“Hello Mr Bear”

This polar bear is not saying hello to his new friends – he is about to eat them. Apparently polar bears have started scaling cliffs previously considered unclimbable in order to eat cliff-nesting birds, their young, and their eggs. This previously unseen behaviour is believed to be driven by difficulties the bears are having in finding enough of their normal food. These food shortages are probably driven by global warming, so the little birds’ deaths are ultimately your fault.

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Cycling in Dublin

I have been trying to work out whether you are allowed cycle in the bus lane running south on the East side of Stephen's Green.


This picture suggests that you are.


This picture suggests you are not.

Those two pictures are taken at either end of a short stretch of road. Truly it is a mysterious world in which we live.

In other cycling in Dublin news, compare the two pictures of Dame Street here. Between the 1960s and now, cyclists have been successfully cleared off the streets, even as most of Dame Street seems to have been demolished.

Live Music Experience: Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions

I recently paid a visit to Whelan's to see the singing sensation formerly of Mazzy Star, playing with her current band. I am not particularly familiar with Ms Sandoval's music. I know she was in a band called Mazzy Star. I also know that she is or was in a relationship with one of the Jesus And Mary Chain brothers, an eyebrow-raising coupling given that she is something of a looker while he is not. I also have picked up the idea that she is somewhat withdrawn.

Two things decided me to go. First of all, she played here a while back and one of my pals went along and spoke very highly of the concert. The other thing was that recent Mojo CD of Syd Barrett covers - it had her doing a very impressive cover of 'Golden Hair'. As that CD is guiding so much of my musical taste recently (see also my embracing of Cate Le Bon) I had to go to Ms Sandoval's' concert.

The venue was rather full when we arrived. The support band were already playing. They seemed pretty good, but they sounded very like the kind of music I imagine Ms Sandoval playing - slow, languid, country-influenced rock with a distinct taste of shoegaze action. But surely this would just mean that when Ms Sandoval came on to play her music the support band would just seem redundant by comparison?

When Hope Sandoval came on later, however, it turned out that actually the support band were her backing band (including none other than Colm Ó Ciosoig on drums). It is truly a bizarre world in which we live.

Sandoval's music is much as I described it above. She herself does not engage too much with the audience. It is not clear whether this is from shyness or because such things are beneath her. Sometimes remoteness by performers annoys me but in this case it seemed to fit the music.

For all the excellence of the music, the concert experience was suboptimal. Partly this was the cockfarmers near me who were having some loud and inane conversation all the way through the set. But the music itself seemed unsuited for the live setting, at least for a live setting that involved standing in a crowded venue. I think maybe the best place to hear Ms Sandoval's music (live or recorded) is while lying down on a plush sofa, perhaps after smoking some of the Orient's finest opium. It is that kind of music – relaxing and decadent.


She finished her set, and the audience munters struck again. They stood around waiting for her to come back onstage and play an encore, but did not bother their arses applauding for one. Frankly, if I had been Ms Sandoval I would have quit the venue and gone back to the hotel. Still, I was glad when she came back on to treat us to a live version of 'Golden Hair'.

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video video

I also watched some music videos on the flight to Havana. The most memorable were the old ones. Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' is truly deranged, with the mentalist grandeur of the visuals matching the baroque madness of Jim Steinman's production. Top marks. Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' was a bit stranger than I remember – I mean, I recall all the stuff about the statue of the black saint coming alive and getting saucy with Madonna, and Madonna getting down with some black gospel choir, but the bit in the middle of the video where it all turns into To Kill A Mockingbird – where did that come from?

I also liked the weird interpretative dance bit in the middle of 'I Want To Break Free'. The best video, though, was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. OK, the werewolf bit is a pretty comedic – wolfie Michael looks like he wants a tummy rub rather than to rip out your still beating heart. But the zombie dancing bit is amazing, and it reminded me of why it was that Jackson once mattered.

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"Dogtooth"

I saw this Greek film in a real cinema. It is about this guy who keeps his grown-up children living in a house with no access to the outside world. He and his wife feed them various nonsensical stories about what the life beyond the garden gate is like, mainly to emphasise that they are not yet ready for life outside the home. Quite why he does this is never really explained, though as the film wears on we get an increased sense of what a nasty and violent thug he is. The situation is not static, however, and the film catches the family as the children are beginning to question their confinement.

One of the things with the film is that it shows people doing things but never really goes in for having them explain why they are doing them. At times it all seems a bit unemotional and clinical, like a Stanley Kubrick directing a Dan Clowes adaptation. Much of what happens in the film is disturbing and creepy, yet it seemed a bit less upsetting than some other well-known creepy films, maybe because of the surrealism of its basic set-up.

I really loved this. It looks great, with the visuals also reminding me of Kubrick, and it has some striking set pieces – the eldest daughter's dance and the family barking like dogs to scare away cats particularly spring to mind. It is also great to see a film be so compelling with so few characters (just the five members of the family, plus a woman from the father's work brought in to… ah, best not spoil the fun).

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"Happy Go Lucky"

On the way back from Cuba I saw this recent Mike Leigh film. It is the one about this perky schoolteacher called Poppy (wonderfully played by Sally Hawkins) who is a bit… happy go lucky. It is meant to be Mike Leigh does comedy, and quite a bit of it is rather funny. Ultimately, though, I think the film does not quite work. Partly it seems to lack any real narrative focus. This might stem from Leigh's improvisational filmmaking style, as surely it must sometimes lead to films that meander along without really going anywhere.

The other problematic thing was that despite its general upbeat perkiness, it seemed to feel obliged to throw in the kind of big emotion scene that all Leigh films have. In this case it involved Poppy and her driving instructor, who awkwardly mutates from being comedically uptight to being a raving lunatic. Their big confrontation does make for a great scene, but it does rather sour the mood of the rest of the film, given how funny their previous scenes together are. As with Career Girls and the funny Welsh guy, I found myself wondering if a whole film about the driving instructor might actually have been more interesting.

I suppose the other problem with this film is that it never really addresses its own big question – is Poppy charming and delightful, or is she an incredibly annoying person who needs to calm down and start acting like a grown-up?

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"500 Days of Summer"

I also saw this while flying to Cuba, choosing it because I have a bit of a thing for Zooey Deschanel and because I reckon light comedies are the best thing to watch on tiny airplane screens. 500 Days of Summer is a clever film, telling the story of this guy meeting, getting romantically involved with, and then breaking up with a woman called Summer, all over five hundred days. Except the story is told out of order, so you get them breaking up fairly early on, possibly even before we see them get together. It is kind of a romantic comedy, though it says it is not, but it seems a bit more aimed at people with half a brain than those films typically are (not that I would know). It is also very indie, both in terms of its cultural references (the hero and Summer first bond over a shared love of The Smiths) and its general attitude.

The film has some very funny moments, and is overall rather light, but still found it thought provoking – it is a film I like even more in retrospect than I did at the time. So I would recommend it to people who are interested in human relationships, or who like funny things, or who like films with attractive young ladies in them.

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"Up"

Travelling to Cuba recently I saw this recent Disney film, meaning that everyone in the world has now seen it. I was a bit surprised by how much the film puts the viewer through the emotional wringer. I mean, I knew there was a kid and an old man in it, so when it started with a kid I assumed the old man would be showing up soon, but of course this kid becomes the old man. Fair enough, but all the stuff about his wife not being able to have babies and then dying had me bawling. The rest of the film is maybe a bit of an anti-climax, but it does have a lot of roffles. I particularly liked the talking dogs. And any film with zeppelins in it is fine by me.

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Robin stands with man and shovel; Batman and Robin fight – each other!

Batman and Robin #12, by Grant Morrison and Andy Clarke
Batman and Robin #11, by Grant Morrison, Andy Clarke, and Scott Hanna

I read #12 without realising that I had missed an issue. It says a lot for how confusing Grant Morrison stuff is generally that the general "what the fuck is going on here?" feeling was no worse than usual. Anyway, over the two issues, the current Batman and the current Robin continue trying to investigate the secrets of the Wayne Family's past, as a way of tracking down the apparently still alive Bruce Wayne. In these efforts they are aided by the mysterious Mr Sexton, while separately an equally mysterious maniac calling himself El Penitente is cutting a bloody swathe through the Gotham underworld. But then, oh noes – Robin's crazy mother has one of her bozo allies control the boy wonder Wii-style and make him attack the Batman.

The stuff with Robin and his mother are maybe the best thing here. Morrison and Clarke have managed to completely strip Robin of any trace of campness and turn him instead into a slightly creepy child of unbound will. Talia Al-Ghul's motives are less clear, but she also genuinely scary and not the cartoon sexy oriental lady villain of yore.

For all that this is all great, the OMG OMG surprise twist ending at the end of #12 would maybe be a bit more thrill-powered if it was not the same surprise twist ending Morrison used in New X-Men. Oh well, life is hard.

Man points gun, woman raises hands

Stumptown #3, by Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Rico Renzi

As is the way of multi-issue crime comics, I have semi-forgotten what this started off being about… I think the main character (a lady detective) was hired to find an Indian chief's grand-daughter who had gone missing, or something. Crime fiction can be a bit formulaic, but this ticks the right boxes. And it comes with a nice piece at the back about the joys of the serial form.

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