If, like me, you fancy just getting away from it all; if the current political situation is getting too much, and is pushing you closer and closer to madness; if you just need a break in a charming city, or at least want to watch a John Cleese narrated video about one in a great piece of Python I hadn’t seen before, then I think I’ll just direct you here. I warn you, though: watch out for those fucking gondolas!

I came across something yesterday which really sparked my interest. I’m not that much of a Harry Potter fan, but I was intrigued to learn that a new film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, will soon be released. What interests me is the change in media: instead of writing a book first, JK Rowling is writing the script and it’s going straight to film. It strikes me that this changes the dynamic: potter is no longer a literary phenomenon, but a filmic one. It’s also pretty telling that these new films – there will be several – will be set in 1930s New York rather than somewhere around the contemporary uk; it’s as if rowling and Warner Brothers are trying to reorient the Potter franchise towards America. That’s why they’re going straight to film, as it’s much more amenable to americans. Rowling is obviously just going where the money is, and who can blame her? Yet one could also accuse her of selling out, deserting her origins as a novelist and letting her creation become the moneyspinner of a massive media corporation.

My opinion has done a 180 on Scottish independence. I used to oppose it for fear of nationalism and the meaningless re-erection of borders, but now the people of England have shown themselves to be so shortsighted, I can hardly blame the scots for wanting to stay part of the international community. In fact I fully support their ambition to stay part of the EU, and should they split from the UK to do so, I might seriously consider moving up there to join them.

You see, while I wrote here that, when you think about it, you don’t need to be in the EU to be part of the world, I still think that on another, more profound level, we have indeed cut ourselves off. We have told not just europe but the world that we don’t want to participate any more; that we think ourselves above everyone else’s rules. Culturally, this will have a huge impact: we’re already seeing it in the rise in xenophobia. Thus while nothing changed in june, everything did. We ceased to be the outward looking nation I love and became something wholly darker.

I adored this land for it’s culture: the land of Monty Python, London 2012, James Bond and a thousand other awesome things. But after june, this somehow stopped being that land any more. I keep trying to tell myself that we have only left a union of countries, so nothing has changed – such awesome things still exist – yet it doesn’t seem to work. This place does not feel free, open and liberal any more. Scotland seems to want to remain that kind of place, though, which is why I thoroughly support it’s ambition for independence.

Am I being manipulated? I frequently come on here and vent my anger at the outists, spewing all sorts of bile at what they and their lies have done. Usually it happens after I’ve seen or read something on the news, detailing something else going wrong. Yet it occurs to me that I may have fallen into a trap, and I’m supposed to get angry. It is possible that this is all part of a giant plan; that, with the help of the media, public opinion will eventually turn and we will rejoin the EU. Those who hold to such theories say that the union is behind all this, and it is a nefarious, all-powerful organisation intent on dominating our lives. To be honest, one has to concede that that is a possibility. Yet if that is so, it is just as possible that those who promote such theories also have ulterior motives: they could be the ones trying to manipulate us. They create elaborate conspiracy theories which might even sound left-wing; yet by convincing people the EU is evil, we walk straight into their rightwing trap, allowing our rights to be stripped from us etc. For instance I heard one internet radio presenter try to tell people not to worry, the European convention on human rights would be replaced with a British bill of rights, but surely he knew that one of the main reasons outists were campaigning to leave the e u was because the ehcr got in their way. I suppose it boils down to who you believe: someone is trying to manipulate us, but whom?

I fully and passionately support Gina Miller in her high court challenge to brexit. While I’ve been trying to come to terms with it, I don’t think I’ll ever fully support it. For me, being part of the EU is about the bigger picture: it’s about humanity outgrowing tribe and state to work together. The union might have had it’s faults, but it ensured us our rights – rights which are now at risk. Two months ago, the people of this country were lied to: they were fed bullshit by xenophobes, intent on turning this country into their capitalist playground. They wanted to be free to persecute us, unfettered by the safeguards of the EU. Given how quickly their lies began to unravel, it is clear the referendum result is not an accurate reflection of how people of this country feel. Moreover they are using the result as an excuse to turn this country into a place where racism and xenophobia are acceptable. Thus for the outists to try to invoke democracy, for them to cling to their slim, ill-gotten majority, for them to try to impose their views upon us while claiming it represents the will of the people, is an insult to democracy. While I don’t want to deprive anyone who voted leave of their right to hold a view, as far as I’m concerned the referendum result is void – it cannot stand, and I support any and all challenges to it.

This is quite a moment. Lyn and I just got back from a long lunch in the park to find a package waiting for me: my new keyboard. As I noted here, a while ago, I noticed my expanded keyboard starting to play up. Keys were either repeating, or not registering at all. At worst, whole sentences would be deleted before I could stop it. To begin with I thought it was something to do with the settings on my Mac, but I couldn’t find anything to put it right; the best I could do was get it to register one key press at a time, so I could stop it printing strings of letters. I then began to suspect it was the keyboard. After all, it is thirteen years old. I got it when I was at Macc college, and it has served me well: I wrote my A-level essays on it, then my Bachelor’s work, and then the 40,000 words of my master’s thesis. On top of that, the vast majority of my blog entries have been written on it. Thus, while most of the paint on the letters – especially the vowels – has been worn away, and one of the space keys is completely missing, I’ve grown rather attached to this old keyboard. Given the amount of stuff I’ve written on it, part of me is sad to see it go. It seemed only apt to compose this last blog entry on it, before swapping them over.

I think I better flag this Guardian article up today. I thoroughly agree with it, as alarming and disheartening as it is. It’s about how england is being remodelled an recast; being changed from an outward-looking, tolerant nation to one of xenophobia and paranoia. Post-Brexit, the country seems to have taken a nasty turn towards somewhere truly dark. I don’t like where we are now headed. Bigotry is becoming acceptable: it is lauded on the front pages of rags like the Express and Mail, and championed by scum like farage. The problem is, I don’t see how we can pull ourselves back from this point. How can we reclaim the green, pleasant, tolerant and outward-looking land this country should be?

How can the United States of America be even contemplating electing Donald Trump? I just watched the highlights of last night’s debate with growing astonishment: it was like I was watching a sketch from a satirical comedy show. Trump’s behaviour, for one, was horrifying. There are certain amounts of decorum and respect one expects from candidates – modes of behaviour which have become the norm. Yet Trump seems to think that such norms don’t apply to him, and that he is above them. Hence he interrupts, talks over people, and makes comments to the audience. I think that is his strategy, though: he seems to want to cast himself as an outsider; a person from outside the normal political sphere, for whom the normal rules do not apply. Thus he makes asides about everyone ganging up on him, as if to present himself as a victim, standing up to the elites.

Scratch the surface of this trickery, though, and it’s clear he’s woefully ill-equipped to lead the most powerful country on earth. Imagine that, if he was elected, Trump was to use the same tactics he used last night at the united nations or some other international forum? Talking over everyone, sneering, acting as though the rules did not apply to him. There would be total outrage. Last night, while Mrs. Clinton was trying to give more substantial answers to her questions, trump was talking over her, sneering, making comments, and generally behaving like a schoolboy. If he behaved like that when negotiating with international competitors, say Russia or China, and I despair to think what the consequences would be. Surely, then, America can’t be realistically contemplating electing this joke.

Huge congratulations are in order today for my old university friend Marcie and husband Mike, who are today celebrating the birth of their son Barnaby yesterday. I know they have been trying for a baby for some time, and it hasn’t always been easy, so I’m now thrilled for my dear old friend. I know she will make an amazing mother. I wish her, Mike and Barnaby all the happiness in the world; I can’t wait to see them.

Lyn and I had another great night last night. We were at the o2 to Jean-Michel Jarre, godfather of electronic music. When I saw the gig being advertised there a few months ago, I thought it would be great for Lyn to go see him – he is straight up her street musically. As for myself, I’ve always been a bit of a fan.

We got there in plenty of time, meeting Paul en route. At first I thought there would be empty seats, but these soon filled. The warm-up dj didn’t really impress me, but from the moment Jarre himself began to play, I was captivated. What took my breath away the most, though, were the visuals projected to the back of the stage: they were extraordinary, swirling images like nothing I had ever seen, timed to perfection with the music. And when the lasers began, it felt like all my Star Trek related dreams had come true.

In short, it was a great night, and well worth going. To hear Oxygene performed at the O2 (his line, not mine, but one I just had to steal) was awesome. The godfather of electronica puts on a great gig, and I’d thoroughly recommend going if you can.

I just watched the bbc lunchtime news. They ran a story on one ukip moron hitting another. Well, what do you expect from that bunch of thugs? They might laughably protest that such behaviour does not define their ‘party’ (they insist on calling it a party, although doing so mocks real political parties), but it tells us all we need to know about this group of half-brained xenophobes. Their lies brought us out of the eu, they got what they wanted. We should now leave these insults to humanity to their own devices; why should we give a fuck when one of those idiots hits another? That’s what thugs do – that’s all they know. It’s hardly national news.

When I was filling out the online forms to buy my greenday tickets yesterday, I noticed the site would suddenly go back to the beginning every few seconds for some reason. I couldn’t work out why, but it got very frustrating. I was being as quick as possible, yet I thought the site was timing out on me. This situation repeated several times, and I was getting quite angry. And then I realised: it was going back every time I hit the backspace/delete button. Oh the irony! After I was so pleased with myself for getting back the ability to use backspace to go back on chrome, the very issue google were trying to resolve by disabling that function cropped up.

Now I understand why they changed it. Oh well – I got there in the end, after I realised what was going on. I just won’t be so quick to dismiss such ‘fixes’ in the future.

It would seem that my pessimism in this entry was premature. Last night, just before heading to bed, I noticed the quite awesome news that Greenday would be playing hyde park next year. The venue might not be quite as convenient for us as the o2, but I thought it would be cool to try to get tickets. With any luck, it wouldn’t sell out quite so fast. Having learned the lesson from last time, I’m happy to say I just ordered two tickets for the wheelchair viewing platform from the comfort of my computer desk. The website didn’t give me an option of buying a third, for Lyn, but I’m hoping that can soon be rectified.

So there we have it: I’m going to see greenday! I have a feeling it is going to rule. I daresay some of this is in order!

Things are getting quite obscene politically. Although I’m trying to slowly come to terms with brexit, trying to justify why so many sensible people voted out (TTIP etc), part of me is still very angry about it. I still feel we have cut ourselves off from the world, and played straight into the hands of xenophobes like farage with their ‘us and them’ mentality. On top of that, we have a government intent on bringing back grammar schools, in so doing reinforcing class devision. The tories, for all their bullshit about ‘working for everyone’, won’t be happy until we’re back to a 1950’s status quo, the rich lording it over the poor. They seem to be becoming more aristocratic, more arrogant, and more unfair.

And where is labour in all this? Where are those with a sense of justice and fairness, who’ll stand up for those who cannot defend theirselves? Nowhere! Nowhere to be seen, squabbling amongst theirselves. It is heartbreaking, soul-destroying stuff. People like me are watching our country go to the dogs, descend into nationalistic irrelevance, and there’s nothing we can do about it but despair.

It has been a long, awesome afternoon working on the Londoners films – the second in a row. I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to have all of a sudden found myself working on this project: not only does it utilise the very art form I wanted to get into – film – it also focuses on the city, which also captivates me. Today we began the process of editing down the footage we shot last week in the park. It was pretty slow going, yet I found it exhilarating. At last I’m working on films; at last I’m part of a team, helping to create something. I’m using the art form I love to help create snap-shots of the metropolis, filmic fragments of London which, once online, will combine to form a portrait of the maelstrom. I love this project because it harks directly back to Walter Benjamin, echoing my love and fascination for the city. The brevity of each film reflects the fragmentation and alienating effect of city life benjamin wrote about; yet these films as a whole form a picture of life in london. As I wrote yesterday, it is thus precisely what I was looking for: a chance to get out and film, using the art form I love and have written so much about to contribute something quite fascinating. The good news today is, there’s a chance I will be able to continue working on it after the current films have been completed. I cannot believe my luck.

It has been quite an awesome afternoon.Although it began rather late – half two – I feel as though I’ve done a full day’s work. Today, filming began on my individual ‘Londoners‘ film, and I feel as though we got through quite a bit of it. I was rather ambitious when I wrote the script, it seems: it didn’t occur to me that setting scenes in several places would mean us trying to dart from Charlton to the cinema to Greenwich park in the space of a single afternoon, or how hard that would be.

Nonetheless, we had a good go at it, and only have the scene in Greenwich Park to finish off next week. Then it’s on to the editing, and before you know it I’ll have a cool little film to show everyone. My only concern is ‘then what?’ This project was precisely what I was looking for: a chance to make films. There must be some way for me to continue doing so after this project is over.

I think I’ll jus flag this blog entry by my mate Chris up because I think it is pretty sound. In it, Dr. Whitaker writes of his experience as a disabled man, and how he has been able to use that experience to contribute to various boards and schemes. For example, he writes of how, at university, he was able to point out to people how things could be improved in terms of accessibility. I’ve had similar experiences myself. Yet, as chris says, one must always be conscious not to allow ones self to become a token; a stand-in for all disabled people. ”To take my own impairment of cerebral palsy as an example, there are different types of CP and the degree to which it can impact on the lives of people who have it can vary enormously. This means that I always try to speak with care when talking about impairment, as I can only speak with authenticity about my own lived experience, and there will be many other different takes on things out there.” Thus he raises a very interesting point: to what extent can a disabled person speak on behalf of other disabled people. In the case of cerebral palsy, no two people are alike: CP effects everyone slightly differently. Our needs will therefore differ, calling into question the extent one can generalise. To take that a step further, though, it has implications for the old ”us and them” debate: given ‘we’ all have different needs and requirements, and one disabled person cannot necessarily speak on behalf of another, can we really be seen as a coherent group? If not, where does that leave disability politics and culture?

It gives me the greatest pleasure to announce that I am now an uncle for the second time. Elise Marguerite was born yesterday afternoon to my brother Mark and sister-in-law Kat. both mother and daughter are fine. It’s wonderful news: Oliver has a little sister, the family is really beginning to grow. I can’t wait to go and meet my new niece.

I still keep fretting over weather the UK can still call itself an outward looking nation. Since we voted to leave the EU, part of me feels that we’ve turned our backs on the world, and shut ourselves off in favour of becoming an inward-looking little island. But we haven’t; we haven’t left the world. In June we voted to leave an organisation, one which has many flaws. Yesterday I flew into a rage when I heard a tory on the tv tell us ”we are still an outward-looking nation”, but I shouldn’t have: he was right. You don’t need to belong to the EU to be part of the world, and leaving it does not mean we are any more xenophobic, although I’m very worried about the recent rise in xenophobia. Thus I can still love my country; I can still feel proud of it’s culture and history, and what happened here in 2012. My error was to mentally collate internationalism – working together across borders – with belonging to this largely corrupt, flawed union. To quit an institution because it is flawed and to no longer participate in the world are two separate things. Being in the EU did not allow us to participate in the world. At least now we’re out of it we can start to work towards something better.

It often astonishes me how quickly the people who know how can get such videos made, but this one is definitely worth linking to. It’s a remix of the recent Clinton/trump debate. I didn’t see the debate save for highlights, but from what I hear, clinton won hands down. I think this video captures the absurdity of it well: the consumate, professional politician verses the absolute joke whom we can still barely believe is the actual republican candidate. I suppose videos like this are a natural reaction to such insane situations – what else can one do?

I’d just like to flag this article up. It’s by a black lady in america explaining to a white friend about ”white privilege”. She elaborates on how small, little racist incidents frequently occur but often go unrecorded and unnoticed. Barely conscious things many white people don’t realise happen, such as people not really believing that she went to Princeton – the actual Princeton – because she is black. She states that people are more prone to incredulity than when a white person answers in the same way. It’s a good point well made: white people don’t realise how extensive and deeply rooted white privilege is. To that I would add that it’s a similar story in the disability sphere. Able bodied people don’t seem to notice how privileged they are; a step is just a step to them, but to us it could be a massive hurdle. The world is geared towards able bodied people just as, as the writer of the article explains, it’s geared towards people with white skin (and for that matter males, straight people, gender conforming people etc etc). We should speak more about such biasses, and be more open about how the world is ‘built’ to accommodate certain types of people to the disadvantage of others. That is not to cast blame on certain people, but simply to expose and thus start to remedy the innate biasses of the world around us.

Had I not just had so much coffee, I’d probably be feeling rather tired by now. It has been an awesome afternoon. We continued our group Londoners film, and I got to do some filming, a camera mounted on my wheelchair. I think I got some really cool shots, but, perhaps more importantly, I felt part of a team. We have a really good Londoners film in the making, and what makes me even more proud is that it all came about after I suggested the venue of the cafe in the park. This afternoon, I had one of those – surprisingly frequent – moments when I stood proverbially back and thought ”Wow, how did my life get this awesome?”

This all came about after L suggested I go get help to stop drinking so much, as I’m afraid to say it was getting a bit out of hand. I went to Lifeline in Woolwich, who put me on Chocolate films’ 1000 Londoners project. Incredibly, it was precisely what I wanted and needed: a chance to make films and the help to do so. It is staggering how such things happen sometimes. Everything just falls in place, as if by magic. Not only have I now stopped drinking completely, but I’m involved in the making of not one but two films – the very artform and industry which, after finishing my masters, I wanted so badly to get into. Both films are well on their way to completion, and I can’t wait to put links to them on here.

Last night was rather cool. Every month or so, the Thai Restaurant around the corner runs a sort of music night. We hadn’t been in ages, but the other day Lyn and I were out and about and spotted it advertised, so we decided to go check it out. I was only expecting a little affair, but last night we got there to find the small place packed with people. The music was already in full swing.

We settled down at the front to listen. After a while, though, someone recognised Lyn, remembering her from last time, and asked her to play some tracks.

Unfortunately they didn’t have the right jack for her Ipad, so they made do with a microphone. Lyn put two of her songs on, playing along to them with thumbjam.

It was a great evening; it feels like ages since I had one like it. It felt very social; as if everyone knew everyone else. At one point, I helped out a singer by calling up the lyrics to ‘Summertime’ on my ipad. There was a friendly, warm atmosphere in the room, and I’m now really looking forward to the next one.

I’m suddenly quite cheerful. A few weeks ago, I noticed I could no longer press backspace to go to the previous webpage in google chrome. It was only a small change, but I had been using that little shortcut since Steve B showed it to me way back at Macc College, fifteen years ago. Like using arrow keys to scroll firefox, it was useful; it meant I didn’t have to bugger about with the mouse to go back. Their claim was that they had received complaints from people inadvertently going to previous web pages when writing text, but that whiffed of bullshit to me. I’d just reconciled myself to the fact of yet one more pointless change made by a huge company which makes my life just a tad harder, but, moaning to Lyn about it just now, she told me to look it up. I tapped it into google, and sure enough they had received so many complaints about it that they were forced to make a remedy. It is available here. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one fond of such little tricks.

Just as a bit of an admin-type entry, yesterday I added captions to the video of my recent cinephilia talk. You couldn’t really hear what I was saying on my Ipad. It took me a while to add them, but you can check out the subtitled video here. I just think it’s a great thing for me to have online: not only can I use it to show people what I’m capable of, but also where I’m coming from in terms of film theory.

Well, thank zark for that. I just learned from the bbc website that Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labour leadership election. I never really warmed to owen Smith; somehow he seemed like an imposter or intruder. I suppose I’m a firm Corbynite, and see him as the only genuine politician around. Maybe leftists like me will finally get a bit of a break now – we finally have a slither of good news. To be honest british politics is currently quite gruelling, to the extent that I try to avoid it altogether. Between the referrendum and tory pieces of shit trying to turn the clock back to the nineteenth century, it’s becoming too depressing to bear. Yet I know that to try to bury my head in the sand is folly: I cannot ignore it, as fucked up as it is and as angry as it makes me. At least we still have Corbyn, a genuine, honest guy who really cares about the underprivileged, fighting our corner.

I just watched last night’s program about brexit. I didn’t watch it last night because I knew it would make me angry, and perhaps it was a mistake for me to watch it this morning. I need to apologise to lyn for just making s much noise. I am still quite furious about what happened two months ago. I’d been trying to calm myself down over it, telling myself the EU was not perfect, and that perhaps this could lead to something better. But the voting public fell for the lies of the outists, and despite their fatuous pretences that the UK is still an open and outlooking nation, we have cut ourselves off from the world. To see p’tahks like Boris johnson claim to love europe and that we are still an outlooking nation really, really pisses me off.

The EU wasn’t perfect, but I believed in it. It wasn’t just a capitalist ploy about trade, nor an insidious plan to eventually bring about a monochromatic world state. I believed it was about working together; cherishing difference but cooperating for the good of all. To leave it was a step backwards; the reerection of borders devisions between humanity – which we had began to outgrow. As I wrote here, if it was about to embrace TTIP, as I have heard some otherwise left-leaning outists claim, why were neoliberals so eager to leave? The european union was about forging a set of common rules we could all live by; in leaving it, we have informed the world we no longer want to participate in the international community. And to cap it all, now we have wastes of oxygen like Farage beaming at us, eager to completely screw people who can’t defend themselves without hinderance from EU legislation.

The EU was something noble; it was about humanity seeing past the concept of state to cooperate. Regardless of the crap Boris et al spew, we have stepped back from that; stepped back from the world. That is not the type of country I want to live in, and the fact xenophobes like farage achieved it through lying to the nation makes me very angry indeed.

I came across this yesterday, and it struck my interest. Russian people apparently dislike the Daniel Craig incarnation of James Bond, saying it is ”too serious”; they prefer a more jovial, comic 007. That to me is rather telling: Russia at the moment seems to be trying to reinstate itself as a world power. It still seems to think of itself as a superstate, on a par, culturally and politically, with the US. They see the Bond franchise as threatening: the world’s greatest spy is not Russian, but British. It does not fit their narrative – bond is not one of them. To have him go back to being more of a comic figure, as he perhaps was in the Moore era, would be more in keeping with their worldview: they are the powerful, serious ones; other states are just pissing about. Thus you can read quite a bit into a statement like that: they want Bond defused, portrayed again as a joke. They want to be the ones to have the world’s greatest spy on their side, and they want everyone to laugh at other countries.

I think I’ll flag this up today. ”Proposals to introduce new legislation which would pardon gay men convicted under historical gross indecency laws will be brought forward ‘in due course’, the government has said.” While I am a bit wary of such retrospective legislating – imposing contemporary values on the past – I think this is somewhat overdue. The work done by Alan Turing and his colleagues not only helped end world war two, it also arguably lead to computers. I do not think history should record Turing as a criminal just because he loved men rather than women. He was a great man, a genius who deserves our gratitude and respect. Thus this is one of the (very) few things this government has done which has my support.

Even though the gig I was so looking forward to yesterday never materialised, it still turned out to be a pretty awesome day. I have recently been working with Chocolate Films on their 1000 Londoners project, meeting every Tuesday in Woolwich for group work. While my individual film is going ok, the group was still looking for a subject for our film. Lyn had been mooted, but since there is already a film about her – this one – I thought it best to go somewhere else. Then yesterday, I had a great idea: the guys at the cafe in the park would make ripe material for a Londoners film. I suggested it, showing the guys my blog entry about it, and we all got on the bus for charlton. Mind you, to be completely honest, my suggestion could have been influenced by the fact I was dying for a cappuccino, but hey ho.

I’m pleased to report that, once we got there, my colleagues were as enthusiastic as I was. It is a charming, very photogenic little place, full of books and the smell of coffee. They have Japanese staff there though, so there is also a strong oriental influence. The guys were very taken by it, and the owner of the cafe, Mike – an excellent chap who I have become quite fond of in recent weeks – seemed quite enthusiastic. Hopefully we’ll soon get rolling on a script and/or shooting plan; I really think this will make a great addition to the Londoners project.

I rolled home feeling quite pleased with myself. Between this, my own Londoners film and the film festival, it is turning out to be a very productive few weeks. I feel busier than ever. On the cards today, for example, is getting the dialogue I’ve written onto my Ipad. But I now know I can sort it; things like this make me more and more confident in what I’m capable of. And this is only the start: hopefully making these films will lead on to even bigger things. I can’t wait.

Lyn told me yesterday that we are going to see Kate Tempest tonight. Never having heard of her, apart from my usual optimism at the prospect of a night out, I didn’t know what to think. But having just seen this example of her linguistic incredibleness, I’m now suddenly really looking forward to it.

I can’t give the Rio Paralympic closing ceremony a proper review as I can’t find it online yet, but I just watched the highlights. Of course, for me personally, nothing could compare to actually being there four years ago, so perhaps I’m biassed. However, from what I just watched, the Rio ceremony was incredible. It was an extravaganza. While I unfortunately didn’t spot a Brazilian Paraorchestra, I especially liked the wheelchair dancing, and will certainly have to take a closer look at them. I wasn’t so sure about the inclusion of Calum Scott though. Whoever told that tuneless dude he could sing needs their ears examining. I thought the ‘taster’ from Tokyo was quite intriguing.

So, there we have it: another paralympic games is over. Much has been said about how London 2012 was a real game changer for the paralympics, bringing it up to the same level as the olympics in terms of esteem. I think Rio continued that; at least, I hope it did. Now it’s on to Tokyo, and judging by their submission last night, they seem eager to add to that trend. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Japanese do in four years’ time. As for 2024, my money is still on Paris, but that remains to be seen.

I have the great pleasure of reporting that the inaugural Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival came to an end last night a tremendous success. It has been an outstanding couple of weeks. The final event yesterday, a walking tour of the locations used in Antonioni’s Blow Up (1966) was fascinating. It was filmed in Maryon Park, just down the road from here – a park which I go through quite regularly on my way to Woolwich. Never having seen Blow Up, I’d never thought much about it; but yesterday morning, ahead of the event, I thought I’d give it a watch (in the process discovering how to ‘rent’ films on Youtube). I’m very glad I did: for one, that tour wouldn’t have made much sense had I never seen the film; but more importantly it’s quite a fascinating little text about photography. It’s about a fashion photographer who finds he has accidentally captured an image of a dead body in one of his photos. You can therefore read it in the context of the idea of Punctum. Moreover, the film also has a lot to say about urban life, capturing much of the area around Woolwich as it was fifty years ago. That’s what fascinated me: the way the run down, industrial, mostly victorian landscape contrasted with the green seclusion of the park. I even learned yesterday that there is an entire area of grass in that park, up some stairs, that I never knew existed.

After the Blow Up event, I came home to have a bite to eat, before heading to the White Swan for the film festival wrap party. I’m still not drinking, so I was in two minds about going, but I’m glad I did. I’ve made so many good friends on this process; Gavin, the guy running it, is one in a million. There was laughter, speeches, and hearty congratulations. The plan now is to let the dust settle for a couple of weeks before meeting to discuss what went wrong and what went right. We’ll then start to plan next year’s event. After the success of last saturday, I’m already trying to come up with ideas for what I could do. I have really, really enjoyed these past couple of weeks. I was thrilled to be able to participate as I did, and I can’t wait for more.

You may have noticed that I haven’t said anything on here about politics for a while. That was deliberate: I’ve been avoiding the issue. Politics in this country has become too fucked up for me to comment; I’m getting too angry about it. On the one hand, we have a government trying to reintroduce a draconian system of streamed education which reinforces class devision and dooms kids as second class citizens based on an essentially rigged test. On the other hand, we had to watch as a bunch of semi-nazi stains on humanity, calling itself a political party, congratulated itself for completely fucking this country by ‘winning’ the referendum. They only did so through lies. I wanted to hit every xenophobic piece of shit in that room as they grinned their brainless grins, and welcomed their new leader. Anyone capable of coherent, independent thought knows this country is fucked because of them! And meanwhile, where is Labour? Where are the voices pointing out the stupidity of it all, calling for a second referendum on the grounds that the first was won through lies? Nowhere! Nowhere to be seen. There is nobody currently standing up to these bullies and xenophobes. It gets me so angry that I start yelling at the tv whenever it comes on; so angry, in fact, that I better just avoid politics altogether.

Congratulations are in order today. It gives me great pleasure to announce the engagement of Alex Thomson to my friend Charlotte Jones. They have been courting for some time, and I have watched their relationship bloom over facebook. Back at uni, I always knew C would one day make some lucky guy very happy indeed. I wish them both all the happiness in the world. I will have to insist, though, that Lyn and I are invited to the wedding.

Last night saw my second public speaking engagement as part of the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. A few months ago, the guys I work with at school asked me to do the introductory address to their screening of Shorn the Sheep. It took me a while to get hold of a copy of the film, but eventually I penned it and delivered it last night. I think it went really well: it wasn’t a very long speech, but I think I made some quite salient points, noting the link between the contrast between urban and rural in the film to the work of Walter Benjamin, and also suggesting that that could be read as a metaphor for autism. Tracey and Kathryn, the teachers I work with at school, seemed really pleased. As with my talk on Saturday, hopefully a video will appear online soon. My second public talk went as well as the first, and I must admit, I’m now hooked.

A few days ago I tweeted the following question: ” The 5 biggest franchises: bond, lord of the rings, star trek, star wars and harry potter. Do any other film series come close culturally?” I genuinely thought those were the five biggest franchises. Yesterday, though, I was made aware of something even bigger, but which I hadn’t bothered to take a second glance at: Marvel. Growing up, I was never into comic books, preferring prose, film and tv; so I suppose characters like spiderman and superman didn’t capture my imagination in the same way as Frodo Baggins, James Bond and captain Picard did. Yet, glancing at the Wikipedia entry on it just now, the Marvel universe is colossal. As a single fiction, it spans characters and worlds; it comprises many different stories, all intertwined. Here at last might be the new fascination I’ve long been looking for. It seems ripe for exploration; I’m curious about what people see in this set of superheroes that I’d previously dismissed as ”for kids”. Not only is it a departure for me in terms of plots and characters, but the base material – comic books – is entirely unexplored terrain, an art form I’d never even considered. The question now is, where to start. Apart from having seen X-Men, I know almost nothing about this labyrinthine set of interwoven fictions.

Quite late last night, my brother Luke sent me a link to this video about music as it is used in the Marvel films. I thought I would flag it up here, not because I’m particularly interested in the marvel comic book franchise – although, given it’s now bigger than bond, star wars and harry potter, a closer look might be in order – but because this video constitutes the type of thorough close textual analysis I’m interested in. As I said in my reply to Luke just now, ”In terms of proper theory, not much has been written about music in film. Recently though, there have been quite a few bits of good analysis about it. It’s interesting to see how forms of analysis are emerging online which are no less engaged with film than more traditional forms.” New manifestations of filmic love are emerging online which, while taking the form of chatty, upbeat ‘fun’ videos, are no less intellectually rigorous than that undertaken in prose. Mind you, I have yet to see anyone in a video reference someone like Lacan or Bazin, but it’s still early days yet.

Starting to think again about the olympics, the other day I began to wonder when it would be next held in the uk. It occurred to me that, now that London has hosted it three times, this might be a good time to start the campaign to bring the Olympic Games to another British city. The world already knows about London, so how about trying to take the games up north somewhere? Being originally a Cheshire lad, I’d like to propose Manchester. Having failed in its bid for the 2000 games, now might be the time to begin to try again. As much as I love London, I think it’ll be cool to boost the north-west’s international profile. As for when, might aiming for the 2032 games give us a realistic target? The ’24 games are already being fought over; ’28 might be too soon after 2012. Thus I’d like to launch the campaign for Manchester 2032. The question is, how do I get this off the ground? Has anyone else had this idea? All such ideas presumably begin somewhere, even with cripples drinking coffee outside south London cafes, so who does one consult to take such embryonic notions further? How can I tell if this is realistic, and whether there is any appetite for it?

I needn’t have been so nervous yesterday; everything went (almost) without a hitch. I’m pleased to report that my talk at charlton house went down a treat. We got there nice and early, giving us time to set up and get ready properly. Then Gavin, the guy running Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival, introduced us to the not-too-small, not-too-big audience. First Lyn did a set, playing four or five of her songs, then it was my turn.

I’m pleased to report that my nerves vanished as I pressed the buttons on my Ipad, triggering the commentary for the slides gavin was projecting. My only concern was over whether everyone in the room could hear me, as I was using Lyn’s bluetooth speaker. Nonetheless, we got through the slides at a good pace, the only delay being when it came to switching between the slides and the clips I wanted to project. I had chosen not to go into too much theory – there’s a lot to explore around cinephiliac moments, but I didn’t want to get bogged down (although perhaps I should have mentioned [i]punctum[/i]). I think I balanced it well, for a mostly lay, non-academic audience though, and it was warmly received. On the way out, Gavin told me he would like to do it again, and I now think I would be up for that.

So there we have it: my first taste of public speaking. While it took quite a bit of preparation, and there one or two hitches, I found it an overwhelmingly positive experience. Paul recorded it, so you can watch my little talk here. Nonetheless, I have a feeling that this is just the first such talk I’ll be giving.