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March, 2006

  1. V for Vendetta

    March 31, 2006 by dafyd

    Looks like I’m taking requests now…

    V for VendettaV for Vendetta

    A man, terribly scarred in his youth, wears a mask and enlists a young girl to help him get revenge on his tormentors. So far, so Lloyd Webber, you might think. But when this film opens with said masked avenger (cunningly known as “V”) blowing up the Old Bailey to the strains of the 1812 Overture, you can tell you’re in for something a little different.

    To be fair, the film, based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel (he asked for his name to be removed from the film, which should tell you something, but I’m not sure what) may seem like Phantom does terrorism, but it is very much a film with a message about panic, censorship, the Big Brother state, Guantanamo (which is, it seems, a repeating theme – see my post on Inside Man when I get round to it)… and David Blunkett.

    Agent Smith, hidden under the mask, does a fantastic job of creating a character whose face the audience never sees. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for him not to be able to use his face to pass on the characters feelings, but that’s kinda the point. Natalie Portman as the not-so-ingenue almost manages to pull off a convincing English accent (only slipping a couple of times). Stephen Fry plays, well, himself, and John Hurt is very good value as the David Blunkett-Adolf Hitler chief badguy chappy.

    Film-wise, V for Vendetta is fantastic. Some Matrix-like scenes (the director was an AD on the Matrix) merge with some fairly decent characterisation and a weird-but-wonderful plot to create a really, really good two hours, and I challenge anyone to walk out from this film without asking themselves some serious questions about how Britain and the US work at the moment and how they could be in 20 years time.

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  2. Tumbleweed

    March 30, 2006 by dafyd

    Oooh, pretty quiet round here. Dunno why – nothing much going on, really…

    Anyhoo – I do have a few things I want to get posted up here… certainly a couple of films I’ve seen that I want to shout about – I just haven’t got round to it yet. Now it’s written here, hopefully I’ll feel more motivated!

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  3. Fini!

    March 17, 2006 by dafyd

    The Easter Vac officially starts now. Yay!

    The Politics dossier (that counts for my degree) was handed in this morning, looks and reads great (I think).

    The Francophone essay (that doesn’t count) was emailed to the course coordinator about five minutes ago, and isn’t great, but will do fine.

    Nothing much happening over Easter, thankfully. A lot of revision, a few short essays to do, and a couple of websites to develop.

    As far as I’m aware I’m not working at Waterstone’s this holiday, so that’ll be a break. Mind you, i’ve said that before…

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  4. Barking

    March 16, 2006 by dafyd

    “Ross” had this to say on the BBC Crufts site:

    Crufts was great as it is every year. I think we should have more dogs on TV, I for one would like to see dogs getting better TV roles. I ask you would it not brighten up the deeply depressing show Eastenders, if we were to see a dog on the show with a gripping story line e.g. Rover & The Missing Sausages. Surely it would break up the dullness we are usually treated to every day of the week.

    Couldn’t agree more. Gritty, depressing Eastenders, or happy, energetic canines? I know what I’d choose.

    And now, back to the essays…

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  5. Procrastination

    March 15, 2006 by dafyd

    The end of term is in two days time.

    I have two essays to hand in by then.

    So why oh why oh why can’t I actually write them?

    Like at the end of Michaelmas term, they’re not difficult. They won’t take terribly long to write. It’s not as if I’ve got a huge amount of other things that I should be doing.

    Intriguingly, like last term, they’re in Francophone Lit and French Politics. Only the Politics one actually counts towards my degree, and the Francophone one can be emailed any time until 23.59 on Friday, and I don’t have the lecture tomorrow afternoon that I’d normally have… but it’s still frustrating that I’ve been sitting in front of this laptop since lunchtime and have written, umm, a bibliography.

    I’ve done the work – both are planned, I know exactly what I need to write about… but the words just aren’t coming. Pfah.

    Thank God I don’t have to do a dis***tation next year… (or ever, in fact – the joys of modern languages!)

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  6. Cars vs Computers

    March 14, 2006 by dafyd

    I’ve just been forwarded this fantastic email by my mum. The place where she works has been working sans-network for the last week (ish) because they needed a new plug for the server. Or something.

    At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

    In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

    If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

    1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

    2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

    3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

    4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

    5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was ultra-reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.

    6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.

    7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.

    8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

    9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

    10. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.

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  7. Must see

    March 10, 2006 by dafyd

    The seventh and final season of the West Wing starts tonight on More4… It is genuine must-see TV – if you haven’t seen it before, give it a chance. If you are a fan of the previous six seasons – this will remind you why you love it so much.

    I’ve been sneakily downloading the episodes after they air in the US, and I can tell you that this series is fantastic. Looks to be a stunning end to one of the best TV series of all time…

    Watch it!

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  8. Books

    March 5, 2006 by dafyd

    So, I’ve been a bit lax posting around here recently. Sorry about that. Summative essays, other college stuff, other other stuff… it all started adding up. But here’s something new, anyway.

    I thought I might share a few of the books I’ve been reading recently. Not the boring texts for uni – no, these are genuine bestsellers direct from your friendly neighbourhood bookshop.

    The Constant GardenerThe Constant Gardener by John Le Carré

    Yes, I know this isn’t a new book. And yes, I know I only bought it because of the movie – well, it was in Waterstone’s 3 for 2 because of the movie, therefore I bought it. But it is very, very good.

    I’ve been reading quite a lot of Le Carré recently – I don’t know why, probably because there’s lots of them in the library and they are jolly good reads. But this one is different. There’s no obvious enemy – unlike the Smiley books, the reader doesn’t know that Karla and his Soviet friends are the bad guys, and the Smiley and co are the good guys.

    And there seems to be a much greater political angle in this book. Obviously, it’s set now (ish – it was published in 2000, so a few years ago, I suppose) in Kenya, and Le Carré makes it very clear what he thinks of certain elements of Kenyan government, the British diplomatic corps, multinational pharmaceutical corporations…

    But this political stance doesn’t get too heavy for the story. This is one of his best page-turners, with some very strong characters (one of whom is dead almost all the way through – not too sure how Rachel Weisz can get so much acclaim for playing her… must see the film!) and some quite dramatic moments. Read it!

    (I’ll post more when I get round to it. In the meantime, have a look at Five People You Meet in Heaven, Saturday and The Way I Live Now…)

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  9. Genius!

    March 5, 2006 by dafyd

    These people have far, far too much time on their hands:

    [via WWdN]

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