Dear oh dear oh dear
Prospects not good...
Prospect Oval, 1 May 2016 How wrong can your correspondent be? About a week ago, he wrote: “The team is good enough and things will fall into place soon.” In what should have been a close game, the Roosters got out of the blocks fast, soon led, and by mid-game it was 9 goals to 2. We apologise for the poor quality of our photo of the scoreboard (see below) – our hands were shaking with fear, loathing, rage and despair. I don’t know who has the task of apologising for the performances of the Tigers. The team was (it must be reported…
Continue Reading →Manon Lescaut
(Puccini, NY Met, 5 March, 2016) TVC had not seen this early Puccini but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a Puccini, of course, so a rural, low-born tart will get uppity and be handed a disproportionate retribution as her fate, but whilst the story is the messy result of being written by a committee, it is uncomplicated (albeit piecemeal), heartfelt and in the end, very moving. There are flat bits – the café twittering at the beginning reminds one of the rubbish music theatre Valli is forced to do in The Third Man – but the music shows the composer’s great talent and there are numerous Wagnerian…
Continue Reading →The Time of the Preacher
Happy Birthday, Mr Honey/Whiskey Tonsils! Now (for God’s sake) get your hair cut! Willie is 83 today, which unfortunately means we may have to contemplate pushing him into TVC’s Dead Pool ™ some time soon…. But for now, let’s celebrate both kinds of great music – country and western – and from Texas, at that. Willie is the last man standing at the Alamo, now that Waylon Jennings has gone. He has ‘cut’ a bunch of great ‘discs’ in his time but we particularly like: Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain Blue Skies (which everyone used to sing,…
Continue Reading →The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool (by the Dead Sea) (photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/government_press_office/6339649891/)
DISCLAIMERS TVC Dead Pool does not nominate celebrities we necessarily want dead. Nominations do not reflect any actual knowledge, nor do they represent imputations upon a nominee’s lifestyle, health, or associates. TVC Dead Pool © is designed as a parlour game only, and no distress, inconvenience or dread is intended. TVC declares that its past Dead Pool performance has attained 87% correct outcome. But there’s only a 50% chance that is correct. Please post comments below, and remember to speak well of the possibly soon=dead… By the way, what’s going on? We’ve famous musicians dropping like flies! Bowie, Cohen,…
Continue Reading →O, Donna!
We at TVC are prone to elegiac reveries from time to time, against which we struggle man-and-womanfully. But we here, assessing Donna Tartt, must raise a flag of salutary concern about what appears to be the author’s not-so gentle decline. Exhibit “A” – The Secret History Look, it’s a tad superficial, a smidge orotund, and so rich in faux classicism that one clutches the stomach, but this is arguably a wonderfully entertaining and evocative novel, rich, romanticist and vivid. But its also a pudding full of cliches and second hand tropes, which may be why no film-maker has ever managed to re-heat…
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