Celebrity Big Brother may have needed the excitement of a flutter to make it interesting and it may have had celebrities so unknown they didn’t know each other – Jeremy Edwards was in partly for his affair with Rachel Stevens, but Bez hadn’t heard and called her Rebecca; when they played the Happy Mondays Kenzie hadn’t heard of them – but Bez is proving that an appearance really can add value to a celebrity career after all. And it’s rather fitting that he should be the one to prove it as his Happy Mondays role was ‘vibes’; random almost dance moves to get stuff going.

Reaching well beyond a predictable Happy Mondays revival, Bez has been tipped to star in an Osbournes style TV show (I’m not sure he’s rich enough to be eccentric enough to pull this off) and perhaps more bizarrely a fitness video. But only perhaps more bizarrely, because a quick look at who stars in fitness videos shows that physical fitness isn’t really the qualifying factor. Take Abi Titmuss’ Tone and Tease (also available from Amazon Jersey); sure she’s fit in a lad’s mag way, but she’s no fitness trainer. Fitness is about lifestyle, innit? The celebrity you choose to take you through it says something about the kind if person you are and aspire to be. And so having a party animal like Bez as your video trainer, well that’s says you… well… it says you wish you were recovering from a decade or two’s heavy partying and drug-taking rather than the ordinary stuff you’ve really been up to. I guess.

Betfair: Bet on Big Brother & make it interesting……Amazon Jersey: Tax Free Shopping

Scrawl graffiti over this »

Suffering less than most from Leigh’s tendency to err on the side of caricature, Vera Drake is a tender, often comic portrait of 1950s Britain; optimism’s emerging alongside consumerism; rationing’s created a burgeoning black market. And well-meaning, naïve Vera’s unthinking willingness to ‘help girls out’ opens her to exploitation and ultimately rips her world apart.
7.5 out of 10.
Director: Mike Leigh Staring: Imelda Staunton
Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, Notte)……Dead or Alive (Hanzaisha)
If you found my comments useful, let Amazon know by clicking Vera Drake and hitting the ‘yes’ button underneath their copy of this review. You may buy while you’re there.

Scrawl graffiti over this »

eBay! might have the profile and reputation, but if you’re really serious about online auctions, you can’t beat US Government Military Surplus, where you can avoid being labelled an unlawful combatant by bidding on military uniforms and suchlike. And that’s not all: today’s hot lot is a rather nice 65ft yacht.

While there’re plenty of guns, there’s not so much ammo. Similarly, there’re a quite few missile launchers available as well as the odd torpedo power pack, but no actual missiles or torpedoes in at time of writing. I guess the consumables get all used up. Lot category 4470-Nuclear Reactors is also empty for time being, but you can join a watch list to be notified just as soon as something comes in. And anyone who followed the shock-and-awe campaign in Iraq will be confident of finding some top-notch pyrotechnics (lot category 1370).

Scrawl graffiti over this »

Bush has pledged to spread freedom and it’s easy to be cynical about that: blogging institution Tim Ireland’s attempting a Google bomb on ‘empty rhetoric’, but a search on that term reveals he’s been beaten to it. I find all that rather tiresome and predictable. Sadly predictable, as it comes against a background of British troops torturing Iraqi looters and today’s release of four more Britons from Guantanamo Bay, held for years without trial and most likely tortured by freedom loving US troops.

But like David Aaronovitch in the Observer, I’m inclined to give Bush a qualified thumbs up. I supported the war, but have never been idealistic about it and I’ve not been impressed by the level of insight coming from those, of whatever persuasion, who provide blow-by-blow commentary. The bigger picture is that we invaded Iraq a fairly short time ago and it’s far too early to know how things will turn out. But Afghan elections have proved that something approaching democracy can be achieved in a country half governed by warlords and with no democratic traditions.

Unfortunately, the relatively godless leaders of the free world fail to recognise that the secular vision needs to be sold. They fail to demonstrate how great their vision of freedom is by abiding by what they rhetorically claim to be higher principles when removing despots. It’s as if they’ve fallen for the hysterical notion, that this is a war on an Islamic people so different from us we have to fight dirty. But I don’t believe that. It’s not the myth of cultural superiority, but the myth of moral superiority that leads to these mistakes.

And I’m optimistic. I’m prepared to believe Bush has the will to install democracy in Iraq and elsewhere, but I fear he’s failed to grasp how important Gordon Brown’s plan for the developing world is (no rich democracy has ever declared war on another rich democracy). Meanwhile, the courts – primary democratic institutions – are finally forcing leaders to live by the principles they seek to impose on others; the European Human Rights Convention applies to Iraqis under British occupation; not even foreigners can be detained without a trial; and stateside the