Thursday, August 31, 2006
Now, you know you want to do this "In which World War II army should you have fought?" test.
It was a close-run thing, but I'm relieved that generally the worst ones came last and the better ones were higher up. Britain'll do just fine, though I'd have preferred the Finns.
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It was a close-run thing, but I'm relieved that generally the worst ones came last and the better ones were higher up. Britain'll do just fine, though I'd have preferred the Finns.
 | You scored as British and the Commonwealth. Your army is the British and the Commonwealth (Canada, ANZAC, India). You want to serve under good generals and use good equipment in defense of the western form of life.
In which World War 2 army you should have fought? created with QuizFarm.com |
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Friday, August 18, 2006
Me and France, we're back on! The love has returned: I mean, have you been on one of their trains?
As a sign of my love I've bought a load of French school books and am now raising myself as a French child.
Soon my writing will look like this:
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As a sign of my love I've bought a load of French school books and am now raising myself as a French child.
Soon my writing will look like this:
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
So I'm back from France. I have many things to say, which means I probably won't get round to any of them. However, I would like to share a personal highlight: the rediscovery of the soft drink Gini.
Economists have a measure of inequality, the Gini coefficient. I'm stealing the name and using it for a new scale: the Jah Jah Dub Gini Scale of Tastiness. A Gini coefficient of 1 would indicate something rather disgusting; a 7, the highest mark, would be delicious - just like Gini.
It's just hit the back of my throat and the pleasure's already spreading.
Have I ever been happier?
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Economists have a measure of inequality, the Gini coefficient. I'm stealing the name and using it for a new scale: the Jah Jah Dub Gini Scale of Tastiness. A Gini coefficient of 1 would indicate something rather disgusting; a 7, the highest mark, would be delicious - just like Gini.
It's just hit the back of my throat and the pleasure's already spreading.
Have I ever been happier?
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006
One to leave you with: the best song I've heard all year is Wedding Bell Blues by the 5th Dimension. You probably already know it, but it was new to me. If you're fortunate enough yet to discover it, do whatever you need to get a copy. Man, it's brilliant.
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We're going on holiday tomorrow. We tried for a last minute package deal to Greece, the Canaries or Balearics, but there was nothing doing. So we're sloping off to Avignon like a couple of bourgeois dogs.
I haven't spent much time in France since I was a teenager; I'm not sure how to enjoy it as an adult. I'm looking forward to trying baffling unfamiliar soft drinks (quand c'est trop c'est TROPICO!), and picking up some bangers and bandes dessinées.
Posting, as they say, will be light.
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I haven't spent much time in France since I was a teenager; I'm not sure how to enjoy it as an adult. I'm looking forward to trying baffling unfamiliar soft drinks (quand c'est trop c'est TROPICO!), and picking up some bangers and bandes dessinées.
Posting, as they say, will be light.
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
Arthur Lee: dead at 61.
Sad.
I saw him a couple of years ago doing the whole of Forever Changes. It was brilliant.
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Sad.
I saw him a couple of years ago doing the whole of Forever Changes. It was brilliant.
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I saw Best in Show the other day. I'd seen it before, but ages ago - in fact, I'd forgotten the ending. I enjoyed it well enough. But I'm close to an opinion on it, and Christopher Guest films in general.
That opinion: they are terrible - unfunny, self-satisfied and narratively shabby. Guest is far too indulgent with his cast, each of whom is trying to outdo the rest with some whacky piece of character comedy, without any concern on how this will affect the balance of the film. The only audience they care about is each other - actors' workshops, and you're not welcome. They're fun to make, I'm sure, but not to watch - like Whose Line is it Anyway?
The actors are convinced that they are hilarious, and we believe them because it looks like they've got a pretty fun gang there, and it'd be nice to be a member. This stops now.
NB: Opinion currently in the research and development stage and should not be judged as the finished product.
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That opinion: they are terrible - unfunny, self-satisfied and narratively shabby. Guest is far too indulgent with his cast, each of whom is trying to outdo the rest with some whacky piece of character comedy, without any concern on how this will affect the balance of the film. The only audience they care about is each other - actors' workshops, and you're not welcome. They're fun to make, I'm sure, but not to watch - like Whose Line is it Anyway?
The actors are convinced that they are hilarious, and we believe them because it looks like they've got a pretty fun gang there, and it'd be nice to be a member. This stops now.
NB: Opinion currently in the research and development stage and should not be judged as the finished product.
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Just accidentally deleted a text someone sent me in the last two hours. Feel free to send again, kind correspondent.
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Thursday, August 03, 2006
Glancing down the comments for that sexy reading on the tube Guardian post, I'm slightly surprised to see a whole two girls (count 'em!) saying they'd root any man reading Hitchens. I suppose he has a certain toadish sexiness - compared to Chomsky, anyway.
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I plan on having several careers. I say "plan", I mean that I have a few images in my head that I'd like to get to at some point - I trust fate to take care of the details. I now have a new one. It's me and Captain Broadchurch sitting on the stairs of this building. We are a little older, a little wiser, a little more ironically amused with the world. We are lecturers at the university. I have a book beside me - a closer look reveals that it is Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Presumably I am a classics professor. That would be fine.
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
"Not only does sitting with your nose in a book positively influence others' opinion of you, it could actually - get this - lead to sex."
I can safely say that's it's never done anything for me.
(A tip for the girls, if you want to attract a chap's attention, you could do much worse than the SAS Survival Handbook.)
When I glanced over the comments for that article I saw a contribution from one of this blog's regular visitors. See if you can spot it, it's one of the first twenty or so. It's nothing bad or embarrassing, but as they're using a different "tag" I won't name them.
UPDATE: I wish it was this one, but it isn't.
"When I was a first year History student at University I had a see through carrier bag containing biographies on Stalin and Hitler, by Isaac Deutscher and Ian Kershaw. Both books had big front cover patriots of each dictator in full cult of personality pose mode. When two pretty German women saw me and my carrier bag they visibly got scared, pointing at me as if I was the offspring of both Hitler and Stalin. Books about dictators won't help you pull on the tube."
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I can safely say that's it's never done anything for me.
(A tip for the girls, if you want to attract a chap's attention, you could do much worse than the SAS Survival Handbook.)
When I glanced over the comments for that article I saw a contribution from one of this blog's regular visitors. See if you can spot it, it's one of the first twenty or so. It's nothing bad or embarrassing, but as they're using a different "tag" I won't name them.
UPDATE: I wish it was this one, but it isn't.
"When I was a first year History student at University I had a see through carrier bag containing biographies on Stalin and Hitler, by Isaac Deutscher and Ian Kershaw. Both books had big front cover patriots of each dictator in full cult of personality pose mode. When two pretty German women saw me and my carrier bag they visibly got scared, pointing at me as if I was the offspring of both Hitler and Stalin. Books about dictators won't help you pull on the tube."
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