Lars and the real girl

I watched this film last night after reading very mixed reviews and I quite enjoyed it. It was certainly an alternative take on mental health issues; particularly delusion.

The direction achieved a fine balance between comedy (used mainly, I think, as a means of assisting the audience to deal with such unfamiliar behaviour) and sincerity. If you can abandon prejudice and 'common' sense, Lars and the real girl (2007) is very easy to get involved in.

I try hard not to give away too much of a film's story when recommending it, so I simply say - watch it. I'm sure you'll either laugh or cry - and if the note hits the spot: possibly both.

A pleasant and refreshing take, 7.5/10.

Hold the Oscar list - here's the winner.

I haven't really had good reason to submit a blog entry for a while. This was, until last night, when I watched a film called Into the Wild (2007). It was brilliant, truly brilliant.

I had no idea what to expect and was completely unfamiliar with the film's premise.

The acting was fantastic, the scenic photography beautiful, the musical score wonderfully complimentary, the storyline was compelling and the writing (including lots of well-quoted inspirational or thought-provoking prose) sublime.

I can't recommend it enough. I hardly ever see a film and think "this a Top 10er!" but this was the exception. Without doubt one of the finest films I've ever seen.

Having watched Charlie Wilson's War, Juno and now Into the Wild I feel like 2008 might have exhausted it's ability to provide good films!

Go and watch Into the Wild - I've intentionally given nothing away here so you can go and immerse yourself in it without preconceptions..

Fantastic, 9.5/10.

New PC and storage

*Geek warning*

I upgraded my PC this week. Not because it was terribly old but because a nagging issue with hard drives losing power was best resolved by a completely new system!

This should, one would think, be a fairly straightforward upgrade and migration.. if only! My problem is the copious volumes of divx films, series, etc that I store on HDD. My penchant for British comedy means I have 200gb of comedy series alone (including The Office, The Royle Family, The league of Gentlemen, Nighty Night, Black Books, Phoenix Nights, I'm Alan Partridge, etc etc).

There are two things regarding my excess of digital videos. First, that it's a complete nuisance to easily and efficiently move around between drives/disks, and second, that it was only a decade ago that I had a 4.2gb hard drive in a well-specified - at the time - PC. As I shuffle files around to enable the formatting of the cleared drives I find myself moaning that my USB HDD only has a mere 500gb storage capability!

Technology has a strange habit of advancing massively but subtly and throwing the end-user meted reminders, like mine today, of just how far things have come.

"Celebrity"

I've just finished reading a book charting the progress over the last century of quantum physics and general relativity and the attempts by leading scientific minds to unify or reconcile the mathematical anomolies that exist[ed] between the two scalular theories.

To avoid descending into the realms of mind-numbing boredom I'll try to be concise - the book concentrates, largely, on the pre-emiance of string theory or M-theory as a means of mathematical unification for the afore-mentioned theories of force. While I find string theory intriguing and chiefly plausible it was more the author/contributor that got me thinking about making this particular blog entry.

The author is a leading physics mind called Edward Witten. A name, I suspect, that 99% of the world is utterly unfamiliar with but one which is internationally regarded as the greatest mind in 20/21st century physics - many labelling him the "new Einstein". Looking back to Einstein (and, indeed, further - to Newton) one realises that prolific minds (not just in science but in art, poetry, music etc.) were celebrities - revered by the masses for outstanding ability or accomplishment in their field.

It saddened me to think that all over the globe exist individuals with remarkable minds or contributions to make to mankind with so little - if any - general public appeal or appreciation.

At a friends house the other evening the television was on and they (my married friends, mid-30s) were watching "Celebrity Extreme Makeover - Jade's Mum" - a show in which Jade Goody's mother was chopped up and reassembled for the entertainment and delectation of those desperate enough to subscribe to LivingTV.

Surely then, it's harder to reconcile the sense of - and interest in - "Jades Mum" receiving a breast augmentation with Mr Witten receiving a Field's medal for contributions to contemporary science than it is to test and prove string (or M-) theory as a unification for micro and macro forces of nature.

Charlie Wilson's War

I've been looking forward to this film for a month or two and was pleased to get the opportunity to watch it today.

The story is one I am/was only vaguely familiar with so I hoped, perhaps, that an accurate reconstruction of events might enlighten me somewhat. I was very pleasantly suprised by the honesty, cynicism and prolific sarcasm that pervades the films narrative. Save for Julia Roberts, the cast were perfectly recruited and delivered enthralling performances.

Tom Hanks was reliable in the lead role (the excellent actor that he is) and portrayed a complex character (Charles Wilson) with apparent effortlessness and absolute conviction. Supporting Hanks was Phillip Seymour Hoffman - adding another accomplished (and different) 'string' to his already populated 'bow'.

As much as I enjoyed the whole film I was most enamoured by the way the core issue was treated so minimally at the close of the film and required the viewers' own expansion and consideration of the ramifications and associated obligations of warfare (so prevalant in the current 'Iraqi' climate).

A thoroughly enjoyable film with the welcome substitution of cynicism over hollywoodism! 8/10.

"Just Desserts"

For the title of this short entry I've used the name of Creme Brulée's first album, Just Desserts. Showcasing classics such as "Telephone tears"* and "Voodoo lady".
This story made me smile. It couldn't have happened to a bigger idiot.

*You're always engaged girl, but not to me

Is there room in your heart, for my last 10p?

© Creme brulee, League of Gentlemen

New Year

Ahh.. so the New Year 'celebrations' are finally over. No doubt the optimism of resolutions will dominate common discourse for the next week before people revert to being apathetic, lazy, miserable, overweight, drug-taking smokers. I even received a "Happy New Year" greeting card! Worse still, I don't think it was sarcastic!

I hate New Year. Mainly, I think, because of the afore-mentioned 'celebrations' of the event. I could, quite literally, rant paragraph after paragraph about why I hate it but I'll try to be brief.

My primary hatred for New Year is the compulsory enjoyment obliged on all those (Read: 'me') attending various events. Secondly, I can't understand what's to be so unnaturally joyous about? We're all another year older (well, a second older - but that's another argument!) but what is the significance? Thirdly (and I can feel my blood boiling as I type), the whole "Olde Langs Syne" and crossed-arms, hand-holding love-thy-partner crap. As an extension - the kissing that subsequently ensues.. particularly because all "stroke-of-midnight New Year kisses" have unique characteristics reserved for such an occassion:

1. Partner kiss - A half-hearted effort loaded with 5% enthusiasm for the year ahead but 95% questioning whether what you've got is worth keeping for the coming year..
2. The half-friend 'kiss' - usually a friend of opposite sex who clasps your hand to shake it, sporting a pathetic smile; extending the mandatory new Year salutation but it's too late - you've already leaned in too far on this formal arrangement and an awkward and very tentative kiss between you both is the only way to break the compromising misadventure.
3. The drunk friend kiss - You've spent the intervening, depressing few minutes since "Olde Langs Syne" finished watching the party pisshead assert his/herself on unsuspecting guests in an uncomfortable and unnecessarily forward manner. They stumble towards you, clasping their arms around you, tilting their head and licking across your face and lips as an incoherent string of words mumbles from their lips - "Habby Newm Yaar". You're saved by a friend of theirs passing through their peripheral vision enticing them to throw themselves that way..
4. The family kiss - Aunties, Grandmothers etc etc. New Year is license, it seems, for wet-lipped relatives to get a little too proximate. My personal space is very sacred but here is such an occassion where normal rules of spatial recognition are abandoned.
5. The kiss with meaningful chat - Cringeworthiness of the highest order. Usually from a drunk party-goer it goes something like this:

You (as they stumble into you for a kiss) - "Happy New Year" *polite smile*

Them (usually spoken directly into your ear because they've chosen to embrace you) - "I know this year's been shit but next year'll be much better.."

You (in an attempt to be polite) - "Yes, thanks.."

Them - "No, seriously.. I love you and you're brilliant and I really mean this.. you deserve it.. I know I'm drunk but I do mean it and I want to you to know it.." *repeat ad infinitum*

Thankfully, my New Year was bearable this year. And Happy New Year to all of you! *forced smile* ;-)

BBC - Extras (Christmas Special)

I missed this last night so I was grateful at the availability of it on BBCs iPlayer service which allowed me to watch it this afternoon.

Now, as a lover of ALL of Ricky Gervais' (& Stephen Merchant's) work, I was always going to enjoy this. I expected it to pursue a similar format to The Office series - and so it came to pass. The episode wasn't littered with jokes but instead used an age old Gervais technique of making policitical, social, religious or racial points with 'celebrities' paddling tentatively in pseudo-ironic waters. The 'humour' [not jokes! see above*] was plentiful and sat comfortably with the story's progression. This alone, would've provided 82 minutes satisfactory entertainment.

However, the shining light came from Ricky's (as Andy Millman) quite remarkable performance at the end when the realisation of fame as a self-fulfilling, egotistic bubble detached from reality and true friends manifested itself in a very accomplished and [for me] very moving performance. It turned a satisfactory piece into a masterpiece.

Fantastic stuff.

Xmas, New Year & Suffering

First and foremost - let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year for next week.
My Christmas day was hectic but enjoyable and, as always, I was unnecessarily showered with an inordinate number of gifts from friends and family.
I've had an otherwise relaxing few days - enjoying a wine and cheese party last night with a collection of family and friends. Favourite cheeses were Black bomber, Vignotte and Cheurier. Merlot was my 'top tipple' (as it has always been).

Suffered with an enigmatic affliction more than usual this morning. Fingers crossed things will sort themselves out soon - stupid body!

"Quote of the day.."

I was reminded today of a personal favourite historical quote..

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself - Francis Bacon.

Jimmy Carr - Offender

Jimmy Carr was spot on! Very enjoyable indeed.

There are two things I like about his stand-up style and material.
Firstly - like Ricky Gervais - he makes you laugh instinctively and then question whether or not you should be laughing.. I don't like to get too caught up in political correctness in comedy and Jimmy Carr makes very few concessions in this regard. Cleverly, he often makes tacit references towards contentious areas of 'comedy' but rarely does it to offend - he more appeals to your darker humour and rouses an otherwise socially-dormant humour which so many of us have.

Secondly, I like his word-play comedy. I wish I had a better memory that I could quote a few examples here but I'm sure those of you familiar with his work will know what I mean.

Anyway - I thoroughly recommend it.

Stardust

Ok, a mini film review. That is, a short review of a film - not a review of a mini film.

I watched Stardust at the weekend and loved it. Perhaps I was unusually receptive because I generally shy away from opening up to the more 'far-fetched' end of the cinematic spectrum.

It was, obviously, a fantasy movie and requires a certain abandon of reality to embrace it's storyline. However, while I didn't think much to the male lead, there were still lots of strong, believeable and ultimately enjoyable characters.

Claire Danes was fantastic and gave a performance akin to the standard she produced in Romeo and Juliet (a Top 10 film of mine). When she speaks you find yourself falling into her to listen.. it's tricky to explain but I thought she was exceptional.
Michelle Pfeiffer was stunning (at times) and played her role 'suitably'. Nothing outstanding, but then I'm not sure the role allowed for it..
Sienna Miller was OK too. It's incredibly difficult to think of her in anything outside of 'that scene' in Alfie.. Mm..
Robert De Niro was fantastic. I loved his character and the way it eventually played out. I'm confident he could turn his hand to anything. A convincing, closet drag-queen pirate that you could laugh at and empathise with at the same time! De Niro - A living legend.
Ricky Gervais provided a bit of light humour. I find his persona sits a little uncomfortably in blockbusters, resonating - as he does - with fly-on-the-wall Slough paper merchants in everything he does. I still love him though.. bang on my sense of humour..

So, it was a really good film. The only criticism I could level at it is that I wouldve preferred a different ending. As a closet 'old romantic' I think the film couldve finished with the love being torn apart.. We know that this is forbidden in all things 'Hollywood' but I think it would've worked. The blossoming, fighting for and explosion of love could've been ripped apart by the barrier of 'the wall' and preserved, what was, as a moment in time - making it all the more poignant. As it was, the film tied up neatly as a finale and was narrated off in an "all lived happily ever after" as the credits descended.

Moaning aside - it's worth a watch. Shameless enjoyment of love-fuelled fantasy.. 8.5/10

'Tis the season..

It's probably about time I made an entry on here. I've been quite busy of late doing other things, as well as my Christmas shopping.
Thankfully, it's almost all done now - my plan of motivation was "one for someone else - one for me". In fact, though, I'm quite plased with a lot of my gifts. I seem to have come up with pretty good ideas for those people who are traditionally impossible to buy for! Let's hope they share my enthusiasm when they open them!

A busy but exciting week this week. Man Utd tonight, my weekly Godchildren/friends visit tomorrow, dinner out on Weds, Jimmy Carr Friday.

Oh, and I love my new car more by the minute! Gadgetry aplenty! Joy.

Humble Earth..

I love this..
The latest images beamed back from a JAXA probe showing Earth rising and setting from the lunar perspective.

Look at our little planet.

For me, you can't underestimate the emotive power of a video like this. It makes almost everything seem trivial and everything else seem incredible - with blurring inbetween..

DNA profile

After being intrigued by 'en-cees' DNA profile on his blog, I thought I'd try my own.

Here is the result. Largely accurate, I suppose. Although it seems to have simply regurgatated my graphically-submitted answers into short explanatory sentences.

Americans...

Another story here to corroborate my opinion on Americans.
Xenophobic or not - they are a ridiculous breed!

Astronomy lecture in Cambridge

I've just arrived home from an evening lecture at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy on the Crab Nebula. It was incredibly interesting but I won't bore you with it's detail here.. rather..
1. People do lots of complaining (myself included) about public provision, juvenile boredom etc. This was free, very interesting, accompanied by a coffee and thoroughly enlightening. The lecture hall was - like space itself, very sparsely populated - by the odd listener. I find it a great shame that so few people embrace the opportunities on offer.
2. It has served to invigourate my appetite for all things cosmological/astronomical. is it a bad thing that I want to know everything?! I seem to find anything interesting and crave a greater understanding and knowledge of everything I encounter - be it in life, books, television, conversation - whatever.

How much time is it okay to spend 'learning'? By learning, I mean pro-actively seeking greater knowledge of a subject; not, for instance, simply gleaning information from casual discourse. At the moment, I could gladly embark on a choice of 7 or 8 degree courses - the only link between them being greater acquisition of knowledge. Perhaps I'm addicted?!

Anyway.. three cheers for projects such as the Institutes Astronomy lecture tonight. And long may they continue anmd attract worthy numbers to enjoy..

Death at a Funeral

I'm a lover of British films. Not all, of course - but even the poorer offerings often have flashes of typically British charm or quirkiness about them. In particular though, I do enjoy British comedies (and, closetly - "Rom-coms"!). I suppose I place my cinematic taste somewhere between the Business and Bridget Jones - or Football factory and Love Actually..

So, this week I watched Death at a Funeral - which I've been looking forward to for a while. In general, I really enjoyed it. The witty dialogue and acting performances made the film very laugh-out-loud funny. My only criticisms (and both, I suspect were implemented for 'wider appeal' rather than the writers actually believing in them) are the use of a midget/dwarf/little person (I'm ignorant of contemporary acceptable language here) as the butt of very easy gags and the repeated 'easy' jibes at this or that person being "a gay". Both elements sat quite uncomfortably with me and the film. An otherwise well-written comedy was cheapened, it felt, by craving mass appeal.

Perhaps I underestimate the British film-watching intellect and sense of humour. Or, perhaps, I envisage this film to be regaled for it's supposedly humourous mistreatment of a midget and the invitation of people to leave cinemas humourlessly quipping to one another that they are "a gay"*.

I've probably been a little too negative in my review. The film was, largely, very funny and IMDB's 7.5/10 is about right.


* Don't get me started on the drivel that is Little Britain.

High-speed header

I saw this today and couldn't quite believe it.
The local news story quoted an official (I'm not sure who they were as I was half listening in he room next-door) saying that the lady had suffered serious injuries but was stable as thankfully it was a 'glancing blow'. Glancing?! It was a 65mph commuter train!

I'll give you 'Trick or treat'

Ahh.. and so again it comes round to the joyous festivities of Halloween..

I hate Halloween. Everything about it is loathsome. I hate the occasion itself and the nature of association with October 31st. Moreover, I hate the Americanisation of the whole affair and the imposed expectation of parents to 'celebrate' for their children. Ultimately though, I abhor the congregations of children trapsing the streets to intrude on good, honest people in their homes to beg (or rather blackmail) them for sweets.

These elements - in themself - are bad enough but the aggravation goes much further. It makes me question, for instance, how many of these disgusting children's chaperoning parents bothered to, say, vote at the last election?.. They'll come and disturb me with demands for sweets on a chilly Autumnal eve but - statiscally - a number of these parasites lacked the inclination to drag themselves away from Eastenders to have a say in how the country they moan so much about is run! *and breathe*

Sickening - truly sickening. A friend asked if I didn't like "trick or treating" because I wasn't allowed to go when I was younger. Firstly, I don't know if I was allowed or not (I'd hope 'not') because, secondly, I had sufficient common decency not to bother people in their own homes of an evening because American custom told me I deserved confectionary recognition from them!

I hope it pours with rain tonight and washes the sponging freeloaders back home..

Picking buckshot out of your rear..

This story will have animal rights campaigners smiling from ear-to-ear!
Americans are an intensely irritating breed so any self-harm [see Darwin awards - largely awarded to Yanks] or ironic harm [as here] is always enjoyable for the onlooker!
So that's what it feel like for the Pheasant... *tee hee*

News....

I will get back to atoms - this is just an interim posting!

I was pleased to see that the dispicable chap mentioned in a previous entry got his judicial desserts today by being sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. In the circumstances, I think apportioning any tariff to his inhuman and degrading actions is very tricky but I think something close to the correct outcome was achieved.

In other news today, I saw this story. They say there's nowt as queer as folk - where, may I ask, do Americans rank then?! The purchaser of this 6-figure $ 'piece' really does need to have a word with himself - absolute madness!

Finally (to complete my news-based blog entry), it was unfortunately coincidental for russell Watson to be rushed to hospital with a haemorraging brain tumour in the very week the world is encouraged to recognise International Brain Tumour Awareness week. I have to wish him the best - he's had a rocky ride with brain tumours, poor chap.

Oh, and en-cee, my "Cosmos - Carl Sagan" book arrived yesterday. I'll dig in properly next week ;)

Space - back to atoms

Having had far too much time on my hands of late (or so it seems!) I have been reading various space-related (or cosmological) books with vehement enthusiasm. Like en-cee, I find the proverbial "We're all made of stardust" quite awe-inspiring. So, I thought, the best place to feed my unrelenting hunger for cosmological knowledge was to investigate the very start of it all and enlighten myself from the 'atomic up', so to speak!

This is where I need to be careful or I could type for hours espousing my snippets of knowledge, questions, answers (of which there are few!) and competing theories. Perhaps I would be more sensible (and sympathetic to any readers) to offer excerpts of wisdom daily, rather than in a single blog entry.

So, first of all, I recalled my rudimentary and half-heeded teachings at school. Crucially, that "matter" is not infinitely divisible and that the smallest possible building block is an atom. My investigations of atoms produced the following facts:

• An atom is less-than a 10th of a millionth of a mm.


• A human hair is roughly 1 million atoms across


• There are more atoms in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the Earth's oceans

An atom is - as I recall from school - comprised of a nucleus (a number of protons and neutrons) and electrons. My reading unveiled that the element type - as seen in the periodic table - is determined by the number of protons/neutrons it possesses (excusing Hydrogen which has only 1 proton and no neutron). The nucleus is approximately 10,000 times smaller than the particle itself and is almost entirely 'empty space'.

This means that if you removed the empty space of the atoms that make you or I, we would actually be smaller than a single grain of salt (although we would, of course, still weigh the same as we do now).

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, the fundamental atomic facts I've mentioned above are fairly basic and relatively easy to comprehend but I find the concepts and scales quite incredible. The last paragraph, for instance, that without atomic 'empty space' I could be miniscule in size but still weight 10/11 stone is mindblowing - and this before I've even ventured to mention blackholes!

I'll give the 'lesson' a bit of a rest and pickup where I left off when I next have half an hour.

To those who think this is terribly boring - apologies. To everyone else - food for thought, eh...

Space facts

After watching the 6-part series from the BBC called "The Cosmos" last week, I went fishing for facts to feed my revigourated hunger. I'll put a few here:

• The distance from the surface of Earth to the centre is about 3,963 miles. Because much of Earth is fluid, the solid skin of the planet is only 41 miles thick - thinner than the skin of an apple, relatively speaking.
• You could fit approximately 1,000,000 Earths inside the Sun.
• The surface area of the Earth is 196,950,711 square miles.
• Our Solar System is moving at 43,000mph through our galaxy - the Milky Way.
• Some of the objects visible in Hubble Space Telescope images are nearly 4,000,000,000 (billion) times fainter than the limits of human vision.
• If you suspend three grains of sand in a large sports arena, such as Madison Square Garden in New York, the arena will be more closely packed with sand than our galaxy is with stars.
• The Earth orbits the Sun at an average velocity of approximately 18 miles per second.
• Due to frequent collisions with subatomic particles, it takes a typical gamma ray photon about one million years to travel from the core of the Sun to its surface, even though gamma rays travel at the speed of light (the gamma ray region of light has shorter wavelengths than X-rays). By the time the photon that started out as a gamma ray photon escapes the solar furnace, it has lost so much energy through collisions that it emerges from the Sun's surface as a photon of ordinary, visible light.
• And, one of my favourites(!) - there are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sand on the whole of Earth..

Doping in sport

As a keen fan and follower of lots of sports it's extremely disheartening to read - week in, week out - about doping allegations, testing, confessions or tribunals. It was especially sad, this week, to read (and watch) the tearful confession of Marion Jones, as she admitted to using tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) during her 2000/2001 athletic supremacy.

It has now become commonplace for accusations or discoveries of drug-taking to be made in sport. I find it so difficult to comprehend the rationale of someone like Jones who was a devotee to the sport, a tireless trainer and exceptionally talented exponent in a number of highly competetive disciplines. All I can think is that external pressures of competition and expectation forced her to resort to 'assistance' in an effort to prevail at any cost. Like the Chambers scandal, I feel very sorry for the relay members (who performed with jones) who will now be stripped of medals they were awarded in good faith and as a result of years of hard work.

It's a worrying sign. Sport is, obviously, a multi-billion dollar 'industry' where performance - and ultimately results - mean money. Just like Abramovich tried (and succeeded to an extent) to "buy" a winning football team at Chelsea; Jones tried to buy herself victory with the use of banned substances. I just pray that American Football doesn't take the lead, where players readily and openly use performance-enhancing 'products'.

The scariest part for me is that drug use in sport is very much like virus development and deployment online. The laboratories (or virus hackers) can develop or invent new drugs (or viruses) before the drug-testers (or security firms) can introduce and implement detection procedures. It's going to be a long road ahead for sport and, like Formula 1, it'll be a prescribed procession of the underhand car at the front with the car representing fairness following - and always remaining - behind...