Archive for June, 2024
A review of the new animated movie “Inside Out 2”
June 29th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The original “Inside Out” was so good and so successful and it concluded with the discovery of a button labelled puberty, so I was sure that a sequel would soon follow. In fact, surprisingly it’s taken nine years for Pixar – with a new director Kelsey Mann – to provide us with the sequel, although […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Making sense of politics in India – the world’s largest democracy
June 27th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Elections in a country of the size and complexity of India are huge and difficult affairs. The Indian Constitution requires that voters do not have to travel more than 2 km (1.2 miles) from their homes to vote. At the recent election in April/June 2024, some 969 million citizens were eligible to vote and some […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the heavy science-fiction novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu
June 25th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Following “The Three-Body Problem” and “The Dark Forest”, this is the third and final novel in the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy by the noted Chinese science fiction writer. It was first published in Chinese in 2010 and then in English in 2016. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How can one obtain a revealing interview?
June 23rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In this weekend’s “Observer” newspaper, there’s a long and revealing interview by Charlotte Edwards of the Leader of the Labour Party, soon to be Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. It reminded me of when I was interviewed as a Parliamentary candidate and of when recently I conducted a series of interviews of staff and residents in […]
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of my new book “Rennie & River: Tales From Two Courts”
June 13th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
“What fascinating stories emerge from 2 small 1970s blocks of flats on the South Bank! Roger Darlington has selected colourful threads from the life tapestries of 40 of those living or working in the buildings. With great technical skill, he shares these memories from the extraordinarily wide-ranging group of individuals, with life stories spanning the […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the fascinating new film “The Beast”
June 11th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
It is 1910, we are in Paris, and Gabrielle is a celebrated pianist and society beauty. It is 2014, we are in Los Angeles, and Gabrielle is an aspiring model and actress. It is 2044 and Gabrielle is considering a process called ‘purification’ which, in a world now dominated by AI, will enable her to […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the 1945 classic film “Rome, Open City”
June 4th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Italian Neorealism ran from 1943 to 1952 and this film is one of the earliest and most memorable expressions of that movement. Key features of the movement were a focus on ordinary working people and the use of non-professional actors, vernacular dialogue and real locations. For Italians in 1945, nothing could be more realistic than […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
I feel for the people of Pakistan
June 4th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In April. I was in Pakistan for a two week holiday. We suffered the cancellation of an internal flight because of the weather and landslides on the road route that we had to take instead. This year, Pakistan recorded its wettest April Ince 1961 with more than double the usual rainfall for the month. Daytime […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Word of the day: nyctohylophobia
June 2nd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The word means: a fear of dark forests or wooded areas. It occurs in the English translation of the Chinese science fiction novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu. In the context of this novel, the ‘forest’ refers to the theory that, in the vastness of the universe, there are countless other civilisations. The ‘dark’ rests […]
Posted in Cultural issues, Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review of the action-packed movie “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
June 1st, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In the beginning, there was “Mad Max” (1979), “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981), and “Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome” (1985) – none of which I’ve seen – and then, an amazing thirty years later, we had “Mad Max: Fury Road” which was simply stunning. In “Fury Road”, Max was aided by the one-armed, […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)