Snowmail and Newsnight email are news/commentary mailing lists edited by my two favourite British TV journalists, Jon Snow and Jeremy Paxman respectively. Well, other people also contribute, but these two gentlemen are the selling point and a good one at that.
And whatthehell, I finally gave up and subscribed to Popbitch as well. Many nights of enjoyment with celebrity cock-ups await me.
On the other side of the divide there are David Mamet’s movie essays and Alex Petriditis’s pop writings. Uncut pop art critique for your pleasure.
Eduksi on kokemus Saab 2000 koneista, uimataito.
I just decided I’ll never ever fly them.
The greatest asset of the film is it’s sense of humour. Too often documentary makers forget the bright side of life and bruise the audience into submission with serious matters. Not so with Moore. My favourite is the metal detector commercial, where a teenage boy unloads all his weapons, starting with a miniscule pistol and ending with a rifle. Moore even manages to do irony at times, which is surprising given that his usual modus operandi is best described by the old maxim ”when you have a hammer, all problems look like nails”. At times Moore also manages to do tragedy well. The much-celebrated What A Wonderful World sequence is truly and well effective – no one in the whole theatre said anything during it.
Even though there are many things in favour of the film, it also has its liabilities and they are rather weighty. Documentaries don’t need to be all-encompassing objective examinations, but rather personal statements about the world. And the flick is rather long. It is clear that time permitting Moore could go on and on on the issue of guns and Americans and that’s part of the problem. There’s no real sense of closure, no real answers to the questions and that is quite problematic, as he spends most of the time asking everybody why Americans have so much gun crime. As my Finnish teacher used to say, don’t use a question as the subject unless you’re able to answer it.
What redeems much of the picture are Moore’s good intentions. Just showing what’s happening doesn’t suffice him; he actually wants to change the world. Admittedly it more often than not results in him harassing the small people, clerks and such, rather than the CEOs, but that is the nature of the PR game. No big bad boss is going to grant an interview to a loose cannon like Moore, especially when they know it ain’t good news he’s bringing. This is exemplified well by the time Moore tries to get an audience from Dick Clark, who couldn’t care less, and so closes the door on Moore and just drives away.
Rating: € € €
What happened when these two legends met?, read the blurp. One of the legends was David Beckham, a man of considerable influence over hair-styles, mobile phones and cola drinks.
The other legends was Nelson Mandela, a lawyer-cum-terrorist-cum-political prisoner-cum-icon-cum-president, one of the people who helped bring apartheid down, negotiated peace between the various ethnic groups in South Africa and once had a concert held for him.
Not to be outdone, the BBC news’ take on this was the two most famous people in the world meet
. Talk about journalistic integrity.
The best thing about it was Colin Farrell, who might be touted as the Irish Brad Pitt but don’t let that put you off, as the two are in different categories altogether when it comes to acting. The second best thing was the concept: A sniper is stalking Farrell and threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Suspension of disbelief was pretty good throughout the film, although there never was any suspicion of the outcome (come on, the leading actor is a good looking man who is confronted with his sins and Polanski wasn’t directing). Kiefer Sutherland on the other hand went for the normal nutjob tricks of the trade and you really really would’ve wanted to hear someone like Kevin Spacey* try it.
Summa summarum: Not good but not too bad either. Won’t bother you after the 90 minutes you’ve spent at the theatre.
Rating: € € €
Post Scriptum: Sonja was wondering whether or not the film will be called Puhelinkoppi in Finland.
*: Yeah, I originally wrote ”Kevin Smith”. Something must have short-circuited in my brain.
A horrible bill. A horrible, horrible bill is in there,he said, waving his hand towards the living room. A bit confused, I walked to the notice board and there it was. The electricity bill from NPower. I looked at the bottom line and gasped.
First, let me state for the record that the billing practices in this country are horrible. They come in at irregular intervals, don’t contain much information, and are – of course – too big. Which brings me back to that scandalous electricity bill. Are you ready? It was £344.78. Yes, you’re reading it right, three hundred forty-four pounds seventy eight pence. So okay, this is a five bedroom house, inhabited by eight people at times, so we do use a lot of power, but this is ridiculous. I mean, it’s nearly 500 euros. That’s not an electricity bill, that’s the bloody rent.
Obviously there’s gotta be an explanation. Maybe it’s been ages since the meter was last read and that’s why the bill is humongous. Well, maybe. Except that nowhere in the bill does it state over what period of time it has accumulated. Nowhere.
Besides, NPower doesn’t really have a good track record on the billing side. They’ve mixed up more invoices than anyone on this side of the Atlantic, if the media is to be believed. And now this: £344.78 just days before we are supposed to be leaving. Looks like I’ll be eating lentils this summer. Bloody hell,
as Owen might put it.
As Walter Laqueur’s erudite and chilling book makes clear, two things are strange about this state of affairs.
erudite (adj) : having or showing profound knowledge [syn: learned] – source: The Sunday Times Culture May 18 2003, p. 44