Film, Happiness, Music

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg -My Kind of Anti-War Movie

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There is something self-defeatist about movies that purport to be anti-war spending 90 minutes bathing in blood and comradeship. Violence is its own advertisement. Showing more of it in order to lessen it is akin to invading a country in the name of peace.

Furthermore, like a closet-gay spending an inordinate amount of time ranting against homosexuality, the very people who get their knickers in a twist over onscreen orgiastic blood-letting are often the ones most titillated by it. How else can Gibson’s Passion of the Christ be explained? Extreme violence turned up to a sadistic-11 in the name of all that is holy and righteous.

The truth is Violence and Aggression and Anger and Death are cool. Singing and Romance are not. I say that with a contemptuous sneer, not as a justification for what is considered cool.

Singing & Romance (together) are allowable nowadays only if accompanied by a nod & a wink that advertise how you recognise the inherent uncoolness of it all, but that you are so cool you just don’t care, which makes it acceptable and perversely cool.

But before ironic cool uncoolness there was unapologetic joy and love and beauty and raw emotion without the baggage of the pre-packed Happy Meal mode in which to consume it.

You can fight and complain about what is considered cool -and make a good case as to why it should not be so considered, but the more you do the cooler it gets and the further into Crater of Uncool you dig.

Enter The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Continue reading The Umbrellas of Cherbourg -My Kind of Anti-War Movie →

Film

What makes Barry Lyndon a Great Film?

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It’s a slow movie, granted, but Barry Lyndon is lovely to look at, to sink into and to soak up. It’s a 3-hour 18th century bath, made with complete care. Music, visuals, scene-development, plot and camera movement blend together like a ballet (no I’m not into ballet either). I know that might sound like a stuffy sketch of almost any movie, but here it’s different.
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For example, take the duel scene from early in the movie (no spoilers)

*** You need to TURN IT UP to properly hear the music -the music *must* be clearly heard here. ***

…you could say it’s a duel, one guy gets shot and the other has to run away to Dublin. The end.

But -taken from the start… close-up of the guns is like a painting… 

Continue reading What makes Barry Lyndon a Great Film? →

Film, Happiness, THEORY, TV

Dexter -The Fall of The Western Empire

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Can I stick my head above the parapet and say I believe the whole concept of the TV series “Dexter” is deplorable and symptomatic of the decline of western civilisation? Well I’ve said it.

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True I’ve only seen one episode (and it was very well written), but I really don’t want to ever see another -not because it’s not any good, but because I can see how it sucks you in and gets you to empathise with a serial killer and personally I don’t think it’s healthy for individuals or society as a whole to go there. It just ups the ante on what is acceptable.

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I’ll go one teensy bit further and say I believe the best “serial killer movies” are not about the killer himself/ herself (they don’t deserve a movie IMHO), but about the destruction on the individuals surrounding the incidents -detectives, reporters, others becoming obsessed by the crimes to the detriment of themselves and their loved ones. Films like Zodiac and Memories of Murder (Korean) deal with it very well.

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It’s my belief that with the advent of “The Serial Killer Hero”, embodied most blatantly in the likes of Dexter and Hannibal Lector, the whole of society (whatever that is) is becoming embroiled and obsessed by this kind of thing as though each of us is immediately affected.

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Over time and over a large population I don’t believe we are breeding serial killers, but we are increasing “the whole negative vibe”, which is nothing but a self-destructive downer.

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My catchy rallying call for an anti-Dexter type movement would be “Spread Love, not gouge out eyeballs with a tuning fork!”  Do you think it’d catch on? 🙂

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Shopping, THEORY, THING

The Bag For Life

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Remember this bag?

It was introduced by Super Valu supermarkets (in Ireland) prior to the introduction of the Plastic Bag levy in 2002.

During the build-up to the new tax everybody complained. It would never work and it would drive people away from the shops, businesses argued.

Convinced that footfall would suffer, Super Valu (and possibly a few others) decided to get one up on the competition by adopting this “Bag For Life” policy.

The idea was that if & when the bag broke or deteriorated they would replace it -free of charge. For life.

It was “The Bag for Life”.

…At least this is my recollection of it.


I asked if this was correct in my local Super Valu recently. The staff member looked at me for a moment, counting my heads it seemed, before bursting out in tears of laughter. She had never heard the likes of it in the past nine years (since the levy) but it did ring a bell with her and she’d be interested to hear if it was true herself.

We discussed it for a while and she admitted to me she had lots of these bags at home and she’d love to replace them with new ones.  Looking left and right she tried to find a manager for me to talk to, but there were none available. Meanwhile a queue had built up behind me and it was the only til open (being early in the morning). She asked if I did want a replacement bag. I said no -but I am curious about it. I know Mrs. Rumm threw some out a few years back and I’d like to know if she deserves my eternal scorn for doing so.

The staff member offered to go find the manager but I told her to leave it -“I’ll be back,” I assured her, “we’ll do it then.”

My question is, AM I WRONG?


I searched online and so far the only thing I can find to suggest I’m right is this page from The Fingal Independent in 2000.

In case that link goes dead at any time, here’s the relevant paragraph:

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Manager Shea Smith is planning a one-week promotion to give away the ‘Bag for Life’, which will normally cost 10p.

A very nominal sum given the supermarket’s promise to replace it free of charge if even after bearing the weight of many kilos of comestibles it tears or breaks.

– – – – –

…Or maybe The Bag for Life (“Our Children will thank us for it”) means something else?

 

 

A Digression, Kids

Dog Mark

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One of the kids had done something but I wasn’t sure which one. I knew they’d only blame each other if I asked. So I called them and said “I’m afraid I’m going to have to put the dog down.”

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“NNNnnnnnnnoooooOOOOOO!” screamed the six year old, with tears in his eyes.

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“Yes,” I said, “he did a very bad thing.”

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“What did he do?” they both cried.

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“…He put a permanent marker in his mouth and drew a big black circle on the wall in the bathroom!”

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“That wasn’t the dog!” shouted the six year old -“that was an accident!”

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“So it was YOU!”

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“I dropped it!” he part-confessed. Case solved! 🙂

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The funny thing is we don’t even have a dog.

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Film

A Very Long Engagement

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Rest assured, there are no plot spoilers in the following images or the review.

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Being in the right frame of mind of a wet and windy Sunday afternoon I decided to rewatch A Very Long Engagement recently. This was possibly my fifth viewing and it still didn’t fail to move, entertain, puzzle and amuse me from start to end.

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It’s the tale of a young woman who refuses to believe her betrothed has died in the trenches in WWI.

. Continue reading A Very Long Engagement →

A Digression, Happiness

The Tyranny of Consensus

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Say you find yourself in a large indian tent on the American plains circa 1880 and everyone is sitting around a large fire, passing a pipe from one to another… When it gets to you, would you point and deride the people for passing on their vile fumes?

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I know it’s a silly question, but I think complaining about a bit of cigarette smoke is a comfortable 21st century prejudice that would be incomprehensible in any other era. It would not only be laughed at, but seen as a childish concern.

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Sure people always have preferences (my own preference is not to be around smoke if I can help it) but I find anti-smokers (as opposed to non-smokers) take things a bit far. Their views and opinions have an unassailable militant edge. They are the only allowable voice on the topic and their message is one of hate. In short, they are bullies. Whether they know it or not.

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Leaving smoke aside for a little while, I’ve been in the company of people (mostly women) whose noxious perfume, etc. have caused me to almost collapse. Literally.

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If enough people were with me and we got a good campaign going I dare say I could point at such a lady in a crowd and deride her choice and application of toiletry products. And I would be applauded. And she should race home immediately and scrub herself down. And the contrary view would not be tolerated.

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But I wouldn’t like to do such a thing. I’m happy to stay away from smelly people (of any kind) whenever I can and to suffer in silence when it’s my ill-luck to be near them. If I worked near one I’d have to say something eventually, but that’s a separate and isolated matter.

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Similarly, I find people who kick up a fuss about doggie doo-doo to be equally angry and chipped individuals. Concrete paving and expensive, stylised footwear are an affront to nature. Excrement is not. I wouldn’t like to step in it every day, but that would be my problem, not the poor dog’s.

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Ideally dogs should be trained to dump in by walls and lamp-posts where possible, but the whole notion of ranting and raving about excrement is the mindset of imbeciles.

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I’m in the minority on this, I know, but that’s OK. My point is less about my personal opinion, than how opinions and prejudices become curiously militant and segregating once they are shared by a majority of vocal assayers. People who perhaps suffered in silence for many years suddenly rise up with an incongruous anger and scream foul at the perpetrator once their view is in the ascendant, seeking to destroy any vestige of the “foul deed” from sight and mind. In the process, I believe such people are as “wrong” as the crime they are fighting against -whether I agree with their cause or not.

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In short, live and let live. 🙂

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…And I don’t own a dog either. Never have. To date. Mainly because

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a) I hate the smell of dogfood. It makes me sick.

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and

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b) I’m not going to walk behind it with a bag in my hand, eagerly awaiting a donation.

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and

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c) There is almost nowhere left for dogs to run free. Thankfully we have  a garden, but outside that I’d have to suffer the tyranny of concensus that dictates dogs –ALL dogs- should be tied up.

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To that view, I say pooh pooh!

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A Digression, Happiness, Research, THEORY

Would you do the lotto if…

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Odds on winning the Irish lotto (45 numbers to choose from): 1 in 8,145,060

 

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Odds on being involved in a fatal accident in one of the world’s Top 25 airlines with the best accident rates: 1 in 9.2 million (according to planecrashinfo.com).

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Obviously the second rate could change depending on the airline, but lets just say the above numbers are more or less comparable.

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My question is… if there was a lottery whereby you could win “the grand prize” (whatever that may be) and also be as likely to win the booby-prize of Death (delivered by the press of a button by the lotto organisers, causing your whole being to immediately explode)… would you do the lotto?

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Happiness, THING

Fire, slightly out of hand

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It began like all the best plans, with an idea. There was an ugly dead broken-looking overgrown lump of a massive plant in the garden. It used to look like long palm-tree stems waving from a single tropical clump of a windy afternoon. Now it was an old, used, dense, dry, flopped-out giant mop. Its long strands wormed across part of the driveway like an Emo’s hair blocking his face, lending the front garden a deep-felt weary dissolution with life, the universe, horticulture and mainstream teenage pop music. It needed removing before it had an undesirable effect on my ten year old. And I was just the father to do it!

Continue reading Fire, slightly out of hand →

Tech

HTC Desire Review

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Hazard is a new member of the stanleyrumm.com team and should be along here more often to discuss techy things, or anything else that takes his fancy. Or not.

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In an ingenious plan along reverse-engineering lines Hazard is being paid in monkeys, so we’re expecting peanuts from him and we’re certain we won’t be disappointed!

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Take it away Hazard…

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.isOn a basic level, as a phone the HTC Desire has the best coverage for making and receiving calls that I have experienced to date. In my house, with any previous mobile (on the same network), I would have to go upstairs to get stable coverage for a call. The HTC is the first phone I have had that allows me to make calls anywhere in the house. Seems like a basic requirement but this is my first time being able to do this 🙂
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Next greatest thing about it is the apps – there are over 100,000 of the things
now and there is an app for pretty much anything you want. Obviously these are also available to any other Android phone, but since the HTC Desire is my first move into this world I’m putting it down as a plus here.
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I’m not talking about the stupid fart apps and cartoony games, but genuinely useful stuff like SSH client, Remote Desktop viewer, an excellent web browser with full Flash support, a brilliant app for geocaching (the GPS accuracy is unbelievably good by the way), Dropbox for accessing your files anywhere, Torque for connecting to your car’s engine and logging data, an IMDB app, Google Maps and Navigation (yes unlike
Nokia maps these need a net connection – but having a phone like this without a data plan would be crazy). Plus the Android user base has definitely reached a critical mass now, so any cool app you hear about on the iPhone will generally exist on Android too. When companies release an iPhone app for something (e.g.
RTE, Amazon, Paddy Power, etc etc) they will now make an Android version too.

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Also I like the way it integrates with your Google account to keep all your stuff. Some folks might not like Google having their fingers in everything but when you have your contacts, calendar and email all stored in the infamous “cloud” then it becomes less of an ordeal if you need to switch phone. On a new Android device, all I would have to do is run the initial setup wizard with my Google login & password, and from then on the phone will download and sync with all my stuff automatically. Plus if someone gives me their phone number, I can just create a new contact in Google contacts on my PC and it will pop up on the phone seconds later.
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Again, this is the Android aspect and so not related specifically to this phone, but since they are features of the HTC Desire I feel they are appropriate to state.
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Other things I like about it – it’s fast, it’s stable, it’s tough (as seen on holidays when I basically sat on a pointy rock with it in my back pocket.. the cheap screen-protector I had bought on ebay was torn, but thankfully the screen itself was undamaged. Phew!). It can act as a portable wifi hotspot, allowing its data plan to be used to connect your laptop to the net when you’re on the move.
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Anyway, yeah, I like it! So, what don’t I like…
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#1 – the internal storage for apps is too small. Applications usually consist of a certain size of “core” data that must be on internal phone memory, and then the rest of their data sits on the SD card. If you have a lot of apps that require large core data storage, then you’ll start to run out of internal memory. And then you have to uninstall stuff in order to put on new stuff. It requires a bit of discipline but I suppose it’s manageable. Would be nice to have more internal space tho. I have an 8GB SD card btw. You can go up to 32GB.
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#2 – the external speaker is woeful. You certainly wouldn’t enjoy watching videos or listening to music on it for any length of time without headphones. It’s barely good enough to make ringing noises. The Nokia 5800 has spoiled me in this regard I think, the sound quality from that was excellent, way better than any other phone before or since.
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#3 – some people complain about the battery life. It doesn’t bother me personally, but you pretty much need to charge the phone every night. If you don’t, chances are you’ll be in the red sometime the following day. When you get the HTC first, the battery life seems to be only a few hours! However the battery itself takes a few recharges in order to reach full capacity, and also during the first week or so, you tend to be playing with it constantly… once you get past the first week or two though the battery life isn’t really an issue.
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Ummm… that’s all I can think of.

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As a personal aside, I beliece now (early 2011) is not the best time to buy a new droid -or any smartphone for that matter. The rate of development at the moment is scary – all the manufacturers are ramping
up the specs to compete with each other (apart from Apple who are content with their direction -and why not?).
In another six months you’ll have dual-core cpus in mainstream phones and more internal storage. And next year, quad-core!
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Of course, whether you need any of that in a phone is debatable 🙂 But when the phones nowadays are basically Linux computers you can put in your pocket, more power is always welcome.

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Reviews that might help

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Gadget Review

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IN DEPTH REVIEW: HTC Desire outguns the iPhone?

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Youtube review

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Hazard out.
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