lanky316

Southend United creeping closer and closer to being wound down. There's been talk of a takeover but for whatever reason things haven't got over the line. A club that's always been close to my heart as my dad grew up there so when we were visiting family or old friends a day at the beach(regardless of weather) and a trip to Roots Hall used to be a real highlight of my childhood. Hats off to the players and management for carrying them through shitty conditions over the last couple of years but it looks like the owner is spitefully running down time so that any future consortium basically end up with a phoenix club. It's not like a group involving Ray Winstone are going to struggle to get together the money to buy the club and clear debts so no idea what's really causing the delays as time runs out.

Still a long way to go but that move which while "letter of the law" fine has really lifted the lid on the atmosphere. Place is going mental.

My year as it stands is now going to be quiet, did Sabaton earlier in the year and then on impulse booked a weekend in New York to see Alestorm and Gloryhammer before nothing until November when it's Babymetal as a headliner. I'm sure I'll end up going to something else but regained that taste for live music. Not as on the pulse with tours as I used to be but starting to keep an eye. Miss picking up Kerrang and going through the upcoming gig guide and just working out what was doable. To be young and not having to balance the books as much again eh? 🤣

That's the swerve, they are indeed loaning him back to an English club as people suspected, but it's Wolves for another three years

Sequelitis has long been a thing where usually a films sequels decline, it means that in most cases after a second, or third film you're "done" as the quality tends to be a bit lacking. Over the years we've definitely noticed in particular though that the industry has moved very much to a "franchise driven model" and we have a mix of films being churned out unnecessarily to expand upon a franchise and there's a large part of it that clearly still sells and people go to it. There are some exceptions, people saying Fast 9 is their favourite or whatever but for the most part... I don't have the time, inclination or interest in yet another formulaic entry to a series to the point where I'm barely aware of keeping up with things. Part of me blames Lord of the Rings on this, after the unthinkable project that it was to put together it showed that people will pay to watch an "incomplete" film and a lot more things have been built with the intention of being a franchise. Not to say of course that it was an isolated occasion and that films prior never had sequel hooks or anything like that but there does seem to be a movement towards pitching films as a franchise rather than "sit back and enjoy the ride and if it works and we can think of worthwhile stories we might do another one" as we'd seen in the past. Another side impact is that the franchise model and how tired some of them are, is it's stopping some new properties from coming out as studios feel safest going with what works. There's been a lot of rejoicing from certain elements of society as well as discussion over Elementals release and it's failure for being "too woke" or whatever else people may want to comment on. The problem for me is more simple than any agenda pushing or whatever may have impacted it... I had no idea it was even coming out and don't recall seeing any adverts or anything like that, meanwhile Secret Invasion is being advertised and I'm coming across it on casual TV background viewing. The marketing for Elementals feels to me to have been a problem from a casual observer, while I'm much more than aware of the release of "yet another Marvel TV show". I'm aware this may just be a perception thing, although I like to think I have some awareness of films.

Ater a long time of hiding behind a straight bat and not trying to chase it, Australia have realised that they need to do something rather than wait for us to get them out, started hitting it around a bit and for the first time all day started to look like they could win this.

Could you be thinking of Hollywood Mogul? I remember spending days playing that and Chart Wars back then.

Only just come across this Blockbuster Inc Reminds me a lot of The Movies which I thought was amazing in the way that you could make films and share them for peer review which sort of created it's own list of "Blockbusters". The ability to customise and make your own sets looks like a great addition. Will be keeping an eye on this as it develops.

While there's discussion on ancient battles games... Field of Glory 2 is free on Steam. There are campaigns (and free form branching ones alongside) but it's purely focussed on the battles. It's a good old fashioned tabletop wargame but without needing hundreds of dice to work out combat.

I like Gladius, it's instantly familiar to anyone who's ever played a 4x but has the advantage of not having a wonky diplomacy system that knocks everything out (there is only war after all) so plays quite well and for a restricted setting they've worked the tech tree quite well. It helps that it's put out by Slitherine who are usually pretty reliable when it comes to strategy games. This and Battlesector are really good. Battlesector focuses more on the battles and plays like a sci fi version of their brilliant Field of Glory II and FoG II Medieval.

A very limited and refined scope, which isn't a bad thing. I for one am just pleasantly surprised that they're doing an actual historical title again!

It wasn't their fault. They spent fortunes on "top tier" facilities belonging to England in preparation. Sadly when it cam to penalties they only showed the team Platt, Waddle and Southgate.

Penalties, what a way to go out for either side after everything in these two games. Fergie Jr will be furious at some of the defending here to let it get this far. Wednesday deserve it on the strength of the season but throwing it away after that first leg for Peterborough is gutting. Plus side, Posh, Cambridge and Northampton will make it much easier for away days next season!

They've got back, horrible defensive work to throw that in, bad clearance followed by goalkeeper going mad and we're in to extra time (you'd think)

Meanwhile, after running riot at home, Posh are 2-0 down approaching half time at Sheffield Wednesday opening the door for a potentially incredible fight back.

I think that is the thing, it was a good song at least but I think that the jurys wanted to overcompensate in case of what happened last year. They knew that Cha Cha Cha was going to be popular and it felt like they wanted to make sure it couldn't swing it. The sheer number of countries that decided it wasn't worth anything at all just feels strange. There's differing tastes and I get it but it was so polarising it feels like it jumped out as something "wrong". Before they started we knew Loreen was almost a sure fire win but between the Abba tribute and it feeling a little uninspired compared to what we were anticipating before she performed it was a bit of a surprise. For what it's worth, my top 3 personal picks were pretty much in line with the public votes in the end, I was Finland, Norway, Sweden so at least it wasn't like I'd gone nuts for something completely random! Either way, it wasn't like it was something completely mediocre like a few people in recent years. Either way, I'm more qualified to be on the UK jury than "Doctor Eurovision". Back in my radio days I had him on my show and seemed to know more about historical acts and in our "top 10s" battle I was 7/10 and he was only 4/10 for the year. Time to start that Lanky for Eurovision 24 campaign.

I think most of the criticsm comes from the fact that it was against Cha Cha Cha which had absolutely everything and was a great song that hit on every level across the musical divide. I thought Loreen was good but that was all, the performance felt a bit uninspired although I liked what she was going for in her box and never really hit its stride, in my opinion of course, so while it was worthy of a high finish I don't know if it realistically did enough to win so comfortably. I do think if Cha Cha Cha hadn't been there nobody would have really cared at all. People who don't even watch or listen to any of the songs would still raid the bottom half with the internet about "how corrupt the EU is and of course they give it to Sweden for 50 years of ABBA" but most people who actually did watch it would be in agreement of "fair enough it was the best song".

Personally I feel it's unsuitable completely and that they should be denied promotion, it's only fair.

I thought they might pick up a bit, I was surprised that them and Voyager scored so poorly with fan votes as they are reasonably known (albeit in a crowd not often associated with Eurovision but... Lordi was a thing that happened) then I thought about it. While it's a fairly catchy industrial metal number... Finland had an even more incredible poundland Rammstein (complete with doctored logo ink!) which definitely hoovered up. I did think that we'd get a little bit more despite finding the song uninspiring, it was performed pretty badly and that sunk the nail in the coffin. Not surprised at the end result and called those two (as to be fair I think did most people ahead of it) but I do feel that there are going to be few times that the jurys are so out of synch with the actual viewers. As soon as the votes were announced for the first few juries and Loreen was double anyone else and Finland had taken a run of 0s you knew it was over. Obviously Finland was the big one but there were a bunch of high scoring acts with the jury that did barely a ripple and a couple of pretty big jumps. Norway being one of the most notable swings.

I Wrote A Song felt below par when it was announced and it's not really grown much on me, it could be a top 10 finish but I wasn't particularly impressed with it and it felt a big come down from Sam Ryder where it would have won pretty much any other year. I'm struggling to see past Loreen winning it back this time, Lord of the Lost are about to tour supporting Iron Maiden and are a band I've known people to be really in to over recent years so there could be a buzz of them performing better than people anticipate if the metal community jump on board with them. Overall though I'm still leaning towards a Nordic 1-2 with Sweden ahead of Finland. Tattoo isn't as good as Euphoria was but it's still decent and she's a recent Eurovision legend while the Finnish guy seems to have charisma out the wazoo and it's a decent fun and catchy song so can see why they're both so fancied. If the awards go crazy for Loreen though I think it's going to be a scramble for second with the rest living off scraps and anyone who consistently picks up anything could go well in the chase.

There's also the thing similar to Jack above with Derby, their "piss this tin pot league" when they dropped to the conference made any failure of theirs funny. Sadly they're doing well again but any failure is worth laughing at alongside the total shithole that the place is.

For me there was a great moment that captured Chelseas issues at the moment. A bit of pinball in the box and Sterling(?) is with the ball on the edge of the six yard box. Even with extra defenders Arsenal are making a hash of clearing it and... Not one Chelsea player is trying to get involved and maybe get something on it to score. There were just two Chelsea players seemingly having a chat about the weather on the edge of the area directly behind the player with the ball neither giving an outlet for a pass and hopefully shot or getting involved in the melee where it could just bounce in off a shin if someone tries to clear. It was really weird to watch. Instincts would say at least one of the two would make some sort of move but they just stood there and waited for Arsenal to finally get a grip and clear it. The team are just a mess at the moment and really can't wait for the season to be over. Some of them appear to already be on their holidays.

That was my thinking on it. Simpsons characters are among the most recognisable voices and probably amongst the most impersonated. I would expect that it wouldn't be too hard to find someone close enough, especially with the fact it's a "two for one" impersonation. It is jarring after all these years but I think it is a deliberate switch, as weird as it is to hear in feeling "wrong".

A good cup run this season, Broadhall Way bouncing and promotion clinched before the last game after losing our stride over the last couple of months. If you'd said that would be Stevenages season on day one I would have laughed but somehow we've done it. Great end to the season and glad it was clinched today rather than having to deal with a nerve-racking away game next week.

I'm thinking 6 or 7. This is just laughably shite and I'm sure they can get much lower from here.