Round up

[iainjclark]

Not had time to post much recently what with working late, going to hospital appointments, shopping, attempting to decorate, going to leaving dos and trying to at least pretend to have a social life.

So far this week I've been impressed by President Obama, specifically his inauguration speech and immediate action to overturn any number of idiotic, bigoted or downright fascist Bush policies. Kudos to that man. I do remain suitably sceptical that this huge rush of political euphoria can last; no doubt there's a New Labour style post-election crash due soon (although I'm by no means as cynical as Tom McRae on the subject). There are a few nay-sayers in our office who think he's all cliches and speeches and, to quote Luke Skywalker, it's all such a long way from here. Nonetheless, I can't help but feel that this is an important moment in world politics. Obama is the right man at the right time telling the right story - and it is a story even if not in a pejorative sense - about regrouping, rebuilding and reaffirming fundamental values.

TV-wise, CSI: original flavour is back on C5 and as good as ever. I've been mildly spoiled for future cast changes, but otherwise it's nice to watch a consistently high quality series do its stuff and not have a clue what's coming next. We're still catching up on various US imports including House (still great), Sarah Connor (mostly great) and Galactica (I just need closure). We also have the Dexter S1 box set to watch, and we found the entire Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes going cheap in HMV so we've started that too. Incredibly I don't think I'd ever seen the first episode before (A Scandal in Bohemia).

We're also trying to get back in the swing of going to the cinema. Today we saw Frost/Nixon which is both a predictable underdog story and an extremely solid, occasionally outstanding character study of two men. Both lead performances are exemplary, and the film settles out as a surprisingly melancholy portrait of Nixon in a way that reminded me very much of George Reeves in Hollywoodland.

Comments

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

I have similar feelings about Obama (oh how I loved the bit about restoring science to its rightful place) - but equally I can't help remembering how I felt back in 1997, and how some (not all) of that turned out. I envy the Americans their hope and optimism and moment of relief; I know that we won't see anything like it here for a very long time. I hope it works out better for them than it did for us - and it probably will, because they don't appear to have given up their sovereign rights to make their own decisions, eg to go to war or not, as we appear to have done in the past decade.

Am much amused that Tom McRae is a Man Utd fan and still such a fucking misery :-p

Also loving CSI:original, although I was slightly surprised at how quickly the storyline from the previous season was resolved.

And I kind of envy you having such a good excuse to go back and watch all the Brett Holmes again :-)

[badbookworm.livejournal.com]

My mum was in hospital with an allergic reaction when Tony Blair took over. This time, she had a car accident and was in hospital being looked over. WHAT ARE YOU POLITICAL PEOPLE DOING TO HER???

[badbookworm.livejournal.com]

I'm usually an unreconstructed cynic about politicians, but I'm feeling weirdly optimistic about Obama. So far, he seems to be walking the walk, neh?