X-Men First Class, is actually a first class film

For some reason I knew this superhero movie was going to have more about it than your usual superhero summer blockbuster. So I went to see it yesterday, and boy I was not wrong, this was a excellent film especially the first half. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and the star of the show, the brilliant Michael Fassbender as Erik or Magneto, show the formations of the opposite views on how to deal with the sub species, humanity.


The film oozes class from beginning to end, with great performances from the entire supporting cast; it raises many questions about emotional bonds, about freedom, and being able to be oneself, without feeling abnormal.

I’ll not go into the story too much but it is roughly based around the Cuban missile crisis of the early sixties, and the attempts by the newly formed Mutant division of the CIA, to stop Sebastian Shaw from starting World War 3, so he can wipe out the inferior humans and leave only the superior mutants. Spice is added by the fact; Erik wants to avenge what happened in the concentration camps, when he first met Shaw.

The scenes between McAvoy and Fassbender, establish their kinship and special friendship, especially the scene when Magneto tried to move the radio telescope for the first time. “You have to be between anger and serenity”, Xavier tells Erik. The chemistry between the two main stars is exceptional and only goes to enhance the film.

You feel Erik’s pain and loss all the way through the story, especially in the first half, when he is searching for Shaw. The scene in Argentina was pretty intense and great to watch.

You can empathise with the mutants and why they think the way they do, they reference what modern humans did to the Neanderthals, and that as the new superior evolutionary step forward, they should do the same thing.

The ending is very poignant, as they finally defeat Shaw, only to see the great super powers turn on them. And then they have to chose, do they stay with Xavier and his ideology or do they go with Magneto and try to destroy humanity forever.

Can’t wait for the follow up if it’s as good as this one, it will be fantastic.

My Mind

Sometime I get little lines of verse in my head and from this a sort of poem come from it. I try to use then as a way of figuring out the situation I find myself in and how I may get out of said situation by using my only gift, imagination and creativity. I don’t have much confidence in my abilities at anything else but I know I can create and imagine, and so use it to comprehend. At least I like to think I can.

My Mind


I languish in the doldrums of eternity,

Unable to figure out consistency,

My mind it switches one way,

Then it switches to the other,

Unable to control it, or even to consider.



The situation goes from good to very bad,

I wish it didn’t make me feel so sad,

Sometimes it flashes brightly,

But can quickly change to dark,

Emotion is ferocious; it always leaves its mark.



My mind is swirling inexplicably,

Never knowing what it should or shouldn’t be,

It wants to drive me forward,

But it stuck in second gear,

Locked in one direction, heading for a wall of fear.



When will I figure out the simple things,

Enjoy the happiness it always brings,

Just accept surging emotion,

To unveil from darken shroud,

Accept the unacceptable, to feel satisfied and proud.



Does it matter, should it matter, will it matter,

Especially when you reach the final chapter,

Will my life be full of emptiness,

Cos I can’t break through the wall,

Fading away, never knowing, wondering about it all.



I do not want to see this happen to me,

I want to vaporise the cloud hanging over me,

Sometimes it seems so easy,

Then others it’s so hard,

Whenever I reach I level, I slip back to the start.



At least I still have some positivity,

Like a shield it keeps back my negativity,

Optimism is so crucial,

But it only lasts so long,

I want to feel some peace, I want to just belong.

All the Lies!!!

Well I have had this tune in my head for years and years, and for some reason I have decided to add lyrics to it. Doubt it has any relevance to anyone, but here it is, it’s like the chorus bit, I have other bits that go with it, but hey I have never put words to my tunes in the head before.  Well not the ones from old.  Oh if you sing it you have to put on a sort of Dave Mustaine out of Megadeth, from Peace Sells album sort of voicebox sound, for it to be like I imainged it. It has to sound sinister, shows how long it has been in my head.


The rhythm is closer,

My body is looser,

Sensation is burning my eyes,

I wanted to end it,

And never to send it,

Containing ferocious desires,

You can't see my actions,

Misleading reactions,

Appalling to hear all the lies,

From then a collection,

To the right direction,

The sooner it fades and it dies.

All the lies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the lies.

The War on Drugs has failed

I read an interesting article this morning stating the war on drugs has failed. They state that the amount of money, resources and damage caused by trying to stop illegal drug cultivation, manufacture and consumption, is far greater than the damage caused by the drugs themselves.

If you look at this whole drugs business from another angle, it is more to do with control of societies and individual power struggles than it is to do with the different illegal drugs. In fact you could argue the whole title war on drugs is a misnomer, as it does not account for the myriad of drugs that the governments of the world allow its citizens to consume on a regular basis. The war on drugs should really be called the war on specific substances deemed not profit worthy at the turn of the 19th century. If we were really to have a war on drugs then, we would have a war on alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, codeine, high adrenalin sports, dangerous driving, road rage, workaholics, etc, etc; ok I am being a tiny bit facetious, but they are all dangerous drugs. If you use the term drug as meaning, being something a human enjoys but ultimately is harmful if excessively abused, on a regular basis.

I would imagine jumping out of a plane with a parachute on, is as dangerous as taking an ecstasy pill.  Yet one is regulated and made safe, the other is not.

When will we realise that the more you try to stop something, the more people will want to do it. If you look at cigarettes, which in my opinion is one of the worst drugs available and legal in this day and age. What is causing less people to smoke? It is the fact they cannot smoke in public places, it doesn’t ban cigarettes it regulates their usage. And because of this, I bet there has been a massive drop in cigarette use in countries following this policy.

You will never ever get rid of drug use, whether it is the legal kind or illegal, whether it is the substance version or the activity version. I did Go Ape recently and to me that was like taking a drug, it made me feel high as a kite, literally as well as actually. Yet if we take Go Ape as an example, it is just climbing trees, only they make it safer than the way you climbed trees when you were a kid.

I know that is a simple example, but it is true, people like drugs whether they will admit it or not, in fact we all love our drugs, everyone of us takes many different types every day.

Coffee in the morning, how many times do you hear someone say, “Oh I don’t feel awake until I’ve had my morning coffee.”

Then there is the headaches women, they have to have their fill of codeine, and the first cigarette of the day man, or a better one, which I never understood is when someone says, “doesn’t a cigarette taste better after a meal.”

Then there is the common one for stressed out workers, “I need a stiff drink after a hard day’s work.”

Or what about two of the most dangerous drugs that people use and abuse everyday, sugar and salt.  It is hard to imagine the untold damage they both cause especially in western societies.

Even going to the gym for some is a drug, I need to do some exercise, or I will get fat. Or if you are fat, I need another cream cake or MacDonald’s, to make me feel happy. The list is endless, we are all lovers of drugs, and they are all dangerous if taken to extremes, and abused. I remember working in a wine shop, and every day you would get the different types of alcoholics coming in, they all smelled really badly, they had bad skin and looked dreadful, you had the special brew grannies, and the Brandy guzzlers, some were more subtle, they changed their drinks every day. It was sad to see them, but imagine if they were cocaine addicts, they might end up with a criminal record and in some countries thrown in prison, it that right? Should it be a criminal offense?

Some people are always going to be extreme drug abusers, but most people are not, most people don’t drink excessive amounts of alcohol or too much coffee, they don’t smoke too many cigarettes, or even eat too much; most people are sensible and are able to realise when they have had enough. In a way the war on drugs is a war on intelligence, it says we are not intelligent enough as a species to know that snorting massive amounts of cocaine isn’t bad for you; or smoking too much cannabis is going to affect your psyche if taken regularly. Some people don’t know this, but most do.

Humans have an amazing ability to hide behind inaccuracies, they see things that are not there, I remember when Ecstasy was first used, and they said the most dangerous drug, it kills people, but it kills one or two people, not hundreds of thousands like alcohol or cigarettes do. We like to exaggerate, and jump on the band wagon; swine flu was an excellent example of exaggeration, which is a different story altogether, though it follows similar lines.

What really needs to be done is to find away to change people’s perspectives on what is a drug and what isn’t. What really does cause you harm, and what likely will not.

Management and control of drugs and their usage will always do a better job than criminalisation and punishment. Plus as soon as you legalise them you remove a massive criminal threat from the world. You remove massive sums of money going into the hands of terrorists and criminals. Surely that would be a good thing to see happen.

Six of England’s twelve man squad not born in England, so what!

Jade Dernbach has replaced Jimmy Anderson in the England squad and some will be questioning this, but I don’t see why. In this day and age with plenty of travel and the fact England, well Britain, is one of those old colonial, empire building, countries of the past, and basically has one of the most multicultural societies in the world. This is bound to have an effect on things like sports, especially a one like cricket, where this sort of thing has gone on for years and years. I remember a kid at school his father was Italian and his mother British, he had spent his whole life in Britain, but if you asked him which footie team he would play for (if he had been good at football) it would have been Italy, not England. I remember another kid who had a Scottish parent he had lived his whole life in England, yet he supported Scotland.

If you have some kind of association with the country you play for, then great; I draw the line if you don’t. Plus saying that Strauss and Prior aren’t really English is foolish, they have spent most of their lives here, OK Trott and Pietersen are slightly different, but they chose to play for England, not South Africa, and as far as Morgan in concerned England and Ireland have been swapping players in various sports for years. This is just the way it is in Britain, because of the multicultural and diverse society we live in.

Maybe if other less multicultural countries of the world, had better diversity and more tolerance to difference, then we wouldn’t have so many wars, racism, and violence, but hey that’s a different story altogether.

Can Murray emulate Lendl and finally work out how to win a grand slam?

You know I find it interesting when you read that there are so many comparisons between Djokovic's incredible unbeaten run and John McEnroe’s. Yet there is another little issue that was addressed on that Sunday in 1984, Ivan Lendl won his first grand slam beating McEnroe in the final, coming back from two sets down.

Lendl at the time was the bridesmaid of men’s tennis, making many grand slam finals and losing; he was entering his fifth final without winning one at the time. He was also older than Murray, yet after winning the French he went on to win seven more Grand Slams; one more than John McEnroe.

As a Brit, I hope Andy Murray can somehow emulate the great Czech player. He has the skills and the weapons to win, he definitely has the determination, he just needs a little bit of luck and a massive wave of positivity and we may see him challenging Djokovic.

If I was Andy Murray I would seek out Ivan Lendl and just talk to the tennis great, about how he handled losing so many finals, and what happened in his psyche to allow him to overcome the obvious demons that had held him back before the first win.

Ah it’s wonderful glorious June

The best month of the year has begun this week, and eventually we have some nice weather to go with it, June always brings up nice memories, mainly because it was always the start of the last term at school and generally the weather was nice, not always hot come on it is Britain, but is was generally decent for British standards. June has the longest day, Glastonbury and of course Wimbledon; this weekend sees the Derby and the Oaks, two of the five classic horse races. I’m not really a horse fan but when I was younger I remember one race involving Dancing Brave and Sharastani, which I suppose shows my age. I think Shahristani won the Derby instead of Dancing Brave (I had a bet on Shahristani that’s why I remember, even though I was probably a tinge underage). I also remember Dancing Brave getting his own back in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe when he stormed passed all the other horses like a turbo charged supercar, isn’t it weird what you can remember.

Glastonbury is always a place I wanted to go to, but never did, I wasn’t the type of person, nor were my friends to go down there and try and sneak through the fences, though I always wished I was. This year sees U2 and Coldplay adjourning the coolest festival around. Watching Glastonbury on TV is not the same, but it is one of those events like Wimbledon that the BBC do an excellent job with. You see in Britain we have the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, a national TV station that we pay a small license fee to get, and then we don’t have any ads whatsoever. This generally means for most of the year, we have to put up with a lot of propaganda and dross, but there are a few times like Glasto and Wimby when it just works perfectly. We get BBCi so you don’t even have to watch it all live, you can see the great line-ups weeks later on there, or if you miss a great tennis match it is on BBCi as well. The BBC is great for special events.

Glasto is always a time when you hear great new bands or even great old bands, that just may not have come into my tiny realm of perspective. I never thought I would like Iggy Pop until I watched him at Glastonbury, or many other bands. Some of my favourite bands I came across by accident, like the Hope of the States, I loved their albums, it’s a petty they split up, or Mumford and Sons, I could go on and on. Watching Muse live all those years ago turned them from a band with a few good songs to one of my favourite bands ever.

June also sees the release of the big summer blockbusters, I know most are generally rubbish, but there is always an air of excitement around them. How much will they make? Will they break box office records? If you are a sad movie geek like me these things matter, well at least they did.

June is when Britain is at its best, its best weather, its best everything; it’s just a pity it’s not like that the rest of the year.