i love it when a plan comes together.

Can you guess when i was raised?














After a long wait and much speculation the cast of the new A-Team movie have been confirmed, brought together and photographed. Personally, i think they look great.

There's been loads of speculation about who should play whom, with Mel Gibson / George Clooney as faves to take on Hannibal; plenty of shouts of "Jim Carrey" for Murdock; Brad Pitt was almost demanded as Faceman. B.A has really caused the problems with so-called 'fans' insisting only MR.T can do it, and others wanting Ving Rhames or Michael Clarke-Duncan.

I firmly believe(d) that the A-Team has already been remade as David O.Russells 1999 Gulf War set Three Kings.



This had all the elements:

- A group of renegade soldiers chasing money but finding themselves completely compelled by the plight of the people they come across.

- A hard-bitten leader figure calling the shots.

- A very angry, very tough, but soft centred black man.

- A smooth talking but vulnerable cool kid.

- A half-crazy, never quite getting it, but completely lovable liability.

This film is brilliant and should well be seen by you if you've not already caught it. This renders it a very successful (though unofficial) remake in my eyes, which led to my reservations about the making of a formal movie version. We still don't know what the setting is for the new version, whether it will play for laughs, action or drama, or whether it's a kid's film or an adult movie. The picture, however, has got me very excited.

Just for confirmation, we have:
Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith - Liam Neeson
Sgt. Boscoe 'B.A' Baracus - Real life ultimate fighter Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson
Lt. Templeton 'Faceman' Peck - The Hangover's Bradley Cooper
Cpt. 'Howling Mad' Murdock - District 9's Sharlto Copley

I love the Jazz!

What the BNP want.

All this BNP stuff has been going round and round in my head for a week or so now. Their whole proposition is ridiculously short sighted - and then it struck me. Perhaps they haven't gone far enough. The BNP should be given what they want, after following their ideals to their logical conclusion, and then they should see how much they like it.

They want to defend the rights of the people indigenous to this fair isle (whoever the chuff they are). They'd like to ship home everyone who isn't originally from this land and live in a world where people keep to their own (whatever any of that means). Fair enoungh i say (with a liberal amount of irony). According to the dreams of the BNP, what ought to follow then though is that all those around the globe who can trace their roots back to this land of ours be forced to come 'home'.

At that point, after the overwhelming influx from Australia, North America and ex-pats living across Europe, Africa and Southern Asia, we should do some more maths to see how population, employment, benefits, transportation, housing and food markets have been affected. Then we should ask the BNP if we weren't better off before.

Idiots.

Is all publicity good publicity?

"So, instead of talking about racial purity, we [the BNP] talk about 'identity'." - Nick Griffin, BNP Leader.



This Thursday evening Nick Griffin will appear on the BBC's Question Time show. The BBC has come in for loads stick for this, being criticised for giving the far-right, racist and fascist party a legitimate platform from which to broadcast it's views.

I got an email from the Hope Not Hate campaign asking that i appeal to the BBC not to allow Mr Griffin on the show. I don't think that's the way forward. Indeed, to ban the presentation and exploration of any given ideal usurps the values of freedom, liberty and democracy. This looks a lot like anti-fascist groups adopting fascist practises. Personally i want him on the show; give him all the rope he needs to trip up, tie up and hang up his and his party's unGodly ideology.

On the other hand the BBC is talking about its responsibility to impartiality, which is fair enough. It then however extends this argument to defend a pro-BNP / anti-fascist movement split in the audience it selects (this has obviously sparked concern over what incidents might arise in the studio). It seems to me that such a move is a perversion of what impartiality is about. Let's not forget that, despite all its controversy and growth, the BNP is a minority party and therefore granting them and those in their favour a 50% stake in the audience gives them a much bigger piece of cake than they're due. This is neither impartial nor neutral on the part of the BBC, but rather it frames the discussion in a very negatively skewed way. Thus the real problem is not the actual appearance of Nick Griffin, but the assumption of the BBC that 'fair' means the same as 'half each'.

My hope is that Mr Griffin is given enough screentime that the lights shine through his flimsy spin and exposes the dangerously malicious and desperately shortsighted core for all to see.

Deep Beauty Is Skin Only

Why do we believe that if something is beautiful it must be the truth, when actually it's rather that if something is true, it is beautiful - regardless of it's apparent 'ugliness'?



I think this video should be seen as widely as possible. The fact this is essentially a dove advert is neither here nor there, since, when adverts start saying things like this, the product can be sold in its true perspective.

The 3D revolution; Cinema has changed!!

I've not been to the cinema for an age, so this week i went twice. First was to see District 9 which was essentially The Office, Alien Nation, Cry Freedom, The Fly, Robocop, Mac and Me, Terminator 2 and the latest Rambo all combined together - then shot at until all that remains is a mist of spattered blood. All the reviews were terribly excited about this film, whereas it seemed to me to be exciting, but terrible.

It set itself up as a documentary formatted telling of an analogous group of aliens whose craft ceases working over Johannesburg and who are received by the city as unwelcome refugees. Hhhmmmm, inter-stellar racism and posing of the classic "And who is my neighbour?", interesting. It then gets political in exposing the humans' pursuit of control of alien weaponry. This therefore highlights our addiction to power, control, militarisation and violence. Wow, plenty to explore there too.

Then, however, it abandons it's documentary styling in favour of a heavy action shoot 'em up, which undermines and ignores all that it had suggested it might have been attempting to do. The main character, Wickes, who undergoes a gradual and grotesque transformation into one of the alien race through the course of the film, is clearly left unchanged in his personhood by the end. Thus the point is made: "see how we're all the same underneath really". This point is fine, but it's a far cry from the discussion it looked like was going to be had.

Next up was Up. Not just Up though, Up in 3D! I've not seen a 3D film until now, well, not since the green and red lensed glasses nonsense. I've since remained a sceptic and sided with those who say it's not the next big leap in film-making, it's just a gimmicky, defensive reaction to stem the popularity of cinematic piracy.

Up was preceeded by a 3D trailer for the forthcoming Jim Carrey ladened A Christmas Carol. The trailer looked amazing! It seems that the 3D version of the film will be a real showcase for the effect. Up also looked incredible, and it struck me that if used sparringly and with the appropriate films (CG animation primarily) 3D might be a very welcome boost to cinematic experience and film-makers' tool belts.

There is, however, more to consider than just the boost of effects that are presented on the screen though. Up begins with a staggering and beautifully moving 10 minute sequence. As this part drew to a close i found that i had been robbed. Where i would usually (as is part of the lore of cinematic wonderment) turn to check the response of kelly to what was being shown, and see her either half smiling, laughing out loud, jaw dropped with shock, or perhaps, her face wet with tears reflecting the lights of the screen, i saw instead that i was sat next to one of the blues brothers. Her glasses, too big for her face and completely concealing any physical expression of emotion that might be happening deep beneath, had stolen a moment of transcendance and replaced it with a cheap piece of slap-stick. I'm not sure the whole 3D thing is worth that.

A Celebration.

Words fail me.

This is a human being exploring potential, and my gosh does he strike upon some!

I thought i'd bob this up on narcissi-silly just to show there is some life back in the old girl.

Journey To The Land Of Lost Blogs.

I haven't blogged since April, even that was just part of a catch up series prior to which i'd not blogged since who knows when. Sufficient people (3) have expressed, with mixed degrees of sincerity, that it was missed. And so, keyboard in hand (and fedora on head) i hack my way through the dense undergrowth of logins and forgotten passcodes in search of a rumoured former commentary on 'civilisation'.

I now aim to revive that which once was common place here; namely bewilderment, self-aggrandisement and definitively correct opinion. What follows here are portions of the past 5 months in bulletpoint format - in no particular order.

> I did a 6 week church placement at Harehills Lane Baptist Church in Leeds. I was very warmly welcomed and it was good, and a privilidge, to briefly see and be invloved with a different picture of church life.

> Kelly had a spot on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square.

> Glastonbury 2009 - Blur, Kasabian,(absolute stand-out acts) Fleet Foxes, Dizzee Rascal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Specials, Roots Manuva, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dan Le Sac V Scroobius Pip, Bloc Party, (Tom Jones, Jason Mraz, Ting Tings - these acts were embarrassing) Beardyman, Mark Thomas (comedian / political activist / author), Speech DeBelle, Emmy The Great, Khaled, N.E.R.D, Spinal Tap and Bruce Springsteen (of whom it was said by many - given his energy, stamina and charisma - how good he must be in bed. I agree with this to a point, but there was also enough in his performance to suggest he'd spend the whole time checking himself out in the mirror).

> Without wishing to capitalise on the lives of others too much, i'm beginning to grasp what heroine addiction, alcohol abuse, the benefit system, and emotional and mental difficulties really look like. It leaves me angry, spinning and weeping - all of which i seek to do before God, but, if anything, this only enhances these responses.

> I found out that lots of the stuff i really struggle with about the institutionalisation of the mission of Christ, as found in the church, puts me in a camp that has a name. It's called Christi-anarchy. I like it! It's untamed, unbound, chaotic, desperatley dynamic, doesn't care which banners it flys under or disowns, but is ultimately free to seek to be Godly and good.

> I've entered my fourth and final year at college. Over the course of this year the plan is that i will be 'settled' with the church community who will take me on in a proper sense, rather than in a student placement sense. (This is one of the reasons for kick-starting the blog again, because if they're worth their salt they'll google me, find this and this might be enough to give them an accurate picture of me and scare them off. Let's see if it works).

> Dan and Bex got married at the end of August! I grew up with Dan and had the enormous privilidge of presiding over the ceremony. This event also afforded me the opportunity to spend 2 weeks back in Pontyclun (the longest time spent there since leaving home) where i got to hang out with old cronies and speak to loads of people not seen in an age. The whole thing was absolute magic. Congrats Dan and Bec!

> One of the things blogging does is it offers me help in tracing single threads of thought from the mess of my mind. One of the things going round and round are questions about how genetically bound we are, how much choice we ever really have and what amount of potential for change there actually is in people. Some of this stuff is neatly raised in this video which is more squarely aimed at another issue regularly raised here.

> Kelly and i have started getting our weekly fresh fruit and veg from The Hungry Snail. If you're in or around the Wakefield area, i strongly recommend it and would encourage you to consider buying from them.

> My knee is better, i'm now back playing football (currently 3 times a week - no less). I cannot tell you how good it feels, despite how creaky some of my joints have become over this last year. Time to roll out the cod liver oil?

> Tottenham Hotspur are doing reasonably well, better than this time last year anyway. Really need Modric back and fit, but for now a top 3 place is making my smile real broad.

> I turned 30 years old. That's left it's mark i assure you.

> I tried swine flu, it ain't no thang, but the fever makes you sweat like a...

> TV wise, i watched Dexter season 2, Flight of the Conchords season 1 and Northern Exposure season 1. Getting into Flash Forward, but no matter what i try, i just can't fill The Wire shaped hole in me.

> We've gone from Credit Crunch(tm) to "banking crisis" to full blown recession. And still i seem to be left with the sense that political parties are looking to score points for the looming general election rather than plan a proper response.

> Michael Jackson's death remained 'breaking news' for longer than the collapse of the twin towers according to comedian, writer, broadcaster and Guardian colomnist Charlie Brooker.

> Natural disasters in South East Asia are being given lessened air time because party conferences happen to be going on at the same time.

For now though it's good to be back, i didn't have to use my whip once and my fear of snakes was allowed to lie dormant. Hopefully i'll be back soon. Don't be a stranger.