Good Morning, how is it then? Chilly and cloudy morning here makes me wish there was a double decker bus I could catch at the end of the road and sit in a pub by the Thames and read the Sunday papers. Alas newspapers in Phoenix are handy for filling with the cat litter and that’s about the extent of it. I just realised on the calendar we are about a month away from the 8th anniversary of losing Joe Strummer, we need to do something special on the blog to mark this. I’ll endeavour to come up with ideas but if you have some suggestions please get in touch with me via the usual channels and we will see if we can do it.

Two more quick pieces of news and then back with The Clash Cup this evening I hope if the day goes as plans. The first is a broadcasting event which I think you can only access in the US and Canada but in these times of illegal feeds and internet ingenuity you might be able to watch it in Caracas and Singapore too for all I know? The broadcast in question is already available via youtube in about seven parts but seeing it uninterrupted on a television with surround sound might be rather good. BBC America (home of the repeat broadcast, I mean how many times does anyone want need to see Monarch of The Glen?) will be broadcasting ‘Rebel Truce : The Clash’ in full premiering on Sunday  Dec  12 at 10pm ET/PT. Knowing the tendencies of BBC America I’m sure you’ll have another 3 or 4 opportunities to watch it later in their ‘music month’ of programming, sod’s law is I will be wrong on that and it will only be the once. Anyway you can check out the details yourself via the BBC America Website. Its definitely worth watching and features extensive recollections from many key characters but most especially stacks of memories from Mick Jones. They also promise previously unseen footage so be on the lookout for that. As part of their music month December 4th also looks to be a good evening to watch too with Billy Elliot (featuring a Clash song of course in a memorable sequence) and The Commitments airing back to back that night. There are worse ways you could spend a Friday night, listening to Phil Collins bleating on about his depression for a start.

I did promise to stop discussing the Joe Strummer film didn’t I? It’s amazing that every (I mean every) newspaper, music mag, entertainment mag and website concerned with the industry has picked up on the story – which truly measures what they see as the pulse of interest always being constant. The last time so much was written about Joe was probably when ‘The Future is Unwritten’ was doing the rounds back in 2007. As I said we’ll reserve judgment until more is known and hope for the best/fear the worst – a phrase that reminds me of the 1980′s. What I can share with you is what others are saying about the idea – which is good as it contrasts my views to some extent. I didn’t know you could base a entire blog on being cynical but that’s the refrain of many it seems. Cynicism is the easiest thing in the world, you may as well type out random numbers on a page…. so here are a selection of opinions from others :

Kazaa write a well researched piece that draws on the history of biopics and Joe himself

As for this guy at ‘Cinematically Correct’ (which isn’t even a word) he’s such an arsehole that I’d like to see the film made and succeed despite his affectations. He says he’d like to play Joe Strummer but the film doesn’t call for an overconfident smug little man to play Joe – in fact quite the opposite.

Then there’s this on the AV Club (The Onion) which isn’t so much of a thought provoking read but the comments below really do make you question the intelligence of a lot of people. Such misinformed vitriol is hard to find so if becoming as successful as The Onion brings that sort of readership I’d sooner stay small with the existing hyper intelligent group who visit this site.

I think this has finally convinced me to leave this particular raw subject alone for now at least. Besides we’ve got many other things to look at over the next few days including Video Clash, The reissue of the DVD Straight to Hell, updates from Gorillaz in Europe, shopping and who knows what else. Have a splendid day and thanks for dropping in.