It is Sunday February 1st and I am listening on the headphones to Joan Baez Pauvre Rutebeauf from my Angelina Album while I have breakfast of porridge and a banana. It is eight o clock and I have been up for three hours, looking forward to the lunchtime game between Sunderland and Newcastle on Sky and a roast pork with sage stuffing and roast potatoes lunch with cherries or grapes for afters.
There was nothing of significance about the Andrew Marr show this Sunday with the deputy conservative opposition leader hammering the message that the present economic situation is the fault of Prime Minister hoping to damage his credibility with the British voting public beyond the point when recovery measures stop the rise in unemployment and mortgage defaults. The approach appears to be working so is being pursued. Alan Milburn is introducing a new programme about dementia coupled with a move to tackle ageism in our society. One approach is negative and the other positive.
The Sunday Supplement talk show about football with specialist football journalists used to be a Sunday morning essential viewing in the days when Jimmy Hill fronted the programme and going to the match or seeking ways to watch the team when playing away was the highlight of every weekend during the football season. Now I can take or leave football. This feeling seemed unnatural at first but no longer. I missed the start of the programme staying with Andrew Marr but switched over as the discussed centred on the Newcastle Sunderland derby where the build up begins is just over two hour’s time. The programme contrasted that Sunderland is now playing as a team but lack some of the quality at Newcastle who are in complete disarray. The current story is that Ashley has lost lots and lots of money in the credit crunch and can just about pay the players wages. This morning there is reported news that Denise Wise the player buying football director is on his way elsewhere. Injury, the manager making stupid statements, players wanting to leave, all adds to a recipe leading to relegation. A defeat to-day will relight the touch paper of terrace discontent. (Hopefully).
There is also general disquiet among commentators and some managers about the mid season transfer window with those around the table being sympathetic that either there should be a once a season change before the start of the season or transfers any player who has played in the premiership cannot play for another club until the new season and would have the effect that new players would be brought in from the lower leagues or overseas.
Today before lunch I listened to Frank, the Amy Winehouse Album Introduction Stronger than me, You sent me flying/Cherry, Know you now, Fuck me pumps, I heard love is blind, Moody mood for love, There is no greater love, In my bed, Take the box, October song. What is it about Men, Help yourself. Amy Amy, Amy. Take the Box demo; You sent me flying demo. Teach me tonight Hootenanny performance. Round Midnight, There’s no greater love, Janice Long session; Mr Magic also Janice Long session. This shows the potential which led to Back to Back and Rehab. Perhaps the drugs and the Alcohol is the result of not being able to create more at the new level, rather than a response to fame and riches?
And the game? It was exciting for the greater part, something which cannot be said too often these days. Sunderland scored first, by luck after dominating the first half with Newcastle the second and they equalised through a penalty which was soft, Both sides had the opportunity to win the game and Michael Chopra who is expected to be sold to Cardiff on Monday where he has been on loan and who also was bought from the club two years ago, funked a goal scoring opportunity and mishit the ball in trying to pass to Kenwyn Jones, As a lifelong passionate Magpie supporter he clearly could not bear the thought of potentially sending Newcastle into the relegation zone. The owner was present behaving as if nothing has happened, especially not a man allegedly losing a fortune, afraid to show his face at the club and desperate to sell out. No evidence of his alleged efforts has been produced.
The ability of programmers to produce old films at the same time as contemporary versions of the same subject are release continues to delight. Having watched Valkyrie on Friday Films for Men showed the Anthony Hopkins acting masterpiece. The Bunker which with some theatrical changes accurately followed the last days of Hitler in which he ordered the destruction of all German towns and cities and the execution of anyone who disagreed with him. The film also showed the last days of Goebbels, his wife and children, and Martin Boreman, and the involvement of Albert Speer. This 1981 made for TV film stands the test of time and among those included in the cast are Pam St Clement as a Cook and then a young man, Michael Kitchen, as a staff soldier who was one of the two last individuals to leave the bunker, became a prisoner of the Russians and moved to Heidelberg after release.
I am impressed with the young Muslim journalist Rageh Omaar who provided the commentary for this week’s programme on the history of Christianity, arguing that the behaviour of the Crusaders has been exploited by present day extremists after being fuelled by President Bush calling for a fresh crusade, the Holy War and Tony Blair’s claim of a Just and therefore Legal War in Iraq, general regarded as the least orthodox Muslim nation in the Muslim world at the time.
It looks as if the series is missing out one of the most interesting periods in the history of the Catholic Church. Until 910 the monasteries which had developed all over Europe had been under the control of the feudal lords but in that year they were brought under the direct control of the Pope which sparked a renewal and influence given that they were the source of education with schools. From 1100 some of the older Monasteries split their schools into lower grammar schools and higher schools for advance learning-in Bologna, Paris and Oxford especially and became the ancestors of the modern universities. Thomas Aquinas produced his Summa Theologica, a synthesis of Aristotelian Thought and the Gospels. It was the monasteries which developed knowledge of metallurgy, new crops, musical notation and the creation and preservation of literature with the development of libraries.
However it was also the period when the Eastern and Western Churches divided, when the battle between Church and State throughout medieval Europe commenced with he church at first insisting that no one could marry who was already connected to a family as a direct relatives or through marriage to the seventh degree, which meant that almost all marriages had to be sanction by the church which extracted a payment for doing so. This lasted for sixty years until reduced to first degree thus preventing a man marrying his step daughter for example or first cousin and which holds to this day where Papal dispensation is required.
This was the climate in which Pope Urban launched the First Crusade in 1095. The programme brought out that the idea of Catholics embarking upon any kind of war was contradictory to the actual recorded teachings of Christ and the belief system of the early Christians. It was only subsequently that Catholic theologians devised the concepts of the Just War and the Holy War to justify defensive and offensive actions. What happened in practice is that the church made it plain that those participating would have all their previous sins absolved and this gave licence to those who enjoyed the killing raping and looting to join in, knowing that whatever they did was being sanctioned by the church, and this is what happened as they massacred Muslim, declared to be infidels, Moreover some Crusaders resorted to horrific cannibalism killing and roasting children on spits which they then eat, This may have been because they were starving but we know they did it because they and not their enemies recorded the action. The Crusades and their occupation and sacking of Muslim wealth and lands was not stopped until the rise of Saladin.
In Europe the Crusades had the effect of developing the church with the formation of eight new monastic orders, many functioning as Military Knights of the Crusades. There was also the development of the Spanish Inquisition, which I assume will be dealt with a separate programme, but are relevant to the programme theme as they were primarily responsible for expelling practicing Islam from Spain and Sicily.
Rageh did not extend his explanation of how the use of Holy and Just War terminology and the occupation of Muslim lands by non Muslim has had the effect of uniting many otherwise neutral Arabs behind the cause of the extremism, into what the implications were for future European and USA policy towards the Middle Eastern countries. Although instated, the message was clear, we should keep out of any involvement in religious and political matters in the countries concerned. However this does not explain the direct attacks on the USA and elsewhere before 9/11. It also masks the conflict between the contemporary Arab rulers who want to be active players in the global economy and recognise the value of Global Tourism and financial institutions with Dubai obviously being the vanguard example, and between the traditional and more fundamental Muslim teachings.
The criticism made last week that Lost is now concentrating more on resolving the overall story than the interaction between characters than creating satisfying individual episodes was reinforced by this Sunday’s hour. The total outcome was to explain why Charles Widmore has such an interest on the island as he was one of the ‘Other’s on the island in the fifties when it was to be used to explode a hydrogen bomb and whose casing was leaking and required to be buried in concrete or lead underground in order to neutralise its potential adverse effects. The episode also featured daughter Penny and her boyfriend who although not a member of the plane crew came to the island when on his round the world yacht race. Now in hiding and happy together after their years of separation, he gets the itch to find the back ground young Oxford scientist who learnt to time travel and this leads him to Widmore to find the mother of the scientist for some reason which I failed to grasp. Widmore gives he advice to keep their location secret and not get involved with is taken, but which for some reason daughter Penny reacts against.
It was time for bed, I slept from just after ten until 12.58, then 2am and 5 finally getting up just before six am.
There was nothing of significance about the Andrew Marr show this Sunday with the deputy conservative opposition leader hammering the message that the present economic situation is the fault of Prime Minister hoping to damage his credibility with the British voting public beyond the point when recovery measures stop the rise in unemployment and mortgage defaults. The approach appears to be working so is being pursued. Alan Milburn is introducing a new programme about dementia coupled with a move to tackle ageism in our society. One approach is negative and the other positive.
The Sunday Supplement talk show about football with specialist football journalists used to be a Sunday morning essential viewing in the days when Jimmy Hill fronted the programme and going to the match or seeking ways to watch the team when playing away was the highlight of every weekend during the football season. Now I can take or leave football. This feeling seemed unnatural at first but no longer. I missed the start of the programme staying with Andrew Marr but switched over as the discussed centred on the Newcastle Sunderland derby where the build up begins is just over two hour’s time. The programme contrasted that Sunderland is now playing as a team but lack some of the quality at Newcastle who are in complete disarray. The current story is that Ashley has lost lots and lots of money in the credit crunch and can just about pay the players wages. This morning there is reported news that Denise Wise the player buying football director is on his way elsewhere. Injury, the manager making stupid statements, players wanting to leave, all adds to a recipe leading to relegation. A defeat to-day will relight the touch paper of terrace discontent. (Hopefully).
There is also general disquiet among commentators and some managers about the mid season transfer window with those around the table being sympathetic that either there should be a once a season change before the start of the season or transfers any player who has played in the premiership cannot play for another club until the new season and would have the effect that new players would be brought in from the lower leagues or overseas.
Today before lunch I listened to Frank, the Amy Winehouse Album Introduction Stronger than me, You sent me flying/Cherry, Know you now, Fuck me pumps, I heard love is blind, Moody mood for love, There is no greater love, In my bed, Take the box, October song. What is it about Men, Help yourself. Amy Amy, Amy. Take the Box demo; You sent me flying demo. Teach me tonight Hootenanny performance. Round Midnight, There’s no greater love, Janice Long session; Mr Magic also Janice Long session. This shows the potential which led to Back to Back and Rehab. Perhaps the drugs and the Alcohol is the result of not being able to create more at the new level, rather than a response to fame and riches?
And the game? It was exciting for the greater part, something which cannot be said too often these days. Sunderland scored first, by luck after dominating the first half with Newcastle the second and they equalised through a penalty which was soft, Both sides had the opportunity to win the game and Michael Chopra who is expected to be sold to Cardiff on Monday where he has been on loan and who also was bought from the club two years ago, funked a goal scoring opportunity and mishit the ball in trying to pass to Kenwyn Jones, As a lifelong passionate Magpie supporter he clearly could not bear the thought of potentially sending Newcastle into the relegation zone. The owner was present behaving as if nothing has happened, especially not a man allegedly losing a fortune, afraid to show his face at the club and desperate to sell out. No evidence of his alleged efforts has been produced.
The ability of programmers to produce old films at the same time as contemporary versions of the same subject are release continues to delight. Having watched Valkyrie on Friday Films for Men showed the Anthony Hopkins acting masterpiece. The Bunker which with some theatrical changes accurately followed the last days of Hitler in which he ordered the destruction of all German towns and cities and the execution of anyone who disagreed with him. The film also showed the last days of Goebbels, his wife and children, and Martin Boreman, and the involvement of Albert Speer. This 1981 made for TV film stands the test of time and among those included in the cast are Pam St Clement as a Cook and then a young man, Michael Kitchen, as a staff soldier who was one of the two last individuals to leave the bunker, became a prisoner of the Russians and moved to Heidelberg after release.
I am impressed with the young Muslim journalist Rageh Omaar who provided the commentary for this week’s programme on the history of Christianity, arguing that the behaviour of the Crusaders has been exploited by present day extremists after being fuelled by President Bush calling for a fresh crusade, the Holy War and Tony Blair’s claim of a Just and therefore Legal War in Iraq, general regarded as the least orthodox Muslim nation in the Muslim world at the time.
It looks as if the series is missing out one of the most interesting periods in the history of the Catholic Church. Until 910 the monasteries which had developed all over Europe had been under the control of the feudal lords but in that year they were brought under the direct control of the Pope which sparked a renewal and influence given that they were the source of education with schools. From 1100 some of the older Monasteries split their schools into lower grammar schools and higher schools for advance learning-in Bologna, Paris and Oxford especially and became the ancestors of the modern universities. Thomas Aquinas produced his Summa Theologica, a synthesis of Aristotelian Thought and the Gospels. It was the monasteries which developed knowledge of metallurgy, new crops, musical notation and the creation and preservation of literature with the development of libraries.
However it was also the period when the Eastern and Western Churches divided, when the battle between Church and State throughout medieval Europe commenced with he church at first insisting that no one could marry who was already connected to a family as a direct relatives or through marriage to the seventh degree, which meant that almost all marriages had to be sanction by the church which extracted a payment for doing so. This lasted for sixty years until reduced to first degree thus preventing a man marrying his step daughter for example or first cousin and which holds to this day where Papal dispensation is required.
This was the climate in which Pope Urban launched the First Crusade in 1095. The programme brought out that the idea of Catholics embarking upon any kind of war was contradictory to the actual recorded teachings of Christ and the belief system of the early Christians. It was only subsequently that Catholic theologians devised the concepts of the Just War and the Holy War to justify defensive and offensive actions. What happened in practice is that the church made it plain that those participating would have all their previous sins absolved and this gave licence to those who enjoyed the killing raping and looting to join in, knowing that whatever they did was being sanctioned by the church, and this is what happened as they massacred Muslim, declared to be infidels, Moreover some Crusaders resorted to horrific cannibalism killing and roasting children on spits which they then eat, This may have been because they were starving but we know they did it because they and not their enemies recorded the action. The Crusades and their occupation and sacking of Muslim wealth and lands was not stopped until the rise of Saladin.
In Europe the Crusades had the effect of developing the church with the formation of eight new monastic orders, many functioning as Military Knights of the Crusades. There was also the development of the Spanish Inquisition, which I assume will be dealt with a separate programme, but are relevant to the programme theme as they were primarily responsible for expelling practicing Islam from Spain and Sicily.
Rageh did not extend his explanation of how the use of Holy and Just War terminology and the occupation of Muslim lands by non Muslim has had the effect of uniting many otherwise neutral Arabs behind the cause of the extremism, into what the implications were for future European and USA policy towards the Middle Eastern countries. Although instated, the message was clear, we should keep out of any involvement in religious and political matters in the countries concerned. However this does not explain the direct attacks on the USA and elsewhere before 9/11. It also masks the conflict between the contemporary Arab rulers who want to be active players in the global economy and recognise the value of Global Tourism and financial institutions with Dubai obviously being the vanguard example, and between the traditional and more fundamental Muslim teachings.
The criticism made last week that Lost is now concentrating more on resolving the overall story than the interaction between characters than creating satisfying individual episodes was reinforced by this Sunday’s hour. The total outcome was to explain why Charles Widmore has such an interest on the island as he was one of the ‘Other’s on the island in the fifties when it was to be used to explode a hydrogen bomb and whose casing was leaking and required to be buried in concrete or lead underground in order to neutralise its potential adverse effects. The episode also featured daughter Penny and her boyfriend who although not a member of the plane crew came to the island when on his round the world yacht race. Now in hiding and happy together after their years of separation, he gets the itch to find the back ground young Oxford scientist who learnt to time travel and this leads him to Widmore to find the mother of the scientist for some reason which I failed to grasp. Widmore gives he advice to keep their location secret and not get involved with is taken, but which for some reason daughter Penny reacts against.
It was time for bed, I slept from just after ten until 12.58, then 2am and 5 finally getting up just before six am.
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