Sometimes a day is so busy that it becomes impossible to fit a Blog in. So although this Blog is dated 21st January it is being written on the 22nd, but it is still about the 21st (if that makes sense).
I told anyone willing to listen that Norwich would at least get a draw against the overpaid so called superstars of Chelsea. Just remember that any one of the Chelsea players is valued at more than our entire team and any one of their players will be earning more than our players put together. That should put the 0-0 draw at Carrow Road into perspective. Norwich battled away brilliantly and the reaction at the end from the crowd said it all.
Fernando Torres was tamed, Frank Lampard got injured and only Matta looked like a world class player and that was only on a few occasions. Norwich played as a team and manager Paul Lambert is the most tactically aware manager we have ever had. Not to mention I have won a free lunch from a bet on this game!!!!!
That set the rest of the day up nicely and in the evening we went to see Stephen Spielberg's latest film War Horse at Cinema City. In many ways it was an amazing film and certainly much much more enjoyable than the London stage play which we saw a few weeks ago. Unlike the stage version, this was easy to follow and understand and, despite lasting for almost two and a half hours, never dragged.
One of my least favourite words is "awesome" because it is totally overused, especially by young people. How many times have you heard them use it to describe something that is at best good and usually very often average (like a particular performance on the X Factor)? I think it probably comes from their lack of life experience. I try not to use it but have to say that from a cinematography point of view War Horse was awesome. Okay it's not the best film I've ever seen, it wouldn't even make my top 20, but the action shots are almost unexplainable. How the director and his crew got the horses to act in such a way is well beyond my comprehension. It is one of the few films I have seen that really underlines the futility of war as well with soldiers going "over the top" to be cut down by the enemy.
The film is also very clever in viewing the war from four different perspectives - firstly the perspective of the War Horse, secondly the British perspective, thirdly the German perspective and fourthly the French perspective. This turns the film into more of a narrative rather than just a film about animals and their part in the First World War. It shows the shared fears of British and German troops alike and the futility of that war is summed up in a beautifully crafted scene where a British and German soldier meet in No Man's Land to cut the hero horse Joey free from barbed wire. The two soldiers find common ground, chat like friends and shake hands. They share the futility of their position and the horrible waste of the conflict.
The futility is particularly underlined by the power of the British soldier going out of the trench under a white flag to try and save Joey the Horse. Having had most of their men cut down by the enemy in "going over the top" this one guy is entreated not "to be a bloody idiot." Here we are left to focus on one individual and his heroic/stupid act rather than the thousands who have already been butchered and massacred. It makes a very powerful image because it shows that the individual is important and not just canon fodder.
So having seen the play and now the film, all that is left is to read the book to complete the 2012 month of War Horse!!!
Somewhere on television, I believe it was yesterday, there was a piece about the poor state of bridges in Milton Keynes. It was pointed out that Milton Keynes has more bridges than Venice. How many times do we point out that something has more of something than Venice?
Birmingham continually points out that it has more canals than Venice, places are referred to as the Venice of the North, South, East or West and even in China we visited a city that was so unremarkable that its name escapes me. We were told that it is known as the Venice of the East.
Guys let's get this into perspective. Venice is unique. It is one of the world's greatest Cities and certainly one of the most memorable, unusual and historic. You cannot liken Birmingham, Milton Keynes or a random Chinese City to it because it wins hands down. With respect to Brum and MK just ask anybody where they would prefer to visit and I think Venice might just come out on top,.
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