Showing posts with label belle de jour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label belle de jour. Show all posts
Dr Brooke Magnanti on the Vixen Hour.
Feminism Again, from Australia, for completist sake, a podcast of Brooke appearing on Joy 94.9's discussion programme about issues related to being a sex worker, which features a nostalgic portion about the dawn of blogging. Aah, good times.
Dr. Brooke Magnanti on Sex Myths And Why We Believe Them.
Feminism Really as a follow-up to the Q&A post from yesterday, here's what happened the night before, a lecture at the Sydney Opera House as part of their Ideas At The House series.
Tegan.
Feminism On Monday, Brooke Magnanti, Germaine Greer, Janet Albrechtsen, Mia Freedman and Deborah Cheetham appeared on what looks like Australia's ABC1 network's equivalent of Question Time or The Agenda (or Sunday Morning Live, I suppose) but with a few A-Levels and a Degree.
Each episode is themed and the panelists were asked a series of questions about feminism. Early in the conversation, the topic of Margaret Thatcher had already been considered in relation to Australia's current head of state Julia Gillard, but then became the main focus when, proving that live television is always the best television, coincidentally it was up to the host to ... well here's the transcript:
25/04/2013 Brooke's blogged about this appearance an Mia Freedman's attitude.
Each episode is themed and the panelists were asked a series of questions about feminism. Early in the conversation, the topic of Margaret Thatcher had already been considered in relation to Australia's current head of state Julia Gillard, but then became the main focus when, proving that live television is always the best television, coincidentally it was up to the host to ... well here's the transcript:
"TONY JONES: Okay. I’m going to just break from the usual routine here of jumping from question to question and I would welcome - what I'm about to say, I would welcome questions from the audience so think about that as you hear this. News is just coming through that Britain's first Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died. There will be a full report on this on Lateline program after Q&A or on News Radio if you happen to be listening to News Radio but we have been talking about women leaders. We were talking, indeed, about Margaret Thatcher.It's a thrilling piece of television, far better than some recent editions of the British equivalents. Watch out for the moment when Brooke and Germaine correct an audience member about Thatcher's background. "That's awkward..."
BROOKE MAGNANTI: And me with no champagne.
TONY JONES: Now, that's a tough one.
BROOKE MAGNANTI: Yeah.
TONY JONES: Now, Elvis Costello once wrote a song saying he would stamp the dirt down on her grave. But I think time has passed now and people have a slightly different view of Margaret Thatcher. Do you think that's true or not?
BROOKE MAGNANTI: I do think it's true. I mean we have to remember as well that when Richard Nixon died in the United States people had an enormously different view of him. He went away post-Watergate, came back tanned, rested and ready as an elder statesman and certainly Margaret Thatcher did that extremely effectively. But she has sort of transcended what the policies of her day were to become iconic, either as a figure of hate for the left or a figure of reference for the right. In a way both are really, really valuable because they light a fire under people's aspirations, whether you agree with her or disagree with her. Having that focus, it’s probably an incredibly stressful place to be as an individual thought ..."
25/04/2013 Brooke's blogged about this appearance an Mia Freedman's attitude.
The Sunday Seven.
Dr. Brooke Magnanti.
Scientist.
Such is the way of the online world, this isn't the first time I've asked questions of Dr. Brooke Magnanti. Back when she was still anonymous, I emailed her, admittedly out of panic because I was such a fan of her blog, to check that she was real that she wasn't "Zadie Smith or Toby Young" as PopBitch had alleged, and the fact that Brooke's was gracious enough to reply with a denial was good enough proof for me. A year later when The Guardian ran a Q&A I asked for her favourite blog and her suggestion was unexpected but perfectly judged.
How did you become a scientist?
I wanted to study physics at university - it's what my dad studied - but ended up in anthropology and mathematics instead. Later, I kind of stumbled into the world of cheminformatics through people I'd met working in a laser lab. The people in that field really inspired me to go back and get a PhD, which was in applying algorithms commonly used in chemiformatics to studies of forensic human remains. Not the most accessible field of study exactly (its adherents more or less begin and end with me), but loads of fun to do.
What was your inspiration for The Sex Myth?
After coming out as Belle in 2009, I suddenly found myself a target for a lot of people who were against sex work, pornography, and so on, as if I was personally responsible for these phenomena. Erm, I'm not. But it did seem like writing a book was possibly the best way to answer the critics.
I was also aware anything I wrote after Belle de Jour would be criticised by people more interested in analysing me than analysing my writing, so writing a book that would purposely be a big, fat target for that was the thing to do. Whatever I write next, if people are still hung up on the call girl thing, that's really their problem and not mine. Play the ball not the man as they say.
What was the trickiest element to achieve?
I knew a lot of the topics are controversial, and perhaps because of that you can't win arguments on numbers alone. Getting the balance right between evidence-based arguments and things that, I hope, will appeal even to doubtful readers was really difficult. I was very aware that the majority of people who pick up the book probably won't share many opinions with me to start with, and really wanted them not to be threatened by it all, but to show a different approach to 'won't somebody think of the children?'
Of everything you've done what have you been most pleased with?
A review of Jordan's second book for the Times back when I was still anonymous. It remains, in my opinion, the strongest worded and most succinct thing I've yet written. Basically it asks why it's okay to dislike Jordan based on her image, and indeed women in general who make different grooming and career decisions to the lady columnists of Fleet Street. I've not yet had a good answer to that, by the way.
Back in the Belle days, was it ever frustrating that you couldn't blog under your own name and did you ever consider running a parallel blog as your real self?
Well, there was my old blog Methylsalicylate and for a while a cheminformatics blog called Cosmas. But because those were more link-logs and topic orientated, perhaps that's not really a parallel. If I had been writing about the more personal stuff in my life under my real name there's no doubt people would have made the connection with Belle immediately. Some did anyway. Blogging was such a small world back then.
Who's your favourite scientist?
Of all time? A tie between Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Of people working today? My mate James (he used to blog as The View From Here, for old school bloggers who know). He's very hardworking and has a vast range of knowledge not just in chemistry, and is also a really sound bloke. These aren't qualities likely to make him rich or famous but he really is everything I think a professional scientist should be.
What stops you from feeling listless?
Sport. When I was living in London and writing as Belle it was rowing, for some years it was running, most recently I've taken up powerlifting. Clears the decks both mentally and physically.
Dr. Brooke Magnanti's The Sex Myth is out now.
"Don't do that."
About When I began this blog, not for one minute did I consider whether it should be anonymous or not. Giving it this title aligned it directly with my online id at the time which linked it to my name in place like Metafilter. But this was never going to be an especially personal blog, largely because I didn't really know why I was starting it in the first place. But at the time it didn't matter. Relatively speaking blogging was so far out of the mainstream it was effectively anonymous anyway because I was the only person I knew who even understood what the mess of reverse dated text actually was.
If I had decided to be anonymous, I'm not sure I would have been very good at it, certainly not as good as Brooke, who managed to evade detection for years, well into the publication of a book based on her blog and even a television adaptation. On her new blog, she outlines some of the steps she took so that Belle de Jour remained an enigma:
If I had decided to be anonymous, I'm not sure I would have been very good at it, certainly not as good as Brooke, who managed to evade detection for years, well into the publication of a book based on her blog and even a television adaptation. On her new blog, she outlines some of the steps she took so that Belle de Jour remained an enigma:
"Are you posting photos? Exif data can tell people, among other things, where and when a picture was taken, what it was taken with, and more. I never had call to use it because I never posted photos or sound, but am told there are loads of tools that can wipe this Exif data from your pictures (here's one)."All of which said, it's still possible to be relatively anonymous without being actually anonymous. Most people don't know what my job is. Which these days isn't necessarily a help, but anyway. Yes.
"The content of what you post can be a giveaway as well. Are you linking to people you know in real life? Are you making in-jokes or references to things only a small group of people will know about? Don't do that."
"smaller, actually, at just 5ft 3in"
Books The Scotsman meets Brooke Magnanti at a whiskey festival for which she's the guest patron:
"Still, here she is, larger than life (smaller, actually, at just 5ft 3in) swirling a glass of Benromach and charming a steady flow of fans. Men and women, young and old, line up to get their books signed. The covers are emblazoned with Billie Piper, who played Belle in the (equally controversial) ITV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, sprawling on a bed wearing nothing but lingerie and a come-hither expression. All in all, it’s a surreal spectacle: a bunch of strangers, me included, who know every detail of this 36-year-old woman’s sex life. Their questions are polite, familiar, anodyne even. One woman asks whether she thinks Piper has been airbrushed on the cover, another how she is settling in to Fort William, where she moved with her husband after ‘coming out’ in 2009. Someone else addresses her as Belle by mistake. “The hardest part of coming out is having to keep doing it,” she tells me."Having read Brooke's blog back in the day, but I'm not sure if I'd want to revisit. Sometimes people are about who they are now.
Annotations: Liverpool Blogs at Social Media Cafe Liverpool.
Annotations All being well, I've just spent part of this evening giving an entertaining and informative talk on the history of Liverpool Blogs to the Social Media Cafe in Liverpool, during which I've promised to post an annotation of the talk so that people will have links to all the relevant websites in one handy place.
Or I've stuttered my way through a Power Point presentation, in which it's as though I was seeing each new slide for the first time having forgotten what I was going to say and then shouted out about this annotation right at the end or even after the talk has finished. Either way, here are the relevant/irrelevant links:
My first attempt at a blog, the archived posts.
My first post about the Sugababes.
The real first post.
My interview with Annette from this blog's 5th birthday.
Metafilter, community blog.
Linkmachinego.
Updated UK Weblogs.
I’m Belle de Jour. The Times. November 15, 2009.
How Belle de Jour's secret ally Googlewhacked the press. The Guardian. Wednesday 18 November 2009.
Me and Belle de Jour – “Could it be Brooke?” @ Linkmachinego
Best British Blog competition @ The Guardian
Imperial Donut.
Blogging like it’s 2000 by Katy Lindemann @ Seemingly Unconnected
London Bloggers directory.
The Manchizzle.
The University of Manchester.
North West Enquirer @ Wikipedia.
The post from here in which I highlight being included in the North West Blogwatch.
The Manchester Blogroll @ The Manchizzle.
Manchester Blog Awards.
Liverpool Blogs.
Fried Chicken.
Liverpool Blogs introductory post.
Ellen Loudon.
BritBlog.com.
FriendFeed.
Twitterfeed.
@shakespearelogs.
The Hamlet Weblog.
Just Liverpool Blogs.
[And you wouldn't believe what I had to leave out...]
Update:
Here's the Powerpoint presentation too for your edification. I hope to write up a textual version of the presentation when I have the time. Possibly in the new year. Allow it to marinate for a bit longer.
Or I've stuttered my way through a Power Point presentation, in which it's as though I was seeing each new slide for the first time having forgotten what I was going to say and then shouted out about this annotation right at the end or even after the talk has finished. Either way, here are the relevant/irrelevant links:
My first attempt at a blog, the archived posts.
My first post about the Sugababes.
The real first post.
My interview with Annette from this blog's 5th birthday.
Metafilter, community blog.
Linkmachinego.
Updated UK Weblogs.
I’m Belle de Jour. The Times. November 15, 2009.
How Belle de Jour's secret ally Googlewhacked the press. The Guardian. Wednesday 18 November 2009.
Me and Belle de Jour – “Could it be Brooke?” @ Linkmachinego
Best British Blog competition @ The Guardian
Imperial Donut.
Blogging like it’s 2000 by Katy Lindemann @ Seemingly Unconnected
London Bloggers directory.
The Manchizzle.
The University of Manchester.
North West Enquirer @ Wikipedia.
The post from here in which I highlight being included in the North West Blogwatch.
The Manchester Blogroll @ The Manchizzle.
Manchester Blog Awards.
Liverpool Blogs.
Fried Chicken.
Liverpool Blogs introductory post.
Ellen Loudon.
BritBlog.com.
FriendFeed.
Twitterfeed.
@shakespearelogs.
The Hamlet Weblog.
Just Liverpool Blogs.
[And you wouldn't believe what I had to leave out...]
Update:
Here's the Powerpoint presentation too for your edification. I hope to write up a textual version of the presentation when I have the time. Possibly in the new year. Allow it to marinate for a bit longer.
Liverpoolblogs
View more presentations from feelinglistless.
miniblog archive
the Sisyphean task
Media The Rumpus offers a thoughtful and honest critique of the media's reaction to Dr Brooke Magnanti's reveal:
"The abolitionist agenda seems to be to propagate the myth that all sex work is 100% awful, all of the time; rather than lobbying to address actual abuses within the industry, they’ve prioritized the Sisyphean task of getting rid of the whole damn thing. This is especially convenient when the laws that they have campaigned for put sex workers in greater danger: any rise in violence, or, god forbid, murders, can be blamed on the inherent risks of the job and be recycled as further evidence that the sex industry as a whole needs to be eradicated."
rare breaks out
Blog! Dr Magnati's reveal has turned into something of a Woodstock for UK Bloggers. Not who was or wasn't there, but who did or didn't know Brooke back in the day (a phrase I'm using increasingly which has to be a sign of my age) and who did or didn't know her secret. It's even caused Darren from LinkMachineGo to make one of his rare breaks out of link blogging to offer something more substantial:
"A couple of months went past, and after Belle de Jour won the award for Best Written Blog from the Guardian and the whole BdJ phenomenon kicked off, I had my eureka moment – I was sitting on the tube one morning and suddenly thought: ‘Could it be Brooke?’"I love the fact that if someone had bothered to go look, a rather big clue to her identity was available in plain sight. But you had to know what you were doing. As a side note, given that this is one of the most interesting pieces of blog writing I've seen in quite some time, I wish Darren would do this sort of thing more often.
secrets and mysteries
Blog! Karie expresses just as well as I could what Belle De Jour's reveal means to those of us bloggers who've been in this for the long haul. As I said to her on Facebook, it's like the UK blogging culture of the earlier part of this decade rearing up to reassert itself, reminding all the people for whom its just part of a social networking landscape where it all began.
At first I was elated to know that she was a real person and that it all happened and that I hadn't been reading a fiction all these years (something sort of knew because of interviews related to the television programme and friends of friends but it was nice to have a confirmation) and that in being a research scientist and an early UK link bloggers one of us.
I felt very warm towards some fellow bloggers who knew her secret, knew who she was, but didn't blab, even to each other. Again, it was reminder of the kind of community it was back then, before the form went mainstream and stopped being as Karie says "something you do on the sly", when no one knew what a blog was and thought it was a very curious thing to be doing.
Now, nearly, everyone online is a blogger even if it's just in very short sentences and I wonder if you can still close ranks on something like that when there are so many voices involved. If someone had worked out Belle's identity back in the day and Twitter had existed with its instant gratification, would they have kept it to themselves?
But then I felt anger, towards the Daily Mail for apparently forcing her into this, because after a fashion I didn't really want to know who Belle De Jour was. There are some secrets which are in the public interest of course, but has it really added to the world that people in general now know who she is, to have her face splashed all over the papers? Isn't it nice to have these little secrets and mysteries?
At first I was elated to know that she was a real person and that it all happened and that I hadn't been reading a fiction all these years (something sort of knew because of interviews related to the television programme and friends of friends but it was nice to have a confirmation) and that in being a research scientist and an early UK link bloggers one of us.
I felt very warm towards some fellow bloggers who knew her secret, knew who she was, but didn't blab, even to each other. Again, it was reminder of the kind of community it was back then, before the form went mainstream and stopped being as Karie says "something you do on the sly", when no one knew what a blog was and thought it was a very curious thing to be doing.
Now, nearly, everyone online is a blogger even if it's just in very short sentences and I wonder if you can still close ranks on something like that when there are so many voices involved. If someone had worked out Belle's identity back in the day and Twitter had existed with its instant gratification, would they have kept it to themselves?
But then I felt anger, towards the Daily Mail for apparently forcing her into this, because after a fashion I didn't really want to know who Belle De Jour was. There are some secrets which are in the public interest of course, but has it really added to the world that people in general now know who she is, to have her face splashed all over the papers? Isn't it nice to have these little secrets and mysteries?
some of whom have personalities
Opening Times
Nice idea. One stop shop for finding out if your local chain supermarket/warehouse of goodies is open at the stupid, bizarre, inhuman hours when you want to shop. And where they are.
Chartblog reviews Sugababes - 'Girls'
Gentle evisceration of what could be the worst single from the threesome so far. I''m disappointed too.
Daily Mail publisher to inoculate staff against bird flu
Somehow I can only imagine the Daily Mail speeding some mileage out of this.
I'm a sex worker – don't take away my livelihood
"I am an off-street sex worker. I don't live a Belle de Jour-type existence, but nor am I the trafficked/drug-addled/pimped victim the Big Brothel report would have you believe. The reality of my working life lies somewhere between the two."
Meanwhile, Belle is mentioning Understanding Organizations by Charles Handy ...
... which I spent a whole week reading in 1993 before going undergraduate. What I'm sure he forgot to mention was that organisations fundamentally don't work because their are people involved, some of whom have personalities.
So do you reckon it will rain today?
It did. Buckets and buckets.
Camp Rock? You're Not Kidding...
Much as I hate it when reviewers provide a synopsis instead of an opinion, sometimes it's just necessary.
"How do we tell this from everybody’s side?"
I might have mis-read this, and I've reread that section a couple of times, but Neil LeBute seems to be under the impression that Sam Jackson not Denzel was in Training Day.
15-Minute Tomato Sauce. Really.
Yes, really.
'De-gendered' toilets spark row
My old university, everyone. I think this may be my favourite two minutes of local tv news ever -- it's just a hairsbreadth away from being a Christopher Guest parody. Imagine welfare officer Jennie Killip played by Parker Posey: "I was just quoting you."
When Hardeep Met Les
Just in case you haven't heard this already. It is excruciating and proves that no matter how fluffy you think the interview is going to be, you have to do at least some research and not assume the interviewee will play ball if they suspect you're a moron. I'm surprised Hardeep gives his so long. I think the turning point is when ... oh you'll hear for yourself ...
Charles Platt on Akihabara, the Week Before the Massacre
This is the kind of thing which BoingBoing does so well; it's in the middle of being a Wired piece put has aspects of the kind of tableau you'd find in National Geographic. Given my tirade about fashion the other day, wouldn't this be more fun? The British equivalent would probably to go out dress as Arthur Dent (ie, in a dressing gown and pyjamas) and not have a convention to go to.
Beyond the Trouble, More Trouble
Elizabeth Wurtzel on David Wallace. They were the best of friends.
Wendy and Lisa prepare 'Heroes' score album
Watched the opening double bill tonight and thank goodness it's back on form. I won't spoil the second episode in case you missed it, but Kring & co have certainly got their mojo back. There are revelations in there which, even if they weren't planned ahead, show that their inspiration is working overtime, and the results are rather more exciting than the 'virus on the loose' plot which, according to the season two dvd box set, was originally planned before the writer's strike curtailed the last series. I just wish it was goofier, just now and then.
Model Sanctuary opens again at London Fashion Week
It's a safe house for catwalkers.
Another city, another event, another night alone in another hotel.
This is exactly what it's like being alone in a hotel in strange place. My approach is to simply be there as little as possible. I think those Japanese bed capsules would be perfect for me.
Products Placed: How Companies Pay Artists to Include Brands in Lyrics
"oh lord, won't you buy me a ...."
Exclusive: William Kristol Is Having Trouble Writing His Next Column About Sarah Palin
Gosh some of these articles are old -- but I'm still catching up with my reading after the great reorganisation. Along with Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale (more on which some other time) this demonstrates that when things like this happen, it's not because I'm rubbish, it's just that sometimes it doesn't happen. Personally, I think the best criticism Kristol could offer, if that's his motive, would be to publish this as it stands, perhaps cutting back on the swearing depending on the journal's policy.
A little something to remind me…
Landmark confusion.
Immendorff: copies, fakes or authorised reproductions?
It's worth asking on the basis of this, what makes a great artist. The work or his life?
In Conversation: Woody Allen
I feel like I've linked to this piece before. I haven't have I? Either way it's about the director's love for New York to celebrate New York Magazine's 40th Birthday and somehow manages to drag up some insights I've never heard before. What he says about the overall degradation of cultural expectation is true and I think suggests why some of his later work has been under appreciated -- audiences are far less forgiving in some ways these days, but undiscerning in others.
Frida Kahlo @ Who Killed Bambi
Oh deer...
Sun sets on 'House That Ruth Built'
Yankee Stadium closes. What is happening to the world? This is.
Nice idea. One stop shop for finding out if your local chain supermarket/warehouse of goodies is open at the stupid, bizarre, inhuman hours when you want to shop. And where they are.
Chartblog reviews Sugababes - 'Girls'
Gentle evisceration of what could be the worst single from the threesome so far. I''m disappointed too.
Daily Mail publisher to inoculate staff against bird flu
Somehow I can only imagine the Daily Mail speeding some mileage out of this.
I'm a sex worker – don't take away my livelihood
"I am an off-street sex worker. I don't live a Belle de Jour-type existence, but nor am I the trafficked/drug-addled/pimped victim the Big Brothel report would have you believe. The reality of my working life lies somewhere between the two."
Meanwhile, Belle is mentioning Understanding Organizations by Charles Handy ...
... which I spent a whole week reading in 1993 before going undergraduate. What I'm sure he forgot to mention was that organisations fundamentally don't work because their are people involved, some of whom have personalities.
So do you reckon it will rain today?
It did. Buckets and buckets.
Camp Rock? You're Not Kidding...
Much as I hate it when reviewers provide a synopsis instead of an opinion, sometimes it's just necessary.
"How do we tell this from everybody’s side?"
I might have mis-read this, and I've reread that section a couple of times, but Neil LeBute seems to be under the impression that Sam Jackson not Denzel was in Training Day.
15-Minute Tomato Sauce. Really.
Yes, really.
'De-gendered' toilets spark row
My old university, everyone. I think this may be my favourite two minutes of local tv news ever -- it's just a hairsbreadth away from being a Christopher Guest parody. Imagine welfare officer Jennie Killip played by Parker Posey: "I was just quoting you."
When Hardeep Met Les
Just in case you haven't heard this already. It is excruciating and proves that no matter how fluffy you think the interview is going to be, you have to do at least some research and not assume the interviewee will play ball if they suspect you're a moron. I'm surprised Hardeep gives his so long. I think the turning point is when ... oh you'll hear for yourself ...
Charles Platt on Akihabara, the Week Before the Massacre
This is the kind of thing which BoingBoing does so well; it's in the middle of being a Wired piece put has aspects of the kind of tableau you'd find in National Geographic. Given my tirade about fashion the other day, wouldn't this be more fun? The British equivalent would probably to go out dress as Arthur Dent (ie, in a dressing gown and pyjamas) and not have a convention to go to.
Beyond the Trouble, More Trouble
Elizabeth Wurtzel on David Wallace. They were the best of friends.
Wendy and Lisa prepare 'Heroes' score album
Watched the opening double bill tonight and thank goodness it's back on form. I won't spoil the second episode in case you missed it, but Kring & co have certainly got their mojo back. There are revelations in there which, even if they weren't planned ahead, show that their inspiration is working overtime, and the results are rather more exciting than the 'virus on the loose' plot which, according to the season two dvd box set, was originally planned before the writer's strike curtailed the last series. I just wish it was goofier, just now and then.
Model Sanctuary opens again at London Fashion Week
It's a safe house for catwalkers.
Another city, another event, another night alone in another hotel.
This is exactly what it's like being alone in a hotel in strange place. My approach is to simply be there as little as possible. I think those Japanese bed capsules would be perfect for me.
Products Placed: How Companies Pay Artists to Include Brands in Lyrics
"oh lord, won't you buy me a ...."
Exclusive: William Kristol Is Having Trouble Writing His Next Column About Sarah Palin
Gosh some of these articles are old -- but I'm still catching up with my reading after the great reorganisation. Along with Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale (more on which some other time) this demonstrates that when things like this happen, it's not because I'm rubbish, it's just that sometimes it doesn't happen. Personally, I think the best criticism Kristol could offer, if that's his motive, would be to publish this as it stands, perhaps cutting back on the swearing depending on the journal's policy.
A little something to remind me…
Landmark confusion.
Immendorff: copies, fakes or authorised reproductions?
It's worth asking on the basis of this, what makes a great artist. The work or his life?
In Conversation: Woody Allen
I feel like I've linked to this piece before. I haven't have I? Either way it's about the director's love for New York to celebrate New York Magazine's 40th Birthday and somehow manages to drag up some insights I've never heard before. What he says about the overall degradation of cultural expectation is true and I think suggests why some of his later work has been under appreciated -- audiences are far less forgiving in some ways these days, but undiscerning in others.
Frida Kahlo @ Who Killed Bambi
Oh deer...
Sun sets on 'House That Ruth Built'
Yankee Stadium closes. What is happening to the world? This is.
Blogging You might remember this rant about how the tv ads for Belle De Jour confused the terms 'blogs' and 'blog posts' (and the ensuing comments were accused me of misusing the words book and novel terminology -- good times). Now, in writing about the new House of Lords blog, The Guardian's Stephen Moss is at it in this piece from the Shortcuts section of today's G2.
Moss begins by using the term 'blog' as a label for both the (rather good it turns out) Lords of the Blogs and an individual post and then continues to describe a range of different posts by different peers as blogs throughout the rest of what otherwise would be a neat piece of writing. I don't think I'm being hypersensitive about this. You'd hardly call a keyboard a typewriter. Once more with feeling: This is a blog. What I have published here is a blog post.
Sigh.
Moss begins by using the term 'blog' as a label for both the (rather good it turns out) Lords of the Blogs and an individual post and then continues to describe a range of different posts by different peers as blogs throughout the rest of what otherwise would be a neat piece of writing. I don't think I'm being hypersensitive about this. You'd hardly call a keyboard a typewriter. Once more with feeling: This is a blog. What I have published here is a blog post.
Sigh.
"Ah, you must be very beautiful then." -- Belle De Jour, from first blog entry
TV My approach to the ITV channels lately has been similar to idiot motorists who slow down on one side of the M6 when a car crash has happened on the other -- I'll stop for a moments as I'm passing through the channels just to see how bad it is. Last night on my way to a rolling news channel, I stopped off at ITV2 who were showing the trailer for the adaptation of Belle de Jour's book and blog starring Billie Piper. Once I was over the shock of seeing Billie doing those things in that way (having led a sheltered existence I completely avoided her lad mag appearances pre-Doctor Who) and the fact that it does look fabulous and that I'll be tuning in, I began to listen to the voice over and the advertising which flashed across the screen.
Then the really horror as the announcers says and the words said 'Based on the blogs by Belle De Jour' (my emphasis). Like Belle herself, I could be less offended by the c-word (which I'm abbreviating in case any readers are) but one of my pet(ty) hates is the pluralizations of blog to blogs if there aren't more than one of them. Which in this case there clearly aren't. If there's an adaptation of single book, Pride and Prejudice, it doesn't become 'Based on the books by Jane Austen'.
What I suspect has happened here is that the promotional person doesn't know the difference between a blog and blog post or even really knows what a blog is and is using it in the same way that got a certain satirical office website in trouble with the very people it was supposed to attract when it simply put the words 'latests blogs' at the top of a list of latest blog entries thereby demonstrating that no matter how much they might think they're down with the kids, they really weren't. Wouldn't it have been easier to have said 'web diary' or 'weblog' instead of trying to use the 'cool' version and getting it so horrendously wrong and perpetuating the impression to some that what I've written in this space below the title and before the date is a blog and not the whole damn six years worth.
Then the really horror as the announcers says and the words said 'Based on the blogs by Belle De Jour' (my emphasis). Like Belle herself, I could be less offended by the c-word (which I'm abbreviating in case any readers are) but one of my pet(ty) hates is the pluralizations of blog to blogs if there aren't more than one of them. Which in this case there clearly aren't. If there's an adaptation of single book, Pride and Prejudice, it doesn't become 'Based on the books by Jane Austen'.
What I suspect has happened here is that the promotional person doesn't know the difference between a blog and blog post or even really knows what a blog is and is using it in the same way that got a certain satirical office website in trouble with the very people it was supposed to attract when it simply put the words 'latests blogs' at the top of a list of latest blog entries thereby demonstrating that no matter how much they might think they're down with the kids, they really weren't. Wouldn't it have been easier to have said 'web diary' or 'weblog' instead of trying to use the 'cool' version and getting it so horrendously wrong and perpetuating the impression to some that what I've written in this space below the title and before the date is a blog and not the whole damn six years worth.
Links for 2007-03-14 [del.icio.us] - Rmail
"Stan Lee and Marvel Comics’s Joe Quesada contemplate Captain America's surprising death." Lee seems slightly bewildered to be asked about the affair and doesn't seem sure of the character's origin...
Yeah! Andrew Collins and Lee Mack's brilliant sitcom gets some of the recognition it deserves.
The acknowledgments for the new album are so long they've been posted online instead. To be honest, Joss and I parted company when she said the first 2 albums aren't very good even though they're clearly better than the average new single.
The woman who in the past told us everything, suddenly can't say anything at all.
Fraser attempts a recipe: "To be quite frank, it’s disgusting. It has the texture of mucus. Or glue. And it tastes like decomposing leek."
Is nothing sacred?
In general a grimly unamusing and dated comedy whose only light is Bill Murray's grounds keeper. I'm not sure quite why my impression (I laughed once) is so divorced from the critical reaction, but Rodney Dangerfield?!? Really!?!
Fairly horrifying but compulsive revenge thriller which precisely demonstrates how behind the rest of the world Hollywood is in relation to filmmaking technique. What it lacks in narrative focus it more than makes up for in sheer artistry.
Classic bit of Hitchcock from the period before he began to favour character intricacies over plot. What's particularly surprising is the dark humour that reaches through film, particularly in relation to the murder at its centre.
It's the French 'Big Chill' with less plot more talk. And what talk! This essays enough promiscuity to fill ten other movies and it's just hilarious. But my favourite moment is the opening shot, a long drawn out push-in through the hallway.
Unlike other reunion sequels manages to be its own story without necessarily compromising what went before. Extraordinary performance from Rémy Girard as the cancer victim whose decline broke my heart. Just sublime.
Repeats many of the problems with Kubrick's films, such as poor structuring leading to a lack of empathy with the characters. The film is best in the opening hour in the training camp; once it reaches Vietnam there's nothing we haven't seen before.
Absolutely brilliant film totally deserving of all of its awards -- Michael Sheen was robbed at the Oscars. Interesting to see that the archive footage was researched and collated by Adam Curtis maker of 'The Power of Nightmares' and 'The Trap'.
It could be argued that this is playing the same aesthetic games here as with 'The Good German' but its still a very impressive piece of work given that most of the dialogue was improvised and it was almost shot Dogme-style. Rewarding.
Links for 2007-02-02 [del.icio.us] - Rmail
About as local as a news story can be -- the potholes outside our building are finally going to be filled in properly.
“Wittertainment at its most wittertaining”
While we all (aright I) wait for some kind of uk release for 'Scoop', Penelope has signed for Woody's next film but one. And it's a comedy drama. Set in Barcelona. Any chance of a really serious film in the Interiors mould some time soon?
Jordana Brewster signs to play Mrs. Smith in the tv version of the film 'Mr & Mrs Smith' which on the basis of her turn in DEBS is excellent casting.
The famous site has been reconfigured slightly. Excellent photographs, especially of his signature on one of the boxes.
To quote Pauline Kael: "the most cheerfully perverse scare movie ever made... [with] more zest than an early Woody Allen picture, a lot more electricity, [and] it's funny in a Woody Allen sort of way." Certainly is -- Dreyfuss is a riot.
"Talking and reasoning computers. Commercial airline flights to the moon and beyond. Newspapers that bring readers only reports they want to have."
"Human cheese is cheese produced from the breast milk of female humans. It has been proposed as a Vegan alternative to cheeses produced by other mammals, such as goats and cows." Ugh. Ewe.
Adam appears on 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' after all. Previous blog entry about getting bumped mentioned on the show.
Belle goes to a 'Half Man Half Biscuit'. They once released an album inspired by working somewhere I used to work. Oh yes.
step -1
Blog! "After years of having the blackest thumb known to gardening, I've started planting plants and they're even growing. Shocking. A friend suggested this was step -1 to getting a kitten, which is step 0 to having a baby. If so I hope this step lasts a few years at least, I can barely find the time to feed myself much less whip out a tit for a shrieking sprog." -- Belle de jour.
Links for 2004-09-16 [del.icio.us]
Links for 2004-09-16 [del.icio.us]
Time Out : Film
New website coming soon which include a version of the annual film guide. I swear by their reviews so it'll be handy to have access to them without having to buy the magazine and before the book is published (assuming that's how it'll work).
Domic Diamond returns to Video Game programming
Frankly I'm with the Guardian Gamesblog reader: 'It'll be nothing without Patrick Moore.'
The Lesbians On Ecstasy
According to the website "It's kd lang, but it's different somehow... "
No Friendster of mine
"One week after Friendster fired her for blogging about the company, Joyce Park opens up to Red Herring." A week. It feels like ages ago.
Flip Flop Flyin's 'Minipops' has s book version published in October
Craig Robinson little people were one of the first thing to get me really excited about the possibilities of the internet and I'm pleased to see he has a book coming out. I'll just have to give this as a gift this Christmas.
The clothing shops of Bon Marche to slowly become Macy's
But will it happen in the UK? I'm not sure because the Macy's name doesn't quite have the strong brand visibility here
Belle de Jour leaves us (for now...)
See you Missy Miss
British History Online
But not Liverpool. Yet.
Film Of The Day: Nina Takes a Lover (1994)
Nina (Laura San Giacomo) has an affair with a photographer in an attempt to rekindle her marriage but things get wildly complicated. It's a romantic comedy with the tricky structure of something like 'The Usual Suspects' and is just spectacular.
CliffsNotes on King Lear
Filed for future reference. The one play I get lost in. Ironically, as soon as the old man hits the moors I get lost. With any luck I'll finally understand ...
New Hauppauge box "enhances reception"
Freeviewers will understand what a joy this thing is. Pulse Killer technology" that aims to reduce picture breakup due to electrical interference.
Orion Slave Girls return to Star Trek
They really are wanting to return to the old school ...
Ono's artwork on show at Liverpool Airport
And in Church Streer according to the photo. Wasn't Woody Allen chased by one of the these in of his films?
New website coming soon which include a version of the annual film guide. I swear by their reviews so it'll be handy to have access to them without having to buy the magazine and before the book is published (assuming that's how it'll work).
Frankly I'm with the Guardian Gamesblog reader: 'It'll be nothing without Patrick Moore.'
According to the website "It's kd lang, but it's different somehow... "
"One week after Friendster fired her for blogging about the company, Joyce Park opens up to Red Herring." A week. It feels like ages ago.
Craig Robinson little people were one of the first thing to get me really excited about the possibilities of the internet and I'm pleased to see he has a book coming out. I'll just have to give this as a gift this Christmas.
But will it happen in the UK? I'm not sure because the Macy's name doesn't quite have the strong brand visibility here
See you Missy Miss
But not Liverpool. Yet.
Nina (Laura San Giacomo) has an affair with a photographer in an attempt to rekindle her marriage but things get wildly complicated. It's a romantic comedy with the tricky structure of something like 'The Usual Suspects' and is just spectacular.
Filed for future reference. The one play I get lost in. Ironically, as soon as the old man hits the moors I get lost. With any luck I'll finally understand ...
Freeviewers will understand what a joy this thing is. Pulse Killer technology" that aims to reduce picture breakup due to electrical interference.
They really are wanting to return to the old school ...
And in Church Streer according to the photo. Wasn't Woody Allen chased by one of the these in of his films?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)