From my diary

Apparently Ray Peterson died the other day. I'm a little sad at that news, even though I had no idea who he was until I read the obit in the Indie, but it was one of those obits that sets you thinking. He's little more than a footnote to a footnote in the history of pop on the UK, because his record company hesitated and Ricky Valance's record company didn't. And it makes me think of Closer, which I saw for the second time last night. It's a strange little film. I didn't see it on stage, but you get the impression that the dialogue hasn't been shifted around an awful lot, some of it is very melodramatic, there's a lot of verbal sparring, and when Jude Law's character says early on 'You've ruined my life', he moves from annoying to smug. But there's a breakup scene between him and Natalie Portman, and he says that he couldn't help himself for falling for another woman, and she says something about there always being a moment where it can still go either way, and that, at that point, you do make a decision, you can stop it there and then if you want to. And then, if you're unlucky, Ricky Valance will steal your thunder.