Monthly Archives: January 2009

Wikipediaphile: Alfred Wintle

Alfred Wintle (pic from TIME magazine)

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 podcast

Ian Bone‘s weekly ‘Anarchism In The UK’ radio show on London’s Resonance FM has now been archived on a podcast page, so even if you miss an episode’s original airing, you can stream or download it later at your own convenience :)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

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 #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.

Tae Guk Gi title screen

Piss & Vinegar #046: A Simple Plan

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

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

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

Undercover police in unmarked car T766 KCJ on Wilder Street

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:

Didn't your mother tell you that's disgusting, officer?

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"

“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.

Superintendent Steve Pearl, head of NETCUAnti-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:

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

Sustainable gravy transport

Ooh Mr Grimshaw!

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

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).

Hackers title screen

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 title screen
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) title screen
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 title screen
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 title screen
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

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)

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