Sunday 6 September 2009

Sense and Sensibility, Atila the Hun, Goal-Living the dream

As anticipated the weather changed although there were some brief moments of sunshine on this designated romantic of days which maketh many oblivious to the climate, I have worked hard remedying the mistake of misnumbering signatures card for developments set from 1984 through to 2008, thus reminding of that situation in the first employment in my youth when I had the boring task of writing out licences for pedestrian controlled vehicles owner by a large provider of milk to domestic households in the former county of Middlesex at a time when I believe there were two categories of pedestrian controlled vehicles and I continued writing the details of one after the category had changed for nearly 100 others without anyone appreciating the error until someone drew attention and they had to be removed from the vehicles and returned. These days such a mistake, mistakes of a nature which I made more time than I should would lead to swift dismissal, but then my immediate employers, appreciating that I was bored with the task and my mind had wondered, had the brainwave of putting me in charge of temporary staff, some four times my then age, recruited to undertake the task and it was through this activity that one the number, who had been the head of the licensing section of the finance department in an authority adjacent to my home arranged for me to move there where my work involved directly dealing with the public and which led to my taking over a cashier's post for half a year when someone became ill, and where amazingly on reflection it was unusual for me not to balance the account at first attempt and where the errors were so few that I was recommended for the position which involved a monetary promotion, having successful passed the appropriate examination, While the post was given to a married man with family who had attained the qualification previously and was waiting for such a position form sometimes, I felt aggrieved and shortly left local government, I thought never to return, and set forth to make my fortune. However my error of over the past week only had the consequence of having to repeat the work and delay bringing myself fully up-to-date by an hour or so.

I have delayed commenting on the attempt to repair the chair hoping that the second effort would last longer than it did, some two days, so I will make do, at least until I have lost sufficient weight not repeat the damage caused by plonking myself down sometimes with force. The cupboard is nearly bare, although in this instance the refrigerator but I delayed going shopping before lunch watching the 1981 TV series production of Sense and Sensibility. An appropriate offering on this day when love's misfortunes work out for the best at time of manners and civility about both the middle and upper classes. I sufficed on a cheese omelette for the second time in the week, made more tasty with a few halved olives.

I am struggling to remember the programmes which distracted my attention last evening. One was the Actors studio interview with Martin Scorsese. I wish I had his enclosed instant recall not just of all the films of the past, but his knowledge of how scenes were shot, the film speeds, the lighting and camera angles etc. He uses story boards for each frame, and helps write the scripts, oversees all the camera work and subsequent editing which is now done on a computer, and likes to rehearse actors and interact with them, thus he works with Robert De Niro over several decades when they have progressed from young to men in their middle to later years. If only my work had the same thoroughness and a little of his astonishing output. There is one aspect of the work of Scorsese which has always caused me concern.

This is nature and extent of the violence in all of his movies which in the interview he said reflects the violence he witnessed in his upbringing environment. It was nothing like the violence which Attila the Hun created when he attempted to force the twin Roman Emperors to pay sufficient gold tribute to stop him sacking their cities. The one hour drama documentary was a tour de force making use of good acting and the latest electronic technology to create vast armies of men in their tens of thousands, fortified towns and contemporary assault weaponry, to convey the extent of his clever ability to lead the disparate tribes through a mixture of ruthlessness to friend and foe and success in wrestling vast quantities of gold to feed the ambitions of his supporters, together with the usual satisfying of blood lust, rape and burning out of the homes of those who dared stand in their way. The Portrayal by Jack Palance in Sign of the Pagan in influencing my impression but I could have just as easily been affected by writers, musicians and other film makers who have made him into a brainless barbarian from Dante and Verdi to Woody Allen, and from Anthony Burgess and Monty Python's Flying Circus. For the record he lived only for 47 years from 406AD, ruling the Hunnic empire for close on twenty years and could have attacked Constantinople and Rome and a Chinese Emperor built the Great Wall to keep out a predecessor. While the BBC film concentrated on his attempts to obtain more and more gold tribute from the Romans his interests extended to the Persian Empire and at one point the came close to reaching the Atlantic passing through Amiens, Paris and Orleans before battling with the Romans and their allies at Chalons. His assault on Italy led to the creation of Venice as people fled to the islands of the Venetian Lagoon. His death has been the subject of continuing debate among scholars. Did he die from natural causes, at the hands of his wife or a clever plot initiated by Rome? What then happened is normal when one man with power and success dies or falls, his heirs then fight among each other to control the spoils, and there has also been academic work to try and work out what happened to his many children and although it is said that there is some evidence for linking with the tsars of Bulgaria, but linking his with Charlemagne has not been confirmed.
It was another coincidence that having viewed and travelled close to the Tynemouth peninsular and having walked the southern pie., it was the opening shot the opening shot, allegedly of Newcastle England in the Second film Goal Living the Dream, which I saw on Thursday. The series, there is to be a third, is a mixture of Boy's own progress from the slums of Mexico, to football stardom at Newcastle and Real Madrid, and the Champions League, with the World Cup left for episode 3, to Footballers wives versus Geordie and Como Aqua Para Chocolate. The story is of Mexican boy, Santiago, abandoned by his mother who cannot cope with her husband and his brother, who is a wizard with a football and is discovered as a young man and brought to Newcastle, enjoys the city life and falls in love with a Geordie nurse of good heart and simple and homely character played by Anna Friel. The films use a new technique of placing the actors in real football match settings live games and crowds) by having some of the world's great footballers do some acting and some actors play some footballer together, coupled with actors and extras being separately filmed to create part of the general crowd scenes.

The second film follows Santiago's sudden move Real Madrid and his rise to international superstardom alongside David Beckham, and stars of Real Madrid including our Woodgate and of Arsenal in a Champions League Final where Santiago scores the goal which ties the game as normal time comes to an end and a Beckham Free kick secures the win. Santiago also discovers that his mother has moved from Mexico to Spain where she and her husband struggle to run a bar and keep their natural son, his half brother from progressing from his youthful delinquency into adult criminality and prison. I thought the scene in which Santiago meets his mother was exceptionally good. The films seemed to me to show what happens when ordinary young men with special skills are thrust into superstardom and what happens if they are already attached to a nice young woman, and which in this instances result sin Santiago sacking his Newcastle based agent and his Geordie girlfriend returning home pregnant to work in a geriatric home or hospital day care, after the hero has been seduced by a media femme fatal. In addition to David Beckham and Jonathan Woodgate other making cameo appearances include Gravesan, Ramos, Raul, Ronaldo, Zidane, Henry, Fabregas, Reyes and Ljungeberg. Steve McManamen also appears and is listed as one of the film's producers. I was at St James Park when for the live game when Santiago gets his first big chance, but I decided against becoming one of the extras as I tend to sit silently and clap when appropriate, although recent disasters did lead to voicing some discontent!

I have mixed views about the development over the past decade of turning spiritual, family and private relationship events into major commercial and media extravaganzas, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, Easter Fathers Day, Mothers Day, and Guy Fawkes and Halloween added to Birthdays, Weddings, Christenings and Funerals and their Anniversaries, These have all become occasions for a massive sales operation with sections of supermarkets converted to mark the occasions. I have mixed views because all the advertising and media hype tends to devalue the real significance particular of Christmas and Easter or occasions when couples, parents families should spend time together over a simple meal or some mutually enjoyed activity rather than compete in demonstrating their feelings by spending more and more money. However it all helps the economy and international trade, especially as many of the goods are now made in China, the great model for Christian and humanitarian values and couples and families do spend time together which they might otherwise not. I also received a couple of electronic valentines which is

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