Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th January 2025

[refitman]

Morning all

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good morefternoon this actually quite fine weekend.

[Frog222]

It's my turn to have a dull day, with a penetrating chill of +0.3° .

What is more I forgot to put on the radiator to heat during the night and the kitchen was down to 12 °...

Still one sight on the Times bla on Trump's guest list for Monday made me laugh

[RogerOThornhill]

Good afternoon.

I guess we won't - thankfully - be seeing Oakeshott on QT for a while.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... -leaves-uk

Oakeshott, who is working from Dubai as international editor at Talk TV and as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, said that Labour’s “pernicious tax on private schools” prompted her to look elsewhere for the best places to educate her children. The UAE, she said, offered “endless opportunities” and had a “booming economy”.

She added: “I continue to support Richard in every possible way as we pursue our shared ambition for a thriving Britain from which wealth creators and so many others are not tempted to flee.”

Asked whether the couple had invited the leader of Reform, Nigel Farage, out to Dubai for a visit, Tice said: “No, he is quite busy. He has got various other international obligations.”

Clacton?

[Frog222]

Clacton indeed

[Frog222]

" Normalising the absurd"

[Frog222]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Anyway, have the news bulletins this past week had wall to wall coverage of how the bond markets are doing?

No, you say??

I do wonder why that might be.

[Frog222]

Time for a clampdown on these scroungers ?

THE DUCHY FILES
Dartmoor jail that pays Duchy £1.5m a year may never reopen
Riddled with rats, HMP Dartmoor, which closed in August over toxic gas fears, has 24 years left on its lease

https://archive.ph/kjOmd

[RogerOThornhill]

[Frog222]

The last time I heard about Fico he gave a TV interview from a rather luxurious room, which turned out to be in a $6200 a night hotel in Vietnam

Sneaky !

[refitman]

I have to say, it was very generous of the Dems to hand Trump another possible win, right at the beginning of his presidency.

[Frog222]

I have to say, it was very generous of the Dems to hand Trump another possible win, right at the beginning of his presidency.

memories of goldfish cont !

[Frog222]

I'm afraid George Monbiot got the last bit wrong here --

""In nations that have not yet fully succumbed to oligarchy we need to recognise, and recognise fast, that democratic politics do not emerge spontaneously. Our systems achieve a quasi-democratic character only with an active citizenry, whose engagement is largely defined by protest, and an independent media. But, at the direct behest of capital, governments are criminalising peaceful protest, while many independent media, such as the BBC, shut out dissenting voices.

If governments like the UK’s are to invest in their own survival, they must free their citizens to rebuild democracy, and we must seize every opportunity to do so. There is no demilitarised zone in this class war. We must all decide where we stand.""

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -democracy

[AnatolyKasparov]

I have to say, it was very generous of the Dems to hand Trump another possible win, right at the beginning of his presidency.

memories of goldfish cont !

Indeed it was *Trump* pressing for a ban when the Dems were resisting one.

But its no doubt different when he sees the chance to give it to one of his billionaire mates.

[refitman]

There we go, Trump wins

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Haven't done a Nicolas Cage film in a while, and what with David Lynch kicking the bucket I thought I'd have a go at...

Wild at Heart

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100935/

I first saw Wild at Heart at the cinema when it came out and hated it, this is the first time I've seen it since, so has my opinion changed? Let's find out.

Nicolas Cage plays Sailor, a mentally subnormal Elvis/James Dean impersonator in a snakeskin jacket. The object of his affection is the equally stupid and excruciatingly irritating Lula, played by Laura Dern who gurns her way through the entire film. The plot, such as it is, is paper thin. Dern's mother Diane Ladd (in the film and in real life) objects to their relationship for reasons too tedious to explain and wants Cage dead. As the couple drive off into the desert she arranges for his assassination.

What follows are two unbearably boring hours of puerile dross. It's as if after Blue Velvet Lynch found a script he wrote when he was 14 and decided to film it as a joke. Oh look boobs! Oh look fat ladies with boobs! Oh look weird voodoo assassins! Oh look Willem Dafoe with horrible teeth! Oh look over the top cartoon violence! Oh look superficial references to the Wizard of Oz which one presumes are supposed to be tying this sorry piece of shit together.

What's most infuriating about it, for me at least, is Cage was using almost the exact same accent as in the Cohen Brother's Raising Arizona made three years earlier, so I was constantly being reminded of an infinitely better film.

So yeah, 20 year old me has been entirely vindicated, in fact I hated it more this time round than I think I did then.

I've always had a love hate relationship with Lynch.

Loved Eraserhead, Dune, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive.

Respected The Elephant Man.

Was eventually bored by Twin Peaks.

Hated Twin Peaks: Fire walk with me, Lost Highway, and...Wild at Heart.

So on the Cageometer I'd have to give this one a solid 1/10. I have genuinely watched some of his worst Z list crap and enjoyed it more than this juvenile cinematic excrement.

[AnatolyKasparov]

I think The Elephant Man is an absolutely terrific film tbh.

Must admit that I never totally "got" Twin Peaks, and yes it did drag on rather.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Foxes are still at it by the way, not heard anything tonight so far but last night the vixen was making an ungodly racket until 3 in the morning.

Along with the usual spooky screech you hear in horror films she was doing this shit.



Imagine having that going on right outside your windows when you're lying in bed trying to read a book about Germany's unhealthy relationship with its medieval past. I don't know which was more scary.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I think The Elephant Man is an absolutely terrific film tbh.

Must admit that I never totally "got" Twin Peaks, and yes it did drag on rather.

The Elephant Man is a great film, just not something I'd choose to watch again due to its necessary grimness.

Also I somehow forgot about The Straight Story which is absolutely wonderful and probably the most heartwarming thing he ever made.

[refitman]

I think The Elephant Man is an absolutely terrific film tbh.

Must admit that I never totally "got" Twin Peaks, and yes it did drag on rather.

The Elephant Man is a great film, just not something I'd choose to watch again due to its necessary grimness.

Also I somehow forgot about The Straight Story which is absolutely wonderful and probably the most heartwarming thing he ever made.

Everytime I'm reminded that The Elephant Man was a Mel Brooks production, it takes me by surprise

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Yes it's difficult not to be touched by someone getting a free bespoke tailored wool coat from Harrods.

[Sky'sGoneOut]