Fish supper

My beloved Dolphins got thwacked 62-7 by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Superbowl playoffs. That's like getting beat 10-1 at soccer. A right old thumping - and worst loss in Dolphins' history. The Dolphins' play was more reminiscent of the Keystone Cops than an $800 million football team. Thankfully their useless coach, Jimmy Johnson, resigned the following day. Which means we're still entertaining the possibility of a final season from Mr Magic himself, Dan Marino. The ongoing fued between Johnson and Marino had ominated headlines this past couple of years (Johnson's run-dominated style of offense was in direct conflict with Marino's more passing-minded attack). If Marino can get the talent and support he so desperately needs for the next season then maybe he won't have to carry the team on his shoulders and might actually make the Superbowl. We can but hope.

And on nfl.com, they've been counting down the greatest games of the century. What makes it exciting is that all the great games are given names like "The Catch", "The Immaculate Reception", "The Drive" and "The Guarantee" (called so when hotshot quaterback Joe Namath famously said in a pre-Superbowl interview "We are going to win this game - I guarantee it"). There was also one called "The Heidi Game" when coverage of a nailbiting and late-running playoff game was interrupted by the television network to screen the previously-scheduled film "Heidi", meaning millions of viewers didn't get to witness the climactic finale. Kind of makes a change from marvellously-titled soccer games like "The fourth round FA Cup replay between Bolton and Accrington Stanley, January 1974". I'll get me cloth cap.

The big cinematic releases that are being trailed here look pretty enticing. There's the silver screen adaptation of Alex Garland's gripping paradise-goes-armageddon thriller "The Beach". It may star old Lenny DiCap but still looks like a must-see. I got the soundtrack on promo the other day too - you'll never believe it but Pete "He Got Da Power" Tong put the soundtrack together, commissioning new music from the likes of Leftfield, Underworld, Orbital and, er, New Order. Orbital have teamed up with Angelo "Twin Peaks" Badalamenti and it features Lenny muttering sweet nothings about "seeking paradise" and "tasting pleasure" over a skin-tingling electronic backing. It's enough to make us forgive him for "Titanic". And then there's "The Source", which "stars" Timothy "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" Leary, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, Ken "One Flew Over The Cockoo's Nest" Kesey, William Burrows and a host of other (dead)beats. The trailer didn't quite make it clear whether it's a documentary or some sort of fictional thing but it still looked mighty interesting. There was a big whoop from the audience when the trailer came on. But then that's small surprise seeing as we were in a small independent theatre, The Red Vic, on Haight Street, hippie mecca of San Fran. This place shows art-house movies, European films and off-Hollywood gems. The seats at the back are rickety old things, like large airplane seats, while at the front you sit on wooden benches. You're as likely to be sitting next to some dreadlocked skate kid as you are some greasy accountant in a Prada suit. Everyone gets served popcorn in home-made wooden bowls for that "family" vibe. All for seven bucks. You know where you can shove your multiplexes.

I finally got to hear that Cliff Richard travesty the other day, y'know The Lord's Prayer set to Auld Lang Syne. Bloody awful. A friend managed to dig up a snippet of it from the web. But I didn't listen for long. Life is too short, after all, to waste even one moment on bad music.

Namaste,

Kieran

He was born with a gift of laughter
and a sense that the world was mad.

Rafael Sabatini