Considering
just how many zombie stories have been told and the limitations of the subject
you wouldn’t think there was anything new that could be done. Though not
strictly speaking a zombie film, The Girl
with all the Gifts uses the choreography of the genre but in an intelligent
new way. In fact the z-word is not even mentioned. The result is a frequently
thrilling yet thought provoking British film that is well worth seeing provided
you don’t mind some gore and blood of course!
A blog about new and old culture + photo posts and more. Also visit my alt blog : thiswayupzinealt.blogspot.com / Website: www.johnconnorswriter.com / Instagram: johnconnors100 / X (aka Twitter) @JohnConnors100
28/09/2016
25/09/2016
The Inconvenient Truth about Jeremy Corbyn
Nobody
was too surprised to see Jeremy Corbyn re-elected as Labour Party leader except
perhaps those who had vehemently opposed him. Their vigour in doing so failed
to achieve anything except both reinforce and strengthen Corbyn’s hold on the
post which he seems likely to keep until the next election at least. His
opponents’ strategy appeared to be to treat both the incumbent and the Momentum
movement as some kind of invading enemy. “They” have infiltrated our party, it
was declared and made it unelectable. The inconvenient truth that they failed
to grasp- or perhaps did not even recognise- is that Corbyn is the most
traditional Labour leader in over thirty years. His and Momentum’s ideals are
much, much closer to Labour than anything Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed
Miliband had to offer. If you flip it over it is Blair and co who were the
invaders, changing Labour beyond recognition, and now the party has taken back
its purpose and re-linked with its origins.
23/09/2016
Top of the Pops 24 Sept 1981
Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4 and being watched by Chris Arnsby (and presumably others)
Noddy
Holder: "LOCK UP YER DAUGHTERS!"
Simon
Bates: "Just 35 minutes away from Britain's number one. Welcome to Top of
the Pops with a good loud start from Slade. Right over here."
Slade:
Lock Up Your Daughters [45]. I was going to speculate on how many years it
has been since Slade were on Top of the Pops but its actually only been
seven months. They were last on in February singing We'll Bring The House Down.
Shortly before the start of the Joe Dolce Music Theatre's reign of terror.
Noddy Holder is on fine Tom Baker style eye-bulging form and this is a song
which deserved to do better than the number 29 it reached. Vision Mixer Carol
Abbott and the camera crew (Top of the Pops has started crediting the
Senior Cameraman, this week it's Geoff Feld) are on fine form, and capture some
nice images; the best being a shot of the drummer through the guitarist's legs
(the one that's not Noddy Holder or Dave Hill... I'm going out on a limb and
guessing Dave Lea).
Slade: Lock Up Your Daughters. Clearly an instruction that was not followed by many. |
16/09/2016
Things you don't see in pubs any more
Pies on plastic shelves
Pub food
never used to be associated with good food and generally people did not even
entertain the idea of having a meal at the pub. However there was food- of a kind- if you were peckish.
Nobody expected a menu because essentially there was one option and that was a
pie. These were those pies with very thick pastry which of course makes them
look voluminous but doesn’t guarantee the amount of meat inside. The filling
itself would be mincemeat and assorted hard to chew bits. People never really
dwelt on what they were. These pies could be warmed up in a microwave oven but
the real issue was- just how long had they been there? Traditionally they sat
on one of three shelves in a plastic unit somewhere on the bar. This wasn’t
refrigerated so depending on the temperature you might not even need to have
your pie warmed up! You’d go in one week after another and this selection of
pies would be sat there and you never knew whether they were the same ones from
last week. Or indeed last month. You could opt for a cold pork pie of similar
dimensions; you’ll notice the absence of the word `enjoy` there. Nowadays pubs
offer properly cooked food of endless variety but perhaps it would be nice if
they could have a pie on a shelf display. The pies would of course be plastic –
come to think of it, weren’t they always?
14/09/2016
Breadxit!
The Great British Bake Off will never be the same again.
On the
face of it a programme moving from one channel to another should not make much
of a stir in this day and age. After all we are continuously told that people
don’t bother with scheduled TV much now and prefer to watch on demand
However the news that The Great British
Bake Off will be moving to Channel 4 next year has provoked quite a furore (plus
some witty headlines). More than anything It seems to symbolise the declining power
of the BBC which is snared in a trap whereby success is discouraged. Which
rather seems at odds with the idea that it is a public service broadcaster
therefore should offer what a lot of people (ie licence fee payers) actually
want to see. People have (rightly) made a fuss about this yet just a few months
ago wasn’t there a call for the Corporation to offload its greatest successes
and not try to compete with commercial channels? The BBC cannot do both so
which is it to be? Or is this just another cut in a death by a thousand cuts?
09/09/2016
Top of the Pops 17 Sept 1981
Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4. Watched by Chris Arnsby.
Steve
Wright: "Good evening it's another Top of the Pops. Yes it is. We've got a
great show for you tonight, and we're going to kick off with this lot over
here. It's Gidea Park and Seasons of Gold."
Gidea
Park: Seasons of Gold [35]. Who knew that Gidea Park (the biggest bunch of
blow-dried nitwits you've ever seen, and this is 1981 you can't throw a stone
without hitting a bunch of blow-dried idiots) would make me nostalgic for The
Dooleys. Come back Jim, John, Frank, Kathy, Anne, Helen, Alan, and Bob. All is
forgiven. This time Gidea Park are "performing" a terrible Four
Seasons medley. Yet another one. In a year that has seen medleys clog the charts. Why were people
buying them? Did they just enjoy the tremendous sense of value they offered?
Why buy ten records when you could buy one that Frankensteinised ten together?
I've decided that one of my reasons for hating Gidea Park is because they feel
the need to introduce each record. Beach Boys Gold started, "we'll remember
always the golden Beach Boys sound." Now Seasons of Gold starts, "the
memories there to unfold, so many reasons to recapture that musical gold,
remember the Four Seasons." Did Gidea Park really think their audience was
so stupid they needed to be reminded which group's songs they were about to
hear, and of the concept of medleys?
Although to be fair, these people would have just brought a Gidea Park
record so they are idiots.
02/09/2016
What on earth is the Internet of Things?
And will it be a good thing?
There’s always another IT development lurking around the corner and there’s been talk recently of “the Internet of Things” being the next step in our increasingly high tech world. It’s even been called `The Fourth Industrial Revolution`. So what on earth is it? Well it’s described as “a proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.” Which means that you would potentially be able to have your kettle start boiling water while you’re still walking up the road to your home or you could press a few buttons to start your washing machine even if you were hundreds of miles away. Of course you would still have to have put the water in the kettle or the washing in the machine for this to work! IOT is much more than just that though..
There’s always another IT development lurking around the corner and there’s been talk recently of “the Internet of Things” being the next step in our increasingly high tech world. It’s even been called `The Fourth Industrial Revolution`. So what on earth is it? Well it’s described as “a proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.” Which means that you would potentially be able to have your kettle start boiling water while you’re still walking up the road to your home or you could press a few buttons to start your washing machine even if you were hundreds of miles away. Of course you would still have to have put the water in the kettle or the washing in the machine for this to work! IOT is much more than just that though..
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