Everything in its Right Place

Head in the Sand Carriage of gloom Of existential weight  Embody this grey Sunday  I hope we're all fucking late And miss the Monday meetings  The five alarms, the shitty cereal bars The morning coffee, the search for car keys The suit and noose, the lonely commute The forced smile, the-must-be-done-by-5-file The belligerent boss, the colleague constantly cross The three pound meal deal, the aching that your eyes feel The signing of the time sheet, the creak of the seat The sepulchral sound of the phone ring, the sluggish clock dreadfully ticking The hours, seconds, minutes of our life away I hope we're all fucking late If you don't know what you're working for, head in the sand let's work some more Rain snow or shine there is no forgiving just relentless business until your morals are spinning And your weekend away flys by in the blink of an eye and screech the Sunday train Blue and as unwilling as the rest of us Tied t...

The Importance of the Screenwriter Quantum of Solace  (2008, dir. Mark Forster), the second instalment in the Daniel Craig era of the James Bond series, is quite easily the worst film I have sat through recently, I remembered it being ok, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The thing is though, it really didn’t have to be so awful. But contracts have to be honoured; the latest shit-smelling 007 aftershaves and Omega watches insufferable marketing campaigns can’t be delayed, and so Mark Forster began shooting… without a script! This was of course due to the 2007-08 writer’s guild of America strike, in which screenwriters rightfully made a stand against the severe pay constraints in their job contracts, which had them redrafting for nothing amongst other blatant exploitation by Hollywood.  Whilst the director will always receive due praise, the screenwriter remains elusive in praise or recognition, but this film serves as a great example as to just how important the...

A Short Poem: This Hour Playing live music is THE best thing I do in my life. After playing some headline shows and getting a taste of the power live performance can have, realising how unique the experience can be for each person and simultaneously how it proves such commonality between us all, I wrote this little piece.  Give us this hour of uncontrollable joy Of purity Of community  Of music, that one great thing that unites us and speaks through our ancestors in the beat of the drum, the pluck of the bass the strum of the guitar and the voice that rests within us all Give us this moment that autonomises us from greed and fear, that cruel lucifer that binds us to phones antoginises our addictions and distracts us from our true potential For this hour we become human beings again and ride on the wave of joy This is all of ours, this casts light into the darkness creating memories that glue us together for eternity Be good to yourself for once and forget...

Tarentino Dialogue Can you believe this film is 10 years old? I don't know why but out of all of Tarentino's films this is the one that I think about most, the one I tend to revisit and the one which I think is the only serious challenger to Reservoir Dogs as Tarentino's finest work (I'm glad the Once Upon a Time In Hollywood hysteria has died down finally). When discussing Quentin Tarentino himself of course, it’s probably best not to mention anything visual. The chances are, you’d be complimenting some B-movie director from 60’s Hollywood or an obscure exploitation film. His films are bathed in intertextuality, magpieing anything that he remembers or looks good from the thousands of films he’s seen. But the dialogue… that’s where Tarentino comes to life. It is often in the deliberateness of evasion that his films tend to get you hooked, as well as the flow of the words. Think of the classic example in  Pulp Fiction  where Vincent and Jules turn ...

Revowooftion It seems the more festival films that I watch the more transparent their mechanics become - be visually exciting, re-appropriate national specificity so it’s easily translatable to a global audience and always, always, cast a child/teenager as the main character. White God  (2014) is a Hungarian film directed by  Kornél Mundruczó  which follows Lili (a young teenager) and her dog Hagen. The film delivers a dualistic narrative after Hagen is cast away by Lilis father Daniel, jumping between the despair and viciousness Hagen encounters on the streets, and Lilis search for him, as well as other aspects of her life.               Hagen and all the other dogs throughout the film are treated with utter malevolence, and certain language used in the opening half hour, such as comparisons to monsters and the accusation “half-breeds [dogs] have to pay tax”, leads one to instantly assume the...

Break in the Clouds The stones upon dead beaches  lie with oil that’s dripping. And the cry of all the wildlife echoes in the distance. Along with all the voices of the ones that weren’t “God’s children”. So you walk with eyes shut tight for how else can you glimpse a future? And try to keep your mind straight,  your body calm and sober. For within the darkness you search for the silhouette of justice, which has, long been smothered by the prime minister of hatred who speaks with a slippery tongue and is a master of phatic language. Seek from him only lies for he’s not known for honest answers. And then plead for the rain to stop. So tired, tired of waiting, waiting for a break in the clouds. The road like a line drawn by a fat magic marker. The engine like a static on a once harmonious frequency. The ale that kept you warm has since left you cold and empty.  Close these beaten eyes momentarily to perceive, the nigh...

The Treehouse          “I honestly don't know how many times I have to tell you Jack; I am not having another year of you letting our son down”.          “Well what do you want me to do?” Jack spoke with growing impatience and anger. It wasn't as if he was indifferent or apathetic to her cause. He wanted the same thing. He was just fed up of having the same argument over and over and getting nowhere. Is this what it all becomes? That sweet scent and inseparable moments turned to ashes, still clinging but untenable, like the sole of an old pair of shoes.           “Look I know I promised him this and I don’t want to go back on my word, I know it won’t set a good- “          “You’re too right it won’t set a good example Jack. If this was the first time I think I’d understand but it’s becoming rid...

Hysterical Bi-sexual Don’t get me wrong,  Vicky Cristina Barcelona  (2008) is an awful film, but yet I still enjoyed it. Woody Allen’s film, funded in part by the Spanish government, follows two women Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) as they spend the summer in Barcelona.  First, let’s unpack the clear two atrocities of the film. For one there is the narrative, which honestly feels like a wet dream that Woody Allen had one night, in which three of the most attractive women you can think of are literally falling for him. Him in the films case is Juan Antonio Gonzalo (Javier Bardem), a Spanish painter who we first meet in a restaurant propositioning Vicky and Cristina for a threesome. Ridiculous from the outset, it is a vaguely familiar trope; two oppositional American tourists, one artistic and capricious (Cristina) and the other uptight and unhappily engaged (Vicky), both falling for the exotic native (Antonio Gonzalo), the only one to fulf...

Ten Top Tips for Traveling Solo in Southeast Asia... Ok. So we all now it takes a hell of a lot to get on that plane to the other side of the world on your own. Believe me, standing in that check in line at Heathrow I almost let the blind panic take over and send me on my heels running out of the departure doors and calling my Mum to come and pick me up. But I didn't, and you know what? Everything was fine. In fact, more than fine... everything was incredible. Phew. So first of all, stop panicking and get out there, and if you're alone, still get out there! I done a small section of my trip with a friend and actually found that travelling solo is better. Anyway, the purpose of this post is just to provide some tips to any future solo travellers. Some are painfully obvious, but some I learnt along the way and wished I'd known from the start. So read up, take the leap and book your flights! 1. Books, Music, Podcasts and Movies So here's the thing....