red white and blue with an occasional white star

There's a sort of time warp occurring at the moment. Scratchy monochrome television adverts. Re-instatements of old corporate logos. Bunting. Today's newspaper arriving with an old picture of the Queen on the front.

Yesterday I snapped a B-17 flying overhead. I know, I might have expected a Lancaster, but it was definitely an American plane, sporting a big star on the side.

I'm guessing it's preparing for a fly-by somewhere, although the artists' impressions for the Flotilla parade and the Mall fly-past only seem to show British planes.

Around here we're fairly unadorned. The television version of Britain is crammed with street parties and central London areas like the Mall, the bridges and Covent Garden are very flag enriched.

But later on, I'll be on another type of plane, and so will have to see London's events unfold from afar.

prometheus looks for a beginning

I couldn't hear anyone screaming but maybe that's because we were in space.

Since Alien, there's been a couple of other sci-fi movies that add to my enjoyment of the genre. One was The Fifth Element with its quirkiness (obv.) and another I'll quietly admit was Riddick.

They both added flashes of orange, some humour and massive landscapes to their stories, so I wondered what Ridley Scott would do with his Alien prequel.

There's a fair amount of the Alien styling in this one, conveyed on a sweeping scale. A corporation sponsored science cruiser in deep space with a numerous and slightly randomly assembled crew which hints at early reel expendability.

Then there's a far planet and a deserted cave system. Traces in the torchlight of organic glop.

Sound familiar?

I guess that's part of the formula - although this one adds references to Erich von Däniken, Darwinism, some edges of religion and the first discovery of fire. Some good and potentially conspiratorial ideas are floated but in the second half the action takes over.

We also get an android channeling Peter O'Toole as one of the most characterful performances and a spaceship that looks quite like 2001's Discovery One on the inside.

It's a 3D movie, and uses a big screen format immersively without overdoing the tinkerbell effects. That's not to say there aren't some suspenseful and splattery moments and a pretty cool soundstage that was good enough to convince me that I was getting sprayed with liquids and pelted with rocks. I actually thought this would be good to see on those D-Box wobble seats. I wasn't quite so sure about the space buggies they drive around in, which looked a bit hastily assembled.

I won't include a spoiler here, I guess it's one of those films that plenty will see at the cinema. It's too early to talk about 'that' scene let alone 'that other one'. In any case, Ridley Scott's already got two other landmark movies with Bladerunner and Alien.

This one hasn't given me quite the wow of the others, partly because of how much it tips its all-round gorilla glass space helmet to the earlier works. I'd rather have seen it develop some of its specific ideas and spin away from the Hollywood meets Weyland-Yutani financial need to link all the franchises together.

I still enjoyed it but it's got me thinking about other movies I now want to view again.

Here's the Ridley Scott prequel to the prequel, which isn't in the movie - and a link to the stylishly designed Weyland Industries (est. 2023), which also includes the David 8 brochure and video.

online booking is temporarily suspended

One of my favourite scary space movies is Alien. I can still enjoy watching it in the dark and being prepared to jump out of my skin at the right moments.

And that scene where they see the unexplained 'space jockey' has to be one of the longest 'elapsed time to prequel' moments ever.

So when I got to see the trailer for Prometheus at the cinema a few weeks ago I was mightily intrigued to know what Ridley Scott would do with this story set earlier than Alien but with more high tech effects.

The trailer I saw was the American version (below), which cranks up the action faster than the English one (above), which starts in what appears to be the Scottish highlands.

What I liked was that there are still proper references to the earlier filmic style, but with an almost casual use of modern effects. It also has a stunning soundtrack with deep bass in deep space to help the skin propulsion and spiky frequency oscillators to add creep.

But don't you just wonder about the people who name the space craft? Prometheus may steal the fire but also gets his liver plucked out by an eagle every day. Quite a portent, but then I guess it's another ship in Scott's Joseph Conrad fleet along with Nostromo and Sulaco? I'm guessing at Heart of Darkness somewhere in all of this?

I seriously contemplated the Curzon 00:01 showing this morning, but I guess I'll have to wait in line instead. "Online Booking is temporarily suspended".

impactful* ups and downs of an enquiry

I've been watching some of the Leveson enquiry today, with Jeremy Hunt in the hot seat.

I can't help thinking that there's an extended code used on some of the interactions being discussed, a bit like the way 'Yes, Minister' works.

Also trying to spot the bits where there's been some preparations of responses (i.e. "I'm glad you asked that question etc." vs the pieces where its genuine question and answer.

Also trying to work out which extracts refer 'upwards' vs 'downwards'. Along the lines of whether to push things towards junior special advisor Mr Smith or ever closer towards Prime Minister Cameron.

I can't help thinking that they fired Vince Cable who was against the merger and then Cameron appointed a declared pro-merger politician to run the independent quasi-judicial process.

There was an dryly humourous part about Rebekah Brooks resigning because of partisan interest during the review of News International and Hunt without noticing the irony saying 'its about time.'

And some impactful* phrases:

• Looks on the surface like a strong UIL
• No idea that Mr Smith was getting so many messages from Mr Michel
• I didn't know about these discussions between Mr Smith and Mr Michel
• Almost game over for the opposition
• Satisfy media plurality concerns
• JH believes we are in a good place tonight
• JH does not mean Jeremy Hunt
• We just need space (not a JH statement)
• No legal wriggle room
• Lets see what the morning coverage brings
• What we see here {...in these dozens of messages...} does not reflect your opinion?
• Keen to get to the same outcome
• I can't remember

* I know, impactful isn't a real word

cycling towards targets

Maybe a little unstructured cycling this afternoon, in this hot sunshine.

I see I'm close to a couple of my targets, which I'd originally set for the whole year. I deliberately made them achievable, but I've slightly surprised myself that there's still more than 200 days to go on each.

I'm pretty sure I can hit the mileage one this afternoon, but the calories will take a little longer, even if I head out towards a couple of the little hills around here.

Update: I did 17.x miles which has cleared the mileage target, but the Calories will have to wait.

ticky tacky time

It's a sort of guilty pleasure to be viewing my way through early season Weeds on Netflix catchup.

To the extent that if I've had it on the main telly there have been occasional comments along the lines - "Is this a real show; are they allowed to say that kind of thing on American television?"

The section I've been watching is set in 2006, but I'm only on the early seasons which are set somewhere a bit like my own one-time American home in a gated community. All little boxes made of ticky-tacky plus in Weeds a mom who is also the local cannabis dealer.

It's got a single-camera look to production, some whip smart dialogue and a good smattering of brilliant one liners. It seems wrong on oh so many levels, but usually with a sparkle in the eyes.

These whole series time-shifts fix the dilemma of missing the first few episodes of a series and having to either join part way through or wait for the DVD.

I'm not so fussed about the ownership of these things, but the access to the back catalogue is very useful and makes this type of 'watch all the episodes' project very convenient.

Whether it's addictive is a whole other discussion.

another week without the truth

I was watching the television on Friday evening when I realised I'd somehow missed nearly a whole week of the news.

That the G8(?) had got together and belatedly compared spring knitwear.

That there are now enough draft versions of the New Drachma to mean that De La Rue won't need to print any.

That those light weight pound coins I sometimes get must be part of the one in thirty forgeries in circulation.

That the newly issued pound coins do actually feel and look a bit like forgeries.

That an oppressive oil-rich regime is staging this year's kitch European song-fest.

That it's not about the music, it's all about the bloc-vote (I knew that anyway).

That the UK is probably the largest foreign investor in this Caspian oil pool.

That absolutely everyone in UK Government was completely unaware that the person put in charge of the Sky bid may have pre-judged it's outcome.

That the top guns under investigation in the Leveson enquiry are all being stacked up for the Jubilee weekend - papa, buddy, the boss.

That the use of the nicknames and initials add an extra layer of deniability.

That the list of awkward attendees to the Games is now arriving on William Hague's desk. Should Syrian Generals and other figures running oppressive regimes be allowed?

That the flame is already in Wales.

And, finally, that photo-sheik will become an accidental fashion craze as paps swarm to Broadway Market to snap cool east Londoners who've already gone to Borough to avoid the scrum.

leveson - impactful diagram of what everyone else in the room does

Fascinating viewing. Would be interested to get a room diagram with roles.

n.b. UIL = Undertaking in Lieu. - a.k.a. Promises to organise affairs in a manner to avoid the need to go to competition commission.
Update: I found a room layout diagram...

triangles, squares and circles

I'm still an 'orange' member of the Barbican and decided to pop along to that Bauhaus exhibition that's running at the moment. Like many, I've owned the tubular steel cantilever chairs and recognise the underlying Bauhaus nature of corporate communication diagrams derived from PowerPoint.

Even my own novels tip a small hat to the Triangle, Square and Circle that riffs through Bauhaus functional modernism. But I found it to be the people behind the original art school movement that really made this exhibition interesting.

Like earlier communities of Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Taliesin West I visited last year, we here see into masked balls, kite building competitions and a general eclecticism somewhat at odds with what became the harshness of glass walled skyscrapers.

A fascinating and surprisingly diverse show, with many of the smaller items holding a real interest and for me a few "Ahah" moments as I spotted items whose origins have now become clearer. Erich Consemüller also photographed some of the original artist/designers, so here's one of Marcel Breuer (he of the boingy chairs) with some of his friends.

tales from a suitcase

I'm fairly used to living out of a suitcase, as a result of being away from home on business fairly often. Sometimes I'm 'based' somewhere else, other times it's just a day or two.

In just the last month, its probably been about 10 days away. It means you get very used to the rhythm of hotels, check-ins and check-outs. As well as the sometimes brilliant upgrades, I've had those situations where there's no room available or they send me to a room with someone already in it. And that regular annoying situation where you go to a room and then find the electronic key doesn't work.

I've also visited a place in Europe where the hotel turned out to be chalets and I arrived late and had to sort of break in to the room. Actually I've just remembered another situation in France, where the place was unsupervised and we had to guess the right accommodation by a key left in the door.

I don't stay in London hotels very often because of where I live, but it's still London where I seem to have the most challenges. No room, room not ready, sultry service. It's just happened to me again, when I wanted to book into a particular hotel at the right check-in time and was told there was no room ready. I'd have to wait another hour - which really didn't fit with the plans.

I realised that even as a Londoner I was being processed as a 'tourist' in this smart London venue.

I moved into complaint mode, and it was grudgingly resolved, but it's reinforced a nagging thought that London's hospitality will need to be on best behaviour for the upcoming events.

understand both sides of the sky

I was looking at that Facebook launch on the telly. The amount the company is worth now is about the same size as the Greek debt.

Throwing virtual sheep appears to have a similar value to raising real ones.

I also noticed the recent withdrawal of General Motors from Facebook. They've reduced their annual spend from $40m to $30m with Facebook. So I decided to invent a little sum. Suppose GM is one of the top 100 advertisers on FB. Maybe it spends the average amount. So 100 times $30m = $3 billion income from top advertisers.

Then assume everyone else advertising is a long tail of equivalent size to the top 100. That's another $3 billion of income. So now we are at $6 billion. And Facebook is capitalised at $110 billion. That's about 18x earnings. Remarkably its in the same 18x earnings territory inhabited by Google.

Except I know my sums are wrong. They are massively optimistic. Facebook's earnings last year were on a 100x multiple. So it needs to work 5 times as hard to get to Google's results.

Remember, there is no 'R' in Geek debt.

a new identity

I've just had a call from the people who do the passports to say that my new one is on its way. It's one of those infrequent occasions where you have to be extra careful with the paperwork and remember to use the right colour ink and so on.

I took mine to the Post Office to be checked to avoid any awkward moments. I'd actually got two separate passports because some of the countries I'd travelled to were sort of incompatible with one another.

This time I've only applied for one replacement, which feels altogether more normal (although the replacement is the so called 'jumbo' version because of that increasing use of those whole page sticker Visas instead of the little stamps).