when logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead

Having recently returned from a world of immersive Disney characters, I could feel pretty at home watching some of UK political debates. In the US, aside from an accidental tuning to C-SPAN, I'd managed to escape nearly two weeks of the UK election broadcasts.

Now, as I return, the caucus race cartoon portrayal of politics is all too familiar. There's been a Prime Minister telling us how his party have reduced debt, but it's in a way that I can't understand. At least the BBC have named the Press Room as the Spin Room.

When the conservatives came to power, the national debt was somewhere in the £850 bn range. Now it's about £1500 bn. Yet we are being told it is being reduced. It's like being suckered into playing one of those shell games on Westminster Bridge and in this one the real numbers are being hidden, mainly by just not being mentioned. Instead we're given the differential calculus derivative because it gives a better sounding figure.

There's also a reluctance to say where the money to fund the extra steep government savings shown from 2016-2018 will be generated. It'll require at least 2-3x the cuts from 2014/15 to achieve the numbers for 2015/16 and then 4-6x the cuts to achieve 2016/17.

For the current government, I assume the advice from the American spinners being used is about 'mood management over facts' at this stage.

Oh, and preservation of Tweedledee and Tweedledum politics.

And the latest televised debate didn't really give much more useful information away.

I'll still hazard that the two main parties are sitting on around 33% each of the votes, including the maybe 40 or so Conservative swing seats that could go to Labour. At the same time Labour lose their Scottish seats to SNP and the Conservatives pick up about 10-12 seats from the Lib-Dems.

The Conservative strategists are still playing for an overall majority, presumably by bombarding the 40 swing seats with visits and special letters. The Tory side-swipes at Miliband continue and the potential allies of a Labour coalition don't do any favours by having flame wars with the Labour leadership.

A dominant approach of 'don't confuse the voters with facts' prevails. Maybe I need to join the caterpillar on the mushroom?

a petrol pump, a knife and fork, a cup of tea and a P

Impromptu alfresco lunch today. Not the most exotic of locations, because I was at a motorway services. However, the sun was shining and the open air beckoned.

I could remind myself of the last two weeks in more or less continual sunshine.

A red admiral butterfly flittered across, two crows lazily looked at my lunch as if to wonder whether they'd be able to scavenge any.

Then, a solitary ant wandered across the table, no doubt on a search and report mission back to a distant base.

Inherent Vice at the movies with molto panacakum

I used to think that Thomas Pynchon might be more than one person, the way he switched genres between novels. My first reading was Gravity's Rainbow and the next was Vineland.

From Gravity's Rainbow's description of escapism in a London and a dark German-occupied Netherlands in the time of V-2 bomb raids, to Vineland's dippy California of Zoyd and Prairie on the run from drug enforcement and living on a mental disability benefit. A narrative on 60's rebellion and 80's repression.

Then a pseudo historical novel about the Mason-Dixon line. It was only later that I jumped back to the sometimes student set-piece of Pynchon's shorter story, The Crying of Lot 49 (from 1966). With its symbolism, references to the Beatles and surfer dudes, there's some elements that pass forward into his later work.

There have also been big gaps between the books. I read Inherent Vice, when it first appeared in 2009 and may re-read now I've watched the movie adaptation.

I'll call it surf-noir. Pynchon was 72 when he published this one which describes a Doctor/Private Investigator/Slacker who gets embroiled in a case brought forward by his (ex) girlfriend. It turns out that there's actually more than one case but they have inter-connections. For the movie, the Dude-like Doc. Sportello (played by Joaquin Phoenix) hangs in there and despite his disarmingly hazed appearance is smarter and more determined than the square-topped and troubled detective played by Josh Brolin.

I'll admit that this movie won't be for everyone. It's a tangle of impressions and works best by not trying to over-analyse the apparently haphazard components. The whole cast play it with spirit and theres a few meta-scenes to keep the viewers on their toes. 'Is this the scene where I'm supposed to lecture you about the ...'

My own slightly strange mind really enjoyed this and I'll be waiting for the DVD to appear so that I can watch it again and replay some of the madder and unreliable moments which zipped past on a first viewing. I think this is the first time a Pynchon novel has been made into a film, and to me it somehow carries the spirit of the writer into this alternative version.
US trailer:

UK trailer:

back to reality, kinda

Home, unpacked, some shopping and clothes washing and then back to Heathrow today.

Okay, this is an airplane photo from last week, instead of yet another picture from Heathrow.

It's a Grumman HU-16 Albatross seaplane called Hemisphere Dancer. Check the registration N928J - it belongs to Jimmy Buffett and is something of an icon to parrot head followers of Buffett.

It features in the song Jamaica Mistaica - about being mistaken for drug smugglers and shot at when landing this very plane on water. Here's Jimmy singing the Caribbean steel reggae song about it...

hakuna matata with the flight connection

After an amusingly constructed pina colada, the worries of air travel ticketing begin to drift away. Our return flight was via an internal US Airways flight before we could pick up our BA connection.

The local flight's computer decided it would try to charge us extra for our return luggage. In fairness, I'd taken an empty 45 litre rucksack outbound 'just in case' and we'd still bought a further American Tourister from the local Walmart. It's those factory outlets, don't ya know?

Anyway. Our BA flight was code-share with US Airways for the first leg. The US Airways check-in computer was trying to tell us we only qualified for one piece of checked luggage each. The extra would cost a further $100 per item. That'd be $300. It's probably why many Americans seem to carry on what to me seem like excessively large cabin luggage. I notice it was trying to charge us the full transatlantic rate for what was only a domestic flight, too.

We decided to go to the person-based check-in having been lectured to by the passive-aggressive checkin 'helper' at the self check-in machines. Overall, a somewhat customer-hostile experience at this particular airport.

Fortunately we'd printed the T&Cs from the original booking which clearly stated 2 pieces each, even for the domestic return leg of the journey. This time it required 'further checks with superiors', but we finally got it allowed 'as a concession'. Ironically, at the gate they were pleading on this overbooked flight for extra people to give up carry on luggage which could be checked into the hold free of charge.

Then the plane was delayed which reduced our connection time (including changing terminals) to 30 minutes for the BA flight.

I will try to avoid this specific airline in future - although, come to think of it, they have now merged with American Airlines and the day of our flight was the last day that their Cactus call-sign was still in use.

Others were fretting about the delay, but my experience told me they'd hold the UK flight for a while and the pilot would use downhill advantage to still get us back to Heathrow on time.

Hakuna matata.

And that's what happened. Gold star to the pilot. More of a good mystery is that the luggage also made it to the connecting flight, and had the advantage of being first off the belt at T5.

whizzing past the Kennedy Space Center

It's an age since I last visited the NASA complex at Cape Canaveral, although I've flown over it a few times. Today's view is rather hazy, but it was a long way away and we were quite high. It's more or less in the centre of the first picture.

The coast of Cape Canaveral and the Banana River is easy to pick out, but even the vehicle assembly building (largest enclosed space building in the world) is quite difficult to spot if you don't know what to look for.

In my zoomed picture there's the space shuttle runway, the Vehicle Assembly Building and a couple of the shuttle launch pads. Further along the coast are the launch sites from other generations of space rockets.

ride time

We've been clocking up rides during our visit, too.

There's been some old favourites like the rockin' roller coaster as well as new ones like the Everest ride with the Yeti.

The Kali River Rapids also caused a major soaking.

Repeatedly.

a spot of (very) warm rain

A certain Germanic look today, as we headed around part of the world showcase around the lake at Epcot. It was the first time we'd seen any rain and I had the job to run a couple of hundred metres whilst it pelted down with warm rain in order to get into the shop that sold the ponchos.

I was about as wet as I'd been in the Kali River Rapids a few days ago, when I'd caught a wave full on.

Not to worry though, the rains soon subsided, and by the time we were back from the Japanese restaurant, everything was dry again.

do not shake. contents under pressure.

Trying to watch a movie on a regular television channel in the USA. It helps explain why populist movie scriptwriting has been simplified. This particular wallpaper movie has been on from before breakfast to nearly lunchtime and is still only two thirds through. It is best described as a female version of 'The Hangover'.

No, William Shatner isn't in it.

Someone is getting married. All the women go for a girls' night out. The dress gets torn. Someone can sew. One of them pickpockets some money and somehow they make the dress good/better again. That'll be the great reveal if the movie ever gets to it.

That's roughly the entire plot. The thing is, it's chopped up into 4 minute segments with interspersed 6 minute advert breaks.

And don't get me started on litigation prevention warnings on everything...

If you owe, you need a pro. Act Now.

drive in sci fi movies

Drinking a cup o' joe this morning and thinking of the drive-in sci-fi movie show yesterday. The galaxy of taste treats included battered onion rings and those big milk shakes.

And don't forget to unhook the speaker before driving away.

on safari in trainers, in case we meet a tiger

I'm not sure about visiting this little trail along the side of an old temple. I wonder what we'll find?

Judging by the signs "Safe Water for Travellers", we are not the first people along this way.

Although that seems to be some of the local wildlife. I'm not sure that it is completely tame, either.

And I'm also not sure that when it starts to stand up is necessarily a good sign. At least I am wearing trainers.

Key Lime Pie confounds car detection

The car is a Nissan Nondescript. We were supposed to have a Chevrolet Cantdescribe, but we'd gone to the wrong Hertz desk.

Although my name was displayed, it had a mysterious TERMB next to it, instead of a pick-up bay number. I'd spoken to the man who initially tried to up-sell me but then quietly found me a car that was a near equivalent of the one parked somewhere in a different zone.

Not to worry, the new car was fine and easily swallowed our bags and passengers. The thing is, it does look like an awful lot of other car types. A kind of mix of Audi, Kia, Toyota, Acura such that we walk along the line afterwards studying similar looking vehicles for signs that it might be our one.

Twice we have lost it properly. Once was in the Team Mickey car park, where we'd parked in what was a fairly empty parking lot and then a few hours later spent about 10 minutes seeking our vehicle which was now lurking among rows of almost identical models.

Then, when we were on our second visit to Publix. The visit where we found the Edwards Key Lime Pie. The first time it was notably absent from the shelving. A gaping hole in the section where it should have been located. Even the minimalist two-slice version had gone.

This time we were triumphant and the full 2lb 4oz version was on display. Checked out, we had a very patient man wheeling our trolley back to the non-existent car as we wandered the Publix car park looking for it.

"It happens all the time," he tactfully lied in a moment reminiscent of the 'slippery little suckers' scene in Pretty Woman.