Pack your suitcases and prepare for Round Two of the European Cup.
Cardiff v Harlequins
Home advantage and Ellis Jenkins won’t do enough for Cardiff against in-form Quins. Quins by 10.
Castres v Munster
No-one will ever know the result of this match as anyone who attempts to watch it will die the most horrible of deaths from boredom, judging by the reverse fixture.
Wasps v Toulouse
Ooh. Toulouse by at least 35.
Ospreys v Racing 92
Surprisingly, Racing 92 are languishing even further down the Top 14 table than Ospreys are in the URC. I still think they’ll win, though – by about 12.
Connacht v Leicester
This could be the surprise of the weekend, possibly depending on the weather. Connacht by 3.
La Rochelle v Bath
Bath to take a Bath. La Rochelle by 20.
Exeter v Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow have been looking the business in their last couple of matches, and Exeter are not what they were last year. Weegies by 6.
Bristol v Stade Français
Neither side setting the world on fire this season, so home players by 4.
Leinster v Montpellier
Despite being toppled off the top of the URC, Leinster remain a team to be very scared of, and are at home. Blue Meanies by 17.
Bordeaux v Scarlets
Ooh là là, les Médocs par approximately neufty.
Northampton v Ulster
Will the return of Baloucoune and Hume mean an Ulster away win? Probably not, but I’m going for Ulster by 7 anyway. (This is why I never win the leagues.)
Clermont v Sale
Oh dear, Yellow Army by 30.
Onna telly this week
Friday 14th January
| Castres v Munster | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Harlequins | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th January
| Wasps v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 15:15 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Connacht v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Glasgow | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bristol v Stade Français | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 16th January
| Leinster v Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Bordeaux v Scarlets | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Northampton v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Clermont v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
@OT – the title gives away the punchline a bit….
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@trisk
I know. Plus he doesn’t deliver it that well. He’s more of a joke writer than a joke teller. Still great though.
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However, it did remind me of the scene in What’s Up Doc? where in order to plant/remove something from a hotel room while the occupant was still in it – the crooks make the excuse that a poisonous snake has escaped and the the guest should hide in the bathroom while they search for it – explaining the bathroom is safe because snakes “have a fear of tile”
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Beach Boys top 40.songs. interesting read.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/27/the-beach-boys-40-greatest-songs-ranked
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Talking of Highlander, I watched it the other day. It’s part of a sequence of ’80s not-quite-classics that I’ve always wanted to watch but never have (e.g. Hellraiser; Re-Animator etc) that a mate and I have been going through. Our verdict on Highlander was that the lead guy is TERRIBLE, possibly the worst leading man outside of something like The Room, but that the whole thing is worth it for the climactic sequence when the baddie gets killed (spoiler) which was utterly glorious in its ridiculousness.
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Beach Boys list wouldn’t go down well in this house. Barbara Ann rules the roost here as it’s what The Little One danced to in the Christmas play while dressed as a sheep. I know it’s a cover, but I don’t think that would wash as an argument with the girlies.
I tend to annoy them by putting on this version mind:
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Surfin USA would be second as that’s also been used in the Christmas play. Haven’t got a scoobie why though. The thing’s normally performed in the local church and all the kids voices get lost in any of the speaking bits. If the narrative doesn’t involve shepherds and wise men and what have you then it’s a complete and utter mystery what’s going on. Bizarre mime acts interspersed with seemingly random song and dance routines.
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Where to start with the amount of wrongness on this page.
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I know, God Only Knows should have been number 1 on the Beach Boys list.
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Am disappointed there was no room for this classic
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Or this
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Dab, Watch Highlander II, quite astonishingly bad.
I liked Christophe Lambert in Subway cos he was a cool French lad and I was 12 or something. No idea if it’s any good or not.
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There’s always the series with added Roger Daltrey.
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@CMW – and Roland Gift, out of the Fine Young Cannibals.
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Keith Moon was a well documented massive Beach Boys fan.
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I get the feeling that the show was late night ITV, possibly a Sky One premium import.
It doesn’t sound like a good thing, despite the admirable RG.
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“Film actor Christopher Lambert decided not to join the show and reprise Connor. After he was cast, actor Adrian Paul suggested he should play a new immortal Scottish Highlander instead, so he and the show could avoid critical comparisons with the original film and Lambert’s performance. The producers agreed and it was decided Adrian would play Duncan, a kinsman of Connor in this new timeline”
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The first episode I saw of it featured Daltrey being told he was “an abomination before nature and in the eyes of man” which amused me greatly. It was on late at night and I may have been mightily stoned. Watched one more I think, but there were no similar highlights.
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I’ve known several good musicians who were inexplicably Beach Boys fans (not to mention Bowie, who covered God Only Knows, appropriately enough). Me, I can’t get past the bubblegum beach bum thing.
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In case you don’t believe me:
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God, that’s shit!
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.Useful quote to explain that here:
Up until the early Eighties, I had absolutely no doubt that I wouldn’t be able to do anything good musically if I stopped doing cocaine.
David Bowie
Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991
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(Unfairly snipped it:
Up until the early Eighties, I had absolutely no doubt that I wouldn’t be able to do anything good musically if I stopped doing cocaine. I now think that’s absolute bullshit. It’s the great lie.
David Bowie
Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991)
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Bowie’s argument seems to be a sound one even if his career seems like an attempt to prove it wrong.
Seems that Townshend quite liked The Beach Boys too up to a point (the surf stuff anyway) as well as Moon who was clearly nuts about them. The Who did release Barbara Ann on an EP as well as famously mucking about with it in the film that the clip above is taken from. My brother had that film on video and we watched it quite a bit when we were teenagers, a lot of it is great fun and there’s an amazing performance from that thing the Rolling Stones put on in it.
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As an interesting spooky sideline to this story, I returned stateside this week, and in the glorious sunshine today at 10F I thought I would take a walk around our dishevelled town centre, and check out the latest batch of government funded art galleries that have sprung up in the empty department store buildings. I checked out the art deco theatre, to see if anyone of interest was booked, and noticed Al Jardine is playing in March. Who the fuck is Al Jardine, I thought to myself. Hey presto, Notablog is on a Beach Boys jag, and I have been wikiing them. Now I know. Might have to go and see him for the hell of it.
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Al Jardine is the short one who sang “Help Me Rhonda” and who did very well out of going to school with Brian Wilson. Anyway this is a great video slagging off Mike Love
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Saw highlander when I was a wean & thought it was the coolest thing ever.
It has not aged well at all.
As for any sequel & spinoff. *shudders*
Although the state of glencoe in the future did amuse me in H2
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looks in on blog – nothing of any interest – goes back to Grauniad
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Promising new poster on the Guardian called UncleMontyIoane.
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Slade – i tried posting on the graun recently. Didn’t think I was controversial but my comment got nuked immediately by the mods. Retried and the same thing happened. Either they’ve banhammered me or I’ve unwittingly become a trump supporting uncle at Xmas dinner you always hear about..
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@craigs
There’s an army of people on there who report every comment they don’t agree with. That’s enough to get a comment deleted I think.
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Craigs – apart from what OT said, there are some things you can’t mention. One is corruption in the Tory Party, although you would have thought that would be uncontroversial to say.
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Really? I’m sure I’ve seen lots of comments talking about how corrupt the Blundering Blonde Buffoon and his Merry Philanderers are. Although perhaps they manage to get around the Mods in some way by ‘implying’ it in some way.
I just hope I don’t get modded on here for calling Johnson and His Sycophants corrupt. I’d just be telling the truth anyway.
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Well, I’ve had a couple of posts deleted that mentioned ‘Tory’ and ‘corruption’ in the same sentence.
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‘Sleaze’ is okay. It’s also okay to say, Why don’t we stop calling it sleaze and call it what it is: corruption. But referring directly to Tory corruption goes bye-bye.
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I suppose a lot of the comments I saw talked about ‘this government being corrupt’ – there were certainly a few like that in the comments under the Jenkins article. There’s one comment on page two (by albrechtdurer to give them credit) that calls it “the most foul, evil and corrupt government in British history.” Think that’s pretty clear – or would it be dumped if the word Conservative was in the sentence?
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You also can’t point out that Jonathan Freedland was one of Corbyn’s most vociferous critics during the last election campaign. That one disappeared in minutes.
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I took a screenshot. I don’t think it’s abusive.
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“the most foul, evil and corrupt government in British history” – hmm? Big Bob Walpole wants a word:
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Every UK government I’ve known has been called corrupt at one time or other. I remember someone standing in John Major’s face and calling him a fascist during one election. As far as I’m concerned it’s fair game – in a democracy you need to be able to call the government these things otherwise we’re in trouble. Most corrupt PM in my lifetime? Probably Blair as he left office suspiciously wealthier than he entered it, with John “I made a mint selling off DERA” Major a close second.
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Isn’t it more the point that this lot (all of them, not just the PM) are corrupt, and brazen with it?
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@bb
Not sure. For example is Gavin Williamson on the make or is he just thick as two short planks? (I know he’s not there any more but you get my drift).
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If I had to, I’d say he was both on the make and thick as two short planks.
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it’s windy at Ravenhill!
Agree with the suspicious wealth of Blair, but as BB says, this lot are just blatant about it. They’re not even trying to hide it particularly.
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Gilroy looks like he’s just earned himself a serious red.
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I think they’re all on the make, and all extremely thick, which may be why they’re so brazen with it.
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