The Harry Potter films are a classic example of where the Oscars get it wrong. Nominated 12 times over the eight films, they did not win a single one. Not all the films were classics, but none were poor, and they were immensely popular. In particular, IMO the later films were really well done. And the stories were good.
Why didn't they win? Because they were too popular? Because they were films for kids?
They were all poor. They were boring, banal, and derivative. Brilliant for kids in which case they should have a Kids' Oscars.
I disagree. In the later films, sets, special effects, costumes etc were all very, very good.
A different subject matter and they could be considered with the likes of Ben Hur etc - the problem is a lot of people don't like to treat certain subject matters with respect.
Sci Fi and Fantasy as a genre is rarely treated with the same respect as historical or other genres.
We aren't seeing a market correction - whether it be housing or food prices we're talking about. We're seeing a hollowing out of the centre ground, a load of prices rising at the top for the people who can tolerate rises, and a rush to find cheaper because less money for everyone else.
Why are sales collapsing on affordable housing? Because it isn't affordable. But at the same time people need to be less het up about house prices. When we were stuck in negative equity and couldn't move when we wanted to that was bad. On paper we lost £44k across 15 years. But it was paper money as the we never paid £175k, just a mortgage.
Zelenskyy on Johnson: much keener than Macron to send military support. “Johnson is a leader who is helping more. The leaders of countries react according to how their constituents act. In this case, Johnson is an example. Britain is definitely on our side.
“It is not performing a balancing act. Britain sees no alternative for the way out of the situation. Britain wants Ukraine to win and Russia to lose.” British Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles sent to Ukraine are now ready to be deployed against Russian warplanes.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
If you look at the graph in the Telegraph article, the rich's houses have got more expensive and more in demand.
So another transfer of wealth
Yup, fuck the poor. Again.
Rishi would be proud.
I genuinely think cost of living is going to destroy this Government. This is probably the biggest crisis in well over a decade and yet it goes barely reported.
I think you are absolutely right, this will destroy this govt unless they act quickly.
The party of the preservation of wealth is presiding over the biggest decline in living standards for many a year.
I would quite like to be wrong, as people are going to end up homeless.
I hope you are keeping safe and well, Taz.
All well up here thanks. My wife has a cold we don’t think it’s COVID
Hope all is well with you.
I don’t think you are wrong. Even the likes of John Redwood on Social media are calling for the govt to do more to help the less well off who are taking a dramatic hit to their levels of disposable income. The party of the preservation of wealth is becoming the party of the erosion of wealth.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
"All investments can go down in value as well as up".
I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for people who are investing in housing that then see their investments lose value. For people living in their homes rather than using them as investments, they won't become homeless unless they can no longer afford the mortgage repayments which is just the same if they can't afford the rent. The supposed "value" of the house is not really that relevant so long as you're not planning on moving any time soon.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
If you look at the graph in the Telegraph article, the rich's houses have got more expensive and more in demand.
So another transfer of wealth
So houses are becoming more affordable for the poor and less affordable for the rich - isn't that a good news story?
Are you in favour of more affordable housing, or more "housing wealth", you seem to be giving out mixed signals.
Houses are becoming less affordable for the poor because their earnings are going down because of inflation (read the article) and the rich aren't impacted because they get above inflation rises and they're rich in the first place
The housing market has been screwed at the bottom end for years now thanks to the leasehold / cladding scandals, which successive Tory ministers have failed to fix, although Gove appears to be doing a better job than his predecessors.
Most people who bought leasehold flats (i.e. first time buyers in their 20s and 30s) have been stuck in limbo for a while now, unable to sell, unable to remortgage, stuck paying spiralling costs they have no control over. Many of those people would normally be selling up their starter homes and moving on to bigger and better by now - instead they're trapped.
As I say Gove appears to be better than his predecessors but there is still a very long way to go.
This correction isn't going to correct prices for people that can afford it, it's going to correct prices for those that can't.
And the Tories are going to do nothing, unlike those big banks who take our money.
If you have a decent slug of equity, a fall in house prices is annoying, but it's losing paper money. Easy come, easy go and at the end of the day you still have a house.
If you don't have said equity (probably because you didn't have the foresight to buy ten years ago because you were still studying then), falling house prices can wipe you out.
The other thing to remember is that, for mortgage payers, there's no such thing as a uniform housing price. It all depends on when you bought- you then fix that price in place for the duration. The basically identical houses in my street cost anywhere between £100 000 and £500 000 depending on when the current owners bought them.
Hence the age profile we currently see, where younger people can't buy houses and older people are baffled as to why this is so.
It's a scam, and a scam that politicians of all parties have ridden for decades. But whilst it deserves to be unwound, unwinding it ain't going to be pretty, and I'm not sure what can be done about it, short of inventing a time machine and going back to the mid 1980's.
Despite my great reluctance to comment on showbiz, here goes:
1. Chris Rock's 'joke' was in very poor taste. Mrs (?) Smith has alopecia; if she'd lost her hair through having chemo for cancer, for example, people would have been horrified at the joke. It's not that different. 2. Nevertheless, Smith shouldn't have assaulted him. 3. Despite 1. and 2. above, I really couldn't give a flying fuck.
Its Ricky Gervais I feel sorry for...
Then again maybe not. He has been asked what he would have been saying if he was hosting. And he tweeted:
I'd start with "Hello. I hope this show helps cheer up the ordinary people watching at home. If you’re unemployed for example, take some comfort in the fact that even if you had a job, your salary probably wouldn't be as much as the goody bag all the actors have just been given." https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1508133398480576512
and
"I'm proud to announce that this is the most diverse and progressive Oscars ever. Looking out I see people from all walks of life. Every demographic under the sun. Except poor people, obviously. Fuck them." https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1508146459039916033
I never have thought much of him. Now my opinion has changed. I think even less of him.
Nope I disagree. I think he is spot on and would have loved to have seen him deliver those lines. That Goodie bag he refers to was given this year (as for the last 19 years) to every nominee and is worth £76,000 ($100,000). I think that is a perfect target for this sort of satire.
Take the point Mr T, but I've looked at the comments again and don't see them as satirical. Particularly the second. However, I may be being unduly sensitive.
The “f them” is supposed to be the organisers speaking not gervais. They care about every demographic except the poor
Potential Wordle spoiler alert. Got the final four letters correct today in 3. Was then faced with the choice of 5 further unused first letters all of which made common words. Bit annoying. Not half as much if I hadn't got it on the second. But it became a pot luck guessing game, not a moderately diverting challenge.
I found it comfortable enough.
Took me all 6.
Me too, but only because I wasn't confident enough after three.
Wordle 282 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I had three options left after four and eliminated two of them with the fifth.
It is quite possible that the Japanese have a stronger military than anything the Russians could send to the area.
I've only had one interaction with the Japanese military on a brief flying visit to Atsugi. It was 'Fried Chicken Friday' which is apparently a huge deal. I had to explain to the officer hosting us that I was a vegetarian and couldn't participate but intended no disrepect. The Senior NCO in charge of catering was summoned and told to make me vegetable tempura. The same NCO brought it out and was made to stand to attention next to me while the honoured guest ate it.
So if the rest of their military is up to the standard of their catering they are shit hot.
A story about Japanese and meals.
We were doing some work with a Japanese manufacturer, and they sent over a boss and a couple of engineers to work with us. The engineers did not speak good English, and we did not speak Japanese, but we managed to communicate via the language of tech. It actually worked quite well.
One evening we took them out to the Maharajah on Castle Hill, here in Cambridge. Not a posh place, but good nosh. One of the engineers did not know Chinese food, so ordered whatever one of our engineers had. So that engineer ordered the hottest phaal in the place. The Japanese engineer took a few mouthfuls, and sweat poured down his face. He stared at his boss, and only when his boss gave a nod did he get up and leave the table, reappearing only once the main courses had disappeared.
It was a dickish thing four our engineer to do, but the self-control of waiting for his boss to give him permission to leave the table amazed me.
Wasn't there a Korean Airlines crash because the Second Officer dared not criticise the Captain? Or something similar. Seem to recall language was involved, too.
Despite my great reluctance to comment on showbiz, here goes:
1. Chris Rock's 'joke' was in very poor taste. Mrs (?) Smith has alopecia; if she'd lost her hair through having chemo for cancer, for example, people would have been horrified at the joke. It's not that different. 2. Nevertheless, Smith shouldn't have assaulted him. 3. Despite 1. and 2. above, I really couldn't give a flying fuck.
Its Ricky Gervais I feel sorry for...
Then again maybe not. He has been asked what he would have been saying if he was hosting. And he tweeted:
I'd start with "Hello. I hope this show helps cheer up the ordinary people watching at home. If you’re unemployed for example, take some comfort in the fact that even if you had a job, your salary probably wouldn't be as much as the goody bag all the actors have just been given." https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1508133398480576512
and
"I'm proud to announce that this is the most diverse and progressive Oscars ever. Looking out I see people from all walks of life. Every demographic under the sun. Except poor people, obviously. Fuck them." https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/1508146459039916033
I never have thought much of him. Now my opinion has changed. I think even less of him.
Nope I disagree. I think he is spot on and would have loved to have seen him deliver those lines. That Goodie bag he refers to was given this year (as for the last 19 years) to every nominee and is worth £76,000 ($100,000). I think that is a perfect target for this sort of satire.
Take the point Mr T, but I've looked at the comments again and don't see them as satirical. Particularly the second. However, I may be being unduly sensitive.
The “f them” is supposed to be the organisers speaking not gervais. They care about every demographic except the poor
Obliged. Sadly ..... it's my failing .....written satire tends to be lost on me. Some mental quirk.
Putin’s spokesman says that Russia won’t supply Europe with gas for free if they refuse to pay in rubles. We’re getting closer to the tap being turned off.
Amazing development if the Russians effectively sanction their own exports by refusing payment in hard currency. Sure it would cause problems in Europe, but wouldn't it finish Russia off for a long time?
Can we please call a halt to this kind of thing? Just because someone posts an alternative perspective to the prevailing orthodoxy of the salivating armchair generals does not make them a Russian troll. This site would be much the poorer (and has been since the invasion) by the tiresome and childish 'outing' of people who may be broadening perspectives.
And rcs, you stated baldly and without negotiation that there will not be a no fly zone. We still don't know that. War does strange things and I don't know how this is going to pan out, nor do you. Nor does anyone on here.
others are perfectly free to say that they're stupidly excusing evil.
Yep but that's different from suggesting that they are a Russian troll or "paid by Putin". That's the part I object to. I have no issue with people disagreeing with my perspectives, or anyone else's.
With regard to the salivating armchair generals, there has been a huge increase in the war rhetoric on here. Whilst appalled by the invasion, a certain coterie of mostly men seem to be pouring over every piece of military action and pouncing upon it, with lots of references to past military actions including WW2. As I mentioned the other day, it's like living inside that game of Diplomacy. Or, rather, it's like living inside one of those black and white war films that I assumed were their staple Sunday afternoon viewings when they grew up in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
Despite my belief that we should back Zelensky and the people of Ukraine with an international No Fly Zone, I'm a pacifist. All the war talk makes for pretty grim reading, that's all.
I also cannot see *any* logic in calling for a NFZ and declaring yourself a pacifist - since an NFZ would be a massive escalation in the conflict.
Pragmatism, not logic, are necessary in a situation where an aggressor has violently assaulted someone or an entire people. The old cliche about standing back and watching whilst a soldier rapes your wife etc.
And it's the kind of pragmatism you need because it ultimately saves more lives. Had the bomb plot against Hitler succeeded in June 1944 it would have saved, what, 2 million other lives (many of them Jewish)?* So I am a pacifist in principle but have the pragmatic common sense to accept that sometimes you have to act.
I'm not sure that a No Fly Zone will instantly represent a "massive escalation" in the conflict and it does smack to me of NIMBYism. Because the people who are getting bombed into oblivion are not 'us', or not members of this or that club, we're not going to their aid. They are still our fellow human beings and they are calling for our help. Because we are cowering in fear at the consequences we won't do so. That's how bullies win. What Putin has done is an act of unspeakable evil.
And I'm not convinced that our present course is going to lead to deescalation. If, as seems likely, Putin's forces are grinding to a halt then that might make Putin even more dangerous. A cornered animal and all that.
I go back to the Cuban missile crisis. The language Kruschev understood was being stood up to. Perhaps if we took a stronger stance with Putin we would find a quicker route to the negotiating table and save more innocent lives in Ukraine.
It's a theory, that's all.
* By the way I'm pretty sure Leon is wrong when he says Churchill backed the plot. IIRC from reading about it, Churchill did not want to get involved when it was first mooted.
So, now we are allowed to refer to ww2?
Confusing
Probably 2 Heatheners arguing with each other? Either that or Heathener is a very confused person.
The only think to do about the Will Smith spat is to ignore it. I say that on the basis that the hacks love this and tabloid rags feast on this sort of thing.
Otherwise the Oscars just make me sad, without falling for false nostalgia it does seem that films are not what they once were. Wouldn’t it be great if Hollywood started chucking out some decent films?
I blame the internet personally. It’s hard to create something new, when the entire archive is available on demand for little money.
It produces films that make money, like Spiderman and films that are good like Belfast (I also enjoyed West Side Story).
However when was the Oscar last won by a film which was a box office hit? Titanic? No wonder their ratings are in decline
The only think to do about the Will Smith spat is to ignore it. I say that on the basis that the hacks love this and tabloid rags feast on this sort of thing.
Otherwise the Oscars just make me sad, without falling for false nostalgia it does seem that films are not what they once were. Wouldn’t it be great if Hollywood started chucking out some decent films?
I blame the internet personally. It’s hard to create something new, when the entire archive is available on demand for little money.
It produces films that make money, like Spiderman and films that are good like Belfast (I also enjoyed West Side Story).
However when was the Oscar last won by a film which was a box office hit? Titanic? No wonder their ratings are in decline
It’s been up it’s own arse for 10 years but before that there were loads of winners that were either box office smashes for the budget (Kings Speech, Argo) or box office behemoths in their own right (Lord of the Rings, Gladiator).
True, a bit more recent then but as you say over the last decade not a single Oscar winner has been a box office hit.
In 2017 it almost seemed to have picked a winner, La La Land, which made $448 million at the box office. However then it got cancelled on the podium and the winner was announced as Moonlight instead which had takings of just $65 million.
It is fine to sometimes honour high art, independent films but you cannot completely ignore what the public watch every year and expect to remain relevant.
For example Marvel and dc films have dominated the box office recently yet not 1 has got near the best picture Oscar
Not hugely original or outstanding. Saturday Matinee popcorn fare.
Completely disagreed. Infinity War was outstanding and nothing had been done before in its depth, that it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar beyond visual effects is ridiculous.
Was "Green Book" (never even heard of it) really a better film than Infinity War? I doubt it.
Some people don't want to take comedy, or action, or comic films seriously. That just makes them conceited, not enlightened.
It’s quite good fun going back on Wikipedia through the years and seeing when the Academy really dropped a bollock.
1994 really is a group of death year, any one of the nominees would have walked it these days. Forrest Gump (winner), Shawshank, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, Four Weddings.
And that’s without considering the likes of Jurassic Park, Ground Hog Day and Falling Down that weren’t even nominated.
Looking at it, it's around 2001/2011 when it crossed over. The Artist, then Argo (which is commercial), then 12 Years a Slave then especially Birdman/Spotlight/Moonlight....
These are not mass market films. Argo was probably the last one, and that was over 10 years ago.
The Artist was fantastic though, and really deserved to win.
We aren't seeing a market correction - whether it be housing or food prices we're talking about. We're seeing a hollowing out of the centre ground, a load of prices rising at the top for the people who can tolerate rises, and a rush to find cheaper because less money for everyone else.
Why are sales collapsing on affordable housing? Because it isn't affordable. But at the same time people need to be less het up about house prices. When we were stuck in negative equity and couldn't move when we wanted to that was bad. On paper we lost £44k across 15 years. But it was paper money as the we never paid £175k, just a mortgage.
Do you have a link to the data on collapsing affordable housing sales, please?
It is quite possible that the Japanese have a stronger military than anything the Russians could send to the area.
I've only had one interaction with the Japanese military on a brief flying visit to Atsugi. It was 'Fried Chicken Friday' which is apparently a huge deal. I had to explain to the officer hosting us that I was a vegetarian and couldn't participate but intended no disrepect. The Senior NCO in charge of catering was summoned and told to make me vegetable tempura. The same NCO brought it out and was made to stand to attention next to me while the honoured guest ate it.
So if the rest of their military is up to the standard of their catering they are shit hot.
A story about Japanese and meals.
We were doing some work with a Japanese manufacturer, and they sent over a boss and a couple of engineers to work with us. The engineers did not speak good English, and we did not speak Japanese, but we managed to communicate via the language of tech. It actually worked quite well.
One evening we took them out to the Maharajah on Castle Hill, here in Cambridge. Not a posh place, but good nosh. One of the engineers did not know Chinese food, so ordered whatever one of our engineers had. So that engineer ordered the hottest phaal in the place. The Japanese engineer took a few mouthfuls, and sweat poured down his face. He stared at his boss, and only when his boss gave a nod did he get up and leave the table, reappearing only once the main courses had disappeared.
It was a dickish thing four our engineer to do, but the self-control of waiting for his boss to give him permission to leave the table amazed me.
Wasn't there a Korean Airlines crash because the Second Officer dared not criticise the Captain? Or something similar. Seem to recall language was involved, too.
I've just realised I've made a big clanger - it was Indian food, not Chinese. Oops.
Putin’s spokesman says that Russia won’t supply Europe with gas for free if they refuse to pay in rubles. We’re getting closer to the tap being turned off.
This correction isn't going to correct prices for people that can afford it, it's going to correct prices for those that can't.
And the Tories are going to do nothing, unlike those big banks who take our money.
If you have a decent slug of equity, a fall in house prices is annoying, but it's losing paper money. Easy come, easy go and at the end of the day you still have a house.
If you don't have said equity (probably because you didn't have the foresight to buy ten years ago because you were still studying then), falling house prices can wipe you out.
The other thing to remember is that, for mortgage payers, there's no such thing as a uniform housing price. It all depends on when you bought- you then fix that price in place for the duration. The basically identical houses in my street cost anywhere between £100 000 and £500 000 depending on when the current owners bought them.
Hence the age profile we currently see, where younger people can't buy houses and older people are baffled as to why this is so.
It's a scam, and a scam that politicians of all parties have ridden for decades. But whilst it deserves to be unwound, unwinding it ain't going to be pretty, and I'm not sure what can be done about it, short of inventing a time machine and going back to the mid 1980's.
Starter for 10? Empower housing associations to build private developer style apartments & housing which have to be let at a regulated rent. That crashes the BTL market and dumps a load of housing stock onto the market for people to buy and the prices will go down as its a property dump. Can't charge market rents > can't deliver ROI > price drops.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
"All investments can go down in value as well as up".
I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for people who are investing in housing that then see their investments lose value. For people living in their homes rather than using them as investments, they won't become homeless unless they can no longer afford the mortgage repayments which is just the same if they can't afford the rent. The supposed "value" of the house is not really that relevant so long as you're not planning on moving any time soon.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
If you look at the graph in the Telegraph article, the rich's houses have got more expensive and more in demand.
So another transfer of wealth
So houses are becoming more affordable for the poor and less affordable for the rich - isn't that a good news story?
Are you in favour of more affordable housing, or more "housing wealth", you seem to be giving out mixed signals.
You seem to know and care about the poor as much as our own dear chancellor does. Poor people have mortgages on houses they live in (not as investments). As and when these become variable rate if they aren't already they will become far more volatile than rent. People who can't afford the sudden increase will become both homeless and, negative equity being what it is, bankrupt. So well done, carry on having no sympathy for them.
They can, and should, and will re-fix in that scenario
Potential Wordle spoiler alert. Got the final four letters correct today in 3. Was then faced with the choice of 5 further unused first letters all of which made common words. Bit annoying. Not half as much if I hadn't got it on the second. But it became a pot luck guessing game, not a moderately diverting challenge.
I found it comfortable enough.
Took me all 6.
Me too, but only because I wasn't confident enough after three.
Wordle 282 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I had three options left after four and eliminated two of them with the fifth.
Similarly - I had 6 options left after 4, and tested 3 of those with 5, and hit one.
This correction isn't going to correct prices for people that can afford it, it's going to correct prices for those that can't.
And the Tories are going to do nothing, unlike those big banks who take our money.
If you have a decent slug of equity, a fall in house prices is annoying, but it's losing paper money. Easy come, easy go and at the end of the day you still have a house.
If you don't have said equity (probably because you didn't have the foresight to buy ten years ago because you were still studying then), falling house prices can wipe you out.
The other thing to remember is that, for mortgage payers, there's no such thing as a uniform housing price. It all depends on when you bought- you then fix that price in place for the duration. The basically identical houses in my street cost anywhere between £100 000 and £500 000 depending on when the current owners bought them.
Hence the age profile we currently see, where younger people can't buy houses and older people are baffled as to why this is so.
It's a scam, and a scam that politicians of all parties have ridden for decades. But whilst it deserves to be unwound, unwinding it ain't going to be pretty, and I'm not sure what can be done about it, short of inventing a time machine and going back to the mid 1980's.
Starter for 10? Empower housing associations to build private developer style apartments & housing which have to be let at a regulated rent. That crashes the BTL market and dumps a load of housing stock onto the market for people to buy and the prices will go down as its a property dump. Can't charge market rents > can't deliver ROI > price drops.
I think there's nothing stopping them now.
You won't crash the BTL market, as newbuild developer rentals are always significantly more expensive as they can't compete. For Legal and General they tend to set their rents around 25-30% above similar sized properties in the surrounding market, and choose their customers (and can afford) who want the extra services, and particular newbuild managed type of development, and will pay the premium.
And if you try to make HAs let expensively built properties at regulated rents, then they will be less good at fulfilling their basic purpose.
There's a reason for separate entrances - so-called "poor doors". Usually it is because the social rent organisation does not want the expense of paying for the extra services.
The Harry Potter films are a classic example of where the Oscars get it wrong. Nominated 12 times over the eight films, they did not win a single one. Not all the films were classics, but none were poor, and they were immensely popular. In particular, IMO the later films were really well done. And the stories were good.
Why didn't they win? Because they were too popular? Because they were films for kids?
I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter story and I think the films were an abomination - they relied on the viewers already knowing the story so that they didn't have to tell it.
The Harry Potter films are a classic example of where the Oscars get it wrong. Nominated 12 times over the eight films, they did not win a single one. Not all the films were classics, but none were poor, and they were immensely popular. In particular, IMO the later films were really well done. And the stories were good.
Why didn't they win? Because they were too popular? Because they were films for kids?
I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter story and I think the films were an abomination - they relied on the viewers already knowing the story so that they didn't have to tell it.
That's an interesting perspective. I can't say it felt like that wen I watched the films, but then I'd read the books beforehand.
That's actually something I'd argue about the Lord of the Rings films (and especially the Hobbit) ones.
1 Quality of coffee (assuming decent beans). 2 Several types of coffee (not just espresso). 3. Straightforward to use (not interested in pretending to be a Barista - I already have a 20-year-old Gaggia Classico for that), so eg an auto-steamer is fine.
1 Quality of coffee (assuming decent beans). 2 Several types of coffee (not just espresso). 3. Straightforward to use (not interested in pretending to be a Barista - I already have a 20-year-old Gaggia Classico for that), so eg an auto-steamer is fine.
He may be, but in this case Will Smith seems utterly to be in the wrong. And a bit of a violent thug as well.
A life tip, don't insult a man's wife while said man is in the fucking audience.
A life tip: don't go around hitting people just because they're an ass.
Nah, that's not a good tip. Maybe if you're one of life's doormats.
What a deeply unpleasant person you are.
What is it about this site? It seems to attract more than it’s fair share of violent right wing thugs.
Wouldn't you come out swinging if somebody insulted your wife in front of millions and she Was in the audience being humiliated? It's not right wing its being human
What if it was Tyson Fury.
Good on him I say , he should have given the cheeky git a few more
Good morning Malc one thing's for sure, Tyson Fury wouldn't have dared to make a joke about Mrs g if you were in the audience.
I would have needed a chair to stand on to slap him but he would not have got away with it for sure
The Harry Potter films are a classic example of where the Oscars get it wrong. Nominated 12 times over the eight films, they did not win a single one. Not all the films were classics, but none were poor, and they were immensely popular. In particular, IMO the later films were really well done. And the stories were good.
Why didn't they win? Because they were too popular? Because they were films for kids?
They were all poor. They were boring, banal, and derivative. Brilliant for kids in which case they should have a Kids' Oscars.
I disagree. In the later films, sets, special effects, costumes etc were all very, very good.
A different subject matter and they could be considered with the likes of Ben Hur etc - the problem is a lot of people don't like to treat certain subject matters with respect.
Sci Fi and Fantasy as a genre is rarely treated with the same respect as historical or other genres.
In literature, historical fiction isn't considered a genre. The divisions in a bookshop are weird. You have "fiction", which includes all sorts of stuff, and then you have all the different categories - crime, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance.
All the "genre fiction" isn't considered proper literature, even though you often have books that could be classified in one of the genres included in "fiction" on the basis of who the author is.
This is the same division with films.
However, in fairness, there are many genre books that are the equivalent of B movies, where it's a matter of joining the cliches together, and in a film it can be held together by the visual spectacle.
I haven't watched any of the Marvel franchise films, so I don't know where I think they stand in terms of being merely a visual spectacle, or also having an interesting story to tell. But you get the impression that if they were telling an interesting story, there are many people who wouldn't be able to see it because they wouldn't give them a chance.
Sounds to me like the "joke" was rather poor taste. If Smith's reaction were more common we would probably get a better class of comedy.
On that basis maybe a few people should thump Michael McIntyre!
I would pay for that , he is most unfunny , only two worse than that clown the tax avoider and the fat git that went to USA, cannot remember their names at present but easily recognised
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
"All investments can go down in value as well as up".
I'm sorry but I have little sympathy for people who are investing in housing that then see their investments lose value. For people living in their homes rather than using them as investments, they won't become homeless unless they can no longer afford the mortgage repayments which is just the same if they can't afford the rent. The supposed "value" of the house is not really that relevant so long as you're not planning on moving any time soon.
We're well overdue a "correction" to the housing market. It would be fantastic if house price to earnings ratios could be corrected back to 3-4x rather than 7-8x ratios.
Great destination, rubbish journey to get there
A bit like going to the gym, "no pain, no gain".
Yes, but a bit flippant. The pain will consist of converting very poor people into very poor homeless people, the gain will accrue further up the food chain.
If you look at the graph in the Telegraph article, the rich's houses have got more expensive and more in demand.
So another transfer of wealth
So houses are becoming more affordable for the poor and less affordable for the rich - isn't that a good news story?
Are you in favour of more affordable housing, or more "housing wealth", you seem to be giving out mixed signals.
I think the problem you have - whilst I agree with you about houses being a place to live rather than an investment - is that the Government of all stripes has so utterly screwed the pension system over the last few decades that their home is the lifeline for many people to allow them to have any sort of retirement. More over as has already been noted, many people use their homes as collateral for all manner of enterprises, especially business start ups.
So whilst I actually agree with you on balance about houses being homes not investments and also that I would welcome a big correction, this is just one part of a massively failed system and a correction in this area is only going to lead to massive pain and more failure in others.
Oh I 100% agree with all that.
The problem is that I don't see the pain the correction will result in as a reason not to have the correction.
Its a bit like the issue with obesity. Eating healthier and exercising can be painful, its hard and difficult, but it doesn't make it the wrong thing to do. The easier thing to do is to say "I wouldn't start from here" but if you've got "here" and need to get "there" then there aren't any quick and easy and painless solutions, but that doesn't make wallowing and doing nothing the right solution either.
Why would you crash house prices and have people homeless and unable to pay high rents so that some dickheads who could not afford them previously can now afford them. Do any Tories have a brain.
Comments
Sci Fi and Fantasy as a genre is rarely treated with the same respect as historical or other genres.
Why are sales collapsing on affordable housing? Because it isn't affordable. But at the same time people need to be less het up about house prices. When we were stuck in negative equity and couldn't move when we wanted to that was bad. On paper we lost £44k across 15 years. But it was paper money as the we never paid £175k, just a mortgage.
Man-portable, doesn’t weigh much, and is fast enough to take out fighter jets.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnaQ3ANjYGk
Hope all is well with you.
I don’t think you are wrong. Even the likes of John Redwood on Social media are calling for the govt to do more to help the less well off who are taking a dramatic hit to their levels of disposable income. The party of the preservation of wealth is becoming the party of the erosion of wealth.
Most people who bought leasehold flats (i.e. first time buyers in their 20s and 30s) have been stuck in limbo for a while now, unable to sell, unable to remortgage, stuck paying spiralling costs they have no control over. Many of those people would normally be selling up their starter homes and moving on to bigger and better by now - instead they're trapped.
As I say Gove appears to be better than his predecessors but there is still a very long way to go.
If you don't have said equity (probably because you didn't have the foresight to buy ten years ago because you were still studying then), falling house prices can wipe you out.
The other thing to remember is that, for mortgage payers, there's no such thing as a uniform housing price. It all depends on when you bought- you then fix that price in place for the duration. The basically identical houses in my street cost anywhere between £100 000 and £500 000 depending on when the current owners bought them.
Hence the age profile we currently see, where younger people can't buy houses and older people are baffled as to why this is so.
It's a scam, and a scam that politicians of all parties have ridden for decades. But whilst it deserves to be unwound, unwinding it ain't going to be pretty, and I'm not sure what can be done about it, short of inventing a time machine and going back to the mid 1980's.
Wordle 282 6/6
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I had three options left after four and eliminated two of them with the fifth.
About 25% of the way to being a S--NT, then.
I'm interested.
As for the accident, do you mean the Stansted crash?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Cargo_Flight_8509
A similar thing might have happened here in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_European_Airways_Flight_548#Captain_Key's_outburst
Quite a nasty one.
You won't crash the BTL market, as newbuild developer rentals are always significantly more expensive as they can't compete. For Legal and General they tend to set their rents around 25-30% above similar sized properties in the surrounding market, and choose their customers (and can afford) who want the extra services, and particular newbuild managed type of development, and will pay the premium.
And if you try to make HAs let expensively built properties at regulated rents, then they will be less good at fulfilling their basic purpose.
There's a reason for separate entrances - so-called "poor doors". Usually it is because the social rent organisation does not want the expense of paying for the extra services.
That's actually something I'd argue about the Lord of the Rings films (and especially the Hobbit) ones.
Can anyone recommend a choice?
Priorities are:
1 Quality of coffee (assuming decent beans).
2 Several types of coffee (not just espresso).
3. Straightforward to use (not interested in pretending to be a Barista - I already have a 20-year-old Gaggia Classico for that), so eg an auto-steamer is fine.
Thanks.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-Primadonna-Automatic-Cappuccino-ECAM610-75-mb/dp/B08KWJVWSW/
Switch on, push button, coffee.
All the "genre fiction" isn't considered proper literature, even though you often have books that could be classified in one of the genres included in "fiction" on the basis of who the author is.
This is the same division with films.
However, in fairness, there are many genre books that are the equivalent of B movies, where it's a matter of joining the cliches together, and in a film it can be held together by the visual spectacle.
I haven't watched any of the Marvel franchise films, so I don't know where I think they stand in terms of being merely a visual spectacle, or also having an interesting story to tell. But you get the impression that if they were telling an interesting story, there are many people who wouldn't be able to see it because they wouldn't give them a chance.