Monthly Archives: December, 2013

A super response

We were talking at lunch today about the foolishness of that old interview question:

“What would you say is your biggest weakness?”

Several people proposed suitable responses, but my favourite came from Richard. His suggestion?

“Kryptonite”

The habits of Hobbits

My quick review of the new Hobbit film: I enjoyed it a lot, though perhaps not as much as the first one. Too much romance, not enough Mirkwood, too many echoes of LOTR, and somewhat excessive use of decapitation, but, it must be said, an exceedingly fine dragon.

Tolkien purists (like Rose) will be furious, but my view is that you have to change even a good book to make a good film. And, if you’re going to invent new characters, then you’ll get fewer complaints from me if you have them played by people like Evangeline Lilly.

The middle film of a trilogy is always the hardest to do, to which a fair response would be that they were foolish to do it as a trilogy. That, I imagine, was determined by pure economics. It’ll be interesting to see whether Peter Jackson can do something really new with part III. In the book, Bilbo misses the whole final battle through being knocked on the head. Somehow, I think the movie may deviate from the canon there…

Meanwhile, I imagine that the entrepreneurs of New Zealand’s South Island are already planning barrel riding trips for the spring tourists…

The lines are drawn

MediaCityUK

A morning shot from MediaCityUK in Salford, which I thought showed an interesting mix of the components of this somewhat bizarre new creation. Old Trafford is just behind me. The offices on the right are the BBC. The building on the left will contain the set of Coronation Street, which is being rebuilt here. There’s some heavy industry in the background, and it’s a nice spot for early-morning rowers. Oh, and you can’t see the cormorant diving under the bridge.

Going back in time

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I’m in Douglas, on the Isle of Man.

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Prime time?

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MediaCityUK, Salford, by night. Click for larger version.

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser