If you want to see an example of just how technologically advanced Fan art and fan  responses  to film is now becoming, check this out. While, as the article says, Star Trek Nemesis was a pretty dire film, this certainly demonstrates just how adept some fans are becoming at taking films, playing with them, and improving them.

The episode with Lee Ridley’s I’m Only In It For The Parking taught should have me never to say anything about books before I’ve actually read them, but I just came across this New Statesmen article about David CaMoron’s new attempt to justify himself in prose. How the man can possibly have the gall to  try  to absolve himself of responsibility for the catastrophic mess the country is currently in is beyond me. According to the article,  in the book the p’tahk tries to claim that a referendum on EU membership was inevitable, but we all know  he called it to resolve an internal Tory party  issue. The  country was perfectly happy in the European Union: any  moderately aware person  could tell leaving it  would be utterly stupid, and risking it in a vote would be complete folly. Yet CaMoron got cocky, chose to put his party interests before those of the country’s  and we all  have to pay the price. The imbecile can write all the books he likes, but it won’t change the fact that history will record CaMoran as the man  who totally screwed the country.

Far from the ongoing  and ever-deepening farce that is Brexit, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the biggest, most profound news story of the day. Scientists say they have found a potentially habitable planet orbiting a star 111 light years from earth. “Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star. The finding makes the world – which is called K2-18b – a plausible candidate in the search for alien life.” This is potentially mindblowing,  earth-shattering news if you ask me: the first tangible sign that we aren’t alone in the galaxy. It’s just a shame that we’re all currently so consumed with the political drama to  pay much attention to it.

I was making my way to Eltham in my powerchair this afternoon to sort out a few things at my bank. I go there quite regularly these days because I want to get to know the area. I was going along quite happily, when all of a sudden my right tyre blew. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my tyres recently, and it’s getting irritating. The bang it made made me jump out  of my skin.

I was about to turn back and get  the bus straight back to Charlton, when I remembered seeing a small mobility shop on Eltham high street – perhaps they could help me out. It was worth asking. I headed straight for it, and then something awesome happened. Within ten minutes, my chair had a new tyre and innertube fitted, and I didn’t even have to get out  of my chair. The staff were so supportive and professional I was very impressed. What  could have turned into  a bit of a catastrophe was sorted within half an hour. I was so impressed (and relieved) that I thought it definitely worth a blog entry.

Just as an update on an issue I touched upon two or three  weeks ago, I just came across this beeb piece on whether James Bond could ever be portrayed as a female. It’s quite a thorny, complex question: by all means, modernise the character. Bond  has always changed to reflect contemporary attitudes, with each of the franchise’s six  actors bringing something new  to the role. Yet they all play Bond within parameters defined by Ian Fleming; stray too far beyond  those parameters, and he stops being 007. The question therefore becomes exactly what those parameters are and whether they include 007’s gender.

I’m not sure what  to think. As much as I love  the franchise, I think perhaps it is time it was opened up to fresh ideas and new directions. All art should always be open to new ways of seeing things. Then again, I need hardly say that such experiments have in the past been known to backfire catastrophically. This is a very old, well loved  franchise which viewers expect certain things from. Change it too much and you start to loose their interest and affection. At the end of the day, the only way  to see whether a female Bond would work would be to get a woman to play 007.

The beeb screened a couple of documentaries on Monty Python last night, obviously  kicking off the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, but I have to say I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw.  For one,  both docs, aired back to back, covered pretty much the same ground: both were  histories of Python, largely telling the same stories, even using some of the same footage. The second felt like a repeat of the first, although  it mentioned the 2014 reunion.  Yet that was the briefest of references, so I was left feeling unsatisfied: that reunion –  python’s revival after so long – warrants a lot more exploration. This is a golden jubilee which obviously deserves to be marked; it’s just strange that the bbc would do so just by airing two very similar programmes in quick succession.

If Monty  Python has had an impact on British comedy as big as the one both programmes said it has had, I hope the beeb celebrates it’s fiftieth anniversary far more lavishly than this. I felt it was a lame start to a birthday party which should be far more stupendous – this is Monty  Python, after all. Even if another on-stage reunion is out of the question, I just feel something awesome needs to be done to mark Python’s legacy on  British and world comedy.

The2019 Charlton and Woolwich Free Film  Festival began yesterday and continues to the fourteenth. As I said a few days ago, I’m  a bit low that I didn’t contribute to it this year. They are a wonderful way to get film into the  community, and of showing films’s relationship to culture at  street level. I keep thinking about writing something lengthy  about such festivals  and other forms of filmic love like cinephilia and fandom, but predictably I haven’t got anything onto paper  yet. It seems to me that, in the way they are planned and organised by a local society – from the ground up, so to speak – means they have a unique link with a particular urban community,, and perhaps we can read something about it’s  character in the films it’s  members  chose to screen. I reckon that might be interesting to explore to some depth. What could opting to screen a certain film at a certain time tell us about the attitudes and outlook within a given  community? Could choosing  to screen, say, Wonderwoman (to pick a title from this year’s CWFFF list) imply certain opinions on gender, say? Or is it silly to try to psychoanalyse an entire metropolitan borough? Either way, if you’re in South-East London, please check out some of the screenings.

After watching the news today I decided to submit an  update to the dictionary, just to make things simpler.

Anyone who can’t see all the money the tories suddenly  magicked out of thin air yesterday  to plough in to services they have cut so savagely until now as the electioneering gimmick it is, is obviously deceiving theirselves. I’m sorry  to go on about politics, but things really are getting stupid. After years  off cuts to vital services so their rich friends can pay less tax, with their backs to the wall, the tories try to distract voters by reversing some of the cuts they theirselves forced upon us, and trying to frame it as some kind of heroic act. Mind you, it tells us the tories know they’re up shit creek, or else they wouldn’t be trying to distract us: they know they’re responsible for utterly fucking up the country and are now trying to appease us by undoing their own  cuts. Surely that  tells us all we need to know about this bunch of p’tahks.

As for the idea of an election this autumn, I’m in two minds about it: part of me would loved to see Boris and the tories kicked out of office, but at the same time, perhaps they should be left to clean up the hideous mess they theirselves caused. Of course it is obviously a trap, though, as it means Johnson could simply change the date of Brexit in order to leave with no deal. And here again we see the duplicitousness of the scumbags we are dealing with.

I just saw this on facebook and it made me crease up with laughter!

It may be satirical, but this short Newsthump article posted in reaction to the beeb airing the first part of The Rise of The Nazis is worth a chuckle. Apparently, the outists  are getting all huffy and puffy because  they think the beeb might be taking a dig at them through it. It was, of course, an  excellent,  fascinating documentary timed to mark the anniversary of the beginning of World War Two, but you have to wonder  there is some truth behind the satire: this won’t  be the first time echoes of 1930s germany have been noted; it is very possible to see the airing of these programmes as a type of  warning. I can’t help feel that this article is making a valid point, as well as taking the piss out of Outists at the same time. And if they really are getting angry at the beeb over these shows, surely that  tells you something about them  too.

Bojo is now threatening to call a general election if  Tory MPs rebel and vote to delay brexit. That tells us all we need to know about the p’tahk: he thinks the possibility off losing their seats is enough to make MPs side with  him, as though they are shallow enough to put their personal careers before the future of the country. I’d prefer to believe that not even a tory could be so wretched, and Brexit is shaping up to be so obviously catastrophic that  any intelligent person would vote to delay it. Then again, we live in fucked up times, and I suspect the possibility of losing their seats to the bunch of scumbags Farage calls his party might be enough to make the tory tosspots fall into line. No doubt that’s what johnson is gambling on.

Today will always  be remembered as the day the Pope got stuck in a lift.  ”’Pope Francis has apologised for arriving late for his weekly prayer in St Peter’s Square, saying he was stuck in a lift in the Vatican. The 82-year-old pontiff said he had been trapped in the lift for 25 minutes because of a power outage before he was freed by firefighters.” Mind you, it’s a bit odd that God would let such a silly thing happen to  the man supposed to be his earthly representative. Oh wait….what’s that you say?…Maybe  god doesn’t exist…..Now there’s a thought…

I sadly couldn’t make it up to the big Anti-Brexit protest today, as much as I’d have liked to go, but I think this just about sums up my feelings on the subject:

I now firmly believe that all these people (and more) ought to be rotting in jail cells for the damage they’ve done and suffering they’ve caused.

My old university friends Steve and Chris are down in London this weekend, so I went to join them for a few hours this afternoon. They’re staying at Steve’s brother’s place in New Cross, and are going to see some sort of Japanese wrestling up in Stratford tomorrow. It  was great to see them, meeting up at the Royal Standard before going to New Cross for a barbecue. We spent most of the time talking about film and television, although politics came up once or twice: they’re both as bemused and incredulous as I am about the current state of affairs. They both seem to have taken to fatherhood like ducks to water,  although they  have lost none of their weird, zany senses of humour. I didn’t feel like staying out too late, but part of me thinks I should have stayed longer to make the most of their visit. It was great to spend a few hours with them, and I hope it won’t be too long before we meet  up again.

I’m quite pleased with what happened last night. I had seen the film festival organisation committee were going to meet up in the White Swan, just around the corner. At first I didn’t think I would go, not having been to any of the other meetings this year, but then, after dinner, I decided to go just to say hi. They’re a great little group of cinephiles, and I wanted to apologise for not contributing to the festival this year.

Of course,  as soon as I got to the pub I was recognised and greeted warmly. I told them I felt guilty about not going to the meetings this year, showing them my blog entry, but the guys insisted that no apology was necessary. They understood that it had been a bit of a  rough year, and there would always be next year, they said. For now, though, the 2019 festival was all organised and good to go.

It was a social meeting – basically a chat in the pub – rather than a proper organisational meeting. I stayed  for an hour or so, then headed  home. The Charlton  And Woolwich Free Film Festival sounds like it will be superb  this year. I’m glad I went last night, though, as it feels like I’ve put something right.

Today is one of those days when I feel I ought to write something about the political situation on here, but I find myself lost for words.  Such days are becoming more and more frequent, although I think today takes the biscuit. How the hell can that lying little unelected p’tahk currently  squatting  in Downing Street  have the arrogance to suspend parliament and force through Brexit? Bojo knows that it’s increasingly likely that Parliament would vote to stop a no-deal brexit, so he is trying to bypass it. He is putting his own objectives above the views of our  democratically elected representatives, effectively acting like a dictator.  We should all be very, very angry about what has happened  today, and demanding that Johnson is removed  from power immediately. In all seriousness, we cannot let him get  away with this.

If you ask me, it’s looking increasingly likely that Donald Trump has some kind of learning difficulty.  The possibility was first mooted three years ago when he was up for election, and it’s still being discussed. As much as he tries to deny it, Trump has no idea what he’s doing. If he does turn out to have learning difficulties, though, surely that would raise another issue: what would  it look like if he was then booted  out of office because he had learning difficulties? How discriminatory and uninclusive would it look? As likely as I feel it is that Trump is somehow intellectually impaired, and as unfit as I feel he is to be the head of state of a superpower, if it turned out Trump does have learning difficulties, from a disability rights perspective, removing him from office because of  them would be very ugly indeed.

I can’t make my mind up what to write about on here today: cricket, pies or the heat. Yesterday’s Ashes test result was incredible and surely deserves to be noted on here (let’s hope we keep it up), but on the other hand I feel I ought to say something about the current pie-related political farce too. Either way,  though, it is far too hot  to write much. Perhaps we should all just go find a cricket match to watch in the sun, while enjoying some lovely pork pies while we can.

My australian friend Darryl’s PhD thesis is now online. He uploaded  it yesterday, and I had a quick read of the introduction. At first glance it is a very, very impressive piece of work about the issues surrounding forming romantic relationships when you use a communication aid. I must admit, though, it made me  feel like a bit of a failure. I know more and more doctors these days: more and more of my friends seem to be getting PhDs. Both  my brothers have  theirs, as do two of my cousins. It makes me feel like a failure for only having a master’s, and a small voice in my head tells me I should have tried harder to get a doctorate. But then, another voice replies that an MA is still quite an achievement, and nothing to be ashamed of. Not everyone has a master’s, after all. Oh well, I suppose there’s still time yet, so it just remains for me to congratulate Darryl heartily on his awesome achievement.

Although it barely scrapes the surface of the issue, I think this is a welcome article from the beeb.  Much  is currently being said about the modernisation of the James Bond  character  in the next  film: is he a misogynist, imperialist anachronism in need of modernisation to stay relevant, or might an attempt to update 007 to twenty-first century values change him too much? i’m not sure I can answer  that. Bond, as created by Ian Fleming, is a horrible, despicable person; the idea that there are people like him running around protecting the country, licensed to kill, should be deeply troubling. Yet we seem to find this  fantasy incredibly appealing, so much so that he fronts cinema’s most successful, longest-running franchise. The question is, is it now time to bring this character  into line with modern, democratic values, or would doing so remove that essence of the character – the idea of this suave, rebellious spy  who  does things  his own way – which makes him so enduring?

Staying on the subject of film, I certainly think this might be worth a watch. I’m as worried as anyone about the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the states. It seems to  be getting more extreme and reactionary. Hail Satan is apparently about one form of reaction to that trend: people have started calling their selves Satan worshipers, insisting they have as much right to  their freedom to worship as the christians. They have my full support, although it does remind me a bit of Pastafarianism,  and some have accused them of trolling. Either way, it’s certainly true that fundamentalist Christianity holds far too much power in America, both socially and politically, and it’s good to see that some Americans are as concerned about it as the rest of us.

I was in the cafe in the park earlier, where I saw a poster for this years Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t take part this year: I felt so low a few months ago, so distracted by what was happening in my personal life, that the idea of attending meetings and contributing ideas was allowed to slide. More to the point, I didn’t feel I had any good, solid ideas to contribute.

The poster in the cafe advertised the screenings of about eighteen films, mostly contemporary mainstream fare. While other members of the festival’s organisation team each propose a film to screen at a certain venue, in the past I have preferred to contribute my own thing to these events, such as giving a talk on cinephilia or screening one or two of my own short films. To be honest, though, this year I was out of ideas and would probably have just gone with the flow and advocated a mainstream film to screen.

The thing is, as important as screenings are, I feel that film festivals shouldn’t just be about watching films. Surely they can also be used to say something about films and our relationship with them. That’s why I haven’t just done a simple screening as my contribution in the past. It’s just sad that, this year, I didn’t have it in me to put in the usual effort. I must admit I feel quite guilty about it, but then, there’s always next year.

I keep thinking I should use more pictures on here, just to add a bit off colour and variety to my old page. Today I decided it was  time for a picture.  That’s all well and good, but the problem is finding a picture I fancy posting here. Oh well….expect more   imagery soon.

I just got back from a nice long walk to find this rather  squeal worthy news. The long-awaited title of the next Bond film has finally been revealed. Due out in April next year, it will be called No Time To Die. That sounds like a good, Bondish title if you ask me, although it remains to be seen whether the film is any good.  As this will be Daniel Craig’s  final film as 007 before the series is once again rebooted with another actor, there simply won’t be the same impetus to do a good job. That aside, though, it’s off to a good start judging by this little sequence.

If you ever begin to think  that filmic analysis and proper intellectual engagement with film has died in the Youtube era, have a gander at this. I know it’s a bit lazy of me just to flag these videos up without commenting much, but this analysis of  the political, historical and racial dimensions of Gone  With The Wind really is impressive. It’s a long two part film, but it’s worth sticking with, not least for the light it sheds on American culture, both historical and contemporary. Here, an extremely knowledgeable, articulate young american skilfully employs modern web video techniques to create  a very detailed exploration of one of cinema’s classic texts. The depth he goes into wouldn’t be out of place in a book by, say, Murray Pomerance or David Bordwell, yet in his video he uses  clips from all kinds of places, as you find fans doing. I know I’ve flagged videos like this up two or three times recently, but I’m becoming more and more impressed with the stuff I’m seeing on Youtube about film. Of course, by no means is it all up to this standard, yet there seems  to be an effort in the online cinephile community to make deeper, more intellectually engaging output,  and that this output  is becoming  just as  detailed and cerebrally rich as it’s offline equivalent.

I wish the beeb would publicise some of it’s BBC Three content a bit more sometimes. I just came across a reference to  a program called Living Differently  on facebook. The reference concerned a young woman with a rare physical disability, so I decided to follow it up.  I found an entire series of programs about people with  a wide range of disabilities which I never knew was there. Of course, having only just come across it, I have no idea whether they’re any good;  there’s a risk that this could just be some kind of modern freak show. Yet if, as I suspect (or hope), this program is an attempt to inform people about the many types of less well known disability which exist, and how the people with those conditions live their lives, then it is doing a considerable public service. I just wish television like this was  a bit better publicised.

As sometimes happens, I found  myself wistfully thinking about going for a walk up to Swettenham this afternoon. It’s a grey, miserable day here in  south London, and it has to be over decade now since I rode my chair up those lanes. I could either simply do it on Streetview, or I could watch  this lovely little  video. It was made by a guy two years ago, walking along paths and roads I once knew quite well with his wife and baby. The scenery jogged so many memories that I just had to flag it up on here. It takes me back to my early rebellious days riding around in my F55 – he even goes through a gate I remember having trouble opening. (Mind you, I think he mistakes the River Dane for a stream).  The countryside is quite beautiful up there, and the film  captures the architecture of the village’s medieval buildings so well that I thought it definitely deserves a blog entry. Or perhaps I’m just a Cheshire lad who has  been away  from the fields too long.

I think I’ve mentioned on here before how I wear a baseball cap with ”Fuck Brexit” and ”Bollox to Brexit” badges on it. Of course, I don’t wear it  everywhere (I take it off when I’m at school, for example), but I see it as an important way of showing my opposition to what is going on. These days, though, I find I’m getting complemented on it  more and more: I was in Ikea this afternoon, and one of the guys assisting me said he liked my hat; then, rolling home, a woman crossing the road beside me said ”I like your badges”. It also happened the other day when I was in the building society. It’s happening more and more. People seem to be becoming more vocal in their opposition to Brexit. Let’s hope that this is yet another sign that the tide has  turned, and the days of this embarrassing farce are numbered,

I would feel like a totally negligent blogger and Star Trek fan if  I didn’t direct everyone to this fascinating and impressive piece of  analysis by Steve Shives. In it, Shives looks at the economics of Star Trek. It’s a subject I’ve always  been quite curious about, but at least a couple of  professional economists have taken a look at it in some depth. I like how, in the future Trek Shows us, humanity is no longer driven by greed  or the desire for personal acquirement. That is probably one of the prime reasons why the  program is so popular. As Shives concludes too, that is a future surely worth striving for. Also, on a totally different note, this video is an excellent example of  how intellectual and analytical online fandom is becoming too.  Hats off to Steve Shives

Surely – surely – Brexit is as dead as a doorstep after this news. ”A US-UK trade deal will not get through Congress if Brexit undermines the Good Friday Agreement, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has said.” Not  only must  it be dead insofar as it endangrs our trade with america, but also in that it threatens the Irish peace process. In that one short sentence, then, we  can see how mind bogglingly stupid Brexit is. I know I should avoid posting these short little rants as blog entries, but this really is getting beyond a joke. If the UK is a serious country which values things like  peace processes and international accords properly, it would cut this Brexit crap instantly.

I laughed my head off when I saw this on my Ipad on the bus earlier,  but I think it’s very apt..

Lets hope it forshadows something yet to happen.

I’ve never known exactly what to think of the Green Party: broadly speaking, I agree with the green, environmentally friendly agenda, but the party goes slightly too far for me to vote for. However, today it and it’s leader, Caroline Lucas, has lost all semblance of credibility they  ever had. She is talking bollocks about a  government of national unity made  up entirely of women to get the country out of the Brexit crisis, because, she says, women argue less between themselves.

Truth be told, I’ve never heard anything so idiotic: of course women argue! They are probably worse than men! Women can be as bitchy as fuck, and as deceitful and self-serving as any man. It’s obvious that Lucas is just saying this foolishness because it would give her, as a woman, a chance to be in government. Yet any sensible person can see it’s patently absurd: for one, it would mean a government  which discriminates according to gender, something completely out of place in any modern democracy.

Lucas’ ravings will obviously just be ignored. Yet I just worry that such tripe dents the credibility of those fighting Brexit. We are supposed to be the sensible, intelligent ones; When people like lucas spout shit like this,  it makes remainers look as nutty as the outists. When the public hear people like Lucas frame the case for a second referendum in such stupid term, they may start to think Brexit was a good idea after all. I thus hope Lucas just shuts the smeg up, and, like Farage, keeps her idiotic ideas to herself.

Today is my brother Mark’s birthday. You know, I’m always in two minds about noting these family occasions on my blog: it is, after all, supposed to be for political and social commentary (well, that and Star Trek and James Bond stuff). Yet the fact is my family and friends mean a hell of a lot to me; I know that, without my parents, brothers and friends, I wouldn’t be in anywhere near the position I am today. Mark and Kat are currently in the south of France on holiday with the kids. I really hope they’re having a great time, and that Oliver and Elise are having fun with their Dad.  As for  myself, I’ll just wish my older bro a very happy birthday, and promise to call him soon.

The web is now predictably rife with rumours and speculation about the return of Captain Picard to star Trek. I don’t think I’m alone in being very, very excited about it. As I think I’ve said on here before, my eagerness to see this series probably outweighs my excitement to see James Bond appear at the Olympics or the return of Monty Python in 2014, truly phenomenal though both were. As you can imagine, every trekkie there ever was is hanging onto every morsel of information they can get. There is quite a lot out there, including the news that Riker himself, Johnathan Frakes, has already directed a couple of episodes.

Perhaps the news that interests me most, though, is the pretty firm info that the characters Hugh and Seven of Nine will both be reprising their roles for the programme. Both characters are Borg or former Borg, implying that the Borg feature heavily in this series. Picard has a complex dramatic relationship with the Borg, so can we infer from this casting that the new series will touch upon it? Given Johnathan Frakes’ involvement, could we see references to First Contact (1996), which Frakes directed, and even my beloved Ahab scene? That possibility really has me interested.

I could be completely wide of the mark here, of course, but having two recovered drones on the cast list would certainly imply that the theme of escaping from the collective will feature quite heavily in this series. If that is so, surely a reference to First Contact and the scene I spent so long writing about for my MA is pretty much inevitable. To see that, to see Picard mention that scene, even just once, would make my entire year.

If you want to read about just how inhumane things are becoming under the Tories, just read this. A man with CP in Liverpool now faces eviction and institutionalisation weeks after his brother, who had the same condition, died, and he can’t afford the rent. They obviously supported eachother, both emotionally and  economically, but now the local council want to turf the surviving brother out. What worries me  is as  Brexit ransacks the economy more and more, heartbreaking stories like this will inevitably become more and more commonplace.

Just for the record and in case anyone is wondering, I’m  not the powerchair user going the wrong way around a welsh roundabout in this video.  ”Stephen Quick captured footage on his dashcam of a woman in an electric wheelchair going the wrong way on a roundabout.”  Admittedly, I’ve done some stupid things in my chair over the years, but I do try to stay well clear of roundabouts, welsh  or otherwise.

I go up to stratford fairly often these days: I really like that area around the Olympic park and Westfield shopping centre – it all feels so sleek and new, yet so peaceful. What I find most striking, though, is the thought that, just a few years ago, that area was completely different. Until relatively recently, that area was a neglected urban scrubland. Thanks to winning the right to host the 2012 olympics, that area is now one of the coolest in London, with it’s sleek new buildings, pretty rivers and paths, and awesome sports and cultural events. It’s one of my favourite areas of London to go to, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

That makes me wonder, though: if Stratford can undergo such a transformation, could other areas of the capital benefit from similar treatment? One of the things I love most about London is that it’s constantly changing and being modernised: if the area around Stratford can be changed so drastically and amazingly, what can be done to other areas? For one, I think there are still areas of woolwich which could do with work. Of course, the old arsenal area is getting a makeover due to crossrail; but to the west of that, up by the Thames near the Thames Barrier, there are still shabby old warehouses left over from another era. Think what could be done to that area if it got he stratford treatment

My first automatic suggestion would be a cinema complex, but there are already two or three first rate cinemas in the area, so another might be overkill. Yet the fact remains that area by the thames has vast potential, especially given the opening of the Elisabeth Line next year means it’s foot traffic is about to shoot up.

Of course I’m sure that’s not the only area of London which could do with looking at, but going through it yesterday afternoon, I was really struck by the contrast in the feel of these areas. It’s as if different boroughs of London get vastly unequal treatment and pots of funding, which doesn’t seem completely fair. The question is, if stratford can get transformed due to the olympics, as north Greenwich was on the back of the millennium, what other mega-events are needed to spur the modernisation of other London’s neglected suburbs?

I swallow a vitamin pill every day with my breakfast. I probably get  all the vitamins I need with my food anyway, but I feel it’s best to just make sure. Vitamins also apparently help stave off absences. The only problem is, they also make my hair and nails grow more quickly. The nails aren’t a problem as they  get worn down as I type. The way the vitamins make my hair grow, though, irritates me as  it means I need mote frequent haircuts. I already need another trip to the barbers,  and it feels like I only had one a few   weeks  ago. And, as I think I’ve noted on here before, I loathe haircuts. Oh well, I suppose it’s the price you pay for staying healthy.

Does Romesh Ranganathan know what he’s doing? I watched his travel show again last night, and it seemed very strangely framed indeed. I usually love that kind of program, especially Michael Palin’s travelogues. No doubt Ranganathan wants to become the new Palin, but his show last night addressed the viewer in a way I must say I did not like at all. As I touched upon in this entry last year, I find his style odd, and even a little condescending. It was curious: the presenter seemed unable to decide what his role was exactly; one minute we were hearing a standard, professional voiceover of the style you find in any documentary of this kind. In the next shot, though, Ranganathan wasn’t talking directly into the camera as a presenter ordinarily would, but past it as if talking to the film crew, like he was pretending to be an ordinary guy off the street who somehow just happened to have a film crew following him about. The result is a program which seems to want to be two things at once: professional Palinesque travelogue and semi-amateur comedy travel show. Ranganathan attempts to come across as both a professional and a subversive, comedic amateur. It’s as if he can’t decide what his role is so he tries to be both. The result, though, is he just comes across as an irritating twat who should leave this work to people who understand the genre. As fascinating as the places we are shown are (last night’s program about Mongolia made my feet itch) I must say that I find the result of this wanting to be two things at once rather greedy and irritating. It is almost as if the guy doesn’t fully understand what he’s doing.