Burn After Reading

We finally got to go to the arts cinema, Cinema City, in Norwich the night before last and it was a pretty good experience.

 

We went to see Burn After Reading, the latest Coen Brothers film starring George Clooney and the enigmatic John Malkovich. I don’t think it was quite as good as No Country For Old Men and it certainly wasn’t quite as blood-thirsty but a good film all the same. There are some people that would claim that ‘American Intelligence’ is an oxymoron and having known someone that worked ‘in intelligence’ for the USAF I would subscribe to that view wholeheartedly. The film’s blurb claims that ‘Intelligence is relative’ and the film starts with John Malkovich’s character being ‘offered’ a demotion within the CIA. The demotion is brought about due to his alleged ‘drink problem’. There’s a great riposte from John’s character at this point when he says to his accuser, “you’re a Mormon. Against you everybody has a drink problem!”

In Cinema City you don’t have a drink problem as you can take your drink in with you.

The film revolves mainly around Clooney and Malkovich who could well be described as ‘rivals in love’, but as with all good Coen Brothers films there are several plots and sub-plots intertwined. It’s an amusing film with some well written comic moments, and of course there are the surprises, their stock in trade.

I’d recommend going to see it if it comes to a cinema near you. If you’ve never seen a Coen Brothers film it’s about time you did!

The world turned upside down

I remember a time when the Labour Party was very keen to nationalise the banks. Of course the right-wing press (most of it) would have branded it as left-lunacy at the time. Now that capitalism is in deep shit I suspect there would be few complaints if and when the banking system is nationalised. And I for one I hope it is.

I don’t care much for the markets or the capitalist system in general, so there’s a part of me that thinks the whole bloody lot should be left to the market and their own devices to sort themselves out, which in essence would mean capitalism imploding, but as per usual it would be the ‘little people’, us proletarians that would inevitably suffer.

Blickling Hall

The other day we went to Blickling Hall in Norfolk. I can't be arsed to write too much about it so I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Gordon isn't a moron

Seeing Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show this morning made me realise what an asset we have in our prime minister. I didn't much care necessarily for many of the policies of Tony Blair and I certainly didn't care for the spin or the celebrity persona, but I do thank him for delivering us from conservative immorality and government. I feel much happier that we have someone who's strong and unflappable like Gordon running the country now. He came across very well this morning as someone is determined to do the right thing and to continue with socially just policies. He’s not flash, he’s not smarmy, and he cares about this country and all the people that live here. I think this last week has proven that the current economic problems are not of his making, but with him at the helm I firmly believe that we are better placed to come out of this with less pain than if the Tories were in charge. I lived under too many Tory administrations where they just piss away the economy, give loads of dosh to their cronies, and make the working people that suffer. We don’t need the return of spin; we have a good prime minister, let’s not desert him now!

Badly mismanaged

Over the last week I’ve heard the phrase ‘badly mismanaged’ used twice on the BBC. Once on Radio 4 of all places, and once on the East Anglian news programme Look East. Standards continue to fall at Auntie!

If something is well managed then it could be said to have been ‘badly mismanaged’. I don’t think that this is what each reporter meant to say on either occasion. What they should have said was either ‘mismanaged’ or ‘badly managed’.

It is little wonder that western civilisation is going down the proverbial plug hole when standards at the Beeb are slipping like this!

Grounded

If The Lady hadn’t broken her ankle we would have been looking forward to flying off to Cyprus tonight. Well actually we wouldn’t. Guess who we’d booked to fly with?

Yes, you guessed it. XL.COM.

I feel for the poor sods that have had their holiday dreams shattered or are stranded in some foreign land. I also feel for the poor sods that will no doubt lose their jobs. You do kind of think that this will not be the last airline to go down due to the current economic climate.

Shit most certainly does happen.

Religious Truths

TAOISM
Shit happens.

BUDDHISM
If shit happens, it isn’t really shit.

HINDUISM
This shit has happened before.

ISLAM
If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.

CATHOLISISM
Shit happens because you deserve it.

PROTESTANTISM
Let shit happen to someone else.

JUDAISM
Why does shit always happen to us?