15 December 2010

Movie review: Still Walking, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

It is interesting reading other reviews for this movie, which demonstrate the possibility of experiencing the same thing so differently. Still Walking is 'a comedy of manners', reminiscent of the movies of Eric Rohmer. (Comedy as distinct from tragedy, not in the sense of being humorous.) Like a haiku, nothing is brightly coloured, overstated, or has the impoliteness to stand out in some way. Typical of Japanese etiquette, the characters rarely say or act on what they really mean, and this is revealed only as the story unfolds. Characterisation is superbly handled through script, direction and acting. Unlike in western movies, there are neither heroes/saints, nor dastards/demons. It would be too easy to watch this movie through western eyes and miss the subtle, the nuanced, and the quiet reversals that culminate in overall balance. In western culture it is held that the more deeply an emotion is felt, the more extremely it is expressed. However, the expression of emotions addressed in this Japanese drama is muted: it is possible to arrive by another route at a sense of how deeply those emotions are felt. The movie is perfectly paced for its material (not the high-octane outbursts of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or of Look Back in Anger), but may be considered intolerably slow by people who enjoy thrillers, adventure movies and rom coms. (Instead, think Tarkovsky.) Unlike a Woody Allen movie, Still Walking is not an easy watch, requiring concentration and attention, although neither is it especially difficult: the plot, such as it is, is interesting enough for me not to require it to entertain me cheaply (even though I enjoy the jokes in Wasabi). There is no feel-good pay-off at the end. There is no 'the end' (c.f. Lost in Translation). I do not know the other work of director Hirokazu Kore-eda, but I now feel motivated to find out more.

26 November 2010

2001: A Space Oddysey

I wrote the text below in response to a thread of comments regarding a brief, critical user review of the DVD 2001: A Space Oddysey.

I think that Anthony Costine's Rothko observation is valuable: for me, Mark Rothko's huge, nearly-formless canvases serve as the closest fine art is able to approach to a spiritual gateway - his works present me with the opportunity safely to stand on the threshold between life and death. The Clarke / Kubrick novel / screenplay (they wrote them together) considers the breathtaking enormity of the leaps made by humankind from our genetic divergence away from other primates. We are not really being invited to consider the detail of each technological development and innovation, but to gulp at the height of the cliff edge on which we now perch. The story then moves on to consider ways in which humankind may further develop, perhaps in ways that will seem god-like to the just-beyond-savages who we are today. 2001 is intended neither to be an intellectual movie, nor a thrill ride, nor a drama, no more than were one standing on the brink of the Grand Canyon, or sitting in front of a Mark Rothko painting, or watching a movie (such as Stalker) by Andrei Tarkovsky. Perhaps the 'mistake' is to consider it (along with Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky) primarily as work of science fiction. Maybe the fact that Clarke was a science fiction writer, and the movie was marketed as science fiction misdirects how the movie can most engagingly be viewed.

18 September 2010

2010 August 05 Thursday

We drove south from Durham, and installed ourselves at the Marriott hotel in Slough: it calls itself the the Heathrow/Windsor Marriott despite being some miles from either place. We have stayed in better Marriotts. However, the quick dip in the pool was a refreshing pick-me-up before meeting my relatives in a pub restaurant the other side of Madenhead (nothing vegan for me.)

07 August 2010

2010 August 07 Saturday

We drove from the Marriott hotel in Slough ("Windsor - Heathrow") to the Channel Tunnel. We had time to stop at Sainsbury's in Ashford, Kent, to buy groceries. Once through the tunnel, we drove to Antwerp. Not one of the three vegetarian restaurants we found was open. The rain was torrential, and very wet we returned to our hotel - the Raddisson Blu Park - where we had a suite with a kitchen. I cooked a meal using food I brought for cooking in Berlin.

On Saturday morning we drove to Ashford in Kent, where there is a decent Sainsbury's and I was able to shop. From Ashford it is only 25 minutes to the Channel Tunnel. The tunnel was very busy, and we were pulled out, once again, for a terrorist check - I have been subjected to many times more than my fair proportion of these. We arrived in Antwerp yesterday evening after a highly unpleasant drive from Calais. It rained constantly, sometimes torrentially, and the spray from the other vehicles on the motorways reduced visibility at times to below 50 metres. The Radisson Blu hotel in which we are staying is gorgeous, and we are sad that our visit is for only one night. Having got ourselves settled, we walked out in the pouring rain to find something to eat, but each of the three vegetarian eating places we could find turned out to be closed for August. Antwerp is the same size as Liverpool, so my wife and daughter could have found a pizzereria or something. However, our room at the hotel includes simple cooking facilities, so we decided to return to the hotel to cook a meal there. Ever one to be prepared, I cooked some spaghetti, and fried mushrooms, tomatoes and onions. I had chosen to bring dried basil, ground black pepper and vegetable stock powder from home, and with the unfiltered extra virgin olive oil I had bought from Sainsbury's, the meal was especially tasty. The only thing missing was a candle for the table.

06 August 2010

2010 August 06 Friday

My sister and her partner, Janine, were married this afternoon in a civil partnership ceremony held in Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK. Family and friends were in attendance. Later, a reception dinner was held on Queen's Eyot, a small island in the River Thames, near Bray. The occasion was a delight.

We attended a civil partnership ceremony for my sister and her partner of several years. The occasion was a delight, for not only did we meet up with my two and a half sisters and their families, but we also met some of my new Canadian relatives-in-law, with whom we got on very well. Although the ceremony itself took place in Maidenhead, the reception was held on a little island in the middle of the River Thames, requiring a boat trip each way.

24 May 2010

Climate change mitigation versus democracy?

Following a broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme (20:30 Monday 24 May 2010) presented by Justin Rowlatt (the BBC's 'Ethical Man'), I posted the following text on the BBC's Ethical Man weblog:

"I listened to the radio programme with much anticipation. I was pleased that the issue was taken seriously in terms both of the science and the politics. There were various aspects with which I variously wholeheartedly agreed or disagreed. Three aspects, however, that I considered to be very weak were: 1) democracy is not one thing; democracy means different things to different people in different places; the UK has a system of representative democracy (hence no capital punishment despite the untested preference of the electorate). 2) Much of what is already taking place (erection of wind turbines, replacement of incandescent light bulbs, new hybrid and electric vehicles) is happening between government and industry, not by popular choice at the retail level (we will buy whatever is available)- this is about the relationship between government and corporations in which the electorate never get any say anyway. 3) Too often "the expressed will of the people" has more to do with the relationship between government and the popular press - were the red-tops to champion major lifestyle changes to ameliorate climate change, their readership would almost inevitably follow."

I wish to develop these ideas further, although this weblog is not the place where I intend to leave the text. The issues belong on my Green website.

The radio programme is reported to be currently available on the BBC iPlayer.

1. Democracy under threat?
The term 'democratic' seems to be used frequently in a wide variety of circumstances to indicate that something is politically good in some way. It seems obvious to most people who choose to live in economically-developed western countries that even the most imperfect of democracies are superior, say, to the society portrayed by George Orwell in 1984. If nothing else, this points to democracies that fall short of some notional democractic ideal. A democracy probably requires regular, popular elections (as distinct from elections by a small minority) and a voting system that delivers an outcome readily acceptable to the electorate. In the US it is considered democratic to vote for a variety of public officials beyond politicians, e.g. police chiefs. In the UK such an election is viewed with suspicion, believing that public officials should be impartial. In the UK, the rights of trades unions to require their members to withdraw their labour are enshrined in law - trades unions being seen as an example of dispersed democracy. Winston Churchill saw the dispersal of democracy amongst the institutions of a country as a process of democratisation. It is not clear to me what aspects and features of democracy would have to be suspended to effect a political programme to counter AGW (anthropogenic global warming). It is, however, clear to me that to suspend all that we call democracy would so fundamentally change the nature and fabric of contemporary UK society that inentional suspension would be beyond contemplation. More realistically, the suspension of certain aspects of the democratic political process could happen, as it did during the second world war. This does not have to be a slippery slope towards totalitarianism.

26 April 2010

09 April 2010

UK General Election 2010: 27 days to go

I was out yesterday evening delivering LibDem leaflets through local letterboxes. I wonder if people really read the leaflets. I know that they moan about feeling ignored if they don't receive leaflets. "I shan't vote for X because they didn't bother to canvas my vote." I do look at the leaflets I deliver, but rarely consider them of interest. They are usually full of platitudes, with attention being given to knocking one or other rival parties / rival party leaders / rival candidates.

I live in a constituency where the LibDems are contending with Labour who are long-standing incumbents. The City of Durham constituency, in the heart of a former heavy industry region, and until recently one of Labour's safest seats, and at which the Conservative candidate used to poll the second largest number of votes, has gradually become a marginal seat at which the Conservative candidate now risks losing their deposit. The presence of Durham University means that there are undoubtedly some people who hold Liberal Democrat values. However, there is no way on Earth that half the voters are Liberal Democrats at heart. The only way in which the LibDems can hope to have their candidate elected is to persuade would-be Conservative voters to vote LibDem instead. This is done by emphasising that the Conservative candidate has no chance of winning, and that the best way to avoid returning the Labour candidate, the incumbent MP, to Westminster, is to vote LibDem. Would this not be a dishonest distortion of the political complexion of the constituency? For in reality the constituency is about 50% Labour, 25% LibDem and 25% Conservative. Surely the votes cast should reflect these proportions? However, underlying the attempt at distortion is the antiquated, unsophisticated, first-past-the-post voting system. Other elected governmental bodies in the UK use a form of proportional representation to elect their representatives, resulting in a more honest picture of the political complexion of the electorate. I should much prefer an immediate switch to a voting system that is better than that which encourages local parties and voters into a kind of dishonesty. I am enthusiastic to be part of the democratic process, even if it is merely delivering leaflets, but I am not comfortable being part of a system that attempts to persuade people who hold Conservative values to vote LibDem simply to prevent the Labour candidate from winning. My political philosophy, although most closely expressed in party political terms by the Liberal Democrats, is still much closer to that of the Labour Party than that of the Conservative Party.

08 April 2010

UK General Election 2010: 28 days to go

One of the less seemly aspects about the run-up to a general election is that politicians of one or other persuasion will offer tempting words that seem to contradict what they have spent the previous 4 or 5 years asserting. Whilst I can remember back into the 1970s talking enthusiastically about exchanging the still-current unrepresentative first-past-the-post system voting system for some form of proportional representation, the issue remains a long-standing Liberal Democrat policy. However, there is a significant credibility gap when Johnny-come-lately Labour Party politicians (such as Ben Bradshaw on last night's edition of BBC 2's Newsnight programme) bob their heads above the parapet and state that they too have long been staunchly supportive of proportional representation. There is an equally yawning credibility gap when Conservative politicians propose wacky populist ideas such as the direct petitioning of parliament for debate, as though they, the Conservative Party, have forever championed the wishes and rights of poor and ordinary people.

Although the attention being given to whether National Insurance tax (paid by employers as well as employees, as distinct from income tax which is paid only by employees) should be raised feels like phoney sparring, the issue has drawn out into the open the Conservative sympathy towards business leaders: should the cost of repairing the economy be borne by the little people, in the form of reduced public services, or shared between the people and business, in the form of a tax? Public engagement in the election will begin in earnest when the politicians begin talking about migrant workers, immigration and the EU. I regret that the somewhat nationalistic prejudices (about which they feel proud) and mildly xenophobic attitudes (which they deny, but cannot refute) of many white British people makes it difficult for them to listen to fact, reason and rationality. Were the Conservative Party to propose strict limitations on 'foreigners' taking work in the UK, I believe that the Conservatives would easily win an outright majority. Were the Conservatives also to have the courage of their deep-seated convictions and offer the electorate the tantalising possibility of somehow distancing the UK from the EU, the Conservatives would win a landslide victory. I do not understand the Liberal Democrat enthusiasm for a referendum on Britain's engagement with continental Europe - turkey's voting for Christmas is a phrase that comes to mind. I believe that these are the issues that many people would prefer the electioneering politicians to be addressing.

07 April 2010

UK General Election 2010: 29 days to go

It is with a sense of relief that I greeted yesterday's announcement by Gordon Brown about the date of the next UK general election. The coming four weeks will be reminiscent of that passage in George Orwell's 1984 when Winston Smith and his colleagues are frantically busy with Party activity. In contrast to the UK system of government, elections are held on a regular, cyclic basis in France and the US. I wonder what things would be like were the UK to hold general elections on a regular, say, five year cycle.

Although I am not a member of a political party, I have a deep prejudice towards participatory democracy. Accordingly I am a volunteer, posting political leaflets through letterboxes in some of the streets close to my house.

I find it interesting how I have constructed my voting preference:
1. partly on how I have voted in the past (a kind of inertia - I am the opposite of a floating voter);
2. partly on a comparison between my political values and those of party policies (I have already visited Party websites and downloaded/read some of their policy statements);
3. partly on who I see supporting each party (am I ever likely to vote for a party that draws its support from men who vie with Yakuza to cover themselves in body art?);
4. and partly on how 'attractive' I find the political leaders and their team (on this basis, I should prefer to have voted for Ted Heath over Margaret Thatcher; for Michael Foot over Tony Blair; Tony Blair over Gordon Brown; and Paddy Ashdown over Charles Kennedy or Nick Clegg). Were I given the choice, I should rather vote for Barack Obama, who I consider to belong to a class above most British politicians.

My Predictions
The Labour vote will reduce by 5% (77 seats) some votes going to the Liberal Democrats, some votes going to the UKIP/BNP, some votes going to the Conservatives, and some Labour voters choosing not to vote. This desertion will be more pronounced in the Home Counties, Midlands and East Anglia, where there will be the greatest number of seats changing from Labour to Conservative. In the north of England the Labour vote will decline, although by not as much, and it will have less impact on the seats held. Total number of seats: 272

The Conservative vote will increase by 5% (79 seats), some votes coming from Labour, some from the Liberal Democrats, and the rest coming from people who did not vote at the 2005 general election. The Conservatives will lose some votes to UKIP/BNP. The greatest number of newly-won Conservative seats will come from London, the Home Counties and the Midlands. Total number of seats: 289

The Liberal Democrats will neither gain nor lose total votes, being a beneficiary of deserting votes from Labour, but losing votes to the Conservatives. However, as a result they will lose four marginal seats. Total number of seats: 58

UKIP will do well in the south of England, and the BNP will do well in London, possibly East Anglia and parts of the north of England, but will not have any seats in the House of Commons.

The Scottish Nationalists will gain some votes from Labour, but lose some to the Conservatives. The situation in Scotland will remain mostly unchanged.

Plaid Cymru will lose votes to the Conservatives. On the other hand, if they can gain some votes from Labour, the Labour marginal at Arfon might give them a further seat at Westminster (from 2 to 3)

The situation in Northern Ireland will remain largely unchanged. Most of their MPs will vote with the Conservatives, but this will be insufficient for the Conservatives to secure a working majority.

Result: a 'hung parliament' at Westminster. A coalition government will not be formed. Instead, the Conservatives will enter a working agreement with the Liberal Democrats (as happened with the former Lib-Lab pact). There will be a further general election in March 2011.

01 April 2010

At one with the world

The traffic in New York City is impatient, and pedestrians are jostling at road junctions. A Buddhist monk had been meditating in Central Park, listening to the song birds and the rhythm of the city. He is now walking serenely down Broadway and starts to feel a little peckish. As he nears Times Square the aroma of fried onions and hotdogs wafts past him. Approaching the hotdog vendor’s cart, he sees that the vendor is reading a newspaper. The monk says to the vendor “Excuse me, could you make me one with everything, please” and smiles to himself at the pun.

The sour-faced vendor, saying nothing, throws a steaming hotdog sausage into a bun, slaps some onions on top, squirts a line each of mustard and tomato sauce, and hands the completed hotdog to the monk. The monk pays with a ten dollar bill, and then waits patiently for his change. The vendor, having returned to reading his newspaper, ignores the monk. After a little while, tomato sauce already dripping onto the sidewalk, the monk asks the vendor, “Excuse me, but where’s my change?” The vendor growls, “Change comes from within.”

04 February 2010

Journalism 2: functions of journalism in a democracy

I guess that I ought to read a journalism text book. All the same, it seems to me that journalism has several important functions in a democracy.

To inform
Journalists report what happens. To be precise, they report on some of what happens. Without journalism, I would know little about what goes on beyond my immediate activities. Were I not to know, then I could not adequately participate in local, regional, national or supra-national decision-making. How else could I be informed? I could read Hansard to know what has been happening in Parliament (I have in the past). I could access the websites of politicians in order to read their speeches (I do). I could data-mine the website of the Office of National Statistics (I do). I could manage without journalism, but getting at the information would require more effort. On the other hand, I would be reading information that I chose, rather than have someone else choose for me.

To witness
In times and places in which the journalism is weaker, more happens that ought not to go on. Would the atrocities of Srebriniza, or the human rights violations of Abu Graib, have occurred had journalists been present to witness what took place? What would I do if I had a journalist shadowing me? Anyone can witness, but journalists are professional witnesses.

To whistleblow
I enjoyed watching the movie All The President's Men, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. I often watch The Pelican Brief. Both movies involve journalists digging up the truth. It would be optimistic to suppose that many news organisations spent much of their time researching activities on which a whistle needs to be blown.

To hold senior people to account
I can listen neither to Jeremy Paxman on BBC 2 television's Newsnight current affairs programme, nor John Humphries on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The interviewing style of both is not only far too abrasive for my taste, and almost perpetually sneering, but also rooted in the kind of conservatism that rejoices in its philistinism. However, what they also represent is the aspect of journalism that can hold to account politicians, business leaders, trades union leaders, and their like.

... more?

03 February 2010

Journalism 1: fleas on the back of democracy

It can be argued, and often is, that free and open journalism is a key function for the effective working of a democracy. News of national and international political and economic affairs is presented by journalists as a truth lieing somewhere between contextualised fact and informed opinion.

It is a disappointment, therefore, the underwhelmingly poor quality of popular (as distinct from specialist) journalism in the UK makes it easy to assess as very poor value - a high price to be paid in public attention (as well as the invasion of privacy) for such insubstantial fare. The focus on sport, celebrity, royalty, reality television shows and soap operas is bad enough. However, the self-satisfied - sometimes self-congratulatory , insular - sometimes jingoistic, ill-educated - sometimes mocking the mre highly educated, illiberal - sometimes sneering at those who try to understand people who transgress social norms, grub dollopped into porcelain and melamine dishes alike, makes it all-too-clear why "Support our Boys" and "Help for Heroes" have become national slogans regardless of the immorality, the geopolitical stupidity, and the financial burden of stationing trained killers and their support staff in a far away country called Afghanistan.

Prize-winning US journalist, writer and philosopher, on the other hand, "held no assumption of news and truth being synonymous. For him the “function of news is to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.” A journalist’s version of the truth is subjective and limited to how he constructs his reality. The news, therefore, is “imperfectly recorded” and too fragile to bear the charge as “an organ of direct democracy.”

'Public confidence' is a euphemism for the opinion of journalists, fat cat editors, advertisers, and phalanxes of well-funded lobbyists. Public confidence in science and scientists is not a direct response to scientific findings, but is directed by journalists / lobbyists.

My comments above are (reworked Twitter) responses to the following Twitter posting that refers to a BBC so-called-news item: "Does the world of climate science need a radical rethink? Susan Watts reports on IPCC blunders: http://tiny.cc/WuwiS "

The entire article appears to me to be scurrilous, intending to create and foment the doubt it purports to report. My 'evidence' is an extended interview given by Sir David King and broadcast on Night Waves, BBC Radio 3, on the evening of Tuesday 26 January 2010. Here is the programme blurb:

"As part of the BBC Year of Science, Radio 3's Night Waves is running a special series of extended interviews with leading scientists from Britain and the rest of the world. Each month a complete 45 minute edition will be dedicated to a single scientific figure talking to him or her about their research specialism, their wider scientific views, their personal background and their involvement with broader cultural and political questions.

"In the first interview Anne McElvoy talks to David King, the UK government's chief scientific officer from 2000 to 2007 - a job which put him at the heart of one of the burning issues of our time: the relationship between scientists, the government and the general public. On his watch David King faced foot and mouth, the GM foods debate, the ratification of the Kyoto protocol and the Stern Report.

"South African born and a physical chemist by training, David King arguably did more than any other scientist to put the issue of Climate Change onto the UK's public and political map. Anne gauges his opinions on the failure of the Copenhagen summit and asks about the nature of scientific orthodoxy after the furore over the climate change emails from the University of East Anglia, where he used to work.

"And what does he think about the status of scientific knowledge in the political process, an issue brought sharply into focus by the recent resignation of David Nutt, the chairman of the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs?

"David King is a self confessed optimist, his personal style is that of the quietly spoken diplomat but he is no stranger to controversy. He publicly criticised the Bush administration over its environmental policies and has himself been declared an embarrassment by those with different opinions over climate change."

I was fascinated to listen to the interview. I studied the history and philosophy of science at university, and still often read popular science and science history books. Therefore it was good to hear a scientist talking meaningfully about the business of doing science, the philosophy behind and theory of the scientific method, and what it was like to interface with politicians (and journalists) who had little understanding of, and even less sympathy for, the on-the-ground realities of science.

In stark contrast to my comfort with the feet-on-the-ground reasonableness of what David King had to say, I experienced the interviewer, Executive Editor of the (London) Evening Standard, Anne McElvoy, to be extremely irritating in the perpetual slant of her questions. I was unclear whether she had a specific agenda (probably partly to do with David Nutt's recent falling out with the government, but also to assert the role of journalists in the debate about climate change); was trying repeatedly to goad him (which succeeded on several occasions, and I also noted that the interview simply stopped - it did not come to an end), or was just plain ignorant (both meanings of the word). I dislike it when an interviewer is not actually interested in the answer given by the interviewee.

In one section of the interview, David King gave a clear message, supported by clear examples, that the pressure from climate change skeptics is extremely well organised, extremely well funded, and has an unswerving aim of derailing political attempts to limit climate change. There is no respect in which it would be possible to suggest that the man is paranoid. His observations, explanations and arguments were persuasive beyond assailability - which is why I wondered if the journalist was simply stupid (which she cannot possibly be) when she refused to acknowledge the absurdity of some of the positions she took.

All that said, the interview was well worth listening to, and I am disappointed that it is not available online. In contrast, Susan Watts' piece (linked above) is mere scurrilous junk!

27 January 2010

The execution of Ali Hassan al-Majeed

From the news BBC radio reports that I have heard, and the BBC website reports I have read, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, popularly known in the West as 'Chemical Ali', was a man with brutal values who acted on those values, resulting in the death of many thousands of people. In particular, he directed the persecution of Kurdish population in northern Iraq, the most celebrated attack being at Halabja in which 5,000 people died from the mustard gas attack he ordered. He also organised the crushing of Shi'ite communities after Iraq's war with Iran, and again after the First Gulf War (George Bush senior). For these war crimes he was sentenced to death on four counts. In addition, he co-ordinated the killing of less-than-loyal members of Saddam Husein's immediate family, of which he was also a member. It is difficult to imagine a man who, in the eyes of the world, more deserved to be executed for his crimes. Ali Hassan al-Majeed was executed by Iraqi authorities on Monday 25 January 2010.

I remain resolute in my belief that killing is wrong. The execution of this man not only enacts the belief that some people do not deserve to live, but also that I have - someone has - the moral right to determine the ending of a person's life. I do not have that right, and no-one should have that right other than the person themselves. I believe that, in its pre-meditation, execution is a morally worse act than accidental killing, say, in the commission of a robbery.

22 January 2010

War: skillful tactic or utter disaster?

War destroys. War destroys people, communities, culture and infrastructure. War only ever destroys. It is the process of rebuilding that picks up the pieces and rebuilds. Warfare always represents failure.

In her fascinating article, Diana Francis debunks the popular myth that war can be for good.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/diana-francis/war-justifiable-or-simply-catastrophic

If death and destruction are to be reduced, warfare must stop. No exceptions. No excuses.
...

21 January 2010

Eric Blair: 25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950


From what I have read about him, Eric Blair was not an easy person to get along with, and enjoyed challenging the status quo. He had strongly-held political opinions and was reluctant to be silenced. He resigned from his job with the BBC because he opposed censorship. His family supported the British establishment, but he came to oppose it. Blair was a proponent of a federal socialist Europe, a position outlined in his 1947 essay Toward European Unity. He was left-wing in his politics, but was also highly critical of the left. He hated anything politically authoritarian, which is how he came to write Nineteen Eighty Four. In Why I Write (1946) he wrote "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."

19 January 2010

Ranking the movies I have watched

I suspect that this is the start of a long posting that will take me an indefinite time to complete.

I joined criticker.com. This was in response to several Facebook Friends using a disappointingly shallow movie compatibility Facebook widget. Whilst I found Criticker through Facebook, I registered independently, and then created a link from my Criticker profile to my Facebook profile.

To date, I have ranked 208 movies, and listed them clumsily here below.

My Score
Film Name
Date Ranked
Comments
100
Amélie
Mar 08 2008, 20:00
100
Stalker
Mar 08 2008, 13:52
99
Rashomon
Mar 08 2008, 19:58
99
Shakespeare in Love
Mar 08 2008, 08:31
98
Drowning by Numbers
Mar 08 2008, 13:55
98
Much Ado About Nothing
Mar 13 2008, 00:25
98
Shirley Valentine
Mar 08 2008, 13:53
98
Solaris
Mar 08 2008, 13:54
97
The Lives of Others
Mar 13 2008, 00:21
97
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Mar 08 2008, 08:27
97
Spirited Away
Mar 08 2008, 13:57
96
12 Monkeys
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
96
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Mar 08 2008, 00:10
96
Delicatessen
Jul 06 2009, 21:47
96
Princess Mononoke
Mar 08 2008, 12:25
96
Ran
Mar 08 2008, 08:24
95
Cinema Paradiso
Mar 08 2008, 14:04
95
I Heart Huckabees
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
95
Jurassic Park
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
95
Jurassic Park III
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
95
Memento
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
95
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Mar 08 2008, 08:33
95
Witness
Mar 13 2008, 00:27
94
Contact
Mar 08 2008, 00:14
94
Grave of the Fireflies
Mar 08 2008, 13:58
94
Howl's Moving Castle
Jul 12 2008, 08:20
This anime is Miyazaki on top form. It is creative and imaginative. It moves along at a fast pace. The way that the character of Howl is only slowly revealed is masterful. Equally, we are left wondering throughout the movie whether Sophie is able to break the spell. It is wonderful to see a movie that really detests warfare.
94
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
94
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
94
Lost in Translation
Mar 08 2008, 12:30
94
Pan's Labyrinth
Jul 12 2008, 08:15
Although dark in subject matter, tone and lighting, this remains a magical movie. It feels to me to have a gritty existential feel to it, despite its exploration of magical realism. The military tension of just-post-Civil War Spain is well captured (also see El Espiritu de la Colmena). The acting of the central characters is good.
94
Whisper of the Heart
Mar 08 2008, 14:00
93
The English Patient
Mar 08 2008, 12:26
93
Manon of the Spring
Mar 08 2008, 13:50
93
Trainspotting
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
93
Twister
Mar 08 2008, 08:27
92
2001: A Space Odyssey
Mar 08 2008, 12:28
92
Blood Simple
Mar 08 2008, 09:25
92
Chicken Run
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
92
Death In Venice
Aug 16 2009, 16:08
92
Pitch Black
Mar 08 2008, 12:30
91
The Abyss
Mar 08 2008, 09:23
91
Bringing Out the Dead
Mar 08 2008, 09:22
91
Fargo
Jul 12 2008, 08:28
91
Fiddler on the Roof
Mar 08 2008, 20:02
91
The Lion in Winter
Aug 16 2009, 15:53
91
Smoke
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
90
The Bourne Identity
Mar 08 2008, 08:19
90
The Bourne Supremacy
Mar 08 2008, 12:31
90
The Fifth Element
Mar 08 2008, 20:03
90
Independence Day
Jul 06 2009, 21:46
90
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Mar 08 2008, 12:33
90
Minority Report
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
90
Sideways
Mar 07 2008, 17:34
90
Stargate
Mar 08 2008, 12:27
89
The African Queen
Aug 16 2009, 15:55
89
The Chronicles of Riddick
Mar 08 2008, 14:05
89
Dune
Mar 08 2008, 08:23
89
Enemy of the State
Mar 08 2008, 09:25
89
Pulp Fiction
Mar 08 2008, 00:20
89
Sneakers
Mar 13 2008, 00:32
88
The Blues Brothers
Mar 08 2008, 00:16
88
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Jul 06 2009, 21:48
88
The Thomas Crown Affair
Mar 08 2008, 08:34
88
Titanic
Mar 08 2008, 00:18
88
Working Girl
Mar 08 2008, 14:02
87
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Mar 08 2008, 00:12
87
Groundhog Day
Mar 08 2008, 09:24
87
Lost in Space
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
87
Mission to Mars
Mar 08 2008, 12:34
87
Phone Booth
Mar 08 2008, 08:25
87
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Mar 08 2008, 12:26
86
American Beauty
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
86
Educating Rita
Mar 08 2008, 14:01
86
The Full Monty
Mar 08 2008, 00:19
86
Mercury Rising
Mar 08 2008, 12:32
86
The Thomas Crown Affair
Aug 16 2009, 16:10
85
War of the Worlds
Mar 08 2008, 00:10
84
Cast Away
Mar 08 2008, 12:29
84
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
84
The Sixth Sense
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
83
Die Hard
Mar 08 2008, 00:11
83
Die Hard 2
Mar 08 2008, 12:25
83
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Mar 08 2008, 00:08
83
The Transporter
Mar 08 2008, 00:13
83
Wasabi
Jul 12 2008, 08:29
82
Gone in 60 Seconds
Mar 08 2008, 08:35
82
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Aug 16 2009, 15:54
82
Jean de Florette
Mar 09 2008, 00:12
81
Beverly Hills Cop II
Mar 08 2008, 12:32
81
Event Horizon
Mar 08 2008, 08:25
81
The Hours
Mar 08 2008, 00:21
81
I, Robot
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
81
Resident Evil
Mar 08 2008, 08:24
81
Sleepy Hollow
Mar 08 2008, 08:37
80
Citizen Kane
Mar 08 2008, 12:28
80
The Day After Tomorrow
Jul 06 2009, 21:44
80
Grosse Pointe Blank
Mar 08 2008, 00:08
80
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Jul 15 2008, 21:15
80
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Mar 08 2008, 08:20
80
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Mar 08 2008, 00:11
80
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Mar 08 2008, 00:09
80
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
79
Alfie
Jul 15 2008, 21:16
79
The Big Lebowski
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
79
The Castle in the Sky
May 02 2009, 21:58
79
Kundun
Mar 08 2008, 08:36
79
Manhattan
Mar 08 2008, 12:33
79
Psycho
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
78
K-PAX
Mar 08 2008, 00:18
78
Patriot Games
Mar 08 2008, 12:26
78
The Philadelphia Story
Aug 16 2009, 15:56
78
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
77
Deep Impact
Mar 08 2008, 08:27
77
Gladiator
Mar 08 2008, 08:34
76
An American Werewolf in London
Mar 08 2008, 08:31
76
Beetlejuice
Mar 08 2008, 12:29
76
One Hour Photo
Mar 08 2008, 12:30
76
When the Wind Blows
Mar 08 2008, 14:00
75
Being John Malkovich
Mar 08 2008, 08:26
74
The French Connection
Mar 08 2008, 08:36
74
Mad Max
Mar 08 2008, 08:27
74
Ocean's Eleven
Mar 08 2008, 08:32
74
Speed
Mar 08 2008, 08:22
73
The Hunt for Red October
Mar 08 2008, 00:13
73
Training Day
Mar 08 2008, 12:29
72
Ghostbusters
Jul 06 2009, 21:42
72
K-19: The Widowmaker
Mar 08 2008, 19:57
72
Signs
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
72
The Terminator
Mar 08 2008, 08:37
71
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Mar 08 2008, 08:37
71
Midnight Run
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
70
Tron
Jul 06 2009, 21:42
69
Kill Bill: Volume 1
Mar 08 2008, 09:25
68
Casino Royale
Mar 08 2008, 09:22
67
Analyze This
Mar 08 2008, 08:33
67
A Beautiful Mind
Mar 08 2008, 08:36
66
Murder by Numbers
Mar 08 2008, 08:18
66
Pleasantville
Mar 08 2008, 12:34
66
Radio Days
Mar 09 2008, 00:07
66
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Mar 08 2008, 12:34
65
Crocodile Dundee
Mar 08 2008, 12:30
65
Van Helsing
Mar 08 2008, 00:10
64
Jaws
Mar 08 2008, 08:32
64
The Mask of Zorro
Mar 08 2008, 08:31
63
Hudson Hawk
Mar 08 2008, 12:27
62
Grease
Mar 08 2008, 08:32
61
Notting Hill
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
60
Armageddon
Mar 08 2008, 12:25
60
Duel
Mar 08 2008, 00:15
60
The Matrix
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
60
North by Northwest
Mar 08 2008, 12:27
58
The Wicker Man
May 02 2009, 21:55
57
The Da Vinci Code
Jul 12 2008, 08:10
This movie is pulp with little style, although much of that is down to Dan Brown's pulp novel: the conspiracy is simply not much of a deal (cf. Enemy of the State). Was Tom Hanks on holiday when he acted in this movie - he remained unbelievable throughout. Audrey Tautou seemed out-of-genre. The only role I enjoyed was Ian McKellen when he was camping it up on his first appearance. Few of the sets are especially attractive, but I do not know whether this was due to the dark, muddy palette.
57
Men in Black II
Jul 06 2009, 21:46
56
Mary Reilly
Mar 08 2008, 09:24
55
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
May 02 2009, 21:57
54
The Terminal
Mar 08 2008, 00:15
53
Kill Bill: Volume 2
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
52
Maid in Manhattan
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
51
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Mar 08 2008, 09:24
51
Fahrenheit 451
Jul 06 2009, 21:44
51
Firefox
Mar 08 2008, 08:30
51
Men in Black
Mar 07 2008, 17:34
51
Robocop
Mar 08 2008, 08:38
50
Demolition Man
Mar 08 2008, 08:19
50
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Mar 08 2008, 00:17
50
Saving Private Ryan
Mar 08 2008, 00:17
50
Ten
Mar 08 2008, 12:29
49
Lethal Weapon
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
49
Look Who's Talking
Mar 08 2008, 12:27
49
Mrs. Doubtfire
Mar 08 2008, 08:22
49
The Sting
Mar 08 2008, 08:37
49
Thunderball
Mar 08 2008, 12:32
48
Analyze That
Mar 08 2008, 00:16
48
Flight of the Navigator
Jul 06 2009, 21:43
48
Young Frankenstein
Mar 08 2008, 08:22
46
Singin' in the Rain
Mar 08 2008, 08:35
45
Back to the Future
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
45
Back to the Future Part III
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
45
The Breakfast Club
Mar 08 2008, 08:21
44
The Railway Children
Mar 09 2008, 00:10
42
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Mar 08 2008, 12:32
42
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Aug 16 2009, 16:06
42
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Mar 08 2008, 09:23
41
As Good As It Gets
Mar 08 2008, 00:18
39
Predator
Mar 08 2008, 00:21
38
Goldfinger
Mar 08 2008, 00:16
37
Babe
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
36
Finding Nemo
Aug 16 2009, 16:06
36
Ice Age
Mar 08 2008, 08:23
36
Monsters, Inc.
Mar 08 2008, 08:20
36
Shrek
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
36
Toy Story
Mar 08 2008, 08:21
35
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Mar 08 2008, 00:20
35
Stuart Little
Mar 08 2008, 12:31
34
101 Dalmatians
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
34
The Lion King
Mar 08 2008, 08:22
34
Pinocchio
Mar 08 2008, 08:26
33
The Golden Child
Mar 08 2008, 08:36
33
The Neverending Story
Mar 08 2008, 08:31
32
Babe: Pig in the City
Mar 08 2008, 08:23
30
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
May 02 2009, 22:08
25
Bridget Jones's Diary
Mar 07 2008, 01:13
20
Dr. Dolittle
Mar 08 2008, 00:07
18
Robin Hood
Mar 08 2008, 08:33
12
All Dogs Go to Heaven
Mar 08 2008, 00:12
9
Scooby-Doo
Mar 08 2008, 08:19
1
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Mar 07 2008, 01:13

16 January 2010

Halcyon day

Trudging once again the footpath that follows the icy riverbanks into Durham City this morning, approaching the Maiden Castle footbridge, I was blessed with the electric-turquoise streak of a kingfisher.

10 January 2010

Misdirection

I remember with some affection an old Quaker man named Bill. We served together on a committee, and talked on many occasions. In particular, I have never forgotten him telling me that for the first forty years of his life his mind was incredibly active, "like a steam train", but then he slowed down - as though he had run out of steam. He died some years ago, I think in his 80s, having been unwell for a short time. He died because he was old and tired, and his body found a way for him to let go. The focus of attention in the talk around his death, however, was directed towards the possibly-hospital-acquired-infection that killed him. Such talk was innocent, and understandable in the context of someone precious whose presence was missed.

An online article published on the BBC news website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8448000/8448807.stm
discusses a recently published report of research undertaken concerning the impact of grey squirrels on UK bird populations. The premise for the research was that various rarer species of bird are in decline because of predation by grey squirrels. The research, however, demonstrated that despite both red and grey squirrels helping themselves to the occasional nest egg, and snacking on unfortunate fledgelings, there is little if any evidence even to suggest, never mind show, that grey squirrels adversely affect any species of bird. Interestingly, the two bird species that suffer the greatest squirrel (both red and grey) predation are blackbirds and collared doves. Interesting, because those are the two bird species that are most in evidence in the village where I live, and there are letters in the local newspaper bemoaning the amount of noise made by the collared doves. It seems that, in line with the national population of collared doves, the number of local collared doves has increased. Significantly, this increase has been at a time when my sightings of grey squirrels, which were barely in evidence at all in Durham when I arrived in 1976, have become more frequent. It is not grey squirrels that are the predation threat to local avian life, it is domestic cats (including my own). Other research some years ago showed that domestic cat populations represent a significant threat to local populations of garden birds.

So why was this research on the impact of grey squirrels considered necessary? Supported by Charles Windsor, an outspoken voice for conservatism and rural autonomy, there have for a number of years been loud calls for the slaughter of grey squirrels 'to protect populations of indigenous red squirrels'. I remember in my childhood there were stories about the invasive North American grey squirrel driving Tufty to the edge of extinction. There was anecdotal evidence that grey squirrels, being larger, would beat up the red squirrels. (Would this have anything to do with the Second World War?) Squirrels fight, whether red or grey; I know because I have watched them. However, again, research undertaken thirty years ago showed that the decline in red squirrel populations tended to precede contact between the two populations: where Tufty had moved out leaving an ecological vacuum, the grey squirrel moved in. The anti-grey squirrel lobby countered with evidence showing that the red squirrel has no immunity to a virus (the parapox virus) to which the grey squirrel is immune. However, because the two squirrel populations have little contact, it is not principally the virus that has the red squirrel population in decline.

The main reason for the steady decline in the number of red squirrels in the British Isles is habitat degradation: the impact of people, industry and agricultural practices. Whilst grey squirrels are happy to live in Regent's Park, London, red squirrels cannot cope with people. Every area of the UK where red squirrel populations are hanging on is an area with a low human population density - this can been most clearly seen in Scotland where there are red squirrel populations either side of the Forth-Clyde corridor. There are few red squirrels in England.

It may be too late to preserve any natural populations of red squirrels in England. Their only chance may be managed reserves from which all environmental pressures have been removed. However, Tufty's fate is like that of the caged canary taken down a coal mine. The red squirrel lives or dies according to the ecological appropriateness of their habitat. The industrialisation of agriculture, including the use of herbicides, pesticides and genetically-modified crops; the 'management' of forests; the encroachment of industrial estates, trading estates and housing estates; the transformation of wildernesses into playgrounds for quad-biking, paint-balling, shooting hand-reared game birds (which seems all-pervasive around Durham): have together devoured the barely-touched and the out-of-the-way places. Wilderness has become urban hinterland, suburb, or an agribusiness resource. That is why the red squirrel has all-but-vanished from England. Yet, rather than challenge our own understanding of British society, and give thought to how it could and should be, well-resourced vested interest groups instead shout noisily about the cast of usual suspects, once again directing our attention to the grey squirrel.