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Bad does pretty good with yet another pick-up band

Mike's Pith & Wind - Crazy Heart
Maria and I watched the movie Crazy Heart on Foxtel the other night. Crazy Heart stars Jeff Bridges who plays a dissolute itinerant country-rock star past his used-by date and looking for meaning in a relationship with - wait for it – an aspiring rock journalist who happens to be a single-mum with a young son.
I’m a bit sceptical of movies about music and musicians, whether biopics or fictional (in contrast to musicals to which I’m strangely quite partial), because there are myths that are perpetrated in the name of entertainment that give completely misleading ideas about what being in the music industry is really like, especially the actual playing of the music.
I suppose that’s the point really. In real life, ‘Bad’ (the name of Jeff Bridges’ character) would rock up to a gig and be landed with a really crappy pick-up band and the gig would stink. In the movie version all Bad’s various pick-up bands are so much better than average you might wonder why you’d ever bother putting your own band together.
That minor carp aside I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as a whole. Jeff Bridges gives a suspiciously convincing rendition of a sozzled, mature (sort-of) player who’s saddled with the added plot device of a writer’s block, which is probably why I identified with him. Thankfully the producers resisted a totally happy ending - I forgot to check if the film was based on a book – but I’m not really giving anything away by telling you .. read more

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Dick's Toolbox - Who's in charge?
With the inmates in charge of the asylum what is there to write about? With every vestige of commonsense blown to the wind, every tawdry value being elevated to the highest of principles, and with science being rejected for unsubstantiated piece of ephemera, why continue? When people with no discernible worth or value, whose values are contemptible, to whom lying is just a normal part of dialogue, are elevated to the highest offices in the land, what does one believe? When the worst behaviours are copied faithfully as a means to advancement, when individual gratification overrides the public good and when finding solutions to a highly problematic future and ignored for short term gain what does one do?
In my case fall off my bike.
Let me explain, let me elaborate, let me let you share the pain ....and the expense.
In all honesty attempting the Audax Alpine Raid was ambitious. Foolhardy even. But I.. read more