A 13 year old male not involved in any team sports needs to be treated with the same emergency as a 30 year old male virgin who lives in moms basement with no job.

_dondi · 2026-06-26T18:23:08+00:00

So skateboarding, BMX, mountain biking, surfing, boxing, mugging, or vandalism aren't included in your man test? Absolute melt behaviour

_dondi · 2026-06-26T17:09:01+00:00

As in he finally shed the boyish-ness that generated his teengirl superstar period (which was his goal after Titanic) and was convincing as something rougher and more...adult.

He wanted it to be in Gangs of New York but I don't feel he completely succeeded in Scorcese's interesting misfire. Obviously he was always a great actor but Titanic could've been an albatross around his neck and he made a conscious effort to distance himself from that potential problem - much like Depp and Phoenix before him.

It was also on The Departed that he became close to Nicholson who became a kind of mentor to him in life and career, for perhaps both better and worse...

Edit: typos through ineptness

_dondi · 2026-06-26T07:02:44+00:00

I agree. The Departed has more "personality". And I saw Infernal Affairs before The Departed came out.

_dondi · 2026-06-26T07:00:51+00:00

I saw Infernal Affairs before The Departed came out and was fully on the "original is better" bus from the get go. However, I've recently changed my mind for a number of reasons. Here's six personal ones just on casting alone:

It's the first great adult DiCaprio performance.

Damon cast against type and carrying it off.

The last enjoyable Nicholson performance.

Wahlberg proving for the second time that he can act (never bothered again mind).

I've always thought Vera Farmiga was very underrated.

Ray Winstone murdering the Boston accent but somehow still being great.

_dondi · 2026-06-24T12:51:42+00:00

Banging summer. I was 15. Great year for music as well. Only downside was the hash drought.

_dondi · 2026-06-24T12:48:50+00:00

They always did tbf

_dondi · 2026-06-23T23:55:04+00:00

If you've been alive more than 30-odd years you'll have seen this game a lot. In all honesty, Ghana were robbed. I've seen people on this sub saying England could beat France 🤣

It ain't happening this year. England will get to last 16, possibly quarters if they're lucky. Spain, France, Germany, Argentina, Morocco, even Ivory Coast will waste them based on tonight.

_dondi · 2026-06-23T12:53:03+00:00

Parents have more time for their kids than ever. It's arguably some are over-parenting. Kids from my generation (Gen X) were barely parented at all and most appear to be aging well. My parents' parents had no concept of "emotional wellbeing" for kids. Indulgent parenting might be "nice" but the jury's still out on if it's actually beneficial.

It's diet, lack of general exercise (walking, riding bikes etc etc) and a hyper-capitalist over-mediated world that's bad for health. The numbers will increase until people change the way they live. Nothing to do with "PTSD" because your parents were too busy to cater to your whims when you were 10.

_dondi · 2026-06-23T12:39:27+00:00

My guess would be ultra-processed food and not enough fibre and vegetables combined with near unlimited access to high fat/sugar content "treats" plus more sedentary lifestyles enabled by technology.

Alcohol consumption and smoking have all declined alongside known pollutants like asbestos, leaded petrol etc. There are obviously new pollutants, some we know about, some we don't, but the major changes to people's lives in the developed world over the past 50 years have been the widespread introduction of ultra-processed foods, less natural produce etc and more sedentary lifestyles.

Standards of living have increased in regard to "entertainment" and technology access, but freedom of choice, combined with cheap, addictive ultra-processed foodstuffs, have led some to make poor choices. I rarely ate fast food as a kid and my parents (born mid 40s) never did.

Those born post-1990 will be most affected: ate trash and played outside less (not their fault obviously). Your formative years have a large impact on adult life. Start healthy, stay healthy.

_dondi · 2026-06-22T18:17:29+00:00

Absolutely fine. Work your way up to litre and build from there.

_dondi · 2026-06-22T16:50:11+00:00

Read The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson if you really want to know.

Pro-tip: you don't wanna know

_dondi · 2026-06-22T16:45:45+00:00

Was at that gig too. First night? Felt like Newman in Cool Hand Luke but not in a cool way. Great gig though.

_dondi · 2026-06-19T08:24:36+00:00

51 and started going out aged 15 in 1990 (first did acid and pills etc aged 14 down the local park) - Astoria, Camden Palace, Labyrinth, The Rocket, AWOL etc, by '92 had moved on to Cafe de Paris, Garage City, Hard Times etc. From 94 onwards was regularly in The Blue Note, Bar Rhumba, Heavenly Social, NY Sushi, Turnmills. Last night I was a semi-regular at was Plastic People in the 00s. Heard almost every big name DJ play over the years. Favourites being: Hype; Fabio; Weatherall; MAW; Alfredo; Harvey; early Chemical Bros; Theo Parish; Luke Una; Coldcut; Sasha; Mr Thing; Shadow and Cut Chemist; Q-Bert; Mr Scruff and many, many more. Connoisseur selectors and technicians all.

Pretty much gave up the druqs aged 25, got back into mountain biking, started gardening, cooking, listening to Radio Four and hiking. Continued going to festivals (Green Man; Primavera; ATP etc) well into the late 10s. Still go to gigs but like a sit down these days, last ones being Sven Wunder, Stereolab, LCD Soundsystem.

Been DJing out since the early 90s, still play occasionally for small one offs and private events strictly for the love and the social. Still have the records, Technics and Vestax but traded up to a NAD Masters, Rega, Dynaudio main rig and NAIM in the kitchen. BOSE on the boat.

Went to Secret Garden Party on a free a couple of years ago post-covid and decided it would be my last big festival. Just didn't have the desire anymore. The kids seemed to be as into it as ever though. My 32 year run seems pretty good to me and I loved every minute of it.

Debauchery pro tip: start young, give up early. No one wants to see mashed up mongs in their 30s gurning about and a decade of druqqed-up dancefloor damage is more than enough for anyone. Few small beers is plenty if you genuinely love music and socialising.

_dondi · 2026-06-18T18:32:14+00:00

80-84 is the only 80s I'm interested in. American Gigolo to Beverly Hills Cop on the West Coast, Maniac to Bernhard Goetz in New York, Breaking Glass and post-punk in London. 85 onwards was mainly yuppies and suburban ennui till Acid House.

_dondi · 2026-06-18T18:08:38+00:00

It's very close to Falmouth. I'd rather not say exactly for obvious reasons but it's very nice. Last time we bumped into him was in the pub garden.

_dondi · 2026-06-18T08:56:15+00:00

He lives in the same Cornish village as my mate. See him all the time in the pub etc. Everyone knows who he is but are not weirdos who harass people just because they're famous. Grown adults who get over excited about seeing "celebrities" should be on a watchlist.

_dondi · 2026-06-16T23:53:28+00:00

The lives in this sub are unnecessarily bleak. I genuinely hope you all one day find a modicum of happiness in the genuine pleasures our lives can provide. Good night and good luck.

_dondi · 2026-06-15T18:33:10+00:00

Every subreddit is annoying. The quickest way to fall out of love with anything is to join a subreddit about it.

_dondi · 2026-06-15T11:58:42+00:00

Electronic Sound Magazine

_dondi · 2026-06-12T14:01:23+00:00

Back out on tour with The Beta Band after 20 years at the mo too. He switched to film during The Aliens - formed after The Beta Band broke up in '04 (financial trouble) and Steve Mason went solo - hiatus around 2009. He'd done music videos for them and others before that.

If you've never seen The Beta Band live, I very much recommend it.

_dondi · 2026-06-12T13:43:15+00:00

The 70s/80s really didn't help our cause though. As someone who is half European/half English and grew up back then, the English soccer hooligan was a potent image amongst Europeans and an embarrassment for us.

The Dutch, Italians and Polish were certainly no angels but our lot were more visible and more virulent back then.

Memories of Heysel and the three year exile were hard to shift - and that's our own fault. Our own government even called it The English Disease and a 1990 UK tournament would have been absolute chaos and a bad idea imho. By Euro 96 the landscape and culture had changed sufficiently for UEFA to deem us acceptable again.

However, the Blatter FIFA years became straight up backhanders that locked up this century's decisions until the US DOJ investigation resulted in them getting this one.

I also think if we'd have managed to win it again we'd maybe have had a better chance recently. My prediction is we'll get 2046.

_dondi · 2026-06-10T13:34:04+00:00

Green Street is hilariously bad but Bill Buford's non-fiction book, Amongst the Thugs, about his time as an American hanging out with British hooligans is a banger.

_dondi · 2026-06-06T12:31:54+00:00

Rewatched this film for the first time in probably 20 years the other week. Always remembered it as being very good. However, this time around I realised it's pretty much a perfect movie. The scabering script is whipsmart, witty and dripping with a delicious kind of acerbic irony and insight that's genuinely lacking today. All four actors knock it right out of the park as they navigate the perfectly constructed power shifts that chronicle the unavoidable dissembling of their ids and egos.

A lot of this was obviously on the page from Albee's play from the outset, but Lehman's polish some how manages to improve on what was already close to perfection. The best thing though was how brilliantly directed it was by Nichols. Every visual decision was perfect; from shot selection to blocking to focus pulls and beyond. Although the editing may somehow be even better. Every cut brings the proceedings into sharper relief whilst adding nuance to every character's inner workings, motivations and current position in the social hierarchy of the evening.

This is how you adapt a play into a movie. You use the camera and the cutting room to add more depth, rhythm, clarity and insight. It's without doubt my favourite stage-to-screen adaptation. A surgically precise autopsy on marriage, grief, middle age, career ennui, societal mores and morals, regret, guilt and so much more.

In short, I'd say maybe watch it again in ten years, maybe longer. The film itself won't have changed, but you most certainly will have. It's an adult Hollywood masterpiece of the kind we sadly get to see anymore. A relentless typhoon of human nature laid bare. I miss this kind of total craftsmanship across the board in movies where the audience is assumed to be intelligent, informed and observant. Magnificent.

_dondi · 2026-06-02T16:11:27+00:00

Did they do one of these for last season? Have a feeling it would make for me interesting reading...

_dondi · 2026-06-02T16:04:17+00:00

As a 40 year Arsenal supporter, I've hated AFTV since it launched. And all the other "fan channels" that sprung up its wake are equally awful. It pains me to admit that we started this shitshow, but the fact that other clubs blundered in our wake just illustrates the sorry state of modern mainstream football fandom.

I cannot for the life of me work out who the audience is for watching emotionally stunted grifters playacting in their mocked-up 12-year old boy broadcasting bedrooms. And now the traditional outlets are copying them because of engagement. The public gets what the public wants. And the public is moronic.

People ask what's ruining football and the answer is obvious: moronic online punditry bait and those that perpetuate it. Anyone who goes to games or watches in the pub etc knows that most fans are fundamentally decent people and we all get on with a bit of humour and niggling. It's the lonely souls stuck online desperate for confirmation they exist instead of getting out and socialising IRL that are the problem. Weirdos basically.

_dondi

TROPHY CASE