On a lighter note...

Well, October has been quite a month for several reasons i shan't go into here. Suffice to say this post is in relation to a few things which have served as distractions.

Tottenham - What the...?
Bottom of the table? Ramos, unable to identify his player's abilities or inabilities, proceeds in picking teams, week-in-week-out, which have no semblance of rhyme or reason. Comolli smugly sat, fantasising about being a premiership manager. Levy desperately trying to work out how to save his own skin.

Cue 'Arry Redknapp - TA-DA! Comolli, Ramos and coaching staff sacked, Pavlychenko scores, Spurs get first win of the season and then, after being 3-1 down, draw 4-4 with the gooners - away!

What on Earth next? Watch this space.

TV - Police procedurals.
Dexter is brilliant. Like Quincy... only Quincy's a psychopath. Serial killers have never been portrayed so favourably. Balances really well its dark subject matter with quirky humour. Unlike...

The Wire, which is just gritty. And i don't mean gritty like a eating a sandwich on the beach, i mean gritty like eating rocks on a scree slope. Its realism and moral complexity even gets two pages worth of mention and theological reflection in John D. Caputo's 'What would Jesus Deconstruct?'.

Quantum of Solace - Moore is less.
Craig is still brilliant, the action is still amped, it's more stylistic then any Bond before it, the plot is credible while still being Bondian, so why is it unsatisfying?
The action is too amped. It looks like it's been edited by a whole class of kids whose Ritalin has been cruelly exchanged for candyfloss. It is riding purely on the back of the emotional investment in Casino Royale, which negates any reason for having any of its own.
And, where Royale stripped lots of Bond lores back but still remained very 'Bond', this seems to have stripped more back (though what, i'm not sure), but it's at its expense. No 'Bond, James Bond', no Q or Moneypenny, no theme (until the credits), no Martini, No bacarat (or hold 'em), and no shooting down the gun barrel (until the credits).
Still worth a look, but there's something, erm, empty, about it. One positive comment it does make is to show how pseudo-environmentalism has become a tool for the powerful. But even this this is a little hard to swallow given the glut of sponsorship from C*ke, S*ny, B*rcl*ys, F*rd and Om*ga et al.