White knuckle

At odds with the lyric in that Stranglers' song, the clouds are interesting here today (and not just in Sweden). From my study I have been watching various showers and other meteoroligical phenomena chasing each other across the sea. I can also see the Palace Pier and its various "rides". On a day like this I wonder why anyone would want to have themselves hurled about and blood draining levels of "g" inflicted upon themselves. As I contemplated that big arm that spins round in a vertical plane with a pod full of nausea at each end I found myself thinking about my first trip on a big wheel. When I was about 5 or 6 I lived in Glasgow. Around Chirstmas time there would be a fair and circus at the Kelvin Hall, maybe there still is. Only recently did I realize that that absolute temperature scale and the conference venue were linked. Lord Kelvin must have been quite someone, scientist, businessman, benefactor and so on. Anyway, his hall is big enough to fit a fair and a circus in it at the same time. The only problem with this event was that my mother would try to persuade my brother and me to have a sleep in the afternoon so we had enough energy to stay up late; this, in my opinion was not a successful strategy and inevitably lead to angst. The best example of this was in 1974 when we had a holiday in Ibiza; there was to be a firework display in the town which would be visible from our apartment roof. I was ten and my brother seven, as the pyratechnics would be happening later than we would usually go to bed, we were despatched for one of those (albeit rare) afternoon naps which, in this particular intance, I remember escalating into a great deal of waling and gnashing of teeth. Later I met a girl from the next door apartment who had been waterskiing earlier in the day. When I asked her "how was your water-ski"? She replied to my utter embarrassment, "how was your sleep?" Anyway, back in the Kelvin Hall and this particular year the clowns, the undoubted highlight of the whole show, arrived with a car which they drove about the ring and sytematically destroyed. Entertainment that for this young person, could not be improved upon. Consequently, every subsequent visit to a circus anywhere was a disappointment as there was never another vehicle. I am not sure if it was the clown car year, but I agreed on one occasion, to go on the big wheel with my Dad, actually, I must have persuaded him to take me on it as I don't reckon he was that excited about it himself. Up until then, the most daring thing I had attempted had been the all too ephemeral experience of a ride down the helter skelter sitting in a folded-up front door mat; ten seconds wondering if the end was just round the corner, and then a grazed leg. Not brilliant compared with the likes of "Oblivion" at Alton Towers or better still the roller coaster that is entwined around and through the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas (properly violent). So, once on board the big wheel, despite the fact that is was relatively slow, indoors and not in a force ten gale, I buried my face in my dad's tweedy coat and cried the entire time.

Coffee and Cigarettes***

The third film of this name from Mr Jarmusch is the first one that I have seen. A series of what those film buffs would call vignettes, I found this a bit clunky to say the least, particularly as it would appear that much if what is going on is improvised by the (in some cases) rather self-conscious players. The segments are all in black and white and feature coffee and cigarettes as the main props (get it); some it has to be said, were quite enjoyable, there is one with Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina which I particularly liked.

Should I post this?

Dominic mentioned recently on Critical Mass that Peter Hammill tells us that the older you get the better able you are to make decisions but the fewer choices there are available to you.

What are the things that have the most impact over who we are and how we spend our time and over which we have control? Some would say that you choose your parents and that this life is entirely predestined but if we put that to one side for the moment, the answer is 'decisions'. At any given moment, we can take a decision or not. More so than working hard (although you can decide to do that) or the amount of effort we put into our daily lives generally, the decisions we choose to take have more of an impact on us than anything else we can do.

If I had not decided to move to London when I was 22 I would be living somewhere else, doing a different job, living with a different person and so on, (assuming I hadn't been run over and killed the day after I had been due to move).

Most of the best times I have had have resulted from decisions I have made, and certainly most of the worst times can be attributed to not making a decision at all, more so than making bad decisions. So my ability to make decisions is the single thing (over which I have some control) which has most influence in my life.

But when I was at school, for some reason, they wanted to teach me what year the Prussians invaded Bolivia instead of how to take decisions.

(The Barefoot Doctor suggests that you might as well decide to be happy, which should be a relatively easy decision to take even if you believe that everything is predestined).

The Vanishing****

Last night's dvd was The Vanishing, not the 1993 Jeff Bridges, Keiffer Sutherland remake but the original 1988 one. I have seen it twice before and despite the fact that it is one of those films that you watch in anticipation of finding out what happens at the end, I still enjoyed it. The baddy is perfectly creepy in a "Harry, he's here to help" kind of way and the goody himself becomes slightly unhinged in the persuit of an understanding of the destiny of his vanished girlfriend. At 107 mins it has a perfect pace (and is a shocker the first time you see it).

Not one to watch with someone who is paranoid about being abducted.

Grattis på födelsedagen

All of us at Cloud Hands would like to wish the Yorkshire (and some time Sweden) readership, happy birthday.

Belleville Rendez-vous****

This is a 70 minute French cartoon about an old lady and her dog, on a mission to find the lady's son who has been kidnapped and taken to the States whilst taking part in the Tour de France.

Are you still there? The creator has not allowed himself to be burdened by too much reality and consequentially this is a really fantastic little film. It has a quirky style, full of beautifully realised, funny references to real life. Worth watching just to witness Bruno the dog going about his business.

(If you are thinking about watching it with a youngster, don't worry about the subtitles because there is very little dialogue).

One to watch with all sorts of folk.

Ladri di biciclette****

On Sunday I watched the famous Bicycle Thieves on DVD. The whole 90 or so minutes are taken up with the business of the main character's bike and how its theft affects him and his family. How could something so futile become the premise for what is considered by many to be an all time great film? For me it would have to be the allegorical nature of the thing as much of what goes on can be viewed as a metaphor for some of the rediculous things that go on in life. Although I also enjoyed the look of it, it's not exactly 21st Century stuff. Not one to watch with someone who has Attention Deficit Disorder.

Captions welcome.........

Blue hat to the white hat "that's right baby, come to mamma...."

The loser's guide to getting lucky (click here)

Do you feel lucky? Well do you punk.........? I spotted this article earlier and present it here in order that the Cloud Hands readership might enjoy a little extra luck.

Getting what you want

I have joined LoveFilm.com recently. I am signed up to the service whereby you get two films at a time. It is all very straight forward, you populate your list on the website with films you want to see (you can prioritise them) and then they send you them in an envelope which you use to return the disc(s) at your leisure, post free. There is a facility on their site whereby you can order additional envelopes, you may have received two in one envelope but only want to return one. I have been exchanging emails with them on this very subject.

Hi

I have asked for spare envelopes twice and not received any, as it
means that I am not able to return discs as soon I would like, I am
not getting the full benefit of two discs at a time. Can I have more
envelopes?

Regards

Adrian

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your email.

If you could please return the DVD in a protective case with a note of your
full name, email address and the DVD reference number to the free post
address:-

FREEPOST RRAZ-ZJJS-XESH
LOVEFiLM International Ltd
Peterborough
PE2 6UG.

If you have any other questions then please do let us know.


Kind regards,

Georjo

Thank you. (Does that mean that you won't be sending me additional envelopes)?

Adrian

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your email.

This is to inform you that you can of course send more than one disc back in the same return envelope, in the same way that they arrive. Our new plastic sleeves allow you to fit up to four discs in one envelope. Alternatively, you may send the discs back individually if you wish. You can order any extra return envelopes you may require on our Envelope Request page. You can find this here: www.lovefilm.com/account/envelope_request_form.html

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,

Ash
--
Customer Services
LOVEFiLM.com
The new way to rent DVDs
www.LOVEFiLM.com

If you check back to my initial email you will see that I have ordered additional envelopes twice already and none have come. All I want to know is whether you are sending me any?

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your recent email.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

This is to inform you that the title "I'm Not Scared (aka Io Non Ho Paura) (Subtitled) (Sell Through)" is dispatched to you on 22/01/2007.

Should you have further queries, please do contact us again.

Kind regards,

Sushma
--
Customer Services
LOVEFiLM.com
The new way to rent DVDs
www.LOVEFiLM.com

Hello

Banana, telescope, litmus test. (Hopefully this email will defy your standard email system and you will check my question from my original mail).

Adrian


Postscript:

I have today been informed that I cannot have additional envelopes.

Dinner Rush ****

A couple of weeks ago I joined LoveFilm.com having thought about it for a couple for years. What pushed me over the edge was that I realised that I like to watch my nice TV but that lately, I end up watching stuff I don't really want to see; due to laziness. I decided that I would be making much better use of the machine if I watched things I actually wanted to. As I considered this, my mind started to drift to films that I have seen in the past and would like to see again, but that I might not necessarily remember the name of; if I could track them down then Love Film might have them.

In about the year 2000 I watched a film at a smaller Leceister Square cinema that I really enjoyed set in an Italian restaurant in Manhattan. The only thing I could remember was that one of the characters was played by an actor I had seen in a couple of episodes of Sex and the City. With the help of iMDB I tracked down Dinner Rush and it was the first of the Love Film disks to arrive.

There are no particularly big stars except perhaps for Danny Aiello who has appeared in many Italian/mafiosi movies over the years (you might remember him in the role of Papa in Madonna's Papa Don't Preach video). This is a film about revenge that builds patiently, it is only an hour and half long, the first hour and twenty minutes is scene setting, the denouement is delicious.

The hole truth

If you drive north from Sedona in Arizona for an hour or two through a beautiful lush valley, you will eventually emerge at Flagstaff. This town has a kind of gritty reality about it, Route 66 passes through here as does a railway line and from time to time those seemingly interminable trains, sounding their horns. There may be snow on the ground, some people will be wearing cowboy hats. Here is a good place from which to launch your assault on the Grand Canyon (an hour or so further north) or to visit the Museum of Northern Arizona or the Lowell Observatory . It isn't flash here, it is a university town and feels like it represents the end of something and start of something else. Point your hire car east, stick on the cruise control and another hour and a half or so later having passed no landmarks whatsoever, turn left and head north on one of straightest most featureless roads you'll ever drive. After 60 or 70 miles you will end up in Hopi territory. By the way, when I did this I was faced at one point by a dilemma; a car coming towards me, perhaps half a mile away, was weaving about the road as though it was drunk. I had plenty of time to think about this problem, opting in the first instance, to flash my headlights and pump my horn in the hope of rousing the dosing operator of the other vehicle. After a few seconds I was considering my next move. Fortunately the other car had regained its composure for long enough to satisfy me that I was unlikely to be involved in a head-on collision as plan B involved heading off into the desert roughly perpendicular to the tarmac, coming to rest several tens of yards away, where I would probably have languished in deep sand until rescued by some kind of off road truck. Anyway, the Hopis live in rudimentary settlements and villages on top of escarpments or "mesas". Imagine a run down council estate perched on beachy head but, in your mind's eye, replace any colour (eg sea, white cliffs, grass etc) with mile upon mile of beige......sand and rock.

Unattractive as this may seem, I found it to be very alluring. There is a simplicity and power about the place that is hard comprehend without taking yourself there. The history of the Hopi People,(the word Hopi means peace) tells of their travels throughout the world searching for a place to settle before selecting this desert. Later on their territory became smaller and more isolated as they were surrounded by the more modern minded and aquisitive Navaho. Did you know that there is no alcohol on the Navaho reservations? I checked into a hotel, went for dinner and asked for a beer to accompany my beans. The big Indian lady looked at me like I'd called her mother a terrorist whore; part of the no alcohol thing is aparently to do with the problems that that and other drugs have caused in their communities over the years.

Anyway, I am painting this picture in an attempt to set the scene which leads me not entirely neatly to the work of James Turrell I mentioned in a post featuring a trip to Paris last year. I cannot claim to be an afficionado, however, I know he does appreciate something about the area. He is a pilot and in his DVD "Passages", he tells us about how he spent months flying all over the north west of the states looking for the ideal place to contruct his works. He settled on this area because, although it did not meet the criteria he had set for himself prior to embarking on his search, he felt a "power" which allowed him to experiment with light in a unique way. His work is not about any particular medium but about the manipulation of light itself and the individual's perception of it, about "going inside" as he called it (which is the Hopi way to describe meditation). He creates or uses spaces in the land; craters or Kiva. The viewer, experiencing light in those spaces, is introduced to an aspect of it, not necessarily perceptible elsewhere. "Going into the space is like going into yourself; the light you see reveals yourself". Mr Turrell points out that light from stars, captured in one of his kivas is unique and may have been travelling across space for thousands of years. Perhaps witnessing a small slice of the sky gives it an intensity. Experiencing his work facilitates a connection between the viewer and the cosmos.

Coming soon: (more on) the work of Mark Rothko (trust me, it is relevant).