Adventures on the Internet 3

Switching to the BBC World Service this morning, I joined part way through an item describing how residents of an apartment block had been informed that surface to air missiles were to be installed on their roof - evidently an unwelcome development.
Having missed the introduction to the report, idly I wondered which dodgy military dictatorship was inflicting this madness upon its citizens.

Imagine my surprise (well not that much of a surprise really) to learn this is happening in downtown Bow as part of the preparations for the Olympic games in Cameron's Broken Britain™.

The budget is looming and, as is customary at this time of year, our finest executives and business leaders are lobbying for a reduction of income tax on the wealthiest, in particular removal of the 50% rate on earnings in excess of £150,000 pa.

For reasons too obvious to need explanation (so they don't bother), this imposition on wealth creators "is set to reduce government income, and damages the economy, the public services and charitable giving."

The well-known wealth creator, Peter Stringfellow (proprietor of a number of lap-dancing clubs in London) appeared on the BBC1 programme This Week on 08-Mar-2012 repeating the mantra, but when pressed to explain how reducing taxation on the highest earners would help the economy, repeatedly he chose to avoid the question.

Perhaps the term wealth creation simply means increasing the wealth of the very richest in Cameron's Broken Britain™.

Clouds and vapour trails developing in a period of less than three minutes in the evening sky just after sunset.

As our finest executives and business leaders struggle to obtain their fair share of the rewards in Cameron's Broken Britain™, they can surely take comfort from Mark 4:25,

For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

An affectionate account of pupils at a northern grammar school for boys preparing for Oxbridge entrance exams and interviews through the traditional route of additional tuition, sexual favours, and exploitation of the old-boy network.

May not suit all tastes.

It's 1950. Hester Collyer, entombed in a dull marriage to judge and pillar of the legal establishment Lord William Collyer, has embarked upon an affair with dashing ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page. Hester moves from her palatial marital home into lodgings with her paramour, but the course of true love does not run smooth, as Freddie continues his bachelor lifestyle with Hester an occasional diversion for the rootless airman.

Related in a series of episodes not ordered in chronological sequence, the progression of events can appear disjointed, and aspects of the principal characters' past are glossed over or ignored when a little more information would be valuable. For example, it's not clear how Hester would have come to marry William nor the circumstances under which she might have met Freddie.

Nevertheless, the script manages to convey the motivations of each of the main characters with some clarity, and there's a deliciously awkward encounter between Hester and her mother-in-law, who counsels: "Beware of passion Hester, it always leads to something ugly. I recommend a guarded enthusiasm."
Wise words indeed.

Contemporary family drama set in New York.
Brandon is an upwardly mobile young executive living in a compact city apartment. His typical alpha-male lifestyle is upset by the arrival of his sister (Sissy), requesting somewhere to stay for an indefinite period. Living together under the same roof puts undue strain on their relationship, with disastrous results for Sissy.
Nothing is resolved.

Essential viewing.

Once again Clint Eastwood throws caution to the wind, directing himself in a supporting part in this drama examining the pressing social issues confronting immigrants in mid-western USA. The lead role is played by Clyde, a tree-dwelling native of the forests of Borneo and Sumatra, who is finding it difficult to adjust to the mores of rural Nebraska. Whilst lodging with Eastwood's character (Philo Beddoe), Clyde seeks excitement as a spectator at barbaric bare-knuckle fights - a sport from which Beddoe ekes out a precarious existence. In the course of his travels with Beddoe, Clyde is subjected to the twin horrors of bikers and country music. Unsurprisingly his tenuous grasp on reality finally snaps, leading to alcohol dependency and increasingly coarse mannerisms.

A disturbing glimpse of modern-day USA. Not for the squeamish.

Unquestionably this film marks the zenith of Quentin Tarantino's directing career.

Jackie Brown, played by the wonderful Pam Grier, works as a flight attendant for a second rate airline plying its trade between Mexico and the southern USA. She also smuggles money into the country for gun-runner Ordell Robbie. When she is detained by Federal Agents whilst carrying drugs and $50,000 into the country, she not only cuts a deal with the Feds but also plans to eliminate Robbie and abscond with his ill-gotten gains, given a little help from a kindly bail-bondsman.

Ably supported by a number of journeyman studio actors (including Samuel Jackson, Robert de Niro, Michael Keaton and Bridget Fonda), Pam Grier delivers a dazzling central performance. Vulnerable yet tough, tender and sassy, she portrays a woman who is in effect a small-time crook in so sympathetic a manner as to deflect the viewer's steadfast moral compass.

Oh, and listen out for a short burst of Strawberry Letter 23 (Brothers Johnson) on the soundtrack, as well as Bobby Womack's 110th Street book-ending the whole film.

Essential viewing (and listening).

Symplocos paniculata, photographed at Westonbirt Arboretum.

Restaurant critic and bon viveur Michael Winner flirted briefly with film directing in the 1970s, and this critically acclaimed psychological drama was one of the more successful results of his labours.

Paul Kersey (played by the irrepressible Charles Bronson) is a New York architect whose world is shattered when his wife is killed and his daughter institutionalised after they are attacked by a street gang.
Unable to come to terms with his grief, Kersey takes a trip to Arizona where unwisely his host gives a revolver to the sensitive architect as a token of friendship. Returning to New York, and still frustrated by the inability of the police to apprehend the perpetrators, Kersey rejects the therapist's couch in favour of roaming the streets at night, blowing away any low-life he encounters. After each senseless killing Kersey must wrestle with his conscience and force himself to continue his quest for justice. (Eventually, in Death Wish XIV, he discovers that violence is not the answer.)

Bronson delivers a finely wrought performance as the anguished Paul Kersey, equally convincing as a member of New York's professional elite, or a cold-blooded killer.

Morally ambiguous viewing.

Bounced around from one provider to another in the newly marketised Rumanian health service, the fate of Mr Lazarescu offers a chilling vision of the future for the NHS under the Lansley 'reforms'.

Essential viewing.

Yesterday afternoon I traced the source of the River Brit to this field north of Beaminster.

Sought by geographers since the dawn of time, from this mystical location the river wends its way for tens of kilometres through the English countryside, finally emerging as a sedate flow into the English Channel below Bridport.

For exact location, see here.