This Means War, The Amazing Spiderman and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

A lack of decent movies this week encouraged me once again to try this weeks offering in Senior Screen. This Means War was a strange choice for me and my fellow seniors. In the end a rather flimsy action comedy that could have been better if the cast of Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and Reese Witherspoon had been swapped for ... almost anybody.

The casting for The Amazing Spiderman was spot on. If it had not been for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, it may just have not worked so well. A decent story and crisp dialogue help director Marc Webb (following his terrific (500) Days of Summer) to create, for once, an endearing superhero movie.

Still short on intelligent movies, it being the school holidays, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World seemed the only option. Steve Carell and Keira Knightly are an unusually matched couple, but it is the nature of their different characters that make the film quite cute and engaging. Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria ( just the fact that she wrote Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist would have got me to see this, her next movie) it just shows that you have to applaud a one woman venture that is a proper story and does not have any special effects. Whilst there are definitely flaws in the final result (not funny enough and too much of the tired road trip formulae) there are some nice cameos and a decent song list. There is also one moment with Martin Sheen towards the end that is such an emotional tug, it was worth watching just for that alone.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony

Where to start? I have never liked Giles Coren who writes in The Times; until now. He says at the end of his marvellous report:  "It was all so left of centre and democratic and global, yet posh, elitist and parochial. Just like you and me. ........... And if we don't win a single medal, it won't matter. Because we had this." And it expressed exactly how I felt. In fact nearly all the journalists have taken the opportunity to write some of the best articles ever. Comments range from "shaken and stirred", "deliciously barmy", "playful irreverence" to "wild and wacky".
The following are my own particular highlights. They start with the countdown, a montage of pictures for each second. Then the route of the Thames with the Pink Floyd flying pig over Battersea Power Station. With so many delays to the redevelopment  of this iconic building, now with new plans, was Danny Boyle also suggesting that pigs might fly. And what was the image created by the parasols outside the riverside pub? A finger pointing the way down the river.

Kenneth Branagh gave a brilliant speech from The Tempest before the transformation of our green and pleasant land into an industrial nightmare which was truly staggering.  The smoking chimneys that were raised one after another was the most stunning visual of the whole evening.

The accompaniment to Pandemonium (from John Milton's Paradise Lost), not the 965 drummers (why 965?) but their leader, the greatest percussionist in the world, Dame Evelyn Glennie. An inspired choice. Of course the forging of the Olympic rings will never be forgotten or bettered.

More inspired choices with Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the section wonderfully titled Second on the right and straight on till morning. I was especially happy with the inclusion of Portsmouth. And how brilliant were the flying Mary Poppins. Only to be surpassed by JK Rowling quoting from Peter Pan.

But I did have an uneasy feeling when Sir Simon Rattle (the best again?) conducts The London Symphony Orchestra in Chariots of Fire. Far too jingoistic for me, only that I fell for the joke with the introduction of Mr Bean.

The Times said a  total of 637,191 lights were installed on tablets on more than 70,000 seats. An awesome spectacle. Thank you lighting designer Patrick Woodrofe, another genius. I especially liked the lyrics of The Sex Pistol's Pretty Vacant being flashed around the audience. A joke on them?

It wasn't that it was David Beckam driving the boat to bring the torch to the stadium, it was who accompanied him. England Under 17 footballer Jade Bailey carried the torch itself. The future of England football rather than the past.

Obviously I could not forget the superb design of the cauldron with over 200 copper petals lighting each other and being lifted to come together to form a wonderful piece of art.

Then the music. And who is Frank Turner? I guess I should have known as his brand of folk rock is right up my street. Not the greatest songwriter in the world, but a great live performance of "I Still Believe" during the Pre-Show. I had to watch the fireworks again to hear Pink Floyd's Eclipse. But the best music was saved for the section entitled Frankie and June Say Thanks Tim. A collection of typical British music from the 60's to present day. It is here I have to quote Giles Coren yet again when he said "If I'd come all this way just for the seven seconds of The Specials'  Message to you Rudy played that loud ...... it would have been worth it". Fabulous. I can watch it again and again on iplayer. So thank you Danny Boyle for giving us a night to remember. I leave with a final quote from Giles. "And if we don't win a single medal, it wont matter. Because we had this." How true.

Jodie Marie, Alana Levandoski, The Pierces, Amy McDonald, Lisa Miscovsky, Tina Dico and Christina Perri

This is the first time this year I have put finger to keyboard about the latest music to enter my collection. So here we go.

The debut album Mountain Echo from the young Welsh singer songwriter Jodie Marie is highly impressive. Although comparisons have been made to Duffy, the only thing they have in common is coming from the same neck of the woods. Jody has taken her time to write and record a solid set of songs with influences of jazz, blues and folk. But I would liken it more to the soul sounds of the late sixties. That will do for me.

I already had owned one album from Canadian Alana Levondoski. But it was over two years ago that having loved Unsettled Down, I was writing how I was looking forward to listening to Lions and Werewolves. So here we are at last. Her latest album is full of the same gentle rock songs as the first. Her voice is also terrific. Just my cup of tea. She is currently holding song writing classes, so hopefully some new talent will be inspired by her music.

I have only just caught up with the American sisters Allison and Catherine who make up The Pierces. I started off with their latest album You and I that has at last put them on the map. Their folk tinged songs have been made more glossy and ramped up for this recording, and probably this will find a larger audience.  I had to go back to their first album, of the four released to date, to find something else that appealed. In fact I actually prefer the self titled The Pierces from 2000 that is more rooted in it's folk origins. They have supported Coldplay on two tours of North America, but it is here in the UK that they have found success at last.

There is hardly anything more for me to say about Amy McDonald than I have already written. Her latest, and eagerly awaited by this writer, album Life in a Beautiful Light  is as awesome as her previous two. Perhaps not the standout tracks that littered her previous recordings, but nonetheless a superb set of uptempo folk rock songs as there ever were.

One big disappointment amongst my most recent acquisitions is the latest album from Lisa Miskovski called Violent Sky. Her first album from 2003 Falling Water is excellent, full of good songs and became a huge hit in her native Sweden. And listening to excerpts from her follow up album Changes, I was also very impressed, but the album was hugely expensive. So she fell off my radar until I heard good reviews of her latest album. Unfortunately, it is unrecognisable from the first. She has changed to a much harsher, and probably more modern, style. Not for me.

I have now downloaded Lisa Miskovsky's album Changes and yes, it is very good. And I also went for her 2004 album Lisa Miscovsky. Another (mainly) solid set of songs. "What If" could become a big favourite. There are just a couple of tracks that spilled over into Violent Sky territory, but nothing too adventuress thank goodness.

Last year, Tina Dico released a double album called Welcome Back Colour. One CD is called Welcome Up (up tempo songs) and the other Welcome Down (slow and quiet tracks). There are recordings of some old songs from the three albums already in my collection and some new compositions. I definitely preferred the first CD, the second basically acoustic CD is just a bit too slow. But I overall I was pleased that I found it. Tina also has a brand new album out called Where Do You Go To Disappear (actually London) which is already on my Christmas list. And I really hope that comes with a tour.

I have left until last my favourite album of the last twelve months. When Alison's sister Anne and her family came to stay in late autumn, we just happened to be in Aylesbury. While the two sisters were in a dress shop, I wandered into HMV where I heard an amazing track being played. I asked Emily (Anne's daughter) if she knew who was singing, and she replied with Christina Perri. The track was "Jar of Hearts" from the album Lovestrong. Her highly successful hit is not the only good song on the collection. She wrote or co-wrote every track, and there is not a single dud. Fantastic.

The Sense of an Ending, I Capture the Castle and Trauma

You wonder how such a short novel could win The Man Booker Prize, but Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending just shows how a brief story can be so good. Tony is looking back. He is retired (yes, OK) and is ruminating about Adrian, who he first met at school, and what happened to him. I did start off wondering why "The" Sense of an Ending and not "A". But in the end I did found out why. The writing is just sublime. Tony asks a lot of questions of the reader. We do not have to necessarily agree, but they do make you think, and not in a highbrow philosophical way, but just about life. The book is also about memory, and how it is imperfect or distorted, especially as you grow older. But more than anything, the book transports you to a sort of semi-comfortable reflection of the past. I'm just not sure if, like Tony, you have to be retired.

I keep trying to remember what prompted me to read I Capture the Castle. It might have been that it is one of the films I have always wanted to see, and found it was an adaptation of the novel by Dodie Smith. Looking at the reviews on Amazon, I wondered if it might be just chicklit (how wrong can you be) as so many women had given it positive reviews. When Heather from book club emailed about the next meeting, I asked her about it, and she said it was good and that I might like it. When the book arrived, the introduction mentioned two male readers. Christopher Isherwood read the draft in 1949 and Ralph Vaughn Williams (the composer) chose it as his "Christmas Book of the Year" for the Sunday Times. So I am good company believing this was one of the best books I have ever read. Cassandra is seventeen and it is her journal that relates her experiences of a year in the 1930's. It is the story of her family, the Mortmains, who live in a medieval moated castle in what would now be termed poverty. But Cassandra's father wrote a highly successful book, so that was not always the way. His second wife Topaz is a wonderful creation and the family also includes Cassandra's older sister Rose and younger brother Thomas. Their lodger Stephen is a miracle. Things take off when two half-American brothers and their mother arrive at nearby Scoatney Hall, landlords of castle estate. The characterisation is just marvellous, and the descriptions of the places give a great feeling of intimacy. This is a top class feelgood book that is no wonder a classic.

Charlie Wier is a psychiatrist living in New York and the subject of Patrick McGrath's 2008 novel Trauma. Some of his experiences of treating victims of trauma have had a disturbing effect on him. As he delves into his client's childhoods, so something troublesome in his own becomes an increasing problem. His relationships do nothing to help. The book is a sort of psychological thriller, it has good pace and always interesting. The writing is fairly bland, a good concept but he plotting quite trivial. At just over 200 pages, it was a quick read, forgotten as soon as it was over.

Exploring the Oxfordshire Chilterns Part 5 - Maidensgrove

This was my fifth expedition to the Oxfordshire Chilterns. It all started when I traced the route described at the beginning of Ian McEwan's book Enduring Love in 2008 - see posting 6th July 2008. The other walks are on postings 9th November 2008, 16th July 2009 and 4th September 2010.

This year I chose a route from Nick Moon's Circular Walks along The Chiltern Way. For once, the forecast was for a sunny morning with rain not arriving until late afternoon. So I could not miss this window of opportunity in our wet summer.





I left the car at Russell's Water Common near Maidensgrove. There were a few other cars around, so it seemed quite safe.

Most of the walk follows The Chitern Way, so once I had finally found the signpost hidden in some bushes off the road, I was on my way. The path skirts around Big Ashes Plantation and Stocking's Plantation so there were great views of some beautiful rolling hills.

The first village on the route is Crocker End. The village green is surrounded by some picturesque old cottages. This is a remote but highly attractive hamlet, until recently the home of the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Just a short way away is Soundess House, reputedly the home of Nell Gwynne. Again there are great views as you leave Crocker End on an uphill path that leads to Wellgrove Wood. As you leave the wood there are views at the top of the hill overlooking Bix Bottom.

At the point that the path joins the road lies the ruins of the old Norman church of St James in the ancient village of Bixbrand which has now disappeared.

 Modern Bix Bottom is tiny and only Valley Farm is of any note. More good views on leaving Bix Bottom with Henley apparently in the distance. A short walk down the B480 is next before heading up into Paradise Wood. Coming out of the wood, the path follows a track all the way above a valley that leads to Stonor. So this was a good time to have some lunch.

Past Coxlease Farm at the end of the valley (and a diversion after missing the right path out of the farm), I eventually found the deer fence to Stonor Park. The path skirting Almshill Wood is the only steep downhill I encountered.

The attractive village of Stonor, with it's sixteenth to eighteenth century cottages, extends along the road at the bottom of the hill. Here is The Quince Tree pub and restaurant that used to be called Stonor Arms.

The uphill path that leaves Stonor is through grassy fields. The views to Stonor House, built about 1280,  in the middle of Stonor Park are about the best of the whole walk.

The last stretch is through Park Wood which leads to Maidensgrove. The village is quite something as superb houses are situated in the trees set off the single track "road". It is described as perhaps the most remote hamlet in the Chilterns. I'm not surprised.

Fortunately the weather lived up to it's forecast. Lots of sun and cloudy at times. A fresh 14 degrees at the start and a reasonable 19 degrees to finish. A fortyfive minute drive each way, starting the walk at 10.30am and finishing four hours later, so home at 3.15pm. The rain came at 4.30!

My first hill run

Alison had been badgering me to do some hill running, so yesterday I agreed to accompany her up one of the easier slopes up to the top of the ridge of Wendover Woods. We started at Halton Bridge and ran half a mile before leaving the canal towpath to take a public footpath up through the woods near the RAF camp. This was a reasonably steep climb, up to Tring Road. We crossed over and took the path up Mansion Hill into Wendover Woods. The path climbs almost continually before reaching the top near Boddington Hill. Somehow I had managed to get to the top without stopping, a total height gain of over 450 feet. So I was pretty happy to run a mile on the level around the top of Boddington Hill before retracing our route, this time downhill.

The total distance was just over five miles, but with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes, it seemed a lot longer. Again, it helped enormously to have Alison pacing me up the hill. I can see the attraction of running in the nice scenery of the Chiltern Hills, but it will be a while before I try the whole of the scarp slope again.

Tring Book Club - The Children's Book and The Picture of Dorian Gray

Before I went off to book club, I found a list of characters for The Children's Book on wikipedia. If only I had done that before I started reading. The three families include sixteen Wellwoods, three Cains and five Fludds. That doesn't include runaway Phillip Warren and his sister Elsie who, for me, are the most engaging characters in the book and numerous other characters. So it is quite a job keeping up with who is who. The first third of this 600 page volume from the Booker prizewinner A S Byatt (the longest book I have read for years) is a lovely story and somehow revolves around Philip as he is meets the three families. The passages which centre on his relationship with the unpredictable master potter Bendedict Fludd are beautiful to read. But then Philip disappears from the story (how disappointing was that)  as if he was just a device to introduce the parents and children of the families who then take over. That is not to say there was nothing to be enjoyed in the family drama that follows. The book does swop a little too much between characters, but is interesting to see how the children grow up. Perhaps the central character is Olive Wellwood who writes and illustrates a book for each of her seven living children, the title of the novel suggests this is what it is about, but really it is about the children. But what I found most irritating were the interminable passages about summer camps, the plays and trips abroad. And all the historical references were too much. However, it was well written and cleverly crafted. If only the author had let the editor have their way. There was actually a brilliant book struggling to get out from some diversionary boredom.

Having never read anything by Oscar Wilde, although having enjoyed some of his plays, I was looking forward to his famous (or infamous) novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I must have seen a film of the same name at some point, as I knew the basis of the plot. The book is very much character led, and the set up was very well constructed. The painter BasilHallward, Lord Henry Wooton and Dorian Gray make an engaging trio in the early chapters. Every page has something witty or philosophical to say, mainly from the mouth of Lord Henry. "Never trust a woman in mauve".... "A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her"..... "the tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young"...... "When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy". But I have to say, these do later get on your nerves. The book seems very modern, even though it was written 120 years ago, so quite a feat. There are some quite despicable acts as Dorian proves to be a degenerate and heartless man. His treatment of his first infatuation is truly awful. The story does flag on occasions over halfway through, and some situations do not seem at all real. At one point Basil tells Dorian that he is despised and shunned by all society, but still so many still visit him at his big mansion. In the end this is a well told cautionary tale, perhaps as too short as The Children's Book is too long.

The Olympic Torch Relay comes to Weston Turville

Today, the Olympic Torch came to our village, well just about. Weston Turville Parish is on the east side of Wendover Road before the route turns towards Stoke Mandeville. It took me twenty minutes to walk to that corner (x marks the spot), and I met up with Alison who came by bike.

After the initial motorcade, we had a good view as the torch went past.

There were lots of people lining the route, especially at the corner roundabout where the torch changed hands. Appropriately, a torchbearer in a wheelchair took over for the first leg into Stoke Mandeville.

The Five Year Engagement, Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter and Red Lights

I had seen the trailer for The Five Year Engagement and it seemed to promise a reasonable romantic drama, with a bit of comedy thrown in. It turned out to be all these things, nothing special but a passable, if overlong, relationship movie. The interesting concept of starting where other like movies finish soon wears thin, and it is left to Emily Blunt (terrific) and Jason Segel (should have stuck to the writing with Nicholas Stoller and hired a better actor) to carry the story through. Stoller directs with a certain syle and fortunately this is not a gross out romcom. The plot flags and before halfway it just does not ring true. But the dialogue is OK, and certainly adds warmth and charm to what is a pleasant couple of hours.

I am always attracted to a vampire movie, having seen everything Hammer films had to offer in the sixties. And this time the reviews of Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter had been quite favourable. Yes, it is all pretty absurd, but hey, this is a vampire movie. What we have is a witty story and some attractively filmed scenes with beautiful costumes and pulsating action. This is mainly due to the direction of Timur Bekmambedov and the screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith adapted from his own novel. Benjamin Walker as a young Abraham Lincoln, Dominic Cooper and Rufus Sewell interact very well. However, the film is much better in the first two thirds before we jump forward in time to an older Lincoln and the Civil War. But all in all, a good fun movie.

I ended up going to see Red Lights more because the showing time in High Wycombe suited me, again nothing I wanted to see in Aylesbury! It ended up being a moderate thriller where Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy go about exposing frauds with psychic powers. Top man in this field is Robert De Niro as Simon Silver, who comes out of retirement to earn a fortune. The movie has it's merits, despite a clunky script, and there are some semi-scary moments and a twist at the end. Rodrigo Cortes (whose movie Buried was a surprise hit) wrote the screenplay and directed, and it was good to see something original, even though it was pretty unmemorable.

Wimbledon

This was our fifth visit to the tennis at Wimbledon. We first went in 2001 where, on Centre Court, we saw Tim Henman lead Goran Ivanisevic 5-7, 7-6, 6-0 and 2-1 before the rain came. Who knows what might have happened if there had been a roof in those days.

This year we had fantastic seats on No 1 Court, with the promise of a sunny day. So it was on with the sun cream and hats. But as we were a little early, we just had time for coffee and cake in the wonderful cafe at the back of No 1 Court.

The first match saw last years surprise winner Petra Kvitova easily defeat Varvara Lepchenko.

Up next was Juan Martin Del Potro against Kei Nishikori. Another straight sets win for Del Potro, but some very good rallies and and exciting tie break.

We missed the last set as it was after 4pm and I was looking forward to a glass of Pims. We then had a stroll around the grounds before taking our seats to see Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Lucas Lackso, again in three sets.

There was even time for an unsheduled mixed doubles that included Laura Robson, so we decided to stay and watch a few games.

But as soon as the shade came over our seats just after 7pm, it became quite chilly, so we called it a day. On our way home we broke the journey at Gloucester Road for a quick dinner at Garfunkels. Another great day at Wimbledon. And the sun shone.