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Geoff Coupe's BlogThoughts of a retired stiff
7/23/2008 The Right to be Listened ToGia Milinovich has a thought-provoking post about the fact that "everyone thinks that they have a right to be listened to". In her view, not everyone has that right. I think she's correct, and her arguments are persuasive. Well, they've persuaded me, at any rate. 21st Century PétomaneA rather nicely written piece in today's Guardian about Mr. Methane, who is clearly the 21st century's answer to Le Pétomane. I'm almost tempted to want to experience one of his performances. He sounds very droll (and that, for all you Dutch-speakers, is a genuine multi-lingual pun). Multi-lingual PunsMost excellent news about Karadzic. Today's Volkskrant has a rather brilliant wordplay comment on the event in its daily "Gorilla" cartoon:
Which literally translates as: "A beard! A beard! My kingdom for a beard!" In Dutch, the word for horse is paard, hence the pun.
Losing Hope"I fear the winter and hope for nothing". That was the core of a most eloquent letter from a UK citizen in yesterday's Guardian. He was bearing witness to the poverty trap that is growing in UK society and likely to catch many more in its jaws. As someone writes in today's Guardian: that letter should be pinned to every single sinew connected to the Labour party. It has deserted these people and it is an absolute disgrace. 7/21/2008 Miracles of LifeIn June, I mentioned that I had just finished John Rechy's autobiography About My Life and the Kept Woman. Now, I've finished J. G. Ballard's autobiography Miracles of Life. They are polar opposites in the style of writing, but I loved them both. Rechy's writing often verges on being prose poetry, while Ballard's seems almost dry and matter-of-fact in comparison. And yet, Ballard has this knack of writing apparently very simple direct prose that nonetheless gets to the heart of the matter. It's clear that his youth in Shanghai shaped both the man and the writer. The themes of many of his stories - the drained swimming pools, deserted streets, atrocity as entertainment - have their roots in what he observed as a boy. In later life, the work that he did, first as a medical student, and then as a writer, enabled him to deal with the impact of both his childhood and adult experience of the world.
As Sam Leith wrote in his review of Miracles of Life:
Despite the dystopian majority of his fiction, Ballard comes across in his autobiography as a genuinely nice man, who dotes on his children (they are the "miracles of life" of the book's title). And I don't think that this is a case of an author presenting himself in a favourable light, this seems to be the measure of the man. The book closes with a two-page chapter in which he explains that this will be his last work. He has advanced prostate cancer. HDR PhotosI've noticed up on Flickr that a number of people are producing what are known as HDR photos. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. I thought I'd give this a whirl, since my camera is capable of AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing), the ability to take three shots in quick succession with different exposures. Those individual shots are then recombined into one using HDR software to produce the finished image. I'm using Photomatix to do this. If you're interested, here's an excellent tutorial on the process that explains the background and the steps very well indeed.
Clearly, there's as much art as science in producing good results, and I'm just a beginner at this. Nonetheless, to give you an idea, here's two versions of the same scene, first the original as shot by my camera using optimum exposure, and then an HDR version using three shots combined into one.
  Notice how the HDR version reveals more detail, particularly in the clouds? I think I'm going to be doing more of this... 7/20/2008 A Hit, A Palpable HitSo there I was, meandering around the blogs today as is my wont, and I come across Charles Darwin raising a well-deserved eyebrow at the news that the UK government has embarked on a solicitation exercise to empower society to have its say about science. I know, I know, it freezes the braincells even to imagine the trainwreck that will inevitably ensue. However, be that as it may, I was most taken by the comment from Henry Gee on this news. To my mind, he has gone straight to the heart of the matter. And as a result, I have now discovered Mr. Gee's most excellent blog, which I shall endeavour to read forthwith. 7/19/2008 Get It While It's HotI mentioned that Joss Whedon has returned with a sing-along blog: Dr. Horrible. What I didn't realise is that it will only remain up on the web for a few days, so if you haven't seen this musical in three acts, get thee hence before it's gone. I thought act II was the strongest both musically and visually, although the dénouement of act III certainly has its ironical moments. Sticking in the MindThomas M. Disch committed suicide on the Fourth of July. I meant to comment on it at the time, but the moment slipped by. I was sure that I have certainly read some of his work, but checking in my library turned up only The M.D., not, I think, his best work. That is often reckoned to be Camp Concentration, but I don't currently possess a copy, and I'm not sure that I have ever read it.
So the fact that I only seemed to have one example of his work, and the fact that he is often spoken of in the same breath as Samuel Delaney (whose work is well represented in my collection), surprised me somewhat. Then, a chance remark by Neil Gaiman on his blog made me realise that I had read at least one of his short stories. I read Descending probably forty years ago, and the final image continues to haunt me. It is an unstoppable engine of a story. Go and read it - it won't take long - and see whether you can ever rid yourself of it. I know that I haven't. Perhaps the horrible power of that story scared me off from wanting to read too much more of Mr. Disch. 7/17/2008 A State FuneralI see that the joker Harry Phibbs is back to lend his support to the disgusting idea that Margaret Thatcher should be given a State Funeral. You can tell that I don't agree with that.
I think I'm more in line with the surreal thoughts of Steve Bell on this one. His current series of If... strips playing upon the idea of Gordon Brown as Heathcliff and Margaret Thatcher as an evil zombie are closer to the mark of the respect that I feel for her. 7/15/2008 The Periodic TableThe Periodic Table of Videos is an entertaining collection of short videos, each devoted to describing one of the elements of the periodic table. Try the one on Sodium (Na) to see what I mean. Charmingly amateurish, good boyish fun and complete with the perfect image of a mad professor.
7/14/2008 It's Time To Automate...I've seen some wacky advertising in my time - but this takes the biscuit... Please tell me it's a joke?
(hat tip to The Intersection) 7/13/2008 Mamma Mia!Mark Kermode reviews films on a BBC radio show every Friday. I always make a point of listening to them, since the good Doctor is very good value. Here he is reviewing Mamma Mia!... skip to about four minutes in when he revs up the engines and drops the clutch on the review... The QE2 quip is a classic...
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