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Thursday 20 November 2008
Plus Ca Change
Just a friendly warning - If you come here later today, you might not get here....if you see what I mean. I'm probably going to pull everything down and put up the new version later, though I'm going out for a few drinks first, so don't hold me to that. If not this evening, then some time over the weekend.
Buffy Bows Out
Mike pointed me at this story about Sarah Michelle Gellar tearfully announcing/confirming the end of Buffy as a series - I gather it's also covered in the new Entertainment Weekly.
Probably for the best - and the closing story arc should at the very least be outstanding.
Germany
It strikes me that I still haven't written up a quick note on the pleasant weekend just passed.
To start with, a quick observation - Ryanair don't fly to Hamburg, despite what the ticket says, they fly to Lübeck, which as you can see from this map is not quite the same thing. It's rather like the way Luton is supposed to be London these days. There's nothing actually wrong with this being the case, (though the way they put 'Lübeck' in much smaller letters on their posters is a bit cheeky), as we'd arranged car hire and the trip to Lüneburg was not that much longer. We arrived at the hotel at about 10pm and found that nothing had changed - we even managed to get the same rooms we had last time we were there two years back. And the KartoffelKeller round the corner was still open so we could pop in for an auflauf.
Friday we chilled and shopped and once again explored the reality of 'Rip-Off Britain', even though it's not the case that we are being ripped off, of course (officially). We must have been dreaming that nothing any of us bought was more than half the price of its exact equivalent over here. It's actually both outrageous and offensive that the powers that be keep trying to convince us that we're not paying over the odds in the UK. Anyway, in the evening we met some friends who live there and went out for dinner - their little boy just started learning English this year, so we had a lot of fun talking to him this time round too.
Bearing in mind that the plan for the weekend was some serious chilling, we managed to do exactly that on Saturday, contemplating taking in a trip to the local spa but eventually settling for a drive out across Lüneburg Heath, which remains the largest open heathland in Europe, and in the summer, is a blaze of purple from the miles and miles of heather. We also visited the cemetary at Bergen-Belsen, which I'd been to before, but Alison and Celia hadn't, and which, daunting though it is, is one of those places that it's simply necessary to visit if you have the slightest chance to do so. The last time I was there was the summer, and it felt bleak and exposed then - this trip, with temperatures well below freezing, we had a whole new experience of the place. We were cold enough in our multiple layers - we couldn't imagine what it would have been like for a prisoner there.
Sunday, we set off from Lüneburg mid-morning with a view to taking a leisurely meandering drive back through parts of what used to be East Germany. Along the way we found a flooded field by the River Elbe which had frozen solid to about six inches, and on which people were playing hockey, teaching their kids to skate, and just generally having a good time. I think we slid around on it for about half an hour - took me back to being a kid myself. Lübeck itself was interesting once we got there. There's some beautiful medieval architecture, and the church of Saint Mary is amazing. Masively damaged during bombing in 1942, and lovingly restored, they've left the two huge bells from the bell tower where they fell during an air raid, and the dents they put in the floor are pretty impressive.
And then we came home.
End Of An Era
I finally ended a seven-year relationship yesterday, though if I'm honest with myself, things had ended in practical terms a while ago. We'd drifted apart, weren't communicating, hadn't had any meaningful intercourse for a year or more, but it's still difficult knowing that something that's been there, a part of your life, for so long is suddenly not there any longer.
Still, if only I'd been given more support when I needed it, things could have been very different. I'm not trying to paint myself as a martyr here, but I did try to be patient and not make unreasonable demands.
But now it's over.
(Yes, I know it's obvious, and more than a little cheesy. Still - bye bye Demon - it was nice knowing you.)
Is It Just Me?
Or does this happen to other people too?
Courtesy of a new comment on an old posting (and yes, the redesign does include 'Recently Commented On' space), my record for people whose projects I've mentioned here is now up to three book authors and two people involved in films.
Does anyone else have this happen?
I'm Back
Nice weekend, generally, which I'll go into later.
For the minute, and following on from my last posting here: As I said, I was thinking of taking a blog-break for various reasons. I did a bit of consideration of this whole subject while I was away (just a bit, not a lot - I was supposed to be taking the real-life kind of break too), and I'm more or less decided to keep at it.
I had a think about my need to feel I was producing something of substance, and I realised that I've got somewhere to do that, and that's not what this place is for. This is for the things that suddenly come into my head and that it's useful to me to be able to refer back to, or for the interesting links I occasionally post here (and more than once I've been able to track down something that someone has asked me about just by searching here, so it's actually a useful resource once in a while). It's also, curiously, something I can't any longer imagine *not* doing.
But I do need to make some changes: I need to pay more attention to the other things here than just the blog, and I need to make some real efforts as far as the other projects that occasionally drift to the front of my mind are concerned. Not major changes in principle, more a shift in focus.
So I'm back. Expect further evolution both of my thinking and the site in the coming weeks and months, starting with that long-promised, finally-laid out redesign.
Have A Break (Part 2)
I'm thinking of taking a bit of time off from this here site.
Don't panic - I'll finish this posting.
I'm feeling that things here are a bit unfocused lately. I've never wanted the journal to be the primary feature of the site, but I'm compelled to note that I haven't done anything for any of the other sections in ages. I read books and comics daily and don't review them. I go to the cinema, and never get round to writing up what I thought, and I haven't updated the Links section in an age. Maybe taking a bit of time off would let me return refreshed?
I might not of course. In honesty, the signs are that I'll keep going: I spent an hour of last night's insomnia not only finally coming up with the long-promised redesign but also working out everything needed to make it happen in beautiful, table-free, *validated* CSS. My heart hardly seems to be telling me to stop taking an interest.
But if I don't take a break, I think I need to make a change. I've always been aware that this if more journal than classical weblog, but sometimes it's neither one thing nor the other, which should be addressable. Hobby horses tend to come along and get a lot of coverage and then disappear from view. I sometimes wonder if the fact that I'm online all day at work and then whenever I'm at home makes it too easy to participate in a kind of 'drive-by' posting which doesn't require much thought or structure: Perhaps I should concentrate on fewer, but better, entries. And I need to keep the rest of the site up to date, as well as finally getting to grips with some of the other projects I either already have or have been conceptualising for too long.
Discipline, is perhaps what's needed.
Anyway, while I'm in Germany I won't have a connection unless I hit a cybercafe, and I suspect if I do that I'll get lynched by my fellow travellers, so there probably is a mini-break coming up from (at least) Thursday lunchtime to (at least) Sunday evening.
Have a good weekend everyone.
The Alternative
I'm aware that like a great many people who have been roundly denouncing this war we seem inevitably about to have, I've been missing out on a key point. Having declared myself against this war and its reasons, yet at the same time recognising that Saddam Hussein is a vicious oppressor of his people, I've not offered anything in the way of solutions to the relief of the Iraqi people.
This is not to say that I don't have ideas, though I'm not expert enough in the various fields involved to be arrogant enough to claim solutions. But Jonathan Freedland has thoughtfully helped by drawing together some thoughts, options and, possibly, solutions.
The difficulty (or one of them) that he recognises is that 'officially', any war is about disarming a dictator, and regime change is a bit of an afterthought. To the extent that the US/UK government plan is indeed about removing Saddam, it's for reasons of setting up a puppet regime, not because the Iraqis need help.
Regime change as an enforced concept is a difficult one anyway, because by definition it's one that assumes moral or cultural superiority, which I absolutely don't support. But the ideas Jonathan Freedland presents work towards giving the Iraqi people a free choice in determining their future. (Possibly choosing a course that Bush/Blair might not like, but one which would be morally robust.)
So I'm starting a campaign here - spread the word that to engage constructively in our opposition to this war for these reasons at this time, we need to support an alternative. These may not be the ideals, but at least they're a start.
Have A Break (Part 1)
I've been forgetting to mention that I'm going away for a long weekend on Thursday; heading out to Germany with some friends to go and see some other friends who live over there. It's over two years since I was over there last, so I'm looking forward to the trip, and also to the relative piece and quiet that's likely to be involved: They live not far from Hamburg, but in a rather smaller town that's better known for its beautiful architecture than for its fabulous nightlife. I'm *really* looking forward to it.
New News
They announced that it was coming yesterday (and actually, that the move away from building for 640x480 was coming a while ago), but in case anyone hasn't yet spotted it - BBC News Online has a new look.
So far I'm in favour. Though it doesn't say much for whatever content management systems they're using that old content stays in the old look....
Typo Cycles
Am I the only one who suddenly lapses into new and consistent mistypings? Not the kind that you just have to live with, because you've done them since you first sat at a keyboard and you're resigned never to losing them, but the kind that suddenly arrive, take up residence and then one day suddenly (hopefully) move out just as unexpectedly.
One that appeared in my mental spare room about six months ago and shows no sign of leaving is the mistyping of 'teh' for 'the'. I know this is a common one - common enough to be a default in Word's auto-correct feature, but I know I never used to do it. I do all of the extended versions too of course: 'tehir' for 'their' and 'tehre' for 'there'. Multiple times every day it drives me mad.
My latest, however, is mildly diverting. I've started misordering the final few characters in words that end ''ion' or '-ions'. I do it in a consistent way, and it makes for some quite lovely-looking words: 'applicatinos', 'operatinos', and 'nominatino' have all appeared lately, and of course 'demonstratino' has put in frequent showings in the last week or so. I think it makes things look terribly Italian.
Saving Grace
The Guardian today publishes a special report on the situation facing Grace Matnanga, a 30-year-old shoe seller in Malawi infected with HIV. Brilliantly, they've used Grace's situation to explore all the facets of her life and potential treatment, including an examination of the treatment drug situation, by means of individual reports on each. These include the hospital doctor, the research scientist, the politician, the drug company boss and others.
It will take you a while to get through it all, but IMHO, it's a while well-spent. It's the kind of thoughtful, structured journalism that doesn't come along every day.
You've Got To Have Faith?
(Not a Buffy posting, curiously.)
In yesterday's Guardian, Roy Hattersley asked some very significant questions about why the public should trust politicians in general, and 'New Labour' politicians in particular, after a now-established history of mendacity and corruption of the standards that might once have been 'Real Labour' to the core.
It's a theme I've spotted in a few places lately, in one context or another - comic author Steven Grant expressed it very well in regard to his own government last week (scroll down to the Guernica image) for example.
Roy H specifically discusses the sudden emergence into the limelight of John Reid, the Labour Party Chairman: "Part of his bluster was a refutation of the allegation that tanks at Heathrow were part of a publicity stunt designed to reconcile a reluctant nation to war. What sort of people, he asked, would exploit the tragedies of war in order to manipulate the press?" and goes on to suggest that it's the same kind of people who would try to pass off an outdated student thesis as the latest intelligence reports.
I'd go a stage further and say that it's the same kind of people who would think of the 11th September 2001 as 'a good day to bury bad news'. This, I think, is the problem. I still truly believe that there are politicians of real principle in the government, but they have surrounded themselves with professional 'managers' and 'communicators' for whom principles are something that happen to other people.
They deserve, and we should demand, better.
TV Reviews
For no particular reason, I thought I'd do a quick round up of the TV I'm into at the moment. Can you tell I'm bored? (I've hidden any spoilers and suppositions - you'll need to highlight blank areas to see them.)
The West Wing
"We're going to write a new book. Right here, right now; this very moment, today."
As noted last weekend, Season Three just started on Channel 4 (with the first DVD box of Season Two out in April). I know some of the overall season arcs for the coming weeks, and I'm looking forward to seeing the development that's coming up. That week in and week out the series manages to present complex political and moral dilemmas in an accessible and compelling way is remarkable. One of the things I always mean to comment on is the amazing range of supporting performers that Sorkin and co have managed to bring in to - even the apparently 'secondary' characters of the assistants are all really well played, but some of what would probably be called the 'semi-regular' characters are simply amazing. John Amos plays Fitzwallace so well that I can completely believe he could be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - his presence is astonishing. Ron Silver, newly arrived as Bruno, shows great promise, and people like Marlee Matlin support the whole series so effectively that there's no wonder whatsoever that The West Wing keeps winning awards.
24
"I'm going to need a hacksaw."
Watched the first two hours of 24 - Day 2 last night, and it looks like they're not planning on letting up with the pace. I almost think they're doing too much too soon, but there's no mistaking the skill with which it's done. Keifer Sutherland plays the whole thing with such conviction that the odd overt plot contrivance and occasional duff performance (that kid who plays the President's son for instance) are irrelevant. Best bits of those two hours:
The head, the target of the bomb, the checking of the passport.
I'm going to go out on a limb and make a couple of predictions for twists at this early stage too: I reckon that the way-too-overtly-dubious National Security Advisor is going to be replaced, only for his replacement to be worse, and I think that the suspicious bridegroom is going to turn out to be uninvolved in the day's plotting (though his twee bride is too sickly to live and I want her to be up to her neck in it). Feel free to point and laugh when I'm proven wrong on both counts.
Buffy
"What do you do when you know that? When you know maybe you can't help?"
It's been commented round and about that Buffy Season Seven is possibly the best so far, at least insofar as anyone's yet seen, and based on the first five episode, I'm not complaining. I think the series has had stronger individual episodes than pretty much any of those so far, but it's regained a consistency that's been missing for a long while. The growth of all the characters is remarkable - 7.5, Selfless showing sides to them that would have seemed inconceivable when they debuted, but which are all entirely consistent and natural. In a sense, this kind of growth is only possible in 'teen dramas' because they reflect periods of such tumultuous change. Compare it with something like The West Wing, and while the latter is more mature, sophisticated and possibly 'important', the characters are very largely unchanged since the very early days. We may know them better than we did, but they're still pretty much the same as they were by around about Five Votes Down. I rewatched the Buffy pilot a couple of weeks ago, and you'd never, ever have believed this kind of growth could have followed from it. As impressive as it's ever been. Best moments in the season so far: Willow visiting Tara's grave, all of Anya's flashback sequences (especially the ones with Olaf) and the hint of Dark Willow in Selfless
Angel
"So - how was your summer? Mine was fun. Saw some fish. Went mad with hunger. Hallucinated a whole bunch."
I keep wanting to like Angel more than I do. There's something about the various elements that just very rarely clicks for me when I watch it in episodic form. The performances are good, the characters generally interesting (though I keep wanting to see the core trio far more than any of the later additions), the overall story arcs are pretty strong. I think that the reason I get more out of it by rewatching the series on video though, is the ability to bypass those extremely unwieldy non-arc episodes they seem to throw in too often. The trip to Las Vegas this year, for instance, the episode where Gunn's soul was being reclaimed last year too. Also this year they're taking what seems like a long time to establish the basic situations and get things moving in one overall direction. And they're totally wasting Cordelia. Best bits so far: Lilah securing her promotion by decapitation, all the scenes with amnesiac Cordy freaking out over the weirdness at The Hyperion.
The Book Group
"Would you like me to try lubricating your perineum?"
Well, if you're not already watching this, I suspect there's not much I'll be able to say to get you interested, even though you absolutely should be. This is, I would say, an acquired taste. The story of a mismatched group who come together to discuss equally mismatched books, and in the process get entangled in each other's lives, it's frequently hilarious, often painful, and always entirely human. The sight of Rab last Friday, having chosen a book no one liked about moving to Spain because of his own brief experience of love there, was abolutely heart-rending, the moreso because he was so caught up in how wonderful it would be to do so that nothing else mattered. The first series is available to buy from today if you want to get up to speed on it.
Yet More Daredevil
Well, according to USA Today, Daredevil took $43.5million over the weekend through to early Sunday, which is what was projected for the whole holiday weekend, including today, which is President's Day in the US. So that's probably being chalked up as a result.
However....you won't get to see it if you live in Malaysia (unless you pick up one of the pirate editions, that is).
Saturday In Review
This was a day which confounded dozens of assumptions about our age.
How much harder it is today than a week ago to speak of the apathy and selfish individualism of consumer society.
Madeleine Bunting in today's Guardian
The mood was well caught by numerous posters that bore the legend "Not in Our Name".
This is as far from inflammatory as a slogan can be. It is courteous. It is saying "Excuse me, Prime Minister, but I don't agree". However, it has the sort of quiet insistence that implies that "Next time, I won't be so polite".
Andreas Whittam-Smith in today's Independent
A MILLION Britons had a jolly day out on the anti-war march. It was like a carnival without the costumes. But let's not get carried away.
Leader in today's Sun (for a bit of, well, let's just call it 'balance', shall we? - Do read all of their topics, by the way - I'd hate you to miss out on the wide-ranging and incisive debate).*
The Mirror is running one hundred photos of the day (note - somewhat self-publicising).
*Part of which, by the way, falls back on the rather tired observation that "Fifty-eight million other Brits DIDN'T march on London" which if we take it to be a reasonable perspective on political activism means that, for instance, rather more than fifty-eight million 'Brits' are opposed to hunting with dogs, and it should be banned forthwith. I mean, really, is that actually the most robust intellectual argument the country's biggest-selling paper can manage?
Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Yesterday was amazing on any number of levels:
The sheer numbers, obviously - Whether you go for 750,000 (which seems conservative/unlikely/dishonest (delete as applicable)) or 2,000,000 (possibly likewise), or something in between (which I'd opt for). I've taken part in a number of demonstrations and protests, but none of them could possibly have prepared me for yesterday. Close up, there's obviously little that allows for the greater perspective, but things do give you a sense of the scale - the fact that we were not quite at Big Ben when it chimed 3PM, three hours after the start of things, and we still hadn't cleared the Embankment; the fact that over an hour later we still weren't on Piccadilly; the extraordinary variety of people; the atmosphere; the sense that this was something truly extraordinary was there in all of them.
I took a few photos, but generally they don't do justice to the thing precisely because they were in among the crowds. There were, of course, lots and lots of people, some of who had dressed up. There were loads of well-made banners. Proving the small world thing, we bumped into familiar faces and old friends. Chris proved my prior estimate of the youngest person I'd know taking part to be well off the mark. Mr Smith demonstrated on another level entirely, by demonstrating how his cropped top makes him cold, and I managed to see at least one other blogger.
When we got back last night and watched the coverage via various rolling news channels, one of the things that most struck me was Tony Blair's response to it in his Spring Conference address (that bit where he said "If 500,000 people demonstrate, that's still fewer than...." etc). Did everyone else see how obviously angry he was about the protest? He really looked like he was losing it - he genunely looked angry that people were daring to dissent from his own position. He's the leader of a democracy, and fine, he can disagree with the opposing views, but actually to look angry that members of his electorate were trying to make their voices heard doesn't look like the most appropriate behaviour to me.
Anyway, for all that certain people seem uninterested in finding peaceful solutions before embarking on the aggressive ones, I think it was an essential protest, and one that I'm proud to have been part of.
Demo-Graphics
Just a few personal details:
The youngest person I know who will be marching today is 11.
The oldest is 63.
The two I know travelling from furthest away are coming from Sheffield.
(Though a friend of a friend is coming from Prague.)
I know one person who had to get permission from their embassy to be allowed to take part.
I know two families from which three generations will be present.
I know that however many people turn up today, many of them will be invisible to large parts of the media. But we'll know.....
Our Planet - Safe in Labour's Hands
BBC - 'Clean energy targets scrapped'
Oh good - that's just what we were all hoping for then.
Demonstrating
Right, well, I'm all set for tomorrow - the meeting place is sorted, the gang will be there, and I may even catch up with a blogger or two. I'm unsure what the numbers are going to look like finally, but there was an item on the news earlier about the fact that the number of coaches coming into town from around the Birmingham area alone will be two hundred, and the organisers think they could have filled twice as many if they'd been available. So I'm thinking 'bigger' rather than smaller.
I meant to check that the digi-cam from work was charged today, but kept forgetting. Assuming it's charged up when I swing by the office in the morning, I'll take some pics and get them posted up.
I've hopped from channel to channel ever since I got in this evening, just catching up on the news of the day and being blown away by how extremely well reasoned the French position at the UN today was, and how extremely unconvincing the US and UK stance increasingly looks.
Couple of quick things - there was a Plaid Cymru MP on Question Time (Simon Thomas) last night who very succinctly put the point that seems so self-evident to me (and as far as I know, everyone I know), but which Our Vainglorious Leader seems incapable of spotting, which is that the US and UK governments appear to be making literally no effort whatsoever to find a peaceful solution to the situation.
Second, as seen on BBC One's main news this evening, members of the Labour Party are being refused admission to the party's spring conference in Glasgow for wearing sashes protesting military action. Which is simply disgusting.
Anyway - I hope everyone who's going to be there has a great day, and that whatever the numbers, the message is clearly stated.
More DD Reviews
Spot The Difference:
Happy Cynical Marketing Gimmick Day!
Just thought I'd offer good wishes to everyone on this day of joy and love. And I'd like to offer an especial greeting to all my fellow singles - "Don't let the smug fuckers get to you, they'll have split up in no time."
In the meantime, I was sent this (not in a 'Dear Valentine' sense, obviously). Depending on where you work, potentially not safe for work.
I Think They Call It "Gallows Humour"
Everyone needs a little humour to leaven the grim times in which we live, so I thought I'd offer some.
The Onion very rarely strikes a chord with my own sense of humour, but twice today it does:
News In Brief:
Saddam Enrages Bush With Full Compliance
WASHINGTON, DC—President Bush expressed frustration and anger Monday over a U.N. report stating that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is now fully complying with weapons inspections. "Enough is enough," a determined Bush told reporters. "We are not fooled by Saddam's devious attempts to sway world opinion by doing everything the U.N. asked him to do. We will not be intimidated into backing down and, if we have any say in the matter, neither will Saddam." Bush added that any further Iraqi attempt to meet the demands of the U.N. or U.S. will be regarded as "an act of war."
And also: North Korea Wondering What It Has To Do to Attract U.S. Military Attention
My Word That's A Big Round One
Number, that is.
"10 million join world protest rallies"
Okay, it's only a projection, but even so - look at some of the definite numbers in that story: Protests in 400 cities in 60 countries....
Daredevil Reviewed
The DD reviews are starting to appear, and considering the widespread negativity there was around it before anyone had even seen it, they're generally extremely good:
Newsarama loved it.
As did at least one Ain't It Cool reviewer.
And another is generally positive.
Jonathan Ross is keen, but I knew that from watching Film 2003 on Tuesday.
Empire's Kim Newman gives it three out of five stars - but watch out for the pop-up *and* DHTML ad (bastards).
I'll let you know what I think of it over the weekend.
A New Experience
Well, I just got in from doing something I once projected I would never do, which is meeting up with a fellow blogger I only knew through their blog and not in real life from my pre-blogging days.
Cath (for it was she) and I met for a drink before eating and found it was suddenly three hours later and eating hadn't yet happened. I had a thoroughly pleasant evening - you'll have to ask her what hers was like :o)
One negative thing - on the way to the station at the end of the evening, we were approached by a woman who was either genuinely freaked out or quite a good actor, who insisted that she wasn't a beggar, but just had to get back to Oxford, would give us her name and address and bracelet if we could help, and generally offered a picture of distraught crisis. We gave her some change and disengaged ourselves. Heading off, we faced the inevitable worry about what we'd done. What if she was genuinely in immediate need? But equally, what if it was a well-practiced act? Isn't it a shitty world where the first assumption when faced with that situation is that it's a scam?
Anyway, that notwithstanding, I seem to be over my issues about blogger get-togethers. Who's next?
Curiously....
....I had written an item linking to a BBC News report on this Bin Laden tape, but my browser crashed, then there was work to do, so now that I'm back, I find that the story seems to have vanished.
The point I particularly wanted to mention was a direct quotation from one of the BBC's defence analysts, who noted that although the tape contains support for the Iraqi people, it doesn't explicitly support Saddam Hussein, and indeed, refers to him as an 'infidel'. The analyst noted that the US administration either hadn't noticed that fact or had chosen to overlook it.
And now I can't find it - I find myself contemplating a climb-down by the BBC....
I'll check again later.
Small World?
People who know me in real life tend to be aware of the very, very, small world I inhabit. I have a history of unexpectedly meeting people I know in the most unlikely of circumstances, and all over the world*.
Dave has pointed me in the direction of this Columbia University study, which is attempting to find out whether the wider concept of 'small world syndrome' (in a Six Degrees Of Separation style) really exists. The aim is that you sign up and are given a target person from their pool. You have to get a message to that person using only your own personal contacts. So you pass the message on to an acquaintance who you think stands a chance of either knowing that person, or knowing someone who does. And they do the same, until it reaches the target. The researchers keep track of how many hops it takes to get there.
I like it - and I'm very intrigued by it. My first target is in South America, by the way, but I won't give away any more.
*Top of the Empire State Building, on a dive boat in Cairns, in a bar in Sydney, in the street in Vancouver, in a small town market in the middle of France, in a shopping centre in Singapore, etc, etc.
Meme
I'm usually dead set against this kind of thing. So I do this once in a blue moon at best. I think the last similar kind of thing I joined in with was The Ageless Project, but here we go - I'm in the GeoURL database
Losing My Mind
(Yes, we're back with the theme)
For reasons that escape me, it went right out of my mind to mention the train journey I was on last Friday.
It was a middle-of-the-day trip out of town to a client, so the train showed every promise of being uncrowded, which in the end it was, though it still left the station almost twenty minutes late. Five minutes before it was due to leave, a man got into my (well-over half empty) carriage and rather than taking one of the countless available double spaces, came and sat right next to me.
He did that clutching his briefcase to him thing that put me in mind of the man with the bomb in Airport and sat like that for the entire time the train was delayed leaving. Worrying, or what?
Fortunately, as soon as the train started moving, he opened the case and I could see it contained just regular work-type stuff. He then proceeded to pull out a book (this book in fact) and started reading it, all the while breathing very heavily and checking on his briefcase every few minutes.
He disembarked at Woking, I was glad to see....
And Another, 'Nother Thing
I didn't watch the Paxman interview with Tony Blair last week - I couldn't face an hour of smirking, oily smugness (on both sides, to be fair).
But I have read the transcript, courtesy of a link at Terreus, and it's quite illuminating, removed from the glutinous delivery. My favourite (in a really bad way) part is the one also highlighted over there:
Jeremy Paxman: And you believe American intelligence?
Tony Blair: Well I do actually believe this intelligence -
Jeremy Paxman: Because there are a lot of dead people in an aspirin factory in Sudan who don't.
And Another Thing
Courtesy of Gert's Mad Musings, I've learned of the interview on this morning's Today programme with US Congressman Pete King. The esteemed gentleman (Republican, New York's 3rd District - that's Long Island, which may explain something) pointed out among other staggering irrelevancies and slurs that the French's only use would be to show the Iraqis how to surrender.
Picking up from my rant earlier - this continual belittling of countries who don't think war is a less-than-last option based on real or imagined shortcomings in their past is not only staggeringly offensive, it also shows up how weak the pro-war argument actually is. If the best engagement with a policy of 'diplomatic solutions first' they can manage is "well you would say that, you surrendered to the Nazis sixty years ago", there's no wonder the pro-war brigade are reduced to nicking student theses and fabricating an apparently-unconnected "Axis Of Evil".
And if past transgressions are suddenly fair game, perhaps someone ought to suggest to Mr Bush that nations which institutionalised racism, sanctioned slavery, and attempted genocide of indigenous peoples should not cast the first stone.
The Oscar Nominations
Any shocks?
Not that I can see so far - maybe the lack of Richard Gere - I'll take another look over the list later.
Later - Ooh look - there's one: Bowling For Columbine is nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
Later still - quick count of the leading numbers (I may have missed some, so don't regard this as gospel):
Chicago - 13
Gangs Of New York - 10
The Hours - 9
The Pianist - 7
The Two Towers - 6
Frida - 6
Adaptation - 4
Far From Heaven - 4
Rant Mode On
Don't say you weren't warned....
First off - it's not just me, is it? This whole thing about Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas being 'violated' by having secret photos taken at their wedding is deeply offensive, isn't it? I mean - 'violated' is when you've been raped, or otherwise assaulted, or had your home invaded, or, you know, actual violation. In the context of photography even, it's when someone's used a hidden camera to film you in intimate situations in your own home. It's not when someone's rattled off a few snaps of you in a public place with hordes of people around you. Did the hotel not have security cameras? If it did, why isn't the hotel being sued? Perhaps because the hotel isn't selling its footage to a magazine, when you've already flogged the rights to another one. Pathetic.
More seriously - I'm getting heartily sick of the comments that are being made in various circles about how Europe should be behind the US in starting a war because the US 'saved us all' in the last war. This morning, that vacuous woman on the BBC Breakfast News programme was reading out viewer comments that extend this specifically to certain countries (some examples here). I paraphrease, but the essence was that France and Belgium especially have very short memories and should remember their obligations to those who freed them from German aggression, not cosy up with Germany against the people who they're obligated to.
This concept that having been victims of one aggressor obliges anyone to take part in a conflict against an entirely different one is about as deeply offensive as any I've heard. The fact that the 'crime' of which these countries are guilty is simply insisting that war should be the last possible option once all other means of avoiding it have been exhausted should give us all pause. People in France, Belgium, and yes, Germany too, have experience within living memory of the reality of having war waged on their soil - perhaps it's that experience that we should be listening to before we put the innocents of other countries in their shoes.
UPDATE - On the CZJ front - today's Sun, on the day the Oscar nominations are announced, runs a headline alongside a picture of her: "And the whinger is...." I know it's The Sun and all, but even so - Genius.
Look! Links!
Newsy one first - NTL Broadband customers find out that their band isn't quite so broad after all....
I wanted to mention this report of the Festival International de la Bande Dessinee in Angouleme two weeks ago, stuck it in my favourites and promptly forgot all about it. I'd love to go - it must be an amazing experience. Maybe next year.
And The Hoecake Project asks the vital question: Where My Hoecakes At?
Lost Loves
Towards the end of last year, I mentioned that I'd begun to make lots of lists, including one of people I've slept with. I was looking over that one again at the weekend and it got me thinking.
Bear with me here.
Once upon a time, I was one of those people who had a strict policy of "I'll only sleep with someone I'm in love and in a relationship with". Yes, I used to be that innocent naïve. Practicality applied itself, of course (that's the practicality of being young, gay and single), and I found myself enjoying sex a great deal with people I shared, let's just call them 'less formal' arrangements with than ongoing relationships. I don't feel bad about it in any way, but when I first looked at the list, it did give me a moment's pause.
You see, when you look at a list like that, you come face-to-face with the reality that you weren't in love with those people. To start with, it's not practical or reasonable to pretend that you were - to make out that it's that easy undermines the value of the concept itself. Besides which, it's at odds with the number of times I've felt that I was in that state.
(I should perhaps take a moment to put the size of the list in context here. To use an old Friends joke, if you want a ballpark figure, well, it's definitely less than a ballpark. It's in double digits, but not triple. Beyond that, use your imagination.)
But it did make me wonder about having been in love. On reflection, I think I've been there four times in my life. Though in truth, it's difficult to say, as each time was different in both the feeling and the reactions it created in me. So maybe I never really have been, or maybe the nature of love is partly a function of the person you feel it for.
I'm not one who believes in love that lasts forever - I've frequently been one who doesn't believe in love that lasts 'til after breakfast, in fact. But to my surprise, I find that I do believe in love itself. If you take sixteen years old as an arbitrary point at which I became open to finding love, then if these four were all in their way the real thing, on average I've found it once every five years. That sounds about right to me somehow. It sounds long enough for love to take root, grow, blossom and wither, and then for a period when the seeds fall on stony ground before the cycle starts again, to mangle my metaphor slightly.
If I accept that rather hackneyed distinction between loving someone and being in love with them, then I have four lost loves. Three of them are lost in the truest sense, as I'm no longer in touch with them, and doubt I ever would be again - not unpleasant partings, necessarily, but definite ones, certainly.
As to the rest, I'm not sure what kind of loss they might represent. Lost opportunities for friendship or more? Lost chances to find something I'm missing? Maybe lost parts of my old resolution on love and sex. Principles surrendered to the strength of pragmatism (or plain old passion).
I doubt it matters in the long run. I'll surrender again, or not. I'll open a door one day and find love on the other side just when I least expect it, or not. Just at the minute, neither seems very likely, but things change.
But I'll keep the list, and when a reflective mood like the one I'm in recently comes along, I'll play some games of What If....
A Loss Of Credibility
"This is not a trivial leak, it is a document on which is the basis of whether or not this country goes to war and whether or not young servicemen and servicewomen are to put their own lives at risk and indeed thousands, tens of thousands of innocent civilians," he said.
Tam Dalyell points out that an out-of-date plagiarised student thesis might not, after all, be the firmest foundation on which to build the case for war.
And is told to leave the Commons chamber for his trouble.
On *Not* Getting Lost
Saturday will see what will hopefully be an immense national demonstration against unjustified war on Iraq here in London, with further demonstrations in many other cities. I'm fixing to meet up with a bunch of people I know ahead of the start, on the basis that trying to meet up during will probably be a nightmare. If anyone would like to join us at a meeting point to be arranged, drop me a line and I'll keep you informed - if you have a mobile phone, let me have the number too, in case of last-minute changes.
Map of the march route here.
On Losing Things
There may well be a thread/theme relating to loss and things that are lost emerging here over the next few days, One of those curious periods of mental sychronicity seems to have come upon me, where lots of things bubble to the surface and upon reflection seem to share thematic points - this time it's loss.
I'll start with a simple one - I've recently become acutely aware of apparently having lost a bunch of items of various kinds. I've been especially thinking of DVDs - Being John Malkovich isn't here anymore, and nor are Star Trek: First Contact, nor The Mummy, nor Magnolia. In comics, I've realised a couple of trade paperbacks and at least a few one-shots seem to have evaporated, and in books, a copy of The Picture of Dorian Grey that I was reading just before Christmas is nowhere to be found. There are other things too, of course, but these at at the front of my mind. Some of them, I can imagine I've forgotten that I've loaned out, (the DVDs especially) but others I know that no one else I know would be interested in, so what on earth I'm doing with them I cannot say.
West Wing's Back
Watched the first episode of Season Three last night, and was as impressed by it as ever. I've read a certain amount about the early part of this season being rather weak, but I wouldn't have been able to tell from Manchester, Part One. The non-linear structure works very effectively (coincidentally I've been rewatching Celestial Navigation from Season One this evening, which was the first significant attempt at this kind of narrative structure they tried, and I think the new one is better. Certainly it's a challenging experience to watch, which is no bad thing. The performances, as always, were outstanding, though the addition of Bruno and his team is going to spread the focus thinner, as I suspect will Stockard Channing's promotion to series regular. But Alison Janney, as always, stole the show, demonstrating once again why she keeps on getting those Emmys.
Ride Him, Cowboy/Slap Leather/Insert Your Double-Entendre Here
Dear old Marvel Comics have just launched a new cowboy series featuring long-time character The Rawhide Kid, and because they drummed up some hype for it on the basis that for the first time the character was going to be written as gay, it's possibly the automatic winner of an entirely new award: The Most Negatively-Regarded and Derided Before Anyone's Read A Single Panel Award.
Well, I've now read the first issue, and I'm not going to deride it. I'm not going to say that it's the best comic I've ever read, either, but it's a long way from the worst. The writer is one that a lot of people seem not to rate, though this is the first of his stuff that I've read, so I don't have any baggage there. He's used a few short-cuts in terms of language and manner that are vaguely stereotypical, but not excessively so, and when I've been talking about it over at Millarworld, I've acknowledged the need to use those kind of techniques, since they're not actually showing him shagging other cowboys (yet), to convey that he is gay at all. That makes him seem a little anachronistic at times, but it's actually quite an endearing feature. I'm not sure where the story is going to go, as it's a bit Western-standard at the moment - bad guy rides into town, causes trouble, someone has to sort him out, good job The Rawhide Kid is on hand, but it might distinguish itself more as it progresses. Some of the humour is actually very funny, and the art, by one of the living legends of western comics, John Severin, is very nice indeed.
Plus, it's a gay hero headlining a comic series from one of the two largest US publishers, which has never happened before, and by itself should be recognised and supported.
Question Time
Watching BBC One's Question Time last night, and specifically the opening discussion about the strength of Colin Powell's evidence to the UN, we were struck by the apparent breadth of opinion which is critical of the Government position on the Iraq situation. Thinking back to the Gulf War and (especially) the Falklands War, it was almost considered heresy to suggest that anything other than a gung-ho, all-out for battle approach was in any way appropriate. This time, the number of people who seem to be at least ambivalent and at most in outright opposition to the use of force as anything other than a last resort, seems to outweigh the other side fairly significantly.
I'm pleased that such an open public debate can be had for a change.
A Change Of Pace
Last night was probably the first in a long time when I was home all evening and didn't so much as remove the laptop from my bag, never mind power up and get online - maybe I'm not an addict after all....
The reason for this unusual behaviour is that I was entertaining a young man!
I had to put it like that just to make out that there was some small excitement in my otherwise dreary and non-existent love life, but in point of fact, it was no such thing. One of the guys from work came over for dinner, and between watching some Buffy he hadn't seen (Once More, With Feeling, so you know what a trial that would have been for me) and just generally catching up, the evening just flew by. If I'd got this thing out and started working or surfing at 1am, I'd have considered it too much a capitulation to the inevitability of insomnia.
The Congestion Charge Project
Right, the minor thing Charles and I had considered doing here has got a little bigger in scope.
Is It Working? is now a site of its own, with something approaching a methodology, and a continuing need for volunteers. Check it out, and see if you think you can do anything to help, or if you can suggest it to someone who might.
Cheers.
Breathless
My asthma's been giving me a lot of grief lately - I've been feeling very unregulated.
So I've been to my GP and had my treatment reviewed, and he's prescribed me a new combination treatment that is delivered not by a mere inhaler, but by....
(hushed silence, drum roll....)
a TURBOHALER!!!
I'm 50% reassured and 50% scared.....
Hobbit Sex
Well that should do wonders for my search engine links....
I just picked up from a Metafilter thread this apparently ongoing debate about whether Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan are more than just good friends. The supposition goes that they've been participating in online gossip about themselves anonymously and are paving the way for a big coming out, (or something - I got a bit confused about the supposed motivations).
Which if they are having a relationship, good for them, and if they're not, also good for them - it's not actually anybody else's business. Though I can understand their reticence if they are, because whose career has that really helped in Hollywood?
Anyway - two points:
1) The campaign to prove they are involved is taken really seriously by its participants, and
2) This Metafilter contribution is one of the funniest things I've read in yonks.
Comic Link
This one might just be for me and Darian, but when has that ever stopped me before?
Which Xavier Institute Faculty Member Are You? (Watch out for pop-ups when you get your result.)
I usually hate these online quizzes, and this one's questions are more obviously directed than most, but just for once.
I'll put my own result in the comments so as not to spoil the lovely flow of this page *snort*
Kevin Spacey at The Old Vic
*Apparently* - double-Oscar winner Spacey is to be announced as the new Artistic Director of the theatre later today. I can't work out why this seems so incongruous to me - I'm sure it's very good news for all concerned, I know he's a well-respected stage actor, and I love The Old Vic myself, but somehow this just seems - odd. Probably just me.
Going Nuclear
You know, I thought I'd misheard the news reader as I scattered round the flat this morning, but no, it turns out I hadn't. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon wants to make it perfectly clear that nuclear weapons may be used against Iraq if they retaliate against a US/UK aggressor force with chemical or biological weapons.
Now I'd be the first to condemn the use of those weapons (which Iraq is not supposed to have anyway), but Nuclear retalliation? The descent into madness appears to be continuing unhindered.
The X-Files
Having been away from it for a few years, I've got back into The X-Files with this run of the final series BBC Two is showing. It's interesting - the quality of production, performances and writing is, I'd say, as good as it's ever been, Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish do good work with the newer characters, and Gillian Anderson remains a very strong presence in it - David Duchovney I don't miss at all.
But there's a qualitative difference in the type of stories I'm seeing in this series. I've missed a few, but almost all that I've seen have had some kind of personal connection to the main characters - old cases revisited, figures from the past, near death experiences. It's all a bit too close to home for my liking, and doesn't quite feel like The X-Files of old.
The Road To Hell
I had so many good intentions for this weekend - catching up on correspondence, other writing, generally starting something like a spring clean of the flat, did I do any of them? Well, yes, I did some, but nothing like all of them. I really need to work on not spending weekends quite so haphazardly. Though I did watch some West Wings to get me in the mood for the new series that's starting next weekend.
Oh My God
I just saw the news about the shuttle explosion. I can't believe it. I remember the Challenger disaster almost as if it was yesterday, not seventeen years. Like many people, I suppose, space has always represented a dream to me, and it's hard to see dreams shattered by harsh realities.
UPDATE - Just saw some of Bush's address to the nation - it's a pity those seven people's eulogy couldn't have been presented by someone capable of expressing sentiment for their loss more effectively.
I'm Surprised....
....that this hasn't been given more coverage. Variety.com (registration required) posted a story this week about Memento and Insomnia director Christopher Nolan being lined up by Warner Brothers to direct a Batman movie. Which could be veeery interesting.
A Year Ago Today
I was in San Francisco. Not just for the day of course - it was the middle of the trip, but I was reflecting on the trip this morning, so I thought I'd mention it.
I love San Francisco - it's a very manageable city - not too big, with fairly distinct neighbourhoods that invite exploration. There's a great deal of stuff to do in the city, but it's also very easy to get out into a very varied range of locales - coast roads, redwood forests, seaside towns and much more.
No particular reason for mentioning it - just in my head at the moment.
