practical approaches

Taxi driver for this evening was Muslim, from "the middle east". Despite our intense introduction to cultural diversity (the oriental population here has gotten fantastically large in the last year or two) this is not actually a common occurrence.

"So," I said, "do you get hassle for being a Muslim?"

"I stop the taxi and tell them there are plenty other taxis in Dublin."

"And sometimes, I have to help them out of the taxi."

Heh. I like that. Especially the gesture that accompanied "help them".

money-grabbing SOBs

There's an article floating around (reference on slashdot) about how Hollywood will go bust real soon now. It's not alone; Jack Valenti has been preaching for ages about how P2P is destroying the movie industry, etc.

I've not been to the cinema in at least a month.

And the last movie I saw was filmed largely on location in Ireland, which puts it on the lower end of the we-paid-money scales. People with money build Ireland rather than filming there.

Not trying to be overly blasé about the whole thing, but, uh, who gives a shit? It's not like Hollywood[tm] has been producing a stream of unflawed brilliance for any length of time now. If the current trend towards waiting for DVDs (and, shudder, watching nasty-ass copies of a movie videotaped at an actual screening) takes hold and forces Hollywood to actually THINK about production and, well, making a movie people want to pay money for, then I'm all for it.

Death of the $thing predicted, film at 11.