The Guardian had an article today about how the media seems to to be full of people writing about the angst of becoming 40. Apparently there are more TV shows about the subject in the pipeline. Is the media controled by people the same age as me?
They also had a section on 40 things about being 40. I didn't relate to many of them, but number 20 really struck a chord.
20. You go to the pub less often due to the belated realisation that it's rubbish and makes your clothes smell.
Sarah Michelle Geller has confirmed that she it leaving Buffy The Vampire Slayer in an interview in the March 7th issue of Entertainment Weekly. Still no firm news on the future of the series, tho' rumours that Faith (the other vampire slayer played by Eliza Dushka) will become the main character in the series are looking less likely as Dushka has apparently just signed up for a lead role in a new TV series.
Update: In later news, Joss Whedon has said that the show won't continue without her. Tho' he is looking into the possibility of a new spinoff.
The Guardian asked a number of well-known "doves" what their alternative would be to war. Their replies make interesting reading. The consensus seems to be that there's still no good reason to do anything and that the onus should be on the "hawks" to say why we need to do something.
I was particularly impressed by what Zadie Smith said.
The utterly fallacious idea at the heart of the pro-war argument is that it is the duty of the anti-war argument to provide an alternative to war. The onus is on them to explain just cause. The case against is clear. To begin war on Iraq would be to launch a pre-emptive strike on a country we fear will attack us on a future unspecified date, in a future unknown manner, with weapons we have not been able to find. It would be to set the most remarkable international precedent. It would be in contravention of international law and the UN charter. It would be to consolidate a feeling of injustice in the Middle East, the consequences of which we will reap for generations. It would be, simply, illegal.
The war hasn't even started yet, but already the US are crashing helicopters over Kuwait.
I was trying to write a brief bio for my account on LiveJournal. I'm was rather disappointed that it reads a lot like a (abbreviated) CV. I seem to define myself by the institutions (schools, colleges, jobs) that I go to rather than by anything else in my life. This disturbs me. I need to think about it a bit.
Warning. Mid-life crisis approaching!
It seems that the US has completely failed to see the joke of Ali G.
I have a group of four friends who I went to school with. Two of them I knew at infant school (that's thirty-five years ago) and the other two I met at secondary school.
This week the second of us made it to 40 (I was the first), so we all trundled off into deepest darkest Essex for his party.
The weirdest part was that one of us turned up with a new girlfriend who was someone who had been at infant school with us but that we hadn't seen for almost thirty years.
Friends Reunited has a lot to answer for.
Which version of ready.gov makes the most sense? The real one or this one.
And, for comparison, here's the old UK government pamphlet Protect and Survive.
The leaders of the Church of England and the UK Catholic Church have issued a joint statement saying that they can't see a moral case for war against Iraq. The Pope said something similar earlier this week.
Given that George Bush and Tony Blair both claim to be followers of the great sky pixie, you'd think that they'd agree with these religious leaders. But they seem to be able to ignore them with worrying about any adverse effects this might have on their chances of entering the pearly gates. So here's a couple of questions that I'd like interviewers to ask both of them.
At what point do your duties as a christian outweigh your duties as a head of state?
Are you prepared to go to war even this will mean your soul will burn in hell for all eternity?
The BBC is running a story about how the Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar has won a case allowing it to continue to use the name "Bud" in the UK. In most of the rest of the world that right has been taken away from them by the lawyers from Anheuser-Busch (who market the popular American drink "Budweiser").
The Czech beer is one of the nicest beers around. The American drink (you can't dignify it with the name "beer") is horrible insipid stuff that no sane person would ever want to drink. The Czech beer has been brewed for centuries. The American drink has been brewed since 1876. It's good to see that the British courts put quality and tradition before marketing budgets.
I could tell that this was going to be different when I arrived at Balham tube station. There were three times the number of people on the platform than you'd normally expect on a Saturday lunchtime. By the time we changed tubes at Kennington the must have been two hundred of us. When I got off at Embankment I was immediately engulfed in a sea of humanity.
The whole day was amazing. It took five hours to walk from Embankment to Hyde Park. The atmosphere on the march was incredible. I think that everyone was stunned by the numbers taking part. Of course, being in the crowd, it's impossible to get a real feel for the size - but there were people as far as I could see in every direction. When I got to Hyde Park Corner, it was possible to look back along the length of Piccadilly where I could still see people in Piccadilly Circus.
It was just the numbers, but also the range of types of people that was impressive. Of course the usual "professional protesters" were there, but their numbers were completely dwarfed by the incredible numbers of "normal" people who had finally decided they needed to make their feelings known.
I was far too late for most of the speakers at the rally. I think that Bianca Jagger was just finishing as I arrived. Then Ken Livingstone spoke his usual sense and he was followed by Jesse Jackson who tried to turn the whole thing into an evangelical revival meeting (not sure what the Muslims in the crowd thought about that).
Tessa Jowell was right about the grass in Hyde Park though. It's completely buggered now. I saw two aging hippies imploring the masses to keep to the paths and respect the gardens. They were completely ignored.
As I walked back to Victoria station I passed a number of the coaches that were going to take the protesters home. At least three of them had signs in the window declaring that they were transport for the "war rally". Which I thought missed the point in a spectacular way.
I've put my photos of the day online.
If you don't know that there's an Anti-War Demo on Saturday then you must be living on another planet.
From what I'm seeing the number of people who are planning to go on this demo is huge. When I was a student, I was surrounded by people who thought like me and we'd all go off on demos together. Since then I seem to know less and less people who would see spending an afternoon marching through London as a useful way to spend their time. I've become used to people looking at me slightly strangely when I say I'm going on a demo.
But this this time it's different. Everyone that I talk to is planning to go along. Even people who have never been on a demo in their life are considering going along. This march isn't just going to be people selling Socialist Worker or career lefties. It will be people from all sections of British society. I really think that the government is going to be taken aback by the breadth of support that the anti-war movement has. Blair is wrong to support Bush. Only a very small number of people can't see this.
Is strongly suspect that this could be the largest demo that London has ever seen.
Please come along and help prove me right.
Yesterday was my stepdaughter's 16th birthday, so this weekend we had the pleasure of sharing the house with a group of 15 and 16 year old girls.
We had a good time. I was pleasantly surprised at their level of interest in the kinds of things that interest me. We had conversations about music (they like both Pink Floyd and The Clash). We watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A certain amount of alcohol was consumed.
It all got a bit surreal briefly over dinner on Saturday night. They started talking about the toys that they had collected when they were younger - My Little Pony and things like that. When 16 year olds start getting nostalgic it's all gone very strange.
On Saturday I experienced the worst channel crossing I've ever seen.
It was bad enough that I'd got up at 5am, that there was a blizzard on the motorway and that a lorry had jack-knifed blocking the road so we sat in a traffic jam for almost an hour. When we arrived at Dover I was about ready to turn round and go home, but I cheered up a bit when I got to eat a nice fried breakfast.
Unfortunately the sea was incredibly rough and about an hour later I enjoyed my breakfast again - in reverse.
Next time, it'll be the Eurostar for me.
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