Tarwater

Allow me a bit of wankery: I guess he means he prefers Erasure’s more generic (a.k.a.boring) take, and that he’s confused by the 7/4 beat of the original, which mirrors the lyric’s theme of stumbling into uncertainty. When the rhythm changes to the more familiar 4/4 in the «son he said, I’ve come to take you home»-part, the song reaches its ecstatic denoument.

I think - and hope - that Kabak’s spitting episode has ruled him out of any possible transfer. Don’t want him.

Surprisingly, Hames trained today and is in contention to start against Southampton... So, yeah, career defining injury there.

On the plus side, I wasn’t sure how Thiago and Hendo would work together in midfield. The answer is perfectly. And, yeah, a thoroughly incompetent referee and VAR performance.

Just realized I forgot Caetano Veloso.

Jarvis Cocker

Townes van Zandt

Sufjan Stevens

Nat King Cole

Lee Hazlewood

Scott Walker

3 hours ago, SasaS said:

Did they correspond, or does he mention her? I remember from the Habit of Being she thought he was an example of the sorry state of contemporary American literature. Jones has some interesting paragraphs on stereotyping of Southerners in the US, in Some Came Running.  

 

Is Whistle the one where he goes on and on how they discovered oral sex in the hospital?

Are you sure that’s James Jones? I can’t find any mention of him in a particularly bad light there, although her pen and tongue were plenty sharp enough for others? She does mention that she has never read him... As for Jones’ letters, he doesn’t mention O’ Connor once, so I doubt they ran in the same circles...

2 hours ago, YorkshireRed said:

I selected From Here To Eternity but it could easily have been this. Whistle, the other book in the trilogy, is also good. 

I agree. I absolutely devoured the trilogy. Reminded me why I love reading. Entertaining AND quality! Not always the case... Whistle, while not bad, doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first two novels, I thought. Still, a pity that Jones seems pretty much forgotten these days.

13 minutes ago, SasaS said:

 

Ironically, Flannery O'Connor despised James Jones.

Yeah, after having read the letters of both of them, I’ll certainly believe that. They were not easy-going.

A list of best books before 18 years, and one for after. 

After 18:

Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian.

James Jones: The Thin Red Line.

Flannery O’ Connor: Wise Blood.

Kazuo Ishiguro: Remains of the Day.

Johns Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath.

Before 18:

Tolkien: Lord of the Rings.

Bram Stoker: Dracula.

John Fowles: The Magus.

Alan Moore: Watchmen.

Alistair Maclean: Take your pick, probably Where Eagles Dare.

Lest we forget, Atkinson is a really, really bad ref. 

Still think it’s possible, but need to put Fab in for Gomez, as he’s been really shit in midfield, and Henderson for Keita.

Good. Easier travel to Denmark than Moscow or Turkey.

Damn, Atalanta. Worst we could get.

Thought Shaqiri had a very good game, we actually lost a bit of control of the midfield as he tired/came off. Minamino’s running/pressing really helped us impersonate the first team.

Change in system did us a world of good. Jones for Fabinho elevated our game and, Firmino worked himself into form. Fabinho a concern, frankly. Keita showed glimpses -as always- but slow and sloppy at times. Origi didn’t seem to want to be there, but he’s been injured, so probably a few weeks behind the rest.

Gomez, Fabinho and Williams having a nightmare. And we really miss Henderson.

Appreciate Virgil telling Sadio to put his shirt back on.

Three glimpses of Karius and I’m depressed.

Haven’t they been instructed in proper use of face masks?

XTC, Prefab Sprout, Jethro Tull, Blur, Gang of Four, The Stranglers, Tindersticks. All better than 70% of the original list. 

XTC. XTC. XTC.

Well, we’ve out-Arsenalled Arsenal.

On the excrementary dilemma between dog, cat and cow, it is clearly preferable to step in cat shit.

And Usher’s boy Lamptey looks a handful.

Williams started well, but has struggled after first 20 minutes. Think he’ll be subbed for second half. Perhaps Mané for Ox as well.

Is there a ceiling on the number of «my boys» possible at any given season?