2389 Nov 5th week 2012 Part 2 Remembrance Sunday and New Dallas season 1 included

I begin this second look back of the past week as midnight approaches November 11th and I will go to bed shortly having failed to write about sport over the weekend and TV over the past week which included the end of the first series of the new Dallas, and the end of all the available episodes in the Italian language drama series Montalbano as well as Merlin and Strictly Come Dancing.

 

I will shortly begin with Remembrance Sunday and  in addition to the service at the Cenotaph I watched two programmes on the Arts Channel the first featuring British War time songs and performers and the second on the  Role of American film star

s and other performers during World War Two especially a look back by Bob Hope and his team who spent  the while War visiting  Troops in the USA,, the UK and other allied Countries but I also need to cover several items which governed my week especially Artman 101 work and attempting to resolve some media problems and other domestic issues.

 

I am always torn between my understanding of the necessity for states to retain and use armies and the outcome as the BBC listed the names and ages of the young men, some no more than teenage boys whose lives were given in a feudal land of corrupt politicians, drug barons, criminal and tribal warlords religious extremists who persecute anyone to fails to adhere to their interpretation of a way of life in which women and girls have no rights, defined roles which are akin to slavery. There is part of this land which boarders Pakistan which has become the training and planning ground for world wide terrorism. One has to take on trust, a trust which experiences and knowledge makes it difficult to give, that their sacrifice is part of something which has and will help prevent terrorism reaching our and other shores, that lives of the many in that country are being improved and that the share of individual sacrifice is fair between those nations able to command military forces capable of making such interventions.

 

There is another point of view of course that that given the population of the world and the difficulty of people able to provide the basics let alone some equalization of living standards for the majority that natural disasters such as flood and earthquake, pestilence alongside famine together with human strife internationally, within nations, tribes and arising from domestic killings accidental and deliberate are all necessary if the majority are to survive and prosper.  There  are those politically who want to limit the role of all government over the people  and allow the unlimited exploitation of people by those with the capacity to do so, as has been the practice throughout history until  just the recent centuries.

 

It is good that on one day some time is taken by the majority at least here in the UK to consider what the individual sacrifice means to the loved ones, friends and comrades at arms of those who feel the call to arms matters, enlist, train, fight and die. There was one such family where the father had served his country and his son had joined as soon as he could and who had died almost immediately and the shock was still with them and would remain for the rest of their lives.

 

In the evening on the Arts channel there was first a programme reminder of the songs and the artists in the UK who had entertained and made a difference during the Second World War. Almost everything and everyone was familiar to me and I was struck that whereas I could still join in with a few of the words and even the resemblance of the tune we had lost something with the music and performers of to day, especially the loss of the music hall and variety in general.

After this a second programme covered the role of film starts and entertainers from the USA, especially the troupe led by Bob Hope who had spent the whole of the wartime touring the world with the most memorable moment because of the awareness of the reality of what he said that following one performance before a large gathering of men, sixty percent had been lost and wounded subsequently in battle. It put in perspective the comparatively short list of those recorded by the BBC, and yet is the impact on individual families which lingers.

 

I have never been tempted to abandon spending the great part of my time and money writing and creating the Artman 101 project because it is what I am and have been although I do worry about the mounting expense especially the number of printers and cost of printing and the number and cost of all the lever arch files, presentation volumes and storage boxes. I have determined to concentrate more on completing the project in terms of existing material to be processed and have made goof progress this month to date with 212 new sets and over 5000 work sheets of paper and some card completed in the first third twice the average and with the aim of achieving at least a 500% increase before the end of the month and then continue at this level next years with the a potential fall back in December.

 

I cannot engage in writing or Artman 101 work all the time apart from the food preparation, the planned exercise and the cleaning plus the extended time of sleeping although has made me more active during the waking time. I do regard as waste because there is no tangible product the time spent playing chess against the computer where I remain locked at level three unable to complete a run of 101 games with losing or making a draw, and similar the slow process of completing 10000 winning games of hearts patience where I have reached over 8850 games with a current run of over 350 against the great winning run of over 3300.

 

There was a moment when I thought the top oven of my cooker was failing as smoke came out and then I could not get the dual grill/top oven button to use the grill. I gave the inside a good clean as I have been keeping up the top surface and rings over the past month. This appears to have sort out the problem. I then discovered that one side of the new Toaster is not working bought after I set aside the cheaper version because it did not have a defrost button, Once upon time these kind of problems would throw me and I would over eat and be unable to immediate get back to where I wanted to be. It is an indication of recent progress that I now tend to be calm and think through the situation and only at when I am sure I will not be making the situation worse. This is not always the case.

 

Sport over the past week can also be dealt with quickly. First Sunderland lost giving two goals Everton after gaining a 1.0 leads and holding for the great part of the game. They are now in the relegation zone despite have a manager which an excellent record and who spent tens of millions during the summer. They also went out to Boro in the League Cup the week before,

 

Until this weekend Newcastle had progress  reasonably well this season and with a good draw at Bruges on Thursday remained top of their mini league in the European division and set fair to go into the next round when they will also encounter the main drop outs from the Champions League competition. They lost at home on Sunday to an only goal scored by former hero and club Captain albeit for a short time Kevin Nolan who along with Andy Carroll and now at West Ham under former Newcastle boss who almost swapped places with the Newcastle Manager as he also managed West Ham.

I did watch part of a London ATP finals game involving Andy Murray over the past week but other priorities prevented me watching him lose the semi final games against Federer last night at the O2 arena. I did watch a large chunk of England’s huge win in the Rugby League International Salford against France yesterday early evening and a smaller chunk of England’s ginormous win over Fiji in the Rugby Union International at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon.

 

There was one bright moment in that I fortunately heard one morning that there was to be a live broadcast from the Times Sportswomen of the year event organised by the Times Newspaper.  The Top award went to Jessica Ennis but then almost everyone who should got an award of some kind including Ellie Simmonds Kathrine Grainger the Olympic Rower but not her partner in the winning boat, Jade Jones for her Olympic triumph in he Martial Arts, the cyclist who broke the World record in the pursuit race Laura Trott, Dani King and Joanna? And the top coach went to Jennie Archer who looks after David Weir but keeps out of the actual stadium events. Laura Robson and Heather Watson for their achievements in Tennis.  Missing was the boxer who won the first ever Olympic Media and the horsewoman who won two Gold Medals. I have acquired the 5 DVD set of the Olympic Games which includes the opening and closing ceremonies. I will look out for the Paralympic Games in Channel 4 and view both before the Sports Personality of the Year night. No time like the present just checked and purchased a Blu ray edition for the Paralympic games via Amazon.

 

In terms of TV productions I did watch the penultimate and final episodes Dallas against my earlier negative reaction to the new series. There was a Dallas of old great series of twists as it appeared all had become sweetness and light in the great Dallas household where they once all lived at Southfork with their mum and dad and grand parents.

 

The new series cantered on the decision of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) because of ill health to sell the estate and the machinations of his older brother JR (Larry Hagman) together with his sometimes estranged grown up son John Ross to gain control of the family ranch and drill for the oil beneath but where Patrick had sworn to his mummy this was something which would never be done with the land remaining for cattle.  The two JR’s had used each other and gone to a Venezuelan crime family for a loan on the promise of delivering a quantity of oil per month as soon as the ownership was achieved. Bobby’s adopted son Christopher had entered a quick marriage with a relative stranger who was to bear him twins but he was still in love with the daughter of the family cook who had grown up with him and JR brought up by Bobby more than JR. The young Mexican woman in question was also coveted by John Ross. Missing out all the toing and froing this is how the series appeared to end.

 

First Bobby discovers an old document which separates the mineral extraction from the land sale after JR secures Southfork and John Ross moves in reminding Bobby that that he remains there with his wife and son on a grace and favour basis.  Bobby is then struck down near to death which brings back JR from a trip where he was set on taking his old enemy Cliff Barnes in a large gambling game. JR is so affected that he gives back the ownership of the estate to Bobby although this is only the first step because of the involvement of the Venezuelan.

 

In order to thwart the immediate taking of oil from the ranch, Bobby’s third wife had gone to her former husband who runs a major trucking company to withdraw from the contract to transport the product and annoyed at the delay the crime boss had framed John Ross for the murder of an unstable young woman confidence trickster who he had used to front the purchase of the estate behind the back of Bobby. His mother the great Sue Ellen now running for state governor blackmails the County Pathologist to fixing the evidence so that John Ross is freed from jail where he was already beaten up by people on behalf of the crime boss. This was unnecessary because Christopher had devised a way of getting the crime boss of their backs by offering them a piece of his technical invention which will revolutionise the energy and oil business. Eventually with JR and John Ross admitting their dark dealings they are able to gain the evidence for the arrest of the crime boss for the murder of the young woman and other offences. Between them Sue Ellen and Mrs Bobby Ewing fix the machinations of the former husband and which enables Sue Ellen to continue to stand for the governorship.

 

John Ross offers marriage to the daughter of the Cook as they set up house together while Christopher decides to make a go of it again with his wife after getting rid of her brother who has been involved with various scams to get hold of Ewing money. He then discovers that his wife and sworn she has revealed everything about her past and his dealings, that the man is not her brother. The man who may have been a former lover continues to have a hold over her to the extent that she gets old of a weapon in defence and a struggle kills him. Christopher then realises that he still loves the daughter of the Cook and the two decided to make a new life for themselves.

 

Christopher and John Ross had grown up friends and then become great enemies over the way John Ross had gained control of Southfork for his father but with the near death experience of Bobby the two had come together and formed a new Ewing oil company taking up the former offices of the company when it was once a force in Texas. Now with Christopher getting back with the girl friend, John Ross is incensed and asks his father not just to teach him all about the oil business but how to fight so they can get back Southfork after all.

 

Cliff Barnes has appeared from time to time needling JR but now the extent of his Machiavellian dealings is revealed that Christopher’s legal wife is in fact the daughter of Cliff who flies in order to get rid of his body of the man his daughter has killed. She admits she has messed up on the great plan but will now do what is necessary to help her father get his revenge on all the Ewings thus setting the agenda for the second new season.

 

I must comment that Merlin appears to have reached the end of credibility with yet another situation where Arthur’s wife gets into the hands of Morgana and is only rescued at the expense of the life of her brother.  It is time that Morgana is dealt with and Merlin stops his pretence of being a simple servant. These series should be dropped unless a new story focus can be determined. I must take a proper look at the UK X Factor where a lad from  the Boro appears to making progress, I have been half watching Strictly Come Dancing and usually manage the last  ten minutes of Bargain Hunt at lunch time where this week two couples in one show made over £200 profit.

 

This brings met the last of the Montalbano TV productions of the year which I will leave until Wednesday together with a film about the remarkable daughter of the first President of Independent Burma called The Lady and also a mention of the historical fantasy The Immortals.