George Orwell and a Knight at the Opera

On the way back from college, I popped into Bluewater to have a nice cup of coffee and nosey about. In Waterstones, they had a display of that non-South African author George Orwell. They had Politics and the English Language in pamphlet form for 99p. Bargain!

It's one of his best essays and most readable, after Lion and the Unicorn. It can be read in it's entirety here, and it's especially good for people who know English as a second language. Radio 4 have also been running a series on the author recently.

I also stopped in the Lego shop and found a Knight!

He seems a cheerful chappie, doesn't he.

Black Mirror

Unless you don't watch TV at all, or are just simply not interested, there's a TV series called Black Mirror on Channel 4. It's science fiction of the near future, what Charlie Brooker, who's behind it and writes most of the episodes, calls "the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy".

They're not bad stories, some quite chilling, but they're the sort of stories a hipster/creative from Shoreditch might come up with if they've been reading J.G. Ballard (not as bad as it sounds). And, like all science fiction, it's not really about the future, but about the hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties that we have in the present.

Google Books on Storyville

As part of a Stoyville series on the internet, the first was about Google's attempts to digitise the whole printed word.

It strikes me how amazingly naive the librarians involved were. You'd think that they would know at least a little about copyright law and how it applied to the digitisation process. That Google seemed as naive was also a surprise, although I imagine that they just thought it would be covered by Fair Use. It's also interesting to see where the problems were. If Google had left alone copyrighted material and, well, anything in French and German, it might have been a very different story.

Oxfam Friday - It's a Cop Out

I did a morning shift at the shop after Mark had been let down by Georgina, so I got to play some more tunes on the top deck, including some serious Bob Marley and the Wailers!

Afterwards I was caught by the fuzz!

Zodiac

After the murders of two couples in 1960's San Fransisco, the press are sent letters purporting to be from the killer.

This is a film based on the book of the same name by Robert Graysmith and tells of the author's obsession with the case, although, even at the end, the killer's identity is still in doubt.

It's not a bad film, but it does fail to intrigue and it drags a little. Instead of being as pre-occupied with search for the killer's identity as he was, I just ended up feeling sorry for Graysmith's wife.

Oxfam Wednesday

Anne, Mark's boss, had asked me to put in an afternoon shift upstairs, so I got a look at what it was like on a Wednesday. Not that much different from Tuesday, really, but I got to see our music expert, Dave, who I hadn't seen in a long while. He's got a new display, in place of the old cassette shelves:

As you can see, one or two classic albums.

I played some more free-bee's. The only ones of note were Pond's Elegant Design and this cover of the Neil Young Harvest track Old Man by Villagers:

There was also this track by Wolf People, which I rather liked:

New Lego - Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Beers!

I got a new Lego Minifigure, this time Caesar himself!

He doesn't look happy, does he? Veni, Vidi, Grumpi.

Oxfam Tuesday

I was asked by Mark to do Tuesday afternoon again, but this time upstairs. There was a brisk trade and played some free-bee CD's that had come off magazines (Uncut, Mojo, The Word [now defunct], etc.), which can't be sold by the shop. One of the tracks which caught my ear was Desert Raven by Jonathan Wilson:

Another was by Paul Simon, which is quite a foot-tapper.

Others were The Silver Seas, The Men and White Denim, who seem like a fun band, judging by this (I heard "Say What You Want", but couldn't find a decent video for that).

Saturday - A Singularitarian Utopia Or A New Dark Age?

Today I went to see this presentation by Ian Pearson.

He began by saying that the perceived problems of the future, global warming, overpopulation, resource scarcity, etc. would be solved by various technological fixes and inventions. Amongst these would be the technologies leading to the singularity, which, he said, would be sooner than people think. He described a system of what he called a "gel" computer, a group of small modules networked together in a transparent gel using small lasers. This is technology available now, or soon-ish within the next few years. He also detailed smart organic cells ("smart yogurt"; I kid you not) which would also be enabled to network and evolve themselves (Greg Bear detailed something similar in the novel Blood Music).

All this is very positive, but there are downsides and he highlighted these in the second half of the presentation. He noted that it's possible that what he called a "Stepford Society" would evolve. This is one where criminals cannot be punished because they cannot be identified, having learnt to remove themselves from the systems which track everyone, while honest citizens are increasingly punished for petty misdemeanours as they can be caught. He then went on to describe what he called a "Dark Age of Anti-knowledge", where rumours and half-truths get promulgated by social networking and knowledge bases without being rigorously tested.

All-in-all, it was a good presentation, but a lot of the ideas were not really related to the singularity as such.

Friday - ...and another Special

I popped into the shop today on my way past and informed Mark that next week I was available as it was half term. While there, John said he had another Penguin Special, and an unusual one:

S88 from 1941 (this is the revised version from 1943). He also told me that quite a few people were after early Penguins and one was after 1^st editions of the first 100. A true collector! I checked my meagre collection and I don't have any 1^st editions, only a 1^st reprint at best.

Oxfam Tuesday - Another Special

Back down on the bottom deck this afternoon. John had managed to find another special, S142:

It doesn't have a dust cover, which stopped with S57 in 1940. Still in good nick, though.

All quiet today, trade-wise. Mark asked me to price up some games and RPG's which had been way overpriced. Two of the games were extensions of an RPG called Legend of the Five Rings (L5R):

It's a fantasy RPG based on feudal Japan. I'd heard of it a while ago and was a little curious and the extensions are very professional. There's also a collectable card game.

Sunday Board Games Club - Spartacus and Coup

It's been a few months since I was at the games club, so I was looking forward to it. One of the regulars, Jason, who brought Frag a few months back, had Spartacus ("a game of blood and treachery"):

No so much blood, really, but a fair bit of treachery, and we soon set about stabbing each other in the back, almost to the point where the action in the arena didn't really have anything to do with it. Quite a good game.

Jason also had Coup, which we played a few hands of:

It's an odd game, mostly bluff. You have two face cards and your actions are based on what cards you have, or rather, say you have. Other players can then call your bluff, but only at the cost of losing one of their own cards. If you have enough money, you can call a coup and a player loses a card. It took a little getting used to, but was quite entertaining. I'm not even a natural bluffer, but it soon brought it out.

The Avengers

Well, I got to watch the Avengers, at long last, and jolly good it was too!

Probably the ultimate pizza movie with lots of bangs and crashes, a real rollercoaster ride, and a not half-bad plot either, from Joss Whedon, that doesn't let up. The acting is pretty good as well and there is some room for it, particularly Loki (Tom Hiddleston). It's just a shame I didn't get to see it in 3D.

Friday - More Lego

I've bought a few more Lego Mini-figures. A bit of an improvement:

A mermaid, what looks like an astronaut (or a robot?) and an alien of some kind. With a club.

I was in the Lego shop in Bluewater the other day and they have this little workbench with a kind of hopper in the middle. You can mix and match heads, bodys and legs to make you're own custom figure for £3.50 each. Nice!

Skyfall Redux

While web browsing, I found this group who do "honest" film trailers. Their latest is on the recent Bond film:

Although I don't agree with all of it, they do have a point.

Oxfam Tuesday - Penguin Specials and Subbuteo

Mark asked me to do a shift downstairs today, where the action is. There was a bit of a surprise, though. I'd mentioned to John in the past that I was interested in Penguin Specials that came out from 1938 to the end of the war (there were some later) and he managed to find one:

It's number S26 and in very good nick.

There was the usual banter. We were talking about forged notes at one point and John said "Fivers are ten-a-penny", to which we all fell about.

With working on the bottom deck, there was no music as such, so I went all metal on the way back and listened to The Brain Police:

Rock On!

I was talking to Mark about Subbuteo, the football playing game:

Apparently, Mark said, the name is derived from Latin name of the Hobby falcon, (Falco subbuteo). You learn something every day working for Oxfam.

Saturday - A Trip Through London

Today I went into London to go for a drink with some former collegues. As it was such a bright, shiny day, I thought I'd take the camera:

Apparently, this route (15) is running the old routemasters.

What the fourth plinth is meant to represent I'm not sure. It's called "Powerless Structures, Fig. 101". I prefer the ship in the bottle.

American Gangster

Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) inherits a drug empire from his boss and decides to cut out the middle men by smuggling heroin directly from Vietnam using the coffins of dead servicemen unaware he is being tracked by a detective (Russell Crowe) and his team.

Based on a true story, it's a very good film, with hints of The French Connection. Washington dominates as an increasingly paranoid Lucas, enemies both within and without, but Crowe is good as his nemesis. The 70's are also suitably evoked with a really good, authentic soundtrack.

Sesame Street vs. The Beastie Boys

I saw this delightful video over at Boing Boing. It works rather well:

Cookie monster!