Sunday Afternoon Club Christmas edition

A quick walk round Etherow Park in the cold.

49 films to watch out for in 2009

Total Film has done a big list of "films that will define 2009", including The Wrestler (pictured), Watchmen and State Of Play. You can read the full list by clicking here.

Christmas with the family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

State Of Play trailer

State Of Play was originally a BBC series starring the likes of David Morrissey and John 'Life On Mars' Simm, with a plot that revolved around a news reporter and the police investigating a suspicious murder. Now it's turned up as a Hollywood blockbuster, with most of the same plot elements, and will be hitting the big screen in April.

They are massive though

Silent Night

Dad turns 65, Amy makes a cake

See more cakes here.

Margot At The Wedding (2007)

"Make sure you can handle rejection. I can't."

The follow-up to The Squid And The Whale from Noah Baumbach (yes, the very same Noah that Noah And The Whale are named after). Margot (Nicole Kidman) turns up for the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Malcolm (Jack Black). If you enjoy family tension, insecurity, angst, emotional breakdowns and psychologically cripped characters, you will love this. IMDB

Music Recommendations For Christmas

Some bands you might want to get into over the festive season. Featuring glowing recommendations from the crazy reviewers on Amazon.co.uk. If you are reading this on Facebook you might have to click View original post to hear the music.

Belle & Sebastian (Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying)
"These simple, gentle, confessional tunes are real growers, and they stay with you long after the CD has gone back in the case."


Neutral Milk Hotel (Holland, 1945)
"I think this is the best album I own, and probably will ever own, and that everybody I know who is fortunate enough to have found In The Aeroplane Over The Sea feels the same way."


Two Gallants (Anna's Sweater)
"Unpretentious, rocking, modern blues at its absolute best coupled with fantastic lyrics telling of ripping yarns and heartbreak."


Mates Of State (Hoarding It For Home)
"I love these guys! ALL their albums are amazing. If you feel sad, it makes you feel happy. If you feel happy, it makes you feel happier!!"


British Sea Power (Carrion)
"British Sea Power are extraordinary. They are doing something quite beyond what other guitar groups are doing in England at the moment."

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)

"Don't toy with me, Doctor Jones!"

There was no need really. IMDB

Messy messy Sheffield Pizza Hut wagon 41

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Casey Affleck plays a private investigator looking for a missing girl, uncovering corrupt cops, child neglect and drug dens along the way. IMDB

Common misconceptions

So, Wikipedia then. Is there anything that it can't do? While away a few minutes of your life by checking out this List of common misconceptions, just one of many bizarre pages on the online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit.

One Life, Six Words

The Guardian has been challenging its readers to sum up their lives in a six word autobiography. You can read some of the best entries here.

11,000 street corners in New York

If you've ever been to New York then you might be interested in this collection of photos of street corners in Manhattan - all 11,000 of them. Plenty of them are available online here.

Mashed In Plastic

The films of David Lynch are weird and wonderful and usually feature a great score by Angelo Badalamenti. Someone who works not very far from where I work has helped to put together a mash-up album based around Lynch's work - it's free to download from here.

Here's one of the accompanying videos for you to enjoy:

MP3s for sale at Amazon.co.uk

Amazon's MP3 download shop has finally been launched in the UK. New albums for £3! Go there now! Click here.

On The Road on the road

The original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On The Road - all 127 feet of it - is now on show at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. If you live nearby... go and take a look. There's more on the story here.

Fire and brimstone

Andy Patrick preaches! In three years he will be a proper trained vicar and then you will really have to pay attention to what he says. Don't forget his blog which is here and his album which will be out... soon.

Dutton at the bar 2008 remix

A day out in Warick

Great photos of our time #45

Jimbo displaying his talents as a photographer before heading to the Crown for 8pm.

Cae Canol weekend away

Our cell group disappeared to Snowdonia to read the Bible and get back to nature. Thanks to everyone who organised and cooked and gave me honey drinks and took photos.

Vic and B share a tender moment in the games room.

Andy P cleaning the sink until he can see his face.

Nice day for a walk.

Caption competition.

Scenery almost as good as Marple's.

If you'd like to access all of the weekend's photos in glorious high resolution you'll be pleased to know that they're all up here.

The Hurricane (1999)

"I'll always be the hurricane."

Denzel Washington plays the eponymous force of nature, a boxing champion who is imprisoned for murder because the local police are a little on the racist side. Twenty years later some clever idealistic lawyer types manage to get him set free. Based sort of on the true story of Rubin Carter. IMDB

Goodbye Greeny

Christian Green has left to see the world and Marple is a poorer place for it. Before he left there was the customary leaving party, and some pictures have survived.

Andy Patrick gets the crowd warmed up with a live acoustic session... Dan has heard all Andy's songs before.

Chetwyn just happy to be out in Manchester.

Time for a few cheeky drinks in Kro Bar.

"Player on the shark" shock.

From left to right: "I paid £4 to get in here", "I can't hear you over the music" and "Manchester makes my head hurt".

"Let's stay friends forever."

"Hands up if you're glad to be leaving Marple."

There are a few more photos up on Flickr here.

If you'd like to keep up with Christian's adventures across the world, you can find his blog by clicking here. He's posted some stuff already! Eager.

World Press Photo Award 2008

Some impressive snaps from the news stories of the year - see more here.

"Meh" makes it into the dictionary

It's official - meh means "an interjection to suggest indifference or boredom - or as an adjective to say something is mediocre or a person is unimpressed". Read more here.

Quantum Of Solace (2008)

"You said you weren't motivated by revenge."

The last one was better but this is still pretty good. IMDB

Watchmen movie only four months away

Here's Rorschach looking moody in a new poster. The latest reports - here, here and here, for example - confirm that Zack Snyder has indeed tweaked the ending of the graphic novel for the movie. Scandal!

A dog with a missing head

The Vanishing (1993)

"I don't need a gun."

Fairly standard thriller stuff. Kiefer Sutherland's wife, who happens to be Sandra Bullock, is kidnapped by a wacky Jeff Bridges, so he tries to find her. Apparently the original Dutch version is much better. IMDB

Friday treat

The workplace doesn't feature much on the VoH blog despite the fact that its writers spend over 40 hours a week there - to make up the slack here is an action shot of Wardey setting up a Mac in the office. Fun fact about Wardey: he used to have a Facebook account, then deleted it.

Odds of 4-1 that God is real

If you fancy having a flutter on the existence of God, the odds have been slashed from 33-1 to 4-1. Read all about it here.

A slightly interesting photo from New York to mark the US election

This blog could probably keep going forever from the thousands of photos we took in America. Here's just one snap from New York inside a pub we visited one day... it was somewhere in Greenwich Village I think. And 20 oz pints were $6.

Supernaturally - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Enjoy the start of the new week with a song from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Hey! Ho!

Annie Hall (1977)

"I'm due back on the planet Earth."

Very Woody Allen-esque. IMDB

Michael Clayton (2007)

"I am not the enemy."

Legal thriller involving corporate corruption number 3,409... but it's a pretty good one so four stars on VoH. IMDB

Make your money on the jukebox

Thanks to the Ribbecks for having us round...

USA road trip in 3 minutes

Some video of our road trip around the USA in the summer... it's mostly scenery but Greg sneaks on at the end. You can see the view of LA from Mulholland Drive, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park, Las Vegas, and different bits of New York. The music is a cover by R.E.M..

Speak you're branes

The BBC website has a Have Your Say section where people can leave comments... however a lot of these comments are posted by idiots. Click here to read some of the classics. Funny stuff.

Storytelling (2001)

"It is when you love someone and they don't love you and you do something about it."

More bleak and unsettling tales from the darkly humorous mind of Todd Solondz. IMDB

Setting up at Hope Unleashed

Waiting for Blush UK to appear.

Last drive home from work in the daylight 2008

Can you spot...

- a tree?
- a sheep?
- a gate?
- the approach of winter?

The Warriors (1979)

"I'm sick of runnin' from these wimps!"

One of the classic movies of the 1970s - The Warriors try and make it across New York with the police and about twenty other gangs with weird costumes after them. IMDB

Alternative uses for a skip

Some more here.

Dirty Harry (1971)

"You've got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky?

Clint Eastwood works on his scowl in one of the most famous cop films ever made. IMDB