The Museum Of Modern Thinking

As you may have seen, MPs last night voted to exempt themselves from the Freedom Of Information Act; Iain Dale has excellent coverage and behind the scenes info I was not aware of. The bill went through with a comfortable majority, 113-23, which is depressing enough in itself. The bill was almost talked down but the opponents ran out of steam 5 minutes before the end, and the bill now passes to the Lords where it faces stiff opposition from the Lib Dems Lords. To their credit, none of the Lib Dem MPs voted for the bill.

What really gets me though is the total lack of coverage on the BBC news website of this very important bit of shenanigans. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am disgusted… I’ve yet to see the morning papers, and I hope they do a better job than Brown’s Broadcasting Corporation (hey, that joke still works).

Seeing as Gordon “pick us a winner” Brown’s tax credit system has overpaid £6 billion in three years, can we really afford him as Prime Minister? Heh heh, I said “afford”. Because he’s the Chancellor. It’s a money joke.

My sister got caught up in the overpayment screw up, and it’s made quite a few problems for her. Labour is, without doubt, a government of incompetence / incompetents.

Currently, a bill is being passed through Parliament that will exempt MPs from the Freedom Of Information (FOI) act. Even though the FOI act was instigated by the Labour government (one of the few things they did well), Labour MPs are adding their weight to the bill which was submitted by former Tory whip David Maclean.

The reason being given for exempting MPs from the FOI is to prevent “fishing expeditions” by newspapers, as we clearly should not find out about MPs riding the expenses gravy train or employing their family members. That story hit a while ago, but it’s an excellent example of why MPs should not be exempt from the FOI act. Just to recap, your average MP claimed £118,000 in expenses last year, as found out by the Sunday Times via a, you guessed it, a FOI request.

 I’m not going to argue about the scale of expenses as they speak for themselves (it’s our money, after all), but in a time where MPs are less respected than estate agents, should MPs be even considering this?

Go and use WriteToThem to contact your MP and urge them not to support this ridiculous bill - if they still want a job come next election.

So, playing Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360. Having no natural talent whatsoever, I used the code to unlock all the songs. I’ve played (or tried to), Sweet Child Of Mine, The Trooper, Misrlou and Freebird (love that song :)) I naturally drop notes all over the shop, but hey, I’m rocking out, having fun.

Flicking down through all the extra songs, I happen across “Less Talk More Rokk” [sic]. I like the sound of the sample, so I start playing it. Great tune, I’m a big fan of Electro, so this Electro / Metal crossover is just dandy. Check it out if you have Guitar Hero II. I’m off to find out more about the band Freezepop, and perhaps have a minute’s silence for the passing of my previous favourite song, Woman by Wolfmother.

Then again, just one more go on Woman…

So, about 10.30pm on Friday, my good wife said, “Are you going to see Spider-Man then?” A quick check of the film times saw me barrelling along the A52 towards the Derby Showcase, and I even resisted my usual small Coke and eat-until-I-feel-sick packet of M & Ms. Caught a few trailers, and then settled down to the main event.

I had read some reviews of Spider-Man 3, heard some negative buzz, heard some good points, so I kind of knew what to expect from the first half-hour of the film. Characters were introduced, their back stories briefly covered and I was brought up to speed with where they all were in their lives. The action then starts as Green Goblin (Peter’s friend Harry Osborne) goes after Peter Parker, still under the misapprehension that Spider-Man killed his father (side note: Green Goblin met his end in the film just like in the comic - good attention to detail). Suffice to say, Spider-Man survives and the good old Stan Lee / Marvel “Amnesia” card is played: Harry remembers nothing of his father’s death or Goblin-ness (he’s been dosing himself up, y’see), he and Peter are friends again, everything’s peachy.

Not so peachy for Flint Marko, an escaped murderer (of Peter’s Uncle Ben, no less) on the run to get money for his sick daughter (more Marvel magic). On the run, he stumbles into a big pit of sand and in An Experiment Gone Horribly Wrong, gets atomised / vapourised (/ digitised, for your Tron fans) and that’s that. Meanwhile, while MJ and PP are watching a meteor shower, a meteorite lands nearby and some black, er, stuff splodges out and attaches itself to Peter’s busted-ass moped.

Ok, who’s next? Right, Gwen Stacy, daughter of the police chief who informs Peter and Aunt May that Flint is on the run and responsible for Uncle Ben’s death. Eddie Brock is the new hot stuff (he thinks) photographer, who’s seeing Gwen perhaps, Dr Connors (yep, that Dr. Connors) is Peter’s tutor who examines the meteor “splodge”, etc. In the remainder of the film, Flint Marko is reborn as the Sandman, and dies (maybe), Venom is born via Peter Parker, someone remembers some stuff and opens a huge can of whoop ass, a love is lost, a friend is won and lost, Aunt May is stupendous, the snooty French waiter is hilarious, J. Jonah Jameson controls his blood pressure, Peter goes dark, and someone is forgiven.

As you can probably tell, there’s a lot going on, which has lead to critics calling the film “too busy” and “overlong”. Rather than talk you through the rest of the film, I’ll just give my thoughts on a few elements. First off, the players. Tobey Maguire has made the role of Peter Parker his own, and here he can do no wrong. Apart from the dancing. In the street. Good Grief. I really can’t add much to the following; Tobey Maguire is very comfortable in the role, and very believable in his emotions, especially when talking about his feelings on the love of the public for Spider-Man, or being dumped.

Next, Kirsten Dunst. I’ve read several reviews which sum up Kirsten’s performance as “meh”. This, I think, is unfair. I think the biggest problem is MJ does not get a lot of screen time, a victim perhaps of the squeezing in of two villains? In the scenes she is in, she works very well. Her vulnerabilities came across loud and clear, and her hurt in one jaw-dropping scene where I was thinking, “What is Peter thinking?” - you’ll know it when you see it. Plus, man, can she scream

James Franco: Really, really good. He played vengeful son and amnesiac friend brilliantly. A great character, well played. He easily went from happy-go-lucky billionaire to psychotic killing machine in a snap (yes, he gets his memory back, duh). He left a big impression on me, and he’s a Hell of an actor.

Topher Grace: Is this really the guy from That 70’s Show? He was great: mean, deluded, sarcastic, charming, vengeful, and having a bit of jealousy for Peter. Again, not a lot of screen time for him, but he was great in what he did (especially with those oddly-pointed teeth)

Thomas Haden Church: BORN TO PLAY SANDMAN. It’s that simple. He looks like Sandman, talks like Sandman, has excellent presence on screen. He was Sandman, simple as. Hope we see him again…

The rest of the cast: J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson was excellent - the scene with his heart pills was laugh out loud funny, and it was nice to see Ted Raimi still in the series, if only in a small part. Stan Lee pops up, but far more obvious this time, and even gets in a great Marvel catchphrase Aunt May, as previously mentioned, was stupendous - as with Tobey Maguire, Rosemary Harris has made that role her own: May is so earnest with her feelings regarding Peter and her late husband Ben, you really feel like she’s your own Aunt. Bruce Campbell (The Chin) was back as a French maitre’d, another good comedy part. Oh, there was thing called Venom as well, but hey, can’t give too much away…

 I’m not even going to touch on the action scenes: they were fast, well orchestrated, gripping but I did feel a couple of times that the camera work was a little too “swoopy”. However, the characters were well animated, it didn’t look like a bad videogame, and there were plenty of “whoa” moments, as Spidey swoops through a crane, or Green Goblin Jnr flings Peter towards the ground ON A WALL. Cool stuff. The special effects are obviously phenomenal, with the Sandman’s “birth” and continuing effects being way, way cool. The “splodge”’s stringy black tendrils will more than likely give me nightmares at some point, they were incredibly organic and creepy - good work on those.

Faults? Yeah, there were some - although the film was long, I think it could have been a bit longer to give more characters screen time (i.e. MJ), but seeing as we’ve already got the rapport between MJ and PP from the previous two films it doesn’t need explaining. Apart from the “swoopy” camera work previously mentioned, I found the “team up” at the end of the film a little cheesy, but I guess it all works as it should. I’ve read that Gwen Stacy should have been introduced in the last film, but the intro this film suffices, seeing as she makes it out alive. For the moment…

In all, Spider-Man 3 was a corker of a film, scoring at least a 9 out of 10. It’ll definitely be going into the collection, and if all the players want to return, I’ll gladly shell out another £6.50 to watch them.

Disclaimer: I grew up reading Spider-Man when I was a kid; he’s my hero.

On the eve of local elections, I feel like recounting something that happened last week. After a great evening on a bike ride, we stopped of at local playground for my son to burn some energy off. After a few minutes, he comes screaming up, rigid, and sits on my wife’s lap. He’s rubbing the back of the head, and we look in his mouth and his teeth are swimming in blood. As we tell him this (a mistake, on hindsight), he cries and flicks his head back. As he does this, I can clearly see the split under his chin, and the blood starts flowing freely.

 I cycle back double-quick, leaving Jacky to care for him. I jump in the car, drive back to the playground and bundle him in, and go to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary’s A & E. After a brief chat with the receptionist, we sit down and wait. There’s quite a few people around us in various states of disrepair, all seeking help. After 20 minutes, a lady comes out from behind the desk and informs us there will be a 3 to 4 hour wait to be seen.

3 to 4 hours.

I’m unsure how much of our money has been ploughed into the NHS, but this is not good enough. It was a Thursday night, not an alcohol-sodden weekend day and night. With all the millions that have been put into the NHS, is this the best they can do?

As it goes, I bundled my son into the car and went to the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital. After a wait (but certainly not a 3 to 4 hour wait), they cleaned him up, glued(!) his chin back together and sent us home.

Even though my son is fine now, with a manly Indiana Jones-style scar on his chin, I’m still very annoyed with the piss-poor staffing levels in our NHS.