nourishing obscurity

The three clips in this post from the What’s My Line series are fascinating for students of history specializing in the post war era.

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Filed under: History & Culture, Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

Yes OK, we’ve done it before but in analysing what was wrong in Skyfall last time, I don’t think it really got to the core of what was wrong. In a nutshell, it was too paint-by-numbers.   It was like – here’s the villain and now we have to put in the whacky new Q and [...]

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts

1.  When Gene Kelly asked what she’d like engraved on her gravestone, she replied: ‘ People sometimes had a problem placing her face, but they never forgot her pins.’ The ask:  in 1957, what would she wear on those pins? 2.  Received an Academy Award nomination in her first talking film, switched later to comedy.  [...]

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Filed under: Diversions, Literature & performing arts

Just been watching “What’s My Line” and despite not being into panel or game shows, this one was very good – you saw some earlier this evening. Anyway, I’d avoided the episode about a Dorothy Kilgallan because it was something about her father and it didn’t register in the brain that she was one of [...]

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Filed under: History & Culture, Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

Just as this was: There’s a desperate attempt now to recapture that which is lost and nowhere is it more apparent than when they try to recapture the essence of an epic time in film. Most of the originals were from a time when men were gentlemen and not some metrowimpish playacting at being a [...]

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Filed under: History & Culture, Literature & performing arts

Typical: Moffat has previously said he wants to move the Doctor’s story onwards in the special episode, rather than embrace nostalgia. He said: “It is important you don’t turn it into a fanfest. We can’t make this all about looking backwards. It’s actually got to be the start of a new story.” However, the Bafta-winning [...]

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

There are some things which do need to be interfered with. If you’re a Mark Webber and you run out of fuel because of a fault, it needs to be fixed. That one we could surely put under the heading Blind Freddy. If someone’s drowning, we immediately either swim out to help or else contact [...]

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

USA Today: In typical fashion, Roger Ebert took to the Internet Tuesday night to share the news with his loyal blog followers that the disease that had robbed him of his voice, but not his determination to share his love of cinema, had returned. He warned that he would have to cut back on his [...]

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Filed under: Biography & Obituary, Literature & performing arts

Are you all sitty comftybold two-square on your botty? Then I’ll begin. Now, like all real life experience stories, this also begins once a polly tito. Stanley on the Budget:

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Filed under: Humour, Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

Looks like they’re all now doing it.  The last time I saw TV was in 2008 when I’d watch the nightly news on either the Beeb or Sky [the two available channels].

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts, Politics & economics

Having a bit of trouble typing [back trouble continues] so thought I’d rearrange a list instead.  Last evening I saw some best and worst Bond lists, including Forbes and it was nice to see OHMSS coming up in best lists. Every Bond has its down parts which  drag what might have been a great movie [...]

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts

The Stolen Child by W B Yeats, set to music firstly by Mike Scott and then by Loreena McKennit Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we’ve hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest [...]

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Filed under: Art, JD, Literature & performing arts, Music

This site is going to be the basis of two posts. This is the first one, about the plot holes in Skyfall and why they’re so annoying. Looking at a couple of people’s comments and then at mine and then at a few others around the web, what is apparent is that some people are [...]

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Filed under: Literature & performing arts

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Filed under: Chuckles, Literature & performing arts

This is one of those which came out of a conversation between three people. I’ve permission to re-run it for your delectation aggravation: Chuckles: For some reason the cling tenaciously to their pet theories, and persist with them to absurd lengths. e.g. the psotmodernists were much enamoured of Freud, Jung and co, and persist in [...]

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Filed under: Art, Chuckles, haiku, Literature & performing arts