Sunday 6 November 2016

Life's great disappointments


Adam looking rather gorgeous 

I won’t mince my words: everyone said it was shit.  “How can it be?” we thought, “it’s a punk film!”  I’d already bought the soundtrack album to Jubilee, having fallen for the cover and its inclusion of tracks by Chelsea and Adam & The Ants;  I knew that Siouxsie, Jordan and the Slits made an appearance, so it had to be good.

“It was shit,” my boyfriend and I concluded after we’d made it all the way to an Arthouse Cinema in Covent Garden one Sunday afternoon in 1979 to see it.  It didn’t help that the film broke half way through and a very well-spoken, somewhat adenoidal, lecturer-in-film-studies type bloke came out to convince everyone to bear with him while he tried to fix it because it was at a crucial point in the narrative or something. 

Maybe I’d have more patience for it now, be more open-minded, but I'm coming at this from the viewpoint of my 16-year-old self and I was not impressed.  I guess I’d built it up too much in my mind.  Adam did look rather gorgeous and there is that track on the album with the corniest wordplay title and a Charlie’s Angels type theme which I reminded myself of today and I still like it for all its 70s-ishness.  Apart from that, though, Jubilee, for me, has gone down as one of life’s great disappointments.


Amilcar: Wargasm In Pornotopia

I reckon I’m very lucky to have led a fairly blessed life so far because I can’t think of all that many other disappointing things, except for toffee apples.  What other so-called treats deliver so much promise – toffee and apples for a start – dressed up as huge lollipops in shiny gold-red glazing, yet fail to live up to it every time?  They look so good, they taste so bad.  A difficult first bite, musty mushy apples, pips and toothache all spring to mind, although I’d be interested to know if anyone has any differing experience of them.  Is it just me?



Ok, now I'm thinking about disappointments, another of mine was the Brownies.  They were supposed to be  action-packed gatherings with mysterious initiation ceremonies  for secret agent style missions, interspersed with baked potatoes.  Weren’t they?  Instead, my enduring memory is of spending a whole Saturday polishing shoes for which I was awarded  a sew-on patch.  I also had to forego watching a favourite after-school telly programme (my uncool confession is that it was the Thursday edition of ‘Blue Peter’)  to become a bored Elf for an hour a week; no secret agent style missions nor baked potatoes.  Mr SDS tells me he was equally disappointed after joining the Cubs, having been led to believe after a Cubs Open Day that there were always going to be coffee, hotdogs and possibly armed combat.


My mysterious Brownie initiation ceremony


There’s one other thing I can think of right now as being a genuine disappointment in life and that’s Ghost Trains.  Much like toffee apples, their outer appearance is deceptive.  


It'll tear your soul apart!

I can’t even remember much about the last one I went on, and it was only five years ago.  I think it did indeed promise to tear our souls apart.  I've a vague memory of going through lots of curtains and getting sprayed with water but, come to think of it, it was worth the entry fee for the helpless laughter it caused my friend and me, so maybe not so disappointing after all, and better than Jubilee.


13 comments:

  1. I'm often disappointed by the oscar nominated films each year, I know I shouldn't buy into the hype. All part of getting older and wiser.
    I suppose in a funny way, disappointments make us who we are and can be just as memorable and important as the successes.

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    1. Hi Chris, nice to see you again, hope all's well.
      I know what you mean about disappointments, they can indeed be character-forming. I've found the key is to have low expectations... then hope to be pleasantly surprised!
      I didn't mention politics here though, which is frequently full of the most serious disappointment, so much so that it almost goes without saying.

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    2. @C: I’m fine thanks, hope you are well. I’m currently enjoying writing essays on Shakespeare’s works, and hopefully get those officially published in the future.
      In case you hadn’t noticed, my blog is semi active again, I’m currently doing a series of year-end lists. Hope to see you around.

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    3. Thanks Chris, and good luck with your essays. Nice to know you're blogging again, even if not full-time - I'll pop over soon!

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  2. I am just sitting here writing about my teenage punk experiences and saw your post! Didn't see Jubilee but I know what you mean about disappointments - For us it was Orlando and Prospero's Books. Michael Clark (an Adam lookalike?) was in the latter though and I went to school with his brother so that made it interesting.

    Hate toffee apples and have never managed more than a messy bite - they just don't work! Loved Brownies though and was one of those studious ones that broke all records in the number of badges I accumulated - still got them, somewhere....

    Love your posts!

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    1. Thanks Alyson, appreciate that!
      I haven't seen either of those films but I won't rush to try - although yes didn't Michael Clark look just like Adam then, and Derek Jarman worked with them both, so a little link there too. Always interesting to see someone with whom you have a connection too.

      I'm heartened to know it isn't just me with the toffee apple hatred; "they just don't work!" sums them up perfectly. Ah those Brownie badges, you never know - one day they might be worth something!

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    2. PS Looking forward to your new post!

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  3. For years I had my eye on a record by Pat and Lolly Vegas called At the Haunted House
    They were part of the band that played on Jim Ford's Harlan County and the record with a picture is mentioned in the sleevenotes
    When I finally acquired it it was a big disappointment - half bog standard covers and the other half not very good originals

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    1. Oh no, shame! What a let-down - with names like Pat and Lolly Vegas (love that) plus a Haunted House in the title, it surely promised to be something special.
      Come to think of it I've been disappointed by a few album purchases too - usually where I've heard one track I love by some obscure band on a compilation album, and so expect the rest of their output to be similar, only to find that it's not at all and you then realise why that one track you first heard was the only one that made it to the comp in the first place.

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  4. Toffee apples are worse than a disappointment.

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    1. I'm liking this toffee apple hatred...

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  5. Since the age of about five my default setting has been one of jaded ennui, the only things that have exceeded my expectations have been acid, Pompeii and parenthood. Though I quite like toffee apples.

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    1. Hi Artog, and many thanks for stopping by. I love the vision of a six-year old, already world-weary from a year of jaded ennui. And I guessed there had to be someone who quite likes toffee apples, although I still find it baffling. Acid may help, though.
      I hope to read more at 'I sold up and moved to Mars' some time, by the way (?)

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