2010 — 15 May: Saturday
It's after midnight yet again. I'm tired. Definitely time for sleep.
G'night.
Morning's delights...
... have so far included a "lost" Helen Shapiro track, and an extended stereo version of a Beatles track. (Details here, though track listings are not available until after the broadcast, it seems. An unwelcome innovation.) It's 08:54 and sunny. Where's that cuppa?
I've watched enough of that superb TV show "The West Wing" to regard myself as an expert on the fraught political processes involved in a President getting his (or her? — don't make me laugh!) choice of Supreme Court nominee appointed in the face of, shall we say, relentlessly meticulous and dispassionate media scrutiny... So when that fine journal of the Wall Street published a 17-year-old photo of Obama's current choice...
... it was immediately assumed (by the choice of sport and, it seems, the "giveaway" hairdo) that the lady was, how should one put this delicately, a player for the other team. As a lesbian trapped in a man's body, what would I know? Anyway, a spokeswoman for the Journal disagreed with this semiotic (or should that be "idiotic"?) insight, and responded beautifully:
"If you turn the photo upside down, reverse the pixilation [sic] and simultaneously listen to Abbey Road backwards, while reading Roland Barthes, you will indeed find a very subtle hidden1 message."
Now, where did I put my copy of Sportsdykes? Maybe I should send it over to them?
The smartest and most successful lawyer I know (and a delightful woman to [sports] boot) is my cousin, who plays for that same team... (though her choice was the vicious one of hockey).
See if you can guess...
... which of our (charmless) censors' "classifications" applies to which of this pair of newly-arrived Blu-ray titles before you click the pic:
I watched Mike's HD DVD copy of "Pride & Prejudice"2 a couple of weeks ago — I will be interested to compare my memory of that with this new Blu-ray edition. I haven't seen "Caligula"3 since the days of a heavily-censored version that I once owned on VHS tape. I note Gore Vidal had his name removed from the screenplay credits. Not a surprise.
Is it my imagination, or has the volume of spam email been picking up again in the last few days? Not that it's getting any more enticing. I mean, get real! Addressing me as "Hello" and inviting me to click on a link to sort out some HSBC online account login errors? I don't think so.
It's official. I like Google's Chrome browser. I've used the metallic skin, but I'd like it even more if it had the equivalent of the "AdBlock" extension I can use with Firefox. (I had no idea IMDB was now so cluttered with advertising junk.) I haven't yet looked for such an extension,4 as a) I've been using Chrome just for browsing my own little web site behind the firewall, and b) I suspect blocking ads is very low on Google's agenda...
Those pesky spell checkers and their "grammer" get you every which way, don't they? I see Google also rather goofed with their recent Wi-Fi snooping, didn't they? — (more.)
Is it time for tea yet? It's 17:19 and has been, again, pleasant weather.
I didn't set out...
... this evening to re-watch Joe Wright's 2005 production of Pride & Prejudice quite so soon after the last time. But I was completely seduced by the gorgeous quality of the Blu-ray, not to mention the interesting extras. I arrived fairly late in life at a proper appreciation of Jane Austen's genius. Here's an extract from the note I wrote to Carol on Christmas Eve, 2004:
It's now 23:08, and time to pack another box or two of books. While the kettle's boiling, naturally.