Intermission (2003)

Perrier's Bounty (2009)

Round 203: Running On Empty

Darts Thrown: April 5th 2019
Blog Written: April 5th 2019

Highest Score: 132
Lowest Score: 2

Sixties: 22

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Burning the candle at both ends. In between chucking shit out and waiting for the computer to charge - my charger doesn't love me - I decided to throw some darts. I'm knackered, and I can feel it in my arm but, for all that, the darts were just a wee bit off the usual. Go figure. Bottled another 180. Hit a 12 on the third dart this time. I forgot to take my own advice about shutting my eyes.

The book in the picture? John King's Headhunters. Have I read it? Yep, twenty plus years ago. I may have read it in the same work place as Toby Litt's Beatniks. I know it was one of John King's books in the Football Factory trilogy. Would I read it again? Probably not. I seem to be remember that none of the books in the trilogy really gripped me, but I read them all the same.

On a separate note, Jim Broadbent can't do a Dublin accent to save his life.

Round 202: Ooh, Gary Davies . . . ooh, Gary Davies . . . on my phone again.

Darts Thrown: April 4th 2019
Blog Written: April 4th 2019

Highest Score: 138
Lowest Score: 2
Sixties: 30

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

For some reason I was listening to that episode of The Sound of the Eighties again whilst throwing the darts. No idea why. I guess it was still on the phone and I couldn't be arsed to switch to something else. Anything to add to that show? Nothing much. Transvision Vamp are still shit. Early New Order sounded like Josef K, and 80s pop music really did turn irredeemably shit after 1985. Which sucked for me 'cos it was a formative time when I should have been lapping music up. I lapped something up, but it was thin gruel in comparison to music from the first half of the 80s.

Bingewatching the first season of Fleabag on Amazon. Grimly fascinating. Enjoying it more than I did first time round. I feel guilty watching it 'cos posh people usually get on my tits. It's why I've never watched Downton Abbey. 2016 seems so long ago  . . . or maybe it was never meant to be that kind of show.

The darts? I threw for a 180 but I bottled it. And I by bottled it, I mean the third dart hit the 18. That some jitters. I think next time I throw for a 180 I will close my eyes. What's the worse that can happen.

The book in the picture?  Toby Litt's Beatniks. Have I read it? Yep, about 20 years ago. I must have read it within months of it coming out. A random buy that bore fruit. I seem to remember reading it during teabreaks and lunch breaks whilst working nights on a nighshift in Hemel in 97 or 98. Would I read it again? I would . . . if I got my reading mojo back. I always thought it would make a great film.  There were rumours that it'd been optioned for a film but at the time of writing . . .  If Nick Hornby had written it  . . .  Two unfinished sentences for the price of one.

And, let's be honest, Beatniks were always more interesting than the Hippies.

Pineapple Express (2008)

Four Lions (2010)

Bull Durham (1988)

The Equalizer 2 (2018)

Round 188: Another False Dawn

Darts Thrown: March 29th 2019

Blog Written: March 29th 2019

Highest Score: 140

Lowest Score: 3

Sixties: 31

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

I thought I might as well dive straight back in. Round 188 was thrown in one session whilst listening to Radio 2's 'Sound of the Eighties'. I've sub-titled it 'Another False Dawn' but that's bollocks. In truth, the darts thrown weren't that different from the previous round. I guess I hit more 100 plus shots this time around. And I did actually throw for a 180 twice. (One isn't shown in the pic above 'cos one of the sixties bounced out when I threw my third dart.)

Thankfully I'm not superstitious when throwing darts, otherwise I'd be locked into listening to Bananarama MegaMixes when throwing darts (fuck you Gary Davies), and I know I'm tired 'cos I was even enjoying a Terence Trent Darby track when throwing. (Sleep deprivation does that to you.) Before I leave the Sound of the Eighties, it was nice to hear Jody Watley picking Duran Duran's 'Save a Prayer' as her favourite song of the 80s. My first 7 inch. (Insert pic of Les Dawson here.)

Too many darts bounce out. I'm not sure if it's the board or the darts themselves. It's probably neither. I think my throwing acton can be a bit lack lustred  when I'm tired.

The book in the picture? B.J. Ripley and J. McHugh's biography of John Maclean. It was part of the Lives of the Left series that Manchester University Press published in the late 80s and early 90s. Have I read it? No. Will I read it? Not in the foreseeable future. Why did I buy it? "cos I'm like that. I read a few books in the 'Lives of the Left' series (the biogs of Kautsky, De Leon, Haywood and Mann off the top of my head) and I had even more of the series that I picked up as remaindered copies from London bookshops on my bookshelf back in Britain (all now in a landfill in the Home Counties, most probably), so the anorak in me means that I will still pick up cheap copies when I see them. Anyway, my excuse is that read Nan Milton's biog of her Dad years ago and I also read Harry McShane's autobiography around about the same time (both published by Pluto Press). I never really bought into the adoration of Maclean but that just might be my ingrained SPGB'ism. I do think it should be pointed out that he joined the Social Democratic Federation at the height of the impossibilist revolt within its ranks - 1903/04- so it begs the question, 'what was he thinking?'. I guess I'll leave that question for another day. There's a Denzel Washington film with my name on it.

Round 187: Utter Pish

Darts Thrown: March 28th/29th 2019
Blog Written: March 29th 2019

Highest Score: 129
Lowest Score: 3
Sixties: 27

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Wow, round 187, and yet the first shaming pic to be posted. Again, wow.

To cut a long story short, one of my many failed New Year's Resolutions for 2019 was to throw at least 300 darts (100 throws) every day. It came unstuck at some point in the second week in January, but for all that I have persevered with the darts and at the time of writing - 88 days into the year - I'm to Round 187 in the 300 darts routine. At some time I will upload the previous 186 rounds . . . but not today.

Any thoughts on Round 187? Not really, it's just a variation on a theme. Spread over two days 'cos at some point I was too shagged tired to complete the round in one session. (A theme of my darts practice these past couple of months.) I'm playing with mismatched darts, which I'm sure doesn't help but it's no excuse for the continued inconsistency. There's occasional pockets of play when I'm in "the zone" but looking at this round, I don't think that happened this time.

The book in the picture? Peter Tatchell's 'The Battle of Bermondsey'. Have I read it? No, but I am reading it at the moment. I've not been reading a lot of books these past couple of years - still buy the fuckers, mind - and if I finish this book, it will be the first book I've read this year. Why am I reading a book published in 1983? Well. it's a book I dipped into at some point in the 80s when I first got interested in politics. I'm sure Hemel library had a copy, and that's where I would have found it. Some of it is coming back to me whilst I'm reading it, so I obviously read more of it first time round than I originally thought. I picked up this copy second hand last year (maybe) via Amazon. I'm not sure why I picked it up. Probably 'cos it was super cheap (my first consideration whenever buying a book). partly because I have a tendency at times to dig out old books that I made had read when I was much younger. Not sure why. Maybe just the literary equivalent of rebuilding your old record collections. It won't be the only old book that turns up in my rounds. I'm also an admirer of Tatchell, even when I don't always agree with him, and reading about Tatchell and the Labour Left in the early 1980s somehow chimes in/overlaps with Corbyn's Labour Party of today.

In other news:

• Celtic are playing Rangers on Sunday. I fear the worst despite what the pundits say, but I always fear the worst on such occasions. It takes at least 4 goals to calm me down, and I don't think Celtic have 4 goals in them at the moment. I'll happily chow down on crow come Sunday, if I'm proven wrong.
• Brexi-shambles is continuing as I write. No idea what the fuck is going on at this moment in time -  and I do occasionally try and keep up - but it will probably result in some posh cunt being Tory Prime Minister this time next month. Where's the hue and cry mob camping out outside David Cameron's gaffe? Why does he get to retire quietly with his farm animals?
• As I mentioned Tatchell's book, here a link to a Socialist Standard article from '83 which touches upon the gutter press's hounding of Tatchell.
• With regards to the Socialist Standard, I'm still continuing with the digitization project which partially explains the lack of book reading and the dearth of original posts on this old blog. In recent days, issues from January 1931, May 1993 and June 1979 have been completed. You show check them out.