Children of Men review

About 30 minutes into Children of Men, there comes a moment when you realise that, unless you like cold-blooded murder in your films, this isn't going to be a particularly easy one to watch.

Filmed mostly with hand-held 'documentary-style' camerawork, this is a dark, raw, film set about 20 years in the future, at a time when the human race has become infertile, the youngest person on the planet is 18 years old. The majority of the world's countries have collapsed into anarchy, and Britain is the only place that has managed to hold itself together and keep a civilised society - although one which is effectively a police state, with closed borders and a paranoid immigration policy. Clive Owen plays the hero, a world-weary ex-activist who somehow finds himself in the position of having to protect the most important person in the world - a pregnant girl.

The problem with the film is that it doesn't know what it wants to be, or what it wants to say. Part semi-futuristic sci-fi, part-political commentrary, part-action thriller. Undoubtedly, it is as third type that it succeeds most. After a slow start the action and excitement is pretty non-stop, and anybody who's played the latter levels of Half-Life 2 will feel right at home in the last 40 minutes. In such all-out thrillers you tend to ignore any silly plot holes as your belief is already suspended, however that doesn't happen in this film as the director is constantly cutting back, as if he is trying to say that this is something that could really happen.

On that note it fails. While the futuristic world is intriguing it is not fleshed out enough to make it truly believable (mostly because of all the action sequences), and so when the action stops for a bit and you catch your breath, you're left a bit puzzled as to why this is all going on.

Djanira didn't like it at all, partially for the above reasons, but also becuase of the violence. Although actual moments of real goriness are few and far between, it is a violent and rather cold-blooded film, and I was surprised to see it only got a 15.

By contrast I quite enjoyed it, but left a little disappointed that more wasn't made out of the world and the scenario - it would have been a gamble to do so, as many of the action sequences would have to have been dropped, and perhaps that would have made the film a little too slow. But it might just have paid off. Incidentaly, it is an adaptation of a P.D. James book, so it will be interested in reading the book to see if it succeeds where the film stumbles. In conclusion, I would say that it is definately an interesting film that is worth going to watch, but perhaps a missed opportunity.

Capoeira at the Octopus Street Party in Notting Hill

This weekend my Capoeira school, Capoeira Canal, did a demo performance at a street party in Notting Hill, organised by the Octopus Challenge - a charity raising money for cancer research and support. We did a couple of shows, once early on, and once a little later - the later one was definately the better one because the crowd was a lot bigger (maybe up to a couple of hundred), they had drunk a bit more champagne by then, and us capoeiristas had a little bit of Dutch courage after a brief visit to the pub also! We were a little bit nervous before the first performance, because only a handful of beginners (including me) had turned up, and I was worried that our basic moves wouldn't do any justice to neither the school nor the game of capoeira - fortunately, just before we took the stage a couple of more experienced players arrived, so inbetween politely applauding the beginners, there were plenty of oohs and aaahs from the crowd when the flips, handstands and big kicks came out.

Djanira managed to make the second performance, and has video footage of me - looking like a rank-amateur, of course, but fortunately I didn't fall over and make a complete prat of myself. Unfortunately it's too big to put on here, and she didn't get any photos of me, so you'll have to wait for another day to laugh at my inabilities. However, here's a couple of photos of some more impressive play going on.

It's looking Wii-lly good

The other day I nipped into PC World to buy some paper, and grabbed a chance to a have a quick go on a couple of Xbox360 demo machines. The two games I played were MotoGP (a motorbike racing game) and Dead or Alive 3 (a beat-em-up). The first thing I noticed was the fact that, on MotoGP, the graphics were nigh-on video quality. I'll be honest, my jaw dropped - I simply couldn't believe how realistic and life-like the game looked. Dead or Alive 3 was more stylised (thus less life-like) but still looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Yet I eventually left the store rather unimpressed. Why? Because, once a certain standard has been reached, graphics just don't make much difference. Superbike 2000 had brilliant graphics, and when played with a joystick, was pretty much all you could ever want from a motorbike racing sim. Is Dead or Alive 3 really much better than Tekken 3, or Soul Caliber? I guess what I'm getting at is, is it worth paying hundreds of pounds for a new system, and £50 each for games to play on it, when the final experience you get isn't much different?

My current thinking is 'no'. Which is why, each time I hear a little more about Nintendo's console, the daftly-monikered 'Wii', I get more and more interested. It's now well-accepted that the graphical power will not be as high as the Xbox360 or the PS3, yet the new control system (which is based around the detection of motion of a wireless controller) opens up an entire new domain of gaming options. Fine, if it works well. Yet from reading reports on the internet (e.g. http://wii.ign.com), it looks like Nintendo, and the various developers who have working on the launch titles, might just pull it off.

In conjunction with the facts that the Wii is likely to cost around £150 at launch (under half the price of the PS3), the games will be around £30 (rather than £50), and many classic Nintendo games of previous consoles will be available for direct download for £5 or £10, Nintendo might actually have a chance of taking top-dog in the console market. Previously I have been a Sony die-hard when it comes to consoles, but unless Sony announce something really revolutionary with the PS3 (and drop the price!), my money might well be going Nintendo's way.

September the 11th

Today is the fifth anniversary on the attack on the twin towers of New York. Remembrance services are being held around the world. But are we remembering the right things? Today's newspaper had some interesting 'official death toll' statistics, based on worldwide activity since 11/9/01:


US citizens killed in terrorist attacks: just under 3000.
US citizens killed in 'the war on terror': just over 3000.


Worldwide deaths due to 'terrorist attacks': just under 5000.
Worldwide deaths due to 'the war on terror': >95,000.


So. While it is right to mourn those who died five years ago today, shouldn't we also be mourning the other 90,000 people who have died, mostly innocent civilians in Iraq and Afganistan?

And while Saddam Hussein deserves to be tried and punished for killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians; why isn't anybody being tried and punished for the deaths of nearly one hundred thousand people who have died thanks to military action that has occured since September 11th?

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

This is the second Iain M. Banks I've read, and I approached it with great expections after enjoying Consider Phlebas so much. It tells the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a human employee of the Culture who is basically used to do their dirty work - sent in undercover to change the political or military situation in a given location. As capable as Zakalwe is though, there is a secret buried deep in his past...

The manner in which the way the book is written is quite different to normal. It has two strands than run in alternate chapters through the book. The first is what could be called the 'real-time' thread, which describes the story of the current events; whereas the second thread is, in essence, a series of short-stories that describe aspects of Zakalwe's past. Crucially, the stories in this second thread are presented in reverse order - the later the chapter the earlier the point it describes in Zakalwe's life. It works quite well, as the events in the 'real' story reach a climax, so the timeline of the reverse story reaches a crucial point alluded to through the entire book.

There's no doubt that the book is an enjoyable read, Banks' style is very readable and there is plenty of meat to the book. I do, however, have a bit of a problem with the ending. There is a twist, of sorts, though to be honest it is less of a twist and more of a complete surprise. A good twist should make your mouth drop and get you riffling back through the pages to find half-remembered references and hints. The ending of this book does no such thing, it's just a bit of a slap in the face, with no explanation. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but if so it's because I think the quality of the rest of the book deserves a good twist.

Nonetheless it is still a good read. Excession is up next and apparently that is more similar to Consider Phlebas, so I'm looking forward to it.

The berimbau

The most important instrument when playing Capoeira is the berimbau. It's basically a single string tensioned over a wooden stick, with an amplifying gourd at the bottom. There are only two notes (altered by pressing a stone against the string) but a variety of percussive sounds possible, and it is quite tricky to consistently play even a basic rhythm - let alone sing aswell! Djanira and her father Jorge have written an article about it, which you can find here.

I recently bought a new berimbau (from www.capoeiragem.com) because the one I borrowed from Jorge had...errr...an accident. Very embarrassing. Suffice it to say that Jorge is now the owner of a brand new berimbau, which I am borrowing on a long term loan. The biggest problem is that it is bloody impossible to string the thing! It's so hard to bend the wood and I don't want to try and bend it too much because they do break :(

Review: The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's novel, The Shadow of the Wind, is an international bestseller, and was recommended to me by several people. Furthermore, it also has the dubious honour of having been in Richard and Judy's book club, which of course makes it a must read!

Set in Barcelona shortly after the Second World War, it tells the story of Daniel, the teenage son of a bookseller, and his quest to unearth the history behind a mysterious book - also called the Shadow of the Wind - and its now-deceased author, Julian Carax.

It's hard not to like this book. It's an old fashioned mystery story, with goodies, baddies, a bit of violence, a bit of sex, lots of rain and plenty of dark alleys and creaky old houses. There's suspense by the bucketload and, despite it being quite a long book, I never once got bored.

Of course it is rather unrealistic - our hero Daniel frequently exhibits maturity beyond his tender years, before acting correctly for his age a few pages later. But such things have never stood in the way of a good yarn and, in my opinion, they never should do. Though I wonder whether the story appeals more to boys than girls? Djanira read the book before me, and enjoyed it; but Daniel tells his story in the first person, and thus the entire book is seen very much through a boy's eyes.

Anyway I thoroughly recommend it - although I must admit I'm rather pleased to have finished it. I have recently taken delivery of three more Iain M. Banks books, so now it's back to the Sci-Fi for a while...

Capoeira!

I'm not usually that good at starting new things, but after a few weeks of umming and ahhing a lot, I bit the bullet and started Capoeira classes. If you don't know anything about Capoeira, it's basically unique combination of fighting, dancing and music, that was developed by African slaves in Brazil as a method of self-defense that could be practised without their Portuguese masters punishing them for actually fighting - because while it involves lots of fighting-like moves (kicks, punches, headbutts, trips, you-name-it) there is actually little actual physical contact. It's all set to a unique Brazilian music, and you can find loads more info here.

It is phenomenally popular in Brazil but has now expanded worldwide along with the travels of Brazilian expats. London has several schools, and I decided to join Capoeira Canal, a small school which meets near me in West London - partially because it's so close but partially because it offered structured beginner classes, rather than the "beginners turn up to any class" attitude of other schools.

What can I say? I'm hooked! I love the combination of aggressive, purposeful movement, the strangely hypnotic music, and the fact that you don't really get hurt - although my leg muscles were aching for a few days after the first class! I particularly like the non-stop movement - many martial arts seem to emphasise rigid control and focus, whereas Capoeira encourages you to become absorbed in the constant movement and the rhythm of the music.

So far I've had two lessons and learned the ginga (pronounced in English: 'jinga'), which is the basic movement which underscores all of Capoeira, a few simple dodges (esquivas), and a couple of kicks. I've also learned two really important moves, the rolê and aú, which let you step and cartwheel across the ring (the roda) and to keep moving, which pretty much the central tenet of Capoeira.

It's great fun, I'm really enjoying it, so expect more updates as I learn new moves and how to play the berimbau, the main instrument. If you're lucky you may even get to laugh at a video of me falling over!

Climbing: Froggatt slabs

Yesterday the weather was ideal for climbing gritstone, in my opinion - cool enough to guarantee good friction, though not so cold that your fingers drop off. So Damo and I drove up early to meet Dave J at Froggatt, in the Peak District. Last time I climbed there I was just breaking into E1, and since then I've been looking forward to having a go at a couple of the mid-grade classics - no room for error though!

Great Slab E3 5b
What a brilliant, brilliant route, one of the great classics of British climbing. There is no gear anywhere on the slab so there's no point with ropes or harness. Years ago I never thought I'd even consider doing it, but I'm really glad that I changed my mind. It's far from the most technically difficult route that I've done, but it still ranks as one of the finest, most exhilarating moments of my climbing career so far. I'm looking relaxed in the photo but that was before the crux!

Long John's Slab E3 5c
Another gearless Froggatt slab climb, harder climbing than Great Slab but less psychologically draining, as the moves are more obvious. The crux is stepping off the ground, basically, though the landing wouldn't be particularly pleasant. Barely justifies E3, but I suppose it would be a mean sandbag at E2.

Brown's Eliminate E2 5b
Yet another Froggatt slab climb, but this time with two good cams at half height and an easy top-out. The grade is spot on, and the crux moves, stepping off the half-height ledge, are great.

I also did Brightside E2 5c, but I think I went off route which made it rather easier - in which case it's a very contrived line and barely worth bothering with. And I had a play on the start of Downhill Racer E4 6a, but backed off from the low crux, as I wasn't 100% sure of making it. It's still there for the future...and, crucially, so am I!

Biking: Red Bull District Ride 2006

The Red Bull District Ride has just finished it's second round out in Nuremburg, and you can watch the highlights to your heart's content here. It's almost enough to make me want to go out on a street ride again. Though not quite. Pretty amazing stuff but I can't help thinking that, while these guys get a lot of air, in terms of technicality MTBing is still lagging miles behind BMX. The difference is that the MTB scene lacks the hate-everything, individualistic attitude that plagues BMX culture - thus its more corporate image attracts the big name sponsors, which is why a BMX competition has yet to get the run of the centre of a large European city.

It annoys me in a way because there are riders out there really pushing the boundaries of technical MTB-riding, trying to fuse the best parts of MTB-street, BMX-street and dirt-jumping into one package. But people like Ryan Leech, Chris Akrigg and Eddie Tongue are either relegated to bit parts in the latest New World Disorder flick, or have stepped back from the pro-riding limelight, as they're not getting the money/sponsorship/recognition that they deserve.

So, while it's all very impressive seeing the Paul Basagiotas and Cam McCauls of this world pulling a backflip or tail-whip with a gothic cathedral in the background, it's tempered by the fact that they're riding a trail that was blazed by our 20" wheel cousins several decades ago. The money's only there now because of the packaging.

Review: Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks

A couple of years ago, I borrowed one of Scuffy's Iain M. Banks books, The Player of Games, but I didn't manage to get into it, though in fairness I didn't try very hard. Since then I read Banks' latest book, The Algebraist, and enjoyed it, so decided to give his earlier books another chance.

Fortunately Mr Paul had a spare copy of Consider Phlebas that he was happy to lend me. This is Banks' first book set in the universe of the Culture, a society where sentient machines have gradually taken over the hum-drum of everyday life, leaving the organic species within the Culture free to enjoy themselves and live a life of carefree happiness - at the expense of essentially being ruled by artificially intelligent beings. Undoubtedly, it is a fascinating premise and, being a bit of a closet sci-fi/fantasy geek, it is a wonder why I have not got round to reading this book, and it's successors, much sooner. Especially given that they were written over 10 years ago. Ah well, better late than never.

The background story of the book is based around war - with the Culture defending itself against the expansion of an evolutionarily advanced, organic species called the Idirans. The Idirans are a highly religious, warlike people, who are offended by the very concept that the Culture should exist. Banks balances both sides in the war perfectly, painstakingly developing the good and bad aspects of both societies, so that even at the end of the book the reader isn't sure which side they should been supporting. It is a clever ploy as it allows you to be swept up in the central story of the characters - wanting them to succeed in their quest, but never being sure if, in the grand scheme of the war, their success would actually be a good thing!

Overall I enjoyed it very much, the action moved on at a fair old lick but it still took a step back every now and again to let the characters and situation to be fleshed out. I shall definately get hold of another Culture book - does anybody have any recommendations for which is best to read next?

Climbing: Peak District July 2006

Yesterday I took a day trip to the Peak District to meet with Lau, Alastair, Nienke and Nick. Lau and I headed to High Tor, a crag we had first visited almost two years ago, ticking the classic E1 Debauchery. Back then we said we'd have to come back to the counterdiagonal E2 Delicatessen, which we did yesterday, what a brilliant route - the line is marked out on the photo, belays at the red dots. Then I started up Flaky Wall, an E4 I've had my eyes on for a while, but it started raining - rats! I was pretty confident too. So after a quick pub break it stopped raining and we headed to Cratcliffe to nip up a quick route or two - or so we thought!

Delicatessen E2 5c, 5b High Tor
I took the first pitch, the ever-reliable Lau the second. Magnificent climbing, not at all polished, with tricky 5c moves both right at the start and right at the end of my pitch; the final moves to reach the belay in particular are exposed, airy, fingery, delicate and just brilliant. The second pitch was a delightful delicate traverse, led confidently and in style by Ian; it's only marred by the fact that it joins the horribly polished HVS, Original Route, to finish off.

Boot Hill E3 5c Cratcliffe
There's no two wasy about it, this route beat me up. I didn't fall, but had to rest twice - although the second was only because I didn't see a good foothold, and gave up early as I knew I'd blown the onsight anyway. A brilliant route but possibly not one to do as your first grit route of the year, on a hot humid evening with very little friction. For my arrogance I deserved to get punished and so I'm not too miffed - actually I'm pretty pleased I got up it at all! With hindsight it is a brilliant route with some wonderful layaway moves off the rounded arete - although those weren't words leaving my mouth as I was halfway up the thing!

Opinion: 'MySpace sucks'

My good mate Richie 'Scuffboy' Astbury has some strong opinions about MySpace. He's right, you know...

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 2

Last night I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I was a fan of the first one and friends who had seen it said 'if you liked that, you'll like this'. By and large they were right, the slapstic moments come thick and fast and several times I was laughing out loud during the film.

However, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley were pretty rubbish like in the previous effort, and while Depp still dazzles as Jack Sparrow it is only really the new character of Davy Jones that really grabs the attention. The plot ideas aren't really original (anybody who's the played the Monkey Island computer games will feel right at home in some scenes), and at two and half hours the film is 30 minutes too long.

Still it is worth going to see and good way to spend an evening, I will definately be going to see the final part of the trilogy.

Edit: The following night I finally got round to seeing The Shawshank Redemption. Comparing this to POTC is like comparing To Kill a Mocking Bird to Winnie the Pooh.

Climbing: Cloggy, July 2006

Last weekend, me, Lau, Dave and Laura took far too much stuff with us to Cloggy, and wild camped by the lake. It was awesome. Some thoughts on the routes:

The Troach, E2 5b
Hugh Banner led it in the 60s, what an amazing effort. The start of the main pitch is a bold step out before a mantelshelf up to better holds and good gear. The move is actually pretty easy but feels very E2. The technical crux is higher up but there's a good nut to protect it. Kudos to Lau for leading the 3rd (5a) pitch with zero decent gear!

White Slab, E1/2 5b/c
Justifies it's reputation as one of the best routes in the country. I set Lau off up the first pitch cos I'd done it before, and thought he needed to wake up a little! This meant that I had the lasso pitch, but I failed miserably to get the rope anywhere near the spike, which is a) tiny and b) miiiles away. So I free climbed it, 5c and bold, brilliant moves though. We took our time over the 7 pitches (5 hours) but both of us really enjoyed it, what more can you ask for?

Climbing: Gower photos, and Dave Macleod

Click the link to see some photos that Dave J took on my birthday weekend in Gower. We worked on a line at a new crag at Fall Bay. Very bouldery English 6b-ish moves, which none of us managed cleanly. There is small gear but if you fell you'd swing right into the little shelf (see photo right) and probably break your ankles. Shame in a way cos if the landing was nicer you could probably boulder it out with some mats.

Sunday we went bouldering down at Caswell and I showed Lau Dave and Paul my favourite problems. Great fun.

And here's a link to Dave Macleod's blog http://www.davemacleod.blogspot.com/, the guy is not only a machine, but he seems like a very decent sort of chap to boot.

Here we go!

So, I've finally done it, I've finally got round to entering the big-wide-world of blogging. I figure that the only chance that people are going to read this is if I post some code and google stumbles upon it, which I intend on doing pretty frequently, because I've learned so much from other people doing similar things. I'll also post links to articles, photos, stories, and anything I find interesting - though primarily because it'll remind me of these things in the future. If you do happen to stumble on this blog and have anything to say, then feel free to mail me. If you're particularly lucky, you might even get a coherent reply!