MH370: The Plane that Disappeared.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the modern aviation mystery, continues to baffle.

This three-part doc has actual substantive interviews plus it explains the mechanics and technology of air travel that the lay person may not know, with an expert use of graphics twinned with a non-repetitive visual style.

My personal opinion on the whole affair? There should be some kind of remote override in which 12 wise men in a room can take control of the cockpit if a loon decides to take his … ‘looniness’ out on the passengers. 

Pilots have too much power and need stripped of most of it – how can any one person have the overriding authority to depressurise a cabin? 

This is all regardless of whether the MH370 lad did it or not.

Still, no one knows for certain and most likely never will.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – a decade on.

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22 November, 2010 and this ridiculous … thing came into the world.

For me, it’s the Greatest Album Ever Made. And I find Kanye West nauseating, an attention-seeking baby who needs muzzled. Not the tunes, though. These are simply glorious, the album track-for-track mastery without equal. It’s the production, the melodies, the bombast, the deep thinking at work. Like all art, you can appropriate the material and line it up with something personal.

The (Stranded in) Belgium Odyssey of December 2010. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, but it was all very life-changing and I’ll never forget some of the epic moments. And no one died, which is also great. This album was played quite literally 125 times in 11 days and every track I associate with an image.

Once again:

Rome memories.

A few snaps from my Rome sojourn popped up on one of those memories/flashback social media feeds that continue to remind me to jettison the silly things. But here I am, to share my profound thoughts and sublime snaps with the world.

This was back in 2015 on a trip which also took in Milan and Venice. Rome was legit stunning to look at, but it could have been so much better without a few garish elements; rather than just have the actual remnants of antiquity remaining as … well, themselves, there loitered a whole parade of local cretins decked out in Praetorian Guard clobber and the like. It stank of tacky tourism.

The Colosseum would have also been that slightly more monumental if the local authorities (or UNESCO or whoever has ‘claim’) removed the shitty parked cars circling the arena. No one wishes to see a banged-up Fiat (or any other variety of motor) plonked outside Russell Crowe’s stomping ground.

I suppose all our venerated treasures are like this; they come with a side order of cringe. And yes, those are needless ‘vintage’ filters I stuck on the images.

2015 was a bad year for me. Clearly.

Edinburgh lockdown – week 29. Is this still a lockdown?

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Everest (2015) is nauseating viewing.

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Based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, this is your generic retelling fare. I hated this movie, utterly hated it. The picture comprised an array of rather irritating archetypes feeling very sorry for themselves because they experience the harsh elements on the highest mountain on the planet. There is no drama to proceedings at all because they are barely characters and get what is coming to them. Like, what did you expect? It’s Mount Everest, not an indoor climbing centre.

What the fuck even is a ‘guided climb’? I do not understand why it is even legal. There is a quote from the only semi-interesting ‘character’ in the movie (the redoubtable Jake Gyllenhaal) which is something like, “If you need help getting up the thing you should not even be here. “

I like the sound of that and it is a rather universal statement which applies to any endeavour. The movie looks nice – well shot and framed. It’s just pointless, a fawning ode to stupidity.

Avoid.

Further reading:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/everest-2015

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/movie-reviews/everest/movie-review/49014666.cms

Falkland camping.

Back in the ‘wild camping’ game again; there is zero point flying to another country during this infinite pandemic so instead I have opted to crawl around in the dirt, eat cans of tuna in a £16 tent, and shite daily in the woods. It has all been strangely liberating, and I feel so adventurous on a primordial level.

Here are the highlights of the weekend’s episode:

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Edinburgh lockdown – week 21. Semi-lockdown, apparently.

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Edinburgh lockdown – week 20. Semi-lockdown, apparently.

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Düsseldorf 2011.

Another wee throwback to the good ol’ days.

No masks, gloves, or hand sanitiser were harmed during the production of this photograph, though a wasp did sadly meet its demise in my glass of … whatever concoction that is.

Like almost every item from the travelogue, I cared little for this place when I was there. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.

 

 

 

The St. James Centre was an architectural crime.

One of the very few cases (I wasn’t alive during the bombing of Dresden circa 1945) of rubble being more aesthetically pleasing than the shopping centre that was previously stood there … gawking at folk. It was Medusa in building form.

A horrible thing.