Monday 31 May 2010

Dead Man Walking (1995)

With an Oscar-winning performance from Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking (written and directed by Tim Robbins) is pretty harrowing. It traces the relationship between death-row inmate Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) and the local nun to whom he turns for spiritual guidance in the days leading up to his scheduled execution. Matt has been convicted of the rape and murder of two young lovers and is awaiting execution by lethal injection on death row. Sarandon plays Sister Helen Prejean (on whose book the film is based) with all the angst the part requires; she's a nun who has devoted herself to God and to helping the less fortunate, Prejean faces a moral crisis as she tries to reconcile her anti-death penalty views with the truth of Poncelet's actions and the pain felt by the victims' families. Heavy duty, thought-provoking and duly heaped with Oscar nominations.

Bad hair day throughout for Sean Penn. Cameo role for a young Jack Black as one of Poncelet's brothers. Excellent final credits song by Bruce Springsteen.

An eye for an eye? IMDB 7.6/10

Rather liked the following parody, which I found while picture researching:























Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) 
wrote the following poem in 1899, 
but it is unconnected with the term used in US prisons.

They hail me as one living,
 But don’t they know
That I have died of late years,
 Untombed although?

I am but a shape that stands here,
 A pulseless mould,
A pale past picture, screening
 Ashes gone cold.

Not at a minute’s warning,
 Not in a loud hour,
For me ceased Time’s enchantments
 In hall and bower.

There was no tragic transit,
 No catch of breath,
When silent seasons inched me
 On to this death. . . .

A Troubadour-youth I rambled
 With Life for lyre,
The beats of being raging
 In me like a fire.

But when I practised eyeing
 The goal of men,
It iced me, and I perished
 A little then.

When passed my friend, my kinsfolk
 Through the last Door,
And left me standing bleakly,
 I died yet more;

And when my Love’s heart kindled
 In hate of me,
Wherefore I knew not, died I
 One more degree.

And if when I died fully
 I cannot say,
And changed into the corpse-thing
 I am to-day.

Yet is it that, though whiling
 The time somehow
In walking, talking, smiling,
 I live not now. 

Sunday 30 May 2010

Happy Buddha

Fine example of a Happy Buddha Japanese Netsuke




Harry Brown (2009)

Darkly violent and poignant movie about endemic drugs and crime amid a London sink estate. Former Marine, Harry Brown (Michael Caine), a widowed Northern Ireland veteran and senior citizen lives on an Elephant and Castle housing estate rapidly descending into serious youth crime. Harry takes up vigilante methods to curb crime after an old friend is murdered. IMDB 7.5/10


From The Grauniad filmblog:


The Tories have taken to presenting Harry Brown as somehow authenticating their "Broken Britain" campaign. "Once in a while, a movie comes along that has genuine social and political content and deserves to be treated as a commentary on contemporary mores," avers former Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona. Apparently, the Brit vigilante flick "most definitely falls into this category". The film "portrays a society that is utterly disfigured." All Londoners should see it, because it will show them "the brutal reality" of life on their city's "forgotten estates, especially south of the river". (The writer begs to differ ...read on here)

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance




Original above and on the Oren Lavie site here
Frame-by-frame: HME Gallery
Parody below

Saturday 29 May 2010

Seabiscuit (2003)

Engaging 2003 film based on the true story of Seabiscuit, an unlikely racehorse winner in 1930s' US. Jeff Bridges plays the owner, Tobey (Spider-Man) Maguire the irrepressible jinja jockey, Red Pollard, and Chris Cooper the quiet but effective trainer.

Rich colours throughout and an equally rich, piano-based soundtrack from Randy Newman. IMDB 7.4/10

Thursday 27 May 2010

Paywall @ The Times

John Gapper in the FT (registration required) seems to doubt whether Murdoch's heart will be in the paywall that he's putting up next month around The Times and The Sunday Times:

'Radically reducing the readership, becoming more specialist and charging more for news than his rivals is not his style. Yet that is the logic of charging for online access to The Times and Sunday Times; having marched them downmarket, he must march them up again.

...Mr Murdoch’s News Corp estimates that the marginal revenue from an occasional browser is less than one tenth of a penny a year. Even Group M, the media buying agency of WPP, the advertising group, argues in a research note that the bulk of news surfers are “useless tourists” who not only pay nothing but have little advertising potential.

“Free distribution of premium content is like eating your babies. You will give value away until you go bust,” writes Group M. It suggests avoiding a “permanent oversupply of digital inventory” on the open web by using a paywall to “lift the publisher out of remnant inventory and restore a much smaller but aggregated audience.”

The Times and The Sunday Times are right to try it – there is little alternative – but success depends on consumers finding sufficient value behind the wall. The irony is that Mr Murdoch has broadened the intended audience of his titles so heavily over the past three decades that it is not obvious they will.

Business outlets such as the FT and the Journal have a big advantage in charging online because they are business-focused. If general publications are to match them, they must provide, as Stevie Spring, chief executive of Future Publishing, the magazine group, puts it, something “closer to must-have than nice-to-have”.

...He (Murdoch) does, however, know where the money is and there is precious little of it in commoditised online news, given the number of free providers. His heart may not be in it but his head must have figured it out.'

Who will be first to launch the UK version of The Huffington Post?

Wednesday 26 May 2010

More Cricket Sledging

Howzat! From The Independent's guide to the best insults in cricket:

Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga (pictured) was not the most popular figure on the international circuit, and was perhaps most unpopular with the Australians (perhaps because he did rather well against them). One occasion, the great spinner Shane Warne was trying to lure the comfortable figure of Ranatunga down the pitch and was being frustrated by Ranatunga's unwillingness to be tempted. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up: "Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it."

Sunday 16 May 2010

Cantanti Camerati @ Sunbury

Sang my first concert with Cantanti Camerati choir @ Sunbury Parish Church in Sunbury-on-Thames last night. Conducted by the eccentric yet redoubtable Geoffrey Bowyer, the Spring Concert performance went a good way to raising the £800 needed to complete the restoration of organ pipes damaged by water over recent years. The organ is surely one of the best in the west of London and it was shown off well by Geoffrey in Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine and Frank's Panis Angelicus. The unusual programme also included a selection of motets, madrigals, airs, partsongs a glee and solos from the versatile choir members:

William Byrd - Non Nobis Domine
William Byrd - Ave Verum Corpus
Alessandro Scarlati - Exsultate Deo
Thomas Weelkes - In pride of May
John Dowland - Come again! Sweet love doth now invite
Ellis Gibbons - Long Live fair Oriana
Roger Quilter - The pretty birds do sing
arr Arthur Warrell - Roving in the dew
Charles Wood - Music when soft voices die
Sir Edward Elgar - As torrents in summer
Thomas Arne - Which is the properest day to sing 
Anton Bruckner - Locus Iste
Franz Schubert - Hail to the Chief 
Franz Schubert - The Lord is my Shepherd
Peter Rose arr Hugh Frey - Deep purple
Emile Waldteufel - The scent of roses
Sir Charles Stanford - Diaphenia

Solos:
Samuel Liddle - Abide with me
Sir Edward German - She had a letter from her love
Mozart - Bassoon Concert (Andante, Adagio)
Robert Schumann - Du Ring an meinem Finger
Roger Quilter - O mistress mine
Franz Lehar - Vilia (from The Merry Widow)

Saturday 15 May 2010

Classic Cricket Sledging

The sledge-master himself and the Facebook group.

Mystic River (2003)

IMDB 8.0/10

Hauntingly successful movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, from 2003. Sean Penn plays moody well and Tim Robbins is bemused (and besmirched), while Kevin Bacon plays the cool cop. Gripped throughout. Eastwood's two-fingered piano approach to the soundtrack served him well, as did his son, Kyle.

80s' Synth Pop YouTube playlist



16 tracks in sequence - just let it run (or select arrow at bottom right to select tracks)...

Friday 14 May 2010

Ferrari 250 GTO

Pay 12m squid for a Ferrari 250 GTO? Only Chris Evans (or Nick Mason) has that sort of petrol-head insanity.

Piston Heads article here