New favourite podcasts

Recently came across a great set of podcasts called Coverville.

Hosted up to 3 times a week by a guy called Brian Ibbott and he puts together a really great show.

He has a great laidback delivery and it’s just a great way to hear new artists.

As the name suggests, every song he plays is a cover version. Some podcasts are themed to tie in with artists’ birthdays, many are just listener requests.

If I have one minor criticism it’s that there are possibly too many American rock covers, but that’s minor. Give it a listen!

And in honour of the podcasts, here’s Candi Staton’s beautiful version of Elvis’ In The Ghetto.

How truthful should you be?

We all tell lies. That’s an absolute – no matter how saintly you think you are, you don’t tell the truth all the time.

We might tell someone, ‘I’m fine,’ when actually we’re feeling a bit shit. We may not be entirely truthful when our partner asks how something looks when they’re trying it on in a shop.

The things is, though, most of us actually want to tell the truth more than we do, but our own ethics get in the way of things.

Often, we don’t want to alienate a work colleague, upset a friend or cause a family argument, so we bite our tongue or phrase things in such a way that we don’t cause offence.

Clearly, I’m not as blunt as Larry ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ David, but as I get older, I’ve become less and less ‘face-saving’ and am happy to say what I think more and more often. I’ve given up, most of the time, trying to steer clear of arguments and am happy to tell people what I think.

However, there are still some things I don’t pipe up about and, for the life of me, I don’t know why.

Maybe it’s because I can’t be bothered to fight with the person once I’ve told the truth, maybe I’m genuinely concerned about the consequences of my not lying.

Whatever, I guess I’ll never be able to be totally truthful with people…

Michael Caine (couldn’t) give (it) away

Michael Caine free DVDsThe Daily Mail is giving away free Michael Caine DVDs this week. Oooh, good-o, you might think. Now I can get hold of The Italian Job or Zulu without having to buy it. Sadly, you’d be mistaken.

A quick shufti at Michael Caine’s IMDB entry shows that he’s credited with more than 130 film roles – an astonishingly large body of work.

Sadly, however, a repertoire this big means that there are more than a few clunkers in there. For every Hannah And Her Sisters there are at least 10 ropey roles.

And to prove it, let me rattle off some of the DVDs that the Daily Mail is so generously giving away to readers this week: The Whistle Blower, Half Moon Street, Shiner, Without A Clue, A Shock To The System, The Statement, Shadow Run, Bullet To Beijing… the list goes on and, let me tell you, even the most hardened film buffs would be hard pushed to claim to have seen more than a couple of them.

Fortunately, Caine will always be remembered fondly for the roles that were successful, but I still wonder why he’s made so many crap films in between.