When it’s the hottest day of the year it’s a sensible thing to go to the cinema. It might be just me but two hours in an air-conditioned room being entertained while the UK burns seems like a good idea. I even managed to park in the shadows and made sure that while the sun tracked further south the trees would still bath the car in glorious shadow.
While it might seem that I am moaning about the weather I am not. I love the weather whatever it does. Rain is good, heat is good, bloody cold is good, it’s all part of the life experience and we should relish whatever mother nature throws at us. This might change once I have to put a shirt on tomorrow and spend time at work in this heat. But, I still won’t moan out loud. The idea that Britishness is somehow defined by people moaning about the weather annoys me and I refuse to conform.
As usual I rated this film on IMDB and you should read this communication to get an idea of my scoring system.
Basically this film was the least worse of those at the cinema that I could take young people to. It was enjoyable in a “stupid American comedy” way. I have a whole subset of the comedy genre that is “stupid American”. Things like “Dumb and Dumber” etc. Stupid films where laughs come at the expense of people getting hurt or being stupid.
The film followed the journey of a family heading to MeeMaw’s birthday party. I laughed a couple of times and really enjoyed the performance of the teenage brother, I think he did a great job. The rest of it was full of puerile comedy with no sense of reality in the stunts. But it’s a kids film so that’s ok then.
Last night I celebrated my first night of freedom from exam marking with a trip to the cinema. I chose to go and see My Cousin Rachel largely because all the other films looked terrible. I don’t want to see the Mummy reboot or the latest Pirates film. I didn’t know a great deal about My Cousin Rachel. I went to the Cienworld Cinema at Rochester, the tide wasn’t in or out.
As is custom on this site I rate films out of 10 on the IMDB website but there are rules and reasons and perhaps you could kindly read this communication.
I’m not that fussed by period dramas. I’m not that fussed by book adaptations. I don’t like films which reinforce the failed concept of a Lord Of The Manor doing good for his people and looking after them, it perpetuates the concept of government FOR the people and that doesn’t seem to exist. I do like Cornwall though.
The short version of this review would be “men and their dicks, eh?”.
The longer version is that I actually enjoys this film. I spend some time worrying about candles and fire, the soot and cleanliness of houses and also wondering what you do once it’s dark outside. Did I say that Cornwall looks bloody lovely, such a beautiful county and filmed wonderfully.
“I say Jeeves, make me a picnic for two, now”. “Fuck you Sir”.
How my response would render me dead or in jail.
Anyway, my current anger at politicians and government is creeping into this review subtly.
So, a young man grows up in a privileged position within society and his uncle goes away and dies after marrying. When the widow turns up young man falls in love with her. But he falls ill. Is she killing him?
I enjoyed this film. It was good looking, sensitive and fun. I thought Rachel Weisz acted the bollocks out of it.
I was worried about going to see this film. I had a bad experience at the cinema a few weeks ago and I thought this film could be similar. I went to the Rochester Cineworld cinema and parked under one of the three bridges to protect the car from direct sunlight, it was quite a warm clear day.
So I rated this film on IMDB, which is my custom, and you should see this communication here for explanations of the scoring system.
I really enjoyed this film. I could even argue it was more of a war film than that of Wonder Woman. There were some bits of the first scene that bothered me but overall this film was a very enjoyable experience.
Potential Spoilers Ahead.
We see how Wonder Woman discovers the human race and then battles Aries to end all war. I think that more could have been made of Wonder Woman possibly condemning man to exist in a state of war forever as it is man who clearly loves war. But she discovers LOVE.
Now, I think I’d fuck man over and leave them to their pathetic world of war and hate and killing people because that’s all they deserve. I’m not sure the existence of love is enough to forgive man the shit that he does to other men. The world seems full of hate. Especially when you consider this was set in the First World War.
This was a comic book story and so there needs to be simple discussion about good and bad. This film could have been much more with a deeper discussion of philosophy and how the British and Americans were just as bad as the Germans. I don’t think there was a good side in WW1. It would have been nice to see the humanity of the German soldiers on the front line but they were treated as though they were animals.
This was still a good film even though there wasn’t anything to show the humanity of ALL man. Maybe because it doesn’t exist?
My single WTF issue was when a massively armoured truck turns up at Le Louvre and then the security guard just carries a briefcase in to the museum. The truck seemed overkill or the guard was underkill. Also, the briefcase wasn’t locked. There was no attempt to unlock the combination locks, it just opened.
I liked the slow motion during the fighting scenes. It made the film look more like a comic.
I had a leaflet put through the door a few days ago. Normally these are put straight into the round filing cabinet because I already know who I am voting for but this one struck me as something to read.
CPA Front Leaflet
This leaflet was like bait being dangled in front of me. So, let’s see what these “christian” people believe are christian values and how they want to treat people.
John Gibson wants to give christians a voice in parliament. Well, that’s interesting. They already have Bishops in the house of lords and the current Prime Minister [hopefully for not much longer] is a “committed” christian, the daughter of a vicar. The number of crusty MPs who will gladly go to church and say they are christian is more than those willing to stand up and say “what a load of bollocks”. There’s this idea that a person who believes in god is more righteous and true than someone who doesn’t. That idea is bollocks.
CPA Back Leaflet
The Christian People’s Alliance has “true Christian values”. I’m not entirely sure what true christian values are. Much like there is no true Scotsman there are no true christians. This is similar to the how English do you have to be to be English. It’s a logical fallacy and you can’t define that particular thing at all.
If your rules come from the bible then what about all the shit rules that mean you can rape your slaves and beat your wife. What about ownership of women and people? You can’t cherry pick all the bits that fit your current view of life out of the bible. Oh, yes, you can and do. Let’s quote mine the little bits of the bible we want our church to follow.
If your argument is that we don’t pick the slaves bit of the bible anymore because we recognise it doesn’t work in our society then you have lost EVERY argument for any of your pathetic rules.
Leviticus 25:45
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
If you then want to say that you only follow the new testament then again you are cherry picking and you are pathetic.
Marriage As God Intended
What they mean here is that marriage should be forever. Let’s keep all those unhappy people stuck with each other for all eternity. They also mean that marriage should be between a man and a woman. They don’t recognise same sex relationships. They don’t want people who love each other to be able to get married and promise their love to each other. They want to exclude forms of relationship that don’t meet their stupid beliefs [much like the current Prime Minister]. There are detailed policies to force unhappy couples to stay together. What if the husband beats the wife? What if the husband is a thief?
Why can’t people who love each other get married and those who decide they are happier apart leave each other?
All Life Matters
Of course it does. But that doesn’t mean we can make our own choices about our bodies. We are autonomous creatures. Women can choose when they want to have children and people should be allowed to die if that is what they want.
So they believe life begins at conception [why not fertilisation?] and then ends when you NATURALLY die. Does this mean we should accept all disease? Are doctors doing the bidding of god? Who decides when natural death is happening? Should we have defibrillators in public places? What about all the clusters of eggs flushed down the loo when something goes wrong after conception?
Care For The Poor
They don’t want anyone sleeping rough. That’s a good thing. But they won’t give a bed to those on drugs or drink. What the fuck. This is a classic. If you aren’t willing to help people who have alcohol or drug problems then how christian are you? There are probably very good reasons these people rely on drugs or alcohol. But no, fuck ’em. It’s their own fault and we won’t help people who can’t help themselves. How christian is that?
Support Persecuted Christians
It’s not just christians persecuted in Pakistan. Atheists are being murdered out there, and in Saudi Arabia, and in loads of other countries. Perhaps this party should promise to remove persecution entirely. But, no. That doesn’t support their narrative that christians are persecuted and should be protected. It doesn’t help their cause. Be nice to people as long as they are like us.
I tried to see the CPA website but it wouldn’t load.
CPA Website
John Gibson’s website loaded fine and it has a rainbow-like pattern on the homepage.
May 28 2017 was a good day. I travelled to Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire for one of their airshows. Now, I’ve been to Duxford a lot and have taken some lovely photographs. I discuss my favourite birds here and more photographs are here. You can just search in that little box just over to the right.
The Imperial War Museum at Duxford is so large that it takes more than a day to see everything and that’s without a flying display to watch. I only zoomed around the hangers and static aircraft, paused at the Bloodhound replica, and then watched the gorgeous displays.
Of the static aircraft on display some were open for a walk through, I visited all of these:
Concorde
Hermes
York
Comet
Ambassador
Viscount
Britannia
VC10
Trident
One-Eleven
Herald
Of the flying aircraft, I was most impressed with the Typhoon, Rafale, Bronco and the Autogyro. All of these exhibited remarkable agility, they were stunning to watch. It was very good to see a Typhoon display for my first time along with the Rafale too. The Bronco is iconic and looked lovely. Even the World War 1 display wasn’t boring!
Bristol Britannia
Old and New
Dassault Rafale
Catalina
The Blades Display Team
Explosion
Luftwaffe Bronco
Red Devils
Typhoon
Wingwalkers
B-17
AAC Apache
If you don’t find the Catalina gorgeous then you aren’t into planes.
The weather was really hot for the day and the storms went either side of Duxford so we didn’t get wet. I had paid for a ticket upgrade so there was a marquee with tables and chairs where we sat. Along with posh portaloos and a seating area outside just by the tower this proved to be a worthwhile investment. Well worth doing as I could dump stuff and walk around with just the camera.
The photos above are a selection from the over 400 that were taken on the day. My challenge next time is to get the colours showing on the aircraft more when they are flying. Photographs of just silhouettes aren’t that interesting.
Here we go with a Star Wars Lego kit. Just a mini one really and not worth building. It seems that the Lego people have been designing “scenes” rather than models that can create story. As an example here’s the Death Of Darth Maul Lego scene.
I went to see Miss Sloane. Je voyageais par la route de l’autre côté de la rivière, c’était une marée haute. The river looked lovely and calm. I rated this film using IMDB and this one got a 6. You might find it helpful to read my communication about the scoring system.
This, was I guess, a political thriller. It was pretty good. I found the performance of the lead actor probably kept it going well. There was a little too much intrigued and double guessing for me. I haven’t worked in high management or politics but I do think that the political system largely reacts to random events and, while there may be a grand plan, it never really gets too far gone.
I quite enjoyed this film and the cinema provided some respite from the warm temperatures in this lands at the moment. This is not a complaint. I like the heat. I just dislike sun burn. Which I spent a good proportion of my youth suffering with.
I guess the amount of writing here tells you how much I was affected by this film. It didn’t really impact on me. Just have a look at films I thought were stunning or absolutely terrible. I write way more when I’m really happy or annoyed at a film.
Because we all need to have a lovely time away from it all I went to Cobtree Manor Park yesterday. Although it costs money to park there, quite rightly, the park is very nice and glorious in the sunshine.
Cobtree
The part of the park I have circled is the best bit. The paths have been made all weather since I was last there. The whole place has a beautiful collection of trees that even a heathen like me can appreciate. It’s really worth a visit.
I’m having a problem coping with all the bullshit around with the current general election. It is annoying me. I am stuck between voting for the person and party that most represents my views and voting for the person most likely to get the tories out of government. I do not like the tories. I do not like their aims to enrich the rich at the expense of the poor. I do not like new Labour for the same reasons.
I do not agree with privatisation of the utilities, transport or the NHS. I do not agree with PPI and PFI for schools or anything. I do not agree with cutting investment into services.
But I do think that the well off should be made to pay for services they use. Those poorest in society should have services provided free of charge and the state has a duty to look after and help these people. Part of the agreement of living in this country [if you are an honest taxpayer] is that you accept that some of your money goes to help those less fortunate than you. People already accept progressive tax rates. Surely everyone would agree that it is fair and good and right to look after the worse off in this country?
So, we come to the problem I have. The conservatives are proposing to means test the winter fuel allowance for older people and also ask that people contribute to the costs of their care in old age down to a maximum amount of capital of £100,000.
Means testing the winter fuel allowance seems reasonable. The wealthy can afford to pay their bills anyway and so let’s have the money go to where it will do most good. Please note that I do not know what the tories are planning to do with the money they save. I would make sure it went on helping the less-well-off but the tories are scum and will probably use this to give tax breaks to very rich fuckers who do their best to “reduce their tax burden” or NOT PAY THEIR FUCKING FAIR SHARE. It still seems a reasonable thing to means test winter fuel payments.
So, here’s another thing that’s bothering me. The tories have said that they will use the sale of peoples houses once they die to cover the cost of caring for them, less £100,000. Now, arguments about privatisation fucking over the NHS and social care aside, I don’t really have a problem with this. If our starting premise is that those who can afford it, should pay and also help those who can’t then this is a sensible policy. What has everyone bothered is that they cling to the idea of their home being theirs, being what they worked for. The kids who’ll inherit all this money don’t want to give any up. Well, to the people who own the houses: YOU’LL BE DEAD. To the kids who are crying that they won’t receive all of mummy and daddy’s money: IT’S NOT YOUR MONEY. People should accept the price of living longer and paying for their care.
I do probably have a chip on my shoulder over privilege and rich (er) kids. I grew up on a council estate. Everything I don’t own is mostly down to my own fault. I get irate at the rich [and richer] not wanting to pay their way.
I could, of course, change my mind on this. I am going to chat to people over the next few days and see if they convince me that I am wrong. There’s a good chance they will just annoy me and I’ll think they are money grabbing bastards. If I adjust my thoughts on this then I will let you know.
Believe me, I am NEVER going to vote conservative. I pretty much hate everything they stand for and I think they have worked to fuck over in this country in my life time. I do find it interesting that I agree with them on SOME issues, even when most of the press seems against them.
There’s something about the ebb and flow of a tidal river that’s organically beautiful. The mass of water that enters the Medway and travels up to Allington Lock transforms the landscape from mud flats to a rippling estuary. It’s gorgeous, even if it is brown and looks dirty. The tide was in as I drove to the cinema last night to see Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. It does that twice a day, raising the level of water and bringing food into the marshes.
I watched the film at Cineworld in Rochester. Fortunately the cinema was quiet, unlike the previous film where there were lots of people eating popcorn through the quiet bits in the film. Popcorn itself isn’t loud but the paper bags rustle with gusto. None of that this time. I rated the film on IMDB, which is customary, and usually I tweet the result, but the app on my phone wanted me to Rate It at the same time as confirming my tweet and it wouldn’t let me tweet automatically. Somewhat annoying but I gave this film an 8.
So, 8/10 seems a reasonable score. This film was enjoyable, grandiose and anthemic. It didn’t quite maximise all those qualities though. It looked lovely, was fun and humorous. I do think it had a little bit of “too much stuff-in-it”. There were space fights and graphics with so much going on that it distracts from the story. Yep, it looks good, but it doesn’t add anything. Films can look good and be great without all this “stuff-it-in” approach. Honestly, it’s worth minimising films occasionally. But perhaps that is an outsider approach and wouldn’t make money.
There aren’t many individual comments that I can add to this film. While watching it I didn’t have sentences forming in my head to be written here as I normally do. I usually leave the cinema remembering about 50% of my in-head comments ready to share here. I just didn’t get that many from this film.
Oh, there was a massacre about 2/3 of the way through. Which seemed a little dark and a tiny bit unnecessary. It wasn’t really needed for the plot or character development.
Stan Lee cameos annoy me.
That’s it. I’ll probably watch this film again sometime. It wasn’t great but it was good fun.
On such a lovely weathered day I thought the best place to be was in the dark, air conditioned atmosphere of a cinema. I did have a lovely run earlier today and managed 7 miles or so.
So, off to Rochester cinema I went. Worriedly. The last film I saw I walked out of. I’m not sure if that was because the film was truly terrible or maybe I was just having a minor head-fuck moment. It was with trepidation that I entered the theatre this time. I was also worried because Ridley Scott’s last foray into the Alien series had distressed me so much.
This film was largely OK. Hence I rated it a 6 on IMDB.
So, in more detail here’s some thoughts after I steal quotations from some source. If you read my Prometheus Arrrgh communication you will understand what I was worried about. I have since heard people say that Ridley Scott makes gorgeous films, but when he’s been given a shit script, it’s still a shit script.
Finally we have much more involvement of the synthetic human and he has gone mad. This pleased me because the entire series should have been about the relationship that humans have with the alien within their system, within humanity itself.
There were still some issues with this film. You don’t land on a new planet without surveying it THOROUGHLY. You’d also check toxicology reports etc. Humans are quite fragile really!
Now, if I ignore all that, I will admit that the rest of this film was pretty darn good. Really it was an horror film and an awful lot of it was filmed in the dark. Don’t wear sunglasses in the cinema, you won’t see a thing! There was gore and the Alien and stuff.
In all honesty, this film is nowhere near as good as Alien. It’s almost a cross between Alien and Aliens. I fully recommend that you go out and buy Alien and watch that instead.
Oh, and how to kill an Alien? Blast them out into space. EVERY TIME.
I had a run around Mote Park in Maidstone the other day. It was lovely and warm, slightly too warm for efficient running, but I made reasonable progress and listened to a favourite podcast, The Scathing Atheist.
One of the nice things about the park is that at points you can see trees nearby and the North Downs in the distance and nothing of Maidstone in the middle distance, the place is lovely and peaceful.
While in Cyprus I sustained a terrible injury. On the day we went to the reservoir to take part in some dragon boating I clambered up the banking to get a better vantage point for photographs.
Plants
Once it was decided that the safety equipment wasn’t good enough I had to descend the embankment, which I did with much grace and poise. I did, however, happen to place my hand down on a local plant with thorns.
These thorns punctured my skin and have left marks. This is bad form.
Bloody Marks
The marks are still there about a month after the event. Am I concerned? No. Should I be concerned? I doubt it. They’ll go away, especially after the amount of homoeopathic arnica I took last week during a class information session on homoeopathy [sarcasm intended, although I really did take loads of pillules].
Every two weeks I spend a terrifying ten minutes standing on the edge of the school’s property watching what seems like the entire world pass by in symphony. There are around 1400 pupils who pretty much leave the site all at once. Through the narrow gates of what I have labelled the school castle.
Lorenz
At the same time there are buses, school buses and many cars trying to use all the roads entering the centre of the picture. It is horrifying watching cars in a hurry and kids who don’t look and buses fully laden navigate this chaotic corner.
My current working theory as to why there are not many accidents here is down to the nature of the corner. The exact fact that it is quite chaotic causes people to slow down and be more aware. I do think that if there was a zebra crossing or similar put here there would be more accidents. The exact nature of busy unpredictable systems is that people slow down and look more.
Ask yourself this. When driving on a motorway do you fully concentrate at all times? When driving near your home do you fully concentrate at all times? Of course you don’t. It’s human nature to diminish tasks when they seem routine. Do you turn the stereo down when getting close to an unknown destination? Of course you do. It’s all about applying brain power from one activity to another. I know that I almost lose the ability to talk when driving near junctions or when I need more observation power. It’s almost as if multi-tasking didn’t exist!
I’ve been known to investigate the northern and tidal reaches of the Medway, read here. Today I wandered the area near Teston bridge. For a small country park it was well organised and had loos. The paths were clear and the highland cattle were well behaved. It’s a lovely little area.
The photo shows the area that isn’t the park. The open access area is where I am standing. over the Medway is other stuff.
Teston Country Park
The lock is pretty impressive and looks quite new, for a lock. There was a boat navigating its way downstream as I was there. The genius of man never fails to impress me.
This is the weir next to the lock.
Teston Weir
I am slightly worried that these communications are becoming much like a travel blog but without the glamorous locations. My suspicion is that there are too many photos and not enough on here of an analytical nature. I will change that over time. I guess there are many pretty things that are worth sharing here. Whenever I am ranting it’s never a pretty topic or particularly clean language.
This communication considers one of my favourite pieces of fiction, religion. This is a place-holding communication as I struggle to write three other communications of a more serious note. I know what I want to say in those words but words are the problem. You might have noticed I am not a natural wordsmith.
MOAB
Nothing reported about the Pope criticising the death of many people or the use of weapons of mass destruction. The Massive Ordnance Air Bomb’s NAME shamed the pope. Perhaps the next bomb could be called “Get to heaven quicker”. Fuck you pope.
“I was ashamed when I heard the name,” the pontiff told an audience of students at the Vatican.
Nothing in the news about the thousands of priests accused of raping kids which the Vatican is actively covering up. Nothing about the misery and enforced poverty caused by a no-contraception rule. Nothing about the AIDS genocide caused by the no-contraception rule. Nothing about the deaths of babies at convents in Ireland. This man is meant to represent god on Earth. He represents an organisation of men who act just like men do when they are in charge – cunts.
Words
God needs the police to investigate this because he gets really upset when people are mean about him. Oh, poor little god. He hates it when people express true things. I watched this speech a few years ago and I think what shocked people the most is how angry someone can be at a god who allows all the shit mentioned earlier to carry on. Why are people still going to catholic church? Why do they still give money when they can see the harm it does? Selfish wankers, that’s why.
