Friday 18 February 2011

Pleasant Sounds And Pretty Pictures

The third thing i want to write about today is a more light hearted thing, something of little overall importance but much personal interest.

The prospects for Music in 2011 look very good. The new White Lies album is brilliant, capturing the epic quality of the first album with if anything a greater control and a higher frequency of strong tunes. 'Bigger Than Us' is a great single, a powerful chorus supplemented by a melodic hook which sticks in your brain in a way which is surprisingly enjoyable. On first listen the Bright Eyes album is every bit as good as the previous ones, though i need to give it a couple more listens before i can really judge it. The Boxer Rebellion's new album is a definite grower and i'm beginning to really love that album. The new Strokes album sounds promising, at least based upon the new single, 'Under the Cover of Darkness'. I've got a definite soft spot for The Strokes, ever since i first realised just how damn good their first album 'Is This It' was. Elbow's new album sounds amazing, "Lippy Kids" and "Neat Little Rows" are both brilliant tracks and if 'The Seldom Seen Kid' is anything to go by, this album will be awesome. My friend Kara posted the video of the new single by Radiohead, 'Lotus Flower' , on my facebook page, it's the first song from the new album which in true Radiohead style has crept up on everyone and is being released for download this weekend. Frank Turner has also confirmed he'll be releasing a new album in the summer. All in all a very promising start to 2011 music wise. I'm a happy guy in that particular respect.

Similarly Film in 2011 has some serious potential. I'm currently in full on geeky excitement mode over two particular films. First up, released on March 23rd is "Battle Los Angeles", a film i've wrote about previously. An alien invasion film told from the perspective of one isolated Marine squad in LA trying desperately to hold back the tide of a technically superior alien force. The most efficient way to describe quite why i am so excited about this film is to use the director Jonathan Liebesman's own words from an interview in the March issue of Empire, "Black Hawk Down with aliens". If it does justice to that claim it could be an incredible film. The other film i'm very excited about is "Suckerpunch", due for release on April 1st. Made by Zach Snyder, the man who brought the world 300. It promises to be epic, utterly stupid and stunningly shot, everything i like from a big budget action film. I love the fact that all the lead characters are female, giving it a slightly different dimension to so many other action films out there. I love that the plot revolves around one of those girl's imagination, a girl who, unfairly, has been placed in a mental institution. It all looks so very promising as something dramatic, exciting and pleasantly different.

There are many things wrong in the world in the early stages of 2011, several of which i have written about or will write about in the future, but it would appear that the escapism of film and music will be in fine form at least.

A Society That Is Neither Big Or Clever

The third thing, also important, though put into perspective by the revolutions going on elsewhere, is David Cameron's proposed "Big Society". This is the Conservative policy that has in many ways become the flagship policy of the coalition government, or at the least the Tory half. It centres around the idea of councils, and volunteer groups taking up some of the work load from central government, including the running of a whole range of services within communities. It centres around the classic Conservative aim of reducing the power and role of national government and reducing the involvement of the government in every day life. Now anyone who knows me, and probably anyone who only knows me through what i've wrote on this blog, will be aware that i'm a LONG way from a Tory and in many ways despise Cameron, Osbourne and all the other Tory MPs. However at an ideological level i am not entirely against this particular idea. The idea of the concept of community being strengthened, the idea of people doing more volunteer work, of helping each other, of leaving local issues to be run by people who understand those very same issues. And on a completely partisan level, the less direct power and influence David Cameron has on my life, undoubtedly the better.

The major, defining and unforgivable flaw with Cameron's entire philosophy is that he seems to believe that this can be achieved while savagely cutting the funding of the very councils and organisations he hopes will start doing his job for him. I'm not overwhelmed with enthusiasm about Ed Miliband but i loved his question to Cameron during February 9th's PMQ's (a remark brought to my attention by Alastair Campbell) of, and this is a rough quote, "How does Cameron expect people to volunteer at the local library if it's being shut down?". It perfectly summed up the aforementioned giant flaw in the concept of "The Big Society".

The simple reality of the situation is that more funding rather than less is required to set up and organise the situation in which Cameron's envisaged "Big Society" could operate. Without a doubt eventually the government's role could be massively reduced, the work left to willing volunteers, councils in majority control of their own problems, but to reach that point, investment, not cuts, would be needed. Council's require money to set up the necessary facilities, to regulate and monitor the volunteer organisations so that people don't exploit the vacuum left by central government retreating, to provide the volunteers with the equipment and opportunities to make a difference. As a concept "The Big Society" is not without it's good points, as a practical plan to be implemented now in the manner Cameron suggests it is idiotic. The plan is so poorly formed and ill thought through that it is quite worrying it comes from our nation's Prime Minister.

I hope the set backs his plans have suffered recently, especially Liverpool City Council pulling out of a proposed test run due to similar concerns to the ones i have raised, will make the Tory's re-evaluate and either abandon it for now, or at least come back with a much more solid and fully formed plan.

"The Big Society" is not without redemption as an idea, but i fear it is in entirely the wrong hands.

The Pursuit of Democracy in the Middle East

I've decided to write each of these things as separate blog posts so that they stand in their own right and don't detract from each other.

This is what, to my eyes at least is the most important thing happening in the world right now. The Middle East Protests. Since December 17th when Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old street vendor, set himself on fire in Tunisia, protests have developed in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Iran, rumours of protests in Jordan and Morocco. Reports have come out today of a man in Senegal setting himself on fire in what has to be assumed to be a deliberate reference to Bouazizi's deliberate immolation. In all these countries people are marching, and in many fighting and dying in pursuit of a concept we in the west proudly boast about yet far too often take for granted, Democracy. Such a basic premise, the idea that everyone's voices should be heard within a nation, that people's rights should be respected, that governments should serve, rather than exploit the people of the nation. Horrific scenes are unfolding day by day (if anyone doubts just how horrific they can watch this video from Bahrain, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fwnUQcKXmMM but it is very graphic so consider yourself warned), the worst of which seems to be in Bahrain and Libya, where there are reports of government officials explaining that if people engage in the protests they are "committing suicide".

One of the uncomfortable truths for the 'west' is that a number of these governments that people are attempting to overthrow, are ones which have been supported financially, and with military supplies, by ourselves, especially the United States and the UK; Egypt and the Bahrain are the primary examples of this. I've been trying to remain up to date with the news from these states (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/18/middle-east-protests-live-updates) has been particularly useful in this regard. I am under no illusions about the likelihood that in all these cases, or even any, the people will get the government their revolutionary spirit merits. History has taught us often enough that revolutions often only provoke cycles of violence that only come to an end when someone equally as dictatorial as the person kicked out in the first place. However i hope (and if i was religious i'd consider this something well worth a whole heap of prayers) that at least some of those brave people find a form of democracy that makes all their efforts worthwhile.

I can't imagine the courage it takes to go out onto the streets and protest in states like the ones mentioned above. So many brave men and women are putting their freedom and their lives at risk, simply in pursuit of the freedoms we hold dear. I hope it doesn't get any worse, but it seems almost inevitable that it will for the time being.

I have to hope that at some point in the future this unrest will die down because the majority, but preferably all, of the governments which have ruled that region with violence, corruption and nepotism have been replaced with something closer to the democracy we hold dear. It may be a naive hope, but it would seem cruel to hope for anything less.

The "Spin Doctor" Comes To Town

I'm planning a few posts for today, got a bunch of stuff i want to put down in blog form.

The first thing i want to write about is the visit of Alastair Campbell to De Montfort University. He was attending a Q&A session organised by my universities Politics society. After a few pre-set questions it was opened up to a relative free for all and it made for a pretty entertaining use of an evening. Campbell was every bit the polished performer you would expect, coming across with a combative charm and an admirable ability to get his audience on side.

Now how much of what he says can be trusted is a subject that has been debated plenty and i kept that in mind while listening to him, but in some ways that didn't detract from the experience. Partly because a degree of skepticism is a good thing when listening/reading to any politician or media outlet, partly because i went there as much to see a master of PR at work as to learn any great political or social lessons.

Like him or loathe him he is an expert in those kind of situations, coming across as open, opinionated, passionate and when he needs to be charming. He played it fairly safe on political issues; a few digs at Cameron, Clegg and Thatcher were never likely to go down badly with an audience predominantly made up of university students and lecturers, but he did impress me with how open he was when talking about his struggles in the past with alcohol abuse, depression and his time writing porn under a pseudonym.

Another reason for my interest in what he had to say is that he is a man who has worked extensively on both sides of the politics/media divide and as a Journalism and Politics student it would have been a huge waste to pass up on the opportunity.

This is a man who was involved to a large degree in many of the major political events of my lifetime so it would be remiss to not talk a little about the political issues he covered/was questioned on. Unsurprisingly i found myself agreeing with him quite regularly; he made some good points about the coalition and criticised elements of Conservative policy which i already knew i disagreed with.

Sit me in a room with a Labour supporter who spends a lot of his time attacking the Tory's and inevitably i will find plenty to agree with them on, it's hardly an achievement by him that i applauded his criticism of Cameron's poorly thought out concept of 'The Big Society' (something i'll cover in a bit more detail shortly). I do feel solid claims of what Labour would be doing instead were conspicuously absent, though another example of the open nature of his replies was a moment where he pointed out to someone attacking Thatcherism for de-regulating the banks, that Labour hadn't done anything to reverse that process. Also unsurprisingly he made some regret laden remarks about the fact that the Iraq dossier led to such a breakdown in the nation's trust of politicians, while defending the actual decision to go to war, just as he did at the Chilcot Enquiry. He was particularly engaging when talking about his memories of the Northern Ireland peace process and his pride in being involved with that was clear to see.

Overall i found myself questioning whether the fact that he is such a skilled PR man, such a professional performer, such an experienced political animal, makes him a better or worse politician? Sure he is seen by many, at times including me, as one of the prime examples of how little you can trust any politician, but somewhat sadly it can definitely be argued that politics today is as much about how you deliver your message as what the message actually is and if you believe that to be the case, Alastair Campbell has to be considered to be one of the better politicians out there.

All in all, an entertaining and very interesting evening, now i just sit back and wait for his next argument with Sky News' Adam Boulton, the first being a definite highlight of the 2010 election for me. If i'm honest, i suspect Alastair is looking forward to it to.


Monday 14 February 2011

A Day Set Aside For Awkward Romance

Today (at least when i started writing this), February 14th 2011, is Valentines Day, obviously. For better or worse, for romantic and commercialised reasons, for all the sweet moments and all the artificially tacky ones, the day is inescapably wrapped up in thoughts of love and relationships.

Now anyone who knows me at all well, knows two things about me. Firstly, that I have been a little unlucky when it comes to girls. Secondly, I have not dealt with that lack of success all that well. It's most likely a self-perpetuating thing, but it has often struck me as cruelly ironic that the very things that make me crave a relationship and so hyper aware of my singledom, are also the things that make me less appealing to girls. Seems a little mean really.

Because of this, February 14th isn't my favourite day of the year. I'm far too prone to over zealous analysis of my own life. I do it at the best of times, but Valentines Day, and the week leading up to it, are far from the best of times for me.

Yes it is horribly commercialised, with so many companies unashamedly attempting to make financial gains from people's awkward but well meant attempts at showing another person how much they mean.

Yes it is a damn shame that so many people use Valentines Day as an opportunity to excuse 364 days of being a less than fantastic partner. I whole heartedly agree with the commonly stated argument that you shouldn't need a specific day or a financially driven marketing campaign to encourage you to show affection to someone you care about.

Yes it puts an obscene amount of pressure on people to shell out money and make big declarations when it undoubtedly would be preferable that the progress of a relationship didn't come down to a date on a calendar.

Despite all that I don't dislike Valentines Day itself, i definitely don't begrudge any of the couples out there their happiness, not even for a moment. I hate the power the day has over me. I hate that i find the whole duration of Valentines so fucking hard. I would love it if I was just a little bit stronger and a little bit more reserved. I wish i'd had healthier distractions this weekend, but a combination of people going home, the majority of my friends being in long term relationships and the fact that there are a few too many reminders of my failed attempts to find romance among my friendship circle both at home and at uni has meant that I have been alone with my frustratingly melodramatic thoughts more than is necessarily advisable.

I'm doing my best to be optimistic (not something that always comes that naturally to me) about the future and i really hope that somewhere in the years ahead will be a Valentines Day i can enjoy in totally cheesy excess. For now i guess i just have to soldier on and i wholeheartedly wish everybody who has spent today with the person they like, or spent the day simply liking someone, every happiness in the world. Just because i'm not hand in hand with the love of my life tonight doesn't mean that i'm going to let myself become a bitter old man (no matter how tempting that sounds) and start being grumpy about people liking each other, regardless of how they choose to express that affection.

I started this blog so i could write honest, open snippets of my internal monologue and because of that initial intent, i don't apologise if this post has come across as cheesy, naive or melodramatic. This is a pretty honest representation of the stuff that's been going through my head over the last week, just more coherent and with marginally better grammar.

However i reckon i'll finish this blog with some slightly more light hearted elements.

First up, my top 5 fictional girls. These are girls in films/TV/books who for various reasons i'm pretty sure i'd fall for given half a chance if i met them in real life (The order is pretty flexible tbh)
1. Emma (From David Nicholls' novel "One Day")
2. Sam (From Garden State (2004), played by Natalie Portman)
3. Wichita (From Zombieland (2009) played by Emma Stone)
4. Victoria (From How I Met Your Mother, series 1, played by Ashley Williams)
5. Charlotte 'Chuck' Charles (From Pushing Daisies, played by Anna Friel)

Secondly, this is perhaps one of the most heart warming videos i've ever watched, makes me smile every time and i don't give a shit how cheesy that makes me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Finally i stumbled across this montage video via the director Edgar Wright's twitter and at one of the points today where i was at the height of direction-less frustration and bitterness it cheered me up a bit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JdZcy59BYo

I hope today was a good day.

Saturday 12 February 2011

Things that have intrigued me this week

I'm going to cover a few different topics in this blog, i had several things i wanted to write about but none of them particularly in enough depth to justify an individual post.

First up - EGYPT

Yesterday saw Hosni Mubarak step down after 30 years of dictatorial rule as Egypt's president. It was the outcome that so many Egyptians had been bravely pursuing over the last few weeks. In a movement that mirrored in so many ways the revolution in Tunisia that preceded it, a huge proportion of the population rose up against a regime which had become synonymous with corruption, unemployment, brutality, repression and nepotism. The revolution was organised to a large degree on the internet, through facebook and twitter and has been a wonderfully powerful example of the innate power and potential within any populace. I'll leave the description of the actual day to a journalism much more capable of explaining this momentous day, Robert Fisk, a reporter for the Independent who lives in the Middle East (in Lebanon) and knows an awful lot more about the situation than i do - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/robert-fisk-a-tyrants-exit-a-nations-joy-2212487.html . I really hope the Egyptian people get the government their revolutionary efforts have deserved. I'm trying to ignore my natural cynicism about revolutions, hoping that the lessons of history prove irrelevant and that the removal of Mubarak doesn't simply lead to another dictator or a permanent military leadership. For now though i'm just happy that Mubarak is gone, that the passion, and in a tragic number of cases, lives of the Egyptians that took part in this revolution has not been in vain and that it is yet another example of people refusing to settle for the government they have.

Secondly - The Fighter

Saw this film on Wednesday and i have to say i was VERY impressed. I'm not the biggest fan of sports films in general, and find boxing films even less appealing normally as i've never been able to muster any passion for that particular sport. I have a lot of respect for it, it's incredibly tactical, it requires a level of physical fitness few sports demand and it has the potential to be incredibly dramatic. Saying all that though, i've never really connected with it. I've watched several boxing matches and though as i said i respect the endeavour, i don't really enjoy it.

The Fighter however is an excellent sports movie and a superb boxing movie. For once the challenge facing the 'hero' (Micky) isn't his own demons, but the demon's of the people around him, especially his mother and his former boxer brother (Dicky). The family dynamics were portrayed brilliantly, the dilemma of having to balance your own interests and your family's hopes perfectly displayed. It also taps into that staple of American cinema, the fear of being trapped into a particular future. As fears go it's up there with the fear of terrorists and the fear of a liberal social agenda for many Americans.

The script is good, the shooting is excellent (mixing standard cinematic techniques with documentary film making and elements of sports camera work) but it is the central performances that make this film superb. Though the entire cast is great, the film relies on 4 performances in particular to achieve the quality this film offers.

Bale (Dicky) will get many of the headlines and the awards for his portrayal of a man whose potential was destroyed by addiction and weak will power. From the moment he first appears on screen, shockingly thin and bursting with nervous energy, it is obvious that this is a long way away from the Batman performances that offer very little for him to work with. He is brilliant throughout, capturing a whole rang of conflicting emotions and motivations with all the subtlety of a truly great actor, which perhaps he is, time will tell.

Equally important are the performances of Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. Adams plays Micky's romantic interest and is a wonderfully atypical romantic lead. She's powerful, spirited and gets some of the best lines in the entire film. The scenes involving her and Micky's objectionable sisters (there's a lot of them) are some of the funniest, filled with tension and brilliant put downs. Leo is superb as Micky's mother, playing a deliberately dislikeable role excellently. She could in many ways be considered to be the villain of the piece (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler of any value) yet the performance has enough complexity that i never dismissed her as without redemption despite her manipulative role throughout.

It may lack the drama of the aforementioned three, but Wahlberg's performance as Micky, the boxer at the centre of this tale, is superb. He ties the whole plot together, offering a stable yet intriguing centre to the chaotic relationships around him. The film wouldn't work without that performance, it would feel like a collection of caricatures, yet it will not gain any awards most likely and will get little critical recognition. It is like the classic comedy scenario, the funny man wouldn't be anywhere near as amusing without the straight man to play off, in the same way none of the other performances would reach the heights they do without Wahlberg's influence. As with any good sports movie, you are rooting for him throughout, but there is an impressive depth to his character that i feel set this apart from the majority of sports movies.

Thirdly - Music

This bit is just a selection of recommendations. A collection of bands and artists that i consider worth a listen. There's an old favourite who i always try to champion, Frank Hamilton, who plays superb acoustic folk music with lyrics that capture a very English sense of romance. There's Hannah Trigwell, an acoustic singer from Leeds with huge potential who i hope gets the recognition her talent deserves. The new White Lies album is excellent, capturing the epic quality and catchy hooks that the first album delivered while moving on enough to be praise worthy in it's own respect. I've really been enjoying the new Boxer Rebellion album as well, subtle and in places atmospheric, yet with an extremely enjoyable eye for a tune. The last one i'm going to mention in this post is the Cee Lo Green album, that man has the voice of a god and an ability to create a song that you don't even mind getting stuck in your head.

Finally - Football

I'm starting to get properly nervous about the Forest v QPR match. Any game away at the league leaders is a big one, but especially as all the teams around us managed to win today it puts more pressure on us. If i'm being honest i'd take a defeat tomorrow if we could win the 3 after as i feel they're going to be more important in the grand scheme of things. I don't really mind whether we win the league, so long as we go up automatically. As with any Forest fan i really don't want to go through the play offs, they are a simply evil creation. I'm going to the home match against Preston on the 22nd and can't wait, i've well and truly caught the football bug again in the last few months (see an earlier post if you want to read more about my susceptibility to that particular illness).

I watched the Manchester derby today and though it didn't entirely live up to the hype, as games between the big teams in the Premiership go it was pretty entertaining. As much as i'd like to believe otherwise for entertainments sake, i can't see anyone catching Man U now, they're winning regardless of whether they play well and that, as anyone, especially pundits, will tell you repeatedly, is the mark of champions. I'd love it if Arsenal could catch them, i like Wenger and it'd just make a nice change from either Man U or Chelsea winning the league but i can't really see it. At the other end of the league, despite their inspirational comeback i can't see West Ham staying up this year, which is a shame as i have a definite soft spot for them. My tips for the Premiership would be:
1. Manchester United
2. Arsenal
3. Manchester City
4. Chelsea
..................................................................................................
18. West Brom
19. Wigan
20. West Ham

I refuse to make any predictions about the Championship as it has a habit of making anyone who dares to do so look very foolish.

So yeah, this was a random collection of some of the things that have been interesting me this week, i hope it made some vague sense.

Sunday 6 February 2011

"Get Off The Nuclear Warhead"

10 points to anyone who knows instantly which film that quote is from.

I'd like to think i'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to films. I watch quite a lot of films every month. I reckon i watch a reasonably mixed variety of films, not limiting myself to any one particular genre. I've watched films from Soviet Russia, 1920's Germany, 30's USA, from Brazil, France, South Africa and Japan. I love watching films that challenge me, films which make me think, films which have depth and complexity.

I also adore films like "Armageddon". I love sitting down and watching an utterly stupid film. The medium of film is all about escapism and films like the previously mentioned asteroid apocalypse film, or Independence Day, or Dead Snow (Nazi zombies. Need i say more?) achieve that escapism with a gleeful abandon that i really think should be admired rather than treated with snobby disdain.

I doubt Michael Bay ever intended the Transformers films to go down in history as cinematic classics; judging from what he actually produced i'd guess he wanted to make an entertaining film that paid only the most passing lip service to reality and which would only have been inconvenienced by a complex plot.

Yet so many of the reviews decided to focus on tearing apart the plot or criticising the dialogue. The Transformers films are genre pieces and should be viewed within the context of their genre. As with shadows in film noir, last minute reunions in Rom-Coms, underdog victories in Sports movies or poorly thought through plans in horror movies, wooden dialogue and a plot that not just could, but probably should, have been created by a 6 year old are pre-requisites for a good summer blockbuster.

This weekend i watched "Armageddon", i also watched "Jackass 2" and only a few days earlier i sat down to "The Other Guys". Now none of these films will be remembered in 30 or 40 years time most likely, and rightly so. They're not classics, they don't do anything particularly new or clever, they don't challenge the audience beyond asking for a high threshold for the suspension of disbelief and they don't include Oscar-worthy performances. And they never attempted to.

These, and films like them, only ever aspired to entertain an audience for a couple of hours. They're films made purely as entertainment rather than artistic or intellectual masterpieces. For 2 and a bit hours they invite an audience to lose themselves in a world of unrealistic heroes and villains, excessive explosions and cheesy one-liners.

I for one am grateful for the service they provide. They may not be the important films of any particular year, but they have a crucial role to play and i feel much of the criticism is, if not unjustified, at least unnecessary or even irrelevant.

As much as i enjoyed "Shutter Island", "Fight Club", "Donnie Darko", as much as i suspect i will enjoy "The King's Speech", "The Fighter" and "Winter's Bone", the two films i'm currently most excited about are "Battle Los Angeles" (a film being billed as 'Black Hawk Down with aliens') and "Sucker Punch" (a film in which five girls battle WW1 Germans, robotic samurai and dragons).

Films which are entertaining and idiotic in equal amounts have a permanent place in my heart and i'm really hoping those next two live up to the sheer low brow excitement of some of their predecessors.