As the title suggests, so forth.
Jake Peralta and Taking Joy in Life
I was watching an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine with The Engineer, in tribute to the late Andre Braugher, when Captain Holt roared “You took the wrong fluffy boy!!!” amidst an outrageous fight sequence with the dognapper. As Jake looked on in amazement, and then got giddy when Holt revealed he had been the subject of a classic 1980s action movie, The Engineer noted, “I know he’s not the most serious character, but few people in movies or television seem to take as much joy in life as Jake Peralta does.” Very few. In fact the only one that immediately springs to mind is Ferris Bueller. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So, after doing it at the end of January and being frozen solid in the process, I resolved that I would personally take joy in life by getting a latte and black pudding sausage roll from the Tram Cafe, and savouring them on a park bench in the Iveagh Gardens, in better weather. And, after months of anticipation, the weather had turned, and I found myself off work early and able to execute my plan. The heart of Dublin, not too many people around, the weather fine but with a chill in the stronger breezes. A piquant, filling black pudding sausage roll with a side of relish. Flakey, but not too flakey. A warm, delicious latte. Milky, but not diluting the coffee to nothing. And nature. This is taking joy in life. Emptying your mind of worries and concerns. Not time-travelling into the past and the future to recriminate and fret. Just being present. Seagulls above. A vibrant blue sky. A large green tree nearby. Life moves pretty fast. Sometimes you need to slow right down to appreciate it.
Baillie Gifford Divests…
Just not of what Fossil Free Books wanted it to… In all of this I thought, oddly enough, of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip when advertisers flee a controversial sketch, and Jordan announces that when the episode is a success and they want back in afterwards they’ll be charged more – “We’re going to become the first network to charge a coward’s fee”. The Hay book festival and then the Edinburgh book festival cancelled their sponsorship from Baillie Gifford, in the latter case explicitly stating that the bullying from Fossil Free Books had become intolerable. It’s hard to square how people can so smugly state that they are on the high moral ground when their preferred tactics are vicious bullying. But then what else could one expect from a group that considers owning shares in Meta to be an act of Zionism, and then asks people to follow them on Instagram? Baillie Gifford called Fossil Free Books bluff in this case. They divested alright, but not of shares in whatever, but of all their literary festival sponsorships. And now even the Guardian has turned on Fossil Free Books for their wanton cultural vandalism. Nobody seemed willing to stand up to these bullies. If speakers drop out waving their virtue above their heads, replace them with other speakers. If protestors appear to disrupt proceedings, have them arrested and prosecute them for unrepentant and very public harassment. It all becomes a bit Benjamin Franklin, those trading liberty for security being deserving of neither. The book festivals decided to placate bullies, rather than say they were there expressly to facilitate discussion of ideas and if Fossil Free Books could stop shouting they’d be welcome to speak too, and now there may well be no book festivals in Britain next summer.
Impossibly Cinematic Shots
Season 4 of Mission: Impossible has just kicked off on Legend, with Leonard Nimoy taking the master of disguise place previously occupied by Martin Landau. At one point I thought the curious instrumentation was very Man from UNCLE-y, and lo Gerald Fried, who also worked on that show, had been scoring the episode. Having watched reruns of both shows relatively recently, I’ve started to wonder about the cinematic qualities of Mission: Impossible. This isn’t to understate the cinematography and direction of The Man from UNCLE. The first season, shot in glorious stark black and white, features episodes directed with brio by Richard Donner. And there are glorious practical stunts and showy camera shots aplenty in the three colour seasons thereafter. Yet with Mission: Impossible I have found myself recording my television and sending clips on WhatsApp to the Film Editor asking, what is this? And getting answers that are well impressed at what they are doing in 1969. In the celebrated episode ‘The Town’ where Jim Phelps falls victim to a town of fifth columnists, the villains making their way to Los Angeles are photographed on the highway in a zoom in-dolly out Vertigo effect, but it seems that the dolly-out is a camera on a moving car that speeds up. Mind. Blown. Then when Cinnamon needs to sow discord at a casino the camera does elaborate pans over the surface of a blackjack table. And at the start of the episode it had followed dice being brought back up a green baize table to Mr Phelps to throw them again. Tiny camera? This is 1969. These shots would be impressive now.
Talking Movies 