So it took a while but eventually, after running through two of Edinburgh”s dog walking hotspots on an almost daily basis, I turned to Hitch and proclaimed “we should get
a dog”. What would be better than man”s best friend to accompany us on our new routine? We go on the run anyway, it is frankly irresponsible for us not to get a dog – and would make me cleaning up any turds Hitch leaves on the path that much more excusable for me if we can blame it on the dog.
Now forget about all the responsibility that owning a dog brings; the walks, the feeding, the picking up dog shit, the vet bills, the silly games, the picking up of more dog shit. Let”s get down to the really important stuff:
Which breed of dog?
Finlay”s Choice – Pug
My god why would you buy any other dog? These cute little bastards not only look the business but are full of personality, well at least all those pug gifs I”ve seen on Tumblr have led me to believe they are.
Would also consider: Golden Retriever or Black Labrador.
Hitch”s Choice –
I don”t know what dog breeds are, but I”d like my dog to be happy, good at barking – but never loud – and a good listener. It wouldn”t go a miss to have a dog who shares the same humour as me – it will be spending a lot of time in my flat listening to me play guitar and “entertaining” it, so it would be brilliant if it enjoys this kind of lifestyle, as well as the occasional running.
That or the dulux dog.
;
What would we name it?
Finlay”s Name of Choice – Dr Leonard McCoy or Bones for short.
Star Trek joke aside I have always loved the idea of calling a dog Bones. Plus if his career as running sidekick falls through he could always get a new gig as a dog detective.
Hitch”s Name of Choice –
I can”t decide. If it”s a boy, I”m gonna call it Spankz. If it”s a girl dog, I”m still gonna call it spankz. I don”t know, but the name just feels right. Other possibilities: Tony, Dogboy, Tina, Gerbil or flufft.
I”m not very good with names, so I will probably change it on the fly. Poor thing will get very confused.
Today”s track had to be Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over. It is a great track for near the start of a run plus it both mentions running and has dog in the title. Subscribe to the playlist
World Book Day seemed like the perfect day for us to introduce a new literature feature. Five Books will be a personal look at the reading history of our contributors. The contributors will choose random themes each week and will be exploring genre, authors, periods of history, characters and personal influences. Five short descriptions of five books we love.
For the first Five Books childhood influences seemed appropriate. Each of the following books are responsible for either getting me into reading or shaping my taste.
1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Early on in my life Scottish history was forced upon me by my Granny. For a child who’s thoughts were mostly consumed with whether the Ninja Turtles could beat the Power Rangers in a fight (I feel another feature coming on) I didn’t have time for such trivial nonsense as Robert the Bruce. However also on my Granny’s syllabus was Scottish Literature. When handed Treasure Island the promise of pirates grabbed my attention. Right enough it features pirates and pirates are cool. Pirates are cooler than Picts.
2. BFG by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl for years was the most read author on my book shelf. Mostly thanks to this book. I also have fond memories of Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. These thrilling and imaginative stories are rightfully classics.
3. Yukon Ho (Calvin and Hobbes) by Bill Watterson
Though it is indeed a comic strip Calvin and Hobbes earns a place on this list by being one of the few books that, before a number of these books on the list came along, got me reading by myself in bed at night. This book is certainly influential on my future tastes both in literary terms and general pop culture.
4. The Hobbit by JR Tolkien
Before I read The Hobbit I enjoyed the idea of fantasy literature more than I actually enjoyed reading it. Completely captivated by the world that was presented in this book I quickly searched for more, I still have the map of middle earth that I bought to accompany the book. The bloated mess of The Lord of the Rings then put me off reading fantasy for a very long time. Well until a certain boy wizard turned up…
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
If you’re roughly my age then Harry Potter more than likely shaped your literary history. I have never read any books faster and more rabidly than this series. I could quite happily return to this series for comfort reading now.
Having run for three weeks we have finally become gods. As a result of this ascension to higher beings we have decided to change the world. We will be achieving this by setting up a Just Giving page and running some more. This plan requires the generosity of you fine readers. We will continue running regardless of donations but we would encourage you to donate by offering the chance to set us challenges. These challenges can be almost anything, with in reason, but obviously running based. Feel free to give us new routes to run, set us new goals or get us to do something silly (Hitch has mentioned clown make up). Anyway any amount you can give will be more than welcome and £20 will get you the chance to set us a challenge.
The charity we have chosen is The Hunger Project. A mighty fine charity that aims to end world hunger, which seems like a damn good idea to me. For more information check out their website here.
you”ll be dying to know where to go to donate. Well our Just Giving is right here. Please check it out and donate if you can afford it.
This week”s song for the playlist is Plan B”s Ill Manors, not for any reason other than Hitch has was “singing” it on our most recent run. It”s a damn good tune, especially when being serenaded by it whilst running up Arthur”s Seat.
As ever you can subscribe to our Spotify You could still enroll in a health affordable-health.info plan anytime before March 31st, 2014. playlist
A Message From Hitch
I thought I”d just chip in here and say my peace (piece?). Here, you don”t have to give us money – frankly we don”t care. We are gonna run a million miles probably, we”re that good, and that
god damned committed to the cause – and I don”t even know what the cause was for sure. I”ve not even bothered to read Finlay”s bit of the post. However, assuming he went with my recommendations for what charity I wanted us to help out, those girls/women are gonna need our help – and you need to take out a credit card and help them out of their habit(s). Some of them, sure it”s not money they need, but even so the others – they need you, and most importantly, the vicarage needs them too. Go on, give a little, and help them to make amends. We”ll be back to normal service next week, and who knows, if we raise enough – maybe those girls can get back to normal service next week too.
Total Distance Travelled: 48.1 km.
This would take us roughly to somewhere like Stow, near Galashiels. According to wikipedia, Stow has a population of 620 (622 if you added us). There is a church there we could probably visit.
be more interesting than this. The genius behind some of the greatest moments in cinema history gets the standard biopic treatment in Hitchcock. The problem is that it not only fails to live up to the legacy of the man it is trying to capture but it also manages to make him look completely uninteresting.
With the occasional moment managing to hit the right note there is a very real possibility there is an interesting biopic in here somewhere. Certainly the famous shower scene from Psycho is recreated with much love and is the best moment this film has to offer. The film flirts with the idea of Hitchcock being voyeuristic and obsessive but backs off before it gets too controversial.
Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren shine in the central relationship between Hitchcock and Alma Reville. These two strong performances manage to bring the film back from the brink as the production of Psycho strains their marriage. The supporting cast however, fades into the background as if they are aware that the film is not really interested in them at all.
Ultimately there is not much that can rectify the major problem with the film, the fact that it falls flat at every turn. There are many question marks surrounding the authenticity of the film’s plot; the biggest of which must be if you’re going to invent the history of Hitchcock, why make it so boring?
Tuesday, 18:00-19:00
HMV, Princes Street
Free
Frightened Rabbit
Frightened Rabbit are celebrating the launch of their new album “Pedestrian Verse” with a gig at the HMV on Princes Street. Not only is this a good opportunity to see
a good band play for free but possibly one of your last chances to see a gig in an HMV.
Wednesday, 15:30 or 18:15
Filmhouse
£5.60 (£3.60 Students)
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Last chance to see this wonderful documentary which sold out when it was screened at the Cameo last month.
Thursday, 18:15
Cameo
£9.80 (£8.30 Students)
Song For Marion preview plus in person Q&A with Terence Stamp
Because he’s Zod. Kneel before Zod.
Thursday, 21:00-23:
The Stand
£10 (£7/£5 members)
The Thursday Show (Sean Percival and Richard Melvin)
A two hour comedy showcase in The Stand, headlined by Sean Percival and Richard Melvin. Apparently Thursday night is the new Friday, spend it watching this.
Saturday,14:30
Murrayfield Stadium
From £15
Scotland v Italy
Tickets are still available for this Six Nations match and students can get them for half price. It is always a fun atmosphere at Murrayfield and even if Scotland loose there is plenty of beer and hotdogs on sale to enjoy.
For some very strange reason our year end list of the best moments of 2012 never got published. It may have been cursed from the beginning. Some believe it a conspiracy. Others say that the editor of the post forgot because it was Hogmanay. We may never know.
Do you remember 2012? Well we certainly do because all this exciting stuff happened in it. It may seem odd that we are publishing a list of stuff that happened in 2012 but remember the Oscars still haven’t happened and that’s the biggest year end list there is. Enjoy remembering things as we take you through some of our personal highlights of the year we call 2012.
Elyse
In November 2011, sitting in the library, I read that The Rolling Stones were back in the studio, rehearsing and thinking about putting on a few gigs for that small anniversary they had coming up. I decided in a split second that I would be going to one of those gigs, no matter what lengths I had to go to. Were they going to play Glastonbury? I would be there. Would it be in the USA? I would be there. Would I have an exam the following day? Regardless, I would be there.
I thus have three interlinked moments of 2012 which come together as one overwhelming, surreal package. Firstly, the moment in October when I received an email which announced the dates of four Rolling Stones gigs, two of which were in London and at convenient dates for me to attend. The second moment would have to be when I realised I had managed to get a ticket in my virtual basket during the concert presale and that I had secured what was effectively a very expensive form of golddust.
The third piece of this moment montage requires little explanation beyond this video:
(NB: I am not the screaming woman in this video. However, I was definitely a screaming woman, sitting somewhere nearby.)
Michelle
The 7th November 2012: the day Glasgow Celtic beat the so called best team in the world, FC Barcelona. This moment would have been a whole lot better if I had actually been at Celtic Park to witness it along with the rest of my family. Instead, I was in the library essay writing. Tough life, eh? Still, I think the text I received from my mum after the game sums up the euphoria of all Celtic fans on that fateful November evening: ‘Omg, it was amazing. Gran cried 3 times. Lol!’ (Actual text from my mother.)
Hitch
Seeing the Queen jump out of a helicopter for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics has to be up there. I am not ashamed to say this, but Danny Boyle made me cry that night with his ceremony – and who couldn’t shed a tear when a deaf dumb and blind choir of children sung the national anthem? Or seeing nurses and actual patients of Great Ormond Street celebrating the NHS AND Children’s Literature Or having the inventor of the internet Tim Berners-lee send a tweet at the pinnacle of a ceremony that says – “you know what people of earth? We are fucking good at shit”. Even seeing Grime music given centre stage via Dizzee Rascal in front of literally billions of people – one of only a few features of East London that was actually celebrated. Actually the entire thing was pretty great – I don’t think £9 Billion is too much to pay for an Olympic venue full to brim booing members of parliament. Not in jest mind, in actual fully fledged hatred. Seeing private firm G4S get roundly screwed by their own ineptitude when a public entity could do it even better, and at a moment’s notice too was quite enjoyable. Somewhere there is my favourite memory of 2012, but given that everyone else on this page is likely to say something similar, regardless of how fantastic a job Boyle did (there are few people who can excite Huw Edwards and Trevor Nelson with the same spectacle) my favourite moment falls between man landing a rover on Mars, or Cern Scientists basically announcing
that they were right about sub-atomic particles of which I understand very little. All I know is that it feels good to see scientists get genuinely excited by what they are doing, and having coherent trans-global efforts of man rewarded with success and demonstrating what can be done if we work together to do something that doesn’t simply
make immediate profit.
Other Contenders: Not being killed in that apocalypse, Felix Baumgartner jumping from Space, Obama winning election even though 27% of the US still voted for a complete douchebag.
Angus
Chris Hoy
2012 has been a pretty big deal in the UK the Jubilee happened, NASA landed a Rover on Mars (@MarsCuriosity) and Felix Baumgartner floated to space and then jumped back down to earth. For me though I felt the best moment occurred during the Olympics. Olympic fever gripped even the worst cynic, I am not even particularly interested in people who sport, but something about it happening in this country and Britain doing so well made it compelling viewing. Everyone seemed to be hooked and as I was leaving work I realised that I was going to miss Chris Hoy’s final solo race. Walking up Lothian road I remembered the big screen in Festival square where I joined what appeared to be the entire staff of Clydesdale bank and the various other offices around the square to cheer on Sir Chris to his final Gold. I never thought I’d say this but cheering on an old Watsonian as he showed some cyclists a thing or two about cycling was my favourite moment this year.
Sam
I went to Copenhagen for a couple of days, that was pretty cool
Finlay
It is undeniable that the Olympics were pretty great. The opening ceremony was exceptional, it some how got those of us who were expecting to hate the whole thing on board. I can’t quite remember the last time I enjoyed sports as much as I did in summer 2012. Other moments of the year are personal to me. This year I helped organise a 24 hour long radio show which I hosted with Christian Illingworth all in the name of charity. We interviewed a bunch of guests; highlights being Michael Winslow, Frightened Rabbit and Diane Spencer. We also played a bunch of games on air and didn’t sleep for over a day. It was certainly a marathon trying to keep the momentum going but we managed it and in the end raised a whole bunch of money for Waverley Care. My other personal highlight has been relaunching Nanu Nanu. After chatting to a few people it became clear that relaunching Nanu Nanu was going to be viable and so it happened. It has been really rather fun.
We are going to be covering the Oscars in full here on Nanu over the next few weeks, including thoughts on all the big categories and an Oscar live blog on the night itself. Here are the big nominations: Best film
The quality of Scottish snow has been declining for some time now.
Angus
The Hobbit
Until the 13th of December I would have said that “The Dark Knight Rises” was my biggest disappointment of my year. Dark Knight Rises was disappointing because Batman Begins and The Dark Knight had been really excellent blockbusters, Dark Knight Rises in comparison was flabby and slow. Before the 13th of December I was naive, I didn”t know what flabby and slow was. On the 13th of December I watched “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Peter Jacksons masterpiece of time theft. In a shameless bid to make maximum profit Jackson has stretched Tolkiens shortest book into three films, although he is also using the appendix to the Return of the King so its not all bad! (Sarcastic exclamation mark). I enjoyed Lord of The Rings, I am not a rabid fan but I liked them when I saw them, The Hobbit in comparison is nothing short of crushing disappointment. It is just shy of three hours and Jacksons greatest trick is to have essentially nothing happen in that time. We don”t even see the dragon it takes around half an hour (conservative estimate) to escape the shire. If like me you were disappointed by the Dark Knight Rises go and see the Hobbit then you will learn what real disappointment is.
Hitch
I didn”t see Prometheus, but man did I hear it sucked. Brave too didn”t have the oomph – but it wouldn”t be right to call this a let down when it is just my own impossibly high standards that you are hoping for. The Edinburgh Festival didn”t quite provide what I wanted, which is both a personal admission but also reflects on the entire month in general for a lot of people. But I might go and talk about something that should have been covered in our lists but didn”t get a look in – video games. The industry itself is beginning to do some really great things, but it isn”t innovating nearly fast enough. Seeing La Luna at the start of Brave made me lament an industry that is missing potential – in a review I wrote I fantasized about a Mario Galaxy game that dropped that stupid plumber and embraced a narrative more suited to it”s brilliant game mechanic – and everywhere you look, repetition is denying real progress. One of the biggest let down”s for me therefore was returning to a franchise I LOVED with a next generation iteration that didn”t seem to work – Twisted Metal. I had more fun playing Death Drive than I did with Twisted Metal. I didn”t give it the time it deserved, for sure, but it was frustrating and difficult to play – and something which can”t keep you playing despite it”s flaws, has problems. But not putting the emphasis on one game in particular – even a game like SSX which was as good now as it was when first released is to blame or the Assasin”s Creed series which has some of my favourite moments in gaming to date – are testament to an industry that isn”t doing what it should. The independent scene is far more interesting with experimentation, and making games that are far more enjoyable in doing so – but I”d like to see the big bucks move into really brilliant, and genre defining, games for once. It says a lot that my favourite game of the year was Shadow of the Colossus as I”d not had a chance to play it before. Pull up your socks please gaming industry – you should be killing this right now, and all you can do is violent and boring games.
Other Contenders: Realising that 2012 is almost over – the furthest way year I think I ever thought about as a child. I have no expectations beyond this from my youth as it seemed so far away… what the hell can we hope for in 2013? Not managing to go 2012 without Facebook too sucked balls.
Elyse
I love Grease. I love the costumes, I love the friendship and romance, and most of all, I love slots the music. I love Grease so much that I even love Grease 2. Therefore, without a doubt, the biggest disappointment of 2012 for me has to be John Travolta and Olivia Newton John’s Christmas album, This Christmas. It should never have been allowed to happen.
The production is overdone within an inch of its autotuned life. Newton-John can still carry a decent tune, and perhaps a solo Sandy Christmas album would have sold less but sounded much better. On the other hand, Travolta’s voice sounds bizarre, which worked in Hairspray but here sounds creepy. The only track that isn’t a Christmas cover is ‘I Think You Might Like It’. It’s a hoedown country Christmas, accompanied by a video with a dance not half as catchy as that of 2012 smash hit ‘Gangnam Style’. A modicum of respectability comes from their gender role-reversal rendition of ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, verging on a guilty pleasure: however, it just goes a bit too far. In fact, that summarises the entire album: an idea that should have been left at the drawing board, taken way, way too far.
Finlay
When it comes to comic book super-heroes disappointment is an almost weekly endeavor. Series get cancelled, creative teams change and characters die. This is all just a part of following 50 year old characters in continuity that is complicated at best and convoluted at worst. It was this somewhat problematic continuity that both DC and Marvel tried to address with The New 52 and Marvel NOW respectively. DC started things off in 2011 with The New 52, an initiative that saw every book in the DC Universe relaunched at issue 1 and the history all but forgotten about as the 75 year history of these characters was replaced with a new 5 year history. This started off well enough and for the first 6 months I enjoyed the few books that I read in the line, but very quickly if the quality of a book started to dip there just wasn”t any drive to keep going. So after years of reading DC books I now only read a handful, but if I ever get bored of Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Animal Man or even Batman I would sadly have no problem in dropping those books as well. Marvel”s own relaunch similarly reset a number of titles at issue 1 but kept the continuity. My biggest let down of 2012 is with DC Comics, but there is one saving grace and that quality is now all important and the days of reading a Batman comic just because it has batman on the cover are gone.
Michelle
My biggest let down of the year has to be 50 Shades of Grey being named the best selling book in Britain…ever. I think I weeped when I saw the headline. In August, Random House Publishers announced that the erotic fiction novel had sold in excess of 5.3 million copies in both print and ebook. The latter has revolutionised the way we read: now nobody will know whether its Dickens or E.L James that’s causing you to smirk at your kindle on the train. If anyone did smirk at Dickens, that is. This being my biggest letdown of 2012 is probably just me being a pretentious English Literature student. Still, it is pretty depressing.
I have a confession. Actually, I have two. Confession one: I don’t watch tv. Being a ‘poor student’, I don’t own a television set and I haven’t really been intrigued enough by any particular series to motivate me to search for it online. I usually just buy box sets based on recommendations. Saying that, there is one certain ‘reality’ tv show that has had me glued to my laptop screen every Monday night of 2012. And here lies confession two: I am a Made In Chelsea addict. There, I said it.
I used to scoff at the very idea of watching a scripted reality tv show which documents the privileged lives of a bunch of annoying London rich kids. Now, I’m hooked. All they really do is go for cocktails and bitch about the other characters, but there’s just something so entertaining about horrendously awkward silences, especially when teamed with a twitter live feed. Oh, and Millie slapping Spencer has to be the television highlight of 2012!
I’m ashamed of myself. New year’s resolution: start watching some decent tv.
Angus
The Newsroom
This was difficult, I have spent a lot of time considering shows which started this year my short list was Girls, House of Lies and the Newsroom. All three shows show the strength of cable output in America. Sherlocks ludicrously strong second season showed that the BBC can still keep up with her counterparts over the Atlantic. My current top 5 sitcoms are Its always sunny in Philadelphia New Girl, Happy Endings, Community and Cougar Town. New Girl and Happy Endings in particular have grown substantially over 2012 whilst the others wrestled schedulers. The Newsroom is my top pick of the Year however, I am a huge Sorkin fan and it really was thrilling to see him apply his grandiose rhetoric to something that actually mattered again. From the Deepwater Horizon spill to Tahrir square The Newsroom provides a Sorkin twist on real slightly delayed news. It's a must watch for any Sorkin fan still feeling burned by Studio 60 and any fan of interesting character driven drama dipped in real life current affairs.
Sam
New Girl
Hitch
Television has been growing in quality the last few years, and exports from America are becoming more prevalent in normal discussions with friends over here – often without an official airing or local broadcaster which is tremendous. Of these, Breaking Bad has been essentially viewing, and is winding down in what could end up being the best television show of all time. 30 Rock and the Office are similarly shutting shop and it playfuddle.com would be remiss to ignore their impact on television in general. However, the my favourite TV show of this year is probably the Newsroom – I'm a sucker for it's creator Aaron Sorkin, and this was as addictive as the West Wing and more accessible too. It doesn't hurt that it is about something I really care about – mainly median and politics. All the acting is great, and the writing is smart – the way it relates to our immediate past and creates some kind of alternative utopian vision that seems more achievable than the liberal wet dream that Sorkin usually lives in is a revelation – but Sorkin has managed to make really watch-able,
candy TV say something important, and for me is an invaluable watch.
Other Contenders: It's Always Sunny in Phildelphia, American Horror Story, Modern Family
Elyse
As an enormous Aaron Sorkin fan, I was excited and apprehensive to see the first episode of The Newsroom. The first half an hour was hardcore, Bartlet-esque American dream rhetoric: it was a bit much to handle, but by the end of the episode and the introduction of central characters Mackenzie and Jim, I wanted more.
The premise of The Newsroom – covering real-life events in the fictional setting – is different to anything I’ve watched before, and works extremely well. As well as being humorous, the personal storylines of each character are engaging, and as a wannabe journo, the behind-the-scenes style look at how a newsroom works is intense and exciting. I was so engrossed in the emotion of each and every episode that I wasn't even offended by the clichéd use of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ at a particularly poignant moment.
Sure, it’s not how TV news really works in real life – but that would be boring. I can’t wait to see which of 2012’s news items appear in the next series.
Finlay
The Newsroom is getting a lot of love in this list. I too was taken by Aaron Sorkin's latest television outing, and I struggled with this choice, but it was HBO's Girls that stood out for me in 2012. Girls creator Lena Dunham has brought something really special to TV and though at first I was incredibly sceptical and the first episode failed to grab my attention in any great way, after spending time with these characters I fell for this show. It is certainly flawed and the characters range from unlikeable to annoying but I have not been so caught up in the stories of any other show this year in the same way I was with Girls, also some of the funniest moments . I would highly reccomend seeking this show out on DVD. Check out the trailer for series two below:
