Freshly Spilled Thoughts

I’m no expert on Matt Monro, but there is no song that captures sentiment that echoes, quite like this one. Also, I like this video of him in a car whizzing around the mountains on a hot summers day. I think Quincy Jones played a part in production (he was the man behind Thriller by MJ). There’s something decidedly ethereal about it.

Out of 10 drinking horns, I’d give it a firm 9…

On Days Like These:

I have to be in the right mood for subtitled films, but when you get a good one you don’t even realise you’re ‘reading’ it. Just lately I’ve noticed a trend of them dubbing them over with American accents and I’d rather they didn’t.

These 3 are ‘proper’ subtitled affairs and you’ll forget you’re reading once you start watching.

Film 1: Dogman – I found this film by accident one night and it’s sort of stuck in my memory banks ever since. It’s a bleak setting film in Italy where this guy runs a dog grooming biz/parlour. He has his own issues, not least of which is appeasing the bully who masquerades as his ‘friend’ but is actually a curse. He has a daughter and he’s trying to make ends meet doing a bit of dodgy stuff on the side. You won’t forget the main actor once you’ve seen this (if anyone knows of other films like this let me know).

Film 2: 22 Bullets – I won’t go into too much detail here, other than to say if you like revenge action films, this one is one you should watch. It’s the guy that was in Leon (another good film). From what I remember this is pretty fast paced. Originally I bought this on DVD and one of my mates kept borrowing off me. “Dean, have you got 22 bullets? Can I borrow it”. He’s still got it (lol).

Film 3: City Of God – What a film this is. I totally forgot I was reading anything. It portrays the rise of crime in Rio de Janeiro between the 1960’s and the 80’s. Most of the cast were recruited from real life favelas which adds an extra layer of authenticity to the movie. Even if you normally hate subtitled films, you should watch this.

I would write more but my takeaway is nearly here 🙂

Have you ever noticed whenever you get a contestant on a game show that says, “I’m a comedian” or “I do a bit of stand-up comedy”, they’re rarely ever actually funny. It’s almost like the curse of saying you are good at something means you’re actually shit. Most of the time they look morose and only people like Jack Dee can get away with that.

Moreover, have you ever met someone who says they are entertaining, but they turn out to be the most boring person in the history of the world? Well, I met one and he wanted to be my friend. I actually gave him this title and had to use it once in a pub, “Oh no, it’s the most boring person in the history of the world. If he recognises me I will have to give up on living.”

Have you ever tried to disguise yourself without having a fake moustache? Well, that’s what I attempted.

One day I literally hid from him around a corner and he found me with my back to the wall like a shit game of hide and seek. I’m not even joking. Once he’d found me I had to act happy he’d discovered me pressed up against a wall (it didn’t seem to register at his end). “Thank God you found me hiding here minding my own business”. Even worse, he brought his girlfriend with him on this quest and she was the SECOND most boring person in the world.

How do you do a boring lobster sign? lol.

“Another year. Still boring together.”

They’re the only two I’d run away from just so I could watch paint dry.

Going back to the wannabe comedians…

They probably watched “Lee Evans” once on TV and their partner or someone in their family said, “OMG you could so do that”. It’s a bit like the X-Factor contestants that are told they can sing by their family, and only find out at the audition that the rotten tomatoes weren’t going to get them through to boot camp.

Only 1 in 10,000 people can sing in perfect pitch (I worked with one once).

And that’s it isn’t it. Having the balls is half of the battle.

If you’re willing to get up on a mic and risk nobody laughing with you (as oppose to at you), the only way is up. With enough tough gigs, you can probably go from being a poor comic to someone with an act that may just pass muster.

It just won’t give you funny bones, because you’ve either got them or you haven’t.

So I’d never actually knock someone that had the guts to do something like this.

I recently went to a beer festival and it was comedy night. The guy hosting the show was pretty good but he was targeting everyone along the front row in brutal fashion. I mean, that was his act and we WERE sitting on the front row.

A friend I was with began to look increasingly uncomfortable as he moved his act towards us, but I wasn’t gonna move. A bit like Maggie Thatcher, I wasn’t there for turning. However, he did, so I had to follow and that let us off the hook.

A woman brought back two pizzas to her front row seat and ‘comedy guy’ said to her, “Is one of those for your boyfriend?”. She replied, “No. They’re both mine” as she tightened her vice-like grip on two deep pans. He thought she was joking but she wasn’t sharing those pizzas with no-one.

Then he said, “You’ve got a rough deal there mate. She’s eating the lot.” (he rubbed it in)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comedian taking the piss and feeling sorry for someone in the front row because his girlfriend has an insatiable appetite for pizzas.

We should have all had a whip round and bought him a pepperoni.

It was at this beer festival I discovered my favourite name for a beer ever:

“Dark Side of the Moose“.

The more you say it, the more you want one!

Did you know that if you have tryptophan before you go to bed, it helps you sleep.

That’s why having a bit of turkey (or chicken) with a small glass of milk helps to send you off into the land of nod.

Your body uses it to produce serotonin and it uses that to create melatonin. So it goes around the houses, but all good things come to those who wait 🙂

Without thinking about it, that’s what I did last night. I had a craving for a chicken bap so I had one.

No rules in this life.

“Did you hear what Dean did? He’s such a maverick. Only the other night he fancied a chicken bap… and he had one.”

*The crowd gasped*. Tell me more…

After that he fell asleep.

“Ohhh. Is that the end of the story?”

“Yes. It was sort of inevitable.”

“Did he slay any dragons?”

“Only in his dreams.”

I used to give money to beggars outside shops until I realised that most of them had homes to go to. I watched one guy literally walk home one day after his begging shift had ended.

You have to hand it to them in a way, they are as brazen as you like. On one occasion I saw a woman order a 3 course meal for him at the Indian restaurant next door to where he was situated. She came over and said: “Your starter will be on the way in 5 minutes.”

Well, I couldn’t get my hat off.

I did make an exception one day though. It was absolutely torrential downpour as I went to walk into a co-op. Nobody other than a homeless person would have sat out in that. He was sitting there cross-legged singing “I’m Just A Teenage Dirtbag, Baby” by Wheatus, like he had lost whatever little part of his mind he had remaining.

The song was playing in the shop with the door open. As rain bounced off his head, he kept singing it. I couldn’t decide whether he was eternally optimistic or completely deranged, because he kept smiling while he sang it like nothing bothered him.

I think that deserves a couple of quid, plus I like that song it’s a classic. I worked with this guy called Chris who was camp and extrovert. He used to sing it whilst having a handkerchief sticking out of the top pocket of his jacket at work and whenever anyone rang he would always begin with, “Tell me about your love life, darling”…

They have just introduced chat PIN protection on X/Twitter.

Now in order to check your messages you have to periodically enter a pin number, like you’ve rocked up at an ATM.

What are they protecting us all from? Dialogue? lol.

Side Note: Reminds me of the terrible joke the lumberjack said as he was about to chop down a tree.

“A lumberjack started swinging his trusty axe at an old tree, when the tree suddenly and unexpectedly shouted, “Wait! Don’t chop me down! I’m a talking tree!” The lumberjack said, “Maybe so, but you will dialogue!“”

Ha ha I just found another joke I posted ages ago:

“Do caterpillars know they’re going to turn into butterflies? Or do they just wake up one day and think, “WTF happened? I’m stunning!“”

On the subject of passwords, I would choose ‘shoveitupyourarse’ as a password as well, but it’s a bit too easy to guess.

There’s a TV programme (I think it’s BBC) called From and although it’s not much of a name, the series itself is EPIC. So far they have done 3 series. The first one was not bad, but it got a lot better in the second series and I’m currently wading my way through Series 3 at my own leisurely, savoured pace.

It’s all about these people that live in a town but they don’t really know how they ended up there, other than the fact they are travelling down a road and reach a point where there is a tree blocking their route.

No matter how many times they try to get out of the town, they always end up back in the same place and inevitably, they see the same tree blocking the road again until they realise they have to end the madness and return to their new life in the equivalent of ‘Shitsville’.

At night there are creatures who live outside, which resemble humans (they tend to smile a lot), that you cannot let into your home. If you do that, you’re quickly turned into tomorrows fish and chip wrapper. You better have a talisman hanging up somewhere as well if you know what’s good for ya.

All of the above could have turned out pretty lame, but the actors in it are first rate and the way the story is conveyed has hooked me in.

Anyone that was a fan of Wayward Pines/Stephen King/Dark Horror should check this out. For me it’s something of a hidden gem and right up my alley.

There’s a guy I know who is a martial artist. So far he’s trained 183 days in a row (wow). Anyone that trains hard will know 2 days in a row isn’t bad and 3 days in a row probably means the 4th day you will feel burned out, so you can’t train like that every day. However, you can train every day if you do less (it’s the only way in my opinion, even if you’re super fit).

I prefer to go to war when I’m training so I take days off and do more leisurely things on those days off. I’ve always admired martial arts people, mainly because of their mindset/philosophies. When I was a kid I did Karate for about a year and briefly returned to it in the form of Tae Kwon Do in my twenties.

One day after work in martial arts class (as I like to call it), someone I was partnered threw me over their shoulder onto the mat. Once is fine but this was an hour of it and after being smashed on the mat umpteen times I decided to go back to weights and running. I’m still glad I did it back then though and I use some things I learned in those classes on a day to day basis.

This is what 183 days in a row training guy said earlier:

“Most people live on autopilot — reacting to life instead of leading it.
Bruce Lee’s lesson was to intercept before things happen.
That’s Jeet Kune Do — “the way of the intercepting fist.”
It’s not just martial arts.
It’s a lived philosophy.”

Back to me…

Interesting Mr. Bond. “Intercept before things happen”, which sound a bit like ‘prevention is better than cure’.

Yeah – I like it. 4.5 drinking horns out of 5.

It’s dream season for me.

I went through a phase of not having lucid dreams very often, now I have them more regular than Basil Fawlty shouts “Sybil”.

They range from the surreal to the mundane.

Last nights dream was about going on a tip run with someone, but somehow my brain managed to make this quite interesting.

To get me to come to the tip this person wrote, “Are you a good tipster? x”

Only I could turn a mundane outing into a garbage run filled with intrigue.

Also it’s stopped pissing it down with rain and the sun is shining as I type this.

‘Cause I’m a hero like Robert De Niro…

If you believe in something that matters you should pursue it to the edge of your own sanity, undeterred at the odds weighing against you.

Your own belief is what will get you across the finishing line. If you fail then you can always say you gave it your best shot. No regrets.

Growing up I would never have classed myself as a fan of The Stranglers. Not that I disliked them, but I spent half my time listening to Guns ‘N’ Roses (I know the Appetite for Destruction album pretty much word for word). I used to do a paper round every morning before I started school and I’d always be listening to Guns ‘N’ Roses on my walkman.

True/funny story – I had this album blaring out through my stereo at home with the windows open once. This bloke delivering door to door heard the music and I could see him really rocking away to it all as he walked down the road. The next time he was delivering I was playing a dance type track by David Bowie.

This same guy looked up at the window looking really agitated, then walked off, continuing with what he was doing. When I went downstairs there was a hand written note delivered through the letterbox which read: “Guns N Roses was better!!”

Anyway, back to the Stranglers…

The big hits I like of course, including Peaches, Golden Brown and this one originally recorded by the Kinks…

This popped up in my social media feed earlier. Apparently it’s ‘workout motivation’.

When I started training, workout motivation was people saying things like, “Just 2 more reps” and “You’ve got this Dean”

Now apparently it’s a woman with her tits out holding a dumbbell, wearing clothing more suited to a fetish convention.

I could write 1000 words here but it’s not going to compete with the visual appeal of the above. It’s still a joke that they label this as any kind of workout motivation.

Imagine someone who has never joined a gym before, signing up expecting that. ha ha.

I’ve always been a big fan of Yootha Joyce, she often played the part of a really strong woman who would take no sh*t.

So sad that she fell victim to alcoholism at a relatively young age.

Always remember her in George & Mildred and thought she was a tour de force as a sitcom actress.

Have you ever heard this song where a bloke sings about seeing someone in a bar (presumably some kind of stalker) and it’s nice to see their face, but they are there for someone else and they are hope they are doing well. It was on the radio tonight as I was driving home in the rain.

Load of bollocks if you ask me. Nobody would bang on about hoping someone else is doing well while they are waiting for someone else. They’d be saying, “I can’t talk now because the person I’m meeting in is coming in shortly and they will kick off, so I don’t fancy a shit storm at 9pm this evening. Oh yeah, I also hope you’re doing well and everything ’cause it sells more singles“.

Do people actually buy songs? They must do and this it…

Just after legs, the second hardest body part to train is back. It’s just such a large muscle group.

Today I smashed a 20 minute run
Then I trained back and did body squats in between.
Nearest thing to torture you can do with air conditioning on.

A fair few people putting in the hard yards tonight. Maximum respect from me because it’s much easier to be sitting on the sofa on nights like this. I got a a compliment on my arms tonight – it was off a bloke but I will take it.

He said, “Can I just say you’ve got the most amazing arms”. So that was nice…

I came outside at 10:45pm and it was absolutely slashing it down outside.

Look at this for a view:

I don’t take my phone on the gym floor, so there aren’t many pics of me in there.

But there is this one. Good times with the gym brotherhood (we had some fun)…

I have started a new fitness mission. I sort of already had it but this is where it’s going to go into high gear.

I always start with running. Just lately every time I have ended up on the treadmill this Japanese guy appears next to me.

It’s not like Donnie Darko where you imagine someone. He’s actually real and everything. He’s pretty good at running so I always imagine him eating healthy Sushi, not that I want to stereotype someone from Japan or anything.

After that I do an hours weights, so the whole thing takes 1 hour and 20 minutes start to finish and today I am really looking forward to it.

I’m thinking about getting the Rocky soundtrack just to listen to Eye of The Tiger because at the moment my playlist seems to be mainly rap music. I randomly have a Rod Stewart song on there so you get Ice Cube followed by cheer up maggie I’ve got something to say to you, which doesn’t really go does it.

I have one Ice Cube song that has a lyric which goes, “You can do it if you put your back into it” and “why are we going in when there’s bitches in line”, which makes me feel more like I’m in a nightclub than a gym.

Time to change the playlist.

On Facebook you always get one that writes overbearing/personal things in the comments section instead of sending you a DM or an actual text message (or something)

Family members are the worst.

On the next social media profile I set up I’m not going to add anyone I know in real life. Certainly nobody who makes me nervous about what they are going to write in the comments. lol.

I preferred the internet when it was filled with wonderful strangers I could converse with, that didn’t connect you up with people you may know. You don’t need social media for people you see in real life anyway do you.

It’s absolutely bonkers and it gets worse when you’re with someone when they get jealous just because another woman has made a comment on something you’ve posted.

While I’m on the subject, here’s another tip. If you want to achieve anything and don’t want judgement passed on you, don’t add anyone you know to that ‘thing’. The more you can operate in a liberated and free way, the better.

They should ban jealousy and marmite.

Here’s a picture of me just before I was about to have a football kick around in the garden with my nephew…

Love is a funny thing. It’s a bit like playing cards.

You can show your hand and go all in but it doesn’t mean you are going to win the game.

You can’t go into it expecting to lose either, so you take your seat at the table.

The cards get dealt and you have to play with the hand you’re given.

Will you win? Who knows.

When it doesn’t work out at the table, you have no choice but to walk away, but you always wonder to yourself what you could have done to turn that losing hand into a winning one.

As ABBA once said, “The Winner Takes It All”

The big question then is will there ever be a card game in your life again that you wanted to win as much as that one.

Life is a bunch of sliding doors and you only get so many chances.

That’s my thought of the day.