Alfie Noakes comments

It is worth the price of the ticket?

Yes, I watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of references to other movies to spot, including Monty Python's Holy Grail, Citizen Kane, Grease, Matrix, Singing in the Rain and many more, great performances from Robbie and Gosling, fantastic costumes, lighting and production design, very meta and layered story. Helen Mirren narrates and Rob Brydon even pops up in a brief cameo.

Some great lines too: "When I found out the patriarchy wasn't about horses, I didn't like it anymore." It's not really a kids film though, I think they'd probably be bored. Smart, funny and surprisingly serious.

After watching the game it's obvious why both sides were so desperate to sign Caicedo. Chelsea may have won but 120m seems like crazy money for a defensive midfielder, especially as Tonali just cost Newcastle "only" 55m. It'll be interesting to see who Liverpool target as they are in dire need of midfield reinforcements. Looks like it could be a really high-scoring season.

kohakuebisu 09:24 am JST

My folks lived in Toronto for a couple of years in the 60s and used to go and see the Hawks before their work with Dylan. The venue is still there, but is now the Hard Rock Cafe. I don't remember him playing the Band in the car, it was Dylan all the time, but my dad always spoke highly of them.

I miss my dad, so thanks Robbie and RIP. It sounds like Big Pink and the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo came out within weeks of each other, so that's the birth of country rock right there.

That’s a nice anecdote. The Band were a great band and made some sublime music, particularly the first two studio albums and the live album with Dylan, Before The Flood.

Whispering Pines is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyLukweBGw

By a strange coincidence I was looking at he book Small Town Talk by Barney Hoskyns just yesterday:

https://www.amazon.com/Small-Town-Talk-Morrison-Woodstock/dp/0306823209

RIP JR Robbie Robertson

"The Grand Canyon, one of the earth's nine wonders. Wonders of the world, literally. Think of that. You know, it's amazing!"

Poor old feller, dragged around the world when he can barely find the door from one room to the next. Sad.

Khan was ousted in a US-backed coup. Last week the unelected coup leaders signed a military co-operation agreement with the US and this week Khan was jailed for 3 years.

Don't hear Tony Blinken protesting this coup do we.....

Bizarrely, this story makes no mention that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, president of Nigeria and head of ECOWAS was once a bagman handling and laundering proceeds of heroin trafficking for a Nigerian drug ring in Chicago.

https://westafricaweekly.substack.com/p/bola-ahmed-tinubu-from-drug-lord

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/08/05/bagman-ecowas-chairman-invade-niger/

At pro-coup rallies in Niamey, some participants have cast the situation as a patriotic battle by the former French colony to retain its independence in the face of imperialist interference.

The leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have all explicitly declared their actions to be anti-French, anti-imperialist and against Western economic exploitation of their countries. There's no some about it.

By all accounts Victoria Nuland is in Niger right now. Expect war, death, destruction and theft of natural resources to follow, as it always does wherever she goes.

Navalny is a USUK intelligence asset, a right-wing, nationalist politician, a representative of the pro-Western Russian oligarchs and a convicted fraudster. He once referred to immigrants in Russia from the Caucasus as “cockroaches” that should be killed.

He's nobody's hero and a convicted criminal but it's hard to see how this sentence extension is anything other than politically motivated, just like the continued detention of the Australian journalist Julian Assange.

The heroic Assange is being slowly tortured to death for exposing American imperialist violence to the world through Wikileaks, while Navalny is supported by exactly the same people who condemn Assange.

Bizarrely, this "news story" entirely fails to mention that Sunak's father-in-law's company Infosys signed a $1.5 billion deal with BP two months before Sunak opened hundreds of new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

Sunak has claimed the matter is of “no legitimate public interest”.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/sunaks-family-firm-signed-a-billion-dollar-deal-with-bp-before-pm-opened-new-north-sea-licences-353690/

She was a real one and she was right about it all. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n14lwdpYkAA

The duopoly is a hell of a drug.

It'll take a third party challenge, or a proper revolution to overthrow the nightmare system you have now.

It's very surprising to learn that Hunter Biden is an extremely successful artist who has sold $1.3m of works to various people in the last two years, including $875,000 worth of paintings to one single art collector.

Hitherto, all I knew of Hunter was that he earned millions of dollars from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, spent most of his time smoking crack, racing his sports cars and enjoying saucy romps with a bevy of teenage girls.

Who could have imagined he possessed such great artistic talent? It really is a heartening story and a lesson to us all - you're never too old to become a millionaire artist!

Back in April NHK reported that the foreign population was expected to reach 11% in 2070.

Catania, Sicily: Wildfires everywhere, temperatures higher than 45 degrees, air not breathable, no water or electricity in the last few days. This in a G7 country.

https://twitter.com/antoguerrera/status/1683926179722719232

Is Showa Era's end nigh?

The Showa Era will never die! Never!

He’s the fella who had close to a hysterical meltdown on BBC calling a rightwing host a leftist. Disgraceful. Like a child throwing toys out of a pram.

Andrew Neil may be a right wing, long time Murdoch employee but his total evisceration of the clown Shapiro was something to see. Brutal.

Has anybody noticed that Oppenheimer is low key, dark and rather edgy while Barbie, the other popular movie this summer, is lighthearted and fun, making for a playful dichotomy at the box offices.

It's probably an unpopular opinion but I think this movie will be quite controversial in Japan.

Scum. Inhuman scum.

Henry Kissinger did a great job to improve international relations

By killing millions of people and bringing untold horror into the world. Indisputedly the most evil man alive

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/henry-kissinger-at-100-still-a-war-criminal/

Have a read of 12 rules

is that 12 Rules of Midfield Domination? Never read it, sorry

Jordan Peterson is not a right winger

You're right, he's a box to box midfielder. Klopp played him out of position for years.

Jordan Peterson

Very disappointing to see the Liverpool and England midfielder involved in this unhinged nonsense. Sort him out, Jürgen .

A quick shufti at the UN Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Centre website tells us that the primary destination of grain shipments was China, closely followed by Spain, Turkey , Italy and The Netherlands.

So the real winners here were....Spanish pig farmers! Hurrah for jamón and three cheers for Iberico buta!

Cargo may be processed and re-exported from the primary destination.

Yeah, inquiring minds would like to know where that's going and who's profiting from it. Nudge nudge, wink wink Mr. Erdogan, say no more...

https://www.un.org/en/black-sea-grain-initiative/vessel-movements

Paustovsky 03:12 pm JST

Please don't encourage them.

What Alfie ? You mean you aren't looking forward to the prospect of Sound of Freedom 4 : Assault on Pizza Shop 13 ?

Nah, I'll just wait for the musical, or the ice show.

kohakuebisu July 16 12:09 pm JST

I increasingly get my news from Twitter. Its not because I post there, but because it links me to journalists and commentators I trust, not the corporate providers of news

Yeah, me too. I made a twitter account for my hobby, yet mainly use it for news in this way.

By a strange coincidence, this 2019 study from the Swiss Policy Research website popped up in my feed the other day. It's a succinct examination of how "news" is created and disseminated around the world. I read it the first time around but it's even more appropriate today:

The Propaganda Multiplier: How Global News Agencies and Western Media Report on Geopolitics

https://swprs.org/the-propaganda-multiplier/

Paustovsky 11:57 am JST

Sound of Freedom is more of a life changer though.

For sure. Been looking forward to Sound of Freedom for ages. It's what has been missing from movies. A real popcorn big screen epic.

Hopefully it will bring on many sequels, prequels and origin stories.

Please don't encourage them.

Listening to the Peter Kenney audio version is an experience. Grey Area and Sleeper Service are great sentient ship characters.

That's a good idea - thanks for the tip. Sleeper Service was the best character in the book for me.

Mr Zelensky has been scolded by both the US and the U.K. for being ungrateful for the help he has been given.

Slapped down hard and firmly put in his place by Team Nuland, according to this article in the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/13/zelensky-ukraine-nato-invitation/

https://mashable.com/article/neural-lace-musk-culture

Nice link, thanks for that. I just finished reading Excession recently; apparently it's Musk's favourite. He even named his family office after it. I found the first half a struggle to follow, especially the Minds' dialogues, but the final 100 pages or so was tremendous. I think Banks felt that pretty much everything in the Culture was a double-edged sword!

Increasing interest rates won't stop it, it will add fuel to the flames, spreading the damage.

The Bank of England said its models show that nearly a million mortgage holders across the UK will see monthly repayment increases of £500 or more in the coming months - or £6,000 a year. Homelessness, poverty, malnutrition and excess deaths will all increase. Bleak.

It's probably just some coke left over from Iran-Contra. Oliver North left it in a basement cupboard, an intern found it while tidying up, panicked and left it on a side table. No biggie.

Alfie, if you read that rag, you are misinformed.

No, I don't usually read anything owned by Mr. Murdoch. That article just popped up in something I was reading on twitter - I was stunned to discover just how bad the public health is in the UK for so many people now.