NYPD Confidential – Leonard Levitt

Anyone who’s watched the strangely enjoyable, clichéd bollocks Donny Wahlberg vehicle ‘Bluebloods’ on Sky Atlantic will be aware of the uneasy relationship between Tom Selleck’s implausibly morally inscrutable Police commissioner and a slightly cartoony mayor always eager to drive police matters toward the most PR friendly outcome. Journalist Levitt’s modern-day history of the upper echelons of the NYPD during the mayoral terms of Edward Koch, David Dinkins, Rudy Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg, is a frankly depressing look at way commissioners and their underlings have dealt with issues surrounding police corruption (sometimes their own), mayoral influence – as it is the mayor who selects the commissioner - and the emerging threat of global terrorism.

What emerges is a culture of deliberate misinformation, vanity, patronage, power struggles and empire building that does few of the major figures in the book any credit whatsoever, despite serious crime figures generally coming down from the alarming highs of the early 1990’s. Even this progress, credited in the book to measures such as the Compstat meetings (familiar to anyone who has seen The Wire) and the Broken Windows theory (dealing with the smallest crimes to provide suspects and intelligence for the bigger ones), was the subject of squabbles and petty jealousy when credit was attributed. In many ways the book is an excellent companion piece to Edward Conlon’s ‘Blue Blood’, which was a personal officer’s history of the NYPD from ground level, and which echoes some of the themes seen here, most chillingly the almost omerta-like protection of other officers, by both rank and file and at higher levels, to the detriment of the greater outside good, despite some horrendous and tragic acts being carried out while in uniform. Although there are an extensive and dizzying number of different internal bodies and committees mentioned, which could occasionally prove confusing for a non-native, this is broadly a very interesting character study of a hugely important but flawed organisation.

Great Liverpool Songs #3

The Stands - You Said

Despite the vocal support and financial backing of Noel Gallagher, The Stands’ two albums, All Years Leaving (2004) and Horse Fabulous (2005) made minimal impact on the charts. This is a shame, as both are more than decent and highlight the obvious talent of leader, and oft seen figure of the local music scene, Howie Payne. Possibly they lacked the initial excitement and freshness of contemporaries such as The Coral, but that shouldn’t detract from the quality, and at times blissful, 60’s feel of records such as “All Years Leaving” and “When This River Rolls Over You”. My standout track from the two albums is “You Said” a satisfyingly sweeping harmonious effort that deserved releasing as a single in its own right.

Lunya

18–20 College Lane,
Liverpool One,
Liverpool,
L1 3DS
website

Never one to turn down the opportunity for a free or reduced meal, I was more than happy to assist Catherine in utilising the Lunya vouchers she’d received for her birthday to road test their new Spring/Summer menu. Arriving for the early evening sitting, the restaurant was nicely busy, with a couple of the parties clearly having enjoyed Ladies Day at Aintree. After the obligatory pint of Estrella to accompany a brief perusal of the menu, I decided to deviate from my normal selection of three or four different tapas dishes in order to try a larger dish that I had recommended on Facebook and Twitter when an appeal was made for ideas for dishes for the new season.

To start with though, I went for the one stone cold certainty on the menu: Monte Enebro goat’s cheese deep-fried and ordered with a side of sourdough bread. The soft bread was an ideal accompaniment to the stunning cheese, apparently a multi award winner over the years.



Catherine opted to have one tapa followed by two more when I got my ‘main’. She began with Mediterranean vegetable tempura, which, as with the Monte Enebro, benefited from a light, unobtrusive batter and which worked well its dipping sauce.




For main I went for an option from the list of paella dishes. Arroz negro is a dish I have loved when I’ve tried it in Valencia and more recently in Seville and which I’d not seen on a menu in Liverpool, hence my one-man electronic campaign to get Lunya to serve it. It was a mixture of joy and relief then that the end result was the brilliant equal of the versions I’d had before, the whole generously-portioned dish receiving, as it has always done, a mysterious lift from a generous allocation of a lovely garlicky aioli.



Catherine's first selection were the salt cod buñuelos; round, deep fried balls of salt cod, mashed potato and garlic, which were soft and moreish. Her second choice turned out ironically to be the only minor disappointment, the Catalan scouse. Having loved the dish at last year’s food festival and then at the restaurant's gourmet evening, I was pleased to see it on the menu but for whatever reason - there was a slight difference in look and possibly a slight change in recipe - while perfectly tasty, for both Catherine and I it failed to hit those same heights and left us underwhelmed.



Whilst approaching full, both of us felt there was sufficient room in the separate stomach compartment reserved for pudding to share the chocolate fondant. I was particularly interested in the specified use of paprika, as having had, and enjoyed to varying levels, chilli chocolate, it seems to be a difficult balance to stop the heat overpowering the chocolate. Any fear was unfounded though as, without wishing to sound like Gregg Wallace, it proved a gooey delight with a barely detectable understated warmth running through it.



Topped off by an excellent Navajas Tinto rioja, I would say without hyperbole that it was as good a three-course meal as I personally have had in the city in my years living here. And I can assure you that is a lot of food….

Great Liverpool Songs #2

Nick Saunders - 'Resonance'

I first came across Nick Saunders on the 'Great Liverpool Acoustic Experiment' compilation album, from which this track is taken. Information is scarce on him; he now lives in Devon having moved down from Liverpool, and in 2006 released the album 'Resonance', which featured an updated and, dare I say it, slightly more clinical, over-produced version of the song. Overall though, the album is enjoyable, especially the track 'Descending' and well worth a purchase.

The influence of Nick Drake, notably in the guitar work, runs through much of Saunders' work and this particular choice is no exception. The beautiful understated orchestration and warm vocals are the perfect antidote to the stress of watching Everton's walking wounded briefly contemplate beating the never less than irritating Aston Villa...

Beach Boyes-esque: 5 great records with a Beach Boys influence

The Explorers Club - If You Go
Although veering a touch too close to direct pastiche on some tracks, The Explorers Club’s debut album was a broadly successful effort in recreating the feel of early Beach Boys recordings, particularly when broaching the innocence of teenage love in tracks such as ‘Hold Me Tight’, ‘I Lost my Head’ and ‘Forever’. The standout track however is the gorgeous ‘If You Go’, the hushed harmonies and lovely “I thought I heard you call my name’’ ending evoking the spirit of a ‘Please Let Me Wonder’ or ‘She Knows Me Too Well’.




The Pearlfishers - David vs Godzilla
Scottish acts such as Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits have never hidden their admiration for Brian Wilson’s work. Although maybe not as well known, Glasgow's The Pearlf'ishers also wear his influence like a badge throughout albums such as 'The Young Picnickers' and 'Across the Milkyway'. ‘David vs Godzilla’ (an outtake from the British release of the former) is an outstanding example of their art, a dreamy backing track and tender lyrics floating across four and half minutes of your life.




Tony Rivers & The Castaways - Summer Dreaming
The Beach Boys’ influence on others was, in some cases, almost instantaneous. British-based Tony Rivers and The Castaways - for whom the influence extended to covering a number of early Beach Boys efforts - never achieved success despite releasing a handful of singles for EMI in the mid 1960's. One of their unreleased tracks was ‘Summer Dreaming’, a tremendous piece of pop worthy of the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean or any of the other acts trying to encapsulate the sound of the time . Rivers went on to sing the theme to 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads' for all you mundane fact fans out there.




Hal - Worry About The Wind
Emerging around the same time as fellow Irish, West Coast Americana obsessives The Thrills, HAL’s eponymous well-received 2004 debut was partly a large nod to the 1970’s and albums such as ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Wild Honey’. The gentle, falsetto-led ‘Worry about the Wind’ was the record’s superb lead single. Despite occasional mentions and promises in interviews since 2004, a second album has never emerged and, as with The Thrills, the band appears to have shuffled into obscurity.




Band of Horses - On My Way Back Home
And finally an effort from Band of Horses that keeps attempting to break into ‘Sloop John B’ but never quite manages it. Nice instrumentation mind.

Random great Everton goals #9

Kevin Sheedy - Everton v Manchester City
Goodison Park, January 13, 1991

The subject of left sided midfielders seemed grimly appropriate, given that an injury to Mikel Arteta on Wednesday night effectively signalled the end of the season, bar the opportunity to possibly bloody the noses of Chelsea and Manchester City in the remaining games. Therefore, here is a goal against the latter, long before they adopted their tramp with a scratchcard persona. Sheedy was by this time coming to the end of a Goodison career that boasted an absurd number of quality strikes and this one - at around 1m55 - coming in an early game of the reign of HKII (note his use of 4-5-1 you two striker nazis..), is right out of the cliched top drawer.

Any More Pi?

Pi
24 Rose Lane, L18 5ED
website

If you ignore the axis of twattery - Yates's, New York etc - at one end, Allerton Road is not a bad place at all for a night out. Schmooze, Penny Lane Wine Bar and The Tavern are all decent places for a beer and mercifully light on the type of arsehole that can make town such a minefield at times. What it has lacked however is a Ship and Mitre-type establishment for those of us for whom the aim is not just intoxication but intoxication via a dizzying array of quality options. Welcome Pi on Rose Lane then, which boasts anywhere between eight and ten draught beers and apparently around sixty global bottled beers.



The other main lovely feature of Pi is that while busy on a weekend evening, it is still relatively undiscovered by the local idiot, thus this Sunday lunchtime the wife and I were able to peruse their free Sunday papers for accounts of Everton's latest vaguely surprising result in the most schizophrenic of seasons pretty much undisturbed. In preparation for two TV matches in the afternoon, I opted for a Blanche de Bruxelles white beer followed by a pint of excellent Brooklyn lager.




Pi offers a range of four different pies to accompany the beer. Being the girly liberal bedwetter I am, I went for a goat's cheese, spinach and sweet potato pie, while Catherine opted the beef and ale pie with carrots and thyme. Both came with mash and we had a jug of slightly watery gravy on the side. Both were more than decent, particularly Catherine's, and were reasonably priced at just over a fiver each.



Nicely full, I got back to lie on the couch to gently doze, while watching Manchester United turn in the kind of gutless, bottle job performance at Anfield that even Everton have barely touched the depths of in recent years.