Mickey Rourke Wins A BAFTA

Mickey Rourke did the business tonight winning Best Actor at The BAFTAs for The Wrestler. This pleases me no end, as I caught the film last week. A totally deserved win, along with a great f**kin' speech. Great interveiw with Andrew Collins. I am a big fan of Rourke from his hey day were he had a streak of hits that made him an A-list movie star and then Nine 1/2 Weeks made him a heart throb.


Angel Heart is probably my favourite Rourke film, thats partly because its the best all round film, a great story and visuals that makes for an interesting mix of genres and boy does it keep you hooked till the end. Even the end credits have an unnerving quality that makes them totally watchable. It is hardly surprising, it is also my favourite Alan Parker film. I can remember watching The Outsiders (1983) and Rumblefish on Moviedrome as part of a Francis Ford Coppola double bill. What a great pair of films, both are in much need of a re-vist, as I probably haven't watched them since the late 80's. I can remember in 1990 when I was 15 going to see Wild Orchid with Rourke, Carre Otis his then girlfriend and Jacqueline Bisset. Sadly its nothing more than a softcore porn movie with Rourke banging his girlfriend in some very realistic scenes. At 15,,this probably ticked all the boxes.

Rourke films from the 80's to check out

Angel Heart (1987)
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)
Year of the Dragon (1985)
The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Diner (1982)






Year Of The Dragon has a high pedigree as it was directed by the man behind The Deer Hunter Micheal Cimino and scripted by Oliver Stone. That said its not a perfect script or film, however it does have the tone and feel of an 70's cop film. This clip is one of reasons I keep coming back to this great film. Its a 1-take wonder, I love the long gliding tracking shot done with a Steadicam and with Rourke's motivational speech to his men for me is pitch perfect.

From what I can tell Rourke got into acting late as he spent most of the 70's as a amateur boxer. according to IMDB he finished with a record of 20-6, with 17 knockouts and was disqualified 4 times. He reportedly scored 12 consecutive first round knockouts. He must been pretty quick to avoid the punches. Making movies, earning lots of money and sleeping with Kim Basinger on screen couldn't have been enough. Rourke made a boxing movie Homeboy (1988) and stepped back in the ring as a professional in 1991. He retired in 1995 after 11x wins and 2x draws. The boxing and daily grind of sparring left him with short term memory loss and the need for reconstructive surgery on his face that ended his acting career as a A-list heart throb. After 15 years of bit roles he bounced back in Sin City (2003). Surprisingly roles have been sparse. Then came Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. It has been said it was a role he was born to play. And boy does he become Randy "The Ram" Robinson, the truth is its almost impossible seeing anyone else as Randy. The success of this has led to Rourke winning a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and possibly an OSCAR,,,that would really be something special achieving a grand-slam sweep of the awards.



The 30 minutes or so of The BAFTAs I saw it seemed to be a very good show, although J. Ross is using his BBC suspension as part of his act. This had better stop soon,,,cos its getting boring now. To make things worse when the show had finished, just as most people, including me were about turn over they began showing highlights of the so called small awards like best animation. What got my goat is The BBC/BAFTA they started showing the credits over Nick Park and the other winners speeches. This totally riles me with anger as this shows a total lack of FUCKING respect for these artists. The OSCARS do it right and celebrate these awards mid-way through the main show.

The main highlight was seeing Terry Gilliam rightly become a fellow of BAFTA. I loved his gag about thanking all the little people of his movies. He proceeded to pull out a huge peice of paper and then named all the dwarf actors from Time Bandits. Very funny and a very Gilliam thing to do.

The role call of those sadly no longer with us, seemed longer than normal and filled with some greats, like Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Sydney Pollack, Jules Dassin and Richard Widmark who starred in one of my fav films, Dassins' Night and The City. A surprise face to see on this list was FX wizard Stan Winston who worked on Predator, Aliens and Terminator 2. He sadly died of multiple myeloma or Bone Cancer, a condition I wasn't aware of until I googled it. Speaking of Bone Cancer they paid tribute during the England v Italy Six Nations game to a rugby player that also died of this dreadful condition.

Sadly a close friend of mine lost his dad to Cancer this weekend and so I just wanted to say my thoughts are with you and your family. I am feelin' for you mate.

SlideShow For A Freind 1

SlideShow For A Freind 2

Details for the above slideshow.

East Yorkshire Mortgage Co

http://www.eastyorkshiremortgageco.co.uk/

Xmas Time Warp

As I have been down with the man-flu for the last week. Here is a time warp piece/blog entry from Xmas, that I never quite got round to posting.






As a warm up to Xmas, on Christmas Eve I tried a Jun Tanaka recipe for venison. The meat is pan fried /stir fried along with pears, apple and blackberries. In my case I opted for grapes, blueberries and blackberries, with some chard, onion and balsamic vinegar and I have to say it was quite revalationary. Venison traditionally like a lot of game is best friends with fruit. So it shouldn't have surprised me at how well this dish worked. The meal was enhanced by a nice glass of Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon.

To accompany our Christmas feast of turkey and all the trimming, I brought out a bottle of Prosecco by La Gioiosa made from Pinot Grigio. Finding details about this wine online, I found it in a Taste test for The Guardian and Gennaro Contardo didn't even give this Prosecco 1*.





Prosecco is basically an Italian equivalent to Champagne, but half the price. As some one that isn't the biggest fan of Champagne due to its dryness, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Surprise, surprise I couldn't, the Prosecco had the same dry taste and lacked any real sweetness, just like a bottle of Champagne.

We didn’t even have a late tea, we just had a bottle of port and selection of biscuits and cheeses. I bought some Blackstone's Blue, which is one of my favourites . I am a fan of Cathedral City however I tried their 20 month vintage for the 1st time. It has not become my favourite cheese for simply eating on its own. The extra time has allowed salt crystals to form, it’s a bit more crumbly and tastier, but does not come with a really overpowering aftertaste that some mature cheddars might have.





Our Boxing Day meal was roast beef. To accompany this I made an excellent creamed horseradish. Like the preserved lemons I found there are many differing recipes online. I opted for an easy Jun Tanaka recipe from Market Kitchen. All you need is some fresh horseradish, creme frais or sour cream, Dijon mustard and some lemon juice.

To accompany the beef we drank one of my favourite wines and the best Rioja I know. Campo Viejo reserva. This is normally about £9 in Salisbury's, however just before Xmas it was £7 a bottle. Not sure if I will be able to find another one from 2001.






I also managed to drink some festive beers. Innis and Gunn brought out a nice boxed edition,,that I can seem to remember buying last year in the same offer of 3 for the price of 2. I also enjoyed a nice Simpson's inspired beer by Wychwood called Plum Duff. Another been Pickled Partridge. Speaking of beer one of my favourite presents was the excellent book called Beer that profiles some of the most famous and unusual beers from around the globe. I was able to flick through and say I had drank quite a few of the unusual European beers because I had ordered them from the excellent website http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/

Punch Drunk Joe

A pretty funny clip of former NY Jets superstar QB and Super Bowl winnder Joe Namath been a bit drunk and amourous to the female touchline reporter. Looking on YouTube it looks like he would and did sell just about anything.


Joe Namath selling tights



Joe Selling Brut

Countdown To The Super Bowl

The road to Tampa and Super Bowl XLIII starts this weekend with the Wild Card play-off games. After 17 weeks and 16x games, we are definitely getting down to the business end of the season.

Like last years Patriots going 17-0, another team almost replicated that record only this time Detroit went 0-17. Miami have turned around their fortunes, last year they went 1-15. The appointment of Bill Parcell as GM, a new coach and players. They have surprised everybody with the speed of their turnaround to a 11-5 record to get to the play offs. All the ups and downs in Dallas and Philadelphia meant people took their Eye off the NY Giants, who quietly became division champs and made their way to the play-offs for a chance to repeat. That was until wide receiver Plexico Burres went to a nightclub and got in trouble when he accidentally shot himself in the leg.

The season started badly for The Patriots losing Tom Brady in the 1st week. Matt Cassel understandably looked shaky, however he found his feet and confidence. He started to look like Brady…almost. The irony is that Tom Brady got his break in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe, got injured early in the season and Brady took them to the Super Bowl and lifted the Vince Lombadi trophy.

Matt Cassel put in 2x back-to back games with 400+ yards, which is a new Patriots record, a feat Brady never managed. The Patriots will be feeling very sore missing out on the play-offs with an 11-5 record. That is pretty amazing, especially when you look at the AFC West division champs the San Diego Chargers who with a 3-5 record came good in the final straight to win their division with an 8-8 record. It is anomalies like this that leads to fans and critics object to the NFL’s current play-off system as it means that some of the better teams with a superior record can miss out.

The simple fact is that some divisions are just stronger than others. The NFC East is historically the toughest and the best division in the league as it has produced the most Super Bowl wins of x11 since 1966. This season the NFC South is probably the next toughest division. The New Orleans Saints ended the season with an 8-8 record, but last in their division. This NFC South is very topsy-turvy, I guess these teams in this division make full use of the draft and free agents. This division had a strange record for the last 5 years where the team that finished last, the next year would win the division. I have to say, knowing this in September I came awfully close to putting a bet on Atlanta winning the division. Rookie QB Matt Ryan has impressed me and everybody from week 1, looking very poised in the pocket, accurate with his passing and unflappable, all to rare for a rookie QB. He was so impressive that this week he won the award for Rookie MVP. Sadly Atlanta, no fault of Ryan ended up 1x game shy of winning the division with an 11-5 record. Division champs the Carolina Panthers looked impressive, even if they did wobble mid season. The trick was they played badly but won the games and finished with a 12-4 record. They ended up sharing the best record with The NY Giants and joining them as the No.1 and 2 seed for the NFC and earned themselves a week off.

The Cowboys started the season as everyone favourites to win the Super Bowl. They won their opening 3x games however they began to splutter, Romo injured his pinky finger and missed 4x games. They almost bounced back however the teams December blues returned they began losing, arguing and never recovered. The Eagles were looking out of the picture, they even tied a game, the first time in the NFL since 2002. McNabb was playing so badly head coach Andy Reid benched him. It had the desired effect as he came back swinging and hitting his receivers between the numbers. Finishing the season with a 4-1 streak that saw them thump The Cowboys 6-44 in the last game of the season. It turn out the tied game came in handy as it gave The Eagles 2nd place and helped knock The Cowboys out of the race for the play-offs.

The St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders and the San Fransisco 49ers made mid-season coaching changes. The end of the season brought the sacking of a couple of head coaches. The NY Jets fired Eric Mangini for not getting his team to the play-offs from an 8-4 start, winning only 1 game from the last 5. I hate to say it but, it sounds like the fans and pundits are laying some, if not most of the blame on QB Brett Fave. Mike Shannerhan, the 2nd longest tenured coach who won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 90’s for the Denver Broncos was fired for losing a 3x game lead to The Chargers resulting in no play-off birth. The Seahawks Mike Holmgren is taking a year out, the Indianpolalis Colts Tony Dunghi is retiring. Along the sidelines, the NFL will look significantly different next year with the lack of big names that have the big game experience of winning Super Bowls.

January games take on a new intensity, you lose, and you go home. The hitting gets harder, there is more on the line, every play becomes critical. Normally you get some snow or icebowl games, sadly Green Bay and New England did not make it. Aaron Rogers came in a looked good for Green Bay, sadly the defence and running back Grant did not stand up. Last years Green Bay Ice bowel game against The Giants was one of the best games of the season. The Colts and Peyton Manning are on a roll with a nine game win streak. This is very impressive considering Peyton Manning came off knee surgery last summer. He took a while to get going but has got his team in a position similar to 2006 when they won the Super Bowl. Manning’s skill and leadership has led to him been named the leagues MVP. Manning has received this award 3x time now, equaling Brett Favres run in the late 90’s.


Wild Card Weekend Schedule

Saturday Jan 3:
9pm Atlanta at Arizona,
1.30am Indianapolis at San Diego.

Sunday Jan 4:
6pm Baltimore at Miami

9pm Philadelphia at Minnesota.

There is talk of all the road teams winning this weekend, which would be quite something.

The Colts and Manning maybe the in form team, however they have a lousy record of 1-3 against The Chargers. The Chargers just know how to line up against The Colts and how to fluster Manning as he averages 3 interceptions per game. He has had some his worst games in San Diego. Both QBs will come out slinging, as ever it will be a close game with no more than 4 points in it.

Arizona have not made the play-offs since 1947, so they maybe pretty nervous. Thankfully they have home field advantage and they are always strong at home. Even though Atlanta have the rookie MVP at QB, he may have hit the rookie wall. Arizona have the rejuvenated QB Kurt Warner who has had his best year since his Super Bowl winning days in St.Louis. Combine that with the tall, physical and reliable wide receivers Boldin and Fitzgerald, the Atlanta defence may have a long day, especially if Arizona mix it up with a run game. If Arizona want to progress the defense will need to step up to stop Michal Tuner.

The Ravens and rookie QB Joe Flacco travel to Miami for a tough game. This will be a defensive game, as The Ravens can shut down any team. It will be interesting to see how Miami and QB Chad Pennington and their wildcat offence do against Ray Lewis’s Raven defence. I can see the Ravens winning this by 10-6

Philadelphia Eagles v Minnesota Vikings will be another defensive chess match, with two of the leagues best running backs in Brian Westbrook and Adrian Peterson. If Donovan McNabb can have a good game he may be the difference maker.

The Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson will need to have a good game throeing he ball, to allow Peterson to find the holes. Jackson will be tested more than his 17 previous games as Philly's defensive wizard Jim Johnson, will blitz Jackson more than any other team he has seen all year. Because of that I can see Philly winning the game.