Pete's Pad: February

Spurred on by my wife’s suggestion that I make my annual lists of favourite tracks, albums, films and shows into a more easily-digestible monthly screed, here is my first personal foray into email news-lettering.

I’ve been blogging for almost 20 years now first via Wordpress and then on my pegerteg.com website, which for the last few years has been underpinned by Fabrik, alongside my portfolio. That platform didn’t have any commenting or emailing capabilities, so I thought I’d jump on the Substack bandwagon. Except they’ve got a bit of a Nazi problem, so I’m actually using Beehiiv, which, from a bit of research, seems to be the best option.

Anyway, you don’t really care about any of that, but I just thought I’d explain the new format before we get into the usual recommendations and such.

Starting with telly watching, and continuing the watch/delete regimen from January to clear up the Sky box’s hard drive, with some trepidation I stuck on Human Traffic for the first time in best part of 25 years.

There definitely were some pretty cringey sections, particularly the introductory monologues, but I think it generally holds up as one of the best depictions of the ups and downs of an swedger-fuelled club night out. I mean, that’s pretty much all there is in terms of plot; it’s essentially a series of sketches - of varying quality and amusement - roughly pieced together with some flimsy inter-character relationship arcs.

Anyway, I loved it enough to buy the video tape - and CD soundtrack - when I was 17, and I’ve still got a soft spot for it now.

The only decent thing on Sky Cinema in the last few weeks has been the Mad Max prequel Furiosa, starring her with the eyes wide apart, and the handsomest Hemsworth, but with a dodgy prosthetic nose. It looks incredible - all Aussie moonscapes and George Miller camera flare/flair - with plenty of amazing action set pieces and a good helping of post-apocalyptic nastiness; I’m just not sure it did any of that better than the first reboot?

To prove my point about the paucity of decent Sky Cinema content so far this year, the only other thing I saw was pretty ropey. Not sure where I saw it reviewed well, but The Bike Riders is about as good as its Ronseal title. Austin Butler does his sexy smouldering thing with very little actual acting, Tom Hardy also phones it in while sporting another dodgy accent and Jodie Comer does her best, also with a very silly voice. It’s based on a photo-journalist’s account of following biker gangs in the 60s and I suppose if that’s your thing then this is maybe an accurate account of what went on. But if you’re going to make a feature film, it would be nice to actually have a story of some description?

With that we switch to Netflix, where I’ve also begun a purge of our watchlist, ticking off a few things I never quite got round to. The Mark Cavendish documentary is quite interesting; albeit as an archetype of the ‘infuriating elite athlete’ genre. His cheeky smile just about absolves him from being a monumentally stubborn man, but not being a huge cycle racing fan, I wasn’t aware of quite how deep a mental and physical hole he dug for himself, before miraculously winning his way out again.

A very different viewing experience comes in the form of They Cloned Tyrone, a Blaxploitation conspiracy comedy with John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris. It’s a bit like one of the weirder/later episodes of Atlanta, or the bonkers-ly-brilliant Sorry to Bother You; but probably not quite as good as either. If you’ve got a spare couple of hours of an evening and want to be entertained, you could do a lot worse though.

Not exactly entertaining, but still something I sat through during the course of a working week of evenings, was Eric. From the marketing and Netflix thumbnail image, you might be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of irreverent drama with Cumberbatch and a zany puppet. Turns out it’s actually a very dark, 80s New York-set missing child story, with very little overt humour at all. It is, however, superbly acted by the ever-versatile cucumberpatch and a solid supporting cast - the wonderfully-named McKinley Belcher III shines particularly bright as the cop chasing the case and his own axe to grind - with a story that plumbs the depths before just about returning to redemption at the last. I’ll say no more, but if you can put the work in, it’s a very rewarding piece of #originalcontent.

I also finally got round to watching Nimona; chiefly to find out whether it was suitable for family movie night with our eight year-old. I can report that despite having plenty of spunk and sass, there’s no violence or language to offend those of such an age, and crucially, it’s got more than enough going on to charm the adults in the room too. Based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name (🤷) its a mish-mash of medieval and futuristic that surprisingly works really well, with plenty of grown-up dialogue, well-written wise-cracks and, crucially, gorgeous animation.

Also on Nutflakes, I’ve only seen the first episode, but I did quite enjoy Robert De Niro back on form in Zero Day. This is a bit like that Leave the World Behind film from a year-or-so back, but more straightforwardly blockbuster-ish; although with an interesting dementia kind of twist. Will get back to you on whether it gets better or worse.

The end of this short month saw a small flood of shows I wanted to watch, and not nearly enough time to do so, so I’m only a couple of episodes into the third outings for both The White Lotus and Yellowjackets.

Going on what’s been released so far of the former, it does seem like more of the same though. The first outing in Hawaii was undoubtedly excellent, then the Italian one was just about salvaged by Michael Imperioli, and the third in Thailand has an alluring array of stars, but what on initial inspection seems like a rehashing of all the old tropes. The White Lotus is basically trashy melodrama - but with better direction, acting and scripting - and to be honest, I’m not sure I can take another eight episodes of dysfunctional rich people making me anxious. Also, I’m definitely not the only one who misses the old theme tune.

Much the same could be said for the latter - although it is the only reason I can currently see for ever logging in to Paramount+. I started watching it off the back of a friend’s recommendation - which didn’t sound that promising - but found myself binging two seasons in about a month. Again, it’s essentially a teen girl soap, but with a bit more blood and (literally in the second episode) guts, great performances from the young cast and the likes of Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Melanie Lynskey, and an impressive/maddening commitment to stringing the viewer along (three seasons in and we still don’t know how they were rescued from the post-plane crash wilderness).

At potentially the other end of the telly spectrum is an eight-episode series about the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini. However, this is directed by Joe Wright and soundtracked by Tom Rowlands (yes, one half of the Chemical Brothers), who worked together so well on the brilliant Hanna. As you’d expect, visually it’s very inventive and sonically the often brutal drama onscreen is more than matched. It’s an impressive central performance from Luca Marinelli as the Italian fascist leader, with plenty of fourth wall breaking and gratuitous violence from his braying mob. I’m only half-way through, but I really like what I see and hear.

I’ll finish the small screen recommendations with a couple more docs. The Questlove-directed film about Sly and his Family Stone is really something to behold - that man, more than many, has packed a lot into his life and musical career. As is often the way, it’s not all good, but such is the burden of Black genius. And if you’re not completely burned out on the topic - or you’ve somehow been avoiding it - the new BBC three-parter, Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October, is very well put together and about as even handed as its possible to be in such a lopsided conflict.

One of the few drawbacks about working from home is that I barely listen to podcasts anymore, given I don’t have several hours of commuting every week day. This means all my previous subscriptions have been endlessly stacking up and it takes a lot to get me to dive back in and listen when I am out on the bus somewhere.

Ads on the Beeb tempted me to download the series Romanov: Czar of Hearts, concerning the Lithuanian banker who bought my team Hearts, pumped them up to some success, before leaving them in a financial mess that took years to recover from. It’s well reported, with a lot of detail I missed at the time, so regardless of whether you’re a supporter - and if you’re a regular commuter - I reckon its worth getting in your ears.

Talking of what to put in your ears, I’ve made a few more additions to the annual playlist, although to be honest, nothing much really stood out that much this month. I did get back on the musical interviewing wagon last week though, and canny wait to share the results with you later in March (there’s an album announcement embargo, and despite limited readership here, I’m going to stick to basic journo etiquette and not spill the beans).

While I’m on that subject, for once I’d also actually like to share a piece from the day job that I was quite happy with. Last autumn I got to speak with Stuart Ralston, the chef and Edinburgh restauranteur behind Aisle, Tipo, Noto and Lyla. The resulting interview leads with his proclamation that he wouldn’t raise prices if he got a first Michelin star - something which was widely tipped for his most recent opening, Lyla. While I haven’t been back to check the bill, I was pleased to see that those predictions came true a few weeks ago. He seems like a genuinely good bloke, which is not always the case for people in his position, so I’m really happy from him and his teams.

OK, the ticker on this new CMS I’m using is telling me I’ve hit more than 1,800 words, so I’ll respect your attention span and leave it there. But if you enjoyed some, most, or all of this, then do tell a friend, or sign them up, and we’ll see where this experiment goes.