New films (Cemetery Junction)
Released today, I thought this film was a rather clichéd story about growing up in the UK in the late 1960s and early 70s, stocked with stereotypical characters and an undemanding ending. There were one or two good laughs along the way, but most of the jokes seemed to be rather old and/or puerile. I quite liked the remark early on that the teenage hero should stop listening to music produced by poofs (i.e. classical) and start listening to Elton John instead, - although I can’t imagine anyone at the time saying anything like that, T Rex would perhaps have been a more accurate comment. (At least, no-one mentioned that the cemetery was in the dead centre of town.)
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant will have to think of something else. Actually, I only found “The Office” mildly amusing, but definitely very toe-curling. “Extras” was embarrassing too, rather like Gervais’s and Merchant’s recent preening appearances on TV. Well, at least they’re not James Corden.
On a separate timeline note, I remember “birds” very clearly from the 1960s, but don’t remember them being described as “fit” until recently. That could be just me not going out more. This film won’t help me to achieve that aim.
Another Book (East Fortune)
Today I finished “East Fortune”, a book about three very different middle-aged, middle class Scottish brothers facing various midlife crises and trying to adapt. Unfortunately, it is mainly about the middle brother, who is comfortably the most boring and pedantic, whereas the oldest is coming to terms with being sacked and the highly dislikeable youngest is having an affair via “dirty weekends” all over Europe. Due to this, and for various other reasons, in the text we have sprinklings of Polish, German, Italian and Latin! I was just thinking, as I’m currently learning the language, “It’s just a pity there’s no Russian for me to practise on..”, when, wow, the cheating couple are off to Moscow for a date (!) and the youngest brother is contemplating how he’s going to get by just being able to say “hi”, “thank you” and “goodbye” for a few days. That’s definitely Lesson 1 stuff, except from learning the Cyrillic alphabet, but Page 1 of the phrasebook. He receives a letter from his girlfriend telling him there’s a German band in the background playing “Zip–a-Dee-Do-Dah”. Unfortunately, and for a change, this doesn’t appear in German, which is disappointing, as I do have a largely untouched “Teach Yourself” German as well. I’m sure I could have impressed Berliners with that on my next trip, but I guess I’ll stick with “Yes, we have no bananas”, which was a fantastically popular hit there in the 1930s. Bigger than the brownshirts (well, some of them).
More Campaign Notes
From their manifesto, the Tories wish to reward “strivers”, whereas their high priority inheritance reforms would seem to reward spongers or shirkers.
Let me get this right. Gordon Brown actually asked the bankers if they wanted to be regulated???!!!
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