Entry #155
- Listening to:
- Bartok, string quartet no. 3 (Sz 85).
- A recent movie:
- Best in Show. I saw this on a plane from Hong Kong
to Heathrow and thought it very good, even in those rather
trying conditions. (Although I have to say, I think I find it a
lot easier to get to sleep over the muted roar of jet engines
than over the neighbours' distant pop music when the latter is
the only thing disturbing the night's quiet.) Anyway, what
about this film then? Very amusing. It's what is apparently
known as a mockumentary. This means that while taking
on the outward form of a documentary, it is actually an extended
satire.
This film succeeds because it verges just a little into the
unrealistic to make its jokes. The characters seem as if they
just might be real people. The film is based around a big dog
show, and the principal characters are the various contestants
that attend, hoping that their dog will win the grand prize.
They are all a little weird and stereotypical, but very funny as
they negotiate all sorts of quandaries.
I've been playing quite a bit of a new PC game called
Europa
Universalis. It's quite an addictive game in the
Civilisation/Imperialism mould, but better than both, in my opinion,
because of its very well-researched historical setting. Other people
seem to think pretty highly of it too; for example
this
review at StrategyGaming is very positive. It finishes (in
incomplete sentences, he's clearly that rapt):
I
can see if you don't have much time, or don't have an interest in
history at all. But outside of that, if you don't buy this game,
you're nuts.
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