tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43293195844206273012024-02-28T23:41:32.099+00:00World In A Bottleand they rode on in the friscalating dusklight Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.comBlogger372125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-9345690577349608512023-07-03T21:55:00.004+01:002023-07-03T22:06:51.234+01:00 Hollywood needs a new Raiders Of The Lost Ark, not a new Indiana Jones movie<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vHdf6YTFMzV5PDp2kzM-DFEIDNKsuqrHEDhsiG2hn14mOX5ROH0bCjMnDM0HG3Wsj-P-M335RGsWEezwzpCA9WP7-FLkIBRTlmLl18W6-2fmFv7ILoVPV0FsS6tQNd6YYiGp6wsUi_NKhmg41S2khSHB-tBa3hTe1_SgNUBqeq_QfuyFbjMLwNVtbXur/s820/indy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="820" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vHdf6YTFMzV5PDp2kzM-DFEIDNKsuqrHEDhsiG2hn14mOX5ROH0bCjMnDM0HG3Wsj-P-M335RGsWEezwzpCA9WP7-FLkIBRTlmLl18W6-2fmFv7ILoVPV0FsS6tQNd6YYiGp6wsUi_NKhmg41S2khSHB-tBa3hTe1_SgNUBqeq_QfuyFbjMLwNVtbXur/s320/indy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>I remember the movie era when Raiders of The Lost Ark was released. The big action franchise was Bond, and the latest Bond films with the very old looking Roger Moore and the returning Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again looked incredibly creaky and fake. Their stunts were a joke, plots were comedy contrivance, and they had the dusty reek of movies from a previous epoch.<p></p><p>And we heard Spielberg and Lucas, our fave directors of hot, sharp funny hip scifi movies were taking time out to do a mundane adventure movie set in the 1930s. WTF? (We might not have expressed ourselves that way)</p><p>Then Raiders opened and made the 1930s as fresh and real as exciting as anything in the Star Wars universe. Real stunts and locations with a sharp cool funny young actor and great cast. Add that to a thrilling supernatural sub plot and a magnificently ambiguous ending that has never been topped. Suddenly the Bond franchise looked as dead as a door-nail*.</p><p>Of course the Indiana Jones sequels followed all commodifying Harrison Ford as the center of the franchise, eventually moving it to the 1950s and now 1960s. I found myself thinking the other day how I would have felt if I'd been told in 1981 that they'd eventually make an Indy film set after 1940. I would definitely have said <i><b>"wow that will be crap"</b></i></p><p>But that key 1930s setting is a bit of a distraction, vital as it is. It's nice to imagine a series of Raiders films not following Ford but following Marion, or Brody, or Belloq or even the Ark itself, but the truth is Ford had the mega star power, and it's inevitable that the sequels to Raiders would be vehicles around Indy.</p><p>But tied to Indy they have become the thing they once looked to replace. Dial of Destiny is Harrison Ford's Octopussy/Never Say Never Again. And the scary thing for Hollywood right now the nearest thing to a new equivalent of Raiders of The Lost Ark is... </p><p><b><i>Mission Impossible 7 starring 61 year old Tom Cruise.</i></b></p><p>*What was the other new movie franchise making Bond look decrepit at this time? Deadly cool new actor Mel Gibson in white line nightmare that was Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior in the US). </p><p>Imagine seeing Roger Moore's latter era Bond, then Raiders of the Lost Ark and then Mad Max 2 in the same year. </p><p>Maybe Dial of Destiny has got it easy after all. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-20740065789313037362023-02-04T16:31:00.004+00:002023-02-04T16:31:35.708+00:00Modern Star Wars Coping Strategy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyreLBHUV9IiaQxgLIt_u8llc7R_ZToto-_jrRLB8r8fgovLvppcyLmmJA2VXoRxe-zl30Yqm2NYMULtFubi9A3f4r1qe_6gzxs4km_DakVbWa9wZjkmbScTC4EiTLsxPlAkY0AXZSqftd_Q3bSnIJFkeqViwWYxP-rHdBJVkRin0l9e8xpXvG0deRw/s997/Luthen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="935" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyreLBHUV9IiaQxgLIt_u8llc7R_ZToto-_jrRLB8r8fgovLvppcyLmmJA2VXoRxe-zl30Yqm2NYMULtFubi9A3f4r1qe_6gzxs4km_DakVbWa9wZjkmbScTC4EiTLsxPlAkY0AXZSqftd_Q3bSnIJFkeqViwWYxP-rHdBJVkRin0l9e8xpXvG0deRw/s320/Luthen.png" width="300" /></a></div><br /> Star Wars Andor is very good. Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett and the Sequels are very bad. This is a coping strategy.<p></p><p><strong class="_12FoOEddL7j_RgMQN0SNeU">If
you are still too angry at Kenobi, Boba Fett, The Adventures of Rey etc
to enjoy Star Wars Andor you might find this helpful. This is how I deal with the
bad Star Wars content.</strong></p><div class="_3xX726aBn29LDbsDtzr_6E _1Ap4F5maDtT1E1YuCiaO0r D3IL3FD0RFy_mkKLPwL4" data-adclicklocation="media" data-click-id="text" style="max-width: 800px;"><div class="_292iotee39Lmt0MkQZ2hPV RichTextJSON-root"><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Try and imagine that Star Wars today is coming at us from several different “gospels”</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Star
Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi is the saga told by the
most respected original historical source, by an engaged classic
storyteller for a main stream audience. The Original Trilogy is like
Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte Darthur' is to the legend of King Arthur. It's
the most respected source and set the template.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">The Prequel Trilogy is a gospel based on census records told by a dorky ex diplomat mainly known for terrible romance novels</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">The
Sequel Trilogy tries to explain real historical events but it’s based
on juvenile conspiracy theories from a school history class 1000 years
after the event.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">The Mandalorian is history as pulp adventure story told by a very talented serial writer.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Boba Fett and Kenobi is history told by the primary school kids again, this time with crayons.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Andor
is Star Wars history written by an ex-spy ... a source more used to
writing desperately down beat realistic content. He probably ended up
commuting suicide or getting pushed out of a window.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">What
does this approach allow us to do? It means the essential story parts
of the sequel trilogy, Kenobi and Boba Fett happened, we’ve just not
seen the grown up version of the history yet.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">For me :</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><em class="_7s4syPYtk5hfUIjySXcRE">Real events of Force Awakens, Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker</em></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">The
New Republic WAS destroyed by a fanatical high tech sect of the
Imperial remnant. Depressing and difficult to explain without juvenile
conspiracy theories. One history of the period is entirely told from the
POV of one girl (Guess who)</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><em class="_7s4syPYtk5hfUIjySXcRE">Real events of Star Wars : Kenobi</em></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">There
are some children who like to think General Kenobi was more active but -
really? Most of it turns out to be misdirection put out by Rebellion
intelligence.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM"><em class="_7s4syPYtk5hfUIjySXcRE">Real events of Book of Boba Fett</em></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">There are a lot silly tales told about the history of Boba Fett, mostly by children who’ve had too much fizzy pop.</p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM">Do
we have to worry about what is the essential real take on the events of
Star Wars? No, again, for me, the real, real events which inspired the
legend of a A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far Far Away probably concerned
5th dimensional beings at the heart of a neutron star shortly after the
Big Bang. If you want to know why the director of American Graffiti felt
compelled need to tell this story with humans as the main characters,
in 1977, that is a tale probably best told by Phillip K Dick.</p></div></div>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-5335932823657227042023-02-03T10:50:00.003+00:002023-02-04T14:37:56.455+00:00It's now cool to like Alien3, and Star Wars (Andor)<span id="docs-internal-guid-46572884-7fff-84b0-e01c-15ae794aa98b"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are a couple of things I would have blogged about before now but somehow I couldn't find the way in in to the subjects. D</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">isparate subjects if you're not a sci-fi nerd.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><img alt="永 — Fiorina “Fury” 161" class="n3VNCb KAlRDb" data-noaft="1" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/2fb8421ec496e4f3d3904efbf762f496/tumblr_ntwuf5o77l1qd479ro1_500.png" style="height: 292px; margin: 0px; width: 500px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars Andor is the new Star Wars TV series. It has been critically lauded so I'm saying nothing startling here, but just to reiterate, Andor is at least a decade more mature and sophisticated than anything we've seen previously from the Galaxy Far Far Away.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alien 3 is a movie which came out 20 years ago and was critically reviled for good reason on release. As David Fincher's first movie it has been appreciated somewhat since by some critics and fans, though is still pretty much hated by popular film fat by mainstream film fan.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The settings of both are heavily influenced buy the landscapes of post-industrial England. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the things that makes Star Wars Andor so special and such a success in comparison to other recent Star Wars content is it to use of striking real-world locations. In the same manner as it's predecessor movie Star Wars Rogue One used real world British locations, Star Wars Andor made use of real-world locations such as the Barbican Centre the McLaren Technology Centre and newly developed parts of Blackpool Pleasure Beach</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The intelligent use of locations in Andor is striking on several levels. I recognised many of these locations and yet they still looked more exotic then the Fate locations in the other shows just because of their presentation I guess it also striking but parts of 21st century Britain look so convincingly dystopian when they are actually part of a real world reality. (another current sci-fi TV series I have not yet reviewed is The Peripheral which I did cover at length in book form when originally released. The Peripheral TV series also makes use of contemporary landmarks in London to populate a dystopian reality).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the particular set location in and all that I want to draw attention to here is not a real world location. It is the huge physical set depicting the planet Ferrix, apparently built in a quarry somewhere in England, What makes this stand out to me is the familiarity of this alien setting in a galaxy far far away, a tight-knit working-class community surrounded by red brick deep class loyalty rigid social structures based on on the work and a cast iron resilience and loyalty.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ferrix is very reminiscent of the working class communities in Yorkshire and the North which can be seen in movies such as Brassed Off.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2X_xzS0yg3GBuLAWVremxtcPr4rMjsDf1jltWBUwbgO3s_ORWutRRQLXqWX6qvRf7EZuoHlKM34z6Bo8hcO6OdzWgsntxyHHIfeoKHOl9L77oUqwySKqHyhJgwHFluSyu097u4pPig33A-ALs6ML5eaMQKo6huNjQ0WBnGLkYs_nEB8MN0n1PtU6exA/s424/BRassedOff.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="424" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2X_xzS0yg3GBuLAWVremxtcPr4rMjsDf1jltWBUwbgO3s_ORWutRRQLXqWX6qvRf7EZuoHlKM34z6Bo8hcO6OdzWgsntxyHHIfeoKHOl9L77oUqwySKqHyhJgwHFluSyu097u4pPig33A-ALs6ML5eaMQKo6huNjQ0WBnGLkYs_nEB8MN0n1PtU6exA/s320/BRassedOff.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEcc9TCtJXlTmqUZwz6iFUitO2mZU-6fCkx2OPi5v-Z0m0QZ6wd_DWZKmTbIgEa4ucSxs4mkh1vMZRAmonS7fvUjImYW3H_qz9r8CCE8hFTH8lExuhy2YnjXOu4v39HHWfA4s5bpgSMk7F7bxa0VrkoP6Y0ub6EhSEYSsEw0Oax8NaIxDJrHS4tekpeA/s636/Star%20Wars%20Andor.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="636" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEcc9TCtJXlTmqUZwz6iFUitO2mZU-6fCkx2OPi5v-Z0m0QZ6wd_DWZKmTbIgEa4ucSxs4mkh1vMZRAmonS7fvUjImYW3H_qz9r8CCE8hFTH8lExuhy2YnjXOu4v39HHWfA4s5bpgSMk7F7bxa0VrkoP6Y0ub6EhSEYSsEw0Oax8NaIxDJrHS4tekpeA/s320/Star%20Wars%20Andor.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alien3 was universally loathed upon release but the revised Assembly Cut has given us an excuse to revisit it and maybe even appreciate it's unrelenting darkness. Once again somehow American directors and creators and production designers looked for an alien landscape and culture and went to post-industrial landscapes heavily influenced by the North East. The planet in Alien3 Fury 161 is a mixture of penal colony and abandoned industrial smelter. Anyone familiar with the ending of Newcastle set Get Carter will instantly see the giant cranes and bleak seascapes.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQPRJe8l48XtslWRMP6H81lkeNEtE54PCyZb3Xa2l1yM080xa7UZTjenHKvXcmK_QK6ah8msjI9_sjviJuC5U-UkoiqViIzktJRLlXRyzQT69f_RjZVEw2WNIvqP0O_rsKukGDxnSe4RsPBB6pwaJAN6cb8sjgRTWoGpaCnwmdZcZTIsXsc-sVZM8wg/s1280/Get%20Carter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQPRJe8l48XtslWRMP6H81lkeNEtE54PCyZb3Xa2l1yM080xa7UZTjenHKvXcmK_QK6ah8msjI9_sjviJuC5U-UkoiqViIzktJRLlXRyzQT69f_RjZVEw2WNIvqP0O_rsKukGDxnSe4RsPBB6pwaJAN6cb8sjgRTWoGpaCnwmdZcZTIsXsc-sVZM8wg/s320/Get%20Carter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo2SpFXKvF-4YPbyboP8nTTPqbvZPDwKrGTBMe89mYa9WS_3Nly1EzMfV0x-gVcUjLrh8HnA3PWrYDk_VPgWKBQ1H3A_LdrIImjNBuD_iqGNYlDXYpfGoQJJsrn43xwWpbeivPN-POalFD9kzh8MFI041aj8qxARAU4XK-FcfnO8Obqiz2Pv4tajaYaQ/s999/Fury%20161.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="999" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo2SpFXKvF-4YPbyboP8nTTPqbvZPDwKrGTBMe89mYa9WS_3Nly1EzMfV0x-gVcUjLrh8HnA3PWrYDk_VPgWKBQ1H3A_LdrIImjNBuD_iqGNYlDXYpfGoQJJsrn43xwWpbeivPN-POalFD9kzh8MFI041aj8qxARAU4XK-FcfnO8Obqiz2Pv4tajaYaQ/s320/Fury%20161.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The inclusion in Alien3 of faces such Brian Glover, an icon of Northern England acting, makes this allusion even more more obvious.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://skepticalprobe.blogspot.com/2018/01/blade-runner-opening-sequence-circa-1975.html"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a different franchise, the introduction to Ridley Scott's original Blade Runner is another striking visual inspiration from the same area. </span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In earlier versions of this blog this would probably have been a review. but I've never reviewed anything Star Wars here despite being a massive fan since seeing it in Canada on initial release. I actually reviewed Alien 3 Assembly Cut a few years ago go before the release of Alien Covenant.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I guess I should try that all up now I've already said Star Wars Andor is brilliant coming in a close second behind Severance as my TV of 2022. Watching some of the standard Star Wars Disney output really tests your loyalty to something you love. There is obviously relief when you hear people saying Star Wars Andor is the best Star Wars not since the 70s, but ever they are not being entirely unrealistic.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fan disappointment and disillusionment has also of course recently been a major problem with the recent Alien films, going right back to the crushing experience of Alien3. I never reviewed Alien Covenant upon release I was as initially uncertain of several plot surprises. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week, in an attempt to make a visit to Avatar 2 to slightly more palatable, I re-watched the Alien films which I'm less familiar with. <a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-best-way-get-over-alien3-and-alien.html">Alien3 Assembly Cut was as good as it was when I saw it a few years ago (which is to say still flawed but a huge improvement over the original release)</a>. Prometheus was I would say 20% better than my last viewing and <a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2012/10/ridleys-scotts-prometheus-explained-for.html">I strongly defended it the first time round</a>. With Covenant, now I could anticipate the plot, the second viewing was a huge improvement. If you felt these unappreciated Alien films were a disappointment initially I suggest you give them another chance. They are obviously meant to be surprising, different, and shocking.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obsessive thinking on the subjects listed above has been hugely helped by several brilliant podcasts which I've been using to escape the news. For Star Wars, the Rebel Force Radio podcast is a great example of an old time fan podcast which sounds like a great radio show run by two older guys with some opinions, but nothing too toxic. It sounds as warm and welcoming as NPR Car Talk if you're aware of that radio phenomena. I highly recommend it if you need to re-discover your enthusiasm for that much abused franchise.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSwh9BlIctKMo42DPk_kSR296szHvSVGhif6-2_VHGa_7EUN15YHFEWecFunIdWgbYnuXs3ClKQcy8PNalCx50gbBnqVpHA-0qynE3ony3jExl54BtAnNrY5PiPwi-2SGe5Dw6aGGj28MxVUzHy2OGjqHnCtq_KEumS82PGi0M-mhyIZzqOyK2L5s8dw/s797/RebelForceRadio.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="797" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSwh9BlIctKMo42DPk_kSR296szHvSVGhif6-2_VHGa_7EUN15YHFEWecFunIdWgbYnuXs3ClKQcy8PNalCx50gbBnqVpHA-0qynE3ony3jExl54BtAnNrY5PiPwi-2SGe5Dw6aGGj28MxVUzHy2OGjqHnCtq_KEumS82PGi0M-mhyIZzqOyK2L5s8dw/s320/RebelForceRadio.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Alien, The Perfect Organism podcast really helps bring to life what you might be regarding as an even more tired subject. Their approach is unflinchingly cerebral and quite informed. Even their contentious arguments are well put and worth listening to. Alien3 is actually their favourite of the movies - it's now cool to like Alien3, the most hated franchise movie of the last 30 years!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1DVSSYuwgNtnQ85xzi0wGzajRjYztizlKsJomWqlUxVoyDG4qUwkZGad-n-Pi1j1Pm-If9SQWNarUwZtEyX8YFBkm78-OpBE35cr18G2-Ke6HGb8r9xlDrsHbSUgn6F5ZcoXa5WCkn0h1GpebjvaEzqwySTQmfg-U4JWfLfwWtbzz44OmJrlzDFZRQ/s308/PerfectOrganism.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="308" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1DVSSYuwgNtnQ85xzi0wGzajRjYztizlKsJomWqlUxVoyDG4qUwkZGad-n-Pi1j1Pm-If9SQWNarUwZtEyX8YFBkm78-OpBE35cr18G2-Ke6HGb8r9xlDrsHbSUgn6F5ZcoXa5WCkn0h1GpebjvaEzqwySTQmfg-U4JWfLfwWtbzz44OmJrlzDFZRQ/s1600/PerfectOrganism.png" width="308" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There's a lesson for fans in all of this. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we can find ourselves coming to terms with and appreciating a movie in Alien3, which is a slapdash mess which starts by brutally slaying two favourite characters from the preceding classic movie, then surely fans long term can cope with any kind of substandard content. Redemption and forgiveness is probably somewhere down the line for the worst recent Star Wars content, but, when the garbage is peppered with nuggets of gold like Star Wars Andor (and Prey, the recent excellent Predator movie) there are always reasons to hang on in there and always give the creators another chance to get it right.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/search/label/alien">More on Alien</a></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-66401855972786191352023-02-03T10:50:00.002+00:002023-02-04T14:36:22.739+00:00Ridley Scott's Alien and Hitler's favourite painting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_2MGDa_syOBMBCZXRG6-4rUzwwnqUa7du1nCB09bD-K-XELli6nLbdnarG1NO-wBaJoAPkI63KQPRYONTW1PWSlN8aisIeMXTepLViPmERwpmcqeyQkV_3QPqhwCScmHxbf5ILv7Wa3DZ_xihNZvfLxCmu7hn2aisXOgaA33BCHVgV4seZyIfXb1_g/s999/IslePlanet4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="999" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_2MGDa_syOBMBCZXRG6-4rUzwwnqUa7du1nCB09bD-K-XELli6nLbdnarG1NO-wBaJoAPkI63KQPRYONTW1PWSlN8aisIeMXTepLViPmERwpmcqeyQkV_3QPqhwCScmHxbf5ILv7Wa3DZ_xihNZvfLxCmu7hn2aisXOgaA33BCHVgV4seZyIfXb1_g/w400-h139/IslePlanet4.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The painting Isle of the Dead, created by Swiss symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin, had a significant impact on the design of the planet in the film Alien: Covenant. The painting, which depicts a boat carrying a dead person towards an island with a mysterious and foreboding atmosphere, has influenced the film's portrayal of the planet as a bleak, desolate and ominous environment.</p><p><i>The painting had an iconic, almost meme like influence on pre WW2 Europe. It was immensely popular and attracted a wide variety of admirers. <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud" title="Freud">Freud</a> kept a reproduction in his office; <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin" title="Lenin">Lenin</a> had one above his bed; <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler" title="Hitler">Hitler</a> bought one of the originals. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov" title="Vladimir Nabokov">Vladimir Nabokov</a> wrote that reproductions of the painting could be “found in every Berlin home”</i></p><p><i>Alien Covenant concept Artist Wayne Haag (with the assistance of Steve Messing)
intentionally referenced this painting at the request of Ridley Scott.</i></p><i>
</i><p><i><b>WH:</b> There's a definite influence from ... I think I mentioned Böcklin. We referenced Arnold Böcklin a lot.</i></p><i>
</i><p><i><b>AVPForum:</b> The 'Isle of the Dead', is it?</i></p><i>
</i><p><i><b>WH:</b> Right. So there's a look and a feel to
Böcklin's paintings, and that's what Ridley's aiming at. It's not so
much the detail, necessarily, although he's big on trees. Oh he loved
the trees.... but there's a general overall look and feel to his
paintings that we were riffing off.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzx_I3F6j7HhSNYDGNocUDWeD8Foe-O_AyseSvrzNkmBJyv81l5oh55TV2Q4p6v9ihtUFlKUdaHtdEsO5_k2KigXvYn7AcU-f_PPLbXYssMd808BUSmIlo3HXMH1h9Mt3yvDwFaohXZsfbSZ3jZvxzxa8doKoDym9VW4lzJFzjeyaqYOT__XPZsIafJg/s813/IslePlanet4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="813" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzx_I3F6j7HhSNYDGNocUDWeD8Foe-O_AyseSvrzNkmBJyv81l5oh55TV2Q4p6v9ihtUFlKUdaHtdEsO5_k2KigXvYn7AcU-f_PPLbXYssMd808BUSmIlo3HXMH1h9Mt3yvDwFaohXZsfbSZ3jZvxzxa8doKoDym9VW4lzJFzjeyaqYOT__XPZsIafJg/s320/IslePlanet4.png" width="320" /></a></div><i>Isle of the Dead had a connection to Alien before the first movie went before the cameras. HR Giger, the famous conceptual artist behind the biomechanical creature designs throughout the Alien films,<a href="http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1977/08/hr-gigers-homage-to-bocklin.html"> did several of his own versions of Isle of The Dead in 1977, two years before Ridley Scott enlisted him to work on Alien.</a></i><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-lrQ6zrtsKdHPMLPLNvgbrcPZPmH3Ec9yWBOkWia4i8izkEsaMriPAOH9ZpEOYMUYNOqIZ5jl8YmpIspyTwdfcWVko1g-06bVaGnj5VqenaUYleQwSys5po1PSghOMgFQt2HMCqIfqslOqa1RU7Ov0l9ptUX_cLTTyWnSffPnHcmpIoAnQtjaRpVDjA/s800/Giger350.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="800" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-lrQ6zrtsKdHPMLPLNvgbrcPZPmH3Ec9yWBOkWia4i8izkEsaMriPAOH9ZpEOYMUYNOqIZ5jl8YmpIspyTwdfcWVko1g-06bVaGnj5VqenaUYleQwSys5po1PSghOMgFQt2HMCqIfqslOqa1RU7Ov0l9ptUX_cLTTyWnSffPnHcmpIoAnQtjaRpVDjA/s320/Giger350.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_the_Dead_(film)" target="_blank">Isle of the Dead had already inspired a noir horror film directed by the 1940s master of atmospheric suspense, Val Lewton.</a></i><br /></p><p><i> </i>The painting's use of dark and ominous clouds, combined with its focus on the boat's journey towards an unknown destination, creates a feeling of unease and foreboding. This same sense of dread and mystery is evident in the design of the planet in Alien: Covenant, which is characterized by its dark and desolate landscapes, shrouded in mist and mystery. The planet's surface is dotted with towering cliffs and eerie, moss-covered ruins, lending an air of ancient and unspoiled terror to the environment.</p><p>The use of the painting Isle of the Dead in the film's design also speaks to the themes of death and mortality that are central to the film. The painting's depiction of the journey towards the afterlife is mirrored in the film by the characters' journey to the planet, where they encounter danger and death at every turn. The painting's focus on the fleeting nature of life and the uncertainty of the afterlife is echoed in the film's exploration of the fragility of human existence in the face of the universe's uncaring and indifferent forces.</p><p>In conclusion, the influence of the painting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_the_Dead_(painting)">Isle of the Dead</a> on the design of the planet in Alien: Covenant has been significant. The painting's eerie and ominous atmosphere, combined with its themes of death and mortality, have helped to create a sense of dread and mystery that is central to the film's portrayal of the planet. The use of this painting in the film's design speaks to the filmmakers' commitment to creating a unique and immersive environment, one that evokes a sense of unease and foreboding that stays with the viewer long after the film has ended.</p><p><i>The real surprise of the recent Alien prequels is that the real antagonist is not the Alien, but the rogue AI, David 8, fantastically played by Micheal Fassbinder. It is in the spirit of David 8 that I dedicate this entry in my blog to my new friend ChatGPT, as just about everything above this paragraph was generated by a (helpful) AI.</i></p><p><a href="https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=62572.0" target="_blank">More on Alien and Isle of The Dead</a></p><p><a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/search/label/alien">More on Alien </a><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUdwdFyoo48fuAQaII1oH5-2KtRFjHtSEc-CUS-4OVvZaq8ryo7I4aGh9nGD7uhjAu3a9jJKfPQBXlPYWeHXZ0ByAIdoion-sZlsgNIF2vtXLKzBPjNWyjwg7wFqq-DzlXePhbNZfdvNEfXnUL7ozn_u_DF8gq4mZyZc9XK-_DuD_UqYZOQR2yczF00Q/s1280/1280px-arnold_bc3b6cklin_-_die_toteninsel_iii_alte_nationalgalerie_berlin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1280" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUdwdFyoo48fuAQaII1oH5-2KtRFjHtSEc-CUS-4OVvZaq8ryo7I4aGh9nGD7uhjAu3a9jJKfPQBXlPYWeHXZ0ByAIdoion-sZlsgNIF2vtXLKzBPjNWyjwg7wFqq-DzlXePhbNZfdvNEfXnUL7ozn_u_DF8gq4mZyZc9XK-_DuD_UqYZOQR2yczF00Q/s320/1280px-arnold_bc3b6cklin_-_die_toteninsel_iii_alte_nationalgalerie_berlin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-72117293591710973982023-02-03T10:49:00.002+00:002023-02-03T10:49:38.193+00:00The 21st Century has arrived at last (unpublished post from onset of COVID)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhju8HWvX7WSatNkeRaoRB71aSIig952CPZi3u1jsre7XBD5Tfol8nDDxH_jjjFoD_CTuPeqiV3e38vKfk5jOr5aTNjWw5LhryDcc5Wff1IrGf2zBPGd3zAJ1qwU0SuOkUtLBrI-JjjU7QehWMloEi6Dyc90jx97qdExr5P-iEln0ZIHaZyowyFYcwq5g/s460/tv21logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="460" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhju8HWvX7WSatNkeRaoRB71aSIig952CPZi3u1jsre7XBD5Tfol8nDDxH_jjjFoD_CTuPeqiV3e38vKfk5jOr5aTNjWw5LhryDcc5Wff1IrGf2zBPGd3zAJ1qwU0SuOkUtLBrI-JjjU7QehWMloEi6Dyc90jx97qdExr5P-iEln0ZIHaZyowyFYcwq5g/s320/tv21logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i>(14/04/2020)</i><br /><div>Some of us have been eagerly awaiting Century 21 since watching “futuristic” Gerry Anderson shows in the 1970s. When the actual date switched over 20 years ago we were all laughing about the overreaction to a virus, the Millennium Bug. <div><br /></div><div>Since then, with the exception of 9/11, the 21st Century has pretty much looked like the end of the 20th. Same stupid types of people in charge, same stupid working practices, same stupid economics.<div><br /></div><div><div><i><b>Well it seems after keeping an impatient audience waiting since the dawn of the new millennium, in February 2020 the 21st century finally pulled back the curtains and marched on stage with a shocking new act, a revival of a horror show from 1918.</b></i></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As one of the million internet articles I’ve read has noted, in a shockingly quick time we have left one historic era, the Post 9/11 period, and entered another. I’ve been wondering for some time why the 21sr century felt so much like the end of the 20th, and how much longer the Gaffa Tape Economics would continue to hold together.</div><div><br />And initially it just looked like a month off work. <div><br /></div><div>Such was the avalanche of time you felt the need to immediately fill it with worthwhile stuff. As I txted to a young friend worried about how we would all get through this </div><div>“It’ll be a different world after and probably a better one - in the meantime if I don’t learn t play my guitar during this I’m going to sell it”<br />
<br />It would have been perhaps easier for me if I was at home in Devon rather than covering my partner in the urban Sout East. But probably not. I’ve already spent very long period alone in that location and it really didn’t do much for me. I might have been able to concentrate better without worrying about another person and her cats, but there are obvious benefits which outweigh the negatives.<br />
<br />
One of the non obvious benefits was getting into <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00grsmc">Liza Tarbuck’s Saturday show on BBC Radio 2</a>.<br />
Even the worldwide lock in apocalypse we are going through could not make me a Radio 2 fan generally, but I have to say Tarbuck’s show, a favourite of my partner, has become a ritual, not just because of the wit and almost Pythonesque silliness, but a semi 6music ear for lost songs, and a psychic intuition for selecting the exact tune for the mood of that moment.<br />
<br />
Tarbuck’s show the weekend before the months long lockdown, when we were all still slightly giddy and still in shock, ended with Vic Damone's version of Irving Berlin's Let’s Face The Music and Dance, which seemed to hit the note in March perfectly<br />
<br />
<i>"There may be trouble ahead</i><br />
<i>But while there's music and moonlight</i><br />
<i>And love and romance</i><br />
<i>Let's face the music and dance</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Soon, we'll be without the moon</i><br />
<i>Humming a different tune, and then</i><br />
<i>There may be teardrops to shed</i><br />
<i>So while there's moonlight and music</i><br />
<i>And love and romance</i><br />
<i>Let's face the music and dance</i><br />
<i>Dance</i><br />
<i>Let's face the music and dance"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Five weeks later into the lockdown, when millions are wondering if the psychological effects of this will be permanent, a play of Radio 2 perennial Joan Amatradings 'Me Myself I' hit me like like an Exocet missile. Isolation is a problem for some, claustrophobia is a problem for others, loneliness is a worry for many. For those of us loners, used to living alone, who quite like isolation and regularly need to seek it out, finding ourselves trapped in the same building and absorbed into their world, even a loved one, for over a month, is not easy.<br />
<br />
<i>"I want to be by myself</i><br />
<i>I came in this world alone</i><br />
<i>Me myself I</i><br />
<i>I want to go to China</i><br />
<i>And to see Japan</i><br />
<i>I'd like to sail the oceans</i><br />
<i>Before the seas run dry"</i><br />
<br />
Calling Tarbuck the herald of the 21st century is probably a but much but it is an unacknowledged gem. Tarbuck’s show also uses parts of John Barry’s Cotton Club as incidental music. That made me an instant fan.</div><div><br />
Otherwise I’ve been trying to relearn D&D, blogging about motorsport, watching old races and trying to binge on Netflix but it has been surprisingly hard. This post was also prompted by Dave Chen on the Westworld podcast who also has had a rough time concentrating. For the first two weeks regular exercise and avoid book reading seemed to be the way but as it has gone, as the vital routines I’d planned slowly dissolve into a yearning just to GET OUT.<br />
<br />It is difficult as many are saying, without any kind of structure, even from the sporting schedule, it is difficult to concentrate on anything outside the daily briefings and death count. Computer game sims of sports have become the actual sport in the space of six weeks.<br />
<br />
Obviously working at the front line would be worse, and that's not even just the health staff. The death rate of bus drivers in London is a sobering stat.<br />
<br />
Things might snap back to normal for a while but the principles have been established for the rest of the century. Having seen the effects on emissions, the age of mass commuting is over. That will have giant knock on effects to the economy in London and the housing market generally. The thrill of street food and claustrophobic mass gatherings might fade. Pubs might make a comeback after this as drinking at home might be repulsive for a while. Come to think of it anything other than sleeping at home might be repulsive for a while. Estate agents will have bumper decade as people try to permanently escape their prison cell of 2020. Relationship councillors and divorce lawyers will be a growth industry. And grief councillors obviously.<br />
<i><br />(14/04/2020)<br /></i><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-15590461436450848582022-05-29T10:29:00.007+01:002022-05-29T11:38:12.202+01:00Putin’s KOMBINAT is to the Soviet Union what the Nazi regime was to Imperial Germany<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">We don't have an official term yet for Putin's flavour of political regime. William Gibson saw it in 1993. It's the <b><u>KOMBINAT.</u></b></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Gibson has a good record of anticipating the future. Famously he coined the term "cyberpunk"in his first novel in 1984 in which he set the popular perception of the internet. He is famous for that first trilogy of books, but his second trilogy, known as the Bridge trilogy, quickly fell victim to the law of "nothing dates as fast as yesterdays tomorrow". Published in the early 1990s and set only a decade later, the Bridge books still read pretty cool noir but it's an alternate future with no phones or Web 2.0. <i>Some might prefer this nightmare dystopia /s.</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDWw2mLewybqONuTpbQMDwrQc8ho5XdADW2gAuCAvhmBTz5UXWsdKv-9OCZ2AUB4catJ0WwhuVKgprLQwQ01AOVYP9V1jAW1uMYsF61Qvy8thUZDs1X9vmdct-0n-MIYRfGsEnahTFCqlatNQs925BhUBGvUaCZ1AtKfyx8rY0U3mDCeSlRWvj11PqQ/s485/Virtual%20light.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="299" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDWw2mLewybqONuTpbQMDwrQc8ho5XdADW2gAuCAvhmBTz5UXWsdKv-9OCZ2AUB4catJ0WwhuVKgprLQwQ01AOVYP9V1jAW1uMYsF61Qvy8thUZDs1X9vmdct-0n-MIYRfGsEnahTFCqlatNQs925BhUBGvUaCZ1AtKfyx8rY0U3mDCeSlRWvj11PqQ/w123-h200/Virtual%20light.jpg" width="123" /></a></div><br />Admittedly he's only a decade away, but some things Gibson gets pretty on the nose. Pandemics, which seemed to begin with HIV, are now a regular occurrence. As per the first trilogy the middle class is shrinking fast and society is dividing into tech driven super rich and crime inflected everyone else. Crime is riddled with Russian money and it has a solid political origin. "Kombinat" is the name given by Gibson to an evolved Communist state which is now explicitly controlled by organised crime. It seems to be sanctioned by all the other states of Gibson's Bridge world so operatives are actively acquiring new technology from locations like San Francisco and Japan. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />You might respond immediately that for all it's issues Putin's Russia is not communist! It is extreme capitalism! Well, give it time, because the more Putin's state walks like the Soviet Union, and quacks like the Soviet Union, the more those weird years in the middle look like a Weimar daydream without the sexy dancers.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Having given the Kombinat a name suddenly it's place in history looks a lot less accidental, a lot more familiar. It is common currency now to compare Putin with Hitler ("Putler") but less so to compare his regime explicitly with the Nazi Party. Compare the timelines however - 1918-1933, and 1987-2000. The fall of the Kaiser's Germany without invasion. The fall of the Soviet Union without a hot war. Economic chaos follows alongside liberalism. Nationalism as a excuse to unify. Idolisation of the past. Hatred of the future. Staged terrorism events to justify crack downs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Soviet Union like Imperial Germany has a once mighty proud empire lost in a war that barely touches the homeland, creating no sense of real defeat. The undefeated younger generation of the old regime uses gangsterism and brutality to return to power based on militarism nationalism. and unrestrained capitalism.<br />In its first form this state is highly confident and aggressively expansionist. Though Imperial Germany seemed to coming to its senses late in 1914 and the Soviets barely had the resources to invade a third world state at the end, their expansionist ambitions were baked into the political mindset for the rest of the world to see.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrZ1WNP7sxdp1iT35UjIclzPw4oIzkUJADmmu_LIXlAGvSPA0bc0sbEychDNQADpW61lERD6bUBC9viCwSio_hFRSXUfYPDz2xZ1ycPI3hVvPdioVYgDnOmV58nr8LtEZYw4pBq-3CopMJ_F_SXjYBRW7wfb0QEBAehsb3UtYiC7H_q_R-8vr4Jb8xA/s484/Idoru.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="308" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrZ1WNP7sxdp1iT35UjIclzPw4oIzkUJADmmu_LIXlAGvSPA0bc0sbEychDNQADpW61lERD6bUBC9viCwSio_hFRSXUfYPDz2xZ1ycPI3hVvPdioVYgDnOmV58nr8LtEZYw4pBq-3CopMJ_F_SXjYBRW7wfb0QEBAehsb3UtYiC7H_q_R-8vr4Jb8xA/w127-h200/Idoru.jpg" width="127" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In its second form the Nazi/Kombinat is still expansionist but only as part of a self pitying litany of grievances for past injustices. Where Imperial Germany/Russia has actual plans for the territories it seeks to acquire, the Nazi/Kombinat barely has a plan beyond invade and then “watch the world burn". There is no self justified philosophy of "white man’s burden" here, just looting, rape and destruction that would shame the Mongols.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Though not explicitly anti Semitic in its earlier more intellectual form in Imperial Germany/Soviet Union, the more aggressive populist Nazi/Kombinat is bitter, narrow minded and obsessively anti-Jew.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Some of this analysis falls apart when you consider the chasm between the class background of Imperial Prussians and Soviet leaders, and perhaps there are less actual war vets in Putin’s regime than there were in Hitler's, but the patterns of behaviour and outlook do look remarkably similar to me, and if we are looking for a term for Putin’s flavour of Nazism - KOMBINAT is as good as any I’ve come across.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9N27u1UfKXGlH6t64_qzWJ7UGvRdUcMCDvEGPLIf7mupeTdJgzljLMJ_W9FGAKzIdJn2BreP39tcWlodtcLEhIP7jnpaNpOcn8S1wOArO6vX0XT81Xhgatpax1okGWNGEjfJkVlyAPGP3_H7w7vA2NWWJky8raPOi5B1arVQmWazhb-lrjKIUbe01A/s299/All_Tomorrow's_Gibson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="197" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF9N27u1UfKXGlH6t64_qzWJ7UGvRdUcMCDvEGPLIf7mupeTdJgzljLMJ_W9FGAKzIdJn2BreP39tcWlodtcLEhIP7jnpaNpOcn8S1wOArO6vX0XT81Xhgatpax1okGWNGEjfJkVlyAPGP3_H7w7vA2NWWJky8raPOi5B1arVQmWazhb-lrjKIUbe01A/w132-h200/All_Tomorrow's_Gibson.jpg" width="132" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Notes</u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Readers of Gibson's most recent trilogy will be aware that 22nd century London is run by The Klept (derived from kleptocray), descendants of the Russian super elite which escaped to London from what I'm now suggesting we call the Kombinat.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Since writing this post I've become aware of a Russian documentary of the same name, reviewed positively here -<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/24/kombinat-review-dark-eerie-doc-on-russias-socialist-city-of-steel">https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/24/kombinat-review-dark-eerie-doc-on-russias-socialist-city-of-steel</a><br />It seems unconnected to the Gibson term.</div>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-71762096028878510442020-10-28T18:05:00.002+00:002020-10-28T18:15:53.813+00:00HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP DEALT WITH THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLyp1en3CjHb21Q-LGx-EoY-yBRpGQSYIB-lg4QGPunLW80VrynA-nxjUM2pOYZO-GrGGjkxiFp4bJHu6VfCV9jb9o7qwgArvD48GXPhPT4Xrukftt4UnUnL13kOo308cVBuISuExmicVL/s1044/Zombies2b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1044" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLyp1en3CjHb21Q-LGx-EoY-yBRpGQSYIB-lg4QGPunLW80VrynA-nxjUM2pOYZO-GrGGjkxiFp4bJHu6VfCV9jb9o7qwgArvD48GXPhPT4Xrukftt4UnUnL13kOo308cVBuISuExmicVL/w400-h310/Zombies2b.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p><b>Lessons in wartime leadership</b></p><p>Now we can look back at the Zombie war as history, it's time to reassess the effectiveness of the last president of the United States</p><p><b>JANUARY</b></p><p>The outbreak as we know it began in Pittsburgh, thought at the time to be a result of returning samples from a NASA probe to Venus. The dead began rising from the graves and began to eat the flesh of the living.</p><p>Although briefed in private this was a major threat, in public, he urged US life and business to carry on as normal.</p><p>“Don’t be afraid of flesh eating ghouls. Don’t let them dominate your lives.”</p><p><br /></p><p><b>FEBRUARY</b></p><p>In February, he said: “Zombie apocalypse? It’s going to disappear one day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”</p><p>He also said in the same month: “A lot of people think that they go away in April, with the heat, as the heat comes in, typically they will go away in April. Maybe on holiday, in Florida"</p><p><br /></p><p><b>MARCH</b></p><p>As the horde of undead overwhelmed Pennsylvania the President reassured the nation </p><p>“I like this stuff. I really get it,” Trump boasted to reporters during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he met with actual doctors and scientists who were feverishly scrambling to contain and combat the plague of flesh eating undead. Citing a “great, super-genius uncle” who taught at MIT, Trump professed that it must run in the family genes.</p><p>“People are really surprised I understand this stuff,” he said. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”</p><p>Later in March he put aside his scientific credentials and accepted a suggestion he had become a Wartime President. “I do, I actually do, I'm looking at it that way,” Trump told reporters during a press briefing at the White House when asked whether he considered the U.S. to be on a wartime footing. “I look at it, I view it as, in a sense, a wartime president. I mean, that's what we're fighting.“</p><p>His first, and only, direct action as a Wartime President to combat the zombie apocalypse was to completely restrict travel from Venus.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>APRIL</b></p><p>In response to the mass outbreak of cannibalism in New York, President dismissed it as Venus Virus and withheld army and troops for use in states that supported him.</p><p>“It’s a two-way street,” Trump told Fox News on Tuesday. “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”</p><p>After the disastrous Battle of Yonkers in which New York's military defenses were overwhelmed by the horde, the President questioned the motivation of the fallen heroes of the battle.</p><p> “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”</p><p>In late April, Mr Trump went back to his own scientific expertise. Backed by the White House's leading science advisor on the Zombie Virus, United States Marine Corps chiropodist Dr Ali Bongo, Trump wondered if Toilet Duck could be injected into humans to prevent the germs which return people from the dead as cannibals.</p><p>He said: “I see the Toilet Duck, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?</p><p><br /></p><p><b>MAY</b></p><p>In May, he said: “This, Apocalypse, this is a flu. This is like a flu.</p><p>“It’s a little like a regular flu that we have flu shots for, and we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. Or maybe we'll nuke some cities like I suggested with the hurricanes.”</p><p>Mr Trump said: “We think we are going to have a vaccine by the end of this year.”</p><p><br /></p><p><b>JUNE</b></p><p>After the Battle of Yonkers Mr Trump said he had found it difficult to socially distance while meeting members of the armed forces who had been exposed to the Army of The Undead.</p><p>He told Fox News : “It’s very hard when you’re with soldiers, when you’re with airmen, when you’re with the marines, and with the police officers, I’m with them so much.</p><p>“And when they come over to you it’s very hard to say ‘Stay back, stay back’, you know, it’s a tough kind of a situation. They could eat your face off at any minute. it’s a terrible thing.”</p><p>He added: “They come over to you and they want to hug you and they want to kiss you, and maybe bite you, because we really have done a good job for them and you get close and things happen.”</p><p><br /></p><p><b>JULY</b></p><p>Following an early theory that the virus came from a NASA space probe which landed in Pittsburgh, in July Mr Trump claimed to have seen evidence that the zombie outbreak originated in a Venusian laboratory, and speculated that the virus was released by Venusian authorities.</p><p>He said: “It’s a terrible thing that happened.</p><p>“Whether they made a mistake or whether it started off as a mistake and then they made another one, or did somebody do something on purpose. Who knows. They are aliens, and I've heard, from a good person, pedophiles”</p><p><br /></p><p><b>AUGUST</b></p><p>The US president speculated on the use of anti-flu drug Lemsip, which Oxford University researchers found to have no clinical benefit in the treatment of post mortem human flesh cravings.</p><p>Mr Trump said his doctor did not recommend Lemsip to him but he requested it from the White House physician. “I started taking it, because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories,” Mr Trump said</p><p><br /></p><p><b>SEPTEMBER</b></p><p>During a campaign rally in the swing state of Ohio on September 21, Mr Trump played down the scale of the virus. He told supporters: “Now we know it. It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. Particularly tasty old people. But they have other problems, that’s what it really affects, that’s it.”</p><p>He added: “But being a zombie cannibal affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing.”</p><p>"Brain eating is not a problem for young people" he said later</p><p>Trump was able to demonstrate it's harmlessness, when at the end of September, he was bitten on his backside and infected with the zombie virus by celebrity carrier Ted Nugent. 24 hours later Walter Reed hospital brought the President back as first undead POTUS.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>OCTOBER</b></p><p>White House finally embraced the idea of using Herd Immunuty to tackle the zombie outbreak.</p><p><i>"Current hiding from flesh eating zombie policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” </i>stated a declaration with government backing, adding, <i>“The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives - or die and live again - normally, to build up immunity to the zombie virus through natural teeth based infection, while better protecting those who can afford private armies and fortified islands. We call this Focused Protection.”</i></p><p>"ZOMBIES.. ZOMBIES... ZOMBIES... ALL THE CROOKED MEDIA IS OBSESSED WITH" said the president as he gnawed the face off an ecstatic One America News Network reporter.</p><p>In his last statement Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said "We've given up handling the zombie outbreak", just before the boarded up windows of the Oval office caved in. Outside, the Trump supporters and the selfish, brain dead cold blooded creatures who only care about filling their stomach were now indistinguishable from each other.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeAACGXB76rAOON6aaY72-Q">Inspired by Keith Olberman</a></p><p>And remember, this weekend, spare a thought for the true spirit of the Samhain, and George Romero, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, Brian De Palma and John Landis</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnUN5IgTwxp2DyaDQrq7lI05dnOYIMqXw3jBitWYrA2QrVRnKZzik6Bnh6cfH4bAyY7sv_Pxxil14AaM7a_D-8zTxSvLkhat5iq0TzzQ1rw1aYcWSLJIu4bgMDvV6QgOkKE2QEU-st656/s514/Toilet+duckBW.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="222" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirnUN5IgTwxp2DyaDQrq7lI05dnOYIMqXw3jBitWYrA2QrVRnKZzik6Bnh6cfH4bAyY7sv_Pxxil14AaM7a_D-8zTxSvLkhat5iq0TzzQ1rw1aYcWSLJIu4bgMDvV6QgOkKE2QEU-st656/s320/Toilet+duckBW.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-3321459904659938462020-10-01T16:25:00.001+01:002020-10-01T16:25:41.837+01:00The Comey Rule Review : The only Republicans featured are the FBI<p>THE COMEY RULE is a 4 part showtime adaptation of Jim Comey's book A Higher Loyalty, which seeks to explain the decisions he made in opening up an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton 8 days before the 2016 election. </p><p>It stars Jeff Daniels as James Comey, Holly Hunter as Attorney General Sally Yates, Scoot McNairy as Rod Rosenstein, Breaking Bad's Jonathan Banks as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Brendan Gleeson as President Donald Trump.</p><p>The US critics have not been kind - is it worth watching?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNurAZEYIsh3V5YWnzsmVuHkkuq-Wu8QZNxNzQQIhO2s6f8rsoDELkUAkkjGop_jEA-HmnlcwCussmu4ZAKjxzdjSwV-pmCFrWW_HoTbXXanD3Oer3uhM4K4fPmB88l5u-qsI6Mph9PI4B/s916/Comey2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="916" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNurAZEYIsh3V5YWnzsmVuHkkuq-Wu8QZNxNzQQIhO2s6f8rsoDELkUAkkjGop_jEA-HmnlcwCussmu4ZAKjxzdjSwV-pmCFrWW_HoTbXXanD3Oer3uhM4K4fPmB88l5u-qsI6Mph9PI4B/s320/Comey2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Yes</p><p>But</p><p>If you enjoy watching Shakespearean historical disaster stories covering recent history, such as PEOPLE VS OJ SIMPSON or CHERNOBYL, you might enjoy this, though like them, it may leave you sick to the stomach.</p><p>It is a familiar story of naive politicos living in a fantasy WEST WING dreamland of dreams, rainbows and civic duty. They fuss earnestly about hard political rules and morals which turn out to be only held in place by polite behavior and wishful thinking. Their attempts to contain cynical win-at-all-costs political partisans, apparently from an adjacent Joaquin Pheonix's JOKER type reality, provide most of the humour/tragedy depending on your political persuasion.</p><p>see also</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recount_(film)">RECOUNT</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Big_to_Fail_(film)">TOO BIG TO FAIL</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_(film)">COALITION</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit:_The_Uncivil_War">BREXIT</a></p><p>and others</p><p><i>I guess it's the story of our time</i></p><p>THE COMEY RULE is competently done, and gripping in places though it does seem to lean on NEWSROOM level earnestness (full disclosure, I mainly I loved that show). Jeff Daniel's take on Comey is trying to be earnest and dutiful, but comes across as hapless and naive.</p><p>Scoot McNairy as Rosenstien is better, playing Judas to Comey's fumbling Burea-Christ. </p><p>Brendan Gleeson's Trump is excellent, perhaps the best serious onscreen portrayal so far. There must be a temptation to play Trump as a clown (based only on a mountain of real evidence in our own current reality) Gleeson steps back from the joke and get's all of Trump's power of personality and his predatory charisma.</p><p>The most effective sequence is the end of Ep2, in the run up to election night Nov 2016. The creeping sense of dread will be familiar to anyone invested in politics at the time, even foreign rubberneckers foolishly hoping to see a replay of 2012. It is not just the inevitability which is sickening, it is also the idiot complacency of the establishment which is so sure of the result. </p><p>So sure of the result Supreme Court decisions are delayed until Hillary is president. So sure of the result that the integrity of the FBI is more important to Comey than stopping a Russian asset running for president. When historians teach the history of Cold War II, I'm sure the professional credibility of Comey's team will balance nicely against Russia's 21st century geopolitical triumph over the former world super power. The soft focus Authurian treament given to the round table used by Comey's team maybe the only amusement you'll get in these four hours.</p><p>Omissions from THE COMEY RULE are interesting. It can't escape the anti-Republican slant of the movies listed about but fails to mention that virtually all of the real the FBI people depicted where in fact Republican voters themselves, just trying to do their duty.</p><p>It doesn't touch on Russian interference in the earlier Brexit vote which should have been a red flag for the FBI. It doesn't explain the importance awarded to Hillary's private server when previously Colin Powell in the Bush Administration made the same lapses. It doesn't explain why Comey chose to re-open the Clinton investigation (which is shown as an inescapable decision) but not to publicise the Russian interference before the election, which was known at the time and blocked by... wait for it... Mitch McConnell and the Republicans.</p><p>One useful thing it does remind us of is the Russian hack into the Republican Party campaign server. The Russian influence on the 2016 election is usually described as the attack on the Democratic Party campaign server, with the results later published by wikileaks. Wikileak's exact timing of the release of private Democratic emails drew attention away from Trump's "Grab em by the pussy!" bus video which hit the news a few hours before.</p><p>The hidden story is the other successful Russian hack on the Republican campaign server, from which no details have ever been leaked, publicly at least. The Russian investigation story which follows after the Comey Rule is the similarly constrained and compromised Robert Mueller probe, which actually did lead all the way to the successful impeachment of Trump. The only thing that prevented Trump's removal from office in Mueller's Russia investigation was the narrow vote in the *Republican* controlled Senate. On Russia, Trump has enjoyed rock solid support from Republicans such as Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, et al, all of whom became Trump supporters subsequent to the Russian hacks on the Republican server.</p><p>The almost rabid need for the Trump Republicans to stay in power whatever the cost to their party, their country and their planet takes some explaining. The Comey Rule dodges that completely, to concentrate once again on diabolical Hillary and HER EMAILS. The story of Russian hack on the Republican Party server has not yet been dramatised, because we don't know the end, because we are still living through it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvoep66t8weqHfaGX9RrlDB_wc7hIrXCous7K66g2QYsi4HTOrllXeTOalbxnw0IMGj3_sQ6fYsB-Mra0EaulB02_bKmuX09Zj5OaD6kf_oaJcPIZEdKd_YH_Xfnr4o1TMNw8kFKGZUqq/s454/Comey1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvoep66t8weqHfaGX9RrlDB_wc7hIrXCous7K66g2QYsi4HTOrllXeTOalbxnw0IMGj3_sQ6fYsB-Mra0EaulB02_bKmuX09Zj5OaD6kf_oaJcPIZEdKd_YH_Xfnr4o1TMNw8kFKGZUqq/s320/Comey1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>THE COMEY RULE is available now on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Showtime in the US</div>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-69611491311299919732020-09-02T19:30:00.001+01:002020-09-02T19:30:45.873+01:00Hot desks killed the office - not COVID<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-maule-4534a617/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkSHDHW3SUAmniC1vyPPq8N-KE3rJV0LQ_kDTSJoI2rHIvD-yZH-JivpAFagI7fTOD_wCby432AGaW3AbEZGhGrzl27c0Brb_GZ-ckZRpUtyPY5ob-3tBaklHrCIe7cjB9x2ymeJmZpEaj/w307-h410/IMG-7785.JPG" width="307" /></a></div>London based media and government is telling us we should all give up the new quality of life benefits we’ve discovered this year. We should return to mass commuting to London just to keep their favourite local shops open. They’ve got some nerve haven’t they?<p></p><p>Their argument is that COVID is a once in a century disaster and we shouldn't let it destroy the highly successful office culture that was working so well. I would disagree - selfish egotistical management from business and government had been killing the office for a long time.</p><p>We all know the vital need for every important business in the western world to have impressive offices in central London.</p><p>But what are managers to do when the business has shiny impressive offices but not enough desk space for the workers? Hot Desks! This is when you have no desk, and you have to work at a spare desk, assuming you can find one. Lousy for your concentration, lousy for your sense of belonging, and lousy for your professional confidence. It made co-workers compete for space as soon as they walked through the door in the morning and exposed the power dynamics in every office on a day to day basis.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpNiFbW58qZ_zw94mD4ENsoJVmnr2uocFi1S-bgNurdneRN_VyRhmfx38fvkip8Y1y1g9bYYEzBYHBOBf5Ptz_h6p8FZjS740Qg6B-Gi7JThvJ_klO-WapWUuTWMPuIKahI9qnayb_Ion/s2048/IMG-7233.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpNiFbW58qZ_zw94mD4ENsoJVmnr2uocFi1S-bgNurdneRN_VyRhmfx38fvkip8Y1y1g9bYYEzBYHBOBf5Ptz_h6p8FZjS740Qg6B-Gi7JThvJ_klO-WapWUuTWMPuIKahI9qnayb_Ion/w307-h410/IMG-7233.JPG" width="307" /></a></div><p>Hot desks took away the home from home you had at the cosy place of work and just gave you a seat that may as well have been in a cafe. It instantly undermined the whole point of the office, because without face to face interaction within teams the office is just a cafe full of strangers. and once decent internet is everywhere, in every public space, the hot desk office is a joke. </p><p>Hot desks not only took away the home you had at work, but they replaced it with a disruptive competitive experience which insensitivised “flexible working”, which we came to know as the 5am start which destroyed any life you might have had outside the office mid week. </p><p>Hot desks started as a workable if irritating idea about a decade ago -but as office space got more and more tight in central London the more the working conditions seemed to resemble that of battery chickens. At one job I shared a cubical for one with three others. </p><p>Hot desks had for me one final farcial phase in the summer of 2019. After a high profile office move to the square mile we were told to;</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Commute into the office through the <a href="https://friendsoftheearth.uk/clean-air/20-shocking-facts-about-air-pollution">London's Venusian atmosphere</a> for hours costing a fortune five days a week in a suit.</b></li><li><b>If you find a spare desk take it. If there are no spare desks to sit at</b> <b><i>you are allowed to travel back and work from home and work from there.</i> </b></li></ul><p></p><p>After a month of early starts this changed to - </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>If a member of <any> team needs the desk that you managed to find at 7am <i>you are allowed to travel back and work from home.</i></b></li></ul><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvU82DI53kN9x-bcXzfIxXcOrR7EPB2oYIbRkaEjRgAWD6r9te81VQsFZ9ytbgyy0RNBhJ9J9m7JizXnVbwInASy7-ZXTNvMBrcsZlkmov1g603Jrt8XD98AhHeaQzMZNkQ1hKBLEiz6A/s2048/IMG-7311.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDvU82DI53kN9x-bcXzfIxXcOrR7EPB2oYIbRkaEjRgAWD6r9te81VQsFZ9ytbgyy0RNBhJ9J9m7JizXnVbwInASy7-ZXTNvMBrcsZlkmov1g603Jrt8XD98AhHeaQzMZNkQ1hKBLEiz6A/w307-h410/IMG-7311.JPG" width="307" /></b></a></div><div>There are HR people and management staff everywhere moaning about the impossibility of allowing the average office person to work from home. The reality is home working has been an option for office workers for decades - but just for the managerial class. This is another factor which has eroded the office working environment, seeing essential management functions disappear because decision makers elevate themselves into a position senior enough to allow them to ‘work’ (aka babysit) from the Cotswolds. </div><p></p><p>In the IT industry we frequently sat in offices packed like sardines. These were usually filled with expensive coders that spent all day on headphones craving solitude and begging for peace to allow them to concentrate. Meanwhile the day to day mangers who should have been running the office had checked themselves out to stay home and “keep an eye on Little Timmys cold”. </p><p>If you are a shareholder in a company being told that it needs expensive London offices and just can’t implement working from home measures for the whole workforce - tell them to just roll out the same working from home procedure they’ve provided for senior management, for every company, since the advent of email.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEzAm_ySqJRxXEyeI5l_7RpJS1DsAB5UF1DO6RSFlkNEoRuVmxcYLpaHjfFekLTNOUxPclu1QAveJ3vQaIWWLUYl-nJu05abUSUwQgIYOafQ06wtoPR6c70bfIG_h2bzkxhSG_DdvlByu/s2048/IMG-6250.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEzAm_ySqJRxXEyeI5l_7RpJS1DsAB5UF1DO6RSFlkNEoRuVmxcYLpaHjfFekLTNOUxPclu1QAveJ3vQaIWWLUYl-nJu05abUSUwQgIYOafQ06wtoPR6c70bfIG_h2bzkxhSG_DdvlByu/w410-h307/IMG-6250.JPG" width="410" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If you are an office worker being pressured into returning to the office by esteemed guardians of your welfare like Boris Johnson, The Sun or your Office Manager console yourself with the following:</p><p>"Offices" as they are now, will only last as long as the current rental lease on the building. The decisions on your working location won't be made by office managers whose hours have been 10-4pm 3 days a week for years, they will be made based on the cost of extremely expensive real estate decisions which have now been revealed as a redundant corporate ego trip. Most office leases are about two years - so expect decisions to be made long before those leases are up.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JrxCrgBNRIBQ9-UjvgGF5WWu5-3FCeR7M5JXbomLaRWH3ZpqWvf0v8rqnYlfcpxizGoB6h04ajvakxQucbDzM3b1WDI8yAxlfgtNmMng7j3Rlln_XwpTToes-Ib7xWRSX3TZjVUwY-pS/s2048/IMG-6254.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-JrxCrgBNRIBQ9-UjvgGF5WWu5-3FCeR7M5JXbomLaRWH3ZpqWvf0v8rqnYlfcpxizGoB6h04ajvakxQucbDzM3b1WDI8yAxlfgtNmMng7j3Rlln_XwpTToes-Ib7xWRSX3TZjVUwY-pS/w197-h262/IMG-6254.JPG" width="197" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And London? Does the world administrative centre of tax havens and dirty money need sympathy for losing footfall in the effects of COVID? </p><p>Don’t make me laugh. I love you London but you’ve made millions of people trudge like rats through filthy dangerous tube stations and roads for decades at their own expense, while we had to compete for space with millions of tourists (have you ever tried working near Oxford Circus?). </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtt1nCWHi4Rp0DsIsDSf8_tb4ivVyp8XyV_saII-n4FhXlLloO_vYv_iH5WttwPMQQUh0wonQAmBVA18ihyAwtU1Tey5Yls0q5auLCHo-EERLqtQy1kAHD099b0Hyjsnp_2JggTwDkUi4/s2048/IMG-6251.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtt1nCWHi4Rp0DsIsDSf8_tb4ivVyp8XyV_saII-n4FhXlLloO_vYv_iH5WttwPMQQUh0wonQAmBVA18ihyAwtU1Tey5Yls0q5auLCHo-EERLqtQy1kAHD099b0Hyjsnp_2JggTwDkUi4/w307-h410/IMG-6251.JPG" width="307" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, the London based media has promoted the place as the centre of all things for so long that the rest of England looks like a dried up husk.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Worry about the future of working in London? </p><p>Cry me a river</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0abz0n7cTCHOnveKvl0CFEUr74ZGw-KwbNp3EJisKkJ2RHmWGi9mZg1wjjBuRjvwzBxqTEkQE4K7yYZUn9KN_IYHNqm6USKgrYgc6UK4VSDjks4YDVlO-nDZ1zZzDjC4aOP-y68xRAmhs/s2048/IMG-7277.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0abz0n7cTCHOnveKvl0CFEUr74ZGw-KwbNp3EJisKkJ2RHmWGi9mZg1wjjBuRjvwzBxqTEkQE4K7yYZUn9KN_IYHNqm6USKgrYgc6UK4VSDjks4YDVlO-nDZ1zZzDjC4aOP-y68xRAmhs/w197-h262/IMG-7277.JPG" width="197" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-maule-4534a617/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="641" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9tpelCZ4RUUJ5zPMLcyQ10wGKTMluNoeN4CqPQmh0mMszD1IDW9Ehw5T0oetMGpYpRxDjiipXK3Jn9CMlAJ0JzIuP2KOIsvA4K1H1HFoCQmzglQAAaWpFuQ7ldMYkVyrr-OPAPvGDV2w/w480-h641/IMG-8166.JPG" width="480" /></a></p><br /><p><br /></p>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-77700665830261328682020-01-11T13:11:00.000+00:002020-01-11T13:11:42.119+00:00HBO's options for Watchmen Season 2+ (minor spoilers)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uyYij_K3ECoi1skxHszS6kJvCqEmIRQXWVLYN1mSsPRXx_J3DAPDs3zULqgHurmejnaY1Qt8pl_NA2vhGp18azeAHXEiW4Og-L0Jr0f0gBatAMsWqoWQYJfP09qSdctukB7koCN4687y/s1600/CapAxis.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="410" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uyYij_K3ECoi1skxHszS6kJvCqEmIRQXWVLYN1mSsPRXx_J3DAPDs3zULqgHurmejnaY1Qt8pl_NA2vhGp18azeAHXEiW4Og-L0Jr0f0gBatAMsWqoWQYJfP09qSdctukB7koCN4687y/s400/CapAxis.png" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The left hook that floored Captain Axis' publicity still from Watchmen (2009)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><i>How does HBO follow up a hit show that wraps up so well after 1 season that even the creators are unsure if it should continue?</i></b><br />
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If you've seen Damon Lindelof's Watchmen you'll know it's a dense and brilliant piece of storytelling, comparable with Moore's original graphic novel. <a href="https://tvline.com/2019/12/16/watchmen-season-2-renewal-damon-lindelof-hbo-commentary/">Lindelof himself has said HBO's tv version may be a one-off</a>, in that he really doesn't have the material to extend what is a well contained storyline that compliments the source material so well.<br />
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One-off series? That's probably not what HBO wants to hear.<br />
After decades of producing classic grown up tv, making Home Box Office such a successful brand we could almost call it Disney for Grown Ups, the increasingly mass market HBO needs a long running follow up to Game of Thrones. That should have been Jonathan Nolan's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)">Westworld</a>, but after an incredible first season, the follow up second season of Westworld looked to be seriously running out of steam.<br />
<b><i>HBO's Watchmen has been a critical and ratings smash hit. Can they extend that? What are their options?</i></b><br />
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Lindelof's Watchmen Season 2+ options</h3>
As mentioned above, Damon Lindelof and team are unsure they have enough material to do a 2nd Season, which makes a 3rd quite unlikely. They pointedly haven't touched on Nite Owl and the other members of the Minutemen in the 1940s seemed suspiciously blurred out in their appearance so perhaps that is a direction they could go and I would hope they do - but their doubt's suggest that for them this is a short term gig they are taking very seriously.<br />
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Based on Lindelof's teams enthusiasm for including representing minorities, The Silhouette, aka Ursula Zandt is a character who could easily be expanded upon. Her story is featured prominently in the opening credits of the Snyder movie without further elaboration.<br />
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Perhaps they could concentrate on the 'villains' faced by the Minutemen of the 1940's 50s and the Watchmen of the 1960s-70s? Villains is an odd concept in Moore's world as the 'heroes' pretty much fill that role as well, but we hear from Captain Metropolis in the HBO show that the Minutemen are being formed to face threats such as Mobster/King Mob(?), Captain Axis and of course Moloch The Mystic. Moloch's sad fate is briefly covered in Moore's original and slightly fleshed out in the Before Watchmen prequel comics (see below) but the other two are unseen outside a flashback in the extended cut of Zack Snyder's much maligned 2009 movie.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgouCIJZoLXEJTlrbZqYdfj5pUITPa99fN1pszjEXYVYYOXGKEp0PUTVAza922ceTmTwjgI50DyKuQ8IJah0rYQ0W2WklYXQGJtuiF3BSApv6izV-5Qvwk614I-6C7kT6pDTLfmErQQJEc_/s1600/villians.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgouCIJZoLXEJTlrbZqYdfj5pUITPa99fN1pszjEXYVYYOXGKEp0PUTVAza922ceTmTwjgI50DyKuQ8IJah0rYQ0W2WklYXQGJtuiF3BSApv6izV-5Qvwk614I-6C7kT6pDTLfmErQQJEc_/s1600/villians.png" /></a></div>
'Captain Axis' is an intriguing one, especially as background newspaper headlines in the HBO shows flashbacks to 1940s Tulsa show Prime Minister Chamberlain doing a deal with Hitler over Poland, suggesting a very different Second War War. What is the 'Axis' when there is no WW2?<br />
Interestingly <a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2019/09/pennyworth-is-crown-as-entertaining-b.html">Pennyworth</a>, set in post war DC universe Britain, also seems to be a world were Britain declined to go to war over Poland. Is Appeasement Britain now a standard alternate history template for DC?<br />
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Adapt DC's Before Watchmen</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6qInvzaia5CHfv4PvZGDGhHaq4xwdO1ddhFjMnR_nXK4TkeNC7r7eFKw_BJ9jILjOZXNIE9ON6foqHz-48upbe-jzLyj8JXMyYOTX5Ge5xbf5mNZsA3_6NvTzfwxYIWseo2HpyTU0HXst/s1600/SilkS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="431" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6qInvzaia5CHfv4PvZGDGhHaq4xwdO1ddhFjMnR_nXK4TkeNC7r7eFKw_BJ9jILjOZXNIE9ON6foqHz-48upbe-jzLyj8JXMyYOTX5Ge5xbf5mNZsA3_6NvTzfwxYIWseo2HpyTU0HXst/s320/SilkS.png" width="204" /></a>DC's first attempt to expand beyond Moore's world was a series of limited edition prequel comics. Though some are excellent, I particularly like Silk Spectre thread by by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner, with a teenage Laurie on the run in hippy era Haight Ashbury San Francisco, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Watchmen">Beyond Watchmen</a> is patchy at best and HBO's series has covered some of <br />
this ground already.<br />
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Adapt DC's Doomsday Clock</h3>
Though wholly owned by DC comics (unfortunately) Watchmen of course is entirely separate from the main DC universe of Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman/The Flash.<br />
Or it was.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock_(comics)">Doomsday Clock</a>, DC's formal sequel to Watchmen, links both, implicating Dr Manhattan in a DC universe reboot and crossing over characters from both realities.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOV2LU2s9xg3yEuRDi1D9TsqT3ud_UIYwJHPRBbhoZIdkecHwqU2P5YvX3MajTNcEf7kJ6yRi0iN2ZYJObP0dwbX4MSTRABVkRdawujuBKNm3BMkaHdDdcE2Hdxmqr4Xbkg43btaDDYe2p/s1600/M7M.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="434" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOV2LU2s9xg3yEuRDi1D9TsqT3ud_UIYwJHPRBbhoZIdkecHwqU2P5YvX3MajTNcEf7kJ6yRi0iN2ZYJObP0dwbX4MSTRABVkRdawujuBKNm3BMkaHdDdcE2Hdxmqr4Xbkg43btaDDYe2p/s320/M7M.png" width="208" /></a>When Doomsday Clock was announced there was a collective grown from 90% of comic fans, knowing that this would further alienate Moore and further dilute the original material.<br />
With one issue still left to publish in the Doomsday Clock series it says alot about the execution of Doomsday Clock that there is a little disappointment that the new characters created for the Watchmen reality, particularly The Mime and the Marionette, are not featuring in the HBO series. When Doomsday Clock is good it's approaching Lindelof HBO level in terms of Watchmen content and on a DC character level as good as anything I've read or seen.<br />
Warner Brothers owns HBO and DC and Watchmen. With the mass market success of Lindelof's show expect this to happen in some form some day.<br />
Yes it might be painful seeing Batman and Rorschach in the same scene. Pray it's as good as the <br />
comic.<br />
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<h3>
Adapt another Moore property</h3>
Arguably Moore's real classic, Swamp Thing, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Thing_(2019_TV_series)">has been done to death</a>.<br />
<br />
If HBO is looking for another Game of Thrones, with epic scope, Moore and Kevin O'Neill's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen"><b>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</b> </a>would seem to be the next obvious choice. It has a million characters, some already very well known along with a story that spans centuries but (as of 2013) this is still an ongoing project as a tv series at FOX. We have to assume with Lindelof's success this, along with many other Moore properties, is about get into a higher gear. Please god HBO buy this up and stop it happening before FOX <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen_(film)">screws it up again</a>.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta">V for Vendetta</a></b> has similar brand recognition to Watchmen but might look too similar to Handmaids Tale today and it's claustrophobic noir is hardly epic</li>
<li><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell">From Hell</a></b> has also been done to death in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripper_Street">Ripper Street</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_(TV_series)">Whitechapel</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alienist_(TV_series)">any number of similar Victorian set serial killer tales</a>.</li>
</ul>
which leaves previously un-adapted Moore properties, of which the following seem to me most appropriate as a Moore fan and avid HBO watcher<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvelman">MiracleMan/MarvelMan</a> was Moore's first deconstruction of superheroes before Watchmen, and if looking for a fresh perspective, is arguably the definitively British take on the genre</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Halo_Jones">Halo Jones</a>, a space opera for girls, was pretty unique in the 1980s and seem's pretty fresh for tv now</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brought_to_Light">Brought to Light </a>could be a short shock horror history documentary series along the lines of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untold_History_of_the_United_States">The Untold History of the United States</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_(comics)">Top 10</a> is police procedural and superheroes, It's odd that American tv hasn't got to that already</li>
<li>If the hugely anticipated Wonder Woman sequel continues that characters upward trajectory, expect Moore's occult take on that character, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promethea">Promethea</a>, to get some attention</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b><i>Final thought</i></b><br />
Disney/Marvel is sitting on a pile of Moore written material in his Captain Britain comics, which are referenced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe every time you hear or see mention of 'Earth 616'.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth-616">Earth-616, the primary reality/universe of Marvel's heroes was created by Moore when writing Captain Britain for Marvel UK. </a>If Marvel's next phase of movies runs a little flat, just as HBO wins a zillian Emmy's for Watchmen how long are stories like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaspers%27_Warp">Jasper's Warp</a> going to sit on Kevin Feige's shelf?<br />
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<b><i>Final Final thought</i></b></div>
<div>
Really pining for Watchmen S2? </div>
<div>
See Lindelof's previous storytelling box of marvels - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leftovers_(TV_series)">The Leftovers</a>, it's as good as they say. </div>
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The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen_(film)">186-minute director's cut of the movie</a> is. for me, a big improvement.</div>
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-38783702610595106352019-12-24T09:42:00.001+00:002019-12-24T10:04:11.197+00:00GHOSTRIDER (2007) - wild at heart and weird on top<br />
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<strong><em>With every safe successive dull cookie cutter Marvel film, the zany Nick Cage mis fire from 2007 looks better and better. </em></strong><br />
Two years before the birth of the MCU in Iron Man (2008) this attempt to reboot the Blade franchise fizzled at the box office. Now it looks mood wise less a 4th sequel to Blade, more a precursor to Taika's Thor Ragnorak.<br />
Steven Norrington, director of Blade was was tapped to direct this but it went to Mark Steven Johnson, who has previously dropped the ball on the Ben Afleck Daredevil (the extended version is better but it's still bad). <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Big stars and set pieces just about overcome uninspired direction and tired plot</h2>
This is very much a Nicholas Cage movie and if you can embrace the crazy of something like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Lieutenant:_Port_of_Call_New_Orleans">Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans</a> you should enjoy this. Ghost Rider had been a passion project of his for years, and 2007 was a time when the star was more important than the authenticity of the comic character- NC makes his Elvis pointing pose from Wild at Heart an integral part of the Riders judgement of the innocent and it pretty much works. In 2006 the relentless Nick Cage Elvisness of this movie was a bit tiresome - after a decade of dull superhero films since, a Las Vegas obsessed spirit of vengeance is quite refreshing.<br />
<br />
Speaking of disappointing Marvel films, Peter Fonda is an infinitely better representation of evil than the awful version of Dormammu in Dr Strange. Marvel could do worse than adopt Fonda's likeness for Mephistopheles going forward. Best part of the movie by far is the star of Easy Rider looking at the Carnival devil and commenting is deeply evil overtones <br />
<strong><em>"FAR OUT"</em></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-201" height="178" src="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GR5-1024x572.jpg" width="320" /></figure><a href="http://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2018/07/spirits-of-dead-1968-is-more-than-just.html">For motorcycle and cult horror movie enthusiasts Fonda co-wrote Easy Rider while filming an Edgar Allen Poe horror movie with his sister.</a><br />
Eva Mendez makes the absolute most of a typically limited Marvel female part. Both the leads are too old for their parts but are at least age appropriate for each other abs have great chemistry. Mendez's Magic 8 ball at the date, which looks like onset improv, gets funnier with repeated watches.<br />
<br />
<br />
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-199" height="298" src="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GR7.jpg" width="320" /></figure>First movie appearance of Rebel Wilson playing a confused Goth, and she makes the most of a brief cameo. Donal Logue, of Blade (inevitably) and Gotham also appears as Cage's mechanic<br />
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-202" height="154" src="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GR4-1024x493.jpg" width="320" /></figure><br />
<h2>
Plot has issues</h2>
First 20 mins doesn’t even have Nicholas Cage in it (you might see that as a positive). Young NC (Matt Long) is better at playing Johnny than real NC is, and perhaps a modern MCU version might have kept him.<br />
<br />
This is 2007 however and the villain Blackheart is obviously a second rate version of Stephen Dorf's Deacon Frost from Blade, a real call back to to what this movie really is trying to be - an easy remake of that movie. Mark Steven Johnson's plot is at least heavily inspired by David S. Goyer's Daywalker plot. Blackheart and Deacon Frost are both new Generation villains sweeping away the old world, and the Blood God of Blade and the Contract of San Braganza are almost interchangeable.<br />
Blackheart even claims "I’m the only one who can walk in both worlds" and it's difficult to imagine a more obvious call back to Wesley Snipe's Daywalker.<br />
<br />
Norrington was reportedly tipped to direct this but sadly retired from the business after clashing with Sean Connery on the set of League of Extraordinary Gentleman. (Easy on those curses Alan).<br />
Accentuating the positive, I'm not sure Steven Norrington's pre Matrix cool would suit this Ghost Rider anyway. Ghost Rider is more Carny and corny than Matrix and you have to accept it for that. Though it has the trappings of a Marvel movie Mark Steven Johnson is really directing a vehicle for Nicholas Cage, and this movie vehicle is wild and often on fire.<br />
<br />
The Jail sequence is definitely the highlight but Blaze's flames highlights the lack of budget elsewhere. <br />
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-204" height="286" src="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GR2.jpg" width="320" /></figure><br />
<h2>
Some nice moments</h2>
<ul>
<li>"Is the bike ok?" - we've all been there for that</li>
<li> Great to see Brit Demon classic <a href="https://youtu.be/hCkufu8mc3Q">Night of the Demon</a> on tv</li>
<li> RAGE neon a rip off of similar scene from mood similar Shoot Em Up, let's say it's a homage</li>
</ul>
<h2>
The Bikes</h2>
Blaze's custom is a Panhead Chopper was custom built for the movie<br />
Stunt bikes are Buell X-1's as detailed <a href="https://www.bike-urious.com/ghost-rider-2002-buell/">here</a><br />
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<h2>
Most haunting aspect to Ghost Rider (2007) </h2>
You have to wonder, after the reception granted to Venom, if Ghost Rider (2007) would be considered such a failure if released now. Would Blaze's obsession with Carpenters, chimp video, and candy cocktails be given more of a pass after Tom Hardy's bonkers turn in that highly successful Sony movie? <br />
This movie couldn't catch a break at the time but deserves one because there is one area where this Marvel movie stands out - Cage makes Ghost Rider an obviously blue collar superhero.<br />
<strong><em>"I went to college , got a great job, but you - haven’t changed" </em></strong><br />
<strong><em><br /></em></strong>
says Mendes's reporter to grown up Johnny Blaze.<br />
<br />
Ten years before 2016 made this split in society horribly obvious, Cage makes Blaze an explicitly working class boy left behind by his peers. Blaze has risen from poverty to be a success only because of the indestructibility of his curse, making him a very distinctive Evel Knievel character refreshingly unlike the Tony Stark clones many many Marvel movies since. Johnny is no Silicon Valley middle class doctor lawyer techno genius, he's just a truly doomed kid from a poor one parent family that lived in a trailer on the road. <br />
If they are really embracing diversity in the MCU these days - and I'm all for it, WAKANDA FOREVER! - there is some here.<br />
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</figure>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-63456322472146659262019-12-20T09:07:00.000+00:002019-12-20T10:12:16.833+00:00Norman Fucking Rockwell! and commuting midwinter<b><i>Lana Del Rey is a all powerful carnivorous orchid who will eventually consume all space and time</i></b><br />
<br />
Grauniad reckons that Lana Del Rey's masterful<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Fucking_Rockwell!">Norman Fucking Rockwell!</a><br />
<br />
is the album of the year<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/20/best-albums-2019-no-1-lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell">The best albums of 2019, No 1: Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!</a><br />
<br />
.. I'm tool old and out of touch to know anymore if it's the best album of 2019. These days the guys at the end of The Irishman are probably more in touch with pop culture than I am.<br />
But speaking as LDR fan anyway, from the exact moment I saw the first few seconds of Video Games in 2011<br />
Norman Fucking Rockwell! is an awesome achievement<br />
<br />
I particularly like the way LDR is introducing me to influences of my era that I've previously ignored, such as Carole King, and my god she is lyrically razor sharp.<br />
<br />
<i> "“LA is in flames, it’s getting hot / Kanye West is blond and gone / Life on Mars ain’t just a song.”</i><br />
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I would agree with the Grauniad in that this is an improvement on previous albums but it's not a sharp uptake. She is still crooning about the Bad Boys but she's making it clear It Was Not Satisfactory (Marcia Williams, 1974).<br />
<br />
The song 'Venice Bitch' being particularly haunting, illustrative I think that LDR's shtick is evolving, on the Lynch Scale, from Twin Peaks level romantic doomed to Blue Velvet level romantic doomed. LDR's musical persona seems less and less like a victim and more like a carnivorous orchid which will play the victim initially, only to finally emit a smile and consume the real victim slowly in her lyrics over a period of eons.<br />
<br />
Context might be making a difference in my case. News is generally so bad I'm avoiding podcasts but personal life is so much better I can listen to music again, and I have to because my commute so much longer.<br />
<br />
If there are better visuals to accompany this album (in the UK, in December) than slowly trundling around a neon half built airport in a blue-lit bus beneath the obsidian void of mid winter,.. well.. there isn't one. And you know what?<br />
This commute is so atmospherically doomed it makes all LDR's previous albums awesome as well<br />
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-29940261848079629012019-12-13T10:30:00.002+00:002019-12-13T13:30:50.903+00:00Jeremy Corbyn : the ultimate victory for Useful Idiots and Daily Telegraph readers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been very very difficult for me to keep quiet in last few years on this subject<br />
<br />
I briefly joined the Labour Party in 2016 to vote against Corbyn as leader. My candidate, Angela Eagle, had to drop out of the Labour leadership race when her campaign office was firebombed. So it’s worth remembering Corbynistas were not only utterly deluded idiots but often abusive thugs as well.<br />
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My last political comment on Facebook in was defending a Labour MP in Exeter who dared question Dear Leader Corbyn and consequently was receiving abuse online. I suggested people get in a car and drive 50 miles in any direction outside London and try and find a Corbyn supporter anywhere - then I got abuse. That was 2016.</div>
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<a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2018/02/dont-blame-trump-blame-these-people.html">As I said in a previous cathartic post on Trump, the problem all along has not been an incompetent promoted way above his level, the real problem is his enablers. You can't blame Trump/Corbyn for not turning down a chance to become the leader of a major political party. You <b>can</b> blame the people that ignored the obvious consequences of putting these people in positions of real responsibility.</a></div>
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Obvious from v early on that this would boil down to an election pitting witless old diffident Corbyn against charming confident young Johnson. It's still faintly unbelievable to me that in an environment where vast numbers of voters in the U.K. were indicating their extreme displeasure with decisions and attitudes based in London, the Labour Party chose to elect a private school educated MP for Islington as leader.<br />
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/15/daily-telegraph-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn">A soft spoken weak out of touch airy fairy intellectual that confirmed every negative stereotype of left wingers perpetrated by the right wing, it is hardly surprising that Corbyn's initial election was heavily rumoured to be a result of a campaign by Telegraph readers. (This was enabled by previous Labour leader Ed Miliband's decision to massively simplify voting rules).</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>“Sign up today to make sure the bearded socialist voter-repellent becomes the next Labour leader - and dooms the party forever,” the Telegraph article reads.</i></div>
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<i>“A lot of people, both in the Labour party and outside it, think that would be dreadful for Labour, the sort of political disaster the party last suffered in 1983 when Michael Foot’s leftwing views saw the party lose by a landslide to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives.</i></div>
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<i>“Not everyone thinks it would be a bad thing if that was to be repeated at the next general election in 2020.” </i></div>
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It’s a long right wing narrative that the liberal left are weak ditherers who can’t be relied on to make tough decisions and Corbyn supporters could not have found a better 'leader', in a breathless hesitant diffident substitute teacher who is totally out of his depth to fulfill that narrative for the Right. </div>
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How does any political party manage to lose to this current Tory party in these circumstances - how? Disastrous management of public finances, disastrous management of a referendum, a clown as leader, how did Labour lose to this? How many Labour Leaders since 1945 would have lost to Johnson's TrumpLite Conservative Party?<br />
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The 2016 elections indicated a historic vote against wet ineffectual leadership delivered from urban central government. In reaction Labour chose to stick with their leader, a London MP for notoriously out of touch borough of Islington. In last night's catastrophic election apparently his vote in Islington has stayed firm. I lived in Islington for a bit, but mainly elsewhere, and none of this surprises me. Like much of London it feels like a completely different planet to the rest of the country.</div>
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Corbyn was blatantly, obviously unpopular and un-electable right from the start but the Corbyn cult refused to accept any argument otherwise and brutally shouted down any opposition in every medium. This year Labour had a chance to enact a genuinely progressive set of policies; and to present them they selected a cranky, insecure back bencher, with nil previous experience of anything beyond undermining his own political party from the back of the room.</div>
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Out of touch? He called for Article 50 to be enabled <b>the day after the EU referendum vote</b></div>
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<a href="https://labourlist.org/2016/06/corbyn-article-50-has-to-be-invoked-now/">https://labourlist.org/2016/06/corbyn-article-50-has-to-be-invoked-now/</a></div>
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Labour part members have enabled the hardest of Brexit and the worst kind of conservatives at the point when we most needed them, and have wrecked any chances for genuine reform of this country for a generation.</div>
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There will be many painful comparisons to Micheal Foot's disastrous result against Thatcher in the 1980s. Let's get this straight -Micheal Foot was an articulate intellectual who had the bravery to enlist and literally fight fascists in the Spanish Civil War (Roughly about the same time the right wing British press like The Daily Telegraph was cheering on Herr Hitler and Il Duce).</div>
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Micheal Foot resigned as Labour leader within days of the 1983 election defeat. Corbyn has suggested he will stay on for months.<br />
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Jeremy Corbyn makes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/mar/07/michael-foot-tribute-tristram-hunt">Micheal Foot </a>look like Richard the Lionheart. </div>
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My blog From 2016</div>
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<a href="https://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2016/06/id-rather-vote-for-wolfie-smith-than.html">I'd rather vote for Wolfie Smith than Jeremy Corbyn</a><br />
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-10283897898553386172019-09-11T13:22:00.000+01:002019-09-11T13:22:00.598+01:00Leaving dystopia in the rear view mirrorSo I could be blogging about how the G20 has somehow replaced the United Nations and no-one has noticed.<br />
Or Br***t.<br />
Or Tr***.<br />
But, *ck it, 2018-19 has been a pivotal year for me and I just didn't have time anymore for incompetent politicians dragging the world to hell. There will be less politics on this blog going forward, those of us with a braincell need to stay positive and ride this out.<br />
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I started this blog back in 2011 as a therapeutic exercise and in that it's been a success. As will be obvious when I finally post my opinions on TWIN PEAKS : THE RETURN, last year it finally became apparent to me how much I lost from a critical life decision in the mid 1990s. I relocated to a a very beautiful but remote part of the UK but I never settled, and I lost pretty much everything. Not only friends and possessions but eventually - myself - as the enthusiasm and interests that used to power my own life had to be compromised by the need to fit in.<br />
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My attempt to create a first spin off music blog a few xmas's ago foundered on the first realisation of these choices I made in the 1990s. I will come back to that blog in time.<br />
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There were and are some big positives from that move into the wild, and you should never have regrets, but in line with what might be my long delayed mid life crisis, I'm getting back in touch with a lot that I thought I'd lost for good.<br />
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Part of that was motorcycles, and when I rediscovered my love for that my love of motorsport and the fractal levels of detail within motorsport returned as well, hence <a href="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/">I'm writing a new spin off blog</a><br />
<a href="https://corben-dallas.co.uk/durango95/">focused on F1, MotoGP, World Superbikes, British Superbikes, MotoE, Formula E and Formula W (plus maybe GT, Endurance racing and Speedway if we can find the time)</a><br />
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-22049496139629182482019-09-11T12:52:00.006+01:002019-09-11T17:10:53.230+01:00PENNYWORTH is THE CROWN as an entertaining B-movieWelcome world, to ... Skiffle Gothic.<br />
PENNYWORTH is the new series from EPIX which goes even further into the past of DC's Batman, from the creators of GOTHAM.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiroF-0tclFgX9qn5b-wrAg2KELZJfLGyP9uNb9YEU3CGoZFic3pjaSgXO_6x3xBmagfraqzl3JcjwLhsv-TqUUwbwzO4-lIZcZUyWgq25mCrLVn7gXuwaOYPfHWm6axPDQzDYQ4tN1s2G_/s1600/Pennyworth2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1600" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiroF-0tclFgX9qn5b-wrAg2KELZJfLGyP9uNb9YEU3CGoZFic3pjaSgXO_6x3xBmagfraqzl3JcjwLhsv-TqUUwbwzO4-lIZcZUyWgq25mCrLVn7gXuwaOYPfHWm6axPDQzDYQ4tN1s2G_/s320/Pennyworth2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
(reviewed up to S1E7)<br />
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Supposedly covering the story of how Bruce Wayne's butler met Bruce Wayne's father, this isn’t just a ‘prequel about Batman’s butler’ as it is specifically about a particular version of that character, created by two Brits, Christopher Nolan and Micheal Caine.. and continued to some extent by Heller and Shawn Pertwee (two more Brits) in GOTHAM. It’s very difficult to see this Pennyworth as the early years of Gough's character in the Burton films or any version prior to that.<br />
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Even the most recent movie incarnation of Alfred, played by Jeremy Irons, seems far more Downton Abbey than the Caine/Pertwee/Bannon version, who is far more of a ex soldier with an interesting past then Mr Carson.<br />
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We are told the forthcoming JOKER film (similarly inspired by Nolan's take on Batman), the pleasure is in how it doesn't directly connect to the comics and I feel there is some of that here. The setting is 90% of the enjoyment of PENNYWORTH. London in the DC Universe is a fascinating place, simultaneously 1950s-60s-70s - and is some way away from Harold Wilson and The Beatles. In this world we have televised public executions sponsored by the nation's favourite tea and a 'German Reich' is promising to give a degree of autonomy to the Netherlands.<br />
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Oh yes, this is an alternate reality, which British viewers will find parts of this distracting. Heller and Cannon Smart enough to put that constant signifier of an alternative reality- the airship- prominently in the opening titles and the occasional location shot.<br />
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In this alternative reality, travellers across the Atlantic have to deal with a brutal right wing state with morals from a previous century. It's a real switch from our world. Britain is in near civil war, with a right wing Raven Society having street battles with a left wing No Name League while what looks like a Macmillan era government looks on with mild disinterest.<br />
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If you think a plot of right wing coups against parliament as being a little far fetched, you might think differently after Season 3 of The Crown, covering the 1970s, airs this November - and maybe you should watch current affairs more<br />
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Gotham creators have obviously been watching some of the great true crime thrillers of the 1980s (usually directed by the great Peter Medak) which cover this period such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_with_a_Stranger">DANCE WITH A STRANGER</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Him_Have_It">LET HIM HAVE IT</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Krays_(film)">THE KRAYS</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandal_(1989_film)">SCANDAL</a>. These in their original form are pretty much <b>Skiffle Gothic</b> as is and Heller and Cannon just run with that. I'm presuming some of the crazier stuff, like the Ripper crime family, is at least inspired by the comics. Be warned for those with kids some of this is really gory, with potentially disturbing sexual content, up there with GOT, it would definitely have been X-rated back in the day.<br />
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No less ridiculous than Absolute Beginners and a hell of a lot more interesting. There is a certain sadistic pleasure in seeing the cast of Heartbeat in something like Star Trek's MIRROR MIRROR reality. Some British viewers will find parts of this distracting - notably Paloma Faith as Mira Hindley type gangster is going to be a big turn off for anyone over a certain age in the UK. Also the history of this other world bothers me constantly. Was there a WW2? There is a German Reich... Does this mean the DC Universe - Superman, Wonder Woman etc - at least as far as Europe goes, is MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE?<br />
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Amidst all this European grimness Thomas Wayne, future father of Bruce, is full of Kennedy era (?) optimism - “In 20 years Gotham City will be the Zurich of the Eastern Seaboard!”<br />
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It's very well shot, with a meanness and mood that alternates between noir and gothic and a nice hint of old ITV adventure shows, especially about the opening titles and theme. Individual episodes pop up with nice references to AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and even THE WICKER MAN. My favourite is at a hospital straight out of a Ken Russell film where we meet 'Baroness Orczy' - a long overdue nod to the woman creator of the first masked hero, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel">Scarlet Pimpernell</a>, and she's played by British National Treasure Felicity Kendal as a black magic Hannibal Lector.<br />
(It probably helps to be a fan of GOTHAM to deal with this kind of shock).<br />
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Enthusiasts for period detail could have enough entertainment just spotting the Daimler’s, Fords and Rovers. As the interiors grow to include the genteel homes of far left and far right leaders even design cues and locations from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE start to appear. You might have seen this sinister decor in HIGH RISE, but it's no less creepy here, lit often like a tomb.<br />
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What often makes the difference in tv such as this is the casting, which is pretty much spot on, Bannon could really be doing a long flashback of Caine's character from THE DARK KNIGHT. This is a star making turn from Mr Bannon - I’m going out on a limb and predict that he will be the next Bond after current replacement.<br />
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Among some the other casting I have to highlight Anna Chancellor, playing a cozy gun toting Oswald Mosley fascist insurrectionist.<br />
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Pennyworth could be restrained, properly period and cool, like Portishead's Glory Box brought to life, but GOTHAM's creators can’t resist the pull of the vaudeville. Some might find that a bonus, that in these superhero saturated times PENNYWORTH has enough theatrical Sweeney Toddery to take itself a lot less seriously than most features actually set in the standard world of The Dark Knight.<br />
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At its most bonkers the world this series creates has a hint of Terry Gilliam - and I can't honestly find a better recommendation than that.<br />
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Admission - I preferred the first episode of now cancelled KRYPTON to the first episode of the current media darling PEAKY BLINDERS. Also GOTHAM was ultimately a bit too much like a musical gone wrong for me, so I had low expectations for this.</div>
Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-10363954485162181712018-12-13T08:56:00.000+00:002019-09-11T11:31:40.876+01:00Stewart Lee plays Gotham City<div class="mobile-photo">
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">I've got back into Alan Moore stuff recently (after the embarrassment of being too shy to meet him at the Barbican) , and have been sucked into reading Doomsday Clock (the sequel to Watchmen) which is a lot better than I was expecting. While being nowhere near as good as Moore's work It's quite a bit better than Before Watchmen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock_(comics)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Watchmen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Also coincidentally been watching the latest Stewart Lee</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">https://youtu.be/X1UCt5iItcw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">(which also features Alan Moore interviewing Stewart, as a framing device)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">And last night found.. in Doomsday Clock issue 3.. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Stewart Lee depicted onstage in the sequel to Watchmen, getting bottled off in The Joker's bar in Gotham</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/02/08/stewart-lee-talks-doomsday-clock-3/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">Now Doomsday Clock has nothing to do with Moore or Lee and this move by DC has probably really aggravated both of them</span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">- but, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">nice touch :-)</span></div>
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-22440073507847352162018-10-25T18:05:00.001+01:002018-10-25T18:05:49.270+01:00George Orwell explains Trump<div dir="auto">"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also - since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself - unshakably certain of being in the right"</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">GEORGE ORWELL, NOTES ON NATIONALISM (from 1945)</div> Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-28791184092642587072018-08-03T10:59:00.001+01:002018-12-13T09:03:33.274+00:00The Capital Of Forest Hill<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTa6R_FmbLcbelvmVlqIwgJqHRuarBG9D2q9Xdoa2L-onMeUcc8LhQyeFD7-Z8W0vIUsSlzlZga6pFCnKfiV3nEjZ5GVrCtH7z9xuP_ZIrAoeX6PhP6IxQqZxbFnL0f5v2c2ZvJvAqC3Wo/s1600/IMG_4903-793309.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6585432097726685154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTa6R_FmbLcbelvmVlqIwgJqHRuarBG9D2q9Xdoa2L-onMeUcc8LhQyeFD7-Z8W0vIUsSlzlZga6pFCnKfiV3nEjZ5GVrCtH7z9xuP_ZIrAoeX6PhP6IxQqZxbFnL0f5v2c2ZvJvAqC3Wo/s320/IMG_4903-793309.jpg" /></a></div>
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-50851335393881089722018-07-26T08:15:00.001+01:002018-07-26T08:15:14.120+01:00SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) is more than just the best Edgar Allan Poe adaptation<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirits_of_the_Dead">SPIRITS OF THE DEAD</a> (1968) is more than just the best Edgar Allan Poe adaptation<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4_c_B-E029gO7wRZmKBsfsVpFinwNwBxcl-zqE097mcLOZ4nGaLlt67vXJ4M1zcNsfJNQNvRdkdwCRKRlNW9KlzCGEYSt7Od5D7aFJmayhtbXWfCy599tBA4inSNtH1mfM_P3fMPH9Wz/s1600/TOBY6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1600" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4_c_B-E029gO7wRZmKBsfsVpFinwNwBxcl-zqE097mcLOZ4nGaLlt67vXJ4M1zcNsfJNQNvRdkdwCRKRlNW9KlzCGEYSt7Od5D7aFJmayhtbXWfCy599tBA4inSNtH1mfM_P3fMPH9Wz/s400/TOBY6.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Its a gateway drug to European New Wave cinema, which never forgets to idolise the great American writer, while having some weird relevance to motorcycle and car enthusiasts.</i><br />
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A week after I saw this 50 year old movie I was still buzzing. I'm not a hater of the other Poe movie adaptations.. but this forgotten European omnibus movie, by three genre resistant New Wave 1960s directors, covering only one of the well known Poe stories (William Wilson) still, for me, blows all the other Poe adaptations away.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQH3qADNPo8xXW6wx5dmGo0gZNg46T3_ai4V_HWqz5eo8bFZA5rgjDuqZ4pN9jEDq2rlpr31DlbSBMNXJ7Dv15ZfIIXxXgAsqrTUHY2rcl76ltWxKulAkE4S2_zDx4K7thhYemipYQcGy/s1600/Mz3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1112" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQH3qADNPo8xXW6wx5dmGo0gZNg46T3_ai4V_HWqz5eo8bFZA5rgjDuqZ4pN9jEDq2rlpr31DlbSBMNXJ7Dv15ZfIIXxXgAsqrTUHY2rcl76ltWxKulAkE4S2_zDx4K7thhYemipYQcGy/s320/Mz3.png" width="320" /></a>Ostensibly an adaptation of the short story collection <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Mystery_%26_Imagination">Tales of Mystery and Imagination</a>, it only gets to three of the tales and two of those are quite obscure. Doubtless they are away the major works are amply covered by Vincent Price and co. As Corman's Poe films were barely over an hour long, and these three segments are 40mins + each the are perhaps better regarded as a trilogy or even a mini-series rather then segmented parts of a whole.<br />
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They are;<br />
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(plots)<br />
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<b>Roger Vadim's METZENGERSTEN : <i>A Haunting, Erotic, Poe-etic precursor to Easy Rider</i></b><br />
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<i>A sadistic European countess finds her cousin in a neighbouring dukedom is a moralistic man who melts her delusions of what life really is. When a jealous courtier arranges his death in a stable fire she adopts one of the surviving horses and develops an unhealthy obsession with it.</i><br />
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Metzengersten is completely Fondarific. This is the only movie in which brother and sister counter culture icons Jane and Peter Fonda appear together and they are both mesmerising for different reasons. Jane is completely convincing as an Elizabeth Bathory aristocratic sadist, Peter nails it as her enigmatic, moralist cousin.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DRnXoRV2CRLjIuI-5gdKbRHEyU7PuxHZBn63YWAv51OZAN3kaDh3ljhQR5qE9UTdx5NFPy3KuSlEaQWPqoXYYOwLEWARyfgRtcD0EuBmmlr9ATPPKXd-aGKAuJe6uafE7xrdck70kUd2/s1600/Mz1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1014" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DRnXoRV2CRLjIuI-5gdKbRHEyU7PuxHZBn63YWAv51OZAN3kaDh3ljhQR5qE9UTdx5NFPy3KuSlEaQWPqoXYYOwLEWARyfgRtcD0EuBmmlr9ATPPKXd-aGKAuJe6uafE7xrdck70kUd2/s320/Mz1.png" width="320" /></a>It is slightly jarring initially seeing two iconic American actors in what is is apparently a very European set and told story, until you are forced to remember this is at heart an American tale told by an American writer. The presence of the Fonda's reminds us we are seeing Europe through the 19thC Bostonian's twisted prism.<br />
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It looks incredible. Vadim's stylish eroticism is on full show as as the leading actress is his wife of the time and it is comforting to know she is (presumably) happy with what she is asked to do. (Warning - some of this is soft core porn.) I've never seen Jane play the villain before and she is horribly convincing. Her eventual pangs of conscience are more affecting than Delon's similar evolution in the second installment.<br />
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Jane Fonda also shows off some pretty impressive horse wrangling skills in this movie. This is ironic.<br />
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While on the set for Spirits of the Dead, Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern started working on a script would would eventually become <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Rider">EASY RIDER</a>.. and seen in that light the doomed ending to that classic movie does have more than a touch of Poe. That fact that obsessive riding, of horses and motorcycles, is a major plot point in both Metzengersten and Easy Rider seems more than coincidence.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGpGoICp9EXsiW8vn6ZIeZ8OMRaYYLF2MGkoBKV7jEWXDeAXUvm6MUdL76uEj7bO5_vzl4pbNgkg6Nw3mtcKdL0oA6tYMvJD2yX8Y3mObYcHcUG3U_4NTO4pylFJOyfKvswtiyZayEumV/s1600/Mz2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1600" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGpGoICp9EXsiW8vn6ZIeZ8OMRaYYLF2MGkoBKV7jEWXDeAXUvm6MUdL76uEj7bO5_vzl4pbNgkg6Nw3mtcKdL0oA6tYMvJD2yX8Y3mObYcHcUG3U_4NTO4pylFJOyfKvswtiyZayEumV/s400/Mz2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Four years before Fonda's co-star in Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson, starred in the 1963 adaptation of another Poe film, The Raven. Two years later in 1970 a chopper riding Poe, with Lost Lenore and a Raven riding pillion, would feature in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas-s-s-s">Roger Corman's Gas-s-s</a>-s.<br />
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<b>Louie Malle's WILLIAM WILSON : <i>Brunette Bardot's card sharp pricks the conscience of Delon's Doppleganger</i></b><br />
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<i>In one of Poe's most famous tales, William Wilson (Alain Delon) is an immoral villain who cheats and abuses his way through life, but is haunted at every step by a person who appears to be an identical version of himself, who exposes every filthy murderous deed.</i><br />
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If Louis Malle's William Wilson is the least of the installments in the movie at least he has one of the most obsessive and haunting Poe stories, and he makes probably the best adaption of it.<br />
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The tiny cameo of Bridget Bardot gets big billing but she does make quite an impression. The card game is a centerpiece of the plot.<br />
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<b> Federico Fellini's TOBY DAMMIT : <i>Terence Stamp takes Withnail To Hell </i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b><i>A 1960's actor escaping from swinging London attends an awards ceremony in Rome's film city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinecitt%C3%A0">Cinecitta</a>. Terence Stamp's Toby Dammit is a man who has lost all respect or enthusiasm for the gift of life. Someone is waiting to relieve him of his burden.</i><br />
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By now, half way through this substantial movie, you are due for a light rest from period shenanigans and literary heavyweight adaption, and the prospect of another 45 mins might seem too much. And that's when you are hit right in the eyes by <b> </b>Federico Fellini's absolutely dazzling, climatic segment.<br />
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Seeming to be barely any kind of Poe adaptation until the final shocking twist, this is a mesmerising riff on Rome in the swinging sixties, with a genuinely wasted looking Terence Stamp playing a role which would today be best described as <i>Withnail Goes to Hell</i>.<br />
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Visually this is mindblowing and if you are as ignorant of the work of <b> </b>Federico Fellini as I am you may feel a little ashamed at note paying more attention before. Vadim is obviously a great artist of scene and mood and Malle gets a lot from his actors but the only visual experience can compare to this final segment on an imaginative level is the best of Terry Gilliam or Wes Anderson.<br />
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This swinging, psychedelic bombardment has a real purpose - by the end you have completely forgotten it has any links to Poe, making the final reminder all the more effective.<br />
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It opens with an obviously LSD affected English actor (Stamp) trying to process his arrival at an Italian airport.<br />
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The only hint here of a Poe theme is that Stamp might have some kind of death wish. An addled Stamp then has to deal with an increasingly bizarre Italian movie awards ceremony which to be fair would shake anyone's grip on reality. (I'm sure the director is delivering a lot of well aimed digs at his own movie industry here)<br />
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And then the end arrives, and you recall this is a Poe adaption with one of the most genuinely shocking twists I've seen in some time.<br />
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<b><u>Final notes</u></b><br />
Terence Stamp shows off some pretty impressive car wrangling skills in this movie.<br />
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I can only assume hefty danger insurance was in place for Stamp and Fonda as they both push their respective horses and car as far as it will safely go. An alternative take on Spirits of The Dead is that Jane Fonda and Stamp took these largely unhindered by Hollywood safety regs movie roles just to make their stunt doubles in Hollywood up their game. (Delon in his story, doesn't have this level of danger but does have to deal with Bardot).<br />
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Based on the end you would think Ferrari drivers would worship this movie like VANISHING POINT or BULLIT. Perhaps Ferrari drivers just aren't the all knowing cognoscenti of fashion and style that out bling obsessed culture makes them out to be. The <a href="https://www.supercars.net/blog/1963%E2%86%921964-ferrari-330-america/">Golden Ferrari </a> (SPOILER IN LINK) is beautiful and it is driven like a demon in this movie, one more reason to watch it.<br />
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For those who care Metzengersten is entirely in English, William Wilson segment is in French, and though most of Toby Dammit is in English some is Italian and some maybe.... extraterrestrial.Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-27699947517966592022018-07-26T08:14:00.000+01:002018-07-26T08:59:25.172+01:00A FACE IN THE CROWD is classic Black Mirror... from 1957<b>Elia Kazan's unrecognised 1950s classic is That Waldo Moment via The Twilight Zone</b><br />
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There is a Black Mirror episode, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment">That Waldo Moment</a>, which fearsomely predicts the effects of social media on politics.<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment">Several news reports, including one by Chris Cillizza, political reporter for The Washington Post, compared Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to the episode. In September 2016, episode writer Charlie Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to "The Waldo Moment" and predicted Trump would win the 2016 election. ...... On the night of the election, at the hour when Trump's victory was becoming clear to the nation, Black Mirror sent out a tweet proclaiming: "This isn't an episode. This isn't marketing. This is reality."</a><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Face_in_the_Crowd_(film)">A Face In The Crowd</a> is a fantastically entertaining movie from the 1950s with a very similar premise, warning not about social media, but mass media. It's skipped recognition until recently for what was perceived to be a nauseatingly cynical tone. Post 2016 it looks like an absolute classic, with elements of contemporary movies such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Smell_of_Success">Sweet Smell of Success</a> and later classics such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(1976_film)">Network</a>. It is as sharp and acerbic and bitter as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club">Fight Club</a>, with a powerful ending weirdly reminiscent of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarface_(1983_film)">Scarface</a>.<br />
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<i><b>"You gotta be a saint to stand all the power that little box can give you."</b></i><br />
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A Face in The Crowd been getting some long overdue recogntion over the pond (for reasons which will be obvious) but seems mostly unknown in the wider world. A shame as this could be a story about the rise of Jeremy Clarkson as anyone else.<br />
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<i>A travelling radio show run by a roaming archivist/music producer finds herself in a jail in rural Arkansas where she comes a showman of the highest order in the form of a drunken folk guitarist. She takes him from small time radio, to television personality to the highest political circles before realising the monster she's unleashed.</i><br />
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I learned of this movie listening to a <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/culturegabfest/2016/08/slate_s_culture_gabfest_on_idiocracy_pilgrimages_to_writers_houses_and_why.html">Slate podcast</a><br />
that in an earlier <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2009/08/06/the_best_movie_about_television_that_you_ve_never_seen.html">article</a> called it<br />
<b>The Best Movie About Television That You've Never Seen</b><br />
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<i>"Is it possible for a movie to be selected for the National Film Registry and still be underrated? Everyone who owns a TV set needs to know that A Face in the Crowd is unsurpassed as the great American story about television. "</i><br />
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and that was in <b>2009</b>.<br />
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The director, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elia_Kazan">Elia Kazan</a>, had a history of socially conscious movie making such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On the Waterfront (1954) which brought him the attention of the McCarthyite anti communist witchhunt of the 50s. When making this movie he was filled with disillusionment, having seen so many of his ideals betrayed by Stalinist purges in the USSR. It shows.<br />
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Director Stanley Kubrick called him, <i>"without question, the best director we have in America, capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." </i>For all it's non recognition in that year's awards ceremonies and since, this movie must have launched a thousand careers as all the acting parts have a familiar face.<br />
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In an era of perfectionist actors such as Marlon Brando, for the lead role A Face in The Crowd, as the mesmerizing con-man personality Lonesome Rhodes, Kazan picked a standup comedian. Andy Griffith is dynamite, and it's almost a tragedy that after this movie he become entombed in folksy straight version roles of the evil creep he plays in this movie. (I'm underplaying this because I'm the wrong generation to appreciate it... the truth is After A Face in The Crowd <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Griffith">Andy Griffith</a> became perhaps the most beloved tv personality on US tv for four decades.)<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Neal">Patricia Neal</a> plays the producer who discovers Rhodes, and who promotes him into the wider media world while being unable to keep him out of her bed. Neal was unforgettable as the Mary figure to Klaatu's Jesus in The Day The Earth Stood Still (she was also Mrs Ronald Dalh). She has to be tragic and smart and the character could have stepped straight from a modern drama set in the era such as Mad Men. Scenes where she is still covering and making a excuses for Rhode's, when he’s treated her and everyone she respects like dirt I'm sure will be familiar to many.<br />
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Along with the modern political signifance this is also a period #METOO story told with compassion. The scene when she is preparing for her marriage to Rhodes, only to be confronted with the first wife, is heartbreaking stuff<br />
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<i>"... he thinks he has to take a bite out of every broad he comes across. Then he calls them a tramp, drops them, and there's all sort of psycho something-or-other, you know. I caught him red-handed with my best girlfriend. He broke my jaw."</i><br />
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Shortly after this Rhodes appears from a trip to Mexico with a completely different wife (played by a very young Lee Remick, yet another star making performance)<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Matthau">Walter Matthau</a> fans should definitely check out what is effectively his his star maker role as Mel Miller, an initially mild mannered writer for Rhodes who comes to see him for what he is and hate him with everyone else. The loathing initialy includes himself, for not being yet another Alpha Male in Rhode's pack of jackals. As he unloads to Neal's character;<br />
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<i>"Didn't you know? All mild men are vicious. They hate themselves for being mild, and they hate the windy extroverts whose violence seems to have a strange attraction for nice girls."</i><br />
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Mocked for his education as “Vanderbilt ‘44” by Rhodes, he eventually gets to deliver a delicious coup de gras.<br />
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But it's Andy Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes who will haunt you afterwards. On his journey towards "Secretary for National Morale" he utters a whole series of quotes which would thrill a MAGA crowd.<br />
There is a whole internet industry drawing current political significance from this movie.<br />
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<a href="https://deadline.com/2016/10/andy-griffith-elia-kazan-donald-trump-1201833245/">How Andy Griffith And Elia Kazan Predicted Donald Trump’s Rise (And Fall?) Way Back In 1957’s ‘A Face In The Crowd’</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-movie-that-foretold-the-rise-of-donald-trump/2016/02/08/76358d7e-cb7c-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html?utm_term=.7a97839d09e6">The movie that foretold the rise of Donald Trump</a><br />
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<a href="https://film.avclub.com/not-even-a-movie-as-cynical-as-a-face-in-the-crowd-coul-1798254296">Not even a movie as cynical as A Face In The Crowd could predict Donald Trump</a><br />
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But for all the apparent similarities personally I think we may have gone beyond a point where this great movie is predictive.<br />
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<SPOILER><br />
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Rhodes is brought down by a recording. This is difficult to imagine currently. With the knowledge we have now, we know Rhode's supporters would laugh off any recording as Fake and any opposition as Lonesome Rhodes Derangement Syndrome.<br />
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But A Face in The Crowd does have one final moment of relevance in it's minor Twilight Zone twist. At the end Patricia Neal's character actually apologises to Rhodes, coming to realise that she is the originator of the problem, as the person who took him from deserved obscurity into the homes of the nation.<br />
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<a href="http://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2018/02/dont-blame-trump-blame-these-people.html">I've been saying for a while now</a>, the real problem isn't with the scumbag opportunist. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/opinion/republican-party-national-rifle-association-trump-russia.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region">It's with his enablers.</a><br />
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-30251653647275816292018-07-11T08:11:00.003+01:002018-07-14T12:54:02.804+01:00AMC's period Arctic monster fest, THE TERROR, makes The Walking Dead look like a summer holiday (mild spoilers)During the fabulous summer weeks of the 2018 World Cup I thought my only exposure to cannibalism would be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Su%C3%A1rez">Uruguayan footballers</a>. How wrong I was.<br />
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It's over a week a week since I finished watching <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terror_(TV_series)">AMC's THE TERROR</a> and I'm still constantly reminded of some of the horrible images and contents within. Last Saturday, in the middle of the England v Sweden World Cup semi final, I found myself describing The Terror as the scariest, most harrowing thing I've ever seen with Ridley Scott's name on it, including the original <a href="http://corben-dallas.blogspot.com/2017/05/ripley-dooms-hicks-and-newt-by-losing.html">Alien</a>.<br />
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Had I seen Alien in 1979 I probably would not have said that, and I have to say Alien : Covenant and Prometheus I both loved. But nothing so far this year, even to my astonishment Westworld S2, has hit me like AMCs follow up to Walking Dead.<br />
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Imagine the 'highlights' of six seasons of Walking Dead boiled down to ten taught episodes in a gripping setting, with engaging, believable characters, magnificent script and world class performances. I'm a massive fan of Jared Harris since he defined the movie version of Professor Moriarty (in Game of Shadows) he is absolutely magnificent in The Terror, presenting a character that could almost be a variation on his character from MAD MEN, another love struck disaster heading for his doom.<br />
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I would like to pick out other actors but honestly the entire cast is stellar and will make you marvel at British and Irish acting talent. If I had to pick favourites, Ian Hart as Blanky and Paul Ready as Goodsir are merely the most inspirational characters but I couldn't even call them standouts from a stunning group performance. It's tough. Over ten episodes, you will see most of the 100 men depicted die individually, in horrible circumstances. I'm still too affected by the fate of individual characters to praise one actor above another.<br />
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I could pick out two non Brits, two actresses, Greta Scacchi and Nive Nielsen, who have to react against the obvious early doom of the crews and both provide a welcome relief but also a quiet reinforcing role in the narrative.<br />
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<br />
Fans of both The Thing (all of them) will love the setting. The Thing (1982) is my favourite movie.<br />
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Apparently there is a tradition at <a href="https://www.techly.com.au/2015/09/04/south-pole-tradition-watching-thing-start-every-winter/">Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station of watching all The Thing movies</a> at the start of each winter. I would urge them to think twice before The Terror. Perhaps first dig <a href="hhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068390/">Cold Nights Death</a> out instead if looking for widening your viewing diet. The Terror is bad for diet's generally.<br />
<br />
While having plenty of the gore and body horror of a modern horror show The Terror carries with it plenty of old classic scares. It wreaks of Lovecraftian horror and is an obvious portal to a later adaptation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness">At The Mountains of Madness</a>. It could almost be a prequel.<br />
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Episode 6, 'A Mercy', screams classic Edgar Allan Poe.<br />
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Those objecting to some of the fantastic elements in the Terror (I think it's an Inuit variation on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo">The Wendigo</a>) should be aware that this is an adaptation of Dan Simmon's novel, rather than any attempt to tell the real story of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. I'm now seriously thinking of picking Simmon's book up, and having now seen many Youtube history documentaries on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erebus_(1826)">HMS Erebus</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_(1813)">HMS Terror</a> I'm not sure the fantasy version of events is any worse than what probably happened in real life.<br />
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In what might be my favourite bit of real detail from this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition">disastrous expedition</a> (which highlights the danger and remoteness of the original mission) the RN Discovery Service eventually sent two ships to look for the Erebus and The Terror in the uncharted Arctic. The two ships were HMS Investigator and the 10th HMS Enterprise. Of the four ships, only <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprise_(1848)">HMS Enterprise (1848)</a> returned from the area.<br />
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I doubt its an obvious reference but there is also an element of 'Alien' horror, which sits well with Ridley Scott's credit as Exec Producer (this is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Free_Productions">Scott Free</a> production*). I've said before part of the nightmare of the first few Alien films is the loss of authority (Captain Dallas dies early on in Alien, Lieutenant Gorman is shockingly ineffectual in Aliens, Charles Dance goes early in III). The real horror in The Terror is seeing such an ordered environment as a Royal Navy crew slowly devolve into animals.<br />
<br />
This is of course part of the power and tragedy in movies about the Titanic. The disaster is bad enough as it is but seen against the doomed stiff upper lips in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_to_Remember_(1958_film)">A Night to Remember</a> and James Cameron's movie the events are all the more shocking.<br />
<br />
I'n a regular reader of Patrick O'Brian novels and nothing shipboard in terms of dialog or detail looked out place in The Terror. I would go so far as to say this is the most realistic portrayal of "wooden ships and iron men" since Peter Wier's masterful Patrick O'Brian adaptation Master and Commander. It's all the more shocking and upsetting that The Terror goes in such a different but yet convincingly different direction.<br />
(Quite what they are doing with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve_rocket">Congreve Rocket's</a> on this expedition I'm not sure, but much like the flamethrower in The Thing, I'll put it down to .. movie spectacle).<br />
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Reservations? Some of it seems a little studio bound. Personally I would have liked the ice flow scenes to be on location rather than set bound but I know what John Carpenter's cast and crew went through filming in Alaska on a much smaller scale, so I will give them a pass on that. The two ships, Erebus and Terror, and the arctic hell around them are magnificently presented and you would be forgiven for thinking this was a far bigger production than it actually is.<br />
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If you are stuck in a heatwave and need chills it is a handy place to go.. but be warned it may be a difficult to escape.<br />
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* Plenty of other great creative people have passed in the last five years or so, but I'd just like to acknowledge <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Scott">Tony Scott</a>.. whose dazzling, eclectic movies I'm really starting to miss.
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<br />Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-14314459318354705962018-07-11T07:39:00.001+01:002018-07-14T12:56:44.063+01:00You can't call Trump a Traitor - but you can call him a QuislingI’m reminded when watching the excellent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okkupert">Okupert</a> - you can’t call Trump a traitor - but you can call him a <b>Quisling.</b><br />
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Trump loves some old timely references doesn't he?<br />
<br />
Rod Rosenstein, the United States Deputy Attorney General has been referred to as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Peepers">'Peepers'</a><br />
and<br />
Jeff Sessions the, United States Attorney General, has been called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Magoo">Mr Magoo</a><br />
<br />
Here’s an old word Trump might be aware of - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling"><b>Quisling</b></a><br />
Quisling was the name of an infamous collaborator with the Nazis who helped undermine Norwegian Democracy in the run up to the Nazi takeover of the country in World War II.<br />
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Though you'd be a fool not to see Trump's outright treacherous behavior on behalf of Vladimir Putin, by the American definition of traitor you apparently you have to be at war, so in a strict legal sense 'Traitor' does not apply to Trump.. so 'Quisling' is more apt. (Though perhaps a future redefinition of war to include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures">Active Measures</a> might change this).<br />
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I guess we could add the US Republican party as a whole to that as well. If we consider the other party, which has won the popular vote in five of the last six US Presidential elections and is now completely powerless to stop the Supreme Court, Congress and Senate from being further rigged and gerrymandered against it, we can definitely conclude the Republican effort to undermine US democracy, with active help from a hostile foreign power, has been hugely successful example of collaboration.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/07/08/congressional-republican-trip-russia-lavrov-kislyak-donald-trump-finland-column/764003002/">Congressional Republicans' trip to Russia was a shameful fool's errand</a><br />
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Trump is lucky he’s a US citizen, because the UK definition of treason is different. Based on our thousand year old 'constitution', which history teachers previous to 2016 argued a problematic series of bodges compared to the US version, if Trump was looking at these accusations of treason in a British court, up until 1998 at least, he'd facing the end of a rope.<br />
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<i>The penalty for treason was changed from death to a maximum of imprisonment for life in 1998 under the Crime And Disorder Act. Before 1998, the death penalty was mandatory..</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/brexit-backer-arron-banks-met-russian-ambassador-11-times-before-eu-vote-report-1.748242">UKIP backer Aaron Banks, who 'met Russian ambassador 11 times' before EU vote perhaps also should be aware of this</a>.<br />
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Interestingly Trump's actions perhaps relate more easily to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition">Sedition</a>. Perhaps the Mueller investigation will charge him with that, assuming there is anything left of the US Justice system when that finally happens.<br />
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-52859984367124877042018-06-28T04:23:00.000+01:002018-07-14T12:57:39.161+01:00Most horrifying political stat<div style="color: rgb(228 , 175 , 10); font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-size: 17.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9px 0px 8px;">
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<span style="color: white; font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;"><i>"Something kind of crazy to think about. If/When Trump gets this second Justice confirmed there will be 4 Justices on the Supreme Court appointed by Presidents who lost the popular vote"</i></span></div>
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Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-9399083825592443272018-06-21T10:57:00.001+01:002018-06-21T10:58:33.887+01:00Arctic Monkeys to the Moon! via RomeAt first listen this is Arctic Monkeys going right off the “Now They Are Living in Hollywood” deep end<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1XoWqoKOjz4" width="460"></iframe>
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A sci-fi concept album .... about a hotel on the moon ....that sounds like a lounge lizard’s homemade soundtrack to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Zero_Two">Moon Zero Two</a>. I can tell you are skeptical, and yeah, I had the same reaction when I heard the new Arctic Monkeys album would be 'piano driven'<br />
<br />
But I’m really addicted to it now, after 3 listens I’m at the stage where is all I want to listen to<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_Base_Hotel_%26_Casino">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_Base_Hotel_%26_Casino</a><br />
<br />
Lyrically Mr turner bounces around totally without fear and with a prematurely jaded perspective, somehow beginning to sound like middle era Elvis Costello<br />
<br />
Along the way manages to appreciate Science Fiction in a way I've never heard before in a rock song<br />
<br />
<i>"I want to make a simple point about peace and love</i><br />
<i>But in a sexy way where it's not obvious</i><br />
<i>Highlight dangers and send out hidden messages</i><br />
<i>The way some science fiction does"</i><br />
from <b>Science fiction</b><br />
<br />
Is <b>American Sports</b> talking about American Politics?<br />
<br />
<i>"I saw this aura over the battleground states</i><br />
<i>I lost the money, lost the keys</i><br />
<i>But I'm still handcuffed to the briefcase</i><br />
<i>And I never thought, not in a million years</i><br />
<i>That I'd meet so many lovers</i><br />
<i>Can I please have my money back?</i><br />
<i>My virtual reality mask is stuck on "Parliament Brawl"</i><br />
<i>Emergency battery pack just in time</i><br />
<i>For my weekly chat with God on video call</i><br />
<i>Breaking news, they take the truth and make it and fluid</i><br />
<i>The trainer's explanation was accepted by the steward</i><br />
<i>A montage of the latest ancient ruins</i><br />
<i>Soundtracked by a chorus of "you don't know what you're doing"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
ditto <b>Golden Trunks</b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"The leader of the free world</i><br />
<i>Reminds you of a wrestler wearing tight golden trunks</i><br />
<i>He's got himself a theme tune</i><br />
<i></i><br />
<i>They play it for him as he makes his way to the ring"</i><br />
<br />
First Arctic Monkeys album where I'm shocked to realise I (almost) perfer the music to the lyrics. I had to doublecheck Brian Eno wasn't on the credits. This album reeks of 70s soundtrack club cool, and off-smelling lurid decadence like The Peddlers and ELO working together (particularly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(Electric_Light_Orchestra_album)">ELOs scifi concept album Time</a>) .<br />
There is obviously a ton of Bowie and mass of The Beatles, especially in this<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/71Es-8FfATo" width="460"></iframe>
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But in it's deep 70s soundscaping it mostly reminds me of<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(Danger_Mouse_and_Daniele_Luppi_album)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(Danger_Mouse_and_Daniele_Luppi_album)</a><br />
<br />
a strange one off tribute album to Italian movie soundtracks which was a fuxture in my car for about two years.<br />
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<br />
When you remember this an album by the band mostly known for down to earth content like like <b>Cigarette Smoker Fiona </b>you realise the level of shock the Arctic Monkey's fanbase must be going through right now. The last time they took a serious left turn, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug_(album)">Humbug</a>, got a bad reception (I loved it).<br />
<br />
I wouldn't say it's their Sgt. Pepper..but it might be their Rubber Soul.<br />
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<br />Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4329319584420627301.post-71956722393360972082018-05-21T09:00:00.002+01:002018-05-21T09:09:13.882+01:00Definitive proof were are not living in a simulation - Belgium national football teamAbout the only thing I have in common with Elon Musk I also worry that <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwif0eLtqJbbAhUMJpoKHSwYAYkQtwIIJzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJ0KHiiTtt4w&usg=AOvVaw1wTrwheu0nryUZc22U5N58">our version of reality is actually a simulation</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Well, thank god for Belgium's national football team.<br />
<br />
According to this simulation of 100 world cups Belgium would have been winners nearly 1/4 of the time<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WMcBng_dKzc" width="500"></iframe>
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Belgium have never won the World Cup (up to now). We can only assume that reality, in the form of inexplicable lack of form in tournaments, intervenes to stop this happening.<br />
<br />
<br />
Could it be that England, who share a World Cup group with Belgium, are the only thing that stands between the revelation of mankind's physical non-existance in the universe?<br />
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Belgium are a great team for neutrals to support.
And I love <a href="https://youtu.be/m8K3-lLxaoI">Soulwax</a></i><br />
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<i><br /></i>Subject2Changehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06919489621763107411noreply@blogger.com0