Television

According to The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy  television is the drug of the nation. If that's the case, I'm gonna need rehab soon. 

A couple of great shows started new series last week and Monday sees the 2nd season of True Detective premier.

First to last week's new stuff. Wednesday on Sky Living saw Hannibal season 3 begin. The end of season 2 saw Hannibal laying waste to several former colleagues who had grown to suspect his involvement in multiple murders, each more grotesque than the last. The new series sees Hannibal in Paris with his former shrink, played by Gillian Anderson (She is in some good shows at the moment, hopefully The Fall will return later this year.) and back into the swing of things by dining on a professor and taking his identity. We are left wondering who survived his bloody American exit.
                                                  Hannibal dinning with (or on?) a guest.

Also arriving on our screen last week was series 3 of Banshee. I hope all small American towns aren't as corrupt.The main character stopped at bar just outside the town of Banshee in the first episode of series one to wet his whistle as did a fellow traveler who got involved in a bar fight with two locals. Moments later three men were dead and a man we would soon know as Hood stole the identity of one of the dead guys; the new sheriff of Banshee, a guy named Hood. Since then he has been handing out summery justice in the town while trying to keep a lid on the warring criminal gangs of off the rail Amish led by Proctor and a native American tribe who get through their leaders at a pace. Throw into  this Hood's criminal past and  willingness to take down scores where he can, it's fast paced and ludicrous. Watch it and enjoy, don't think too hard about the meaning.


                     Hood relaxing.


That brings us to a new starter next Monday, 22 June. True Detective. The first series was brilliant. Dark, very dark. Set in Louisiana it followed a couple of state detectives in their quest to track down a serial killer in the bayou. Brilliantly played by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson we see their lives fall apart as they track the suspect through a complex web of petty criminals, corrupt local cops and pastors connected to the Governor. Season 2 is by the same writer, Nic Pizzolatto, and see the action move to south California. Corrupt local politicians are to the fore. I'm looking forward to it.

Isle of Man TT 2015 Re-Deux

As I type this, it's been a dramatic start to the TT without a racing being run.

I awoke slightly later than I wanted. The tv was switch on; turning to BBC Breakfast who then ran a short piece on the TT. A nice well balanced segment. Once that had finished I scanned social media. One tweet caught me eye, reports of a helicopter crash somewhere on the mountain. I dug a little deeper, a privately owned a machine had indeed crashed near the 33rd Milestone. That really was a "what the hell" moment. All sorts seem to go wrong but surely this was a first. Early reports are there was only one person in the helicopter.

Normally such an event would have delayed or even cancelled racing on a Saturday. Not the case as winds gusting at over 40 mph are already doing that.

Before it all kicked off this morning Michael Dunlop's very late change of bikes would have been the jaw dropping moment. Originally signed to ride Milwaukee Yamaha's R1 in the supebike race poor performances at the Northwest 200 and in the initial practice sessions led Dunlop to ditch the Yam and switch back to BMW for the big bikes and a Honda in the Super sport class. The bikes were rushed over on the ferry, not sure how he booked them on at such short notice, and were ready for Thursday night's practice session. Wisely he chose not to use a fishing boat to transport his bike. That hasn't always gone well for the Dunlop family.

This clip shows @tweethutchy flying pass a Yamaha mounted MD. Bouncing off walls and hedges not the answer to this problem. Mention of Ian Hutchinson brings me round to news of him teaming up with Keith Flint's Team Traction Control for the super sport on an R6 after his MV Agusta ride fell through.

Let's hope we get some racing.

Part one of my TT blog is here

Isle of Man TT 2015

It's certainly been an unusual start to TT 2015. The weather has played large part in this. What else would you expect on 1 June than gales gusting over 60 mph and heavy rain? This obviously caused that evening's practice session to be cancelled.Tree were blown over in several places meaning road closures unrelated to the racing.
  




Today's practice session has been weather effected as well with the laps un timed due to the strong winds on the mountain section.

Possibly more worrying from my point of view was the closure of Bushy's beer tent. Obviously tents aren't great places in windy conditions and this proved to be no exception. As this picture shows, the tent was in grave danger




Anyway as it should be about the bike, here's one from Saturday. Taken at Creg-ny-Baa by ajs images


Catch my second TT blog here