Owner: domeheid URL:http://domeheid.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:29:05 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: My life as a MacGuffin: something you've never seen before, and are never likely to want to see again. The Walter Mitty years; and in between, some film reviews. Site statistics:Click here
Bad taste variation on an old joke 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Source: Private Eye, no. 1176 (19 January - 1 February 2007), p. 6.Related stories: "Girl killed by pit bull terrier", Monday 1 January 2007, BBC News. Read more:taste
Wordcount 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Pythagorean Theorem employed 24 words; the Lord's Prayer has 66 words; Archimedes' Principle has 67 words; the Ten Commandments have 179 words; the Gettysburg Address had 286 words; the US Declaration of Independence had 1,300 words; and finally the European Commission's regulation on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words.Source: Hertford College MCR Bulletin, 6th Week, Hilary term 2006.
The V-neck sweater 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A six-year-old kid is shopping for a new school uniform with his mum. His mum gets him to try on a grey V-neck sweater. "How do you like that?" she asks. "Is it comfortable? Not too itchy?""Mum, you're not buying me one like this! My teacher sometimes wears one like it, and when she bends over I can see her lungs."Source: adapted from Quote...Unquote, BBC Radio 4.
Are you thinking what we're thinking? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 What's the difference between an asylum seeker and E.T.?1) E.T. wants to go home.2) E.T. can speak some English.3) E.T. has his own bike.(From the ever-dependable source: Rad Cam, men's toilet, left cubicle.) Read more:thinking
Thoughts from the man who cannot think 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A rare thing occurred tonight: ITV showed a decent television programme. It was about Clive Wearing, a conductor and musician, who used to produce early music for BBC Radio 3, who suffered a rare after-effect of the herpes or cold-sore virus, having contracted a serious bout of the flu that was passing around north London 20 years ago. The virus crossed from his blood into his brain and destroyed the part of it that makes and stores memories. Since 1985 he has had acute amnesia, able to remember anything for little more than 7 seconds. The mind, effectively, of a goldfish. He wakes up constantly, for the first time, over and over again, as his devastating diaries reveal. It's like being dead, he says, over and over again, there's no difference between night and day, it's like being asleep without dreaming. Yet he is unable to remember it for long enough to be bored or become frustrated. He can't remember how awful it is to be alive. He remembers that he was once a musician, but he Read more:think
Hare-raising argument 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The absurdity of it. The absurdity and the irrelevance. The idea of discussing even...a historical event, an invasion already more than a year old. A country groaning under a dictator, its people oppressed, liberated at last from a twenty-five year tyranny - and freed. Free on the streets, and free one day to vote.How obscene it is, how decadent, to give your attention not to the now, not to the liberation, not to the people freed, but to the relentless archaic discussion of the manner of the liberation. Was it lawful? Was it not? How was it done? What were the details of its doing? Whose views were overridden? Whose views condoned?Do I like the people who did it? Are they my kind of people? Hey - are they stupider than me?How spoiled, how indulged we are to discuss the manner - oh yes, we discuss the manner, late into the night, candles guttering, our faces sweating, reddening with wine and hatred - but the act itself - the thing done - the splendid thing done - freedom given to peopl
Nora (2000) - ickleReview (DVD) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Nora Barnacle was the life partner of the Irish-born writer James Joyce, author of Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, the greatest writer of the twentieth century, perhaps any century. Rather than adapting Banana Xerox (Brenda Maddox)'s biography into a biopic, writer/director Pat Murphy has turned it into a beautifully crafted, impeccably measured, sweet love story. The film spans 1904-12: from Nora's flight from Galway to Dublin, where she met Joyce and soon emigrated with him to Europe, eventually settling in Trieste, an Italian irredentist city then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.To Joyceans like me, the film provides a fascinating perspective of Joyce from a woman's point of view, from his muse, Nora. Ewan McGregor's performance is surprisingly pleasing. He does not have the stature, the blue eyes, the accent one might expect of Joyce; but he has the character down to a tee. One begins to believe it is him, and the resemblance
The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I can't believe how many tracks have sampled various parts of this song (even "The Ketchup Song" by Las Ketchup), believed to be the birth of hip-hop in 1979. Try listening to it even once and see if it doesn't stick in your head for the rest of the day. Read more:Rapper
Loose Change: 2nd Edition (2006) - ickleReview (Google Video) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Intriguing conspiracy theory documentary about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, suggesting the American government might have attacked its own people by planting bombs in the World Trade Center. There was also little evidence that a plane had actually crashed into the Pentagon. Some good archival footage with copious (but probaby flawed) documentation.Nugget: gripping, but a pinch of salt is needed. Read more:Google
, Edition
, Change
, Google Video
, Loose
Style Wars (1983) - ickleReview (Google Video) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Graffiti, break-dancing and hip-hop: the three main ingredients of this compelling documentary about New York "bombing" culture. Directors Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver feature candid interviews with graffiti writers, who try to explain why they pursue their dangerous and controversial lifestyle. Some of the artists, such as Seen, are really very talented and speak eloquently about their desire to go "all-city": spreading their work across the Metropolitan Transport Authority's trains, taking them all across the five boroughs. Some of the other writing is less aesthetically pleasing, particularly on the inside of the trains. The MTA spend millions trying to clean up their rolling stock, but end up corroding it with the harsh cleaning fluids, which don't even clean off the paint properly.New York City Mayor Edward Koch fights a losing battle against the entrenched culture, which is embraced by blacks, Puerto Ricans and even whites from rich private schools. Their is a culture of resp Read more:Google
, Style
, Google Video
The Last King of Scotland (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Kevin Macdonald usually makes documentary films such as One Day in September (2000) and Touching the Void (2003). The Last King of Scotland
is a film based on fact but moulded into a filmic, fictionalized narrative. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a newly graduated doctor in 1970s Scotland. He is eager to avoid his patronizing doctor father and picks Uganda at random as a faraway place to practise his medical skills, arriving amidst a military coup. Initially serving in a small village hospital, he catches the attention of the new president, Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), who soon offers him a job as his personal physician. Amin eventually relies on Garrigan as his closest advisor, having become paranoid after an assassination attempt. His regime turns ruthlessly bloody and dictatorial, although this isn't immediately obvious to Garrigan.McAvoy gives an assured performance. His character isn't always likeable (he is too easily swayed and tempted away from his humble charity work), b
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Second World War film directed by Clint Eastwood about the battle for Iwo Jima, a volcanic island in Japan, and the famous photo of marines raising the American flag that was taken there. The battle scenes are great and disgustingly gory. The rest of the movie, about the reaction back in America, is not so strong.What is interesting is the deconstruction of wartime propaganda. The photo was actually of the second time a flag was raised. A visiting politician demanded to have the first one for himself. The image was interpreted as a sign of victory, when in fact the battle was to continue for over a month after that, and some of the marines featured in the photo were killed.The CGI in the flotilla and initial bombardment of the island don't look wholly convincing. The battle scenes go on for 5-20 minutes with very little commentary. This is when the film is at its best. It's also good to see another aspect of the war in the Pacific. Most films I've seen about WWII have tended to focu Read more:Fathers
The lost chapter of Genesis 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In the lost chapter 51 of Genesis
, God asks Noah to build a second arc. He instructs him to make it out of concrete, construct eight floors, fill it with water and populate it with carp fish. Noah asks God what the point of all this is. God replies, "It's the first multi-storey carp arc!"Source: my housemate, Dafydd.
The Pooh's Prayer 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Christopher Robin, who art in the 100 Aker WoodEeyore be thy name.Thy Piglet come, thy Roo be done,on thistles, as it is in honey.Give us this day our little something,and forgive us our friends-and-relations,as we forgive those who [what was the rest of it?];and lead us not on an Expotition,but deliver us from Heffalumps;for thine is the woozle, the Tigger and the Pooh Sticks,forever and ever.Hum hum.(Illustration from A. A. Milne, When We Were Young, with original line illustrations by E. H. Shepard (London: Methuen, 2000; first publ. 1924), p. 99.) Read more:Prayer
Old Wine in a New Skin 1970-01-01 00:59:59 For Jamie McKendrickYou stand there half-hunchedOver dust and ash and desk,Laptop laid out, flopped back to the sky.Dappled ashen dust screen,Pockered keys, wires tripping on the floor.Carpet covered in filing overspill,Regular chaos in poetic form.Books beline shelves on all sides,Knowledge learned, loved, knocked backLike a bottle and a half of red.You look apologetic about this den,This breeding ground of cursed spawnOf serpents small, error's minionsNashed up in the pores and breathing spaceOf the housetop. What is hereBut we may read in books -And a great deal more too -Without stirring our feet out of a warm study?Paper monster, full and black as inkSpot. Poems clean and polishedAre unearthed here, dug from the depthsOf soily gritty logos wormsDown a hole with beak, chasing juicesLike a morning bird.After the rains, the dirt washed off,The gems glisten on plain paper,Clean not crinkle-bashed,Panned and sifted, shiftedAbove the stream.
Craic pot 2007-03-04 03:55:00 Q: What's the fastest cake in the West?A: Scone."Doctor, doctor! I've got a strawberry up my nose.""Don't worry. I can give you some cream for it!"Source: Radio 4 (via Moira, the mother).
Google Docs & Spreadsheets 2007-03-06 02:49:00 This looks pretty fucking cool. I wonder if I will write my DPhil thesis on this in the end. Can it do footnotes, I wonder? Maybe I could send drafts to my supervisor this way. Footnotes would be good, though, and some sort of compatibility with EndNote or RefWorks. I actually wrote this post in Google
Docs & Spreadsheets
and posted it to my blog from there. This is really just a trial post, playing around with it.This is what quotations look like. I hope there isn't a box around this.I imagine in future journalists will be using this kind of thing - if they aren't already.Doesn't look like the title of the document has been imported into Blogger. It should be called Google Docs
& Spreadsheets. I'll write my ickleReviews with this in future. Better than using the WYSIWYG editor in Blogger, although that has improved; and better than posting them by email, which sometimes messes up the formatting.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) - ickleReview (cinema) 2007-03-07 15:07:00 In my review of Flags of Our Fathers (2006) I noted the facelessness of the Japanese enemy in that story told from the American soldiers' point of view of the WWII battle for the island of Iwo Jima
, from where the Americans would then start an attack on the Japanese mainland near the end of the war. Letters
from Iwo Jima, a companion film also directed by Clint Eastwood, brilliantly fills in those missing perspectives and surpasses the slender merits of Flags of Our Fathers.Downfall was set in Hitler's bunker during the fall of Berlin. Letters from Iwo Jima portrays the last stand of the Japanese imperial forces, fighting on to certain death. The charismatic General Kuribayashi is drafted in to lead the depleted forces, bereft of any support from the destroyed naval fleet. His men are suffering from low morale and dysentery. They have no hope of withstanding an American attack. The US have more advanced military technology, aerial dominance and vast numbers. The shots of the American
Downfall (2004) - ickleReview (cinema) 2005-04-12 02:41:00 The Swiss-born actor Bruno Ganz is phenomenal as Adolf Hitler in the last days of the Third Reich. Two strands are rigorously inter-woven: the factual story of the collapse of the German army and the subsequent fall of Berlin to the Soviets; and the human perspective of the same events from the point of view of Muenchner, Frau Traudl Junge (played by the doe-eyed Alexandra Maria Lara), one of Hitler's secretaries, who stayed with him in his bunker in Berlin till the very end. This German-made film is faultless. I can't think of anything that could have been done better. I know some of the events are interpolated from various accounts (that Hitler shot himself and his wife, Eva Braun, whom he married shortly before his death; that Goebbels - played here by the striking Ulrich Matthes - and his wife poisoned their children before shooting themselves; that Hitler asked that his remains be totally destroyed by incineration, as did Goebbels), but all of this seems plausible, even obvious, Read more:Downfall
Darfur, Iraq: same difference? 2007-03-09 23:52:00 "The similarities between Iraq
and Darfur
are remarkable. The estimate of the number of civilians killed over the past three years is roughly similar. The killers are mostly paramilitaries, closely linked to the official military, which is said to be their main source of arms. The victims too are by and large identified as members of groups, rather than targeted as individuals. But the violence in the two places is named differently. In Iraq, it is said to be a cycle of insurgency and counter-insurgency; in Darfur, it is called genocide. Why the difference
? Who does the naming? Who is being named? What difference does it make?"Thus writes Mahmood Mamdani in the London Review of Books this month, in an article on "The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency". I hadn't stopped to question the way the war was being covered in the media. To be honest, I'd switched off. I'm quite apathetic to human evil. It doesn't surprise me any more and I don't know if there's much I ca
Barbarians vs. New Zealand Allblacks (1973) at Cardiff Arms Park 2007-03-12 01:57:00 There are a lot of things to note about this video. I've only watched the first 20 minutes so far. I didn't realize the greatest try was scored so early on in this match (within the first 5 minutes). I also like some of the period features of rugby 24 years ago: the immediate engagement at the scrums; the condensed, unlifting lineouts with wingers throwing in (with a particularly odd overarm bowling style from the Kiwi no. 14); the under-rehearsed Haka (hardly as fearsome as it is today); the generally effeminate, schoolmasterish look of most of the players and the referee (these are amateur athletes); the heavy ball; the good sportsmanship. A real treat. Read more:Barbarians
, Zealand
, Cardiff
, New Zealand
Remember Animal vs. Buddy Rich? 2006-08-26 19:44:00 Remember this post? Here's the proof that I was right. (The video is in Italian; but the drumming is in the universal language of ROCK!...well, okay, jazz.) Read more:Remember
, Animal
, Buddy
Chav, bam, ned, scaff, pikey 2006-05-07 05:08:00 I can't quite work out if this Devvo stuff is for real or just an elaborate ruse. I can certainly believe there are people like him. Hilarious and disturbing, nevertheless. Well worth a look."Where did youns get that there camlycorders from? [...] You don't do pills? What, you foockin' gay? Even my nana does pills, dickhead."
State of the RedSox.com Nation 2007-03-14 03:03:00 Spring Training is underway. It's less than three weeks till Opening Day, 2 April, when the Boston Red Sox will face the Royals in KC. For three seasons now I'm after watching State
of the RedSox.com Nation to keep up-to-date with all the Red Sox news (my first season we won the 2004 World Series!). There's a full archive of all three seasons. The first season of the show in 2004 began after the All-Star break. The latest episode came out on March 6 and brings early news from the Bo' Sox's pre-season base at Fort Myers, Florida. Ah, to be sure, it's a grand habit to pick up.
No need to say more 2007-03-16 03:45:00 "Friends understand each other without words." (Anonymous)
The Mayfly Project 2006 2007-03-19 02:34:00 A great wee idea keeps going. The biography of a mayfly: "Born. Eat. Shag. Die." Sum up your own 2006 in 24 words. Reflect on what was important, defining or constant last year. Mine is: "Completed master's (with distinction). Joyce in Trieste. Fell in love four-ish times (unreciprocated as always). Did the same to someone else. Started my doctorate." What's yours?Go to The Mayfly Project
to post your own.
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