Game of Thrones
So, the virtual pub has had a bit of a make over. And I rather like the new look. And as a virtual pub, the first choice I will have to make is this: what is to be my tipple? I used to love my beer, but I have wondered away from the True Faith for a few years now and stuck to wine. But I feel it would only be right and proper to have a proper British beer in the newly made over Raccoon Arms, and so what is it to be.
I saw a pub advertising IPA the other Sunday, and that took me back to student times. Is it an East Anglian brewery? I had the great good fortune to live near a pub called The Griffin once, a real old fashioned place that sold Robinson’s ale, fresh from the nearby brewery, for 99 pence a pint. Lovely. Theakstons Black Sheep featured on the radar when I could get it. But maybe a fine pint of Timothy Taylors Landlord would be appropriate. Any other suggestions?
And so, beer purchased and propping up the virtual bar, upon what would opine to my new virtual acquaintances.
Well, I know a lot of Madame La Raccoon’s customers don’t like the topic, but we would have to talk a bit of football, wouldn’t we? Well, come on we are in a pub and I am a bloke! And it has to be noted that there is a Euro Championship going on, and England have been doing sort of OK.
Not that I am an unmitigated fan of the England set up. I wrote a piece for another blog (sorry Anna, I am such a media whore at times) just before the last World Cup comparing watching England’s progress to that of a sad old tramp, dying a slow, unedifying death in a back alley somewhere, a pitiable but inevitable result. As it turned out it was rather prescient.
I had a different feeling about this one. I don’t expect England to win it, but they have done better because they have a half sensible manager in Roy Hodgson who is adept of making the most out of average players. He has adopted one or two rather clever strategies. First he seems able to speak to the players in English, which is something the previous manager was unable or unwilling to do, despite his six million quid a year or whatever it was salary. I felt that was causing certain difficulties in communicating instructions. Second, he has realized that England are actually not very good, and the players are on the whole rather dim, which is one of the reasons our continental cousins so often run rings round us. To counter act this he seems to have given them very, very simple instructions about where to stand (You! Stand THERE!) and simple instructions (KICK IT FORWARDS!) in a rigid 4 – 4 – 2 system which our moronic players can actually understand. Finally he has cunningly adopted a policy of playing players in more or less the right place. So they can make the most of their limited brain power and play by rote. Thus England have become obdurate and hard to beat, and hard to beat is better than nothing. Rocket science it is not. We might even squeak past the Italians.
With football done, we can move on to the next staple of pub talk: the telly. Not for me the diet of soaps that consume the hoi polloi! In fact I don’t watch much. But last week I bought a DVD of a Sky/HBO mini series called Game of Thrones on DVD. I missed it when it went out earlier this year. Twenty quid on special offer from Tesco (other retailers are available. Well not many, but that is another rant…)
It is not a program about Toilet Fetishists.
For those who are not aware of this, it is based on fantasy novels or a novel with the title “A Song of Fire and Ice” by somebody I have never heard of. The premise is a standard one for a fantasy story I suppose: There is one kingdom and one throne, but seven powerful families are in various degrees fighting to obtain or, as the case may be, defend the throne. It is set in a sort of miniature medieval Britain called “Westeros” which may have never existed, or may represent the future after some apocalyptic ice age event, and the threat of the return of the great winter which never ends hangs over the land. At the north of the country is great wall, which protects the Kingdom from the unseen evil which lies in the ice fields beyond. An evil which some believe is now, after thousands of years, is no more than a myth. But as we learn from the first menacing and indeed truly scary scenes, seems to have awoken once again. The hideous White Walkers are back! And they don’t take prisoners….
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not actually a big fan of standard “sword and sorcery” novels. I find them too intellectually slack. Is the hero in a tight corner? No problem! The might Sword of Zardoz can invoke the Power of the Floobly Dooblies! And Kazaam! The Evil Ones of Nachtior are thwarted! And more such drivel. I am bound to say I found a bit of Harry Potter like that. In a tight corner? Quick spell and off down a chimney you go. Nah, not having that.
But there is very little sorcery in Game of Thrones. There are some dragons about, but that is for another day. What there is is plenty of plotting, politics, intrigue, and power plays as the seven warring families go at it, with the main battle between the largely noble and true Northerners the Clan Stark, and the vile, money and power mad House of Lannister who hold sway in the West.
It has high production values. It is beautifully shot in both Malta an Northern Ireland. There is tense, well written, compelling dialogue. There are characters that are flawed and with whom you can empathise because they are not wholly good or wholly bad.
There is also an astonishing amount of really explicit and graphic violence and sex, which commends it to me immensely. I think the first main scene after the prologue is the dwarf Tyrion Lannister (the excellent Peter Dinklage, reveling in a great role) having it off with a lady of easy virtue (played, should you be interested, by Britain’s Queen of Burlesque, the very naughty and rather sexy Miss Esme Bianco. We get to see and awful lot of Miss Bianco, by the way. Really. An awful lot…!). And as I recall one critic writing at the time it was aired, any programme which featured an innocent child being hurled to his death after accidentally witnessing some incestuous sex has a certain brio to it!
But as ever, it wouldn’t work without the superb acting of its largely British cast, including Sean Bean in top form as the middle aged Eddard Stark, reluctant guardian of the ageing, fat King – a stand out performance from Mark Addy. And Lena Headey, a striking actress I have noted since she played a tragic teenager in a film called Waterland many years ago is wonderful as the truly vile queen, with an equally vile and psychopathic teenage son.
It got rave reviews, and if you haven’t seen it a trailer is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbqdj1WJX4
It is compelling stuff. People get killed in this. Good guys die, and not just baddies. People you care about. So for my twenty quid I got more than ten hours of entertainment, which is decent value in my book. A useful antidote to the footy, if that is your wish. I commend it. A second series is on the way, which delights me.
So that’s the telly done. How about politics? A dangerous topic, and perhaps even more so when it involves race. But Red Ed has dared to open the box this week, and venture to suggest that Labour got it wrong with an open door policy vis a vis workers from Eastern Europe. It was, as I recall, faithfully promised that there would be no more than a trickle. Instead a flood (emotive word alert!) of migrants from Eastern Europe swept in (more emotive word klaxons!). To be candid I find all this a bit laughable. Any man with even half a wit would have told you what was going to happen. Apparently in Slough the “locals” have adopted a jokey new town slogan: “Come to Slough! Everybody else has….!”
What I find laughable about this mea culpa is that it is so mealy mouthed. It seems to have been the deliberate policy of the Left since the sixties to force multiculturalism on a largely deeply sceptical and unhappy “indigenous” population, and to voice any concern about this at all was met with vitriolic abuse the like of which was akin to risk being burned at the stake.
As it happens, I rather think it may have been a good thing. These people seem to me to work hard, and anecdotally they take the jobs our feckless underclass are too lazy and too pampered by benefits to do. I am quite happy with my local Polski “Sklep” (have I spelt that right?). You know the one, next to the halal butchers and behind the mosque that used to be a church.
Anyway, I have to admit that some of these Eastern European girls are, well, how I can put it, pretty bloomin’ gorgeous!
And on that suitably sexist note, I finish my pint, and I bid you good day, Enjoy the weekend!
Gildas the Monk
June 25, 2012 at 14:44
-
I agree with these guys
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7lp3RhzfgI&w=400&h=225
- June 25,
2012 at 16:04
-
- June 28, 2012 at 10:54
-
haha! spot on.
- June 25, 2012 at 12:41
-
WRT IPA’s Fullers do one called Bengal Lancer, it appeared a couple of
years ago, it was intended to be a seasonal but it sold so well its available
all year round in bottles. Its a damm fine beer.
-
June 25, 2012 at 07:20
-
Excellent post Gildas. You mentioned The Griffin. If that’s one I think it
is then we lived very close to each other. It’s changed though and not for the
better.
Game of Thrones….wonderful. Have all the books and it must be said that the
series is not half bad.
-
June 25, 2012 at 10:39
-
In Heaton Mersey?
- June 25, 2012 at 14:27
-
Sadly no, mine is in Lincolnshire.
- June 24, 2012 at 23:43
-
Now now Gildas, there are many IPAs on the market and the one from a
certain East Anglian brewery is a pretty poor example. Try Deuchars from the
Caledonian brewery for a better example. Theakstons don’t make Black Sheep
although to be fair, both breweries are based in Masham, North Yorks so it’s
an easy mistake to make. As for Timmy Taylor’s, well Landlord is a fair pint
but his Best Bitter is far superior. Very difficult to find though.
- June 24, 2012 at 22:57
-
Game of Thrones – brilliant.
Beer – pretty much anything from Aleyard Brewery, but especially Single
Malt, Cascade and 1880.
- June 24, 2012 at 19:20
-
I’m missing Ep 7 from season 2. Does anyone know where I can watch it
online please?
- June 25,
2012 at 16:01
-
*cough* BitTorrent *cough*
-
June 24, 2012 at 18:21
-
Talking of Game of Thrones, some kind person has thoughtfully compiled all
the sex and nudity scenes into one handy package! Saves fast forwarding to the
best bits!
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/56481
-
June 24, 2012 at 16:45
-
I had also forgotten Pendle Witches Brew. Though it is prone to producing
farts of truly might medieval proportions!
- June 24, 2012 at 16:48
-
Is that not correctly a medieval verteth, Gildas?
-
June 24, 2012 at 17:55
-
Verteth?
See The Cuckoo Song
By Anonymous (Old English/medieval)
Sing, cuccu, nu. Sing, cuccu.
Sing, cuccu. Sing, cuccu, nu.
Sumer is i-cumin in—
Lhude sing, cuccu!
Groweth sed and bloweth
med
And springth the wude nu.
Sing, cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lhouth after calve cu,
Bulluc sterteth,
bucke verteth—
Murie sing, cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu,
Wel singes thu,
cuccu.
Ne swik thu naver nu!
- June 24, 2012 at 18:14
-
This exchange provides an excellent example of why we frequent the
Raccoon Arms.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please raise your tankards in salute to our
gracious hostess and her esteemed guest!
- June 24, 2012 at 21:14
-
Raises a pint in thanks!
- June 24, 2012 at 23:03
-
To be found on a stone panel in the ruins of Reading Abbey, at least
in part, I seem to recall.
- June 25, 2012 at 08:02
-
…but forever now associated with Christopher Lee, at least for some
of us (though I don’t think the directors let him get as far as the
digestive processes of the deer).
-
June 24, 2012 at 16:31
-
Have your own brewery. I used to brew my own, it’s easy and very rewarding.
I’d take a bucket down to the allottment with a bottled quart of brown, a
quart of mild and a quart of ginger beer, fill the bucket with cold water and
spend a happy afternoon digging and drinking.
- June 24, 2012 at 15:12
-
Fancy a hint of ginger ? Then head far down South West and track down some
Skinners’ “Ginger Tosser” – an acquired taste, usually acquired by the fifth
pint.
- June 24, 2012 at 14:35
-
In ‘the old days’ our local was a Watneys pub.
Some joker (or maybe not) stuck a notice above the urinals “You only rent
your beer here.”
- June 24, 2012 at 11:36
-
Great stuff, Gildas! Not very monky, but splendid nonetheless.
Odd to say this, but a wander into Sainsbury’s and a mooch at their bottled
beer selection is one of few real pleasures they can offer. Jennings’
Cumberland Ale for me. Jennings also do a darker, treacly delight called Sneck
Lifter. Haven’t been able to find it recently – must track some down.
Much has been written about the travails of the pub trade of late, but
perhaps we should give thanks for the rise of the mirco brewery and their
contribution to the national good. After the nadir of the 1960s (Watney’s Red
Barrel, anyone? – weasel piss in a glass), the efforts of CAMRA and many
dedicated entrpreneurs have saved a national treasure for us. Long may they
thrive!
-
June 24, 2012 at 12:00
-
I watched my first Twickenham international standing balanced on two
empty Red Barrel party kegs, kindly supplied by the gym masters’ mates from
Loughborough College . And the nice Frenchmen standing next to us taught us
how to drink red from their wine skin without spilling it down our school
uniforms . And how to sing Allez Le france. Probably a ‘fail’ on several
counts these days , but a magic memory for me !
-
June 24, 2012 at 12:02
-
It is funny you should mention Watneys Red Barrel – it was absolutely
appaling and I thought about it when writing the above. As you rightly say,
the 60′s were a nadir, and that filth was the very embodiment of the
failure. Long live CAMRA and the many microbreweries tnat are reviving real
beer
- June 24, 2012 at 12:40
-
Red Barrel, Tankard and Harp were not our finest hour, but in the area
of my youth I recall local brews that were vile in the early 60s. Hard to
know if the problem was the brewery or the landlord, but it was what drove
the keg sales as much as anything.
Must say I was amazed at the
difference when I moved to the NorthWest in the 70s; beer with froth on, a
good taste, and a clean glass every pint.
Such novelties. Oh and those
strange Greenall beer pumps with the horizontal glass cylinder of beer- a
kind of see before you buy I guess.
- June
24, 2012 at 13:26
-
Oddly enough, went to Asda this morning & they have quite a
selection of ale with interesting names and all on offer…
-
June 24, 2012 at 11:17
-
York Brewery’s “Guzzler”
Light, golden, delicious.
Described as a
“quaffing ale” I believe.
Lots of quaffing in Game of Thrones.
- June 24, 2012 at 11:07
-
Brakespeares Oxford Gold is my favourite.
Quite like Sharps Doom Bar
too.
I must reluctantly concede that the best is in bottles.
Nothing
wrong with cans, mind, I earned my living in the business for many years.
- June 24,
2012 at 10:55
-
Er…’scuse me, Brother; sorry to be pedantic, but a typo in line 2 has
surely left you erring and straying from the ways of orthographic correctness:
I know you’re a philosophical type, but surely you mean ‘wandered’?
I’m only pointing it out because it reminds me of an unfortunate incident
in the Artful Dodger’s A-level English class, when the teacher wrote on the
board:
“I wondered lonely as a cloud…”
and the Dodger was overheard commenting to a neighbour, “As in, ‘What
the f*** are all those yellow things?’”
-
June 24, 2012 at 12:04
-
Well spotted. I am a hopeless speller!
- June 24, 2012 at 12:15
- June
24, 2012 at 14:14
-
No more so than any of us, surely – but your erudite and witty style is
truly a joy to read, and I’m sorry to have been so rude as to
nit-pick!
As far as beer goes, may I say a word on behalf of North Oxfordshire’s
Hook Norton Brewery? Their Hooky Gold is a favourite of mine, though the
Spouse inclines* more towards a pint of Old Hooky.
* at an ever-increasing angle as the evening goes on.
- June 24, 2012 at 10:36
-
Theakstons Black Sheep featured on the radar when I could get it
There was a famous severe disagreement between the Theakstons. After a
certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing concerning the behavior of the successor
company which bought them out in the late 80s, it resolved that the Theakstons
brewery is one house in Masham, while Paul Theakston founded his own dynasty
at the Black Sheep Brewery, also at Masham. (He’s just handing over to his
sons at the moment).
Let me say – before the cricket balls start flying at my head – that both
are excellent drinks, especially now that Theakstons have reverted to the
standards that were compromised when the brand was treated purely as
intellectual property as if it could be kettled-up anywhere. The Theakston
family bought back its firm in 2004.
However, I favour Black Sheep and particularly commend to the House their
uncompromising attitude to ingredients and localism. This year they have a
season beer which you can’t get in bottles, called All Creatures and is sold
with a donation to the Herriot hospice. You must go to ‘Herriot Country’ and
find a place with a keg. It is a light beer with a strong grapefruit tang,
therefore much loved by anyone who is a fan of citrus lightness.
The Black Sheep Brewery also does brewery tours and has a smashing
restaurant serving light meals and full dinners. However, if William Hague
rocked up talking about drinking eight pints he’d be kicked out for a fool;
these people take beer very seriously indeed and wouldn’t dream of necking it
like that. Every pint has been created, not run up in an industrial bath tub.
These are people who got Mackenzie Thorpe to do the label for Yorkshire Square
Ale; a genuine artwork on every bottle. (What did Hockney do? The Bradford
phone book, pah).
- June 24, 2012 at 11:28
-
Ah yes – the Black Sheep Brewery’s ‘Riggwelter’ is one of my favourites,
when I can find it. Dark and delicoius. So much so that it ruins your
spelling.
-
June 24, 2012 at 11:59
-
This is true!
- June
24, 2012 at 13:24
-
Sadly, I only like dark ales when they have lemonade in them. A shandy
is the best summer drink after Pimms & a long, ice-cold G&T…
That’s when we have a summer, of course…
- June 24, 2012 at 10:17
-
(Greene King) IPA is brewed in Suffolk – Bury St Edmunds – so it’s all over
East Anglia. About three quarters of pubs in Cambridge are tied to Greene
King.
- June 24,
2012 at 10:11
-
At home I’m partial to the output of the Badger Brewery. Their ales have
names such as Fursty Ferret, Hopping Hare, Tanglefoot amongst others. When I
find myself in Somerset once a year I partake of the local brewery, Exmoor
Ales.
As regards Game of Thrones, I read the first three books of the ‘A Song of
Ice and Fire’ series a decade or so ago and loved them from the first read. A
tale of politics, war, incest, betrayal, revenge, murder, love, hate and so
much more set in a medieval world. Unlike so many fantasy novels, it is not
‘man with big sword saves the day’ and you can’t predict who will/won’t
survive. IMHO the TV adaptation has upped the T&A count and lost some of
the complexity. Necessary I suppose in order to make it work but as much as I
liked it I’ll stick with the books.
- June 24,
2012 at 13:28
-
Considering some of the other efforts made to translate novels to the
screen, they’ve not disgraced themselves. I eagerly await series three!
-
June 24, 2012 at 09:50
-
IPA – a type of beer (India Pale Ale) rather than a brewery.
- June 24, 2012 at 11:26
-
First brewed in Burton upon Trent about a century and a half ago in
answer to the question of how to produce a beer that would survive the long
journey to India to supply the troops with something from home, I believe.
There are quite a few IPAs about, thanks to the revival of real ale and
small breweries.
-
June 24, 2012 at 09:46
-
Very droll Saul! Meanwhile, the rather brilliant opening credits to Game of
Thrones with its haunting and I think rather moving main theme tune/song won
an award or two, including an “Emmy” I think.
A link to a rather poor
quality version (sorry) on youtube is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7L2PVdrb_8
- June 24, 2012 at 10:08
-
If you like Game of Thrones, let me suggest you watch the three Spartacus
mini series that are available.
The same mix of sex , violence and politics that should keep you going
for some time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442449/
- June
24, 2012 at 13:31
-
I’ve not yet caught up with that, but you’re about the hundredth person
to recommend it – I did love ‘Rome’ with Ray Stevenson, so I might give it
a try when the runandjumpandswimathon is on in the summer…
- June
24, 2012 at 14:50
-
Rome was very good indeed
- June 24, 2012 at
21:24
-
What about “Who Pays The Ferryman”.
You have to order the Dutch version of this then set the language
to English, then it’s OK. Without wishing to spoil the story, it
turned out to be a lot more dramatic than I thought. For various
reasons you wouldn’t get it commissioned today – partly that the meat
is too strong, partly that the audience would have to accept certain
technological realities of the period, and they might not be prepared
to do that.
At any rate, I thoroughly recommend it. I’ve just noticed that “The
Lotus Eaters” is also out on dvd (both via Amazon) so I’m going to
have that lined up for Christmas as I’ve never seen it. I find that
Christmas has some of the worst telly going, so it is the ideal time
to have a big-watch project. I took the advice to get the Lovejoy
compendium and it was fab.
- June 24, 2012 at 09:29
-
Don’t you mean Game of T’thrones.
It seems central casting have whistled down a lot of Coal Mines and Mills
to assemble the cast.
- June 24, 2012 at 09:13
-
Game of Thrones is superb. Not one for fantasy myself either but I found
myself wiki searching the characters to find out their history! It is The
Sopranos in fur and leather. It is a parable and a warning of a world where
the Ecoloons and Climate Jihadis would have us live. A low carbon planet with
nothing more than dragon breath and vengeance to keep us all warm.
- June 24,
2012 at 13:15
-
‘The Sopranos’ in fur & leather – the most accurate description
yet!
-
June 24, 2012 at 08:50
-
Thanks for the beer suggestions! Hobgoblin sounds great. keep em coming.
And books! Good call! But fashion….I am way out of my depths there!
-
June 24, 2012 at 07:47
-
Gildas, try Hobgoblin, a wonderful bottled real ale.
There is a story
about the late Dougal Haston, (cerebal, free spirit type, wiped out off piste
skiing) and Don Whillans, Manchester plumber, the hard mans’ hard man, wiped
out comming off his motor bike), together in a tent at 20,000 feet on Everest.
. Haston endevours to explain the deep meaning behind the book he is reading,
‘The Lord of the Rings’. Whillans glances at the cover and mutters ‘fucking
fairies’, and returns to melting snow on the stove for their evening meal.
- June 24,
2012 at 13:11
-
No, for ‘fucking fairies’, you really need Laurell Hamilton’s novels…
- June 24, 2012 at 07:39
-
It’s HSB for me, assuming it’s still available. Horndean Special Brew, from
Gales Ales. Serious falling-down water and delicious to boot. Not seen Game of
Thrones yet but it’s on my list so we can watch it between the footy matches.
Politics? Well how about the justice system, not that it seems to deal out
justice any more. Julia can chair.
- June 27, 2012 at 17:59
-
I’m afraid HSB is not as it once was, Fullers shut the brewery down and
it is no longer brewed in Horndean but in London. At least Fullers were
forced to remove the reference to Hampshire from the pumps. I won’t drink it
anymore and try and avoid anything labelled as Gales. Why can’t they be
honest and label it as Fullers.
- June 24, 2012 at 07:33
-
I wouldn’t mind a pint of Old Puculier, while we move on from football and
Game of Thrones. Let’s discuss books (I’m having to ration myself to portions
of “Wolf Hall” ay the moment or I’ll gobble it up in one go. Do you ever come
across a book that just grabs you by the throat and won’t let go? And you want
to write yourself and know you’ll never be THAt good?)
And then what about fashion?
Just a suggestion…
- June 24,
2012 at 13:10
-
I frequently come across books like that! Pretty much everything Stephen
King writes, or sci-fi from Neal Asher, or urban fantasy from Jim Butcher,
or crime from Kathy Reichs, or…
*sigh*
Life’s too short, and there are so many good books.
-
June 24, 2012 at 14:03
-
I knew we would find something in common one day Julia!
I remember buying “Black House”, written by King with Peter Straub. I
couldn’t ration that and stayed up all night reading it and finished it in
about 18 hours. I felt so high when I finished.
I’d also recommend Neal Stephenson, especially “Cryptonomicon”.
- June 24, 2012 at 18:26
-
I hope you read; The Talisman first.
“Black House” is the sequel.
-
June 24, 2012 at 22:07
-
Yes… that’s what made the sequel so good. You could see not only
the progression in the story, it all held together as “realistically”
as Stephen King ever can (you felt a lot of it was psychologically
true), but you could also see a maturation and development in writing
styles.
I wish they could have found a way to bring back Wolf though.
- June 24,
2012 at 07:11
-
Ahhh, Gildas! You have a treat, coming to it late as you do. Series Two has
just concluded, and awaits you…
-
June 24, 2012 at 14:49
-
Has it finished? Great, can’t wait for the boxed set to come out!
{ 62 comments }