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Thursday 20 November 2008
Poor Gramsci
Well, the time has come for our poor baby kitten, rapidly working his way towards manhood, to be unmanned. Yes, he's going to be having a small operation this week in order that the horror of territorialism doesn't intrude upon the family home.
I feel horrible having it done - we both do - we don't want him to change, though he inevitably will, even if it's only calming down some.
But needs must. Poor unsuspecting kitten.
Long Weekend?
Was it?
I'm having difficulty working out what we did with it.
I know there was a quick get-together with my mate Liz on Saturday, followed by possibly the best episode yet of new Doctor Who.
I know that Sunday was effectively wasted (though in a very pleasant way) playing World of Warcraft. David's started a new character so I was helping him with a bit of high-level support to get to a higher level more quickly.
And part of Monday was spent very profitably getting the fixings for, and setting up, a window box for David's flat, which being on the first floor is the nearest thing to a garden we'll have for a while.
But somehow, it doesn't feel like I've done seventy two hours worth of stuff in the last seventy two hours....
Big Brother
So I was in the office until late and didn't see anything of the initial programme of Big Brother '05, but I did catch up with the repeat on Saturday. Dear oh dear oh dear.
I won't get into what I think of the individual contestants, but I will make the observation that one of them appears to have Victoria Wood as a script writer. Discussion on Friday night when they're all getting to know each other: On the subject of sexuality, Makosi says that she doesn't think anyone can really call themselves heterosexual unless they've tried the alternative. After all, you can't say you don't like chicken if you've never tried it. To which Leslie(?), channelling Ms Wood, says "That's right. It's like; I've never had mushrooms. I've got a phobia."
That she has a voice just like a Victoria Wood character only makes the effect better.
It's Another World
Just to illustrate the kind of neighbourhood in which I work, as distinct from the one in which I live, and how I will *never* live in the work 'hood:
The little local shops of my usual acquaintance might stock little plastic lunchbox-style snacks like Tuna and Sweetcorn Mayo.
The little plastic lunchbox-style products the shop downstairs from the office stocks, and this is totally serious, are 'Crab Chinoise' and 'Crevettes Provencales'.
Fer fuck's sake.
Out For A Constitutional
The world is full of discussions about constitutions. The Tories are changing theirs, the EU wants to have one (but a lot of people don't want it to), and Egypt have been having a referendum on changing theirs to allow for contested Presidential Elections.
I'm interested, for different reasons, in all of these to one extent or another, so I'm taking it as a comment on the quality of reportage on the subjects that the thing which stood out in it all for me this morning was this:
That a Dutch politician being interviewed on the EU question in English used the word referenda as the plural of referendum. She's absolutely right to do so of course, but all I could take in was that I don't think I know a single native English speaker except myself who would do the same.
Ever Decreasing Circles
I think it's possible that the Today programme has finally become so self-referential that it may never actually be able to extract its head from up its own arse.
In yesterday's programme, the unbearably smug John Humphreys was discussing something with some academic or other and became confused because of the way the man was using tenses. JH asked for clarification, which was fothcoming, and the matter moved on.
This morning, they managed to turn the event into an item all of its own, by getting some other academic on the line to discuss whether JH was right to be confused.
"Today programme in 'thinks it's as important as the new it reports' shock!"
Episode Three
I suppose I should get this out of the way.
We went to see Star Wars Episode Three last night.
So that's 140 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.
What a load of crap. Apart from the special effects, which were absolutely outstanding, I can't remember the last time I felt a trip to the cinema was so wasted. I almost fell asleep at a couple of points, and okay so I was tired, but that shouldn't have happened in a Star Wars film!
What was so bad?
The plot.
The direction.
The characterisation.
The acting (almost to a man and a woman but especially Hayden C).
The unbelievable waste of Natalie Portman.
The plot.
The dialogue ("He's been deceived by a lie!").
The shallow contrivance masquerading as sophisticated political intrigue (again).
"Nooooooooo!!!!!!"
The Malcolm X Thing
I missed the start of all this, when The Guardian published Peter Tatchell's article about reports that Malcolm X was gay (or at least had gay experiences). But I heard some reports that the Nation of Islam were condemning the claims as an attempt to 'undermine the morality' of their organisation. They want to see the claims withdrawn,
Now see, what I want is the Nation of Islam to stop equating gay with immoral, but as I can't see that happening anytime soon, I guess we'll all just have to learn to live with our disappointment.
You Might Want To Sit Down....
..... I agree with Iain Duncan Smith.
His comments in today's Telegraph about the danger of only Tory MPs selecting the new Conservative Party leader are spot on. Based on their current spread, one single Scot and three Welsh people would have a say, and on top of which, no one representing some of the largest cities in the country would be available.
I mean, I'd like to the next Tory leader to be an unelectable muppet as much as the next man, but I'd also like to see all of the people s/he will lead having a say in the selection.
Blogging Aloft IV - Technical Matters
A quick word of apology - since I upgraded to Movable Type 3.16 last week, I''m having a nightmare trying to change some settings, specifically those around comments. Despite having set it repeatedly not to require comments to be moderated, moderated they remain. So if there's a delay in your comments appearing, apologies for that - I'll keep trying to make my changes 'take'.
Blogging Aloft III - Of Crowns and Castles
As it was David's birthday at the weekend, we went off to our favourite retreat up in Suffolk and did what is known in the trade as bugger all for a couple of days. It's a really, really lovely place - great location, big airy rooms, fabulously friendly staff, wonderful food, generally just fab.
We've been there three times now, and never really have a bad word to say about it.
Blogging Aloft II - Playing It Straight
More TV. Did anyone else watch Playing It Straight on Channel 4? Woman shipped off to a Mexican ranch ('El Rancho Macho' - Why did it have to be in Mexico? Fuck knows) with a bunch of single men and has to choose one after eliminating all the rest, but *SHOCK* some of them are gay. Presented by June Sarpong in what must have been the easiest gig of her career to date, the format was curiously compelling. No one, not even the men themselves, knew which (or even how many) of their number were gay, so there was no point at which poor victim Zoë could even rest easy secure in the knowledge that she'd weeded them all out. If she picked a straight bloke at the end they got £50K each, if she picked a poof he walked off with £100k and she got nothing. Each week's eliminations were accompanied by her asking the ritual question "are you straight, or are you gay?", and every time she kicked out a straight man (which she did quite a bit), she was left with this look of horror on her face at having reduced her chances further.
In the end she had three men left and had been told that at least one of them was gay. She made her decision, then saw each of them one at a time. First guy she told she was rejecting and he turned out to be straight "Fuck!" said Zoë.
Second guy she spoke to, she actually picked, but before she was allowed to ask him the big question, she had to have her chat with the third guy.
Third guy was clearly not impressed at being rejected and/or thought to be gay, and played with her by telling her that he was gay before telling her "actually, I'm straight".
Which left her with the man she'd chosen, the one gay man remaining. OOPS.
Cue what was really car crash TV - bitter scenes (let's face it, the guy she's chosen has been lying to her for weeks, so understandable bitterness perhaps), tears, a kind of reconcilation and an agreement to split the money. All of which felt *shockingly* uncomfortable to watch.
I can't imagine it working at all a second time, but just briefly, it managed to catch our imagination and keep us coming back to see what happened next.
Blogging Aloft I - Devil Children
I'm taking advantage of being on planes a lot this week to do a bit of catching up.
Has anyone noticed that the latest trend in TV programmes is things about screaming children and the efforts of star childminders to reform them? There's that SuperNanny one, various one-offs, Little Angels, and the latest and greatest, The House of Tiny Tearaways. This one is a classic - some Superwoman called Dr Tanya operates out of a purpose-built house into which come the families of problem children for observation and advice/treatment. There seems to be a standard model of three families at a time, though people come and go, presumably as their evil monster children are 'cured'. (If I'm a bit vague about the whole process it's because neither David nor I can make sense of the scheduling - sometimes it's on BBC 3, sometimes on BBC 1, sometimes it's an hour long, sometimes 30 minutes.)
These children are in many cases the spawn of Beelzebub - violent, tantrum-prone, with weird food fixations and unwillingnesses to sleep in their own beds, and driving their long-suffering parents and siblings into the ground.
Is it just me, or does it seem that parenting has gone mad in recent years? If I'd have behaved like that when I was a kid I'd have received a sound clip round the head, been left in the corner to scream until I was screamed out, or otherwise punished to the point where I got, very clearly and straightforwardly, that I wasn't going to be allowed to get away with it. I'm pretty sure that the same would have applied to any of my friends. What the hell are these parents doing to allow the situations to get that bad in the first place?
And I should stress that like all children, I obviously had my moments, but I've never seen anything in this league.
Laked
David and I took a long weekend and spent a couple of nights in the Lake District, and a very welcome break it was too. We didn't do a *great* deal - walked in some woods, round a lake, drove round some stunning scenery, ate very nice food in our frankly lovely hotel, and tried to unwind. Which we did a bit. Calls from work were relatively minimal, though sufficient to break the mood completely for a few hours.
I'd love to go back - I haven't spent nearly enough time in the Lakes.
Upgraded
I've finally got round to upgrading Movable Type to version 3.16 from 2.4, and am liking the improvements to the interface and some of the functionality that's come in along the way. Hopefully it'll also work additionally to counter the spam comments that have been slipping through the net.
In the background, by the way, even though a few have made it to the live blog, it's worth noting that most days, several hundred spam comments are being caught and rejected. I hate these people.
Election Watching
Bloody Hell. The BBC exit poll is suggesting the Labour majority will be down to sixty six. That would be astonishing.
And it would provide an opportunity for my favourite maxim to be applied in practice, which is that strong opposition is essential to good government.
I'm even more glued now than I thought I would be.
Big Day
So, here it is then - Election Day, and hasn't it all been gripping? No? What do you mean, 'no'? What about the highly charged head-to-head party leaders debate? Or the highly controversial new policy initiatives which clearly differentiate the parties? And don't forget the last minute change in the projected outcome caused by a dramatic re-engagement with the disappointed electorate.
What? You missed all that?
Yeah. Me too.
Ho hum, ho hum, it's off to vote I go.....
Doctor Who - Still Going Strong
I haven't discussed the last few weeks' worth of Doctor Who, but don't for a second think that means I haven't been paying close attention. The quality of the stories has been a little variable, but broadly-speaking better than much of what went before them. The fact that in ratings terms it's trashing everything put up against it and is consistently the most-watched non-soap on British TV is nothing short of a miracle as far as I'm concerned.
Saturday's episode, the much-publicised Dalek was very well realised - good mixing of CG effects and real world until right at the end and a dodgy shot crept in; interesting script that added some layers to the new Doctor and his backstory; yet another great performance from Billie Piper, and the addition of a new companion, who is being handled differently than any previous model, and in a way that I approve of wholeheartedly. (See this coming Saturday's episode for what I mean.)
And as that was episode six, there's more than we've already had still to come, plus a Christmas special, plus another series. I'm remaining happy.
The Cosmopolitan Life
As discussed on previous occasions, I'm doing a lot of travelling at the moment, and there's Dublin, Stockholm, New York and San Francisco on the agenda within the next two to three weeks. But all of those destinations pale beside the glamour and glitz of my bank holiday Sunday.
We've been to the Isle of Wight.
It was a very, very last minute decision (like, 10am Sunday morning we went online and booked ourselves on the 1.30pm crossing). Nightmare traffic on the way down hardly got us into a restful state of mind, but once we were there it was brilliant - I can't believe I've never been before, but we'll definitely be going again. We went to an on-the-surface-of-it cheesy zoo (Amazon World - *very* well done, and far more extensive than you realise it's going to be), drove out to the west coast to look at The Needles and to scramble around on rocks, and then drove back across country ("Look! Rabbits! Hundreds of the buggers.") to Ventnor for a pub dinner and then back on the 11pm ferry. Long day, with a very late finish (home at nearly 2am), but entirely worth it. Made it feel like a proper long weekend, having gone away.
(We've got the next two weekends away too, by the way, but that's beside the point.)