"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends." (Anton Ego: Ratatouille)
“Way to get out there!” my watch gleefully announces. I watch its face, awaiting any further messages from its GPS ROM that has tracked my every move for months. In any other circumstances that might be a disturbing thought, but here the watch and its sister satellite high above my head record my movements like [...]
Dear all, Announcing the opening of a new Basho website! www.buddhabooks.co.uk I have been writing reviews of books on this site for something like 5 years, also I have – as I am sure you know – a passion for Eastern Philosophy. Finally I can bring them all together! Buddha Books is an editorial review website [...]
I’m an avid reader of New Scientist magazine. In fact I get it every week. The headline will usually be about something “quantum” or allude to some current or near “breakthrough”. Of course real breakthroughs are hardly on a weekly schedule. I know this, but still I buy into it. It is a classic marketing [...]
The story of a simple Buddhist priest travelling from India to China in the 5th Century doesn’t sound like something that would make for an interesting novel, but the after effects of this solitary man’s journey still reverberate today. In all parts of the far east, the name Bodhidharma is still very well known. In Japan, for [...]
Kick Ass is a film that draws a line in the dirt and invites you to place yourself on one side or another. Or, rather, it hands you the stick and asks you to draw your own line. The super hero action genre is ripe for satire as Superman, Spiderman and Batman are leftovers from [...]
The first line of Philip Pullman’s novel reads: This is the story of Jesus and his brother Christ, of how they were born, how they lived and how one of them died. Despite the use of the definite ‘the’ in the first line of Philip Pullman’s new novel, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel [...]
When I was considering taking a year off, I started looking around for a computer that I could take with me on my travels around the world; a laptop. I started with the tiny and cheap eeePC, the first of the netbooks, and I was happy with it. That is until I tried to run [...]
There is a popular, and perhaps even factual adage, which goes like this: “Never upgrade a Windows product; always do a fresh install” Today I put that to the test. I have been Installing and configuring Windows since the days of 3.1. My first exposure to the product range was Windows 2, which my father [...]
Cesca and I sat in the heat of the Mumbai movie theatre around the corner from the Victoria Station – that defining landmark at the centre of the city – and waited for the film to start. All around us were packed in hundreds of the Mumbai crowd. I scanned their faces. The film was [...]
**WARNING** Mild spoilers ahead, nothing that isn’t all over the press. Tropic Thunder has to go down as the film I most want to watch while stoned and drunk. I was neither of these things although I was in New Zealand, which at least was different from being down the Odeon in London. Yes I [...]
What is it with George these days? The last 4 or 5 movies he has been involved with have all been seriously excellent. Whatever is leading to the rhythm he has found, I thank the god's for it...
I have finally finished a long time project (no more procrastination for me!) to scan in all my paintings, drawings and sketches from the last 15 years and post them up here. After all they were not doing any good in my case on my cupboard!
Many people have jumped both onto and off of the iPhone release wagon. First it was touted as the next big thing, a mind blowing, life changing and stylish entry into the phone market. Bringing with it some amazing connectivity apps and the Apple pledge “that if you used this phone then you were officially cool” Even the price wasn't putting too many people off.
Last night I took my mother to see a master performance of this most difficult of plays. Macbeth:The Scottish play. Lead actor, Patrick Stewart, is magical; not just his deep famous voice, but for an ability to inject new life into words that are so well known the entire audience could speak them alongside him [...]
Do you recognise the following quotes? “I have seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” “This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.” “You know nothing. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse.” “Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave?” “So, what’s it like down there, in a submarine?” [...]
Not since ancient times has a movie so polarized critical opinion. Is the movie racist? Was it boo’ed in Germany? Did the London Metro really give it 1 star? It seems that the Spartans continue to confound today’s commentators as much as they did their contemporary Greek states. I saw the movie last night in [...]
**SPOLIERS ahead!** You too will believe a man can fly. Superman Returns has two heroes in it. Not just the man in tights, there is also the man who has almost-married Lois. For while the man of steel may be in the limelight I would have to go a long way to see a better man than [...]
“Spamalot!” “Spamalot!” “Spamalot!” “It’s only a stage show.” “Shhh. Knights, I bid you welcome to the West End! Let us ride to… Spamalot!” I was only saying to the wife on Monday morning, as we negotiated the tube and industriously ignored the crowds who could hear every word in 5.1, that I would like to [...]
**SLIGHT SPOILERS** I have just got back from watching Children of Men (advert) at the cinema. I will probably write in more detail later, but here are my initial thoughts. Firstly, this is a great bit of film making, but traditional in theme. It is basically a road movie; that is a movie about going somewhere [...]
There is an old adage that says: “If it isn’t broken then don’t fix it.” Oblivion is an attempt to improve on near perfection, to reach the unreachable and to grasp two birds with one in the hand. How does it fare? I am going to recount my first few hours and nights in the [...]
At long last the task is finished. The Soul Edge is mine. A weapon of such awesome power that gravity itself appears affected when the mighty energies contained within this weapon are unleashed.
This is the Samurai version of The Great Escape. Why? Because it is basically a real story with a token yank dropped in to make it sell in America. The real Samurai in question was Saigo Takamori who was one of the key figures in the Meiji Restoration. The rest of the story is [...]
**Please note that this entry is my diary of my quest for the Ghoulbane** **CONTAINS SPOILERS!** **Current version: 2.0 – Added pictures of TOV** My Quest for the Ghoulbane. I had been adventuring in the Thundering Steppes for a while and slowly completing the Guardian Armour Quests when I heard of a quest for the [...]
** WARNING SOME BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD – AS MARKED** I have just finished the new Neil Stephenson book “The System of the World”, it being the third part of his “Baroque Cycle”. It is fair enough to say that I am mightily impressed. The three books taken together form a minor masterpiece of literature and, [...]
