Champion Charlie Brown!

Charlie Brown, created by Charles Schultz, is the USA's most profound and simple antidote to the culture of competitiveness. Charlie Brown's genesis was as a single strip cartoon for Sunday newspapers. His creator continued producing these witty, simplistic yet thoughtful stories told completely from the point of view of children up until his death. Along the way these iconic little stories inspired numerous TV specials, series and feature films. This was the first feature film outing for him and the rest of the "Peanuts", and it stands up today, in a time of 3D and adult animation, as a wonderful comment on "every kid in every town".

The film focuses completely on the crux of Charlie Brown: his perpetual failing. From the very beginning Charlie Brown fails at everything whether it is being able to spot impressive images in clouds, baseball games, flying kites, floating boats in a bath or even playing noughts and crosses in the dirt. He can't even win an argument to have the dandelions removed from his baseball pitcher's mound. Matters are not made better when his best friend sister's psychiatric service decides the best way to treat him for his lack of self esteem is to project all his faults onto a screen via a slideshow! His best friend, Linus, decides that the only way for Charlie Brown to gain confidence is to win at something. Against the jeers of his fellow schoolmates he decides to enter the class spelling competition. However, success might offer more unforeseen problems that make his failures seem small by comparison...

All Change!

Professor Stephen R. Covey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"People can't live with change if there's not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value."

Stephen R. Covey

In recent years I have found that I have come almost diametrically in opposition to the views I once held on a lot of self-help.  It is not good enough to simply apply positive thinking and sometimes it can be outright dangerous to do so. A lot of self-help is over-marketed snake oil mysticism tangled up with a type of smiley faced bullying and it has seeped into many aspects of our culture. Having said that, I am not one to completely dismiss everything that has been said by all these self-appointed gurus. When I first started reading into the gaping flaws of psychoanalysis it did not lead me to consign my copy of Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" to the bonfire. Rather I looked more into his personal philosophy and certain observations on human nature that I feel do stand up to scrutiny. I was less drawn into his logotherapy, but that is a topic for another day. Likewise, I found myself looking back over the work of Stephen R. Covey, a giant in the motivational field who is often listed alongside the likes of Tony Robbins (a regular target of all self-help critics), and I have to say a lot of what Covey has to say is still pretty sound stuff.

Showing up

“If today was the day you were finally going to win, did you show up?”

-          Daniel Waldschmidt

The above quote was randomly selected on my email provider. It is an interesting mutation of a statement attributed to the comedian/actor/director Woody Allen in 1977 by his partner Susan Braudy, “80 per cent of life is turning up”. In 1989 Allen discussed this attribution, correcting to be something more specific: 

Restrained Twist on the Cuckoo Thriller?

I guess I have been interested in the concept of cuckoo stories since I first studied Emily Bronte's only novel, "Wuthering Heights", for my English Literature A level many years ago. The novel's driven Byronic hero, Heathcliffe, was uncharacteristically attractive compared to many cuckoos in fiction. Typically they are malignant spirits that seek to usurp the order of a loving family and often use tactics such as deception, intrigue and accumulating violence. This eventually concludes with a siege-like situation with our sympathetic heroes fending off the antagonistic cuckoo in a life and death struggle. In these respects, "Chloe", the subject of the below review differs quite a lot from the norm...

Vigilante Thriller with Pedigree? - Review of the Brave One

Cover of The Brave One [Blu-ray]

 Plot:

Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is an outspoken radio host. Her expressive opinions on her late night show have recently been focusing on the decay of her neighbourhood. One night she and her partner are victims of a vicious and unprovoked assault. Both are serious injured with only Erica surviving the attack. Struck by fear, she illegally purchases a gun. Finding herself in another violent incident she uses it and begins a life as a vigilante. Meanwhile, Detective Sean Mercer (Terence Howard) is appalled by the corruption he sees around him...

Review:

I always find it interesting to see what a very high calibre and respected artist can do with a simple and sensationalist genre. The last 15 years or so have seen an increasing number of writers, directors and actors decide to see what they can do with a populist medium. I would like to think that they were all inspired to do this in the same artistic vein that Alfred Hitchcock, considered by many to be history’s greatest director, decided to tackle a horror with “Psycho”. However, I cannot see Wilhelm Defoe and

Behold... Vulvatron!

I was delighted to hear that the Thrash Metal band, Gwar, announced Vulvatron (played by Kim Dylla) as their new front-woman. Never a band to take themselves too seriously, Gwar took horror rock theatrics, popularized by the great Alice Cooper, to a new and different mutation. They were ahead of Death Metal, Black Metal and Nu Metal, effectively sending up the genre before it had had a chance to take itself seriously. They were never really a brand of Thrash Metal I especially liked from a musical perspective, but I loved their imaginative live sets and the sheer audacity of their ideas. The 1980s were a time when the mainstream ignored the beautifully ornery reaction to 1970s rock stage shows presented by punk rock, quickly developing into corporate rock and glam metal. Gwar rode these over the top theatrics into a crazy mythology of science fiction, horror and fantasy, attacking media censorship and revelling in the fun. They were never a band's band in the respect that their line-up has been a consistently revolving array of artists, including those who work diligently on the bands costumes, staging and SFX. However, I like the fact that despite delivering interviews in character they refreshingly admit they are playing parts. This makes a change from many rock stars (including some of my favourites) who think they are method actors and get absorbed into their manufactured persona. 

Thomas Cromwell Revised

Portrait of Thomas Cromwell. New York, Frick Collection. Oak panel, 76 x 61 cm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"The ambitious have no friends" - Brian Taggert and Faustus Buck

Thomas Cromwell seems modelled for the role of the devious and manipulative power behind the throne. He is depicted as a ruthless and power-hungry man of ambition who destroyed several notable figures on his ascent to the position as Henry VIII's chief minister. Virtually every portrait I have seen of the man is unflattering. He scowls from his seated position with cold eyes over a long and sharp nose. Danny Webb's depiction of the character in the TV series, "Henry VIII",  takes this image and runs with it in perfect style. He is seen as a scheming and overly-ambitious man. Yet his latest biography challenges this view, presenting a man who was loyal to his family and loved by the common people. He was the most hated man in England, but this may have been as much to do with the influence of his aristocratic enemies, led by Duke of Norfolk as it was to do with his ruthlessness.