If you take a look at the other business we have done over the summer, both ins and outs, it makes for an interesting read. As NUFC.com point out, we appear to have signed as many players as we have sold. If you also discount the Andy Carroll money, then our net spend is in the region of £600k. We reportedly offered Birmingham £500k for Liam Ridgewell, coincidence?

Looking from this angle, it would seem that good old Pards has been tasked with selling before buying to balance the wages, perhaps, or because he had no money for transfers to work with. The coincidences are rife, with the sale of Nolan for £4m and the purchase of Cabaye for the same value. How about Routledge to Swansea for £2m and then the acquisition of Obertan for £3m. There is also the £6m from Enrique and the replacement £5m for Santon. One of the more mystifying transfers is that of Rob Elliot. Seemingly a strong position for NUFC we then opt to send Forster back to Celtic and immediately we are on the hunt for a ‘Keeper.

That leaves the (supposed) bids we made for the likes of Maiga, Cisse and Ruiz. Were all three offers really just smokescreens to convince the public it was a position we needed to strengthen or did Pardew have the money to spend and we really were just unlucky. I’m inclined to believe that the bids didn’t really exist, or if they did, they were deliberately below the asking price. Why, I simply don’t know.

When you also look at the fact that we have technically 6 strikers (Best, Ba, Shola, Lovenkrands, Ranger and Obertan, according to NUFC) already on our books, all who seem to fit into the current first team picture, was Pardew trying to sling one before buying one? The obvious one would have been Nile Ranger to Birmingham as an apparent swap with Ridgewell plus cash, although this wouldn’t have balanced out our net spend when we were supposedly offering £10m+ for these strikers.

Two other deals that didn’t come to fruition but would have made sense was that of Nicklas Bendtner and Kiko Macheda. Both available on loan, both strikers, why did NUFC not plump for one of these? At least until January, if running out of time on Deadline Day was the big issue.

The Ridgewell deal makes more sense, especially when you look at the fact that Danny Simpson was strongly rumoured to be going to Villa had Alan Hutton signed for Fulham. This is compounded by some Tweets that Simmo made in regards to phone calls and travelling. Perhaps the Ridgewell deal would have seen him come in as the replacement for Simpson, but fell down when Simpson stayed.

All in all it has been another confusing and ultimately frustrating Deadline Day that sought to overshadow the positive signing of Davide Santon from Inter. Personally, I would rather have been told by the club that we weren’t in a position to sign anyone and even that if the one in, one out, rule stands true that the club was just honest about it. It would sit far better than have my hopes raised and then dashed, all over again.

It could be worse, we could be Everton.

So why did ‘The King’s Speech’ dominate the academy awards ceremony? Granted, it was a very good film with strong performances from its cast, but, was it truly deserving of the seven BAFTA’s that it claimed? This entry will address each of the seven categories and will decide whether ‘The King’s Speech’ should retain its titles or put forward other more fitting nominees.

I should start of by explaining that I really did enjoy ‘The King’s Speech’ and this is by no means an attack on the film as it was an entertaining portrayal of King George VI and his difficulty of overcoming a speech impediment with the help of his wife and an Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, played by the enigmatic Geoffrey Rush. What brought me to critique ‘The King’s Speech’ and its merits as a multiple BAFTA winner is that I disagreed with some of the categories in which it won.

Original Music

Now I’m not the biggest music fan and I certainly am no film soundtrack buff but when watching ‘The King’s Speech’ the thing that certainly did not strike me was its musical score. I do not mean that the soundtrack was bad or out of place, it just was not evident. I didn’t leave the cinema thinking to myself, “what a wonderful score, I must purchase the album!” Perhaps I am being harsh, and upon second viewing I may, indeed, become aware of the majesty that the soundtrack brings. I am going to leave this gong with ‘The King’s Speech’ as the other nominees, some I have yet to see, also did not prick my ears. Had the category encompassed all music and not just original then I would have awarded the BAFTA to ‘Black Swan’ which had mesmerizing scores that brought the film to life.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Original Music (The King’s Speech)

Outstanding British Film

Two other nominees in this category could have given ‘The King’s Speech’ a run for its money. Danny Boyle’s ‘127 Hours’ and Chris Morris’ ‘Four Lions’. The fact is, neither film was a masterpiece, although enjoyable to watch, ‘The King’s Speech’ will also retain this gong. In ‘127 Hours’, a truly remarkable story about the will to survive is, in my opinion, tarnished by Boyle’s slapdash directing style. Personally, I’m not a huge Danny Boyle fan, but I will give credit where credit is due. On the whole the film is fantastic, largely due to James Franco’s performance, but it is let down by poor cinematography. ‘Four Lions’ is also a hugely enjoyable film and one I would certainly watch again and again, yet it is not the sort of film that wins these awards and in almost all aspects, is dwarfed by ‘The King’s Speech’.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Outstanding British Film (The King’s Speech)

Original Screenplay

This was the category that really got my goat. So much so that I resort to using phrases like ‘it really got my goat’. As I stated earlier, ‘The King’s Speech’ is a good film but let’s not get carried away. It has a very simple story, one of; man has obstacle, bizarre character helps man overcome obstacle, an unlikely friendship is formed, everything thing ends peachy. This is by no means an ‘original’ concept, and the other aspect of the screenplay, the dialogue, is solid, it is well acted but I struggle to see how it could possibly trump ‘Inception’. Christopher Nolan spent years writing Inception and had earlier opportunities to film it but waited until it was just right, with the perfect cast available. The concept of Inception is literally mind-blowing, but it is fantastic. The story is executed flawlessly and the dialogue is strong and acted superbly. It is hard to pick a single stand-out performance in Inception, because they are all good.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Original Screenplay (Inception)

Best Actor

Colin Firth was always going to get this gong; they should have had only him as the nominees. If some of the other categories were 50/50, this was the dead cert. Who could deny him, the role was ripe for the academy and he will most likely win the Oscar (you heard it here first). I personally, don’t think Colin Firth should have taken this gong. He won it last year for his role in ‘A Single Man’ and I believe that was a far stronger performance than the one he plays in ‘The King’s Speech’. So who do I feel was the worthy winner? James Franco in ‘127 Hours’, brilliant, energetic, superb but not my pick. Jesse Eisenberg in ‘The Social Network’, deliberate, coy, awesome but not my pick. Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Inception’, passionate, emotional, strong but not my pick. I could go on, but my pick was not even nominated, neither was DiCaprio, but it was a strong set of nominees. No, my pick, my standout performance from a leading actor, was probably in a film you might not have heard of. Ryan Gosling stars in ‘Blue Valentine’ which is a love story about a couple and the collapse of their marriage whilst showing flashbacks of how they came to be together. It might not sound like anything out of the ordinary but Ryan Gosling is stunning as Dean. He plays both young and old versions of the character and is awe inspiring. The whole film is part scripted and part improvised and you can feel the raw emotion that he exhibits to the point where it seems almost real.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Best Actor (Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine)

Best Supporting Actor

This one was a tough one to decide on. Personally, I think Geoffrey Rush has a stronger performance than Colin Firth does, and to make matters more difficult, there are less genuine contenders for Best Supporting Actor. Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, Mark Zuckerberg’s (Jesse Eisenberg) erstwhile business partner in ‘The Social Network’ is the one that I feel comes close. He has a varied role that changes as his relationship with Zuckerberg begins to fracture and eventually fall apart. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue has a similar relationship with King George VI but the relationship never breaks down and is ultimately always stable. For that matter Rush is never truly pushed to the limits of his acting prowess and Garfield shows that he can comfortably handle strong supporting roles and eclipses Eisenberg in ‘The Social Network’. For that he gets my pick.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor (Andrew Garfield, The Social Network)

Best Supporting Actress

I must confess that my knowledge of the other nominees in this category is slim as I missed the opportunity to see some of the films in question so I can only approach this from the angle of what I have seen. I enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter in ‘The King’s Speech’, I find her to be a remarkably eccentric and talented actress and I feel she fully deserved this award, although I wish I were able to compare her performance with that of Annette Bening in the Kids are Alright, which has been publicised as being a brilliant performance. Instead, I am going to put forward a different nominee altogether, from another film which many may not have heard of; Sofia Coppola’s ‘Somewhere’. It stars Stephen Dorff as a Hollywood actor living in a hotel whilst shooting a movie and he is generally past the point where he enjoys his life, simply going through the motions. Then his teenage daughter comes to stay and he has some purpose in his life and the bond that forms between them is wonderful to watch. The daughter is played by Elle Fanning, the younger sister of Dakota, and she puts on a strong and committed performance. She doesn’t upstage Helena Bonham Carter but I felt that she deserved a mention as I really enjoyed her performance and the film.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech)

Best Film

 Like I have stated numerous times already, ‘The King’s Speech’ is an enjoyable film, one I enjoyed and would probably watch again. Yet I don’t believe that it is the best film I have seen in the last year. In fact, I wouldn’t rate terribly high in my top ten of the past year. Now, going on personal taste and not academy award merit I would place it ninth.

1.            Inception

2.            Blue Valentine

3.            Black Swan

4.            Kick-Ass

5.            Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

6.            Shutter Island

7.            Somewhere

8.            The Social Network

9.            The King’s Speech

10.          The Town

That list is a years worth of cinema that I enjoyed thoroughly. ‘Kick-Ass’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ are quite high on that list but neither are academy worthy. The reason they sit so high is because I enjoyed watching them, they were like watching comic books and were fantastic to just turn my brain of and witness their spectacle. The fact I saw both of them three times each says it all.

In terms of which film I would deem to be Best Film, the answer might not be as clear cut as that list suggests. As for the BAFTA I think the award should have been given to ‘Black Swan’. It was a powerhouse of a film, from start to finish it kept me gripped. The score was immense and Natalie Portman deservedly won the Best Actress BAFTA. It is a clever film with strong performances, I’m still surprised that Mila Kunis was not nominated for Best Supporting Actress. It has so many levels of interpretation and is definitely a film that reveals more and more upon each viewing. ‘The King’s Speech’ was a wholesome academy friendly movie that made everyone feel good about themselves but ‘Black Swan’ went the distance in my book. I went in sceptical about a thriller combined with ballet and I left with my jaw to the floor.

LiteraryIlliterate BAFTA for Best Film (Black Swan)

So, where to begin? A re-cap of my life in the last 15 months would be both boring to you and me so that is most defiantly out of the window. Perhaps, the story of how I and my better half de-stabilized an entire country, in just one week.

I am exaggerating, of course, as our presence in Tunisia was not enough to send the populace into anarchy and overthrow President Ben Ali of more than 23 years, in just one week. The truth is we got extremely lucky as had we been in the country for one more week then our holiday would have taken an entirely different direction, with rioting, deaths and the aforementioned removal of the President, it is safe to say that my perspective of Tunisia would have dramatically changed.

The most unusual aspect of our holiday, in hindsight, is that there was no obvious suggestion of unrest, certainly not offered to travellers, which was not too difficult to maintain as not only were all news and media outlets state controlled, but they were also in either Arabic or French. I speak neither. The one thing I cannot get away from is how peaceful everything appeared when we were there and we travelled to various parts of the country, including Tunis, and witnessed not one protest, riot or ill-word said against the government.

To side-step away from the current Tunisia which is one of martial law and night-time curfews, the one me and Rachel experienced was far removed and remarkable country to explore and appreciate. For the most part, the country is still developing and for all its charm there are dilapidated buildings or deprived districts seemingly around every corner. There are places of immense beauty, culture and history; the trick is to find them. Yet once you have found them, they are fully worth the journey and, once the current animosity has subsided, I would certainly be open to a repeat visit.

Number 5: Moon:

Before I went and saw this movie the only thing I was aware about was the casting of Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY, the Moon base computer. Immediately I was expecting something similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Happily this wasn’t the case and Spacey was not a homicidal machine. Instead I was treated to an engaging and interesting storyline and a fairly realistic one despite its choice of setting. Sam Rockwell is immense, although that should be no surprise  considering how many parts he plays. A film which draws an ethical question under the right to life of clones is subtly sublime in its delivery and was a thoroughly enjoyable film.

Number 4: (500) Days of Summer:

Now this was always going to be an enjoyable movie for me as it starred two of my favourite current actors in the lead roles. Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as Tom and Summer. It is a sort of love story without the happy ending. The tag-line captures the mood of the film quite well; “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.” The real charm in this movie for me was its editing. The story doesn’t start from A and end with B; it starts at Z and ends with 1, whilst visiting C, F and T amongst others, throughout. The ordering of the film is perfect and keeps us constantly entertained. We are informed, very early on, that things may not end well between Tom and Summer, we then find out how they became to be, and ultimately, end. Joseph-Gordon Levitt is an extraordinary actor, the variation of roles that I have seen him in show he is capable of changing his pallet but in (500) Days, his repertoire is stretched and boy does he pull it off well. Going from a musical serenade with a cartoon bird to flat out depression just shows his marvellous attributes. Now I am aware that I appear to be gushing over him but he is my favourite actor right now, just watch Brick, you’ll know why. Also, Zooey Deschanel’s eyes are stunning, I swear I would do anything she asked.

Number 3: Inglourious Basterds:

Tarantino making a war-epic. That sounds like a good recipe for a movie, and boy was it. His tongue is placed firmly in cheek throughout this film, from the  opening screen “Once upon a time, in Nazi occupied France…” to Hitler’s almost slapstick appearance. The premise is rather simple; a group of Jewish-American soldiers are dropped into France during the Second World War as a guerrilla squad on the hunt for Nazi soldiers and officers. Brad Pitt is their leader and takes enormous pride in ‘scalping’ Nazis. The stand out performance in this film isn’t from Pitt, although he is fantastic, is Christoph Waltz  playing Colonel Hans Landa, aka The Jew Hunter. Waltz brings this film together superbly with his wit and delivery and amazes with his multi-lingual abilities. I’ve never seen another film where an actor acts and delivers his lines in four different languages. The ending is completely fictionalised which then allows us to accept everything that has happened as fictional, but it wasn’t, was it? Some of the scenes may not have actually happened but I bet a lot  of them did whether accurate to the truth or not. Tarantino doesn’t want us to forget what happened; he also doesn’t want us to shrug it off as a fictional movie, he even suggests that the Basterds are based in truth. The other thought is that Tarantino just wanted an excuse to kill Hitler all over again, which is fine by me.

Number 2: District 9:

If Cloverfield brought us close to the low-budget return of good Sci-Fi, then District 9 has ruined it for everyone else. Nobody could make a more perfect movie in the same ‘low-budget’ vein as Cloverfield. The most pleasing aspect is its setting. South Africa, Johannesburg to be specific is a far more violent and volatile place than anywhere in America, so when an alien spaceship happens to appear over the capital and the aliens begin living in shanty towns in the city, it’s no surprise that heated exchanges could ensue. Set 20 years on from the initial appearance, the movie focuses around the character Wikus Van De  Merwe played by Sharlto Copley, who had never previously acted before this film. He works for the company Multi National United which is the biggest weapons manufacturer in the world and set up to keep the aliens in check. When MNU decide to move the aliens from District 9 to a new area of the city, Wikus is put in charge of evicting the aliens. After being sprayed by some alien liquid, things begin to rapidly change for Wikus as his body alters and slowly becomes alien. The movie is like the Fugitive in South Africa, with aliens, but better. It is funny in places where it shouldn’t be and definitely in places where it should be yet it never takes away any of the impact the acting has. A lot of the script is improvised, especially Wikus’ lines, and the movie is cut together as a sort of documentary as well as straight cinema and it works, boy does it work. I love this movie. 

Number 1: Watchmen:

I am a big comic book fan, always have been. When I heard that Watchmen was going to be made I went out and read the comic, straight off. I had never gotten round to reading it, just one of those things, but afterwards I couldn’t wait for this movie. If it was to be half as well written and directed as the graphic novel then it was going to be a great movie. Fortunately, it was better. This is without a shadow of a doubt the best comic book adaption ever made. 
Even better than the Dark Knight, just. Watchmen never lets up, it’s a ‘rollercoaster’ of a ride, what a cliché, but it’s true, you feel almost involved. The  length is extraordinary, nearly 3 hours long, the ultimate directors cut is almost 4 hours long, but it is well worth it. Never does it feel rushed, or do scenes feel squashed in. Every moment of this film feels like it has been taken care of with great thought and delicacy. Rorschach is our narrator and key character, he strings the films plot together and adds some great lines and personality to the movie. His casting was key and is a massive success in the  form of Jackie Earle Haley. Who I hear you cry? I don’t know either, but on the basis of this he should be a household name. He encapsulates Rorschach incredibly well, right down to the droll voice and fighting style. All in all this is a fantastic overall movie with no flaws that I could conceive, a real tour de force. If you haven’t seen it, you must. Whether you like comic books or not, it really doesn’t matter, you’re missing cinematic genius, and that’s a  fact.

If I don’t get a job soon then it will be a struggle to manage over the next 3 months until I return to university and receive my next loan instalment. So what do I have? I have time, lots and lots of time on my hands. I will attempt to use it wisely, ideally reading up in preparation for my dissertation and hopefully continuing some writing. I enjoy writing, more importantly, I enjoy rambling. I have a knack for it, drifting from tangent to tangent. I also like the sound of my own voice. Yes, I am one of those people. That said, if you can’t have confidence in yourself then how could you ever find confidence in others? I digress.

So what else have I been doing with my endless time? Playing football, fills my Monday and Thursday nights. There’s nothing quite like a good game of football. I’ve always enjoyed playing football, for me just having the opportunity to be a part of it makes it all worthwhile. My opportunities at school were few and far between and this was thanks, in part, to two things . The first being the extremely good quality of other players that attended my school and secondly down to the fact that I was a little ‘heavier’ as a younger version of me. Oh, and that my footballing abilities only developed once I started playing regular football and hopefully once Fabio Capello swings by and watches us play it will come full circle when I captain England. Just after I fly a pig to the Moon.

Here’s an annoying event that happens to every time I’m sitting in the house at 6PM. The very inconsiderate Sun that lords over us everyday has the audacity to begin to set in the West directly in front of the window and shines straight into my ever infuriated eyes. I know what you’re all thinking, ‘just move you lazy sod’ but that isn’t the point! How I curse this house for facing west, roughly. (It is a common misconception that the sun sets in the West, when in fact it differs throughout the year entirely).

Anyway I must cut this short as I have visitors of a relative nature.

Peace out!

As my last entry detailed the death of my iPod (R.I.P 2009), the only means of listening to music have come from what I have at my disposal. Don’t get me wrong I have a huge CD collection, but hardly any of that is on my laptop, and the stuff that is, well it’s quite dated now. I rarely sit and listen to music in the house. I was always more about the iPod/Walkman phenomena of walking to places and drowning out the world with my own little soundtrack of happiness. Since the death of my iPod (R.I.P 2009), I haven’t bought, downloaded, borrowed or stolen any music in about four months and since I never listen to the radio I no longer have a grasp of who is good, who is bad or even who is who.

Now I can still hold my own in a topical debate about music so long as the genre stays around Rock, Punk, Ska, Metal, Classic Rock, Classic Punk, Classic Ska, Classic Metal or the works of Johnny Cash. Ask me about who is in the top 40 or which new indie band I prefer and you will have the beating of me. So my strategy is simple. I am going to reclaim my love for music by revisiting the bands and musicians that I have loved and listened to my whole life. Only once am I back in-tune with that world will I then embark on a journey to discover if there is any good talent left in the universe (I know that’s a bold statement but I didn’t want to use the word ‘world’ twice in one sentence).

On a side note, this has served as a great distraction or procrastination if you will from my work which is due to be handed in next Friday with only the preparation completed. No words have yet to hit paper, so wish me luck.

Later Days

It’s a long list.

Later days.

Apparantly the appointment of Alan Shearer as Newcastle United manager is imminent today. When I first heard this I was understandidly sceptical. April 1st, he’s always turned down the job, why now? It is, from what I can perceive, to be true. My question is; “Does this still make us all April fools?”

Probably.

There is no denying what his appointment could do for the morale of the team and the supporters but I can’t help thinking that he has been put in place for one of two reasons. Firstly, to give him control of the club in the event of Newcastle being relegated. If we went down this season nobody would blame Alan Shearer. He would then be charged with bringing us back, just like Roy Keane did with Sunderland. Secondly, he is a diversionary tactic employed by Mike Ashley to divert our attention from him should we get relegated.

48 hours ago, I firmly believed we would be relegated and the club doomed to play in the Championship for at least two seasons. Now I really don’t know what to believe. Alan Shearer may turn out to be a saint or more importantly, a sinner.

With rumours circulating that relegation would mean administration and almost bankrupcy for Ashley it is the last thing the club needs and maybe, just maybe Alan Shearer is the saviour of Newcastle United.

All I can say is “Good Luck”

Later Days

The idea was to regularly post here and I failed after three attempts. I need to sort myself out, I find it difficult to stick to any one task and that really needs to change.

I dropped out of the running for the Students Union elections because I knew that I wouldn’t do myself justice after producing a half-arsed manifesto on the morning of it’s deadline. Incidentally, the girl that won the sabbatical role was quite a surprise in my eyes. Who knows how I would have fared, but importantly it gives me an insight into what works and what doesn’t and I think I might be better equipped for next years elections.

Today, however, I am doing sod all. This doesn’t dissapoint me, it’s what I intended to do all along but it has royally ticked off my Father. He obviously finished work early today and the way he spoke to me, that condescending tone of voice, told me everything without him saying it. For all I care he can take a running jump. I shouldn’t have to fill my day off from University with activities just to impress him.  He’s probably just jealous.

I have satisfied myself today with a session on my good old Xbox 360 which is the love of my life, in some respects. Some people like to pass the time with a good book or television but since the tender age of 5 I have always preferred a games console. My very first console was an Amiga 500 but the first console I truly loved and cherished though was my NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).

I have only a few early memories of this console but they were all brilliant. Sadly she didn’t last very long and the big black box that connected the mains to the console gave up on me and it also meant the warranty was void so I never got a replacement.

Tough break kid.

My folks did however buy me the new, as of then, Sega Megadrive II and I loved it. Anyway, enough of the history lesson.

One last thing which I am currently sick to death of is the bloody wind. The sun is beaming through my window making me nice and warm but that awful wind makes for a cold day. Luckily it wasn’t as bad last night for football as it was on Monday which damn near made the match unplayable. Supposedly going to watch Gateshead play tomorrow, hope it’s entertaining unlike the farce at Newcastle United of which the less said the better.

Later Days!

I have two which I got quite a few years ago, one being a star I had ‘inked’ on my 18th birthday and other a logo from a band – Band not named. I desperately want another tattoo. I was watching an episode of Miami Ink earlier and it got the juices flowing, my mind working in overdrive thinking “If I was put on the spot right now, what tattoo would I get?”.

It’s hard to say to be honest.

I do have one idea which has stayed with me for a number of years, although I won’t reveal it on hear just incase anyone pinches it, and i’ve often thought of where I would get it and how big. There is no reason why I can’t get myself a tattoo, I now have the money, which was once a long standing ‘excuse’ I would use.

Back in the day when I was first ‘inked’ my friend also took the plunge and we got our second tattoos around about the same time as well.

Now he has four.

Two beautiful pieces on his arm and leg and I’ll be honest, I’m jealous. Then there’s the whole argument that I wouldn’t want to rush any decision and get ink that I might later regret, but I need to quencemy desire for more artwork. It’s certainly time I put some serious thought into this and come to a decision that I’m happy with and get some sweet ink done.

Later days.