I just posted my first link to Metafilter (about the Channel 4 100 Films). I feel all growed up now 
The latter part of last week, for all that there were some very good things happening, also had an air of tension about it in various ways. I was determined to get away from that over the weekend, and so, I've been inactive to the point of indolence. I've barely left the flat apart from to shop (oh, I have to admit to a brief visit to the office on Saturday). In fact, on Sunday I didn't leave it at all.
Chris came to dinner on Saturday night, and we watched City of Angels, which was Americanised, sentimental slush; basically harmless, but ultimately unable to hold a candle to its source, Wim Wenders' stunning Wings of Desire. After that we caught the tail end of the first part of Channel 4's 100 Greatest Films of All Time. Some interesting choices there.
Tonight, I watched the second half, and was sadly disappointed by the positioning, though not necessarily the inclusion, of most of the Top Twenty. I loved Star Wars as much as anyone when it first came out, and more than many people I'm sure, but it's simply not the Greatest Film of All Time. Citizen Kane was somewhere around 20, and Casablanca was 16. Even some of those newer films in the list, I would argue, belong higher on the list than Star Wars. Incidentally, I'm always slightly amazed by how well Shawshank inevitably does in these things, because almost no one I've ever met has seen it....
Onto a completely different topic: Because of an email dialogue in which I find myself engaged, I've been re-reading Kenneth Williams' Diaries. Longer-standing readers will know some of my feelings on the subject of the man revealed in those diaries (here, for reference). I remain fairly secure in my views, and will probably write more on this subject soon, but the thing that I've once again begun to ponder is the way I view this journal. Much of the time, it's really just notes on things I've done, thoughts and opinions on events or issues, the odd bit of linkslutage. One thing I'm categorically not being here, and one thing that Williams categorically was, is a diarist. I feel that I need to redefine my focus here. But not now. Look at the time......
Well, after a night of total sleeplessness and writing marathon emails Thursday into Friday, the compensation last night came in a solid run of total unconsciousness from midnight to 5.30am last night. I don't even remember dreaming anything.
Nice.
Bits and pieces:
Thursday was a good day - we have clients that like us, and we just closed a deal that we're all very happy with. We're feeling vindicated that the way we've chosen to work, works. Of course, sustaining it in the long run and specifically as we grow will be the real vindication, and I'm looking forward to seeing it happen.
Odd things that I've spotted/heard:
Michael "Something of the night" Howard has announced that a future Conservative government (so maybe sometime around 2015 then), will "put improving public services above tax cuts". Ah, how the times change.
"Lastminute.com's losses widen" - No? Really???
Entertainment Weekly are having an 'Entertainer of the Year' poll. Wil Wheaton is doing remarkably well (in fact was in the lead at one point.
I'm enjoying Tainted Life. Almond's style is quite engaging, if a little self-indulgent (though if you can't be self-indulgent in your autobiography.....)
It turns out that the server work has been postponed slightly, so I can post - just got back too late and too tired last night even to power up the machine.
I've had an interesting couple of days - saw Gerard for the first time in a while on Tuesday evening - I've got him interested in some of comic stuff I like (especially Planetary). He in turn loaned me Marc Almond's autobiography Tainted Life which I started reading on the tube this morning. Gerard apparently read it on his honeymoon - I make no comment. Saw Nick and Mike for the first time in a while too.
I'm also back on the insomniac trail - in, if anything, a more aggravating style than usual, as I do get to sleep, but then wake up five of six times during the night.
Not fun.
Anyway - the thought of a week in San Francisco only a couple of months from now is sustaining me.
In good news too, my friend Alex is out of hospital and seems to be doing much better - I heard all the gory details of examinations and operations last night....
I may not be updating much over the next couple of days, while some server upgrades take place - watch this space.
While watching this space, please also cast your eyes leftwards to the 'Link and Think' button under the search. 'Link and Think' (until this year known as 'A Day Without Weblogs') aims to encourage those with online journals, weblogs and other personal online publishing to post HIV and AIDs info, personal reflections, and the like on World AIDS Day (December 1st).
Metafilter's page from the same day last year can be seen here, as an example.
On my tube train into work this morning, there was some problem with people stopping one of the doors from closing, and the driver announced that if the people obstructing the doors didn't stop, he would "take the train out of service". Isn't that rather like a teacher giving the whole class detention because the person who was whispering won't own up?
I noticed yesterday with some shock that Charlotte Coleman had died after an asthma attack. Quite scary - I don't often have a really bad attack myself, but I know from when I do that the feeling that you'll never get enough air into your lungs again is a truly frightening one.
Things I did this weekend since my last posting:
Bought and watched the entire first series of the Reeves and Mortimer Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
Ate an insane amount of Indian food on Saturday night.
Had a largely indolent Sunday, apart from a trip to Wapping Food for what was meant to be brunch and ended up being a rather extended lunch with Sunday papers; followed by more indolence.
Things I didn't do that I originally intended to do:
Go and see Ghost World.
I took Alison and Philippa to Heathrow earlier for the start of their holiday. It was a bit odd: Most of my travel in the last few years has been longhaul, but they were flying out of Terminal Two, where I haven't been for a long time. It's changed almost beyond recognition - and I used to have an office in T2, so I knew it pretty well.
I listened to Any Questions and Any Answers on Radio 4 earlier too, and two subjects really struck me. One was something that Meryl Wyn Davies said, in response to a question about the rightness of the UK increasing its level of overseas aid in the face of drug and operations shortages in the NHS. She said, and I paraphrase a little, but I think I express her sentiment exactly:
"Poverty at home and poverty abroad are morally indistinguishable. So with that being the case, the only way to differentiate is to ask "Where is the greatest need?" and once you've asked that, the reason to increase overseas aid becomes clear."
To the same question, Roy Hattersley made the point that the reason we give overseas aid is that "we are a compassionate and mature society", which, while I like the sound of, I'm a little uncertain about as a statement of fact.
The second thing that really made me think came in the Any Answers responses to the segment discussing David Blunkett's introduction of internment (their word, not mine) for suspected terrorists. A woman from Gateshead came on and amid a rather rambling attack that took in the European Court of Human Rights, the British legal system, and drug dealers, made the point that human rights are disposable in 'wartime'. Which made me think of this:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -Benjamin Franklin