September 2003 Archives

I was reading Euan writing about Koyaanisqatsi and thought of my friend Igor, who gave me both Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi to me for my birthday. I intended to comment about the film on Euan's weblog, either via a comment or trackback, but the moment passed.
Later I was reading Ant writing about the thoughts of Alice and Paula on the lack of attribution to those who do not have a web presence, it struck me that this was maybe the reason I'd not commented on Euan's blog. There is a very insular thing going on in the weblog culture, a strong in group feeling of attribution if there is someone to link to and almost denial if not.
It feels odd to see someone's name on a site without a hyperlink around it and mentioning someone who has a weblog and not citing them feels wrong too. Yet attribution to those people who have had the original idea is important, as that way you can ensure dialog with the originator, not the messenger. Trackback is a delightful tool, but deeply insular to MT, a gateway to a spam protected email might be a solution, so that I can trackback ping Alice and Paula via Ant's blog, so that I can communicate with them without having to know their email addresses already.

On Sunday night the BBC broadcast a hard hitting and revealing Panorama programme about the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq. They followed a group of American troops from their initial confident assignments in Baghdad through the summer taking in house to house raids and several violent days of combat. The journalists get very close to the action and ask some surprisingly direct questions of the American military.
There are some scenes that are very hard to take, like the one of the interview of the wounded Iraqi youth, who is suspected of ambushing US soldiers. The Major who leads the interview opens by making an offer of medical care if he talks and not offering it if he does not. It is quite an offhand comment, that "things will go badly" for him if he does not talk and probably more chilling for that.
You do gain a sense that there are people really trying amongst the US Army, they feature one Captain particularily, but Paul Bremer comes out of the programme as not really being prepared to see the reality that the programme team experience at street level. UN Special Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello is also interviewed in the programme, in fact 48 hours before he is killed in a car bomb. He speaks very clearly and lucidly about what needs to happen in Baghdad. Simply and clearly saying that armies do not make police forces. His death is a very great loss to the future of Iraq.
The tv programme is on the BBC website, most likely until Sunday. If you are interested in what is happening in Iraq now, then I strongly urge you to watch it, it is in RealPlayer format.

Lucy's mum sent this cutting from The Guardian letters page from March.

An important aspect of protest is the recognition that so often it changes little, if anything at all. Ultimately protest must not be solely dependent on the necessity of success. It is also about keeping alive qualities that can die if we keep silent and submit. It enables us to carry within us our hope, as well as our despair. It is about endurance and our desire not to see ourselves reduced by the actions of our fellow human beings.

Pretty much stands on its own and if it struck a cord with you then there is a protest this Saturday.

The BBC are reporting that there no WMD have been found in Iraq and highlighting the high stakes that Tony Blair is now playing for. The timing of this leak from the Iraq Survey Group could not have been more apt, on the anniversary of that dossier, with the 45 minute claim, which the Hutton inquiry are picking over in such detail.
I find the whole idea that the UK went to war on a tissue of lies quite distasteful, but then Tony likes getting his troops out and playing soldier. Thousands of people have died in Iraq and the war has cost billions of pounds worldwide. The major international organisations of the world have suffered a great setback, as once again American foreign policy runs the world.
It is difficult to justify this war when you look at the destabalization that has occured in that area, the only benefit seems to have been the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, but the cost is difficult to stomach.
This Saturday there is a worldwide protest against the war, if you marched in February, then now the case for protest is so much stronger, we were misled and thousands have died as a result. Show that you want a government that treats its citizens with respect and is prepared to tell the truth.

Today is international talk like a pirate day, they have a quite humorous website to promote the event. I remembered that on the good ship flambingo there was a reference to a tome of nautical lore.
so avast your deck scrubbing and have some grog, before I send you to the bilges, you scruvy deck rats...

Vic prompted me to search out the meaning of the satisfying word petrichor and in doing so I discovered the interesting Weird Words website. Hours of entertainmen and enlightenment. I've used gobos and of course i like a bit of shenanigans.

UPDATE: the DVD of Belleville Rendez-vous is available from amazon.co.uk on pre-order, released on the 26th January.

This delightful and bizarre animated french film is one of the best I have seen this year. Belleville Rendezvous, originally released as Les Triplettes de Belleville in France is an exploration of the realtionship between a child and his grandmother. It is also a looney adventure with fantasty scenes of huge cities, shoes that eat people and dogs that dream.
The soundtrack is great fun too. Lastly the website has a storyboard, games to play and musical postcard to send. It is a good movie tie-in site, really giving the feeling of the film, without completely giving away the plot.

This November, Lucy and I are off to the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. It is happening mainly over the weekend of the 15th and 16th, though it is easier to ring the box office to buy tickets rather than using the website.
It should be an interesting couple of days, several thousand mountaineers, lots of films and talks on climbs in mountain ranges around the world. The highlights are the premier of the film of Joe Simpson's book Touching the Void and a series of lectures on the 50th anniversary of the ascent of Everest. I'm quite excited by the prospect and hope that it will be a fun weekend, I'll even try to moblog it, maybe.

So last week the doubts that we all had about the effects of going to war were made public and they came from the Intelligence and Security Committee of all places. Tony Blair made his personal judgement that it was right to go to war against advice that it might make the region more unstable. More on the Hutton Inquiry BBC, The Guardian and a good article in the Independent, with an interesting one year on viewpoint on the WMD report.
We have been misled and ignored over the war on Iraq, later this month there is a worldwide protest happening on the 27th September, a Stop the War march in London. The theme of this is "no more war, no more lies". People are still dying in Iraq, the US still think that it is their war and they can do as they please. It probably is about oil, possible Iraq to Israel pipeline.
It is important that the people who were against the war earlier in the year speak out now and show that it is not okay that the USA did what it did, the international organisations of the world need to see that there is worldwide support for collective action and opposition to unilateral warfare.

Near my work several Caffè Nero have acquired Sip and Surf Wifi access points, now this is quite tempting, but I went on Friday and just didn't find the justification to go online. Simon Waldman has been discussing the slow growth of Wifi in the UK and points out my perfect scenario, free wifi with purchase. This is available in the UK, in places like Benugo, but sadly there is not one near me.
So I am left in a dilemma, my personal laptop I can't connect to the BBC network, yet I can blog from work, I can use webmail too, so there is no real reason to pay for internet access. It would just be nice, but probably not 20 quid a month nice and at £5 per day for a one off access I'd not even consider that.
Wifi is a deeply tempting way to access the internet, but seems to be destined to stay a home phenomen for the time being. Certainly I don't think that there are sufficient people like myself, who might pay to get serendipituous access to the internet. I can usually wait til I get home or go back to the office. Who else carries a laptop daily, students maybe, but 20 quid a month is quite a bit of money, on top of mobile phone and home internet access bills. Passing trade is not enough of a traffic provider.
So maybe cafes should take the lead from Benugo and offer free Wifi like they offer free sugar, certainly the cost per month of running a Wifi access point is not great. If you try to scale it though it becomes a cost sink and you end up charging the fees that Sip and Surf want to charge. The title for this article comes from the news that MacDonalds are going to offer Wifi access with every happy meal. It is a way to get people into the cafe, I'd buy a second drink after eating my food.
I suppose none of this is terribly original and has been said on Wifinetnews etc many times before. My realisation on Friday was personal, if a cafe near Bush House offered free wifi with purchase I'd have lunch there a couple of times a week and I'm sure that there are many people like me.
UPDATE: I've since discovered that this is the title that Wired also used for this article, which is linked in a comment from Simon Waldman's article above. the Wired piece, by Paul Boutin, covers much of the same ground, though from a US angle. I didn't conciously nick the title, but was also surprised to read the Wired article today, I must have scanned it last week.

Fascinating article in the Observer today about a new film to be released on the eve of the Labour party conference. It is called The Deal and will be on Channel 4 on the 28th September at 9pm.
The film traces the history of the rise of new labour seen from the 1992 defeat to more recent events and is a lovely look back at what was and is now, the background of the Hutton enquiry just gives it sharper relief. A mixture of archive footage and a fictionaly portrayal bring the tension between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to live, it centers around the fascinating question of what was the deal made between the two.

I'm never sure why people say they do not like lamb. It is truely one of the best tasting meats. The depth of flavour certainly can match good beef and is easily better than chicken or pork.
Maybe it is because of mint sauce, that insipid green goo, a far cry from the fresh plant. Lamb is best in a french style, with rosemary, garlic and anchovy.
Take a leg of lamb, about 250g to 400 per person depending on how hungry you are. Using a sharp knife make several incisions in the skin side of the meat, the white fatty bit. Around a dozen in a piece for two people and then take your finger and push it right into each hole, get at least your finger tip inside, ideally to the second knuckle. The reason for this slightly cold and a bit icky task is to allow you to pack more of the rosemary, garlic and anchovy to flavour the meat.
Cut the garlic into pieces an inch or so long and a couple of matchsticks thick, chop the anchovy into bits about half an inch long and for the rosemary snap it into lengths of around 1-2 inches. Having assembled your flavouring ingredients put the anchovy into each hole first, then some garlic and finally some rosemary, some of which will poke out, but this doesn't matter. I have not said how much of these too use, as it depends on the bit of meat you have, but a small handful of rosemary, say 3-4 branches, two big cloves or garlic and a couple of anchovy fillets will be fine for two people. Stuff it until some pops out from another hole, you really can use a lot more than you think.
Do take care though when making the incisions not too allow them to intersect, the meat will hold together better if you keep the holes roughly parallel to one another. If there is fat on the bottom of the meat, trim it off and use a bit of rosemary to pin it to the top of the joint, as this will help keep it moist, see picture.
The instructions on lamb are often for medium, so around 25 minutes per pound/500g plus 10-15 minutes should give you medium rare at 190°C. Do leave it to rest for 10 minutes, the meat relaxes and releases some juices, which makes carving easier.



The other thing I don't get is bisto and fake gravy. Once you have roasted the above, you'll have a mixture of meat juices and some fat in the bottom of the tin. Add the rest of the juices from the rested meat, plus half a glass of the wine you are drinking and about the same amount of water. Add a bit of plain flour and stir and reduce, the gravy will darken a bit and become glossy. Warm a jug and decant into it, you can carefully pour off the fat first, as it floats if you are feeling healthy.

Nigel Slater says in the Observer Food Monthly today, "The British are not passionate cooks. We are a nation of recipe followers.".
I think he is largely right, given the fare for sale in the shops. So many ready meals and non-cooking meals, that often take as long to make as food from plain ingredients. Personally I try to take inspiration from recipes and not slavishly follow. I prefer authors who guide and hint rather than state step by step. Cookery is not a set of instructions, it is an indication of what to do given the ingredients, your tools and what you want to eat. People I like a lot are Elizabeth David, Nigel Slater, Simon Hopkinson and Richard Whittington, not you will note Delia...
Nigel Slater's autobiography is being syndicated in the Observer, the section linked above is a bit sad and somewhat bizarre, his book Toast is out in mid-september.

This my favourite season for cookery, lots of fruit and vegetable in season and the darker evenings give you an excuse to eat more. Summer is too much like assembly with the odd weather dependent barbeque for variety. Autumn gives you the excuse to spend the afternoon in the kitchen quietly chopping and letting things bubble and reduce. So bring on the daubes and the stews, the tarts and the pies, warm satisfying cookery to spend some time over and enjoy.

I'm back now in London and feeling more hemmed in and intruded upon. Cities are strange places. I've spent the bulk of the previous week in the middle of the French Alps in the Ecrins, in a summer only village called La Berarde. About 40-50 people live there in the summer and only one in the winter, though others stay on too. It was also the very end of the season, so really quiet.
The difference between that sense of emptiness and the competitive, hectic noisy and smelly city life is great.
I still quite like cities, even London, but being this crowded makes people snap at one another.
Against that I doubt I could live somewhere like La Berarde all year round, I've become too used to my comforts and culture. I like my cinema, my wide range of restaurants, the diversity and quality of the food, the bars and the shopping.
So like many tourists it is the change of states that makes one notice things, be it the ice on the glacier or the chewing gum on the Strand.