Archives for 2019

Benny and Omar – Book Review

16/10/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment


Title	Benny and Omar
Place	Wexford and Africa (Tunisia)
Publication date	1998
Pages	237 pb
Price	£4.99 or less
Author	Eoin Colfer
Publisher	O’Brien
Edition	Pb
Special features (maps, etc.)
ISBN	0-86278-567-7
Amazon Link	Benny and Omar

Benny and Omar is written for the teenage market, and with its setting in Wexford and then the move to Tunisia the audience should be large. The story also introduces sibling rivalry between Benny and George, brother but two complete opposites with little to bring them together except genes, and also the transportation from an Irish rural setting to one in Tunisia, Africa, and then from a state Irish school environment to one of temporary visitor in a school run for the benefit of the children of temporary workers (something which I have experience off), and here he has to try and break into the clique which has already formed before his arrival.

The story in Tunisia develops through the friendship of Benny and Omar. Benny in Omar’s eyes has a life of privilege, in Benny’s eyes, Omar is just existing. Two complete opposites (again) in an economic sense, but as is often the case two kindred spirits who go on a series of adventures culminating in a madscape run escaping from the village guards, Benny’s parents, and ultimately the police.

This a book worth preserving with, because at times the patois language developed by Omar from watching American TV can be difficult to comprehend – but make the effort and you will love the characters in the story, it will also make you think about other cultures and the way in which they live and work.

Third Man Out

16/10/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment


Title	Third Man Out
Place	Albany area
Publication date	1992
Pages	173
Price	£9.00 pb
Author	Richard Stevenson
Publisher	Harrington Park Press
Edition
Special features (maps, etc.)
ISBN	978-1-56023-656-6

The ‘Third man Out’ reads like a bad headline in a tabloid about a cricket match at Lords: thankfully however Richard Stevenson’s, Donaly Strachey mystery, is anything but!

The story centres around the ethical question and decision of whether gay activists should “Out” closeted public figures, and in particular those who do damage to the LGBT community through actions or inaction.

I am not a philosophy major, and after the numerous newspaper articles showing high profile figures being caught literally with their fingers, if not something else, in the cookie jar, I will leave the rights or wrongs of “outing” to you as an individual.

But back to the story: it is a story set in the broadest terms of a gay community, with a loosely classified reporter being killed (murdered) for running an outing column. Enter Don Strachey, whose similarity to the creations of writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane is compelling. Strachey cannot be ignored, as with so many noir detectives. The story noir has all the integral parts, murder, mystery, lies, cheating, big wigs, little wigs – apart from the central them of the story being set in ‘gay and’, it could be an offshoot of the Big Sleep.

There is for a change a non-stupid police chief, who uses Strachey to do his hunting, and of course, the insurance payout.

Set within the story are the second thread, that of a gay man dying from AIDs, and of his family and his lover. This story is tangential and apart from Strachey and his partner/lover has little impact on the main crime. But what it does show is AIDs at that time, people’s understanding of the disease and its impact and also a moral decision that may have to be taken.

Of course, just like those great noir detectives of old, Strachey solves the crime and the murder, for they are two different things.

I am not going to give away the ending. You are invited to read a well-crafted story with believable characters, and I will be looking for the other books and also for the movies now available on DVD with Chad Allen as the lead.

Third Man Out

Links:

Wikipedia – Noir Fiction

Full Service

08/10/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Title	Full Service
Place	USA
Publication date	2012
Pages	286
Price	£8.99
Author	*Scotty Bowers & Lionel Friedberg*
Publisher	*Grove Press*
Edition	PB
Special features (maps, etc.)	*Photographs of the stars*
ISBN	*978 1 61185 5807*

Full Service as a phrase has many interpretations, but in the world of sex, the understanding is clear and unambiguous, which means that ‘Full Service’ as a title for Scotty Bowers (with Lionel Friedberg) book would seem very relevant.

When reading Full Service it is like taking a ladder of dates and placing a small cameo of a story where you can and then filing the blanks with joining stories (some relevant and some not) from Scotty’s past.

The subtitle to the book (‘Secret Sex Lives of The Stars’), is open to your belief or disbelief of each story and character. The ladder holds stories about stars in the entertainment business and begin from the mid-40s and includes people up to the present day in one form or another.

Most of those items which some may think interesting are not new in terms of some of the stars supposed sexuality, the reference to the Duke of Windsor and Churchill are open to whether you seem them relevant to this book.

The books is an easy read, it does not have a bibliography or reference notes, so at best it one person’s memories and observations, at worse it is a light weight novel.

Apart from the personal family photographs of the children, most of the photos are in the public domain and do not bring anything extra to the table. There is also no chapter listing at the start of the novel, which would make it easier to dip into and out of the book, or even to look something up in the future

So in summing up, Full Service is a lightweight reminiscence into the past without validation, and without a lot of peoples opportunity to challenge these reminiscences. Certainly it will prove to be of interest to some, but not in my belief to any in-depth researcher.

The Guardian – Hollywood’s secret history: Scotty Bowers on sex and stars in the Golden Era

Wikipedia – Full Service

IMDB – Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

To A Mask

08/10/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Poems, Oct 2013-Dec 2014

by

Peter Brooke

“Politics and Theology”

25 Page Booklet

The main theme of this group of poems, To A Mask, is a relationship with God. There are other sub-themes of Christmas, moss-covered boulder, the Church, but all of them link in one form or another with ‘God’. I am not a poet, so it is beyond me to write and critique on the forms used; I am also not a believer in ‘God’ as defined by the various churches and religions, but as a member of the human race I believe I can write about the human condition. The feeling of isolation and of loss that so many of us have. For me, it is difficult to be thankful for a diety that I don’t believe in that in any way be considered fair. I am thankful to those who have been a support to me, to my parents for developing in me a self-reliance trait.

Peter Brooke’s To A Mask poems ask questions about belief, about God and for the relationship that so many have with God. There does seem to a theme of underlying guilt and remorse in the poems:

Was it worth it (perhaps

it was) that past

generations should die,

that Christ’s

birth be accompanied by

a massacre…

(Joyeux Noel for Madeline Albright)

and the ability of God to impose his wrath:

…Our God is a destroying fire,

and a destroying fire there is.

If God is not angry, yet

the Wrath of God is real –

space and time, burning in the calm

Ocean of Eternity…

The Wrath of God

But as with all beliefs, it is individual and personal. Which takes me back to my previous personal point, I do not believe that organised religions, encompassing churches and people of authority in them, should be directing or controlling our lives. The individual strength of character brought about by relevant education and training as we grow through childhood to adulthood should suffice.

Contact details for Peter Brooke:

www.peterbrooke.org.uk

pbrooke@phonecoop.coop

Movie Review – Furious [2017]

02/10/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Title	Furious
Release Year:	2017
Director(s) Name(s)	Dzhanik Fayziev, Ivan Shurkhovetskiy
Lead Actor(s)	Ilya Malakov, Aleksey Serebryakov, Aleksandr Ilin
Genre	Action, History
DVD/Blueray
Amazon Link:	Legenda o Kolovrate

Furious (or in Russian “Legenda o Kolovrate) is a Russian movie which is well thought out, with a few new twists (Russian style) and also Russian weather (Napoleon and Hitler style)!

I is a really enjoyable movie, with the lead of Ilya Malakov carrying his role of soldier, father, leader wonderfully well; I will not tell his foible, but it does make for an interesting (if not totally original) aspect to the movie.

The fact is it is a Russian movie in Russian and Tatar, with what appears to be well put together subtitles, and has lots of humour balanced against a well-crafted story of 13 men fighting the Mongol hoards. The music is by Tankian, and to quote his own words’ “For years I contemplated to compose for a film with epic musical proportions utilizing big orchestral, crazy rock and moving ethnic elements. In that sense, my dreams came true. I am extremely proud of my work on this film”.

Furious is an epic, and can easily be talked about in the same breath as:

7 Samurai
The Magnificent 7
13 Assasins
47 Ronin (to a lesser extent, as the story for this movie is wonderful, just the film didn’t quite live to expectations)

I recommend this Furious to anyone who loves a good story, great acting, humour, tears, Russian steppes weather…well just about anything.

External links:

Movie List – “Adventure” from 2018

25/06/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

What are Adventure Films?

Adventure Films are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventure films are very similar to the action film genre, in that they are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the film viewer…(amc filmsite). Whilst this list is not definitive, and indeed I have to admit that I have only seen one of these movies, the reviews I have read of them are very informative and do make me wish I had had the time (and the money) to see all of them.

Time Will Tell!

Maybe as time moves on, I will have that chance through one of the various movie sites, or when they finally get around to being played on television.

Black Panther February 13th, 2018 134 min Action	Avengers: Infinity War April 25th, 2018 160 min Superhero
Maze Runner: The Death Cure January 10th, 2018 142 min Action	The Incredibles 2 June 14th, 2018 126 min Animation
Tomb Raider March 5th, 2018 118 min Adventure	Annihilation February 22^nd, 23018 115 mins Drama/Thriller
A Wrinkle In Time March 8th, 2018 109 min Family	Ready Player One March 28th, 2018 140 min Action
Deadpool 2 May 18^th, 2018 119 mins Action/Comedy	Early Man January 28^th, 2018 89 mins Animation/Adventure/Comedy

Gilbert & George

20/06/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

This Gilbert and George exhibition has now ended, and I was fortunate to be able to see all the exhibits on three different occasions.

Wikipedia says that …Gilbert Prousch,sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy) and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom) are two artists who work together as the collaborative art duo Gilbert & George. They are known for their distinctive and highly formal appearance and manner in performance art, and also for their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.

So the MAC brought three galleries of Gilbert & George’s work for display and discussion. And indeed, if nothing else, the works do provide discussion items. The exhibits are large, and you do need to take time to peruse each item, and the parts that make it up. However, I must state now that it was not a body of work that excited me. I came away from the exhibit looking for a theme, for a catch that made the series of displays of highly technical works gel together with each other, other than by colour – and for me, they don’t.

It was obvious that there were references to London streets, to various political statements, but I needed more context. I was looking for the story and I didn’t find one.

Should the Gilbert & George exhibition be in your area, I would urge you to go. Potentially you will see something that I missed – I hope so.

PS – having just been to the Ulster museum this weekend, there is one large piece by Gilbert & George on show on floor 4 – so if you missed the main body of work, at least you could catch up with one piece.

Location: The MAC [Metropolitan Arts Centre] – Belfast

Dates of show: 22 Jan – 22 April 2018

Civil Liberties – is the legacy living on?

17/06/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

I wrote this article some time ago, to be exact in Sep 2013, for another organisation, but it is time we think again as we are going through the sham elections for a new Prime Minister, and with the candidates who are standing:

Civil Liberties

Over the last few weeks papers, television and radio have been referring to Martin Luther King jnr’s speech ‘I have a dream’ which was delivered in Washington on August 28, 1963.

The speech was the high point of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; which in itself became the focal point of a campaign against discrimination, voting restrictions, unfair treatment by the police and statutory barriers against social mobility and economic opportunity.

The impact of this speech was felt across America, and then across the world, and whilst MLK was not initially billed as the main speaker, his speech has now become synonymous with Civil Rights, and led within two years to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act being passed in the USA.

Rustin Bayard and Martin Luther King jnr - Civil Liberties

March on Washington Aug 28 - Civil Liberties

Non-Violent Action

MLK developed his commitment to a principle of non-violent action through the tutelage of Bayard Rustin, a man who was black, gay, and a Quaker. Bayard’s own life had been through many phases. Bayard was brought up by his grandparents acting as his parents, who were Methodists ( he later found out that his ‘sister’ was his mother). He was a member of the Young Communist League until 1941 after the Nazi invasion of Russia led the U.S. party to switch gears into building American opposition to fascism, and racial justice issues fell by the wayside.

Rustin was a deeply committed pacifist, owing largely to his Quaker background, and got thrown in jail for conscientiously objecting to service in World War II. It was his introduction of Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolent resistance (which he learned when visiting independence activists in India) to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr which served as a platform for MLK’s enduring success in civil liberties along with his oratory.

Bayard being gay, and also that he had been arrested for 1953 and sentenced under the lesser charge of ‘sex perversion’, was often used by his enemies both in the establishment and in the civil liberties camp as an indication of his unsuitability. However, it is interesting to read the FBI synopsis on him:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

A Federal Bureau of Investigation internal memorandum (25th January, 1966)
Rustin is a very competent individual who is widely known in the civil rights field. He is personally familiar with numerous individuals with communist backgrounds. As one of Martin Luther King’s closest advisers, he is in a position to wield considerable influence on King’s activities. Technical coverage of Rustin is an important part of the overall coverage of King, who is the most prominent civil rights in the country today. Because of the influence being exerted on King by persons with subversive backgrounds, it is necessary for us to maintain coverage of individuals such as Rustin. In order to fulfill the Bureau’s responsibilities to uncover communist influence in racial matters, it is recommended that technical coverage of Rustin be continued.

Written out of History

Bayard Rustin, has been a man written out of history due to his abilities and to him being black and gay; fortunately society has moved on today, and more importantly the USA has a black president who this year has recognised the importance of Bayard by awarding him Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this month.

Unfortunately some 50 years after MLK’s speech, and it’s impact worldwide, I must report that civil liberties in the United Kingdom are under threat. Our freedoms, whether those of the LGBT community, black, white, religious or non-religious are important to us. History has shown that we must fight and succour our civil liberties; that we must not allow governments to sequester them in the pursuit of security. So having said this how do we in one of the first democracies of the world now have one and a half times as many surveillance cameras as communist China (Tom Kelly, Mail Online, Aug 2009). According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, as of Aug 2011, there are in actuality 1.85 million CCTV cameras in the united kingdom.

To this we can also see the implementation of ‘Stop and Search’. In June of this year, it was stated that there were a million stops each year, with only 9% leading to court cases (BBC, July 2, 2013). However an article in the Sunday Post dated August 25, 2013, said that in the last year the Scottish Police have actioned six hundred and twelve thousand (612,000) stop and searches in the last year – approximately a 50% increase, with only thirteen percent (13%) possibly finding anything!

I do not believe that England and Wales only did 400,000 stop and searches over this period, and looking back a few years ago I wrote about the police tactics of stopping people and confiscating cameras and videos during various times of unrest ‘in the interest of the public’. A tactic which has since been clarified as being unjustified.

Our civil liberties belong to us:
As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city. Gore Vidal
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/gore_vidal_704644?src=t_civil_liberties

Civil liberties in the United Kingdom have a long and formative history. This is usually considered to have begun with the English legal charter the Magna Carta of 1215, following its predecessor the English Charter of Liberties, a landmark document in English legal history. However it could be argued that the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 in Scotland was the first attempted implementation of civil liberties in part of the United Kingdom. Today the United Kingdom’s relationship to civil liberties has been mediated through its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In other words, civil liberties are the “rights” or “freedoms” which underpin democracy. This usually means the right to vote, the right to life, the prohibition on torture, security of the person, the right to personal liberty and due process of law, freedom of expression and freedom of association.[3]

(Wikipedia, 2013)

Stop the Police State

I call upon everyone to monitor their police and security forces, their local and national government – don’t allow the United Kingdom to become a ‘police’ state.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia –Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom
Wikipedia – Bayard Rustin
The Atlantic – Article by Kerry Eleveld ‘Obama, Bayard Rustin, and the New LGBT Civil Rights Movement‘
Spartacus Educational – Bayard Rustin
Washington Post – Wonkblog – Meet Bayard Rustin, the gay socialist pacifist who planned the 1963 march on Washington

Civil Liberties

16/06/2019 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

first published in 2008

”A strong commitment to civil liberties, once considered a defining British characteristic, has weakened dramatically over the past 20 years, the survey found ”

(Telegraph.co.uk 1:44AM GMT 24/01/2007)

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.
Theresa May

As someone who was born into a service family, and who then went onto to serve in the Forces, with time spent in various areas of the world, I feel that the current debate and result is an insult to the British population.

The Government and its agents managed, albeit over a twenty year period, to contain and finally achieve a workable result for all of the people of Northern Ireland without resulting in a 42-day detainment. Indeed, all parties did agree that detainment without due process is counterproductive to the well being of the British people.

Why then have we now resorted to a further dilution of our civil liberties’ with the amendment to Habeas Corpus?

”The Habeas Corpus Act passed by Parliament in 1679 guaranteed that a person detained by the authorities would have to be brought before a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined. In times of social unrest, Parliament had the power to suspend Habeas Corpus. William Pitt did this in May 1793 during the war with France. Parliamentary reformers such as Thomas Hardy and John Thelwall were imprisoned as a result of this action ”

(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRgagging.htm)

Loss of liberty and rights since 1997; a full list of these losses are contained on the Open Democracy Network and further information is also on the Liberty website.

This change in the law cannot be seen in isolation. Various governments have been eroding our rights and because it has been slow, and in a lot of cases, the changes have been slid through on the back of other innocuous legislation most people have not noticed what has been happening.

A lot of people will say that if you are doing nothing wrong then it won’t matter’, however a clear identification of the misuse of legislation was highlighted in May this year when it came to light that local councils through middle managers are able to authorise surveillance of people suspected of petty offences using powers designed to prevent crime and terrorism.

This to my mind is a clear misuse of the legislation involved, and signals that the government (both central and local) have no moral compass and will use any means to achieve their ends.

I regret the fact we as a people have lost sight of our rights and allowed ourselves to be blinded by very poor rhetoric and people who prey on fears, which may be slightly justified but not to the extent that we are being told, as indicated by the Head of MI5, Jonathan Evans.