest pile of cookies I have ever seen. She had spent the best part of a day baking them. We are still eating them now. By the way my sister is a vegan, so they were vegan cookies, and I have to say they tasted very good, considering; they didn’t have any eggs or butter in them.

Here is my favorite poem by my sister, it’s got a bit of piss and vinegar or simply punk rock attitude about it, which is probably why I like it.

Let Your Hair Down

O Rapunzel, Rapunzel with your long
Glistening locks of L’Oreal hair,
Because you think you’re worth it
F*ck off and get yourself a criminal mastermind
To free you or your fortress of solitude and misery,
With your confining chains of brick and stone
And lock and key, bolted from the outside and in,
This free riding stranger is mine alone
And I don’t appreciate compromise, or time wasting,
After all it’s one and the same,
And to the death I fight, with fire and fright,
So I warn you girl,
And I’ll say it only the once
If you toss that main once more
I’ll scalp it off your head
To keep you away from my man and me!
Batting those baby blues
Like some caged, foreign fiend
Disguised as fragile things,
But if I were you girl
I’d stay up in that tower of yours,
As you have been warned
And it’s one strike and you’re out
For the Count
Who won’t ever get this deep underground,
While I’ll ride off with the Knight
That won’t ever be yours,
For I called dibs first on his wares,
And you best not cross me
Or that tower will be the least of your worries,
And it’ll seem like heaven up there

Compared to me and my ways!

If you like it check out her website for some more poems or you can buy the book for: £9.50 inc P+P

http://www.hollyroach.com/

Here is a list of sites for the support artists, check them out cos they are very good


Alex Stork

- www.myspace.com/alexstorkmusic

Fudgey

- www.myspace.com/acousticfudge
- www.youtube.com/acousticfudge

Tom Gorringe

- www.myspace.com/tomgorringe

Mike Watts

- http://www.thisisull.com/writers/mikewattsmedia.html

http://www.myspace.com/soundslikemikewatts

or on YouTube

You can also find Bob Cassidy’s band The Interiors on MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/theinteriorsband

My Top 10 Metallica Gigs

1. Milton Keynes – Nowhere Else To Roam Tour - 5/6/93

My 1st open air gig with Metallica,1st time I ever heard Of Wolf And Man followed by some true golden oldies like The The Thing That Should Not Be and Disposable Heroes. Was near the front for most of the gig.

2. Madison Square Gardens, NY, USA - S & M (Symphony & Metallica) - 23/11/99

Metallica in NY with an Orchestra and Michael Kamen conducting....nuff said. A once in a lifetime trip/gig. They only did this show 4x times, twice in San Fransisco to record the CD in April, '99. Then 2x gigs in Germany and the US to promote the CD

3. Manchester G-Mex - Wherever I May Roam Tour - 3/11/92

I was so blown away by my 1st gig,,that the day after I bought a ticket and coach package for the G-Mex. 2nd gig in the space of 3 days, 1st gig standing,,only 2 or 3 rows from the front. It was mental,,moshing and headbanging.

4. Wembley Staduim – Sick Of The Studio 07 Tour – 8/07/07
Great venue, Metallica rocked, great support from Machine Head

5. Sheffield Arena - Wherever I May Roam Tour - 1/11/92
1st Metallica gig,way back in the stands, but hey ho,,,amazing gig from the black album era, with the arrowhead stage and snakepit.

6. Milton Keynes - The Big Day Out - 7/7/99

As part of the covers CD Garage Inc tour. This was a great gig with Whiskey in the Jar and Until It Sleeps followed by Battery to close the gig. a superb venue

7. Donnington – Escape From The Studio Tour - 26/8/95
4th appearance at the home of Heavy Metal, very rare performance of The God That Failed and Holier Than Thou. I Can remember thinking how good it was to finish with Enter Sandman and started making tracks to leave and then to hear the guitar and obscenities of So What come booming out of the PA. I started headbanging with the biggest smile, playing air guitar and singing along to this great song.

8. Reading Festival – Blitzkrieg ’97 Tour – 24/8/97
Took a coach down with my sister to reading for the weekend.

9. Sheffield Arena - Pour Touring Me Tour – 16/10/96
Up in the stands again, great gig, memorable stage design and the theatrics near the end of the gig. Crewmen were falling out of the light rigging. It really did make you thing if there was danger a foot. What with Hetfields real life accident of walking in front of a pyro in 1992. Maybe this should be higher in the top.10 as I didn't forget this one. Strangely for this tour they retired Ennio Morrricone's Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and just came out jamming.

10. Leeds Festival – Summer Sanitarium Tour - 24/8/03
St.Anger rocked out and one of the best Kirk Hammett solos I have heard him play for Enter Sandman.

Spiritually I was at Woodstock ’93. BBC Radio 1 broadcast the whole festival and that included Metallica's headline set on the Saturday night. I can remember listening to it at about 3 or 4 in the morning, outside with some cold beers in the warm night air. It was great. They blew me away when opened up with Breadfan.

I would like to see Metallica in a few weeks at the Leeds Festival,,however I am on a stag do,,and quite frankly I am tired of seeing them outdoors and at festivals. I will save my money for the indoor tour in 09, hopefully they will play some gigs north of London.

Me and a few Metallica chums outside Madison Square Garden.

If it wasn't for the Metallicaworld website I wouldn't have been able to confirm dates and the setlists of my top 10.

http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/metallica_tour_dates.htm

Isaac Hayes

1942 - 2008

Issac Hayes died yesterday (10/08/08) in Memphis Tennessee, 10 days shy of his 66th birthday. He was found unconscious next to a still running treadmill. It is believed he suffered from a massive stroke and later died in Memphis Baptist Memorial Hospital. He married 4x times and left behind 12 children.

For me Isaac Hayes is one of the seminal artists of the 70's.

Hayes began as a session musician, staff writer and producer for Stax Records. During the 60's he co-wrote with David Porter many of the labels most famous tunes like Soul Man and Hold On, I'm Comin' for Sam and Dave. Hayes breakthrough solo album came in 1969 with Hot Buttered Soul. After becoming a master of the 3 minute pop single, Hot Buttered Soul allowed him to flex his musical muscles. The album may only contain just 4 tracks but is filled with some extended orchestral workouts and funky beats. The longest been the 18 minute marathon cover of Jim Webb's By The Time I Get to Phoenix.

Isaac Hayes in 1971 composed the OST for Shaft and won The OSCAR for Best Original Song for Theme from Shaft. Hayes was loved by the people and critics. A Stax executive took to calling Hayes Black Moses because of his respect for his African roots and because of how his fans revered him. This led to the double album of Black Moses been released at the end of '71. Because of his record sales and impressive Live show he became the face of Stax. When Stax was organising the charity concert for the people of Watts, it was an obvious choice that Hayes headline the Wattstax concert and movie. During the early 70s he released 5x killer albums,an OSCAR winning OST and a live record. Hayes was never afraid of doing cover versions, he had a love of Bacharach and David and their timeless classic pop songs. Hayes included one on every record he made during this era, in fact it almost became his trademark.

Because of his iconic look of a shaved head, sunglasses, gold jewellery and not forgetting his unmistakable deep voice. He found himself not just writing blaxsploitation OST but starring in them like Truck Turner and Tough Guys both from '74. On the big screen he will probably be best remembered as The Duke in John Carpenters Escape From New York (1981).

Hayes did record the occasional album in the 80s'/90's however he would become more famous for his Chef character in the animated TV series South Park and his UK No.1 hit single Chocolate Salty Balls (1998). Hayes was a practising Scientologist, this led to him leaving the show in 2006,,because of the infamous Trapped In The Closet episode that mocked Tom Cruise and Scientology.

I will always remember Isaac Hayes and the extended opening to the Theme from Shaft as he came on stage. I had the good fortune to see him live at a festival in about 1996. I had Isaac on my mind last week as I watched the excellent documentary Respect Yourself about Stax Records on BBC4. Due to the synergy between Hayes and Stax you cannot tell one story without the other. The documentary included some good interviews with Hayes discussing his time at Stax. Hayes is just as relevant now, after nearly 40 years since Hot Buttered Soul. He was the 1st person to rap on record, and even call it a rap as in Ike's Rap from Black Moses. Hayes can spend half a record surmising or rapping solo, building the emotion before the band and strings come in. Today's artist like Portishead and Massive Attack love to sample and recycle Hayes beats and innovative arrangements. All I will say is I am Never Gonna Give You Up.

Isaac Hayes Essential CD's

Hot Buttered Soul (1969)

Black Moses (1971)

Shaft OST (1971)

The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970)

Joy (1973)

...To Be Continued (1970)

Branded (1995)

Live @ The Sahara Tahoe (1973)

Live @ Wattstax in '73 (2003)

Music from the Wattstax Festival and Film '73 (2003)

Friday Night Rugby

In the world of Rugby League, derby matches don’t get much bigger than the Leeds v Bradford Rivalry. Okay, maybe its on a par with Wigan v Saints and Hull FC v Hull KR.

Last nights game was a brutal match with 2x players sin binned in the first 10 minutes, after a big brawl. The ol’ claret was flowing from Rob Burrows forehead.

Both teams needed the win, Last weekend Leeds lost to Warrington and so they need a win just to draw level with Saints at the top of the league....for tonight anyway.

Bradford need some wins to guarantee their place in the play-offs, If they fail, it will be the first time in Super League history (13 years) they will miss out on playing in the play-offs in September.

Leeds ended up winning 28-18, making it 4x wins against Bradford this season. This will change next year thankfully with 2 extra clubs joining the Super League and making it a 14x team competition which means Leeds will only play Bradford twice ( home and away).

To accompany my Pizza and the rugby, I enjoyed some choice ales :

Green King IPA,
Fuller's London Pride,
Wells Bombardier,
Theakston's Old Perculier.

This pretty much is my standard 4, that I get in my local supermarket in their 4 for £5 offer.

How To Make A Pizza

Before I made my Pizza I had to make some Italian Tomato Sauce. The recipe is on the previous post.


Pizza Base
From Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie’s Italy

Ingredients :
800g Strong White Floor
200g Semolina flour or more strong bread flour
1 level tablespoon of fine sea salt
2x7g sachets of dried yeast
.....or 30g of fresh yeast
1 tablespoon of golden caster sugar
About 650 ml of tepid water



Pizza Topping

Ingredients :
Pizza Sauce
Bail Leaves
Mozzarella (Cows Milk)
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil


The recipe states it will make 6-8 medium sized thin crust pizzas. I halved the ingredients and made use of some Italian type “00” flour I had. The breakdown of the flours I used was

200g Strong Bread Flour
200g Italian type “00” flour
100g semolina floor.


1. Put the flours and salt in a bowl or on a clean surface. Add the yeast and sugar to the water, leave for a couple of minutes. Then combine the water/yeast mix to the flour, bring it together with a spoon/fork and then your hands, so it becomes one big ball. Make sure it isn’t too wet or too dry.

2. Then knead for about 10 minutes or till you have a soft and pliable dough. Flour the top of the dough and add it to the oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave for 15 to 30 minutes.

3. Divide the ball of dough into however many pizzas you want. The dough wants to be rolled out about 15-30 minutes before it goes in the over. If using a pizza stone, sprinkle some semolina flour or regular flour on the stone and it will stop the pizza sticking to it.

4. Once the dough is ready I add a thin layer of tomato sauce, and put it in a pre-heated oven at 220 Celsius/ / 225 F / gas mark 7 for about 5 minutes. Bring it out and add the basil leaves and then cover them with the mozzarella. For making pizza it is actually best to use cows milk mozzarella because it has less liquid in the cheese compared with the pricier buffalo mozzarella. Buffalo mozzeralla should be enjoyed simpley with some good olive,,a little salt and pepper or as part of a salad calprese. Add some olive oil to the cheese and then put back in the for 15-20 minute or until the chese has melted and the base is a nice golden colour to it.

This is pretty much the classic Neapolitan pizza. This pizza is the epitome of Italian cuisine, 3-4 amazing ingredients, cooked perfectly it makes the sauce, basil and mozzarella the star. Simplicity is the key.

As I had two pizza bases, I made some garlic bread and with the leftover dough, I made a baby calzone.

Next time I will make 3x pizzas and they will fit my pizza stones perfectly. Next time it be a case of squeezing as mush meat as I can onto the pizza. After using an old Pizza recipe from the Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon, it is nice that you don't have to wait 2 or 3 hours for the dough to rise. I think the addition of semolina does make a difference, however it is not critical.

The beer was cold, the rugby was tight and the food was Superb.

Italian Tomato Sauce

Ingredients :
1x onion
1x garlic clove
A pinch of Salt
1x Jar of Passata (preferably for Pizza Sauce)
...or 2x tins of good quality Tomatoes (preferably for Pasta Sauce)
...or a kilo of ripe tomatoes
1x Tablespoon of sugar


Add the onion and a pinch of salt, preferably Malden Sea Salt. Fry them off for about 10 minutes, in olive oil, slowly on a medium heat. Be careful you do not want to colour the onion. After 5 minutes add the garlic, you can crush the garlic with salt to create a paste. However I used the Goodfellas method, well I used my sharp chefs knife rather than a razor blade. You can always add half a chili if you want to make an Arrabiata sauce. If using passata, I like to add sliced sundried tomatoes as they add an extra bit of texture and depth to the sauce

You might want to rinse out your bottle/can with some water and add the juice to the pan or add a little wine. Taste for seasoning, I normally add a little sugar, to help bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes. Let the sauce gently simmer on the lowest hear for an hour or two. The sauce will thicken up, and you will have the perfect tomato sauce for a pizza. If making Pasta sauce add the Basil leaves at the last minute.

This is pretty much the basic recipe for any good tomato sauce.

Brett Favre News

After a long drawn out summer of a million and one Brett Favre storylines about him possibly returning to the NFL after his 6 month retirement. The 38 year old Quarterback who holds multiple QB records including the NFL TD pass record of 442 and counting, finally knows where he will be playing football in September. After 16 years in the NFL, 15 years with The Green Bay Packers and 1x Super Bowl ring. Favre will switch from the green and yellow to the green and white of The NY Jets in a quest for a 2nd ring.


Records and Mlestones :

Most AP NFL MVP awards: 3 (1995, 1996, 1997)

Most consecutive starts by a quarterback (NFL): 253 (275 including playoffs)

Most wins by a starting quarterback (NFL) regular season career: 160 (Regular season record: 160-93)

Most career passing touchdowns: 442

Most career passing yards: 61,655

Most career pass completions: 5,377

Most career pass attempts: 8,758

Most career interceptions thrown: 288

Most career games with at least three touchdowns: 63

Harry Anderson

Harry Anderson is a 6.4ft American magician turned comedy actor.

I can remeber first seeing him in a rather funny slapstick spoof spy film 'Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs' (1988) when we first got SKY,,,in roundabout 1990. The film co-stars Ed Begley, jr and Wendy Crewson. Do your self a favour and check out this funny film as its on today at 12pm/1pm on FiveUS/FiveUS+1 and again on Friday at the same time. I know I will be SKY+ it to see if it is as funny as I remember it.

Harry Anderson will probably be best remembered by Americans at least for his role as the wacky Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone in the hughely popular 80's comedy Night Court, that ran for 8 years from 1984-92. Apparently only the 1st season of 13 episodes were screened in the UK. I have this on DVD and its pretty funny. Apparently the studio execs were a bit nervous about giving a leading role to a TV magician. In 1982 during a pefornace on Saturday Night Live he did a trick that is
reffered to in the trade as a 'geek trick'. To do the trick you simply put a needle through the soft tissue at the top of your forearm. Whilst doing the feat Anderson reassured the nervous audience "it was a magic trick". To prove this he flexed his arm and pushed the needle in and out. This resulted in a bloody wound.

FiveUS must be having a season of Anderson films as tomorrow(Thur) at the same time they are showing 'Harvey' a 1996 remake with Anderson in the role Jimmy Stewart made famous. This could be really bad, hopefully it will surprise me and by OK.

Downloads Of The Week

1. Beck - Paper Tiger from Sea Change

2. George Carlin - Baseball v Football (comedy sketch)

3. The Wire And All The Pieces Matter - OST Five Years Of Music From The Wire

4. Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama

5. Goblin - The Fantastic Voyage Of Goblin (The Sweet Sound Of Hell)

Brand Upon The Brain

At the top of my page I say I like innovative films and TV.



Well, whilst browsing the new Criterion DVD reviews on http://www.dvdtalk.com/ I stumbled across this curious looking DVD and director (Guy Maddin) that I had never heard of. The review intrigued me and I instantly set about finding the trailer. I definitely feel a need to check this film out. Apparently Maddin has made a career of making modern silent films, which of course are in b/w.

Brand Upon The Brain (2006) was apparently written in 5 weeks and shot in 1 week. What gets me intrigued is the live performance they gave for the film in NY, they had a live orchestra which is par for the course for silent features. The novelty was they had live foley artists* and live narration from Isabella Rossellini. From what I have read online they had different narrators on different nights like Lou Reed. On the DVD there is a audio option to choose your preferred narrator from the likes of Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Crispin Glover, Guy Maddin, Louis Negin, and Eli Wallach. I think I would choose The Ugly aka Eli Wallach option.

*the person who creates many of the natural, everyday sound effects in a film (Wikipedia)



Brand Of The Brain looks good but I think I like the look of Maddin's take on Dracula better. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) looks amazing, to me anyway. Maddin has taken Bram Stoker's tale and made a film that is part horror film and part ballet with the music of Gustav Mahler. This might sound like a weird mix, but to me its inspired. It might not appeal to die hard Dracula fans of the Hammer films or Coppola's take on the old fanged menace of the night. If you go back further to F.W. Murnau's Nosfetratu (1922), the 1st filmed version of Dracula, there isn't much difference as they are both silent and b/w, oh and one has a dancing count. However you cannot compare the directors, editing or pace of these films as there is about 76 years between them. Murnau was a genius in his day but was limited by massive cameras and a static lens. Back then the camera didn't follow the action, the action was orchestrated to be within the frame. Maddin on the other hand has a very fluid camera and distinct editing style.

The only question now is do I buy or rent?

I think my 5 years of studying film has come out in this post.

The Culture Show

Looks like a good one tonight on BBC2 at 10pm or the extended repeat on Thursday at 11.20.

As Verity Sharp goes on tour with Metallica around Norway.

You can watch the episode on The Culture Show website, the good news is that Metallica is the first item....Enjoy


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cywbc

A True Forgotten Gem Of 70's Cinema

Catch Thunderbolt & Lightfoot tonight on Ch5 at 11.05.

Thunderbolt & Lightfoot was made in 1974 and sadly gets lost in the mix with all the cutting edge American films of the 70's. Even in 1974, it struggled to make a mark, with such prestigious films as The Godfather Part 2, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno, all nominated for Best Picture. The winner was of course The Godfather, Part 2, which became the first sequel to win an OSCAR.

When was the last time 2x films by the same director (Francis Ford Coppola) were in the Best Picture category? Coppola's The Conversation would go on to win the Palm D'or . When did Coppola last direct two great films in a decade? That would be the 80's with the back-to-back productions of Rumble Fish and The Outsiders from 1983. Talk about forgotten gems, that's two for you list.

Anyway back to Thunderbolt a & Lightfoot. This film is even a lost gem in the careers of the three principle people behind this film. Michael Cimino would later go onto direct The Deer Hunter (1978), Clint Eastwood had just starred in Dirty Harry (1971) and its sequel Magnum Force (1973) and Jeff Bridges was OSCAR nominated for his role in Peter Bogdanovich's amazing second feature The Last Picture Show (1971). Bridges would later pop up in Cimino's 3rd film Heaven's Gate (1980).

What is there to say about Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, well its a great road film and buddy movie rolled into one. Eastwood and Bridges have a great chemistry, almost as good as Newman & Redford. Eastwood (Thunderbolt) an ageing bank robber is teaching Bridges (Lightfoot) the tricks of the trade. Just reading the cast list I had forgotten what great talent is in this film. Geoffrey Lewis (Juliette's Father) co-stars, Daisy Duke from The Dukes Of Hazzard aka Catherine Bach pops up,,in her hot pants I wonder? Finally Gary Busey the man with the big teeth from Lethal Weapon/Point Break makes a youthful appearance.

I first saw Thunderbolt & Lightfoot as part of the BBC 2's Moviedrome series sometime during the 90's.

Hope you can watch this, SKY+ it, or even buy the DVD as I can remember it been an excellant film.

Hall Of Fame Update

I managed to stay up for half the game.

The final result was The Colts 16 - The Redskins 30.,

The good ole team of John Madden & Al Michaels were commentating.

Both teams looked pretty good,,considering it was the first game back.
The Colts were trying out their back up QBs, as Peyton Manning is recovering from knee surgery and is questionable for the start of the season.

Things are looking good for The Redskins as they have a new coach and system in place. They have also acquired Defensive End Jason Taylor from The Dolphins. Taylor was on the sidelines, but didn't play.

During August star players or starters may only play a quarter or two per game so as to prevent the risk of injury. This month of games is to check out the rookies and the 2nd string players lowdown on the depth chart and to see who can cut the mustard for special teams. The coach's hardest job for these games and the July/August training camps is to whittle the teams roster of 80 players down to 53 for the start of the season.

Death Magnetic

I gotta say I am not too keen on this cover for Metallica's new CD.

The tracklisting for Death Magnetic is:

1. That Was Just Your Life

2. The End Of The Line

3. Broken, Beat & Scarred

4. The Day That Never Comes

5. All Nightmare Long

6. Cyanide

7. The Unforgiven III

8. The Judas Kiss

9. Suicide & Redemption

10. My Apocalypse

The first single will be 'The Day That Never Comes'.

Do we need another part to The Unforgiven song?

Hello Everyone

Welcome to my blog, my sister has one, my friend has just got one. So I thought why not join them.

This blog might be quite varied, in that there will probably be plenty of TV and film reports, heck I might even let you know what brandy and cigar I enjoyed during the film. I will give the lowdown on my cooking triumphs and dare I say it the occasional disaster. Friday nights are all about what Pizza or Curry I will make to accompany the rugby league match on TV.

Sunday nights I will be glued to my TV set, not for Dexter (which I do love), but for another weekly sporting ritual. Tonight after a 6-month hiatus, my passion for the NFL will get re-ignited when The Colts take on The Redskins in The Hall Of Fame game. This is an important weekend in the NFL calendar as 6 great players* from the past receive their yellow jackets amd get inducted into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame. The weekends festivities from Canton, Ohio begins a month of pre-season friendlies, each team has 4x games before the start of the season on Sept 4th.


*Class of 2008


Fred Dean DE (1975-85)
Darrell Green CB (1983-2002)
Art Monk WR (1980-95)
Emmitt Thomas CB (1966-78)
Andre Tippett LB (1982-93)
Gary Zimmerman OT (1986-97)