Tim Thomas

I watched this last night. Its heartbreaking stuff. Its difficult to watch, painful even. But it helps me to connect the figures and stories we may come across to individuals and families. Its overwhelming at times, but there’s only one question that needs to be asked, and that is do we want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zfxm0/Comic_Relief_2011_Famous_Rich_and_in_the_Slums_Part_2/

Lippy Kids by Elbow, from the album Build A Rocket Boys. 

Its good to have them back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NItwaz0nLJA

So here’s a little article I was semi-glad to read. I say semi because I was sad to read of Frankie Boyle’s actions, but glad because it was good to see a comedian finally admit that comedians pick on defenceless, weaker members of society for cheap laughs (something I’ve seen alarmingly often), and admit that this is a really pathetic thing to do. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mark-watson/2011/01/comedy-boyle-bullying-word

This is a fairly tragic story to me. I don’t know how many people have seen it, but I find myself concluding that actions like this really are what prevents peace in the Middle East. The US’ reasons for the veto really failed to convince me. I was however very proud to see Britain had signed the resolution. Well done Hague. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12512732

Here’s a story that is not-so-well-done Hague (see, look how balanced I am!). I hate it that we sell arms at all. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2011/02/foreign-minister-bahrain-arab

Some of you may be aware that about a month ago I set myself the target of writing a song every day. I thought I might give you a little update on that.

I have successfully written a lot of songs recently. Not quite as many as one a day though. I’ve decided to give myself one day a week off, but I’m trying hard to accomplish the task most days. Life’s getting busier, so the challenge is getting harder. But obviously I didn’t just accept this challenge to write MORE songs; I accepted it to write BETTER songs. Now this is a little harder to judge, as almost anyone whose ever tried to be self-critical will understand, but I can at least say they’re not getting worse! The process of writing them seems to be getting easier, which I’m definitely enjoying, but that doesn’t mean they’re any better. But I’d like to think they are. Time will tell. Some days it is simply a case of getting it done and getting one out there, but other days I think ‘yeh I really do like this’ and feel the sense of pleasure writing a good song gives me. 

Who knows when these songs will be anything more than my own private collection. I’m currently musing on the prospect of tentatively starting a band with some others, but that’s not too close to happening at the moment. We’ll see. 

Hello. Apologies for the impromptu hiatus. Lack of discipline, its killer.

This post should have been written weeks ago. 3 weeks ago in fact, because that is when I saw the film Barney’s Version (since then I’ve also seen Biutiful and Never Let Me Go. £3 cinemas are great). I’ll be honest before I went I had low expectations (and false expectations - it’s not a comedy as I had been told!). 2 and a bit hours later my opinion had been turned on its head. So far its my film of the year. Well that might be going a little too far, I’m not sure it really is better than The King’s Speech, but this film is brilliant. Its basically a biopic of a fairly average American guy (Barney). To be honest that’s all you need to know. 

The reason I loved it so much is that it is an incredibly sad, but hauntingly accurate depiction of what it is to be a man with frailties. As a man aware of his own frailties myself this film really resonated with me. Its undeniably tragic, but my view is that its tragedy is a story lived out literally by millions. I would also go as far as saying that any guy that elevates himself above Barney’s plight is in danger of arrogance. I loved this film’s real-ness, its unashamedly sad portrayal of an average life and an average bunch of characters around him. So I doubt my review will really make you want to watch it, but if you summon the strength to watch a sad film, maybe choose this one.