Friday 26 February 2010

The Last Station of the Tolstoys, and a Single Man

Given the weather forecast I was delighted to be greeted by a bright day and to find that it was not cold. I not only enjoyed two pan au chocolats for breakfast but by ten had eaten the remaining two salami, cucumber and mustard rolls which I prepared before commencing the travels. Early on I also decided to journey to Clapham Junction station and Wandsworth shopping centre by bus for the first two of four films - A Single Man and the Last Station. It was a bold move as I can remember only once during the past five years and then since the 1960’s watching two films back to back. During my childhood and as a young man, cinema’s showed continuous programmes comprising a second feature, usually in black and white, and a main feature in colour with in between a newsreel, adverts and trailers. Usherettes, with torches would show people to seats when they arrived, although there was a break between programmes where the ladies would serve ice creams and sweets for trays over their shoulders. There was usually a male doorman or two in a fine uniforms and hats. Most adults smoked and it was only later that no smoking areas were introduced.

According to Travel London the journey to Clapham would take one and quarter hours so with the first show at 1pm I thought leaving at 11 would provide sufficient time allowing for additional traffic delays and the short bus ride from Clapham to Wandsworth shopping centre where the cinema is located. As I exited the Travel Lodge I noted the required first bus, a 109, leaving a stop across the road, so I was pleased to find that during the working day, these buses were timed every 4 to 8 minutes, and there was only a little wait before another arrived. There are few seats downstairs to accommodate a good number of standing passengers and remembered from previous experience not to sit on the five seater at the back which is uncomfortable when fully occupied, especially by those of similar size to me.
Last summer, on a similar long bus journey through south London, English was only spoken once, even by the minority of white faces, on this occasion the foreign voices were a minority but the white faces getting on or off the bus was less than ten percent on the route along the main London Road, from West Croydon, through Thornton Heath and Norbury, to Streatham, an almost continuous shopping street, full of international stores and restaurants. This dramatic change has taken place in the past decade. Most people only used the bus for a few stops and there appeared to be no one else taking a longer journey.

I knew the stop to leave the bus because it was shortly after the road from Mitcham joined in the road and which continues along the High Street to Brixton where there is choice between going on to the West End or the City. I was not sure where the next bus, the 319 could be taken and this resulted in a short explore before working out the direction and finding out that because of the one way system there was one stop with buses travelling in both directions so it was important to get on the right one. There were 9 buses listed on the electronic notice board and the order changed as information was received on a number of traffic delays.

The second journey was very different from the first because leaving the area of the High Street we reached the first of a series of Commons and parks- Streatham, Clapham and Wandsworth. There were also areas of good housing with gardens so that the racial mix became more balanced. At Clapham we came to the familiar main road via the main shopping road junction with Debenhams to one side. I did not have to wait long at the bus stop before the first to arrive had via Wandsworth written on its side. On getting off at the stop after the Southern entrance to the shopping precinct I was able to call in at a news agent local shop for a cold can of Pepsi 60p which I drank en route stopping to take gulps and arriving at the first floor cinema entrance with five minutes to spare. There was no one serving at the ticket office but the ice cream sales counter at the entrance to the concourse provided printed ticket receipts. There was an excellent audience for the film- A single Man, arising from Colin Firth winning the best actor Bafta. At the award ceremony he told the story that having been asked to undertake the role he had decided it was not for him and prepared an email saying so when the fridge repair man arrived, or was it is washing machine, anyway by the time the work was completed he had changed his mind and accepted the part.

In the film Colin Firth plays a homosexual college professor who is trying to recover from the death in a road crash of the younger man with who he not only lived with for sixteen years but had the kind of close, loving and compatible relationship which most heterosexual couples, especially those portrayed in EastEnders, will dream about. The character had not been allowed to say goodbye to his former partner, as the accident happened while the young man was visiting his parents and they refused to allow Colin to visit or attend the funeral. Fortunately he was able to share his grief with a neighbour, and the only woman with whom he had a brief affair in his youth when they were both living in London, by a created literary coincidence. The film is based on the Christopher Isherwood novel set in 1962, at the time of Cuban Missile crisis, and the friend, Charlie is divorced and lives alone drinking and making herself look good and wishing Colin was not gay. They are the kind of friends who late in the film can get drunk together, dance but also tear into each other about limitations and differences of viewpoint.

The film is excellent at showing the inner life of the main characters. Colin has decided that life is not worth living and systematically and methodically plans his day to end with shooting himself. He removes all his papers and valuables from his bank deposit box, and then sets out all his papers on his desk writing letters to those who matter to him and working out how best to shoot himself without creating too much mess for his housekeeper.

At the college he is advised that a student has asked for his home address and it has been given. The student has a pretty face but appears to have a regular heterosexual relationship, yet the young man appears to be pressing an interest which Firth rejects given his intentions for the day. Firth calls in at a liquor store for a bottle of gin for his party a-deux with Charley, played by Julianne Moore, and is picked up or appear to pick up, a pretty Spanish boy who he also rejects given his plans. After the dinner, drinking and soul searching he goes to the same bar, where post war, he met his former partner. He orders cigarettes and a bottle of scotch which he then cancels when the pretty student comes in and they go down to the beach for a swim and to his home for a couple of beers and gradually he switches from the grief from what was lost to the hope of the new. He locks away the gun in the desk drawer, with all the bullets purchased earlier. He has changed his mind. All day people have been telling him how unwell he looks, the housekeeper, a work colleague, the two young men. Colin dies from a heart attack. It is an appropriate end for him.

The story is contrived but the acting and the direction suburb. I cannot say I enjoyed the film which is not a great one but I am glad I arranged to see it using a ticket voucher, via the credit card.

Colin Firth is a remarkable actor with a career which ranges from St Trinians, Bridget Jones and Mama Mia to The English Patient and Dorian Grey. He became a sex idol with his TV performance as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. He has been married twice living in North America and Italy as a consequence as well as London. He has already won a half dozen awards for the role and is set to win several more with Golden Globe and Oscar Nominations among them.

There was forty minutes before the next showing of the Last Station, a film I have looked forward to seeing since it was announced. I was hungry again and went out to adjacent Mac D for a cheeseburger and coffee, £2.69 or £2.79 , and then had a quick look around Waterstones’ before returning to the theatre for the second film based on the last year of the life of Count Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and the father of non violent anarchism and socialist collectivism based on the Sermon on the Mount and whose work was to have such a major influence on the lives of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and me.

I had been independently moved by the Sermon having been brought up a devout Catholic and only learnt about the life and works of Tolstoy, several years after, and after having read the war crimes reports on Concentration camps as an adolescent school boy. Just as with creative contemporary art, I had moved to similar position and beliefs in my own way and time.

In the film of that last year is recounted through the thoughts and feeling of the man employed as his secretary Valentine Bulgakov who I believe is a fiction creation and not to be confused with the Russian play writer and author, the revolutionary activist Mikael Bulgakov. In the film Valentine is recruited by Vladimir Chertkov, the man who carried forward Tolstoy’s ideas and wishes for some three decades after death of the great man. Chertkov selects Valentine because he is an idealist and innocent who attempted to put and appears willing to spy on the Countess for him. Chertkov was the literary executor and personal secretary who headed the Tolstoyian institute and became recognised as being a stronger believer is putting the ideas into practice that Tolstoy himself, who was something of a hypocrite, something which in the film his wife points out. I am yet to read the available sources in an attempt to establish the truth from the fiction.

I have not read the novel by Jay Pareni, or the official biographies of Tolstoy. There are two important contemporary sources by those closest to him although both posses strong reasons for providing us with a particular viewpoint. In 1922 Chertkov published a book about this last year but the story ended before Tolstoy’s death in 1910. He then published a booklet which is available on line, covering the remaining months. The Countess also wrote an autobiography which is available in a new printed or on line free and can be down loaded for free.

Tolstoy and Chertkov were part of the Russian nobility, and while Tolstoy founded a socialist collective and Institute and gave generously to the peasantry as well as speaking for them, he lived the good life, largely because his wife was forced to manage his landed estate profitable for then as she had given birth to 13 children, 8 of whom survived childhood. The film is primarily about the decision of Tolstoy, under pressure from Chertkov to change his will so that the substantial earnings from his literary work would go to the Institute and not to the family as the Countess wanted. The Will is changed but according to end of film credits, the decision was reversed by the Russian Parliament after his death. However in order to escape her influence Tolstoy left the family home and went on the run from her with Chertkov, Valentine and one of his daughters who supported Chertkov against her own mother. They were followed by world media and reach the a town in southern Russia where he became ill and died. His wife was not allowed to see him, although in he film this happens in his dying moments although the priest she brought with her remained in the private train. Valentine also finds it difficult to maintain the Tolstoyian belief that the institution of marriage was wrong because it promoted private property or celibacy and chastity when he comes under the influence of a school teacher.

As with A single Man I do not rate the film as a great one but the performances of Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his wife are outstanding and merit their Oscar nominations. I have always felt that Plummer is always Plummer in whatever role he has played until this film, when it is impossible to tell it is him. I was reminded that I need to read the original source material if I am to write more confidently about the link between him, Gandhi and my own thinking.

Afterwards I called in at the main M and S at Clapham for some chicken wings for the evening meal, and grapes as well a triple pack of sandwiches for the morning. It was the first occasion I saw the available options for the two dine for £10 which includes a main course, a side dish, pudding and a bottle of wine which is a very good deal. M and S also had on display large bottle of water for 35p another tremendous offer. I became indecisive over when I would see the remaining two films, The Hurt Locker and An Education. I have wanted to see the British Music experience 1945-2010 where the advertised full price has varied from £15 to £20 since it opened with £10 to £13.50 for concessions depending of bought through ticket master, and paying by credit or cash. The free London evening standard had an advert offering entry for £1 with the voucher. There was a showing of the Hurt Locker for £8 at the Odeon Tottenham Court Road, at 6p with earlier performances at the Odeon Leicester Square with the tiny auditoriums and small screens for £11. I could also see An Education the following lunchtime at the Odeon Swiss Cottage although travel on the Saturday is horrendous with a large number of underground line closures. I would leave the decision taking until the morning having made notes on the options available.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Blowing Wild, Infamable, Names in Marble and Devil in a blue dress plus some live cricketn

Panic is closely allied to fear and while I did not experience either on waking early, there were hints of both as if they were nestling below my horizon waiting for an opportune moment to pounce.

I was physically uncomfortable through several wakings, the need to get up and with an exceptionally dry mouth. It was a cold night at first although I warmed up later on which made the need to get up irritating.

It was also a cold drab morning looking as if it had been also wet, although it was not. I tided up the writing ready of uploading but also played chess where I am slowly edging to the highest run so far of level two chess of 47 games from the 369 played with 16 drawn. There has been more success with Hearts in that the days when I was winning only 11-15% of games are distant and have led over 20% for approaching two months, with this day breaking 22% after sticking at 21% for a couple of weeks, probably more.

I do not feel like doing what I need to do. The sense of the quantity of work required and the emotional impact fills me with dread. So why do it? A good question.

The greater part of the day was used constructively on project work where I discovered sets in hand and in the making where I was able to make more progress than anticipated so that I am now just ahead of the 100 new sets a month schedule. I also watched a Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Anthony Quinn, black and while film which I have seen before called Blowing Wild. The film was made after he hit he top with High Noon and centres on Mexico City where he is stranded after bandit blow up his promising oil well exploration. He turns for work to a former best friend who he finds has a successful field, only find that the friend has married the woman he once wanted more that she wanted him. Rather than intervene in this situation he does a fun with nitro for eight hundred dollars, coming into confrontation with the bandits again, his other best friend and working colleagues is injured in the knee. He has also attempted top help return tot eh USA a good time worldly girl played by Ruth Roman and she tips him off in good faith when his employer pretends he has no money to settle the nitro trip and in fact the man is about to skip the county with first claim debtors which means he had to hand over all his and his partner's fees with the exception of money he has already given to Ruth Roman which makes the bond between them stronger.

Without any financial means he is forced to go to work for Anthony Quinn despite the misgivings about the betraying wife who is seeking a way out from the marriage. Cooper hen takes over as foreman and then risks all to save the latest well before the Bandits arrive. Quinn. who has worked out that while he adores his wife, his wife adores Copper, gets drunk and decided to prove he is still the man he once was by taking on the bandits singled handed. His wife seizes her chance and kills her husband making it look like an accident. When the authorities come for the body they also bring men to protect the property from the bandits and during a fierce fight Copper kills the bandit leader and Stanwyck is also killed. Cooper, his best friend and Ruth Roman are then seen packed up about to leave Mexico city, presumably for the USA, apparently penniless but happy although presumably the Mexican government will have rewarded them for seeing off the bandits and saving the oil field. It has always amazed me that people without money appear able to take off to other parts of the world and established themselves. How do they do it?

I had the second stir fry of the week for the midday meal although used to much chilli sauce although for once the stinging hotness was enjoyable. I also went through in the tray and discovered I had not seen a helpful response to a recent query but most of the mail went into the recycle box after it was opened.

I am also dipping into the Big Brother House where in last night episodes the foul mouthed nasty housemate who has already been warned about her temper by Big Brother demonstrated just how ruthless she is behind a house meeting with the purpose of asking everyone to say what hey have to say about each other but not behind their backs. She is the worst culprits bad mouthed and scheming and trying to put everyone else other than the person she is talking in a bad light. One of the girl's who had become her friend finally used out this behaviour and beat herself up in the diary room for having been taken in. She had no need as she appears to be the first to see what everyone else on the outside can see and by doing so she has helped her own cause no end, admittedly just in time before the eviction nominations are made. The housemates collectively are a very stupid group this time. Their task was to separate 6000 grams of mixed up flavours by licking each one. It was a task they were destined to fail as they had no means of verifying their efforts and hungry they would have been wise to have pigged out on the crisps rather than put themselves through the task although I accept Big Brother could have exacted penalties.23 Later today I channel hopped between the Big Brother House update and a film I have seen before but could not remember the precise ending. Mario and Alexander receive the most nomination for eviction from the rest of the residents and therefore face the public vote which ends on Friday evening. Mario because he is older and tries to take a lead when it would have been better if he had just to be one of the group, and because he has tried to appear good and kind acting as the guardian of Mikie Mikey? who although severely visually handicapped lives on his own with the help of a carer. I became sorry for Alex as "accidentally" the loudspeaker went on in the house just as Big Brother was asking the other Muslim why he thought Alex did not join in his cross dressing idea to celebrate his birthday. The explanation she gave on learning that he had been posed the question was that he had gone too far as a Muslim. She admitted they both drank and smoked, their true natures, although all the violent swearing and being too faced can be put down to the game and trying to make a name for oneself as a personality standing out from the rest of the wannabes. It will be interesting to see how the public vote. One suspects the average audience member for this programme will prefer the vile mouthed, smoking and drinking two faced Muslim to the Muslim who is respectful of their parents and elders, does not smoke or drink, works hard at their education or in employment and tries even harder to follow the rituals and beliefs of their religion. But then of course such an individual of which form the majority would not make controversial television or selling newspapers.

The cricket proved to be something special. Lancashire had won all three of their games and on winning the toss decided to bat first and on a good wicket did very well with some power hitting and reaching 180 runs to which was added 6 penalty runs because Durham took more than allocated. The score could well have been higher has it not been for an eighteen year old, Shaun Borthwick from the Durham Academy called to play his first game for the senior side. He has not even played for the second team. Therefore there must have been great faith in his ability in such an important match. It would also have been felt he was able to perform on such a bug occasion. He did taking three wicket for 26 runs including caught and bowled. It was evident he could not believe what was happening to him especially as he found himself being interviewed on Sky. He comes from Sunderland.

Durham were always chasing the runs in their innings, especially after Mustard was out when he had scored 61 and the two South Africans were at the wicket, Pollock the bowler and Morkel who had played well in the World Cup demonstrating that he was a powerful hitter of the ball, He did not do well in the games I have seen him play and today he was able to get singles when fours and sixes were needed, and Shane Pollock was also scratching around and then something extraordinary happened as Morkel hit 5 sixes in three over's plus two four 45 runs from 19 ball blitz. It was also the nature of sixes crashing into the stands which had everyone amazed and which augers well for the rest of this campaign, Although both team now have 6 points from three wins and one loss, Durham heads the table of six teams with only the top two guaranteed a quarter final game because of the win against the other top team. However there are another six games to be played so anything can happen but my decision to invest in Durham rather than the football has proved one of my better decisions so far. This does not mean that I will not go to the football although it will involve paying more for individual tickets although last year any advantage from buying a season was lost by not going to several matches because of weather or other commitments.

And the film called Inflammable, I think, was about gender prejudice in the Navy involving a female investigative officer from NCIS coming onboard after an attempted rape is reported. There is an important romantic backstory in that lass had a brief encounter with the ship's Commanding officer when she was just starting out working for the investigatory arm of the US Navy. It is incidental that the attempted rape victim and her quickly apparent scumbag of a boyfriend are black and are murdered changing the whole nature of the investigation or that the motive for the murders turns out to be nothing to do with gender politics in the navy. I spotted the big clue at the commencement of the film when the black girl accidentally drives her for truck into dangerous inflammable containers and nothing happens and that although she investigates the damage we then cut away to the next scene. At the end of the film it transpires that the most senior woman on the boat has managed to get half a million of drugs onto the boat and hidden them in a container without anyone else on board knowing but fortunately when the rating discovered he stash through the accident she does not tell her senior officer responsible for the area or any one else but the officer responsible for attempted drugs' smuggle. The attempted rape was not an actual rape but a terrorist assault to frighten the woman from revealing that he boy friend was operating a business selling pornographic images from the internet to shipmates. Given the nature of ships and the use of technology this storyline as absurd as everyone on board who wishes will have as much access as they wish to pornographic material including films and live communications as they wish without have to set up rings and pay additional sums. More credible is the creation of a secret love nest among the works of the ship. I finally found the name of the important and moving film about the post World War 1 civil war in Estonia which led to twenty years of independence. It is called Names in Marble and produced in Finland. I forgot to say anything about another recent film experienced Devil in a Blue Dress, which is intended to be a film noir about a black detective, former war veteran Easy Rawlins played by Denzel Washington who paid to find a missing white woman believed to be hiding in the black community. While undertaking the search he finds himself a suspect in not one but two murders . The plots continues to be convoluted and one soon cease to care and just enjoys a well acted portrayal of black and white interaction among one level of culture in the USA and fog he changes taking place. Recently I listened to radio programme about the reaction of local including the leader of an evangelic church against the development of whites moving into Harlem, raising property prices and changing the cultural identity of a community which has come to be known as the symbol of a black city life in the USA. On one hand one can understand the reaction oft hose whose memory stretches over a lifetime in which Blacks were restricted to certain parts of cities and to certain levels of employment and too feel aggrieved that when at last the government decided to pump millions and billions into raising standards and opportunities including developing businesses it is the major store chains and commercial interests who have taken the funds and commenced to direct the future of the community. It is also why the UK my sympathies are with those who feel overwhelmed by the level of new arrivals from Europe however nice they are and however much they are contributing to the survival and development of the British Economy. It is evident that there are going be lots of casualties as well all adjust to global capitalism, especially when China rather than the USA is ready to be the economic powerhouse for the world.

Tequila Sunrise after the 3.10 to Yuma remake and TV 20 20 cricket

Today June16th, 2008 must be catch up day although I cannot remember all the films I have seen and intended to mention.

I did not enjoy the remake of 3.10 to Yuma although it is a good Western about what a man under pressure is prepared to do for his family including giving his life, and the impact such a sacrifice can have on the hardest of villains. My interest in getting the DVD from my internet mail order subscription came from having seen the film when it was first released in the 1950's although I could not remember anything about the plot and only subsequently after checking remembered that it had starred Glenn Ford as the villain and Van Hefflin as the man under pressure or that Frankie Lane had made a hit record out of the title song. The film has been shown on TV since and the reality is that I may have seen the film then rather than in theatre. One should not rely on memory without some corroborative record.

While the structure and characters in the two films are the same the endings are very different. I would need to see the original again to make a comparative judgement. The basic story is that a war veteran and family man is struggling to make end meet and owes a neighbour money for war rights after year's of drought. He and his sons come across a notorious gang of killers and thieves using some of the rancher's cattle to stop and rob the contents of coach, killing its guardians. In the original film the coach is a traditional one whereas in the remake it is special designed for the conveyance of money rather than passengers. There is also a sequence involving the company extending the railway which I suspect was not in the original, similarly the involvement of the eldest son who saves his father's bacon several times, until the ending which again I believe is more true to life than the original production. Russell Crowe plays Russell Crowe failing throughout to convince that he is likely leader of such a terrorist and murderous gang that has no redeeming qualities. I also did not believe that no one else in the town including the Sheriff and his men would be such spineless and pathetic specimens of humanity given the qualities that were required by the original trail and town makers required to combat the hardships of pioneering in the west, and the understandable hostility from the native Americans whose land and lives they were taking, and from the lawlessness of each other, and a military that quickly became a political organ of the state and business. There was little honour and great ruthlessness during the taming of this savage land.

Wow, Not a cry of wonder but of relief as a hectic afternoon comes to an end and I can relax with a pint of larger and watch Middlesex, who play in fetching pink tops and Surrey contest a 20.20. Talking of 20 20 the loss at Notts has put Durham into third position as Lancs has won all three of its games and Notts 2 from 2 with Durham 2 from 3. Durham, play Lancs tomorrow away before the next game at home. The Lancs game is also on Sky tomorrow evening so that is a must to watch. Part of the rush was a visit to supermarket where I needed some noodles and chilli sauce both of which I was without when I made a stir fry this morning. It was an interesting and inventive concoction with half a large onion, half a green pepper, and half a small courgette with half the chicken left over from the previous evening meal, a bolognaise sauce and some lemon rice. I did say it was a concoction but it worked and was enjoyable. There is also large portion of chicken for the stir fry and for Tuesday. I became used to buying two medium whole chicken for an offer price of £5 which did strike me as very reasonable and the cheapest of meals. However when I went to buy the birds, having not done so for a couple of months, maybe longer, having had various other joints, I found that the offer was for larger birds 1.5 kilos in weight at the price of 2 for £7 and three for £10, so in this instance I decided to go for just two and see how they cooked and the portions available as a consequence. For tea this evening I had a salad with prepared tin salmon in thyme which was sufficient to drench the lettuce.

Part of the reason for the rush was finish some 100.75 work before tacking the in-tray to reach some charity draw tickets where I nice lady from the Royal National Institute for the Blind had telephoned to remind that I had not returned any tickets for the Summer draw. I am behind the 100 a month new sets for the project and with a mini trip away later in the month, I needed to do some work with more to do this evening when the match is over, during which I hope to do some photographing of My Space Blog sets (6 completed and registered and 6 or 7 developments sets in one volume(this was completed 20.30). I was able to get to the supermarket and back before the game started on the TV. I needed some non biological washing power as well as the noodles and chilli sauce. I also bought some milk, three small tines of sardines in tomato sauce and prepared pasta bakes. I also bought the remaining ten packs of transparent pockets making about thirty packs acquired since they restocked. I will make another trip possibly in the morning for fruit and remember the coffee this time. I did get two 500 gram packs of spread.

The cricket was OK although pink shirts played by the home team at Lords, whatever next, a pink ball? I thought they were joking till one was produced, apparently it is being experimented with as it is easier to see that the white. The number and lettering on the scoreboard was also pink. I know I had drunk a pint of larger when I returned but pink…and why was that hotel called the Elephant on the bank of the Tyne at Gateshead?

I carefully watered the plants which have come on a treat and must remember to photo this phase of their growth in the morning or the occasion when the light is good. I continued to upload photographs from yesterday making two sets of 101 from the 375 odd taken. It is also a boring process although worthwhile when the task is completed. There sixteen sets of photos uploaded although not all reaching the 101 target.
There was time for a film in the background while I work on the photos breaking off from time to time to try and work out the plot. I went to bed confused, tired and without finding out the conclusion, suspecting that it did not matter and I did not care. The film has one haunting image which justified its title Tequila Sunrise otherwise it is a convoluted mystery adventure movie involving a love triangle between Mel Gibson as the reformed scumbag(drug trading, bad husband and father) whose close friend is an ambitious cop who becomes head of the local drugs squad, now that is happy coincidence. When the Feds come in having been tipped off that the Mel is about to be involved in a great drugs trade with his other friend, the notorious and mysterious without redeeming features Mexican drugs' Baron, Carlos who saved Mel's life when they were in incarcerated in a Mexican prison. Does Mel love the Drugs baron more than the cop?

This kind of love triangle would not have turned a twenty million dollar production into a reportedly one hundred million, so enters Michele Pheiffer as a totally unbelievable beautiful and sophisticated restaurateur who does not cook and there is no explanation how she is who she is supposed to be except that she is a woman of integrity who has been failed by men which is this was so it is preposterous that she would genuinely fall in love with the Mel character or get involved with working under cover for the good guys. There are various complications such as an ex wife to appears to be a money grabbing bitch but then she was married to a drug trading scum bad and surprisingly they have an all American nice kid, I should cocoa. Carlos turns out to be ehad of the Mexican drug police now why did that not surprise me although the had fed turns out to be food guy and that did surprise me. I learn one things though that the film's director planned to end the film with Mel Perishing in a fireball because his central image was that fo a moth attracted to flame and that Mel's character was man who was no interested in making money or in using drugs but in the excitement of drug trading. However ti said the studio people did not want to make a proper film but wanted just to make money and insisted ona different ending. Now that is ironic and sad, nit of course because the studio bosses did what studio boss are paid to do, but because the previously Oscar winning Director, Robert Towne, let em get away with it. It was not a memorable day

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Bobby, the Death of a Kennedy

Time is my most valuable possession and I am trying not to fritter it away but it is also good just to sit in the sun and enjoy the enveloping warmth and for life in all its variations to pass by oblivious to my existence. I used to have fear of disappearing unnoticed but of late it seems a pity not to enjoy what is immediately available, especially as none of us can ever know that we could happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, including in our own homes.

I find difficult to bear that life is being cut short by individual or collectives acts which are unnecessary or which could and should have been different. This thought occurred to me late last night while watching Bobby and unusual film about the last day in the life of Robert Kennedy, seen through the experience of a number of fictional characters who were in the hotel at the same time as his assassination. Film critics including those I usually agree with disliked the film which I thought was brilliant because it concentrated on what ordinary people were doing and interested in at the time the razzmatazz of the primary election was taking place. It my view that many of these characters were played by outstanding actors added to the point being made that party politics and government is only minor part of most people's lives although individual politicians can have a significant effect through that combination of charisma and ability to tune in and express the moods and aspirations of the people. What they then do or are able to do if they get into power is another issue.

In the film Anthony Hopkins plays the retired doorman who cannot keep away especially when big personalities are visiting the hotel. He is accompanied on a day time visit by his find Harry Belafonte who bemoans about having to get up three times each night for pee while Hopkins recites all those who he has greeted in the past to Harry who has heard it all before several times, and wants to drink double single malt whiskies in preference to the cup of tea suggested by Hopkins. He gets to welcome Kennedy into the Hotel. Martin Sheen(he the West Wing President (the father of the filmmaker), plays an important campaign donor staying at the hotel with his wife, Helen Hunt, although the film does not make clear what he hopes to gain through a Kennedy administration, except perhaps being part of the society around the hoped for new administration. His wife is one of those shot on the night as they assassin attempts to escape.

Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings) plays a young man getting married at the hotel in a hurry to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam war and he is also one of those shot.

The Hotel's Manager, William Macey is having an affair with a hotel telephonist whose wife, the in house hairdresser and beautician played by Sharon Stone finds out from the disgruntled racist food and drinks manager who he has sacked because he is not allowing the Mexican employees time off with pay to go out and vote. The Food and Drinks manager (Christian Slater) one of those who take a bullet and in fairness to him he has been struggling to staff the Catering department because of the party being held for the result night and that there is also a major singing star appearing in the night club, (Demi Moore ) who has become an alcoholic and who is due to sing for Bobby at the campaign party, whose husband is played by the film maker and who walks out of the hotel unable to cope with self destructiveness of his wife.

There are two other groups of characters, one having a real life existence. A Mexican busboy (table waiter) is unable to attended an important baseball game where he was going to take his father for the first time, because he has no alternative but to work a double shift. He gives his tickets to chef Laurence Fishbourne for free who comments there is something special about the young man who cradles Bobby in his dying moments placing a rosary crucifix in his hand, as happened during the actual assassination.

The second group are campaign staff one a young unassuming black man who organises the campaign transport and where his colleagues affectionately refer to him as the next Transport Secretary(Minister) gets to meet the candidate in his hotel room as a surprise reward for his efforts only to have his heightened commitment and aspirations dashed a few minutes later, although he is consoled by a Black Telephonist who recognises his voice and has made initial contact with him. Other campaign staff are less fortunate with two shot, one who has just gone on his first acid trip with a friend having acquired the stuff from resident drug pusher, introduced to the two by a member of the coffee shop staff.

The film is brilliant and merited its nominations and awards because it intersperses these stories with contemporary footage of the campaign, especially the speech of Robert Kennedy about the need to tackle the gun and violence culture in the USA and the causes of such violence. The film is not just an interesting way of dramatizing an historical event because released in 2006, it is noted that the young assassin was a Palestinian. My fear is for the position of the man could become the first Afro-American president of the U.S.A.

The previous evening I had made a mixture of a meal from the rest of the Tex Mex and some Indian starters accompanied by the last glass of a excellent Chilean Shiraz Colchahua Los Romeros estate grown and bottle. It was a soft and smooth red and I look to see if I have the second and for the first time consider abandoning getting only two bottle of a wine as part of new case of 12 every three months. In contrast to the previous horrible weather night at cricket the sun was out again and it was warm evening as I made my way by car to the sea front in order to catch the start of the evening concert at the Amphitheatre.

As last year I climbed the steps, although there is also a long ramp, to the top deck of the covered walkway from which you can lean over a wall to look directly on to the bands or singers and where this year are playing under a weather proof awning, and over the assembled crowd to the Minchella café and Ice Cream kiosk to where about a score of bikers were parading their brightly covered expensive their trophies, I nearly said weapons, or if the music is not brilliant one can cross over the walkway and lean over the wall to view of Tynemouth Priory and Castle ruins to the North, or the Trow Rocks to South or just out across the large expanse of a beautifully kept clean beach to where there were some walkers and a few surfers. The combination of this view, the sound of the waves and a mixed crowd enjoying themselves was heavenly and it felt so good to be alive.

I was justified in getting therefore the first band whose name I did not note but whose music I would like to hear again, Two boys, one a drummer and two girls, the main vocalists demonstrated that they are excellent musicians reproducing a Pink Floyd sound in one number and where the girls create a good sound as did the male vocalist. The reason for being unable to give their names is that they were listed as part of the Cave Showcase, a local development which promotes and develop young teenage musicians and dancers. The extent of the local support was demonstrated by a young singer who performed four numbers with backing tracks and while still learning her craft clearly has potential and was supported by a identifiable group off friends and family. The final band was a more established group with an energetic male lead singer with an existing following. I estimated the audience to be around 300 to 350 with some stopping for a while as they passed by and some departing and arriving during the two hour show. Most were teenagers, but there were young girls doing cartwheels on the concrete where one could only admire their self confidence although as a parent I would have insisted they did so on the grass. There were a few oldies like me and the only discordant note was the sound of the skateboarders who were using the covered area below the top walkway. I could especially then during the girl singer and if it is a regular event I will make a complaint, especially the council has provided a special area nearby.

It was then time for the Big Brother eviction show where if there was any justice the young woman who had performed so pathetically in the first game task and had then campaigned ruthlessly to have the male of the real couple evicted would be the first selected to go. She also appeared to be seeking comfort from a man who had disclosed that he had a girl friend in the outside world and she appeared to get very frustrated when he failed to respond to her. Hooray, she was evicted, although the majority of the other contestant appear too thick to grasp the significance of this development. One girl has been warned for her filthy mouth and tempter and being exceptionally obnoxious although she was not consigned to the house prison although is the most likely candidate. The level of the programme, the residents, those who participates in the spin off programmes and attend the evictions confirms the true nature of English society. But then it has to be said I not only watch the programme but also look at the on line edition of the Sun and which with the New York Times which I also look at a very efficient in sending me emails alerting to every news worthy flashes as they happen. As I also watch the political programmes and get myself out and about I like to kid myself that I am more in touch with the spirit and aspirations of ordinary folk than most politicians.

Thursday 18 February 2010

The Queen of Sheba and Babylon 5

Thursday morning commenced with Melvyn Bragg discussing the Indian Mutiny with Faisal Vervji, Shruti Kapila and Chandrika Kaul and how an issue about Indian army gun cartridges oiled by animal rather than vegetable fat appears to have precipitated the uprising. I could not generate enthusiasm for the rest of the programme or a ludicrous film styled as comedy with Bette Davis playing a bank robber to raise money for her two adult children. The night has been full of a dreams and the dawn damp and murky. A cereal started the day followed by two pieces of bacon in two small rolls and a double helping of coffee. MI was flagging by lunchtime and despite the good food start I was no in the mood for salad so indulged with an instant meal of two sausages in gravy with a few chips and beans followed by a banana.

While I attempted to work I watched what I thought was the previous missing original 1921 version of the Queen of Sheba. However this and subsequent versions, including the 1952 remake in colour centres on the relationship between the sons of King Solomon, sons of Kind David, of Jerusalem and the Queen of Shea and her slave maid. The two sons go to Sheba pretending to be the two envoys from the state of Gad who have strayed into their territory and been captured revealing their mission to establish a truce with Sheba and her other allies. The two men first encounter the Queen, then the Princess and her slave, without knowing who they are, at an oasis outside the city walls and when they learn there is a secret underground passage under the city. While the Princess is immediately attracted to the youngest son and the eldest to the slave, despite the latter being engaged to a Princess from a state with whom his father is seeking an alliance. Apart from their deception the two complications are first the son of the states leading other family who also trains and commands the army, and then tradition, when the King dies, Sheba becomes Queen and has to dedicate her life to the state and its Gods. She is committed to war against Sheba with her allies. I was so tired that I missed the final moments of the film after the brothers manage to escape after their cover is blown when the two actual envoys also escape from Jerusalem and arrive in Sheba and the younger son of Solomon fights the Sheba champion outside the gates of the city with both armies poised, only to find that the champion is none other than the Queen, who he overcomes and takes into the city when he discovers who he has been fighting. She is told by his father she can leave the city and he hopes she will do so with her army. I had to leave the room and missed the last moments of the film so missed the ending and credits. Fortunately after a later search I found out that the film was made in 1952, also in Black and White, as the Italian La Regina de Saba and my impression that the Queen would marry the Solomon’s son with the blessing of his father and her advisers was thus confirmed

By early afternoon I was so tired that I could just about keep awake watching a familiar episode of Bergerac so I took to my bed again and slept for close on two hours, feeling even worse when I woke again and struggled downstairs.

Having written of the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 and planning not to write again until the season had reached the half way or a significant point, I quickly discovered that within three further episodes the second age of Earth and come to and end with persuading the Shadows and the Vorlons to depart this area of the universe by retreating to beyond the Outer Rim. To understand these three episodes it is helpful to reprise the first three of the season.

As previously written at the end of the first episode of the fourth season The Hour of the Wolf 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet Z’ha’dum, used by the Shadows as their home planet and where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance! Because, rather than in spite of, the retreat of the Shadow craft from around the space station, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the now vulnerable Z’ha’dum after the reported Thermo nuclear explosion.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for the planet, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum, as he has also been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who had became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has a duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime, also witnessed during his time travelling, and of other worlds and their people if he can.

Delenn and deputy Ivanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost.

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out has become more vain and psychopathically mad than he remembers of him, believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor. Vir is reluctant.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan, Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure. This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.

In the Search for Garibaldi (402) G’Kar comes across evidence of the Starfury which Garibaldi used when he joined the fighters defending the space station from the expected second Shadow attack. G’Kar investigates and is helped out in a fight by Marcus and they discuss their motives before Marcus gains more information, and G’Kar insists on investigating further alone. Marcus reluctantly agrees. Before he can leave, G’Kar is captured by those who recognise who he is and return him as a prisoner to Centauri Prime for the bounty.

Delenn has been undertaking a fast purification ceremony as part of her mourning for the loss of Sheridan, and Franklin, of all people, warns her of the course she is taking, given that she has become more human than Minbari and needs energy for the fight ahead. His words have influence.

Londo talks with the captured G’Kar and explains to him how he will die at the hands of the Emperor in a long torturing death but offers him a way out if he helps him to get rid of President. G’Kar agrees on the understanding that his people will be free from Centauri rule. London agrees to this. London appears genuinely concerned at the plight of G’Kar

Commander Sheridan has talked with his companion, Lorien, trying to work where he is, alive or dead or as the old man suggests in between. The old man then discloses that he is not just one of the Old One‘s but the original One and says that Sheridan has a piece of a Vorlon, Kosh, inside him. He explains that Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciences and put these into other organisms. He tells Sheridan that he needs to stop questioning, being afraid of death and uncertain of his role and just being and that is the way out an forward. He then emphasises that dying for something is easier that living for something and Sheridan completes the jump into the void calling our for Delenn. He is that seen at the feet of the old man, presumed dead, but is he?

In the third episode The Summoning (403) there are partial answers to the what happened to Sheridan and to Garibaldi, as Ivanova and Delenn organise their remaining forces for an all out attack on Z’ah’dum, against the mounting concern of the other planetary systems.

G’Kar is tortured twice to the point of death because he will not scream out in pain and Londo persuades him to do so otherwise he be killed and his developing plans to use G’Kar to help kill the President will fail. Londo is whipped by an electronic whip of increasing intensity where no one survives forty lashes. Londo reaches 39 before he cries out and the President satisfied honours his agreement to give G’Kar to London for his previous good works. The reluctant Vir, pleading that their must be another way to rid the country of the President, now agrees with London that he must be assassinated.

The deputy security chief follows up news of the whereabouts of Garibaldi’s craft and he attacks the freighter on which it has been located which unexpectedly blows up after a life pod breaks free. This contains the body of Garibaldi which appears to be brought to life just when it is retrieved by the Space Station recovery team. There is the implication that something has happened to Garibaldi who back on the station is unaware that he has been missing for two weeks, that Sheridan is missing presumed dead and the alliance has broken up with the departure of the Shadows from outside the station.

Ivanova has been giving herself a good talking to and learning Minbari. Delenn and Marcus hide their amusement at her incomprehensible efforts and she agrees to Marcus accompanying her on a mission to investigate what appears to be report of one of the First Ones is on the move. During their expedition they discover a time right in which thousands of Shadow craft have assembled.

At the space station Lyta is asked by Delenn to try and find out from Kosh’s replacement what the Vorlons are up to. Lyta is reluctant because her connection with the Vorlon has become Sadomasochistic and at one point he appears to have killed her for complaining about his behaviour and attempting to read his mind. She informs Delenn that it is they have become expendable in the battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Ivanova returns from her expedition to find there is a secret open gathering of protect against the proposed attack on Z’ah’dum led by two Ambassadors from the non aligned worlds. Just as it looks as if they have won, Sheridan appears with Lorien from a mystery craft which has over ridden normal entry procedures and driven straight into a landing bay. Sheridan is able to change opinion proving that those who believe Z’ha’dum is invincible and a planet from which no outsider returns is wrong. He gives a stirring speech about uniting to rid the universe of the Shadows for the sake of the people and their children’s children.

It is confirmed that the Shadows have abandoned their previous commitment to protect the younger worlds from the Shadows and that as a consequence of all out war between the two ancient races a whole planet of three million beings has been disintegrated with echoes of the Hitchhikers Guide and the obliteration of earth to create a new space highway.

I was right in my assumption that the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 heralded the major development of the whole series to-date.

In Falling towards Apotheosis (404) Commander Sheridan devises a plans to try and prevent the next Vorlon target being obliterated, a planet of 6 billion sentient beings on which the Shadows have forced an outpost. He is able to assemble a war fleet of thousands upon thousands of craft from almost every planet system in the know universe, with the exceptions of the Narns who are still licking their wounds and the Centauri who also in line for a Vorlon planet break up because of providing a base for the Shadows.

The first task is to get rid of the Vorlon Ambassador from the station and this is why he has kept Garibaldi away from the meetings of the War Council. He wants Garibaldi to take a small security and invite the Vorlon to depart, knowing that the Vorlon will use his powers to find out what the Security chief and the station is planning if he refuses. This is preliminary for Lyta to disclose that there is part of Kosh transferred to Commander Sheridan which he decides to free to removal all opposition on the station and enable the full Kosh spirit to return to his people. She successfully persuades the Ambassador to leave his quarters where he is ambushed, and with help from the spirit of Kosh, is forced out of the station. Sheridan is also helped by Lorien the first One who discloses to Delenn that he is using his remaining life force to protect Sheridan and was how he was able to revive him after he jumped into the chasm. He discloses that he is able to repair Sheridan but the Commander has only a remaining lifespan of twenty years. This is a shock to Delenn who had expected he would live to the 100 or more years which earth beings had become accustomed. Sheridan is positive that the issue is the quality of their lives and relationship and not their duration, which is evidently the right approach, given their position in the middle of the war between the Vorlons and the Shadows in which they are not expected to survive.

Londo put his own plan into action how to remove the Shadows from his home world. He suggests to the President that he should hold the trial and execution of G’Kar on the Narn planet. Before they depart the President decides to remove one of G’Kar’s eyes because he dislikes the way he looks at him

In the Long Night (405) the scene is set for confrontation between the Vorlon and the Shadows. Sheridan received information on how planets are being . Missiles are driven into the core of the planet and then detonated causing disintegration from within. He furthers the plan for an all or nothing defence of the next planet in line for destruction by the Vorlons and sends Ivanova with Lorien to collect the remaining other First ones, promising she will be part of the final defence of the worlds in the known universe, when she has completed the mission.

On Narn Vir has secured a device which will kill the President giving the impression he has a heart attack. G’Kar is paraded through the streets of the capital of his d in chains to bring home the superiority of the President over the people. The scene is obviously modelled on the Way of the Cross.

In order to deliver the device to his body Londo has arranged for the chains of G’Kar to become loose but this part of the plan fails as the President has replaced with stronger metal. However G’Kar has the mental strength to overcome the physical and breaks free distracting everyone’s attention away from the assassination of the President by Vir. Londo is made the new Prime Minister while a decision is taken about a new President. He is able to carry out his commitment to G’Kar to leave the Narn world. G’Kar is hailed a hero but only in so far as the clamour is for revenge and to attack Centauri Prime in retaliation for what they and the Shadows have done to their planet.

London finds Vir drunk in reaction to having participated in the assassination and delivered the fatal blow because he was the least likely person to be suspected of doing so.

The Shadows have also launched their planet destructor and Sheridan put into place his final ploy to bring the Vorlons and Shadows in the same area of battle.

The great confrontation between the three forces occurs in Into the Fire (406).

Meanwhile on Centauri Prime Londo requests Mr Morden to remove his Shadows from the Planet. To ensure there are no tricks Londo arranges for the accompanying Shadows to be killed. Morden still refuses to ensure the Shadow fleet departs saying that the vessels will react to any attack. However Londo is ready for this and explains and pressed a remote control with blows up the whole island all the Shadow craft within it. He had arranged for the majority of the island population to escape, leaving behind a skeleton number. Morden is taken prisoner and Londo then fulfils London wish of seeing his head on a stake so that he can wave at his lifeless eyes. Londo has been advised that it was Modern and not Lord Refa who had murdered his mistress.

Trying to avert bloodshed and with the Shadows advancing Sheridan attempts to establish communication with the Vorlons and they get into communication with both Sheridan and Delenn. The two advise the Vorlons that there is no longer need for them to treat the younger races as children and defend them their way from the Shadows. They have united and capable of standing on their own feet and defending themselves. It is at this point that that the First One orders both the Vorlons and Shadows to return to their lives beyond the rim of the human form sentient world and to make their situation more palatable the and other others remains First Ones will accompany them. They obey and the threat from both advancing fleets ends.

Sheridan tells the Vorlons and the Shadows : to live on as we have is to leave behind joy, and love, and companionship, because we know it to be transitory, of the moment, We know it will turn to ash, Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal. You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

However when the series was first screened we knew this was not the end of the story, particularly the relationship between the earth world and Babylon 5. We now know there were in fact 40 more episodes stretching of a 5th season, another eight weeks of back to back episodes. The end of any battle is only a stage in a war and the end of any war is only the beginning of a peace and that peace will only come with forgiveness and the establishment of peaceful relationships between all the warring parties.

Inglorious Basterds,

What a day Wednesday 17th February 2010 has been so far. I stayed up last night watching on Sky Box Office having invested the princely sum of £3.99 for the privilege, Inglorious Basterds, the latest Quentin Tarantino film, and had intended to write about the experience, completed the notes on Martin Clunes visit to a handful of the 1000 islands which surrounds the British main island, and completed the boxing and display shelving reorganisation of completed sets, together with identifying the 50 to 75 incomplete volumes of work in hand into some order for action.

Having switched on the computer and checked my mail in box the screen stuck momentarily then went to Luxor Majong which was not my intention, but where I had reached the last stages of the game for the fifth time in succession, and although having lost a couple of lives, I did not anticipate overtaking the highest score to-date, I hoped to get close to indicate the improvement in visual acuity and prolonged attention which I have sharpened as a consequence of the game and my work activities in general.

It will be evident that the intelligent and worthwhile thing to have done is to have closed the game and continue with planned activity, however the interaction with my existing operative system and programmes is that it continues to run in the background but without my usual ability to reopen until I restart the computer which takes time. Before playing the game therefore I decided to make my I am alive daily text but could not find the phone. Given that I had made the call yesterday morning and had not been out of the house it should have been a simple task to locate the phone which is usually on the desk, which admittedly had become cluttered, being charged behind me on top of some lever arch files with sets in the making, and sometimes falls between, or at the back of them, or is one of my outside coat pockets.

It was not at these places, and I would have sworn an oath before a magistrate or judge to this effect. I then made a quick search of everywhere I had been in the house the previous day. I then made a quick search of everywhere I had been the house the previous day, which included two rooms on the second floor, three rooms of the first, the bathroom off the landing as well as the areas of landings themselves, together with all four rooms on the ground floor as well as the hallway. No it could not be found, so much for improved visual acuity but a lot of dust and need to tidy was evident.

I spent a good hour on this task, used the land line to make the call and completed the Luxor Majong, reaching 16 million points for the second time only, made a chicken salad lunch which I did not enjoy, while watching the tale end of bargain hunt and then found the phone on the cleared desk under my nose. I did not consider the stupidity a complete waste, but they did changed from that planned. Freedom is the ability to change plans at a moment’s notice.

I made a note to buy a second inexpensive phone to cover for this periodic event and completed the boxing and sorting on the second floor for the day, having almost completed this phase of the task overall before moving onto completing the fifty to seventy or so albums and files of work in hand. A cup of coffee and a few liquorice twists and I was set to begin writing or was I?

It is now 2.20pm and I feel tired but will press on if I can. I remind myself that I can change my mind and decide to finish the sorting in hand papers in this room, and check the TV watching over for the rest of the day after perhaps forty winks on the settee. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Clunes can wait.

It is six pm afternoon after a relaxed afternoon with some working followed by a High Tea of chicken drumsticks, a diet coke and a mix of green and red grapes. I did not enjoy the meal as much as I have in the past.

I am still not sure what to make of Inglorious Basterds a violent fiction film about the second World War. I begin with the story.

SS Colonel Hans Lander, brilliantly portrayed by Christoph Waltz, has been assigned to located known missing Jews and calls upon a farmer and his three teenage daughters previously investigated by the local forces because of rumour he was hiding one of the four known Jewish families in the areas. The man exudes charm and Bonhomie and also shows his a clever and cunning persistence. He slowly forces the farmer to identify where the family is hiding below the wooden floors of the house in exchange for the lives of his daughters. One of the daughters of the Jewish family escapes and although she is seen fleeing across the field Landa allows her to escape.

Somewhere else a group of ruthless Americans, headed by Brad Pitt, have assembled to kill Nazi’s behind German lines after the allied invasion is met with resistance. Pitt wants each member of the group to acquire 100 scalps, literally, He also marks all the victims with a Swastika on cut out in the forehead.

In Paris, three years after the murdering of her family, the daughter who escaped, Shosanna, is the owner of small cinema in Paris which she runs with her partner who is a negro. She is pursued by a young German private who is holidaying in Paris after becoming a hero of the Third Reich, a sharp shooter who manages to kill some 300 American soldiers before they give up and bypass the town he is defending.
Dr Goebbels, Minister of propaganda, has made a film of the event with the private playing himself the her. The film was to have had a premier in the main cinema in Paris attended by the Nazi Top brass but at the suggestion of the private, Goebbels is persuaded for the event to take place at the cinema run by the disguised Jewess.

One of several farcical aspects of the film is that there are two plots to destroy the Nazis attending. The first is by the Jewess owner whose partner is to lock the auditorium when the visitors are inside and also ignite all the available highly inflammable nitrate piled high film behind the screen at the point when an addition to the film is interposed in which the Jewess proclaims who she is and what is to happen.

Back in London Churchill agrees to a plan for a German speaking Englishman to attend the premier with assistants to blow up the cinema with dynamite. The assistants will include Brad Pitt and some of his group and they will gain entry via one of Germany’s leading film actresses who is working for the Allies.

For one of the many improbable moments in the film they meet in cellar bar where there is much drinking of snaps by a group of soldiers and their friends who are celebrating the birth of the child of one of their number. The internationally known actress has joined them and is playing a parlour game. She leaves them to join the English agent and two of Pitt’s German speaking assistants who are to enter the cinema with her. She is asked by the celebrating soldier for an autograph which she gives but the young man is drunk and keeps pressing his attention so that the English agent demands that he leaves in an accent which arouses suspicion of the soldier and a member of the SS also in the bar. His explanation of living on a mountain village with a unique accent and being the escort of the actress is accepted until he signals for three more drinks raising his fingers the English rather than the German way. There is a standoff as the two men and others brandish weapons followed by a fire fight in which everyone in the bar is killed with the exception of the actress who is wounded in the leg. She is rescued by Brad Pitt who at first is suspicious that she has survived but convinced he arranges for the coup to continue, especially after the news that Hitler has also decided to attend.

Unfortunately they do not take account of Landa who is given the job of providing security for the event and his investigation of the scene in the bar yields not only one shoe of the actress but also the autograph. However his approach is to allow the action to continue although it is evident that he knows what is going on when speaking in fluent Italian to Pitt whose knows a few words in an atrocious accent. He demands to see the actress privately, and strangles her after revealing why he knows she is an agent. He arrests Pitt and they leave the theatre with his two assistants still in place with high explosives strapped to their bodies,

He explains to Pitt that he knows the war is lost and will agree to the bomb plot continuing if he can secure American Citizenship, wealth and position in the United States. This is negotiated via a radio with London. Meanwhile the boyfriend of the cinema owner has secured the entrances to the auditorium and is about to set fire to the film behind the screen waiting for the moment when the owner tells the audience on screen they are to die. Unfortunately she cannot make her escape after switching the reels because the film star enters and demands her favours because of the honour he has done her by arranging the Premier at her theatre. In an exchange of gun fire, both die. Meanwhile in the Theatre, Hitler, Goebbels and Goring are enjoying the spectacle of the private systematically killing the American soldiers accompanied by a cheering audience. By brilliant timing the remaining two bomb plotters have left the main auditorium, disarmed the two guards outside Hitler’s Box just as the screen ignites into flames. After killing Hitler’s and his companions the open fire on the retreating no where audience and then the cinema explodes. Landa then drives Pitt to the advancing allied lives and surrenders to him. Pitt who is committed to the deal, nevertheless carves a Swastika into the forehead of Landa.

The film has been ten years in the making with a number of different scripts starting out on a Good, the Bad and the Ugly film noir take on the ending of World War II and hen developed into the Dirty Dozen type of thing. He had completed writing without settling on an ending by 2002 when he learnt that a number of other WW2 were in the making, The film has many guest appearances including Mike Myers of Shrek and Austin Powers fame, and some sixty on line critics heap praise on Tarantino, so again I ask the question what is really all about/ Making money folks, nothing less, nothing more. The young kids who play computer war games will love it. What German cinema audience have, is another question.

Martin Clunes is a likeable middle aged comedy actor who retains boyishness. He came to attention as one of a duo of pathetic characters in Men Behaving Badly, and then in 2004 with Doc Martin as a county Doctor based on fishing village in Cornwall also a programme which never appealed to me. I was interested to see what he did with the opportunity to visit a selection of the reputed1000 islands mostly uninhabited, around the UK. While there continues to be aspects of his personality which I continue to react negatively, the three hour long programmes are interesting and do provide an answer to the question is life on a small island different to that on the main island of England, Scotland and Wales, three countries with their cultural and historical differences as well as the significant variations within each nation, so that the cities, especially London have become unrecognisable and cultural distinct from those of my childhood and youth.

Bruce Springsteen Live In New York : My Love will not let you down; Prove it all night. Two Hearts; Atlantic City; Mansion on the Hill; and The River.

What emerged from the three programmes is that continuous living does require individuals who are hardy, self reliant and can live without the requirement most of us depend on, easy transport, access to a supermarket and entertainment activities from cinema and theatre, to international and fast food restaurants and spectator sports, as well as Television, the Internet and electricity and running water.

In the first programme Martin commenced with the Northernmost part of the UK, the Outer Hebrides, and the lighthouse Rock of Muggle Flugga, no longer manned and with a heady and dangerous vertical 360 steps with unkempt and dangerous handrails. For someone who has a problem with heights, he bravely struggled to reach the top to start the programme.

He then visited the northernmost populated island of Unst which has more in common with Scandinavia than the British main island and were he met the elected Chief Viking and his family. There are the remains of thirty long ships on the island which was under Norwegian control for 600 years thereafter. I may have confused this island with another where the emphasis is on a strongly religious community which until recently had padlocked the children’s playgrounds on Sundays.

He also dropped in on the eccentric southern Englishman from Bromley who has bought a lump of rock the size of a football field and declared independence from the British and Scottish governments the grounds that there is no evidence of the UK or Scotland having been granted sovereignty. You are required to have your passport stamped before setting down on Forvik unless you purchase land or become a full citizen with the price recently educed form £200 to £20. The Island is officially known as Forewick Holm and comprises 3,5 acres or 10000 square metres and is in disputed ownership between the eccentric sailor Stuart Hill who lives in Cunningsburgh in the South of the main Shetland Island and Mark King of Papa Stour. Stuart Hill is known as the former village blacksmith in village in Suffolk for 20 years before trying to sail round the UK in a 15 foot dingy and having to be rescued with 5 separate Life Boat launches and 2 Helicopters at public expense. He has a primitive construction on the island and which in addition to citizenship he is attempting sell small plots at he sea shore entitling owners to have sea access. His main aim is to establish independence for the Shetland whose local administration is therefore kindly towards him

Bruce Springsteen Live in New York: Youngstown; Badlands; Out in the Street; Born to Run; Tenth Avenue Freeze out, Land of Hope and Dreams. Switch to Music player and Jungleland, Born in the USA, Don’t look back.

The main interest of the second programme is the Isle of Man with a population of 80000 has an independent Parliament of 24 with a full range of Ministers and judiciary and local government, its own currency and low tax economy with no inheritance tax, corporation tax, except banks at 10%, stamp duty or capital gains and income tax at 18% together with a ceiling on the maximum which any individual or capital can pay. There are not members of the EEC and have no speed limit on some roads. As with Jersey it is a place which attracts rich tax avoiders.

The other visit which appealed was to the Piel island at one end of Morecombe Bay off Barrow in Furness. It is half a mile offshore and can be reached across the sand at low tide similar to Holy Island here in the North East Coast. It only has one building a pub, restaurant, now owned by the local council and who held a competition to become the new landlord which includes the ancient right to be crowned kind and his daughters to be known as princess and have the right to self style themselves including their bank accounts. The successful couple had visited the island since childhood family outing visits. The 50 acre island is in the shadow of the eight largest inhabited Island in the UK and bird sanctuary of with a population of 13000 in its 13 square kilometres and connected to the mainland by a road bridge since 1908.

For the third programme I thought Martin was visiting the Isle of Wight but this turned out to be Guernsey of the Channel Islands which also has semi independent status followed by Sark with is feudal leadership of some 80 families and where the only motor vehicles are licensed tractors. Interest on Guernsey centred on a multi millionaire who commuters to the city by his private jet at a cost of £2000 a day.

At least Martin did to one Island I have visited, St Mary’s of the Scilly Island. I have observed another closely, St Michael’s Mount in Mounts Bay Cornwall a quarter of a mile off shore by a low tide causeway and with a castle and a small village of employees on this privately owned island in association with the National Trust. The Scilly Islands cover 5 square miles at southern tip of the British Isle with five of the 140 inhabited, mostly rock falls. The journey by ferryboat takes several hours from Penzance and the wealthier residents some 1600 on the main island use planes or helicopters. I anticipate this is the first of a further series depending on what was the original viewing figures. In addition to avoiding the Isle of Wight there was no Caldy in Wales, Skye in Scotland, Sheppey on the south east coast or Holy Island here in the North East.


From My space music player Bruce Springsteen live in New York Land of Hope and Dreams, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Badlands, the River, Atlantic City, Prove it all night and out on the Street, Youngstown. Mansion on the City, Atlantic City.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Thunder Point and Codename Wild Geese

It is Monday 16th February and again I had an interrupted night going to bed at 12.30, sleeping for no more than an hour and waking restless, getting up, writing, playing games on the computer until 4 am before returning to bed and a good sleep until 8,30, getting up to put out the rubbish wheelie bin and the environmental box piled high with empty cans of vegetables and Pepsi cola, returning to bed for a good hour. I have had some cereal and will have a coffee soon. 11 am approaches after playing a long round of 1 million points Luxor Majong to reach 11 million points.

Writing up the first three episodes of the 4th season of Babylon 5 I realised that they make a good introduction piece as both Commander Sheridan and Security Chief Garibaldi return from the dead. I know the feelings associated with such a situation only too well

As previously written at the end of the first episode of the fourth season The Hour of the Wolf 401 we learn that Sheridan has survived somewhere deep inside the planet Z’ha’dum, used by the Shadows as their home planet and where he has lit a fire and is confronted by an old man who asks to share the fire and has a devil like appearance! Because, rather than in spite of, the retreat of the Shadow craft from around the space station, the other worlds and races start to relax and allow their warcraft to return home thus preventing Ivanova and Delenn leading an all out attack on the now vulnerable Z’ha’dum after the reported Thermo nuclear explosion.

In his message to Delenn, before departing for the planet, Sheridan explains that in his flip to the future when engaging with Babylon 4, he had been warned by Delenn not to go to Z’ha’dum, as he has also been by Ambassador Kosh, but he suspects the reason for being able to foresee the future is to have the opportunity to try and change it. While confirming his love for Delenn who had became understandably anxious about the arrival of his wife, he adds that he has a duty to try and change what happens and avoid the destruction of Centauri Prime, also witnessed during his time travelling, and of other worlds and their people if he can.

Delenn and deputy Ivanova who is now operational head of the independent space station, together with telepath Lyta who comes to see the replacement of Kosh and who is then asked to stand down, decide to go on a mission to Z’ha’dum in the White Star to find out what happened to Sheridan having received accurate information that there was a thermo nuclear explosion on the planet and that two of the bombs brought to protect the base by G’Kar are missing. Above the planet they become mesmerised by a force from below but fortunately clever Lennier has applied a fail safe device which if he fails to button press, the ship his jump gate moved away and this is what happens thus linking with Lost.

Londo Mollari has been recalled home to become an adviser to the new Emperor who he quickly finds out has become more vain and psychopathically mad than he remembers of him, believing that he is destined to become a God even if this means his planet and half the universe are killed and destroyed at the behest of the Shadows. Mollari then learns that the Emperor has agreed to a request from the Shadows to make the planet their home and they arrive in force, Mollari summons Vir to return home to help him kill the Emperor. Vir is reluctant.

During a period when the remaining members of the Babylon 5 War council are in mourning over the loss of Sheridan, Lyta visits Ivanova and Ivanova asks Have you ever heard of the Hour of the Wolf ? “My father told me about it. It’s the time between 3.00 and 4.00 in the morning. You can’t sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and problems and the way your life should have gone, but didn’t. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart. I’ve been living in the hour of the wolf for seven days, Lyta, seven days. The wolf and I are now on a first name basis. In times like this my father used to take one large glass of Vodka before bed. To keep the wolf away, he said. And then he would take three very small drinks of vodka, Just in case she had cubs while she was waiting outside. It does not work.”

For me the Hour of the Wolf in the terms stated by Ivanova remains an important aspect of my life which I welcome as it reminds of who I have been so that I can write effectively about the previous experience of my life for public and private interest. I use whisky, not to fend off the wolf but occasionally to fend off the cold, cold of the head and cold of the environment. Some years I invest in a bottle of single malt. This is for pleasure. This remind of one of the great songs of Billy Holiday, Set em up Joe, its three o’clock in the morning. For me the Hour of the Wolf can happen at any time. The night is creative time when the unconscious filters into the semi conscious of waking and where as a child I was terrified but since early adulthood I have slowly learnt to make the beast into a pet.

In the Search for Garibaldi (402) G’Kar comes across evidence of the Starfury which Garibaldi used when he joined the fighters defending the space station from the expected second Shadow attack. G’Kar investigates and is helped out in a fight by Marcus and they discuss their motives before Marcus gains more information, and G’Kar insists on investigating further alone. Marcus reluctantly agrees. Before he can leave, G’Kar is captured by those who recognise who he is and return him as a prisoner to Centauri Prime for the bounty.

Delenn has been undertaking a fast purification ceremony as part of her mourning for the loss of Sheridan, and Franklin, of all people, warns her of the course she is taking, given that she has become more human than Minbari and needs energy for the fight ahead. His words have influence.

Londo talks with the captured G’Kar and explains to him how he will die at the hands of the Emperor in a long torturing death but offers him a way out if he helps him to get rid of President. G’Kar agrees on the understanding that his people will be free from Centauri rule. London agrees to this. London appears genuinely concerned at the plight of G’Kar

Commander Sheridan has talked with his companion, Lorien, trying to work where he is, alive or dead or as the old man suggests in between. The old man then discloses that he is not just one of the Old One‘s but the original One and says that Sheridan has a piece of a Vorlon, Kosh, inside him. He explains that Vorlons can break off pieces of their consciences and put these into other organisms. He tells Sheridan that he needs to stop questioning, being afraid of death and uncertain of his role and just being and that is the way out an forward. He then emphasises that dying for something is easier that living for something and Sheridan completes the jump into the void calling our for Delenn. He is that seen at the feet of the old man, presumed dead, but is he?

In the third episode The Summoning (403) there are partial answers to the what happened to Sheridan and to Garibaldi, as Ivanova and Delenn organise their remaining forces for an all out attack on Z’ah’dum, against the mounting concern of the other planetary systems.

G’Kar is tortured twice to the point of death because he will not scream out in pain and Londo persuades him to do so otherwise he be killed and his developing plans to use G’Kar to help kill the President will fail. Londo is whipped by an electronic whip of increasing intensity where no one survives forty lashes. Londo reaches 39 before he cries out and the President satisfied honours his agreement to give G’Kar to London for his previous good works. The reluctant Vir, pleading that their must be another way to rid the country of the President, now agrees with London that he must be assassinated.

The deputy security chief follows up news of the whereabouts of Garibaldi’s craft and he attacks the freighter on which it has been located which unexpectedly blows up after a life pod breaks free. This contains the body of Garibaldi which appears to be brought to life just when it is retrieved by the Space Station recovery team. There is the implication that something has happened to Garibaldi who back on the station is unaware that he has been missing for two weeks, that Sheridan is missing presumed dead and the alliance has broken up with the departure of the Shadows from outside the station.

Ivanova has been giving herself a good talking to and learning Minbari. Delenn and Marcus hide their amusement at her incomprehensible efforts and she agrees to Marcus accompanying her on a mission to investigate what appears to be report of one of the First Ones is on the move. During their expedition they discover a time right in which thousands of Shadow craft have assembled.

At the space station Lyta is asked by Delenn to try and find out from Kosh’s replacement what the Vorlons are up to. Lyta is reluctant because her connection with the Vorlon has become Sadomasochistic and at one point he appears to have killed her for complaining about his behaviour and attempting to read his mind. She informs Delenn that it is they have become expendable in the battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. Ivanova returns from her expedition to find there is a secret open gathering of protect against the proposed attack on Z’ah’dum led by two Ambassadors from the non aligned worlds. Just as it looks as if they have won, Sheridan appears with Lorien from a mystery craft which has over ridden normal entry procedures and driven straight into a landing bay. Sheridan is able to change opinion proving that those who believe Z’ha’dum is invincible and a planet from which no outsider returns is wrong. He gives a stirring speech about uniting to rid the universe of the Shadows for the sake of the people and their children’s children.

It is confirmed that the Shadows have abandoned their previous commitment to protect the younger worlds from the Shadows and that as a consequence of all out war between the two ancient races a whole planet of three million beings has been disintegrated with echoes of the Hitchhikers Guide and the obliteration of earth to create a new space highway.

I watched had an odd novel and film concept in which in the final days of the Third Reich, Hitler entrusted to his aide Martin Borman with a case in which it is suggested were documents which would ensure Hitler’s plan would be continued after his death The film, Thunder Point is based on a novel in the Sean Dillon series by Jack Higgins in 1993. The novel suggests that Borman had indeed left Germany but the U Boat in which he travelled had been sunk in the West Indies. A former British intelligence officer has maintained a search for the missing documents which were said to have implicated the former King and Duke of Windsor in the plan and when the document was discovered and brought to British intelligence in the UK he is killed in a faked accident.

There have been several novels and films of this genre, treasure hunters for sunken vessels, usually in the Caribbean so the locations can be picturesque, and the women beautiful and flaunting their assets. The men appear to have considerable means, often an expensive boat, and hiring private planes to over view an area is also no problem. In this instance the man has accumulated a huge debt from his bank and is danger of losing his isolated forest and lake Canadian home because he plans to sell the case to the British government for £1 million in order to hide the fact that the former King who became the Duke of Windsor was implicated in the Nazi ideology and the great plan to conquer and then rule the world

Unfortunately the British intelligence official is in fact a secret member of a Nazi organisation. This is not so preposterous as other aspects of the film given the extent to which the Communists were able to recruit a number of British agents into being double spies over a long period. It is has always struck me that with the capitalist establishment anti communist rather than fascist, the possibility of extreme ring wing sleepers going undetected was there with support for South Africa the obvious example. In the USA there was the support for various fascist states, notably for the Afghanistan, so called freedom fighters against the Russians.

The British double agent hires, an expendable former IRA operative who he rescues from execution for his freelancing activities in the Balkans, to find the case which is now missing and where it is thought the dead man’s ward will know its whereabouts. This is one of a number of incredulity widening aspects because the hired man is then hunted by other Nazi organisation employed operatives when he attaches himself to the ward who is hostile to all aspects of the situation and the kind of life led by the former IRA man but she is drawn to him and relies on his protection when several attempts are made to force her to reveal the whereabouts of the case, something which she does not know.

here is situation upon situation of implausibility with deaths and much physical violence before the case is located and then lost to the Nazi organisation. Her adopted father has given her a letter in the event of his death and contain a clue to the whereabouts of the case. Unfortunately he has left another cryptic message in her locket which she has placed on top of the coffin at the burial. In the locket the message refers of a relative, a nun who died previously and is buried in a vault at the convent. The man had visited he convent, gained access to the convent vaults and prized open the stone which means her name and closed again without attracting the curiosity of the sisterhood and similarly the ward and her new protector are able to do this!
In the last part of the film the papers are burned after they have been faxed to the last survivor of Hitler’s contemporary aides who inhabits Washington suggesting a sequel. The ward is killed but the IRA man lives to fight other adventures.

The whereabouts of Martin Borman was known for several decades after the War and there was much speculation and alleged sighting as well as claims as when and where he had died. DNA tests involving relative does appear to have laid this mystery to rest although given the extent to which individuals are relocated for the cooperation with governments, and the extent to which others of their ilk have been able to secretly survive, nothing can be certain.

The action takes place in the West Indies, in London and in Canada where the former security man was based. The Winter Olympic Games are being held in Canada for the second occasion but I have failed to become interested so far.

An even worse film about mercenaries is Codename Wild Geese. The similarity between aspects of the two films is remarkable. The men are hired to destroy a shipment of drugs belonging to a ruthless Thailand drug General within his stronghold defended by an army described as rapists and murderers. The pit of the get away helicopter is released from prison two years early because he is the best in the business but unfortunately although the raid is moderately successful with only a few loses, one of the group is a double agent and sabotages the helicopter so they have to make their way home on foot. They come across a mission within the ruins of a church reminding of various Mexican bandit films, the Magnificent Seven rather than the Dirty Dozen in which the priest hides white girl reporter take hostage for random and a wounded and dying mercenary, while they go off to blow up train as it slows down to cross a bridge (over River Kwai style) on its way to collect another drug horde from a second storage compound. After the success but further loss of life the reduced group return to the mission to find everyone killed except the priest crucified and dying and the girl hidden away with the body of the dead comrade. This fuels their resolve to destroy the second compounds but before they can achieve this objective they discover that their link man is in fact a baddie and in the pay of the man who hired them with the full knowledge the British and USA authorities. Basically the man operated the second compound in competition and delighted at the removal of their revival they are horrified to learn the decision to proceed to their accumulated supply and set out to stop the remaining members of the group which are reduced to the leader, the girl and the pilot. They find a small helicopter which has a kind of flame throwing device which is used to destroy the compound and the remaining guards as well as the operational baddie. The hero returns to kill the man who employed him and the British and Americans official unofficial coordinators congratulate on a job which worked out far better than expected and the group leader and pilot got off to fight another box office adventure. There was one moment in the film when the project administrator at the training camp causes the wrath of some of those involved by checking on the next of kin to receive the £30000 payment in the event of their deaths. The irony is that the money had come from drug trafficking.