Exhibition of photographs (by Walter Schels and Beate Lakotta) of people before and after dying, at the Wellcome Collection in London, and online at guardian/society:

Life Before Death

Death is a test of one’s maturity. Everyone has got to get through it on their own. I want very much to die. I want to become part of that vast extraordinary light. But dying is hard work. Death is in control of the process, I cannot influence its course. All I can do is wait. I was given my life, I had to live it, and now I am giving it back. Edelgard Clavey, 67

Filed under: culture, death, photography, prejudices, religion, zen

zizek on love

Possibly Slavoj Žižek is a silly old bachelor like myself.

Filed under: philosophy, prejudices

Is Michael Clayton Hollywood?

I think it may be, but I did quite enjoy it. After coming out of the cinema, however, I was not so sure about at least one turn of the plot. (The heavy handed methods used to silence the George Clooney character, and the complete failure of these attempts being reported as a fact that Michael Clayton had been murdered.)

Tilda Swinton was good though.

I wonder if there is already a word which means to be overcome by the beauty of horses. There should be.

Filed under: cinema, popular culture, prejudices

I am nuts

A while back I kind of hinted that I’d be having a go at Hollywood, as I am not a fan of the movies that emanate from that part of America. The problem is that I therefore never go and pay good money to see them, and nor do I have a DVD player (apart from in my computer). You can imagine then that I would have reacted with scorn when an ad for I am legend (film) caught my eye in today’s paper.

“A TRULY THOUGHT-PROVOKING BLOCKBUSTER” NUTS — there is a magazine called Nuts! NUTS is the nuts, I suppose.

That phrase THOUGHT-PROVOKING BLOCKBUSTER sounded like an oxymoron if ever there was one, but A O Scott’s view that the movie “does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization” has got me interested — sounds just up my street. I might go and see it.

Filed under: cinema, popular culture, prejudices

A dialogue

hylas: good morrow philonous, fit like?

philonous: no’ too bad. foo’s doo?

hylas: aye awright, ken. I hear that you’ve been shooting your mooth aff again, aboot the evils o’ drink, yer an awfy man like.

philonous: I was simply stating my view that the pleasures o’ the bottle are a bit over emphasised, exaggerated if ye will. I get fair aggravated wi’ folk ae goin’ on aboot chardonnay and whatnot—middle cless twats like, ken what I mean. Them that’s real ale drinkers are juist as bad like, wi’ their 80/-, heavy, and aa’ the rest o’ it.

hylas: I ken. But you’re juist showing yersel up as haein’ nae class, man, nae sophistication at aa’, and nae bloody fun either ye miserable auld so-and-so.

philonous: weel, we’re human bein’s naw? And human bein’s are no’ content wi’ mere enjoyment, we want tae understan’, richt?

hylas: aye, but what does it maitter if ye get plaistered every noo an’ then. ye’re a long time deid!

philonous: ye juist dinnae get d’ye? ach, I’m wastin’ my puff talkin’ tae ye. how’s your jeannie, by the wie?

hylas: the doctor says she’ll hae tae gie up the fags like. she’s fair scunnered like, she enjoyed a fag noo an’ then. But I see that ye’re tryin’ tae get aff the subject like. I heard that the week afore ye made a richt fool o’ yersel talkin’ aboot fitba’. honestly ye really are a richt miserable auld bugger. ye want tae watch yersel.

Filed under: prejudices

Even as a footballer, I was always being creative.

I have no interest in sports, and so know next to nothing about football. I can’t say, however, that I know nothing about football. Interest in the beautiful game is such that it is unavoidable in the workplace, for instance, so even I have found myself taking part in talk about football just to join, or fit in. I don’t mind showing my ignorance and even knowingly getting a laugh out of my ignorance at my own expense. I honestly couldn’t give a damn about this childish sport that enthralls so many people.

Except I do resent a little that I feel obliged to show an interest in something which holds no interest for me. It’s not that I would like people to be discussing philosophy or showing their concern for some of the serious issues that confront and challenge us all in the 21st Century—but just somehow for the bar to be raised a little.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. ~ Eric Cantona (former Manchester United player)

Picture a number of men in chains, and all condemned to death; each day some are strangled in the sight of the rest; those who remain see their own condition in that of their fellows, looking at one another with sorrow and without hope, each awaiting his turn. This is the picture of the condition of man. ~ Blaise Pascal Pensées

Which of these two would you rather have a tête-à-tête with? Okay, okay Eric Cantona I concede it. But not every football player or fan has his wit.

Football is often referred to as the beautiful game. I can understand this, you couldn’t easily imagine volleyball being referred to in this way. The Brazilians play with a great amount of skill and flair, I own it. However it’s when you see football strips displayed in frames and signed by some non-entity like David Beckham that you begin to wonder that the whole game is maybe taking itself a bit too seriously and that some fans really ought to grow up a bit.

I’m aware that I am being a bit harsh on David Beckham. Only this week at work Irene spoke up for him pointing out that he does a lot of good work with kids. I’m in no position to citicise anyone, I know, but people like David Beckham get paid huge amounts of money just for their entertainment value while so many other people do vital jobs for a pittance. This last point is commonly made against the modern game.

The main thing I think that I’m saying here is that I get depressed at the slavish way people follow this particular manifestation of popular culture.

The title is another quote from Eric Cantona. See Monty Python’s International Philosophy over at and so…

Filed under: philosophy, popular culture, prejudices

Wii are not amused

I was in the cinema to see Mon meilleur ami and the adverts included one for Sony’s Wii computer games console. Since I don’t know many young people this ad is my only chance to see it in action, not that I give a fig about it really—I should say that up front, I’m not very interested in computer games.

It seems to me that the Wii takes making an idiot out of yourself with a piece of technology to new heights. What I want to get off my chest in this post is perhaps a bit nastier than just saying that however. What I want to say is this: people who play computer games (and who include among their number some with high IQs no doubt) are thereby showing an intellectual inferiority, they are showing a lack of imagination, and a lack of seriousness.

That one can want to interact with a machine in this way is a clear sign that one is, at best, no better than a child in intellectual terms, and that one is in all likelihood a simpleton.

Okay this is pure prejudice based on some fantasy of myself being intellectually superior to Wii owners. I’ve admitted that I know few people of the generation who are likely to play with this technology. And yet I couldn’t help reacting in this way as I saw in the ad people standing in front of their TV weilding their mighty Wii handset in combat against some stupid pixellated pixie with a sword.

More generally the use of computers to aid banks in keeping data on customers in order to provide better information to those same customers on their products, well it’s all so petty and meaningless. Whatever happened to the sunny optimism conjured up in Donald Fagen’s IGY

A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young

Well actually I’m not too sure about extropian ideas (which the last two lines seem to be expressing now that I look at them again), but the point is that Sony want you chained to your TV set—and what is that going to do to your carbon footprint? What I do like about those lines is the bit about compassion and vision. Sadly I see a lack of these in our 21st century world where the convergence of electronics and entertainment seems to me to limit us in our imaginations and free time, and where jobs building systems for banks demean us through sheer banality of the work, again robbing us of precious time as we work hard in order to be able to afford our Wii stations:)

So I know there are some great uses of technology, and of course people can argue very cogently about how great computer games technology is, and yes I’m showing my age and prejudice but there it is. To me computing is about ideas, and ideas are exciting and liberating. Hooking up computers with some games developer’s imagination, or some business man’s concern for the bottom line is just crass.

Filed under: popular culture, prejudices, technology