And when the sun begins to shine

Some while ago, my mum told me about a game of "spot the St Johnstone mug" on Taggart. The actor Colin McCredie, who plays Stuart Fraser, is a Saints fan in real life, and attempts to get a St Johnstone mug in shot during each episode. Last time I watched it, I forgot to look. But I was watching it with my parents on Tuesday night, and we all spotted it!

Anything that spreads the word.

She's the puzzle piece behind the couch that makes the sky complete

I've just started a new jigsaw. I bought it because I really like the picture. But it's really hard. Jigsaws take me long enough anyway - I have a strange approach. But I have a feeling this going to take me even longer than normal...

Where is all you angels now the figureheads have fell

This article in the NME made me chuckle. Music is full of preposterous lyrics, none of which I can actually bring to mind at the moment (but watch this space). I'm quite a fan of the ungrammatical (see the title of this posting).

Of course one person's stupid lyric is another person's pearl of wisdom. And if you like the artist anyway, you are much more likely to hold the latter view. I remember having heated discussions about lots of Lemonheads lyrics, and whether they were nonsense or not (I think not, but then I probably would. And in any case, I've never been in the "lyrics as poetry camp". It's about whether or not it touches you in some way).

However, there are some rubbish ones. Fist of pure emotion, anyone?

I don't like Mondays

Tell you why?

Well, I preordered the Glasvegas album. Last time I preordered something, it arrived through my letter box on the day of release. This time it dispatched on the day of release. So, I won't get it until tomorrow.

Serves me right for being lazy I suppose. I could have just gone to an actual physical shop and bought it there.

Oh no, not me, we never lost control

This article in the NME got me thinking about cover versions. Some of these truly are terrible, although I haven't been able to face the Take That one. It also reminded me of when I was much younger, I bought Paul Young's album No Parlez and on that was a cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart. I was blissfully unaware of the original at that point, never mind any of the surrounding story, so didn't quite understand when I would read people lambasting it. Of course, once I did hear it, I understood. A song of such bitterness and regret just doesn't sound right being crooned.

So, I started thinking about good covers or ones which might even be better than the original.

My starter for ten? Nirvana's version of Bowie's Man Who Sold The World. Now I like the original well enough, but I prefer the version without the washboard and slightly ghostly vocals (to be honest, I think I even prefer the Lulu version, with Bowie on backing vocals). Nirvana's version is rawer, but infinitely superior. The classic performance is from their MTV Unplugged appearance, where Kurt gets the words wrong, and Krist Novoselic looks superbly goofy.

When they did it live on stage, it was that bit faster, that bit rawer and Kurt yelled the guitar part at the end as well as playing it.



Utterly awesome.

Boys living next door Are never what they seem

This week's film for my dad was What Just Happened. He likes Robert de Niro as an actor, although normally in tougher roles than this one. But it seemed to get the thumbs up, but perhaps not over enthusiastically so. He found it "a mildly amusing look at Hollywood, but there's not much else I can say about it. It was mildly funny. Not worth a guffaw. There were some people who were guffawing away, but I think that's just for patter and to make it seem like they were getting a message that no-one else was. And D is quite perceptive and he couldn't see what those folk were guffawing about either".

Guffaw really is an underrated word, don't you think?

Shake your hair girl with your ponytail

Film reviews from father and daughter this time

Firstly, father. His most recent sojourns to the cinema have been to see Burn After Reading and Body of Lies. Since I've seen Burn After Reading too, we were actually able to have a bit of of a discussion about it (rather than me just saying "Why did you go and see that?"). And he enjoyed it. Thought it was funny, than John Malkovich was particularly good in it, thought begrudgingly that George and Brad were quite good, but that the guys playing the CIA agents (or whoever they were) were the best. I did have to warn him beforehand that the film was improbable, but that that was the point. He got it - he's a smart guy, my dad.

Body of Lies also met with his approval. Well-acted and enjoyable, although he was somewhat bemused the Leonardo di Caprio's character was able to travel in and out of various Middle Eastern countries undetected, when he looked so much like a Westerner.

He's taken to phoning me up to check what films are on at his local cinema, so I can warn him which ones he should avoid. He's still amazed that Mamma Mia is on.

So, my turn. I unexpectedly watched Flashbacks of a Fool, starring Daniel Craig, earlier this evening. The film is about a washed up English actor, living in Hollywood, and we see his the last few weeks of his life in England through a flashback. I'm not going to say any more about the plot, as that's lazy. It was really superb - the cast were great (lots of really good British actors, including an Archers actress), it was beautifully shot, there were some apposite injections of humour, and it used music brilliantly to set the mood. It could so easily have picked the easy road at the end (and perhaps a less well-made film would have), resulting in an unsatisfactory ending. But it didn't and it made for a rather moving film.