D i a r y A r c h i v e : J a n / F e b 0 7 'Pulp.net' - Thursday 22nd February 2007
'Momentary' - Tuesday 13th February 2007
Two wonderful films I watched recently put forward a very convincing case for dispensing with the past and living for the moment: Into Great Silence and A Prairie Home Companion. In terms of their style and plot, the two movies couldn't be more different from each other. But they both feature people who manage to put meaning into and take meaning out of whatever life happens to be offering them at any given split-second. It's a fiendishly difficult trick to pull off, but I wonder if within it lies the secret to achieving a deep-rooted, meaningful contentment. I'd love to be able to find out, but the problem is that I'm not quite ready to shed the protective cloak of all my memories. 'Writing' - Saturday 3rd February 2007 Some of you may be interested to learn that the Writing section of this site now contains several samples of various bits and pieces of my work. Please do read them if you have the time and/or inclination and feel free to submit comments on them. I'd love to know what you think. 'Brotherly' - Friday 19th January 2007
I'm sure I've expressed similar sentiments on this site before, but my experience of interacting with people in Britain has yet to convince me that the collective psyche isn't split along very strong 'us and them' lines. And more often that not, race is the factor that decides which side of the line you get to stand on. It's a depressing thought, but the response to the goings-on inside the Big Brother house suggests that the country is in a state of mass denial... and you know what they say about how you need to acknowledge that a problem exists before you can solve it... Of course, things aren't helped by developments such as this one. A couple of weeks ago, MI5 announced that visitors to its site (the fact that MI5 has a site is interesting in itself, but never mind...) can register for 'terrorist threat level alerts' to be sent to them by email. Apparently, there are also plans to set up a system which would send such alerts by text message. So after a day at work, you stop off at the corner shop to buy a pint of milk from the nice dusky gentleman behind the counter. Then you have a curry for dinner. At 9, you settle down in front of the telly to watch an Indian woman being called a poppadom. And just before going to bed, you get a text message warning you to be on the lookout for suspicious dark-skinned, bearded, young men. The term 'self-fulfilling prophecy' comes to mind. 'List' - Friday 5th January 2007
Speaking of lists, this is the time of year when I like to compile my Top 5 films of the last twelve months, so - just in case anyone's interested - here they are, in the order in which they were seen: The New World [dir. Terrence Malik] Notable DVD viewings of the year included Historias Minimas, Le Grand Voyage, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Grizzly Man, L'Enfant and The Cremator. Finally, in keeping with the theme of this post, I should just mention that the other day I came across a small stash of old diaries which contained, amongst other things, countless lists of my favourite films of various years. So, at the start of a new year, the first words that come to mind are: plus ça change... ---
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The other day I was having a conversation with someone about childhood memories. Everybody's recollections are unique and interesting and - if I may be allowed a few lines of self-indulgence - mine are no exception. I can remember an air raid over Teheran during the Iran-Iraq War. I can remember my Polish grandmother suffering the effects of tear gas in Warsaw in the early 80s. And I can remember a certain super-wealthy, glitzy Middle Eastern shopping uber-magnet when it was still... well, when it was a place that hardly anybody had heard of. I carry these memories around with me all the time and, if I'm being honest with myself, I treasure them. It's a cliche, but I really do believe they form a key part of my identity.
I think the sum total of the amount of time I've spent watching 
The Divine L and I decided to spend the first day of the new year by embarking on a new experience, so instead of driving to our nearest city - which we've done countless times - we thought we'd walk to it instead. During the 90+ minute journey, I found myself making mental lists of the various highlights: going past the house of a famous writer; seeing gutters filled with spent party poppers; using underpasses and pathways we never knew existed; hearing snatches of several arguments and rows; braving roundabouts we're more accustomed to crossing whilst protected in a four-wheeled vehicle. Actually, all this makes it sound like an unpleasant endeavour, which it wasn't at all. Perhaps I should turn it into a trend and ensure that every day this year I do something that could count as a new experience? But then, I've never been one for new year's resolutions. 