Utterly violent, utterly irresponsible, utterly trashy. To sum up: wonderful.

A film about how people are used up and spat out by the war machine. Based on the true story of a propaganda photograph of five soldiers raising the US flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima; a bloody and frightening battleground for both sides as Eastwood’s other film “Letters from Iwo Jima” illustrates. We see how our “heroes” are paraded in front of the public, much to their discomfort, to raise money for the war mongerers and when their use is over, they are left to fend for themselves in situations of poverty, trauma and racism.

Has many pertinent things to say about war, the state, and the breath-taking cynicism of those who make the decisions about who will live and who will die for peace.

Hardcore Zen is an entertaining read. Once you get over its “Zen Buddhism as explained by your local groovy Youth Worker” style of language, and the deliberately “Hey Wow, I’m being really iconoclastic with my chapter headings” labeling, there’s a tidy heap of stuff just waiting to make itself more noticed amongst the other piles of stuff that seemed more important.

Mr Warner writes: “Your life is yours alone, and to miss your life is the most tragic thing that could happen.So sit down, shut up, and take a look at it”

Which on the surface appears to be yet another New Age homily, but seems to be (to me anyway) a rather cute li’l zazen nugget. It says a lot in a few short words.

Mr Warner is an ex-hardcore punk from Akron, Ohio, who now works in Tokyo for a film company that makes Monster Movies and in particular Ultraman which I personally feel culturally deprived of, and am seriously thinking of lodging a complaint with oh, whoever about um…whatever ….

...anywho he got caught up in punk and then Japanese culture and then ended up studying Zen and then received transmission to become a Zen master. One who says rude words and says it like it is. He’s more Henry Rollins than Yoda (allbeit a slender Henry).

So bravo Mr Brad Warner for reminding me that the shape of the snot in my nose is mine alone and nobody elses. He advises us to question authority, question ourselves, question everything.

Oh, and as for what he says about Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics. It’s not pretty.

I’ve read this book a couple of times, and each time it reveals more. On one level, Zen practice is about “just sitting”. However, on another level it’s very enigmatic, paradoxical and impenetrable. Zen teachings are written like poetic briefings from the universe, and you can never be entirely sure what’s being got at.

At the same time though, the focus is always on the ordinariness of things: almost an “anti-cosmic” stance. It’s not about heightened states of mind, groovy visions and being one with the universe, it’s about your life, here and now. Whatever that means…

For me, this book has helped clarify the techniques and practical postures to sit Zazen. It has also pointed me towards something else, but I’m not sure what that is!

It’s a playful, deadly serious read which baffles and elucidates at the same time.

And for that reason alone it no doubt will be read again and again.

I left the book behind in its owners house. I’ll read it some other time!

A few points:

- Penguins don’t have wings and don’t migrate. What are they doing in this film which is after all about er… winged migration?
- This film opens with a statement that no special effects were used, but over twenty people are listed at the end with “Digital Effects”
- The birds in the film were reared, imprinted on a pilot and then filmed following the pilot as they flew their plane past various “photogenic” sights. In what sense is this a documentary about migration when it is all so heavily manipulated? (Which in itself could be seen as another “special effect”).
- The commentary was pointless, the narrative drive was all over the place, and don’t get me started on the godawful 70s New Age hippy music.
- Nice bird footage though, even if it was felt necessary to uncritically show some of them being gunned down by hunters.

A bitterly disappointing season from the South Park Boys. Not as sharp as the earlier seasons which I love – the focus here is on more “issue” based comedy but it forgets the surreal, interweaving elements that made the initial run of shows so great. It feels like the material was just pumped out without much reflection and not really developed beyond the inital smart-ass idea, and the post 9/11 episode is surprisingly sappy for a show which has never previously been afraid to punch you straight between the eyes.

Even the “quality” of animation seems different…

Finally, in deliberately setting out to create “the worst cartoon character ever” the Towelie episode shows outright contempt for the audience. Total score is 14 episodes of which two are very good (“Cartmanland” and “Proper Condom Use”) three are OK (“The Entity”; “Kenny Dies”; and “Butters Very Own Episode”) the rest are poor and boring to watch: whoever thought South Park would be boring?

Makes me want to listen to all of Scott Walker’s albums right now!

The Criterion restoration is just gorgeous. Worth watching for the colours alone – yet there’s also a Fortean story to go with it too.

I loved this film set in Hanoi about the interweaving lives of three women. Gorgeously shot, it’s a joy to look at, and the treatment of the characters as adults rather than cyphers for a plot is a refreshing treat. Worth a view.