Doctorvee expressed concern last week that Owen Barder‘s satire has become the future. First, there was the abolition of democracy. Then, on Thursday he spoofed the Government’s “respect agenda” by suggesting they would ban swearing.

Today, The Mirror reports that:

Teenager Kurt Walker was given an £80 fine for saying “F*** all”.
[…]
Kurt was walking to the youth centre where he works as a volunteer when he stopped to talk to three friends. One asked what he had been doing. He replied: “F*** all, mate.”

The policewoman, who had been telling off another teenager for riding his bike in a skateboarding area, overheard the remark and fined him for using “threatening, abusive or, insulting words”.

Went to Scottish bloggers blogmeet in Edinburgh. Met people. Drank alcohol. Took photos. Came home. Good time had. Thanks to Gordon for organising.

Tomorrow: back to Edinburgh for the leadership hustings.

Went to the cinema yesterday for to see the fillum Aeon Flux. I enjoyed it, but it did demonstrate the gulf between being enjoyable and being particularly good.

It was shot in Europe which probably explains the many Brits in the cast: Jonny Lee Miller, Oscar nominee Sophie Okenedo (off of Scream of the Shalka), Pete Postlethwaite, and the ubiquitous Paterson Joseph (Johnson in Peep Show and Rodrick in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways). The eponymous character was played by Oscar winner Charlize Theron. Sadly, despite her Academy Award, her flat performance was one of the reasons the film wasn’t as good as it should have been.

Some things were slightly excusable because they presumably came from the source material. The action scenes occasionally overstayed their welcome, but that’s to be expected from an adaptation from Manga. The plot twist was a terrible sci-fi cliché – so much so that it was used in an episode from the second series of Star Trek: TNG. (I only remeber it was second season because Dr Palaski was in it and it was a unintentionally funny episode.) This particularly twist involved a significant suspension of disbelief from anyone with a scientific bent – fair enough if the conceit is presented at the beginning of the film, but harder to accept as a twist introduced two-thirds of the way through.

The film took itself terribly seriously – I can’t remember a moment of humour in it. One scene, which should have been very powerful, involved a group of guards being disarmed by a speech from one of the protagonists. Unfortunately, the script didn’t remotely reach the level of rhetoric required to pull this off and it was therefore unconvincing.

I don’t want to be too down on it tough – I did enjoy the film and it didn’t commit the ultimate sin of being boring.

Via Nick I learn of the glorious site Tom Baker Says. He suggests that the sort of (hypothetical) sad person who’s been spending money sending amusing text messages to their new BT landline (not installed specifically for the purpose. Er, I imagine) might save a few bob by visting the site instead. Or they may just get ideas 🙂

I heartily recommend Video Killed the Radio Star. A work of genius.