London Bones July 29, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden,Reviews , 1 comment so farIn a rotunda on a traffic island, the Museum of London stores the bones of 17,000 former denizens, recovered from burial sites dating from Roman times through to the 19th century. Their names are rarely remembered and even the date of their death is often unsure. Some come from the outskirts, Merton Priory and Chelsea Old Church, but most are from the older parts of London itself, the City, Spitalfields, Holburn.
Twenty six of these skeletons can be seen until 26 September at the Wellcom Collection’s Skeletons exhibition, which had a private viewing last night. Most of the people on display were the victims of awful diseases with symptoms showing in their bones. Syphillis, tuberculosis, osteoarthritis, healed and unhealed fractures, all making me very grateful to live in an age with antibiotics and anesthetics.
A few showed signs of bathrocephaly, where the skull has a step at the back. This can occur for many reasons, including diseases and being born in a breech position, and affected 1/10 of the population well into the nineteenth century but is now very rare. The cause of the change wasn’t clear in the exhibition, though I wonder if it reflects a change in the way breech babies are delivered?
It was a fascinatingly macabre way to spend the evening, arousing curiosity but at the same time disturbing. Looking closely at the skeltons, its easy to get some idea of their lives, and to wonder about them. Those broken ribs had healed, but how did they happen? How did deformities of leg-bones affect the person’s mobility? The private viewing was for members of the Wellcome Collection’s club, many of whom are medics, so there were plenty of people with well-informed ideas.
I’m always a little ambivalent about exhibitions of dead bodies, whether its that sad naturally mummified body in the British Museum, or the proud Pharaohs reduced to spectacle in Cairo, and it is important to remember that these were real people, who lived around here. This is a very respectful presentation and, in an odd sort of way, renders them more human. I wouldn’t mind if that was me, in a few hundred years time.
The exhibition is on until 26 September, free, and well worth seeing. Oh, and if you’re a bloke who doesn’t fancy a prostate check, go and have a look at the skeleton who died of prostate cancer, and then pluck up the courage for a doctors visit.
The Dark Knight July 27, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentThere’s something deeply appealing about the dark edginess of Batman, and particularly Gotham, the city of which the Joker once said “Decent people shouldn’t live here. They’d be happier somewhere else”. It’s rarely daylight in Gotham, and Batman is the dark hero it deserves. Cameron Bale’s arrest last week seems almost in character.
The late, and much lamented, Heath Ledger stands out with a superb turn as an insane, devious Joker who’s only objective is mayhem. Its hard to believe this got a 12A rating, given the violent menace Ledger creates as he explains how he got his smile-shaped scars while holding a knife to a victim’s face. The Dark Knight seems far more in need of censorship than the sensitively portrayed tragedy of Brokeback Mountain, rated 15, given current fears about knife crime.
Ledger is certainly the highlight of the film, which is otherwise exciting, aesthetically pleasing in a black, mechanistic sort of way and in serious need of being a good 30 minutes shorter.
Cameron Bale’s Batman is overshadowed by the Joker and, to a lesser extent, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, the idealistic district attorney who competes with Batman for the heart of Maggie Glynhaal’s Rachel Dawes and ends up driven over the edge by her death.
And where on earth is Michael Caine’s accent supposed to be from? It sounds like Bruce Wayne’s faithful English butler, Alfred, is an American trying to sound Cockney. Very odd indeed.
Go for Heath Ledger and the cityscape and forgive Michael Caine.
Sainsbury’s Wine by the Glass July 26, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 1 comment so farIt’s amazing what you discover when trying to find the right brand of catfood. Out of my small friend’s favourite Gourmet at 9pm, I ventured to the big Sainsbury’s on Camden Rd. It’s not my usual haunt, and in fact I haven’t been in such a big supermarket for years.
I’m deeply disappointed that my phonecamera was out of battery, because this really needs a picture. Two plastic glasses, filled with a red liquid purported to be wine, sealed with tin-foil and wrapped in cardboard. Ideal for a picnic or if you’re meeting a friend. I certainly hope I don’t have any friends like that.
I like screw tops, can see the point in wine on tap in pubs, but this is a clear sign that the collapse of civilisation is upon us. Revolting.
Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely July 21, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentIt says a lot about economics, that there have to be studies to show that people do not always, perhaps even often, behave in an economically rational manner. It also says a lot about the lack of realism in modern politics that the ideas put forward in this book are considered revolutionary.
Through a series of studies, mostly on MIT or Harvard undergraduates, no doubt an excellent representative sample for the general public, the author looks at how people make decisions and conduct themselves in economic situation. It is useful that he establishes clear evidence for some pretty obvious things – that its one thing to say you’ll use condoms in a survey, quite another in the heat of the moment, that if the doctor gives an expensive medicine, we’re more inclined to get better than if he just gives some advice (yes, the placebo effect works – otherwise, how would homeopathy ever have any credibility), that if you expect to do well in a test, you may do better than if you expect to fail.
Although the conclusions reached may not be very surprising, it may be revolutionary to bring them to the attention of policymakers and politicians, with evidence to back them up and separate the common sense from the common nonsense.
It does point to simple but potentially effective policy interventions. For instance, if employees had to opt out of company pension schemes rather than opt in, its likely that more would stay in them. As someone who managed to miss out on three years of a fixed salary pension scheme once, through a combination of laziness, mistrust of pension plans and always thinking I’d leave the job soon, I’d have gained from that one.
Given that advertisers and marketers have known a lot of this for a long time, it is also useful for spotting sales techniques and not automatically falling into their traps. For instance, when faced with two different options, and a third option similar to, but less good than, one of them, people are inclined to go for the more attractive of the two which are similar, neglecting the one which does not have an obvious comparator. Knowing that, one can consciously ignore the less attractive, and concentrate on the two different options.
A lot of what we do is not particularly rational. Understanding that gives us a chance to think our way through the mass of ingrained habits and skillful marketing which contribute so much to our choices and actually make some good decisions.
Dark Covenant, by Peter Luther July 12, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a commentI wandered into Camden Waterstone’s one Saturday morning to find Peter Luther sitting on his own behind large pile of books. He’s a chatty, friendly bloke, and the book looked interesting so I bought it and it’s been sitting on my pile ever since. Tonight, suffering from Dr Who deprivation, I picked it up again.
Dark Covenant is a good all-in-one-sitting read, a thriller with a hint of the supernatural, exploring the idea of temptation and what ordinary people might be driven to do in extreme circumstances. Lewis Coin is a respected but average lawyer building up to a serious mid-life crisis when he finds himself given some extraordinary opportunities. No hero, he drifts along with the luck he’s offered in much the same way as he has clearly led his life to date and is dragged into a murky world which slowly gets stranger and stranger. There’s something very believable about the way the situation fails to bring out anything much more in him.
What is more difficult to believe is that, as a lawyer, neither he nor his partners put any effort into investigating the unusual new client who lands on their doorstep and turns their failing firm into a clear success. In this day of money-laundering regulations and security paranoia, it seems unlikely that even the greediest lawyer would not at least check a client a little more thoroughly than this lot do.
Although there are religious overtones, and a supernatural explanation for events is given, there are no holy grails or grand cathedrals here. In fact, Coin’s attempts at technological explanations sound more unlikely than the one finally given.
This would be a good book for the beach, or a quiet summer afternoon in the park.
Doctor Who series 4 (Spoiler warning) July 7, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , 2 commentsOver the last three months, I’ve developed a routine for Saturday nights. Go out, do whatever, come home and watch Dr Who on the BBC’s iplayer. It being Saturday night, this wasn’t me at my most sober, and was rarely at 6.30 or whatever random but early time Auntie decided to broadcast.
And, I have to admit it, I’ve also developed a slightly unhealthy obsession. I remember watching Dr Who as a child, in the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years, and enjoying it, but details are long gone. When it reappeared in 2005, I saw the occasional episode at friend’s houses, but as my only TV is an unreliable freeview usb-card and recording doesn’t work I missed most. And then, about a year ago, the iplayer was launched and BBC3 reran all the David Tennant episodes. I was hooked.
I realised just how hooked when I came back from holiday the other week to discover that the previous episode, Turn Left, wasn’t on the iplayer and, to make matter’s worse, a well-meaning but foolish friend managed to tell me about the cliffhanger in The Stolen Earth before I had a chance to see it. Not good.
And, as with all the new series, I’ve loved this one. Sometimes it’s wildly silly (the giant wasp), sometimes it’s funny (the miming when the Doctor and Donna meet again in Partners in Crime), sometimes I wonder if it really is family viewing (bondage references in Forest of the Dead), sometimes its just plain sad (the death of River Song and, far worse, the not-death of Donna). We’ve had tight theatrical drama in Midnight, and a mega-effect space romp in the finale, with romance, comedy, and bleak post-holocaust drama in between.
Catherine Tate was so much better than I’d expected. Her comedy show didn’t do it for me, and the character in the Christmas Special was a bit too brash for my taste, but by the second episode, she’d settled down into something far more interesting. What forty-something single woman could fail to identify with Donna? Okay, I have a much better job and my mother is a LOT nicer, but the idea of finding yourself exploring the universe, saving planets and doing something useful for a change, all in the company of a bloke like that has a definite appeal and its nice to see that its not only open to athletic teenagers. Unlike Rose and Martha who always seemed out to impress, she kept a human frailty. She couldn’t cope with the tragic song of the Ood, was scared silly at the idea of whacking a Sontaran, doesn’t always say the right thing, but somehow finds it in herself to keep up with the Doctor. Catherine Tate’s ability to get all that together, and handle the outrageous amounts of running, wins her a place as the best companion of the new series.
Among his many talents, David Tennant is a master of the closeup which tells an unspoken story. As Davros torments him with his record of sending people he meets to their deaths, or in Midnight when he is rendered speechless by the alien and threatened with being thrown out of the spaceship, all the regret or fear is there, without being melodramatic. Perhaps its in keeping with the idea of his character getting over the trauma of the time war, but he too seems to have settled down, at least in his negative emotions, to something more subtle and appealing.
Most of all the series is just stonking good fun. It may not always be consistent, the technobabble is just babble, and sometimes the dei ex machinis are just a bit too unlikely, but who cares? Without being preachy or too perfect, it manages to uplift, entertain, and look fabulous.
Now, we’re faced with an hiatus next year, with a series of four specials as well as the one at Christmas where we’re promised David Morrissey and Cybermen. I’m sure Russell T Davies has far better ideas than I do, but, just in case he’s scrounging around, here’s what I’d like to see:
- A companion who lasts, perhaps introduced in the specials and carried through to series 5. Or at least once Steve Moffat takes over, someone signed up for both series 5 and 6. I can’t take any more endings with a melancholy Doctor alone in the Tardis.
- Time tourism somewhere English children don’t study in school. Perhaps ancient China, or ancient India. Or visit Byzantium during the reign of one of the Empresses (I bet they’re brilliant!)
- New monsters, rather than so many recycled ones. I love Daleks. Especially Dalek Caan. I want a remote control one, with a real gun that can fly but they’ve been done to death now – literally, at least twice. Cybermen are okay, but have been overused as well. The Sontarans were probably this series weakest episodes.
- Rather than aliens, how about tackling our own threats to the Earth, particularly climate change, and without the Doctor just sucking all the carbon gases out of the atmosphere or something. The Doctor could save the planet by really showing everyone the consequences of it all, and then giving us a device that will create power, but only about 40% of what we use now. Maybe that really is the only hope left for the planet.
- More characters of the calibre of River Song and Wilfred. Interesting, slightly eccentric characters as foils to the interesting, slighty eccentric Doctor. Either of them would be wonderful companions.
- Bill Nighy as the next Doctor. I fancy an urbane, slightly louche Doctor, but Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle would be taking it too far.
Finally, this obsession has led me to a couple of good Dr Who blogs, if you’d like to indulge a little more. Behind the Sofa reviews every episode very thoroughly, sometimes pulling in continental philosophy and often quite ready to point out flaws. Flickfilosopher is a science-fiction oriented film-review blog, who’s author is considerably more obsessed than I, and her Dr Who postings are selfconfessed love-fests.
