Listening To:
From Two Suns in the Sunset on The Final Cut by Pink Floyd
and as the windshield melts
my tears evaporate
leaving only charcoal to defend
finally I understand
the feelings of the few
ashes and diamonds
foe and friend
we were all equal in the end
I have watched Made In England by Shane Meadows:
Set in England during the 80's 'This Is England' is the story of a 12 year old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) as told by director Shane Meadows whose previous film credits include 'Dead Man's Shoes', a story of victimisation, abuse of power and revenge, in rural England. Here in Shane Meadow's latest film, Shaun, an isolated lad growing up in a grim coastal town, whose father has died fighting in the Falklands war, finds friendship with the local skinheads. Shaun discovers a world of parties, first love and the joys of Dr Martin boots. Here he meets Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, racist skinhead who has recently got out of prison. As Combo's gang harass the local ethnic minorities, the course is set for a rite of passage that will hurl Shaun from innocence to experience.
Keywords="England, 1983, Skin heads, skinheads ,midlands, Shane Meadows, Myspace Shane Meadows Myspace, Director, Drama, outsider, 80’s little boy, dead father, Writer Shane Meadows, cult film, Lord Shane Meadows of Eldon / Shaun Fields, Filmaker, Empire Records, The Stairwell, Northern Soul, Dead Man’s Shoes, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, 26 December 1972, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England, Optimum Releasing, film company,Awards, nominations, Warp Films, Big Arty Productions, Ingenious film Partners, Film Four, UK Film Council, EM Media, Screen Yorkshire, This Is England, 18 Certificate, Downloads, Homepage, Cast, Images, Profiles, Video, Trailers, Interviews, Deleted Scenes, Shane Meadows Interview, Music, Soundtrack, Buy, Tracklisting, Digital Purchase, Quotes, Reviews, Headlines, Articles, NFT Retropsective, Special Screenings, Festivals, I’m Thomas, Character, Video Diary, video diaries, location, In Cinemas, Cinema listings, Click, Pre-order, Film soundtrack, Podcasts, Wallpapaers, T-shirt prints, Links, Music player, Combo, Woody, Shaun, Lol, Milky, racist, racism, black, BNP, Falklands war, National Front, Skinhead culture, neo-nazism, thuggery, violence, anti-social behavious, skins, mods, ska, working class, English identity, Margaret Thatcher, Mark Herbert, Producer, Cynth, Smell, Gadget, Pukey, Kelly, Pob, football, school, bullying, movie, writer, director, nazis, social, economic, politics, national, national party, Special Jury Prize (CINEMA Festa Internazionale di Roma), Best British Independent Film, Most Promising Newcomer Thomas, Turgoose (British Independent Film Awards), Nominated for 7 BIFA awards (British Independent Film Awards), best british film, best director, best screenplay, best newcomer, Bradford Film Festival"
I Am Reading :
Implicit behind a lot of this stuff, like being asked to do blogging, is that we're getting a more representative view of the public.
That's a great paradox. It's a wider thing than the internet, but the internet sums it up. It's that on the surface it says that "the internet is a new form of democracy". So what you're seeing is a new pluralism, a new collage, a new mosaic of all sorts of different ideas that's genuinely representative.
But if you analyse what happens, it simplifies things.
First of all, the people who do blogging, for example, are self-selecting. Quite frankly it's quite clear that what bloggers are is bullies. The internet has removed a lot of constraints on them. You know what they're like: they're deeply emotional, they're bullies, and they often don't get out enough. And they are parasitic upon already existing sources of information - they do little research of their own.
What then happens is this idea of the 'hive mind', instead of leading to a new plurality or a new richness, leads to a growing simplicity.
The bloggers from one side act to try to force mainstream media one way, the others try to force it the other way. So what the mainstream media ends up doing is it nervously tries to steer a course between these polarised extremes.
So you end up with a rigid, simplified view of the world, which is negotiated by mainstream media in response to the bullying extremities.
Far from being "the wisdom of crowds", it's the stupidity of crowds. Collectively what we are doing is creating a more simplified world.
More Adam Curtis:
The Stupidity Of Crowds
Adam Curtis is one of the jewels in the BBC's crown - as well as one of its fiercest critics.
His documentaries are rich, complex histories of ideas that have surprised BBC executives with their popularity amongst younger viewers: his montage technique and visual jokes reward repeated viewings.
The Century of the Self told the story of how Freud's nephew invented modern public relations [pt3]. The Power Of Nightmares [video] described how the myth of the al-Qaeda "network" had to be invented so a terror trial could be heard under America's RICO laws. The Trap [pts1&2] describes how reductionist and paranoid logic of game theory influenced psychology, biology and eventually social policy.
Adam Curtis : an audio special (The Register)
The Power Of Nightmares (part 1)
The Trap Part 1:
The Trap Part 2:
The Trap Part 3:
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