Reuniting the Rubins

Just seen this film - with Timothy Spall and Honor Blackman - good story about dysfunctional family - low budget - made in 5 weeks. Worth a look when on general release in September.

West is West

Went to the National Media Museum in Bradford this afternoon - a favourite haunt. I'm getting to go there almost in the way I used to go to Nottingham Broadway Media Centre, as a place to hang out.

I went to the 4pm showing of 'West is West', the long-awaited follow up to 'East is East', the first film to speak for young Bradford Asians in the late 1990's. Many attended from the Asian communities, and it's clear they get a real buzz and glow from seeing their lives and world portrayed on the screen. We saw this film at a preview on the afternoon of my 60th birthday party in January.

Coincidentally, a DVD of photos from that party arrived today: John Barker sent me it. It's great, and really brings back the atmosphere of that day Heather worked so hard to organise.

Beware "Tubely"

Beware "Tubely". Don't touch it, just DELETE. Yesterday I received an email purportedly from a friend of mine, inviting me to join Tubely. He's a good friend, a trusted one, so I thought I'd join up. I discovered then it hacked my email contact list and emailed all. So I stopped filling in the sign up process, deleted my membership before I even used it, and, for a precaution, changed my email account password, and sent an apologetic email to my contact list. No guarantee it hasn't reached others, too, but maybe they will delete the invitation anyway.

So, just delete this scam.

Look at another blog on the subject: http://wendysminks.blogspot.com/2009/10/tubely-is-devil.html

Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown

It seems almost indecent watching TV footage of the effects of the Japanese earthquake, the mesmerising images of the all-engulfing tsunami, and the terrifying nuclear meltdown. Reconstruction in Christchurch looked difficult, but the scale of destruction and displacement in Japan dwarfs that. Yet for all affected in both places, the impact is 100%, comparisons are odious.

Christchurch earthquake

Two weeks ago tomorrow, the nature of Christchurch New Zealand was changed forever. My first knowledge of the earthquake was in a text from my brother, received around 6 a.m., about 6 hours after the event.

A number of people here in the UK have asked me if I have family or friends in the city. I have friends, but have heard from almost all since the earthquake.

It's impossible to imagine how the city will recover, but it will, though perhaps with fewer people, a different configuration of houses and commercial space, new roads and old ones renewed.

We're supposed to go there briefly in April, to pick up a rental car and drive to Dunedin. This may have to change...

Health and Spring

It's springtime and so good to have brighter, longer days, with sunshine. I'm healthy again after Jan-Feb infections, and getting enthusiastic about things again.

We go to New Zealand again in just over a month from now.

Postings - the endless issue

Postings are very sporadic, I know.

It seems to me that maybe the best I can do is write about what books, magazines and articles I'm reading, films I see, whee I'm going, what I'm doing.

Not that anybody ever has noticed this blog :-)

BOOKS: Currently, I'm reading a recent biographical study of the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. It's a very personal and interesting book, by Patrick Wilcken. I heard him talking about it on BBC Radio 4 about a year ago, maybe less, and have wanted to buy it ever since. I couldn't afford it, but used an Amazon voucher from my 60th birthday recently, and got it.

Prior to the Lévi-Strauss, I was reading another biographical book on an anthropologist, "Margaret Mead: an American Icon". It is also one I coveted, and my partner Heather bought me it for my birthday. Fascinating study shows how media savvy Mead was, getting press coverage and media exposure in a way no other social anthropologist managed.

FILM: I've seen the Cohn Brothers remake of "True Grit" twice in about 4 day. I liked it a lot, but Heather barely at all, and two friends we met at the cinema in Bradford hated it. Taste can be so personal.

De-cluttering

De-cluttering my study today - slowly - and it is not lost on me that it is a paradox for a knowledge broker to have a cluttered space. I may be a systems person in my work, but I'm a collector in my space. Well, it's a long-postponed work of archaeology today.