Year: 2006
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In Praise of the TARDIS
I see that today’s featured article in Wikipedia is on the TARDIS – the vehicle-cum-home of Doctor Who. Great stuff. -
The Moslem Madonna
A full-page article in the Volkskrant today about Deeyah, who has been called the Moslem Madonna. She has been threatened with death by fundamentalists because of her appearance and performances. Accompanying the article is a link to her latest video What Will Be. It it, she has taken a leaf out of Theo van Gogh’s book – images of women and others gagged with tape are projected onto her bare flesh. The face of van Gogh also makes a brief appearance. -
Homes for the Elderly
One of the joyful little tasks I will have in my list of things to do in twenty years time will be preparing to select a suitable care home where I can end my days, surrounded by handsome male nurses who will do anything for me.Of course, this ideal care home will probably be difficult to find (if it exists at all). While I’m sure that there are some excellent care homes, there are also places like this, probably better named the Why the Fuck Should We Care Home. I only hope that I have the nous and the wherewithal to spot the ones like this and avoid at all costs.(hat tip to Tom Reynolds for the link) -
The Site of Reversible Destiny
One day I would like to be able to revisit Japan. One place that I think would be on the itinerary is the Site of Reversible Destiny. A bizarre little architectural park. A sort of modernist Portmerion, where features are given prissy and portentous titles: The Gate of Non-Dying, Exactitude Ridge, the Zone of the Clearest Confusion, etc.(hat tip to Pruned for the link) -
Another Reason Not To Ski
I’ve never learnt to ski. I don’t really see the point of doing something that I can only do once a year for a few days at enormous expense and at some risk to life and limb. It’s probably cheaper – and certainly a good deal safer – to shred a bundle of euros and flush them down the loo.It also means that I don’t have to be confronted with a sign like this on the way to the slopes and spend time wondering, with a horrified fascination, what, precisely, it’s trying to tell me. -
Duck – It’s Eurovision!
It’s that time of the year again – the Eurovision Song Contest. I’ve just watched the British entries for this year’s contest. Two things struck me.First – I hope that Teenage Life wins. This song is so wrong on so many levels that it deserves to win. From the gyrating overage schoolgirls to the substandard rap – I have to say that this is a marriage ripe for Eurovision heaven. My jaw dropped open and stayed there. It is a brilliant piece of Japanese-influenced Eurotrash. It deserves to win the British entries.Second – as a finale to the BBC programme, they had Helena Paparizou (last year’s Eurovision winner from Greece) reprising her song. And, frankly, she and her song knocked all this year’s British entries for six. A brilliant barn-storming song – reminiscent of Dana International’s Diva. Will the faux schoolgirls retrieve Britain’s pride? watch this space…Update: Yup, it’s Teenage Life. Gawd help the rest of Europe… -
The Benefit of the Doubt?
The latest twist in the Tessa Jowell/David Mills saga is that they have now agreed to a separation. Part of me wants to believe that they had the best of intentions throughout this whole sorry affair, but an ever more vociferous part of me is starting to ask the same questions as Curious Hamster and Nosemonkey.My father was a politician. He was an honest and honourable man. He hated politics, but thought it was his social duty to do what was right for his fellow human beings. Why is it that his like seem to be as rare as hen’s teeth in today’s world? -
Memories and Movies
That old word wizard JG Ballard has a fascinating article in today’s Guardian. In it, he muses over where his memory ends and where the interpretation of those memories by other people begins. He uses the events, both original and subsequent, that powered his novel Empire of the Sun. I’ve a soft spot for Ballard’s dystopic novels, where alien things ripple under a surface normality. Once the library gets upacked and installed in the new house, I must re-read Empire of the Sun again. -
“Absolute Madness, Naive and Irresponsible”
Those are the words ("volstrekt krankzinnig, naïef en onverantwoord") used by a member of the Dutch parliament to describe a recent decision of Rita Verdonk, the minister of Immigration and Integration. And what has the lovely Rita done now? Well, she’s decided to reverse the ban on deporting failed asylum-seekers who are gay or Christian back to Iran. This is likely to include Saba Rawi. The problem is that Rawi fled Iran over four years ago in fear for his life because he is gay. And now Rita wants him back in Iran, where the authorities now know full well that he is gay. There is real concern that if he is returned to Iran he will be executed. I honestly wonder how Rita Verdonk can live with her conscience – perhaps she simply doesn’t have one.Update, 6th March: This morning, the Volkskrant is reporting that Minister Verdonk has apparently had second thoughts about sending failed asylum-seekers who are gay back to Iran. She is now saying that they will receive permits to stay. Doubtless everyone will wait and see what happens in the case of Saba Rawi in the next few days. The Volkskrant also reports that the basis for Verdonk’s original proposal to send gays back was a report from the Foreign Affairs Ministry saying that according to the Human Rights Watch organisation, the two teenagers hanged in Iran last year were not executed because they were gay and that therefore gays are not at risk in Iran. That’s brought a stinging reaction from an HRW representative stating that gays are certainly in danger of their lives in Iran. It should be pointed out that while the HRW chose to interpret the execution of the two teenagers as being for rape, and not because they were gay, other observers claim differently. Nonetheless, the HRW recognises the dangerous situation for gays in Iran.The HRW itself reported on two more executions of gays in Iran in November 2005. -
Gouda in Winter
We had (for us) a heavy snowfall last night, so I went out this morning to take some shots of Gouda. It was eerily still, only later in the morning did the town seem to come to life.
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How Much is that Doggy in the Window?
As I’ve mentioned before, when we move to our farmhouse in the country (and now there’s less than a month to go, hooray!), Martin wants to become a dog owner once more. He’s not had a dog for the last 20 years, partly because he doesn’t think it’s right to keep a large dog in a built-up area such as where we currently live.However, the gloves come off once we are settled in the farmhouse, since we’ll have nearly two acres of land ourselves, let alone all the surrounding countryside to exercise the animal. Part of me thinks what is the point of having a dog, while another part of me thinks it will be good. It’s rather like having a devil on my left shoulder, and an angel on my right, both whispering into my ears.I see that the devil has turned up some evidence to bolster his cause; Churchill Insurance has produced research that shows that the lifetime cost of the average dog is £20,000 (€30,000). Egad! As they say, that’s more than the cost of a brand-new 3-series BMW. Oh well, Martin has his heart set on having a dog, so I’ll just have to be on the side of the angels this time around. -
Queenie of the Night
A video of a boy soprano doing a credible job of Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria. Bet he can’t do that in a few years time…(hat tip to Robert) -
Another Data Point
Following on from the experience I mentioned in Eroding Liberties, Jenni Russell relates a similar depressing incident that occurred to her on arrival in Heathrow. Is this sort of thing becoming more prevalent? Jenni may be the canary in the coal mine. I sometimes feel the rest of us are frogs in water, unable to feel that the temperature is rising. -
A Day in the Life
Dr. Crippen describes a day at his surgery. It makes me realise just how much thin ice we are all skating on and how much we tend to take for granted. And as for the pushy middle-aged woman patient, I indulged in the mental image of her falling through the thin ice and taking her child with her… Very satisfying. -
Chef Shock
News in the Guardian today that a team of top French chefs were roundly beaten in an international cooking contest. I feel a swell of schadenfreude coming on. -
They’re Baaack!
They are the fourteen hopefuls after a job with Sir Alan Sugar. Yep, last night a new series of the Beeb’s version of The Apprentice came to the haunted fishtank. Well, OK, strictly speaking it’s Sir Alan and his two sidekicks who are back – the fourteen hopefuls are a new bunch, although clearly from the same stable as the last lot – a set of driven backstabbers who spew managementspeak at the slightest opportunity.Actually, I think the producers have tweaked up the evil knob a couple of notches for this series, I warmed to none of the candidates last night. The one who I had a slight twinge of sympathy for – he actually wanted to trust his colleagues – was the one who got fired. Admittedly, he deserved it, he did a bad job as project manager, but the fact remains that the most sympathetic one got the old heave-ho straight off. A nice touch was that he had just beaten off a life-threatening cancer. He clearly failed to beat off Sayed and Samuel who turned on him like hungry hyenas in the climatic firing scene in the boardroom. Sayed is clearly the producers’ choice for the villain of the piece, every time he opened his mouth I could sense thousands of viewers reaching for their voodoo dolls of him and sticking in another pin. Even Sir Alan seemed to get the message, and gave him a warning. Mind you, a number of the girls are also being groomed to take on the title of the candidate you most love to hate. My money’s on Jo.Of course, it’s all a pile of dingo’s kidneys. But it is brilliant entertainment, and I’ll be parked on the sofa for the rest of the series. -
Inside Out and Back To Front
I wish I could write like this. It sends shivers down my spine and raises gooseflesh on my arms.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 