Tall Guy
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The GB mixed-doubles curling team has qualified for the semifinals, but aren’t guaranteed a medal as there appears to be a third place playoff game. I’d have said that the losing semifinalists should both get bronzes, but I suppose they want to sell the tickets for the extra game.
I have much sympathy for Lindsey Vonn, but have to say it was a bit rash to take to the slopes after such a recent and major injury. I’m afraid it’s all downhill from here.
Probably the Bond films. The first I was old enough to see on release was You Only Live Twice (although I was so excited I spent the whole pre-credit sequence in the toilet, and to this day, his “assassination” in Hong Kong seems like a new sequence, so impressionable was the young TG.)
Taking this into account, the older the film, the more I’ll have seen it. Until the mid-70s they were only watchable in the cinema, but I used to go to the pictures inveterately during the school holidays, and Bond double bills were common. I’ll have watched them all scores of times up to the Brosnan ones, where it reduces to dozens of times.
I’m still a huge fan, although I’m well aware of their shortcomings (some uncomfortable moments when judged through a modern prism relating to race or sex, plot holes, some silliness, the occasional slide-whistle) and still watch them all every so often.
Other than that, we watch Scrooged, It’s a Wonderful Life and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol every Yuletide.
My most watched giallo would be “Eyeball” (aka Red Cats in a Glass Labyrinth), which is a comfort watch for reasons it’s hard to explain.
We seem to have won the first four matches, but play the two biggest rivals tomorrow, USA and (I think) Canada. So far so good, but I’ve seen very little of it so far because of work and other commitments.
To be fair, curling isn’t terribly exciting, would be better if it were a contact sport 🙂
They’re having the official Opening Ceremony soon, but I’m not sure how much we’ll see live, because we’ve got dinner shortly and Leeds are playing Forest on the telly at 8pm…
Since when we’ve also been treated to Pink Panther and Green Hornet…
And England are 86-2 after 9 overs. A canter, you might think, but a couple of wickets would bring on a wobble.
Kamen’s Band of Brothers has a hymnal, spiritual feeling to it. Only just realised after all these years. Maybe the version they play on Classic FM emphasises that aspect, might be a little slower than the original.
Some great ones not yet mentioned:
Kelly’s Heroes – Lalo’s note-perfect score is probably my favourite FSM CD
The Hot Rock – Quincy at, or certainly near, his coolest
The Sicilian Clan – Two great Ennio themes with lots of variations
Danger: Diabolik – deep, deep down I really love Ennio’s score
The Wild Bunch – just about qualifies, with a great Jerry score
A Fistful of Dynamite/Duck You Sucker – back to Ennio with an iconic range of themes, amongst them “After the Explosion”, a track I always forget when asked for my favourites, but I literally adore it.I keep them in the loft, and occasionally check to make sure they aren’t being affected by temperature fluctuations.
The LPs, obviously.
When I was very young, my dad had the LP of The Alamo. It was frequently played and my brother (seven years older than me) told me that all the red on the front cover was blood, he being a big fan of freaking me out. Of course, I believed him without question, even though now you can see it’s nothing of the kind!
I loved the music though, and a year or two later, dad bought You Only Live Twice and the gatefold OHMSS, which were all played until every track had cracks and pops galore.
That hooked me into wanting to hear more, and as soon as I was able I’d buy almost any film score LP that I could find and afford. I sold most of my LPs when our first child came along, milk powder apparently being of more use than great music, but I kept a few – all three of the above and Morricone’s I Film Della Violenza, which remain in my possession and always will, despite not having anything on which to play them.
John Barry, at a signing in HMV London in 1998. He was signing The Beyondness of Things, and he signed my programme, the BoT CD cover and also the CD cover of The Knack.
The latter was for Mrs TG, and I asked him to sign it to Becca (short, of course, for Rebecca). Initially he misheard and signed it “To Decca”, as if I was married to the record company…. We had a good laugh about it, and fortunately it was easy to change the D to a B. Lovely fella, Yorkshireman, of course 🙂
I also met and chatted to several others including David Arnold and Christopher Gunning at a charity screening of Psycho arranged by Arnold and Dave Norris, who was then the projection manager at The Empire, Leicester Square. All very good eggs.
And I also met your pal in London that time, whose name escapes me because I’m on holiday and have had a bit to drink. Eirik Myhr, it’s come back to me now.
Speaking of snooker, I’m currently in a hotel room on Gran Canaria watching the final couple of frames of the UK Masters final on Eurosport in German, while waiting for Mrs TG to ready herself to make an entrance in the dining room.
What’s interesting to me is that I know a tiny amount of German, enough to follow more or less what’s going on in the game. The German commentators call the red balls “die Rote”, the yellow ball “der Gelb” and the blue ball “der Blaue” (apologies to real German speakers if I’ve got the gender or spellings wrong). But the pink and black are “der Pink” and “der Black”. And I’m sure I’ve heard them refer to “Frames”.
I’ve yet to hear reference to the table pockets, which I believe would be “Tischtaschen”. Fascinating. Does snooker have a following in Germany, I wonder?
I only wish I knew ANY of those names, Thor. (Apart from Joe Davis, who was world snooker champion for much of the 20th century and died almost fifty years ago, so I presume not the same person.)
And I believe all our decent curlers are Scottish (nod to Graham).
I saw a couple of snowy footie games in Newcastle in the 70s. They used an orange ball then, too, and every so often the game was halted to allow ground staff to clear the white lines with boards on sticks. Good times!
Graham, I hope I count as one of your friends, but not a deranged one; but if in fact I AM deranged (for how would I know if I’m deranged?) I hope that at least I’m not in a position of power.
In all honesty, I probably prefer the Winter Olympics over the Summer ones. Can’t say I’m enthused between times, but I watch quite a lot of the ski races and jumping, bobsleigh, (ice) hockey, speed skating, luge … really anything where there’s a competition you can readily follow, so where there’s a score between teams or players or a time to beat.
I used to enjoy the figure skating, but that might just have been the Torville and Dean effect. Now the only interest really is the music they use. Otherwise, anything involving interpretive dance or artistic merit bores me rigid.
Of course, it’s not football. But by way of crossover, I love watching snowy football matches. My northern upbringing, albeit not as north as most of yours.