Off Topic The Review Thread

I look forward to Stan's response.

 

Afraid I took against this before it was even broadcast. It was relentlessly plugged on the BBC as the next ‘big thing’ from the Peaky Blinders writer, who is dedicating his life to creating myths of Birmingham (The Peaky Blinders gang specialised in street crime, was mainly kids and was defunct by 1910. They didn’t sew razor blades in their caps either, just wore them at an angle over one eye).

My wife was was born and bred in Handsworth, living there in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, and she was laughing at some of the claims made in the trailers about ska in 1981 in particular (it happened, almost exclusively except for The Beat and Madness, in Coventry in 1978/79). Brum was a reggae town, and even UB40 started in 78. Then there was an interview with the writer prior to a showing of an episode in Brum, where he was saying that he’d invited members of the Zulus, the especially nasty and vicious Birmingham City firm, to see it because he wanted their approval. Apparently he thinks that because they are a multi racial crew they are heroes not violent ****s. And anyway, it was just a chant in 1981, the firm didn’t emerge until later in the 80s. Also there were no IRA bombings in Birmingham in the 80s. I did catch 10 minutes of an episode which featured a boy being bullied by his dad to work for the IRA. Great fun.

I know it’s just entertainment and accuracy doesn’t matter, and a lot of the locals have loved the bigging up of the city brought by Peaky Blinders (didn’t watch that either, lot of stylised violence I’m guessing…..) and will doubtless like this too. What they could do with is a series like Alan Bleasdale’s brilliant G.B.H exposure of corruption in Liverpool which he didn’t even set in Liverpool. Birmingham council’s ineptitude and some pretty obvious electoral dodginess have meant that the citizens are going to face years of reduced or zero services and amazingly high local taxation.

Actually I rather like Birmingham. It’s nothing if not authentic, has some great boozers and no pretensions to be anything other than what it is.

I am looking forward to seeing the new version of Ripley with Andrew Scott on Netflix though.

 

I had no pre-conceptions prior to watching it, hadn't even noticed any trailers it just popped up on iPlayer over the Easter weekend, and as I grew up during the whole ska/two-tone era (albeit in West London) thought it would be a good watch. The storyline wasn't too taxing to watch chilled out with a few beers, and as I said the music was excellent.

My experiences of working in Birmingham a lot a few yeara back is that it's a ****hole outwith of the city centre, although there are plenty of other towns and cities in the UK that are far worse (yes Blackburn/Darwen, I'm looking at you)

 

Crumpets with marmite....yum yum

 

I’m probably over reacting. The trailing might have been more prominent where I live, before every news programme for weeks it’s seemed.

Birmingham is a ****hole, but there are decent places, like Moseley, Edgbaston and if you half close your eyes bits of Harbourne. Handsworth used to be genuinely exciting, much less so now. The areas around Villa and St Andrews are completely disgraceful.

 

Don't forget the strong cheese.

 

That's a treat for when I want to spoil myself

 

So, 12 hours since we left home we find ourselves in the very long queue for passport control in NY. Just an hour queuing so far, but judging by the rate of progress we could have a couple of hours still to go. This is why I hate ****ing travelling.

 

That’s extreme, I’ve never had to wait that long, anywhere - so far. Though JFK, O’Hare in Chicago and Philadelphia always seem worse than other US airports.

You’ll be in a bar soon, chin up.

 

It did speed up a little, just got my first NY beer in my hand 15 hours after leaving home. A couple of good movies on the flight - Oppenheimer, which was excellent, and The Holdovers, which was just really nice and heartwarming.

 

Have a fantastic time Strolls
Anything special planned while over there?
Apart from the Hull game of course.

 

Lots planned, but I've not been involved the planning, so will find out as we go along. I'll report back

 

Sounds like Starmer

 

What I did on my (NYC) holidays.........

Thursday - The Cutting Room on E32nd , drinks, food and live bands - perfect.
Friday - Top of the Rock (I worked for a very brief time in the Rockefeller Centre, so this was significant), then the Circle Line boat trip and an excellent Thai meal later at Sabai Thai.
Saturday - QPR at Legends bar, then Central Park, and later the Red Eye Grill on 7th Avenue with a piano bar which is just so good.
Sunday - Little Island, Chelsea Market, High Line, The Edge.
Monday - Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge, Gleason's Gym, Skylark bar.

A full-on trip and my legs have just about given up on me. Great, though.

 

Did you meet up with qprnyc

 

Yeah, small turnout though - apart from us there were just three watching the QPR game. The bar has multiple games on at once and there were a few Wednesday fans watching their game, which made things interesting.

 

Some random sweeping generalisations about New Yorkers as compared to Londoners...

NY seems even more ethnically diverse than London, with white faces in the minority. There appears to have been a big influx of Mexicans since I was last here.

New Yorkers appear fitter than Londoners. There seems to be less obesity in NY.

There also seem to be more obviously out gay men in NY than in London. Maybe they feel more accepted here.

Nothing scientific about these observations of course.

 

I feel knackered just reading that.....

 

Around 20,000 steps each day, topping out at 22,000 yesterday.

 

Was there a lot of dope being smoked in public Strolls? There was, or at least the smell of it was everywhere, when I was last in Chicago a couple of years ago, and I understand that NY has also liberalised the law around use.