The Sense of an Ending, Logan Lucky and American Made

The auditorium was packed at Senior Screen or whatever they call it now. But for £3 and a free cup of coffee, I wasn't surprised. I loved the book of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and the adaptation Nick Payne is fine. Tony, the central character played superbly well by Jim Broadbent, is roughly my age, and when the story went back in time to his youth and early twenties, I was right back to the gloom of the hardly lit rooms of a party in the sixties. The music was the same. I had the same cavalry twill trousers. Yuk! Tony was the same shy person I can remember, it was scary. I much preferred the scenes from the present day, Tony learns late in life that he doesn't have to be that cantankerous character he thought he was. Que the postman. The acting is top drawer throughout. A brilliant cameo from Charlotte Rampling and solid turns from Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery and Emily Mortimer. The direction by Ritesh Batra could have done with a little more dynamism, but all in all, a fine movie.

There's not much to say about Logan Lucky except that it is a thoroughly enjoyable heist movie set in the deep south of North Carolina. Stephen Soderbergh writes and directs with his usual panache. Well, the screenplay is by someone called Rebecca Blunt but that is a fiction so I'm guessing it's all down to Soderbergh. The acting is all good, and the performance from Daniel Craig is amazing. Great fun.

It's the time of year that good films start to put in an appearance after the school holidays, three out this week. American Made sees the best of  Tom Cruise for many a year. He is perfect as Barry Seal, involved with the CIA and the drug kings of central America in the early eighties. The true story has been turned on it's head, and that makes for a lively and enjoyable plot. It is all quite frantic, crazy, colourful  and off the wall, but director Doug Liman has used a decent budget well. Cruise is ably supported by Sarah Wright and Domhnall Gleeson. It did get slightly repetitive towards the end, but I found it all surprisingly entertaining. And Tom might just get an acting nomination somewhere? He would deserve it, and that's something you don't hear every day.

The Garden in August

August is not the best month for colour in the garden. However, there are the odd plants that are thriving.

I'm pretty sure the two photos above are a Hibiscus, but I have no record of having planted any. I'm not sure what else it could be.

I bought two very small white Lychnis for £2 each, and this one has done particularly well.

The deep red rose is on it's second flush.

As is the Acanthus.

This year the Rudbeckia has been very successful, but only because I kept in watered in the dry spell.

The yellow Ligularia was donated by Anne and has flowered much later than I expected.

Another plant that likes to be kept moist in the early summer is the Lythrum.

At least the Potentilla gives some colour n the long border.

Clematis Montana recovers - again.

In 2010, I included a post when I cut the clematis down to base. This time I left some branches held in the wires I previously noted were badly needed.

And already the shrub has recovered. I now know that it will flower on new growth, so hopefully come the spring, there should be a good display.

This was how it flowered in May.

The Girls, Hot Milk and Black Water

The Girls by Emma Cline is strangely captivating in an unsettling way. I liked how the early chapters set up the main event, we know from the start something bad will happen. But it is the relationship of our (too) young narrator Evie with Suzanne, the older girl she meets at the run down ranch, that is at the heart of the novel. The emotion that is the focus of the story is the demand for attention. Is this a girl thing? In any event it should not be an excuse. The book is well written and constructed, uncomfortable and unconvincing at times but never less than interesting. 

I'm really not sure what to make of Hot Milk by Deborah Levy. The writing seems to swing between ordinary and startling. I found the language to be sometimes obtuse or idiosyncratic. Or is it because our narrator Sofia is herself an anthropologist and the book maybe veers towards a study of this subject? When she talks about being given a croissant, she says "I had an appetite beyond my status and size". And later "History is the dark magician inside us, tearing at our liver". I did like the short insertions at the beginning of some chapters written by another person about Sofia. I liked the setting and descriptions of the area around Almeria. I loved the characters and the story. It was just it's presentation that I guess was meant to be disturbing and it was just that.

I was glad that with Black Water Louise Doughty had returned to the dramas of books like Whatever You Love (brilliant) and Stone Cradle (not so). Especially after the histrionics of Apple Tree Yard. Set mainly in Indonesia (with a welcome break in America) John Harper is a flawed central character. Part thriller, part historical and part family drama, the author does not stop to weave a dizzyingly complex web, backwards and forwards in time. This hugely ambitious novel does not always work, but when it does I was enthralled. "..... closing the door behind him with a small shove that, however gentle, thudded with the resonance of fifty years of accumulated guilt".           

60 Years of Test Match Special - Fred Trueman's 300th Test Wicket

If I had to choose one highlight from 60 years of Test Match Special, it had to be Fred Trueman taking his 300th test wicket. The first bowler to reach this milestone.

It was on the 15th August 1964 and the Fifth Test at the Oval against an Australian team one up in the series. I was home for the weekend and had set up my new Grundig tape recorder to record what might be an historic event.

Sitting next to me was my brother John who had just finished sixth form and waiting to start at Uni. I have never forgotten his words when that crucial wicket was taken, even if the tape has long gone. Reminding us all that Trueman was "a spell bowler". How right he was.

Amy MacDonald, Joseph, Ward Thomas, London Grammar, K T Tunstall, Birdy, The Pierces, Tift Merritt and A Fine Frenzy

We have had to wait five years for Amy MacDonald's fourth album Under Stars. Not quite living up to This is the Life, A Curious Thing and Life in a Beautiful Light, but welcome nonetheless. The stand out tracks are Dream On, Automatic and From the Ashes. It was great to hear her in concert in April.

From Joseph come their second album I'm Alone, No You're Not. It's extraordinary how they sound much like First Aid Kit, but that's not a bad thing. A good collection of songs written by a combination of the three Closner sisters and the odd collaborator. Firmly in my favourite bracket of indie folk. Canyon, I Don't Mind. More Alive Than Dead (showing off their harmonies to best effect) and Sweet Dreams are the highlights.

More polished harmonies from Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas. I was not at all keen on their earlier albums I tried on Spotify, far too country for me. But this new offering has been toned down from that heavy country to a more mainstream sound. But only just. So I was happy to buy this CD and hear stand out tracks like Almost Home and Guilty Flowers. And I like to support a Hampshire duo.

After their great first album If You Wait, comes the second and almost as good Truth is a Beautiful Thing. I'm not sure why I like this band, their songs filled with some atmospheric electronica. But the "posh folk" of Hannah Reid's voice over the carefully constructed background of guitars and piano. And everything done at a stylish slow pace. Such as Oh Woman Oh Man, Hell to the Liars and the title track.

I passed on K T's acoustic album from 2013 Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon. Her new album Kin is back to her old up tempo style with tracks like Maybe Its a Good Thing and  Run On Home  mixed with ballads like Two Way and Kin. All pretty much middle of the road, just the kind of thing as background in the car. Maybe I should give the acoustic session a go.

After her exceptional 2013 album Fire Within comes Beautiful Lies, the latest album from Birdy. Full of trademark ballads such as Deep End, and the brilliant Lost it All. Worth it for that track alone, but every song has something.  

My third album from The Pierces, and maybe the last for a while with Allison Pierce having released her first solo album. (Sounds very ordinary on Spotify). Creation is, perhaps better that their previous CD's, I think I preferred The Pierces to You and I. Full of the soft rock harmonies I love, especially on tracks like Kings, I Can Feel, Monsters, Confidence in Love and Flesh and Bone. I am trying hard not to play this last wonderful track too often on repeat for falling out of love with this superb ballad written by Catherine Pierce. Can't wait for her solo album.

I dont know how I missed this 2008 album from Tift Merritt. It may have been that her only other album in my collection, Tambourine is too country for my taste, as is her latest album. But Another Country veers towards the kinder folk sounds of Emmy Lou Harris and Nanci Griffith. With tracks like Broken, the superb title track, even the soul inspired Tell Me Something True and Tender Branch.

What a disappointment to end with. After extolling the virtues of A Fine Frenzy in an earlier post, for Alison Sudol's recording career to probably end with this acoustic album recorded live, well it is such a shame. It's just that on Pines the songs are so poor. I will have to put this 2013 album away and forget about it.

Songs from Atomic Blonde

The movie is set around the time of the fall of the Berlin wall and much of the action is set in the vicinity. It was when I heard the song over the opening credits, I knew we were in for a great soundtrack.

Cat People (Putting out the Fire) by David Bowie is my favourite song in any movie when it plays at the opening of Chapter 5 of Inglorious Basterds. (See post entitled Revenge of the Giant Face). So to hear it in a new setting was amazing.

The Berlin wall opened in 1989 and the soundtrack is full of 1980's hits. Some of these will resonate with my children.

99 Luftballons by Nena

I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls

Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen

Father Figure by George Michael

London Calling by The Clash

Just Like Heaven by The Cure

Hungry like the Wolf  by Duran Duran

Atomic by Blondie

Not a list of all the songs in the movie; go to tunefind.com for the others.