Flotsam & Jetsam XII

  

Almost certainly this will be the last miscellaneous post of the year. I’m trying to find the time to see ‘Southland Tales‘ before I fly off to ’sunny’ Stockholm for Christmas as it would make a clean sweep of all the films I included in my Films to see in 2007 that actually got a UK release. The reviews have been uniformly negative - but it’s got Buffy playing a porn star, and therefore demands a bit of effort on my part. Purely for the curiosity value you understand.  

There was a documentary on ‘Silent Clowns‘ on the BBC recently which was entertaining and got me thinking about silent cinema. I used to love Harold Lloyd and remember during my early secondary school days snuggling up to the TV with a mug of weak lemon squash at about 3.30pm on BBC2 it memory serves to catch his exploits. Here are some similar exploits by Buster Keaton - the inventiveness really is astounding for its age.

 

Yes, I upgraded to the iphone and it is probably the best little gadget I’ve ever bought. I don’t want to turn this into a advertising channel for Steve Jobs but the touch interface is amazing, the web browser on it is awesome, and the interactivity between my new imac, phone and my Mac client membership is brilliant - I ‘needed’ to get a blackberry for work and this is essentially the same thing for me, I have all my agency and government contacts on it, can e-mail them and review their websites on the train, receive job information by mail, browse local authority website for information for work, update my blog if I want to plus it’s my phone and ipod. I can download and watch TV programmes on it and believe me that has helped with these winter commutes!! Oh, and it has Google Earth on it as well. And a Youtube link. And judging by the main screen, space for three more functions which I assume the mac boffins are beavering away on as we speak. As always with Mac the ergonomics are also beautiful, much like the imac. No clumsy, huge noisy base units - everything is self contained in the flat panel screen. Given that you now run Windows on Macs and therefore have access to all the games previously denied to Mac addicts I wonder why anyone remains with Microsoft. ‘Yes, please make the cheque out to Minty Enterprises Mr. Jobs, after all my enormous readership will of course lead to a dramatic upturn in sales for you now….’

 I’ve finally finished uploading all my music to the new computer which is always a nostalgic experience as you blow the dust off some old CD’s loitering at the back of cupboards and hiding on shelves. This looks interesting, and makes your heart swell with pride to be British doesn’t it? That kind of leads me on to the recent Led Zeppelin reunion gig - I don’t know if you managed top catch any of the footage on youtube or elsewhere (it’s pretty much been ruthlessly taken down, so I doubt that some of these links will work) but the atmosphere looking fucking electric - there was one link of the very start and the crowd were going absolutely crazy and this was communicated through a poxy video phone. I’m not a huge fan, but I have some exceptionally fond memories of listening to ‘Immigrant Song‘ again and again and again one stormy evening back in about 1983 and ‘Kashmir‘ is one of my favourite songs ever, again it reminds me of a particulalrly windswept and rainy family holiday in Skegness, along with the film ‘The Eiger Sanction‘ - funny how things trigger long dormant memories eh? It looks like they really rocked it which does spark my interest at a possible tour next year, although I’m sure tickets would be a nightmare to get your hands on.

   

 

So, we’re looking at sending a manned flight to Mars - can I be the first person to point out the obvious lunacy of this scheme? Hasn’t anyone read any 1950’s pulp SF or watched any of those ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians‘ movies? As some other bloggers have pointed out, it’s headlines like ‘Robot Drama on Mars‘ that really make me feel that I’m living in the 21st century, even if science still hasn’t developed hover cars, domestic jet packs or disintegration beams yet. Stupid science. I’m pretty sure that this is just about the only welcome announcement from the entire tenancy of Bush Jr. in the White House, and even then I reckon it’s just a counter to China’s recent strides into space exploration. We can’t have a space gap can we? Space gap? Eh? Oh no, I’ve confused myself again….

 

How cool would it be to be part of the crew who drafted the initial proposal ‘Manned Mars Mission’ document? SF nerds I’d wager, each and every one of ‘em. Just looking at the logistics vaguely outlined in that article, I wouldn’t fancy being a project manager on that !! When I was working for Newham Council I once saw the Olympic Delivery Gant Chart which was so complex with its colour codes, key milestones, inter-relationship threads, engagement strands etc. I had to go and have a lie down in a quiet room for ten minutes. I bet the health and safety report would be amusing for the Mars mission - ’In the event of being bombarded by cosmic rays or inadvertently teleported into an alternative para-dimension, be sure to record the details in the service incident book. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary procedures’……. 

 

 

 

So, the end of another year. First time I’ve ever spent Christmas without my family and New Year in another country - it’ll be a bit strange but I’m sure I’ll cope.  Career wise this has just about been the most successful ever for me so I really can’t complain. At the start of the year I had in my mind a figure I would be billing clients on a weekly basis for my esteemed services, with the Tower Hamlets gig I’ve blown that figure out of the water and I’m up for a new assignment at Lambeth which  effectively pays double my target. Given my new influence and almighty power I shop at a higher class of website these days, it’s so difficult to get effective and loyal henchmen these days don’t you find? Who knows what lies in wait for 2008?

 

 

Anyway, let’s finish the year with some comedy - I just love the tone of this and some of the comments that people have chipped in are priceless. A friend said I should chip-in and link to this sketch from the brilliant ‘Kids in the Hall‘ comedy show (1990’s Canadian Monty Python if you haven’t heard of ‘em) but they’d locked the thread so I’ll just have to do it here.

 

 

~ by mintyblonde on December 13, 2007.