Penguin Lessons

Yesterday we went to the cinema to see the charming "The Penguin Lessons". Steve Coogan is the main actor. Jonathan Pryce is also in it. It is based on a 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, a British teacher who taught at a boys' boarding school in Argentina in the 1970s (when he was in his twenties; the fact Coogan is 58 didn't really matter). Michell finds a penguin soaked with oil on a beach in Uruguay and takes it back to the school, where it becomes a popular pet. The message is the usual positive side of humanism, the main character being a bit of a waster with a sad past (fictional addition) who perhaps does some good despite himself. It's a 12a for good reason but is worth watching if you can cope with the periodic swearing. The penguin is brilliant. They mostly used real animals apparently but there was a little jiggery-pokery. (This is at least the third Argentinian-themed film for Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, who previously played Argentinian president Juan Perón in Evita, as my wife pointed out to me, and also Pope Francis II (who was Argentinian) in The Two Popes.

Day Off Week 41 2023

I seem to have missed making a report on my day off on October 3 and can't remember much of it now (althoough I think I bought Yarg and there was cheese blogging and the viewing of BBC documentaries on the Nazis). Anyway, on October 10 I was up early to take Eleri to work as she was not only out all day but had an evening meeting too. On the way back I grabbed a coffee and read my Bible, etc. There was a prayer meetng at 11 am - four of us gathered for a cuppa and a time of prayer. I was reading two art books during the day - one on Degas in the wonderful series I collect and another on Turner in Wales. I had forgotten he had painted Newport Castle. We had house guests so I spent a little time with them but they were out much of the day and soI went to Chipotle for lunch. I bought some ort Salut to reort on at my cheese blog. I also watched the BBC docudrama on Jimmy Savile, which proved to be surprisngy theological on the whole.

10 Comedians said to be atheists and David Bowie fans

Correlation is not causation but I think this list is correct.

1. Ricky Gervais
2. David Baddiel
3. Robin Ince
4. Steve Coogan
5. Eddie Izzard
6. David Schneider
7. Jimmy Carr
8. Ben Elton
9. Dom Joly
10. Tim Minchin

 As for Bowie himself, he seems never to have gone for full on atheism. He apparently once said when interviewed "... I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months."
PS Not an atheist or a Bowie fan.

Stan and Ollie

I finally got to see the film about Laurel and Hardy yesterday. A  double treat I saw it in Cwmbran but that's another story. I really enjoyed the film, which I thought was done very well indeed. The decision to place it where they did (in 1953 in Britain) and not to include representations of the very final years (Hardy died 1957 and Laurel 1965) was wise. The film is full of gentle humour and little by way of action but this was not at all detrimental. What emerges is a great friendship, not without its vicissitudes and some great humour. I loved it. Whether others would I'm not sure. My wife for example would not have enjoyed it as much as I did (she went to see the Mary Poppins film) and certainly not my son and his cousin (who went to see How to train your dragon 3). It deserves Oscars.