Thursday, 10 January 2013

Tuesday, 08 January 2013

  • The Bourne Legacy

    I am reviewing the film The Bourne Legacy which is an excellent thriller. It stars Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weiz, Edward Norton & Joan Allen. This is the 4th in this series of films which are based on books by Robert Ludlum & more lately Erich Van Lustbader. This installment is based on the book by Lustbader. The earlier films featured Matt Damon as a spy with amnesia who failed his mission & as a result faced danger from the secret service he worked for. In this film the department he worked for has been shut down & all the operatives are being murdered by their former masters. Jeremy who plays Aaron Cross has been infected intentionally with a virus and requires medication. He gets this through Weiz who plays a doctor in the same department. They face danger at every turn. This film doesn't feature Jason Bourne who was played by Matt Damon in the earlier films. It features some brilliant scenes like Cross firing a nail from a fire extinguisher like a low powered gun. It's the kind of film certainly gets the adrenaline going. There is a happy ending. Also the budget must have been huge & there are some brilliant chases.

  • Black Market

    I am reviewing the novel Black Market by James Patterson which is a very good thriller which I bought from a secondhand bookstore. The plot centres on mercenaries who work for a middle eastern terrorist organisation and intend bombing & causing mayhem to Wall Street. The idea is to damage the American economy. They're also hoping the middle eastern economies will be relatively unaffected. Of course the army, CIA and police are hot on their heels. This book was an early book by Patterson & unlike many of his books is a standalone thriller. He does appear to release 1 standalone thriller each year amid a huge workload. This book is quite gritty with little quarter shown to the terrorists. I think the part where they show the aftermath and how it affects other stock exchanges is well researched. It's worth reading.

Monday, 07 January 2013

  • John Lennon

    The book I read to research this post was The Lives of John Lennon by William Goldman which is a very good book which I borrowed from a friend. This book depicts a pretty grim picture of John Lennon especially towards the end. Apparently Cilla Black & Paul MacCartney dissaprove of the book. Cilla Black's first hit single was written by the Beatles. Some of the things in the book are that he was a bit of a primadonna, used to wander around his home naked, he was quite grumpy through drug use & appeared to have anorexia. One thing I think is definitely true is he would wander around Central Park without bodyguards & people could freely go upto him. This was a bit unfortunate because as you probably know he got assasinated. I think Paul Maccartney is more gifted musically & I think his body of work is more consistent. Nevertheless John has written a lot of great songs but a lot of what he has written especially when he & Yoko Ono were doing half an album each like with the Imagine album he has written a lot of rubbish. Also despite modeling himself as a working class hero he was never really working class. He had a problem upbringing and was frequently naughty as a child which I think a lot of people identify with. I saw an interview with George Martin who was their producer. He said they were really nice lads but weren't exceptionally talented. He said they played one of their songs for him and he told them if they picked up the tempo they'd have their first No 1.

Saturday, 05 January 2013

  • A Stitch In Time

    The book I read to research this post was A Stitch In Time by Betty Park which is a very good book which I bought from Bewdley Museum in Worcestershire, England. I think this book would be difficult for most people to obtain. It's about the clothing industries In Bewdley in the days of the canals when it was the 2nd biggest inland port in England. Gloucester was the biggest. Bewdley is a small market town on the River Severn & many things were sent to and from Bristol and then abroad. Bewdley had a thriving clothing industry. In the schools in those days dress making was considered a more important skill than reading and writing. If a lady was married she could make some much needed cash by being a self employed tailor. Most clothes were specially made by a tailor or dress maker or you made them yourself. This was the case until the mid 20th century. It was considered a huge shame if you had to go in the workhouse. Also if you died you had to have insurance to meet the cost of your funeral & most people paid a penny a week for cover. It was a humiliation if the parish church had to pay for it. If a funeral or wedding was coming up the tailor or dressmaker would be particularly busy making the outfits & they would need drapes for the coffin and hearse. The drapes were often rented out. With a funeral they would only have a few days to get everything ready & it would be particularly stressful for the clothesmaker. Many of these businesses were essentially one person affairs with maybe an apprentice to do the simpler jobs. They would typically work longer hours than the employees at larger businesses. In fact the only limiting factor would appear to be daylight as gas was very expensive. Also the gas lighting wasn't very bright and you had to pay a lot of money per light so this was limited. The lowliest trade was shirtmaker as these often had there prices undercut by the workhouses and schools. There weren't many of these in Bewdley.

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