Post Of The Year 2016

[Undefeated Steak]

I wanna stick air_raid's post in here (oo-er). A perfect recap of the first-half of the decade.

 

 

I'm going to stray into tl:dr territory here but I'll keep it briefer than I could be by going for just one element per calendar year from the current decade.

 

2010 - Shawn Michaels : Saving the best chapter for last?

 

I've rambled on about this several times, as have others, but this is one of my favourite stories they've told for donkeys' years. Following on from a superb promo at the Slammys Raw from Shawn which managed both subtlety and being explicit in its purpose, the execution of the storyline in the first quarter of 2010 was brilliant from start to finish. While some storylines can feel artificially strung out until a WrestleMania, even though this story could only have led to one conclusion, the way it played out was compelling to watch. Here's what I done said before about it ;

 

 

In terms of ideas and execution, the build for this match is one of my favourites of all time. You don't get a more simple premise than "one wrestler wants to have a match with another wrestler because he wants to beat him and prove that he's better" and this is, for me, the best delivery of that story you could ask for.

 

The backstory is straightforward - Shawn Michaels, one of the best wrestlers of all time, had a match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV because he wanted to do what nobody else had, beat The Undertaker at a WrestleMania, because in his mind, that's who he is. He does what nobody else can do. It was a terrific match, but he lost. Now, we'll never really know whether that loss had been eating him up the whole time, or whether the thought just hit him in the heat of the moment, but the build for this began in earnest at the 2009 "Slammys" Raw......

 

"Undertaker..... I can beat you."

 

 

So, the Slammy is being given out for Match Of The Year. Shawn comes out and in the opposite of his 1997 "I won that match (tee hee!)" acceptance he refers to himself as coming up short but still being proud of the match, and almost walks away from the podium.... but doesn't. The wheels turn his mind and he turns back to the podium and pauses, clearly thinking "Do I want to do this?" I don't know whether it was pre-meditated or intentional for Shawn to look as though he was allowing the "HBK" chants to influence him, but that's how I interpret it, and then with one line, Michaels changes his destiny : "You know something? Undertaker..... I can beat you." He transforms in an instant from humble to determined and having watched this Raw unspoiled, this moment felt like a "holy shit" moment, even though it wasn't anything revolutionary, just one man issuing a challenge to another man. Sometimes you don't need the razmatazz.

 

WATCH : youtube.com/watch?v=JmQQdvkvFbg&t=3m00s

 

"No."

 

This was a stroke of genius. In a form of entertainment built on macho bravado, for Undertaker to turn Michaels down face to face (and send him off the deep end) is what makes the rest of the storyline what it is. Undertaker almost seems to worry about what it might do to Shawn (he's right) and pity him. It's a shame that for a moment they use the segment to bait the live crowd into thinking that they're getting that match on the night, but whatever. Shawn has to win the Rumble to get Undertaker back in the ring at Mania, assuming he's still champion. Should be fine, he's only wrestling Rey at the Rumble, right? No problems. And Shawn can beat 29 guys. Easy.

 

"My career is over."

 

 

Shawn goes into the 2010 Rumble the sentimental favourite and enters a brilliant performance, eliminating his best mate Triple H to show how much it means to him, and generally giving his best display of desperately clinging on and clawing at anything to stay in since 1995. When he's finally eliminated by Batista (the cunt!!) he goes nuts, getting back in and superkicking guys still in, and when the ref tries to tell him to leave because - well, he's out - he gets one too. Forget Edge, that Rumble is all about HBK's meltdown. It's breathtaking.

 

Now, the 8th February SmackDown is where Shawn completely loses it. Everyone probably remembers his line to Hunter of "my career is over" as he essentially realizes he's not bothered about losing the tag belts and marches off, but just look at the conviction with which he plays nutcase, trying to bargain his way into the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match with Teddy Long. Just brilliant.

 

WATCH : youtube.com/watch?v=FodgslTX3DU

 

The above is absolute proof that angles don't need to be surprising to work.

 

Boom.

 

Going into Elimination Chamber, we all knew what was going to happen. Edge as Royal Rumble winner meant that the logical opponent for him was Chris Jericho if Jericho held a title, Jericho was in the Elimination Chamber for Undertaker's belt, and Undertaker would be free to fight Shawn (and have motivation to do so) if Shawn found a way to interfere causing Undertaker to lose the belt to Jericho. Yes, it was obvious, but the execution was still amazing. Shawn comes out from under the ring to superkick Taker when his guard is down, and the look of self-loathing on his face as he allows Y2J - the man who nearly cost him his sight and punched his wife, remember - to take the pin and win the World Heavyweight title, is brilliant. To his credit Jericho plays his part in the caution with which he covers Undertaker, not taking his eyes off Michaels in disbelief that a mortal enemy is apparently assisting him in winning the title he covets so much.

 

"You're on."

Next night on Raw, Shawn comes down to make the explanation we didn't need, and Undertaker comes out to accept the rematch as we knew he would. Predictable is not a bad thing when it's what the people want. Undertaker lays down the caveat that he wants Shawn's career on the line because "This year won't be enough" now he's seen the lengths Michaels will go to. It's very humanizing for Undertaker in terms of the levels of restraint he shows considering what your typical Undertaker revenge mission looks like, bearing in mind he's just lost a World title. Shawn accepts without hesitation (save a pause for dramatic effect) because suddenly, this is all he has left.

 

WATCH : youtube.com/watch?v=jINjTPxTMw4

 

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE PLACEBO VIDEO.

 

Well, don't. I'll be honest, this video tells you the story better than I could with a million words. The distortion, reverse play, slow-motion, everything about this production is amazing. Possibly my favourite five minutes of wrestling of the decade.

 

 

The Match

 

I don't need to tell you about the match, do I? This thread is about the storyline. You know what happens in the match. Shawn gets the shit kicked out of him, manages to make us think he still might win (even though deep down we know he's losing) and then doesn't. Go watch it, if you want.

 

"Shawn Michaels has left the building."

 

Shawn comes out the next night and cuts his emotional goodbye speech. Even as a Bret Hart fan, conditioned for years to hate the little prick, it made me well up a bit. I especially was impressed that Shawn used his "left the building" line from 92-93 since I had thought earlier in the day that I would have worked that in for the fans that have followed him the whole time, but assumed he wouldn't. I was very pleased that he did.

 

WATCH : youtube.com/watch?v=CKqXzizPXUk

 

The aftermath was that Shawn's unsuccessful quest was woven into the storyline for Triple H's own crusade to end The Streak, although personally I prefer Max Landis' version of that particular story.

 

There you go. That's my favourite storyline of possibly the last ten years and definitely the last five. It's based 100% on simple emotions and desires that we can all understand, the need to win, the need to be the best, to prove something to yourself, jealousy, self-doubt, frustration, revenge. It provokes and ellicits an emotional response and builds the match up without hyperbole as one of the biggest matches they ever put on, and it deserved its' status of going on last at WrestleMania. A great job by everyone involved in terms of writers, production staff, bit part players like Hunter, Jericho and even Teddy Long and Batista for their small parts, and of course the two guys in the middle.

 

2011 - The Undertaker VS Triple H

 

Triple H backing away from Undertaker as if his body had suddenly exploded into clusters of maggots after kicking out of the Tombstone at WrestleMania in 2011 is the best single moment of the decade, for me.

 

Yeah, I'm having this one too.

 

The wordless challenge that started the road to this match at Mania 27 was a thing of sheer genius - miffed, as we were, that it wasn't Sting wanking in that shed the whole time. But anyhoo. I don't know why but I wasn't sure the match was going to give me anything to write home about, but it knocked my socks off with two stunning entrances, shortcuts galore and some fantastic storytelling. For the first time since Orton in 2005 I actually found myself thinking that Undertaker might lose - not during the build-up, then it seemed preposterous, but during the match itself. I wrote this in the immediate aftermath of the PPV :

 

 

The point where Undertaker kicked out of the third Pedigree I admit, I started thinking "overkill," but then the story really started playing out. Watching Undertaker fail to sit up and have to drag himself up, I thought "this is it!" Art imitating life, I thought "he cant do it any more. He's done." I bought completely into Undertaker finishing up, and with Hunter the last guy left that could perhaps believably do it and END THE UNDERTAKER, or that Undertaker respects enough to say "this is the guy to put me down," damn it, I thought he had him. As Undertaker slumped in the corner shadow boxing like he still had it, I thought this is it. This is the mercy kill, the final shotgun blast, as he had done to Shawn, as Shawn had done to Flair. They HAD ME. But it wasn't to be. Even as Hunter groped blindly for his sledgehammer in the clutches of Hell's Gate, I thought he was still in with a shout. But it wasn't to be.

 

 

2012 - Brock Lesnar returns. Fuck you, Cena.

 

I go back and forth as to what I actually like best - the actual match at Extreme Rules or Lesnar's first night back. The surprise element, the pop, kicking Cena's cap away like it's dogshit... Christ alive, I loved that segment. The match itself was such a refreshing one in that it felt so different from a standard WWE main event and the best thing was that the finish was so well done. Going in I thought the match was a little no-win in that Lesnar shouldn't lose his first match back and Cena shouldn't lose another huge marquee match so soon after the Rock defeat but it was executed so well that Brock was able to come out with his "legitimate monster" aura retained - in fact, enhanced. Just a great piece of work all round.

 

2013 - Mark Henry stunning the shit out of me by being good.

 

Oh, that reminds me. Mark Henry's "retirement" in June 2013. Fuck me, Henry is INCREDIBLE in this angle.

 

You know, I think people think I'm taking the piss when I talk about how much I loved a bit of Mizark in 2013. Well, two bits of it. That retirement angle was superb to the point where I stayed up to watch the PPV. That's right - I was "sold" a show by a Mark Henry title match. And you know what? I really enjoyed it. It was dramatic as fuck. Despite considering him shit for most of the entirety of his run with the company, I wanted to see the beast actually win THE belt.

 

Mind you, that wasn't his best performance of the year for me. The Elimination Chamber is incredible - watching Mark stalking around inside his pod, watching a cauldron of rage bubbling inside him, I actually found myself getting slightly "watching a horror movie" scared at what he was going to unleash when he got free. With no immediately obvious SmackDown title match set up for Mania at that point, watching Mark splatter everyone when he got out, I completely would not have begrudged him winning. Would have been better than Swagger's out of the blue win.

 

2014 - Mania XXX. Fuck me sideways, a Mania that delivered!

 

WrestleMania XXX is still one of the best ever, two years on.

 

Well, sure, because the two since haven't been as good.

 

This show was brilliant. Obviously I'm slightly biased due to two of my favourite things in the world colliding in the opener - overblown HHH entrances and Sasha Banks - but still, it was an excellent show. Again, copy and pasting previous words is much easier than trying to come up with new ones ;

 

WrestleMania XXX

I watched this WrestleMania live with one group of friends then again on the Monday night with another group who had not had the Monday off work and found it a complete delight both times. The second group were lapsed casual fans and they all enjoyed it so much that they were so convinced "the wrestling has gotten good again" that they asked if we could get tickets to the next UK tour! My best mate who is as lapsed a casual as you could imagine, enjoyed it so much that at our next car boot sale he picked up a bootleg DVD of the recording so he could watch it again. This is a guy who hasn't spent money on wrestling (other than presents for me) since the 1990s. This should tell you something about the quality of this show.

 

I could do 15 minutes on why I have no problem with them ending the Streak but I'll keep it brief - the decision is RIGHT from a business sense to break the Streak to be able to use it to pop a huge SummerSlam buyrate, Brock Lesnar was the RIGHT guy to give that extra value to, in order to make him an even BIGGER unstoppable monster for the eventual choice of "next top guy" to overcome and thus be established as a true force. Hindsight is 20/20 and I'm not prepared to get into the "yay or nay" of Roman Reigns as the eventual beneficiary of what they've done with Lesnar but ON THE NIGHT what the did with Brock and Taker made PERFECT SENSE. Using "The Streak" to add to your Mania buyrate only lasts so long and if you think it should have stayed intact forever, you're basing that on sentiment, and that's not pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is about getting the consumer to part with their cash, so WWE made the right call in FINALLY using the value they'd created, towards the hopeful creation of their next drawing card. From an artistic point of view the match had its issues but you still couldn't help but watch with fascination as to how they were going to work it out, and anything I could say about the actual finish would be repeating what others have already said often and more eloquently.

 

The rest of the show is tremendous. The Daniel Bryan bookends to the show are both very exciting matches, and like all the best Manias it feels like a real "end of chapter" moment when Danny Bry finally sits top of the pile. John Cena vs Bray Wyatt was a compelling watch which exceeded the expectations of everyone I watched it with, and the battle royal caused genuine excitement that we had just potentially seen a breakout superstar created. That they went nowhere with Cesaro and neglected to go full face turn is depressing, but should not detract from that match being a part of a great card. Simple truth - I'll watch WrestleMania XXX from start to finish until the day I'm done with wrestling. It's that good.

 

2015 - The BO$$ and Bayley

 

The Bayley vs Sasha Banks matches were some of the best matches of the decade. Sasha stomping on Bayley's injured hand is one of my favourite spots ever.

 

I'm going to try and sum up why I love Sasha - she is one of my five favourite wrestlers on Earth - without going on too much. The short version is that while I was getting into NXT last year I realized that Sasha was possibly the most complete female wrestler they'd produced for years in terms of a total package - a look, a character that was well-defined and executed, and the ability to have a good match. Very quickly I became invested in her, and I started crowing to anyone that would listen, "Sasha is ready for the main roster. Not six months from now ; NOW." My prevailing memory of the infancy of my Sasha love was the morning after the Four Way, I was in work having not seen it yet and my colleague had, and I usually would have stayed unspoiled but I heard myself say "Just tell me, did Sasha win??" and he grinned and nodded. I was simultaneously so happy and also oddly sad that winning NXT's belt meant she wasn't getting called up as quickly as I hoped... but mostly happy. Of course, eventually she was called up, and the reaction I had to her, Charlotte and Becky turning up was probably exactly what they had hoped for.... "Aww, poor Bayley!"

 

Brooklyn was a superb night for Banksy and her plucky enemy. The story of Bayley as the under-achiever/also-ran reaching a conclusion in such a setting in a very well executed match was special and she established herself as one of my favourite babyfaces, in complement to the unmitigated bitchiness of "The BO$$." I think the Brooklyn match is widely thought of as the better of their matches but for me, the layers in the Iron Woman match that built on that first meeting made it a truly outstanding viewing experience for me. I attempted to explain in the NXT thread ;

 

Right, here's my thoughts on Bayley vs Sasha, and why it's probably my match of the year so far, pipping the previous candidate which was.... probably their match at Brooklyn.

 

* The simple fact that I went into this match not expecting it to be as good as the previous match and it was, blew my mind. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's probably the most I've looked forward to a US match since Cena/Punk at Money In The Bank 2011, and it lived up to it. At 30 minutes it was going to be the longest women's match in company history, comfortably, but it at no point dragged and while some Iron Man matches feel a little like "stuff's happening but it's not playing a part in the story or drama, that will come at the end" - here, the whole match told one big story or at least was comprised of a couple of different stories, or chapters. Nothing felt like it was wasted. People want to talk about how much chance the girls get to practice and plan their matches, but I couldn't care less. A match is good or it isn't, and I thought this was awesome.

 

* They didn't go overboard with the mush when it when it was time to get real, bell-to-bell. Despite the fact that them blatantly being friends in real life has seeped into the TV, they still went gung ho with Sasha as her "BO$$" character, obnoxious, arrogant and doing anything it takes it to win, and I BELIEVED it. It was stark contrast to some other feuds WWE have run which started off from a real-life animosity and yet I didn't buy into, feeling "this is just a wrestling angle" and yet here I bought into this battle in spite of knowing that in real life they're BFFs. That stands out in my mind.

 

* The first fall was splendid bitch heeling, the LED screen stuff felt novel as a means of stealing a fall. Bayley fighting from underneath as the underdog babyface and only ever actually leading in the dying embers of the match was exactly how the match needed to be booked with the doubt as to whether Bayley was actually as good as Sasha, or whether she had just been good enough on that one night. I actually thought Bayley's expressions in the opening moments of the match were portraying quite a lot of self-doubt, and if that was intentional then kudos, job done and done well. Catching the tope suicida and hitting the Bayley-to-Belly on the floor was a nice twist, Bayley working Sasha's hand was a great callback to Brooklyn (and of course was instrumental in the finish), the reverse rana with almost the opposite outcome popped me big time and best of all, Sasha catching and countering Bayley's kicking out at her in the corner while she was getting trash-talked was a splendid revisit and reversal of one of my favourite moments from the Brooklyn match. There were loads of great little moments.

 

* When Sasha went after Izzy, I totally goosebumped all over at how good a heel Sasha was being. Watching at my desk with my headphones on I actually exclaimed "Oh, you fucking bitch" to myself and for a second worried my colleague sat opposite thought I was talking to her. Sasha just completely "gets it" in terms of how to work a crowd and be a cunt. She's in my top 5 in the world to enjoy watching, without doubt, and yet even though I rate her so highly and love watching her, I've got no qualms in hoping for the hero to beat her in the end when the hero is as good as Bayley at being the hero. I love to hate Sasha.

 

* The finish rocked my world. It was art to me. I bought that Bayley was fucked, but then when she held on and rolled out of the cross-armed lung blower, grapevined the first arm and looked like she was going for the Rings of Saturn, I got goosebumps because it was so smooth a reversal (without looking too "ballet") and working the arm was going to tie in to what inevitably was the go-home. However, when Bayley went for the fingers, I absolutely nearly welled up. The sheer storytelling of "she worked the hand, she went for the hand to break the Bank Statement, going for the hand is going to win her the match" was one thing, but tying in to the doubts (at least that had entered my mind) of "Can Bayley be as vicious as Sasha and also do WHATEVER it takes to win?" - it hit me really hard. It was beautiful. Wrestling done right is more story than sport and this was a pay off like I haven't seen for years. There's something wrong with me because wrestling done well enough genuinely moves me, and this did.

 

Deserved to main event. Fabulous match. I could pinpoint a couple of things that might have made it even better, minor tweaks, but I can't be bothered to mention them and detract from how good the match actually was. I want to watch it again right now. Five stars for me.

 

Of course, in the intervening months, Sasha turned babyface with a pop at the Royal Rumble, had a superstar entrance at WrestleMania, and had her merch bought at a house show by me. Yeah, she's made it.

 

 

That's about it. Honourable mention to New Japan. All of it. Without banging on about shows I went to, transformed this decade from "promotion I follow" to "favourite company on the planet".

 

[wandshogun09]

Came in here to nominate that Bill Diarreah post from the Bully Fuel thread but that post from air_raid's a corker as well. So +1 for both!

[Frankie Crisp]

Definite plus one for Bill's seal story. Had me laughing like one for a good few minutes. Glorious.

[Scott Malbranque]

Two fuckin belters there. Like our Magic up there, I'm plus one-ing both.

Willy Gastro's seal story absolutely creased me up

[Kaz Hayashi]

Bill. D

 

"Whats the Northern Word for Career?"...

 

"Dinner"

 

 

 

wonderful

[PunkStep]

I'll definitely second that! In context, following the previous god knows how many pages, it was a perfect post.

[Chest Rockwell]

I enjoyed Harmonic Generator's review of Ready to Rumble. Perhaps you will too.

 

 

 

Tonight I watched Ready To Rumble for the very first time. I blame you, Liam.
 
 
I took some notes while I watched.
 
 - David Arquette is the worst example of every bad stereotype of wrestling fans. He's an idiot, he's a redneck, he's a pervert… In the scene where he loses his virginity - for fuck's sake, he has to be a virgin as well! - with Rose McGowan (who, by the way, did NOT need to go all the way with him just to cement her heel turn a few minutes later), I could only think, the fuck does Rose McGowan ever go fucking near that character in any fucking universe. Fucking hell. No level of neckbeard wish fulfilment could be this unbelievable. There’s more chance of Alexa Bliss seeing sense and heading over the Atlantic to seek me out than this ever happening. Fuck’s sake. He's what Pitcos sees when he thinks of wrestling fans.
 
- Speaking of heel turns. There's a LOT of heel turns in this film. All the guys turn on King at the start, then McGowan turns, then Jimmy's son turns heel after doing a run-in in the Triple Cage Match… at least that's true to WCW!
 
 - They seemed to have a problem with when the wrestling was meant to be predetermined and when it wasn't. Arquette's screaming “WRESTLING’S NOT FAAAAAKE!” at the start, so naturally the first instance of wrestlers in the film, they’re discussing the finish of a match. The first King-DDP match has blatant spot-calling, until it turns into a shoot and DDP slingshots him over the top rope through a table.
 
(Incidentally, that match continues with a chairshot, low blow, six or seven run-ins and a ref bump, but there's no DQ called. WCW!)
 
King assaults DDP backstage on the following Nitro – in an admittedly not bad brawl – which suddenly became a Falls Count Anywhere match FOR THE TITLE?! I didn’t watch 2000 WCW but this wouldn’t have surprised me if it had actually happened on a Nitro.
 
All the matches are scripted and 100% predetermined, except when they're not, and then they're 100% shoots. Even in the Triple Cage Match - which is a shoot - it's not a shoot, because DDP breaks kayfabe and no-sells the salt to the face!
 
And then after the match, Mean Gene wants to know if King's going to unify the WCW title with the tag belts. Because that's how that works.
 
 - The fact Arquette and Scott Caan are driving a literal wagon of shit around with them is an appropriate metaphor for the film.
 
 - It seemed to me that whoever wrote this might have actually been WWE viewers rather than WCW. We get Austin's can of whupass catchphrase, we get a 'rest in peace', they go to New York (because nothing says WCW like New York), and there's even a rip-off of The Kat with Pretty Kitty (who never turns up again and whose only function is to strip off. So yeah, like The Kat then.)
 
 - The baddie, whose name I really should have picked up at some point, says of the fans, "they're morons. They'll love who I tell them to love". Well, they got that right, it sounds a pretty accurate part of wrestling to me!
 
 - Sal Bandini's got a great gimmick. Showing up Boogeyman-like in unexpected places shouting "wanna wrestle?!" I'd watch. Likewise, Fireman Fred would have gone down a storm in 1995.
 
 - Sting and Goldberg both looked utter badasses when they were on screen. Even in this farce, they ooze genuine star power. When Sting made the save in the main event, that was my shining light of the whole film. Fuck yes Sting! Goldberg was ace, I might have to watch two hours of his squashes to erase this film from my mind (and whoever thought putting him onscreen with Oliver Platt and still expecting us to suspend disbelief to the point where we could consider Platt a viable champion compared to Goldberg must have lost their mind.)
 
 - That ladder shot killed Rose McGowan, right? She's not blinking or breathing afterwards, and you never see her again. That's dark.
 
 
 
I think SCG should set up a spin-off podcast inspired by / ripping off The Worst Idea Of All Time, where two guys watch the same terrible movie every week for a year and review it in a podcast each time. I'd listen to that.
 
 
To end, the one lesson I'll take away from Ready To Rumble.. a diamond upside down is a pussy.

[Kaz Hayashi]

It's a cool post and gets a +1

[HarmonicGenerator]

The story of how Frankie Crisp discovered the Beatles is just wonderful:

 

The one that comes to mind is, predictably, The Beatles.

 

I used to go to visit my Nan every Saturday with my Mum. My Nan had terrible Athritis and some weeks she was mobile, others she wasn't. It was the toss of coin each week as to whether she could leave the house or not; if she could we'd take her to Tuebrook market but if not, my Mum would go on her own and I'd stay in the house with my Nan. One particular week in what I *think* was 1989, she wasn't too good so I stopped back with her whilst my Mum went to buy cheap pegs or something.

 

A ten year old and a seventy year old don't really have much to talk about so after about an hour of 'how's school?' and 'how did you get on at the bingo the other week?', the conversation was dry. All of a sudden, once we realised the telly was shite, she said she was going to put some music on. I wasn't arsed. I was ten. Anyway, she asked me to put a cassette of Help! in the tape player. It hadn't been rewound so as soon as I pressed the massive play button (with two hands), the intro to Ticket to Ride came on. It knocked me off my foot cushion and immediately I was hooked. She told me to take the tape home and I must've played it five times a day for weeks.

 

A few years later she told me she'd never forget my face when it first came on and I remember it like it was yesterday; the feeling it gave me is indescribable. I still have that cassette and within a couple of years I'd used my pocket money to buy the rest of the albums and not long after I did the same for the CDs.

 

To this day, I thank my Nan for introducing me to The Beatles and every time I hear Ticket to Ride I get goosebumps and see Betty's fantastic smile just watching me taking it in.

[Gus Mears]

Absolutely plus one for that.

[Arch Stanton]

Yeah, super story. I wouldn't say it's a post of the year or anything, but it's a real heart-warmer. I'm almost jealous that I don't have any such sentimental attachment to any songs from my childhood.

[PowerButchi]

NEWM don't post enough

 

in reponse to the OP, something I feel really uneasy about in recent years is a stark return to 'I'm alright, Jack', which possibly has something to do with an extended spell of the Tories being in government (and New Labour before it), widening the inequality gap and hiding a system that is failing many.

 

Not having a dig at anybody in this thread at all, (as I type this from my modest semi-detached with a couple of kids i can afford to feed), but there's been lots of broadly positive comment based on the fact that they're doing okay, and whilst it's fine to think like that because you all seem a lovely bunch, there's a risk that cunts who think that way probably only turn this gap into a black hole. Society, regardless of where people sit politically, seems to have become more uncaring, with a particular focus on blaming downwards (immigrants, people on benefits) than upwards to the enormously rich, for many of their financial woes or day to day worries.

 

Lots of you seem to live in London, but up here in Sunderland we're in a bit of a fucking state truth be told, with Newcastle only clinging on through faceless gentrification selling £4 pints and £6 cocktails to people who can't afford it. I know lots who have turned back to credit cards, unrealistic mortgages etc and are signposting the next recession partly because they haven't learned personal lessons but also because they continue to be squeezed by child benefit cuts, a lack of jobs, or fair pay rises within the jobs they have. The councils are working on absolutely fuck all budget so zero gets improved whilst the natives get angrier, infrastructure was NEVER recovered from monumental closures in the 80s, and though houses are as cheap as you'll find anywhere in the country, it's probably most relative to where you'd struggle to pay for it too. I'm sure there MUST be that reflection nationwide, but then I could be just seeing the view from my northern slum, I dunno.

 

I don't think the country is fine at all really, but then I think lots and lots of people are doing just fine, which seems to be the big masking agent. Bit of contemporary Thatcherism perhaps? I get wary talking this way because I don't want to bog it down or be a condescending social justice warrior, but I don't think people are necessarily all that nice to each other in a desperate quest to protect what they have, and it gets me a little bit depressed sometimes. I understand it too, but I wish there could be a cultural shift back in the other direction.

 

Out of interest, how does this and what others have said compare to New York?

[Linus]

Seconded

[Fog Dude]

+1 for that.

[The King Of Swing]

Gets a +1 from me.