WU LYF 4 LYF

It was no dumb idea, there are easily 500 British albums better than anything Williams has to offer. Have you heard his latest single? I have and I fucking cringed. Dreadful. His early work had some merit, and his mad phase stuff was interesting, the latest one is dire.

To answer your question, I will finish it at some point, but I'm snowed under at the minute, been interning for a firm four days a week and there seem to be fantastic club nights and gigs and whatever going down with alarming regularity right now. I will get back to work on a rainy autumnal morning where I've nothing to do but stare out the window, watch the leaves drift by and listen to records better than the latest masterpiece Stoke's finest is peddling.

Summer Heights High

Still some funny shit, pity Chris Lilley hasn't done anything that comes close to it since, can't get into his more recent stuff. This is like the best comedies, manages to combine pathos and a connection to the characters with the humour. A proper show, rather than a gag reel.

Can't believe shit like 'Miranda' actually gets praised as comedy when there's stuff like this and 'New Girl' that can be funny and smart.

Find most short films to be a bit try hard and pretentious myself. I did enjoy 'Zucht', though, a beautiful little Dutch short about young love and adolescent feelings.

So much stuff I'm digging right now. Currently spinning 'Live' by Erykah Badu, which is just the kind of smooth, soulful, jazzy record you want to listen to with a glass of bourbon at this time of night. Pretty emotional, too, the concert was while she was pregnant with her first child. She has the audience in her palm, and her voice sounds incredible, probably my favourite singer of the last twenty years. 'Tyrone' is the jam.

Other than that, I've been playing the shit out 'Sebenza' by LV in the last couple weeks, the beats a fucking awesome, all garage and electro and the production has such a sheen. Then you have these South African rappers over it with a totally idiosyncratic flow, funky and hits hard. Been playing the G.O.O.D music record since it leaked, too. It's pretty nice, just a shame the rest of the artists on it aren't anywhere near the level of Ye.

I've been digging Zebra Katz, they've not put too much out yet but what they have has been incredible, hip house is huge right now, the right combination of electro beats and rhythmic flow sounds amazing.

Been revisiting a lot of Skream's early stuff, I was so excited about that wobble industrial dubstep sound when it first dropped. The genre hasn't really lived up to expectations, and most of the stuff touted as great dubstep in the last few years has actually been more like future garage or breakbeat, but these early singles still pack a punch. Can't say anyone predicted that abrasive, aggressive sound coming out of South London back then would eventually be all over the US charts.

As for older stuff, Judee Sill's two records have been barely off my turntable in the last few months, they get more and more beautiful every time. It's pretty much the sound of 70s canyon folk encapsulated, I love her vocal enunciation with that southern street accent.

Oh, and fuck The Vaccines. Last thing the world needs is another ridiculously derivative, unoriginal indie rock band. If it wasn't for the absurd dearth of any good rock or indie music at the minute they'd barely get a mention anywhere. Somehow managed to see snippets of them live three times this year at various festivals and they weren't good live at all.

Man, I hated Reign Over Me, everything in it just struck me as entirely put on and unbelievable, I couldn't connect with it at all. The dialogue, the acting, the storyline, all came across dreadfully.

Hijacking this thread - I'm driving down France next week, and need some decent radio comedy series to listen to on the way down. I'm thinking Boosh, but what others can people recommend?

Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show is hilarious at times, especially the first season. The early episode 'James Bond' had me in stitches.

Absolutely adored this - one of the rare cases where the film matches up to the book. It must have been such a challenge to adapt the text for the screen, as very little happens, but they manage it wonderfully. Every shot is just perfect, the photography is amongst the most beautiful I've seen on any film. Firth deserves credit too; even though I'm not his biggest fan I must admit this is a masterful performance. Julianne Moore is good too. Nicholas Hoult less so, especially with his faux American accent. He makes up for it by being 'shot like an adonis', as one review put it, I've rarely seen someone look so beautiful on camera, his lighting and styling was, again, perfect.

This film should definitely be more talked about.

Watched Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas last night, thought it was utterly dreadful. It probably works on some sort of artistic level, but as a watchable film it's a total failure. I like a lot of films where nothing really happens, this wasn't one of them. The two characters seemed not only repelling and uninteresting, but plain fake and unbelievable. Just seemed like Depp trying to hammy it up as much as he could.

So what's the film buff/movie obsessive take on Withnail and I? Has it been damaged in serious circles by its quotability and popularity amongst students?

I predictably love it. Despite being given the DVD by a friend two years ago I only viewed it for the first time a month ago. Since then I've watched it three firther times. Grant is just remarkable, shambolic and cool and terribly tragic. Griffiths is also sublime, and Ralph Brown as the drug dealer is fucking hilarious. It's not often you get a film that is ridiculously funny and at the same time dark and heartbreaking. Catapulted into my top ten of all time immediately.

Re: Breaking Bad

Are you going to finish off your songs thread, btw?

You mean the 'albums better than Robbie Williams thread'? I'll probably get round to restarting it at some point in the next couple of weeks, barring unforseen circumstances.

As for New Girl, I agree that nothing really 'elevates' it to the echelons of really classic television, I just think it does the little things really well. And it's remarkebly consistent, there haven't been any moments where I cringe or where it gets kind of embarrassing, and a lot of even very good comedies sometimes lurch into that territory. They're doing another season, though, so I imagine it's all pretty downhill, especially since they have twenty four episodes to fill. Exaggerated character traits, increasingly ridiculous (in a bad way) scenarios, overplaying what worked last time - the unfortunate characteristics of a litany of formerly humorous shows that go on a season too long. Hopefully they can avoid it.

New Girl

Other than Breaking Bad, my favourite thing on television. I just burned through the season one boxset in about three days. It's that rare comedy where you care about the characters as well as the jokes, and it's their personalities that make it humorous. Zoey Deschanel and Max Greenfield are particularly amazing.

It's also a show that both guys and girls can enjoy; most comedies seem to be aimed at one of the other, but in this you have Deschanel being quirky and girly at the same time as Greenfield being a horrible misogynist (although he isn't one dimensional at all, there's a lot of elements to his character, without ever getting weighty).

Really fun show.

It was Flashdance, never seen Dirty Dancing. Currently working through a load of 80s films after loving everything John Hughes did. Footloose is next up.

Flashdance

You know when a work of art just clicks with you? This was one such film.

I admire it immensely artistically – it’s beautifully shot, and the lighting is amongst the best I’ve ever seen, hazy, dim, soft and warm, it really added to the atmosphere. And then there was just the catalogue of amazing scenes, from the strobe dance in the club against the white background (an epileptic fit waiting to happen, I’d have thought it’d warn you on the box), the scene outside the club in the driving rain when she drags out the semi-naked Jeannie, the dance in the spray at the start and of course the final audition.

The acting is great, too, especially Beale, who is extremely empathic whilst remaining feisty and full of character. The story moves quick and visually the film is very distinctive. The soundtrack is pretty perfect too, most of it written by Moroder so that’s to be expected. The way the songs connect with every scene is so skilful and understated. They also got all the little things right, such as locations and choice of shot. One of the most perfect films I’ve ever watched. The only criticism is the ending, which is abrupt. And it also feels very 80s, which I think is a good thing but some may find aspects dated.

Just checked IMDB, very surprised to see it only has a rating of 5.7. Glad I watched it before reading the reviews actually, always best to come at things without prior prejudice.

Edinburgh is much nicer than London, I think if it was between the two I'd much rather live there. As you say, the more chilled out and relaxed vibe makes up for the slightly lower job prospects.

I quite like the Sport threads being in Off Topic to be honest. If you go down the road of separate forums, then you subsequently end up with 'Music' and 'Film' sub forums down the line, and activity tends to decrease in all sections. That's been my experience anyway. UKFF is fairly unique in having everything in two places.

I've said in another thread, Lewandowski is my bet. Group A as you mentioned is rubbish and he's the most in form striker out of any in the teams.

I've been rinsing fuck out of this today, heard it on holiday years ago and forgot all about it. Pretty dumb fun obviously, doesn't stop it from being ridiculously likable and danceable...

Frnky Dee - Are U Gonna Bang Doe -

The only Bond filmed I've watched all the way through is 'Casino Royale' on a long haul flight. I didn't think it was especially great, though it was watchable enough.What are the best Bond films to start with for someone new to the franchise? I never really see the films ever pop up on 'Greatest Movies Of All Time' lists. Is that because it's uncool to vote for them? Hard to differentiate between them due to the sheer number of films in the franchise? Or do the films just never go beyond 'fun action film' status?

No, but they are very close to the sport so it wouldn't be at all surprising if Kauto Star was allowed to run to;

- Please the crowd

- Take money off the thousands of punters who would bet on such a popular horse

Even though all parties involved knew he had little chance of winning. When a sport is as corrupt as horse racing it's naive to think the rider, trainers and owners are not in league with the bookies to some extent.

It was obvious from the start that the horse was not running at all well and from my experience it would have been fairly obvious in the last few days of training and even out on the course that he wasn't anything like his usual self, anything like a threat. Ordinarily the horse becomes a non runner and everyone gets their money back, but here he does three or four fences and Ruby pulls him up. Stinks of bookies not wanting to refund all the bets.

I didn't even manage a place, blew through

Pretty disgraceful that Kauto Star was allowed to run today, he clearly wasn't in shape and if there was any justice betters would get their refunds but it will never happen. Tempting to think he only ran because the bookies knew there's be such huge support based on sentimentality and they could clean up the punters. Long Run is clearly past his best, pleased for McCoy to get a couple of winners after the week he's had anyway.

Worst Cheltenham Festival I've had in years from a betting standpoint, a ton of unfancied horses coming from nowhere to win, I'm well down on the week after today.

I think they'll be on to a tidy profit this week, a lot of hugely backed horses have come nowhere. The only way they're fucked is if everyone started laying against the odds on horses.

Finally something to celebrate with Cockney Mackem, didn't quite have enough to win but doubled my

Yeah, fantastic race, always looked comfortable so if anything I was surprised how close it was in the end. Worst day of the festival for me so far, lets see if I can claw anything back in the 4.00, very open race and they're paying five places so a lot of money to be won...and by the same mantra a lot of money to be lost.

So it's all on Cockney Mackem and Giorgio Quercus to save the day, both will keep me well into profit on the week, if none win or place then I'm back to even. How quickly you can squander winnings...