Semantic Wobble

Testing with crawling

2006-01-09T18:44:00.000Z

I want to run a test to see of linking out from this site boosts PageRank for another site, and means that some pages start to get crawled by Google et al, as they seem not to be being crawled at present.So for the Explore Living website, a link to a section all about the new residential housing division, new homes from Explore Living, careers with explore living in residential housing, let's see

Another reason to say "Kidman, a star?"

2005-09-24T20:21:00.000+01:00

"Bewitched", personally I was bemused today, and will somebody tell Will Ferrell to be more Elf and Melinda, Melinda and much much less Anchorman, Old School and Wedding Crashers - when he did the "Yikes..." thing, I was thinking "That's you, that is Ferrell!" (apologies to the Mary Whitehouse Experience). Even worse was the inclusion of Steve Carell - personally I'm going to avoid any movie with

Batman Begins...to get better

2005-06-21T18:17:00.000+01:00

I really enjoyed "Batman Begins". As a bit of a batfan - with more of an emphasis on the Dark Knight of Frank Miller and Alan Moore than the sixties "POW" style - I enjoyed the stressing of the mythological and personal histories. I was also delighted that the Scarecrow was the villain (for the most part, and not wanting to give too much away) as I've always found him a cut-above, what with his

Plitvice Lakes

2005-06-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

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Taking the Sith...

2005-05-23T20:53:00.000+01:00

...extracting urine or large wodges of cash via marketing? I'm not a Star Wars devotee, but have always remembered my five-year-old impressions at the cinema as well as the Darth Vader poster from The Empire Strikes Back that would scare me witless when the lights went out. Well, I was not impressed by Episode 1 with that blasted Binks thing, but thought that Episode 2 brought back some of the

Eastern Europe or Central Europe?

2005-05-19T20:15:00.000+01:00

I'm not really sure what we're supposed to say now (where is Eastern Europe if Hungary is Central Europe?)...anyhow...I'm just back from a road-trip holiday with my wife in Hungary and Croatia, and was really surprised at how like "Western" European cities the Eastern European cities like Budapest actually feel. Munich and Geneva don't feel too different, and it's not just the Art Nouveau

What's worth watching at the moment?

2005-04-16T12:55:00.000+01:00

Not a lot if the cinemas anything to go by. The only film I've thought a cut above the rest recently was The Machinist, but then Christian Bale seems to pick his films well (and should embody the Dark Knight very nicely). The film made me think of Kafka's short story the Hungerkunstler. Constantine was awful, but enjoyable trash - Keanu dialling in a performance again (quite how Rachel Weisz

Hair and Japanese Films

2005-04-16T12:29:00.000+01:00

I don't know if this is a recent thing or not - but watching some trailers for Asian films on Tartan DVD the other night, I noticed a lot of horror films where female black hair (usually wet) is being used to create an aura of terror. I'm obviously thinking of the Ring cycle in particular, but also of The Grudge and others as well...I'm well aware of some of the symbolism of male hair

Sideways

2005-02-08T18:15:00.000Z

Sideways was a great pleasure - kind of like the good character films from the 70s I remember watching on TV when I was younger (with less nudity obviously) - and weirdly worked in a double bill with Meet the Fockers, which was fun if less funny than expected and another opportunity for Dustin Hoffman to ham it up. I can't remember what films are up for the Oscars, but of the BAFTA nominations

Birth...Death!

2004-11-06T11:33:00.000Z

Went for a double-bill last night, the Hollywood The Grudge remake and Kidman in and Bacall inBirth. Neither film was that great. The Grudge was competent with a few shock moments - I must confess to not having seen the original, but this seemed derivative of Amityville, Poltergeist, The Exorcist and - of course - Ring. Not sure that the story really amounted to much as it was just driven by the

Tribute to John Peel

2004-10-26T21:38:00.000+01:00

This is just a brief tribute to the late great broadcaster, John Peel - always enjoyable to listen to or to watch, whether it was on Radio 1, Radio 4 or the TV - one of the few British greats.

Wedding Photos (First batch) - Thanks Kim!

2004-10-16T10:14:00.000+01:00

I have finally got around to posting a few photos of our wedding in August. First of all, huge thanks must go to Kim for all his photographic efforts, skill, and dare I say sartorial elegance. All the photographs (of which this is only a small selection) bring back memories of a very happy (and sunny!) day. Click on the photos to view a bigger version, and click on Comments to leave a comment!

Kill Bill...Why?...I like David Carradine.

2004-10-14T19:39:00.000+01:00

I finally got around to watching Kill Bill Vol. 1 (I went about the whole Kill Bill thing back-to-front) after having been intrigued, but a bit disappointed by the second volume. I know it's a bit weird to watch them backwards as it were, but I'm glad I did, as I appreciated the fun, hack n'slash homages to Asian chopsocky and samurai cinema in vol 1 all the more for the languid pace of the

See(n) Saw

2004-10-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

We went to see Saw at the weekend, and it was entertaining in a Seven way with a bit of added gore. It was fun seeing Cary Elwes not in tights - but I'm not sure I really understand why the killer was so obsessed with knocking off (or in one [maybe two] case(s) not knocking off) his particular victims, nor do I understand why the "jigsaw" aspect was so abruptly dropped. Anyway, it was fun and

Mens sana photo

2004-09-30T18:55:00.000+01:00

I thought that this disreputable photo of myself would serve as a good illustration to the mens sana piece, and would test out Hello Undefeated and healthy (if unshaven)

Mens sana...

2004-09-30T18:29:00.000+01:00

I'm chuffed owing to what seem to me like good cholesterol and blood pressure readings today - 4.8 and 146/84 both seem as though they're in the healthy/normal bracket, so I can give the old torso a slap on the back for a job well done!

Update

2004-09-18T18:14:00.000+01:00

Because we have been away getting married, I haven't had the chance to update the blog with anything interesting: movies or otherwise. So I thought I'd zip through a quick round-up of movies over the past week to get cracking with posting again. Buying a big bag of sweeties was a bad idea when going to see Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me. This film was a bit like Fastfood Nation-lite, and

King Arthur

2004-08-24T18:49:00.000+01:00

...was no Excalibur, but enjoyable fun, and at least seemed vaguely founded in the alleged real beginnings of Arthurian mythology with the action taking place at Mons Bodonis. Still not sure what I think of Keira Knightley - OK in Bend It Like Beckham, routine in The Hole, OK in KA, feisty in Pirates of the Caribbean (more so than an insipid Orlando Bloom), not really in Love Actually that much.

Films

2004-08-17T19:04:00.000+01:00

Or fil-ems as everyone used to say at my Primary School in Yorkshire. Before Sunset was perfect as a follow-up to Before Sunrise - I will not comment any more. Another must see, surprisingly is The Bourne Supremacy: I must confess that I haven't seen the first in the series, but this sequel was spot-on - a garotting scene a bit like Marathon Man, a washed-out, beat-up feel like a sixties spy

The "Angus" Diet

2004-08-17T18:57:00.000+01:00

Much as it may malign me to say so, the "Angus Diet" site from Burger King is an inspired piece of Atkins rip-off, and to be fair to BK, a bit of ritual self-humiliation at the same time (as burger joints have profited from the low-carb Atkins acolytes and South Beachers). Harry Enfield displays the right amount of swiss cheese (dare I say "Swiss Tony" cheese?) to go with the burgers. The only

Stepford Wives Remake Revisited

2004-08-02T16:41:00.000+01:00

Obviously, I only went to see this in the interests of science (and because it was a Sunday evening): I still hold my prejudices, but it was slightly better than I expected. The first half is a lightly amusing comedy about not fitting into a community along with the rising suspicion that the wives of Stepford, Connecticut are robots. From then on, it was a laughable descent into some hinterland

Webslinger

2004-07-26T18:06:00.000+01:00

I didn't make the Linklater film, so popped along to watch Sam Raimi's Spiderman 2, which was cracking good fun, and unlike its predecessor, had a decent enough ending. The funny thing about both films is that I've enjoyed the Peter Parker bits much more than the Spidey action. It was nice to see Alfred Molina as a villain - I've liked him ever since seeing Prick Up Your Ears and a TV drama

Taming of the Shrew

2004-07-25T16:26:00.000+01:00

Severine and I went to see our friend Candice in The Taming of the Shrew in Glasgow Botanical Gardens (Bard in the Botanics) along with our Friend Tanya. The play was good fun - this from someone who is generally resistant to Shakespeare's comedies (I like a good tragedy, me) - although the weather was bitterly cold. Outdoor theatre is all very well, but the British )(and more specifically,

Linklater Rocks!

2004-07-25T15:33:00.000+01:00

I'm really looking forward to seeing Before Sunset. I loved the first film (and never understood the Lost In Translation fuss, when this film had done it so much better nearly ten years previous), as well as Slacker, Dazed and Confused and School of Rock (which made me feel ten again). From what I've read of the critics, it won't let me down...

Stepford Wives Remake

2004-07-24T13:37:00.000+01:00

I was reading The Guide in The Guardian this morning, and it said that: "The Stepford Wives continues the long and hallowed tradition of taking movies that were not particularly good in the first place and remaking them into films that are atrocious." Now, I'm no fan of Nanette Newman (anyone remember the Fairy adverts?), and of course there are better Ira Levin novels and adaptations, notably

Silly games

2004-07-23T19:03:00.000+01:00

Via my mate Gary Waterston, here's a link to some daft Flash games, that have probably been doing the rounds for centuries, but which I've only just discovered. I like Pingu Extreme, but find the Bunny Breeder infuriating.

What's a wobble, and why's it semantic?

2004-07-23T18:34:00.000+01:00

This blog is going to be for anything that I fee like writing that doesn't fit on my slightly more formal Information Blog which has been running for a while now, and talks about information-related matters. Hopefully this blog will be about books, films, food, Glasgow and other things I like, as well as anything that irritates the beejesus out of me. Anyway, as a sort of Colophon, "Semantic