Tuesday 27 April 2010

LANZAROTE (AGAIN)

All being well, this Thursday I'm due to fly off to Lanzarote for a week, though I'll believe that's happening when the plane leaves British airspace.

Not much to write about at the moment. For the last few weeks I've been working my way through my complete set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer box sets and have just started the sixth. Expect a full retrospective review in about a month or so. I've nearly finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and have both sequels packed to read on holiday, along with several other novels -better too many books than too few. There'll be a review in due course.


Waiting to be read is Walt & Skeezix 1927 & 1928 by Frank King. This is a compilation of the legendary newspaper strip Gasoline Alley. It's set in small town America and is set in real time, each strip taking place on one day. It's a fascinating look at America as it was and I can't recommend it highly enough. I've reviewed the second volume on Amazon.
Barring anything grabbing my attention in the next couple of days and Icelandic volcanoes willing, I'll be back in about 10 days when I won't have voted in a General Election for the first time ever.

Friday 23 April 2010

CINEMA: KICK-ASS

I'm going to keep this brief.

Great fun movie but I can't understand why some reviewers (hello Daily Mail and hello -really surprisingly- to Roger Ebert) are getting their knickers in a twist over it.

In some ways I like it better than the book, It's more upbeat and less cynical than the graphic novel, plus I don't have to look at John Romita's artwork. The cast is uniformly excellent, especially scene stealing Chloe Moretz. 

In some ways, I don't like it better than the book. Not so keen on Big Daddy wearing a Batman-style suit rather than the wrappings in the book. I prefer the surpriseof Big Daddy's secret to his straightforward origin in the movie. The end of the movie is a little too superheroic, though I do like the happy end.

On the whole though, this is an excellent adaptation, a well-made and enjoyable action-movie and I'll definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out.

Thursday 22 April 2010

BOOKS: ROBERT BUETTNER:


Amazon 4 star review

Review title: Competent military SF.

Competent but not great and I'm being generous with the four stars.

Begin with the action about to start and then spend two thirds of the novel showing how the narrator ended up in that situation, which is a fair enough way of doing things. The writing is competent, the protagonist is the standard underachiever who achieves, plot is okay -alien slugs bombard Earth with rocks, the dust causing the start of massive climate change -ironic as I'm writing this after my flight to Lanzarote was cancelled due to the Icelandic volcano erupting and throwing dust into the stratosphere and I read about half of it in the airport. It's predictable in that it's fairly obvious which of the supporting characters is going to die and doesn't really add anything new to this subgenre.

That said, it kept me reading and I've ordered the sequels -the cheapest copies available from Amazon Marketplace that is. This was an enjoyable enough time passer which I'm now about to drop off at my favourite charity shop. If you like military SF you'll like this.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

MAKING MONEY OFF MY BLOG

Or, as it's called in the jargon, monetising.

You've probably noticed some ads popping up just under the most recent post which are from something called Adsense. Then there are Google-sponsored  ads in the sidebar, and also links to items sold by Amazon. This latter is part of the Amazon Associates program. The idea, obviously, is to make a little money by displaying them on my blog. And, after about four weeks or thereabouts, when I checked today I'd made the grand total of £1.01 which, believe it or not but it's true, is more than I expected.

I have, a few hours ago, dropped the Adsense ads because of one which looked decidedly sexist -a cartoon of big-boobed woman. I've no idea what the site was about but I don't want stuff like that on my blog. I doesn't mean that I may, or may not, want to look at it but as a matter of principle I'm certainly not going to promote stuff that I consider sexist.

You may in the future, however, find these links to Amazon items which I own but have not always reviewed on the grounds that if I've bought it then I probably like it and see no contradictions in making a few pennies out of including these links. Indeed, please, click on the links. I need the money.

I'm a poor pensioner. Click on the links you bastards!

DVD: GLEE SEASON 1 VOLUME 1

 
 
An Amazon 5-star review (slightly edited).
 
This shouldn't work. But it does.

I shouldn't like it. But I do.

Why? Because, against all the odds, it works. Brilliantly. Stay with me and I'll see if I can work out why this tv series manages to appeal to such a mass and wide-ranging audience. Musically alone, it manages to appeal from to those who like show tunes to those who like The Blues and rough-edged Rock (me). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First off, the cast and their roles. I'm not going to mention all of them -and they are all good- just the key cast (and a personal favourite).

As Mr Schue, the leader of Glee Club, Matthew Morrison, an experienced Broadway musicals singer/actor, possesses a rumpled but appealing face well suited to both comedy and drama and he anchors the show to perfection. He's also a skilled adaptable singer who's received some criticism for his rap and what passes these for r'n'b but sounds just fine to me, who can't stand either, and manages to make them listenable.

The production team must have fallen on their knees to praise the Gods of Showbusiness when Lea Michele not only auditioned but accepted the role of Rachel. Michele herself has already attained the status that Rachel aspires to of being a young star of Broadway. She is a gifted light comedy actress and an absolutely stunning singer who could well end up being one of the greats, up there with Streisand and Minelli, only more appealing.

Corey Monteith completes the core triad as Finn, the Tim-nice-but-dim jock with a heart of gold. Like Morrison and Michele, he acts well and sings well and is completely convincing. The likeability of Finn is one of the show's great strengths.

Lesbian icon Jane Lynch is great as the villain, the utterly self-centred unfeeling ruthless enemy of Mr Schue. Chris Colfer is a star in the making for the dignity he displays as the effeminate Kurt, also a great singer. Jessica Gilsig as Mr Schue's wife is so appallingly horrible that I want her to die a slow agonising death every time she's on screen. She's counterpointed by Jayma Mays as the adorable obsessive school counsellor Emma. Lastly (if I tried to mention them all and why they're so good, we'd be here all night -sorry if I've left out your favourite) is Heather Morris as Brittany, a character so dumb she makes Finn look like Einstein. Morris doesn't get much dialogue but she makes the most of it and she has the series' most jaw-dropping line but you have to be on the ball to catch it. Hopefully she'll be featured more in the future.

Okay. so we've got a great cast and strong characters and, let's face it, you probably already know them yourselves. You also know the setup. An idealistic teacher restarts a high school Glee Club ending up with an uneasy mix of outsiders, jocks, and cheerleaders who all have problems whether it's one group being bullied by the other or by having to live up to high expectations, etc. But what they all have is talent and here's where the musical side of things comes in. Again, the show's musical director (and creator) gets it just right with a blend of show tunes, pop songs, and a mix of other contemporary genres, which are often reworked for harmonies, which the cast excel in, and manages to give them an appeal beyond their normal audience (see above; you can find my favourites in the my reviews of the two CDs, but I'll just mention Jenna Uskowitz's lovely rendition of 'True Colours'). The songs themselves are deliberately chosen as a means of making a comment on either a character or plot development.

Add some snappy dance routines which are just about convincing as being within the abilities of people other than professional dancers and you have a great show. The musical numbers are supposedly all performed within the context of the club itself (i.e. the cast don't suddenly break into song and dance along school corridors, etc) but there are a couple of cheats as when Mercedes has a fantasy number (and a great one it is too) after she deliberately breaks the window of Kurt's car and starts singing 'Broke Your Window' and goes into a dance routine with the cheerleaders, as you do.

The writing is as sharp as a razor with strong subplots and snappy dialogue. And this is where I finally mention the elephant in the room which I've been ignoring so far. Glee is outrageously funny and it makes me laugh out loud several times an episode. It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen and is the only comedy show I faithfully follow except for The Big Bang Theory. But it's also more than that. It's also a drama and it touches on real problems such as bullying, schoolgirl pregnancy, homophobia, marital discord, etc, but it does so by seamlessly blending the different aspects.

On a technical level, it's also excellent. The editing is simply masterful and no scene goes on a second too long. Also the recap at the beginning of each show, often a pain for regular viewers to sit through, is brilliant as the narrator hilariously races through key points in a matter of seconds.

The extras and the only sour note in this review. Most of them are brief publicity pieces lacking any kind of depth. The first four are watchable but skip the rest; believe me, you aren't missing anything. Big disappointment as I was hoping for some detail about how the show was put together.

Finally what makes this into a show that will live long in memory is the seamless way it manages to blend every element together without showing the slightest join. It's an unlikely show to be successful but then so was Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Glee, in its own way, is just as good as Buffy and that is one hell of an achievement. Glee, while an appropriate title, could also be called something else, an emotion that it brings to the viewer.

Glee is a total and complete joy. 

LANGUAGE: RETURN OF THE PEDANT

Okay, I don't deny it. I am a pedant. I am pedantic. Not obsessively so but enough that I can't deny it. I like the correct use of the English language. Now I am aware that language changes; that's part of its charm, that it evolves, adapting to the demands of changes in society on all levels: cultural, social, economic, technological. 

When I first heard the word proactive, I hated it. I considered it to be a synonym for active and, therefore, redundant. I was wrong. It is a useful word as it connotes more than the state of just being active.

On the other hand, I hate to go into a greengrocers (to be correct, I should actually write greengrocer's shop but this has become an accepted usage) because I see words like strawberry's and apple's and I can't bear to go on. Strawberry's in particular offends my sensitive nature because not only is it grammatically incorrect, it is also a spelling mistake. Seeing words like this makes me want to rush out of the shop and either scream aloud or bang my head against the nearest brick wall. Either that or commit a most grievous English social error of actually pointing out these mistakes to the shopworkers who would probably think I was a lunatic anyway.

My current and unabiding hate is directed at seemingly one of the most pervasive phrases in the English language and would appear to be used on television when anyone (particularly football managers) is being interviewed. The phrase is: at this moment in time.

You know why this is abhorrent but I'm going to spell it out anyway (metaphorically spell it out, though it will also be literally spelled out as I'm using words on a screen so how else could it be spelled, other than metaphorically, of course). A moment is a unit of time, once specific it now refers to a very brief period. A moment cannot, therefore, be anywhere else except in time. The in time is redundant and sounds stupid and intensely irritating (though this may be just me). At this moment I am typing. At this moment I am waiting to learn if I will go on holiday next week. At this moment I am awaiting the verdict on whether or not I am guilty of killing the last person I heard use the horrendously repugnant phrase 'at this moment in time'. See: it flows.

Also consider using: currrently, presently

Tuesday 20 April 2010

LANGUAGE: WORDS I HATE (a start)

Quadrilogy: a word, created by the imbeciles who run film companies to market DVD box sets of four films, to sound like trilogy, presumably on the assumption that consumers of these box sets don't understand what the word quartet means. Quadrilogy is an ugly loathesome word. If it was a human being I would take an axe and hack it to pieces and then be hailed as a hero.

Whilst, however, is a perfectly respectable word with long antecedents. It is also irrelevant in today's world when its successor and synonym is  freely available and understood. I refer to the one-syllable word while. Dost thou comprehendeth mine meaning thou varlets and dastards or wouldst thee prefer to remain in thine ignorance until thy dotage?

Here endeth the leffon.

Monday 19 April 2010

SOCIETY: IAN & THE VOLCANO

So, Thursday morning and I'm all packed and ready for a week in Lanzarote when, just after seven in the morning, I get a get a call from my friend Ian P with whom I am going on holiday. Had I heard about the volcano? he asked me. I hadn't but checked it out. Sounded ominous. Maybe the plane might be delayed a few hours.

No matter, I left the house at 07.50 and within seconds caught a bus at the bottom of my street to the Metro station. Being early, as I planned, I picked up three cheese & onion pasties at Greggs with the intention of eating them on the flight, meals not being included and I wasn't going to pay their prices. Besides, I like Gregg's cheese and onion pasties. I'd arrived in time to not catch the first metro train which arrived as Ian was going to be on the next one. Except he wasn't, he was on this one. I hurridly jumped aboard and I'll pass on the story about following him down the train, luggage in tow and trying not to to wheel a heavy suitcase over the feet of other passengers, as he  looked for a convenient place to sit with our luggage and didn't find one. I leaned against a metal post until the next station, Sunderland Central, where a lot of people got off and we got the seats we wanted.

About 45 minutes later we arrived at Newcastle airport, noticing that some flights had been cancelled, checked in and then went through to the waiting area. Coffee, conversation, read The Metro (the free newspaper), after about an hour ate a cheese and onion pasty, started on The Times and watched the departures board.

Things started looking a bit grim as more and more flights were first delayed and then cancelled completely as, eventually, was ours. After some milling around with other now ex-holiday makers we were taken to collect our luggage and off home we went.

And that was my holiday.

During the afternoon, we separately checked websites and emailed each other with updates and thoughts. By Friday afternoon it had become pretty apparent that we weren't going to Lanzarote any time soon. I'd been so focussed on my holiday that trying to get back into a normal frame of mind was rather difficult. Even now, five days later, I still have my clothes in the suitcase.

An hour or so ago I emailed Ian to say that I'd pretty much given up and was preparing to get in touch with Thomas Cook to get the cost of the flight refunded rather than rescheduled (both ahd been offered). Ian, however, emailed me back to suggest that all might be not lost according to the website. Well, I'm not holding my breath but I'll hang fire on the unpacking for now.

To be continued...

...hopefully.

Post Script.

Less than five minutes after publishing the above, I reading the following on he BBC's news website.


Airspace in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England is due to reopen on Tuesday after days of travel chaos caused by a volcanic ash cloud.
The air traffic control body, Nats, said from 0700 BST on Tuesday airspace south to a line between Teesside and Blackpool will reopen.
It added that mainland Scottish airports would be open.
Nats said restrictions to airspace above the rest of England and Wales could be lifted later on Tuesday.

The game may yet be afoot.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Wednesday 14 April 2010

I'M OFF

To Lanzarote tomorrow so no new posts until Friday 23rd at the very earliest when you can expect a holiday report with photos up to my usual standard (i.e. crap).

Saturday 10 April 2010

SOCIETY: THE GENERAL ELECTION 2010 AND THE RACIST MORON SCUMBAG PARTY

Ah, it's a good time if you like laughing at the BNP. Earlier this year, an attempt by them to present new membership rules which appeared to allow anyone (i.e. non-whites) to join but was a fudge, was overruled by a judge. Here's an extract from The Guardian dated 13.03.10.

The British National party was plunged into chaos yesterday, weeks before the general election, when a court ordered it to remove central beliefs and policies about race from its constitution.

In a landmark injunction at the Central London county court, a judge found that the BNP's membership policy remained discriminatory, even after a direct whites-only clause was removed last month.

The judge, Paul Collins, ordered the BNP to remove two clauses from its constitution as they were indirectly racist towards non-white would-be members.

The party also remains banned from signing up new recruits until it satisfies Collins it has changed the constitution, although it said last night that applications to join were being processed again.

In a further blow to the party's election hopes, it was ordered to pay an estimated £60,000 in legal costs. The bill could rise to £100,000 when its own legal fees are included.

 Doesn't this just warm the cockles of your heart? Don't you just want to donate some money to help out these poor oppressed racist scumbags? Well, no, of course you don't.

And then, just as the General Election campaign begins in earnest (and no doubt fred too), The Independent 04/04/10 reports on an attempt to destabilise Nick Griffin the moron in chief of the BNP.

One of Nick Griffin's closest lieutenants has been purged from the British National Party's high command amid claims of a "conspiracy" against the leadership, it emerged last night.
The party confirmed that the BNP publicity director Mark Collett, who had been lined up to stand against David Blunkett in Sheffield, had been "suspended pending a disciplinary tribunal", after a leaked memo accused him of plotting a "palace coup".
And, as the party was gripped by claims that insiders were trying to "sabotage" its election preparations, it emerged that two more officials had left head office.
...
A spokesman for the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said a row about finances lay behind the feuding. It emerged last month that Mr Griffin, who was elected last year as Euro MP for the North-west of England, had submitted claims for more than £200,000 – on top of his £82,000 MEP salary – for his work in Brussels. The costs include some £18,000 in "consultancy fees" and £10,000 in "agent fees". "Discontent with Griffin's leadership has been rumbling ever since his disastrous Question Time performance, but it's the row about European expenses which has caused the explosion," the Searchlight spokesman said. "The view is Griffin has jumped aboard the Euro gravy train, and they don't like it."

I'm not sure whether or not that  I'm disappointed the coup failed. I mean, I can't stand the smug git but he's such an obvious smug deluded git that there's always the danger he might have been succeeded by someone who knows how to manipulate the media rather than just be a laughing stock which he showed when he appeared on the BBC's Question Time. The Daily Telegraph (just for balance, it's the Daily Mail for people with two brain cells not one) reports that-

Mr Griffin said Islam was not compatible with life in Britain, while describing homosexuals as "creepy".
However, he admitted sharing a platform with the Ku Klux Klan, which has carried out racist attacks across America’s Deep South, and defended leaders in the organisation as "non-violent".
The remarks provoked indignation from other members of the BBC panel and hostile parts of the audience, some of whom booed, calling him "a disgrace".
The BNP leader could not explain why he had previously sought to play down the Holocaust and defended his use of Sir Winston Churchill on BNP literature on the basis that his father had fought in the Second World War.
He claimed that Churchill would have been a member of the BNP and was "Islamophobic" by "today’s standard".
Asked whether he denied that millions of Jews and other minorities had been killed by the Nazis, Mr Griffin would only reply: "I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial."
He was then chastised by David Dimbleby, the host of the programme, for smiling. 

When this happened a few months ago, there was considerable debate about whether Fuhrer Griffin should actually appear or not. The BBC argued that the BNP had enough support (indeed Griffin is a Euro-MP, see above) that in the interests of fairness he had to be given a place and I agree with them.

Free speech is either free for everyone or for no-one. It isn't something you can divide and so you either have it or you don't. A free society means allowing minorities with views the majority consider repulsive to be heard.  I was disgusted just recently when a fundamentalist American preacher visiting the UK was fined for saying that he believed homosexuals would go to hell, a not uncommon belief where he comes from. Suppressing opinion and suppressing debate should not be tolerated in a free society. It doesn't even work. If you ignore it it does not go away, just festers in a dark corner. These ideas should be allowed to be aired in the open because there they can be challenged and exposed for the anti-humanitarian poison that they are.

Next time: Is Scientology the religious equivalent of the BNP?
A. Yes.
B. No.
C. Who cares? They're all bloody loonies anyway.

And some other time: L.Ron Hubbard, the man who never met a sucker he didn't like (allegedly).


 

Wednesday 7 April 2010

SOCIETY: THE GENERAL ELECTION 2010


Oi! Wake up!

Don't worry, I won't keep you long.

I remember the good old days when a General Election signified a titanic battle of ideologies between the Capitalist Scum of the Conservative Party and the Slavering Union-dominated Commie Ideologues of Labour, the toffee-nosed public school educated squillionaires versus the ignorant slavering subhumans of the working classes with the deceitful shifty and shifting middle-class as the battleground.

Those were the days, when electioneering shook the heavens and brought down the gods themselves.

And now?

Those rapscallions of Labour are being very naughty wanting to increase National Insurance. So vote for the Conservatives instead and we won't increase it; well, not by very much, honest injun, and no our fingers aren't crossed. Vote for Dutiful Dave and not Grumpy Gordon. Please.

Thank god I'm spared at least one week of this excruciating bore of a campaign by being away in Lanzarote.  I will, though, be voting of course. Conservative in the local elections -not because I want them in charge but because the ruling Labour council needs a decent opposition to keep them on their toes. Labour in the General Election because my conscience wouldn't let me do anything else; plus the new Labour candidate (my fave Chris Mullin is standing down) seems a decent choice -she's local with a history of being a union organiser for the GMB among things so that ticks my box and I'll tick hers.

Otherwise, wake me when it's all over.

Post Script.

Nearly forgot. 

Screw the little Englanders of UKIP

and fuck the BNP!

DVD: GLEE


 
 
Amazon have just emailed me that Glee the DVD has been despatched.

Woo Hoo!


Friday 2 April 2010

MUSIC: GLEE VOLS 1 & 2

(Previously appeared on Amazon)

5 star review.
Don't buy this CD.

Don't buy vol.2 either, or download the MP3s. Don't watch the TV show and definitely do not buy the DVD. They are bad for you and I'm going to tell you why.

A few weeks ago I was a normal person who liked their entertainment to have an edge. I love raw Blues (Blind Willie Johnson, Howlin' Wolf) and hard Rock (Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen) and Johnny Cash (I don't like Country otherwise). I like music so raw that if it was steak (and if I wasn't a vegetarian) I'd eat it raw and bloody. I like tough TV. I like Skins and I like True Blood and I like Dexter. And when I heard there was tv series about High School students who sang in a glee club I wanted to throw up. I would make it my mission to exterminate such a vile and inspid and bland thing and eradicate its memory from the collective human consciousness. So of course I had to watch at least one episode to make sure it was as sickening as I expected.

And another.

And another.

And another, until I began to weep. It had snared me in its insidious clutches and my destroyed my credibility in my own eyes. I enjoyed the stories and the characters, but my exposure of their particular horrors shall wait until I've watched the DVD and all the extras. Twice.

I enjoyed the music -me who likes his music raw and bleeding. I loved the range of the strong voices, leads and harmonies. I loved the mix and the arrangements of the blend of pop songs and shown tunes and, yes, rock. I loved the choreography and colour and bounciness. And so I bought Glee: the Music CD vol 1. And Glee: the Music CD vol 2. (And pre-ordered Glee: Season 1 the DVD.) And, like the show itself, the music made me smile and it made me happy and I couldn't deny it any longer. I loved Glee.

Keep away lest this devious piece of skilled wonderfully enjoyable delightful entertainment ensnare you too and destroy all your credibility and illusions. Don't buy this CD! 

5 star review
You really should not be buying this.
I explained why in my review of Glee: The Music, Volume 1 If you haven't read it, please do before continuing. It could save your life.

Okay, I think we're alone now. There just us no-hopers left who have fallen victim to Glee's insidious spell. We're already ruined so I may as well get on with the review.

It occurred to me that it reminds me of a BBC1 Saturday evening show about three years ago in which amateur choirs competed against each other. The songs were, like Glee, very varied but more so. While there were solo vocals, the strength came from the harmonies. To my surprise I really enjoyed the show which, with hindsight, explains why I fell in love with Glee despite my normal predilection for edgier music.

As for this CD, if anything, I think it's slightly better than vol.1, only slightly though. It opens with a terrific version of Proud Mary. Other standouts include I'll Stand By You, Imagine, and True Colours which is just great; the rest of the songs are all fine too. As I said, the harmonies really make the CD, but Lea Michele and Cory Monteith are terrific singers whose playing off each other is particularly striking. This is simply lovely enjoyable stuff and if you liked the first CD then you'll like this just as much as it's more of the same.

My previous review was tongue in cheek but I'm being serious when I say that this isn't deep or profound music and is all the better for it. Sometimes we just need a little light among the shade. You may not always get what you want but sometime you get just what you need and Glee is it.