Mixed lollies
Our Director-General is taking a brief sabbatical from broadcasting, although rumours that he’s been joined at the beach by Ian Fraser, where they’re sharing the dregs of a bottle of Murrieta Rioja, could not be confirmed by NZBC sources before pub opening time. However, since I’ve recovered from my headache, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t assume this week’s responsilollities (sorry, lolly responsibilities).
Rob offers the following from the comfort of his north-facing deck chair: a review of King Kong, which he saw the other night and which he proclaims “Very good. Much better than the Rings”; as well as another good review of Kong on Slate; a New York Times piece on the turnout in Iraq election; and finally the DG thinks No Right Turn’s posts on the torture issue, here, here, here, there, here, there and, er, everywhere have been “really great”.
Once again, Stephen scrutinises our office copy of the Economist so you don’t have to: for example, this solid piece, with its usual, thorough on-the-ground reporting on the US Army’s plans to improve its performance in Iraq — and why, it seems, the Brits do this kind of thing better; and also why the European Union retains its strange fondness for farm subsidies; plus this astonishing item from the Downbeat magazine archive: jazz bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus in two blindfold tests from 1960. And here’s a remark Mingus made on stage at New York’s Five Spot that was recorded for posterity:
“You haven’t been told before that you’re phonies. You’re here because jazz has publicity, jazz is popular… You like to associate yourself with this sort of thing. But it doesn’t make you a connoisseur of the art because you follow it around…”How many of today’s artistes — in any genre — would have the cojones to say that to their audience? And, finally from Stephen, Radiohead (a band he read somewhere in the MSM doesn’t even have to bother with a formal record contract) is back in the studio.
I would like to do a favour for our mate Douglas Rushkoff, and help him plug his just-published book Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, and which I’ve ordered for US$16.29. If you have the resources to buy yourself or someone else his book as a Christmas pressie via Amazon, Barnes & Noble or anywhere else this week, Douglas says, it would “help keep me in print and my baby in diapers”. Marketing guru and author of All Marketers are Liars, Seth Godin, seems to like it: “Get your highlighters out! There’s a worldchanging idea on each and every page,” he exclaims.
The venerable Philip Roth explains why literary critics should be shot; on the strength of which, I can’t see why the blighters shouldn’t be hunted instead of foxes. And I very much like cartoonist and illustrator Chris Ware’s work (be sure to visit all the pages here), which I discovered via BoingBoing.
When the Ricky Gervais show was launched as a podcast by the Guardian just a couple of weeks ago, they asked subscribers to the first cast to post their questions. Here’s a very funny sample from the original blog. And get the first two episodes of Gervais’s hilarious podcast here — the best fun I’ve had for ‘free’ since the Underworld webcast (two hours and forty minutes of live improvisation for the price of a rather large broadband download).
Following Mark’s note last week that Wikipedia was in a spot of bother, I spotted and then Mark spotted that in matters of accuracy (and we ought to heed the Stratford Theory of Media Numbers here, lest it come back to bite us on the arse again), it fares only marginally less well than the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Finally, as Rob and Mark rightly pointed out last week, global warming is getting complicated. However, reputable scientists agree that, whatever’s causing the rising temperatures, more and more polar bears are swimming alone, far out at sea, and drowning. And they probably don’t care too much why it’s getting hot in here.
Nos da!
posted by Chris Bell at 3:57 PM
6 Comments:
I hesitate to correct the great Philip Roth, but in this interview with the Guardian he misquotes Henry James, whose last words were not "Ah, here it comes, the big thing." James had a stroke on December 2, 1915 and said, "So this is it at last, the distinguished thing!" But he survived another three months before dying on February 28, 1916, his last words unrecorded. Judging by his first draft, that was perhaps no great loss to posterity.
Personally, I'd like my last words to be those of Brahms: "Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you."
Is there any record of what it was that Herr Brahms was tasting, Stephen, either in this world or half way to wherever he was bound?
Bloggers, of course, would have to modify Heinrich Heine's last words, "Write... write... pencil... paper", to "Open... Blogger...Dashboard... Damn this lousy... connection speed."
General John Sedgwick's last works during the US Civil war are hard to beat, as he complained about his 'cowardly' men dodging the bullets: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-", at which point he was (at least apocryphally) shot in the head by a Confederate sharpshooter.
I always liked whoever it was who was supposed to have said, ultimately, "Hand me my cheque book," and I'm not talking about Pete Townshend's Who song.
I finally saw Kong too. Terrific old-fashioned classic. Though Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts were unconvincingly smitten, and a lot of the backstory stuff dragged. The CGI towards the end was wonderful.
Chris,
Hmm.. was listening to "The who By Numbers" only last weekend so I'm up with your quote - it wouldn't be a bad one, given the next line is "..and ˆI'll crawl off to die".
Always liked Philip Larkin's "I am going to the inevitable."
"I feel better now" has been variously attributed to Gladstone. McGonigal, and a guy who died of a heart attack brought on by hiccups.
And on the subject of dying, I'm reminded of Emo Phillips line: "when I die, I want to go like my grandfather, peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming in terror, like the passengers in his car..."
To return to Kong, though, is no one afraid of heights in 1933?
Things weren't as high before decimal conversion.
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