ICTChris

I tend to read quite heavy books, my missus buys a lot of books (being an English teacher you'd kind of expect that from her) and she has good taste so I pick up a lot from her. One thing I have thought is that I need to read some more things that aren't Booker material so I've decided to give more crime fiction a go. I am enjoying Pelecanos at the moment and previously read 'The Butcher's Boy' by Thomas Perry, which was pretty good. I tried starting Stuart McBrides first novel but I stopped after about five pages as it was just shite. Sorry Stuart!

I went out for a run last night.

Scotland gear up for RL World Cup

Gomorra A film about the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia. Five intertwining stories are covered, detailing the grip organised crime has on Naples and the impact on the population. One story involves a 13 year old working his way into the local gang culminating with him 'proving' himself in a shocking way, another deals with a mafia money distributor who hands out cash to the relatives of dead or imprisoned camorista in the unassuming manner of an insurance salesman. He ends up becoming involved in a brutal feud. The other stories detail the path taken by two young thugs, detailing the brutality and senselessness of trying to 'make it' as a gangster, the story of a tailor who becomes a victim of the mob's contorl of the garmet industry and, most chillingly, how the mafia dispose of toxic waste by burying it in the countryside around Naples poisoning the local land and people. It's based on the book by Roberto Saviano which caused a sensation when it was released. The film doesn't really have an overarching narrative - it really looks to cumulatively show the corruption and degradation of life in Naples caused by the influence of organised crime. It's almost like a documentary, the violence isn't stylised at all - one assassination happens literally in less than a second, far removed from the Hollywood gunfights you see in most crime films. Also, the assassins in the film are drugged up kids or fat middle aged men in poorly fitting shorts and vests rather than any notion of suave glamour. It's quite long and isn't a conventionally satisfying film to watch - the film doesn't come to a climax in the sense that everything isn't tied off. It is an important film though - perhaps an antidote to assinine treatments of organised crime by showing the depravity and ugliness of murder and the mob. The film ends with a few statistics about crime in Naples - if you piled up all the toxic waste dumped by the Camorra it would be almost twice as high as Everestl; the Camorra have killed 3,000 people in the last thirty years, more than any other criminal organisation and one murder every three days; some of teh £100bn+ they earn through crime has been invested in teh rebuilding of the World Trade Centre. Frightening stuff - apparently the book details a Camorra clan who relocated to Aberdeen to run their operations, so mind what's in those mock chop suppers Doric loons!

I am reading the Night Gardener by George Pelencanos.

Have caught a bit of the Grand Final during the interminable repeats on Setanta and it looked like your lads got a bit of a doing, record defeat was it? I do enjoy the NRL stuff on Setanta, but with all the repeats and the time difference it's a bit much to properly follow. I think my girlfriend would also leave me if I started inflicting rugby league as well as football on her Scotland have a league team in the World Cup this year, starts later this month.

A good book. I am reading 'No Country For Old Men' by Cormac McArthy. It's a bit strange reading a book after having seen teh film but it's very enjoyable. The Chigurh character is probably more disturbing than in the film.

Stan Collymore is an absolute p***k. Duncan Ferguson allegedly chinned him in a club in Liverpool, wish that had happened in the days of video-phones.

I went for a couple of runs last week for the first time in a long time. In tandem with giving up booze for the next few months and starting playing fives (Edinburgh based P&B-ers, Meadowbank 6pm this thursday) I thought I'd give it a shot. I haven't run very far but the next day I felt pretty good and fresh. I have given up smoking along with the drink (only time I really smoked in the past few months was when I was drinking or in the pub) so expect to be a bit wheezy for awhile. Bad news is that I have picked up a cold (perhaps related to last weeks fives being played in the pissing rain) so haven't been out this week.

I don't even have Sky Sports Nadal on Eurosport, being given a good game

What channel is this on?

You're being groomed.

Why not just get steaming as soon as possible and turn your day into one of those 'alcohol awareness' preachy adverts?

My work haven't sorted out my contract beign made permanent - it now might not happen, despite being told that it definately was.

If she plays her cards right she might find one who will eat her.

It's pretty obvious that Murray would have needed to go abroad to become the player he is. He was probably the best player in Scotland by the time he was 15, how could he learn anything? I think that tennis players often move abroad to join these academies - most of the Russian players have pronounced California accents as they emigrated when they were about 10! Was it not the UK tennis academy that was in the news because it had to expel a load of pupils for spending their time boozing, then boasting about it on Bebo? I doubt that went on in Barcelona. I think taht Stirling University has a Tennis Academy now but given the climate obviously playing in Spain would be better to develop a player for all possible surfaces.

My job frustrates me. Due to other things not being done as they should I have to be the person who c**ts around other people. This makes me look bad and I don't want to shift the blame because there's nothing worse than going to someone with a problem only for them to say 'It's not me it's XXX' - usually this is done by people who can easily resolve these problems.

I read that as 'why does nobody use landmines anymore?' and had an indignant agreement reply ready stating that landmines are a quality weapon and that uppity slag Diana robbed us a beautirful thing when she banned them.

What I meant was I think it's very selfish for people to use their children as pawns or to 'get back' at their ex-partners. I would think that most parents would be able to put aside personal feelings about the break-up and ensure that the best thing happens with children, although that must be difficult in cases of very messy break-ups or spousal abuse. I'm not referring to any case in particular, of course.

What sort of person couldn't come up with a sensible agreement to provide financial needs and visiting rights for their children? I suppose if a wife caught her husband nailing her sister or something like that. My nag is I'm sur eI have glandular fever.

If you seperate do you not draw up an agreement regarding access, payments etc. Citizens Advice Bureau's can give you advice on this sort of thing.

Great post. Henman was a fantastic player, hopefully Murray can go on to surpass his achievements.

Just back from Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite). The film is based in the BOPE, Rio's elite SWAT team police unit. The narrator and BOPE captain is about to become a father and wants to leave the ultra-stressful world of fighting in the favelas. He is faced with racheted up pressure to clean up the favelas for the Pope's visit as well as choosing his successor. The two candidates are two rookie police who move together through the mire of corruption that is policing in Brazil. Eventually, they show enough aptitute to become members of BOPE - the film tells the story of their journey to becoming 'Skulls'. It's a very high octane film, extremely violent as you'd expect, but also is interesting in that it shows how the corruption in Brazil creates the environment for the urban warfare to develop between the BOPE and the drug cartels. The rank and file Brazilian police are simply out for graft and cash leading the idealistic young recruits to go to BOPE where they are exposed to the brutal culture of the unit. I thought it was a great film, very well shot with superb action scenes. The performances of the police were good (the film mainly focuses on them), one criticism of the movie would be it didnt' flesh out the secondary characters, the drug dealers and NGOs, as well as it could have. These are minor quibbles. The director gave a short talk afterwards, he was asked a few questions. one was about the fact that the narrator has become a 'folk hero' in Brazil with fans mass producing posters of him. This is despite his absolute brutality at times in the film. I think that it just shows that the character was nuanced rather than a character. I'd give it 8/10 - here's the trailer, in Portugese I'm afraid:

Orbital - Chime

Red. Part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Red tells a story of a man seeking justice after some tearaway youngsters kill his dog. Brian Cox stars alongside Tom Sizemore and Robert Englund in minor roles. I thought it was an interesting film, a little more of a TV movie than a mainstream production. Brian Cox did well adn the film overall was thoughtful. The ending was a bit cheesy and I thought the film 'gave' a bit too much - a similar film is A History of Violence, and that kept a lot back and as such made you think a lot more. Brian Cox did a small speech after the showing and answered a few questions. I don't think he liked working with Tom Sizemore much Off to see Tropa d'Elite on Friday, looking foward to it.