Phew WoW success, I can relax after three hours last night and three hours this morning in digital gymnastics. It is just before 1 pm on Saturday May 14th 2011 on great weekend sports day. I am listening now to Sunderland playing Wolves in the lunchtime kick off while waiting to see if Andy Murray is to play Djokovic in the first semi final of the Rome Masters (Tennis) and great it is on this evening at 7. I can therefore keep one eye on the build up to the 3 pm cup final between Man City and Stoke where my loyalties are divided but In think on balance I will for Stoke as the underdogs compared to the multi million club that Man City has become, and also watch on the game between Manchester United and Blackburn which could decide the Premiership season. I am also checking on the latest cricket scores where Warwickshire had lost eight of points they are likely to win from their just announced 200 run win against struggling arrivals Worcestershire. The consequence of this is that Warwickshire who should have gone ahead of Durham into third place will remain behind and possibly below Sussex in fourth place at present. In the other first division game Yorkshire and Hampshire are in a great tussle with Yorkshire 250 runs ahead with two wickets remain and Hampshire waiting to try and get these runs in the remaining overs of the day. A draw is the most likely outcome. We shall see.
Man United and Sunderland are one down after 30 mins. Sunderland has equalised, Great, with 5 mins before half time. I watch the cup build up programme and then when I check the football scores Sunderland are losing again. Wolves need to win to stay out of the relegation places as Blackpool is winning 4 goals to 3 at home against Bolton. Man U having lost 4 of their last 7 away games are at risk still of losing another. Wolves are now 3.1 at Sunderland and Man United have equalised through a penalty and will win their 19th title if this score remains. It does, Sunderland loses 3.1 and Blackpool maintains the survival fight with a 4.3 win. Nearly time to watch the FAC Cup.
Now to the digital overdose. Over the past couple of months Sky has been advertising Sky anytime plus direct to the TV as well on the Internet and I phone. I telephoned and spoke to customer services assistant that could not help. Then in the monthly news magazine there it was. I had to connect the HD box to the Internet router with a standard Ethernet cable which I had spare from when I was using AOL wireless. My first effort was not successful as I connected the cable via the second Internet slot and not one of the lower slots. Having worked out what I was doing wrong by checking the information on the Sky Anytime Plus internet site visual explanation of what to do, it was lift. One has to press the red button to be in the master programme list. In addition to several hundred films most of which I have already seen or are not my things to experience before I die list there are important programmes from Sky Arts 1 and 2 channels and drama series.
However this only applies to Sky channels and not the BBC, ITV Channels 4 and 5 of which one needs the Internet. I had attempted to re-establish the link via the lap top only to run into problems where for some reason the software application link had altered without my having done anything to cause the variation. I failed at the time to find a solution having gone to the Control Panel Screen and Personalize and then to Display settings and after confirming that the lap top monitor is one and the TV. Late last night I worked out that I had to ignore these windows and move to connecting to another display system and to replicate what was on the laptop to the TV. Hopefully there will not more problems.
Having progressed to this stage I also confirmed that it was possible to have the Desk Top and the Lap Top connected to the Internet at the same time and this prompted to try and sort my other Lap top where I had various problems which I had promised to sort out sometime. There were various tasks and problem solving issues to confront. The main problem was that I was showing Internet connected via Sky and Internet not connected in task bar button at the same time. After finding the Sky installation disk this got the basic information into the laptop system but still there was no internet connects from the Windows explorer which had been up dated as part of 75 updates which were automatically uploaded such was the gap since being on line. I then did a search and found an AOL 9 disk which I uploaded and this did the trick as I came on line, restarted to confirm some more downloads and was still Internet connected via Sky Ethernet cable link. I also downloaded to the lap top the permitted third version of the Norton protection system. The opportunity was taken from housekeeping deleting defunct printer software and the stuff no longer required. Rereading this it barely describes the trial and error processes which were engaged hour after hour.
On Friday I noted that although it is before 10 am I am tired after an early start with a good swim, although interrupted a good night’s sleep and 24 hours which proved much more interesting that was anticipated because of a cold and blustery wind which made working outside uncomfortable and a Durham cricket collapse which made defeat a likelihood.
This morning I wrote it is 10 am another 24 hours later after staying up till midnight wrestling with digital technology and going for a swim but cutting short the exercise and having a sauna in attempt to revive the physical body. Alas I seem to have damaged my right big toe which has become painful after a series of unintentional knocks and I will examine further when I have caught on my writing and other ongoing activities. I visited Morrison’s for salad and found a great offer of three packets of scampi for the price of one at £3.59. I also bought a pack of 4 Haddock steaks for £3 and two packs of 4 Salmon fish cakes at £2 a pack. I also went over to Asda as I fancied a Baguette with the salad and had to ask the assistant for one as none were on display but there was a trolled unit with newly baked ready for wrapping and coding. I then spotted an offer of three of the packs of shell on prawns for £10 instead of £12. If I had thought more I would have obtained three more packs at the reduced price and will go back on Monday morning after the swim. I also bought some packets of liquorish and a jar of olives. The milk was off so I needed to walk to corner shop after returning when coffee beckoned to accompany one of the Danish bought from Asda.
I began yesterday morning with news in the Times which covered more information about the haul of Intel found with Osama bin laden, including his diaries and over 100 flash drives which he used to send emails with couriers taking them to internet cafes. The combined might of the US intelligences services through its Arabic speakers is working feverishly through the material to ensure that any current operational information and network identification is not missed and consequently acted upon. For me this only underlines the failure of the mission to bring him back alive. It is also understood that the Pakistan Army intelligence has apologised to a national Parliament committee for its failure to detect the location of Osama bin Laden under its very nose.
Having found out that the Atlantic channel was moving straight into the second season of the Sopranos I have been looking forward to the first episode all week.
The episode- Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist Office - is clever in the way it summarises the latest situation in a series of brief scenes. Livia Tony’s mother continues to be treated in hospital and in theory is out of the way of Tony’s life and therefore unable to affect him. Uncle Junior and the others arrested are in prison and again in theory unable to affect Tony. The last murder takes places eliminating those who tried to betray Tony one way or another. Psychiatrist Dr Melfi continues to hide away from her office, although she has returned to the area and lives and works from a motel from which she sees some of her patients. Tony’s special crew of Paulo and Silvio enjoy being top dogs buying designer clothes and enjoying the favours of the Bada Bing young women while Tony also enjoys his Russian mistress, being careful to immediate put in the wash any clothes with give away scent when he returns in the early hours.
There are two developments, one of which is to have an influence on the rest of the new season. Tony’s elder sister Janice who he has not seen for 20 years arrives seeking a place to stay and he reluctantly agrees. A family reunion, a barbecue, is organised with the young sister who lives in New York and Carmela’s parents as well as the crew. The two sisters discuss if they will get a fair share from the sale of their mother’s home which has been vandalised while unoccupied and up for sale.
The second is return of Pussy who arrives at Tony’s doorstep apprehensive about his reception. He explains that he went to Puerto Rico to get specialist help for his back problem and did not tell his wife because of a relationship with his female acupuncturist. He admits he became aware that Tony suspected he was the traitor and waited until the coast seemed clear to return. Tony pats him giving him a hug just to make sure he is not wired as previously suspected. However they make up and he is welcome back as a senior member of the family, with Tony saying that apart for some expenses, his taking have been kept for him.
Christopher arranges for someone to take the stocking broking examination for him and is then effectively put in charge of a broking firm which is dealing in a share scam. He is appointed the Securities and Exchange Commission compliance officer in the firm! Two family members find that one of the staff is continuing to give proper advice when Christopher is taking a day time break with his mistress. They pour hot coffee over and then beat up the broker for not doing what he has been told. Tony has to advise Christopher after other employees leave the firm sowing further seeds of Christopher resentment at the way Tony treats him.
Despite everything appearing to be back on track Tony remains anxious about the situation, his mother’s willingness to ask for his killing and believing she is faking her present condition and the return of the sister after an absence of 20 years. He has a panic attack while driving resulting in an accident. He goes to see another psychiatrist under another name but the man has seen the local TV news and has no wish to take Tony on. Much to her horror Tony finds out the location of Dr Melfi and asks to see her. She agrees to do so at a roadside diner, but makes it clear she does not want to have anything more to do with him. Tony tries to reassure her that she is no longer under threat because of the information she possesses about him, and that no one was killed because of this. Carmela had pressed Tony to back into treatment because of his moods and recent behaviour. He returns early, unusually and Carmela offers to heat up a bowl of pasta in the microwave. He asks her to sit with him while he eats and they appear relaxed together. Is this a new era in their relationship? Hmmn.
I enjoyed the music which in addition to the opening credit theme included Frank Sinatra It was a very good year, Time on My Side Irma Thomas and Andres Bocelli’s Con te partiro.
It was then I came across a film gem which I had previously missed. Shrink with Kevin Spacey in the title role as Dr Henry Carter, a celebrity himself because his work with Hollywood: actors, Directors and Studio bosses. He is at the edge of a precipice because his wife had committed suicide which he had no inkling was going to happen. When the film opens his confidant is the man (Jesus played Jesse Plemons) who provides a continuous supply of marijuana in various strengths and flavours. At one point both try the latest available to the market and nearly die as this produced is laced with some poison.
Dr Carter has a young friend where his wife was the god mother and he is one of several family and friends who confronts Carter about his increasingly self destructive ands unpredictable behaviour suggesting he should enter a therapy clinic. This Carter rejects.
As is the custom for all analytical psychiatrists he already has a counsellor with whom he shares his concerns as well as his father, also a psychiatrist Robert Carter. I cannot remember if it is the father or the counsellor who suggests that Kevin should take on a pro bono patient, a black high school girl whose mother has committed suicide who has started to cut classes and to self harm, smashing a fist into a mirror because should could not look at herself. She resists all of Kevin’s efforts to communicate with her until he goes to pieces on TV, mentioning the suicide of his wife and tells people not buy or trust his self help book.
There is an interaction between the girl Jemma (Keke Palmer) and the Godson Jeremy, a script writer, who encounters one of Carter’s other patients, Patrick, who I still believe is a commissioner of films, if not a studio boss, and not just a talent scout as suggested by Wikipedia. He has the big office, a personal assistant and others in studio team treat his statements as magisterial rulings. The personal assistant is another important and connecting character.
Jeremy takes at his word Patrick’s suggestion of sending his script into the office. Jeremy decides to hand the manuscript personally and gives it to the personal assistant who reads and tells him that the studio is already making a film with a similar theme although his script is much better. She invites Jeremy to a party and although heavily pregnant the two appear to beginning a relationship.
Jeremy also learns about the pro bono patient and manages to see the personal file and then a record shop where follows the girl who again skips school and goes to the pictures and then into a record shop where he makes contact and establishes a relationship. He then rite a new film script about the girl which he gives to personal assistant who presses the film mogul to read. It appears that he has not done so and drops the documents in the street just as he is entering the office of Dr Carter as Jemma leaves, picks it up and reads and is horrified at the betrayal of Dr Carter and Jeremy.
However Patrick has read the script and is impressed and convenes a meeting with Jemma and with Dr Carter and Jeremy without telling the latter why until assembled in his office. However these bare facts only begin to tell the tale. Jemma has always found escape from the realities of life by going to the cinema and fixing cinema tickets to her ceiling, she always wanted to be involved in films. In one of the last scenes she is seen in the hills by the Hollywood sign throwing the cinema tickets to the wind accompanied by Jeremy.
Patrick is a high powered neurotic character with a high anxiety about everything from germs to Armageddon who relies on his personal assistant. She is a surrogate mother for her sister and also wants to be a film producer. Patrick fires her saying that after the bird he will employ her as a producer.
Two films stars are also patients with aging actress struggling to keep her career and her relationship. The final scene, I think, is where Dr Carter calls her home after she the partner has left home to say that he has given up the drugs and will not see her again, as a patient!
There is one other character in the film, Robin Williams who plays a famous Hollywood director with a history of tabloid involvements who has become faithful to his wife but has also become an alcoholic which he is unable to admit. He seeks permission from the psychiatrist to be unfaithful again as he believes he has become as sex addict. However when gets the opportunity as a young starlet offers herself to him, he declines commenting that she is only a few years older than his daughter. The film has great wit and is full of one line valid insights into the world of physician heal thyself.
Two years ago when in London I debated going to see An Education but after seeing the Hurt Locker so affected by the film that I could not cope with another cinematic experience on the same day. It is just as well because the film liked by many critics at the time and nominated for three Academy awards including best film and best actress proved a big disappointment when shown on BBC 2 on Friday evening. Some five minutes of cuts were made to fit into a time slot before the 9 pm watershed (from 8.30 to 10pm). The film was a financial success grossing three times its budget, possibly because the media emphasised that this was a film about a come of age story of a 16 year school old girl, a few weeks before her 17th birthday.
My problem is that there was nothing original about the story or the form of expression although it did possess authenticity and overall credibility. The film is based on an autobiographical story published in the Cambridge University magazine Granta by British Journalist Lynn Barber who then wrote her book as the film was in the process of completion.
The girlhood is set in Ealing West London, an area which I came to know well during three years of working there for the local authority. She portrays her family as lower middle class although not boringly so with the splendid Alfred Molina as her determined but gullible father who one suspect would have preferred a boy in a single child couple family. Mother longs to break out from the rigidity and limitations of the relationship but her husband keeps her firmly in his box. As a young man I knew at least three young women from immediate memory in families such as these, who lacked parents with the education and social environment to have equipped their daughter to have avoided some of the pitfall experiences which fortunately Lynn manages to avoid the potentially most damaging aspects such as being locked as gangster’s moll or pregnant before her 18th birthday and perhaps worse of all missing out on an Oxford college Education.
She is picked up at the bus stop in torrential rain after attending a youth orchestra rehearsal by a man a decade older who she subsequently finds is a con man, thief, married with a child and whose basic income comes from Peter Rachman rented housing activities of which I had some first hand knowledge in advising Frank Allaun of a situation in Birmingham which he mentioned in the House of Commons in the Twilight Housing debate and which nearly led to be being asked to leave the Child Care course at Birmingham University in 1963.
He is clever introducing her into new and exciting situations social while persuading her parents to first agree to a late meal returning her home before midnight, to a weekend in Oxford and then a 17th birthday present of a trip to Paris.
When they first meet she is studying hard to gain a scholarship place Oxford which in those day required Latin and sitting a special exam usually taken after exceptional A level marks. She is the pride and joy of the English teacher who tries to warn her against the life she is beginning to lead as does the head teacher. She agrees to be seduced on her 17th birthday and eventually leaves school after accepting an engagement ring. It is only then she finds out he is married with a child and sees his wife and learns she is one in a long line although fortunately not one who has got pregnant.
Realising she was wasting a great opportunity she studies with the help of her English teacher and gains a place at Oxford where the film gives she impression she has met a nice young man who plans to take her Paris a place she would like to go to. This suggest she had an intense enjoyable period of experience before settling into normalcy, This is a betrayal of the truth of character and reality of an intentional attempt to mislead and misrepresent, This cane after what I thoughts was one of the best points in the films when she turns on her parents criticises them for failing to prevent her from making the mistakes having previously shown a wilful determination to have her own way and collude in various deceptions.
The true story is that as with many young women with broken hearts and early sexual experience she used her “maturity” to have a wild time on arrival in Oxford and subsequently admitted on Desert Island discs that she had sex with 50 men over two of her terms at the university. One of her university relationships was with Howard Marks hen at Balliol who later served a seven year prison term in the USA for drug offences. She worked for the soft porn magazine Penthouse also for seven years 1967 to 1974 before starting a family after which she achieved success writing for several national newspapers, winning several press awards and publishing several books. She became a widow in 2003.
I was impressed with the performance of Cary Mulligan as Jenny, the school girl because of its authenticity which struck chords with more than one young woman I knew during my time at Oxford and then subsequently. It is worth mentioning that she was 23/24 when she played the 16/18 year old. She received a BAFTA for the role.
On Saturday evening I switched from Andy Murray after he lost the first set badly and looked as if he was on a thrashing. Britain’s Got Talent auditions continue to be a mixture of the really good, the Ok and the embarrassingly awful. This evening there was a circus types troupe who packed in some amazing stunts in the time available and brought the housed own. There was one nearly naked young women performing Britany Spears song badly flaunting her body provocatively at the judges table and got the proverbial three crosses and strike out while a young woman from Thailand who was also scantily dressed and did an act with lots of British flags which was odd gained a three for vote. There was no one else worth commenting on.
Then to the European Song Context performed this year is former football stadium recreated over six weeks with a roof and a huge back screen, stupendous lighting effects and firework effects. However the choice of music and presentations this year was exceptional and on a different level than recently. It is difficult to take in 24 or 25 songs in one go with performances varying from single passionate numbers I liked the French who came no where in the voting, was not impressed with the British Blue number which scored ten times the number of pints than last time out but still ended in mid table and missed Jedward for Ireland to fared a little better than us. The winner from one former Soviet nation was OK but no more than that. I enjoyed a couple of jazz funky performances and some of the presentations were hot. Apparently we miss the dreaded semi final stage which cuts out a score of other entrants because we put up hard cash up front over £280000 in Euros.
And as for the sport. Murray had the opportunity to win the match twice but failed so that removes the inclination not to go to the cricket and watch the final after the Newcastle game. Manchester the city is all aglow to day at United win their 19th championship and City the F A Cup Final. Such a double has happened in London and possibly on Merseyside with the ascendancy of Liverpool but will never happen now in the Northeast or the Midlands unless there is the emergence of yet another unlimited money man. Newcastle Rugby Union survived a horrendous season managing to avoid relegation by bonus points. In Rugby League Warrington, Huddersfield and Wigan begin to edge away from St Helens and Leeds at the top of the table with Wigan in third having a game in hand and all three the same number of points. In County cricket, Notts Lancs and Warwickshire all have 3 wins with Durham Somerset and Sussex 2 and Lancs the front runner with a game in hand. It is going to be a tight race this year unless someone starts to win back to back or a trio of successive wins, especially against those above or just below. In the 40 over competition Durham must win at home today and away in Edinburgh tomorrow to stand a chance of qualifying for the semi finals later in the season.
Man United and Sunderland are one down after 30 mins. Sunderland has equalised, Great, with 5 mins before half time. I watch the cup build up programme and then when I check the football scores Sunderland are losing again. Wolves need to win to stay out of the relegation places as Blackpool is winning 4 goals to 3 at home against Bolton. Man U having lost 4 of their last 7 away games are at risk still of losing another. Wolves are now 3.1 at Sunderland and Man United have equalised through a penalty and will win their 19th title if this score remains. It does, Sunderland loses 3.1 and Blackpool maintains the survival fight with a 4.3 win. Nearly time to watch the FAC Cup.
Now to the digital overdose. Over the past couple of months Sky has been advertising Sky anytime plus direct to the TV as well on the Internet and I phone. I telephoned and spoke to customer services assistant that could not help. Then in the monthly news magazine there it was. I had to connect the HD box to the Internet router with a standard Ethernet cable which I had spare from when I was using AOL wireless. My first effort was not successful as I connected the cable via the second Internet slot and not one of the lower slots. Having worked out what I was doing wrong by checking the information on the Sky Anytime Plus internet site visual explanation of what to do, it was lift. One has to press the red button to be in the master programme list. In addition to several hundred films most of which I have already seen or are not my things to experience before I die list there are important programmes from Sky Arts 1 and 2 channels and drama series.
However this only applies to Sky channels and not the BBC, ITV Channels 4 and 5 of which one needs the Internet. I had attempted to re-establish the link via the lap top only to run into problems where for some reason the software application link had altered without my having done anything to cause the variation. I failed at the time to find a solution having gone to the Control Panel Screen and Personalize and then to Display settings and after confirming that the lap top monitor is one and the TV. Late last night I worked out that I had to ignore these windows and move to connecting to another display system and to replicate what was on the laptop to the TV. Hopefully there will not more problems.
Having progressed to this stage I also confirmed that it was possible to have the Desk Top and the Lap Top connected to the Internet at the same time and this prompted to try and sort my other Lap top where I had various problems which I had promised to sort out sometime. There were various tasks and problem solving issues to confront. The main problem was that I was showing Internet connected via Sky and Internet not connected in task bar button at the same time. After finding the Sky installation disk this got the basic information into the laptop system but still there was no internet connects from the Windows explorer which had been up dated as part of 75 updates which were automatically uploaded such was the gap since being on line. I then did a search and found an AOL 9 disk which I uploaded and this did the trick as I came on line, restarted to confirm some more downloads and was still Internet connected via Sky Ethernet cable link. I also downloaded to the lap top the permitted third version of the Norton protection system. The opportunity was taken from housekeeping deleting defunct printer software and the stuff no longer required. Rereading this it barely describes the trial and error processes which were engaged hour after hour.
On Friday I noted that although it is before 10 am I am tired after an early start with a good swim, although interrupted a good night’s sleep and 24 hours which proved much more interesting that was anticipated because of a cold and blustery wind which made working outside uncomfortable and a Durham cricket collapse which made defeat a likelihood.
This morning I wrote it is 10 am another 24 hours later after staying up till midnight wrestling with digital technology and going for a swim but cutting short the exercise and having a sauna in attempt to revive the physical body. Alas I seem to have damaged my right big toe which has become painful after a series of unintentional knocks and I will examine further when I have caught on my writing and other ongoing activities. I visited Morrison’s for salad and found a great offer of three packets of scampi for the price of one at £3.59. I also bought a pack of 4 Haddock steaks for £3 and two packs of 4 Salmon fish cakes at £2 a pack. I also went over to Asda as I fancied a Baguette with the salad and had to ask the assistant for one as none were on display but there was a trolled unit with newly baked ready for wrapping and coding. I then spotted an offer of three of the packs of shell on prawns for £10 instead of £12. If I had thought more I would have obtained three more packs at the reduced price and will go back on Monday morning after the swim. I also bought some packets of liquorish and a jar of olives. The milk was off so I needed to walk to corner shop after returning when coffee beckoned to accompany one of the Danish bought from Asda.
I began yesterday morning with news in the Times which covered more information about the haul of Intel found with Osama bin laden, including his diaries and over 100 flash drives which he used to send emails with couriers taking them to internet cafes. The combined might of the US intelligences services through its Arabic speakers is working feverishly through the material to ensure that any current operational information and network identification is not missed and consequently acted upon. For me this only underlines the failure of the mission to bring him back alive. It is also understood that the Pakistan Army intelligence has apologised to a national Parliament committee for its failure to detect the location of Osama bin Laden under its very nose.
Having found out that the Atlantic channel was moving straight into the second season of the Sopranos I have been looking forward to the first episode all week.
The episode- Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist Office - is clever in the way it summarises the latest situation in a series of brief scenes. Livia Tony’s mother continues to be treated in hospital and in theory is out of the way of Tony’s life and therefore unable to affect him. Uncle Junior and the others arrested are in prison and again in theory unable to affect Tony. The last murder takes places eliminating those who tried to betray Tony one way or another. Psychiatrist Dr Melfi continues to hide away from her office, although she has returned to the area and lives and works from a motel from which she sees some of her patients. Tony’s special crew of Paulo and Silvio enjoy being top dogs buying designer clothes and enjoying the favours of the Bada Bing young women while Tony also enjoys his Russian mistress, being careful to immediate put in the wash any clothes with give away scent when he returns in the early hours.
There are two developments, one of which is to have an influence on the rest of the new season. Tony’s elder sister Janice who he has not seen for 20 years arrives seeking a place to stay and he reluctantly agrees. A family reunion, a barbecue, is organised with the young sister who lives in New York and Carmela’s parents as well as the crew. The two sisters discuss if they will get a fair share from the sale of their mother’s home which has been vandalised while unoccupied and up for sale.
The second is return of Pussy who arrives at Tony’s doorstep apprehensive about his reception. He explains that he went to Puerto Rico to get specialist help for his back problem and did not tell his wife because of a relationship with his female acupuncturist. He admits he became aware that Tony suspected he was the traitor and waited until the coast seemed clear to return. Tony pats him giving him a hug just to make sure he is not wired as previously suspected. However they make up and he is welcome back as a senior member of the family, with Tony saying that apart for some expenses, his taking have been kept for him.
Christopher arranges for someone to take the stocking broking examination for him and is then effectively put in charge of a broking firm which is dealing in a share scam. He is appointed the Securities and Exchange Commission compliance officer in the firm! Two family members find that one of the staff is continuing to give proper advice when Christopher is taking a day time break with his mistress. They pour hot coffee over and then beat up the broker for not doing what he has been told. Tony has to advise Christopher after other employees leave the firm sowing further seeds of Christopher resentment at the way Tony treats him.
Despite everything appearing to be back on track Tony remains anxious about the situation, his mother’s willingness to ask for his killing and believing she is faking her present condition and the return of the sister after an absence of 20 years. He has a panic attack while driving resulting in an accident. He goes to see another psychiatrist under another name but the man has seen the local TV news and has no wish to take Tony on. Much to her horror Tony finds out the location of Dr Melfi and asks to see her. She agrees to do so at a roadside diner, but makes it clear she does not want to have anything more to do with him. Tony tries to reassure her that she is no longer under threat because of the information she possesses about him, and that no one was killed because of this. Carmela had pressed Tony to back into treatment because of his moods and recent behaviour. He returns early, unusually and Carmela offers to heat up a bowl of pasta in the microwave. He asks her to sit with him while he eats and they appear relaxed together. Is this a new era in their relationship? Hmmn.
I enjoyed the music which in addition to the opening credit theme included Frank Sinatra It was a very good year, Time on My Side Irma Thomas and Andres Bocelli’s Con te partiro.
It was then I came across a film gem which I had previously missed. Shrink with Kevin Spacey in the title role as Dr Henry Carter, a celebrity himself because his work with Hollywood: actors, Directors and Studio bosses. He is at the edge of a precipice because his wife had committed suicide which he had no inkling was going to happen. When the film opens his confidant is the man (Jesus played Jesse Plemons) who provides a continuous supply of marijuana in various strengths and flavours. At one point both try the latest available to the market and nearly die as this produced is laced with some poison.
Dr Carter has a young friend where his wife was the god mother and he is one of several family and friends who confronts Carter about his increasingly self destructive ands unpredictable behaviour suggesting he should enter a therapy clinic. This Carter rejects.
As is the custom for all analytical psychiatrists he already has a counsellor with whom he shares his concerns as well as his father, also a psychiatrist Robert Carter. I cannot remember if it is the father or the counsellor who suggests that Kevin should take on a pro bono patient, a black high school girl whose mother has committed suicide who has started to cut classes and to self harm, smashing a fist into a mirror because should could not look at herself. She resists all of Kevin’s efforts to communicate with her until he goes to pieces on TV, mentioning the suicide of his wife and tells people not buy or trust his self help book.
There is an interaction between the girl Jemma (Keke Palmer) and the Godson Jeremy, a script writer, who encounters one of Carter’s other patients, Patrick, who I still believe is a commissioner of films, if not a studio boss, and not just a talent scout as suggested by Wikipedia. He has the big office, a personal assistant and others in studio team treat his statements as magisterial rulings. The personal assistant is another important and connecting character.
Jeremy takes at his word Patrick’s suggestion of sending his script into the office. Jeremy decides to hand the manuscript personally and gives it to the personal assistant who reads and tells him that the studio is already making a film with a similar theme although his script is much better. She invites Jeremy to a party and although heavily pregnant the two appear to beginning a relationship.
Jeremy also learns about the pro bono patient and manages to see the personal file and then a record shop where follows the girl who again skips school and goes to the pictures and then into a record shop where he makes contact and establishes a relationship. He then rite a new film script about the girl which he gives to personal assistant who presses the film mogul to read. It appears that he has not done so and drops the documents in the street just as he is entering the office of Dr Carter as Jemma leaves, picks it up and reads and is horrified at the betrayal of Dr Carter and Jeremy.
However Patrick has read the script and is impressed and convenes a meeting with Jemma and with Dr Carter and Jeremy without telling the latter why until assembled in his office. However these bare facts only begin to tell the tale. Jemma has always found escape from the realities of life by going to the cinema and fixing cinema tickets to her ceiling, she always wanted to be involved in films. In one of the last scenes she is seen in the hills by the Hollywood sign throwing the cinema tickets to the wind accompanied by Jeremy.
Patrick is a high powered neurotic character with a high anxiety about everything from germs to Armageddon who relies on his personal assistant. She is a surrogate mother for her sister and also wants to be a film producer. Patrick fires her saying that after the bird he will employ her as a producer.
Two films stars are also patients with aging actress struggling to keep her career and her relationship. The final scene, I think, is where Dr Carter calls her home after she the partner has left home to say that he has given up the drugs and will not see her again, as a patient!
There is one other character in the film, Robin Williams who plays a famous Hollywood director with a history of tabloid involvements who has become faithful to his wife but has also become an alcoholic which he is unable to admit. He seeks permission from the psychiatrist to be unfaithful again as he believes he has become as sex addict. However when gets the opportunity as a young starlet offers herself to him, he declines commenting that she is only a few years older than his daughter. The film has great wit and is full of one line valid insights into the world of physician heal thyself.
Two years ago when in London I debated going to see An Education but after seeing the Hurt Locker so affected by the film that I could not cope with another cinematic experience on the same day. It is just as well because the film liked by many critics at the time and nominated for three Academy awards including best film and best actress proved a big disappointment when shown on BBC 2 on Friday evening. Some five minutes of cuts were made to fit into a time slot before the 9 pm watershed (from 8.30 to 10pm). The film was a financial success grossing three times its budget, possibly because the media emphasised that this was a film about a come of age story of a 16 year school old girl, a few weeks before her 17th birthday.
My problem is that there was nothing original about the story or the form of expression although it did possess authenticity and overall credibility. The film is based on an autobiographical story published in the Cambridge University magazine Granta by British Journalist Lynn Barber who then wrote her book as the film was in the process of completion.
The girlhood is set in Ealing West London, an area which I came to know well during three years of working there for the local authority. She portrays her family as lower middle class although not boringly so with the splendid Alfred Molina as her determined but gullible father who one suspect would have preferred a boy in a single child couple family. Mother longs to break out from the rigidity and limitations of the relationship but her husband keeps her firmly in his box. As a young man I knew at least three young women from immediate memory in families such as these, who lacked parents with the education and social environment to have equipped their daughter to have avoided some of the pitfall experiences which fortunately Lynn manages to avoid the potentially most damaging aspects such as being locked as gangster’s moll or pregnant before her 18th birthday and perhaps worse of all missing out on an Oxford college Education.
She is picked up at the bus stop in torrential rain after attending a youth orchestra rehearsal by a man a decade older who she subsequently finds is a con man, thief, married with a child and whose basic income comes from Peter Rachman rented housing activities of which I had some first hand knowledge in advising Frank Allaun of a situation in Birmingham which he mentioned in the House of Commons in the Twilight Housing debate and which nearly led to be being asked to leave the Child Care course at Birmingham University in 1963.
He is clever introducing her into new and exciting situations social while persuading her parents to first agree to a late meal returning her home before midnight, to a weekend in Oxford and then a 17th birthday present of a trip to Paris.
When they first meet she is studying hard to gain a scholarship place Oxford which in those day required Latin and sitting a special exam usually taken after exceptional A level marks. She is the pride and joy of the English teacher who tries to warn her against the life she is beginning to lead as does the head teacher. She agrees to be seduced on her 17th birthday and eventually leaves school after accepting an engagement ring. It is only then she finds out he is married with a child and sees his wife and learns she is one in a long line although fortunately not one who has got pregnant.
Realising she was wasting a great opportunity she studies with the help of her English teacher and gains a place at Oxford where the film gives she impression she has met a nice young man who plans to take her Paris a place she would like to go to. This suggest she had an intense enjoyable period of experience before settling into normalcy, This is a betrayal of the truth of character and reality of an intentional attempt to mislead and misrepresent, This cane after what I thoughts was one of the best points in the films when she turns on her parents criticises them for failing to prevent her from making the mistakes having previously shown a wilful determination to have her own way and collude in various deceptions.
The true story is that as with many young women with broken hearts and early sexual experience she used her “maturity” to have a wild time on arrival in Oxford and subsequently admitted on Desert Island discs that she had sex with 50 men over two of her terms at the university. One of her university relationships was with Howard Marks hen at Balliol who later served a seven year prison term in the USA for drug offences. She worked for the soft porn magazine Penthouse also for seven years 1967 to 1974 before starting a family after which she achieved success writing for several national newspapers, winning several press awards and publishing several books. She became a widow in 2003.
I was impressed with the performance of Cary Mulligan as Jenny, the school girl because of its authenticity which struck chords with more than one young woman I knew during my time at Oxford and then subsequently. It is worth mentioning that she was 23/24 when she played the 16/18 year old. She received a BAFTA for the role.
On Saturday evening I switched from Andy Murray after he lost the first set badly and looked as if he was on a thrashing. Britain’s Got Talent auditions continue to be a mixture of the really good, the Ok and the embarrassingly awful. This evening there was a circus types troupe who packed in some amazing stunts in the time available and brought the housed own. There was one nearly naked young women performing Britany Spears song badly flaunting her body provocatively at the judges table and got the proverbial three crosses and strike out while a young woman from Thailand who was also scantily dressed and did an act with lots of British flags which was odd gained a three for vote. There was no one else worth commenting on.
Then to the European Song Context performed this year is former football stadium recreated over six weeks with a roof and a huge back screen, stupendous lighting effects and firework effects. However the choice of music and presentations this year was exceptional and on a different level than recently. It is difficult to take in 24 or 25 songs in one go with performances varying from single passionate numbers I liked the French who came no where in the voting, was not impressed with the British Blue number which scored ten times the number of pints than last time out but still ended in mid table and missed Jedward for Ireland to fared a little better than us. The winner from one former Soviet nation was OK but no more than that. I enjoyed a couple of jazz funky performances and some of the presentations were hot. Apparently we miss the dreaded semi final stage which cuts out a score of other entrants because we put up hard cash up front over £280000 in Euros.
And as for the sport. Murray had the opportunity to win the match twice but failed so that removes the inclination not to go to the cricket and watch the final after the Newcastle game. Manchester the city is all aglow to day at United win their 19th championship and City the F A Cup Final. Such a double has happened in London and possibly on Merseyside with the ascendancy of Liverpool but will never happen now in the Northeast or the Midlands unless there is the emergence of yet another unlimited money man. Newcastle Rugby Union survived a horrendous season managing to avoid relegation by bonus points. In Rugby League Warrington, Huddersfield and Wigan begin to edge away from St Helens and Leeds at the top of the table with Wigan in third having a game in hand and all three the same number of points. In County cricket, Notts Lancs and Warwickshire all have 3 wins with Durham Somerset and Sussex 2 and Lancs the front runner with a game in hand. It is going to be a tight race this year unless someone starts to win back to back or a trio of successive wins, especially against those above or just below. In the 40 over competition Durham must win at home today and away in Edinburgh tomorrow to stand a chance of qualifying for the semi finals later in the season.
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