an interesting night in a great stadium

hey everyone


well, last night i went off to my second and presumably final game of a certain event being held here. and what a venue to go to for such an event too - it's easily one of the finest, awe inspiring venues i have ever been to!

if you want a short version, the evening started off interestingly, took a rather bad turn, had a happy and fortunate ending to the bad turn and then ended up being a spectacular evening.

the interesting start was arriving at the park and ride venue, the most splendid Wits University Campus, and being presented with a gift from a student there. the student made it clear that it was part of their "HIV Lifestyle" project, and thus i was not surprised to receive a tin of condoms. i just shoved them in my pocket and thought nothing more of it, but Dad seemed rather enamoured by the gift.

when i asked him why he was so happy with them (which in retrospect was a brave question), he said that he thought it was brilliant that they were giving him a tin of mints to take with him to the game. when i pointed out that they were not in fact mints he looked somewhat alarmed and soon got rid of the gift!


onwards, then, to our destination. our bus drove us right up to the stadium, and then 3 or so kilometers right past it to our parking location! quite a walk to get to it in the end, but by my word it was really worth it to see the place in all its glory!





sadly, it was at the stadium that things took a bad turn. petty crime (if any crime could be considered petty) is, alas, rife at major venues and events, and so it came to be that i was the victim of a pickpocket. well, i was briefly the victim of a pickpocket; a pickpocket who must surely be considered, after you have read how this turned out, to be the single stupidest criminal in history.

for reasons best known to himself, this pickpocket decided that the ideal to strike at me was at the main entrace to the stadium. this main entrance is noted for two things - having more light that all the Christmas trees in the world going at once and being heavily populated by police & security officers. how fortunate that i felt the guy take it and grabbed him, only to find that a couple of police officers had seen him and grabbed him too!

my wallet, happily, was thus returned in moments when the main officer searched him, and he was whisked off to a cell. i went along to make a statement, and it was at this point that the criminal made his case for being incredibly stupid. the line of defence he went for was that he was the victim of an "unlawful arrest" because - get this - one of the officers arresting him was a woman. yeah, that's a good one!

so, at this point then, a very big thank you and well done indeed to the law and safety enforcement officers at this event! criminals were warned not to try anything because reprisals would be both swift and severe, this is certainly the case!

a distinctly unpleasant experience, then, but one that had a fortunate and good ending (except, you would hope, for the idiot criminal), and not something that was going to stop us enjoying the evening!





as for the match itself, well, the reviews and results are all over the place i would expect, so let me instead share with you a few of the few pictures i took inside the ground - needless to say, i wasn't in all that much of a mood to take too many images!





once inside the place it really is breathtaking. especially, i suppose, if you get a police escort through the VIP area so that you are not inconvenienced any further!





other than the actual match, there were some pretty interesting sites to see, really. a particularly curious case was that of the gent wearing a Yamaka. i would not be sure which side between Germany and Ghana he was supporting, but he seemed to be smiling at the result as he left!

there was also a rather large Ghana flag on display with "Luton" written across it in absolutely massive letters. i would very much like to meet the chap who you would assume moved from Ghana to the tropical appeals of Luton Town, only to head back this way to follow his team!





one of the oddest sites was probably a gang of England fans. it's not so much that they were there that's odd, it is their passionate, joyful celebrations and flag waving when Germany scored and eventually won. either they are brimming with confidence for reasons that i cannot comprehend from what i have seen of England thus far, or they were simply unaware of what Germany's win meant for England. i guess they will find out this Sunday....






so, there you have it. a colourful night out, and one that did not end quite as late as the time in Rustenburg! it was great to go and see it with my Dad, who was as entertaining as ever! i am now too tired and too broke to go to any of the other games, quite frankly, but shall enjoy watching the rest on TV!

and, to answer a few questions - Scott, no we did not have any ginger biscuits, Eddie no we did not need to try and earn 50p or R50 in any manner you suggested and Gillian, oh yes i shall probably be posting my tin to you at some point!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James and William in June

hey everyone

well, it's dawned on me that i haven't really given you an update on the boys for a couple of weeks. chalk it up as being very, very cold for messing around with cameras, and indeed us all being somewhat distracted by a certain event going on down here at the moment!

here's James showing off exactly how cold it is here at the moment!





and indeed William is not finding it any warmer!





not that the cold weather is putting them off their stride at all. James has had a rather good weekend, taking Grandma and Grandad, not to forget Marmite, off for a walk over the weekend. he also got taken to the toy shop by Grandma and had a whole load of something called "Bakugan" bought for him. i mention this because later James told me, in precise detail, what roads and turns i had to take and into which shop i had to go from Grandma's house to get him more!





William, meanwhile, is developing an incredible appetite for eating. we are still giving him bottle, of course, but he's well into eating now too. most cereal and those first fruit puree thingies. you know, like the ones RoboCop ate in RoboCop. he's also really finding his voice - happily mostly giggles, but every now and then a scream when he wants his food.

what kind of scream? ever see Father Ted? remember Father Jack? yeah, something like that!





the pic above and the one below, by the way, were it seems taken by James whilst i was out and about shopping today. i came home and found them on my camera!





well, there you go! will try and make the next update a bit sooner! as William did a bit of a roll on the bed today (mostly to just try and grab James) i am expecting crawling to start soon!

hope wherever you are is warmer than where i am!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Nolan We Trust

hey everyone

i think it goes without saying that Christopher Nolan is one of the most interesting, talented film directors on the go at the moment, if not the best currently making films. why? well, if you take away his two biggest films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, you are still left with quite an impressive cannon of films - Memento, Insomnia and my favourite, The Prestige. thus far, mindful of the fact that i have not yet seen his current effort starring a certain Leondardo Di Caprio, it seems he can do no wrong.

here is a link to a recent interview conducted at a film festival, and if you read it you can understand why he is a success - he wants basically the same thing as film fans want to appear on screen, rather than some obscure vision or something that "research" has said will work.





the two aspects of the interview that i found particularly appealing are his comments around this whole 3D business and the use of CGI in films.

in short, whereas certain great visionaries of cinema, as well of course as one of the biggest egomaniacs to ever walk this earth, are getting all excited about films in 3D, Nolan puts it into the right perspective, seeing it as a "novelty" that doesn't actually add to cinema. well said!

as for CGI, there's an interesting part where he recalls challenging some CGI experts to "recreate and surpass" a film scene he did for real. guess which one looked better?





one can only hope the common sense approach by Mr Nolan eventually prevails across all cinema!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one day and night and morning in Rustenburg....

hey everyone


well, my head has sort of rotated back around after quite an adventure yesterday! off it was to go and see England play the USA in Rustenburg!

there are many, many fine stories to tell of the 12 or so hours out and about, really. certain ones can never, ever be repeated, but the majority i will try and remember for you here!

the day started off in an innocent enough manner - here's some of our party getting ready to board the bus. you may wish to pay particular attention to Scott, a fine gent who i was hitherto assured was a midget, stood between myself and Dad.





now, showing respect for the massive list of rules and regulations the company organizing this event put in place i didn't take my camera along with me, so the rest of the images are off my phone. sorry for the poor quality of some of them, but how much of that is the fault of the phone and how much it is that photography + ale seldom work out is anyone's guess!

after stopping off along the way from Johannesburg to pick up quite a few more lads we eventually made it to Rustenburg. no tales from the trip? well, one or two, but i will tell them as we go. in the mean time, here's one of us at a very fine shebeen about 5kms from the ground.





it was a most excellent place - the majority of visiting and based here England fans congregated here for the pre-match watering rituals, as you can see from this banner!





yes, i took a snap of that for all my many friends from the fine City of Liverpool. and, speaking of Liverpool, we had our very own Scouser with us - one of the blue persuasion, known to many around the world as Eddie...





now then, that England flag is not the one Eddie started his journey out with. in a rather unfortunate incident Eddie trusted my Dad to wave his flag out of the window of the bus. you can pretty much guess what happened next and thus Dad bought him a replacement one as soon as we got to Rustenburg.

Eddie was the star of the show on the bus trip in many respects, in particular as he regaled us with tales of imaginative ways of earning 50p a go by performing certain acts that i cannot list here whilst visiting provincial towns famed for their mining exploits....

moving on, and from what i can gather, TV audiences around the world are getting quite upset with the loud and proud sound of the vuvuzela at all matches. well, what can i say but toughies - they are a big part of the game here, and the fans visiting from around the world have taken a real shine to them. here's Paul, one of the lads we picked up on the way, showing how to go with the flow.





nice one Paul! the sound of them does, i admit, seem to be isolated on TV - in the ground they are nowhere near as deafening or "annoying" as some seem to think and suggest, if anything they build up a real excellent atmosphere.

anyway, moving away from that particular debate, here's a shot of the crowd at the shebeen we stopped off at. as you can see, mostly us England supporters, but one or two Americans slipped in!





after a crate or two of ales it was time to take a walk down to the stadium. well, the intention was to walk. it was a rather pleasant stroll too, but then Richard went and commandeered, for the price of a beanie and a flag, a rather smart flatbed truck and driver. we thus stood on the back of it down the main road and made merry noise along the way!

here's Dad and Little Scott, signing and celebrating away on the back of it!





we did, however, eventually get to a "no drive zone" and had to disembark from our ace mode of transport. sensing that the amount of ale being consumed would probably need the balance of food, i located a street vendor frying steaks on a corner and bought several of them.

i mention this to justify the inclusion of the picture below. i don't know much about her at all, but this American lass got some of the lads with us (names withheld, of course) very excited, and for some reason they insisted that i get a picture of me eating one of the steaks whilst stood next to her.





i can only assume i was introduced to the picture business to give them an excuse to take pictures of her. not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. if i recall correctly, she was in fact trying to sell tickets for the match. quite annoying, that - despite claims of the games being all sold out, there were plenty of tickets available outside, and the attendance figure was some 6,000 below the capacity for the ground.

anyway, onwards and in to the ground, where Dad chose to show off just how many ales he had by waving both an England and American flag around, and of course Richard showing off exactly what he thought of the one with stars on it!





such antics were soon stopped, however, for fear of upsetting the fine members of the Nottingham Constabulary who had flown over to "keep an eye on things". they were friendly coppers, mind.





exactly how 3 or 4 police officers from England were going to enhance or improve on the genuinely very good safety & security job that the heavily armed SA Police Force were doing is a little beyond my understanding, but good to see them all the same!

into the ground itself, and here's me and Dad enjoying the spectacle!





the Freddie Boswell out of Bread wig and look was entirely Dad's own doing, but up to now absolutely none of us can remember how or when he got his face painted! must have been a random act of kindness by someone or other!

as for the actual match itself, well, after a promising start, the less said about how England petered out the better! i didn't take any pics of the game as such, preferring instead (as you will all no doubt understand) to rather sit back / stand up and enjoy it all.

i did, however, get one or two snaps of the players warming up. well, i thought i did. it seems i got "zoom" mixed up with "reduce" on my phone, so as it turns out i do not have as many pictures as i thought! here are one or two, though!





if i am not mistaken, that in the middle of the penalty area in the pic above is a Mr W Rooney esq., no less. i had not seen him in action before, and all said of him is true - when he takes possession of the ball, dear me it's something else to watch. no matter how he and England do, he truly is one of the best in the world.

and here we are with what turned out to be the starting 11 warming up. one or two of them can be starting to pack and go home early, if you want my opinion, but i suppose let's wait and see if they improve next week!





and, in the interests of balance and objectivity, here is one of the more interesting Americans at the game, along with a lady of apparent Asian origin who he grabbed from somewhere to be in this picture for no apparent reason.





Captain America here and my Dad had a rather frank and forthright exchange about the game, it has to be said. i think we shall call my Dad "Mr Ambassador" as a result of the advice he gave to the captain and indeed the whole of America. i am not sure if they will follow precisely the advice that my Dad gave them, but if they do, i imagine reaching the telephone to answer calls will be difficult whilst they are doing it, so don't take offence if you are trying to speak to American and they are not answering!

whereas the Americans were rather visible and vocal outside, inside it was all dominated by English fans and flags. here's some of the English boys, hopefully if they stumble on this site by accident they are pleased to have a pic of them!





and finally, here's a picture of me and Richard before the game kicked off and the sun went down, showing off just exactly what the whole day was about.





Richard, for the most part, stayed awake for the bus trip home - all 5 hours of it. i dozed off a bit, but i do recall him expressing hitherto unknown joy and delight at something called jazz rendezvous coming on the radio. i am unfamiliar with the general concepts and style of this, but what i heard suggested it would be wise to catch some sleep as the bus made its way home!

i did wake up, though, when we stopped to drop Eddie off at an entirely random petrol station. Scott the midget, who had fallen over once or twice in the stadium (apparently due to "structural flaws in the stadium" which affected no one else), saw this as an opportunity to buy some food. never in my life have i seen such enthusiasm for getting your hands on an unspecified pie, a litre of milk and a now infamous packet of ginger biscuits at 3 in the morning!


well, there you have it. whatever shortcomings there were in the England game, we had a fantastic time out with all the friends, family and visitors who are here to witness this truly special event.

a very big thanks indeed to all the people of Rustenburg for not only putting up with the 30,000+ visitors, but for going out of their way to stand and say "welcome" to us, and indeed to join in and make the good spirits what they were.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nothing happened today.....

......after 12 noon that is!!

to mark a certain event starting here in a few days time, everyone was encouraged to head out and wish the national side good luck and all the best.

here's a few shots from our place of verk!!





as you can see, all and sundry that could get out on the street to make a celebratory noise did so!!





the next month or so is going to be very excellent and very, very loud!!






be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Zealand birthday celebrations

hey everyone

well, some of you may suspect that i am going to fill this particular post with comments about the unusual and comparatively strange ways the people of New Zealand chose to celebrate birthdays. i am not, you may be sad or happy to learn, going to do this.

i am, however, going to take you on the journey of the - to us normal types - unusual way my dear brother-in-law Grant celebrates his birthday, if "celebrate" is correct. the fact that he is celebrating in New Zealand is inconsequential - the routine would be the same no matter where on earth he resided.

Grant, you have to remember, was one of the most feared, respected and significant figures in the revolutionary accounting wars of the mid-90s. it was a time of fear and doubt where the world split into two - those who did accounting with a quill and a ledger, and those who embraced all this "software on computers" business. well, yes, there was a third group - those of us, in a substantial majority, who were deeply disinterested so long as accountants did whatever the hell it is they did, but in Grant's world, the world was in two.

as is his way, then, celebrating a birthday is not as straightforward as the rest of the world. far from just waking up and appreciating the good wishes, Grant embarks on a bizarre series of standard, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary accounting principles to make sure that the event of a change of age balances correctly with the relevant ledgers, is audited (internally and externally, naturally) and then makes absolutely certain all the criteria is met for the change management channels and filter instructions.

once he has done that, invariably the time to celebrate is the day after his actual birthday, sadly. however, safe in the knowledge that the spreadsheets and whatever else it is accountant types work with are all balanced and correct, absolutely nothing further stands in the way of him celebrating his birthday. at breakfast.





i am not sure at all that Katie and Daniel appreciate the rigorous, some may say hard core, accounting gifts that Grant brings to annotating and amending various documents and reports to reflect his birthday change management request, but they certainly appreciate a good slice of cake!

here they are humouring Daddy by joining him in giving the official, unofficial accounting auditing sign for "all clear, everything balances". or something like that.





Daniel, no matter how hard i will bet you Grant has tried, hasn't really grasped the history and importance of doing birthdays in accordance with proper and exact accounting principles as such as yet. instead - some might say rightly - Daniel has taken a shine to celebrating his birthday in a very carefree, jolly way, demanding cake for every day for an unspecified amount of time before and indeed after his birthday.

Mummy is, of course, happy to oblige!





well, there you have it! a belated happy birthday to Grant, and a sort of early happy birthday to Daniel!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rock and roll dreams come true

hey everyone

well, the single biggest even to hit the African continent happens, as we all know, in June 2010. what some of you may have missed, however, is the fact that it happened on Friday! yes, Lyla's first ever school concert went off without a hitch. despite fears, there was no delay to the start, no power cuts and absolutely no problem accommodating the overseas visitors for the event. nice one!

needless to say, with the estimated worldwide viewing figures, Lyla was somewhat apprehensive and a little nervous before it all started.





however, with such careful preparation, and by all accounts a good deal more successful and smoother ticket sales than the lesser event which starts next week, Lyla was soon able to avail herself of all such fears and concerns, for the concert was a most triumphant success!





after the concert it was time to bask in the glory if what a success it was. Lyla told Grandma all about the trials and tribulations of putting on such a show and the various dramas backstage, whilst Grandma explained that they used to have the same problem backstage with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and The Who.





knowing the cultural, economical, social and to a degree political, importance of the concert, it was decided (rather wisely) to film the event, both for historical reference and so those many millions who were unable to get tickets could watch the event at a later stage.

the wisdom of decision was placed in the hands of Richard to act on, and fortunately Dad managed to take one of those highly iconic images of Richard in action.





the image of Richard filming this event shall no doubt reverberate throughout history, both through the world as we know it and whatever species evolves after we are all gone.

Richard, my brother, i am proud to say will now be heralded as an icon of cinematic genius, just like the greatest living director in the world at the moment, Martin Scorsese.





indeed, if i may be so bold, the image you see of Richard will stand in good ground next to this famous image of the greatest director in the history of cinema, the late, great Stanley Kubrick.





the iconic image of Richard will be cemented, however, in a way that those of Scorsese and Kubrick never were. as far as i am aware (and i would sort of welcome correction to this statement if you have evidence), unlike Richard, Scorsese and Kubrick were never recorded giving their arse a good, enjoyable celebratory scratch after a successful film shoot....





we are delighted to see and hear that the concert went well! we are looking forward to seeing Richard's presumably excellent film of the event!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

William and the Walking Ring

hey everyone

well, William is now six months old! to celebrate the occasion, and to respect his desire to get up and going, Michele got him a most splendid walking ring device today!

although it is a walking ring, it isn't actually a walking ring as such yet. we've got the break thingies on it for now, so it's more a kind of a standing / sitting ring whilst he gets used to the idea.

and, if we say so ourselves, it's an idea he seems pretty happy and content with!





there are many buttons on the device, buttons which if pressed make an impressive array of noises. that was all the inspiration James needed to come along and help out his brother with his new toy!





the more purist of parents out there will of course argue the merits of making sure babies can crawl before they walk. no fear, for William is already having brief goes at that too. as i recall, James spent a good deal of time pushing himself around in his walker before having a go at crawling, and doing the two at the same time certainly hasn't harmed him!

after a while, William seemed to get the idea that climbing out of the walker might be a good idea. well, it was either that he wanted to climb out of it or he wanted to "make it go" - see for yourself.





and why would William wish to either get around or go for a walk with it? well, there have been these two furry things around the house that he keeps seeing and wishing to grab. i believe that he feels this walking ring device machine thing is the means to the end of grabbing at least one of them. look carefully at the next picture!





dear me, look at his face as he thinks he can at last obtain the tail! it is going to be excellent when he is capable of chasing cats all by himself!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Postcards From A Young Man

hey everyone

well, barely a year after the release of their magnificent masterpiece Journal For Plague Lovers it seems that the Manic Street Preachers are back for more. today they have announced their 10th studio album, Postcards From A Young Man, will be released in September!

their official website features this picture - you have to presume it's the intended cover. if so, an interesting, new direction for cover art for them!





unless my eyes deceive me, that would be Tim Roth on the cover, wouldn't it?

Nicky Wire has intimated that the band has gone for a "disco influence", but he does tend to suggest that about every album!

let the countdown commence!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dennis Hopper

no avid film fan this weekend would have been able to avoid feeling saddened by the loss of Dennis Hopper. yes, we've known he's been ill for a while and yes, considering his lifestyle, he's had a one hell of a life. when you think back on his many fine film appearances, though, you can't but help feel that cinema has lost one of its finest, iconic servants; someone who was never quite in the limelight but performed roles in a way you simply couldn't imagine someone else doing.

this whole interwebnet thingie is going to be full of tributes and biographies of this film legend. allow me, then, to contribute with a look at five of his greatest appearances.

a very easy first one to think of when thinking of Dennis Hopper is the iconoclastic, groundbreaking film Easy Rider. it's a controversial film in so much as people either "get it" and love it or just get bored to tears and hate it. there is one universal truth, though - whereas Peter Fonda is more closely associated with the film than Hopper, the reality is that if you were going to ride across America, you'd like to think you could do it looking like Dennis Hopper did.





Easy Rider is a sprawling, mostly deliberately incoherent snapshot of life across America. it claims to be neither accurate or all consuming; for that matter the makers of the film have not once claimed it to be anything beyond a "good, or at least interesting, time". it has to be seen and experienced to have any clue of being understood, don't ask anyone to just explain it to you as this cannot be done.

if Easy Rider made Dennis Hopper an iconic figure, then the film that underlined the fact that he was a fine actor as well as an image was the small, somewhat little seen but warmly remembered film Hoosiers. playing alongside Gene Hackman, Hopper featured as a small town alcoholic, drinking himself to death rather than following his own dreams.





lazy types might well say that it doesn't take much of a stretch of imagination for Dennis Hopper to play an alcoholic, but to dismiss the film in such terms is to miss out on a genuinely affecting story in general and an acting performance of note in specific. Hopper plays the part of 'Shooter' wonderfully, giving a fragility and fear to a man faced with the realities of giving up the comforts of booze to pursue a dream his abilities easily allow him to meet, if only he wouldn't be at war with himself. Hoosiers is about the closest Hopper came to making a "suitable for all" film, if you wanted to see what the fuss about him was all about then this is the film to find a copy of.

the film True Romance stands out from the crowd for the number of astonishing cameo performances in it. if we are honest, the greatest of those cameo roles was perhaps Gary Oldman in the deranged role of Drexl, a white guy convinced that he is a black pimp. a very close second, however, would be Dennis Hopper in the pivotal part of Christian Slater's compassionate, supportive and ultimately sacrificing father.





it's hard to discuss Hopper in True Romance without giving away those awful spoiler type of comments, but i will give it a try. in his brief role he manages to make you believe you do indeed live in a world worth fighting for, that all fundamentally is well and no problem cannot be overcome. his son comes to him in a world of trouble, and there he is, making him feel like all will be all right.

True Romance is exceptionally violent, often as disturbing as it is funny. one of the greatest scenes of 90s cinema, however, is the stand-off between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken in this film, a scene referred to fondly and infamously as the "eggplant exchange". if you can stomach much of what this film throws at you, well worth seeing.


so, what is the greatest ever Dennis Hopper film role? very tough to narrow it down to just one, so i will go with two of his most famous parts. the first of these is easily the most controversial part he ever had, that of the sinister (to put it mildly) Frank Booth in the brilliant, if often misunderstood, David Lynch masterpiece that is Blue Velvet.





when people do those "ten best movie villain" lists, it's usually someone like Darth Vader or Dr Hannibal Lecter at the top of the list. that's because, no matter how "bad" or "evil" they are in their films, they are presented in a sedate, tame way when compared to Frank Booth. in Blue Velvet, Dennis Hopper creates the most vile, warped, depraved, vicious, violent, repulsive, disgusting and beyond redemption villain the world of cinema has ever seen. the audience shivers in fear every time we see him after his first introduction.

Blue Velvet is one of the most disturbing films ever to be released as a mainstream film and it is disturbing precisely because of Dennis Hopper's towering performance.

finally, then, the film that first introduced me and i dare say many others to the magical abilities of Dennis Hopper, Apocalypse Now. as this is one of the greatest films of all time, it so follows that it is one of Dennis Hopper's best, if not the best overall, parts.





billed simply as the Photo-Journalist, Dennis Hopper's presence in the film is to serve as a chaotic, quasi-narrator for the last 3rd of the film. his character is a whacked-out oddball, delivering a stream of consciousness as dialogue that, in an inspired move from Francis Coppola, actually makes sense in the midst of the confusion and chaos of the world of Colonel Kurtz. the exact reasons for Hopper's borderline deranged performance are of course well documented, but the reality is without Dennis Hopper behaving and performing exactly as he does in this film, who knows if it would have remained as well remembered as it is?

the image of Hopper in Apocalypse Now is as iconic as that of him in Easy Rider for most. it's a performance you will not forget in a film you will not forget.


well, there you have it. somewhere, you'd think, right now Dennis Hopper is catching up with his old friends James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jim Morrison and Steve McQueen. in the mean time, thank you for reading my memories of his fine films, and apologies to fans of Speed and many others for trying to keep this post a bit shorter!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!