Thursday 26th August
This missive was written in my parents place in Spain, and for suspense value, shall let out on a day by day basis. My parents like the Olympics. It is hence much harder to avoid, as they have the power over the TV remote. Nevert[…]

Sun protection factor 35. You don’t get “sun block” anymore, apaprently our sun is TOO POWERFUL TO BE STOPPED. You get stuff like Soltan’s SPF 35 instead, and its copious warnings on the back about how actually it won’t […]

Spending time on holiday with my nephew means I get to watch television he cannot fathom and I barely understand. I am not talking about Yu-Gi-Oh! – I mean old episodes of Scooby-Doo (written independently of the Mark S treatise below. The Tao […]

Travel month eh? Well I am writing this on a plane, how is that for travel. I still cannot get blas’ about air travel, despite doing it twelve times already this year. What I have become to particularly like is the quirks of the individual comp[…]

FT Top 100 Films
40: GINGER SNAPS
Odd that I was talking about Catwoman earlier, as here is a film where a girl turns into a wolf. Not Wolfgurl, and this is certainly no superhero movie. This is probably the smartest werewolf movie since An American […]

So there are these women right, who throughout history have worn cat masks. All of whom, one imagines, were brought back to life by stinky cat breath and then went leaping around like – well actually not like a cat because cats can’t clim[…]

FT Top 100 Films
41: BLACK NARCISSUS
Antony Easton says:
It’s a back lot dream of religious exoticism, its about the nature of desire, its about power and control in relation to sex, its about viewing the divine temporally instead of celestiall[…]

BOOKS I COULDN’T FINISH:
1: The Fortress OF Solitude – Jonathon Lethem
Sometimes life is too short to read a book you have lost interest in. Sometimes you complete it anyway because you have already invested too much time into it. I&#8217[…]

How do you turn a good film into a franchise? The Bourne Identity was a surprise hit back in 2002, a surprise possibly because the first time it was filmed it flopped. But some assured direction from Doug Liman and some excellent casting was coupled […]

Olympic Avoidance LogI did remarkably well at the weekend, only managing to see bits and bobs via the news. Apparently winning a couple of medals because other people were disqualified is more important than any other world event. Not watching any ev[…]