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Grant
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I agree with you about Deborah Cohen. The only good-looking Jewish presenter they've ever had on Newsnight was Michal Levin. Remember her, phwoar ?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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In what sense do you agree with me?
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Grant
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That she's not kosher
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I inferred (or implied, I always get those two wrong) no such thing.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Rafiki (Film 4)
Wanuri Kahiu's drama was the first Kenyan film to feature at the Cannes Film Festival - and was then promptly banned for 'promoting lesbianism' in its home country Guardian |
Everything I hate about the artsy-fartsy world. I'm all in favour of lesbian films if that's your bag but since it definitely isn't Kenya's bag why on earth would you make a film about it with the very first offering out of the blocks? I expect the second one will be a sensitive portrayal of a young vegan taking on his Masai elders. Actually that's not bad. You can put that one behind your ear for later, Wanuri.
Come to think about it though, it wouldn't have got into Cannes if it wasn't about lesbianism or somesuch. Yes, a trickier exercise all round than I gave it credit. Pretending you're from Kenya was a shrewd move too, I may nick that one for my next book. M J Uhuru-Mazda.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Art of Persia (BBC4)
Well, we're two-thirds the way through and dear old Samira has reached the eleventh century. I wonder if the Iranians, making a series about British art, would spend two-thirds of the air time reaching the Norman Conquest. Mind you, in politics they've just about reached Henry II vs Thomas à Becket with Becket well on top so rather us than them.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The Black Panthers (BBC4 - Storyville)
Highly apposite in these times when blacks are making such large but ultimately pointless waves. Not that 'blacks' is now the desired term, but we can hardly take our usual course and follow American fashion-etymology with 'African-Americans'. Though, I suppose, West Indians literally are. But our blacks in turn take their cue from their American brothers so it behoves us (as only they say) to see where the Americans went wrong.
Since there if not here, blacks form a significant minority numbers-wise they should obviously have formed a separate single-issue political party, something along the lines of Irish, Scottish and Welsh Nationalists. Then, at every turn, at every election, to every candidate they simply say, "OK, abolish choke holds and you get our seven per cent" or whatever it is. As America, like all mature democracies, constantly teeters on the edge between two parties, this will more likely than not lead to "OK, will do. Roger and in." But they haven't. There is a 'Black Caucus' in Congress but with blacks choosing to be a minor appendage of the Democratic Party ('Not the party of Lincoln', as they don't put it) this will always be a futile strategy.
They could maybe have got there with the Black Panther Party but J Edgar Hoover chose to view this as a dangerously revolutionary threat to the American Way and had no difficulty in suppressing them. A disastrous policy since in democracies people will always find a way to make their voices heard, if necessary in other, more disagreeable ways. One is constantly surprised at black moderation. If they'd only been white the streets would be running in blood by now.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Art of Persia (BBC4)
Well, we're two-thirds the way through and dear old Samira has reached the eleventh century |
The second programme ends with Samira announcing 'after 500 years the Persians made an incredible comeback'. It's as if the intervening five hundred years never took place.
The oldest edition of Iran's national epic, the Shahnameh, is said to be c. 1438, the period when Persian workshops were churning out manuscripts. The British Library also has a copy of the Shahnameh designated 'fifteenth-century' though according to its provenance this is debatable
The provenance of the manuscript is unknown before it was acquired at some point in the nineteenth century by Jules Mohl (d. 1876) the editor and translator of the Shahnama into French. He does not mention where he acquired it. |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One certainly got the impression that very little was having to be stretched to cover aeons of history. I mean the art though the program required its fair share of bazaar longueurs too. This is all quite apart from the fact that every artist seemed intent on capturing the glories of the distant past or, in the case of Islamic art, the recent but immortal past.
A close relative of mine lived for a time in Iran and reported that there was an air of bogosity about everything since the Iranians combined a considerable degree of incompetence with a considerable over-estimation of their own qualities. Just the men of course, he was not permitted to see much of Iranian women.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I was just abut to pay this month's Virgin cable bill when a small voice said, "See if you can get a Sky Sports rebate now football's back and it doesn't apply." So I went through the usual hoops (about three hours though not all of it waiting for 'Thamberi' to reply on the Live Chat feature that has replaced talking people) and got £180 back. Worth it? Not sure, but I suppose so.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You are all ordered to watch the new Sky Documentaries channel so you can become a polymath like me. Only then will you be able to afford the leisure time to watch back-to-back-to-back-to-back episodes of seventies vintage Van der Valk.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A whole new radio station starts today, Times Radio. Although Sky News is a helluvalot better than BBC News, this is the way the Guardian greets this reasonably seismic event
A healthy plurality of media can only be a good thing although if you were looking for a serious speech-radio rival to Radio 4, a Rupert Murdoch-funded network might not seem all that appealing. |
When are they going to stop this ludicrous mean-spiritedness? Rejoice! And come on, Virgin, why isn't it on my thousand channel digibox? Are you in competition with Rupe as well? Yes, but I'm not, am I?
PS It says Crystal Palace vs Burnley is on Amazon Video Prime 'free-to-air' tonight. What's this when it's at home? I wish they wouldn't keep bombarding us with new media.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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What's our policy on watching fifties Robin Hood, William Tell, Ivanhoe, Lancelot, the Buccaneers and Francis Drake? I'm starting off watching them ironically and seeing how it goes. No Hiding Place is out though, no question. I didn't get past Raymond Huntley's moustache.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Question of the Week
How many 24-hour news channels are there in India?
a) none -- like we used to have
b) one -- the official Radio of India, like we might have had
c) two -- the official one and the commercial one, like we started off having
d) three -- like we have now with Al-Jazeera added into the mix
e) more than four hundred and twenty-five, like we could have if we were as serious about it as the Indians.
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