Negative reviews and hunting
Listening to:
Shostakovich, violin concerto no. 1 in A minor, op 99. This is
dramatic and exciting music, with a great part for the soloist.
A lost comic:
General Protection
Fault. Good title (it’s the phrase that comes up when it
all goes horribly wrong on Windows machines), and reasonably
drawn. Fairly interesting characters, and the mandatory talking
animal (a slime mold actually) doesn’t often feature. Set in a
computer company, and sporadically amusing. Far too interested
in telling long, soap-like stories than keeping the reader
consistently amused. Takes its supernatural elements (demonic
secretary, and strange jester figure) far too seriously.
A recent movie:
East is east. We saw this on DVD last year, and
were very disappointed. What the hype would have had us believe
was a touching, humourous but gritty look at life growing up in
a Muslim family of Pakistani origin (with an English mother) in
the north-east of England, was in fact poorly written, full of
unpleasant stereotypes, toilet humour and generally quite
unfunny. Not recommended. (IMDB page.)
Yesterday the House of Commons in the UK voted (by over a 2-1 margin)
to ban hunting with dogs in England and Wales. There’s a good chance
that the bill will fail to make it into law because the House of Lords
will stall it until the next election, which is expected in May. The
main opponents to the abolition of hunting call themselves the
Countryside Alliance, and have a website.
Interestingly, there is another Countryside alliance
website out there. It has a .com domain-name, and
the material is American. Most interesting of course, is the fact
that it’s an animal rights site; see for example their FAQs on
hunting and fishing.
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