Diaryer

The Black Heart, London, 12/11/11

This month’s club hosted by Josie Long was its usual mixed bag of fun, nonsense and stuff. Funny awards go to Ben Partridge (pictured) and his lauding of an online forum celebrating the long-defunct Windsor Safari Park and Nathaniel Metcalfe who used his slot to organise a ‘lads’ night in watching The Football Factory. Oi oi indeed. Elsewhere, there were drawing workshops, bad drawing nonetheless, political tales and dreams of a relationship with James Franco. Lost on me because I don’t know who he is.

Union Chapel, London, 05/09/11

One of those bands whose name I seem to have seen around for years without ever actually hearing a note of their music, Blonde Redhead were something of a mystery to me. Kindly given some free, unwanted tickets by a friend, this was a gig which surely couldn’t go wrong, bearing in mind its cost and the amazing venue. Well, it seems as if karma did its thing and contrived to have me spend the entire gig with trousers soaked in tea and something in my eye so painful I had to watch through just the one eye. The band were lovely though. Seemingly, their sense of dramatic melancholy has recently been plundered to greater acclaim by Beach House. With each song a new wave of downbeat, a Blonde Redhead set doesn’t have stand-out moments, more an ongoing feeling.

11/09/11

The story of Harvey Milk, the original gay rights campaigner assassinated by a fellow politician, was always likely to be an emotional one. The balance between personal and political here though was just right, the period communicated convincingly and Sean Penn’s performance as Milk excellent.

The Emirates, London, 09/10/11

On the back of a disastrous summer in which we lost our two best players, an 8-2 schooling at Old Trafford and without a win in the league so far this season, the most important thing here by far was the three points. And they came about in bizarre fashion as Swansea keeper, Vorm, rolled the ball out into the heels of his nearest defender who unwittingly deflected it into the path of Arshavin, who finished well into an empty net. Pure luck for us, but just what we needed. The rest of the performance though left a lot to be desired. Missed chances, possession with no cutting edge, clinging on mainly due to some poor Swansea finishing and, worst of all, having such a transparent lack of confidence that led to Swansea controlling the game for large periods. Of the new signings, Mertersacker looked solid (although I still have my doubts), Arteta started OK then faded and Benayoun’s 20 minutes provided energy, if little else. Worth noting were the performances of Walcott and Gibbs, who both looked way, way below standard.

I was more than sceptical when I saw that this film was to be made. It seemed like history too recently passed. However, the film got rave reviews and rightly so, in that it does what it needs to do and it does it well. If you want a history into the beginnings of Facebook and a story about computer geek rivalry, you got it.