DVD: POSED FOR MURDER

This is the second of the Rare Flix DVDs I've watched (see the cover on the previous post). This one is, I suppose, a slasher though, while there's lots of slashing, there isn't a whole lot of gore.

The setup is this: someone is very possessive about a pinup girl who is trying to become an actress and kills anyone who seems to be taking an unhealthy interest in her. Charlotte Helmkamp, the lead, actually is a former Playmate of the Month and knows a lot about nude modelling which she does very well on a couple of occasions during the movie and she plays a girl trying to get away from modelling and become an actress and during the early part of the movie she gets the lead role in a cheesy cheap horror movie entitled Machete Men from Mars. Is this meant to be post-modern irony? Nah, didn't think so. 

The first part is the setup where we meet potential slashers and potential victims. Who might it be? Well, there is some ambiguity as to the identity of the killer early on -I wanted it to be the best friend who secretly has a lesbian crush on Charlotte and is killing any man who shows an interest but as she gets killed early on it isn't her. In fact it quickly becomes obvious who the murderer is -DVD Delirium also annoyingly gave it away.

This isn't a bad bad movie, in fact it's mostly quite competent with some interesting bits in it and, like Death Collector, kept me watching. The DVD also has, like the other one, a selection of interesting (and different) trailers.

DVD: DEATH COLLECTOR

My favourite movie reference series is DVD Delirium vols 1-4. Vol 4 was only just released a month or so ago and I eagerly plowed through it looking for weird and wonderful DVDs to buy. The above set is about the second thing I've bought after The Dead Pit and The Hanging Woman and I watched the first one -Death Collector- last night and I wanted to share this with you.

Over the credits sequence are clips from old westerns but the film itself is set in the near future when the American economy is collapsing. Our hero comes over like a character from b/w 50's teen movie with his blonde hair and gee-tar as he sashays into a bar in downtown decaying Shithole, Nowhere and serenades the ladies who melt at his good looks, including our heroine who, unfortunately, is the doxy of the local ganglord, sorry, I meant owner of the local insurance company which, in the near future when banks sabotage each other, is the same thing. Just as our hero is about to get down to some serious shagging, the bad guys arrive and several people are killed including the hero's sheriff brother. However, as the bad guy is in charge it's our hero who gets sent down the river.

Five years later and just about everyone's bankrupt including the government, the prisons are shut down and our hero is released. Returning to the bar, with a gammy leg, he finds everyone sitting where he left them, dressed the same, with haircuts the same. It's almost as if the scenes were shot at the same time. Still, it's not long before he's wowing the ladies with his singing and gee-tar playing and pissing off the bad guy (to whom everyone pays life insurance premiums and owns the local economy) and his English chief henchman. (Don't ask me why the villain of Shithole, Nowhere would have an English henchman.)  There's an assault on the bad guy's place by our hero with the gammy leg, the heroine, and his ex-cellmate who proceeds to slaughter a massive number of well-armed guards.

(Talking of guards, I could have sworn, until I saw the credits, that one of the prison guards was Nathan Fillion wearing shades but, as the credits give a different name, it's not credited to him on IMDB, and he was only 18 at the time, I have to be wrong. Damn, I thought I might have a scoop.)

Badly-made and often badly-acted and frequently just badly bad, I was never tempted to skip through it and I sorta strangely enjoyed it.

DVD/CD REVIEWS

Here we have the protagonists from the Swedish film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which I watched last night. Like several people before me, I prefer the original title of the novel which translates as the far more appropriate The Men Who Hate Women. I've also read the novel, all three of the trilogy in fact, only a few months ago so they are relatively fresh in my mind which meant there weren't any real surprises for me in the film. More a case of: ah this where such and such happens.

It's a faithful, albeit relatively filleted, version of the book, excising major subplots such as the protagonist's complicated private life and numerous supporting characters, making it a two-hander and also a showcase for actor Noomi Rapace as the complicated and not a little disturbed Lisbeth Salander the genius computer hacker. Rapace is now poised as a breakout international movie star.

It's well-made with some lovely photography of the wintery Swedish countryside, the pace is sedate and action sequences are few and far between. I started watching the dubbed version because I thought I'd need to follow the plot quite closely without an added layer of distraction but quickly switched to Swedish with subtitles as I found the American accents just too irritating.

Like Let The Right One In (the brilliant Swedish vampire movie), it's currently being remade in America. Unlike that one, however, the location is staying the same which makes this remake even more redundant than the other.

This is the cover to Neil Young's Trans, one of his most critically derided albums, and one of my favourites of his. By 1982, no-one was sure what he'd come up next except that it would either be a rocker or a more acoustic folksy set or maybe a little of both. What no-one expected was a mostly synthesiser-vocoder dominated set which not only transformed Young's voice into something unrecognisable but also his guitar albeit less so. There are a couple of more standard Young songs such as the final Cortez the Killer style workout on the excellent nine-minute Like An Inca and the opening jaunty number Little Thing Called Love.

But after the deceptive opening we get Computer Age with terrifically Trans-formed vocals and nifty guitar work. After that we get a series of songs about transformational (computer) technology and what also seems to be a look into the soul of the machine. I think it works brilliantly and the songs are all of a high standard. I love it.

Oh, and the reason I'm reviewing it here and now is because I've only just bought the CD two decades after getting rid of all my vinyl albums. It's as good as I remember and hasn't dated at all which you might think it would bearing in mind that it's 28 years old. Young singing, while altered drastically, is still recognisable. I love it.

WHY I HAVEN'T BEEN BLOGGING MUCH LATELY

A DAY IN THE LIFE

4.00am. Wake up and go to the toilet. Try to get back to sleep. Daisy, the 6 month old kitten, climbs on top of me and purrs loudly.

 

5.00am. Ted wakes me up either by miaowing or touch my nose or both. I get up and let him out. Try to go back to sleep.

6.00am. Get up, go downstairs, let cats our, put outside any cat litter trays which have been heavily used. Put food down for cats. Eat cereal while trying to fend off Little Bob the 3-month old kitten.

 Little Bob 

 (handed in at the shop two weeks ago and taken home by me)

6.45am. Switch on computer and check emails for any overnight Amazon marketplace sales. Read the Daily Mail Online hoping to get righteously annoyed by some of their over the top right-wing pronouncements. "Red Ed, the new Labour leader, refuses to condemn all strikes outright!" I paraphrase but that is the gist.

7.15am. Get dressed, make Susan a cup of tea, let cats in, put down more food, clean out litter trays and replace litter. Collect cat from its overnight stay in a cage in the garage; clean out its used litter tray, put it in the van.

7.40am. Arrive at Raich Carter Sports Centre for a half hour swim.

8.20am. Drop off cat at Williams and Cummings vets for neutering.

8.40am. Pick up cat from Carol's and take to W&C to have staples removed from its tummy at 9.15.

9.30am. Put cat back in van and go back inside to wait for Susan who is bringing Little Bob for 9.45. Little Bob has been sick a couple of times and has developed extremely runny diarrhea and we're worried about him.

10.15am. Take cat back to Carol's and go home to clean out more cat litter. Do some housework. (Oh yes I do, Susan!). Check emails and potter about on the Internet checking some of my favourite sites.

12.00. Tired and decide to take a nap.

12.05pm. Phone rings.

12.06pm. Tired and decide to take a nap.

12.10pm. Phone rings.

12.15pm. Make a couple of sandwiches and have a cup of coffee.

 Most lunchtimes I watch an episode of a tv series I've taped (i.e. recorded on the black Virgin box's hard drive) from the night before. Currently recording as I'm typing this is Waterloo Road. Others include: Smallville (current series coming to an end), The Vampire Diaries (just started and much better than people who haven't watched it realise), True Blood (waiting for Season 3), Glee (waiting for Season 2), Skins (waiting for series 5), Castle (with the great Nathan Fillion without whom it probably wouldn't completed its first season and the only thing worth watching on the Alibi channel), and stuff I've forgotten.

1.45pm. Susan rings and tells me to pick up some stuff from a house round the corner. I call in at the shop before I realise she means that I have to get some  stuff from a house round the corner not pick up stuff from the shop to deliver to the etc. I get some bedding for Carol while I'm there and then go get the stuff which I take back to the shop.

2.30pm. I collect the cat from W&C and take it to Star Rescue (actually defunct but they still help out occasionally) at Seaburn from where it will be transferred to a new home  in Newcastle the following day. It's a nice little black and white two year old female in case you were wondering. Then it's back up the road to Roker Park Vets to collect two cats I'd left there the night before. One had tests of various kind. The other, Megan, a surprisingly active 21 year old (and that is not a typo) long haired tortoiseshell had a lump removed from her back which manifested itself as an open wound. The lump is probably cancerous but the operation will give her a few months more at the very least. she now looks like Frankenstein's cat having a bald central patch with a long stitch from her ribs, over the spine, and down to the other set of ribs. Both go back to Carol's where is pick up a dozen black sacks full of used smelly bedding and take it to the council tip. All this takes me up to-

5.00pm. Make a cup of coffee, feed the cats, clean up any used cat litter, check my email, etc.

5.45pm. Head off for Houghton-le-Spring four miles away to pick up a cat. To be honest, I don't usually have evening pickups to do but this is a fairly accurate record of my activities on one day this week. I collect the cat from an elderly lady who seems to take in local waifs and strays and take it back home to spend the night in a cage in the garage.

6.30pm. Can't be bothered to cook so I get some fish and chips on the way home. After eating it and watching a bit tv together, Susan goes upstairs to watch tv (Alibi channel or any crime series showing) in bed and I go on the computer.

9.00pm. Slide in a DVD and pour a glass of wine (and later a couple more). I'm currently rewatching the Firefly box set, Joss Whedon's brilliant. SF series. 

I could, if I had the energy or the interest do a blog called DVD A DAY as I do do that every evening at the same time (except on the couple of nights a month when I go out for a drink). I don't always watch a complete DVD disc every evening as it may be a tv series box set as in the case of Firefly (starring the great Nathan Fillion, see above) or Glee, but usually it's a movie which, if it's too long or I want to watch some of the extras (this latter being infrequent as I usually don't bother with them). Often it's Horror or SF or Fantasy but not neccessarily.

Here's what's on my to watch shelf: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish, read the book and its two sequels), Gone Baby Gone (thriller directed by Ben Affleck), Hard Revenge Milly (Japanese action/gore), Exte (Japanese horror), Red Cliff (epic John Woo Chinese historical), Ran (Akira Kurosawa's historical epic based on King Lear), The Good the Bad and the Ugly (and if you don't know what that is you're reading the wrong blog), The World At War (complete 11-disc DVD documentary series remastered and to be reviewed for Amazon Vine), and Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki's latest animation). But tonight, Firefly continues.

The crew of Firefly

Some time between 11.00 and 11.30pm I go to bed.

Post Script.

I've put in a couple of things that happened on different days and it might be a little more packed than a normal day but it really isn't untypical. It's a lot of little things separated by varying spans of time which aren't really long enough for me to settle down and get my head into doing something constructive (like actually writing more of the novel which I write mentally while I'm swimming, and blogging, and several other things I keep putting off doing).

Today I took Daisy, our second newest cat to be neutered, then Carol rang and I had to take Clara (which recently had to have an emergency hysterectomy) to Roker Park as she thought there was something wrong with its side. The vet couldn't find anything but he did discover a very erratic heart rate and has kept her in overnight to X-ray her heart under anaesthetic in the morning.

There's always something unexpected.

(This is also being posted in my Cat Rescuing blog.)

POLITICS: THE DAILY MAIL GETS THE KNIVES OUT

For whom, you may ask, as if you didn't already know. It's for this innocuous looking man.

Whose name is Ed Milliband, or Red Ed as the DM calls him, and he's just been elected leader of the Labour Party. 

The DM hates him for a number of reasons, not least of which being that he isn't his more moderate brother David who lost by 1.3% of the votes. Another is that he won because the majority of union votes went to him. He also quoted as saying that he would not condemn legal strike action by an union attempting to save jobs and that his view on any particular strike would be dictated by the circumstances surrounding the strike. Mind you, I can understand the DM's outrage at this; after all it's been at least 15 years since a Labour leader said that.

How absolutely outrageous!

And did you know that over 35,000 votes were declared invalid? Shame! Um, except that these were almost entirely union votes and the unions were the ones who preferred him anyway so if they had been counted he'd probably have had a larger majority. Sorry, DM, can't have your cake and eat it.

A majority of party activists and MP's preferred brother David; only the unions got Ed in. This may be true and it doesn't make any difference. The unions are the major source of funds for the Labour Party so it's only right that they have some say in voting for the leader. 

The voting system, in case you weren't aware of it goes like this: The ballot paper has a list of candidates and voting is by preference =1,2,3 etc. The candidate with the least votes has his second choices distributed appropriately among the remaining candidates, and this goes on until there are only two left and the one with over fifty per cent of the vote wins. This does mean that a candidate with less first choice votes could win over a candidate with more first but fewer second choices. In practice this means that a middle of the road candidate is more likely to win over someone who polarises the voters.

I've taken no interest in this election until the actual announcing of the results but I will be taking more now that it's over. All I can say, especially after the DM started sticking the knives in, is: Go, Red Ed!

TV: WATERLOO ROAD

A few months ago I discovered the pre-Watershed school drama series (which had been on the go for five years) and decided it was pretty good. The new series has just started and there are some new characters including a single parent who had, until recently been home-educating his two kids -a very bright girl and a 16 year old boy who just wants to be normal. New Head Amanda Burton has persuaded him to join the staff and this week's episode focussed on his first day as a new teacher. 

And something happened that disgusted me so much I almost stopped watching. First, however, is a photo. Our new teacher is  on the far left.

In an encounter with a parent, he spoke the following words:

"I didn't mean to infer that your son was stealing."

I'm sure you can imagine how I felt on hearing this. Remember that this is a highly educated man who is very ambitious for his two children and yet he actually spoke this sentence. Given what we know about this character it is as likely that he could say infer when he meant imply as it is that he'd stick his head up Amanda Burton's arse.

It also means that the writer should be put up against the wall and shot because s/he clearly doesn't know either.

Post script

Neither does it seem does the director, editor, any of the cast or anyone else who might have been involved in the production.

NEW AMAZON REVIEWS

An Amazon 4 star review.

Just what I always wanted-

which was an Ipod dock/speaker system. If you're reading this for the Iphone it won't be of any use to you.

On the other hand if you want it for your Ipod (mine is a 160Gb Classic) it seems pretty good. It's small and very portable, though I wouldn't carry it around with your Ipod plugged in. Once it's on a flat surface the connection seems pretty secure. I have tried with the case on and it does slot in but it's easier without it. I drive around a lot in a van for our local animal rescue charity which only has a cassette radio installed and I don't have any cassettes or listen to the radio much. This works fine on the seat and on the floor with the sound clear above the engine noise.

And it does sound pretty good to me, though I'm not one for subtleties and tend to play Rock a lot of the time. The bass sound in particular is very good. I have tried a couple of classical tracks and Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries will blast your head off as well as any guitar solo but you'll have to turn the volume up for quieter pieces, though I should tell you that I'm a little deaf. Can't give you any techie details I'm afraid but if you want something portable to play the music on your Ipod this seems fine to me. It's small enough to fit on most flat surfaces -I can see me listening to it while I soak in the bath- and loud enough for anything but the noisiest parties. I don't know how long the batteries last and it was a little fiddly getting them to work at first but that might have been me.

I've only had it just over a day but I like it a lot as it really is just what I wanted. Recommended for everyone except demanding music snobs. 

An Amazon 4-star review.

For serious film and fantasy enthusiasts, 

Let's make it absolutely clear what this book isn't.

It isn't for the novice and it isn't for the casual fan.

It isn't a comprehensive survey or intended as a reference book.

It isn't intended as any form of definitive statement on fantasy film.

It isn't a light read.

What it does seem to me to be is both an introduction to fantasy film (and literature) for the intelligent novice and an opening of the debate of what exactly is a fantasy film. As such it is aimed at those with a serious interest in film such as students and academics rather than the general public. The opening chapters cover the history of fantasy (literature and film) and an analysis of what exactly fantasy as a genre is as opposed to its bedmates Science Fiction and Horror. It then continues with a critical analysis of ten fantasy films (including Spider-Man which I would argue is SF, unless you want to create a separate genre of comic-book movies). You'll probably have a job finding it on the shelves of most public but not university libraries.

The author, Katherine Fowkes, has read widely while researching the book and quotes liberally from numerous writers. As these writers often have different ideas on the nature of fantasy indicates clearly that she is interested in opening up the debate on the subject thus the book is most effective as a source-book of ideas. That it is so much about differing ideas is what gives the book its strength allowing the reader to do their own evaluating and on this level it's very stimulating albeit sometimes a little hard going.

For some reason, which I can't quote chapter and verse on, I have the feeling that she doesn't really get the written form of Science Fiction, at least not at its high end; she does have a grasp of. that hideous conflation, Sci-Fi which is generally applied to SF films, very much the low end of SF, though I'm displaying my own prejudices here.

For its target audience this is an excellent learned and thought-provoking book though, as its author I'm sure would be the first to admit, it's not by any means the final word on the subject.

These were picked  by me from the monthly freebie for review list from the Amazon Vine programme. This in no way influences my reviews. Actually most of my Vine reviews tend to be less enthusiastic than the stuff I buy as I would rarely have actually bought any of the stuff offered on Vine. Having said, I've been pipped at the post several times before for an Ipod docking station as I really wanted one as I said in the review; I just wasn't convinced they were actually worth it. They are.

A couple of months ago Viners were offered the remastered World At War tv series and many (including me) grabbed it and weren't we disappointed when it just turned out to be a sample single disc. The complaints were numerous. Me, I just reviewed the one disc on the basis it was just the one disc. Then suddenly, after we'd ordered from this month's list, it appeared again on our to review page. Two days later it arrived -all the discs but just in paper sleeves and some discs without a proper label. I imagine those few naughty people who like to sell stuff on (which is against Amazon's rules) were really disappointed.

GUEST POSTING FROM BARRY SPENCE

This is a response to an article in the Daily Mail (online edition), a (cough) newspaper neither Ian nor I rate very highly.

As usual, I am missing something.

This champion of the sacred institution of a free press seems to condemn as
bigotry spoken freedoms (or any communicated in any way other than the
press) by the rest of us. If anyone objects to the visit (for whatever
reasons) are they bigots for their reasons of for nothing more than daring
to object in itself?

He seems also to reckon that we welcomed without protest in the past many
blood-stained, butchering tyrants and terrorists, plus genocidal criminals,
mass rapists, mysoginists, homophobics and true religious and/or political
bigots. A far greater crime to him seems to be suppression of a free press! This
"non-objection policy" may be only generally correct due to our apathy, but quoting Ceausescu

and Zuma as examples was unwise - I clearly recall many objections to their

specific presences here. We actually have objected to many others, such as
Thatcher’s best pal Pinochet (the mass butcher of The Disappeared) as one notable example. But presuming he is right - that we never objected to anyone before

- his logic is that we are obliged to continue not objecting, that we lose

by default the right to invent the idea of objecting for this one more visitor.

"Two (or more) wrongs DO make a right", do they?

Ye and me - plus a surprisingly large number of growing moaners - object to
the visit, but we have taken no consideration of past visitors' track
records and how they were welcomed. We should not do so, as the objection is
only to HIM, NOW. Is there some mythical "bigger picture" that I'm missing,
or am I as bigoted as you?

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING...." (Clint Eastwood)

I actually object to the increasing abuse of the word "bigot" because it
became a precedent when applied to mind-reading by the gifted magician
Gordon Brown. He dismissed a woman as a bigot BEFORE she even brought up her
views on "immigrants from Eastern Europe" - views that WE never heard, so
could not judge her on. However, Gordy obviously knew the full contents of

her unspoken mind in order to be able to pass judgement. Some people are now branding
others as bigots, basing this on their PRESUMPTION of what the victim of
their supernatural probing thinks. Very dangerous..... I always thought a
bigoted (or not) person had to be judged solely on what thoughts they
EXPRESSED to others! Again, what am I missing?

Thought Police rule!

SOCIETY/RELIGION: THE POPE'S VISIT. WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND STRONGER OPINIONS.

Here is a brief tongue in cheek exchange of emails between myself and my good friend Barry Spence. His is reprinted without his knowledge and I hope the phrase 'my good friend' continues to apply after this.

I sent him the following email:

Hi,

Does the Spence agree that the government should spend an estimated £100,000,000.00 of taxpayer's money on the visit of a cult leader who is responsible for:
the increase in AIDS cases,
the increase in the number of unwanted children,
maintaining prejudice against and repressing the moral right of homosexuals to engage with society as full members, and
covering up the crimes of large numbers of paedophiles solely because they belong to a select group?
Does the Spence even agree that this person should even be allowed into this country when so many of its taxpayers emphatically disagree with the actions of this member of the Hitler Youth?

--
Ian

To which Barry replied:

The Spence sees a current economic situation where the downtrodden peasants (= anyone whose income is less than that of an MP) have been ordered by the wise and experienced Cameron and his 100% millionaire cabinet to sacrifice some of their already low income to fund an attempt to correct the damage done by previous governments and bankers. Said MPs tell the peasants they must cough up to avoid national bankruptcy. Many projects (such as hospitals and schools that would benefit the peasants in the long run) worth less than £100 million have been cancelled.

Therefore, squandering what (according to the above) we cannot afford is a wasteful one-off short-term project that will help nobody long-term but inspire current resentment in a fair number of thinking, sacrificing citizens -but not a majority. If this visit is so important, shouldn’t the Church of Rome pay the bills? They have much more wealth than a near bankrupt minor European Hellhole!

To clearly separate his past from his present – current policies concern AIDS, unwanted children, homophobia and – sorry folks, I don’t believe it suddenly stopped – paedophilia and cover ups. Past sins include paedophilia cover ups and Hitler Youth, but you forget about 1940s apathy towards The Final Solution and a large organization in bed with the 1970s Mafia.

On PAST issues, we shouldn’t refuse this person entry on a visit – if we were to do that, over half the world’s leaders would never get in! We also have home-grown leaders (past and current) with pasts just as bad.

On CURRENT issues alone, over ongoing Church of Rome policies, we SHOULD refuse entry to he who represents it and takes full and final responsibility.

Since when did the opinions of the taxpayers (who provided the £100 million) matter a toss to those in power?

 The Spence

 PS

I need an explanation from The Roman Catholic Church based on your words below:

maintaining prejudice against and repressing the moral right of homosexuals to engage with society as full members

How come this is ongoing official policy, yet that same outfit permits (some claim they encourage) paedophile activity by its employees (not all homosexual, just the majority) and then covers it up, skilfully using a complex network of power abuse? Is this “One law for us – another for you” - or can I just dismiss it as raging hypocrisy?

Me again.

Just so you know exactly who we're talking about here's his picture.

Sorry, that was below the belt. Here's the real photo.

Hmm. Spooky.

Just in case anyone thinks I've got it in for the old Nazi supporter, I should make it clear that I hate all organised religions. The worst mistake Man ever made (Women have more sense) was to invent God. Christianity and Islam just made it much worse.

As for the Pope, fuck the old bastard.

Post script.

It appears that the Pope's visit will only cost the taxpayer £12million not 100 as I stated. As far as I'm concerned, his anachronistic paedophile-ridden hypocritical church should pay  for it and one penny of taxpayer's money is too much.

SCIENCE FICTION: SFX MAGAZINE

I've been reading SFX since around issue 50 and started subscribing about twenty issues later. Round about issue 150 a certain person who shall be nameless wanted me to cut down on my spending so I didn't renew my sub and only bought the occasional issue which became even more infrequent when the better Deathray, with its more intelligent approach, came out. Sadly, Deathray didn't last and so when I found myself with a little spare cash, subscribed to SFX again. The sweetener which sealed the deal was a freebie Stanley Kubrick DVD box set.

And I waited for it to arrive.

And waited.

After about six weeks I emailed the subscription dept and received an automated reply telling me I'd be contacted by a human being.

And I waited. For two weeks and sent off another email and received an automated reply.

And I waited. For ten days and sent off another email and received an automated reply. And a couple of days later promising that all would be sorted.

And I waited. And nothing happened so I sent off another email threatening to cancel my sub and demand a full refund and received an automated reply. Followed by an apologetic letter saying SFX would be in the post very quickly and although they'd run out of the Kubrick box set, if I rang a certain number I would be given a choice of whatever was available.

And within a couple of days I received the previous two issues of SFX, neither of them subscribers copies without all the words on the front but at least I got them and then a week later the latest issue (see above) a subscribers copy. I was too apathetic to phone the number and also annoyed that I'd have to spend money to claim a freebie.

In that issue one of the regular staff writers wrote the Soapbox feature about what a good idea it was to subscribe....

So I wrote in agreeing with him, in theory, but...

A couple of days later I received a very apologetic email from the editor himself telling me that they'd recently changed their subscription company to avoid things like that and that he'd look into it. In my reply thanking him I asked if it would be possible to email me a list of the freebies so I could make a considered choice rather than a hurried one over the phone.

This happened and I picked Smallville Season 8 (I'll write about this series some other time) which I received last week and I'm currently watching. Then today I received a large box which I wasn't expecting. It contained three of their expensive specials and five books, three of them hardbacks, by way of an apology. This is a very gracious gesture which of course I'll reply to and thank them.

Nice one.

NEW REVIEWS: MUSIC & MOVIES

So I've been playing classical music for the last two weeks and enjoying it but I'm suddenly in the mood for getting down and dirty again.

Wait!

What's this packet on my doormat?

Why it's Ten Years After Live At The Fillmore East 1970.

Two hours of rock'n'roll, white boy blues, and lo---ooo---ong guitar solos featuring Alvin Lee on vocals and guitar. Lee was never rock's greatest vocalist or guitar stylist but he and the band can hold an audience even when playing some really long songs. And there are some really long tracks on this 2-CD set. Willie Dixon's modest Help Me (a rip-off, with added lyrics, of Green Onions that he gave to the second Sonny Boy Williamson) stretches out to 16 minutes. I'm Going Home, the number which electrified Woodstock audiences with its intensity, comes in at just under 12. Spoonful which closes the album is a relatively modest 8 minutes. But the standout is the medley Skoobly-oobly-doobob/I can't keep from crying sometimes/Extension on one chord extends to 19.30 and, astonishingly, it's the best track. 

The reason these long tracks work is because of dynamics and structure. Lee and the band throw in acknowledgements to their heroes. In Skoobly, Lee, apart from simply varying the pace and tone of his solos, plays tributes to his guitar heroes and includes classic rock'n'roll tributes. In Going Home, we get an Elvis medley. Great stuff and a terrific live album. Well, apart from the 11 minute drum solo track The Hobbit. Only the twin drumming/percussion maestros of The Grateful Dead, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart  can ever get away with that.

It's hard being a dedicated Rolling Stones fan (which I'm not) because much of their early catalogue exists in different versions -UK and USA- in terms of albums and singles in that tracks are different or different versions or even an album (the UK e.p. 5*5 became an album in the States with extra tracks). Now while I'm not a dedicated Rolling Stones fan, I do like the band. In the 60's you either preferred The Beatles or The Stones which itself became a paradigm of an individual's musical tastes. As I'm writing about the latter you guess where I fall. I've got the best of collection Forty Licks, the classic Exile on Main Street (not long before the extended version appeared; bugger!), and a download of the extended Get Yer Ya-yas Out which was over £30.00 cheaper than the box set. But 40 Licks doesn't cover all their best and is notably weak on very early stuff. The Rolled Gold collection, while partly making amends for that, has too much of an overlap to make it worth gettting.  However, just a few days ago, I found this on Amazon for £8.99.

Which collects all thing singles issued from 1963-68 including the different b-sides from the UK and US singles. When generally getting rave reviews on Amazon -if the single was in mono then it's mono here- there is some carping by serious fans in that it's a bit inconsistent. Most of it's carping and the only valid criticism is that it doesn't include the contents of 3 EPs which it would be nice to have been included. If you're interested you can check out the reviews themselves. As far as I'm concerned, while I'm still missing out on the odd track I'd like, this 3-CD, three hour set pretty much fills in most of the gaps that I wanted filling in my modest Stones collection and the informative booklet is excellent, especially as their keyboard player Ian Stewart is finally credited as a member of the band as he always should have been.

Like District 9, I was a bit late coming to this one and, like District 9, I'm glad I finally did catch up. This is probably the most light-hearted and entertaining zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead. Our hero is a gauche, awkward student who should have been played by Michael Cera and I'm sure that in a few years time when someone who's seen the movie thinks about it they'll swear that Michael Cera was the lead. But he isn't, it's Jesse Eisenberg.

By accident he pals up with redneck gun-totin' zombie-killin' Woody Harrelson who seizes his role with enormous cheerful gusto and there's good support by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as sisters who don't trust anyone. And that, apart from two cameos, is the entire cast -I'm not counting the various stunt persons who play zombies. Great fun and very funny. Must watch again soon.

This isn't a movie and it isn't a tv show. Originally a web series it's now on DVD with lots of extras and there is one important name missing from the cover -Joss Whedon who scripted, composed the songs (it's a musical), and directed it. Nathan Filion plays smug and self-satisfied like no-one else can and Neil Patrick Harris is just superb as the wannabe supervillain who just doesn't have it in his heart to be evil. It's barely 42 minutes long but never mind the length feel the quality.

MUSIC: THE TIMES THEY ARE CHANGING

But, despite the seemingly familiar resonance of the title, don't expect this to be anywhere near Bob Dylan as this is going in a very different direction.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that in the course of starting to read a book about the British folk-rock scene I'd come across the British classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and ordered a 2-disc collection of his music. Almost before that was out of the cellophane wrapper, I'd ordered another 2-disc entitled Hickox conducts Vaughan Williams, and shortly after that a 7-disc set containing V-W's complete symphonies featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vernon Handley. 

And here's the maestro himself as a young man.

And so, some intense listening and the very beginning of finding out what I liked and what I didn't. What I particularly didn't like was the singing as in singing songs. I disliked the extremely mannered declamatory style where tone mattered above clarity, where I simply couldn't make out the words. (Mind you, I also dislike opera intensely.) Choral music, which might not be the correct term in this instance, is different in that I like voices used as a wordless musical instrument but not to convey a song.

In for a penny, I thought, in for lots of money. Memories came back of a period during my mid to late teens when I bought several cheapo classical records on the Music For Pleasure label such as Holst's Planet Suite and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and enjoyed them a lot, so-

And, yest, they were just as good as I remembered them and were well worth buying. The Planets is probably one of my all time favourite pieces of music, I'd just forgotten that fact for forty years.

Then I considered that maybe rather than buying specific works by a composer (I almost bought Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherzade, another old favourite, but put it on hold on my Wish List) maybe a sampler of a composer's work might be a good idea. After checking out reviews of several on Amazon I went with a couple of Very Best Of's on the Naxos label. One particular review sounded quite authoritative so I ordered the CDs below. Only after reading several other reviews by the same reviewer of the series did I realise that each review was exactly the same except for the CD's details.

I've dipped into the Elgar and Shostakovich and quite like them but enough is enough. I'm really going in blind here. What I need is a general all purpose introduction to classical music. I checked out a number on Amazon and don't really want the Ultimate 100 All You'll Ever Need Greatest Classical Top 10 Smash Hits. However I think I've found a good one from the reviews which accompany it and I've ordered it today. It's a 6-disc set retailing for a paltry £4.99. The one good thing about getting into classical music is that it's so cheap to get quality performances.

Here's a review by (and I'm not joking) A Customer:

There is a glut of classical music compilations available and for the uninitiated it can be a bit of a stab in the dark as to which to pick out. Having listened to several, I would commend this selection above all others. Not only is it more extensive than most (all?), the six CD's are neatly arranged by theme. The recordings themselves are generally fairly good and will allow the listener to find composers or pieces that he or she will want to listen to further. 

And that will very definitely do to be going on with. No more until I've given these a thorough listening to.

DVD: DISTRICT 9

This was always on my get round to buying once it's cheap enough list I just never seemed to get around to it until a few days ago when I saw it down to £3.99 on Amazon so, yeah, sure, all right, why not, so I did.

Let's get the obvious out of the way from the beginning. Of course it's a giant metaphor for apartheit South Africa. It's a South African-made movie, set in South African, with a South African cast and crew with some special effects and producing from Peter Jackson and his sfx studio Weta. A giant space ship appears over Johannesburg and is found to contain thousands of aliens who have no idea where they are or how they got there so they are dumped in a Soweto-style slum and left to fend for themselves. Twenty years later and they are considered the lowest of the low, thieves, scavengers (which they are and have no choice) and worse, possessors of vile personal habits. From a human point of view this is understandable as they're derogatively called prawns and do have a certain resemblance to them, especially their young. Have a look-

That's the setup. The story begins as a documentary with the focus on Neil Blomkamp's character an amiable but not too bright manager (with the Afrikaner name of van der Mewe) who is given the job of running the distribution of eviction letters to the aliens by his father-in-law. The company has been trying to exploit alien technology for years and has been frustrated by the fact the weapons need an alien biological component for them to work. Van der Mew is just as prejudiced as everyone else, especially as he works for the private company the govenment gave the job to of dealing with the aliens but he does know them, understands their language and doesn't like it when they are casually brutalised. Brutality against them for a good reason like self defence he doesn't mind at all.

Needless to say the prawns don't want to be relocated to what our 'hero' admits at one stage is effectively a concentration camp. As he accidentally, and without even realising at first, comes across a prawn who has to have been one of the crew rather than the workers and is engaged in repairing a shuttle hidden for twenty years, he is infected with alien dna and begins to change. When the company he works realise what's happening, his death is faked and he's tortured into using the alien weapons. When he realises that they are going to use his changing body for parts he manages to escape.

I'll say no more about the plot. This is really an excellent SF film and genuinely original. The protagonist alone is a refreshing change and Blomkamp is terrific in the role. Van der Mewe is a moderately bright and well meaning likeable but gauche klutz who loves and is loved by his wife and who finds an inner strength and a stronger morality when everyone he knows turns on him and he in turn turns to a member of a despised species for help.

This is an outstanding film and I can't recommend it enough. (Incidentally, this isn't an Amazon review.)

Post Script.

Incredibly stupid mistake up above. Neil Blomkamp is the director and the actor I praised so much in the lead role is Sharlto Copley

TRAVELS: "GOT MY MOTOR RUNNIN'/ HEAD OUT ON THE HIGHWAY."

Apart from Sundays when Phil borrows it for dogs and at other odd times, I'm the white van man driver for Animal Krackers. Mostly it's just around town to call on Carol who looks after our cats, to pick up cats no longer wanted by their owners plus the occasional stray, and to take cats (and sometimes dogs or rabbits) to one of three local vets. Apart from two or three trips a year to Burnhope to visit Tracy's rescue to drop off some cats when she has spare capacity or to StrayAid just down the A1, it's rarely outside the city's boundaries. To any American readers the distances I travel are minuscule which is why I'm mentioning the two I'm about to mention which are outside my usual routes and routines.

Last Saturday morning I found an email from a friend of a friend who lives in Lanchester wanting help with a mother and her three tiny kittens which were staying behind bushes outside her front door. To cut a shortish story even shorter, I climbed into the van and drove to where she lived. I may have visited Lanchester before, a Durham village even further away than Burnhope, but if I had it must have been over 40 years ago and then that would have been passing through. It helped that I had to take the same route as I do for Burnhope only without turning off and heading up into the hills and the specific location was very easy to find thanks to certain landmarks.

I went up to the house and found-

(This was taken in my cat carrier)

These two tiny things only a few days old. I was informed that the mother and the other kitten hadn't been seen all morning. After half an hour and a couple of phone calls to Carol, I gently put them in the carrier and drove over to Carol's who popped them in with the mother cat (see the white cats post) who was still lactating. The cat accepted them but her other much larger kittens started trying to play with them. But, after a stint of hand feeding, Carol removed her kittens and put them in a cage with two older kittens and the babies with the mother cat. A day and a half later and this is still working.

Almost all our charity's income comes from the shop and the donations of goods it receives. From time to time we get some decent stuff for which we can get more by taking them to an auction sale room. Usually it's just the one a few miles along the road but this time they weren't interested in what we had -three good-makes  rocking chairs, a few oldish radios, a magic lantern, and a large Bible with illustrations by Gustav Dore- but another auction house was willing to take them on. 

This place was a bit of a trail (for me anyway) as it's on the far side of Newcastle upon Tyne so I allowed myself an hour to get there. Just as well I did as for a long section of the main Newcastle dual carriageway there were roadworks which really slowed the traffic down. Once past that it got better and I shot through Newcastle on the central motorway. Coming off it, however, I took the wrong road, doubled back and was still on a wrong road. Thankfully a friendly community support officer was able to put me on the right road which was the road I thought was the first wrong road but was actually the right road. 

I got there with five minutes to spare to find myself meeting a miserable unenthusiastic git who reluctantly took everything except an old record player and the Dore Bible. Going back I took a different route (which Susan had mentioned before I'd set out but I knew better) which went past the Metrocentre and was a lot faster and quicker.

And there we are.

BOOKS: RECENT ARRIVALS

This is Hill's second novel. He's also published a collection of short stories and is writing a graphic story series (oh all right, comics series) which has been collected into two volumes to date. He's also very good, youngish (thirty-something) and improving all the time.

Horns is a fairly low-key horror-ish novel. A young man wakes up with horns on his head. The horns make people tell him their darkest desires and he can push them into acting on them. All this surrounds the mystery of the rape and murder of his long-term girlfriend and most people believe he did it. The setting is small as is the cast of characters and is really well done. It did feel a little overlong, particularly when we learn the villain's story at great length, but overall it's quite an accomplished piece.

Here a picture of him with his dad. There's something just a little familiar about the old guy.

I've ordered a classical CD this evening, the first piece of classical music I've since Holst's The Planets back in the mid-60's. This is it.

 

And the reason I bought it is because I bought a book entitled Electric Eden: unearthing Britain's visionary music by Rob Young following a rave review in last week's Sunday Times. I dipped into it and checked the musical discopgraphic timeline at the back and for some reason the name Ralph Vaughan Williams caught my eye so I read the section  about him then visited Amazon, listen to several previews, liked them a lot, and ordered the CD above. The book itself has gone to the top of my reading pile.

The book it replaced is a literary apocalyptic novel, the 760 page first half of a dyptych, which has been garnering rave reviews.

More on these to follow.

CATS

I don't normally do cats in this blog but these are so gorgeous I had to share one photo with you. The full story and more pics are on my cat rescuing blog.

POLITICS/SOCIETY: DAVID CAMERON'S BIG SOCIETY

1.

 Before making any comment on the idea of the leader of a party I didn't vote for, it's probably a good idea for me to state where I stand as regards to politics and society as this will inevitably shade any comments I do have to make.

So, my basic stance is of the libertarian left (see the website The Political Compass for more details -the link is on the sidebar). One fundamental I do accept is that we live within a society which is run on the capitalist system and, currently, we have to work within the framework that this imposes. The days of smashing capitalism are over; controlling it, however, is something I'll get onto in a moment.

My belief is that the duties of the state or government (as far as this short essay is concerned I'm using the two terms interchangeably) are:

to create a viable growing economy which will benefit society on all levels;

to create a society which is just, fair and equitable to all individuals.

The devil, however, is in the details. To do this, I believe, the government should control and restrain capitalism according to the needs of society. The capitalist system too should serve society; it is a means not an end in itself.

My belief is also that the individual should serve society in order to facilitate the creation of a society which is just, fair, etc. I believe wholeheartedly in the welfare state but the problem with the system that we have is that it has created a dependency culture where generation after generation live on benefits and contribute nothing. This is just as wrong as letting the weakest go to the wall.

2.

So, what does David Cameron's Big Society actually involve? Funny thing is that no-one seems exactly sure. It does involve devolving some central government powers to local authority level which, in theory, is a good thing as it implies giving more power directly to the people. He also wants to involve local organisations and volunteers and, presumably local charities, to create active community involvement which, again, in theory is a good idea. What I've read and heard so far is somewhat vague but the noises sound right to me. It's way to early to argue whether or not it's going to fail but what is good about it is that it's actually an idea which could empower society and the individual.

From The Guardian, 19th July 2010

Cameron also outlined three strands of the big society agenda. These included social action for which the government had to foster a culture of voluntarism and philanthropy. There was also public service reform – getting rid of centralised bureaucracy "that wastes money and undermines morale" – and community empowerment, "creating communities with oomph", the neighbourhoods being "in charge of their own destiny".

In theory this does sound a good idea but what Cameron will need to do is to motivate society as whole, to change the current collective and individual way of thinking about the way the system can work. As I've made clear I'm not a Conservative supporter but I'm more than willing to have an open mind on this venture and actually hope it succeeds.

3.

Another idea announced just three days later is National Citizen Service.  I'll quote from The Daily Telegraph:

Among the activities involved in the National Citizen Society projects will be an outdoor challenge like orienteering, “a set of structured tasks involving visiting and helping the local community,” and a “social action task” such as clearing wasteland.

Youngsters will work alongside teenagers of different backgrounds, with a residential element of at least 10 days. 

New National Citizens with Dave

Again I like this idea because it  fits in with what I believe about the individual contributing to society.

What I hope Cameron will also do, and has indeed indicated this, is to reform the benefit system. so long as it fits within my creatia of being just, fair, and equitable. The last thing I want to see is people being forced into work who are genuinely incapable of it as is happening now, particularly with regard to the disabled. But what I would really like him to do is to wean able-bodied people of the dependency culture. Too many individuals see no reason to work when the State will pay for their needs. This is wrong: these people are not contributing to society and are effectively stealing from their neighbours who do contribute. To put an end to this I believe that the government should instigate a local community service for all those who can work but are unemployed and thereby these people can contribute to society and their community in particular.

I realise that the above could make me sound like some rabid right-winger when that is so far from the truth. It stems from my belief that contributing to society not only improves society but enhances the individual. It uplifts the individual. I've spent all my working life helping in my work as a librarian and I'm spending a large number of hours a week helping animals. I'm not claiming any great virtue in this: I worked as a librarian because I enjoyed it and I help animals because of my love for animals and I enjoy what I do. Doing something positive is life-enhancing -and this also fits in with my vaguely Buddhist sympathies.

4.

Of course I'm still pissed off at the new government because as part of their savings they have cut free swimming for under 16s and over 60s. Tomorrow I'm forking out £180 for a year's swimming subscription at my local sports centre.

 Tough shit, kids. Tough shit, granddad.

5.

Expect more from me on Big Dave's Big Society as it gets going.