Thursday, February 14, 2008
For the day that's in it
His most romantic song? I'd say so. Apart from Drive All Night which is too long to post and besides, you'd probably need a lie-down afterwards.
The Tougher Than The Restvideo was supposedly recorded around the time that Bruce and his missus first got together. You can tell, can't you?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
About damn time..
It's good to read this morning that Steve Spielberg has resigned his post as artistic advisor to this year's Olympic Games in Beijing. Given China's support, or lack of condemnation of the conflict in Sudan his conscience will no loner allow him to continue. Considering he wrote to the Chinese government last April asking them to take action and received no reply, it's hard to see why it's taken him this long to act. Perhaps he just wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway, it's right and proper thart he's resigned and he should be appluaded for it but I found this part of the report a little annoying. "At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur." Surely by quitting he's done enough. The publicity will hurt the Chinese, or the Olympics at least, and that's all he can really achieve. In the meantime, his time and energy should be spent on the new Indiana Jones film.
Like all the other movie stars who like to get involved in these things, don't you wish that he should stick to what he does best?
Still - well done, that man.
Anyway, it's right and proper thart he's resigned and he should be appluaded for it but I found this part of the report a little annoying. "At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur." Surely by quitting he's done enough. The publicity will hurt the Chinese, or the Olympics at least, and that's all he can really achieve. In the meantime, his time and energy should be spent on the new Indiana Jones film.
Like all the other movie stars who like to get involved in these things, don't you wish that he should stick to what he does best?
Still - well done, that man.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Before the Devil Knows You're Egged
I've been catching up on some new films over the last few weeks. There's a lot or really well reviewd films on release this monhth and after a quiet November and December, I'm going to try to catch as many as I can over the next few weeks.. Since the middle of January I've managed to see Charlie Wilson's War (flawed but entertaining), No Country for Old Men (every bit as good as all the reviews said it was), Alvin and The Chipmunks (Hey - I was with a bunch of kids. And it's great!), Definitey, Maybe (rather good as it turns out), and, last night, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.
'Devil' is terrific - a good old fashioned heist-gone-wrong movie with no heroes and no winners. Instead it's got a fractured family, 2 very badly behaved sons and a rapidly closing circle of paranoia, fear and despair. Not a comedy, so.. Right from the start (when we're shown the heist going tragically wrong) we're dragged into a world which it's hard to see any way out of for all of the main characters. As great as it is, I was quite happy when it ended and I could get out and back to the real world..
I was walking home from the cinema (it's about a 25 minute walk) with no music to listen to and was thinking about the film. It was a tough one to sit through and I was reflecting on what happens when lives go wrong and people run out of choices. The streets were fairly quiet and I was texting my girlfriend and generally paying little attention to what else was going on around me. Suddenly, and I don't really know how to put this, I was hit in the face. BANG! Something hit me really hard on my left cheek & mouth and shattered on the ground. It took me a second to realise that someone in a passing car had thrown an egg at me and hit the target. I looked around but the car was long gone. The thing that struck me (beside the egg) was that there was no cheering or shouting from the car. You'd expect whoever did it (and I'm assuming it was a he and that he wasn't alone) would have made some sort of celebratory shout but the car just kept on going leaving me with a sore face and an eggy jacket..
It's weird when something like that happens. What are you supposed to think? I mean - am I a victim of a crime? I don't imagine the police would be very interested.. Was it a practical joke? What would have happened if the egg was a little higher and hit my eye? As it is, I've got a sore cheek and a puffy lip. Was I targeted specifically? I was in a drive-by egging for God's sake! Was the egg free-range? Organic? As I walked on I saw lots of cracked eggs on the pavement so clearly I was just a random punter getting on the wrong end of someone's good aim..
It's a strange one though. Of course, I can see the funny side of it and it really only smarted for a few minutes but you do wonder about the randomness of it. Try to get in the minds of the people in the car. What are they getting out of it? I mean, by the time they've hit the target, they're gone so they wouldn't necessarily have seen if they were successful. I didn't hit the groung clutching my face and crying "They Got Me!! I'm Down!!" I was a brave soldier. An Eggy Soldier, if you will. Is it boredom or badness that makes people do things like this? I was talking to my niece the other night. She lives in a nice house, has everything she wants (ipods, phones etc.) and when I asked her how things were she said she was bored. Not bored with the night in question or bored with the company (although she's 14 so that's probably a given) but just generally bored. It can't be boredom that makes teenagers get in cars and chuck eggs at strangers, can it?
It wasn't a completely negative experience though. I learnt an important lesson. I'm not sure who originally said that comedy was tragedy plus time but I never really bought it until last night. I got to my girlfriend's house and she answered the door to my red face and my eggy jacket. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and in need of some comforting. What did she do? She laughed. And laughed. And then she fell over and laughed some more! I was annoyed for about 20 seconds and then it all just seemed funny. A sore lip and a dry cleaning bill is hardly something to get worked up about.
Still - I'm determined that it's not going to stop me eating eggs. After all, if that happens then the terrorists have won, right?
So, in order to keep our sunny side up, let's finish with a joke.
Q: Why do the French only eat one egg for breakfast?
A: Because in France, one egg is an ouef.
I crack me up!
'Devil' is terrific - a good old fashioned heist-gone-wrong movie with no heroes and no winners. Instead it's got a fractured family, 2 very badly behaved sons and a rapidly closing circle of paranoia, fear and despair. Not a comedy, so.. Right from the start (when we're shown the heist going tragically wrong) we're dragged into a world which it's hard to see any way out of for all of the main characters. As great as it is, I was quite happy when it ended and I could get out and back to the real world..
I was walking home from the cinema (it's about a 25 minute walk) with no music to listen to and was thinking about the film. It was a tough one to sit through and I was reflecting on what happens when lives go wrong and people run out of choices. The streets were fairly quiet and I was texting my girlfriend and generally paying little attention to what else was going on around me. Suddenly, and I don't really know how to put this, I was hit in the face. BANG! Something hit me really hard on my left cheek & mouth and shattered on the ground. It took me a second to realise that someone in a passing car had thrown an egg at me and hit the target. I looked around but the car was long gone. The thing that struck me (beside the egg) was that there was no cheering or shouting from the car. You'd expect whoever did it (and I'm assuming it was a he and that he wasn't alone) would have made some sort of celebratory shout but the car just kept on going leaving me with a sore face and an eggy jacket..
It's weird when something like that happens. What are you supposed to think? I mean - am I a victim of a crime? I don't imagine the police would be very interested.. Was it a practical joke? What would have happened if the egg was a little higher and hit my eye? As it is, I've got a sore cheek and a puffy lip. Was I targeted specifically? I was in a drive-by egging for God's sake! Was the egg free-range? Organic? As I walked on I saw lots of cracked eggs on the pavement so clearly I was just a random punter getting on the wrong end of someone's good aim..
It's a strange one though. Of course, I can see the funny side of it and it really only smarted for a few minutes but you do wonder about the randomness of it. Try to get in the minds of the people in the car. What are they getting out of it? I mean, by the time they've hit the target, they're gone so they wouldn't necessarily have seen if they were successful. I didn't hit the groung clutching my face and crying "They Got Me!! I'm Down!!" I was a brave soldier. An Eggy Soldier, if you will. Is it boredom or badness that makes people do things like this? I was talking to my niece the other night. She lives in a nice house, has everything she wants (ipods, phones etc.) and when I asked her how things were she said she was bored. Not bored with the night in question or bored with the company (although she's 14 so that's probably a given) but just generally bored. It can't be boredom that makes teenagers get in cars and chuck eggs at strangers, can it?
It wasn't a completely negative experience though. I learnt an important lesson. I'm not sure who originally said that comedy was tragedy plus time but I never really bought it until last night. I got to my girlfriend's house and she answered the door to my red face and my eggy jacket. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and in need of some comforting. What did she do? She laughed. And laughed. And then she fell over and laughed some more! I was annoyed for about 20 seconds and then it all just seemed funny. A sore lip and a dry cleaning bill is hardly something to get worked up about.
Still - I'm determined that it's not going to stop me eating eggs. After all, if that happens then the terrorists have won, right?
So, in order to keep our sunny side up, let's finish with a joke.
Q: Why do the French only eat one egg for breakfast?
A: Because in France, one egg is an ouef.
I crack me up!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
No such thing as bad publicity..
The last thing I want to do is spend all my time talking about airlines but...
Most people will have heard the news about the case Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni have taken against Ryanair. The airline used a picture of the couple in a newspaper ad in France without their permission and they took separate actions seeking €500,000 for her (apparently that's the going rate if you want to use her image for advertising) and €1 for him. Sarkozy was only seeking €1 as some kind of symbolic act. It's hard to imagine that he doesn't think he's worth much more. In the end the courts found in their favour and awarded Bruni a more realistic €60,000 while Sarkozy got his €1..
Ryanair were typically bullish afterwards and claimed that it would have cost a lot more than €60,000 to get the attention and coverage that the case brought them. I'm sure they're right.
Another case involving Ryanair that didn't get nearly as much attention was also settled this week. 5 members of a calypso band were marched off a flight from Sardinia to London at gunpoint because a fellow passenger (a psychology professor) thought they were terrorists. The captain of the flight decided to remove them when some other passengers and members of staff refused to travel if the 'terrorists' stayed on the flight. The men's offences appear to involve sitting separately on the plane and generally looking a bit dodgy. One of them appeared to be blind but had a newspaper on his lap (actually he was blind but you know how easy it is to play blind). The scoundrel! Does it need to be pointed out that none of the men were white?
In the end they were given the all-clear and travelled on the next available flight which got them to Liverpool. They had to spend the night in the bus station there because by the time they got there they were too late to catch a coach to London.
Anyway, the case was heard yesterday and Ryanair, who have so far failed to apologise for the inconvenience (and inconvenience is putting it mildly), were ordered to pay each of them £1,116.
So in summary, the black musicians get just over a grand for (according to a professor) looking like terrorists, getting marched off a plan at gunpoint, spending a night sleeping in a bus station and missing out on New Year's celebrations with their families. And the glamourous politician and his supermodel wife get €60,001 for an irreverent ad in the newspaper..
Oh, and this bit you couldn't make up, Ryanair are appealing the decision.
Doesn't seem quite right, does it?
Most people will have heard the news about the case Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni have taken against Ryanair. The airline used a picture of the couple in a newspaper ad in France without their permission and they took separate actions seeking €500,000 for her (apparently that's the going rate if you want to use her image for advertising) and €1 for him. Sarkozy was only seeking €1 as some kind of symbolic act. It's hard to imagine that he doesn't think he's worth much more. In the end the courts found in their favour and awarded Bruni a more realistic €60,000 while Sarkozy got his €1..
Ryanair were typically bullish afterwards and claimed that it would have cost a lot more than €60,000 to get the attention and coverage that the case brought them. I'm sure they're right.
Another case involving Ryanair that didn't get nearly as much attention was also settled this week. 5 members of a calypso band were marched off a flight from Sardinia to London at gunpoint because a fellow passenger (a psychology professor) thought they were terrorists. The captain of the flight decided to remove them when some other passengers and members of staff refused to travel if the 'terrorists' stayed on the flight. The men's offences appear to involve sitting separately on the plane and generally looking a bit dodgy. One of them appeared to be blind but had a newspaper on his lap (actually he was blind but you know how easy it is to play blind). The scoundrel! Does it need to be pointed out that none of the men were white?
In the end they were given the all-clear and travelled on the next available flight which got them to Liverpool. They had to spend the night in the bus station there because by the time they got there they were too late to catch a coach to London.
Anyway, the case was heard yesterday and Ryanair, who have so far failed to apologise for the inconvenience (and inconvenience is putting it mildly), were ordered to pay each of them £1,116.
So in summary, the black musicians get just over a grand for (according to a professor) looking like terrorists, getting marched off a plan at gunpoint, spending a night sleeping in a bus station and missing out on New Year's celebrations with their families. And the glamourous politician and his supermodel wife get €60,001 for an irreverent ad in the newspaper..
Oh, and this bit you couldn't make up, Ryanair are appealing the decision.
Doesn't seem quite right, does it?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Price is Wrong
So, a follow up ot that post about Irish Ferries.. I'm going to Prague in April to visit an old friend. I booked my flight with aer lingus this afternoon and came to this little section on the site..
Unlike Irish Ferries, who as I said before, don't have any extra hidden charges, aer lingus and ryanair expect their passengers to pay to take luggage with them on the flight. It's €9 each way for one bag. Or, and here's where the bargain is, €18 return. So let's see: two individual payments of €9 or one payment of bugger-all. Thanks for that, lads.
Not to worry - i'm going to Prague. Which reminds me - what's Czech for sausage, egg and chips?
Unlike Irish Ferries, who as I said before, don't have any extra hidden charges, aer lingus and ryanair expect their passengers to pay to take luggage with them on the flight. It's €9 each way for one bag. Or, and here's where the bargain is, €18 return. So let's see: two individual payments of €9 or one payment of bugger-all. Thanks for that, lads.Not to worry - i'm going to Prague. Which reminds me - what's Czech for sausage, egg and chips?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
What's Irish for Too Little Too Late?
I see Bertie Ahern has criticised Aer Lingus for changing their policy of making announcements in Irish and English on their flights out of Belfast. Isn't it curious that he didn't have anything at all to say when Aer Lingus cancelled their flight schedule from Shannon to London in January yet he managed to rouse himself to comment on this issue? I'm sure the people in Shannon who lost their jobs wil be pleased that Bertie is defending the use of their national language, since he didn't seem too concerned about their livelihoods..
I had to laugh too at breakingnews.ie translating the little bits of Irish in the article (cuple focal and Failte romhaibh chuig an mBruiseil) into Englsh. In the interest of all concerned parties, however, shouldn't they have translated the rest of the document into Irish?
Joking aside, I think I'm with Bertie and Enda Kenny on this one. A lot of the work we do for Government agencies has to be produced in Irish as well as English. Annual Reports for public companies are printed in both languages too. Sometimes it seems like a monumental waste of time to spend days producing a document in Irish that you know will only be printed in very small numbers and never taken from the shelf. For all the incovenience though, I'm quite proud of it and would be sad if we stopped having to produce these Irish documents. The Irish language is part of our heritage and it should be protected when necessary and encouraged when possible.
Which reminds me, what's Irish for sausage, egg and chips...
I had to laugh too at breakingnews.ie translating the little bits of Irish in the article (cuple focal and Failte romhaibh chuig an mBruiseil) into Englsh. In the interest of all concerned parties, however, shouldn't they have translated the rest of the document into Irish?
Joking aside, I think I'm with Bertie and Enda Kenny on this one. A lot of the work we do for Government agencies has to be produced in Irish as well as English. Annual Reports for public companies are printed in both languages too. Sometimes it seems like a monumental waste of time to spend days producing a document in Irish that you know will only be printed in very small numbers and never taken from the shelf. For all the incovenience though, I'm quite proud of it and would be sad if we stopped having to produce these Irish documents. The Irish language is part of our heritage and it should be protected when necessary and encouraged when possible.
Which reminds me, what's Irish for sausage, egg and chips...
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