WARNING! BAD MOVIE ALERT

An article on the Rotten Tomatoes website today focussed on the best 25 worst movies ever. To my shame, I have seen eight of them such as Robot Monster, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Road House (starring Patrick Swayze & Ben Gazzara), The Giant Claw, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (starring John Barrowman), Batman & Robin, and The Giant Spider Invasion. Now while I can't understand the inclusion of Road House (not great but great fun nevertheless), I have to admit that the rest are so bad that they are entertaining in a perverse way, though I have no intention of ever seeing any of them again.

With one exception.

The one I haven't mentioned thus far.

"Can you guess what it is yet?" Catchphrase copyright Rolf Harris.

Of course you can because I opened this post with a still from it. It's -

-Battlefield Earth, a movie so shat on because it's held as being so bad it's utterly utterly bad. But I disagree. Reminded of it, I decided I had to have a copy and immediately ordered one from Amazon Marketplace for the total cost (including postage) of £3.69.

So, I give you fair warning. This metricious masterpiece of kitsch (a phrase I must use again)  will be reviewed here in the near future.

TV: SKINS, SERIES 4.1

It's back, after nearly a year of waiting and watching Series 3 several times on DVD, my favourite tv drama of last year is finally back and it started last night. I mentioned it to my doctor while she was hacking off the lump of unsightly flesh on my leg yesterday (see previous post) as she has a 16 year old daughter who, she told me, watches it but not with her mother around.

I expected a hey gang what's happening get together for the first episode. No chance. This was grim and uncompromising and focussed on the group's visibly outsider figure of Thomas. Although excellent at speaking English, albeit with an accent, Thomas is a native French-speaker from the Congo who earns cash by hosting club nights and has only been in the country about a year. Since the last series, his mother and younger brother and sister have moved in with him into his damp flat and the brother has caught a chest infection. His mother doesn't like Pandora his girlfriend who sleeps with him.

But that is to come. It opens at a nightclub where a girl about 16 is taking drugs in the toilet. The sounds are muted to a background thump. High as a kite, she leave the toilet, swaying past Cook who has a girl's legs wrapped round his waist. Pushing open a door we're hit by a tidal wave of music and flashing lights as she moves into the main area where we get glimpses of some of the main characters. Climbing the stairs to a mezzanine level the girl briefly glances at Emily and Naomi who are lip-locked together. Then she climbs up onto a rail and launches herself into space.

And at this point, Ian decides he is not going to do a full-on recap as he did with the previous series. Besides, back then he had the perspective of having watched the series at least three times.

In the chaos that follows and while the police arrives, Thomas suspects Cook of selling drugs and is prevented from assaulting him by Freddie. Thomas is later bribed by the club owner not to inform the police that he lets anyone into the club. Back at college next day for the first day of the new  college year there is a new principal who calls the college and kids rubbish and the he's going to change it. He's utterly ruthless and later expels Thomas because of his association with the nightclub and the dead girl. We also learn that Effie has been missing for some time and no-one, least of all Freddie, knows why.

Thomas becomes reluctantly involved with his mother's church, the charismatic pastor, and the pastor's beautiful singer daughter also a student at Roundview and with whom he has sex. He also learns that it was Naomi who sold the drugs, which she'd got from Cook, to the girl.  Guilt-ridden and confused about lots of things, including his younger brother's unremitting chest infection, he goes to see Pandora who refuses to forgive him on the instruction of -drum roll- Effie who has just arrived.

What this episode has been is Thomas's long dark night of the soul and one that has far from ended. If this is the start of the series, I shudder to think what's going to happen next especially as, it appears, the fallout from the girl's death continues in the next episode.

HEALTH: SLICING MY FLESH

Now that I've got your attention, I came down with yet another cold a few days ago for the second time in three weeks and it's only just beginning to dry up tonight.

As for slicing flesh, let me explain... Apparently as part of the aging process some of us develop small blobby or stringy bits of flesh in various parts of the body. They aren't harmful, just a tad unsightly. I had one of my  neck for quite a while before it got scratched, or something. It hardened into pretty much a lump of scab and I pinched it off with my fingernails. No blood and any mark quickly faded.

Now I also had a larger tag, a blob shape,  on the inside of my right thigh which I mentioned to my doctor who said she'd quite happily remove it in the surgery. About a year later, she and I finally got round to it. Today.

I thought it would be just a quick snip with surgical scissors -I'd put some anaesthetic cream on an hour earlier. But no. I lay back on the couch while she covered it with some surgical gauze, put some other stuff on it, and then got out what looked like a tiny electric scalpel. She had already told me not to look to which I replied that I couldn't see over my stomach anyway. It must have taken about five minutes which surprised me. It surprised her too as it proved tougher to cut through and cut away completely than she'd expected. When she finally finished, she popped this bloody and larger lump than I'd anticipated into a small dish. It would then be sent away for testing, purely as a formality. Following cauterisation of the wound, on went some silver nitrate (I think) and was told to keep it dry for a couple of days.

And that was it. Didn't really hurt apart from a couple of twinges and we were chatting all the way through.

DVD: INFESTATION (2008) , SHOGUN (1980)

  (Two Amazon reviews)

Invasion of the Large Blind Alien Super Beetles from Outer Space

So, in Small City USA (or Bulgaria to be truthful) an accident wakens our unheroic hero from a cocoon where he'd been anaesthetised to keep fresh for later munchies by Large Alien (well, see my title to this review), along with, as far as we know, the rest of world. Along with a motley crew of people whom he wakes up (and they always throw up when first awakened -there's a lot of vomiting in this movie), he attempts to stay alive.

Although this isn't a comedy, there is as much humour as there is action and gore which is quite a lot, most of it (the humour) springing from the interaction of our slacker 'hero' and the prickly heroine he has the hots for. The small cast is largely well-characterised i.e. a mixed bunch and not the usual stereotypes. Any alpha males who get woken up don't last long mainly because they're stupid. Despite the various surprises along the way, the plot is fairly simple: get out of the city while trying to avoid the bugs, find our non-hero's military father while trying to avoid the bugs, then rescue a certain person from the bug's nest. There are lots of encounters with bugs, which are a creditable mixture of animatronics and cgi, and lots of splatter both bug and human.

This is a highly likeable and very entertaining creature feature from writer/director Kyle Rankin. A sequel with the same cast (well, the survivors at least) would be welcomed, Mr Rankin. Asap, please.

The greatest tv miniseries ever?

James Clavell's original novel is one of my all-time favourites, a magnificent epic tale packed to the gills with high adventure, the darkest deceit and treachery, tear-jerking love, nobility, and so much more. It's also a fascinating study of alien contact as Japanese society was so utterly different from that of Western Europe at the time and it is for a large part the story of an Englishman' growing understanding of his new home.

Even at eight and a half hours, a tv series couldn't begin to do more than scratch the surface of this massive and clever novel. That it does so as well as it does is little short of a miracle and it does so by focussing, albeit not completely, on the Anjin-san's story and his part in events. The script is good, the performances are good, the photography is good. Richard Chamberlain is surprisingly good, albeit less working class and gruff than Sean Connery (the ideal choice for the role, at the time) would have been. One the other hand, he's more convincing than perhaps Connery would with the more gentle side. But it's Yoko Shimada as Mariko who is the revelation and the best thing in it. Small and delicately beautiful, she exquisitely displays vulnerability but also the steel spine deep within. I defy anyone not to fall in love with her and it's the moving love story between Mariko and Anjin-san which is the core of this version of the story.

The presentation itself is nicely done. We have the opening credits at the beginning of Disc 1 and the closing credits at the end of Disc 4. None in between, no annoying recaps, just the full uninterrupted drama. Excellent. The behind the scenes stuff is also nicely done.

That said, it hasn't worn as well as it should. On a visual level, the background landscape is far from sharp though people are much clearer. John Rhys Davies as Rodrigues the Portugese pilot is as over the top as he always is (about one decibel below Brian Blessed), George Innes as Vinck also similarly stands out particularly in his excruciating going mad scene. Much of the subtelties of the novel are inevitably lost. And it just feels dated. It makes me think that it's time for a remake with all the sex and violence and cgi muscles that are available to today's audiences. There is certainly no shortage of decent macho alpha male actors available, though finding another Yoko Shimada might prove much more difficult.

But, in the end, is Shogun the greatest tv miniseries ever? Well, I watched the first two hours on Saturday evening and finished the remaining six and a half the following day. So, yes, it is, but of its time.

ASSISTED SUICIDE

Yesterday, Kay Gilderdale was found not guilty of the attempted murder of her daughter Lyn. Lyn had tried to kill herself but didn't believe she'd taken enough morphine and asked her mother for help which she duly gave. While Kay admitted to assisting the suicide of her daughter, the Crown Prosecution Service insisted on the charge of attempted murder.

The jury found her not guilty and the judge praised them for their common sense, decency and humanity. The verdict was correct and so was the judge in his remarks. He then gave her a one year conditional discharge for her guilty plea to assisted suicide.

This brave woman was freed because she had the compassion to help her lucid and coherent daughter to die as she wished and the jury recognised this. Let's hope that this now sparks a rational debate on the subject of suicide and assisted suicide. It's long overdue.

Mrs Gilderdale did the right thing and I hope she can now get on with her life and recover from the nightmare the Crown Prosecution Service imposed on her.

DVD: DEAD SNOW

A slightly expanded Amazon review.

This movie was made for the horror movie fan.

It hits all the traditional notes perfectly while managing to be quite individual, though not orginal, on its own. So, what's good about it? The setting, well-photographed beautiful snow-covered tree-dotted Norwegian mountains. The group of amiable medical students who want to spend Easter in the snow in a lonely cabin miles from anywhere. The spooky opening kill. The horror movie references both obvious and subtle. The settling in to the cabin and the interruption by the local with a sinister tale to tell which is shortly followed by his swift despatch by person, or creatures, unseen. The sinister build-up as one of the group disappears. The half-seen Nazi zombies night attack with its first gross-out shot. Then daylight and the Nazi zombies properly emerge and all out war begins. The escalation of carnage to ludicrous proportions as limbs fly across the frozen landscape, blood spurts from gaping wounds, entrails litter the ground, and our heroes display remarkable fighting skills even when suffering from horrendous wounds as the movie goes so far over the top it ends up nearly out of sight and hilariously funny. 

Just one example. One of the two survivors gets bitten on the forearm by a zombie. Having seen too many zombie movies, though there's no evidence to suggest it here, he's convinced that he'll turn into one. So he chainsaws his forearm off. Moments later a zombie erupts from the snow beneath and bites him in the groin.

And more. Great entertainment.

Lots of extras including subtitles which helps as the dialogue is in Norwegian. I'll be watching this a lot more than once.

DVD: THE SONNY CHIBA COLLECTION

An Amazon review.

Packed into this relatively slim-line box set are six movies. All are contemporary thrillers, that is contemporary for when they were all made, that being the mid-70's. Chiba himself is only the main character in three of them. In two, he's a supporting character and in one I can't even remember seeing him though he is listed in the cast. All are, however, generally entertaining and I certainly enjoyed them all. The nudity and sex in some of them surprised me and the violence is often brutal -please note, this is not a complaint.

Bullet Train appears on two discs, in the English language 115 minute version, and the Japanese with English subs 145 minute uncut original. This is by far the best film of the six by a very long long way. It's an ensemble piece which ratches up the tension but finds time to explore the background of the would-be bombers who are portrayed more sympathetically than you'd expect. It's an exceptional film by any standard. Chiba plays the train driver but it's one of the lesser roles and any competent actor could have played the part.

Golgo 13 has Chiba in the lead as a hitman for hire. It's set in Hong Kong, filmed in Mandarin or the other main Chinese language (my apologies for not remembering it), dubbed into Japanese but has an English language track, and is generally good fun.

In Karate Warriors, Chiba is a thug for hire. Arriving in town, he has to decide which gang to go with. Both gangs are after a hidden stash of heroin. You expect that Chiba will be revealed as an undercover cop but her isn't, he's just an efficient fighter with an only slightly higher moral sensibility than the people he works with. English language version only.

The Bodyguard has a daft opening filmed purely for this version in which two American martial arts experts fight a bit and extol the virtues of the movie's hero who goes by the name of -Chiba! Chiba!, who casually kills half a dozen would-be hijackers on an aircraft just to get the movie warmed up, states on tv that he will personally bodyguard anyone who wants to grass on drug dealers. So of the course the first person to come forward is female and sexy and as obviously corrupt as the gangsters who want to kill her. This doesn't seem a problem for Chiba!

Dragon Princess and Sister Street Fighter both feature young attractive female leads. One is out to avenge the death of her father, the other to rescue her undercover cop brother. Again both English language versions and packed on two Grindhouse Experience discs with the previous two movies.

If you haven't seen any Sonny Chiba movies before, he has a strong solid prescence for a big man and looks effective in action. That said, I reckon either Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan could have taken him out without breaking sweat.

IAN WILLIAMS, FUTURE STAR SPOTTER

 A few months ago I reviewed a DTV movie, originally shown on cable in the States, Never Cry Werewolf.

In it I singled out the attractive feisty and likeable performance of the young female lead, Nina Dobrev, as being rather special. Dobrev is now the lead in the US hit tv series Vampire Diaries which is due to be shown on ITV2. Apparently it falls somewhere between True Blood and that Twilight thing with Robert Pattinson which made teenage girsl wet themselves; not as good as the former but considerably less embarrassing than the latter, apparently. I'll be watching, well, as long as it lives up to the pre-publicity.

PROBLEMS: UPDATED

So I'd put up my problem on this forum and discovered that I could use Internet Explorer to solve it, but I don't want to use IE. A different solution just offered was to put Firefox into Safe Mode and disable all the add-ons as one of these might be causing conflicts.

So I did and it worked (see post below for an example). Now I have to wait and see if the lack of the various add-ons I use but do so no longer cause me any great inconvenience. I suspect they won't but could be wrong.

MUSIC: ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN

 (Adapted from a review of Crystal Days, the 4-disc box set.)

I've became a fan of McCulloch and Co in the very early 80's when they were recommended to me by a guy at a Science Fiction convention (remember the face, forget the name) -this was no means unusual, we talk about anything and everything at SF cons, not just SF. I tipped my toe in the water by buying their 12inch EP which was just great that I set about buying the rest of their stuff which came out, at least for a few years. Some time after meeting Susan I sold all my vinyl albums as they took up too much room in our tiny flat.

Not long after I started at Sunderland City library which its large Sound & Vision Dept, I started borrowing CDs and copying them to my pc hard disk. One of the happened to be the above box set which, at the time, was around £40 and well outside my budget. Then, just recently, I read a review of Crocodiles (their first album) remastered with extra tracks which stated that this series of releases supplanted the box set. What follows is my slightly edited Amazon review.

There's no question that there is some considerable overlap, particularly with the first four albums which I think are the band's best. I'm not going into every last little detail but suffice it to say that the best tracks (or versions of them) from the four are well represented on the first two discs. However, the remastered editions of these albums contain, obviously, all the original tracks plus a number of live/alternate cuts and b-sides which are often different from those on the box set. CD3 of the set covers highlights of the successive studio albums. CD4 is a superb collection of live cuts.

Now while the remasters have new liner notes by Max Bell, the box set has a substantial booklet.

There are pros and cons about which to go for. For someone who just wants one collection of E&TB, and although there are several best of's, I'd recommended this lavish box set. But it doesn't tell the full story. Ian McCulloch used to rant on about Ocean Rain being the best rock album ever. He's wrong, of course, but not that far wrong and it should be in every rock fan's collection. Buy the box set and you miss a number of great songs and the same can be said of the first three albums.

I recommend you do what I did. Get the box set (which, at its current price, is a bargain  - it's aroudnn £16.00 and despite having a digital copy, I'm still thinking of buying it), revel in it for a while, and then go back and buy the remastered extended versions of the first four albums, plus maybe a later live set for a bit  of variety. (I picked up Live in Liverpool, 2002, which is nice but nowhere near the live disc on the box set.) But whatever you do, even if it's just buying Ocean Rain, you win.

Post Script.

A few weeks ago I wrote about my favourite albums ever. If I were to do that now, having had time to listen to the albums again, Ocean Rain would replace Crocodiles as one of them with that album being the alternative choice. This is their musical peak and nothing else they recorded after came remotely near it.

Incidentally, the reason I like this band so much is the great songs with their distinctive lyrics, the musicianship (especially the brilliant guitar), Ian McCulloch's mournful echo of a voice, and the general aura of alienation -art college rock at its best.

PROBLEMS

Okay, a word of explanation about the previous post which has taken about four attempts to get right, more or less.

I've been having problems cutting, copying and pasting on the Internet, so I went onto a computer forum to ask for advice. One reply asked me if I had the same problem on Internet Explorer. I hadn't even tried that  so I had a go and it did work, hence the reviews with CD cover repros. Now I'm going back onto the forum to update my information.

I don't want to use IE but if that's what it takes to copy stuff from the Net, then I'll just use for that and stick to Firefox for general use.

MUSIC: DION (TWO AMAZON REVIEWS)

BRONX BLUES: THE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS (COLUMBIA, 1991)

Covering only three years on the Columbia label, this compilation (which includes two previously unreleased versions and a couple of alternate takes) is startlingly changeable as Dion reinvents himself.

It opens with a 1963 song "Can't We Be Sweethearts?" which could have been recorded in 1958 and sounds like it should be on the soundtrack of Grease. This and many other tracks aren't significantly different from his work with the Belmonts and early solo material, in other words doo-wop and teen idol, disturbed only by a Chuck Berry-influenced 'Gonna Make It Alone'. Following these comes a string of his better mainstream pop work with 'Ruby Baby', 'Donna the Prima Donna', 'Drip Drop' and the heartfelt ballad 'Troubled Mind' which just about hints at what is to come.

And then there's a gap of a year. I don't know whether or not Dion actually recorded during that period but on the evidence of this album it's reasonable to infer that he spent much of gap reassessing his music, probably much as a result of the British Invasion. What emerges on these final seven tracks are the Bronx Blues of the title.

Unlike, however, many white American and English blues enthusiasts, Dion does not copy the style or styles of the originators, he sings these songs his way and they are all the better for it. Forget the endless guitar solos of 'Spoonful', Dion's is taut and dynamic and intense and short. He snarls it out with an intense spartan guitar. His 'Seventh Son' is perhaps too much Bob Dylan than Willie Dixon but at least it's different. The penultimate track is 'Two Ton Feather' which he wrote and is one of the best tracks on the CD before concluding with a Bob Dylan song.

What we get in these later tracks is Dion in the process of change from pop star to rock singer. It's an exploration rather than anything definitive which it can be said his earlier work is of its type. I can't think of any other artist who started in the late 50's who transformed himself so much. Of course this results in a very varied and inconsistent album but always a fascinating one.

70'S FROM ACOUSTIC TO THE WALL OF SOUND (Ace, 2004)

Amazon review title: Too Much Talent?

No, seriously, from late 50's doo-wop to a unique take on white boy blues in 2007 via singer/songwriter and gospel and a whole lot more. In a career lasting 50 years, Dion has continually reinvented himself. From 1962-65 (as shown on the compilation Bronx Blues) he moved from teen idol with songs like Donna the Prima Donna and Drip Drop to early and excellent attempts at the Blues with Don't Start Me Talkin' and Spoonful.

This excellent Ace compilation covers 1970-76. Here he's a little more laid back as he's in singer/songwriter mode, sliding into folk and sometimes into Dylan. On If We Only Have Love, I swear he sounds like smoothie Jacques blinking Brel! In the excellent booklet, Dion remarks that at the time he was raising three young daughters, "I think that's what brought on the softer music, a lot of it anyway." Even his Phil Spector produced tracks sound almost laid-back, well, for Phil Spector anyway.

This isn't his most immediate record, unlike say 2007's Son Of Skip James which hit me like a hammer, but I've played it a few times now and it's a grower. Let it wash over you for a while and nuances and subtleties and quiet skill all gradually become apparent.

I'd just like to end with an appreciation for Ace Records (UK) who issued this compilation. They are the world's greatest reissue label, known for the amazing variety of music they issue, for the care they take in remastering, for digging out rare and unreleased cuts, for the quality of their liner notes. I'll love them forever for their series of Lightnin' Slim's Excello compilations. This Dion release is absolutely typical of the quality of their product.

REVIEWING: AMAZON

As I've mentioned before in this blog, I'm a member of the Amazon Vine program. On the the 3rd Thursday of every month, I am invited to select two items from a personalised list catered to my taste (which is funny as I've never had any desire for hair curlers and hardly ever get offered CDs) to review and to keep. The following Thursday everyone gets the same list of what's left from the previous week.

I also review regularly items I buy from Amazon, which is why I was invited on the program in the first place when it initially started. Many of these reviews I've reprinted in this blog or written them here first and revised them (i.e. removed the rude words) for Amazon.

Amazon, for reasons of their own, assign a reviewer ranking which is updated daily. When I first started reviewing for Vine I was just inside the top 1500. About a year ago I broke into the top 1000 and my reviews were given 'top 1000 Amazon reviewer'.

Well, as of today I am now A Top 500 reviewer and it feels really good.

It's also meaningless. It doesn't measure the actual quality of review at all -though I have an 82% helpful vote rating.   Indeed no-one, except Amazon staff, knows how it is worked out. It is probably some mathematical formula which incorporates your total reviews and any helpful or non-helpful votes you get. Us Viners would love to know how it actually works.

But, like I said, it has no real meaning which is why it is so puzzling that some people (on Vine and outside it) actually nobble some Viners by deluging them with unhelpful votes with the intention of getting them to drop down the ratings. But I really don't understand it because it isn't as if you win anything. I don't even know why I'm so pleased to be in the top 500. I do get satisfaction when someone is appreciative enough of a review to give me a helpful vote but that's really it.

None of this makes any difference. In a recent thread on the Vine forum about reviewing, I wrote that I review because I like to review things, to pass on my enthusiasms, to share good (and bad) things with other people. Most of the stuff I buy that I review tends to be praised because I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't think I'd like it. Vine stuff is more neutral because there's a higher likelehood of me not liking it -if I haven't bought it already it's because it's not something I'd normally buy or couldn't afford, usually the former. Part of the fun of being on Vine is being able to take a chance and I sometimes discover something really good particularly on DVD -check out a totally bananas Japanese movie called Survive Style 5+.

That's it really. Just thought I'd mention that I'm now an Amazon Top 500 Reviewer. Look on my works oh ye mighty and despair. And this Thursday it's the 3rd Thursday of the month. Got to make sure I'm back from the pub (a library retirement early evening drink) by eight so I don't miss out on the good stuff (see earlier post).

Cheerio, chums.

DVD: CLASSIC SCI-FI

Seven Science Fiction movies from the 50's which, I would like to say, greatly influenced my early love of SF, but it wouldn't be true. I only saw one of these at the cinema and that was The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) which probably saw in 1958 when I was around ten. The rest I saw some years later on tv. With the exception of Tarantula! (1955) and, to an extent, Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), they can all be considered early classics, or landmarks, in SF cinema and this, for the price I paid (less than a tenner), is good value to have this collection in its individual slimline cases.

I excepted Tarantula! and Creature on the ground that they're creature-features rather than genuine SF. The former is bog-standard stuff (you can see the real tarantula's legs partly disappearing from time to time), the latter is very good of its type (the monster not being completely unsympathetic) and both were directed by Jack Arnold.

Arnold also directed the terrific Shrinking Man which holds up really well and It Came From Outer Space (Jack Arnold, 1953)which probably looked much better in its original 3-D, at least to judge from the comments in the accompanying documentary. The latter is unusual in that aliens look totally alien and aren't bad guys. This can't , of course, be said for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (directed by the great Don Siegel, 1956) which still holds up as a masterpiece of paranoia and as the best version of the story, even with the studio-imposed happy ending.

That leaves The Thing From Another World (1951) and the only film in the set to get a 12 rating as opposed to PG. Debate still goes on over whether or not Christian Nyby directed it or producer Howard Hawks. Oddly, I like it better than when I first saw it, though I love John Carpenter's body-popping remake. Lastly is This Island Earth (1955) an early space-opera which is rather overshadowed by its contemporary Forbidden Planet but is still one of the influences on Star Wars. It's also the only colour movie in the set, though there is also a colourised version of Body Snatchers to choose from -but don't.

Apart from It Came and Creature which both have decent documentaries and other stuff, these are very much bare bones editions -trailer and subtitles and that's it. Still, it's a nice set for an  sf movie fan.

TAKEN THIS MORNING AS THE SNOW KEEPS A'FALLING

SOCIETY:LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

One of the reasons for starting this blog was to give myself the chance to toss around ideas I had about society and issues which involved society; in other words, more than just the pop culture aspect of the thing. What I want to do in this first of a series (I hope) of short essays is to look at the way I see aspects of society. This first piece is to set my stall, to lay the foundations of how my thinking proceeds and to build upwards from there.

For example, there are concepts like 'the dominant ideology' and 'socially constructed reality'. Now in one sense, reality can be defined by what you can measure, i.e. the real world. To a large extent, my own perception of reality is guided by this in that I tend to only accept that which can be measured, can be proven to exist. On this level then, it's perfectly clear why I am an atheist. Only a scientific approach begins to satisfy my understanding of the nature of the universe. There is no scientific evidence for the existence of God in any shape or form or in any sense of the meaning of existence, therefore God and all the religions which have devolved from this initial concept (and yes I do mean 'devolved' not 'evolved') have no place in my life whatsoever.

Obviously science can't explain everything but not because it lacks the capacity to explain everything but partly because we do not yet have the level of technology to gain knowledge of that which we want to know but also because, I believe, our brains are not capable of understanding everything the universe has to offer. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dream't of in your philosophy.", Shakespeare, Hamlet, scene 5. Shakespeare is so full of insights like this which is why his work has lasted. Anyway, the point being that just because we can't comprehend everything does not mean it is unexplainable -in scientific terms.

People who piss me off are people like Creationists who are, in my simple opinion, bone-headedly fucking stupid. They are idiots who try to explain evolution, sorry, Evolution in terms of this collection of religious and historical writings collected from fragments and scraps that have been translated (often with mistakes) over and over for around 4,000 years (yes, I mean both old and new testaments). It is total bollocks. Evolution is a process of trial and error. If God or any kind of transcendent intelligence has anything to do with evolution then she's fucking incompetent given that after hundreds of millions of years of trying she's yet to produce an intelligent, sane (i.e. not self-destructive), artistic, and compassionate creature which can live in harmony with its environment and without destroying other species. Assuming that's the, dubious, intention.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against belief. I understand the need for belief, the need to believe in something transcendent. It provides a comfort and reassurrance that there is more, more than the cold brutal reality of the world as we see it -assuming we do see the world as cold and brutal. Personally I think it's a place of endless wonder that encompasses those elements. Part of my own need to believe in the transcendent comes out in my novel The Lies That Bind and in the two pieces of online fiction. I too want to believe in something more, it's just that the evidence dictates I can't. But what I do object to about belief is when others attempt to force beliefs I find morally, or intellectually, or evidentially (Creationism) wrong on myself/society.

The irony about the dichotomy between religious belief and science is that they both spring from the same source and that science evolved from religion. What they share in common is that they both set out to understand the world, to find order and reason but they then developed in different directions as one became a means of social control and its prime function to perpetuate itself even if it meant destroying its own children.

So that, in part, is where I'm coming from. Where I hope to be going is to look at stuff like alternate medicine, global warming, human beings as a pack animal, the identity of the outsider, vegetarianism, and more fun stuff.

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW (WITH MAX) TAKEN TWO MINUTES AGO.

MUSIC: MP3: THE ROLLING STONES: GET YER YA YA'S OUT

I'd noticed that the Stones had a remastered all-singing all-dancing super de luxe 3CD, DVD, book and bits version of the above album and for a whopping £38.00 on Amazon. Nice but no way would I buy it that price and put it out of my mind.

About half an hour ago I was trawling through my Amazon MP3 recommendations because Amazon had given me a pound credit and I thought there might be something cheap worth having. About ten pages in I came across the YA-YA's MP3 which included the first CD of the concert itself, the second CD of extra tracks, and the 3rd CD which contains the sets by BB King and Ike & Tina Turner whom I've been known to like. With my one pound discount this cost me £7.99. In other words, all the music, over 2 hours of it, minus the trimmings for £30.00 less. Sounds like a bargain to me. I'm playing it now and it's great.

Oh, and I haven't got pneumonia. In fact I feel much better today -not great by any means, but better than I did. Susan rang the doctor's this morning to get some antibiotics and put me on as well. After considering my past history, the doctor wanted to see me just in case. I went. Chest is fine. I'll be bunged up and phlegmy for the next couple of weeks but at least it's nothing more serious.

And, yes, I am embarrassed by my previous post.

UPDATE

I did manage to watch last night's Casualty which was a really barrel of laughs. Incest, a kidnapped child, two just married main characters and three kids crash into an iced over pond and their nine month old baby dies, and that's just the main items. Laugh a minute I tell you. And I felt physically really crap when I watched it, shivering every time I stood up.

After coming upstairs and putting a hot water bottle in my bed, I spent several minutes retching up phlegm while sweat poured down my face. The last time something like that happened I had pneumonia. Ironically, getting the phlegm up seems to have cleared my head and I feel neither sweaty nor shivery at the moment, plus my runny nose seems to have largely dried up. I hope I stay that way but I'm not feeling terribly optimistic.

If I suddenly stop blogging it's because I'm in hospital. Christ ,   I sound like a right hypochondriac. I'll be regretting this post in a couple of days.

I hope.

MY FIRST 6 MONTHS OF BLOGGING

Just checked and I've managed a total of 177 posts since I started blogging back in June which I think is a creditable total. Of course some have been really brief but not many. I didn't intend to produce two blogs but the cat rescue side of things began to become too unwieldy to fit in with the popular culture theme so I extracted the entries and transferred them to the new blog. There are also some entries duplicated in each because I know at least one of my readers doesn't read the cat side and another, I think, who doesn't read the pop culture.

My enduring thanks to Lisa who provided vital technical help when I first started. Blame her.

I know I don't have many visitors to this site and it would be nice to have more but, while I like to communicate with other people, I'm doing this, in part, for myself because I just like writing. Ideally I'd like to be writing fiction but inspiration has abandoned me for the moment. Should anyone want to read anything I've written in that line, the links are on the sidebar.

Frankly, though I pay no attention to dates especially as they are purely arbitrary things, I'm glad to see the back of last year for reasons you know all too well. Unfortunately I'm loaded with a lousy cold, running nose, and a chesty cough at the moment. I was still going to deliver cat food to Carol but the snow was so bad up where she lives she actually told me not come until tomorrow. I've also had to postpone Barry and I's first night out since before his operation because of this. I feel so rotten I'm amazed I can write as coherently as I am. I am coherent, aren't I?

My brain is so shot to shit that I can't even summon up the energy to watch last night's 2-hour Casualty that I taped (as in recorded to my Virgin Media black box hard disc but it's easy just to write taped and assume that everyone will assume that anyway). So I'm going to shove season 2 of a relatively recent (i.e. about ten years old) Batman cartoon series into my pc and see if I can get distracted by that.

TV: DR WHO, WATERLOO ROAD

Goodbye, goodbye.

Goodbye David Tennant who will be missed but not, I suspect for long, and goodbye Russell T Davies who definitely overstayed his welcome. New boss Steven Moffat and new Who Matt Smith will revitalise the show and I can hardly wait. I predict it will be better than ever.

Goodbye, for now, to Waterloo Road a show that's been running for 3 years and about 9 series (autumn and summer terms -it's set in a comprehensive) which I watched for the first time a couple of months ago and just because I was curious as to how ex-Holby City star Tom Chambers would be like in it. The answer to that was brilliant. He played the part of Max, executive head of four schools but supervising the integration of his former school, posh John Fosters, with the rabble of Wellington Road. At first ambitious but charming, he's gradually revealed as a manipulative lying bully who'll stop at nothing to get his own way regardless of who he destroys in the process  -teacher or pupil.

But what did surprise me was how good the rest of the show was. Great ongoing storylines, deft writing, nice balance of lighter moments which very serious ones, interesting characters (teachers and pupils), terrific cast of British character actors, some known to me (Sarah Jane Potts, Denise Welch, Angela Griffin), some not (William Ash, Philip Martin Brown who is one of those faces who probably -actually there's no probably about it- appears in just about every British tv series going and Wikipaedia has just informed me I don't remember him from a stint on Casualty), and some very promising young actors like Jenna Louise Coleman given a much better part than her prior Emmerdale role.

Why did no-one tell me how great this show was? I enjoyed it even more than Casualty and Holby City which I like a lot, though both can be very uneven, and it succeeds, like them, by continually reinventing itself. Looks like I'm going to have to try and pick up the DVDs of previous seasons if I can get them cheap enough.

Bugger!