MC5 - Black to Comm

Think this predates the 5's legendary 'Kick out the Jams' debut album. They seem to be making determined efforts to ape the Yardbirds in both their appearance and playing, but doesn't quite work out, as they appear more like a rudderless teenage garage band, who are just learning how to play their instruments.

Footballers who look like characters from The Wire

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/football-banter/Footballers-who-look-like-characters-from-TV-show-The-Wire-starring-Glen-Johnson-Ashley-Young-and-Robbie-Keane-article152749.html


From the online football section in the UK Mirror (who would have thought they could do something mildly amusing).

Robbie Keane looks like Carcetti?  Can't really see that.  Poor old Glen Johnson gets compared to a female psychopath character!  Florent Malouda does look a bit like Detective Carver - think it's just the high cheekbones.

Paul Robeson - some live recordings

Deep River, Vermeyoh and Curly-Headed Baby. Paul Robeson was one of those annoying people who was a genius at everything he tried, be it music, theatre, film, athletics, academics, linguistics or social activism.

Unfortunately, the last one led to his downfall, as he was hounded for most of his later years by red-baiting scum like FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy's House of Un-American Activies Committee who liked neither Robeson's worldwide popularity nor his (sometimes naive) socialist leanings.

His US passport was eventually taken away from him, meaning he couldn't travel outside the States (a round-about form of house arrest).  This lead to a series of mental breakdowns from which he never quite recovered.

His life story would make a great movie, but can't think of anyone who could play him...  Definitely not Will Smith!

Church-State Separation - 'Count me in'

Heard something about this site a few months back, but just came across the URL over the weekend.
http://www.countmeout.ie/

"The Count Me Out website is a source of information for those considering leaving the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). For many who no longer practise, remaining "lapsed" is not sufficient; a clean break is needed."

Am definitely gonna sign up for this one and do my little bit for for church-state separation, in our beloved homeland.

Hopefully it becomes a rolling stone and we can at least get the f*cking Angelus off our national airwaves. If people have a particular need to hear 60 seconds of bongs & gongs at 12 and 6 pm, why not just download a piece of anal cacophony from Mike Oldfield's appalling 70's album 'Tubular Bells' onto their iPods.

Don't want to offend anyone's religious sensibilities - what people do in the privacy of their own homes or places of worship is their own business, but f.f.s., it's 2010.

Breaking Bad - we are a part of the DVD nation

Got a cheap eBay box-set of the first series of Breaking Bad - the latest must-see, 'water cooler' show from the States, which even 99% of Americans have never seen.

Watched it all in a few hours today and have to admit, it's pretty damn good. It's been out for a couple of years on US cable but nobody has picked it up over here yet.

The basic premise is that a meek, world-weary, double-jobbing, high-school chemistry teacher discovers that, as he turns 50, he has terminal cancer and, through a series of incidents, resolves to make some serious money to leave to his pregnant wife and mildly disabled son in the inevitable event of his death.

The problem is that he goes about this by setting up an ad-hoc crystal-meth lab and then needs to worry about how to distribute the product, and how to interact with some very heavy-duty drug dealers...

The lead is played by Bryan Cranston (probably more known for his comedic skills as the father in Malcolm in the Middle. I think he has won best Emmy lead male actor for Breaking Bad in both 2008 &  2009.

Anyhoo - it's not quite The Wire or The Sopranos from what I've seen so far, but definitely worth watching out for. A little bit reminiscent overall of some Tarantino stuff and, at times, the Michael Douglas everyman role in Falling Down; there is even a McGyver moment!.

Hopefully TG4 will pick up on it, but you can pretty much guarantee that it will be shown at a post-post-post watershed hour, probably 1:30am:-( in the same way as classic American TV like Larry Sanders, OZ, The Wire and initially Seinfeld have always been treated on this side of the pond.

So, as with the Wire, it will only get its due credit 2 years later, when the show is over and word of mouth gets around and the Guardian TV critics and Charlie Brooker have orgasms about it, inciting millions to buy the box-set on DVD.

They never did that with Little House on the Prairie or the Cosby Show (or Fair City!)...