Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Virginia Wade heads a list of British Wimbledon champions erased from the record books
WHEN Andy Murray won Wimbledon some of you might have picked up the whiff of misogyny. Had he really ended the 77 year wait for a British Wimbledon Champion? Was he the first British champions since Fred Perry built a T-shirt brand in 1936? Whisper these names Virginia Wade (1977), Jamie Murray (mixed doubles, 2007) , Jonathan Marray (mens doubles, 2012), and Angela Mortimer and Anne Shilcock (ladies doubles, 1955).
But Murray’s a man. And it’s all about the men. Those headlines came thick and thicker:
Times: “Murray ends 77-year wait for British win.”
Telegraph: “After 77 years, the wait is over.”
Daily Mail: “The moment Andy ended Britain’s 77 year wait.”
Daily Mirror: “Andy ends our 77-year wait for Wimbledon glory”
Daily Star: “Murray ends 77 years of hurt”
And on it goes….
Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Michael Caine explains the power of blinking in this acting workshop
MICHAEL Caine shares with us the power of not blinking,. He keeps on going…. and going… in this acting workshop:
That’s an extract from a film acting class.. You can watch it all:
Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Celebrities, Film, Flashback | Comment
Oliver Sacks: old age is a time of freedom and exploration
A FRIEND in her mid-40s recently opined that she would like to live no longer than 74 years. After that, she said life is too miserable to endure.
Oliver Sacks says she’s mad:
Last night I dreamed about mercury — huge, shining globules of quicksilver rising and falling. Mercury is element number 80, and my dream is a reminder that on Tuesday, I will be 80 myself
Elements and birthdays have been intertwined for me since boyhood, when I learned about atomic numbers. At 11, I could say “I am sodium” (Element 11), and now at 79, I am gold. A few years ago, when I gave a friend a bottle of mercury for his 80th birthday — a special bottle that could neither leak nor break — he gave me a peculiar look, but later sent me a charming letter in which he joked, “I take a little every morning for my health.”…
…
I feel I should be trying to complete my life, whatever “completing a life” means. Some of my patients in their 90s or 100s say nunc dimittis — “I have had a full life, and now I am ready to go.” …
…
I can imagine, feel in my bones, what a century is like, which I could not do when I was 40 or 60. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together.
I am looking forward to being 80.
Oliver Sacks is a professor of neurology at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine and the author, most recently, of “Hallucinations.”
Posted: 9th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment
Helen Flaganan gave another woman a’long hard blink’
HELEN Flanagan, who played a gilded lollipop on Coronation Street and a whine gum on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! has become a mainstay of the red-top press. This is on account of her vapidity, cleavage, tweeted break-in at the home of her Manchester City player lover Scott Sinclair, her cleavage, her nose job, no longer dating Sinclair, having been a child actor we’ve watched grow up and her chest
More recently, Flanagan was in the news because Sinclair has been linked with a Sky TV presenter called Donatella Panayiotou. Being a shy type, Donatella has written a caring and classy open letter to Helen in Now magazine:
Like you, I’ve been cheated on by boyfriends before and felt sick when I found out. want to take this opportunity to explain that I’d never do that to another woman – I think it’s Scott who’s been naughty. I met Scott in Cannes while he was on a lads’ holiday on a yacht a few weeks ago. His mates accidentally sprayed champagne over my friends and came over to apologise.
We all got chatting. I didn’t recognise him at first. He seemed so shy and boyish, I thought he was in a boy band, not a Premier League footballer dating one of the sexiest women in the world.
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What are the worst things about modern life? This is the Top Ten
MODERN life, as Blur told us, is rubbish. There are so many things to get worked up about, especially those of us count ourselves in the number of bloated Western softarses.
So what’s so bad? Well, some people have decided to compile a top 50 list.
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92-year-old who married 22-year-old wants someone younger
TO Gubban, Iraq, where 92-year-old Iraqi farmer Musali Mohammed al-Mujamaie has married 22-year-old Muna Mukhlif al-Juburi.
The groom had been alone for three years ever since his wife of 58 years died.
The ceremony took place on the same day his two of his grandchildren also tied the knot.
Mr al-Mujamaie tells us:
“I am so happy to get married with my grandsons. I feel like a 20-year-old!”
But 22 will have to do….
Posted: 8th, July 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comments (2)
Surfer wiped out by whale at Bondi Beach recalls a ‘very beautiful experience’
SO. This question to you, Bishan Rajapakse, a 38-year-old doctor from Bondi, Sydney, how does it feel to be flicked off your surfboard by a mellow whale you and around 40 surfers were paddling around?
Dr Rajapakse’s epic anecdote features him losing lost consciousness for about 10 seconds, fellow surfers helping him to the beach, paramedics and a stay at St Vincent’s Hospital.
He says in all it was a “very beautiful experience I’ve seen a few whales in Bondi before, just walking, but this was the biggest I’ve seen and we were so close to it.”
The final word, however, is with Bondi lifeguard Adrian Kovacic, who learnt to speak English watching Cowboy and Indian films:
“The whale came heaps close to shore and then the surfers were heaps close to it.”
It’s tale of wooooe, dude:
Council wants to ban the ‘intimidating’ England flag – St George’s Cross makes you look white working class
WELWYN and Hatfield Community Housing Trust wants it tenants to stop flying flags. It says the flags could be “intimidating“. But they can be flown when they are in reactions to national celebrations or a sporting occasions.
Trust spokeswoman Simone Russell tells the WHTimes:
“There are properties that have big flags hanging outside and while we encourage it during events such as the Jubilee; at other times it sullies the look of the area. Flags can be intimidating and can create a negative feeling… tenants must not hang or fix signs, banners or flags on the outside of the property, outside windows or on balconies, without our permission”.
Fair enough about the no flag if they are against the rules. You can’t hang sheets and towels from balconies at many blocks of flats. But the part about flags being intimidating is odd. In case readers should be uncertain what kind of flag the council has in mind, the BBC illustrates its story with the Flag of St George stuck in a window. The WHTimes features a Union Jack and “local mother” Rachael Blythe, of Nursery Hill, Welwyn Garden City saying:
“I will not let my landlord strip my child and myself of our rights and personal choices. I will fight this to the bitter end. This is a disgrace. Flying my country’s flag is my human right and I will continue to fly it for the foreseeable future. When the Queen takes her Union Jack down I will take mine down.”
Are either flags intimidatory?
There is no doubting the power of a flag. When Belfast City Hall said it would not fly the Union Flag every day, protests followed. One woman sums up the Loyalist view: “Northern Ireland is British and we’ll fly our national flag.”
Nick Groom, author of Union Jack: The Story of the British Flag, notes how the Union Flag was once threatened by the fascists:
Making the flag inclusive again means everyone flying it — whether as bunting in their bedroom window or on a Sex Pistols T-shirt. This was the genius of Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony: the Queen and Johnny Rotten are both British — and are both profoundly associated with the Union Jack.
Just as Michael Gove is sending a copy of the King James Bible to every school, so each school should also have a Union Jack. It is a symbolic map of the British isles and also a symbolic history of the United Kingdom: it can be used to tell the story of our national history and identity, of the British empire and our multiracial society…
There are no laws or regulations that govern the flag, except at sea. This means that we can all fly it in our own way, even in our own colours. There’s no licensing and no copyright in the Union Jack design and unlike America’s Stars and Stripes, which has strict laws controlling proper use, you can really do what you want with the Union Jack.
Let’s keep it flying everywhere and bequeath to our children not only the sporting legacy of the Olympics but also the heritage of the nation in having pride in our national flag.
On the matter of the Olympics, the gaffe that meant images of North Korean athletes were slapped next to the South Korean flag was regrettable.
In the 1908 Games, also held in London, the flags of the United States and Sweden were not flown at the Opening Ceremony because – get this – no one could be bothered to find them. The Swedes took it in their stride but the Americans, without a hint of the Special Relationship to come, got a flounce on, refusing to dip their their flag towards the Royal Box during the parade
What about that Cross of Saint George? Last year we were told:
St George’s flag is a racist symbol says a quarter of the English
There had been a study in 2012:
The report blames the “extreme street hooligans of the English Defence League” for “toxifying” the St George’s Cross, although it says politicians should also take responsibility for failing to “speak up for the inclusive patriotism of the English majority”.
In 2010, the BBC asked:
Is waving the Cross of St George an act of patriotism, nationalism or racism? With England flying the flag as never before, the distinction appears to have caused some confusion…
The writer was clear:
The flag is a symbol of support for a team and love for a nation. If people choose to fly it or interpret it as a symbol of English superiority or aggression, that is not the flag’s fault. I shall continue to drape a large cross of St George upon my house.
Back to sport. In support of the 2006 World Cup, an estimated that 10.5million Cross of Saint George flags were sold. Was the flag a symbol of inclusion or division?
David Conn saw alienation:
Most black people interviewed said they felt alienated by the flag of St George and still associated it with the BNP. “It doesn’t really show unity, does it?” said one respondent, a woman aged 17. “It’s a bit white.”
“I don’t think many black people flew a flag,” Foster says. “Most of us still feel it is hostile and feel quite threatened by it.” She also noted “not too many” black or Asian faces at the big-screen gatherings – a feature of football crowds generally in England – but says that was partly because the drinking which goes with supporting England is “not black people’s culture”.
Duleep Alliraja had perspective:
Of course the flag still connotes white supremacy for an insignificant rump of no-mark Little Englanders. However, for most people the St George flag has lost its racial connotations. But that doesn’t mean that the champions of a new inclusive patriotism are correct, either. In truth, the flag has been largely emptied of any political content – much like public life itself. It is pretty much just a football flag, a signifier of support for the English football team and very little else. The flag is seldom displayed in any context other than a football tournament. Even on St George’s Day there is no popular enthusiasm for flying the flag.
Charlie Brooker wrote of class and genetic failings:
Nowadays, when you see an England flag on a car, sprawled across a T-shirt, or flapping from a novelty hat, you no longer assume the owner is a dot-brained xenophobe. Instead you assume he’s just an idiot. And you’re right. He is. It’s a great piece of visual shorthand. Imagine the outcry if government passed a law requiring the nation’s dimbos to wear dunce’s caps in public. No one would stand for it. There’d be acres of newsprint comparing Blair and co to the Nazis. We’d see rioting in the streets – badly organised rioting with a lot of mis-spelled placards, but rioting nonetheless.
Instead, every numbskull in the land is queuing up to voluntarily brand themselves. They even pay for the privilege! As brilliant ruses go, it’s the most brilliant, rusiest ruse you could wish for. I can’t wait for stage two, when they’re persuaded to neuter themselves with safety scissors.
The only problem I have with this berk-demarcation scheme is the design of the flag itself. Personally, I’d jettison the big red cross/white background malarky in favour of a black rectangle with the word CRETIN printed in the centre in stark bold text.
What does he mean? Is the flag a sign of your class – one that should be wiped out?
…in terms of flags residential as opposed to flags vehicular, the smaller and grottier the property, the more likely it is to sport a standard. My children have noticed this. They have also commented on how few of their friends at school fly flags on their cars. (It’s true, each morning at the gates, the same convoy of Range Rovers, Jeep Cherokees and massive great Mercs, all bare of patriotic regalia.) Thus has this World Cup introduced two youngsters to the paradox that the more your family has prospered in this country, the less likely you are to display any warmth towards it.
One well-heeled woman, trying and failing to square what to her was the contradiction of our being middle-class metropolitan types and yet simultaneously happy to wrap ourselves in the flag, asked my wife if our car was “an ironic statement”…
It’s peculiar, isn’t it, that in England, unlike any other country I know of, the gain of a little education, a little upward mobility, so often seems to entail the loss of the simple human desire to take pride in place? Peculiar, and sad. Going back to that young Bengali boy racer with his four flags: as he grows up and climbs up, slows down and settles down, I hope such a recoil from the straightforward love of country he feels now is one aspect of Englishness he fails to adopt.
Tony Parsons added in the Mirror:
Don’t kid yourself that the nation is united behind that red cross on a white background. In some quarters the flag is still seen as unforgivably naff – like keeping your coal in a bidet, or going to the corner shop in your curlers, or celebrating your love for your mum with a tattoo.
Some think the St George flag is the province of a certain section of society, like inflatable snowmen at Christmas…
The English are starting to wake up to the fact that the flag of St George is the one and only flag we have.
If we can’t find the passion in our hearts to fly this lovely flag – although dissenters say it looks like a stab wound – then what do we rally round?
You’re not a racist if your fly the England flag. You’re a chav. You’re the white working class. And that’s about as low as it gets…
Posted: 7th, July 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment (1)
News headline fail: Sky News says ‘Church of England Approves Sex Abuse’
THE perils of truncated headlines are evidence in this from Sky News:
“BREAKING NEWS – Church of England Approves Sex Abuse”
The actual story is:
Church Of England’s Apology Over Sex Abuse – Members of the General Synod unanimously back an apology for past child abuse after a series of cases involving senior clergy.
Yes, the Church approves the apology. Let’s hope that all clerics got the correct message…
Spotter: TimBran
Fartgate: the great ‘iconic’ wind-passing moments from the cultural archives
FART for art’s sake
As The Archers Fartgate rumbles on, we look back at those great ‘iconic’ wind-passing moments from the cultural archives.
Radio
When Jezza McCreary recently passed wind in Radio 4’s The Archers, he was not the first character to do so. (It was in the script, by the way – this was no accident.) But it was the first time a character had done it audibly – and actor Ryan Kelly was offered a selection of farts by the sound effects department before picking one that he decided was suitably “fruity” for a man who had been eating steak and potatoes and drinking beer.
Journalist
In 1973 Peregrine Worsthorne (pictured here with wife Lucinda Lambton) became the second person to say the word ‘fuck’ on British television. Years later, the former editor of the Sunday Telegraph would behave even more unpleasantly on a London Underground train. Sir Perry was annoyed by a passenger eating a burger – his ostensible reason being the odour, but this was no doubt exacerbated by a general disapproval of public eating and a specific disapproval of eating burgers anywhere. In revenge, Worsthorne stood near the man and farted into his face.
Stage
Le Pétomane (‘Fart maniac’) Joseph Pujol was a professional flatulist who rose to fame in the late nineteenth century, when he entertained the crowned heads of Europe with his bizarre stage act. Standout moments included sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms, playing tunes through a rubber tube stuck up his arse, and blowing out a candle from several metres away. Leonard Rossiter plays the great man here…
Silver Screen
Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles achieved legendary status in the Seventies for this spectacular ground-breaking scene.
But Mike Leigh’s 1976 film Nuts In May outdoes it for sordid verisimilitude (0.55.55).
TV Drama
Casual farting is as commonplace as casual violence in HBO’s landmark series The Sopranos. Usually the bowel action takes place in the offices at Satriale’s Pork Store. On this occasion, however, it occurs in more dramatic fashion after Tony tries an Indian.
Pop singer
Former teacher Robert ‘Doc’ Cox was a stalwart of the BBC’s terrible That’s Life! in the 1980s. Ivor Biggun is his musician persona, with a string of releases such as his 1978 hit The Winker’s Song (misprint). You can no doubt guess the subject of his follow-up misprint, I’ve Parted…
Footballer
During his reign at Liverpool, Gerard Houllier is said to have fined players for farting. Fortunately for Charlie Adams, he left Anfield long ago.
Miriam Margolyes
The national treasure famously farted live on Danny Baker’s radio show – famous because he has repeatedly reminded listeners ever since. But Miriam is far from shy about the topic, and can usually be relied upon to raise it at some point in any interview. In this example, Graham Norton, being a gentleman, saves her the trouble…
Comedy
Jaques Tati meets Le Pétomane in Vic and Bob’s flatulent homage, which ‘aired’ regularly in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. (And full marks for that title, by the way.)
Sex Symbols
Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears. Both notorious for it, by all accounts.
Candle in the Wind was of course written for Monroe, but had nothing to do with Le Pétomane’s party trick. And neither does this picture.
Snooker
The aptly named Judd Trump found himself temporarily distracted by a member of the audience during his World Championship semi-final against Ronnie O’Sullivan earlier this year.
Sitcom
Jim Royle’s outbursts are ten-a-penny, so here, for the sake of freshness, is Nana doing the honours.
Live TV
‘Air time’ is an occupational hazard for those who perform for hours. The fortunate ones get away with the occasional fart. Others are not so lucky, and find their full-blown incontinence immortalised on Youtube. We have no wish to draw attention to their embarrassment, so we will restrict ourselves to these minor faux pas by ladies who seems to have taken it in good heart.
Cartoon
Viz’s revolting Johnny Fartpants clearly wears the fetid trousers in this field, but let’s hear it for our own favourite – the legendary Farting Dogs…
Posted: 7th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comment (1)
In 1978 Sex Pistol John Lydon told the BBC he’d like to murder Jimmy Savile (audio)
IN October 1978, when Jimmy Savile was in his paedo pomp, seducing kids on the BBC with the vow that Jim’ll Fix It and spinning the discs on Radio 1, Johnny Rotten wanted to murder him. In this clip, John Lydon talks about killing the protected Savile.
The interview features on Public Image’s album Religion Attack. This part about Savile never did make the Beeb’s final cut for broadcast:
Posted: 7th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, TV & Radio | Comments (3)
Madeleine McCann: the Daily Express spins a single thread into suspects and arrests
MADELEINE MCCANN: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the missing child in the news:
The Daily Express leads with its customary picture of ‘Our Maddy’ and the headline: “Maddy Arrests Within Weeks.”
Also:
“Cameron backing new investigation”
Inside the paper, we learn:
Mr Cameron said the case of the then three-year-old who went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Algarve in May 2007 was one that continued to shock the nation.
What did he say of the Met’s investigation?
“It is welcome because they say that there is new evidence, new leads to follow, new things to be done. It was a case that did shock and still shocks the nation and if an answer can be found we should try and find it.”
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Posted: 6th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment
In 1935 Ernest Hemingway wrote this letter in praise of ‘the bottle’
IN 1935, Ernest Hemingway wrote to Ivan Kashkin, a Russian translator and critic,. The Post Post Script is memorable:
“P.P.S. Don’t you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you? Before an attack who can say anything that gives you the momentary well being that rum does? I would as soon not eat at night as not to have red wine and water. The only time it isn’t good for you is when you write or when you fight. Yuu have to do that cold. But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief. Let me know if my books make any money and will come to Moscow and we will find somebody that drinks and drink my royalties up to end the mechanical oppression.”
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Correction: Catholic priest was not beheaded in Syria – he was shot eight times
REGRET the error:
A Catholic priest was not among three men graphically filmed being beheaded in Syria last week a friar overseeing the Franciscans in the Middle East has told CNN.
Father Francois Mourad, a Syrian originally named as victim of a merciless mob, was instead shot eight times on June 23 when a group of rebels stormed his monastery …
Apologies to his nearest and dearest.
Madeleine McCann: 38 ‘suspects’, parents ruled out and new theories
MADELEINE McCANN: Anorak’s look at the missing child dubbed ‘Our Maddie’ in the news:
BBC: “Madeleine McCann: New leads spark Met formal inquiry”
Det Ch Insp Andy Redwood, who is heading what has been called Operation Grange, said: “The review has given us new thinking, new theories, new evidence and new witnesses.”
What new theories? That she wandered off? It’s taken as fact that she was abducted.
Sky News: “Madeleine McCann’s parents have welcomed the launch of a new UK police investigation into their daughter’s disappearance.”
A Met Police review has identified 38 “persons of interest” who detectives want to speak to in relation to the suspected abduction in 2007 – almost twice as many as previously thought.
Officers say they are moving from the case review to an “investigative stage of the inquiry” and now intend to pursue more information about those individuals – 12 of whom are UK nationals
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Posted: 5th, July 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comments (6)
James Bulger: John Venables is free again
HE’S coming out. One of James Bulger’s killers, Jon Venables, will be freed from prison. The parole board said the man who killed two-year-old James Bulger when he was 10 will be released from prison – he was put away for accessing child pornography on his computer. It also emerged that he had been arrested for drugs offences, had sex with a woman on a “parent” team looking after him and broke the teems of his parole by visting Merseyside.
James’s mother Denise Fergus tweeted:
“Venables is getting released. Just don’t believe what I’ve got to go through again.”
The Ministry of Justice spokesman says Venables can “be safely managed in the community”.
“Their life licence lasts for the rest of their lives, and they may be recalled to prison at any time for breaching their licence conditions. Additionally, they will be subject to strict controls and restrictions for as long as their risk requires them.”
A huge debate erupts.
Posted: 4th, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Reporter embarrasses videobombers on TV
WE’VE seen a number of news reporters snapping and shouting at videobombers (those people who wave and mug behind presenters and mouth ‘hello mum’), but what about those who want a bit of revenge?
Welcome to the world of Pat Tomasulo of WGN who decided to get his own back.
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Bulger Killer Jon Venables is back to put the Government on trial
JON Venables is back in the news. One of the two boys who murdered James Bulger, aged 2, is the subject of the Sun’s front-page story:
“Bulger killer’s secret release”
He’s out? The newspaper report begins:
“A feared plot to free James Bulger’s killer…”
So. Venables is not of prison. He’s inside. What’s the fear?
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Fist fight in church after family save pew seats
CHRUCH is not all about belting out the first lines to All Things Bright And Beautiful and trying to pray the kids into a Church school. It’s about fighting the good fight.
To Utah’s Meadows Ward, where at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a missionary farewell and a baby blessing. A family there to see the blessing were sat in a pew. The parents were reserving seats for other family members. That did not included Wayne Dodge, 51. He sat in one of the reserved seats. Things were said.
Dodge and a man in the family group took it outside.
Says Weber County Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Lowther:
“(Dodge) ended up throwing a couple of punches and striking this individual. He had some blood coming from his face, so he went inside the church to clean up. And when he exited the church, (Dodge) was in his car. I guess there was another confrontation.”
After which Dodge (and what price nominative determinism?) hit the man with his vehicle.
“Ultimately, the victim ended up on the hood of the car. [Dodge] exited the vehicle and some other people that attended the church service restrained him. And I don’t know how, but he ultimately ended up in the bishop’s office until law enforcement arrived.”
Dodge was arrested.
Egypt deposes the Muslim Brotherhood: the best Anti-Obama banners
LOOKS like the Arab Spring is over in Egypt. President Morsi has been toppled by the military. The Muslim Brotherhood must be a tad disappointed that a secular dictatorship is back in charge. Will they back any new Government? Or will they try to usurp it?
Morsi said “I am prepared to sacrifice my blood”. Things are messy.
The Big Pharaoh explains what is going on:
The failure of Westerners to understand why Egyptians revolted against an elected regime is stemming from the fact that they, the Westerners, are secured in their inclusive constitutions, bills of rights and rule of law. We have nothing of these. We only had one facet of democracy – election – which brought a cultic organization with a fascist twist that decided to cancel the other facets.
So. what about the Obama administration? It’s man has gone. Obama had been supporting Egyptian President Morsi. Obama’s Egypt Policy is confused. He missed the chance to make the USA the good guys. Now he scrambles for irrelevance, at best.
The Egyptians know who to trust. Get a load of the protest banners. No burning Obama effigies…yet:
An opponent of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi speaks on a mobile phone at a railway station decorated with a banner reading: Obama Stop supporting MB (Muslim Brotherhood) fascist regime in Cairo, Egypt
Egyptian protesters hold a banner in Tahrir Square during a demonstration against Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt’s Islamist president poured onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi’s Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Protesters hold a banner with Islamist President Mohammed Morsi’s photograph and Israel’s flag during a protest outside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 30, 2013.
Posted: 4th, July 2013 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comments (3)
Teacher Dale Irby wears same outfit to school for 40 years
DALE Irby is the gym teacher who found a look that worked and went with it. From his first yearbook photo in 1973 at Prestonwood Elementary school, Texas, to 2013, Mr Irby wore the same outfit.
To begin with it was an accident. In the 1970s, brown was pretty much the only colour a man was permitted to wear. In 1973, Mr Irby wore his ubiquitous brown tank top over a light brown shirt for the school photo. In 1974, he was still wearing it for the next snapshot.
His wife noticed. She dared him to wear the same outfit every year. For one thing it would funny. For another, it would keep his weight down.
It became a theme.
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Posted: 3rd, July 2013 | In: Fashion, Reviews | Comment (1)
Face of the day: Antonio Lopez Chaj
FACE of the day: Antonio Lopez Chaj, a 43-year-old house painter, appears with his attorneys at a news conference in Los Angeles Monday, July 1, 2013. Face of the day: Antonio Lopez Chaj His lawyers announced he has been awarded a $58 million by a jury in Torrance Superior Court.
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Posted: 3rd, July 2013 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
James Kingston’s Cambridge parkour tour underlines how hopelessly inadequate we all are
THERE’S no hiding from the fact that people who can do Parkour are really, really cool. It is dangerous, dynamic and makes us all look like wobbling, wheezing pedestrians in every single way.
God, how irritating these Parkour types are.
That said, when we’ve stopped being jealous, we can only admire these people and the things we do – especially James Kingston who stars in a frankly astounding video, designed to make all your genitals retract into your body with vertigo and fear.
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Banning EDL fans Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer also means the Boat Race streaker and honest Jews are refused entry to Britain
WHO gets into the UK? Pamela Geller (above) and Robert Spencer have been from entering Britain to speak at an EDL rally.
Home Secretary Theresa May has told Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, both of the anti-Islamic group Stop Islamization of America, that their presence in the UK would “not be conducive to the public good”.
Their names are added to the list of not wanted persion that includes anti-Islam polemicist Michael Savage and the faith healer Todd Bentley.
Oh, and the Australian Trenton Oldfield whop disrupted the Boat Race by jumping into the River Thames. He’s lived in the UK for ten years and never claimed a penny in benefits nor put a foot wrong. That “public good” is a woolly catch all.
But Geller and Spencer are nasties. Barthes notes:
Their allies include Babu Suseelan, a Hindu militant who claims that Muslims “breed like rats” but that Islam can be “wiped out”, and it was only bad publicly that prompted the two to cut links with John Joseph Jay, a man who openly called for violence against Muslims and others.
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Posted: 3rd, July 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
The 1982 Blade Runner convention reel
BLADE RUNNER is one of my all-time favourite films. The director’s cut is even better. Future Noir:
One of the Blade Runner Convention Reels featuring interviews with Ridley Scott, Syd Mead and Douglas Trumbull about making Blade Runner universe. This 16 mm featurette, made by M. K. Productions in 1982, is specifically designed to circulate through the country’s various horror, fantasy and science fiction conventions.
