Monthly Archives: January 2004

2003 In Summary

If I can be allowed to be more self-centred – or inward looking – than usual, I have found the process of re-reading the year’s worth of entries to be very interesting. Not only have I surprised myself with some of the pieces that I have written but, when viewing them all together, it seems that the site is a lot more coherent than I imagined. There are some key groupings of themes which have emerged – it’s clear I have a fascination with transport – and there are considerably fewer trivial pieces.

Many of the words I have written are, of course, about my life and might be considered to be trivial to some but I feel I have gained an insight into myself with some of the longer pieces. And it is those longer pieces which have most startled me on the re-reading: I must make a conscious effort to write more discussion works. Perhaps I should open the comments on the main body of the site to stimulate further thinking.

Of all the other sites I have read across the year, I still come back to my old faithfuls. So, this is the point where I should wish Tom, Jase, Jason, Bart, Meg, Phil, Eric, Chris, Bravo, Nick and Luke a very Happy New Year. Oh, and those are just the top listed ones in my bloglines subscriptions.

Bloglines is to be nominated my tool of the year for 2003, it’s made the whole business of reading other sites so much easier (if only Blogger users would provide nice RSS feeds). Of course I shouldn’t forget Six Apart who, via Movable Type, make all this possible.

Writing Listen to Musak is one of the few creative outlets I really have and I am happy to have it as a hobby – it seems more useful than making a model of St Paul’s Cathedral from matchsticks.

Best wishes for 2004 to all who come across this page.

On this day…

2006: Resolution
2005: The Incredibles
2005: Shaun Of The Dead
2004: Honoured for HTML
2004: Unexpected Movie Gems
2003: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2003: Mirror Picture

Love Actually

Love Actually
Love Actually is not the film I imagined it to be. I guess you can call it a romantic comedy and it seemed like a sensible film to watch on New Year’s Day. The cinema was packed which suggests we wen’t the only ones with that idea.
I should say from the beginning, it’s sentimental and feel-good. If those words put you off then you shouldn’t really see this film. I do think, however, that if you have ever (even once) got a little lovey-dovey then could go and see this movie and get something out of it.

It’s weaves a whole stack of separate stories together about people in love or finding love (and even out of love) with the backdrop of Christmas in London. Richard Curtis (of Four Weddings And A Funeral fame) makes his directorial debut and provides a very well-shot image of 21st Century London at Christmas. There are some really well-done sequences around the city which gives somebody like me – who thinks he’s seen all he wants to of London – something to smile at.

Having said it’s well-shot it is not without problems. Too many stories are intertwined leaving too many questions unanswered. When you leave a cinema questioning some of your understanding about who was who and where things were set you know that at some point this film failed. Why have the whole Wisconsin sequence, for example? And what happened to the Laura Linney parts – I suspect there is something on a cutting room floor that explains all that somewhere.

But don’t let that put you off. Liam Neeson’s storyline is great (even if it stretched believability a little), Emma Thompson is superb (and you will feel for her as she opens a Christmas present) as Alan Rickman‘s wife (he too stands out with a great, typical Rickman performance). Even Hugh Grant is believable as a Prime Minister who falls for his tea lady (Martine McCutcheon).

What I liked, although I have no idea if they will translate to the US, are the really British touches. Ant and Dec are the kid’s TV presenters; Jo Wiley is a DJ and Wes Butters does the chart run down for the Christmas Number One. And there wasn’t an over abundance of red London busses – which must be a first for British films.

This is really an inoffensive, somewhat amusing, light-hearted, feel-good British comedy and I hope it does well. If you read the message boards over at the Internet Movie Database you’ll read about people walking out in shock and disgust – which, if you’ve seen the film, is just as amusing.

On this day…

2006: Here We Go
2005: 2004 In Review
2005: Bruce Almighty
2004: Review of 2003: December
2004: Review of 2003: November
2002: Why Do You Do It?

Review of 2003: December

Well, I have finally managed to read all the entries from the year and I have reached December – the month for Christmas preparations and planning. Instead of planning for the big day, I was (again) talking about spam in my in-box or spending the week before Christmas in the United States instead of buying gifts for friends and family.

I spent Christmas Day in London and then went to visit family in the north. Returning home allowed me to return to one of my key topics of the year, transportation.

I ended the year lamenting the blogs that are disappearing. I am sure 2004 will bring new reading pleasures and, hopefully, I provide some pleasure for some people.

The full December archive can be found here.

On this day…

2006: Here We Go
2005: 2004 In Review
2005: Bruce Almighty
2004: Love Actually
2004: Review of 2003: November
2002: Why Do You Do It?

Review of 2003: November

November was the second busiest month in terms of entries across Listen to Musak and the month in which the second of the soaps I remember from my childhood, Brookside, ended. I also seemed to be continuing my quest for the perfect ‘phone/pda combination

I visited one of my favourite areas of London to see The Weather Project at the Tate, a fascinating experience and one that showed me that there really is art that interests me. And once again I was back in Finland which caused me to contemplate flying for the second time in the year and also, for a short time, back in Oslo. Interestingly for a period when I did a considerable amount of site-writing, I concluded that I was quite time poor.

Of course being November there were fireworks and, for the first time in my life, I learned the origins of Guy Fawkes can be traced back to Elizabeth I. Elizabeth II, meanwhile, was playing host to the US President and I learned more about state visits.

The full November archive can be found here.

On this day…

2006: Here We Go
2005: 2004 In Review
2005: Bruce Almighty
2004: Love Actually
2004: Review of 2003: December
2002: Why Do You Do It?