Friday, June 17, 2005
So this is how ...

Liberty dies to the sound of thunderous applause. Was it just me that thought that was a strange line for non-entity character like Padme to say? There are few thingsin life as annoying as an ending that fails to live up tothe body of work that has come before, the end of Star Wars Ep III was evidence of that. Some stories have gained so much history and momentum that they are impossible to finish. Star Wars andStar Trek are two classic examples. You can go to any book shop, games shop, DVD/Video shop, even nic-nac shops havestationary, mouse mats etc all adorned with some character or scene entwined with the commercial beast. What is my point? Well that it's disappointingthat such endeavours consider in part because of their monetary worth, there is no invention any more, rehashed plots with faceless characters. As a great writer pointed out when ask the key to his success, "Begin at the beginning, go on to the end and stop."

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-17 18:40:44

Thursday, June 16, 2005
It's here

As an unashamed Batman fan I've been dreading/hoping for a new movie since Clooney seemingly killed the franchise. Having watched both Sin City and Star Wars Ep III disappoint a little, it was with some trepidation I went to see it tonight and .... what a movie! Great portrayal, dark, layered performances and aside from the odd cheesey line and unnecessary inclusion of Katie Holmes a truly top film that finally does the character justice. With no less than a Welshman in the lead role :) I won't go into details as that would be unfair on anyone who hasn't seen it, suffice to say it's going to be a long wait for the next one but if this is anything to go by, worthwhile. Now they just need to release the DVD double quick :)

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-16 20:24:27

Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Watchmen

I was reading Alan Moore's seminal The Watchmen for about the twentieth time again today and it's amazing just how relevant the book still is. The various characters; Nite Owl, Dr Manhattan, Roscharsch and even Veidt are archetypes that can be seen in the arena of politics if you look closely, which is a disturbing thought, but the issue that Moore brings up that always makes me nod my head to is nuclear proliferation. We havethe ultimate deterrent and reason not to go to war yet everyday we create weapons that take it right up to that line, not peace or even low-lying hostility given M.A.D. Will itreally take an alien attack to unite the world, do we need a catastrophe so large that it shocks out of our malaise of violence and stupidity, or as a species are we simply irredeemable? After all who watches the Watchmen?

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-15 18:42:29

Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Fallen so far

It seems that however much you dismiss the saying 'everything comes in threes', it's often quite true. Yesterday I offered a few thoughts on Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson, two massively gifted men who had their professions and even theworld at their feet, yet threw it away. Today we learn that another man (notice how all the messed talents are men ;) of exceptional gifts has take an even worse turn than the others. Worse? Worse than Mike Tyson? Yes, many will know this man and many won't, his name is George Best. The most talented footballer in a generation of talented players, Best was everything his name suggested, he was gifted like no British player even arguably to the present day. He had wealth, he had the most beautiful women in the world (including several Miss World's) and he had a love of the craic. Too much perhaps as post-football he has becomea violent womaniser with too much love for the sauce. Already with a liver transplant under his belt (sic) he is now accused of assaulting a minor, believed to be less than thirteen years old. I hope it's not true and if it is, then I hope he never sees the outside of jail cell again.

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-14 18:36:27

Monday, June 13, 2005
Mike

As I sit here typing a jury has just just acquitted Michael Jackson of all charges. The night before last Mike Tyson was stopped by a bum and ended his career in the mediocrity that many great champions find themselves facing. Of Jackson I know only what is shown on TV and in the press, I'm not a fan of his music and the transformation that superstardom created makes him to me a singly grotesque and odd individual who even if not guilty passes far too close to the border for me to hold anything other than doubt and revulsion. Tyson itwill be argued can be described in the same terms and I'm not here to excuse any of the vile things he has done but I would add a cautionary note. Mike Tyson was a punk, he was born mean, got treated mean and gave it back twice as hard. He had a great life and he threw it away but there is a strange sympthy I hold for Mike Tyson. It is more than the man who had it all and lost it, it is the punk who never knew what he had until it was gone, an animal in a businessrun byzoo keepers who was paraded and thenput down when he mauled the gathered masses. A circus freak who never asked to be under the big top. Most telling was the comment he made after losing, hopefully, this last time:

"I don't know what I am going to do. I know I am broke. I haven't really thought about what's next. All I know is, that is it. No more boxing. I have been a full-time boxer since I was about 13 and I am tired. My body can't take it any more. I don't knowwhat the next part of the plan is. I live every day like it is my last."

So he has come full circle, from nothing to top of the world to nothing, and what will we remember? The invincible young thug who tore up the record books, the baddest man on the planet, the rapist, the ear-biter, the boxer. At no time will anyonewonder where the human being wasin all this - and that makes Mike Tyson right now the saddest man on the planet.

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-13 17:58:49