Woody
Pretty quiet but relaxing weekend; there's something so nice about lounging around in the garden, drinking, reading, chatting, tickling Dizzy's tummy then thinking, mmmm, time for some dinner, hey, it is still light, still warm, let's have the food out here too. And more drink. Ate and drank outside until dusk fell and the bats came squeaking out, flying overhead with that disctinctive, leathery flapping sounds they make (doesn't sound remotely like a bird) - Mel hates them, I, of course, love them. Finally head back inside(except for Dizzy who has been dozing inside the open window sill for ages but not decides she needs to go out and explore the dark garden), finish stuffing ourselves with yummy cheesecake, more wine and watching Annie Hall on Mel's new LCD TV.
Brilliant movie, it has a classic Woody Allen moment where he tires of listening to a too-loud boor in line behind him at the cinema trying to impress his date with his knowledge of media theory. Woody eventually tells the man he is a fool, the man smugly declares he teaches a class in this subject at a prestigious school. So Woody turns round and declares "I just happen to have George Marshall McLuhan right here, why don't we ask him?". McLuhan tells the man he is a fool and doesn't understand his books at all. Woody turns to camera "wouldn't it be great if real life was like this?" Love that scene (plus McLuhan was one of the few mdea writers I respected during my college years).
I had forgotten about the blink and you miss him appearance of a young Jeff Goldblum in there (and apparently Sigourney Weaver, who is a guest at this year's 60th Film Fest in Edinburgh, is in there too, but I must have blinked and did miss that). Also has the priceless scenes where adult Woody not only has flashbacks to his childhood, but actually walks into the scenes, including the one where he kisses a girl in class then argues with the teacher. Teacher in flashback telling off young Woody as old Woody exclaims he was only manifesting an honest interest in sexuality. That's not normal for a young boy that age the teacher points out; it was for me, he replies. With him there, it was for me too, although I sometimes worry I peaked at that tender age; still at least I haven't married my own step-daughter. How snoggable is Diane Keaton in that movie?
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Day of the Jackal
There is a famous scene in Freddie Forsyth's thriller Day of the Jackal (the film version having the ultra-upper class Edward Fox in it I think) where the international assassin shows how ridiculously easy it is to obtain fraudulent passports. Teardrop kindly sent me a link to this piece on the Register that he was blogging about which shows that, far from protecting us, the new biometric passports governments like the UK and US are shoving down citizen's throats (for their own good of course) as about as safe as a Kosher butcher in Beirut. And since this is the first wave of the tech Blair etc want us to have in our ID cards it blows yet another hole in that scheme, not that this will discourage a government which has made its decision and will stick to it no matter how many citizens tell them to stop and how many IT companies tell them it won't work...
Meanwhile the Sunday Herald has a great story about Lebanese folks living here in Scotland who are getting assistance from the Lebanon government's legal affairs folks to try and have charges brought against Tony Blair for war crimes by aiding and abbeting the supply of weapons to Israel. The revealtion that the UK was allowing the US to supply weapons to Israel via Scottish airports the other week caused a lot of outrage here (and was swiftly moved to RAF bases further south, but still allowed to continue, which kind of misses the point) and from my limited understanding of legal matters may well put the government into a dodgy area of international law, supplying or aiding the supply of weapons to one side in a conflict where civilians are being targeted. I doubt it will actually come off but I wish them the best of luck with it - it would be nice to see the swine held accountable properly.
Especially since the main airport involved - Glasgow Prestwick - was recently mired in the US's rendition flights moral morass and also because some of the weapons being shipped via there include the bunker buster bombs Israelie forces used to deliebrately target and murder UN observers with recently (mistake my arse, you don't shell someone for hours while they are phoning your HQ to tell you they are UN, while you have a map which show UN locations and then when shells don't get the saftey bunker call in an airstrike with a bunker buster to finish it off by mistake. Then shell the rescue party for good measure. Mistake my arse, bloody murder, plain and simple in my opinion.)
There is a famous scene in Freddie Forsyth's thriller Day of the Jackal (the film version having the ultra-upper class Edward Fox in it I think) where the international assassin shows how ridiculously easy it is to obtain fraudulent passports. Teardrop kindly sent me a link to this piece on the Register that he was blogging about which shows that, far from protecting us, the new biometric passports governments like the UK and US are shoving down citizen's throats (for their own good of course) as about as safe as a Kosher butcher in Beirut. And since this is the first wave of the tech Blair etc want us to have in our ID cards it blows yet another hole in that scheme, not that this will discourage a government which has made its decision and will stick to it no matter how many citizens tell them to stop and how many IT companies tell them it won't work...
Meanwhile the Sunday Herald has a great story about Lebanese folks living here in Scotland who are getting assistance from the Lebanon government's legal affairs folks to try and have charges brought against Tony Blair for war crimes by aiding and abbeting the supply of weapons to Israel. The revealtion that the UK was allowing the US to supply weapons to Israel via Scottish airports the other week caused a lot of outrage here (and was swiftly moved to RAF bases further south, but still allowed to continue, which kind of misses the point) and from my limited understanding of legal matters may well put the government into a dodgy area of international law, supplying or aiding the supply of weapons to one side in a conflict where civilians are being targeted. I doubt it will actually come off but I wish them the best of luck with it - it would be nice to see the swine held accountable properly.
Especially since the main airport involved - Glasgow Prestwick - was recently mired in the US's rendition flights moral morass and also because some of the weapons being shipped via there include the bunker buster bombs Israelie forces used to deliebrately target and murder UN observers with recently (mistake my arse, you don't shell someone for hours while they are phoning your HQ to tell you they are UN, while you have a map which show UN locations and then when shells don't get the saftey bunker call in an airstrike with a bunker buster to finish it off by mistake. Then shell the rescue party for good measure. Mistake my arse, bloody murder, plain and simple in my opinion.)
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Bloodspell
I posted a piece on the FPI blog the other day about this free online animation series Hugh Hancock told me about, Bloodspell. It uses a 3-D game engine to let low-budget movie makers create animated features. And in a very nice touch the crew have made it with the Creative Commons license so not only can you watch or download it for free and then mucking about and reworking it is positively encouraged, which is rather refreshing (plus it is the kind of thing which pisses off those numpties who bore cinema audiences to tears with constant 'go to the cinema, fight piracy' ads at each screening, despite the fact they are preaching to an audience who are already in a cinema). In fact they deliberately take the mickey out of those awful FACT adverts in some episodes as you can see from this image.
I posted a piece on the FPI blog the other day about this free online animation series Hugh Hancock told me about, Bloodspell. It uses a 3-D game engine to let low-budget movie makers create animated features. And in a very nice touch the crew have made it with the Creative Commons license so not only can you watch or download it for free and then mucking about and reworking it is positively encouraged, which is rather refreshing (plus it is the kind of thing which pisses off those numpties who bore cinema audiences to tears with constant 'go to the cinema, fight piracy' ads at each screening, despite the fact they are preaching to an audience who are already in a cinema). In fact they deliberately take the mickey out of those awful FACT adverts in some episodes as you can see from this image.
Strange new worlds
Fascinating new of 'worlds' which exist in the space between solar systems rather than orbiting a sun as we'd normally expect. Suddenly all sorts of SF lines run into my head 'That's no moon, it's a space station...". Or perhaps one of the wandering worlds is Mondas, twin of Earth and home of the dreaded Cybermen (at least the ones from this universe, not the parallel ones).
Fascinating new of 'worlds' which exist in the space between solar systems rather than orbiting a sun as we'd normally expect. Suddenly all sorts of SF lines run into my head 'That's no moon, it's a space station...". Or perhaps one of the wandering worlds is Mondas, twin of Earth and home of the dreaded Cybermen (at least the ones from this universe, not the parallel ones).
Beachcombing
Down at the Fidra end of the beach, near the lighthouse.
Same dried out tree trunk I took pics of ages back, now with added decorations
Splash!!!! After all you just can't go to the beach and not throw stones into the water.
Dune. When looking for the spice Melange you need to beware of the Sandworms.
What time is it? To us a beach sundial. To Bruce the greyhound it's a doggy loo.
The Blair Beach Project
In North Berwick proper, the big mural of the seafront and the Bass Rock, one time fortress, prison and now one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in Europe.
Meanwhile, much later the sun set over the Forth at Crammond. At low tide you can walk out the rough caseway to the island (great for picnics, but watch that tide!). It is dotted with old buildings left over as defence points from two world wars to protect nearby Rosyth naval dockyard.
Down at the Fidra end of the beach, near the lighthouse.
Same dried out tree trunk I took pics of ages back, now with added decorations
Splash!!!! After all you just can't go to the beach and not throw stones into the water.
Dune. When looking for the spice Melange you need to beware of the Sandworms.
What time is it? To us a beach sundial. To Bruce the greyhound it's a doggy loo.
The Blair Beach Project
In North Berwick proper, the big mural of the seafront and the Bass Rock, one time fortress, prison and now one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in Europe.
Meanwhile, much later the sun set over the Forth at Crammond. At low tide you can walk out the rough caseway to the island (great for picnics, but watch that tide!). It is dotted with old buildings left over as defence points from two world wars to protect nearby Rosyth naval dockyard.
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