barrymarshall

It was the a film liked by people who really don't know how racism works, especially in a cosmopolitan city like LA. The only people who liked this film are the ones who don't encounter racism. The film was really in-you-face with earnest "issues" but it all boils down to a bunch of stereotypes trapped in a duff, sub-Magnolia (and that was another over-rated film) story-telling structure. The film is self-congratulatory. It's the kind of "quality" product that Hollywood serves up a couple of times per year that the broadsheets go crazy over but are actually generally rubbish.

The recent film Crash (not the Cronenberg one). I know loads of people liked it and saw it as an accurate portrayal of "race" and racism in modern America and it got rave reviews and awards, but I found the plot contrived and its presentation of the situation totally unrealistic.

skull fracture aged three broken leg aged four (both from being run over by cars) also broken a toe aged twenty-eight (err, pissed!)

ooh no - do like the Bonnie Prince. I know it's not music, MP, but have you seen him in an early role in a 1987 film called Matewan? He plays a young radical preacher in a community of coal miners fighting to form a union in the bad old days. Superb stuff - a host of greats are in it too - James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Chris Cooper ...

Dunno if this has been posted before but by Boards of Canada is a top tune and quality vid too.

I had a dream the night before last that was all in computer graphics - I was flying around a 3-D virtual world set in the future - everything was shiny and all the buildings had magnificent architecture. Weird. But cool.

mockney piers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyone got the new British Sea Power album, I > think it's out today. > Sadly I may have to wait, with Fopp closed and now > Zavvi/Virgin shut, I am shopless :( MP: the Fopp branch by Covent Garden is now open again.

when is the next drinks, just out of interest? i missed the last one ...

yeah, the biggie for me is that PS3 supports Blu-ray and has a brilliant processing engine that upscales standard DVDs miles better than most bog-standard DVD players, like my Samsung.

okay - cheers - I keep checking Play, Amazon, etc., regularly, but I guess I'll have to pound the old pavement. The PS3 is alright actually - there are a few decent titles - and for me it beats the 360, though the Microsoft machine has been out for longer and has a bigger back catalogue. I think you can do more with a PS3. Mind, a Wii is what I's after the noo.

Dunno if this has been discussed much of late (did a search but nowt came up), but does anyone have any clue when the Wii shortage might be coming to an end? I should have bought one back in October when I had the chance, but my flatmate got a PS3 about the same time so I decided to hold off until just after Xmas. Big mistake!

it's great Keef - there are few other shows to touch it. Me, I've just begun Series three.

well, I took the DLR last month out to Canary Wharf for a meeting - I was running late and forgot to touch in at Tower Hill. I changed at Shadwell and tried to find a card reader, but couldn't see one on the platform so just got on the train anyway, thinking I'd be alright. Of course, ticket inspector hops on as soon as the doors start to close! But I went straight to him and explained and he let me off! Phew!

they're into everything - cars, steel, power, industry, technology, tea, communications ...

SimonM - Tata is the biggest company in India, a bit like what Mitsubishi is to Japan or Daewoo is to South Korea, and a brand name that in a few years everyone will know.

Cassius Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Has anyone else said bendy buses? I hate them - > ugly and unsuitable for London - oh AND they are > the 'free buses' for those who prefer not to pay! but it's a risky game, fare-dodging. Plenty of times have I had my oyster checked on the 12 route - and I don't use it that often - and I've seen quite a few unlucky sods get stung by fines.

lozzyloz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > CPT isn't children free ;-) hehehe!

and that's pretty good mix of types of boozer too, so it's not like people are restricted in their choice of child-free watering holes, if that is what they desire.

Okay - if you don't like kids in pubs you can drink in the following establishments: Inside72 CPT EDT Black Cherry there are probably a few more in the town. It's not hard to find pubs without children in them!

Elvis - cool! Wizzard - .... hmmm, er, yeah, exactly!

yeah, vile isn't it? But it's the norm *sigh* bring back the guillotine! orf with all their heads!

Heart of Glass was number one in the UK on the day I was born - Feb 21st 1979. I think that's a pretty cool song to have at the top of the charts on the day you enter the world. http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/index.php Anyone else?

Blair takes US$1m per year job to advise JP Morgan. Just as ex-PM John Major went to private equity firm Carlyle Group, so Blair joins the ranks of ex-public servants working for the running dogs of world capitalism. If anyone needed any proof of the incestuous relationship between politics and big business, look no further. (In fact, dig a lot deeper, read Private Eye, it's full of this kind of stuff.)

Sony-Ericsson phones are great expect for one fatal flaw - if you are in predictive text-messaging mode it is impossible to spell words that are not in the dictionary without going out of the message into a separate sub-screen. It is little things like that that make the difference, IMO, rather than how great the camera is (which I never use anyway).

does melted cheese and tomato scald or burn? dunno - but I reckon there's a PhD in it if someone can find the answer