Yesterday’s Channel 4 News had a particularly good report on an Iraqi writer struggling to establish a museum that will help ensure Iraqis remember Saddam Hussein’s regime. He’s built a considerable archive, including film of surgical torture. The Channel 4 News report included footage of amputations – the severed body parts placed on a green cloth for the camera – and the reaction of a victim as he was woken to discover what’s missing. Obviously, most of this can’t be shown on primetime TV, but we also had interviews with a man whose ear had been cut off to mark him out as a traitor and another who’d been through a botched castration.

All of which demonstrates the war’s done some good, even though both victims interviewed said the Abu Ghraib pictures convinced them the US was little better. Abu Ghraib dispelled the myth of moral superiority and has been an incredible boost for opponents of Iraqi democracy.

The lunchtime bulletin had a more jokey piece, with a graphologist analysing this sample of Bush’s handwriting, which is exactly the right tone for this bit of nonsense. Iraq is sovereign, says Condi. Scrawled notes between the president and his national security advisor are not habitually published. This scrap of paper is Bush’s bid for the history books; a crude attempt to build some kind of mythology around his presidency. Yet it plays only to his loyal fans and makes the war look like nothing more than an opportunity for macho posturing. Instead, Bush should fund that museum.

Not a war for idealists……Myth of moral superiority……Getting some focus on Iraq war aims

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Bus 174 holds its audience as much with narrative technique as story – grown-up street child turns armed highjacker – but other documentaries innovate more effectively. While it fails to paint a convincing picture of the protagonist’s character and motives, it succeeds as a portrait of official incompetence and corruption interacting with a dehumanised and impoverished underclass.

7 out of 10 for the suspenseful ending.

The Cooler……The Cat’s Meow

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I’ve always found football – well, all sport really – a little tedious and a little pointless. But even I felt gutted at England’s getting kicked out of Euro 2004. As with the France match, I only tuned in for the last few minutes. But this time ended up watching 30 minutes of extra time, plus the penalty shootout. All the important stuff. It’s taking people quite sometime to pack away their England flags, as if the whole county’s in some sort of mass denial. Sports commentators are inviting us to follow Tim Henman at Wimbledon, but I can’t believe anybody takes his prospects seriously.

I’ve already blogged on what the flag means to me. So, you’ll understand that I was more uplifted by the sight of its presence at Glastonbury. Proof, if proof were needed, that England’s winning the football could have marked a significant step toward reclaiming English nationalism from the Little Englanders, UKIP/BNP. Nobody could ever accuse Glastonbury of being a hotbed of racism and prejudice.

Saving England’s flag……Anti-war song for England’s football fans

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The Cooler’s predictability is quite fitting. It’s a film about luck – about fate – a contemporary mysticism that allows Lootz to cool the casino with his bad luck and also says he’s destined to have that luck reversed upon meeting soul mate Natalie. And bad guy Shelly’s fall was sealed the day he ascended.

A enjoyable 7 out of 10.

Shrek 2……Bus 174

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I’ve not mentioned this before, but Critter – seen here paying homage to Klimt – has not been well lately. Go see Shrek 2 and watch out for the Puss in Boots hairball sequence. That’s how Critter’s been for almost three weeks (not hair though) following a disagreement with some antibiotics.

Anyway. He’s well insured and so enjoys healthcare on demand at one of the country’s leading veterinary hospitals (a far cry from his hobo days). His insurers, MORE TH>N, paid out pretty promptly but what’s awoken the curmudgeon in me is the tone of the covering letter. ‘Do write and let me know how everything went,’ writes Stephanie Simmonds, ‘and tell us how you’re both getting on.’ Given that Stephanie’s (understandably?) too busy to sign the letter by hand, I have to doubt MORE TH>N’s sincerity. I don’t imagine for a moment that anyone at the oddly named Ceefa Deefa House felt tearful at the idea of Critter being unable to keep his food down. And I bet I wouldn’t get a similar letter if my CDs got nicked – ‘Do let us know how you’re getting on re-building the collection’ – because they only write letters like that to people with pets, as if keeping an animal softens the brain.

Somewhere there’s a little old lady penning a couple of thousand words on the life and times of Benjie the poodle under the mistaken impression that somebody cares.

Naïve Marketing Strategies#4: ‘Academic’ endorsement……#6: Political Advertising

Critter’s hunting, fishing & doing drugs

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Technically brilliant, Shrek 2 never rests. A simple fairy story well told, the movie is well observed, politically and cultural aware without ever risking pretension. Even the fart jokes are somehow charming. And the voice acting and characterisation match anything on screen anywhere.

A near perfect 10 out of 10

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind……The Cooler

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A new recurring series for you: I was wrong. I’ve been somewhat troubled since shortly after my Integrity of Top of the Pops blog, back on 9 May. The thing is while it’s true that Outkast’s Roses video is partly based upon Greece, there are clear and definite references to West Side Story. Furthermore, I really should have seen this as it’s an extension of the Speakerboxx/The Love Below thing Outkast have got going on at the moment.

Speakerboxx/The Love Below is an odd project; not so much a double album as two solo albums stuck in the same box. Artistic differences are a classic reason for a split, but these two CDs only prove how complementary Andre and Bog Boi are – ying and yang says the Amazon review. Anyway, Roses clearly has the Love Below gang facing off the Speakerboxx boys (albeit with the now red Pink Ladies looking on). I’ve mentioned before how pop music’s tops at the moment. If you doubt that, look no further than Speakerboxx/The Love Below.

While on TOTP, its worth mentioning the amazing similarity between Kylie Minogue and Rachel Stevens’ choreography of late. Kylie’s made the odd good record in the past, but is now in a most irritating phase. But not as irritating as Rachel Stevens. Anyway, Kylie’s routine for Chocolate on this week’s TOTP, was almost identical to Steven’s routine for the truly dreadful Some Girls the week before. Everything Stevens does is incredibly catchy and doesn’t that make you hate her all the more?
Britney Spears Do Somethin’: I was wrong#2……Integrity of Top of the Pops

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The contrasting approach of the UK and US to Arabic TV station Al Jazeera is always interesting. While the US has noisily condemned the station’s anti-Western stance, setting up a rival station nobody watches and almost certainly giving Al Jazeera a ratings boost amongst anti-US Arabs, the BBC World Service (funded by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, not the licence payer) has quietly forged incredibly close links with the station. The BBC closed its first Arabic TV service in 1996, with Al Jazeera not only taking BBC news, but also sharing production facilities. The BBC provides training to Al Jazeera journalists and technicians. This is how BBC News always beats its commercial rivals to Al Jazeera broken stories.

Now the FCO has now asked the BBC to provide an Arabic TV station to broadcast commercial free and head-to-head with Al Jazeera, it’s hard to see how cooperation can be maintained. Maybe Al Jazeera isn’t as well connected as many in the West believed; after all, Middle Eastern ‘evil-doers’ are unlikely friends to a TV station that speaks out.

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Declassifying documents – as the Bush administration has to prove it’s never ordered torture – is always a good thing. But it does inevitably provoke a raft of follow-up questions. For example, after signing off some new (hard but fair, rather than torturous) integration techniques, Donald Rumsfeld added, ‘I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?’ Why, oh why, oh why? Does his office have no chair?

Getting some focus on Iraq war aims……Not a war for idealists……Myth of moral superiority

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Monday morning and more last minute queuing. Our plane home was 15.30 (although, fortunately we’d mistakenly thought it was 15.05). We gave the Reichstag one last chance in the hope of seeing Norman Foster’s dome and accompanying view of Berlin. But what a disaster; there was no sign of organisation at all. Weather wasn’t with us and just as we’d got onto the steps – about an hour in – the rain came and the crowd inevitably surged forward for cover. The shocker was that nobody acted to stop the crush. An older woman collapsed not far from us, but only fellow tourists came to her aid. Then an informal sign was placed on the door to say the main attraction, the dome, was closing for cleaning. You’d have to queue for an hour to get to that point, though. We gave up. Oh well.

Berlin at last……Day two in Berlin: Fallen Leaves……Berlin: city of queues

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