I was reflecting on one of the many butterfly effect moments today of my life today. I am on a course at the moment with other social workers and as usual we were whining. We discussed reorganisations and I remembered that in one of these reorganisations I was one of two workers in the borough given my third choice of team to go to. And thanks heavens I was.
Due to that I met my very good friends Lorraine Thompson, Emily Rouse, Becky Thompson, The boy Dave etc. But most importantly I met Angela Fletcher. I say this not to denigrate my colleagues mentioned previously. But Angela introduced me to Phoenix Theatre Company.
Without Angela I would not know the redoubtable Michael, Emma and Sean, the elfish sprites Hannah and Jodie and the truly, truly unique Jessica Hackett (if you've never met her your life thus far has been but a rehearsal). I would probably never have wrote Sleeping Beauty as I would have had no-one to write it for.
And the thing is I would not have really felt the poorer because I would never have known. I would have walked past them in the street having no idea that I was missing out on some of the best people in the world. I don't grieve now for the people I never met or the paths my life would have taken if I had been sent to West Bromwich as I had asked. How can I ?
It makes my head ache a little thinking about all this. In the time I have wrote this I have thought about other such butterfly moments that came and went without me realising it.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Monday, 14 February 2011
Books
Quick round up of books I have read recently.
Songbird
I think Sebastien Faulks is close to be my favourite author ever. In a quick space of time I have read three of his books and they have all been brilliant. Songbird is supposedly his masterpiece. I liked it a lot. The story was cleverly constructed jumping forwards and backwards in time; between the pre war idyll, the hell of the war and the nearer present day where the suffering of the trenches has already become ancient history.
The relentless day to day horrific reality is brought home perfectly. However much you read it it is still completely unimaginable the horror of knowing the certain death that awaited you on the blow of a whistle. It also beautifully tells us the story of what witnessing such carnage does to a man.
I was particularly moved by the scene where one of the soldiers returns to England and is staggered to find how normal life is there. How he wishes for bombs to come and kill them all. Having said all this as much as I enjoyed it I like Engleby more.
The News Where You Are
This is the second book by Catherine O'Flynn. Her first book was What was Lost which I truly enjoyed, a good story with great internal dialogue from people out shopping at a shopping centre. It had a good storyline and kept me guessing all the way.
The News Where You Are is a less surprising in terms of the fact I worked out where it was going fairly early. However the journey was superb. Once again she has populated the story with interesting, instantly likeable characters. It is also a book about decay and death which appeal to a maudlin fucker like me.
The final thing I love about the book is the fact it is set in Birmingham ! So few books/films/tv shows are its a delight to find one that is. And she clearly loves and 'gets' Birmingham in a way only Brummies can.
Notes on a Scandal
Loved the film and on a lot of reflection I decide that I like the film slightly more. The Cate Blanchett character is less worldly in the novel and she fails to break free of Barbara's clutches in the book, becoming dependent on her in the end. The ending fits the books characters perfectly.
Ultimately the film wins out in my affection simply for the performance of Judi Dench. What an actress that woman is.
The Invisible Man
A great classic book and well worth the read. I love the writing of this era with HG Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Lost World I also read recently. They are well worth the investment in time.
Songbird
I think Sebastien Faulks is close to be my favourite author ever. In a quick space of time I have read three of his books and they have all been brilliant. Songbird is supposedly his masterpiece. I liked it a lot. The story was cleverly constructed jumping forwards and backwards in time; between the pre war idyll, the hell of the war and the nearer present day where the suffering of the trenches has already become ancient history.
The relentless day to day horrific reality is brought home perfectly. However much you read it it is still completely unimaginable the horror of knowing the certain death that awaited you on the blow of a whistle. It also beautifully tells us the story of what witnessing such carnage does to a man.
I was particularly moved by the scene where one of the soldiers returns to England and is staggered to find how normal life is there. How he wishes for bombs to come and kill them all. Having said all this as much as I enjoyed it I like Engleby more.
The News Where You Are
This is the second book by Catherine O'Flynn. Her first book was What was Lost which I truly enjoyed, a good story with great internal dialogue from people out shopping at a shopping centre. It had a good storyline and kept me guessing all the way.
The News Where You Are is a less surprising in terms of the fact I worked out where it was going fairly early. However the journey was superb. Once again she has populated the story with interesting, instantly likeable characters. It is also a book about decay and death which appeal to a maudlin fucker like me.
The final thing I love about the book is the fact it is set in Birmingham ! So few books/films/tv shows are its a delight to find one that is. And she clearly loves and 'gets' Birmingham in a way only Brummies can.
Notes on a Scandal
Loved the film and on a lot of reflection I decide that I like the film slightly more. The Cate Blanchett character is less worldly in the novel and she fails to break free of Barbara's clutches in the book, becoming dependent on her in the end. The ending fits the books characters perfectly.
Ultimately the film wins out in my affection simply for the performance of Judi Dench. What an actress that woman is.
The Invisible Man
A great classic book and well worth the read. I love the writing of this era with HG Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Lost World I also read recently. They are well worth the investment in time.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Why Channel 4 is the new Daily Mail
Stephen Fry wrote in one of his newspaper columns years ago that the Daily mail was the very worse of the papers. Because while the Sun may be more offensive at times at least it was honest about what it was. A tabloid; where as the Mail left room to pretend it was a serious paper. It seems to me that the same thing has happened with Channel 4. They have become a channel for barely disguised freak shows. Five do this also but at least they know they are trash.
I wrote previously here about my deep and abiding love for Big Brother. So I am not somebody queueing up to slag them off on that score. The programme that has provoked my ire is Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
The producers of the show would have you believe that this is a show whose aim is to promote a better understanding of the Traveller community. That's a phrase you hear a lot on the programme, 'The Travelling Community' as though they are one homogeneous bunch who all strictly adhere to the same norms and behaviours. Bollocks. I'm part of the English community but I have my own views on things. I imagine Travellers are exactly the same.
What the show really does promote is the chance for us to voyeurs on the lives of the people. You can almost hear the producers giggling in the background in evident delight at the next curious , you our eyes, thing that one of the participants does. They should drop the pretence and get Dave Lamb (to those who don't know the acerbic commentator of Come Dine With Me) to narrate it.
And the poor taste does not end there for Channel 4. There is the show about the exploration of modern myths about self image. This is another shitfest involving putting shallow, fame hungry young women with people with facial disfigurements. Again this is presented as some kind of hard hitting exploration of the vacuousness of our society and its obsession with beauty. When what it really is is a chance to watch pretty girls feel uncomfortable around people with facial disfigurements. I just hope they drop the final pretence and in the last scene have the people who are disfigured stand around the pretty girl chanting 'one of us, one of us, one of us...'
I wrote previously here about my deep and abiding love for Big Brother. So I am not somebody queueing up to slag them off on that score. The programme that has provoked my ire is Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
The producers of the show would have you believe that this is a show whose aim is to promote a better understanding of the Traveller community. That's a phrase you hear a lot on the programme, 'The Travelling Community' as though they are one homogeneous bunch who all strictly adhere to the same norms and behaviours. Bollocks. I'm part of the English community but I have my own views on things. I imagine Travellers are exactly the same.
What the show really does promote is the chance for us to voyeurs on the lives of the people. You can almost hear the producers giggling in the background in evident delight at the next curious , you our eyes, thing that one of the participants does. They should drop the pretence and get Dave Lamb (to those who don't know the acerbic commentator of Come Dine With Me) to narrate it.
And the poor taste does not end there for Channel 4. There is the show about the exploration of modern myths about self image. This is another shitfest involving putting shallow, fame hungry young women with people with facial disfigurements. Again this is presented as some kind of hard hitting exploration of the vacuousness of our society and its obsession with beauty. When what it really is is a chance to watch pretty girls feel uncomfortable around people with facial disfigurements. I just hope they drop the final pretence and in the last scene have the people who are disfigured stand around the pretty girl chanting 'one of us, one of us, one of us...'
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Science
I have been thinking a great deal about Science of late. I got an audio book from the Library recently called 'Why e=mc2 (and why we should care)' by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. It's a wonderful book. Unfortunately though I only truly enjoyed the first two and a half of the six discs. I understood, for the first time, concepts like there being no such thing as absolute motion and what the speed of light being constant really means. These are by no means minor achievements for me.
But eventually we moved on to space time and though I could understand some of the concepts I couldn't pretend that I really understood it in the way that I did in the previous chapters. I think I may have to accept that I have reached my limit of understanding of this subject.
This is not something that depresses me really. I have enjoyed the journey to get to the point where I understand a lot more of the universe than I did. The wonderful thing about science is that it opens your eyes to the world you live in. It may sound odd but at times when I feel low I look around and remind myself that everything I see and cannot see is made of atoms. The air, the trees, my fingernails, the bus and for reasons I can't truly fathom this remarkable fact seems to cheer me up. Just how wonderful the world is I guess. Science opens that knowledge up to me in a way I think few other things can.
So what if I don't understand space time. Science is hard but worth the journey. I love the quote from Niels Bohr which goes 'that a person who wasn't outraged on first hearing about quantum theory didn't understand what had been said to them.' Its nice to know that Science has the power to confuse bewilder and inspire even Nobel Prize winners.
Anyway enough science. I have final rehearsals for a panto tonight and need to apply some Newtonian laws to some custard pies into the faces of my fellow actors.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Black Swan
When I first started writing this blog I had decided I would write pieces about all the films I saw. But I thought fuck that. An earlier entry was about a run of the mill Chris Rock film. So I decided to focus on films that genuinely moved me.
The Black Swan certainly falls in that category. The story itself is fairly formulaic. It is of an obsessive dancer trying to achieve perfection and slowly being driven mad in the process. Nut that is all I would say was clichéd about it. The camera work was a little annoying at first but I quickly got used to it and the grainy film quality enhanced it perfectly.
It has a great supporting cast with Vincent Cassel as the sleazy but brilliant director and Barbara Hershey as the stifling mom. But overall this is undoubtedly Portman's film. As I sit here and think about it there were no scenes where she was absent. Quite honestly she is fantastic. She displays her characters subtle descent into madness brilliantly without resorting to ticks and tricks often employed. You can see her genuine confusion about whether she is becoming mad and it is gripping.
It is simply a wonderful film and if you miss it you are missing out.
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Dinosaurs
The press have been getting themselves into overdrive this week again and have managed to royally fuck it up again. Even when they get outraged for the right reasons they still end up making things worse.
I am referring to the situation with Richard Keys and Andy Gray. Last weekend they were caught on mic making some very sexist remarks about women and in particular their role in football. Quite frankly they made the pair of them look like complete fucking idiots, buffoons even.
They then compounded things by taking too long to apologise. The press smelt blood and when The Sun joined in the attack they must have known they were done for as no Murdoch paper is going to break ranks and attack another part of that empire without getting the green light first.
This is a classic example of the press running away with themselves in their own merry way. Not bothering to think about the consequences just wanting to get their man.
The outrage they were so busy trying to whip up was supposedly to do with offence they caused women. What bollocks. As if the Sun or the Daily Mail ever gave a shit about that particular cause. The Sun will still continue to sexualise young women on a daily basis as will the Mail with its mock outrage about Christina Aguilera’s X-Factor appearance while publishing all the titillating photos.
And what of Keys and Gray ? Many will say sod them but I can’t help but have a degree of sympathy for them. They were idiots but was the degree of outrage directed at them justified ? Of course not. They were expressing views that too many men in this country feel are perfectly ok. I find this pretty reprehensible but I hardly think that placing these two on the sacrificial alter is going to help address any of those issues.
They spent the first half of the week looking like fools, then moral pariahs and where are they now. I suspect the role they fulfil now is that of martyrs to the cause of PC gone mad. And it’s a role that the Daily Mail will have absolutely no problem unblushingly exploiting the next time they want to write a hateful piece about uppity women demanding to be treated fairly.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Lesson not Learnt
So Ireland is screwed. Greece is already screwed and next on the list is one of Portugal, Spain or Italy. I'm not entirely sure that we're totally out of the woods either. What I find difficult to understand, amongst many things in this business, is how when we know why this is happening we aren't stopping it.
Greedy people are destabilising countries on purpose to...well I'm not sure why they are doing it beyond the fact they make money from it. And we (ordinary non bastard type people) seem to sit back and wait while they do it and then pour more money into the huge black hole they create. So why aren't every one of these people in jail ? They should be shouldn't they. They are ruining millions of people's lives and we just stand back shrug our shoulders and say that's the market for you. Well fuck that. In the words of Howard Beale It's time to get mad God damn it !
Why can't we let the banks fail. Seriously why can't we. What's the worse that can happen. The argument that is peddled out is 'that would ruin our whole financial system.' quite honestly it looks pretty fucked from here anyway. We've allowed a situation to occur where the majority are held to ransom by a tiny few who make fortunes.
I don't see where this will all end. With blood on the streets is my guess. The speculators will not stop and I can't see how the rest of Europe will stand back while another country is driven to the wall and ordinary people are expected to pick up the tab again.
Sunday, 14 November 2010
The Letter
This is the letter I wrote
Every time I read the letters page of your newspaper there is a letter from someone decrying modern life. Well there is a lot to be said for the modern world. We live in a world where most infectious diseases have been wiped out, certainly in Western countries. There used to be fears of too many people congregating for fear of Polio, not any more. We also live in world where people are not left to starve. Of course there are people who abuse the benefits system but that is the price we pay for having a safety net in case ill fortune befalls us.
We live in a world of unparalleled technology. I can carry my entire record collection in an iPod the size of a wallet. I can communicate with anybody in the world from my living room, or on the bus or anywhere. And although we can bemoan the lack of community there is now there are plenty of online communities for people to enjoy. We dismiss this sense of a virtual community at our peril. A close friend made online is still a close friend.
I am not about to dismiss the idea that we have lost a sense of community. We probably have. But this is not through choice. Society has become more mobile and people have had to move around to find work. The same families don’t live on the same street forever anymore. I was 6 in 1977 and I remember with golden fondness the street party we had that day.
That was the last hurrah for that. I had no wish to become political but the fact is two years later Thatcher came to power and brought her there is no such thing as society philosophy with her. Maybe that sense of togetherness would have gone anyway. She certainly accelerated it.
But there is no point in looking back. There are examples everywhere if you seek them of people working together to make life more colourful. I am a member of an Amateur Theatre company, one of many in this area alone. My daughter goes to Rainbows and I see there the work of the guide and scouting movement. There are countless other examples of good young people and their parents trying to make a better tomorrow. By all means let’s look with fondness on our pasts. But let’s do it without decrying the world we live in now.
Every time I read the letters page of your newspaper there is a letter from someone decrying modern life. Well there is a lot to be said for the modern world. We live in a world where most infectious diseases have been wiped out, certainly in Western countries. There used to be fears of too many people congregating for fear of Polio, not any more. We also live in world where people are not left to starve. Of course there are people who abuse the benefits system but that is the price we pay for having a safety net in case ill fortune befalls us.
We live in a world of unparalleled technology. I can carry my entire record collection in an iPod the size of a wallet. I can communicate with anybody in the world from my living room, or on the bus or anywhere. And although we can bemoan the lack of community there is now there are plenty of online communities for people to enjoy. We dismiss this sense of a virtual community at our peril. A close friend made online is still a close friend.
I am not about to dismiss the idea that we have lost a sense of community. We probably have. But this is not through choice. Society has become more mobile and people have had to move around to find work. The same families don’t live on the same street forever anymore. I was 6 in 1977 and I remember with golden fondness the street party we had that day.
That was the last hurrah for that. I had no wish to become political but the fact is two years later Thatcher came to power and brought her there is no such thing as society philosophy with her. Maybe that sense of togetherness would have gone anyway. She certainly accelerated it.
But there is no point in looking back. There are examples everywhere if you seek them of people working together to make life more colourful. I am a member of an Amateur Theatre company, one of many in this area alone. My daughter goes to Rainbows and I see there the work of the guide and scouting movement. There are countless other examples of good young people and their parents trying to make a better tomorrow. By all means let’s look with fondness on our pasts. But let’s do it without decrying the world we live in now.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
The Last Hurrah
I have had a letter published in the Halesowen News. I am currently in Halesowen Library so have no access to it but I will put it on here later. What I wanted to talk about here was a part in in where I refer to the Silver Jubilee of 1977.
I was 6 in 1977 and obviously had no idea of what really was going on in the world. I had no idea there was a band called the Sex Pistols or that they had released God Save the Queen. What I do remember very fondly from that time was the street party we had. I lived in a cluster of three streets and ours was the central one. The street was closed for the day and everybody, and I am sure I am hardly exaggerating when I say that, came out and joined in. My brothers and I went to the party as an RNLI crew and my older brother as The Man with no Name (Clint Eastwood).
In the morning and afternoon there were loads of kids games and we all sat down together and eat. And then all the adults got drunk and danced on the evening. And I stayed up till 11 o'clock. It truly was a golden day. And I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that just thinking about it makes me a bit wobbly and brings tears to my eyes.
Its very easy to get sentimental about the past. The 70's were not a perfect decade by any means. But it does seem to me that it was the last days of what we, certainly the white working class, could call community. Its easy to blame Thatcher for this. She certainly went out of her way to destroy any sense of community that did exist by selling off council homes and destroying our industrial base. But I guess these things may have come to pass anyway. I'll never forgive her the callous way in which she did it and will be lighting a cigar the day the old bitch finally croaks it. Not an admirable thought or one that does me credit but its the way I feel.
What we have lost is that sense of community that we had that day. As I said in the letter communities are out there. Look at the Guide and Scouting movement, football clubs or any of the other community activities that are out there. But that sense of everybody dropping things and coming together to spontaneously to just celebrate has been lost.
Unless we win the World Cup of course..(hysterical laughter).
I was 6 in 1977 and obviously had no idea of what really was going on in the world. I had no idea there was a band called the Sex Pistols or that they had released God Save the Queen. What I do remember very fondly from that time was the street party we had. I lived in a cluster of three streets and ours was the central one. The street was closed for the day and everybody, and I am sure I am hardly exaggerating when I say that, came out and joined in. My brothers and I went to the party as an RNLI crew and my older brother as The Man with no Name (Clint Eastwood).
In the morning and afternoon there were loads of kids games and we all sat down together and eat. And then all the adults got drunk and danced on the evening. And I stayed up till 11 o'clock. It truly was a golden day. And I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that just thinking about it makes me a bit wobbly and brings tears to my eyes.
Its very easy to get sentimental about the past. The 70's were not a perfect decade by any means. But it does seem to me that it was the last days of what we, certainly the white working class, could call community. Its easy to blame Thatcher for this. She certainly went out of her way to destroy any sense of community that did exist by selling off council homes and destroying our industrial base. But I guess these things may have come to pass anyway. I'll never forgive her the callous way in which she did it and will be lighting a cigar the day the old bitch finally croaks it. Not an admirable thought or one that does me credit but its the way I feel.
What we have lost is that sense of community that we had that day. As I said in the letter communities are out there. Look at the Guide and Scouting movement, football clubs or any of the other community activities that are out there. But that sense of everybody dropping things and coming together to spontaneously to just celebrate has been lost.
Unless we win the World Cup of course..(hysterical laughter).
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Bye Bye Big Brother
Well Big Brother has come to an end and I know in a few weeks I will have forgotten all about it. But at the moment it is pretty raw. People who don’t watch the show will be raising their eyebrows. Those who love the show will understand. So I thought I would do my retrospective now.
Favourite Housemate
No competition here. It was the Slickman Victor. I loved him before Ultimate Big Brother and I was glad that they put him in as recognition of the devotion he has amongst BB fanatics. I loved him because he was the first person who really was up front about it being a game and saying he was here to ‘take these suckers out.’
A word for the Ultimate BB winner Brian. I like the guy. He is funny and charming and really impossible to dislike. His only flaw for me was he made the shows he was in too predictable. Because nobody stood a chance against him. That’s not his fault but as a viewer I found it more difficult to enjoy series when we knew who would win a week in. I found it difficult to enjoy Pete (BB7) for exactly the same reason.
Honourable mentions go to Alex (BB3), The Tickle (BB4), Kitten (BB5), Makosi (BB6), Aisleyne & Glyn (BB7), Rex (BB9), Freddy, Marcus, Noirin (BB10) and Ben (BB11)
Favourite Series
I liked all the series but for my favourite the list begins and ends with one series. It has to be BB5. It was the one that saved the programme after the sedate (not boring) BB4. It had three of the true heavyweight housemates in Nadia, Victor and Michelle. And it had Kitten, Ahmed, Marco and Emma besides. This was when the BB producers really began to get the idea of how to manipulate the housemates more cannily. Whenever they began to get along they threw something else in to stir them up. My only beef with it was that it became clear fairly quickly that Nadia was going to win.
I also loved BB10. It had a great set of storylines that ran through it. Mainly around two housemates. Freddy and Noirin. Everyone fell out with Freddy, everybody fell in love with Noirin. The Freddy storyline encapsulated one of my favourite BB trends. Where somebody is disliked by the cool crowd; they put him up week after week and then he picks them off as the cool kids realise he is popular. The tension was sustained throughout the series and it was really only in the last week where it was obvious that Sophie was going to win.
I have a great affection for BB1 and liked the fact that BB6 was really the only time I genuinely did not know who was going to win it when Davina called out the winners name.
Worse Housemate
There were lots of housemates I really disliked at times but it must be said in almost all these cases that ended the second they left the house. The reason I disliked them was mainly because they were opposed to housemates I liked.
The housemate I truly loathed was Siavash. He showed some promise but about 7 weeks in he turned into a complete prick. Refusing to nominate and making out he was some kind of fucking martyr for doing so. I have never been able to tolerate housemates who complain they hate nominating. That is why they are there. For crying out loud, and Siavash was the worse culprit ever at this.
Honourable mentions: Bea (BB10), Dale, Jennifer, Becca (BB9), Lea, Sezar, Mikey (BB7), Maxwell, Saskia (BB6), Emma (BB5), Jonny, PJ (BB3) Stuart and Elizabeth (BB2) and Darren (for changing his noms when Mel overheard them) (BB1)
Forces of Nature
Many housemates tell us all the stuff they are going to do on their VTs then disappear without trace when they get in the house (see Bubble BB2, Bonnie BB7 or Jo ‘the cougar’ BB11). Then there are the wildcards. People who genuinely are a little unusual/unhinged.
The undisputed King of this genre was Nikki (BB7). I can remember watching her and thinking this is an act. But as the show continued it became clear it wasn’t. She is actually like that. Then we had Makosi (BB6). A woman so conniving that she was prepared to suggest she did not realise a man had his fingers and not his penis inside her. We also had Science (BB6) the proverbial man who could start an argument with a mirror. Marcus (BB10) a man of such breathtaking self confidence/delusion he probably believes he could shit gold if he wanted to.
Romance
I don’t care that they split up there has only been one romance in the BB house and that was the first. Helen and Paul. Nuff said.
Davina
There were times I wished I had a volume control but I always forgived her because I knew she was a fan.
Beefs
My final part is just a chance for me to offload about some of the things that have aggravated me about Big Brother over the years.
Nadia and the fags - I realise that they had to give her the fags to stop her walking and Nadia was the star attraction that year, but as a purist it skewed the competition and I thought it was unfair on other housemates who were missing things as well.
BB7 and evicted housemates - It shouldn't have happened simple as that. They were voted out. Your fault you put somebody unbeatable like Pete in. Spice it up some other way.
BB11 and the final few days - What were the producers thinking have a vote to evict after giving Josie a pass to the final. If Sam and Corin had stayed we would have had an actual fight for the winner not a procession.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Books
I thought I should take five minutes and write about the books I have been reading recently. What I have enjoyed and...well I was going to say what I haven't. But the truth is I am really sort of past the days when I plow onto the bitter end of a book I am not enjoying any longer.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale
I am going to immediately break the rule I just set myself immediately. I didn't really enjoy this book. It came with some really good recommendations from people who I respect. But I just felt it never really got going. It involves the horrible murder of a toddler and looks at the work of the new breed of detectives and the social mileu in which they operated.
It was one of those books which made me feel a little bit of an intellectual weakling. Because there was clearly something in it which I was missing. I just wanted to know who killed the kid and if the author could shove a good twist in there all the better. It just left me unsatisfied.
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McAll Smith
This is the fourth ofr fifth book in Alexander McAll Smith's book about the residents and former residents of 44 Scotland Street. These books are enjoyable and undemanding. I mean that entirely as a compliment. I was rather pleased that in this book he has dropped Pat, who I thought the dullest of the characters and that the narcissist Bruce is finally havig some personal growth as a human and is becoming likeable. Even if it means I now have to miss the most enjoyble chapters on him being delusional about his place in the world.
My only gripe is that with each book Mr. Smith is complaining a bot more about the thuggery of basic day to day life. the courseness and how people are with one another. I think there is truth to what he says. I could just do without being reminded of it every fifth chapter. But I think with all the pleasure he has given me with the residents of Scotland Street, Mma Ramotswe and Isabel Dalhouse he has earned the right to his gripes.
Meltdown - Ben Elton
Now this was a book I really enjoyed. I used to love Ben Elton. I got his first book autographed at Hudsons in Birmingham. However since then there was a parting of the ways as I realised that his first books were not that well written. then there were the musicals and I rather began to dislike him.
However throughout this time my mom continued to buy his books for me at birthdays. I did little with them. Then while at a loose end for a book to read I read High Society and really enjoyed it. Then I slowly went through his back catalogue and realised how much better he had become at writing. He had ditched the long extensions of his stand up routine and concentarted more on telling a story. And he is quite the storyteller.
Meltdown is the story of a group of peopl who caught the wave of money that appeared from nowhere, and went back there eventually. They are by and large a pretty dislikeable bunch. And there is a certain ammount of schadenfreude when it all goes tits up in the collapse. Except that is for the main character Jimmy who is clearly a man who knows he has been very lucky and excepts his downfall with humility. Its a very prescient book which captures the jolt to that generation of go-getters perfectly. But most of all it is a rollicking good story.
Engleby - Sebastien Faulks
I loved this book. Its about a psychopath and how he is made by his experiences. It chronicles his life in first person narration. How he is plucked from Comprehensive school and shoved into a private school where he is systematically bullied for several years until it is his turn to become the bully in his final year. I won't state what he goes on to do.
What is fantastic about the book is in the final chapters (once he is caught) and we get to hear him talk about his crimes. It perfectly captures the mind of a psychopath. Or at least it captures what I imagine to be the lack of empathy and narcissism that you would find in such a person. Anyway it is just brilliant.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale
I am going to immediately break the rule I just set myself immediately. I didn't really enjoy this book. It came with some really good recommendations from people who I respect. But I just felt it never really got going. It involves the horrible murder of a toddler and looks at the work of the new breed of detectives and the social mileu in which they operated.
It was one of those books which made me feel a little bit of an intellectual weakling. Because there was clearly something in it which I was missing. I just wanted to know who killed the kid and if the author could shove a good twist in there all the better. It just left me unsatisfied.
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McAll Smith
This is the fourth ofr fifth book in Alexander McAll Smith's book about the residents and former residents of 44 Scotland Street. These books are enjoyable and undemanding. I mean that entirely as a compliment. I was rather pleased that in this book he has dropped Pat, who I thought the dullest of the characters and that the narcissist Bruce is finally havig some personal growth as a human and is becoming likeable. Even if it means I now have to miss the most enjoyble chapters on him being delusional about his place in the world.
My only gripe is that with each book Mr. Smith is complaining a bot more about the thuggery of basic day to day life. the courseness and how people are with one another. I think there is truth to what he says. I could just do without being reminded of it every fifth chapter. But I think with all the pleasure he has given me with the residents of Scotland Street, Mma Ramotswe and Isabel Dalhouse he has earned the right to his gripes.
Meltdown - Ben Elton
Now this was a book I really enjoyed. I used to love Ben Elton. I got his first book autographed at Hudsons in Birmingham. However since then there was a parting of the ways as I realised that his first books were not that well written. then there were the musicals and I rather began to dislike him.
However throughout this time my mom continued to buy his books for me at birthdays. I did little with them. Then while at a loose end for a book to read I read High Society and really enjoyed it. Then I slowly went through his back catalogue and realised how much better he had become at writing. He had ditched the long extensions of his stand up routine and concentarted more on telling a story. And he is quite the storyteller.
Meltdown is the story of a group of peopl who caught the wave of money that appeared from nowhere, and went back there eventually. They are by and large a pretty dislikeable bunch. And there is a certain ammount of schadenfreude when it all goes tits up in the collapse. Except that is for the main character Jimmy who is clearly a man who knows he has been very lucky and excepts his downfall with humility. Its a very prescient book which captures the jolt to that generation of go-getters perfectly. But most of all it is a rollicking good story.
Engleby - Sebastien Faulks
I loved this book. Its about a psychopath and how he is made by his experiences. It chronicles his life in first person narration. How he is plucked from Comprehensive school and shoved into a private school where he is systematically bullied for several years until it is his turn to become the bully in his final year. I won't state what he goes on to do.
What is fantastic about the book is in the final chapters (once he is caught) and we get to hear him talk about his crimes. It perfectly captures the mind of a psychopath. Or at least it captures what I imagine to be the lack of empathy and narcissism that you would find in such a person. Anyway it is just brilliant.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Benefit Cheats
I couldn't think of anything to write yesterday and then helpfully Mr. Cameron pops up and gives me something to put pen to paper for. The issue of cracking down on benefit cheats.
Now I am going to be charitable and say maybe the conservative Government have come up with something that will work. However history suggests that it will not. What all these crackdowns do is put off and catch the people in the middle. Not those who do not claim, not those who really are cheats. It catches the people who have genuine needs but are not as brazen as the actual cheats.
Its all very well stating the case firmly that people should work. We all know that. But the truth is in my job I have been to families where we are now in the third generation of people who have never worked. Not only does nobody in their family work but nobody else they know does. How do you start in a situation like that ? I don't know.
My suspicion is that what we actually do is pay these families just enough to live on so they will not cause too much of a nuisance to the rest of us. Pay them too little and the crime rate goes up and social workers and other people can't deal with the people they really need to help because they are too busy with the chaos they cause.
The benefits system was meant as a safety net and to a certain extent it still does that job but for some it has become a cultural lifestyle they are unwilling or unable to escape. A depressing post but there you are. We have an agreement and it more or less works, even if it doesn't. Take your money and stop bothering us.
Now I am going to be charitable and say maybe the conservative Government have come up with something that will work. However history suggests that it will not. What all these crackdowns do is put off and catch the people in the middle. Not those who do not claim, not those who really are cheats. It catches the people who have genuine needs but are not as brazen as the actual cheats.
Its all very well stating the case firmly that people should work. We all know that. But the truth is in my job I have been to families where we are now in the third generation of people who have never worked. Not only does nobody in their family work but nobody else they know does. How do you start in a situation like that ? I don't know.
My suspicion is that what we actually do is pay these families just enough to live on so they will not cause too much of a nuisance to the rest of us. Pay them too little and the crime rate goes up and social workers and other people can't deal with the people they really need to help because they are too busy with the chaos they cause.
The benefits system was meant as a safety net and to a certain extent it still does that job but for some it has become a cultural lifestyle they are unwilling or unable to escape. A depressing post but there you are. We have an agreement and it more or less works, even if it doesn't. Take your money and stop bothering us.
Monday, 9 August 2010
Nowt
I genuinely have nothing to say this week other than I saw Inception and The A-Team which was a fun film and I have a bit of gum ache.
There is something pretty major going on in my life but I cannot talk about it at the moment so I will spill in due course.
There is something pretty major going on in my life but I cannot talk about it at the moment so I will spill in due course.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Toy Story 3
Since my daughter came along I have seen some real stinker movies. Space Chimps 2 stands out as does Underdog which I managed to dislike even when it had Patrick 'Puddy' Warburton in it. Then there are Pixar films and then there are Toy Story films.
I loved the first two but this one takes me into a whole new level of the stratosphere in admiration. It is so perfectly pitched it seriously makes me want to cry. Not because it is sad or touching. It is definitely touching. There is a scene where all the characters hold hads which...I genuinely think is about as perfect as cinema can get. And I include the heavyweights in that like John Wayne walking out the shack at the end of The Searchers or Michael Corleone discovering Fredo's betrayal in that assertion.
There's little else to say. Just if you haven't seen it, what in all of holy hell are you waiting for. Go now. Seriously look up the times and go. NOW !!!
I loved the first two but this one takes me into a whole new level of the stratosphere in admiration. It is so perfectly pitched it seriously makes me want to cry. Not because it is sad or touching. It is definitely touching. There is a scene where all the characters hold hads which...I genuinely think is about as perfect as cinema can get. And I include the heavyweights in that like John Wayne walking out the shack at the end of The Searchers or Michael Corleone discovering Fredo's betrayal in that assertion.
There's little else to say. Just if you haven't seen it, what in all of holy hell are you waiting for. Go now. Seriously look up the times and go. NOW !!!
Moving Day
The reason these posts are late is that i have moved house. Its a bloody slog and I hate it. but it is nice to be in a new house with all that entails, fresh beginnings etc.
We are currently shifting the last set of boxes from our old garage whicgh are no doubt destined to rest in this garage for the next four or five years till we move again. Garage refugees, the clutter equivalent of the Littlest Hobo. Talking of which...
Any excuse
We are currently shifting the last set of boxes from our old garage whicgh are no doubt destined to rest in this garage for the next four or five years till we move again. Garage refugees, the clutter equivalent of the Littlest Hobo. Talking of which...
Any excuse
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Stoopid People
Part of the government's new policing policy involves the election of police commisioners. The idea is, I imagine, to allow people to hold police commisioners to account for what they see as the shortcomings of the way Law and Order are dealt with in the area.
There is a big flaw in this argument and it is one that not many people want to face up to and that is that people are arseholes of the first order. An individual person is fine. Put a group of persons together and you have an idiot. We have known this for many years, Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds was published in 1841. It documented through several examples how people bandied together become an irrational mob. My favourite quote of the book is 'Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one'
What happens when you have such a mob electing somebody to office to deal with crime ? Do you think it is possible that anybody who will be prepared to stand on a public platform and try to defend rational policing that actually reduces crime. Of course not. We are going to have people competing to be the most populist. So we will have more irrational policing like putting policemen on the beat when it has been proved beyond measure how ineffective this is. We will have them promising to further criminalise young people and bring them into the criminal justice system when it has beeen proven that if that is where you place young people that is where they remain.
Having said that if they can lock up the little shit who stole my I-Pod and Sat Nav from my car two years ago then they'll get my vote.
Oh and talking of stupid people if you haven't heard this you've missed a treat
There is a big flaw in this argument and it is one that not many people want to face up to and that is that people are arseholes of the first order. An individual person is fine. Put a group of persons together and you have an idiot. We have known this for many years, Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds was published in 1841. It documented through several examples how people bandied together become an irrational mob. My favourite quote of the book is 'Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one'
What happens when you have such a mob electing somebody to office to deal with crime ? Do you think it is possible that anybody who will be prepared to stand on a public platform and try to defend rational policing that actually reduces crime. Of course not. We are going to have people competing to be the most populist. So we will have more irrational policing like putting policemen on the beat when it has been proved beyond measure how ineffective this is. We will have them promising to further criminalise young people and bring them into the criminal justice system when it has beeen proven that if that is where you place young people that is where they remain.
Having said that if they can lock up the little shit who stole my I-Pod and Sat Nav from my car two years ago then they'll get my vote.
Oh and talking of stupid people if you haven't heard this you've missed a treat
Monday, 26 July 2010
Team Mitchell or Team Linehan
There was an interesting debate yesterday on Twitter regarding the burqa. David Mitchell’s piece is here. I tend to agree with him. He says that its fine for us to disagree with everything that the burqa stands for but agree that people have the right to make stupid choices. And we can tell people so providing we don’t become rude or abusive.
Graham Linehan’s response was to argue from the alternative viewpoint that the burqa subjugates women and places them as second class citizens. I also agree with this viewpoint. My understanding is that Islam claims the burqa is connected with modesty. This seems pretty slim to me. Why was it that women had to be modest. Why not, as I heard on the Danny Baker show once, make ugly men wear burqas to? Graham’s argument seems to be that if you do ban the burqa then you free up a lot of Muslim women to break free from this oppressive tenet of their religion.
What is striking about this discussion is that it contains two genuine arguments which both come from a liberal or left of centre standpoint. David argues that it is illiberal to tell people what they can and cannot wear. Graham’s argument counters that women do not always have a choice to wear a burqa. They feel obligated to. My dilemma is that I find myself in agreement with both arguments. But eventually I have to side with David.
I don’t like the idea of the government telling people what they can and cannot wear. Furthermore I find the argument from the female emancipation viewpoint a touch paternalistic. There is a mention in the article about a 62% majority being in favour of the ban. If I could feel that this was because people felt that women were oppressed by it I would be encouraged. However I don’t think that it is. I think it’s based on Islamophobia.
I also think that banning the burqa is only going to exacerbate the problem of Muslim disaffection that we have in this country. However there is a lot to be said for the argument that this ship has really sailed since we illegally invaded Iraq. I am aware that this post is a touch rambling but I think this a subject that provokes just that reaction as the different liberal arguments collide in my head.
Graham Linehan’s response was to argue from the alternative viewpoint that the burqa subjugates women and places them as second class citizens. I also agree with this viewpoint. My understanding is that Islam claims the burqa is connected with modesty. This seems pretty slim to me. Why was it that women had to be modest. Why not, as I heard on the Danny Baker show once, make ugly men wear burqas to? Graham’s argument seems to be that if you do ban the burqa then you free up a lot of Muslim women to break free from this oppressive tenet of their religion.
What is striking about this discussion is that it contains two genuine arguments which both come from a liberal or left of centre standpoint. David argues that it is illiberal to tell people what they can and cannot wear. Graham’s argument counters that women do not always have a choice to wear a burqa. They feel obligated to. My dilemma is that I find myself in agreement with both arguments. But eventually I have to side with David.
I don’t like the idea of the government telling people what they can and cannot wear. Furthermore I find the argument from the female emancipation viewpoint a touch paternalistic. There is a mention in the article about a 62% majority being in favour of the ban. If I could feel that this was because people felt that women were oppressed by it I would be encouraged. However I don’t think that it is. I think it’s based on Islamophobia.
I also think that banning the burqa is only going to exacerbate the problem of Muslim disaffection that we have in this country. However there is a lot to be said for the argument that this ship has really sailed since we illegally invaded Iraq. I am aware that this post is a touch rambling but I think this a subject that provokes just that reaction as the different liberal arguments collide in my head.
Friday, 23 July 2010
Spitting mad
I am currently fuming that a bunch of people on a TV show did not pick someone I like, to go and join them on that TV show. My life couldn't get any more trivial.
Oh and my mouse is playing up. if there's a better reason to get angry I'd like to know it.
I will write something more substantial next week but am in the middle of moving. In the meantime here is one of my favourite Onion links
Oh and my mouse is playing up. if there's a better reason to get angry I'd like to know it.
I will write something more substantial next week but am in the middle of moving. In the meantime here is one of my favourite Onion links
Sunday, 18 July 2010
I wrote something I did
I have for the past six weeks been busy writing a panto for the theatre company I work with. It has been very hard work. But it has been good to have a deadline otherwise I would have spent an extra six months or possibly eternity finishing the bloody thing. I was reminded of a couple of quotes while completing the writing.
The first one concerned the editing process. I had feared that when the script was subjected to the scrutiny of the small group responsible for helping me make it presentable that I would be excessively sensitive and sulk about their suggestions.
Bill Bryson wrote about this in relation to Thomas Jefferson and The Declaration of Independence. He said that 'Like most writers Jefferson sulked about the editing process and thought what congress presented back to him was inferior, and like all writers he was wrong.' Now before we get to my grandiosity I can accept that perhaps my panto is not quite the same work of literature as the Declaration of Independence (although my jokes are funnier). The point is I need not have worried about the jokes being diluted because in every case where a change was made I can see the script has improved with the advice of my colleagues.
The second quote I saw on a Charlie Brooker special about writers (look it up on Youtube, its fantastic). On the programme Tony Jordan says 'I love having wrote something, I hate fucking writing'.That's about the way I feel about writing. I had really had to drag myself to my computer to finish this piece of work. The last scene was such a phenominal pain in the arse I signed off typing 'Thank Fuck That's finished'. Then on Thursday we had a reading. And hearing a cast reading it and laughing as they did so (both edited and unedited bits) it reminded me that the first part of Tony Jordan's quote always trumps the second part of it.
Eclipse
Saw the third film in the Twilight series. I have to say that it is getting better. I am still team Edward but Jacob grew on me a bit in this instalment. I am not going to enter into any analysis of the film. Just to say that below is possibly the best Onion clip ever which is saying something. The moment where the Al-Quaida spokes man says 'wow!' is simply as perfect as comedy gets, anywhere ever.
The first one concerned the editing process. I had feared that when the script was subjected to the scrutiny of the small group responsible for helping me make it presentable that I would be excessively sensitive and sulk about their suggestions.
Bill Bryson wrote about this in relation to Thomas Jefferson and The Declaration of Independence. He said that 'Like most writers Jefferson sulked about the editing process and thought what congress presented back to him was inferior, and like all writers he was wrong.' Now before we get to my grandiosity I can accept that perhaps my panto is not quite the same work of literature as the Declaration of Independence (although my jokes are funnier). The point is I need not have worried about the jokes being diluted because in every case where a change was made I can see the script has improved with the advice of my colleagues.
The second quote I saw on a Charlie Brooker special about writers (look it up on Youtube, its fantastic). On the programme Tony Jordan says 'I love having wrote something, I hate fucking writing'.That's about the way I feel about writing. I had really had to drag myself to my computer to finish this piece of work. The last scene was such a phenominal pain in the arse I signed off typing 'Thank Fuck That's finished'. Then on Thursday we had a reading. And hearing a cast reading it and laughing as they did so (both edited and unedited bits) it reminded me that the first part of Tony Jordan's quote always trumps the second part of it.
Eclipse
Saw the third film in the Twilight series. I have to say that it is getting better. I am still team Edward but Jacob grew on me a bit in this instalment. I am not going to enter into any analysis of the film. Just to say that below is possibly the best Onion clip ever which is saying something. The moment where the Al-Quaida spokes man says 'wow!' is simply as perfect as comedy gets, anywhere ever.
Monday, 12 July 2010
Topical !
So I am trying to right this blog weekly. And therefore if it is weekly it should be topical. And if it is topical then there is really only one story. Raoul Moat. To those of you reading in the future Raoul Moat is an ex nightclub bouncer who became a bit unhinged after coming out of prison, shot and wounded his ex partner and killed her current partner and the following day shot a policeman who was sat by the side of the road.
He then went missing for about a week. Rather helpfully he left a couple of notes to help the media ramp up their hysteria levels from ‘Crikey’ to ‘Armageddon’. It eventually all finished last night when Moat killed himself, infuriatingly just off camera for the news outlets.
I didn’t need to watch a great deal of the coverage but enough to gather the tone of it. Lots of interviews from handwriting experts and forensic psychologists and ex-firearms officers. All of them doing the same thing. Speculating and therefore filling valuable airtime.
In the good old days before 24 hours news coverage when there were sieges we had to dutifully wait for the allotted hours that our news was delivered. This freed us up to actually get on with the business of living our lives. The news bulletins because they were only half an hour stuck to reporting what was actually happening.
Media experts will tell you that this was highbound and moribund and an affront to democratic right of us to consume our news when we like. Well I don’t need to point out to you what snake oil selling cocks Media experts are. They spend their lives studying trends in media, as if that isn’t what we all do. Get a real fucking job.
If anything serious really happened we used to have the news interrupting the main programmes. And what a thrill it was when that happened, wondering in the feverish few seconds between ‘we interrupt this programme to go over to the BBC Newsdesk’ and being told what actually had happened.
Compare that with ridiculous BREAKING NEWS tickertape that runs across both Sky and BBC News channels. This can be used from everything from ‘David Cameron to meet the Queen to Become Prime Minister’ to ‘BA and Unite talks break down’
I realise how hopelessly luddite all this sounds. 24 hours news cannot be put back in the box. And I would also point out that the true joy of 24 hours news is that it gives them more time to screw things up, get caught out by members of the public as beautifully demonstrated in the above clip. Also with out 24 hours news we probably wouldn’t have Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. I am just lamenting that the crowning achievement of 24 hours news is not an increase in democracy in the way people receive their news, but an increase of the amount of bullshit in the world.
Since I started to write this the media is doing its best to elevate Raoul Moat to the status of folk hero. Which reminded me of the below clip. No lessons ever learned.
Raoul Moat happened about a month after Derek Bird's rampage.
Thugs
He then went missing for about a week. Rather helpfully he left a couple of notes to help the media ramp up their hysteria levels from ‘Crikey’ to ‘Armageddon’. It eventually all finished last night when Moat killed himself, infuriatingly just off camera for the news outlets.
I didn’t need to watch a great deal of the coverage but enough to gather the tone of it. Lots of interviews from handwriting experts and forensic psychologists and ex-firearms officers. All of them doing the same thing. Speculating and therefore filling valuable airtime.
In the good old days before 24 hours news coverage when there were sieges we had to dutifully wait for the allotted hours that our news was delivered. This freed us up to actually get on with the business of living our lives. The news bulletins because they were only half an hour stuck to reporting what was actually happening.
Media experts will tell you that this was highbound and moribund and an affront to democratic right of us to consume our news when we like. Well I don’t need to point out to you what snake oil selling cocks Media experts are. They spend their lives studying trends in media, as if that isn’t what we all do. Get a real fucking job.
If anything serious really happened we used to have the news interrupting the main programmes. And what a thrill it was when that happened, wondering in the feverish few seconds between ‘we interrupt this programme to go over to the BBC Newsdesk’ and being told what actually had happened.
Compare that with ridiculous BREAKING NEWS tickertape that runs across both Sky and BBC News channels. This can be used from everything from ‘David Cameron to meet the Queen to Become Prime Minister’ to ‘BA and Unite talks break down’
I realise how hopelessly luddite all this sounds. 24 hours news cannot be put back in the box. And I would also point out that the true joy of 24 hours news is that it gives them more time to screw things up, get caught out by members of the public as beautifully demonstrated in the above clip. Also with out 24 hours news we probably wouldn’t have Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. I am just lamenting that the crowning achievement of 24 hours news is not an increase in democracy in the way people receive their news, but an increase of the amount of bullshit in the world.
Since I started to write this the media is doing its best to elevate Raoul Moat to the status of folk hero. Which reminded me of the below clip. No lessons ever learned.
Raoul Moat happened about a month after Derek Bird's rampage.
Thugs
I seem to be the only football fan in the world who thinks The Netherlands were ok in the way they played the world cup final last night. They were playing a team everybody agreed were the best passing team in the world. So rather than ry to play the same game and inevitably get thrashed they decided to rough Spain up. And it worked. They were punished when they went to far and were very lucky not to have one player sent off in the first half but that's the price you pay for playing that style.
In the end it all worked out when Spain scored and the best player on the park Iniesta scored it. But good God to hear the BBC commentators go on you would have thought Holland played no football at all.You would also have thought that Spain never ran up to the ref branding imaginary cards every time that a dutch player did a foul. That didn't fit with the narrative they wated to tell. Even in football we need a good guy and a bad guy.
The pundits seem to em to be completely out of touch. they don't understand that football is not a popularity contest or a beauty pageant. its a game in which both teams try to win and stop the other team winning the best they can. And if they win ugly big deal. its down to the better footballing team to show why they are the best. Oh and Alan Hansen's a wanker and seriously they could pick any bloke from a pub and he'd give more insight than Alan Shearer. The guy, well he just defies words. I just hope the Beeb can see sense and sweep away these complacent smug tossers and relaunch Match of the Day. It makes Question of Sport look current and cutting edge.
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