The Most Wonderful Time of the F1 Year

The week before the first race is always the best time of the Formula 1 year for fans, because it's the last time that all the fans have hope that their teams do well (whatever well means for each team).

That is even more true when there is a change in engine regulations because there is the potential that this time, your team will get it right and the new regulations will lead to an era of glory.

Why we still believe this every year, I do not know, when every year the following apply:

1) At least two teams, normally Red Bull and Mercedes, are sand-bagging and not showing how fast they can actually go.

2) Ferrari flatter to deceive by doing well in testing, and the car will then underperform in the actual season.

3) At least one team turn up with a carn't not a car - so far this seems to have happened with Williams and Aston Martin, neither of which were the teams I was expecting that to happen to.

And yet, it is such an exciting time because there is the potential that this time, this time Ferrari might not have screwed up. I don't know why I keep hoping Ferrari will not screw it up in the face of so much evidence.

Star Wars - A Review of the Sequel Trilogy

A summary of my review: Well that didn't work 

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout 

You will notice that that summary is very similar to what I said about Rise of Skywalker. 

Many of my complaints are very similar. 

The main problem is lack of coherence. There's no one artistic vision bringing everything together. 

I'll give an example: 

The prequel trilogy is "the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker" 

The original trilogy is "farm boy uncovers the mystery of his family, meets a scoundrel and a princess, and saves the galaxy" 

The sequel trilogy might be "man escapes servitude, joins the Resistance, and ?", or "woman runs into resistance plan, turns out to be a Force user, trains as a Jedi, turns out to be the Emperor's granddaughter and ?" or "..." Actually no, Poe has no character arc. 

(I remain convinced that Poe was supposed to be killed off in the first film but everyone was so in love with Oscar Isaac that they kept the character alive. The reason for my belief is that, after the first film, there are no Poe-specific character parts. Everything he does could have been done by another character.) 

There is no overarching theme to the series. 

I think that's because there was no one visionary in charge. George Lucas; far, far away from perfect, but he definitely had a plan. I'm not even sure who the Lucas-equivalent would have been for this because Disney were there for money and none of JJ Abrams's films have ever been anything but derivative schlock. 

The lack of one clear vision is most apparent in the way there were so many interesting things that they lightly touched on and then just dropped. Not in a "we chose to drop it" way but in a "we have no idea where the other person who wrote that bit was going with it" way. 

Like Phasma, who could have been interesting (on behalf of L, who really wanted them to do something with her), or Finn, and what it is to choose freedom (which they keep touching on and then doing nothing with), or DJ, who chooses neutrality and what that means in this sort of situation. 

Because they made these films a direct follow on from the original trilogy and JJ Abrams's endless daddy issues, the sequel trilogy suffered from the same thing a raft of follow on films to films made in the late 70s and 80s suffered from - destroying the legacy of those original characters by making them terrible fathers. The other big example is Indiana Jones, where Indy, having had a terrible father, turns into a worse one. Now I get the whole, generational trauma spreads downwards thing, but I don't need my heroes getting dragged into that. 

While I can maybe believe it for Indiana Jones, who even in Raiders of the Lost Ark is "man who makes really poor decisions in his personal life", I don't believe it of Luke. Or rather, I can imagine him being terrible at leading the Jedi, or training other Jedi, but I can't see him being useless in this way. 

Because they didn't seem to know where half the characters were going, you have to rely on people liking the way the characters interact. The Force Awakens gave them a good start in this. I liked all three of the new lead characters.  The problem is that after The Force Awakens there were very few scenes with our leading trio together, or indeed combinations of them together, so we don't get to have that feeling either. 

On the other side, while Phasma gets nothing to do, Adam Driver and Domhnall Gleeson ring every bit of character out of what they get given. 

I was legitimately surprised to find out Adam Driver was 32 when The Force Awakens was filmed because he is so good at whiny teenage boy. We have all known boys like that so it's easy for the audience to fill in the gaps - and really hard for us to believe he'll suddenly convert to the side of good like the trilogy obviously wants us to believe he can, and hope that he will. 

Hux is such a gloriously cowardly space spiv. If you ask me to name my favourite part of the sequel trilogy, it would be the Rey and Kylo vs the Imperial guards fight scene towards the end of The Last Jedi. Partly it's the staging, but really it's the bit at the end where Hux could have killed Ren and is too scared to do it. It's a marvellous bit of business. 

I'd still love to know where Rian Johnson was going to take it next because while The Last Jedi wasn't necessarily good, it was the most interesting of the films. Possibly because although it does have moments of being weighed down by being a Star Wars film, it is the one that comes closest to wearing it well. 

I think that's the problem - JJ Abrams is a huge Star Wars fan and it shows. He wants to have a redemption arc because the original did. He also wants characters with Daddy Issues because ... (waving at every other piece of media he has ever had anything to do with). He's built these half-characters made from bits of existing characters to carry out his story, but then given them away for one film. In that film, they change, and they no longer fit the shape of the intended story, and rather than change the story, he's squished the characters to try and fit and it doesn't work.

Duchess of Malfi 2000 - Theatre Review

Part of L’s attempts to introduce the mad scientist to culture.

Spoilers throughout.

The details of the production can be found here - The Duchess of Malfi | Almeida Theatre

It was a modern dress production featuring a stark set design with tiling, heavy use of black and white, and a video screen to highlight key messages. I really liked the set design - it was clean and effective without overwhelming the acting. L was less kind, wanting to know “if the 90s had called, and asked for their Avant Guarde ideas back”.

I didn’t like the climactic fight scene. I understand the message they were trying to convey, ‘blood begets blood’ and so on, but there is a fine line between “over the top” and “silly” and the end fight fell over that line. My main thought after a tragic finale shouldn’t be “how on Earth do the costume department handle matinees?”

Which is unfortunate, because the acting was good. My favourite bit of business was Antonio telling Delio about one of the later children, and Delio said “congratulations” and his body language said “you do it to yourself, you do.”

L did think the villainous brothers were a bit underdone, and we both noticed the play lost steam after the Duchess was murdered. However, that might be a structural flaw in Webster’s script rather than this specific production; as this is the only version I’ve seen, I have no point of comparison. [L here, it is the play, Act 5 is famously a mess]

If you want to see what actual theatre critics thought, there are links here -
What's On Stage
The Guardian
Time Out London
Londonist
City AM

The Londonist article has the best pictures of the set and cast, even if it’s the least positive review.

It was a good way to dip my toes into theatre that isn’t Shakespeare.

Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece - exhibition review

"Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece" was an experimental exhibition at the National Gallery that ran in winter 2019/2020. Full details can be found here. 

It was centred around the Virgin of the Rocks. Reading that article, do I find it hilarious that the National Gallery exhibition said nothing about the Louvre version generally being regarded as the “more made by Leonardo” one? Of course I do. 

L took me following previous Leonardo-related adventures. 

The exhibition had four distinct parts. 

The first put the Virgin on the Rocks in context. Lots of stuff about the why and the background, interestingly presented in some mirrored cubes in multiple languages. 

The second, and least successful to my mind, was the “Studio” section, which I think was supposed to be about the how. The problem for me, was that it seemed to reflect mid-Victorian views on what an artist’s garret was supposed to be like, rather than a renaissance studio. I’ve always imagined Leonardo’s studio as a massive, bustling space full of students and materials, rather than the dark quiet empty space presented here (I have no idea if this is actually true, but still.) 

I really liked the third section, which was all about shadows and how they look. Like most people, I dabble in drawing, and I find shadows and a sense of depth to the objects I draw to be the most difficult thing (don’t worry, no terrible sketches will be shown). I found this section to be really good at showing (not telling) how light and objects interact. 

The final section was the painting itself. The curators did a very good job of keeping the crowds down here and letting the audience sit peacefully and enjoy looking at the painting. The CGI used to simulate the altarpiece the painting may originally have sat in was a little distracting, but once you’d got used to the rotation of potential altar pieces, it was also quite soothing. 

Overall, I’d say it was an interesting experiment in setting an exhibition around a single painting, but with some flaws.

Film Review - Star Wars IX - The Rise of Skywalker

A summary of my review: Well that film didn't work 

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout 

I have some sympathy for the people who had to try to pull this together, because The Force Awakens was a pallid retread of A New Hope, then Rian Johnson pulled The Last Jedi in a completely different direction (don't get me wrong, I think the Last Jedi is the best of the sequel trilogy but it's a terrible Star Wars film) and they then had to make a film to try to wrap up the story. 

Unfortunately, it felt like none of the different parts of the film fitted together. 

I'll use the title as an example. The Rise of Skywalker - excellent strong title. 

Utterly meaningless within the context of the film. 

Name me one Skywalker who rises in this film? By the end of it, they're all dead. (Yes, I know my genre conventions, if there is no body, they're coming back, if there is a body, they might still come back, if there's a body and they're the Master, check behind the door, but for the purposes of the film, they're dead.) Fine, Rey calls herself Skywalker (and Luke and Leia would support her in that) but there is no rise, there's just her giving things up in the desert. 

Killing Kylo Ren is the easy narrative option. It feels cheap. The harder, more interesting option, would feature good guys trying to figure out where he fits in a better new world, surrounded by people he tried to kill and whose friends and relatives he succeeded in killing. 

There's a few other parts like that, where you can feel them choosing the easy way out rather than trying something and I think that's the weight of being Star Wars. See also, mysteriously reappearing Palpatine. 

There's also the lengths Hollywood will go to, to not show Finn and Rey kissing. I see you and what you're up to, Disney. 

From a purely stylistic point of view, I'd re-cut the cavalry charge scene. I think I know what they're trying to do, but the way it intercuts with the rest of the space battle takes away from them both. 

There's a serious emotional disconnect between what's going on on the screen and me in this film. 

An example, they blow up Kijimi and no one cares (this isn't hyperbole. The planet blowing up doesn't even make it into the summary of the film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Rise_of_Skywalker). It's not lack of time spent with the planet and its people; we never see Alderaan in A New Hope, but we feel when it is destroyed. That connection is completely missing here. 

Because of that lack of connection, which I blame on them setting up three main characters then never letting them interact with each other much after the first film (I have a theory about the why of that in my sequel trilogy summary post that I am in the middle of writing), all the emotional weight of the film has to be carried by Chewbacca and C3PO. Despite my love for the characters, this is not a good sign. 

(I am a fully paid up member of the "Chewie should have got a medal at the end of A New Hope" campaign and the bad thing that happens to him is why I stopped reading the Star Wars EU novels, while nothing in the new trilogy got to me as well as that moment where C3PO, knowing the risks, decides that the Rebellion needs him to find out what that text means.) 

It's not that there aren't bits that I love. 

Evil once again sounding British and sudden unexpected Richard E. Grant. 

I like both the Hux reveal and his reasoning. I know people complained that it was a bit thin but he is completely the sort of person who would betray a cause just so someone he hated didn't win. Also, a non-Sith who can hide his feelings from a Sith through hate alone. That's going some! 

I love Lando. 

Adam Driver's mega-watt smile. There's reams to be written about the sequel trilogy being unbalanced by Kylo Ren, but oh the five-to-ten minutes of Ben Solo that we did get ... (I am a simple creature and I like a good pseudo-sword fight). 

And there's these occasional hints of a much darker version of the film underneath, and that's a much more intriguing film. It fits in with DJ in The Last Jedi. Examples include Poe being a Spice runner.

There is also no way you will ever convince me that the vision of Han that Kylo sees isn't Luke pretending to be Han, not Han himself. Like, it makes no sense for it to be Han, Han is not a Force user and it's hard even for Force users to do that. But Luke, making one final bid to save Rey, that works, and it make him a much more manipulative character than the rest of the film is willing to let him be. 

There's so much interesting potential wasted. 

Rise of Skywalker doesn't work as itself, it doesn't really work as a Star Wars film, it's a damp squib of an ending to the series and collapses under the weight of being Star Wars.

Budapest by Day

Once I realised where the hotel was relative to Buda Castle, I had an idea. (People who know me are now playing the beginning of Beethoven's fifth in their head) 

I start work at 8.30. If I got up early enough, I could do a quick tour of the outside of the castle and come back down in time to start work. 

It also gave me the opportunity to travel in a funicular carriage - an unexpected delight!  

I got the first funicular up to the castle in the morning, which meant I saw sunrise over Buda Castle.  

It was a proper "all-timer" of a memory. 

One thing that got me is I knew who the statue was without looking. Now I'm sure it's because the statue is the same as - or really similar to - the statue in the Heldenplatz, but I didn't need to see the plaque to know that's Prinz Eugen. 

(Having looked this up while writing this post, I've discovered that the first funicular now leaves at 8. I'd like to believe I would have gone up the stairs if there had been no funicular. I would have missed out on something spectacular if I hadn't.) 

I did an hour wander around the outside of the castle. Map of the castle so you can sort of place the next few photos. 

And yes, it was quite foggy. 

The next three photos are from Buda castle facing Pest. 

They move from left to right.

   

View directly across the Kettenbrücke from the castle. You can also see several of the big fancy hotels.

 

Two photos of the Matthias Church.  

I acknowledge the church overall is impressive, but I do love that style of roof excessively. I blame the Stefansdom. 

And finally the Fisherman's Bastion.  

It's such a delightfully different structure to find in the middle of a castle complex. 

As you can see in that last picture, people were starting to appear at the Castle District which was a good sign that I needed to get back down to the hotel to start work on time. Which I did.