I spent the weekend in Amsterdam, and reported it on my sun/oracle blog. It’s just a travelog, and so I have made this pointer article much shorter. I have posted a full set slide show on this page though, the original only has two photos but catalogues places I and Mrs L. visited. …
Watching the English
On my way down from Edinburgh, I finished “Watching the English” by Kate Fox. This was recommended to me by Geoff Arnold. The book is bloody funny and so true. Its written by one of Britain’s leading social anthropologists, using her science to observe the English. She has the grace to start her book with a discourse on the “Participant Observer” paradox and manages to be funny about this as well. The book covers manners, class, the pub, queuing, language and dress, together with some other issues that I can’t remember, but always returns to our humour. …
The Fantastic 4.
I started to watch the Fantastic 4 on the flight home, but fell asleep. That good!! 😯 …
Batman Begins – again
I’ve just re-seen Batman Begins
. Its on the plane, the sound track is piss poor, the screen is tiny but these limitations only enhance the quality of the script & the drama of the story. This is what super-hero fiction is really about. As argued by the Captain, all the predecessor Batman stories remain cartoons (well they would be wouldn’t they) and we’ve been waiting for this story. …
Batman Begins
There’s no Dr. Who this week, so we popped out to the pictures to watch “Batman Begins”. …
The 9th Doctor
The final episode of the series was shown over the last weekend and IMO, its not as good as the penultimate episode. I’d been questioning whether the change from four part (30 minute) episodes to what seemed like single or double 45 minute episodes worked and had just come to the conclusion that they did, so imagine my surprise when they brought all the threads crashing together in the penultimate episode. There seemed so little to do to finish the stories, only 1/2 million Daleks to destroy and billions of humans to save. All in a day’s work for the Doctor. …
Ringtones & Revolution
During the recent election campaign, and one of the small left wing acts I took was to re-install “L’Internationale” on my phone. Its been the revolutionary anthem of European socialists since the Paris Commune, and is the more likely song to have been played at the Finland Station as Lenin arrived. (What? See also here…). …
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide (2005)
I went to see the Hitch Hiker’s Guide and reviewed it on my sun/oracle blog. I wasn’t impressed. …
Wipeout!
A mind game for journey’s. Define a category for which there are many answers, such as States of the USA, non-members of the UN, Schwarzenegger (or Streep) films and then each player bids as to how many answers they can name. The highest bidder, (the last bid after everyone else has passed) starts and seeks to meet his or her bid. If they succeed, they win, if they fail (you’d best agree a time limit) the other players get to offer answers. There’s to be no repetition and the last player (again best agree a time limit) to state an answer wins. …
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
For various reasons, the other month we went into Aldershot and visited “The Games Shop”. This is, as you’d guess, a shop that sells board games, games books, jigsaws and other games accessories; but not computer games, which is maybe why it has no web site. At our first visit, last year, we picked up “Murder at the Abbey” also here…, and this time bought “Betrayal at the House on the Hill”. Its fantastic – collaborative, re-playable, and with strong varied stories, our first night was Buffy’s Hell’s Gate, a deeply dramatic story. …