Big shock. Some streets/areas in the UK are filthy. Hardly a “stop the presses” type revelation. (On a complete tangent, do the web news services now shout “stop the servers!” when a really important news story comes along?)

I do, however, think that this final paragraph – “As a result of the survey, the government has created a new Performance Indicator so that every council taxpayer knows whether their local authority is up to scratch when it comes to cleaning their patch. ” is hilarious – as if the people who pay the keffing council tax won’t already know whether their area/district/council/whatever is up to scratch.

Road to Perdition
Wow. I’m hugely impressed with this film, and even though obviously a review (or whatever the hell it is that this forms) is a personal perspective on it, well, I think it’s just stunning. And I’m trying to write this without too many superlatives in it, but it’s still a stunner of a film.

I loved American Beauty, so the decision to see the next one by the same director was always going to be a no-brainer. I’m not a fan of Tom Hanks in any way at all, yet even his presence is impressive in this film, even though to my mind Paul Newman steals every single scene he’s in.

On the technical side, the film is simply stunning. There were several scenes where I found myself thinking “how the hell did they light that in such a way?” – there’s no doubt, Genius was at work in this film. The lighting, the way the scenes are shot, the script, and the direction, all of it comes together to make something truly impressive. Even the story – which has plenty of opportunitys to turn into epic Hollywood vomit-inducing schmaltz works really well.

It’s odd, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film where I’ve thought simply “wow” at the way it’s done, but that’s now two films this week that have made me think that. Both Insomnia and Road to Perdition are truly impressive, and both by British directors. I wonder if there’s some kind of corrollary there, about the way Brits shoot films as opposed to how Americans do it?

Anyway, the film is fantastic. Go see it.

God,it’s now the period for gigs, shows and other stuff, so this will probably become Review Central as well as everything else. I’m going to see Road to Perdition this afternoon, then seeing

• Howard Marks on Wednesday
• Morcheeba on Saturday

and then, in no particular order :

• David Gray
• Soft Cell (with luck)
• Pink
• Firework displays for my birthday
• Alabama 3
• Nina Simone (ooops – knew I’d forgotten one, thanks H)
• several others I can’t remember just now

So it’s going to be a fun time, that’s for sure.

On a complete tangent, why is it that when there’s a narrow piece of path or whatever, there’s always – but always – a pair of cretins who’ve decided to stop right there and have a conversation, reminiscing over the last 50 years or whatever?

And why is it that even when you ask them in a fairly civil manner to “Excuse me please” (I think the “you shithead” at the end must have been implicit, even if silent) you get given a filthy glare, as though it’s you who’s in the wrong for even speaking to the idiots with prams, pushchairs, shopping trolleys or whatever else is sitting around them in the pathway to freedom?

Yes, I’ve edited that last sentence. Peter was right, it wasn’t fair to limit it to older people. My bad phrasing claims another victim.

Further to Green Fairy and Elayne’s comments (and partly due to the fact this comment system doesn’t appear to like HTML) buggies is only a euphemism (to my knowledge) for pushchairs (child carrying devices). and the triangular ones are similar to the image on the left.

OK, it’s come from a variety of sources, but this optical illusion has just made my head hurt totally.

And yes, I am a total sad object, and checked it in Photoshop.

It’s Links time, I think

First, mainly for sheer humour and caffeine addicts everywhere, I bring you OpenCola including a recipe. (The link dies on Oct 31st, apparently).

Then there’s the person who’s made a tiny PC/monitor combination – cute and fun.

On SlashDot there’s this story about eye-scanning devices to identify regular fliers in Canadian airports. Minority Report comes one step closer…

And my laptop has some serious competition now from this Sony one should I decide to upgrade at any point soonish. Then again, I’ve only had the Libretto a year… I need to get out more, I think.

God, what a laugh. Supposedly Edwina Currie was boffing John Major for four years. Excuse me while I vomit at that image.

And frankly, who cares? Is it news? Only because it’s just been published as part of her diaries. Is it history, and not worth worrying about? Hell, yes. Is it a set of vile images, particularly unsuitable for earlyish on a Saturday Morning? Oh my god, yes, yes, yes. See, the imagery has even translated into my words now. *shudder*

So basically, it’s a complete non-story, all the involved people know about it already, and it’s all dead and gone, just hype for la Currie’s diaries, to try and make more people read them. Do I want to know if it’s got more details? No. Do I care? No, not really. Will other people? Pass. But somehow I doubt it, yet I guarantee it’ll be on all the news programmes, and probably headlines on Sunday papers, and/or Monday ones. The world’s bizarre sometimes.