Vinnie Jones was/is a non-Welsh Wimbledon-playing testicle-grabbing head-butting mono-syllabic unwanted friend to the stars.

Bend it like beckham
Where we all pretend to be interested in women's football in order to watch Keira Knightley in skimpy shorts.

How come it took as long as Rocky V for him to be declared medically retarded?

Sorry mate. Haven't seen the remake. I was thinking of the Burt Reynolds one. Out of interest, do they have that line in the remake: "I think he broke his fucking neck!"?

The longest mean yard machine
'Come on! A bunch of lovable ne'er-do-wells (murderers; rapists) take on the very embodiment of evil (tax-paying family men) and proceed to whup their collective asses (as I believe the demotic has it) in a heart-warming tale of underdog triumph.

Next you'll be telling me students are pretentious and lack the necessary life experience to make sound judgements.

Church going
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was…

I will find a shtick and beat you to death with it!

This whole thread appears to have been constructed by Thomas Pynchon.

There was another magician detective in the UK. Jonathan Creek, or something. I love these high-concept detective things, where their unique talent/idiosyncrasy is constantly suited to solving the particular crime they are tasked to investigate. As usual The Simpsons captured it perfectly with Knight Boat: The Crime…

What about
Miami Vice - where cops drive Ferraris

The Bullshitters.

Not long finished reading Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Powerful stuff. It amazes me how she stayed so objective throughout the trial.

Larkin About
If I could force one book on the world, at gunpoint with loved ones held hostage until the thing is read cover to cover, it would be Philip Larkin: Collected Poems.

I just read that and now I've got to go and get my hair cut and I'll be sitting there occasionally laughing to myself and the person cutting my hair is going to think I'm a nutter…..Thanks!

'Father left at eight
Nearly splintering the gate'

Thanks Noel
Never heard that Soft Boys song before. I've gotta say I had one of those epiphanic moments, when I hear something special and unique, like when I first heard Ether by Gang of Four. I will hunt down Can of Bees and I don't care who I have to kill to get it.

Summer songs
In the Summertime: Mungo Jerry
Summertime: George Gershwin
Summer in the city: Lovin' Spoonful
Summer breeze: Seals and Croft

Winter: The Fall from Hex Induction Hour. (even their name is a season), contains the deathless phrase; "He looked like the victim of a pogrom".

I loved Angel Heart. But I haven't seen it in a long while, so I don't know how it'll hold up now.