A sense of perspective

This diagram blows my mind not sure about you. To imagine how massive our sun is comapred to us is mind boggling. But to then compare how miniscule the sun is in comparison to it's bigger cousins.

Loving Hugh is Easy Cos Your Beautiful

I really like Hugh Grant. Really like him. I think he is an effortlessly charming man and a wonderful if extremely lazy comedic actor.

This love was pushed to the limit this week when I saw 'Did You Hear About the Morgans ?' Which is a comedy so light if it were put into a balloon it would float away. And even though it is awful it is enlivened by his presence.

I'm really pissed off that having checked Youtube there are basically no decent videos to post. Oh well. Headline is I like Hugh Grant.

Oh yeah

Its a new year, I'm going to post more yadda, yadda, yadda...

Spinning plates

This week The UK, US and French Governments have closed their Embassies in Yemen. This is as a result or possibly response is the better word (knee jerk maybe), to the attempted bombing of an American plane by an extremist it is alleged was recruited and trained there.

Following that the governments are also making noise about something being done to combat extremism and Al-Quaida's influence there.

It just seems to me that we are increasingly being shown that this is a battle we simply cannot win with conventional Western bullying of small nations. It is no surprise that Employment and a hardline, allegedly corrupt government exist in this country. It is easy to see why Al-Quaida choose it is a place to ferment disaffection.

So what can be done ? We are barely holding a peace in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan is becoming more unstable by the week. That's before we get to how fragile the grip on Iraq still is.

I don't know where to start with this. I would have thought it was obvious to anyone that we cannot keep all these plates spinning forever and eventually will have to admit that we cannot run the whole of the Middle East and Central Asia and eventually re-negotiate a way of dealing with that part of the world.

What the fuck that involves I don't know. I don't have answers. I can just see this ain't working.

Gordon is a moron

One after another fuck up from this man who has accidentally become our prime minister. Honestly I am by instinct a Labour supporter but I find it difficult to fathom how a man so inept when it comes to political instincts can have become prime minister.

The fates are against him I agree but he will compound his bad luck of timing with the most extraordinary naivete.

Eureka

This is the reason I love writing. Last week I finished something I had been working on for some time. But for the last few weeks I have been a bit lost knowing that once this script was finished I was bereft of things to write. It wasn't exactly writer's block but frustrating all the same. So I was delighted last night when lying in bed inspiration came. I started writing an outline this morning and all of a sudden things are brighter. I feel happy having the machinations and plots of the characters I am writing about in the back of my head.

That is why I love writing. Having something to look forward to. We all need it.

The Ashes

I have to say I thought we had no hope with The Ashes this year but apparently it is not as straightforward as that. Australia are not the team they were wthout McGrath, Warne and Gilchrist and crucially Stuart Clark appears absent to. Despite that they are still quite a team.

It was heartening yesterday that England did not fold as they tend to do on the first day of most Ashes series. The talk amongst those who know more than I is that they may well give The Australians a series. H.ere's hoping

ermm...

Regarding that last post I think I got caught up in the moment and forgot how transitory the public and media's attention to such things are. I do think she was iconic. But she has been quickly forgotten.

Jade - The Icon

It is difficult to imagine there would ever be a time when Jade Goody could be referred to as iconic without a heavy slice of irony. I can’t help but think that will change over the next few years.

As a big brother fan I can recall the point at which fate changed Jade’s life. She was up against Lynn (an irritating Scottish lady) to be evicted in the first week. The vote rested on PJ (a cunt of the highest order) deciding Lynn should go because she walked in on him while he was taking a dump.

Thus Jade was destined to live out her life, all of it, in front of us. She went from complete ridicule to a fairly stable position on the c list of celebrities. Slightly behind Jordan but way ahead of Jodie Marsh. Then came the next great epoch of her life when she returned to Big Brother.
There have been some silly scandals in recent years. The supreme dumbness of the Ross/Brand scandal has possibly dimmed the supreme hysteria of the CBB race row. Especially as it had little to do with Race and far more to do with class. But ‘class row’ does not have the same ring as ‘race row’.

So Jade was back at rock bottom and she knew it. Before she did her tearful confession to the News of the World, I remember watching her in the house where she said ‘I’ve worked hard to turn things around in the last few years and now I’ve lost it all.’

She wore the sack cloth for the next two years and slowly built up her reputation again. Now comes a genuine tragedy. She is dying. She is unlikely to see her 28th birthday and has two small children. Surely nothing elevates a person to that iconic status as much as dying young.
What is more we are going to see every day of it played out in papers. She is going to marry her scallywag boyfriend for millions in OK magazine and we will see every doctor’s appointment. That is if we don’t have the decency to turn away.

It is so easy to state but none the less true that it makes perfect sense that Jade should die on TV as she has lived almost all her adult life. I like Jade. I am not sure she is somebody that I would like to spend a great deal of time with but she is, I feel a good person.

I think that her importance to this country, culturally, cannot be under estimated. Think of the last twenty years of our country’s life and imagine who is more culturally important than Jade. Once you get past Princess Di and David Beckham I am not sure who else ranks higher.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Heard something interesting on the radio the other day and as I cannot think of anything else to put on here at the moment I will repeat it here. It was a lady talking abut young boys and girls. She said if a boy brings a bat to school and none of his close friends want to play with it he will find someone who will be the game is what is important to him. If a girl brings a doll to school with her and her friends do not want to play with it then she will play a different game because to a girl the relationship with her friend is more important.

Noting terribly profound but I doubt I will hear a more insightful comment this year.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

This is not the classic old film but the shiny new one starring Keanu. It is actually a decent update. I did not like the idea of it being remade that much. But they had a good twist on it by making it about the fact that we are killing the planet for all the other species tha.t live here and that cannot be allowed to continue.

Unfortunately wha it cannot have is the context of the first flm that was released at the time of the Cold War hence far more paranoid time.

What works well about it though is Keanu. In thiskind of role where he is asked to play uber cool he can do it better than anyone. I liked it but not that much

The greatness of The Wire Part II

I think I Love My Wife

Not a personal comment but just a mention of a film I saw. Starring Chris Rock and written and directed by him. I really like Chris Rock. I love Everybody Hates Chris and his stand up.

The film is basically a story about a bored married man who gets tempted to have an affair with an old friend. It's good and has a lot of resonance about the humdrum nature of life.

It also has cameos from two members of The Wire in cameo roles.

Real Moment in History

Two days ago in America a black man became president. I got up at 4 am to watch his opponent graciously concede defeat and then cried as I watched Barrack give his speech. What moved me to tears was not so much him although the speech was incredible. But the fact that a beautiful black family are America's first family. I long for the day when maybe the Martin Luther King quote will become a reality and people will be judged not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character.

There is not a great deal more to say. Not much I can put down here can ad to how moving it was. I liked what Maya Angelou said 'I can hardly talk for weeping. I feel like we have grown up.' I don't know if she means black people in America or America itself. I kinda hope its the latter and that this man can take Americans who did not vote for him along with him.

Not Damaged

I visited my parents today. My dad had to drive us to the train stationas the VW garage are still proving not up to the task of fixing my car. As he drove I had the experience of being transported back to my adolescence as we drove past the house of the lady who gave me extra English tuition. It obviously worked as English Language was the one subject I passed in school.

My inadequacy in Engish was recognised at an early age. I was in special classes titled 'remedial' when I was in primary school. Which sort of sounds medieval judging by how we now seem desperate not to label children. This is not a rant about political correctness. I think the motives of politial correctness are sound.

I just think it is worth pointing out that as a child i know I was in a remedial class because I was not good at English. I didn't feel damaged labelled or marginalised by it. I liked being in a small class where we got to watch videos about Peregrine Falcons and other stuff.

Its adults that worry about this stuff. Not kids, they don't give a shit.

High School Musical 3

Before I begin I have to state that I like the High School Musical films. Especially the first one. They are joyous and uplifting. As somebody said recently in the Guardian they are 'sweet without being sacharin'.

This was the final installment and it didn't really dissappoint. All the elements were there. Good songs and dances, Troy and Gabrielle having to amke difficult choices and Sharpay being an inept villain.

It doesn't have the freshness of the first, or the impact that the second one has when it hits the screen but it is still very good. The truer test of how good it is is that my daughter loved it and cannot wait to go and see it again. She was also singing some of the songs on the way home. Her opinion is more important as she is the target.

The Remains of The Day

I saw the film of this book many years ago. I brought it the other day in a charity shop for a pound. Rarely have I spent a pound more wisely. It is a fantastic book. It would have taken quite something to have put such a fine film in the shade but this manages it and how.

In the film Anthony Hopkins gives a marvellous performance as Stevens. In it we get to imagine Stevens' unrequited love for Miss Kenton. In the book we get so much more. We get to understand more Stevens' feelings for Miss Kenton. And she also reveals her feelings for him and his reaction to this revelation. He is such a beautifully well rounded and wrote figure it is impossible not to fall for him completely.

It is interesting that although the book is very powerful there is nothing in it that is able to convey the emotional impact of the moment in the film where he and Miss Kenton separate at the end with their hands parting as the bus pulls away.

Anyway if you enjoyed the film you will njoy the book ten times more.

The greatness of The Wire

Part one;

Good Eggs

I left my phone on the bus the other day and I have to say I never doubted I would get it back. In much the same way as a few years ago I left my wallet on the bus with my cards and £40 in and that was returned to with the money intact. This does not appear to be how many people I have mentioned it to felt. Most seem to be staggered at my miraculous good fortune.

I don't honestly get this point of view. I am sure everybody who I spoke to would have handed in the phone so why did they think that whoever found my phone would not hand it in ?

I guess it is down to the commonly repeated view that people, these days (always these days) are horrid and willing to rip you off at the drop of a hat. Well I don't buy that. I think most people are basically good and I have seen nothing to make me feel otherwise. So there.

A Word about the Blog Title

It is a tribute to that peerless comedy show Seinfeld. Oh crap I just found out that there is a blog called No Hugs and No learning. But the guy has not poted there for two years and then he only posted twice.

Anyway this was apparently the motto of the show and it sums up perfectly for me why Seinfeld reigns supreme. I is a show that never once nodded its head in the way of sentimentality while never being nasty or unkind.



It is also the reason why Srubs is not as good as it likes to think. It has funny moments but they ruin it every episode with moments like the one below.



In that scenes you can bet we go on to a sentimental montage about how Dr. Cox screwed things up blah, blah, blah. But in Seinfeld, George is a cward and no apology is made.