Yearly Archives: 2004

Thoughtless, Instant, Throwaway Marriages

I don’t want to beat my own drum but, at last, I’ve found a serious article which picks up on my thoughts about Britney’s marriage. I was interested to read that, ” For the first thousand years of Christianity, the church didn’t want anything to do with marriage, which was about property, not spirituality”.

Britney’s little leap is a reminder that a marriage doesn’t have to be sacred to be legal. The law is no holier than a $40 trip at the Tunnel of Vows Drive Through in the Little White Wedding Chapel [Source]

Interestingly, maybe the article does actually get to say that Britney’s little weekend joke does harm marriage in a way no gay man has ever done!

On this day…

2005: Polar Express

Today

I wanted to write something today that didn’t mention delayed trains, the weather in London (it’s very windy and rainy right now), student fees or American visa requirements: I want to say something about all of them but they’d mainly be moans and I don’t want to moan today! So, off for soup is a great idea then.

On this day…

2005: Love In The Song Title

Hello Dermot and Mark Fans

There is another silly reality TV show on Channel 4 at the moment – Shattered. I am not following it except to know that Dermot O’Leary is presenting it and that always means activity on the Dermot pages at Man of the Moment section picks up. So, a warm welcome to Listen to Musak to all the Dermot fans who are dropping by.

While on the subject of Man of the Moment, Mark Owen’s entry remains top of the tree for comments. That’s a weak link to point to an article over at Manchester Online about Mark and his Music. There’s an interesting comment suggesting Mark’s under-rated album, Green Man, is being critically re-appraised right now – which is excellent for it is a fantastic album.

On this day…

2006: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Gotta Go Back In Time
2005: 2004 In 100 Pictures
2004: Oops, She Did It
2003: Jeremy Vine
2003: Poison Find
2003: A Blog?

Oops, She Did It

So, Britney got married, her people denied she’s had a little too much to drink (sorry, she wasn’t ‘inebriated’) and the wedding was annulled sometime yesterday (various reports put a different number of hours on the wedding, but it seems it was a two-day thing). Apparently, it was a joke that went too far (although a comment on the Toronto Star wonders if it was a PR stunt).

As I watched this story unravel over the last few days (the mad grab for pictures, the interview with the ex-husband), I wondered what message this was sending out about the concept of marriage and have been surprised at the lack of comment (The Times did discuss it today).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not about to beat the drum about religion and marriage too hard, but if marriage is just a joke that can be entered into (and got out of) so easily, is there really much point to the whole thing?

There are some of us in this world who would like the ability to marry (or, at the very least, have some official recognition of our relationships) but can’t. Britney doesn’t know how lucky she is to be able to treat the whole institution so lightly.

Could I argue that it’s an amusing aside to the whole business that a heterosexual woman brings marriage into disrepute? Maybe not.

On this day…

2006: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Gotta Go Back In Time
2005: 2004 In 100 Pictures
2004: Hello Dermot and Mark Fans
2003: Jeremy Vine
2003: Poison Find
2003: A Blog?

Same Sex Partnerships in 2004

And so we say welcome to a brand new year and I thought I would have a look around the news to see what might come our way in 2004 in light of the promised partnership bill. I see we’re still in for the same old arguments.

On a positive note, there has been some coverage over the last few days about the National Trust’s decision to allow same-sex couples to hold commitment ceremonies on their premises. As I suspect they don’t discriminate when it comes to taking money from people for entry or membership, it’s about time they caught up and let everybody use the many fine buildings around the country.

Of course, some can’t hide their distaste. Ann Widdecombe said it was a “terrible idea” and the Christian Institute seems also to think it’s a bad idea. As The Gay Vote points out, their ideas are – sometimes – a little contradictory. Still, not as odd as Peter Luff’s thoughts (he’s the Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire), who applauds the use of National Trust properties for civil unions but was “against the ceremonies becoming legal marriages”. Ah well, this year will be interesting when the partnership bill comes before parliament.

Of course the Pope continues his battle to keep marriage tied to religion and ignore the many people who opt for civil unions today. The church continues to believe that civil partnerships for same-sex couples will, somehow, undermine the family. This is one that I have spoken about before, and the logic of this argument is still not clear to me. Still, you don’t need a crystal ball to see that the next few months will be full of such nonsense from the church again.

On this day…

2006: Who Are You?
2003: LBC Back On Air

Honoured for HTML

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Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee

Worthy of note – and not covered by a lot of the media – but Tim Berners-Lee has been awarded a knighthood for his work on developing HTML which allowed the web to become a useful tool for millions of people. Whatever you think of the Honours List I think this recognition is certainly deserved. [FT: Unsung heroes dominate UK honours list]

On this day…

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

Unexpected Movie Gems

There was something of an 80s flashback over the Christmas period which set me thinking about my teenage years – although I am not suggesting you should now read my regurgitated teenage angst. The flashbacks came in the form of three films on free-to-air television that I caught by accident (by which I mean I didn’t know there were on until I flicked past them).

picture of kevin bacon in footlooseFirstly, we had the excellent Footloose (Kevin Bacon, dancing) which is a film I must have seen several hundred times and never get bored. It’s those standing up for you rights and proving your responsibility moments that resonated with people of a certain age when it was released. It’s helped by the fact that the 80s electro-pop soundtrack was pretty good (for the time) and Kevin Bacon is moody and supports a tight fitting vest at one point!

Then, on New Years Day, we had another teen angst film in the shape of The Breakfast Club. From the John Hughes stable (he made one of my all time favourite movies, Some Kind of Wonderful) this was a teen film with a difference. The film is – almost entirely – dialogue driven and there is very limited action. It’s set in the detention room on a Saturday where a small group of students (of all the stereotypes) must spend the day together as punishment for various misdemeanours.

Again, we are treated to the teen isolation, the misfits and the stupidity of the adult world. And, it also features a soundtrack that instantly brings to mind the mid-Eighties including Don’t You by Simple Minds – which is possibly the only Simple Minds track that I can listen to again and again.

Sandwiched in between Footloose and The Breakfast Club and shown sometime in that almost-dead period between Christmas and New Year was the first Back To The Future movie (which again has a soundtrack of it’s time featuring Huey Lewis and The News, Eric Clapton and Lindsey Buckingham). What struck me about it (apart from the now dated effects) was how good a film it really was. There are some superb performances in it (Christopher Lloyd and Crispin Glover) and it was a real combination of teen and sci-fi movies. It was also the first film I can recall going to the cinema more than once to see – it must really have inspired me as a 15 year-old. Superb stuff.

So, despite the fact that you can be critical of television over this past Christmas period, I really think that it served me some unexpected movie gems. And for that, I am grateful.

On this day…

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

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?