Succinct blogging. To those who skip long posts and go straight to the short ones, this is for you. See this post has a point. Catering to the masses.

I started this post to say something. I’ve already forgotten….
…..
Okay, it’s back. Scary moments of complete loss of memory… but that’s another story.

I’m going to need to fiddle with my template to get blogger comments and unique post IDs to show up here. At the moment I don’t even know how or where to find my unique posts, which is the only place I can see my blogger comments.
So for anyone using blogger comments, please don’t for now.

And my brother did have twelve toes… I never thought much of it. He had them surgically removed so he didn’t have to look for extra-wide shoes. Obviously not all of his toes were removed. Just the sixth ones on each foot. So he’s not a freak anymore. Well, he is, but no more than everyone else in my family.

In my comeback post you’d think I would do something grand.

No.

In other news, I am the only Blogger with interests in:

• Liverpool
• Balkans
• Serbia
• Kosovo
• West Africa
• Nigeria
• Sudan
• Palestine and
• alien spotting.

So .instead of writing something short, with simply a link to Brad Pitt proposing we learn from history (who else could have thought of it?), I went…grand

Troy overcooked

I watched Troy last night. I um and I ah about it. I followed this link, somehow thinking he had actually done so. .Pitt compares Troy with Iraq war. I laugh at myself. I actually thought I was going to read something…substantial. They never actually quote Pitt saying the word “Iraq” (or much of anything), just ‘pertinent to today’ and ‘what we’re facing at the moment’. So what do I have to say about the movie? Read on, if you care.

I can’t fault the story – it’s not Wolfgang Petersen’s (director’s)… fault… Homer wrote a tragic, life-is-nought, stupid epic. Obviously I have not read it, otherwise I would probably have a good deal more respect for it. Nonetheless, this was not the poem, but the movie. Some good fight scenes, particularly the one between Hector (Eric Bana) and Achilles (Brad Pitt), but otherwise it was all a bit blah.

Epic? I don’t think so. Long, yes. Epic, no. I’m not sure, but I’ve come to my own conclusion that there will never be another epic. I say CGI characters, fight scenes and 1000-ship armadas automatically disqualify a movie. As you can see, my ‘epic’ is based on a grand scale of people and coordination, not necessarily on the storyline. This may be erroneous but it is my opinion. You are entitled to it.

I can’t think of any particular redeeming quality to take from the story either… Love? Stockholm Syndrome maybe. There was a love story but not the one expected between Paris and Helen, and not entirely convincing. Honor? Perhaps, it was an element. It was, however, made quite clear that honor is not rewarded in life, so I can’t say it made a point to ‘be honorable’. Eternity? Frequent talk of the gods and respecting them, but made clear they, in the end, have no influence whatsoever on the outcome of…well, anything.

So in the end it is, as Homer probably meant it, simply supposed to portray life as futile. It does a good job of that. I can’t see you, or anyone else, walking away saying, “I really liked when [x] happened because it makes you think about [x aspect of life].” Unless you enjoy thinking about life as a meaningless journey through nothingness to nothingness.

Annoying things:
I was entirely sick of Orlando Bloom (Paris, brother of Hector, prince of Troy) by the end of Lord of the Rings, and was unsurprisingly disappointed again by his steely glare, pensive sigh and high-falutin’ speak. Very disappointed to see how he ends up in the movie as well. [said thus so as not to spoil it for those who may yet go to see it, haven't read the poem and also haven't had someone else tell them]
And Peter O’Toole (king Priam of Troy) making as concerted an effort as I’ve ever seen towards making his eyes pop out of their sockets of their own accord – disturbing