Friday, December 30, 2005

Some DVDs to watch

At one movie a week, how can I ever get through all these? I demand a moratorium on new films until I catch up.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The lure of gold

A US company pays bribes in Indonesia as it despoils the environment. Why is this not on the TV news? Why is this not in the business pages?

New York Times critic's movies of the year

Manohla Dargis, A.O. Scott, Stephen Holden.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Old things that I played most in 2005

Here are the most played tracks I added to iTunes in 2005 that were relased in previous years.

Track Artist Source
Work Is A Four Letter Word Cilla Black Dream Babes, Vol. 2: Reflections
exterminate Doctor Who
Millionaire Sweeper Kenickie At The Club
If This World Were Mine Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell The Best Of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: The Millenium Collection
Talulah Gosh Talulah Gosh Little Hits
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding  Brinsley Schwarz (BBC version)
Grey Will Fade Charlotte Hatherley Mojo: U2 Jukebox
I Want You To Want Me [live] Cheap Trick Sex, America, Cheap Trick (Disc 2)
The Back Of Love Echo And The Bunnymen Songs To Learn & Sing
Seven Seas Echo And The Bunnymen Songs To Learn & Sing
Get Up And Use Me Fire Engines (from Vinyl 45)
Maritime ISIS Oceanic
Just What I Always Wanted Mari Wilson Just What I Always Wanted
Nine Times The Moments A Treasury Of Northern Soul
Bomber Motörhead Bomber
Don't Look Back in Anger Oasis (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Pretty In Pink The Psychedelic Furs All Of This And Nothing

2005 releases that were most played in 2005

iTunes lost my play counts in May, but here are the tracks released in 2005 that I played the most.

Track Artist Source
We Belong Together Mariah Carey The Emancipation Of Mimi
Stay The Night Mariah Carey The Emancipation Of Mimi
I Can See For Miles Petra Haden Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out
The Fox Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Fake Tales Of San Francisco Arctic Monkeys Beneath the boardwalk
A Certain Romance Arctic Monkeys Beneath the boardwalk
Comfortably Numb Dar Williams and Ani DiFranco My Better Self
Biology Girls Aloud Chemistry
Back To The Basics Kanye West Late Registration
Cant Stop Missy Elliott The Cookbook
What's Mine Is Yours Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Jumpers Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Modern Girl Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Rollercoaster Sleater-Kinney The Woods
I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix) The Jackson 5 Motown Remixed
You're Beautiful James Blunt Back to Bedlam
Pi Kate Bush Aerial: A Sea of Honey
Rough Justice Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang
Wilderness Sleater-Kinney The Woods
Night Light Sleater-Kinney The Woods

Why Mourinho is a winner

Great article in the London Review of Books about football managers. Jose Mourinho has two big assets. Firstly he went to Chelsea when there was a good upside potential. Secondly he is astonishingly good-looking.

What he has in common with Clough and Shankly is that the players appear desperate to do whatever it takes to win his approval, like schoolgirls fighting for an approving glance from their favourite teacher. Barclay turns to Desmond Morris to explain what is going on here, citing the Chelsea players’ body language as evidence that some profound human forces are at work – not just ‘respect’, not just ‘camaraderie’, but something like ‘love’. This may be overstating it. Mourinho, as well as being very handsome, is always nicely turned out, something that almost all modern professionals take extremely seriously. Ryan Giggs, for example, put the extraordinary impact of Eric Cantona on Manchester United down to the fact that not only was he a gifted player who trained hard, but also that his idiosyncratic, classically French wardrobe put the rest of the team to shame. In Giggs’s words, as a dresser Cantona was simply in a ‘different class’.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Virgin America

How far can the Virgin brand be stretched? How can it be that a bad experience with Virgin trains doesn't take the sheen off of other Virgin brands? Still I am impressed that this new airline will be based at SFO. If it really is going to fly to New York then it will be directly competing with JetBlue whch flies out of Oakland.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

How to care for a cast iron frying pan

Skillet is American for frying pan.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Speculative Science

Who can spend 450 million dollars on projects that probably won't succeed? Bill Gates can.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Another moving 7/7 article

Good luck to these brave people.