Current mood:	SPARTA!
Current music:	Tasmanian Pain Coaster - El-P
Entry tags:	300, elephants, lee hazlewood, london, monotheism, skins, the wire

Give them nothing, but take from them everything.
All the complaints that 300 is propaganda? They're absolutely right. It's a remarkable adaptation in that, while much has been added to the original and a little taken out, it still feels absolutely like the work of the original's creator. And you'd need to add to the comic to make a film - five issues, decompressed avant la lettre, it would make maybe an hour of footage, at most. And since the comic came out, it has become so much more relevant - or at least, so much more *obviously* relevant. I had feared that the expansion of Queen Gorgo's role would be focus group bullsh1t, an exercise in introducing a Strong Female Character because we have to have those. Not at all - she comes across as very much a Frank Miller woman, and gives us a contrast between Leonidas' respect for his queen and the Persians' subjugation of women. And yes, the Persians - they're Muslim analogues, pure and simple. Whether they were in the original, I'm not so sure. But this is quite unashamedly a film about the West standing up for its freedom against a theocratic tyranny spawned in the Middle East. And what, after all, is wrong with that?
(Though it was a little upsetting to see a) McNulty and b) heffalumps on the side of evil)

Is it a sign that one is getting old to watch Skins and think that the fat uncle who's supposed to be spoiling the birthday party with his rubbish old music is actually playing a pretty good set?

Given the Tubewalkers &c on my friendslist, I'm surprised I recall no mention of last weekend's Underground Night on BBC4. Maybe I've just read it while drunk? But did anybody else see any/all of this?

Have been listening to a pretty good Lee Hazlewood tribute album whose sleevenotes take a format I've not seen before - they play the album to the subject and record his reactions. And he comes across as an absolute gent, proud of his compositions without being self-important, praising the vast majority of the versions without coming across as indiscriminate or a suck-up. What a star. But my favourite comment of all, on Tindersticks' contribution - "Is English his first language?"