Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2007

  • The Coin Has Two Sides

    I see that the appalling Mr. Gibson has released his latest film: Apocalypto. And like his last film, it’s not one that I have any intention of seeing. Scenes of unremitting violence do not excite me.
     
    However, unlike his last film, Apocalypto has found favour with the film critics. Take this review by Peter Bradshaw for example. Sample: 
    If people have got it in for Mel Gibson, he has only himself to blame. His behaviour has been repulsive. Everyone is prejudiced against his films. I am prejudiced against his films. So the sentence following this is going to take me quite some time to write, because between every keystroke, there will be a three-minute pause while I clench my fists up to my temples and emit a long growl of resentment and rage.
     
    Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is pathologically brilliant. It is bizarre, stomach-turningly violent and frequently inspired.
     
    …
     
    My view is that for all the director’s personal obnoxiousness, the truth is that his mad and virile film makes everything else around look pretty feeble. This is an extraordinary cinematic journey upriver: a worryingly potent Mr Kurtz is sitting in the director’s chair.  
    And that is pretty much the point. Richard Wagner, as a human being, was a complete and utter shit. But he did give us the Ring cycle. It looks like Mr. Gibson is heading in a similar direction. I still don’t think I want to follow his art, though.

  • A New Forum

    Inayat Bungawala waxes ecstatic over the fact that a new online forum to discuss Islamic issues has been set up. "An opportunity to exchange views online with senior religious figures in Saudi Arabia ought not to be missed" as the byline to the Guardian article has it.
     
     
    Although I note that homosexuality was misspelled as homoseuality on the site – a simple oversight probably, and unfamiliarity with English perhaps, or the inability to get good typists these days. Anyway, it’s good to know that the answer comes from the Fatwa Department Research Committee – chaired by Sheikh `Abd al-Wahhâb al-Turayrî. And I’m sure he’s a lovely man. So, what do they say?
    Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made it clear that homosexuality is a sin and specified the punishment for the deed: “Whomever you find doing the act of Lût’s nation, then kill both parties.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî]
     
    Here, our Prophet (peace be upon him) clearly states that the punishment for this sin is death.  
    Ah, I see. You do realise Inayat, that this does rather put a strain on my ability to have any sort of meaningful dialogue with your friends at the Islamtoday web site? Not that, I suspect, you give a damn about that. Anyway, moving on, let us return to the rest of the answer:
    Even if none of this evidence were available, homosexuality would still be forbidden, simply because Islam expressly forbids any sexual contact out of marriage.
    Oh, well, that’s clear then. But hang on, I am married. To a man. So homosexuality is OK then as long as it is within marriage?
    Allah, in the Qur’ân, also strictly defines whom we can marry. Allah states for the man all the women that he is prohibited to marry and then says that others are permissible, while continuing to refer to those with whom it is lawful by the feminine gender. Therefore, men are restricted to marrying women and women are restricted to marrying men.
    Bugger. I should just go and kill myself now. No, I’ve got a better idea, Inayat. You can take your Islamtoday web site and stuff it where the sun don’t shine. It has nothing to do with humanity, but everything to do with superstitious nonsense.

  • The Enchanted Office

    Yes, well, as a rule I don’t like this sort of thing. But I have to confess that the cry of "Oh my god, they killed Clippy" in episode 6 did raise a smile… It couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow…

  • Learn Mandarin

    Stephen Walli, a colleague from the days when I used to represent the company I worked for in IT standards organisations, has a most interesting post on his blog. It contains his reflections on his recent visit to China. Bottom line, learn Mandarin now.
     
    He’s probably right, although I suspect that my capacity to learn Mandarin has long since gone. But perhaps I should re-read Lucian W. Pye’s slim volume: Chinese Negotiating Style – Commercial Approaches and Cultural Principles. I see that Amazon.co.uk is currently offering it at the princely sum of 50 quid. Clearly, market forces are starting to bite. I’m glad I got my copy long before the Chinese economic boom started to get serious.

  • The Gentlemen of the Press…

    … and I use the term "gentlemen" with the utmost irony. While, clearly, some journalists and newspaper staff have high moral principles, some, equally clearly, do not. 

  • The Dog That Didn’t Bark

    I see that Sense About Science has been rapping the knuckles of celebrities for talking pseudoscience instead of science fact. They’ve produced a nice little leaflet about the tendency of celebrities to talk twaddle.
     
    I’m disappointed though that the leaflet doesn’t mention the celebrity who has a solid gold track record of talking twaddle in this area. Who else but Prince Charles? His support for homeopathy and similar "alternative" medicines is shameful. And what a prime example of Unspeak that disgusting phrase "alternative medicine" is…  

  • Another Poll

    I see that there’s been another poll of 1,000 US citizens asking about some of their beliefs. Apparently, according to the news story, 250 of them anticipate that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur this year. There must be some mistake, surely? 25% of US citizens can’t be this deluded?
     
    I do hope that it’s a case of misreporting. There’s no sign of the poll as yet on the Ipsos web site, but I’ll keep an eye out for it to check the facts for myself…

  • Sharing Folders

    Mike Torres, over at Torres Talking, points out how useful the Sharing Folders feature in Windows Live Messenger can be for sharing high-resolution photos with your online contacts. Hmm, looks useful indeed. I must try it out and swap some photos with my brother.

  • World’s Biggest Book

    Bhutan purports to be the world’s biggest book. Weighing in at 150 pounds (nearly 70 Kg.) and measuring 5 x 7 feet (1.5 x 2.1 m), I can well believe it. At $15,000 a copy, it’s not one that I’ll be rushing out to purchase, either. Besides, I’ve got nowhere to put it. Even the little big book of Bhutan is pricey at $100 a pop. 
     
    (hat tip to Bibliodyssey for the link)

  • A Pageant for Modern Times

    Now this is a modern version of a nativity play that I’d really like to see: A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant. Described as:
    A large ensemble cast of 8-12 year-old children tells the story of L. Ron Hubbard’s meteoric rise from struggling science fiction writer to supreme leader of a (highly-profitable) New Age religious empire. 
    Reminds me of the old joke: Q: what’s the difference between a cult and a religion? A: usually about 2,000 years. 
     
    (hat tip to David Byrne for the link)

  • My Epitaph

    Well, I think it has to be the opening sentence of Sam Harris’ response to the Edge challenge. I quote:
    No one has ever mistaken me for an optimist.
    Yup, that fits me like a glove. And while I luxuriate in the feel of that description, may I take this opportunity to direct you not only to Sam Harris’ reply to the challenge, but to other responses that seemed to me to have something pertinent to say about our brief strut on the world’s stage. Daniel Everett, for example, Geoffrey Miller, Simon Baron-Cohen, Clay Shirky, Martin Rees, or Gino Segre. Then there’s the current sniping between those who believe in string theory and those who don’t. Bring on the Large Hadron Collider, I say. Hopefully that will settle some arguments.
     
    But, at the last, no matter how pessimistic I may feel, I wouldn’t want to share the optimism of Rudy Rucker. It seems closer to Woo-woo than serious optimism.

  • The Wind in the Willows

    I seem to have spent rather a lot of time in front of the haunted fishtank yesterday. As well as Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (see previous entry), I also watched the Beeb’s new adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.
     
    On the whole, I thought this was pretty successful. It seemed to capture the atmosphere of the book pretty well, and the main characters were played by good actors. I particularly liked Mark Gatliss’ Ratty. And while I’ve never liked the one-note samba that is Little Britain, I thought that Matt Lucas did a good job with Toad.
     
    But one thing jarred. I admit that I haven’t read the book for nigh on fifty years, but I don’t think that the Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter came across as well as my memory serves. I’m pretty sure that part of the awe of seeing the god Pan is that he seems gigantic to Ratty and Mole; but in the TV adaptation he’s just a boy with shaggy trousers larking about in a tree. Sometimes the power of imagination is greater than the art (and budget) of the filmmaker… 

  • Torchwood Finale

    The first series of Torchwood came to a conclusion last night on BBC Three with a double episode; one of which I quite liked and one of which I found almost total bollocks from beginning to end.

    I must say that I’ve found watching Torchwood to be a thoroughly dispiriting experience. The characters, with the possible exception of Captain Jack, just make me want to take them aside and slap them across the face hard while saying "stop being so silly!". And the only reason that I make an exception for the Captain is because the character really has had very little to do throughout the whole series, apart from in the penultimate episode.

    This was a half-decent episode, where the Captain and the Toshiko character find themselves trapped in 1941 in a dance hall. The Captain meets the "real" Captain Jack Harkness – i.e. the man whose identity he has assumed. There were some nice touches – the intercutting between current and past time in the dancehall, particularly the moment when we see Gwen in current time and a dancing couple waltzes through the camera shot between us and Gwen. And it was good to see Murray Melvin again as the sinister dance hall manager: Bilis. Melvin does understated menace very well indeed.

    Perhaps the episode worked well for me because the usual flash-bang-wallop style of Torchwood was scaled down in favour of what was almost a simple love story. Except, of course, as befitting a series with Russell T. Davies behind it, this had a twist: it was boy meets boy, and boy loses boy when boy one goes off the next day to be shot down in the war and boy two gets returned to current time. The character of the "real" Jack Harkness was nicely played (by Matt Rippy), moving from comradely confidence to shy confusion as he realises that he is attracted to "Torchwood" Captain Jack. But somehow, given that this was 1941, I thought that it would be unlikely that he would ever be able to make the public declaration of his love in the manner that was depicted in the episode. They made a lovely couple, though.

    But while I’m still wiping a tear from my eye, the final episode undoes all the good and returns Torchwood to its usual level of unremitting silliness. Three of the Torchwood team have visions of their deceased loved ones who tell them to open the time rift. Instead of going "hang on, that was odd, I’d better tell the others about this" – I mean, they are supposed to be a team, aren’t they? – they all keep shtum, thus of course finally ensuring that the rift gets opened. Gwen at least has the benefit of knowing that she’s been given a vision (by Bilis), but clearly hasn’t the nous to understand she’s being used and thus sets up her own Truly, Madly, Deeply moment for Eve Myles, the actress playing Gwen. Mucus dutifully flows in copious amounts, but I just found it tiresome, because that’s all the Torchwood characters have ever seemed to me: tiresome and self-obsessed.

    And when the rift is finally opened, what stomps out? Some big bad CG monster. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I mean, there was plenty of interesting potential in the idea that the initial rifts in time were already causing havoc – the reintroduction of the Black Plague, for instance – and time slippages on a massive scale could in themselves bring about the end of civilisation as we know it. But no, that wasn’t good enough for the scriptwriters, they have to introduce a rather silly giant devil, literally out of thin air. It says a lot for how little this final episode worked for me when I found the most electric moment was hearing the sound of the Tardis at the very end. I wish I could fast-forward to what happens next, back in the Doctor Who storystream, and wipe out all memory of the train-wreck that Torchwood has turned out to be. 

    But, to end on a positive note, earlier yesterday was the pilot episode of yet another Doctor Who spinoff, the Sarah Jane Adventures. OK, it was for children, but it had a fizz and sparkle to it that has been completely missing from Torchwood. And Lis Sladen was as wonderful as ever as Sarah Jane Smith. It can be done, you see. Why did Torchwood go so wrong?

  • Questions From The Edge

    The online magazine Edge asks a question of its contributors each year. The question for 2007 is What are you optimistic about? Why?
     
    The answers start here. And I wish I could share Daniel Dennet’s optimism, but I am much more pessimistic than he is.

  • Reflections From Iraq

    Riverbend is an Iraqi blogger. She reflects on the year, and on Saddam’s execution. Her voice is worth listening to.
     
    (hat tip to Not Saussure for the link)