Endorphin

I don't rate Steven Finn too much either. He is often very expensive, without having the destructive quality to justify it. Graham Onions might have been better at least on this pitch, I feel like Bresnan is a bit overrated as well, albeit he offers more with the bat. Maybe Finn needs a break from international cricket for a while, it helped Broad no end when he had some time off a while back.

Feel so sorry for the poor kid, amazing innings. Still the highest No. 11 score of all time isn't it?

 

(This isn't live discussion, they have left the pitch for the changeover).

Sorry, although it was just about drinks when I posted it

Siddle is playing magnificently. Maybe a bit premature but Compton could be back next test, depending on how Bairstow does here.

New Jay-Z album is around, although some people might want to class it as 'pop' rather than 'hip hop' these days. I think its pretty good FWIW, his best since American Gangster. Timbaland does a great job on the production side.

 

"When I was talking Instagram/ Last thing you wanted was your picture snapped/ Feds still lurking/ They see I'm still putting work in/ Cause somewhereinamerica/ Miley Cyrus is still twerkin'. Twerk, twerk, twerk, twerk/ Twerk, Miley, Miley, twerk/ Twerk, Twerk, Miley, Miley, Miley, twerk/ Twerk, yeah, ugh-huh/ Twerk, Miley, Miley, Miley/ Only in America."

When Corrie has its Attitude Era Jim will be the top face, closing the show sipping beers with a relapsed Peter Barlow after a feud with clean living Chesney Brown.

Compton has had a few decent knocks against Australia in the last couple of weeks, without really going on to a massive score. Definitely gives us a good option, especially if Root clams up at the top of the order. Still unsure about him opening the batting at such a young age, in his first Ashes series. Maybe going with Bell would have been better, give Root a bit more freedom lower down the batting.

 

A week to go, can't fucking wait!

Dunno, didn't seem to matter in the last couple of Ashes Series.

 

Nobody was really favourites in 2009 though. It was an awful series of cricket from a quality perspective, England batted horribly for most of it. Only Trott coming in 5th test won us the series against a dreadful Australia side. I remember before that last test match there were calls from Trescothick, Trott and Ramprakash to all come in and replace the misfiring top order completely.

 

The 2011 win in Australia is also slightly different. I don't think we were pegged too highly as favourites, mainly because we hadn't won down under in thirty years.

 

This time, though, we are expected to win and win comfortably, so I think it will be a letdown. I'm going 2-1 England.

Myself and the boys on our way to download this year (I'm on the right),

I wouldn't mind, it makes a PPV more interesting and social. Especially as I'll be watching it on a laptop stream anyway.What is the address?

There is a good article featuring quotes from Cabana about antisemitism in wrestling.

"After being convinced by mutual friend, Sonjay Dutt (myspace.com/sonjd), Cabana gave SLAM! Wrestling his first post-WWE-release interview. He said over the phone that Paul Heyman's ECW was a big influence on him becoming a wrestler. "Paul E.'s success helped me prove the point to my family that another Jew had succeeded in the world of wrestling, and that I didn't have to become a doctor or lawyer like everyone else [in our Jewish social circle]."But like his role model, Cabana also described similar experiences Paul E. had as a minority in the world of wrestling. Cabana says, "When I was in OVW, one of my WWE trainers called me 'Kike Cabana,' in front of everybody! I looked at him like he was some kind of moron. It was one of the most ignorant things anyone could ever do. I'll never forget that."Cabana concluded, with a great deal of anger, "the WWE is part of corporate America, and for [one of their employees] to call me 'Kike Cabana' in front of everybody was one of the most anti-Semitic things I've ever experienced."

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2009/03/31/8956556.htmlQuite disgusting really, and explains a lot about the disdain towards Heyman, Cabana and others by a lot of promoters and workers and even fans.

Been quite disappointed with the Champions Trophy so far, don't really like one day cricket anyway to be honest. It also seems a bit of a pointless event, pretty much the same as the World Cup just with less teams.

The wrestling business has been known to be hugely anti-Semitic, which could account for a lot of the hate towards Cabana.

Just watched The Country Girl. The dialogue was great at times, but the film itself was very dull and dated. You could tell they had adapted it from a play, didn't translate too well to screen, and Grace Kelly was hopelessly miscast. Bing Crosby did a decent job although he isn't that great as an actor, he mostly seems to play himself. The parts where he broke down and was a mess weren't too believable.

Add me to the anti-Smith brigade. I thought 'The Pursuit of Happiness' was a hideous film, poor acting, every film cliche to get you to care about the characters and you still didn't by the end, just synonymous with everything bad about mainstream movie making.That 'Whip My Hair' song was annoying as fuck too.

Just watched Donnie Darko, which took a lot out of me. Truly astonishing film, so gripping and intriguing, last film that left me this drained and affected was probably Requiem For A Dream. The lead actor in DD gave one of the best performances I've ever seen from a young actor, that last scene with the therapist and the hypnotist was mindblowingly good.

 

Watched The Shawshank Redemption earlier today as well, which I loved. Trying to get through some of the 'great' movies I've not seen yet.

That was a bit disappointing actually.They should have made Episode #9 the season finale, that would have been a far more impactful and exciting ending than what we got here, doesn't even leave me particularly excited for the next season.

'Unforgiven' for me, absolutely timeless film, and he is superb in it, you don't know whether to hate him or root for him.I hated 'The Royal Tennebaums', way too much forced quirkiness like pretty much every Wes Anderson film. Didn't find it funny at all. No fault of Hackman's though, it was the script, premise and general aesthetic that I despised rather than the actual acting.

What do you think of how he took his role in Django?

Still not seen it, shamefully. I don't tend to watch a lot of new films for some reason.

What are people's thoughts on Leonardo di Caprio? I think he is a decent actor, but he just isn't believable in the roles he gets. I couldn't take him seriously as The Great Gatsby, he was too harmless looking, young and cute and pampered and inconsequential. And now he is rumoured to be playing fucking Rasputin?! I can't imagine anyone less suitable to play a dark, twisted, weird Russian mystic/sorcerer.He pretty much ruined Gangs of New York for me as well, as again he just didn't fit the gutsy, troubled, violent role he has been cast in. Do other people have this problem or is it just me? I never seem to hear him get criticised,

On a different note, what does everyone think of the actress who plays Ygritte? I think she does a great accent, but on the whole I think she is a really poor actress, her facial expressions during Jon Snow's revolt were terrible

I'm not a fan either. That whole 'love story' between her and Jon Snow has seemed really forced and awkward to me, they don't have the chemistry that they are supposed to. The accent is kind of comical as well.The Rob Stark/Nurse love story didn't work either for me, building believable loving relationships is the one thing the show isn't too good at. Much better when working with fucked up stuff like Joffrey and Tyrion/Sansa.

Fucking hell.Probably didn't need to watch that after coming in from a night out, completely killed my buzz. One question, was Edmund in on it? Or was he just casually banging his bride oblivious to the carnage going on downstate?

Ah, The Getaway, hyped as the British GTA at the time, not heard about it in years. I remember people being very excited and very disappointed, but maybe that's just because it didn't match up to Vice City which everyone I knew was playing 24/7 at the time. Was always more of a Gran Turismo/Pro Evo man myself when it came to video games.

 

I was sobbing by the end of this. Can already tell this film will end up meaning a lot to me.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me for 60s/70s psych rock from the USA or Britain/Europe?

 

More psychedelic 'summer of love' pop than Jimi Hendrix guitar wielding acid tracks....

 

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

 

The Zombies - Hung Up On A Dream -

The Zombies - Beechwood Park -

 

The Byrds - Eight Miles High - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH6UnvSlahc

 

Big Brother And The Holding Company - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0B41tBTTko (kind of got that stoned psychedelic vibe to it, especially the guitars)

 

Don't really know much of the truly weird psychedelic stuff that was going on in the late 60s, always meant to get round to it but haven't done so yet.