#lord of the lost actually had MORE abba songs

[rosetta-j-stone]

Today, in posts I did not expect to make:

[florallylly]

side b: steve harrington

side a side a: eddie munson

side b

explanation post

FORGET THE FORMATTING!!! PLS BE QUIET!!! anyways into steve harrington. his playlist is SAUR bubblegum lesbian pop. and tbh i really tried to kind of blend new/old in side a with eddie and make it smth MAYBE he would listen to? but steve, i automatically pegged him as 80s pop and lesbian music like. you probably listen to bruce springsteen but in my heart u know who rina sawayama is. anyways yes steve harrington coping through partying and then falling in lurv.

YES he admits it as soon as it happens bc he's emotionally intelligent and he knows himself thank u for coming to my ted talk

“Perfect Places” Lorde; “Have another drink, get lost in us/this is how we get notorious” “Every night, I live and die/meet somebody, take ‘em home” YEAH…. steve harrington coping post season-2 and stancy break up by  partying and drinking and sleeping around. like i see it…. i was there and it’s so. desperation to find peace and eventually settling for oblivion bc nothing is better than everything 

“Heaven/Hell” CHVRCHES; this song is so steve harrington to me i can’t even describe…. like it’s so disillusionment with his former sense of self and what he used to attach importance to. and he feels like a fraud and also an imposter, surrounded by people who he’s outgrown. and somehow it also feels like no one has truly realized that vital shift. it’s SAUR “is it right if i’m a perfect actress/playing the princess in distress?” “is it alright if i save myself and/if i clean up my own mess” IDK. why is that so steve to me. 

“Stand Back” Stevie Nicks; like LIKE this song is so everyone wants me except for you/you’re the only one i want. idk…. steve harrington this is so you to me. he is so pining he is so what if he is so i built our future in my head and now everything is crumbling down around me. you have changed me so deeply that i can never go back to the same person i was before i met you. and the world around me stays stagnant and stuck in time, with me out like a sore thumb. like i’m sobbing crying frothing at the mouth…. 

“Head Over Heels/Broken” Tears for Fears; a classic… a classic… but also like a little mashup moment to make it narratively appropriate in my head. also the applause at the end is giving the curtains are down the performance is over… king steve lays down his crown… AM I INSANE IN THIS MOMENT… 

“Honey Understand” Noso; to me this is a little bit of a moment like if i’m misinterpreting this song wrong SO embarrassing. but literally?? i think it’s so steve… bc it’s like in any break up it’s always going to be him at fault because he’s the ladies man and the popular jerk. he’s always going to be made out to be a villain in certain people’s eyes. like what am i even saying but you get it right… and it’s like how can i even keep fighting when i’m already crumbling apart. but also you’ll never know bc i’ll never let anyone know how bad it is … i’m unwell 

“Deliverance” CHVRCHES; i think this is actually about religion (maybe?) but i’m thinking of it as more of a general framework or life view that steve held before the upside down. he’s had to rethink what’s important and what matters like fr…. and now that he’s spending more time with eddie and realizing things about… naur it’s like this moment is his watershed moment and he’s being set free of smth like… his king steve persona?? his guilt over barb?? any other head canon ??? or maybe it’s like his fucked up coping viewed as something that’s bringing him back to his “normal” self… like back 2 parties back 2 alcoholism 

“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight” ABBA; like YEAH of course this song is on here. and it’s so hello steve harrington are you on the prowl are you looking for something so you can actually feel something

“Take Me Home Tonight” Eddie Money; pretty self explanatory like… steve harrington you are turning to sex to distract yourself and chasing the way you felt before. also in comparison to gimme gimme gimme, this is a more self aware reflection like. post nut clarity. but also in my head this is steve harrington meeting with eddie munson s2 and making the impulsive decision to follow him literally anywhere, kick starting everything that follows. 

“Yours” Now, Now; attraction bantering cockiness like it’s all there like it’s everything… it’s everything…. 

“Untouched” The Veronicas, I DON’T CARE IF IT DOESN’T FIT … this song is so important to me and it’s saur…. steve harrington you are getting attached steve harrington you are falling in love. to be clear this is before they get together or do anything like…. this is the pining this is the wanting 

“Don’t You Want Me” The Human League; so basically added for vibes, didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics and meaning. IT’S JUST SO …. 80s pop and 80s pop is so steve. HOWEVER i feel like i can use this as my little soap box bc “you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar… turned you int someone new/now five years later on, you’ve got the world at your feet” is saur nancy and “the five years we have had have been such good at times, I still love you/ but now, i think it’s time i lived my life on my own” is SAUR steve. like nancy wheeler in s4 reflecting on steve’s changes and the fandom’s reflection of pushing this narrative that nancy was the main reason and the greatest influence on steve’s change. my pet peeve…. let’s not forget the trauma he went through that could have shook his entire worldview. also ??? he’s a big boy with his own thoughts let him have a little ponder. i would add more but i’m not capable of totally explaining this at all JUST !!! ugh but yeah steve harrington you are attracted to eddie munson song

“Forever Tonight” Kelechi; “love me like there’s no tomorrow/kiss me like we’re out of time” DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY ANYTHING??? I AM IN REAL PAIN!!! 

“I Was Made For Lovin’ You” KISS; KEYSTONE SONG. yes they fucked yes they fucked. and OKAY idc if it’s cheesy YOU try to fit in a semi-metal song into your 80s/lesbian pop playlist

“Lay All Your Love On Me” ABBA; OMG …. it is so necessary. that is all. LIKE SO NEEDED. 

“Hungry Eyes” Eric Carmen; it’s literally from dirty dancing like what else can i say… steve harrington is having his little romcom moment. honestly he’s practically one of the brat pack. he’s LIVING it he’s living it

“Keep on Loving You” REO Speedwagon; okay they were killing on anniversaries i just know it. like this is so my parent’s wedding. it’s so puffed sleeve dresses and slow dancing at prom and steve is a ROMANTIC. steve is a ROMANTIC in a small midwest town like. where was his prom king moment 

“Seven Wonders” Fleetwood Mac; lowkey a filler song but yes can anything compare to the beauty of this moment something very romantic. this is on the mixtape for sure 

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” Blue Oyster Cult; ONCE AGAIN I KNOW IT DOESNT FIT THAT WELL… but this is a keystone song… a metal song forcefully inserted into the playlist. this is supposed to mark the point where steve falls in love love. but what i got from the song is basically like. we’re going to die anyways let’s just fall in love. i’m sure that’s way simplistic but vibe… 

“Horses” Maggie Rogers; sorry I’m…. gay….? and it’s like it’s like it’s like i wanna be free i wanna be free with you do you wanna be free with me. in a more romantic and AHHHH way but like how do i even begin to try and describe how this song makes me feel like… unreal. but it’s also like a little stop for steve to doubt and think about what he’s feeling and deciding to do ??? idk where i was going with that. but yes my little interlude for pondering

“Black Butterflies and Deja Vu (Acoustic)” The Maine; keystone song keystone song. when steve admits he is in lurv of course. chose the acoustic version bc i feel like it fits better and also i think it’s more of a soft realization for steve rather than the absolute car wreck that is eddie. please understand my thoughts immediately 

[punk-chicken-radio]

gimme gimme gimme

as the week of christmas approached, i conferred with @theoldsmelly​ and asked him if he wanted to try and put together a playlist of christmas songs or what. he responded what. i think we both were feeling like doing something a little different this year, because lord knows, you all can listen to all the holiday music you want, including all the previous massive playlists we have compiled. so i said ‘hey, let’s do something a bit adjacent and make a gimmie playlist, you know like gimme! gimmie! gimmie!’ 

his reaction wasn’t completely out of the blue knowing his love for abba.

anyway, we got to work, or i should say i got to work, and then had to prod him to please give me what i need and finish the playlist. i think we both actually had a bit of fun giving ourselves break from the rush of trying to find a whole bunch of different christmas songs for this year. in essence, we are still giving you songs, but count on y’all to give us some leeway to go off script.

you know, the whole it’s better to give than receive thing.

they do, and while today is a giving theme, there are quite a few songs kinda demanding something be given. love, a man after midnight, attention, etc. in fact, i bet more than half are in that vein.

however, we do want to remind everyone that it is actually better to give than receive. there’s a lot of people upset that ‘christmas isn’t christmas’ this year, and i’m hearing a lot of complaining out there in the world....

yes, this year has been shitty. yes, we have had to adjust our lives. many of us have had friends and family members ill, and even pass away, more have lost their livelihoods or had to do without many necessities of life. it’s been hard for most everyone, but there are some out there who have lost everything. my guess is if you are here, reading this, that hasn’t happened to you on the scale it has for some. i hope not. if all we have to complain about is that ‘christmas isn’t christmas’ well.....we are incredibly fortunate. life will eventually return to normal for most of us. some won’t be so lucky.

so...take a deep breath, and be grateful. we are all so very blessed to be here together, even if it’s just to listen to a bunch of songs that two people most of you don’t know in real life have put together... to hopefully put a smile on your face and a dance in your heart today. be thankful for your blessings, wherever you can find them, as we are thankful for ours, and for all of you out there who take even a moment to look our way and listen to a song we played. 

we love you all, and hope that you have a wonderful holiday, in whatever form that takes this year. it’s who and what lives in your heart every day that really matters, not what things or who is in your house for just one day. 

be careful out there, and happy holidays to all!

love (*sends smelly a pic of my broken foot in a boot) axiomatic and the old (are you going skiing?) smelly

*i never tire of the banter he and i have, don’t ever change @theoldsmelly​

[kalluun-patangaroa]

SUEDE: THE FAN-ISH INQUISITION

www.nme.com, April 5-7, 1999

You asked and they answered. NME caught up with Suede and put your questions to them.

Day 1 (April 5)

What’s the worst insult anyone’s shouted at you? (Fred Telfer, London)

Mat: “‘Effete southern wankers.’ Someone shouted that repeatedly through our first ever Scottish gig.”

Simon: “I was in the toilet at that gig, and this bloke came up to me and said, ‘Have you seen Sede? I’m going to smash their teeth in.’ I just pretended to be from Scotland. The hard part.”

Brett: “Someone once shouted, ‘You sound like Rod Stewart.'”

Mat: “No, they said, ‘We remember Rod Stewart.'”

Brett: “Oh, that’s it. That was at a time when everyone was into bands like The Wonder Stuff, and we were playing ballads. I think the Scottish crowd thought we were old hat.”

Brett, did your arse ever get sore from hitting it with your tambourine? (Kieren Kelly, Ireland)

Brett: “I used to get a lot of bruising, that’s why I don’t do it any more. I put my aggression into singing these days rather than self-flagellation.”

Are there any songs you wish you’d never written? (Debbie Harding, York)

Brett: “‘Stay Together’. I don’t know why, it’s just not one of my favourites. It was the sole time in our career when one of our records has been successful because of hype. We’ve been accused of that a lot, but that was the only time when it was true. It was just style over content.”

Neil: “I’ve only written three, so I haven’t got much to regret.”

I read somewhere that after you moved out of one of your flats, the council had to have it fumigated. Is that true? And do you like vacuuming as much as Nicky Wire? (Gary Regis, Leicester)

Mat: “That was in The Mirror, wasn’t it?”

Brett: “That’s a bit of an exaggeration. What happened was we were in the middle of a tour, and we finished a gig and I had one too many shandies and a couple of other things, and I was moving house.

“Me and a couple of friends were sitting on my bed while these removal men went around my house throwing things in plastic bags while we were off our tits. It was a bit of a mess when we left, and I apologise to the people who moved in afterwards.

“These days I find vacuuming and washing-up quite therapeutic. I hate having a messy house, it makes me really depressed, so I try to keep my environment clean.”

Which one of you has got the biggest ego? (Softywat, West Sussex)

Brett: “Definitely not me, ha ha. I don’t think any of us has got a big ego, to be honest. It’s another popular misconception about the band. We don’t all need to be pampered, none of us are that fragile. Possibly a few years ago, I had a bit of one, but I think I’ve managed to chip away at that. I don’t feel particularly ego-driven any more.”

If you could stick pins in a voodoo doll of anybody on earth, who would it be? (Kirsty Irving, Grimsby)

Brett: “I don’t have any bad intentions to anyone really. I think when you have bad intentions to other people, you’re just looking for someone else to blame for where you’ve gone wrong with your life. It’s just a coward’s way out, and I try not to entertain thoughts like that. So, nobody.”

What were the first records you bought? (Emily Mugford, Chertsey)

Richard: “My first record was ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. I think I was about six.”

Brett: “‘Never Mind The Bollocks…’ by the Sex Pistols was the first album I bought, and the first single was ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush.”

Mat: “I think it was ‘Abba – The Album’. The one with ‘Thank You For The Music’ on it, anyway.”

Neil: “Mine was ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part Two)’.”

Brett: “Woah, what a record!”

Mat: “What a youngster!”

Neil: “I thought it was amazing.”

Brett: “I loved the video with all the kids and that. I used to have the sleeve painted on my wall. The headmaster.”

Simon: “Ever? David Bowie, ‘Low’. Shall I tell you why? I thought he was a punk, because he had orange hair. I then went out and bought ‘Never Mind The Bollocks…’ after that.”

Brett, were you good at games at school? (Clint Stone, Yeovil) 

Brett: “Yeah, I was actually. When you’re young, sport is really important, or at least it was at my school. I held the school record for the 800m for a couple of years. I was a good middle-distance runner. I used to play for the county at football as well.

“It was the only way to avoid getting beaten up. All the bullies tended to leave the kids who were good at sport alone, and not take them into the corner of the field and kick shit out of them. I fancied being an athlete when I was a kid, and then what happens, you get into cigarettes and girls and pop music, and you just end up a fat bloated fool.”

Which member of Suede can drink the most beer? (Mike Crisp, Brighton)

Mat: “Richard, probably.”

Richard: “I don’t think so.”

Brett: “Well, you’re the one who regularly empties their mini-bar wherever we go. Even if we’ve got day rooms. He brushes his teeth with vodka, he does.”

Richard: “Not really.”

Brett: “Well, yes. Who are you trying to kid? This is the man who has a bar in his bag. You sit in the back of a taxi with him and when you get out there’s glasses littered everywhere. That’s no exaggeration. After the pubs shut, you don’t try to find a dodgy offie, you just look in Richard‘s bag. That’s the truth, Mate.”

Simon: “He drinks anything, him.”

What do you say to NME’s editor, who recently included you alongside Ocean Colour Scene, Cast and Reef in a list of bands who “have nothing to say” (NME, April 3)? (Dave Thorley, Shropshire)

Brett: “I don’t think it’s true, to be honest.”

Mat: “There’s always this assumption that if you have something to say, you have to say it in terms of politics and social conditions.”

Brett: “I totally agree. When we’re in places like Germany, we’re always asked, ‘Why are you not political?’ and my answer to that is always the same. If you don’t understand the politics of the songs, then you haven’t looked into them. The songs aren’t flag-waving, they’re more subtle than that.

“I think I’m getting more interested in the music as I’m getting older, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t think you lose that fire for life. As long as you’re inspired and have a real passion and rage for your music, that’s something to say in itself. That’s not a cop-out, that’s just how I feel about music and the band.”

Brett, you’re always photographed wearing a silver bracelet. Who gave it to you? (Samantha Jones, London)

Brett: “It was from a fan, actually. Someone sent it to me for my birthday. It’s just a cheap, silver-plated one, but I like it. I’m quite superstitious, and I wear a lot of my jewellery for that reason. This bracelet is a perfect example, it’s been quite lucky. I wrote lots of the album wearing it, so it’ll continue to be on my wrist until something goes wrong.”

When was the last time you cried, and why? (Gontie Tommy, Belgium)

Brett: “I think the last film that I cried at was Watership Down when I was young. The closing scene was really fucking sad.

“My sister used to read books to me, she liked reading to me so much she used to pay me 2p an hour to listen. She’d read stuff like Watership Down and Lord Of The Rings, and I’d cry at that too.”

Simon: “I don’t think I’ve ever cried while watching a film.”

Brett: “Neil?”

Neil: “Nah.”

Simon: “Oh, he’s a butch lad.”

Day 2 (April 6)

Have you dumbed down your lyrics to the point where they’re patronising to the listener? (Tom Stubbs, Dartford)

Brett: “I don’t think they are patronising. If you want to look for intelligence in lyrics, there’s a lot more of it in simplicity. I think the lyrics to our new album are a lot more intelligent than anything on ‘Dog Man Star’.”

Mat: “There’s a difference between dumbing down and being universal. The majority of people who buy Suede records aren’t English, their first language isn’t English.”

Brett: “When you go abroad people are just mystified about what the early stuff is all about. This is an interview for an English music paper, so everyone knows all the cultural reference points, but there’s a whole world out there and I think it’s important to communicate to them as well.

“As I’ve said before, the blueprint for a lot of lyrics on this album came from reading writers I really like, like Camus. His words are just like a simple painting of a triangle or a square or something. There’s nothing clever-clever about them, they’re just there. They describe a situation with a couple of simple brush strokes. That’s what I was trying to do on ‘Head Music’, and if that’s patronising, then sue me.”

What sort of cigarettes do you smoke? (Laura Pike, Aberdeen)

Brett: “Benson & Hedges. It’s always been the same. Mat smokes Silk Cut, but then he doesn’t count.”

If you could be any character in EastEnders, who would it be? (Sarah Glanville, London)

Brett: “I quite like Matthew Rose. I like the real ones P Matthew, Tony, people like that. I can imagine being one of them, they’re in the same sort of age-band. I really like the Mitchells as well.

“Actually, I think I’d be like Phil in the old days. He’s lost the plot a bit as a character since he gave up drink, but I used to love Phil. I’d regularly have dreams about hanging out with him and Grant, and committing various crimes.”

Simon: “I’d be Ian Beale, because I’ve always wanted to own a 50p/’1 shop.”

Brett: “Everyone hates him though, he’s the most hated man in the square.”

Simon: “Suits me.”

Neil: “I’d be Reg Cox (Reg Cox was found dead in the first episode after never speaking a word P EastEnders Ed).”

Richard: “I’d like to be Nick Cotton, but I don’t think I could pull it off. Every time he’s been in it, it’s been great. The time he tried to murder Dot was brilliant.”

Brett: “The best one was when he came back and pretended to be a Christian. That was really sinister. And I love Dot Cotton. Charlie was great as well.”

Tell us about your brown rice diet… (Johnny Robinson, Kettering)

Brett: “I still eat brown rice every morning. You get hooked on it, because it’s just so clean and good for you. I’m really looking after my body at the moment. I spent so many years abusing it, it’s time to give it a break I think.”

Mat: “I met someone at a Super Furry Animals gig who was such a Suede fan he’d started just eating brown rice. I was trying to convince him that you don’t have to do that to be a Suede fan. He should have seen Brett a few minutes earlier, he had a whole load of prawns stuffed into his mouth.”

Brett: “You’ve got to make sure you get the right sort of rice. It can’t just be brown, it’s got to be wholegrain. What I recommend to our fans is go to a standard Indian restaurant and have a fish masala. That’s very nice. I eat like a horse these days. Brown rice just gives you energy.”

Brett, did you ever want to punch Damon Albarn? (Paperback Rioter, Walthamstow)

Brett: “Punch? Nah, I’m not a violent person. Lots of people have had a go at me, but you just have to learn to deal with it because you’re always going to be a target for someone.”

Suede always seem well-groomed. How vain are you? (Jackie Long, Manchester)

Brett: “Personally, I’m pretty vain. You can only afford not to be if you’re really confident about yourself. If you’re always sticking your face in front of a camera and looking like a dog, you try to do something about it, don’t you? I spend a lot of time looking in the mirror just to iron the creases and get rid of stray bits of fluff.

“Simon‘s quite vain. The first thing he does when he gets into a hotel room is unpack his huge case of toiletries. He’s got five different sorts of aftershave, you name it. So actually, he’s the vainest member of the band, and probably the best dressed.”

Simon: “Yes, I’m glad you’ve noticed my Gucci shirt. Mat‘s got the best shoes, though.”

Mat: “They’re from Prada.”

Richard: “They’ve still got that revolting stain on them.”

Mat: “(Sheepishly) Yeah, someone was sick on them. Me, actually.”

Brett, are you still an eco-warrior (A reference to a recently unearthed school essay in which Brett complained about vandals defacing trees)? (Leonard Brown, Portsmouth)

Brett: “Oh God! I was eight years old. Listen, right, all that stuff from my past, anyone who wants to criticise that, I’d like to ask them what they were like when they were that age. When you’re eight years old you’re not boozing and injecting drugs into your eyes, are you? You’re just into stupid things. And no, I’m not an eco-warrior, it’s not something that keeps me awake at night.”

Neil: “He does live in a tree, though.”

Brett: “I have concessions to a green lifestyle, but it’s only buying eco-friendly washing powder. I’m not obsessive about it.”

Is it true you only listen to your own music and surround yourself with people who admire you in obsessive and fanatic ways? (Moa Ranum, Sweden)

Brett: “No, that’s bollocks. A lot of my close friends are into the band, but there are a lot of friends who’ve never heard a Suede song. A lot of our friends are ravers, and the music we make has no connection with their life at all.”

Simon: “My best friend in Scotland hates us.”

Brett: “I don’t think we’re that fragile that we need a load of people telling us we’re great. I think we’ve grown out of that to be honest.”

Day 3 (April 7)

Does Neil like antiques? (Purple Girl, England)

Neil: “I’m glad you asked me that. Not really, and I hate watching The Antiques Roadshow. It’s always shown in the winter on Sunday evenings, and it’s really depressing. It’s always dark outside. It’s so English, and it’s all part of that dreary idea of what it is to be English. It’s really parochial, seedy, it’s all about poking your nose into someone else’s business.”

People bully me at school for liking Suede. What should I say to defend myself? (Barry Beautiful One, Carlisle)

Brett: “Tell them they’re the cowards. If they have to persecute someone to make their own lives seem better then that’s pathetic. Tell them we’re going to go up to their school and get them.

“I don’t know, when you’re into music at school it says a lot about your identity and personality, and a lot of it was about getting into trouble with other people. You have to break an egg to make an omelette, don’t you?”

Your life depends on collaborating musically with either Damon Albarn or Bernard Butler. Which one do you choose? (Derek Brodie, Manchester)

Mat: “Well, we’ve done one of them, so it would have to be Damon.”

Brett: “What song would we do? We’d probably do a cover of ‘I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts’.”

Mat: “In a ragga stylee.”

Simon: “He’ll probably phone us up now and demand to know how we knew what he was working on.”

Have Suede become a parody of themselves? (John Rickleford, Kent)

Brett: “Not at all. Part of being in a band is being a parody. I don’t think anyone will listen to ‘Head Music’ and think it’s a parody of Suede. I think what we’ve done on it is develop the sound of the band, but keep to the heart of what Suede‘s all about.

“It’s true that there are certain constants in Suede‘s world that we go back to, but there’s a fine line between repetition and just having a lexicon of words to fall back on. Sometimes I fall the wrong side of it, but I like to have a palette of words that I use, like an artist has a style. That’s part of what makes Suede what they are.”

[the-desolated-quill]

Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2018

Congratulations dear reader. You survived 2018. And you know what that means. It’s time for another best of/worst of list. Welcome to Quill’s Swill 2018. A giant septic tank for the various shit the entertainment industry produced over the course of the year. The films, games, TV shows and various other media that got on my bad side. As always please bear in mind that this is only my subjective opinion (if you happen to like any of the things on this list, good for you. I’m glad someone did) and that obviously I haven’t seen everything 2018 has to offer for one reason or another. In other words, sorry that Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald isn’t on here. I’m sure it is as terrible as some have been suggesting. I just never got around to watching it.

Okay everyone. Grab your breathing masks and put on your rubber gloves. Let’s dive into this shit pile.

Hold The Sunset

The news that John Cleese would be returning to the world of BBC sitcoms was incredibly exciting, being a massive Fawlty Towers fan and all. Unfortunately Hold The Sunset was not quite what I had in mind. It’s one of those rare breed of situation comedies that chooses to offer no actual comedy. It’s not a sitcom. It’s a sit. Like Scrubs or The Big Bang Theory.

An elderly couple plan to elope abroad only for Alison Steadman’s son to barge in, having left his wife, and forcing them to put their plans on hold. Hence the title ‘Hold The Sunset.’ It’s like a cross between As Time Goes By and Sorry, but if all the humour and relatability were surgically removed by a deadpan mortician. The characters are weak, the plots are thin on the ground and the humour (hat little of it there is) feel incredibly dated. The middle aged mummy’s boy is something that hasn’t been funny since the 90s. It’s an utter waste of great talent and what hurts even more is that this tripe is actually getting a second series. I can only assume the people watching this are comatose. Either that or there’s an epidemic of people in Britain who have lost the remote.

Avengers: Infinity War

Yes this is one of the worst movies of 2018 and no I don’t regret saying that one little bit. Avengers: Infinity War was fucking terrible. Period. There were too many plots and characters going on, which made the film hard to follow (and what staggers me is that the so called ‘professional’ critics have condemned movies for having too many characters and plots before. Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice and even Deadpool 2. But because this is an MCU movie, it gets a free pass. Fuck off). The characterisation was weak due to sheer number of characters they try to juggle, resulting in characters coming off as one dimensional caricatures of themselves and scenes where characters such as Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Star-Lord sound completely interchangeable. The villain, Thanos, is a stupidly and poorly written villain, but that’s hardly surprising considering what a shit job Marvel have done building him up over the course of these 20+ movies. And let’s not forget that pisstake ending. A bunch of prominent Marvel characters die and it’s all very, very sad... except all these characters just so happen to have sequels planned, which makes this ending fucking pointless and have less impact than a feather on a bouncy castle.

I don’t know which is more shocking. That Marvel and Disney think their audience are that stupid and gullible, or that their audience are actually validating their view. Fuck you Disney.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

I’ve always wanted a Harry Potter RPG, where you could customise your character, choose your house and actually live a full school life at Hogwarts. This year, Warner Bros and Jam City gave us just that.

That was a mistake.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the mobile gaming market right now. The gameplay is boring and involving where you just tap images on a screen until a progress bar fills up. Wizard duels are little more than rock-paper-scissors challenges that require no kind of skill. Bonding with friends and caring for magical creatures just consist of pathetically simple pop quizzes and yet more boring tapping. Oh and of course you only get a certain amount of energy to complete these tedious tasks. If you run out of energy, you wait for it to fill up... or pay up for the privilege. So determined are they to extract your hard earned cash from your wallet, there’s actually a bit where Devil’s Snare strangles your eleven year old avatar and the game effectively tries to guilt trip you into paying micro-transactions to save them. It’s sleazy, gross and manipulative. Honestly, you’re better off just playing Candy Crush.

Agony

When the developers of this game said they wanted to give the player a trip through Hell, they had no idea how true that statement really was. Agony is dreadful on a number of levels. The design for Hell itself, while visually interesting at times, is often not very practical and gets quite dull and repetitive after a while. The stealth mechanics are a joke and the AI of your demonic enemies are pitiful. All of this alone would have been enough to put this game on the list, but then we also have the casual misogyny. Agony is a gorefest trying desperately to shock the player. We see men and woman get tortured, but it’s the women that often get the extreme end. The violence inflicted on them is often sexual in nature and the game seems to go out of its way to degrade and dehumanise women at every turn. The orgasmic cries of ‘pull it out’ quickly become a staple of the game’s experience as we see naked women raped, tortured and murdered, all for the purposes of ‘entertainment.’

I would call Agony sexist, but honestly that would be giving it too much credit. Agony is like a little child trying desperately to be all dark and edgy in a pathetic attempt to impress everyone around him, and we should treat it as such. Go to your room Agony. No ice cream for you.

Peter Rabbit

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Beatrix Potter rotating in her grave.

Yes we have yet another live action/CGI hybrid, but instead of something innocuous like the Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sony instead decides to adapt Peter Rabbit, with James Corden in the title role.

It’s about as bad as you’d expect.

Their attempts to modernise the story are painful to say the least with pop culture references, inappropriate adult humour and twerking rabbits. Plus rather than the gentle, but slightly mischievous character we got in the source material, here Peter is a sociopathic delinquent who seems to revel in making the farmer’s life a living hell. He’s unlikable and unwatchable as far as I’m concerned and the film doesn’t in anyway earn the emotional moments it tries so desperately to sell to the audience. And the worst part is it’s getting a sequel.

Wait. Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of Beatrix Potter tearing out of the ground, ready to kill whatever idiot came up with this shit.

Fallout 76

I was excited for Fallout 76. A MMORPG where players band together to rebuild society after a nuclear apocalypse. Could have been great. Pity it wasn’t.

Fallout 76 is a dreadful game. Not only is it a buggy, glitchy mess that requires a constant online connection to play, which could result in you losing hours of progress if your WiFi went down, it’s also unbelievably tedious, and that’s because there’s nothing to do in the game. There’s no other characters to interact with, the various robots and computers you come across are really little more than quest givers, there’s no actual plot so to speak, and because of the sheer size of the world and the number of players allowed on a server, the chances of you actually meeting any actual players is remote. And let’s not forget all the behind the scenes drama. Bethesda falsely advertising Fallout themed canvas bags and players getting shitty nylon ones. Bethesda accidentally releasing the account information of various players trying to get a refund for said bag. Bethesda failing to program the year 2019 into the game code, meaning that the game’s nukes don’t work.

Maybe there’s a chance that Bethesda could pull a No Man’s Sky and fix everything over the coming years with various patches and DLCs, but the damage has already been done. It’s incredibly disappointing. The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have be fucking incredible to win everyone back.

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again

I can’t stand jukebox musicals anyway, but Mamma Mia was always one of the worst. Its boring, meandering story with its one note, obnoxious cast of characters screeching out ABBA songs like they’re at some drunken karaoke session at some poor sod’s hen party has always grated on my nerves. So imagine my delight when they announced we were getting a sequel. Ever wondered how Meryl Streep met her three lovers and founded her hotel? No? Well tough shit, we’re going to tell you anyway.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is basically just Mamma Mia again. The actors still can’t sing, the characters are still annoying and story is still boring and meandering, completely at the mercy of the chosen songs rather than the filmmakers using the songs to compliment the story (you know? Like proper musicals do?).

How can I resist you? Very easily as it turns out. Gimme, gimme, gimme a fucking gun so I can end my misery.

The Cloverfield Paradox

A lot of people were unhappy about the direction Cloverfield was going. They wanted a continuation of the found footage, kaiju movie from 2008, not an anthology series. I was personally all in favour. Partially because I thought the first Cloverfield was a tad overrated, but mostly because I thought it would be a great opportunity for more experimental film projects and could be a great launchpad for new writers and filmmakers. 10 Cloverfield Lane was a great start. Then The Cloverfield Paradox happened.

The Cloverfield Paradox is basically JJ Abrams trying to have his cake and eat it too. Maintaining the anthology format whilst connecting everything together in a ‘shared universe’ (yes, yet another shared universe). The result was a cliched, poorly edited and idiotic mess of a film that actually took away from the previous two films rather than added to them. Everyone hated it and, as a result, 2018′s Overlord, which was totes going to be part of the Cloververse, was made its own standalone film and Abrams double pinky promised to make a true sequel to the original Cloverfield. A complete and total disaster. No wonder it was a straight-to-Netflix film.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Season 2

This is probably going to be the most controversial entry on the list, but please hear me out because I’m not the only one who has a problem with this season.

I was reluctant to watch The Handmaid’s Tale simply because of how gruesome the original book was, but I forced myself to watch the first season and I thought it was pretty good. It remained faithful to the source material for the most part and included some nice additions that helped to expand the story and mythos. If it was just a one off mini-series, everything would have been fine. But then they made the same mistake as The Man In The High Castle and Under The Dome did where they commissioned another season and attempted to tell a story that goes beyond the book.

There’s a reason why the original story ended where it did. The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t meant to be an empowering story about women sticking it to the patriarchy. It’s a cautionary tale about how fragile our civil rights truly are and how easily they can be taken away from us. It’s designed to shock, not to satisfy. So seeing a handmaid blow herself up in a suicide bombing feels very incongruous and just a little bit silly. It would be like doing a TV adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 where the first season followed the source material and then the second season turned Winston Smith into this heroic freedom fighter trying to overthrow Big Brother. It would represent a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book was about in the first place.

And then of course there’s the increased level of violence in Season 2, which many have complained about. In Season 1 and the original source material, the violence was justified. In Season 2, the motivation behind the violence has gone from ‘how can we effectively demonstrate how easily a fascist patriarchy can happen in the West?’ to ‘what brutal act can we inflict upon Ofglen to shock the audience this week?’ It’s purely for shock and nothing more. And with the showrunner (who I feel I should mention is a man) announcing that he has planned ten seasons of this, it seems that The Handmaid’s Tale is going to go even further with this depravity until it effectively becomes the equivalent of a Saw film.

The Handmaid’s Tale exists as a way of shining light on and critiquing misogyny in its most extreme form. Season 2 however demonstrates that there is a serious risk of it becoming the very thing it’s criticising in the first place.

The Predator

I love the Predator franchise, but The Predator is the worst.

People thought that this would be good because director Shane Black had actually starred in the first Predator movie back in 1987. Instead we got this bloated, confusing, obnoxious and insulting mess of a film that seems to go out of its way to ruin everything that makes Predator so good. There’s no tension. No suspense. No intrigue. Just a bunch of gore, explosions and shitty one liners from annoying and lifeless characters. They essentially took this big alien game hunter from outer space and turned him into a generic monster from a bad summer blockbuster. It no longer hunts for sport. It wants to take over the world and splice our DNA with theirs. But don’t worry, a rogue Predator doesn’t want to kill humans (even though he himself kills a bunch of humans), so he gives us a Predator Iron Man suit to set up a sequel that will probably never happen because this movie was a box office bomb and it fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKEEEEEDDDD!!!

This film also has a very nasty streak towards those with disabilities. There’s a lot of jokes at the expense of a character with Tourette’s and it has an extremely ignorant and patronising view of autism, portraying the main character’s kid as being a super genius who can decipher the Predator language and even going so far as to say that he represents ‘the next stage of human evolution.’ Presumably the Predators want social communication difficulties because apparently it helps them hunt somehow.

What with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, the future of both the Alien and Predator franchises were very much in question. This film needed to be a success in order to make a case for Disney to keep making more of them. It wasn’t. Congratulations Shane Black. You might have just killed off this franchise for good. Thanks arsehole! :D

So those were my least favourite stories from 2018. Join me on Wednesday where we shall discuss something more positive. Yes, it’s awards season. Who shall win the coveted Quill Seal Of Approval? Watch this space...

Or don’t. It’s up to you. I don’t want to force you or anything. It’s a free country.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 18/12/2021 (Christmas Garbage)

“Merry Christmas”! Well, there’s still two episodes before that – including this one – but regardless, the collaborative single by Ed Sheeran and Elton John is #1 for a second consecutive week, and the charts are still in festive mode so welcome back to the nonsense that is REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

I think I’m going to slip by slightly with the structure for this episode. It’s been a long week, it’s nearly Christmas, and this was going to be a short one anyway, so I may as well try for a more casual, by-the-by episode of the chart show, especially since nobody wants to write or read a long episode about a whole lot of nothing. This is furthered by the fact that the website I use to see the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – hasn’t updated early enough and because I feel entitled to ease of access because I’ve never not had the Internet at my disposal to do this, I’m not going to lie and say I’m not semi-grumpy about having to use the Official Charts Company website – mostly because it’s garbage. Oh, yeah, and the entire top 7 is stationary from last week. Regardless, it’s business as usual as we do have notable drop-outs: songs that exit the UK Top 75 after five weeks in the region or peaking in the top 40. This week, this list includes “Better Days” by Dermot Kennedy as well as, funnily enough, the song of the same name by NEIKED, Mae Muller and Polo G. Otherwise, we say goodbye to “Drive” by Clean Bandit and Topic featuring Wes Nelson, “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY” by Amaarae and Moliy and finally, “Alone with You” by ARZ.

As it’s a Christmas week, there are still plenty notable losses, songs dropping at least five spots from their position last week, though this week was actually pretty slow in terms of... anything, so there’s not that flux of losers like the last two weeks. Instead, we just have “Overpass Graffiti” by Ed Sheeran at #21, PNAU’s remix of “Cold Heart” by Elton John and Dua Lipa at #29, “I Drink Wine” by Adele at #31, with “Oh My God” at #33, Taylor Swift’s re-recorded version of “All Too Well” at #32, “I Hate U” by SZA at #47 off of the debut (unfortunate, since it’s a great song), “Smokin’ out the Window” by Silk Sonic at #60, “Tell Me Something Good” by Ewan McVicar at #66 and “Who You Are” by Craig David and MNEK at #75. Oh, and “Little Things” by ABBA is down to #73 off of the debut and that’s actually a Christmas song so, yeah, the streaming public couldn’t care less about this cynical “reunion”, since they’re not even bothering to stream their holiday single. You might as well delete the back catalogue off of streaming services and sell “Dancing Queen” as an NFT – that scam sounds more profitable than this bullshit.

Speaking of Christmas songs, like I say every week, I’m not covering every single one that gained because that’s pointless, but I will list every returning Christmas song, which this week includes “Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord” by Boney M. at #72 and “Like it’s Christmas” by the Jonas Brothers at #70, so, yeah, complete garbage. Just like last week, the top 3 Christmas songs, excluding the radio-station wet dream of the #1, are “Last Christmas” by Wham! at #3, “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey at #4 and “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens at #6. “2000 Miles” is just outside the top 75, and God, if it doesn’t re-enter this week, I’m converting to Judaism. I’m sure there are some Hanukah bangers.

Interestingly enough, there are actually a handful of gains outside of Christmas songs. Firstly, we have “Already Dead” by the late Juice WRLD returning to #68 because of the release of the second posthumous album – more on that later – but we do also some small notable gains, namely “Where Are You Now” by Lost Frequencies and Calum Scott at #50, “Make You Smile” by D-Block Europe featuring AJ Tracey at #25 off of the debut (which I fully endorse) and finally, Sam Fender re-enteirng the top 10 with “Seventeen Going Under” at #9.

You know I have to write an episode of this show on Christmas Eve? What life did I choose when I started this?

NEW ARRIVALS

#67 – “Let it Snow!” (10th Anniversary) – Michael Bublé

Produced by Jason “Spicy G” Goldman

I’m one December away from sending this guy death threats. Yes, that’s the review. Let’s move on.

#55 – “Burn” – Juice WRLD

Produced by Metro Boomin and Rex Kudo

This is our only other new arrival this week, and I think it was a really odd decision but probably smart on the label’s behalf, to release this new Juice WRLD album, titled Fighting Demons, in December. A Christmas gift to the fans? A ploy to overshadow its underperformance and the generally sickening nature of posthumous releases within Christmas music? It sure isn’t stirring much controversy despite how much like the rest of the Juice WRLD releases, it picks and chooses parts of different unreleased fragments and creates material out of them. Sadly, the song with Polo G and Trippie Redd that was actually good isn’t here, and surprisingly, neither is the song with SUGA from BTS, but we do have “Burn”, here because of three reasons: it got the video treatment, it’s the first track on the album, and it’s produced by Metro Boomin. This song is ostensibly about a nightmare of a dream he had whilst in Germany, and the chorus has that same harrowing, haunting feel to it that much of Juice’s posthumous work does when it discusses the realities of his drug addiction in such deathly detail. Oh, and he numbs the pain with wealth – an actual quote from the song, actually – by repeating brand names and rapping about faceless gunplay, but that’s always been a part of his formula, even if here it never really adds up to anything all too profound like in “Righteous” or “Lean wit Me” and it’s not nearly as soul-crushing as “Robbery”. I’m not going to sit here and nit-pick a dead man’s songwriting, though, especially since I have no idea if Juice even wanted this to be released. Metro’s eerie, bassy production is pretty high-quality as always, especially with the swell of the strings and violins, making some of the more melodramatic lines hit even harder, especially with how the intro, first verse and the chorus are drumless apart from attacks of percussion accentuating the “burn” like gunshots in the chorus. Honestly, the song is probably pretty good, but I can’t focus on honestly enjoying this knowing that it’s just another scheme, and whilst I can enjoy posthumously-released material fine and do a lot of the time, I can’t not face up to how this is using the man’s death as a selling point and to me, that’s a big turn off.

Conclusion

It seems kind of pointless to give out Best or Worst of the Week since we have two songs debuting, one of which I refuse to call a song because it is purely artless, and the other of which is just... ethically concerning. I will say that next week’ll be big – it’s the Christmas week, and we’ve got LadBaby vs. Elton John vs. Boris Johnson. It’ll be one of those weeks, folks. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week!

[woodworkingpastor]

Say What?! Money is the root of evil? -- 1 Timothy 6:3-10, 17-19 -- Sunday, August 29, 2021

In his Confessions, one of St. Augustine of Hippo’s reflections is of an event when he was sixteen years old: he and a group of boys stole some pears from a neighbor’s tree. I would imagine that this is the kind of misbehavior that most of us can relate to—what we might call, “not real trouble,” but still something that need swift discipline from our parents. Reflecting on this experience, Augustine notes that there was nothing desirable about these pears; they were ugly, they tasted bad, and he had access to good pears. All the boys did was steal them and throw them to the pigs. But what Augustine came to realize was that there was something depraved about their hearts that made them not desire the pears but made them desire stealing the pears. It was the desiring to sin that was attractive.

That’s probably a harder take on this event that we might take. For Augustine, it was the sign of a heart in desperate need of a Savior.

The love of money

That might seem an unexpected introduction to our last Say What?! sermon, this one on the phrase “money is the root of all evil.” This misquotation of Scripture is one that gets repeated a lot—it’s especially popular on social media; there is even a way to fold a $1 bill so that the words on the bill are rearranged to say this! For all of the sermons in this series, though, this one might be the simplest illustration of the point of the sermons. If you were listening carefully when Eli read the Scripture, you might have heard the correct reference in 1 Timothy 6:10:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…

As with many things, it’s the subtle differences that are significant. As we will see when we go along, money itself is not the issue. There is a God-honoring way to be in relationship with our money, and Paul will talk about that with Timothy. Before we get to that, however, let’s look at the real focus of this portion of Scripture. It’s found just two verses prior, where Paul says,

if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these (1 Timothy 6:8).

My question to us is, “Do we believe this?” Don’t give me the “church answer”—the “If the Bible says it, then I believe it!” answer that we’re supposed to give. Tell yourself the truth: do our lives validate the truth of this verse? Are we content with food and clothes—essentially the necessities for living? Or do we find ourselves desiring other things, not fully aware that our desires lead us to dangerous spiritual places?

The occasion of Paul’s letter

The Pastoral Epistles represent a development in Christian thought and writing. When we get to the letters to Timothy and Titus, enough time and space have passed since the era of Jesus and the apostles, that first-generation church leaders are beginning to write guides to second-generation church leaders, instructing them on right belief and practice. As Christianity spread beyond Jerusalem and began to incorporate non-Jewish persons into their life, church leaders not only had to teach people about God’s activity to reconcile all things in Jesus, they also had to provide a whole new ethical framework based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

One of the areas of instruction involved attitudes towards money and possessions. There are some members of Timothy’s church who feel that the Gospel is a pathway to wealth, that “godliness is a means to gain.” The idea is that being a faithful Christian will provide material blessings recognizable by the standards of living of our times. It’s an idea that remains with us to this very day. What we are told is that this idea ultimately comes from those whose lives aren’t being shaped by the Gospel and are instead characterized by

envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth (1 Timothy 6:4-5).

Doesn’t that sound like the world we are living in? I’m particularly curious about the word “wrangling.” It turns out that this word is unknown in Greek literature other than here—apparently, it’s a word Paul made up and it means something like “constant friction” or “constant disputation.” It always interests me when a Biblical writer makes up a word to describe something; how much controversy and trouble were these teachers stirring up that the words that existed were insufficient to describe?

This is when Paul makes the pivot in his argument to describe the situation at hand. Actually, he says, godliness does bring gain, but only if it is combined with contentment for what we have, not a drive to accumulate more wealth or possessions. Godliness and the love of money are competing values. It’s an idea that’s seen throughout the Scripture. From the Old Testament, Proverbs 30:7-9 reads:

Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the LORD?” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God.

What a prayer! This is someone who has come to terms with their heart, isn’t it? We pray the Lord’s Prayer each Sunday—perhaps we add this to our liturgy every so often!

From the New Testament, we hear Jesus say something similar to us:

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33).

This brings us back to the question I posed a few minutes ago: “Are we content with having enough food and clothing—having our basic needs met?” Do our lives proclaim the truth of 1 Timothy 6:8? Last Sunday we met with a few the persons who have been attending our congregation for a short while. One of the things I told them was that we really work hard at building connections among our members. Each of these persons has already been assigned a deacon, and that deacon was present for our gathering.

Should I also have told these persons, “If you follow Jesus with us, your finances will get rearranged, because we are a congregation who loves to be generous, and we invest in outreach all the time through our regular offerings and lots of special offerings. We are a congregation of deep pockets and long arms that reach all the way to the bottom. Hang out with us long enough, and you’ll be just like us!”

Should I have told them that? For those of you who are new-ish, would you have stayed away today if I had? Has our association with Jesus (our discipleship) and our connection with this congregation (our fellowship) led us to be more financially generous?

I believe it has. But the other temptation exists as well; it’s a temptation described by country music singer Chris Jenson in his song, Buy me a boat:

I know everybody says money can’t buy happiness, but it could buy me a boat; It could buy me a truck to pull it; It could buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some silver bullets; Yeah, and I know what they say, money can't buy everything; Well, maybe so but it could buy me a boat.

Money can’t buy you happiness, but if I’m going to be unhappy, I’d rather be fishing! Or so the song suggests….

“Sermons about money make me uncomfortable!”

Why is it that sermons on money make us uncomfortable? Could it be because it’s one place—perhaps the first place—where our commitment to Jesus begins to cost us something (pun intended).

The thing is, a significant aspect of the Bible’s instruction on wealth and possessions really isn’t focused on our attitudes about money; it’s focused on our attitudes about God. Do we believe that God is who Jesus said he is, and are we willing to trust God in the places where our commitment to our faith is measured by sacrifice? Perhaps not, if our image of God is a Lincoln Memorial-type of figure, high and immovable, cold and distant. But this isn’t the picture of God that Jesus gives us; Jesus tells us that God is “Abba,” someone we can approach with confidence. Jesus tells us that God is like a woman who loses a coin and searches her house until it is found; God is like a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go in search of the one that is lost; God is like a father who welcomes a wayward son back home, in spite of what anyone else thinks of him.

We measure our beliefs about God and money and the temptation to desire wealth and riches in relation to very real challenges: mortgages, college tuition, economic challenges, job insecurity, health insurance, nursing care—and our own temptations to maintain a certain status of living.

When we come to believe in this God; when our lives validate that yes, we can be content with clothes and food, we will know how to properly handle money—we will be generous, ready to share, seeking the good of the kingdom. Then we will have “taken hold of the life that is really life,” instead of having handfuls of ugly, sour pears that are only worth throwing to the pigs.

[althinksthings]

Top 10 Albums - Part 1

The Brief

“In no particular order – 10 all time favourite albums.

What really made an impact and is still on your rotation list, even if only now and then.”

As always, because I'm me, I'm going to break and change the rules for my own amusement and so it will hopefully be a more interesting venture. I'm going to discuss 10 of the albums that became important to my life. This is partly because the only way I could possibly nail this list down to only 10 albums was to select ones that were particularly formative or influential, and partly because since I'm not very good at analysing music, having some form of narrative behind them will help structure my choices and my posts. In that sense, then, they are in a particular order: I'll be putting these out in a bibliographic chronological series, in the approximate order that I discovered these albums during my life.

A quick note about the way in which I listen to music. I have synesthesia, which means that every song and album I listen to has colours that I strongly associate with it. This, while a thoroughly enjoyable part of my life, sometimes has drawbacks when discussing music as there are certain songs that I just can't help ascribing colours to. As an example in this essay, I couldn't help but describe the song Lord Grenville as “grey”, and I'm sure this phenomena will show up again.

So then.

1. Al Stewart – Year of the Cat. (1976)

YotC was the 7th album to be released by Al Stewart, from his rather extensive discography of 16 original albums, with a few live records and an instrumental one on top for good measure. His genre is primarily folk-rock with a strong emphasis on his spectacularly complex and beautiful guitar style. His favourite subjects for songs are history and wine, the latter even warranted an entire album dedicated to it in 2000, called Down in the Cellar. As for history, I swear I've gained more knowledge about history that has actually stuck because of these albums than anything else in my life. I specifically used one of his songs (League of Notions) to revise for my history GCSE exam, and another one (Post World War 2 Blues) to help me remember information in my history A Level classes. A caveat: this is not actually my favourite album that Al Stewart has ever released. That crown goes pretty unequivocally to Modern Times, released in 1975 and immediately preceding YotC in his discography. So this immediately seems like a pretty stupid pick.

Before the age of 10 I didn't really have a music “taste” per se. My dad reckons that the first artists I ever vocally showed a preference for were Abba and the Eagles, both choices that I will defend because I still think they're both great. I also loved Deep Purple (their album Who Do We Think We Are nearly made the list), but I didn't have any devices on which to listen to music as a solo venture, there were just constant tunes on in the house and car. However, it just so happened that we went on a family holiday to Canada in the summer of my 10th year, and this holiday involved a 10 day road trip in a camper van around British Columbia. It was amazing, the views were astounding, and we stayed in a new campsite every night which meant lots of new sights and exciting locations, but it also meant a rather large quantity of driving. My dad, at this point, had an MP3 player that was slightly smaller than a brick and which he had loaded with however much data a brick could hold in 2006. He handed me the MP3 player and suggested that I listen to this album because he thought I'd like it, so on one of the days of travelling I stared out of the window and listened to Year of the Cat back to back. It was the first time I'd ever heard any of Al Stewart's music and I remember my very first thought being “he has a weird voice”, but as I got used to it the songs stuck and later as we walked around a vineyard I couldn't stop singing the song Broadway Hotel. I think it was my first ever favourite song, and certainly the one that I remember changing how I listened to music. This album wasn't just on in the background, it was playing because I chose it and I wanted to listen. Long story short, YotC was the direct cause of me asking for and subsequently receiving a minute iPod nano that next Christmas, and so I accredit this album as being the direct cause of me starting to listen to music as a whole.

I feel like I should actually talk about the album for a bit. The final track on this album is the titular song Year of the Cat, which to date remains Al Stewart's most famous release. Some of you would recognise it, it still gets played on various radio stations from time to time. It's a gorgeous, largely instrumental song of almost 7 minutes, involving a large array of solos from various instruments. The cat is a year in the Vietnamese zodiac, coinciding with the year in which the song was recorded. The lyrics are a semi abstract reference to the comedian Tony Hancock, whom Stewart saw perform a couple of years before his suicide in 1968. The song has a basic narrative: the tourist protagonist whom we hear about in the second person is walking through a market and meets a woman. He gets distracted by her, loses his sense of perspective and his grasp of time, and the next day realises that his bus has left without him. This coincides perfectly with the meandering solos and instrumental interludes of the single, the listener can feel that they are getting gently lost in the passage of time but (if you're like me), you don't really mind.

So that's the single, what about the rest of the album? As a record it is relatively short, only 9 tracks if you don't include the bonus songs from the 2004 remaster (I don't). I'm not going to go into each song in so much depth, but every track has it's own certain atmosphere that serves to build the overall feeling of a somewhat pensive yet occasionally magical world. Lord Grenville, the opener, is a grey perspective of the situation of Sir Richard Grenville, who was a Lord, soldier, and sailor in the 1500s, now famous for dying when refusing to surrender his ship to Spanish fleets in the Battle of Flores. On the Border is half about the Basque Separatist movement (a situation involving a group of Basque organisations seeking for independence from France and Spain), with the second half of the song revolving around Robert Mugabe, who is now the ex Prime Minister/President of Zimbabwe. Flying Sorcery is a reflection on the life and achievements of Amy Johnson. Not all the songs are based in such concrete evidence: the aforementioned Broadway Hotel is an investigation into people who choose to live in hotel rooms, questioning the feelings of loneliness, isolation, and love that could arise in those situations. It is, then, genuinely surprising that the incohesive subject matter of the individual tracks lends itself to a finished product that feels complete and without tonal dissonance. That may stand as a testament to Stewart's lyrical and musical skill: love songs are treated with no less verbosity than songs about prominent political figures, and the distinctive sound of his intricate guitar patterns is a constant throughout the record.

I could go into this much depth and more about all of Al Stewart's albums, and do full analyses about a great number of his songs, but this was supposed to be an explanation for why the album YotC is important to me and I've already gone way over that particular boundary. The album Modern Times, especially, I think is an undiluted masterpiece of everything that is good about Stewart's songwriting, and I half wish I had spend more time discussing that in this essay. The enigmatically titled Apple Cider Re-Constitution is one of my absolute favourite songs, along with the song Modern Times, an 8 minute long masterpiece of nostalgia and the way in which different people remember their pasts. Other honourable mentions from Stewart's discography include the legitimately harrowing 8 minute Roads to Moscow, (a narrative of the German invasion of Russia during the Second World War through the eyes of a Soviet partisan), and a 13 minute live version of his epic Nostradamus. When written down like this, these songs sound depressing and miserable - and while Roads to Moscow is admittedly not the most jocular of tracks - even despite the heavy subject matter and the sometimes inherent lyrical complexity, Al Stewart's songs are always melodious, engaging, and interesting.

So really, all this to say: when I was 10 I listened to Year of the Cat and it spurred in me an interest in music and history that, I expect, will last the rest of my life.

[voightsgirl]

tag game!

tagged by @chloeswans thank you my love 💛💛

rules: answer these 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people (sorry i don’t have that many friends rip)

I tag: @writteninthestarsandthesky @chillmydude @riverdaleangels @sophiaxjesse @halsteadpd @e11evenseggos @caffeinatedkafreen @erinllindsays and yo anyone else if you see this and wanna join in i tag you

last

1. drink - water

2. phone call - my friend we were working on an english presentation

3. text message - i texted my friend to arrange to meet her for lunch earlier today

4. song you listened to - currently listening to waterloo by abba because i am cOoL

5. time you cried - had a total meltdown on thursday rip it’s been a really tough week

6. dated someone twice - lOl i’ve barely dated someone once

7. kissed someone & regretted it - nope

8. been cheated on - i mean,,,,,,,..,,,,,,,,,.........not exactly

9. lost someone special - yes

10. been depressed - yes

11. gotten drunk & thrown up - nope

fave colours

12. red

13. yellow

14. black

the last year have you…

15. made new friends - yes and i am so grateful for them 💛

16. fallen out of love - with a friend aye

17. laughed until you cried - oh my days too many times (usually in english class, which freaks out my teacher)

18. found out someone was talking about you - lol remember that time i overheard people proper biTCHING about me and i was like...........?? (it was lowkey funny tho because i am a NICE person and people know that and they came and apologised lul)

19. met someone who changed you - yes, actually in the last year i’ve met a few people who have had such a massive impact on me it’s unreal

20. found out who your friends are - omg too much

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list - hA no

general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in irl - all of them

23. do you have any pets - two cats sparky and olive and a doggo called lizzie

24. do you want to change your name - no although i am slowly implementing the nickname meg as opposed to megan bc it’s shorter and i like it

25. what did you do for your last birthday - uh idk i don’t remember,,,,,,,,,? it was easter sunday i’m p sure (or maybe that was the year before) idk i probably went to a movie or soemthing? maybe? i literally have no recollection of my last birthday is that bad

26. what time did you wake up today - 9:30

27. what were you doing at midnight last night - lying in bed trying to sleep (rip i actually need to sort my shit out i’ve been running on about 3-4 hours of sleep every day and i can’t deal)

28. what is something you can’t wait for - i’m going to austria tomorrow to ski and i am SO EXCITED even though i have to leave home at 5am

29. what are you listening to right now - there she goes by the las because bOP

30. have you ever talked to a person named tom - my history teacher is called tom does that count??? oh wait no yes i know loads of toms

31. something that’s getting on your nerves - the fact that i have to write an entire fuckin 5000 word dissertation by next week but i am so crazy busy and i am never ever gonna get it done

32. most visited website - no joke either thesaurus.com or wordreference (a level english and french be like)

33. hair colour - brown

34. long or short hair - shoulder length

35. do you have a crush on someone - literally so many people tho

36. what do you like about yourself - i was gonna say that i always put 100% into everything but then i realised that i literally hate that about myself because it means i am exhausted all of the damn time so i’m gonna say i’m good at giving people emotional support. like i’m not great at giving people solutions to problems but if they want a shoulder i’m good at just being there

37. want any pericings? - i really want a nose stud but i have a tiny ass nose and idk if i could pull it off rip

38. blood type - no clue 

39. nicknames - meg

40. relationship status - single pringle

41. zodiac - aries

42. pronouns - she/her

43. fave tv shows - chicago fire/pd/med, castle, one tree hill, gilmore girls, brooklyn 99, line of duty, absentia, how to get away with murder, probably more that i can’t think of rn

44. tattoos - i want a cross on my inner wrist and also a bible verse (either philippians 4:13 or romans 8:1 i’m not sure yet). also maybe some flowers i love flowers

45. right or left handed - right

46. ever had surgery - nope

47. piercings - just ear lobes

48. sport - i go to the gym a lot i like doing push ups and trx and spin and that kind of thing but i suck at team games

49. vacation - where i’ve been? gah idk lets see.....france, spain, italy, switzerland, germany, portugal, netherlands, all the countries in the uk, sweden, denmark, hong kong, usa, australia, turks & caicos islands.....going to austria tomorrow and hungary in the summer (and hk again to visit family!!) and i would love love love to go to india and lebanon and canada and iceland and norway

50. trainers - what ones i have?? currently mine are chewed up messes by my pup soooo none??

more general

51. eating - i just had a weird leftover meal of rice and couscous and curry sauce and beef stew rip to clear the cupboards before tomorrow

52. drinking - fizzy water

53. I’m about to watch - nothin i need to get to bed its 10pm but i need sleep

54. waiting for - myself to get my shit together and sort out my head

55. want - to get my shit together

56. get married - yeah one day 

57. career - i want to be an english teacher yeet

which is better

58. hugs or kisses - hugs

59. lips or eyes - eyes

60. shorter or taller - i mean if anyone is shorter than me they’re quite substantially below average so imma go taller

61. older or younger - don’t care aha

62. nice arms or stomach - arms

63. hookup or relationship - uh at the moment? i don’t even think about that kind of thing because dude i don’t even have time to breathe or think about myself soooo imma pass on this question cause i honestly don’t know

64. troublemaker or hesitant - both

have you ever

65. kissed a stranger - no

66. drank hard liquor - of course

67. lost glasses - sunglasses yes but i guard my prescriptions with my life

68. turned someone down - yes

69. sex on the first date - nope

70. broken someones’s heart - i’m not sure??? i mean i broke up with someone but like,,,,,,,they deserved it?

71. had your heart broken - i don’t know i mean i’m a fuckin mess but not because of boys

72. been arrested - no thank the lord

73. cried when someone died - see imma sound like a dick when i say no but honestly i’ve lost quite a few people who were close to me and i couldn’t cry for a good few months, even years, later (i am an expert at denial and repression apparently) so yes but not in the way you’d think

74. fallen for a friend - yes

do you believe in

75. yourself - hA

76. miracles - yeah

77. love at first sight - no

78. santa claus - haha no

79. kiss on a first date - yes

80. angles - oh yes i believe in those good old obtuse and acute angles (i assume this meant angels which, yes, i believe in)

other

81. best friend’s name - jenna

82. eye colour - blue

83. fave movie - ooOooOooOh idk probably dead poets society because that’s a masterpiece but i honestly am not a very movies person

84. fave actor - sophia bush 💛

[cfijerusalem]

WATCHING OVER ZION-  May 4, 2017 Update.

THE WORD

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth… I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you… (Isaiah 46:3-10) 

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old… So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 51:9-11) 

POINTERS FOR PRAYER: 

Israel celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut last Tuesday. As the re-birthed state is another year older, may we, who are called to uphold the nation of Israel by our prayer, remain faithful to the God of Israel, and pray for His continued protection for the whole nation.  As Israel celebrate, pray that the nation would have a clear vision of what God has called them to be, and that the strong resolute spirit of the Jewish people would enable them to see the Lord God at work within them.  Pray that the Lord would pour out His Spirit upon Israel - especially upon the young people so that His works can be declared to future generations.  May they stay united, flourish and never forget the One Who holds His hand over their existence.

As I stated two weeks ago, world events appear to be getting out of control.  If we look at North Korea, Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the PLO etc. – of whom all are threatening Israel or attempting to remove the Jewish people from Israel – then we must realise there is much to ponder on and pray into here.  Before we do that however, let us seek the Lord to quieten our heart, so that the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon each of us; and that the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might; the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord might enable us to truly intercede for these complex and difficult issues regarding all who oppose Israel. Pray that we will be in the correct position (spiritually) to know how to intercede, and have wisdom and discernment for when to speak up and when to remain silent.  

YOM HA’ATZMAUT 2017

Israel this week turned 69 years old.  However, according to the Jewish calendar - it is actually 5777 years young. After two thousand years of exile, the Jewish nation of Israel was re-birthed on the 14th May 1948, thus fulfilling prophecies in the Word of God from Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah etc.  If only the church at large would truly be like the Bereans in Acts 17, they would be enriched all the more, and would cease from opposing the Lord God! (Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Torah (the Scriptures) every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11).  The biblical emphasis on Israel’s ownership does not diminish, but rather increases with the passage of time (See Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 36:24; Amos 9:15.).  Will we see Israel expand further in a time to come? God also promised a second regathering of His people to their land (which has been and continues to be a fulfilment of Scriptures since the 1800s to present day - check out Isaiah 11:11-14 etc.).

Without doubt, this return of the Jewish nation is a miracle which was against all the odds.  From the horrors of watching six million Jews exterminated in the Holocaust, Israel then survived the War of Independence in 1948 that followed as the Arab armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the re-birthed Jewish state.  Since the 1948 War of Independence, Israel has had to fight many wars with its Arab neighbours. The Arab nations have repeatedly expressed their objective of destroying Israel.  Last Monday, Israel remembered their fallen soldiers during the Yom Hazikaron ceremonies before celebrating their ‘Independence Day’ on Tuesday.  However, even today Israel wakes up to find their enemies seeking their destruction.  Yom Hazikaron is a poignant reminder of the toll of war. Each year Israel remembers Israeli soldiers and citizens who were killed in defending the State of Israel.  The service, which takes place just before Independence Day includes prayers, songs, poems and other tributes as a reminder of the individuals who lost their lives.  Yet even today, Israel’s cities and land are continually threatened by terror. Even today, farmers working the land face the danger of death from snipers, while boys and girls must flee to bomb shelters fearing rockets and missiles. Yet even so, Israel is still a land and nation of beauty.  Today, one can travel from the snow-capped mountains in the north, via the beautiful Sea of Galilee, before going across to Netanya on the Mediterranean Sea and Tel Aviv.  One can then journey to Jerusalem and over to the Dead Sea, and finally after a hot trek in the Negev desert, swim in the wonderful clear Red Sea at Eilat.  And all this in a nation the size of Wales!

Without doubt, the re-birth of sovereign Israel astounded the world. Never before had an entire race of people been re-established as a nation. When the Jewish people began to make Aliyah (return) to their Biblical homeland in the 1880s, who could have foretold that the culmination of that homecoming would be too late for millions of Jews?  Who could have foreseen the 6 million Jews murdered during the Nazi Holocaust? Who could have known that three short years after the Holocaust, the 1948 War of Independence would be but the first war within Israel for further wars to come? Who would have thought that Israel would have to fight for its very survival in 1948, 1967, 1973, and throughout the years that followed?

But much has changed in 69 years if one thinks of what Israel has done; how the Land and wilderness has blossomed, and how Israel has changed the world through new inventions such as the mobile phone, computers, gadgets like the memory stick, solar windows and a space camera.  Israelis have invented much of the technology used in the world today such as instant messaging, firewall security software, Intel wireless computer chips, numerous medicines, and miniature video camera capsules to examine internal organs.  One of Israel’s sources of pride is the enormous number of inventions and innovations that have taken root on its soil over 69 years — despite challenges of geography, size and diplomacy. The ever-churning Israeli mind has brought us drip irrigation, the cherry tomato, the electric car grid.  Robotic Spine Assists and other surgical robots are transforming spine surgery from freehand procedures to highly accurate, state-of-the-art operations with less need for radiation.  Indeed, a lot has changed in 69 years… yet really... what has changed?  The world still appears to hate the Jews and opposes Israel for simply existing.   

Sixty nine years later, and Israel celebrates her 69th birthday of the re-born nation.  Even as Abbas demands his Islamic state in the heart land of Israel; even as Hamas continues to fire rockets from Gaza; even as Iran and North Korea along with Hezbollah in the north threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map; even as the Middle East continues to rock at the revolt of one Islamic group murdering their own Islam brothers… even in the midst of all this turmoil, Israel celebrates and continues to bless the world with its inventions and humanitarian work.  Sixty nine years of toil and pain… yet we stand as one in saying, “Thank you Israel, for all you have done for our world… may the Lord Almighty bless you and protect you. Shalom Aleichem (שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם‎) and ‘am Yisrael chai (עם ישראל חי)!  - The people of Israel live!

NO APOLOGY FOR BALFOUR DECLARATION

The UK have firmly told the Arab Palestinians, along with all who oppose the nation of Israel, that there will be no apology regarding the Balfour Declaration.  Her Majesty’s government slammed the door shut regarding an online petition, and stated that it is proud of the role Britain played in re-establishing the Jewish state of Israel. This is indeed good news.  The British government emphatically refused to apologize for the publication, a century ago, of the document that legitimized the re-creation of a future Jewish state, saying instead that it is proud of the role Britain played in establishing Israel.  In February, the Balfour Apology Campaign, run by the ‘Palestinian Return Centre rights group’, launched a petition on the British parliament website calling on Britain to, “openly apologise to the Islamic Arab Palestinian people for issuing the Balfour Declaration. The colonial policy of Britain between 1917-1948 led to mass displacement of the Palestinian nation.” The truth of course is that before 1948, the Palestinian people were actually referred to as the Jewish people, for example what is today’s Jerusalem Post was ‘The Palestine Post’ – a Jewish newspaper. The modern day Arab Palestinians are a modern invention after 1964 when Arafat created the PLO, by taking a redundant name ‘Palestine’ (as the land was now referred to its Biblical name ‘Israel’) and applying it to his terrorists organisation.  

As for the statement, “The colonial policy of Britain between 1917-1948 leading to mass displacement of the Palestinian nation…” again this is completely inaccurate, as there was no Arab Palestinian Nation ruled by Arabs, and never has been.  As for ‘mass displacement’, it was actually the Arab leaders who told their own people to leave so that when the six Arab nations that attacked the tiny Jewish state had wiped Israel out and won the war, then they could return.  The problem was however, the six Arab nations lost the war.  However, what about the 856,000 Jews that were expelled from the Arab Nations?  Why has there been little concern over these? Out of the 856,000 Jews living in Arab countries in 1948, the overwhelming majority found refuge from Arab persecution in Israel. The remaining Jews, like the ‘Arab Palestinians’, were dispersed throughout the world.  Last week the UK Foreign Office posted a response to the petition, stating. “The Balfour Declaration is an historic statement for which her Majesty’s Government does not intend to apologise,” the response began. “We are proud of our role in creating the State of Israel. The task now is to encourage moves towards peace.” Signed on November 2, 1917 by the UK’s then foreign secretary, Arthur James Balfour, the declaration announced his government’s intention to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in the Land of Israel.  

However, on top of this, it is impossible to understand the complex legal implications of the Arab-Israel issue without an acquaintance with the basics of context of the 1920 San Remo Resolution.  As I have written before in these reports, both the San Remo Resolution and the Balfour Declaration charged Britain with the duty to facilitate Jewish immigration and settlement by Jews in the territory which then included Transjordan, which had already been adopted by the other Allied Powers. As a trustee, Britain had a fiduciary duty (the highest standard of care) to act in good faith in carrying out the duties imposed by the Mandate.  Furthermore, as the San Remo resolution has never been abrogated (repealed, revoked etc.) it was and continues to be legally binding between the several parties who signed it. It is therefore obvious that the legitimacy of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and the Jewish state all derive from the same international agreement at San Remo.  So if anyone (including the United Nations and UNESCO) attempt to renege on their part to Israel, then they must do likewise to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.  

גְּבוּל (G’vul) - Praying along the borders (part two)   In my last report, I mentioned about the need to be praying along Israel’s borders.  Well, lots of issues have happened since then, but for all those of you who have been praying, we are truly grateful.  However the need continues.   Last Friday, Arutz Sheva (Israel National News) reported that members of the PLO/Fatah Central Committee had sent an official letter of congratulations to Syrian President Bashir Assad expressing support for the Syrian people in its struggle against “the terrorist organizations.”  So who exactly is the PLO? And are not Fatah guilty of acts of terrorism? So is this a case of one terrorist group praising another terrorist group for fighting terrorists?  Really… you couldn't make this up!  However, on Friday 28th April 2017, reports came in that Israel had shot down a Syrian drone over the Golan Heights.  According to sources, Israel fired a Patriot anti-ballistic missile in north Israel, reportedly intercepting a drone that entered Israel’s airspace from Syria. The interception came hours after Israel allegedly struck a Hezbollah arms depot near Damascus International Airport, a move condemned by Russia, which called it a “gross violation of Syrian sovereignty.”

In March 2017, Syria warned that scud missiles would be fired toward Israeli targets if Israel carried out any further air strikes in the war-torn country. Beirut’s Ad-Diyar daily reported that Damascus had prepared four scuds out of their arsenal of 800, which can carry half a ton of explosives, and would launch them without any prior warning if Israel carried out a strike.  Israel’s air defence systems include the Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets, the Arrow, which intercepts ballistic missiles outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, and the newly operational David’s Sling missile defence system, which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles and medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles.  

Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah has also warned that the terrorist group is able to hit “the entirety of occupied Palestine with missiles,” but according to a senior Israeli Army officer in the Air Defence Command, Israel is now able to protect more territory from enemy rockets or missiles than before. The border with Syria has been tense since the civil war erupted in 2011, and while Israel is suspected of carrying out strikes against Hezbollah weapons convoys in Syrian territory, it rarely publicly admits to them.  On top of all this of course, is North Korea.  You may remember that when Israel destroyed Syria's nascent nuclear program, it was quickly discovered that North Korea had provided the know-how and hardware to the defiant Arab dictatorship.  It is also known that North Korea is in league with some of the Middle East’s more ‘unsavoury’ players, all of whom want to see Israel annihilated.  As such, few Israeli tears would be shed if Trump followed through on his threats to end the North Korean regime.

Following Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s comments regarding this last week, the North Korean government responded with a stern warning for Israel: “The reckless remarks of the Israeli defence minister are sordid and wicked behaviour and a grave challenge to the DPRK (North Korea).”  The statement went on to threaten Israel and any other nation that damages the "dignity" of the North Korean leadership with “merciless, thousand-fold punishment.”

FINALLY... PAUSE FOR THOUGHT.

As Yom Ha’atzmaut was starting on Monday evening, I was sat waiting for the ITV programme 'Little Boy Blue' to start on the TV. The programme is a crime drama based on a tragic true story of when eleven-year-old Everton fan Rhys Jones was brutally killed by a shooting. I remember that when this incident took place 10 years ago, this senseless killing shocked the country. Now, ITV has turned the story into a four-part drama. Little Boy Blue revisits the murder of the 11-year-old Liverpool boy Rhys Jones, killed by a local gang member while going home from football practice.  On the evening of August 22, 2007, Jones was caught in the conflict between two gangs while crossing a pub car-park. Sean Mercer – a 16-year-old in one of the gangs began shooting at two members of the rival gang, but one of Mercer's stray bullets hit the 11-year-old in the neck, and Mercer fled the scene. Paramedics spent an hour and a half trying to resuscitate the boy, but were unable to save Rhys Jones' life.

The programme is hard to watch, but what shocked me before the programme started was an advert for holidays in Israel. I was stunned. The advert stated, "Two cosmopolitan Cities on one unforgettable break. Visit Jerusalem's breath-taking beauties with a captivating blend of antiquity and contemporary, cultural treasures and world heritage sights. And explore Tel Aviv - the city that never stops: Beautiful beaches, outdoor activities and entertainment." I thought "WOW"... but then I thought about what was to come... a hard true story of a young boy who was an innocent victim of mob hatred.  I wrestled with the idea of selling holidays before a serious true story this like. However, I then thought about the whole picture.

Liverpool is a fantastic city, lots of history and it's a city I love to go to. Yes, they have had their problems and riots and gangs and murders have marred this beautiful city. But that shouldn't cause people not to come and visit Liverpool.  But how many young kids (and other families) have been shot, stabbed, blown apart etc. in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? Hundreds! In many ways the likeness between the gang thugs of Liverpool and the Arab Palestinian Terrorists trying to wipe out Israelis are similar. It's a mind-set of hatred and evil. Yet should these gangs cause people not to want to experience to sights and history of Liverpool - a fabulous city? Absolutely not. Likewise... if you're never been to Israel and experienced Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the many other fabulous places of this awesome country, now is a good time to go!  See the advert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qBlW72p1k

Compiled by David Soakell

(CFI Church Liaison Officer (UK) & WoZ News Report Correspondent) E-mail david@cfi.org.uk Website: www.cfi.org.uk

~ May 4, 2017 ~ (Iyar 8, 5777)