Wikipediaphile: Alfred Wintle

Alfred Wintle

Stop dying at once and when you get up, get your bloody hair cut!

Wintle to Trooper Cedric Mays (Royal Dragoons), who recovered and lived to the age of 95.

Tip o’ the titfer: ITTODBTBIA

THE MOST DANGEROUS PODCAST IN BRITAIN

Ian Bone’s weekly ‘Anarchism In The UK’ radio show on London’s Resonance FM has now been archived on a podcast page, so even if you miss an episode’s original airing, you can stream or download it later at your own convenience

Interviews up currently include those with Ellenor Hutson (LCAP), Si Mitchell (Guerillavision), Paul Stott (‘9/11 truth’ debunker) and Sandy Hale (Liberty & Solidarity); older interviews with the likes of John Rety, Phil Ruff and Martin Wright will be added as soon as possible.

» Anarchism In The UK podcast page «
» Anarchism In The UK podcast RSS feed «

Names That Obey No Gender Conventions #003: Tracey Walter

I was watching Something Wild the other day, and was reminded of Tracey Walter, stalwart character actor. Checking through his IMDb entry reminds me of the wide variety of things he’s done: The Two Jakes, Bob the Goon in Batman, Repo Man, Lamar in The Silence Of The Lambs… 151 gigs in 37 years of working, not shabby!

Mystery Pic #005

Mystery Pic #004 seems to have ground to a bit of a halt, so I thought I’d get #005 up and running… Answers in the comments, please.

ETA:

The answer is Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo, a.k.a. The Brotherhood.

Piss & Vinegar #046: A Simple Plan

Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Lou (Brent Briscoe) have a chilly whizz as Hank (Bill Paxton) pays his respects to his dead parents in Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan.

HonkWatch #100: Hannibal Rising

Crikey, a hundred puking pics, in just under 17 months. Just a shame that we celebrate the centenary of HonkWatch with a crappy film like Hannibal Rising. Here the unpleasant French butcher gets his just desserts, Lecter-style, leading to a little gagging geyser of claret.

Framed Documents #033: Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Those dastardly Soviets infiltrate a TOP SECRET MILITARY BASE in Nevada at the beginning of the more-pants-than-M&S Indy Jones 4 flick:

RESTRICTED AREA

WHILE ON THIS INSTALLATION

ALL PERSONNEL AND THE PROPERTY UNDER THEIR CONTROL

ARE SUBJECT TO SEARCH

USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED

SEC. 29 INTERNAL SECURITY ACT OF 1950

T766 KCJ, the CTA2008, FIT, NETCU, BJP, Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all

Oh look, it’s our friends the undercover coppers! In their amazing undercover family estate once again! Yes, it’s the return of Avon & Somerset constabulary’s shiny unmarked Saab 9-5 stationwagon (registration T766 KCJ), today apparently being used to watch over Wilder Street and Brunswick Street. Information received relating to a daring doughnut heist, perhaps?

I thought they might stay longer, seeing as one of them unpacked his trunk:

Of course, there may not be many more opportunities for further such pictorial mockery of the plod. From 16th February anyone who

(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been—
(i) a member of Her Majesty’s forces,
(ii) a member of any of the intelligence services, or
(iii) a constable,
which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or
(b) publishes or communicates any such information…

…will risk being accused of committing an offence under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008.

As the British Journal of Photography comments:

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.

Tallis, a London-based photographer, was covering the anti-BBC protest on Saturday 24 January when he was approached by a police officer. Tallis had just taken a picture of the officer, who then asked to see the picture. The photographer refused, arguing that, as a press photographer, he had a right to take pictures of police officers.

According to Tallis, the officer then tried to take the camera away. Before giving up, the officer said that Tallis ’shouldn’t have taken that photo, you were intimidating me.’ The incident was caught on camera by photojournalist Marc Vallée.

“Artist’s impression”

The image above [original picture removed at request of the photographer, Marc Vallée] is of the very incident described in the BJP, with the policeman in the Forward Intelligence Team jacket pulling on the camera cord around Justin Tallis’s neck. Photographer Marc Vallée has blogged in the first person about the incident.

Anti-police state activist group FITwatch has, meanwhile, called for mass resistance to the act, and pledged to continue publishing photographs taken of FIT, EG and other police specialists. To underline this commitment, it has posted up a lovely photograph of Superintendent Steve Pearl, the head of NETCU, a police unit tasked with smearing political activists as terrorists.

In other news: The House of Lords has ruled that police forces can do whatever the fuck they like, against anyone, on a whim.

Further reading:

• Internet coup! NETCU anti-protest guide hits the public domain
• Police amiability outreach programme spreads across the nation?
• Green scare UK: Observer wages police’s proxy war on eco-activists
• FITwatch blog
• NETCUwatch blog
• Marc Vallée: photojournalist
• Jason N Parkinson: video and print journalist

Edited 9/3/9 to correct the bloody title! :O

Sustainable gravy transport

Josh Hart has written an interesting critique of Sustrans over at his On The Level blog:

There are an increasing number of concerns…but they centre around this: should a private charity with no accountability to the public or its membership (Sustrans calls them supporters) be given millions of taxpayer pounds every year without adequate consultation or oversight?

…It also turns out that very few Sustrans employees are personally involved in the Bristol Cycling Campaign-something I find very odd considering many of them live and cycle in Bristol. In fact, it sometimes seems that Sustrans goes out of its way to ignore Bristol, as if to prove to other areas of the country that the City that hosts their headquarters curries no special favour. When plans for a bus rapid transit route threatened the Bristol-Bath Railway Path (Sustrans’ flagship facility) they were sluggish in responding to the threat, terrified of offending the local council, actually going on record in the Evening Post saying essentially that they had “no comment” about the plans.

Though the beast finally woke from its bloated lottery-money induced slumber and opposed the plan with some force, the damage had been done. Thankfully, local activists stepped into the vacuum and formed Save the Railway Path, organised a 1000 strong march to the Council house that succeeded in getting the City Council to shelve the ill-conceived plans. We know that Sustrans knew about the BRT plan as early as July 2007 if not earlier, yet they did nothing to alert others and provoke opposition. They only jumped on the bandwagon when it was clear that their credibility was on the line if they did nothing…

Chris Hutt at Green Bristol Blog has provided some much needed (judging by some of the catty remarks already deposited on Josh’s comments section by College Green lycra-clad loyalists) back-covering; this one should run and run!

Mystery Pic #004

As ever please place your answers in the comments…

ETA: No one got this, it was Hackers (that’s Angelina Jolie blocked by Alberta Watson, who plays Jonny Lee Miller’s mum).

The Great Brutish Bobby: Politically-motivated, disingenuous and without conscience

Photojournalist Jason N Parkinson has posted up an excellent short documentary on the police harassment of media workers covering the Climate Camp at Kingsnorth last August:

In August 2008, environmental protestors set up camp in Kent, England, to protest the current and newly proposed E-On coal-fired power stations at Kingsnorth.

Part One of two films, Covering Climate Camp documents not the protest movement, but the journalists trying to cover the story for independent and mainstream news organisations.

In some of the worst scenes of police interference the press were subjected to stop-and-search, harassment, aggression and violence, which led to the National Union of Journalists and the industry media publically slamming the police on the grounds of press freedom restriction.

Part Two of two films, Covering Climate Camp continues to document the press coverage and subsequent press freedom restrictions. As the policing gets heavier, journalists trying to cover the story for independent and mainstream news organisations face surveillance, harassment, endless stop-and-searches and assault – they are even followed by a police unit to a McDonald’s restaurant.

Tip o’ the titfer: Marc Vallée

A Week In Film #011: Cutting back

Empire Records
Messy, unstructured, episodic and ultimately utterly empty, but still rather cheery. A gaggle of young record store employees learn about life and each other, all whilst trying to keep their workplace in business. Directed by Allan Moyles, who also did Pump Up The Volume, with before-they-were-famous turns from Liv Tyler, Renée Zellwegger, Robin Tunney, Rory Cochrane etc. Anthony LaPaglia is nominally the adult in charge, Ethan Embry is great as the giggly cashier Mark, Brendan Sexton III is a confused shoplifter, Maxwell Caulfield (from Grease 2) is deliciously sleazy as an MOR singer there for a signing session.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978 version)
Philip Kaufman presents an unsettling updating of the Cold War era allegorical SF b-movie, with Donald Sutherland and Veronica Cartwright amongst those battling to stay ahead of the zombie-like invaders in seventies San Francisco.

Excellent Cadavers
HBO telemovie about Sicily, the Mafia, Giovanni Falcone and the Maxi Trial. Given the subject matter it should have been great, but it’s not. Chazz Palminteri and F Murray Abraham give it their best shot, though.

Something Wild
Lulu wig-wearing freewheeler Audrey (Melanie Griffith) picks up repressed suit Charlie (Jeff Daniels) for a couple of days of fun on the road; her ex Ray (Ray Liotta) threatens to spoil everything. Jonathan Demme directs with panache.

Mystery Pic #003

Place your guesses in the comments…

ETA:

A quick victory for Mr Venue himself, Eugene Byrne – yes, it’s that Ealing classic, The Titfield Thunderbolt.

Framed Documents #032: Peep Show (S3E5)

Jeremy gets his jury service letter in Peep Show.

Mr J USBOURNE

FLAT 5

53 – 55 FENCHURCH STREET

CROYDON

Another fake address, à la Skins, it would seem

Rewinding revisionism: the myth of the peace lovin’, Hitler hatin’ Wehrmacht

From Operation Walkuere Trailer blog.

Tip o’ the titfer: Paul Stott

Screen Surgery & Film First Aid #001: Shooter

Arrrgh! I’ve been shot! But as I’ve been framed for an assassination I didn’t commit and am a fugitive from law enforcement, I can’t go to a hospital until I’ve cleared my name!

Fortunately I’m a retired Scout Sniper with a whole lot of Marine Corps training, so I reckon I can patch myself up till I can get me some proper medical attention. Having stolen an FBI car, I have a whole first aid kit to rummage around in. Let’s have a look see…

Aha! QuikClot! Just the job…

QuikClot is

a granular product that [is] poured directly on wounds to stop bleeding. It works by adsorbing water from the blood, concentrating the clotting factors, activating platelets, and promoting steps in the coagulation cascade. It is composed of zeolite, a molecular sieve that traps molecules in a molecular “cage” and holding the trapped species by forming hydrogen bonds. The bond formation generates heat…

Generates heat?! Arrrgh!!!

*Nearly faints*

Piss & Vinegar #045: Unforgiven

After riding into town with English Bob (Richard Harris), ghostwriting hack WW Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek) moistens his trouser leg on encountering the frontier town hospitality of Sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), in the not-as-good-as-they-said-it-was (supposedly) revisionist western Unforgiven.

Framed Documents #031: Hue And Cry

The choir master confiscates a copy of The Trump, the (fictional) story paper which sets off the action in Ealing’s première comedy Hue And Cry.

Gettin’ High #007: Funeral In Berlin

Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) peeks through a telescope at the Brandenburg Gate in Funeral In Berlin.

Framed Documents #030: The Flight Of The Phoenix

13:50 hours

Radio out of service

Voltage regulator inoperative

Holding course for Benghazi

Pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) fills in his log book at the beginning of The Flight Of The Phoenix; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Mystery Pic #002

Place your guesses in the comments…

ETA:

Guessed correctly by Nigel from Bloody Italiana, Dear Lucio and I Spit On Your Taste – yes, it’s Sexy Beast.

Sub Domination #003: The Killer Elite

Robert Duvall and James Caan bond over yeastiness in Sam Peckinpah’s The Killer Elite.

From Here To Shiternity #019: Death At A Funeral

Hypochondriac Howard (Andy Nyman) gets Uncle Alfie’s poo all over his fingers in Death At A Funeral.

HonkWatch #099: Mad Men (unknown episode)

Madison Avenue advertising executives engage in a bit of collective chunder gawping in Mad Men, as captured via the magic of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

Piss & Vinegar #044: The Devil’s Whore (E3)

Agitator ‘Freeborn’ John Lilburne (Tom Goodman-Hill) asks for a “pot to piss in” in Peter Flannery’s The Devil’s Whore.

Gettin’ High #006: Dark Water

Dahlia (the beautifully browed Jennifer Connelly) peers up through the water-damaged ceiling of her Roosevelt Island apartment in Dark Water.

Framed Documents #029: Breaker Morant

Lieutenant Handcock (Bryan Brown) composes a last letter to his wife from the condemned cell in Breaker Morant:

Dear Polly

I have but an hour [...] cast and altho my brain [...] for four long weary months I [...] from wanting you a few last [...] going to find out the grand secret [...] will face my God with the firm belief [...] innocent of murder and I obeyed my orders [...] and served my King as I thought best.

If I over steped [sic] my duty I can only ask my People & country for forgiveness.

Take care of little Allison for me at all costs. They You were my greatest comforts [sic] at home & my greatest trouble now. I hope my country will see my children cared for. I will die brave for the sake of all. God forgive any enemys [sic]. I give you peace for ever. I have not heard if my brother Eugene was killed in the wretched war or not. But if not tell him [...] will I have gone to rest. Tell Willie & Peter to be good to their sister. God be with you in your trouble.

Your loving husband

Peter Handcock

Framed Documents #028: Magicians (iii)

More Magicians – Harry (David Mitchell) prepares flash cards so he can speak to estranged partner Karl:

NO FEELINGS

DON’T TALK RE FEELINGS

Mystery Pic #001

Post your guesses in the comments…

ETA:

Guessed right by Mat D – it’s Robert Aldrich’s Too Late The Hero (1970).

Framed Documents #027: Magicians (ii)

Old school conjurer Karl (Robert Webb) tries to reinvent himself as a Blaine-style trickster in Magicians…

DICKWAD