Elvis

Posted on 16 March 2026 by pws

Since we were talking about Paul McCartney a couple of weeks ago, let’s also mention the film EPiC, Elvis Presley in concert.

This is a roughly 90 minute film that brings together clips of Elvis preparing for and performing in concert, over an extended period of time after his hip swinging period and before the fat era.

It’s produced by Baz Luhrmann. The first part is typical of him, loud and glitzy and all over the place. It gives a little background to Elvis, and we thought we were going to hate the film, but once the concert footage begins, it’s fine.

There are clips from interviews, but the most part is either rehearsal or performance of songs.

We thought it would look all AI glossy and nasty. The clips clearly have been restored and cleaned, but it looks OK. The sound is a bit odd in places and doesn’t match the footage, but, since they had to bring so many bits and pieces together to try to make a coherent whole, we’ll forgive them that.

Elvis clearly enjoys singing and working with other musicians, who work hard at mking him look good (their job after all). He does the showbiz stuff with a tongue in his cheek, not taking it too seriously. Elvis does not come over as an intellectual heavyweight, just a simple soul who could sing like no-one else.

There’s no mention of drugs or other stuff. It’s just a celebration of a great singer singing.

Recommended.

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Racing cars

Posted on 9 March 2026 by pws

The new season of Formula 1 racing has started already. It is only a few weeks since the last season ended, and it felt like a long season, with races into December.

This year there is a new team and more drivers. With all the wars of the world, it is not exactly clear which and how many races will happen.

We remember races in the 80s. They were rare, an event. BBC covered them with a little preliminary discussion, the race and a conclusion. If a car had a camera on it, that was unusual and a technological marvel.

Each car had a driver and an engine and some tyres. The cars would race or they would break down or they would crash. Maybe they came into the pits for tyres or (later) even a top up of fuel.

But most races then and even now are pretty boring. They are a procession around the course. There might be a place on the track where overtaking could happen, or two if you were lucky. In all honesty, it’s a boring sport. Hyped races like Monaco are dull, let’s be honest.

Like so many other sports, the powers that be keep tinkering with the rules to try to make it interesting. But it gets more confusing and more complicated and hard to understand the purpose of some rules altogether.

This season, and for some seasons past, the cars don’t have engines. They have power units. This year it’s half engine half electrical motor, and the drivers have to manage it. All the forced and fake tyres jeopardy was bad enough, but now this.

In the first race, there was more overtaking at the start, before the procession began. But it wasn’t real overtaking, just drivers using their batteries to boost the speed temporarily before another driver did the same and went past them.

DRS, which allowed cars to go a bit faster, has gone to be replaced by something different, but the same. It was very rare that you would see DRS make any real difference.

The dreadful Sprint is back. It’s like a one third race, but with qualifying and just as much chance of a mechanical failure or crash. Apparently it gets bums on seats on the Saturday. Apparently.

Cars now have two, three cameras on. You can follow any driver you like. Every serface is covered with advertising.

TV coverage starts days in advance, with hours of discussion trying to whip up enthusiasm in the audience.

Despite everything, the car in pole position won yesterday and most of the others were where they qualified.

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Man on the run

Posted on 2 March 2026 by pws

There’s a new film out about Paul McCartney.

It appeared in my local cinema for one night only but I am sure it is on subscription services.

It is called Man On The Run (get it?) and covers the years from the end of The Beatles to just after John Lennon’s death, so late 60s to early 80s. It includes McCartney solo albums and the creation of Wings.

And Linda. Lots and lots of Linda.

Among the long list of production credits is MPL (aka Make Pot Legal), McCartney’s company. This tells you straight away that there are few harsh words to be found here.

There are voice interviews from the archives and new, but no talking faces. Lots of clips. We’ve never followed Paul’s solo career, or any of the others, in great detail so nearly all of it was new to us, but if you are a fan you may have seen it before.

The duff songs are rather skipped over, except Mull of Kintyre, so no Ebony and Ivory, for example.

If you were a Beatles fan, or just interested, it may be worth finding. Just remember it’s sanitised.

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