lanky316

https://www.tmz.com/2023/08/26/bob-barker-dead-dies-99-price-is-right-game-show-host/ I know he was on tv for years and did so much else but I will never stop howling with laughter at his appearance in Happy Gilmore.

While it's such a good book it's hard to define specific "highlights" but that piece is definitely one of them. Although I'd heard the music and liked some stuff I'd never really read or paid much attention to The Distillers "off record" so that was all relatively new to me. I didn't particularly do a lot of music reading aside from picking up Kerrang to plan what gigs I'd like to spend my early wages on and didn't really pay much attention to articles unless it was a band I was already really into. It meant my exposure was essentially the comments like Kerrang TV or brief blurbs talking about "Mrs Tim Armstrong" or "the band of the girlfriend of the Rancid frontman" which meant I had no interest, didn't care about a bit of industry nepotism as long as I liked whatever video came up on rotation that was all that mattered. After reading about what was going on though, I found a lot more respect for how she went through that shit and came through it with all her struggles and shared those same feelings of bemusement about how Armstrong came through it all pretty much unscathed. I suppose part of it is down to the time, in later times there'd have been a lot more noise and attention brought on it all and the limit of talk wouldn't boil down to "Brody talks bad about ex". I know I'm partly preaching to the choir here but that is such a good book and is essential reading whether you have interest in the bands or not.

I'm not exactly hopeful about it. It kind of felt like Thors story - as far as the MCU was concerned - was kind of done before Love and Thunder and the film did nothing to make me think there was much more to be gained from doing more. Let him drift into semi-retirement and popping up to do things as a support every now and then but my interest in another Thor film at this point is non-existent. (As a side note, I'd noticed GotG3 is on D+ if people want to watch it but didn't see it at the cinema... I'm sure I'll get round to it soon enough)

Given that their best chances were a couple of headers from balls over the top, I'm not entirely sure if he'll fill that gap. To be honest I think most of the post game punditry piling on Uniteds performance is ignoring just how much Spurs had improved after half time. In the first half United were winning most of the 50/50s and forced a couple of good saves and Spurs aside from a little bit on the break were pretty well contained. After half time Spurs went up a couple of gears, competed a lot better and didn't really allow United to play until some late changes that seemed to invite more pressure than needed. If Manchester United had been knocking on the door all game and it'd finished 0-0 or they'd been mugged on the counter I could get it but I think it's essentially down to how good that second half performance was from Spurs.

Given United had got away with a couple of cynical challenges without yellow cards, it's interesting that they managed to now stack a few yellows from arguing with officials. This is shaping up to be the game where we really see if the officials are going to follow that new guideline so far. Lively and open game at least.

I remember being interested in it when it was due for release and a few people had mentioned it during sales but I'd never got round to picking it up. Looks good so will get it at some point but can't get all of the games I already have so would be one of the many typical of most Steam purchases!

Magenta Musik look like they have everything together on their site now from Wacken this year. https://www.magentamusik.de/collection/wacken-2023 It's great that they do this every year where you can get (most) bands from the main couple of stages and a bit more from around the festival live and uploaded afterwards. I can't be dealing with the faff of a festival anymore so being able to sit and watch Wacken every year live or catch up on acts performing while I was at work/otherwise busy is great. The ARTE Concert YouTube is also very good, they had large parts of Hellfest earlier this year and have been showing Summer Breeze the last couple of days and will upload some of the sets (I'm not sure if all of them) afterwards. I know not every festival can, or is interested in doing so, but it's great that you get the chance to enjoy live music and festivals from home so much easier now. Yeah it's not the same, but when thinking about what a bog Wacken was this year I'll happily dodge that!

He'll show just how incredible a talent he is turning in to any day now. I'm sure of it.

The comical dream scenario is for Bayern to somehow come away without a trophy this season, meanwhile Spurs pick up the league cup, proving exactly who was responsible for the trophy drought.

To borrow from Luton Town (and hopefully with a different outcome) "we're going to piss this tin pot league". Two wins to start life back in League One as well as knocking out Watford in the league cup. In the program notes the chairman's message was that Stevenage are aiming for a play-off spot. Still think that's ridiculously optimistic but good to have six points on the board. Unfortunately with Cambridge and Peterborough also up there not much opportunity for lording it over people (and away to Cambridge midweek is going to be a big challenge) but glad to have had a good start at least.

In a scale for the Manchester City fans, I assume it's about perspective. After last season "can we do it all again?" I suppose would be a reason to be pessimistic in the sense that they would realistically feel it won't reach the scale they did then. Realistically you'd assume they'll be confident of a title challenge and so on but getting a treble again? As often happens in great seasons things have to go your way at key times and little things working out. Had more teams been in the frame when Arsenal started to slide as they had the season before, could City have overhauled all of them to win the league, for example? Presumably most fans are expecting a reasonable season, but as good as last years.

Spurs have just come in to a large sum of money... (seriously though, if the last couple of days of media transfer talk is anything to go by, we can treat it as the load of bollocks it all is and just wait for the announcement... Unless you're Arsenal and decide not to make a formal announcement of your £100m+ signing for ages)

Japan - Sweden was a good game, Japan will feel they should have got a result there but after taking so long to get going Japan were always going to struggle. Shame as I'd liked what I'd seen of Japans performances but Sweden continue to go on and are looking decent.

I loved Miss Murder and although there was a bit of a change in AFIs style and sound there were some decent tunes. Was the MCR interviews from Sellout? Been a while since I read it but it was a really good read about a whole host of bands of that era. Green Day Jawbreaker Jimmy Eat World Blink-182 At the Drive-In The Donnas Thursday The Distillers My Chemical Romance Rise Against Against Me! A really good and interesting read for anyone who's interested and from memory wasn't afraid to be honest about various peoples issues.

In fairness it's been reported every summer for about 7 years that "Kane wants out". I'm surprised that we've got to the point where the bid after all this time has been accepted and now... it seems he doesn't want to move after all that talk from the media after all. I don't get why he'd be considering staying but not signing a contract but it's probably the funniest outcome of the Kane Summer Saga '23.

Luton have spent the Summer preparing for promotion next season, I'm not prepared to totally write them off because I'm not convinced loads of those teams that were scrapping until the last few weeks to survive are really any better so think that there's a chance they survive but it could be a painful season for them. Like Forest last year they'll be going in for a party whatever happens and any progress is a pleasant bonus.

Stevenage rest most of the team and control most of the game against Watford who have seemingly sent out the side that ran riot at the weekend before getting through on penalties. That was a pleasant surprise. I'm under no illusions that we're still looking a bit lightweight going forwards and that the Watford side must have been pretty tired but getting points on the board in the league and a small cup run is always nice even if we go out. Chelsea at Broadhall Way for round two please.

I'm still not convinced long term the changes will do much. Perhaps the added stoppage time will hang around but some of the other elements they'll rethink. We already see referees treating certain games and sides differently "for the spectacle", and it's going to take a very strong ref who will get a lot of abuse from the media when they have a goalkeeper on a yellow card still taking ages over a goal/free kick and give them that second yellow. We're at that point of the year again where little rule changes are implemented and applied before being forgotten about or quietly changed after a couple of months.

Two terrible penalties to start the shootout. If it's anything like the US yesterday these are going to be shocking.

Nigeria will feel they should have scored by now, it's going to be a long last 10 minutes of extra time, there's a feeling of "anywhere will do" at the back now.

Tournament opens up, England in a bit of a battle, player media have been going crazy about does a stupid thing to get self sent off. English football never changes!

Yeah it was the sort of over the top dive that made it so hilarious but... there was contact in the back and as stupid as the fall was it's the kind of soft one you see given all the time. I'm not entirely sure why it was over turned completely because there was probably enough there. For all the faults with VAR, situations like this could easily be avoided if we just knew what the discussion was between officials. The likely reason is they decided there wasn't that much contact and they feel that the referee made the decision due to the theatrical fall but without actually hearing what was going on it's just a guessing game.

Speaking of online things... Critical Role are booked to do a live show in October at Wembley Arena. Decided to click the presale link in my email out of curiosity to see what sort of prices and it would appear that what was available for presale has already sold out. Next up a stadium D&D show?

BTTF:TM is a whole other avenue of fatigue (although as an individual piece a couple of friends said it was "alright" which is better than some) and a whole other element of a plague within general entertainment and franchises.

So back to April and it looks like team Babymetal have announced the next project fully. They are also announced to be performing at a festival, on the same day as Babymetal, which suggests that the parallel world version of Babymetal are going to be their own thing. What form that will be nobody knows, personal feeling is they'll remain a more "idol" flavour of them focussing on the more cutesy stuff from when the original band were still kids and "graduating" members as they age. I guess there have been enough failed imitators that the original people doing it might work out but I think they were lightning in a bottle, enough female focussed acts have come out of Japan and expanded on them with more to offer that at the moment it seems pointless. That they're on the bill on the same day as the original group though I assume they won't just be a cover band like some are speculating.