| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Karl Dallas is still waiting for you to join Twitter...
Friday, 12 September 2014
Karl Dallas sent you an invitation
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monday, 31 October 2011
Occupy links
Occupy Bradford: Day 4
Though it started fairly modestly, with only three tents, Occupy Bradford is growing slowly but steadily. General assemblies have been well attended and resulting in very positive outcomes, and at the last count (noon Oct 31) two tents had joined, making the total now five.
- “Wonderful piece on the #occupy movement/s by Andrew Rawnsley. Last paragraph says it all http://t.co/ziIjCqv5
- “RT @alexdoherty7: When politics-as-gossip "journalist" Andrew Rawnsley writes an interesting article you know something's going on: http://t.co/r93mvO4m
- “73% of Occupy Wall Street protesters disapprove of Obama’s job performa... http://t.co/gtPJ208q
- “Thoughtful > Occupy London is a nursery for the mind. Madeleine Bunting http://t.co/mCZ47FGS
- “Occupy Wall St. Hip Hop Anthem: Occupation Freedom, Ground Zero And The Global Block Collective http://t.co/SkgHMYNK#ows #ocupabrasil
- “Check this video out -- Occupy Vancouver Protesting At Catholic Church http://t.co/XTtg74aw via @youtube
- “.@PennyRed Far Right attack #OccupyNewcastle (slightly updtd ver) http://t.co/AYICZgS2 #OccupyMCR #OccupyLSX #OccupyGlasgow #OccupyEdinburgh
- “Where Are the Women at Occupy Wall Street? Everywhere—And They're Not Going Away | The Nation http://t.co/SLRT8WQ8
- “Education International supports global occupy protests:http://t.co/DbtQURIl
- “Occupy Wall Street protester sexually assaulted in tent but demonstrators will handle internally: Attack comes a...http://t.co/SNidGBsa
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
A song for Bert
"Do not be sad for what we've lost; be glad for what we've had."
SONG: Jimi and Janis and Sandy
(to a raggy beat)
Jimi and Janis and Sandy,
They're all in the heavenly choir.
With Woody and Billy and Phil and John
Their voices rise higher and higher.
They sang with us once for a short while
Then time came for old friends to part:
But the sadness we feel at their going
Should be gladness they're still in our heart.
They're all in the heavenly choir.
With Woody and Billy and Phil and John
Their voices rise higher and higher.
They sang with us once for a short while
Then time came for old friends to part:
But the sadness we feel at their going
Should be gladness they're still in our heart.
There's Miles playing cool on the trumpet
As Louis rips riffs in the sky,
While Charlie rearranges all the chord changes
And Stephane's violin rises high.
And Django the gypsy makes magic,
The angels are tapping their feet.
'Cos no music's sweeter, they all feel the meter
When the Good Lord is setting the beat.
As Louis rips riffs in the sky,
While Charlie rearranges all the chord changes
And Stephane's violin rises high.
And Django the gypsy makes magic,
The angels are tapping their feet.
'Cos no music's sweeter, they all feel the meter
When the Good Lord is setting the beat.
All heaven is having a party,
Eternity's having a ball.
They're all jitterbugging and cutting-a-rugging.
They've heard the last victory call.
One day we're all going to join them:
This earth is a musical school.
We practise our chops playing Top of the Pops
And study the Lord's golden rule.
Eternity's having a ball.
They're all jitterbugging and cutting-a-rugging.
They've heard the last victory call.
One day we're all going to join them:
This earth is a musical school.
We practise our chops playing Top of the Pops
And study the Lord's golden rule.
(Repeat first verse.)
I composed this song when Sandy Denny died, and it comes to mind whenever one more of the giants who walked among us goes on to a higher plane of existence.I also carry with me Richard Thompson's words at Sandy's funeral, which struck some (not me) as heartless: that we had her on loan, and should not lament her passing.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
What's On TV and radio this week
TOMORROW
TV
00.30: Eyes Wide Open, Israeli movie (BBC4)
21.00: The Fades (BBC3)
22:00: Rab C Nesbitt (BBC2)
WEDNESDAY
TV
21.00: Hidden, new thriller series, starring Philip Glenister (BBC1)
22.00: House, new series (Sky1)
THURSDAY
TV
01.05: La vie rêvée des anges (Film4)
Radio
20.00: Tony Bennett in concert (BBC Radio 2)
FRIDAY
TV
13:05: Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger (Ch4)
19.30: Rostropovich - Genius of the Cello (BBC4)
Radio
19.00 Pink Floyd Night (6 Music)
TV
00.30: Eyes Wide Open, Israeli movie (BBC4)
21.00: The Fades (BBC3)
22:00: Rab C Nesbitt (BBC2)
WEDNESDAY
TV
21.00: Hidden, new thriller series, starring Philip Glenister (BBC1)
22.00: House, new series (Sky1)
THURSDAY
TV
01.05: La vie rêvée des anges (Film4)
Radio
20.00: Tony Bennett in concert (BBC Radio 2)
 |
Order Tony Bennett, Duets II, from Amazon |
FRIDAY
TV
13:05: Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger (Ch4)
19.30: Rostropovich - Genius of the Cello (BBC4)
19.00 Pink Floyd Night (6 Music)
BOOKS: A 'Toxic Genre', by Martin Barker
The term in quotes in the title of Martin Barker's valuable study of Hollywood 's reaction – or, actually, its failure to react – to America 's misadventures in the Middle East , comes from a 2008 article in the film industry "bible", Variety. Ironically, the writer was pessimistic about the box office chances for Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, a movie which went on to take $12.5 million – the only one of 23 war movies to earn more than it cost to make – and take six awards at the 2010 Oscars.
Barker draws an interesting parallel – or contrast – between Bigelow's film and the 3D blockbuster by her ex-husband, James Cameron, Avatar. He was not the first to do so. He quotes an Iraqi journalist who described Avatar as "the most accurate Iraq
This raises the whole question of what, after all, is a war movie, what is "real", and -- in similar vein to Aaron Kerner's recent study of films and the Holocaust – the very nature of documentary itself.
Does the fact that what appeared to be genuine video footage in Redacted, hand-held wobbling, out-of-focus blurring etc, was actually created in the studio mean the message of the movie was invalid?
(If the footage of Apollo 11 leaving the moon could not have been genuine, does that mean that the landing never took place? Much of the footage of Night Mail, the archetypal documentary, was actually shot in a specially constructed mock-up, and the actuality dialogue was spoken by the posties from a pre-defined script; Barker does not mention this, though it would have strengthened his argument about the blurring of the borders between illusion and reality. All art is, after all, a lie that tells the truth.)
Rightly, Barker is dismissive of vulgar "leftists" whose judgement of good or bad of any film in this genre is based on whether they agree or disagree with its "message". A work which massages the preconceptions and prejudices of its audience rather than following Bob Dylan's dictum, "I can't think for you, you'll have to decide", can have the opposite effect to that intended.
The example of John Wayne's The Green Berets, which became a pejorative byword for sabre-rattling agitprop, has lessons for the left as well as the right. As we found with the protest songs chart success, which effectively steered the ant-war movement into safer, less confrontational directions, the left can suffer from a similar backlash.
He publishes detailed synopses of many of the films in the war movies genre, which will be valuable tools for any film students who want to delve into the issues he raises.
The book might have profited from a wider focus. For instance, his basic thesis might have been strengthened by reference to non-Iraq movies like Paths of Glory and All Quiet on the Western Front, and also Clint Eastwood's re-examining of the battle for Iwo Jima .
In the end, of course, the remarkable thing is not Hollywood
A shorter version of this review was published in the Morning Star.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)