From Guardian
The expansion of the Oyster card brings yet more change for Harry Beck’s classic design. It’s time to go back to the drawing board
Might the Oyster card swipe the world-famous London Underground map off the walls of tube stations for ever? From the beginning of 2010, Oyster cards can be used for travel on all public transport services in Greater London including tube trains, buses, trams, suburban trains, the Docklands Light Railway and Thames Clipper river boats. What this revolution in ticketing means is that Londoners and visitors to the capital will be able to travel seamlessly above, below and across the city, as well as out to its farthest-flung suburbs.
I hope not, it would be very sad to see this iconic image disappear.
From Telegraph
Next month a love affair lasting more than 60 years will end. The last batch of Polaroid film will pass its use-by date and the era of instant Polaroid photography, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, will draw to a close.
End of an era………..
I recently found out about Software Freedom Day (19th September).
To quote the official site “Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Our goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about of the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business — in short, everywhere!”
Work permitting, I hope to be involved in the activities.
From the Telegraph
Send for the Sanity Inspector – quickly. There is work for him among the denizens of Liverpool city council. The council is proposing to use its powers to upgrade to an 18-certificate the classification of films “if they depict images of tobacco smoking”, in order to protect the vulnerable youth of Merseyside from exposure to such depravity.
Shame on the jobsworths at Liverpool Council. Unfortunatly this form of censorship seems to be on the increase. Greats like Humphrey Bogart and Alain Delon without a cigarette, I think not.
From Cineuropa.org
Vive Mesrine!
Let’s face it – no one does Real McCoy, well-’ard gangster flicks like we Europeans. Of course, Stateside, you can cite Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) or Casino (1995) and, at a pinch, Coppolla’s The Godfather (1972) but sorry, when it comes to what violence, fear of violence and callous characterizations are really all about, we have (among many others) Get Carter (1971). We’ve got The Long Good Friday (1980).
Frankly, you’ve never really had a glass smashed into your face unless you’ve had it this side of the Atlantic, and there is a gritty, seamy, downright dirty side to the 70s gangster look and feel that only European pubs, bars, clubs and strip-joints can effectively convey.
Shortly to be released in the UK, this is one I will most certainly be gong to see. Lost count of Vincent Cassel films I have seen, but not once been disappointed.
From the Guardian
Theatres must stop obsessing with finding new and ever-younger talent and focus on sustaining careers of playwrights instead.
The flurry of interest surrounding the news that 17-year-old Anya Reiss is to have a play staged at the Royal Court next year, is a reminder of how much the young are valued in theatre – and the media – over the older and more experienced.
From Sunday Times
Coming to a theatre near you: sex, violence and drunken high jinks — and that’s just the audience.
A number of West End theatres are now employing bouncers to cope with intoxicated patrons who fight, fondle one another and even urinate in the auditorium.
Well I had heard of the Pirate Party and was aware of their views on copyright law but until today after a discussion with a software developer friend, never realised they had such a big following. According to Wikipedia the party has the third largest membership in Sweden and polled 7.1% in the recent european elections giving them one seat in the European Parliament. Should the Treaty of Lisbon be ratified, the party will receive a second seat. The party currently has no seats in the Swedish Parliament, but polled 0.63% of the vote, something of a record considering the party was formed in the year of the election (2006).
Overall I am impressed by the party’s electoral success but not in agreement with their views on copyright, put simply they wish to reduce copyright term to five years. This may initially sound desirable, but when one considers that the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), that most Free Software is released under requires the legal mechanics of the copyright system to ensure that the freedoms of the licence are extended to derivative works (freedom to study, modify, run and redistribute), by requiring that the source code be distributed on the same terms as the software, then it is easy to see that the Pirate Party’s proposals would cause considerable problems.
For my first post I’m starting off by pumping an event that I hope to get to next year, in particular the Hohenwestedt venue in northern Germany.
Das Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum is by its own claim the largest travelling medieval festival in the world visiting over twenty venues during the year and comes highly recommended, with all the usual performers such as Knight’s Tournaments, live musical acts, dancers, jesters, jugglers, magicians, beggars, puppet shows etc. In particular looking foward to seeing the highly regarded and entertaining Das Hexenbad witch dunking act. This act combines a high level of authenticity with a degree of audience participation, with witch hunters from the troupe scouring the audience for people to take the witch “test”.
