Amy

We’re back at our usual Parkrun this week at Forest Fields. L runs it, I get the bacon butties in.

The afternoon sees a spot of hedge cutting and then a drive over to Derby. L drops me at the Derby Beer Festival and joins me for a pre-race curry there. She has a race tomorrow, I don’t but I do have a Crufts Team qualifier.

Then she heads off to meet Daughter at the train station. She gives Daughter a lift over to her father’s, where she (and Son) have been summoned for his birthday party, a significant one we believe.

I loiter at the beer festival awaiting her return and have a few beers to pass the time. Sadly the festival is a shadow of its former self. With Derby’s Assembly Rooms shut, one feels more as a political statement that anything else, the festival now takes place beside it, in a tent on the Market Square itself. It is more like a refugee camp than a beer festival. Hopefully they will find it a new home for next year.

When L returns we head off to see ‘Amy’ at Quad.

‘Amy’ is a documentary about Amy Winehouse made by Asif Kapadia, the man who also made one about Ayrton Senna. To do so, he had the full cooperation of the Winehouse family and this, if nothing else, results in an amazing collection of archive footage. These clips, many clearly made only for personal viewing, are extremely revealing and at times uncomfortable to watch. Added to the footage are the recollections of many of the people who shaped her life and career.

Her father has openly disowned the film, after he saw the final cut, saying it wasn’t a good portrayal of his daughter. I would disagree totally, if anything it paints Amy Winehouse in too good a light.

It’s everyone else who gets butchered, her father included. For being a rotten influence on her from the start. From his infidelity during her youth to his conversion to dotting dad when she gains success and wealth. I can see why he didn’t like it.

Winehouse is no saint of course but it seems that hardly anybody is prepared to guide her away from bad influences. Those that try fail when they come up against the major influence that is Blake Fieldler, the inexplicable love of her life. It is his relationship with the insecure Winehouse which seems to be the deadly tipping point in this story.

This is a man who leaves his current girlfriend to be with Winehouse, then leaves Winehouse to go back to her. Then he switches women again when Winehouse gains success and wealth. Are you spotting a pattern here?

Unlike her father, this particular hanger-on led her into hard drugs. Then there’s the press, of course, who relentlessly pursued her.

The contrast between the Amy of the early years up to the time of her début album ‘Frank’ in 2003 and what comes afterwards, when she hit the big time with ‘Back to Black’ in 2006, is very pronounced. At that time, even I was enchanted by the attractive young talent but I quickly lost interest as her appearance (and life) became more bizarre and she disappeared under the weight of her tattoos. 

This film however restores my original admiration. It shows how incredibly talented she was and how she made music on her own terms but what comes over most is how clever and personal her songs were. Many of her songs were of a highly personal nature with lyrics sourced from her own, often unpleasant, experiences.

Watching the film is, at times, a macabre experience. The footage of her final, ill advised, concert in Serbia in 2011 is not easy to watch. Winehouse is too drunk to be on stage let alone to sing. When she died just a month later of alcohol poisoning, aged just 27, it had a sad certain inevitability about it.

 

Her dreadful but popular cover of The Zutons’ ‘Valerie’, unmentioned in the film itself, accompanies the end credits. Sadly this, rather than her own stunning compositions, is what she will be remember for by many.

 

Whether this film tells the real truth or not it has lifted Amy Winehouse up several levels in my eyes, which can be no bad thing.

Well recommended.

(Saturday 11^th July)

What Is The World Coming To?

L heads off to Parkrun at Rushcliffe but gets diverted by the tram works, which are everywhere at the moment. This means she misses the run but, looking on the bright side, gets an extended bike ride.

I’m at yet another dog show at Catton Hall. I’m there both days this weekend. It doesn’t start well; Doggo misses a jump and gets five faults. What is the world coming to? I don’t know what he was playing at; it was right in front of him.

MD on the other hand is very good at missing out what is right in front of him and he’s so bloody frustrating today that I come to the conclusion that there must be better ways of spending a weekend. Actually probably hundreds of better ways of spending a weekend. He totally lacks confidence and this isn’t just in agility but with everything really. 

I task him with doing pretty much three runs back to back late morning. I don’t know if this is a good strategy to beat the heat or not. Putting him back in the car between runs two and three doesn’t seem to cool him much but it does produce our best run of the day. Today two largely rubbish jumping runs are followed by a fairly decent agility one albeit with a pole down. It is however, far too hot for all of us, so I shouldn’t be too hard on him.

My Mum and Dad turn up to watch and are surprised to find us completely done and rosette-less by lunch time. We head home, in search of some shade.

In the evening, L and I head over to Derby Beer Festival which this year is held mostly in a marquee on the market square due to the closure of the main hall at the Assembly Rooms. It’s pretty grotty in the marquee though and most of the best beer seems to be inside in the foyer or the Darwin Suite, along with much cooler temperatures, so we loiter there.

Me

‘Unknown’ Porter 5.5%

Fullers London Porter 5.4%

Fullers London Porter 5.4%

Titanic Nautical Mild 4.8%

Bartrams Conrade Bill 6.9% (Stout)

Elvedon Ported Porter 4.4%

Muirhouse Stumblin About 5.2% (Ruby)

L

Leatherbritches Game Over 5.0% (Mild)

Muirhouse Stumblin About 5.2% (Ruby)

Muirhouse Hat Trick IPA 5.2%

Titanic Nine Tenths Below 5.9% (IPA)

Navigation Abus 5.5% (IPA)

Everards Old Original 5.0%

(Saturday 13^th July)

Sabotage?

I take the dogs out again this morning and L will be pleased to know one of them was a bit gobby. So he doesn’t just save it for her.

L was at the gym, where she is convinced that someone has been going around tightening the treadmills. Sabotage? I’m not sure that I understand what she means.

She says they’ve become harder to run on. Perhaps she’s just having a mini fitness crisis. Me too! I think we’re both still reeling from our Sleaford ‘training’ run. I did consider running myself this morning but I wasn't sure that the old legs would have been up for it. It must have been all that Lincolnshire mud.

It is Derby’s Winter Beer Festival tonight, which has been moved to the Roundhouse College from it's old home in the Darwin Suite of the Assembly Rooms.



I go straight from work and arrange to meet L inside. The Roundhouse is a good venue for a beer festival except for the fact that with it being round in shape there are no corners to slump in after you’ve had too many 8%ers.

According to the beer list there’s an 11%er from Burton Bridge. L likes to start with a good one, perhaps I’ll get her one in. Then again, perhaps we best leave that until last.

I’m 2-0 up by the time L arrives but she soon sets about reducing the deficit. Good job she eased herself back in with a glass of wine the other night after going temporarily teetotal after Scotland.

My father pops down to join us, except he can’t get in. It’s only just after 8.00 and the venue is full. Instead we talk through the iron railings. If you’ve ever been to the Roundhouse, it's a bit like a prison with its high fences and security controlled gates. Presumably its all to stop the students escaping. Good to see the college is taking education seriously. It’s a shame he can’t get in but good for his wallet. Its £5 to get in and no reduction for OAP’s, yet if you’re under 26 you get in free.

We leave just after 9.30 because the beer range is already starting to reduce alarmingly quickly. If you were planning to come down Saturday... sorry, we drank all the good stuff.

(Friday 25th February)