Going to the supermarket is a generally unpleasant experience, so you need to find ways to alleviate the feelings of rage that are prone to build up when you are forced to make that dreaded trip. Having a foolproof way of amusing yourself as you shop could prevent you from descending into a violent spiral of madness in the dairy produce aisle or taking out your anger on the clueless youth at the deli counter who overfills your pot of olives. I find that casting a critical eye over the contents of other people's trolleys works for me.
When paying for my purchases in an Asda store once, I noticed that the person behind me was loading the conveyor belt with around twenty tins of baked beans. Given their dietary habits, I was glad I wasn't queueing behind them. I worried for the health of the elderly lady who purchased three large cans of hairspray and a bottle of cheap vodka one Saturday night as the boyfriend and I waited patiently behind her at the "baskets only" till, especially as she kept protesting very loudly that the vodka wasn't for her. Standing in the queue in the living hell that was the local Tesco yesterday morning, though, I noticed that the man in front of me had a basket full of goods that seemed to win a prize for the most bizarre collection of purchases ever. A balding, middle-aged chap, he was buying a box of "Mini Milk" ice lollies, a five pack of extra-large tights, some loose bananas and a jar of thousand island dressing. Obviously he was planning to put the tights over his head to conceal his identity and rob a bank, using a carefully disguised banana as a gun substitute, but what on earth was he doing with the lollies and the thousand island dressing?
If you find perusing the purchases of others a little voyeuristic, you can always play a variant of the game. It's immense fun to try and raise a smirk from cashiers by creating your own crazy basketfuls of goods. The weirdest combination of purchases that the boyfriend and I have thus far managed to beep through the checkout is, I think, a pack of ribbed condoms and a jar of pickled beetroot. Since supermarkets are rapidly branching out into electrical goods, clothes and all sorts of other things, the future possibilities are limitless. Heavy duty rubber gloves, courgette and a DVD player? Dyson hoover, thermal vest and some ginger nuts? Cillit bang, sink plunger and a tin of prunes? The choice is yours.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
One Day in September
BBC Four showed the film "One Day in September" late the other night. It was like the filmic equivalent of a book that you can't put down.
The old Yiddish proverb that opens Primo Levi's book "The Periodic Table" has been echoing around my head ever since the broadcast:
"Ibergekumene tsores iz gut tsu dertseylin," or "Troubles overcome are good to tell."
The particular trouble, or sorrow, told in the compelling film was the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There were a number of things that made the narrative so strong. The moving testimony of Ankie Spitzer, whose husband was killed, wove a powerful central thread through the film, but it was interspersed with an interview given by one of the terrorists involved in his death, as well as the words of others who were there in Munich, watching the drama unfold. Graphic images of the athletes being held hostage and the tragic aftermath were shown, all accompanied by a soundtrack of 70s music. Michael Douglas provided a matter-of-fact voice over that linked the film together, but his tone seemed to add to the impact of the story being told. The 1972 Olympics carried on, even after the Israeli athletes were killed. Today that seems almost unbelievable. The film gives an appropriate significance to an event that, at the time that it happened, was rapidly pushed aside by the media, the authorities, seemingly the world.
In recent years the Munich tragedy has been the focus of more media attention, with Stephen Spielberg's film "Munich" telling the story (mostly fictionalised, or so I've read) of the operation to kill all of the terrorists involved. I'm not sure about watching "Munich", because the real events told in "One Day in September" seem to speak for themselves to me. The film was so good, so supremely well put together, that it drew you in. Any hint of fiction would muddy the waters too much for me. The clarity of expression and the forcefulness of the truth are two of the things that make "One Day in September" such a good film and something that it is worth watching. If you haven't already seen it, then I really urge you to do so.
In general, too, the feature length documentary is a genre that should be encouraged. It offers the chance for stories to be told in depth, for issues to be explored, for tales of troubles overcome to receive the wider audience that they deserve. Troubles overcome aren't just good to tell, the method of their telling can assure their place in history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/one-day-september.shtml
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/oneday/index.html
The old Yiddish proverb that opens Primo Levi's book "The Periodic Table" has been echoing around my head ever since the broadcast:
"Ibergekumene tsores iz gut tsu dertseylin," or "Troubles overcome are good to tell."
The particular trouble, or sorrow, told in the compelling film was the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. There were a number of things that made the narrative so strong. The moving testimony of Ankie Spitzer, whose husband was killed, wove a powerful central thread through the film, but it was interspersed with an interview given by one of the terrorists involved in his death, as well as the words of others who were there in Munich, watching the drama unfold. Graphic images of the athletes being held hostage and the tragic aftermath were shown, all accompanied by a soundtrack of 70s music. Michael Douglas provided a matter-of-fact voice over that linked the film together, but his tone seemed to add to the impact of the story being told. The 1972 Olympics carried on, even after the Israeli athletes were killed. Today that seems almost unbelievable. The film gives an appropriate significance to an event that, at the time that it happened, was rapidly pushed aside by the media, the authorities, seemingly the world.
In recent years the Munich tragedy has been the focus of more media attention, with Stephen Spielberg's film "Munich" telling the story (mostly fictionalised, or so I've read) of the operation to kill all of the terrorists involved. I'm not sure about watching "Munich", because the real events told in "One Day in September" seem to speak for themselves to me. The film was so good, so supremely well put together, that it drew you in. Any hint of fiction would muddy the waters too much for me. The clarity of expression and the forcefulness of the truth are two of the things that make "One Day in September" such a good film and something that it is worth watching. If you haven't already seen it, then I really urge you to do so.
In general, too, the feature length documentary is a genre that should be encouraged. It offers the chance for stories to be told in depth, for issues to be explored, for tales of troubles overcome to receive the wider audience that they deserve. Troubles overcome aren't just good to tell, the method of their telling can assure their place in history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/storyville/one-day-september.shtml
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/oneday/index.html
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Places to go, people to see
I had a really good time and about in London a few weeks ago. It started with lunch at Veeraswamy, quite possibly my favourite Indian restaurant. I discovered it many years ago when I was aimlessly wandering around the Regent Street area with the boyfriend, trying to find a place to have a birthday lunch. Attracted by their value lunch menu, we decided to go in and we've kept going back ever since. The food is really good and the waiting staff are something else - really polite and attentive, even making you feel special if you order from the cheaper set menu, but still leaving you space to enjoy your meal. The restaurant has just had a major refurbishment and now has a relentlessly "modern Indian" vibe going on. The food is still fantastic, but I'm a bit dissappointed that there's no longer a vegetarian option on the set lunch menu. I know, I could have asked if they had any veggie stuff... and it did give me an excuse to order a la carte, but I reckon they should cater for cheapskate veggies too :-)
They stopped doing free poppadoms and chutney last year too, which is a shame, but the food, service and decor are all excellent and I highly recommend the place.
We rolled out of Veeraswamy some time in the mid-afternoon and went to check in at the City Inn, Westminster. We booked the hotel room through a great room consolidation site Londontown.com, which we've used in the past. You usually get good deals there, although it seems to be aimed more at American tourists visiting Britain. The hotel turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. The foyer and our room were clean and modern. The room had a dvd player and a stereo, with a free cd and dvd library for guests available at reception. It also had a real duvet on the bed. I hate those all-in-one hotel bedspreads and itchy blankets, so this was a real plus for me! Being located just off Millbank, round the corner from Tate Britain, the hotel was really well located, too.
Our evening entertainment consisted of going to see Jeremy Irons, Patrick Malahide and Jean Boht in "Embers" at the Duke of York's theatre. "Embers" is a play adapted by Christopher Hampton from the book by Hungarian Sandor Marai. As the boyfriend and I had both enjoyed the book, we were keen to see the play. It was really good. It was still in preview when we went to see it and it needed a bit of time to bed down, I think, but Jeremy Irons gave an utterly absorbing performance that really did the book justice. Judging by the audience reaction, a lot of people hold the book in great affection and appreciated the fact that it had been brought to the stage.
Next morning we took advantage of our proximity to Tate Britain and went to the Gothic Nightmares exhibition. The boyfriend loves Milton and read Paradise Lost with great enthusiasm, so he's very attuned to Blake, devils and gothic art. I studied gothic fiction as a response to social change ages ago, too, and we both thought that the exhibition looked good. There was an impressive range of material on display, all spanning out from the central spoke of Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting "The Nightmare". I particularly enjoyed the compilation of clips from films that have taken "The Nightmare" as inspiration. The boyfriend and I used to go to Tate Britain all the time, predominantly because it was free. We used to return to our student digs with armfuls of art postcards, feeling very cultured. Astonishingly, Gothic Nightmares is the first exhibition that we've actually paid to go and see at the gallery, so you can tell it must have been a good one! It looked good enough for us to fork out money to go and see it, and it certainly did not disappoint.
They stopped doing free poppadoms and chutney last year too, which is a shame, but the food, service and decor are all excellent and I highly recommend the place.
We rolled out of Veeraswamy some time in the mid-afternoon and went to check in at the City Inn, Westminster. We booked the hotel room through a great room consolidation site Londontown.com, which we've used in the past. You usually get good deals there, although it seems to be aimed more at American tourists visiting Britain. The hotel turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. The foyer and our room were clean and modern. The room had a dvd player and a stereo, with a free cd and dvd library for guests available at reception. It also had a real duvet on the bed. I hate those all-in-one hotel bedspreads and itchy blankets, so this was a real plus for me! Being located just off Millbank, round the corner from Tate Britain, the hotel was really well located, too.
Our evening entertainment consisted of going to see Jeremy Irons, Patrick Malahide and Jean Boht in "Embers" at the Duke of York's theatre. "Embers" is a play adapted by Christopher Hampton from the book by Hungarian Sandor Marai. As the boyfriend and I had both enjoyed the book, we were keen to see the play. It was really good. It was still in preview when we went to see it and it needed a bit of time to bed down, I think, but Jeremy Irons gave an utterly absorbing performance that really did the book justice. Judging by the audience reaction, a lot of people hold the book in great affection and appreciated the fact that it had been brought to the stage.
Next morning we took advantage of our proximity to Tate Britain and went to the Gothic Nightmares exhibition. The boyfriend loves Milton and read Paradise Lost with great enthusiasm, so he's very attuned to Blake, devils and gothic art. I studied gothic fiction as a response to social change ages ago, too, and we both thought that the exhibition looked good. There was an impressive range of material on display, all spanning out from the central spoke of Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting "The Nightmare". I particularly enjoyed the compilation of clips from films that have taken "The Nightmare" as inspiration. The boyfriend and I used to go to Tate Britain all the time, predominantly because it was free. We used to return to our student digs with armfuls of art postcards, feeling very cultured. Astonishingly, Gothic Nightmares is the first exhibition that we've actually paid to go and see at the gallery, so you can tell it must have been a good one! It looked good enough for us to fork out money to go and see it, and it certainly did not disappoint.
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