Iain McNay 08/07

BOOKS
Tim Guest 'Second Lives'   I enjoyed Guest's first book 'My Life In Orange' which was autobiographical. This one is about his adventures on Second Life, not just online but his meetings with the people behind it and some of the major payers online. Fascinating.

Anne Geraghty -  'In The Dark And Still Moving'   Autobiography of Tim Guest's Mother. I have known her for 20 years or so, so it is quite fascinating how she sees different parts of her life. Overall a courageous and compelling story.

Mike Oldfield - Changeling   Tubular Bells man Oldfield's autobiography. It's very interesting what he chooses to cover in depth and what he hardly mentions. Of course, the making of Tubular  Bells is comprehensively covered as is, maybe surprisingly,  his panic attacks and depression. Meanwhile his wife, girlfriends and children get no more than a page between them. 

FILMS
The Peaceful Warrior   I read Dan Millman's book about 20 years ago and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure what the film version would be like but it was actually very good. A relatively low budget production but it is reasonably faithful to the book. Millman was a gymnastics student in San Francisco who had a chance meeting with a mystic he called Socrates who worked nights at a petrol station. Socrates became his spiritual teacher and he slowly started to change his life. It's mostly a true story and really quite uplifting.

The Hoax   Richard Gere plays Clifford Irving the writer who engineered the Hoax of obtaining $1 million from a publisher for a biography of Howard Hughes which he claimed to have Hughes cooperation for. He almost pulls it off by being more and more outrageous. Great stuff.

La Vie En Rose   French made documentary about the life of the singer Edith Piaf. Interesting and enjoyable.

Carandiro   Brazillian film that shares many of the same strengths as "City of God". Carandiro was an infamous prison in Brazil packed full of murderers. The story is told from the perspective of a Doctor who worked at the prison and gets close to many of the inmates. Their stories are fascinating. The ending is pretty horrific even more so when you realise that it is basically a true story. Excellent film

The Flying Scotsman   Amazing story of fortitude and victory against the odds - and that's just the making of the film. It was 12 years in production and funded by a wide assortment of financiers. It is about Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree, a man who assembled a bicycle from washing machine parts and rode to victory in the world championships. Touching and inspiring.

Sicko   Michael Moore's latest documentary about the American Health system. Some funny bits but overall I found it all rather obvious, and poor on perspective. Moore ramps up our own National Heath service as well as the French system and doesn't make clear at all that we pay much higher taxes than the average American. If they paid the same they may have a better system there; hopefully. Best piece is when he takes a boat load of sick American to Cuba for treatment...

Zodiac   The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California for ten months in the late 1960s. His identity remains unknown and the film deals with the case from the angle of the police involved in trying to solve the case and the journalists covering it.

Who Killed The Electric Car?   Billed as 'a murder mystery about what happened to thousands of fast electric cars in 2003 and how this relates to just about everything going on today.' It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV-1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? The film chronicles the life and mysterious death of the EV-1; examining the cultural and economic ripple effects caused by its conception and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business.

The Lives Of Others   Really good German film about the Secret Police in East Berlin. Very enjoyable.

CDs  
Roy Wood 'Look Thru' The Eyes Of (Hits & Rarities Brilliance % Charm 1974 - 1987)   Always liked Roy Wood; A good collection.

Mute Audio Documents 1978-1984   128 tracks over 10 Cds and good packaging too. An in depth document of the first 6 years of a very interesting label that went on to great things. Highly recommended.

GIGS:
Live Earth - Wembley Stadium   Metallica and Black Eyes Peas stood out for me.
Travis - Reading   I actually got a bit bored after 30 minutes of so..I guess it wasn't for me.

FOOTBALL
AFC Wimbledon 2 FC United of Manchester - Pre season Friendly    The two 'giants' of fan owned clubs meet in their traditional pre-season friendly. A good contest with The Dons coming our worthy winners in the end. The gate of 2,500 showed that there is plenty of interest in both clubs. Hopefully promotion for both this season.