kimbofo

Even better than the real thing

I was fortunate to see U2's Vertigo tour several times -- London, Dublin, Copenhagen and New York -- in 2005. But all those gigs pale into insignificance compared to U23D, which I saw at London's IMAX cinema last night.

Awesome doesn't even come close. Honestly, it's an amazingly lifelike experience, but even better than attending a live gig because you don't need to put up with other people squashing you, getting in the way, singing in your ear or stomping on your toes.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was far, far, far better than I could have ever imagined. If you've ever wanted to know what it is like to be a member of U2 performing in front of thousands of fans in an outdoor arena, then this film is the best way of showing you what it must be like to be Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr. And boy, is it a phenomenal, out-of-the-world experience.

It was just like being at a U2 gig with front row tickets. I loved every minute.

If you're a fan -- and even if you're not -- I can't recommend the film highly enough. It's a deeply intimate and spine-tingling experience -- and much cheaper than going to a real U2 gig!

If you want to know what life would be like without subeditors

From a rather hilarious piece headed "The pendants are revolting" published in the Sunday Times:

In the age of the computer and the blog, some people predict that subeditors will no longer be necessary. But computers can be so unreliable. You wouldn’t have spotted this before the subeditors’ strike, but it’s quite common for copy that’s been cut from one column to appear in another part of the paper, which was served on a bed of spinach. “My starter is cold,” I said to Geraldine. “Well, why don’t you complain?” she snapped.

Read the entire article here.

When rock t-shirts are no longer cool

Once-upon-a-time I remember when it was cool to show your allegiance to your favourite band by wearing an appropriately branded t-shirt whenever you saw them perform live. For example, when attending a Crowded House concert you wore the Crowded House tour t-shirt you bought the last time you saw them. Ditto for U2, Midnight Oil, Hunters and Collectors -- you get the picture. But most people grow out of this, right?

Wrong -- especially if the crowd attending The Godfathers gig at Kentish Town's The Forum on Thursday night was anything to go by. Grown men in their 40s and 50s should know better. It is especially UNCOOL to arrive at the gig all rugged up in winter woollies to then peel off several layers specifically to show off the tour t-shirt you bought in 1993!! I kid you not.

'Prime Suspect' calling

So, as you will remember from last week's post about Prime Suspect, I was keen to watch the next instalment -- Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness -- to see how mobile phone technology had changed since the last one.

Prime Suspect 6 -- the best one so far, I have to say, excellent plot and super-high production values -- was made in 2003. Now pretty much all the characters have access to a mobile phone, and these are small, compact devices, half the size of the ones spotted in the previous instalment, Prime Suspect 5, which was made in 1996.

Interestingly, Tennison is now so contactable by mobile that she sometimes deliberately switches it off, whereas in previous episodes she's struggled to get it to work -- either because of short battery life or poor signals.

Text messaging also plays a vital role in police work. In one scene, Tennison's deputy receives important information about a suspect via SMS and simply holds up the phone's screen to show her what it says.

Other technological changes include the use of video when interviewing suspects (as opposed to simple audio tape) and the prevalence of email (Tennison's computer continually "pings" with messages arriving in her in-box).

I wonder if the next episode, made in 2006, will include references to Google, blogs or the Home Office's DNA database?!

Sorry

Yesterday Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a profound, historic and incredibly moving speech in Parliament.

The above clip is just a snapshot of his 28-minute apology to the Stolen Generation, those indigenous Australians taken away from their families as a result of Government policy. I've just watched the whole speech via The Age website and I've now got one of those sore, constricted throats you get when you try not to sob. It certainly made for powerful and rousing viewing.

I can only imagine what it must have been like to watch this speech live. I swear I can feel the optimistic upbeat mood of the nation all the way from the other side of the world. How refreshing to have a gutsy, honourable and genuinely human prime minister in charge of my homeland. It's almost enough to make me want to return to her shores.

• Full text of Kevin Rudd's speech

And from the blogs:

• Sarsaparilla
• Biglittlesister
• Pomgirl
• Between Bourke and Elizabeth
• Trevor Cook
  

The longest pleasure pier in the world

All pictures taken: Southend Pier, Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
Date: Sunday February 10, 2008.
Camera: Panasonic DMC-TZ3.

We took a journey to the English coast today and caught the train, an hour's journey east of London, to Southend-on-Sea. The prime objective was to take a stroll along the world's longest pleasure pier, which juts 1.34 miles (2.2km) into the Thames Estuary, the place where the River Thames empties into the North Sea.

Friday nights are 'Prime Suspect' nights

Friday nights around here have become synonymous with Prime Suspect, usually accompanied by a nice meal (ordered from our local Chinese or made by me) and a bottle of wine. It's a relaxing way to mark the end of the working week and I really look forward to chilling out for a couple of hours in the company of Helen Mirren and her band of police cohorts.

As you might remember, T gave me the boxed set for Christmas, so I've had seven episodes to work my way through since then. Unfortunately, the boxed set does not come with any sleeve notes, so whenever we stick a disc in the DVD player it's a bit hard to know what to expect. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

Last night we watched Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement, which ran for 200 minutes. Getting me to sit still and watch something on television that runs longer than 30 minutes is quite an achievement, because I've got the world's shortest attention span whenever it comes to the visual medium. But whenever I watch Prime Suspect I'm gripped from the word go* and the lengthy episodes whizz by without me becoming the slightest bit bored.

The great thing about watching these episodes in a relatively short space of time is seeing the quick march of technology transforming police lives. I'm specifically thinking of mobile phones. In Prime Suspect 1, which was made in 1991, mobile phones weren't commonplace, so whenever Tennison (Helen Mirren's character) needs to contact her colleagues she must look for a phone booth or use landline phones. By Prime Suspect 3, Tennison has access to a mobile phone the size of a brick but she can rarely use it because the battery keeps running out. In last night's episode, made in 1996, the size of the mobile phone has shrunk considerably (although they still have long antennas sticking out the end) but Tennison often struggles to get a signal. It will be interesting to see how things have progressed when I finally get around to watching Prime Suspect 6 (2003) and Prime Suspect 7(2006) over the coming weeks.

* Prime Suspect 4 is the exception to this rule. This was split into three separate stories, each around 100 minutes long, and it was immediately obvious that they were written by a different person, because they were too touchy-feely for my liking and reminded me very much of Morse and A Touch of Frost, a little too staged and stilted.

Coloured houses in Notting Hill

Place: Farm Place, Notting Hill.
Date: Sunday, February 3, 2008.
Camera: Panasonic DMC-TZ3.

If I had a spare £1 million I might just buy one of these very cute terraced houses in an area of Notting Hill dubbed "Hillgate".  It's a little hidden enclave of six or seven streets sandwiched between Campden Hill Road, Kensington Church Street and Notting Hill Gate.

The Long Way Down office

Place: Avonmore Road, West Kensington.
Date: Sunday, February 3, 2008.
Camera: Panasonic DMC-TZ3.

Cabin fever took hold this afternoon, so braving the chill winds we decided to go for a walk around the neighbourhood.

As we wandered the back streets of West Kensington, I mentioned to T that "Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman had their office around here somewhere".

"Really?"

"Yes, Avonmore Road -- it was mentioned in the Long Way Down book."

Sure enough, there it was -- a chequered flag and a Union flag painted over the garage door. Just to be sure, the discrete handwritten note on the doorbell read "Long Way Down office".

To think that Ewan and Charley used to hang out here, less than a 10-minute walk from our front door and literally around the corner (2-minute walk) from our old pad on Stonor Road and I never once bumped into them!

The End of the Affair

Last summer I read Graham Greene's much-lauded The End of the Affair and reeled from the sheer power of the story. It was one of those books that lingered in the mind long after I'd finished the book, almost as if it had left an indelible fingerprint on my brain never to be removed.

So on Friday night, curled up on the sofa in front of the TV, I was delighted to accidentally discover that More 4 was screening the 1999 movie, directed by Neil Jordan and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea, at 10pm. Obviously, I tuned in to watch.

The verdict? Jordan concentrates a lot on the atmospherics of the film -- he depicts a suitably dismal wartime London, with rain dripping in almost every scene and the sound of bombs dropping in the background. There's a lovely rich blue cast over the film, which lends it a certain moody and beautiful ambiance.