Watching - September 2022

Miss Americana (2020)

I came across Taylor Swift's Tiny Desk Concert while browsing for more music, and enjoyed it very much, and in reading around the subject (as I tend to), I saw reviews for Miss Americana. I enjoyed it a great deal: I liked the way it managed to compress a view of the madness of celebrity at that kind of scale with a view of the human at the centre of it. Inevitably there's a slight feel of artifice, because do people really film themselves at random moments, and how do we know that wasn't the fifth take? But I don't know how you'd avoid that, and it seemed genuine and heartfelt to me. Towards the end she says that she's very conscious of the saying that famous people get frozen at the age they become famous, and how she's trying to ensure she avoids that. I can't imagine how hard it must be to grow up in that kind of spotlight, just like I can't comprehend the kind of drive it takes to achieve what she has. I'm kind of in awe of it, to be honest.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

I read the book back in 2014 (iirc I found it at the book exchange at work - not an obvious book to be found in a very male-dominated environment) and thought it was amusing but over-simplistic, like an attempt to view life as if it was a romcom. And lo and behold, they made a romcom out of it! It's a ensemble cast with multiple stories intertwining and no, not all of them are happy-ever-after, but the overall message still seems simplistic. And if some of the scenes are moving, some are just cringey. Passes the time well enough though.

Working Girl (1988)

Possibly one of the archetypal 80s films, capturing that decade's aspirational sense of destiny and empowerment, plus a whole load of hairspray and shoulder pads. Sigourney Weaver is superb, Melanie Griffith does the Pygmalion-style transformation pretty well (also she's gorgeous, in a very 80s way, which perhaps says something about my age), and Joan Cusack is wonderfully Noo Yoik. And the opening combination of the Staten Island ferry crossing to the New York skyline with Carly Simon's amazing modern day hymn "Let the River Run" playing is just wonderful. Very enjoyable. (Also, I discovered Radio 4's Soul Music via its episode on the song)

Paddington (2014)

Showing on BBC1 while we were having dinner, and natural family viewing. I hadn't seen it for a while. I love the stylised, highly coloured version of London (although it is clearly a fantasy), and also the way the film makes clear that Paddington is an allegory for all immigrants - although I believe Michael Bond's original inspiration were the Jewish Kindertransport children from Germany rather than the Windrush generation that the film implies with its use of calypso music.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

I do love a good romcom and the genre dates back a long time - and if Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed, many of the earliest were the best. I'm not so sure there isn't a certain amount of rose-tinted spectacles going on here though, as I was distinctly underwhelmed by this. It's silly and far-fetched and I couldn't really get past the one-dimensional characters either. Still, I can say I've seen it now.

Stewart Lee: Snowflake (2022)

Judging by a thread on the guitar forum I frequent, Stewart Lee can be a bit divisive. I personally think he can be hilarious and tedious at different times. There's a point in this where he keeps saying "for example, this actually happened" that had me in tears. Then later he's showing Ricky Gervais attempting to "say the unsayable" where I was hoping it would end soon. My understanding of what he's doing - which isn't "just jokes" - was enhanced considerably by reading his books. Anyway, this was funny.

Broadcast News (1987)

Another classic romcom, it says here, although this is a little less obviously rom or com than I expected, and more of a drama - but a very good one. The script and performances are nicely nuanced - for example, I like the way that it would have been easy to portray Tom (William Hurt's character) as just a handsome simpleton, but it slowly becomes apparent that he has his own skills. Holly Hunter is the centre of the film and spectacular with it, which makes me wonder why she wasn't a huge star after this. But the film does raise other questions: what's romantic about a film where no-one actually gets together? And is Joan Cusack in every eighties film?

The Sure Thing (1985)

More eighties romcoms, in this case one of my favourites and starring John Cusack this time, instead of his older sister. It's funny, so sweet and, yes, romantic. Cusack looks very young (he would have been about 18 or 19 at the time) but his personality and style are already coming through, and Daphne Zuniga is perfect as a slightly uptight, bookish girl who learns to relax a bit. The clichés are fairly abundant but it doesn't spoil the film for me as Cusack is so cool and Zuniga so cute. Although the dreadful saxophone-laden ballad at the end might just count as the most eighties thing ever.

Watching - August 2022

The Railway Children (1970)

Presumably on iPlayer following Bernard Cribbins' sad recent death, and mentioned a fair amount in his autobiography, so it seemed a nice thing to watch on an afternoon off, as it's a classic I've never seen before. Sweet and sentimental, dated and clunky, and old-fashioned when it was made, no doubt, it was nevertheless a nice film to pass the time with.

You've Got Mail (1998)

Sweet but a little unbalanced, mainly because Meg Ryan's character goes from finding Tom Hanks really annoying to falling in love with him in too short a time, compared with how long she is annoyed with him. But there's lot's of sentimental moments and a nice ending.

Reading - August 2022

For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming (1960)

A collection of five short stories. Three of them have titles that will be familiar: "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only" (I always hear Sheena Easton in my head as soon as I read those words!) and "Quantam of Solace", which now seem like classic titles for films, of course, although the plots of the stories here bear no relation to those of the films with which they share their names. And yet the other two stories have terrible titles for films: "Risico" - clearly some sort of South American cop/buddy film - and "The Hildebrand Rarity", which would be a dry, character study of an elderly historian and would therefore be a shoe-in at award season. Anyway, the stories here are entertaining but now essentially period pieces because of their attitude to women, which is now glaringly sexist and borderline off-putting. I don't remember the other Bond novels being quite this bad in this respect.

Bernard Who? by Bernard Cribbins (2018)

I think this would work much better as an audiobook, read by the man himself (although I can't tell if such a thing exists, oddly). The style is very much his, a chatty, anecdotal wander through his life. I found it made for a nice easy read but too many of the stories seemed like they lost something on the page - or perhaps they weren't very funny in the first place. Still, he seems to have had a nice life, and I'm pleased I found this in the library a couple of days after reading his obituary.

Rude Kids: The Inside Story of Viz by Chris Donald (2004)

I was never much interested in Viz: after buying the obligatory couple of issues when I was a student (at its publishing height in the late 80s, it turns out), I found it amusing but repetitive and never bothered again. However, I saw a recommendation for this book by Chris Donald, Viz's founder and editor for just over twenty years, and I'm pleased I bothered. He's frank, funny and acerbic, describing some of the nonsense around the amazing rise of the magazine with an outsider's eye and a keen sense of the ridiculous. I'm also amazed to discover it's still going, another twenty years later. I might go so far as to flick through it next time I see a copy in WH Smith.

Laughter in the Rain by Debbie Macomber (1986)

Potboiler romance that I thought would be more interesting than it is. Very slight and yet too long, as the plot becomes repetitious.

Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace by Kate Forster (2021)

This is better - a more complex (for relative values of "complex") romance with some depth to it. I liked the view from multiple characters' perspectives, casting new light on what had previously seemed like one-dimensional behaviour. The two main people had too many silly misunderstandings, and too much over-reaction to them for my liking, but overall it's a sweet story with a happy ending.

When Harry Met Sally by Nora Ephron (1989)

I'm reading a book about screen writing at the moment, which says you can find plenty of screenplays on the internet. I put it to the test and found this. It's a quick read (less than an hour) and, of course, it just replays the film in my head because I know it very well! I think the book means you should study it more ...

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)

Sweet but derivative "literary" SF.

Why is Sex Fun? by Jared Diamond (1997)

Similar in content to the equally misleadingly titled The Secrets of Love and Lust, this is not a how-to manual but a popsci guide to human sexuality, wherein it attempts to explain it in evolutionary terms and by comparison with other animals. Diamond highlights some of the unusual aspects of human sexuality and reproduction, such as concealed ovulation and the menopause, but, crucially, doesn't actually answer the book's title. I could attempt an explanation based on the themes (why do humans enjoy sex? Because historically those that did were more likely to reproduce) but I would have been more interested in what the experts think here!

Out of Time by Miranda Sawyer (2016)

In the last chapter, Sawyer explains that this book was written, as much as anything, as a way through her own mid-life crisis. The sub-title - "midlife, if you still think you're young" - kind of gives the game away: it's for people who never grew up, never wanted to or never believed they had or would. Maybe that's more prevalent in certain types of jobs or life-styles, maybe those in the media perhaps? Much of what she has has to say is interesting but I can't feel it applies much to me. It could be that I've missed my mid-life crisis, or it hasn't happened yet, or it's happening right now and I won't realise until five years' time, but not much resonated.

Moonraker by Ian Fleming (1955)

I started reading a copy at work that I had found in the book exchange and remembered what a good story it is - and nice and short too! Of its time, but classic.

Fugutive from the Cubicle Police by Scott Adams (1996)

This book was in an abandoned cupboard at work, and at the back was a printed newsletter dated 1998. This all seems appropriate. However, I should have checked, as I read this eight years ago and found it hit and miss then, so could have saved myself the bother this time round. Scott Adams has developed an odd crush on Trump in recent years and has generally become a bit weird, but sometimes Dilbert hits the mark.

Journey to Cubeville by Scott Adams (1998)

The second of three Scott Adams books I found. Since Dilbert is hit and miss (somewhat understandable for a daily cartoon), repackaging all the strips from two years as a book seems a little pointless. That said, I'm guessing it worked for Adams.

Bounce by Matthew Syed (2010)

Syed examines the idea (probably) first given mass exposure in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, the idea of "10,000 hours of practice" that makes an expert, and gives it a more in-depth assessment. The sub-title, "The myth of talent and the power of practice" gives a good flavour of what he's saying. The research findings are quite clear: notwithstanding physical attributes (tall high-jumpers etc), there's no such thing as someone who is inherently good at a given sport, or musical instrument - or, by extension, any activity. Experts are made, first by circumstance and chance - being born at the right time of year, attending a school with a world-class teacher - and then by application, although of course this second factor is heavily influenced by the first. People want to believe that stars - of sport, music, business or whatever - got there because of some innate specialness. People want magic! But there's no magic, which should be inspiring: anyone can achieve greatness.

One Train Later by Andy Summers (2006)

A very readable, first person (and present tense, which I found a little disorienting at first) account of Summers' life up until the demise of The Police in the early 80s, with a two page afterword on his life since then. It's honest and entertaining and gives a real sense of how hard he worked to achieve his musical goal: not just the hours and hours of practice (see Bounce above!) but the decades of persistence. I knew he was a bit older than Sting and Copeland but hadn't realised that he was a contemporary of Clapton, Page, Hendrix and so on during the 60s. Perhaps that makes the brief madness of extreme fame he experienced more sweet (The Police lasted a surprisingly short time, six-seven years); he seems to have taken advantage of it, but come out the other side eventually.

The Joy of Work by Scott Adams (1998)

The third of the Dilbert books I found in a cupboard at work, this is an actual book rather than just a repackaged collection of cartoon strips. Most of the book is a long-form expansion of what you might say is the Dilbert ethos: work is pointless and dull but you can enjoy the ridiculousness in a number of ways. Aside from the section on office pranks, which mostly just seem mean (as do most "pranks" to me), it's amusing. The last section segues neatly into a serious discursion on creativity (and a minor come-back at a critic). It's a nice way of putting serious material into a book that was likely to be widely read.

Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro

2021

Sweet but derivative "literary" SF

B recommended this and since I have a couple of weeks off (can you tell by how much I'm reading?), I thought I'd give it a go. I enjoyed it very much, as it was an easy read and a good length (i.e. not too long!) - a sweet book, with a conclusion full of pathos, although the ending came a bit suddenly. The plot was a little thin, but was disguised well by the way important facts are gradually revealed; it can be summarised as Asimov's Robot novels meet Toy Story.

After I finished the book, I had a look online to see if anyone had caught the obvious similarity with Asimov's work, and in particular The Bicentennial Man. I was struck by reviews of the book, which, since Ishiguro writes "literature", appeared to be written by people who had never read any real science fiction (as that's "not literature"). So they burbled on about how imaginative it was, and how it raised fascinating questions about the interaction between humans and robots. I guess they are fascinating if you haven't come across the ideas before - but I feel I should point out that real science fiction has been exploring this area for over sixty years ...

Watching - July 2022

The Proposal (2009)

As predictable as the sun rising, but nice with it. Sandra Bullock is as convincing as she can be, given the somewhat preposterous plot, as a career woman who rediscovers her emotions and falls in love with both Ryan Reynolds and his family. What he sees in her is less obvious, unless he's always secretly been in love with her and just needs to accidentally see her naked to push him over the edge. Still, Reynolds is as engaging as you'd expect, albeit more convincing when he's being a smart-ass than when he's doing sincere. An acceptable way to spend a couple of hours one afternoon.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

I must have watched this originally on TV (and we had a copy that was recorded off TV), as now I watch on DVD there are significant chunks that I do not remember at all - and fairly important parts too. The plot's decent, and if the special effects look a bit clunky now, well, that's because it's over thirty years old!

Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

I remember going to see this with C in High Wycombe Odeon when it was released. We'd decided we wanted to watch something fairly undemanding but "with some big bangs" - which, if you know the start of this film, certainly matches up! It's aged reasonably well, although I think the sandwich board incident at the beginning would almost certainly not get included these days, and you'd hope they'd manage at least one or two better female roles. Preposterous but good clean fun.

My Life as a Rolling Stone (2022)

The Rolling Stones - as you've seen them many times before!

High School Musical (2006)

Slightly unexpectedly, High School Musical is probably our favourite film as a family. It's a combination of engaging characters, cheesy plot and songs that are much better than they have a right to be. We can watch it and make fun of it while still enjoying it.

Rock Family Trees: The Rise of Cool Britannia (2022)

Notwithstanding the title, this was a programme about Suede and how they started Britpop and then grew out of it. (Do they have a new album out soon, by any chance?) It wasn't really a proper rock family tree - of the claimed "three biggest bands of the 90s", only Suede and Elastica are linked and all that makes is a flat shrub, rather than a tree - and it only featured a few of the players of the time: no Bernard Butler, none of Blur, Pulp, Oasis or other more minor players. I was also irritated by the programme's lazy characterisation of prime Britpop as some sort of cheeky, end-of-pier, Carry On style of music. Sure, you had songs like "Parklife" and Supergrass's "Alright", but you didn't have to go far beyond the singles to find more depth, even on the same albums (try "This is a Low" or "She's So Loose"), let alone later ones. I guess it suits Suede to position themselves as perennial outsiders. Still, it was fun to relive the times (I recall Suede's first single launch gig in the basement of Rough Trade in Neil's Yard with much fondness) and Justine Frischman was a great interviewee, unlike Brett Anderson and Matt Osman who looked awkward and self-conscious. I suspect that might be because she has nothing to sell and no image to maintain.

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

Enjoyable outing with the family to a Sunday matinee showing at the cinema (now much more affordable, thanks to Vue's pricing). The film isn't going to win any prizes for plot or subtlety, but it has many very funny moments and a great soundtrack (thanks to Jack Antonoff of Bleachers, who I am going to see in September).

Hello Quo (2012)

Status Quo is a band I knew little about, bar the obvious singles, until a Fretboard forum listening party for Blue For You (1976). The album's not bad at all and a lot more varied than I expected. So I was interested to see this history of the band. I loved finding out that their future direction was set in the late 60s by seeing The Doors performing "Roadhouse Blues" live - as soon as Francis Rossi mentioned it, I could hear the link between them exactly. There's plenty of footage here (and all over YouTube) to show how tight and effective they were as a band, something that's harder than you'd think. Unpretentious music, workmanlike sometimes but at its best a real rock force (and as an aside, this picture of them, from the mid-70s, is superb)

The Martian (2015)

Having read the book, I had to watch the film. It skips some details but is marvellously visualised. The main character isn't quite such a smart-arse as in the book, which is a shame as this was the characteristic I found most attractive. There's a few film cliché moments inserted into the plot and an unnecessary coda, but otherwise it's surprisingly true to the source material. Very enjoyable.

Reading - July 2022

Love is the Drug edited by John Aizlewood (1994)

Entertaining, albeit slightly repetitive, recounting by various music journos of the time (plus a few celebs) of their fandom for a particular artist. In some cases, all they're telling us is why so-and-so is their favourite, whereas in others it's a full-blown obsessiveness. Interesting, but doesn't pass the key test of any book about music: in no cases was I inspired to go and listen to the music. I've had this book for a long time - probably since it was published - and now I've read it again, I'm not sure why it survived the Great Book Cull of '17. Destined for the charity shop, I think!

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (1997)

A worldwide phenomenon, apparently, albeit one that has completely passed me by - I found this in the book exchange at work. According to Wikipedia, it's one of the best selling memoirs ever, and I can kind of see why: it's sweet, easy to read and has a nice message. It's also sentimental, simplistic and possibly a bit shallow - qualities that probably also don't harm its appeal to a wide audience (yes, I'm being snobbish). The book's subject - Morrie Schwartz - seems like he was a lovely man who encouraged people to live simply and enjoy what they have. I don't think I'm overly simplifying here. It's a good moral, one we should all remember, and if it takes a book to remind you of it, then fine.

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (2019)

Essentially an explanation about why the geopolitics of various regions fundamentally shape their history and policies, this is eerily correct about Russia's current actions, particularly given that it was originally published in 2015 (albeit updated in 2019). It adopts a curiously passive and neutral stance on countries' actions, explaining blandly that, for example, Putin had "no choice" but to annex Crimea, and initially this irritated me, because of course he had a choice. The only perspective in which he has no choice was that in which all other leaders are equally paranoid and opportunistic, and sadly, this is probably correct. It's also self-perpetuating, but inevitable. Ultimately, this is a book about why toxic nationalism is going to always be with us. Hard going and depressing.

Summer at the Lake by Erica James (2013)

A nice modern romance, with flashbacks to an older story embedded in it. The characters were engaging enough to keep me reading, but were a little one-dimensional, while the story was predictable in the best kind of way (i.e. it ends happily), albeit with a sudden injection of several dramatic elements all at once towards the end, which unbalanced it a little. Pleasant bedtime reading.

The Martian by Andy Weir (2011)

I'd never heard of this (or the film made from it) until I read about it, catching up on old xkcd comics. It's an odd book in some ways, a patchwork of different viewpoints, different styles and fairly relentless technical detail, but the central character has such a winning personality that he carries the plot and left me really wanting it to all work out (I did peek at the ending fairly early on to make sure it was a happy one). It threatened to degenerate into a series of unfortunate events but I suppose that's fairly realistic, given how hostile Mars would actually be, and in any case it didn't stop me enjoying it. I'm now looking forward to watching the film!

My Life as a Rolling Stone

BBC, 2022

The Rolling Stones - as you've seen them many times before!

The Word magazine used to have a question on their web site when you signed up: "Beatles or Stones?" (there was also a third option, "actually I preferred The Monkees". It was that kind of humour - I really miss The Word magazine.) But for me, there's never been a question about it: The Beatles released a dizzying array of music in less than ten years, whereas the Stones ... well, put it like this, when I was compiling my favourite songs of the sixties recently, I could add almost all of every Beatles album, but only a song or two at most from each Stones album. 

Now don't get me wrong, there's some classics there - but also an awful lot of dross, frankly. They've produced little music of interest since the early seventies, and nothing at all in the last forty years, something I think they're very well aware of, as a brief look at their set lists over the last few years shows. But somehow this hasn't stopped them becoming the "greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world".

What has always distinguished The Rolling Stones, to my mind, is the incredibly effective way they've publicised themselves. From the very beginning, when Andrew Loog Oldham deliberately set them up as the opposite of those nice, clean Beatles, through to right now and this impeccably stage-managed documentary series, they've always had superb control over their public image, which in many ways has defined the "rock rebel" stereotype.

The format - one episode for each of Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie - manages to cover a lot of history, but it's a curiously incomplete picture. You could count the number of times Bill Wyman was mentioned on the fingers of one foot. Sure, he's not been in the band since 1993, but he was there for all the important moments. A complete history would include him, but this wasn't it. There was maybe five minutes in total featuring Brian Jones, and a minute including Mick Taylor (easily the best guitarist to be a member of the band).

Maybe this wasn't the point, and the idea was tell the individuals' stories. You could be forgiven for feeling that they were being pretty candid - after all, their history is pretty well known and Keith and Ronnie, in particularly, are well known for being rowdy rock 'n' roll bad boys. Conveniently, that means that the documentary can talk fairly freely about their well-known drug use, because that doesn't actually harm their image at all. But what about the women? We don't hear so much about that.

This was an enjoyable series and worth a bit of time to watch, but felt more like a very extended advertisement for The Rolling Stones and their latest tour than a real documentary. There was little new here and nothing that made me want to revisit any of their music. But then perhaps it's not aimed at me.