Hello! The 15th of March is the People's Premiere of The Age of Stupid, a dramatised documentary starring Pete Postlethwaite, looking back from 2055 at why we didn't do the things we needed to do to avert runaway climate change while we still had the chance.

It's said to be an extremely powerful (but quite entertaining) piece of cinema, and it may also help motivate the political will not to be so bloody stupid. The more people come and see it when it premieres (in Edinburgh that's at Vue, Ocean Terminal) or when it opens properly on the 20th (it's showing at the Filmhouse), the better chance it stands of getting picked up by more mainstream cinemas around the world, for longer. Here's a poster.

So, who's up for coming along on the 15th? It should be a fun event.

I also notice there's a series of related events going on in Scotland, which could be interesting.

On a related topic my brother's short film, 'Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip' now has French and German dubs available, as well as subtitles in Spanish, Dutch, Turkish and English. Does anyone have any good ideas for how to bring them to the attention of people who speak those languages? So far the film's been watched online more than 100,000 times, but of the translations, only the Turkish one has really caught on...

I'm back from a generally great week with the family in London. Time perception is so weird: It seemed like an epic visit, with full weeks passed since the first party we were at, but on returning to Edinburgh, diotina and I both had the feeling that hardly any time had passed. It's like at the end of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, where after all these years of adventures they all tumble out of the wardrobe in time for supper.

Epic as it was, I think I'll attempt a rare day-by-day reconstruction...

( which you should feel free to skip if you can't be bothered )

Following last night's web horror, this morning I decided to restore a directory called _vti_pvt (somehow missed from my backup) because it vaguely looked like it might be important. I think I was right about this - so far, touch wood, my site seems to be mostly working again. If anyone happens to come across any broken bits, I'd be very grateful to hear about them.

Thanks to everyone who offered comfort and advice, I'll almost certainly set about sorting DNS forthwith.

After I gave up on my site last night I watched Brazil again, for the first time in a decade or so. What a brilliantly made film it is, although admittedly it is not necessarily the wisest choice of bed-time viewing. Reminded me just what a missed opportunity the V for Vendetta film was. It is deeply disturbing how much closer to reality Brazil seems to be than it was when it was made; I wish people would collectively learn lessons from horrifyingly plausible dystopias, but no: Apparently not.

I think I want a Consumers for Christ t-shirt, but the only design I could find online is rubbish...

The Science Communication short course was lots of fun, and highly educational, even if it did somewhat reinforce my fear of public speaking, and convince me that it would almost certainly be a mistake to enter into the theatrical side of science communication. No big surprise there, and I met lots of interesting people and learned interesting things.

I've been feeling a bit lazy politically, lately. I'm not honestly sure how much of that is really down to busyness in my life leaving little time for activism, and how much is down to a political malaise and feeling of disenfranchisement which I seem to share with many of my contemporaries. I don't feel optimistic about the potential of either mainstream politics or activism to effect the change which so badly needs to happen, but I don't feel like that's much of an excuse for not trying, all things considered. Last year I had a brief, unaccountable spell of feeling like maybe Tony Blair's avowed good intentions would come to something in the G8, etc., in spite of myself. Needless to say, my suspicion that he is both the disingenuous wanker that I thought he was, and ineffectual to boot, has been borne out. Now the Conservatives kick their arses in the local elections, while the Lib Dems continue to flounder in the background; it looks a lot like the official political life of the country is moving yet further to the right, gods help us.

Anyway... I guess I more-or-less know what John K. Samson of The Weakerthans felt like when he wrote Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist, pipelinked here somewhat in the style of Everything2's pipelinks to add some depth, or whatever, to the meaning.
( cut for flagrant disregard of copyright legislation, also a long quotationy bit )