“There is a moment in every institution’s decline when the desperation becomes visible. York Minster has just had one of those moments. The Minster has partnered with local brewery Brew York to produce a beer called Poisoned Chalice, supposedly to mark the 800th anniversary of the canonisation of St William of York. The reaction has been, depending on your tolerance for institutional self-abasement, either rather funny or genuinely troubling. Probably both.
Let me first deal with the obvious deflection. Yes, monks have brewed beer for centuries — the tradition stretches back to medieval times, when monks brewed because water was dangerous and pilgrims needed sustenance. But monks made their beer. They didn’t lend their brand to a commercial brewery in exchange for exposure. The monastic brewing tradition is one of self-sufficiency, sacred labour and hospitality. York Minster’s PR partnership feels more tawdry.”
“The Woman in Question’s potential was enormous. Love murder mysteries, Anthony Asquith often was a very reliable director and Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde and Hermione Baddeley have all been great in other films.
After seeing it, ‘The Woman in Question’ is solid and has some inventive elements. It mostly lives up to its potential but doesn’t entirely, there are a few short-comings that bring it down from a potentially great film to just a good one worthy still of more credit. ‘The Woman in Question’ doesn’t get into high gear straight away, it’s a little too slow to begin with. Was also one of those people who found the ending abrupt, though the solution was clever and unexpected still.
Most of the performances are fine, but for my tastes Duncan Macrae is a little pallid and John McCallum much too hammy.
However, ‘The Woman in Question’ is atmospherically produced and shot. Asquith directs with a lot of engagement and command of the material, helped by that it’s good stuff to work from, and the film is hauntingly scored without intruding too much.
Script is thought-provoking and does a wonderful job with the development and writing of the titular character, a complex and juicy one. The story is not perfect but is mostly tense and suspenseful with some inventive elements, especially in its treatment of the titular character and what we find out about her.
With the exception of two, the performances are very good. The best of the lot is Jean Kent, who is also the best thing about the film and is simply incredible with some of the widest range of emotions ever seen on film. Dirk Bogarde is charismatic in an early role and his accent, which was a good attempt to stretch his acting chops, wasn’t an issue to me.
In support, Hermione Baddeley in particular has a ball and Charles Victor has some fine moments, especially in the final third.
Overall, good and solid film that could have been more. 7/10 Bethany Cox”
Have been trying to find out what this Friday today is about, one week after Good Friday, one day before the Orthodox Pascha kicks off … late Saturday night till Sunday lunchtime … will need to recheck this as I need to send messages including this:
Far from being an authority on ecclesiastical matters, I’m an eternal learner, doing the best I can to keep up. In western tradition, it seems that this today is part of some “octave” … I tried to find out here:
Anyway, there happen to be these two pieces of music in my “to post” list, among others … my question to you is … which “laudate” do you prefer (following on from yesterday’s similar question):
There’s some added sadness with the first soprano:
… having been born in mid 1998, she died in late 2023 of cancer, so her musical heritage was shortish.
Only speculation on my part but I wonder how far the murderous vaxx was behind the cancer. I also relate to such matters the recent sidelining of RFK Jr by the WH on his anti-vaxx statements … WH policy on vaxxes is now controlled by Big Pharma … easy to see why. How many more dead young people?
(0842) Bleah out there, poisoned, wall-to-wall cloud now billowing in. (0910)
10. This could have been anywhere
… it happened to be Nebraska below but there was another from the Brit east coast, one from Oz and others too, inc. ours outside on that warm, sunny day we had two days ago … up went the planes, laying trails again.
The difference now is they’re not just spraying from above but also firing from the ground … there is a truly psycho agenda being pushed now, with a sense of urgency.
9. Moo corner
… just lurve the names …
8. Florida
7. Georgia, USA
They had moved the polling station in that notorious county into a mosque…
6. Canadian horror
5. DAD at 1348 this morning
a) France’s Fuel Shortages expose Europe’s new energy crisis. Three years after reducing its dependence on Russian gas, Europe is still heavily dependent on imported oil and on strategic routes. The supplier may have changed. The dependence has not.
b) France: Sabotage Incidents, attacking Arms Industry, on the rise. Under cover of darkness on the night of April 6–7, a series of coordinated arson attacks struck multiple sites connected to the arms industry in France’s Cher department, raising concerns about targeted sabotage and the security of critical infrastructure….
c) The megalithic site of Wéris, (Belgique) listed as a heritage site of the Walloon Region and located in the municipality of Durbuy, suffered significant damage this weekend….
d) In Devon two locals find two men fly tipping. They call them “dirty, horrible, stinking c***s.. This is our f-ing country, you might be used to it back to where you come from.
4. Valerie Anne doubles down on food
… this is mainly the US but also Oz, maybe implications for the UK:
(0706) Not altogether sure the best way to proceed this morning. Seems there’s nothing at OoL, we have Steve and DAD, Microdave, there is also some westwide news I’d best get posted earlier rather than later, certain other sources seem to have gone quiet … shall go with what we have. (0842)
3. Summary of main online points this morning
2. Steve from last evening, later, at 1348
Stats Show Trump’s Immigration Policies Are Doing Very Real and Long Term Damage to the Political Power of Blue Cities and States
RINO Rep. María Salazar’s Mass Amnesty Bill Will Allow Illegal Aliens Deported Under President Trump Since 2017 Flood Back Into US — Here Are the 19 Republicans Backing It (JH: I have more on that later in sshot form)
Russia’s Putin Announces Orthodox Easter Truce In [The] Ukraine During the Weekend (JH: That’s coming up too later)
Billionaire Expat Returns to Britain To Be Able To Donate Millions to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK (JH: That also later, esp. on the uniparty candidates just appointed)
Bahrain Reports Fresh Drone Attack Day After Suspected Emirate Strike On Iran
Vitamin D in midlife linked to lower Alzheimer’s risk decades later, study finds
Farm Subsidy Scandal Opens (Greek)Mitsotakis’ Biggest Crisis Since Taking Office
The Australian deep state is now run by US intelligence services (JH: Always was, ASIO … post later)
Chaperones to Walk Children Home From School in Knife Crime Hotspots (JH: This is looking very much like State mentoring again by the back door … possible OoL post tomorrow)
Much more.
1. Some sort of op ed
Opening with this because it came first, chronologically. Last early evening, I wrote to a friend that I’d fairly much lost interest in major league sports, whereas once I’d been right into them. My stepfather (good man) decades ago had done similar and I’d never understood why at the time … I do now.
It’s not just the utter corruption at the top, the money-grubbing by all or even the intrusion of leftwing tropes in sport … though all those certainly count … it was more that … well there were other things going on. Anyway, no sooner had a reply come about interest in major sport than this appeared in my YT recommended list:
All right, that was amusing but then, straight after came this:
Flicked through, usual points, types, then started thinking about the other side … men whom women should avoid at all costs.
Ahh, not so prolific on YT, that one, very few videos … there was one done by a young man … usual types again … shapeshifters who are one thing today, another tomorrow, the mummy’s boy, the violent, the insincere sweet talker … yes, fine, then this appeared in comments:
Not sure what a flamer’s meant to be … someone stirring things up? A troll? Maybe gay?
What was starting to come through with all these sorts of videos was that no nuances are covered … it’s 5 types of this, 10 types of that … and viewers pick up on a negative which they immediately apply to the person their dealing with in RL, on the say-so of someone making money on YT.
I’d suggest that if your personal life is ruled by what you find in a YT video, with its own agenda … that’s a bit sad and even incomplete. For sure there are the usual red flags to watch out for … look at our own watch lists here … just now, everyone’s looking at Donny’s behaviour, the pressures on him and so on.
“Husbands can get lost so easily,” someone tells Jeanne Crain’s character in the 1953 Fox thriller “Dangerous Crossing,” and boy, do those words ever prove prophetic!
Here, Crain plays Ruth Stanton, a wealthy heiress who departs on a honeymoon cruise after a whirlwind courtship. When her husband (Carl Betz, who most baby boomers will recognize as Dr. Alex Stone from the old “Donna Reed Show”) disappears from the ship before they even leave the NYC harbor, Ruth becomes distraught…especially since no one on board, including the ship’s doctor (sympathetically played by Michael Rennie), will believe the story that her husband ever existed!
What follows is a tale of escalating suspense and paranoia, with no one on the ship seemingly worthy of Ruth’s–or our–complete trust. While not precisely a film noir, “Dangerous Crossing” certainly does have its noirish aspects, and the scene in which Ruth searches the boat for her husband at night, in a dense mist, the only background sound being the intermittent blare of the ship’s foghorn, is one that all fans of the genre should just love.
Jeanne, very much the star of this film and appearing in virtually every scene, looks absolutely gorgeous, of course (the woman had one of the most beautiful faces in screen history, sez me), and her thesping here is top notch. She is given any number of stunning close-ups by veteran cinematographer Joseph Lashelle, who years before had lensed that classiest of film noirs, 1944’s “Laura.”
In one of the DVD’s surprisingly copious collection of extras, it is revealed that the picture took only 19 days to produce, at a cost of only $500,000; a remarkably efficient production, resulting in a 75-minute film with no excess flab and a sure-handed way of delivering shudders and suspense. Very much recommended.
Yet again … childlike female lefty promoted to high office. Why? How?
16. Salazar
One of the biggest scandals breaking across the pond … the sshots cover it but they don’t emphasise the timing.
Not strictly about Salazar, more about Thune and Co, but principle is the same:
More:
All right … are you ready?
All right … check the date and time, keep it in mind. For those still not up to speed, she and a dozen other Republicans suddenly launched this bill for full amnesty and open borders … Biden again … after securing his endorsement and at the point they expected the US to be at war in Iran on the ground.
Does the word treason enter your mind at all with regard to this? And who is she? A Cuban refugee given citizenship.
Apologies to DAD first for this soprano. There are a few reasons.
Firstly, she’s good at these split screen harmonies … not sure though about the Ms Grumpy character she’s introduced, others commented on that.
As for her, herself, she herself described how males saw her … 30, going on 14. It’s actually one reason I avoid her. See, she’s actually 32 till November but her frame is like my ex’s … the eternally youthful, like her mother. Which does raise questions, in Anne Reburn’s case … unmarried, string of boyfriends of the spivvy type, want one thing only from her, always leading to histrionics.
Just like Kylie Monogue was … fishing in the wrong pond … a bit Groucho Marx … anyone wanting her should not get her. I do know the danger, I do feel sorry for her … always the wrong type BSing her. And left-liberal … even worse pool of males available.
But even if she did fish in another pond, gets a fine chap … there is always that lingering question as to why her. That’s the curse of the type. Back to the music … yes, she’s good. Nothing much more to add.
