Random health issues

For some reason when I browse the BBC news site I end up reading a lot about developments in medicine (while I don't usually think much about this while I'm doing it, admitting to this now makes me feel as if I'm behaving like some old, grumbly lady - who else would be reading up on these things? ;-P).

Anyway, here's two articles that caught my eye (who knows, maybe there are more people like me who are grumbly, old ladies at heart and are reading my blog?).
The first is about smoking. According to statistics if you're a heavy smoker, cutting down does little to help your health, you just have to completely stop for it to have a significant impact.
Now while I do not smoke myself, the other article is one that veeeery much applies to me. It's about sitting in front of computers and the impact it has on your back. For some reason everyone always tells you to sit up straight - well apparently that's bullshit. Maybe I should bully my parents into getting myself a different chair for the computer - one which would allow my back a different angle ;-P

Gronkiewicz wins the local elections in Warsaw

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz is now president of Warsaw with many saying this is because of the public support she received from Marek Borowski and Aleksander Kwaśniewski (before their support, it was Marcinkiewicz who was leading the polls).
I would have probably not bothered with putting this news up onto my blog (I can't say I'm particularly excited about it even if I'm happier that she's president rather than Marcinkiewicz), but I figured that since I had been following the elections and the left-centre developments in particular on my blog, it was worth noting the outcome. However, there is also another reason - I'm getting more and more of a kick out of news such as this being reported internationally. Yep, honestly! The BBC actually thinks news such as this is worth reporting, see here if you don't believe me ;-P And it's not just them either. See here for what a search on Google News comes up with, apart from Polish news outlets there are media reports about this from outlets based in places like Pakistan, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Romania... I like this, I like the feeling that the world and particularly Europe cares about what's happening in Polish politics. Not because it makes me feel Poland is important, but because it makes me feel that there's certain things (like for example re-introducing the death penalty which PiS would very much like to do) that Polish politicians cannot get away with.

Dhoom 2

So because Bollywood trailers are the best (and besides - I must keep promoting Bollywood on this blog ;-P), here's the latest high tech offering from India. No Shahrukh in this one, but hey, Bollywood can be fun even without him (shocking, but true ;) ).
The biggest selling points of the film (and the first box office results in India seem to indicate that they have worked well) are Hrithik, Abishek, Aishwarya, dazzling action scenes (most of which Hrithik did himself after extensive training) and a shocking kissing controversy (Aishwarya is Abishek's girlfriend, but she has a kissing scene with Hrithik in this film).

Below are three trailers for Dhoom 2:



As usual *sniff sniff* because I doubt this is going to be released in Poland.

Security in Macs

Just because I can be a bit geeky about computers (that's what I'm studying after all), I thought I should introduce that side of me onto this blog as well ;-P
I came across an article about security in Mac computers and thought it was interesting. With adverts like this:

One does get the impression that Macs are much more secure than windows - this is not true. Every system (as the article underlines) has security threats.
However as I'm a biased Linux user, I'll just say that IMO there's one aspect of security that open source systems (like Linux or BSD) have over ones with closed code (OS X and Windows) and that's a much faster response to security threats (as the article tells us, Mac developpers are particularly slow, despite advertising security as one of their biggest assets).

The Kinsey Institute says Linux users have bigger penises

Clearly this is an excellent reason to use Linux rather than Windows - especially if you're female like I happen to be ;) Mention of this fascinating fact is here.

Borowski supports Gronkiewicz-Waltz

PO still don't seem to have made up their minds what their actual ideology is (some are supporting PiS, others are supporting LiD and yet others are not saying anything), Gronkiewicz-Waltz has however tentively stated that she might consider a PO-LiD coalition in Warsaw on the local government level which has prompted Marek Borowski to support her in the second round of the local elections.
Borowski explains his view further in a recent interview which you can read here. He is still rather derogative as far as the whole of PO goes, but has decided to support Gronkiewicz in Warsaw.
Links are in Polish, sorry!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer and more

So because the new Harry Potter film is soooo close to coming out (only 7 months more to wait! ;-P), the whole promotional campaign has started for good. It's no longer random photos and interviews from the sets, the first official teaser trailer is out:

I'm actually rather disapointed with it - I much preferred the stills that were released. The trailer is all action and high tension (the music is so over the top!), only Snape in the Occlumency scene gets me excited. I guess I have unrealistic expectations - I'd like it to be an art house film or something of the sort ;) (Cuaron wasn't that far from doing that with film 3 and there's more and more rumours that he might be back for film 6, so maybe there's still hope ;-P)
Anyway, I found a nice fan made trailer on youtube. It's just a slideshow of some of the stills that were released (but since I liked the stills that suits me ;-P) and it's set to the soundtrack of Requiem for a Dream:

There are some recent stills which weren't included in that fan made trailer and there's a few which I'm again excited about (kind of depressing that I keep liking the stills, but not the video ;-P). Here's Harry with his geeky Ministry hearing appearance (there've been similar stills around but this one I think is particularly nice ;-P) and then there's two pics which people are very excited about - Harry's hand after his detentions with Umbridge (pic1 and pic2). Of course what's disapointing is that in the books the line that Umbridge has Harry ingrain into his hand is "I must not tell lies" which I think is a much better line than "I will not break rules". Of course the book is so huge that they've definitely had to cut things out of it - so perhaps Harry's outburst in Umbridge's class was cut and that's why they had to change the line. I hope it's that, otherwise I think it's a horrible change ;-P
At least the visual side of the film should be very good and the person largely responsible for it is in fact Sławomir Idziak, so there's a nice Polish accent there ;)

But back to the official trailer - book 5 is dark and intense, so in a sense it's good that they have gone that way (the trailer certainly implies that it's going to be the darkest of the lot!), but on the other hand book 5 is probably one of the funniest of the series, so I really hope that comes across in the film as well (the trailer doesn't make me optimistic about that even if the photos implied it :-/). Anyway, just to show you how much darker this new Potter trailer look, check out the trailers for the previous four films.

1: Philosopher's Stone


2: Chamber of Secrets


3: Prisoner of Azkaban


4: Goblet of Fire


2nd trailer to 4:


While Goblet of Fire was the first of the lot to get a PG-13 certificate in the US rather than a PG as the rest had done, I think the trailer for Order of the Phoenix implies that the film could be darker even than that (that at least I'm happy about). But on the other hand I'm starting to wonder - is it still going to be marketed at children?

But back to video material of the new HP film - there's also a very short TRL preview available on-line (near the end Daniel Radcliffe talks about the kiss in a rather amusing way):


The best preview we've had so far though (even better than the trailer) is a preview that was shown on HBO:

One part that I'm absolutely loving is Imelda Staunton as Umbridge. She is just spot on! And it's not easy to balance an act like that, I mean it's a woman who is on the one hand supposed to be all sweet, dressing in pink all the time and talking to almost everybody as if they were 5 year olds, but at the same time being a really, really nasty cow who for example punishes students by making them cut lines like "I must not tell lies" in their own skin. And she's just brilliant - all this is coming across even in those very short clips :)
I'm sort of disapointed with the hightened drama of it all though. The interviews we've had so far have mostly been saying stuff like that David Yates has really tried to take it down, make it a bit subtler (which on the one hand I say yes to, but on the other hand I think it's damn difficult to do with this sort of material - the Harry Potter series is hardly subtle ;) It's the Bollywood of literature ;) ). Unfortunately - I just don't see it. Not in the previews we've had so far. I'm particularly disapointed with the clips of Sirius in this preview. Not only is he weighing his words in a way that makes them very over the top, but he is also out of character. Sirius is an energetic man with a short temper who acts fast and thinks later (or not even then sometimes) - that's what the books have made us to believe anyway. But the Sirius on the clip is a different Sirius :-/
Oh well - it seems like most of the film is going to be like that for me - it'll score on some points and disapoint on others :-/

Well, that's it for the moment. Just as a P.S. (because I don't think it's big enough to put in a seperate post and yet it's such a ridiculous piece of Harry Potter trivia that I think it's worth mentioning), here's the annual Forbes list of the richest fictional characters. Lucius Malfoy is on the list ;)

Prokofiev diaries published

Because I think my blog has become too serious and political, I've decided I must put in a few totally silly and senseless posts. And because I think all my readers will be utterly fascinated with this news, I thought it was worth putting in my blog ;-P
So, there you go, Sergei Prokofiev's diaries have been published.
And while I do own about 3 CDs of his music and think I might enjoy the read (if I ever get hold of the book which is doubtful), the true reason for posting this is because I thought it was a wonderful excuse to link to one of my favourite ever figure skating programs.

So this is Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat skating the Free Dance that won the bronze medal at the 1998 Olympics to Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet:

I think they are one of the most unique ice dancers we've had in the history of the sport. They introduced so many things into ice dance that we, the fans enjoy to this day - an image based on unmistakable hairstyles, theatrical expression that made the ISU amend the rulebook with rules that ice dancers should aim to perform dancey routines rather than theatrical ones and lifts in which it was Marina who lifted Gwendal rather than the other way round (it was in fact in this program that it was done for the first time ever in skating).

Islam and the West

This is a difficult topic for me to write about (although at the same time one I really want to write about). I've never been around Muslims or their culture, so there are many things that I might not understand about Islam and therefore also about its conflict with the West (if there even is one - there are those who say it is a purely political conflict and has nothing to do with culture or religion). But I guess that's why I want to write this (as I explained in my first post on this blog, this blog is a Pensieve ;-P so it's supposed to help me put random thoughts in order).
Before I get to the point, I want to underline very, very clearly that I'm writing this from a Westerner's point of view, which means this post is a mix of news tidbits from Western media, some stereotypes and then a few tibits I've come across which seem to go against what I've been made to believe about Islam.
I'm not going to write about terrorism - I don't think I have anything worth saying that hasn't been said a million times over by others. And anyway, I don't really understand what Jihad is and I don't believe an encyclopedic definition will help, but for all it's worth you can check out the explanation on wikipedia here. Clearly, it has a very wide meaning and many in the Islamic community think it's being misinterpreted by the likes of al-Qaeda and other such organizations, so lets leave it at that.

I've written a long disclaimer, so I guess I can start with the nasty stuff now... Here's an article which upholds all the worst things we hear about Islam. It's about honour killings in Germany - Muslim women (Turkish in this case) get killed by their own families because they adopt a Western style of life.
I've also come across some articles about women's rights (and rape in particular) in Pakistan. This is an article about Mukhtar Mai - a woman from a small Pakistani village who was gang-raped, but has chosen to speak out about it and has become an important figure in the fight for women's rights. To read more on what Pakistani women think about this issue, try this link - there's a wide scope of opinions presented.
Other than this (well maybe apart from all the recent stories about whether Muslim women in Western countries should be allowed to wear veils - but perhaps I'll write about that at some different time), the rest of the stories showing Islam in bad light are terrorist related I think and while one can't fully discuss the matter without mentioning terrorism, I really don't feel like going into detail on it. We all know the issue exists and we all have very strong feelings against it and that I think is as much as I'm going to write.

Of course the West has done some very horrible things as well. While Bush's war on terror needs no comment I think, there are other things that have happened on the West/Middle-East front since the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq that speak very badly of the West. One of the first scandals was when the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was revealed. It was a loud case, so most of you probably remember it. If you don't then here's an article from May 2004 that covers the issue in quite a lot of detail.
While that was curbed, there are still Human Right issues that to this day have not been resolved and in fact the present state of affairs seems to have support from the US government (there seem to be slow changes made for the better, so lets keep our fingers crossed). I'm talking about Guantanamo of course. Check out what Amnesty International has to say. I still ought to read up more on their site, but I think the Case-sheets are particularly chilling reads. Also check out the short interview with Moazzam Begg - while not as descriptive on the torture as the case-sheets, what he has to say is still very shocking and very much worth knowing in the global scale of things. He was one of the people who spent a few years in Guantanamo and then was released without charges.
And this is not the end of things either. Things like this are happening all the time, but perhaps not as loudly as the two above (although frankly, Guantanamo is probably receiving a lot less attention from the media than it should!). A recent story which I found quite shocking is this - a 14 year old Iraq girl raped and killed by US soldiers (not to mention her whole family being killed by them as well).
Then there's the Arab-Israeli conflict, which many say is a major culprit in the tensions in the world now.

If you're Polish (I think most of the very few people reading this blog are) and perhaps thinking that Poland is responsible only for supporting the USA in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, well think again. If there is or was a secret detention centre in Poland then for all we know similar horrors could have been going on there. Check out this article about a recent EU investigation into the matter. There is no proof of such a place existing, but there are certainly very fishy aspects to this story. It is about these sorts of places that Moazzam Begg talked of in the interview I linked to. Here's the relevant quote:
And I think that one of the lessons, if we can call it a lesson, that the USA has learnt from Guantánamo is that there places that you don't tell people about.
Guantánamo now is almost this place that is becoming acceptable because these other places are so much worse and so much sinister.

There is this opinion in the West that Islamic culture is more aggresive and less democratic than Western culture. And yes, it wasn't people from the West who killed 3000 people in the World Trade Centre attacks. We also don't have honour killings (or at least I haven't heard of any) and women have more rights. But is there not enough evidence in the articles I linked to that show our culture is also very brutal and agressive?
You might say that the people who have inflicted such abuses on Muslims are in the minority, but that is what Muslims say about their extremists, no? I think the reason that we see our culture as less aggressive is that we know so many other aspects of it. What other aspects of Muslim culture does an average Westerner know?

I recently stumbled across a Muslim prayer on-line and I was very surprised with it. Believe it or not, it's actually very much in line with what I keep writing on this blog (I mean the values in it). Here it is (copied and pasted from this site):

Muslim Prayer for Peace

In the name of Allah,
the beneficent, the merciful.
Praise be to the Lord of the
Universe who has created us and
made us into tribes and nations
That we may know each other, not that
we may despise each other.
If the enemy incline towards peace, do
thou also incline towards peace, and
trust God, for the Lord is the one that
heareth and knoweth all things.
And the servants of God,
Most gracious are those who walk on
the Earth in humility, and when we
address them, we say "PEACE."

One of the major reasons why I even started thinking about this and wondering if I'm missing something in how Islam has been potrayed to me is Bollywood :D (yes, even though this blog is becoming a lot more political than I had intended it, Bollywood and Harry Potter will keep getting inserted into it until everyone but me is totally bored of hearing about them ;-P)
When I started getting fascinated with Bollywood I quickly realized that a lot of the major stars in the film industry are Muslim. And because I find it very easy to connect to the films, this made me think. These Muslim actors were showing a sense of humour that is no different than what we have in the West, often promoting values which I agree with (and I think the West generally agrees with) and in general there was just so little of it that was truly foreign to me.
Just to illustrate what I'm saying (and because I can't resist the opportunity to show people yet another clip of Shah Rukh Khan), below are two clips from an interview with Shahrukh on a program called "Devil's Advocate". The part which is relevant to this post (where he talks about Islam) starts at about 4:10 on the first clip and then continues into the second one (anyone wishing to watch the interview in full should start with this clip and then continue to the two below).



Shah Rukh is very proudly Muslim (he mentions it so much in interviews that some accuse him of flaunting it, the other Muslim stars are mostly much more reserved about it), but at the same time he does some things that I wouldn't associate with Islam based on the information that comes my way from Western sources.
Firstly, he is married to a Hindu and they are bringing up their children in both religions. Secondly, he is actually very feminist (there are many examples, but for some reason the following one particularly amuses me ;-P). There's an interview about one of his films, Paheli which he also produced. He's clearly very proud of the film (it's a very female centered film, telling the story of a woman's loneliness) and he seemed to be genuinely excited about being the supporting actor for a woman rather than the other way round lol:
What makes Paheli so special?

Everything about Paheli is special. See, I am sounding like a doting father! First of all, it is for the first time that I have attempted a totally women-centric movie not only as a filmmaker but also as an actor.

For the first time and probably not the last time, Shahrukh Khan will be entirely dominated by a heroine.

While I kind of feel that I should give a meaninful end to such a long and rambling post, I don't think I have anything more to say ;) This post is very heavy, long and political so instead of giving a summary of my views (which are hopefully fairly clear by now), I'll just leave you on a light note. Here's the trailer for Paheli:

The trailer of course has absolutely nothing to do with Islam other than Muslims being amongst those who made the film (the main characters are Hindu not Muslim), but this is my blog, so I think I am entitled to finishing my posts in a totally ridiculous manner if I so please, so there ;-P

Borowski and the centre-left after the Polish local elections

To my shock and horror this blog is getting more and more political by the minute ;-P I didn't actually intend it that way, but oh well...

Anyway, after the local elections, the centre-left bloc Lewica i Demokraci (SLD+SDPL+PD+UP) have established themselves as the third most important political force in Poland (after PiS and PO) and I'm following the effect it has had on the political scene.

PO is refusing to form a coalition with LiD even on the local government level. Read about it on Marek Borowski's site in Polish here. I'm disapointed but not surprised.

And here's a very interesting interview with Marek Borowski.
Here are two quotes (in Polish, sorry!) that I liked best from the interview.
The first one I like because it amuses me (while at the same time it's so true):
Więc kto ma większe szanse na pana poparcie? Chyba jednak kandydatka PO?

Powiem tak: ta sytuacja przypomina mi oświadczyny. Przychodzi do panny dwóch konkurentów i każdy ją wychwala: jakie kształty, jakie oczy, jakie włosy – a tymczasem już wyciąga rękę po posag. Jak go złapie, to od razu zwieje. Ale my posagu dobrze pilnujemy. Proszę brać razem z posagiem albo wcale. Możemy po prostu stracić zainteresowanie dla wyniku tych wyborów. Mogą je również stracić moi wyborcy i albo zostać w domu, albo skreślić obie kandydatury

The second one I'm actually rather surprised at:
Nowy program wygładzi wszelkie różnice wewnątrz waszej federacji?

Nie. Będzie oczywiście część, gdzie musimy mówić jednym głosem, obejmująca kluczowe zagadnienia: zasadnicze kierunki polityki zagranicznej, podstawowe problemy społeczno-gospodarcze, walka z przestępczością oraz sprawne, uczciwe państwo. Ale różnice mogą pozostać na przykład w kwestii liberalizacji ustawy antyaborcyjnej, gdzie PD może mieć inne zdanie niż SDPL i SLD.

I would have thought that it's the economical part that they might have trouble getting a mutual agreement on. I'm surprised that PD has a different view on the abortion legislation, I thought they were rather liberal about that.

Polish Winter Sports funding

On page 12 of this pdf file there is an article (sorry, it's in Polish again) about recent happenings in Polish winter sports. Olympic level competitors are quitting because they're not getting the funding they need. The funding goes to young (junior level and below competitors), but hardly any money is spent on those who are on the highest level of competition (even Jagna Marczułajtis who was 4th at the Olympics in Salt Lake City has been forced to lose at least one season because she is not getting the financial support she needs).

10 year old film director

India's film industry is not only the most prolific in the world, but now it is also home to the youngest film director in history. Read more about it here.

More Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix photos

This is a follow-up to one of my previous posts. Rather than pictures from the set, these are screen captures from the film.

You can see the Dursleys here and I think they are absolutely brilliant. It's a bit like what Cuaron started doing in film 3, but better - it's kind of like a nightmare version of a typical British middle class family, don't you think? (and so true to the books I think as well!)

This is Harry fighting the Dementors at the beginning of the book/film (the Dursleys photo I think is after this fight - that would explain why Dudley is that pale). What I love again is the detail - that sort of graffiti on a very grey, dirty wall is how I remember a lot of London when I was little (that was the late 80s, early 90s which is more or less when Harry Potter is set).

And here is Umbridge firing Trelawney and they really do have her spot on - the clothes, the expression, just great! :D

Veer-Zaara in Poland

Veer-Zaara was released in Poland yesterday. For the first time a Bollywood film is being shown in a purely commercially orientated cinema in Warsaw (Wisła), though it is expected to run for only a week.
Since I think it is great news that we have the first signs of the industry trying to exploit a Bollywood film commercially in Poland (rather than in art cinemas which is what has been happening so far), I thought I would try to encourage people via my blog to go and see the film (it is important that people go to see the film if this trend is to continue) and therefore here are a few trailers :D

Here's a teaser trailer:


This is the teaser trailer for Main Yahaan Hoon (one of the songs in Veer-Zaara):


Teaser trailer for Aisa Des Hai Mera:


And finally what I think was the theatrical trailer in India:


The film itself (which I had the pleasure of seeing at a Bollywood weekend in Warsaw) is a huge romantic story with Shah Rukh Khan playing what he is best known for - a romantic hero (one of my earlier posts is full of Don trailers which is a film in which he plays a rather dark character and that is not really what he is best known for ;) ). He also does his trademark crying scenes in this film (love it or hate it - no other actor cries like Shah Rukh ;-P). And I'll add a word of caution - this film is veeeery soppy! (and not all Bollywood films are like that, so if you don't like soppy stuff, don't get discouraged from Indian cinema - it is as varied as American cinema) One of the film's strengths however are the visuals - it's absolutely stunning visually (I don't think those trailers quite do it justice) and besides that it's a lot of fun (some jokes are put in even during the soppy scenes lol).
It is the story of an Indian man in a Pakistani prison who refuses to speak to anyone. And of course his love story is behind all the mystery.

Banning books

Something which Harry Potter has introduced me to is the idea that people to this day try to ban books. While I sort of have the awareness that there are people who try to ban certain films, the idea that this might be happening with books in fully democratic countries was something I hadn't considered at all. But maybe that's just because I don't read enough to consider that a book might be offensive.

Anyway, here are the 10 most frequently challenged books of this century. Harry Potter tops the list. I must say I'm very curious that The Da Vinci Code is not up there somewhere with all the noise the film made!
This is a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books in the 20th century. Some of the titles puzzle me to no end - what is Roald Dahl doing on this list? lol (I do love his books, but I don't understand why The Witches or James and the Giant Peach are offensive lol)
Of course I think being included on this list is actually a big compliment (some of those names and books are quite something!). And certainly J.K.Rowling seems to be thinking along the same lines - see her comments about this in one of the news articles on her site. I think I might actually use this list as a way to develop my reading ;-P It seems like a lot of those would be really worth a read (Google's Banned Books page would probably be a good place to start finding out more about them).

Of course the reasons for people wanting these books taken out of public libraries are probably just as bizarre (and therefore interesting) as the lists of challenged titles themselves. Naturally, because I'm a rather pathetic reader, I have only heard of some of the stories of why people keep trying to ban Harry Potter, but if anyone knows any of the stories behind challenging some of the other titles on those lists, I'd love to know! :)
Some light on why books in general are challenged can be found here. And below are two articles on Harry Potter which I found very amusing.

Here is an article about Laura Mallory, who believes the Harry Potter books are trying to teach children witchcraft and are a major reason for some of the shooting tragedies that have taken place in American schools.

This on the other hand is a slightly older article. It features comments from the current Pope's chief exorcist which in itself amuses me, but the quotes are even better. Harry Potter is called the "king of darkness, the devil" and the characters in the books are compared to Hitler and Stalin.

More Polish politics

Sorry, again a link in Polish (click here). It's a short note about changes made in excise tax. Basically, after all of PiS's promises of helping the poorest, they've hit everybody big time. They've gotten rid of one particular excise tax, but in a market area that doesn't actually guarantee that those products will become cheaper and they've raised the excise tax in another area of the market which will effect many industries and therefore many product prices (including food).
I have no idea why this particular thing has hit me enough to want to tell other people about it via my blog (it sounds kind of boring, doesn't it?), but for some reason it has ;) Perhaps because it's so cynical.

A man for every woman...

The Polish elections for the local presidents, governors and the like are coming up very soon (the Warsaw ones are on Sunday, the 12th of November). Whether this particular campaign is real or fake, I don't know, but it's quite original to say the least. Unfortunately the link is in Polish, but I'll just say that Helena Miszkin's motto is "Work for every man and a man for every woman".
The poster for her campaign is here

Old Take That video

This is a video from I think 1992 (but I'm guessing from the hairstyles, I'm not sure) and I just have to share it cause it's made me laugh so hard ;) Anyway, here's Take That doing a kind of underwear fashion show ;)

"My Take" - Gary Barlow's autobiography

I started reading Gary Barlow's autobiography My Take yesterday and I got so hooked! I wasn't expecting that! I mean I was expecting to enjoy it because I'm in a Take That nostalgia phase at the moment, but not this much. Even though I started reading quite late yesterday, today in the afternoon I had it finished (and I'm not exactly an avid reader).

I mean it's probably not a book that somebody who has no idea who Take That or Gary Barlow are would enjoy, but I think there's quite a few people who are not fans, but would enjoy the read (and I think that's a big compliment to his writing). It's really funny in places, sounds very honest and at least for me (not knowing much about the music business) it was interesting also in terms of how this sort of work is done, what happens behind the scenes. There's also a bit of insight into the differences between the British and American music industries. Of course there's lots of scandal and drama as well ;), but as long as you keep it in the context of the book, somehow it doesn't sound cheap (well not to me).

I think I'm not breaking copyright laws or anything if I quote a few parts of the book - certainly some of the media have done it and in fact quoting it as if they were part of an interview not the book. At least I'm saying exactly where I got these quotes from and encouraging you to give the book a go if you think it might be for you :)

This is part of a chapter in which Gary details some of his stranger experiences of working in clubs (before Take That he had a solo act playing and singing in various clubs in the North of England):
some of the clubs in Yorkshire had a disconcerting way of showing their appreciation after you finished. The compere would get a mic and say, 'Come on ladies and gentlemen, show your appreciation for Gary. I think you'll agree he's well worth sixty quid.'
At another Yorkshire club, I was halfway through 'Love on the Rocks' when a guy got up on the stage, walked right in front of me, switched on the compere's mic and said loudly, so as to drown me out, 'Pies 'ave cum.'
Every chair in the place was scraped across the floor as, en masse, they all stood up and got in line for their food.
On another night I was on with a duo from London, a couple of black guys who were really good.
'Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a couple of darkies who've come all the way from London. We didn't really want 'em, but now they're 'ere, show 'em some appreciation.'
As I say, working the clubs was an amazing experience.

About Take That's first video:
Beforehand Nigel got us all together to reveal an amendment to the masterplan.
'Lads, we've got to get the video banned.'
How in the hell were we going to do that?
(...)
I have to admit that we loved the finished version, not that anyone ever saw it. To get something banned a TV station has to want to play it, and none of them ever considered the unedited version. All we could get played, and then rarely, was the clean version.

And here by the way is what Gary calls the clean version :D


And if you're wondering after seeing that video - yes, they were trying to appeal to a gay audience (they regularly did gigs in gay clubs in the early days of their career). And actually there's a lot about that aspect of Take That in the earlier chapters of the book (and it's mostly very amusing).

About fan mail:
Among the fan letters were a lot of naked pictures, but some were more off-beat. I had one fan, Ilona in Germany, who was a policewoman. She used to send me pictures of herself taking part in riots. She'd be all dressed up in combat gear, complete with truncheon, hitting people - that freaked me out.

Anyway, the book is really a lot of fun to read (as I think you can see from those quotes!), there's a lot more very amusing and interesting stuff in there! :) There are some sadder, more emotional chapters as well - like the ones about his unsuccessful solo career, but particularly the last one which details his experience of being on one of the trains in the 7th of July London bombings.
Part of what I think is so great about his story is that he seems to be a very ordinary guy in many ways - I don't mean that nastily. Just that if he had chosen a different career he would have probably been somebody with a very quiet and "proper" life, but instead he ended up a performer doing things like the Do What U Like video that I've linked to above ;) I think the contrast between the two makes his story somehow nicer (well to me anyway ;-P).

On a final note, here is Gary Barlow promoting his book on the Jonathan Ross show (the video is in 6 parts, but each is quite short).

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6

Photos from the Harry Potter film set

The making of the fifth Harry Potter film (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) is well underway now.

Photos from the set are available here. There's some things that I really like :D

Firstly, the much debated on-line Harry Potter looking like a geek look :D This is obviously for the Ministry hearing and I think it's great and very appropriate (most wizards in the books do not have a good sense of how to dress, so I think it's very appropriate that it comes out more when they have to dress for an official occasion ;) ). Of course lots of people on-line just think it looks horrible and that they shouldn't do that, but I love it ;-P

And here's a picture of Dolores Umbridge in her office (one of the meanest villains in the books). I think they've got her absolutely spot on!

Anyway, so far those pics make me feel very optymistic about the film :) From those pics it looks like they've understood the quirky sense of humour in the books much better this time, but we shall see! :) First trailer will be out on Novemeber the 20th I think.

SRK Circus scene

The Shah Rukh Khan vibes from my last post continue :D
Here's a scene from Circus, a TV series that Shah Rukh starred in in 1989, before he got into cinema. It contrasts very nicely with the Don promos I think ;) (on this clip he's trying to take a shower or something of the sort ;))

Don promotion

NOTE: Since this post probably has more youtube videos embeded than I should have embeded, if you have any problems with sound or anything then try refreshing this page. If that doesn't work then click directly onto the video - that will redirect you to the video as it is on youtube.

Don, the new Shah Rukh Khan film was released in India on the 20th of October. It is a remake of the 1978 classic with Amitabh Bachchan. It is also Shah Rukh's return to playing bad guys, he's not done that for the last 10 years I think :D
I have not seen it, so I can't tell you anything about it really. All I know is that it's getting mixed reviews, but doing rather well despite that - especially overseas.

The point of this post is not the film itself though, but the promotion of it which I think is great :D I don't think I've seen anything like this in Western cinema. Then again the only marketing of big Western hits that I follow religiously are the Harry Potter movies, so perhaps this sort of thing has been done before and I just haven't come across it ;-P But to me it is new and I really liked it, so I thought I'd share :) Perhaps the trailers on their own aren't that extraordinary, but I think the scale of the marketing is quite something :) (if you're not into the song and dialogue trailers, do scroll down to the Channel V trailers cause those are totally hilarious :D )
I've tried to put them in the order that they were released but I may have made mistakes, also there might still be some trailers that I don't know about.

The first teaser trailer that came out was this:


Then came trailer number two (and a recent law in India forbids depicting smoking on screen unless it's specifically stated that it's bad for you, so as you see - there is no cigarette in that final shot hehe):


And trailer number three:


At about this time I think, they finally released the theatrical trailer:


A veeeery (in Indian cinema terms), spicy teaser trailer number 4 followed:


And then there was a second "dialogue teaser":


And further song teasers:



And if this isn't enough for you, this is where the marketing got really, really hilarious. The promos on Channel V were really quite something.
Here's the first one:

And the second one (no English subtitles on this one, but they do speak quite a lot of English, so you should be alright):


And of course apart from the trailers, there was lots of merchandising as well. I've not been following that part of the promotion that carefully, but I thought the clothing collection was hilarious. Of course there was an official reception to unveil the collection, you can read a short article about it here
And you can see Shah Rukh wearing one of the Don jackets with the inscription "When I Die Bury Me Down So That The Whole World Can Kiss My Ass" here. And of course a sign of Don's presence at the reception had to be left as well! :D

On a final note - don't you think it's amazing that they've managed to make so many different sort of promos and yet one is still left pretty clueless as to what the actual plot of the film is? :D

Creative Writing

Have you ever tried to write creatively? A lot of us have I think. I'm currently working on something, but it can be rather frustrating work. Generally, I hardly ever finish the stuff I write (or show it to anyone) because after I've written it, it seems like most of it is rubbish (although depending on what mood I am in when I reread the stuff I wrote I tend to get to different conclusions).

Therefore it comes as great joy to me to find that much better writers than me have these sorts of problems ;-P
Here's J.K.Rowling's diary entry from the 31st of October and this is the relevant fragment:
I've just had a great writing week. There are few feelings more joyous than reading back over the week's work and thinking 'that's not bad at all', as opposed to the all-too-frequent, 'it's rubbish, I've wasted a week and I'll have to re-write the lot.' And if you think that's an exaggeration or false modesty, you are very, very wrong. It's perfectly possible to put in eight hour days and have nothing to show for them but a single idea that, if reworked completely, might be passable.

If the link takes you to a more recent diary entry then that particular one will be archived here.

Ice Dance is back in style :D

The Senior Grand Prix in Figure Skating has just started this past weekend and the good news is that it looks very much as if I'm going to start enjoying ice dance again :D It used to be my favourite discipline some years back, but the last 3-4 years (partly because of the introduction of the new juding system and partly because many of the biggest personalities retired) it's become too focused on the technical elements and not enough on originality.
Unfortunately, we still have very much the same kind of positions on lifts and spins being repeated by everyone so that they can get the levels of difficulty on the elements (and therefore points) that they want, but originality and polish (rather than stumbling through things just to get the highest possible level) seems to be coming back to ice dance, wheee :D
And perhaps for the first time since about 2003 or so, I have a program in ice dance that I absolutely love :) And here it is, Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviyski from Bulgaria (the current World Champions and first ever skaters from Bulgaria to ever medal at the World Championships) in their Original Dance (this season the prescribed rhythm is the tango) at Skate America 2006:



And what I love is not just the program itself, but I think also technically it's a really beautiful performance - especially considering how early in the season it is (usually at this point in the season all the ice dancers are looking very messy cause they still have 3 months to the European Championships and 5 months to the World Championships).
The Straight Line step sequence at the start of the routine is in beautiful unison (maybe apart from that Maxim covers a little bit more ice on the first twizzle, but I think that's the only part where you can actually fault it) and the one foot skating in it is fantastic - even after the twizzles, they look as if they could spend all day long without putting the other foot down (usually you see everybody putting their free foot down as soon as they finish a difficult step).
I love the first lift as well - even though all the couples seem to be performing a change of position into low balance kind of lift this season, I think this one if very original (and porny ;-P ).
The Diagnal Step Sequence again I think is great - most of the couples seem to be doing rather slow step sequences nowadays with all the requirements for what kind of steps one has to include to get a higher level, but theirs is at full speed and they've got a great one foot section in it as well.
I love the preciseness of the whole performance. They skate close to each other, use very complicated holds and hold changes and whenever they do a difficult step with a hold change it seems they end up in exactly the spot where the partner is expecting them to - they don't even have to look at the other person or adjust the position of their arm to be able to take hold of the other partner, it's great! :D

I'm really impressed with them - they weren't exactly convincing winners of the World Championships last season, only third in the Free Dance and the competition was very, very close (so whoever would have won wouldn't have been a particularly convincing winner I think ;-P ), but they really *do* look like World Champions now (usually whenever the expectations have been put on them, they've skated nervously). I hope they keep it up for the rest of the season!