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Archive for July, 2009

Deconstructing Tarzan

Posted in Going Out, Thinking, tagged , , , , on July 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »

When Edgar Rice Burroughs was 35, he decided to try his hand at pulp fiction. He’d already been a soldier, a railway policeman and a pencil sharpener wholesaler. Inspired by the pulp magazines in which his pencil sharpeners were advertised, he concluded that he could write stories “just as entertaining, and probably a whole lot [...]

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Pre-pre-pre trailer: Fair Game

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

In terms of telling complex stories to mass audiences, film is the most effective communication medium we have. So I’m pretty excited about this new film: Fair Game will document the Valerie Plame affair. It’s a story that truly deserves to be immortalised on celluloid, providing an astonishing insight into the depth of iniquity reached [...]

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Michael Sandel on markets and the common good

Posted in Listening, tagged , , on July 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

The last of this year’s Reith lectures by Michael Sandel, professor of government at Harvard University, is fascinating and incisive, going straight to the heart of the dilemma facing our political leaders today: how to learn from the financial crisis and find a new way of governing. Sandel manages to make his analysis accessible while instructive; [...]

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Trailer of the Week: The Hurt Locker

Posted in Watching, tagged , , , on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Bomb disposal scenes are a surefire shortcut to suspense. Doom-laden while at the same time full of hope; engrossing but maddeningly tense. The pared-down simplicity of the narrative – after all, there are only two possible endings when a bomb is within inches of your protagonist – is easy for audiences to grasp and even [...]

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