also good
Monday, 16 February 2004
oh, the reason i know about Sarah Cracknell (and apparently she's "still fit too"), is down to QPR John. explanation?
~
his Saturday was hideously drunk by the beginning of the afternoon and involved "scary looking Bees fans" and violence.
alas, the violence round our way was sickening, i'm afraid to say.
football rivalries, bored young men, alcohol, the manchester derby, people that have been inside for murder anyway, drug dealers, closeted busy pubs, stabbings and assaults on police officers, it ain't good.
~
his Saturday was hideously drunk by the beginning of the afternoon and involved "scary looking Bees fans" and violence.
alas, the violence round our way was sickening, i'm afraid to say.
football rivalries, bored young men, alcohol, the manchester derby, people that have been inside for murder anyway, drug dealers, closeted busy pubs, stabbings and assaults on police officers, it ain't good.
via the rambler, that is thoughtful and good (the rambler's also OTM about the miserable, miserly words of Paul Morley).
musically speaking, i suppose Jon is the best blog.
(well, him and spizzazzz and skykicking)
he's right about Sydney of course.
the best Australian cities (in descending order) are
- Sydney
- Melbourne
- Adelaide
- Perth
- Darwin
- Brisbane
- Hobart
- Newcastle (go Silverchair woo!)
- Gold Coast
note i've never been to Oz in my life
(well, him and spizzazzz and skykicking)
he's right about Sydney of course.
the best Australian cities (in descending order) are
- Sydney
- Melbourne
- Adelaide
- Perth
- Darwin
- Brisbane
- Hobart
- Newcastle (go Silverchair woo!)
- Gold Coast
note i've never been to Oz in my life
actually when scarlett gets on the subway and sees a young chap reading manga porn (manga porn! so can we please have a high profile Japanese indie flick of urban anomie that plays in the US, showing our Japanese heroine getting on the new york subway and the first thing that happens is she sees an incredibly obese man reading a "THICK NEO-CON PAROCHIAL FUCKWIT PRIMER TO THE REST OF THE WORLD aka INFIDELS 101" pamphlet please??), i was expecting another sweaty Japanese geek to try a spot of rubbing up against her, perhaps try and snip off a lock of her hair.
yeah, i think that's (the sort of thing) the vocal critics of 'lost in translation' mean...
yeah, i think that's (the sort of thing) the vocal critics of 'lost in translation' mean...
bafta winners
-
i'm glad that bill murray won his best actor gong, and although anne reid was the best actress in those categories right? (her performance seemed far more _out_ than johansson's, even though 'the mother' was really not as good), it's hardly upsetting that scarlett johansson won best actress. but i was reading on another blog (i can't remember where it was, sorry!) that they thought ribisi was better than either of the two leads in 'lost in translation'. this seems entirely supportable (much as i want to marry the entirely lovable and weary murray in 'groundhog day', and scallops to andie mcdowall's character).
bill nighy a better supporting actor than either tim robbins or paul bettany [or the daddy of albert finney who deserves an award each year for playing it how he did in 'miller's crossing] is a misjudgment surely (but 'love actually' had to win something of course...).
re. 'lost in translation' whilst it seems that momus is of course being a bit too overstating his case an' all you can sorta see what he's getting at, but there again this wonderfully eloquent homage to the film didn't quite convince me with its Also, it’s not entirely about being lost in Japan, but of being swept up in the chaos of cities in general. You go somewhere you don’t know the rules and norms, it’s hard to function without getting stressed. Try being a tourist in London in the rush hour – don’t even think about looking at the tube map on a station platform.
it seems there is a little something there that the dismissals of the film - couched in the cliched terms of reference you'll be familiar with - articulate.
BUT one'd also argue there's a little something of an undercurrent in the film that is, well, a tad dodgy.
i've only read 2 or 3 interviews where the director expounds upon a discussion of the, er, 'Japan issue' but she's not been persuasive for her cause at all, in any 'defence'.
that some folks are trying to do this {via Pop Life} is fair enough but i think regrettable, but that's only because i'm a supposed aestheticist, although i can see there's enough cause for concern to do that. anyway, i'm not a concerned asian-american so i should bacdafucup.
that said, the opening scene where murray sees himself on a billboard and some of the karaoke scenes were incredibly affecting (but that opening scene i found the most powerful and transformative in the entire film; never mind pseuds discussing what he whispered in her ear at the end! ooh, we are in a bitchy mood this morning...); some of the scenes where she 'engages' with trad arr Japanese culture especially worked quite well.
anyway, it's a superior effort to 'the virgin suicides' and even if it does flatter to deceive ultimately, it's got tongues wagging about it, so Coppola deserves some recognition for that.
-
on another note, it's nice to see two good British films winning something at the baftas. 'touching the void', ignoring sniffy critical comments about technical talk and all that, was pretty bloody strong stuff.
and very pleasing that 'in this world' (further proof of the catholic curate's egg of a director that is michael winterbottom: don't forget he was the man finally responsible for the mangling of the reality-wringer that was '24 hour party people') gained some acknowledgment. the best film to win anything on the night, for my money: indeed, the best film to be nominated full-stop perhaps. startling.
-
i'm glad that bill murray won his best actor gong, and although anne reid was the best actress in those categories right? (her performance seemed far more _out_ than johansson's, even though 'the mother' was really not as good), it's hardly upsetting that scarlett johansson won best actress. but i was reading on another blog (i can't remember where it was, sorry!) that they thought ribisi was better than either of the two leads in 'lost in translation'. this seems entirely supportable (much as i want to marry the entirely lovable and weary murray in 'groundhog day', and scallops to andie mcdowall's character).
bill nighy a better supporting actor than either tim robbins or paul bettany [or the daddy of albert finney who deserves an award each year for playing it how he did in 'miller's crossing] is a misjudgment surely (but 'love actually' had to win something of course...).
re. 'lost in translation' whilst it seems that momus is of course being a bit too overstating his case an' all you can sorta see what he's getting at, but there again this wonderfully eloquent homage to the film didn't quite convince me with its Also, it’s not entirely about being lost in Japan, but of being swept up in the chaos of cities in general. You go somewhere you don’t know the rules and norms, it’s hard to function without getting stressed. Try being a tourist in London in the rush hour – don’t even think about looking at the tube map on a station platform.
it seems there is a little something there that the dismissals of the film - couched in the cliched terms of reference you'll be familiar with - articulate.
BUT one'd also argue there's a little something of an undercurrent in the film that is, well, a tad dodgy.
i've only read 2 or 3 interviews where the director expounds upon a discussion of the, er, 'Japan issue' but she's not been persuasive for her cause at all, in any 'defence'.
that some folks are trying to do this {via Pop Life} is fair enough but i think regrettable, but that's only because i'm a supposed aestheticist, although i can see there's enough cause for concern to do that. anyway, i'm not a concerned asian-american so i should bacdafucup.
that said, the opening scene where murray sees himself on a billboard and some of the karaoke scenes were incredibly affecting (but that opening scene i found the most powerful and transformative in the entire film; never mind pseuds discussing what he whispered in her ear at the end! ooh, we are in a bitchy mood this morning...); some of the scenes where she 'engages' with trad arr Japanese culture especially worked quite well.
anyway, it's a superior effort to 'the virgin suicides' and even if it does flatter to deceive ultimately, it's got tongues wagging about it, so Coppola deserves some recognition for that.
-
on another note, it's nice to see two good British films winning something at the baftas. 'touching the void', ignoring sniffy critical comments about technical talk and all that, was pretty bloody strong stuff.
and very pleasing that 'in this world' (further proof of the catholic curate's egg of a director that is michael winterbottom: don't forget he was the man finally responsible for the mangling of the reality-wringer that was '24 hour party people') gained some acknowledgment. the best film to win anything on the night, for my money: indeed, the best film to be nominated full-stop perhaps. startling.
Sunday, 15 February 2004
An ICM poll last month in Britain found that one in five Britons would oppose a Jewish prime minister, while one in seven believed that the Holocaust was exaggerated.
__Rajeev Syal in today's Telegraph.
we're clearly not just talking about disingenuous (or breathtakingly cynical, for that matter) witterings, or riffs on the 'numbers game' (sic; yeah, we were too) here, but something far more insidious...
__Rajeev Syal in today's Telegraph.
we're clearly not just talking about disingenuous (or breathtakingly cynical, for that matter) witterings, or riffs on the 'numbers game' (sic; yeah, we were too) here, but something far more insidious...
Friday, 13 February 2004
that Des Moines article (see below) is of course something which everyone is surely sympathetic to but the problem with an endless critique like that to me is a bit's like what i'll term the Jeremy Hardy Syndrome.
Jeremy, top bloke, top comedian, heart in the right place, but even the fairly outontheleft friend i saw him with once tired part-way into the routine with Jeremy's insistence that his criticisms of government policy, the status quo, etc., didn't have to come with qualifications. the 'what's the alternative' gag you'll have heard if you've ever seen Jeremy Hardy do stand-up, i'd say (this is the only independent item i could find about it online so will have to suffice).
so even though that somewhat bolshy sounding chap below could of course be critiqued (and probably wildly, if one was going to set about him) himself in response to his criticisms of the DesMoines Register column, the pragmatist in the general reader would presumably let it slide.
on reflection, the 'at least the trains run on time' dig from the self-professed hardcore libertarian perhaps isn't so harsh...
Jeremy, top bloke, top comedian, heart in the right place, but even the fairly outontheleft friend i saw him with once tired part-way into the routine with Jeremy's insistence that his criticisms of government policy, the status quo, etc., didn't have to come with qualifications. the 'what's the alternative' gag you'll have heard if you've ever seen Jeremy Hardy do stand-up, i'd say (this is the only independent item i could find about it online so will have to suffice).
so even though that somewhat bolshy sounding chap below could of course be critiqued (and probably wildly, if one was going to set about him) himself in response to his criticisms of the DesMoines Register column, the pragmatist in the general reader would presumably let it slide.
on reflection, the 'at least the trains run on time' dig from the self-professed hardcore libertarian perhaps isn't so harsh...
there's also
Will U.S. actions turn back clock on Iraqi women?~
DID read all of it, -alas-
Whatever else can be said about Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq - and plenty of terrible things can
lets it down, i'm afraid.
OK, so this guy is probably not my school of politics in general, but i'm gonna sit with him as a bedfellow on this critique.
no doubt, it's a cheap (and nasty) shot to headline Yes, But the Trains Ran on Time..., as this bloke does however.
Will U.S. actions turn back clock on Iraqi women?~
DID read all of it, -alas-
Whatever else can be said about Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq - and plenty of terrible things can
lets it down, i'm afraid.
OK, so this guy is probably not my school of politics in general, but i'm gonna sit with him as a bedfellow on this critique.
no doubt, it's a cheap (and nasty) shot to headline Yes, But the Trains Ran on Time..., as this bloke does however.
i linked to this story before and made a 'actually, i probably did intend that as sarcastic aiighht' comment that could have been interpreted as either straight-faced (that would have been my get-out clause) or sarcastic.
i deleted it which is the first time (as far as i can recall) i've ever deleted anything at somedisco. so now i thought i better post it in the interests of honesty.
there is this in mitigation, however.
i deleted it which is the first time (as far as i can recall) i've ever deleted anything at somedisco. so now i thought i better post it in the interests of honesty.
there is this in mitigation, however.
clap clap on chris rock
i like chris rock cause of his quotes on the front cover of that nelson george book, if nowt else. to borrow from the jam tribute album, FIRE & SKILL.
i like chris rock cause of his quotes on the front cover of that nelson george book, if nowt else. to borrow from the jam tribute album, FIRE & SKILL.
god, do like staropramen me. a fave easy-to-get-hold-of continental. a lot better than bigname Belgians you get clueless foos' in black roll-necks going for in arthouse cafes cause they feel it's so superior to wifebeater (or whatever; gosh, i'm not reading my own bigoted values into things today am i?!). Leffe, the ordinary one for instance, is no great shakes in the slightest.
here is a website. The Triple is lovely though.
incidentally, without sounding like a fucking arrogant cock (though undoubtedly i do) i know a little bit about Belgian brews, if not least because this place is one of my locals.
here's Michael Jackson (the beer hunter, not the telly personality or the, er, personality)
great pub lunch
great banter
great scot
onlyfinebeer
well its hyperlinks city today eh man.
here is a website. The Triple is lovely though.
incidentally, without sounding like a fucking arrogant cock (though undoubtedly i do) i know a little bit about Belgian brews, if not least because this place is one of my locals.
here's Michael Jackson (the beer hunter, not the telly personality or the, er, personality)
great pub lunch
great banter
great scot
onlyfinebeer
well its hyperlinks city today eh man.
sorry i'm such a grumpy no-mark today, obviously i know Bertolucci and the actors in the dreamers are nine times the people i will ever be yadda yadda blehblah so never fear i was similarly mystified after all about the fuss over 'apocalypse now redux' thus invalidating my cinematic views for ever i don't doubt!
Pete Baran sticks it to 'The Dreamers' well.
quite frankly i am getting a tad narked with the adverts for it in the papers, praising its 'jouissance and fluidity' (Neasden Examiner), 'sense of sexual daring' (Miles Kington in the Independent), 'filthy wickedness that may bring down the Royals' (Mail on Sunday), and 'masterpiece' (Telegraph, i hope it wasn't my beloved Sukhdev Sandhu that wrote that).
i mean like i said, wanking for Graun readers innit.
gah/
quite frankly i am getting a tad narked with the adverts for it in the papers, praising its 'jouissance and fluidity' (Neasden Examiner), 'sense of sexual daring' (Miles Kington in the Independent), 'filthy wickedness that may bring down the Royals' (Mail on Sunday), and 'masterpiece' (Telegraph, i hope it wasn't my beloved Sukhdev Sandhu that wrote that).
i mean like i said, wanking for Graun readers innit.
gah/
oh yeah Mcr does indeed have the strongest visual arts scene in the UK outside of Edinburgh or London but it's really only the Smoke you need. that said, in the interests of wossnames, here are some links to the better galleries etc (i.e., not too poncy esoteric types) or just the odd ones i particularly like (i.e., there's actually only about 30 or so galleries in town, a few more in the inner city&Salford& = AFAIK = and loadsa them are little poncy wallpaper/frieze reader type places, oh i'm kidding i love ya really). anyway
:-
MAG
The Lowry
Cornerhouse
The Whitworth
CUBE
Richard Goodall
Castlefield Gallery
oh and special mentions for
that at Urbis
and the Spencer at IWMN CURRENT.
:-
MAG
The Lowry
Cornerhouse
The Whitworth
CUBE
Richard Goodall
Castlefield Gallery
oh and special mentions for
that at Urbis
and the Spencer at IWMN CURRENT.
this is from mt. disappointment's other half.
it's fascinating and wonderful and my favourite post of the year thus far, quite possibly. i dunno why. it's kewl.
now Jon might have the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, and Cathy might have The AGNSW and The MCA to go to, but all dem wondeful Melbourne headz have National Gallery of Victoria; i.e., the finest city art gallery in Australia.
oh, this is a great site.
here's the daddy, of course.
the reason for all this is a favour i gotta ask Angus later (i don't think Tim or certainly Keith read this page; sorry, i don't know if there's any other Melbourne bloggers that i read given that i don't know where you're from but anyway i'll stop waffling etc.)
so yeah Gordon! OI i'll get back to yous.
it's fascinating and wonderful and my favourite post of the year thus far, quite possibly. i dunno why. it's kewl.
now Jon might have the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, and Cathy might have The AGNSW and The MCA to go to, but all dem wondeful Melbourne headz have National Gallery of Victoria; i.e., the finest city art gallery in Australia.
oh, this is a great site.
here's the daddy, of course.
the reason for all this is a favour i gotta ask Angus later (i don't think Tim or certainly Keith read this page; sorry, i don't know if there's any other Melbourne bloggers that i read given that i don't know where you're from but anyway i'll stop waffling etc.)
so yeah Gordon! OI i'll get back to yous.
Talent in a Previous Life
yet another new top draw blog, i especially enjoyed this
praise be to our resident cybernetic Forest fan for drawing our attention
N.B.
alas i am a fellow ginga-minga Nicola, never fear.
N.B.B.B.
surely most people fancy Nadine? perhaps Cheryl at a pinch.
yet another new top draw blog, i especially enjoyed this
praise be to our resident cybernetic Forest fan for drawing our attention
N.B.
alas i am a fellow ginga-minga Nicola, never fear.
N.B.B.B.
surely most people fancy Nadine? perhaps Cheryl at a pinch.
Thursday, 12 February 2004
shouldn't speak {oh i am! what a tosser...} but this news might not be the best.
the family have - rightly - in the past argued that scapegoating this single solider is not good enough. here's something explaining their fears about a culture of impunity within the particular part of the IDF they're concerned with (what a wordy sentence!).
the family have - rightly - in the past argued that scapegoating this single solider is not good enough. here's something explaining their fears about a culture of impunity within the particular part of the IDF they're concerned with (what a wordy sentence!).
also via Dave Stelfox, his mate's new blog here, which looks quite tasty. pray continue with your lists, o master of the Cali retinue!
The Rambler
is:
a Cumbrian called Tim Johnson, a Carlisle United fan, set to wed this year.
also is:
a BOSS blog.
i read him every day.
quality.
nice i up
is:
a Cumbrian called Tim Johnson, a Carlisle United fan, set to wed this year.
also is:
a BOSS blog.
i read him every day.
quality.
nice i up
i find this piece of modern pop-cultural refusenik-ism from Kyle Gann (an actual famous person! with a blog!) strangely moving.
hear hear.
link via here, some chap called Rob who appears to be a chum of Ramblin Tim.
looks like a promising start to me.
hear hear.
link via here, some chap called Rob who appears to be a chum of Ramblin Tim.
looks like a promising start to me.
Wednesday, 11 February 2004
silverdollarcircle
more people should big this boy up, the NW language, the stream of consciousness intended or otherwise, it's all SUPERB.
i fink.
plus he and i were raised about 20 miles apart from each other, which is, er nice.
but what i wanted to say was there's this bit awhile ago where he wrote "once i heard an MC say over this track, in a voice that suddenly sounded very lonely, 'ok, we're going to war, reinforcements are on their way...' and it was just incredibly moving."
and don't ax me to justify why, but i just found that an incredibly affecting sentence in itself, ie. Simon talking about the thing on the radio (never mind the radio thing itself, which sounds poignant to silverdollarcircle) like i say i dunno why, it just him me, just so, so BIG UP. i just thought it was powerfully simple, and simply powerful (sorry fella, that was crap)
more people should big this boy up, the NW language, the stream of consciousness intended or otherwise, it's all SUPERB.
i fink.
plus he and i were raised about 20 miles apart from each other, which is, er nice.
but what i wanted to say was there's this bit awhile ago where he wrote "once i heard an MC say over this track, in a voice that suddenly sounded very lonely, 'ok, we're going to war, reinforcements are on their way...' and it was just incredibly moving."
and don't ax me to justify why, but i just found that an incredibly affecting sentence in itself, ie. Simon talking about the thing on the radio (never mind the radio thing itself, which sounds poignant to silverdollarcircle) like i say i dunno why, it just him me, just so, so BIG UP. i just thought it was powerfully simple, and simply powerful (sorry fella, that was crap)
i find that quite interesting.
i don't like the sound of that.
you may or may not like the telegraph but even those who don't like it would possibly admit it's preferable to the express (or the mail, for that matter).
as someone who - just about - prefers the telegraph and the times to the guardian or the independent, i must say, i'm bloody concerned about that.
this article claims that richard desmond has a hand in editing the front pages (not that there's anything wrong or indeed surprising about that; it's his paper after all - it's just worrying).
i don't like the sound of that.
you may or may not like the telegraph but even those who don't like it would possibly admit it's preferable to the express (or the mail, for that matter).
as someone who - just about - prefers the telegraph and the times to the guardian or the independent, i must say, i'm bloody concerned about that.
this article claims that richard desmond has a hand in editing the front pages (not that there's anything wrong or indeed surprising about that; it's his paper after all - it's just worrying).
purely from, yunno, a writerly point of view.
i'm a fairly happy-go-lucky optimist sort of chap but it's all about the psychogeographic-tone-prose-poems round here.
and another thing, pseuds, proper literary intellectuals (e.g., Beckett or Pessoa or Rilke) have the right to say daftly impenetrable things that if the average person in the street said you would say 'you daft twat' but because they say it it's okay. there should be a law though, that's what i rate. but i'm not so sure about people that haven't earnt their stripes doing so, you just need some books you don't need to travel etc. to travel, all that, that's all very well, but write us a masterpiece to convince us of your poetic rectitude first.
i'm a fairly happy-go-lucky optimist sort of chap but it's all about the psychogeographic-tone-prose-poems round here.
and another thing, pseuds, proper literary intellectuals (e.g., Beckett or Pessoa or Rilke) have the right to say daftly impenetrable things that if the average person in the street said you would say 'you daft twat' but because they say it it's okay. there should be a law though, that's what i rate. but i'm not so sure about people that haven't earnt their stripes doing so, you just need some books you don't need to travel etc. to travel, all that, that's all very well, but write us a masterpiece to convince us of your poetic rectitude first.
Tuesday, 10 February 2004
I'm not a crusader or campaigner for the North and I don't put on a flat cap when I sit down to write. But it is very important. I don't think I live in the provinces - I think I live in the centre of the universe.
_Simon Armitage.
god save us from professional Yorkshiremen!
granted, the centre of the universe is where everybody lives, as everybody lives in the centre of their universe and it would be nice to strive for an inclusive localism (god, this is a pseuds corner sentence innit) that becomes bigger than the sum of its parts extending to the margins and the whole (or whatever, blah blah, nearly done now) but really - parochialism like that is just...(yes i know i just contradicted oneself but hey-ho) hmm, irritating.
_Simon Armitage.
god save us from professional Yorkshiremen!
granted, the centre of the universe is where everybody lives, as everybody lives in the centre of their universe and it would be nice to strive for an inclusive localism (god, this is a pseuds corner sentence innit) that becomes bigger than the sum of its parts extending to the margins and the whole (or whatever, blah blah, nearly done now) but really - parochialism like that is just...(yes i know i just contradicted oneself but hey-ho) hmm, irritating.
The Rambler surpasses himself following the "pop" debates (k-punk [wicked pictures of late!] and Joe also).
as it's a school-masterly type air that some of those involved have been taking, my links today are of surnames.
==
Poptimism: half-time analysis
- it was Carlin's masterly summary of the year 1985 that started 'it' off, wasn't it?
thoroughly researched and definitely not light reading. great things are expected of this young pup.
- Ingram appeals to all the softies, such as myself and the boy Stelfox. Ingram doesn't have to try too hard apart from when he's doing his lavishly illustrated full-length essay pieces (though he can sometimes be a little too alert to criticisms from his peers which affects his delicate sensibility unfavourably - an awful shame), and we wish him well. he is asking for a transfer to the Visual Art class anyway as of September.
- Ewing is one of the great conciliators of the form. always alert with a quip and a smile, a wildly popular figure, and work informed by hope. let's not get all shawshank redemption on each other, but a cheery young cove when on form. well done.
- Barthel transferred to the class from overseas and sometimes it seems his American ways rub the others up the wrong direction. typically American 'can-do' endeavour mean this boy is a hard worker and some future successes are predicted, as long as Barthel can rein in his intermittent squabbling with the form's troublesome remedial pupil.
=
-- all in all, Johnson has the last word on the subject. well done Johnson.
P.S.
- whilst the boys are all out yapping, it should be noted that this pupil is actually sailing ahead of everyone.
P.P.S.
- the pupil known as somedisco has been held back for next semester again after a serious disagreement with the normally placid Dale where it was alleged Dale had his yoghurt (strawberry) pot stolen by somedisco, who then refused to return it, screaming about dowagers and artichokes.
as it's a school-masterly type air that some of those involved have been taking, my links today are of surnames.
==
Poptimism: half-time analysis
- it was Carlin's masterly summary of the year 1985 that started 'it' off, wasn't it?
thoroughly researched and definitely not light reading. great things are expected of this young pup.
- Ingram appeals to all the softies, such as myself and the boy Stelfox. Ingram doesn't have to try too hard apart from when he's doing his lavishly illustrated full-length essay pieces (though he can sometimes be a little too alert to criticisms from his peers which affects his delicate sensibility unfavourably - an awful shame), and we wish him well. he is asking for a transfer to the Visual Art class anyway as of September.
- Ewing is one of the great conciliators of the form. always alert with a quip and a smile, a wildly popular figure, and work informed by hope. let's not get all shawshank redemption on each other, but a cheery young cove when on form. well done.
- Barthel transferred to the class from overseas and sometimes it seems his American ways rub the others up the wrong direction. typically American 'can-do' endeavour mean this boy is a hard worker and some future successes are predicted, as long as Barthel can rein in his intermittent squabbling with the form's troublesome remedial pupil.
=
-- all in all, Johnson has the last word on the subject. well done Johnson.
P.S.
- whilst the boys are all out yapping, it should be noted that this pupil is actually sailing ahead of everyone.
P.P.S.
- the pupil known as somedisco has been held back for next semester again after a serious disagreement with the normally placid Dale where it was alleged Dale had his yoghurt (strawberry) pot stolen by somedisco, who then refused to return it, screaming about dowagers and artichokes.
see her?
my mate works here.
they're doing a feature on her at the moment, some big thing for schooltrips. very interesting.
two of my best mates are from Handsworth and when i get my arse in gear i'll be doing a big up Brum post.
for now, check here (and here, of course).
also Dan and Iain - digital WM folk.
big up ya chest, Birmingham
my mate works here.
they're doing a feature on her at the moment, some big thing for schooltrips. very interesting.
two of my best mates are from Handsworth and when i get my arse in gear i'll be doing a big up Brum post.
for now, check here (and here, of course).
also Dan and Iain - digital WM folk.
big up ya chest, Birmingham
people like Jason Dodd are surely going to respond, well, not the best.
they'll have to live with it, but really....you gotta get your dressing room in order.
they'll have to live with it, but really....you gotta get your dressing room in order.
before i wade into all this whole fray (bentos) that Luka has been, like, propping (and i'm okay cause i'm a fellow blagger, this is why luke sends the crumbs from his Ldn. table up to Mcr, he appreciates that), can we just note that it's so nice to be reading about Holderlin and not, say, Dave Eggers all the damn-straight-as-mustard time.
much as i've been enjoying S/FJ's thoughts on that Ashbery reading
it was his whole take on all that 'NYT sex-slave' hullabaloo (he also links to some of the main music-actually-but-they're-like-all-humans-n-that playas discussing this whole affair, including Hua Hsu and Doug Wolk making a bit of a reefer madness out of it all.
you can follow the links and all, what struck me was S/FJ's original response (follow it from lacunae).
interesting.
it was his whole take on all that 'NYT sex-slave' hullabaloo (he also links to some of the main music-actually-but-they're-like-all-humans-n-that playas discussing this whole affair, including Hua Hsu and Doug Wolk making a bit of a reefer madness out of it all.
you can follow the links and all, what struck me was S/FJ's original response (follow it from lacunae).
interesting.
re. this-
i tell you what i really enjoyed in all the letters to the editor on this debate of late, what i really liked was all the good liberals reminding us of poor human rights records in mostly Muslim states, yeah, that's a great reason to ban headscarves, perhaps we could stop nuns dressing like they do because of the Irish potato famine.
give yourselves a big pat on the back.
i tell you what i really enjoyed in all the letters to the editor on this debate of late, what i really liked was all the good liberals reminding us of poor human rights records in mostly Muslim states, yeah, that's a great reason to ban headscarves, perhaps we could stop nuns dressing like they do because of the Irish potato famine.
give yourselves a big pat on the back.
Monday, 9 February 2004
{with apologies to [late lamented, dear departed] josh blog}
"...a huge tray bearing coffee and milk, toast, a sugar bowl, perhaps some cherry preserve or marmalade, a slice of dark grainy quince paste, a sponge cake, brioches with a fine crust, crunchy biscuits, or slices of French toast, those scrumptious luxuries served in hotels. We shall soon learn if the Braganca goes in for such extravagance, because Ricardo Reis is about to sample his first breakfast."
AKA second-gen luvva of the funcked-up funcky beats downs tools. my very good mate Qas: he knows a great joke about a dog in a country village and it was he that told me that pineapple contains an enzyme that can tenderise lamb (i didn't know that; cheers Q!)
P.S.
to be fair to nuts magazine (can't be arsed to link 'em tho') they have some funny features in there (i didn't buy it i was idling today at work on my break and someone left one on my call desk...)__but quite right yes.
P.P.S.
what is the problem with schnide own brand kettle chips? i had some last night with a load of whisky and beer and was belching like a duffelpud (if they belch, they can certainly FUCKING HOP BY LOR). i blame the gravy, it looked like smokers catarrh (sp).
"...a huge tray bearing coffee and milk, toast, a sugar bowl, perhaps some cherry preserve or marmalade, a slice of dark grainy quince paste, a sponge cake, brioches with a fine crust, crunchy biscuits, or slices of French toast, those scrumptious luxuries served in hotels. We shall soon learn if the Braganca goes in for such extravagance, because Ricardo Reis is about to sample his first breakfast."
AKA second-gen luvva of the funcked-up funcky beats downs tools. my very good mate Qas: he knows a great joke about a dog in a country village and it was he that told me that pineapple contains an enzyme that can tenderise lamb (i didn't know that; cheers Q!)
P.S.
to be fair to nuts magazine (can't be arsed to link 'em tho') they have some funny features in there (i didn't buy it i was idling today at work on my break and someone left one on my call desk...)__but quite right yes.
P.P.S.
what is the problem with schnide own brand kettle chips? i had some last night with a load of whisky and beer and was belching like a duffelpud (if they belch, they can certainly FUCKING HOP BY LOR). i blame the gravy, it looked like smokers catarrh (sp).
New warning Britain will be hit by massive tax bill
GYPSY CRISIS
Britain was warned last night it faces a massive benefits bill to pay for the looming influx of immigrants, including gypsies, from eastern Europe….many of the new immigrants, including Roma gypsies, could become a “burden” on the benefits system.
The Express continues in the same vein; Roma are mentioned one more time.
i don’t know what the hell is going on at that place, i really don’t. could they be done for incitement? it’s possibly not so far-fetched...
Underneath the black eye-patch, this man was essentially a loner, strangely turned in on himself – an odd trait in someone others looked to for leadership and it makes him a very modern hero.
David Pryce-Jones on Moshe Dayan.
do you think Ben Kingsley will win a statue for his performance in ‘house of sand and fog’? my mate told me the bookies have got quite decent odds on that one. he was overlooked in ‘sexy beast’ after all, and that was okay.
“However, despite a resurrected Anglophone lexicon of Eurasian pivotalism and advanced Great Game theory, the dross reality of Texas-style chicken-friend empire – George Bush imperator, sprawling Sun Belt mega-churches instead of Gothic Westminster, Bible-thumping Virginia ayatollahs, Pentagon intellectuals-in-residence, doctrines of preemptive war, and Texas Ranger unilateralism – quickly sent serious historians reaching for less flattering analogies.”
I love the use of the word “serious” in that so-called sentence.
_Michael Portillo tears into Kevin Phillips’ (no, not the Southampton striker) American Dynasty: How the Bush Clan Became the World’s Most Powerful and Dangerous Family.
justice for james miller.
One of the indubitable masterpieces of his later years is the pitiless Self-Portrait in a Dressing-Room Mirror (1923-4). He stands in his studio, its walls ablaze with yellow, pictures all around him like the ghosts of all his memories. His face is an eloquent blur, turned to the light but eyes that look almost sightless. The former Nabi resembles an Old Testament prophet, gone blind.
_on the new, scaled-down, Vuillard show at the Royal Academy (larger versions of this show have been glimpsed in Montreal, Paris and Washington, D.C.).
brilliant headline for an interview with (Sir) Roy Strong: A look back in languor. haha!
A present from the local undertaker…a severe man, always telling me my funeral eulogies are over-generous.
_The Reverend Alice Goodman, of St Mary’s Kidderminster, acknowledges some chocolate biscuits.
Alice is also a Harvard-educated Jewish-American girl from the plains (to be precise, same state as Bobby Dylan) who wrote the librettos for both Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer.
‘Mr Abley scorns Noam Chomsky’s belief in a universal grammar underlying all languages.’
was trying to think what was so strange and a tad – well, frankly – creepy almost about just the trailers for ‘the dreamers’. then the foregrounding of the girl’s body (Green) hits you. thinking ‘fairy nuff like, it is old Bernardo, after all Maria and Marlon and the butter…’, but this was still well put from kinofan Jenny McCartney (and OTM too, methinks) “Still, it will no doubt be a godsend to male teenagers, who have been patiently waiting ever since Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue for another arty film about a mad French bird who strips off at the drop of a chapeau.”
how right you are Jenny, how right you are!
If they uproot me, I won’t be able to believe any more in the moral basis of this Jewish state….Thank God, the people are strong even if the leadership is now weak.
_Avi Farhan, resident in Elei Sinai.
Arik Harpaz, with a monument to his 19 year old daughter Liron – killed by gunmen – on his land (“Her blood seeped into this ground…I don’t know if I can leave”) admits For true peace, I am ready to leave…but I believe this is a bad step.
was it that Amy Studt who covered Sheryl Crow? that wasn’t very good was it. and that Amy Winehouse is a bit rude, calling superior songs to her fare rubbish (slagging off Blu Cantrell’s ‘breathe’ f’r instance).
and another thing, why do nearly all the very negative reviews of the latest Courtney Love album i’ve seen of late do a not very good job on the music and tend to go for Courtney the personality in a hatchet job? okay, she’s a larger than life character, but it’s half-arsed and unfair. NEXT PLEASE!
I despise hypocrites who sport huge beards in the name of religion and hinder the passage of justice in the name of Islam.
- Haroon Tanoli.
Haroon’s son Abid was an ordinary student at a Karachi madrassa when – aged 14 – he was horribly scarred (for life) in an acid attack perpetrated by one of his teachers and three assistants. The reason? Abid had resisted his teacher’s sexual advances. Haroon managed to get Abid to a hospital but their family cannot afford the operation to save the boy’s sight.
Haroon is in hiding.
Shame needs an audience and is about what other people think of you. It is about public humiliation, losing face, and violating a common trust. Guilt is about what you think about yourself, about failing in your own eyes. Guilt is, ultimately, self-serving.
Aristotle said that the inability to feel shame is the ultimate proof of a wicked character. The word “character” could nowadays be substituted with “culture”.
- Nigel Farndale.
obviously a bit unsure about his closing sentence but as a zippy opening paragraph, that first bit is quite fun.
The main courses, on the other hand, were dreadful. My duck leg confit (£16) was perfectly crispy, yet the meat itself was staggeringly flavourless – quite an achievement with the planet’s finest meat market a 90-second walk away.
_Matthew Norman visits Vivat Bacchus, on Farringdon Street, EC4.
actually my old man told me he went in the boozer i was ripping the other day and it’s 2.22 a pint of lager (fuck me, it’s not rice wine). the same lager in his club is 1.34 (i think it was). huh!
“Fragonard senior died on 22 August after quite a short illness. He was 74 and a half years old and extremely fat.”
- obituary for Jean Honore Fragonard, painter of The Fountain of Love (among other works), that ran in the Nouvelles des Arts, in 1806.
here is a letter from someone in Wolverhampton, replying to that other letter from the councillor in Liverpool.
Chris Lenton’s combat against the European Commission, bureaucracy and centralism is all very well, but I think we are all missing the point here: Ryanair and other so-called cheap airlines are using unfair market tactics and have been for years.
They intimidate small airports (who are victims of Ryanair, not of the European ruling) and play the game of ‘Let us land for free, or we’ll go and land somewhere else and take all our British tourists and money to another city’.
Now think of your local French airline paying a fortune to use the runways. Do you really think it is fair on them? How would you feel if you owned a small airline business and had to pay £3,000 per landing to use a runway, only to find out Ryanair gets the same for free, just because of their name?
Also, we need to think of the airports. They need money to survive, particularly small airports not subsidised by big cities such as Paris and London. Many have already told Ryanair and friends to go away if they are not prepared to pay the normal fee.
Okay, this is an inconvenience for us, living in the UK. We all love visiting small towns in France, Italy and Austria – but does our comfort really come first? Or should it be the fairness of trade in a market already badly affected by September 11? I’m glad such commissions exist, or else who would make sure companies trade fairly?
here’s a couple of other replies, firstly from a Green Party man in north London, and then someone in the east of our fair capital.
Green bloke writes: I think Chris Lenton misses the point about the Ryanair judgment. This was a small step towards ending the economic mollycoddling of the aviation industry.
The UK air transport industry alone gets a £9billion annual tax break. Because it’s the most heavily polluting mode of transport, aviation has huge hidden costs, including its share of the bill for pollution-related ill health and climate change.
These hidden costs amount to almost £4billion a year for UK aviation alone, and about £15billion for EU aviation as a whole. The economic playing field is currently tilted in favour of the most environmentally damaging form of transport with the greatest hidden costs. We need to tilt it the other way, towards more environmentally-friendly rail travel that could replace half of European air trips, while improving social inclusion.
meanwhile, some chap with his eye on the prize writes:All residents of all countries to which Ryanair flies are in a position to benefit from the marvellously cheap fares it offers. Europe has really been opened up by them and other low-cost airlines and long may that continue. Trading fairly? We are in a common market – sell your product as well as you can and let the others catch up. For once, the paying customers are getting something that they want.
i don’t really want to say anything here but will note that as recently as 1999 when Air France had the monopoly on flights between London and Strasbourg you could be charged £540 (540 pounds!! you can fly from northern England all the way to New Zealand for about seven hundred pounds!) for a ticket between the two cities. in 2001, Ryanair could offer you that flight for ten pounds. a French court ruling has since restored the state carrier monopoly on that route. the complaints against Ryanair of late have included disquiet emanating from an Air France subsidiary that is in direct competition with Ryanair. in 1994, the European Court of Justice ruled a £2.4billion state subsidy to Air France was not legal. the rules were changed by the commission so that this subsidy effectively became legal.
well, it makes you think anyway (it was certainly hard not to laugh recently when Kevin Myers wrote, of European Commissioner Loyola de Palacio announcing Only genuine competition is truly capable of safeguarding consumers’ rights, that “…this from a representative of the EU, which runs the world’s largest cartel, otherwise known as the Common Agricultural Policy.”).
GYPSY CRISIS
Britain was warned last night it faces a massive benefits bill to pay for the looming influx of immigrants, including gypsies, from eastern Europe….many of the new immigrants, including Roma gypsies, could become a “burden” on the benefits system.
The Express continues in the same vein; Roma are mentioned one more time.
i don’t know what the hell is going on at that place, i really don’t. could they be done for incitement? it’s possibly not so far-fetched...
Underneath the black eye-patch, this man was essentially a loner, strangely turned in on himself – an odd trait in someone others looked to for leadership and it makes him a very modern hero.
David Pryce-Jones on Moshe Dayan.
do you think Ben Kingsley will win a statue for his performance in ‘house of sand and fog’? my mate told me the bookies have got quite decent odds on that one. he was overlooked in ‘sexy beast’ after all, and that was okay.
“However, despite a resurrected Anglophone lexicon of Eurasian pivotalism and advanced Great Game theory, the dross reality of Texas-style chicken-friend empire – George Bush imperator, sprawling Sun Belt mega-churches instead of Gothic Westminster, Bible-thumping Virginia ayatollahs, Pentagon intellectuals-in-residence, doctrines of preemptive war, and Texas Ranger unilateralism – quickly sent serious historians reaching for less flattering analogies.”
I love the use of the word “serious” in that so-called sentence.
_Michael Portillo tears into Kevin Phillips’ (no, not the Southampton striker) American Dynasty: How the Bush Clan Became the World’s Most Powerful and Dangerous Family.
justice for james miller.
One of the indubitable masterpieces of his later years is the pitiless Self-Portrait in a Dressing-Room Mirror (1923-4). He stands in his studio, its walls ablaze with yellow, pictures all around him like the ghosts of all his memories. His face is an eloquent blur, turned to the light but eyes that look almost sightless. The former Nabi resembles an Old Testament prophet, gone blind.
_on the new, scaled-down, Vuillard show at the Royal Academy (larger versions of this show have been glimpsed in Montreal, Paris and Washington, D.C.).
brilliant headline for an interview with (Sir) Roy Strong: A look back in languor. haha!
A present from the local undertaker…a severe man, always telling me my funeral eulogies are over-generous.
_The Reverend Alice Goodman, of St Mary’s Kidderminster, acknowledges some chocolate biscuits.
Alice is also a Harvard-educated Jewish-American girl from the plains (to be precise, same state as Bobby Dylan) who wrote the librettos for both Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer.
‘Mr Abley scorns Noam Chomsky’s belief in a universal grammar underlying all languages.’
was trying to think what was so strange and a tad – well, frankly – creepy almost about just the trailers for ‘the dreamers’. then the foregrounding of the girl’s body (Green) hits you. thinking ‘fairy nuff like, it is old Bernardo, after all Maria and Marlon and the butter…’, but this was still well put from kinofan Jenny McCartney (and OTM too, methinks) “Still, it will no doubt be a godsend to male teenagers, who have been patiently waiting ever since Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue for another arty film about a mad French bird who strips off at the drop of a chapeau.”
how right you are Jenny, how right you are!
If they uproot me, I won’t be able to believe any more in the moral basis of this Jewish state….Thank God, the people are strong even if the leadership is now weak.
_Avi Farhan, resident in Elei Sinai.
Arik Harpaz, with a monument to his 19 year old daughter Liron – killed by gunmen – on his land (“Her blood seeped into this ground…I don’t know if I can leave”) admits For true peace, I am ready to leave…but I believe this is a bad step.
was it that Amy Studt who covered Sheryl Crow? that wasn’t very good was it. and that Amy Winehouse is a bit rude, calling superior songs to her fare rubbish (slagging off Blu Cantrell’s ‘breathe’ f’r instance).
and another thing, why do nearly all the very negative reviews of the latest Courtney Love album i’ve seen of late do a not very good job on the music and tend to go for Courtney the personality in a hatchet job? okay, she’s a larger than life character, but it’s half-arsed and unfair. NEXT PLEASE!
I despise hypocrites who sport huge beards in the name of religion and hinder the passage of justice in the name of Islam.
- Haroon Tanoli.
Haroon’s son Abid was an ordinary student at a Karachi madrassa when – aged 14 – he was horribly scarred (for life) in an acid attack perpetrated by one of his teachers and three assistants. The reason? Abid had resisted his teacher’s sexual advances. Haroon managed to get Abid to a hospital but their family cannot afford the operation to save the boy’s sight.
Haroon is in hiding.
Shame needs an audience and is about what other people think of you. It is about public humiliation, losing face, and violating a common trust. Guilt is about what you think about yourself, about failing in your own eyes. Guilt is, ultimately, self-serving.
Aristotle said that the inability to feel shame is the ultimate proof of a wicked character. The word “character” could nowadays be substituted with “culture”.
- Nigel Farndale.
obviously a bit unsure about his closing sentence but as a zippy opening paragraph, that first bit is quite fun.
The main courses, on the other hand, were dreadful. My duck leg confit (£16) was perfectly crispy, yet the meat itself was staggeringly flavourless – quite an achievement with the planet’s finest meat market a 90-second walk away.
_Matthew Norman visits Vivat Bacchus, on Farringdon Street, EC4.
actually my old man told me he went in the boozer i was ripping the other day and it’s 2.22 a pint of lager (fuck me, it’s not rice wine). the same lager in his club is 1.34 (i think it was). huh!
“Fragonard senior died on 22 August after quite a short illness. He was 74 and a half years old and extremely fat.”
- obituary for Jean Honore Fragonard, painter of The Fountain of Love (among other works), that ran in the Nouvelles des Arts, in 1806.
here is a letter from someone in Wolverhampton, replying to that other letter from the councillor in Liverpool.
Chris Lenton’s combat against the European Commission, bureaucracy and centralism is all very well, but I think we are all missing the point here: Ryanair and other so-called cheap airlines are using unfair market tactics and have been for years.
They intimidate small airports (who are victims of Ryanair, not of the European ruling) and play the game of ‘Let us land for free, or we’ll go and land somewhere else and take all our British tourists and money to another city’.
Now think of your local French airline paying a fortune to use the runways. Do you really think it is fair on them? How would you feel if you owned a small airline business and had to pay £3,000 per landing to use a runway, only to find out Ryanair gets the same for free, just because of their name?
Also, we need to think of the airports. They need money to survive, particularly small airports not subsidised by big cities such as Paris and London. Many have already told Ryanair and friends to go away if they are not prepared to pay the normal fee.
Okay, this is an inconvenience for us, living in the UK. We all love visiting small towns in France, Italy and Austria – but does our comfort really come first? Or should it be the fairness of trade in a market already badly affected by September 11? I’m glad such commissions exist, or else who would make sure companies trade fairly?
here’s a couple of other replies, firstly from a Green Party man in north London, and then someone in the east of our fair capital.
Green bloke writes: I think Chris Lenton misses the point about the Ryanair judgment. This was a small step towards ending the economic mollycoddling of the aviation industry.
The UK air transport industry alone gets a £9billion annual tax break. Because it’s the most heavily polluting mode of transport, aviation has huge hidden costs, including its share of the bill for pollution-related ill health and climate change.
These hidden costs amount to almost £4billion a year for UK aviation alone, and about £15billion for EU aviation as a whole. The economic playing field is currently tilted in favour of the most environmentally damaging form of transport with the greatest hidden costs. We need to tilt it the other way, towards more environmentally-friendly rail travel that could replace half of European air trips, while improving social inclusion.
meanwhile, some chap with his eye on the prize writes:All residents of all countries to which Ryanair flies are in a position to benefit from the marvellously cheap fares it offers. Europe has really been opened up by them and other low-cost airlines and long may that continue. Trading fairly? We are in a common market – sell your product as well as you can and let the others catch up. For once, the paying customers are getting something that they want.
i don’t really want to say anything here but will note that as recently as 1999 when Air France had the monopoly on flights between London and Strasbourg you could be charged £540 (540 pounds!! you can fly from northern England all the way to New Zealand for about seven hundred pounds!) for a ticket between the two cities. in 2001, Ryanair could offer you that flight for ten pounds. a French court ruling has since restored the state carrier monopoly on that route. the complaints against Ryanair of late have included disquiet emanating from an Air France subsidiary that is in direct competition with Ryanair. in 1994, the European Court of Justice ruled a £2.4billion state subsidy to Air France was not legal. the rules were changed by the commission so that this subsidy effectively became legal.
well, it makes you think anyway (it was certainly hard not to laugh recently when Kevin Myers wrote, of European Commissioner Loyola de Palacio announcing Only genuine competition is truly capable of safeguarding consumers’ rights, that “…this from a representative of the EU, which runs the world’s largest cartel, otherwise known as the Common Agricultural Policy.”).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)