tarzanontoast

Big fan of the AC series. Glad to hear you liked Origins. Having played AC II, Black Flag, (half of) Unity and Syndicate, I’d have to say I think Assassin’s Creed II, set in Florence and Venice, is my favourite (Unity is probably the weakest; bugs aside, I just find the location of Paris a bit boring in comparison to the others). I’d play AC II again, for sure. In fact, I might have to buy the Ezio Collection…

Flanagan’s LFC career surely over now. Yes, injuries held him back. And the Burnley loan last season didn’t work out as either party hoped it would. However, him being a drunken douchebag and beating up his girlfriend aside (quite simply inexcusable, shameful behaviour), if he was good enough, he would have forced his way into the team by now. One day Clyne might come back from injury (remember him?!) and while TAA isn’t going to be a RB for the rest of his career, he and Gomez (again, not a natural RB), are far ahead of Flanagan in the pecking order. My money says he’ll have to drop down to the Championship.

[rant] The timing of this is shitty (if the Neymar deal had been completed earlier Barca might have swooped in for Coutinho earlier and the merry-go-round would already be in full-swing by now). You know this deal will rumble on until August 29th-31st, leaving Liverpool with a wad of cash but bugger-all time to spend it. Which makes me wonder if there will be a cash+player deal… The likes of Rafinha or Andre Gomes. I’m not saying that’s who I want to replace PC, but I’m just guessing that’s a possible outcome. What I will say is that the media are doing a fantastic job of spreading a shroud of unnecessary drama over the situation. Vultures, the lot of them! Either way, I’ve made peace with the situation, though. I’ve accepted that Coutinho will leave and at least Liverpool will get mega-bucks for him. That’s the hand the club has been dealt. I’m delighted with Salah and I think that Solanke will be a really smart piece of business. The Robertson signing is great since he cost so little, and Klopp has tried Flanagan at both LB and RB in preseason, meaning Milner’s versatility in midfield will aid the club no end with the extra fixtures this year, whatever people might think of his ability. God only knows what’s going on with Sakho. In my opinion, Klaven is not good enough. I’m still not sold on Lovren; Matip is the only centre back I feel remotely calm about seeing in a starting XI. I’d love to see a bit more of Joe Gomez, but the club HAVE to buy a centre back. I cannot fathom why this hasn’t already happened this summer! I’ll be so pissed off if they don’t sign VVD. Not because I’m a VVD fanboy, but because it seems worryingly apparent there is no other player the club is considering as an alternative. [/rant]

Hell yeah. It’s pretty inevitable Lucas is leaving, yeah? I wonder if Ovie Ejaria might be eased into more first team (cup) football this season. Got to say though, segueing onto his achievement with the England U20s, his international team mate Josh Onomah looked pretty impressive in that similar central role for the U20s. I’d like to see him feature a bit more for Spurs this year, too.

I read that Danny Ings has returned to training after suffering that knee ligaments injury (poor bastard, two in two years). Apparently he “only had one week’s holiday” over the summer, before returning to training in pre-pre-season it attempt to impress Klopp. Will that be enough? Will he still be a LFC player in Sept? https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10937694/liverpool-players-return-for-first-day-of-pre-season-training-at-melwood Shame to hear about Rhian Brewster breaking a bone in his foot. I’m sure many LFC fans were intrigued to see him feature in pre-season.

I finally got round to watching Prometheus last night. Yeah, I know, I know. I’m about 5 years too late behind all the hype it received, and the inevitable disappointment that got hurled at it. And since it’s been out for five years, I trust you won’t mind there are SPOILERS (!) in here. + POINTS: a) Fassbender’s portrayal of David. b) THAT scene where Shaw goes into the operation machine thingy-wotsit and has emergency surgery had me squirming on the edge of my seat. c) Marc Streitenfeld’s soundtrack is a pretty good listen. (In fact, I’m listening to it now, as I type.) d) Some of the philosophical questions asked still have me pondering, a good 24 hours after watching it. The comparisons between man creating robots like David, to the Engineers creating man. The scene where Holloway mentions this to antagonise David, just before he’s poisoned. Other movies are quite forgettable. I at least had to use my brain in parts, even if parts of it made little sense. Which segues me on to… – POINTS: a) A lot of unbelievable and unlikeable characterisation, which leads to me giving less of a fuck when characters die/are put in peril. The scene where Millburn and Fifield discover the Hammerpede in the black goo… Why in the name of all things holy would you reach out to touch a king cobra-like pale, writhing alien life-form? Also, Shaw and Holloway did not seem like a natural couple. I know opposites attract, but this felt like cheap writing to smush two heroes with contrasting philosophies together. b) Maybe an unfair assumption, but going into this with the Ripley model of heroine in mind, I couldn’t help but predict only one crew member of Prometheus would survive, and it would be a woman. The obvious (and only) choice was Shaw. This also meant that I assumed the other crew members would die. Even the sacrifice Idris Elba’s character and his plastic co-pilots made didn’t really hit any of my emotions. Again, probably because they were all idiots, cliched or completely irrelevant and forgettable. c) On a parallel note: this was a ‘trillion dollar expedition’ – so why did Weyland hire a bunch of naive fools to discover the origin of the species? Were they all just nothing but guinea pigs for Weyland, until they found a cure? (Maybe this was the case, since David poisoned Holloway with the black goo.) d) You could tell the script had been ‘Lindelof-ed’. Yep, the final draft of the screenplay was polished and re-written by one of the show-runners of Lost. And in true Lost style, there were a few too many questions rather than answers, or perhaps leaps of faith required by the audience. e) I’ve since seen a deleted scene, or rather an extended scene, where the last Engineer is woken up by David, who then translates what Weyland and Shaw are trying to ask it and the Engineer replies. The deleted scene would have added a lot more context to the plot, I feel – Weyland having a god complex and comparing himself to the Engineers, and it insulting the big white fella to the point where he goes on a killing rampage. There’s even a cool reference to Michaelangelo’s painting of God and Adam almost touching fingers. Why was this trimmed from the final cut? What else was cut? Other equally important stuff? So is the confusion due to Lindelof’s script, or Scott’s editing? f) Finally, Charlize Theron (Vickers) trying to out-run a tumbling, rolling spaceship. In a straight line. Come on. Wow, I went on quite the rant there! Like I said, this is a five-year old film, so apologies if you’ve all discussed this in the past… it just struck me as interesting since Alien: Covenant has only been out for a couple of months (I haven’t seen it yet) and I wondered if any of y’all had any opinions on that or Prometheus? Maybe I need to watch A:C to fully understand/appreciate Prometheus? Or maybe Ridley Scott just fucked up. Who knows?!

Took me longer than I thought to finish High Society, in part due to the phonetic language used by many of the character’s dialogue. No way near as intense as trying to almost decipher the narrative in Trainspotting, but it does make you almost mouth or sound the words out as you read! Now moved onto some classic fantasy, with Robin Hobb (Assassin’s Apprentice). I remember trying to read this a couple of years back but found it a little cliched and so stopped about 50 pages in (unusual for me; I’m usually stubborn and insist on finishing a book even if I’m not enjoying it). However, maybe it felt that way because in the 20-or-so years since its publication, many authors have jumped on the ‘kid learns to be assassin’ trope, flooding the market with trash.

I think most teams in the league wouldn’t mind acquiring van Dijk. Romeu has impressed too, earning all of the player awards at So'ton this year, linked with a move back to Barca (if you believe some of the silly papers).

He’s at HTAFC on loan, but what I meant was there are some fans calling for him to be LFC’s No 1 next season, replacing Migs and Karius.

Danny Ward is now one game away from the Premier League after his heroics in last night’s semi-final penna shoot-out. Loving that full-length-of-the-pitch celebration! Personally, I’m hoping that Hudders get promoted and he gets another year with them on loan as their No 1, a full season in the Prem. Being a quality keeper in the Championship is one thing, stepping up to replace (albeit two, at times, dodgy) GKs at a ‘big’ Prem club is another. In fact, the Wagner-Klopp connection could be great for both clubs from a loan point of view, if they beat Reading in the final.

Yeah, it’s called Night of the Triffids, by Simon Clark, and I think it’s supposed to be set some 30(?) years after the events that occurred in Day. Published in 2001. Meant to be written well, inasmuch that as Clark mimics John Wyndham’s narrative voice to a pleasing degree, but I don’t know if the quality of the plot or social commentary matches those raised in Day. I’ll add it to my epic, ever-intimidating To-Read list, but I’m in no rush to read it next. At the moment, I’m halfway through High Society by Ben Elton. I’m a fan of Elton; his books are easy and fun to read, the characters loathsome and equally hilarious. Maybe I’m biased because I’m a huge Blackadder fan…

I’ve not really been focussing too much on Rangers’ form/squad north of the border (sorry SPL, you’re a snooze-fest!), but does anyone know if Jordan Rossiter has played much this season?

I used to live in Dulwich, hence my interest of them in the lower divisions. And it’s true, Dulwich Hamlet do get a decent following at Champion Hill. But is being a ‘hipster’ club a bad thing? If folk are helping a non-league club keep afloat by coming through the turnstiles, then that’s good for the game, surely.

Dulwich Hamlet lost in the Isthmian play-off final… for the second season in a row (last season they lost it to East Thurrock; in the 14/15 season Dulwich lost in the semis to overall winners Margate). But congratulations have to go to winners Bognor Regis, who will battle it out in the Conference South next season. Final result: 2-1 to Bognor Regis, who it seems were the better team on the day, and were probably a better team all season (finishing 2nd in the table overall with 92 points; 2 points behind league winners Havant & Waterlooville). Hamlet might also be in for a tough summer, since budget cuts from the owners might result in long-term (and consistent) manager Gavin Rose walking away from the club.

The most interesting thing from last night was that it showed some of AJ’s weaknesses that, thus far, have not been exposed in his short, explosive career. But what. A. Fight. Don’t think I’ve gone from feeling excited to feeling sick to my stomach as I did in that 5th round. Both men knocked down. I was convinced Klitschko would box clever for the full 12 a win comfortably on points. But, happily, AJ proved me wrong. Rollercoaster! I like how the crowd were booing Eddie Hearn towards the end of the night, after he jumped into the ring with each of his boxers’ victories. I was equally as pissed off by his gurning presence as they were.