Entertainment For Lively Minds
As obsolete as warships in The Baltic
Posted by skirky on 11 December 2009 - 7:21pm.
I saw Shaun of the Dead the other night, and what dated it immediately was that folk were, like, smoking - *in* the pub! Robbie Williams' oh-so-arch Strong features the line "The pause button's broke on my video". Video, Daddio? Get hip with the groove, man! What else in recent popular culture is now suddenly as relevant as yesterday's papers?
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Friends...
Reunited.
ITV
ITV. And didn't they pay £5M or so for Friends Reunited? They keep emailing me to tell me there's a lot going on, but there really isn't.
Sadly, they paid
£175 million for it. Still, recently they managed to offload it to Beano and Dandy producers DC Thompson for a cool £25million.
Never mind the Baltics...
...I think the entire Navy is pretty irrelevant, certainly large ships and aircraft carriers. Perhaps a fleet of fast, shore-based craft for patrolling local waters, and a submarine or three for that nuclear "deterrent".
Sorry Nick but you're a bit wrong there.
I know I live in Portsmouth but most of the Navy is more relevant now than ever. The ability to project force via large carriers and assault ships is paramount in modern military thinking. The carriers have to be protected by sophisticated craft like the new Type 45 destroyers. The ballistic missisle subs, however, are a waste of space and money and should be scrapped tomorrow. What the Navy does lack is small, simple, cheap, quiet submarines, like the old Oberon class, great for the covert insertion of special forces and the closing off of significant bodies of water and similar simple, cheap surface vessels for doing the same thing topsides. Patrolling local waters is an irrelevance.
The RAF should go. They are now, sadly, irrelevant. The strike capability should go to the Fleet Air Arm, the transport capability subbed out, the 'copters run by Army and Navy.
The last time an RAF aircraft shot down an enemy aircraft in combat was in 1945.
Not sure that stat is completely true...
...as the RAF brought down a few aircraft in the Falklands war. I'm sure an argument as to the relative contributions of each force in the most recent conflicts - say, the Balkans/Gulf wars/Afghanistan could be had, but my money would be on the ground attack/close air support role of the RAF. It's not all about shooting things down...
I guess I'm thinking of different scales of conflict - aircraft and troop carriers would make awfully simple targets in all-out war. Then again, I guess if continents are going intercontinental on each other, all the armed forces (bar the subs) are an irrelevance.
standard disclaimer: I know nothing about that of which I speak, but I was in the ATC! :-)
Nick.
Check your argument before you post.
"Not sure that stat is completely true...
...as the RAF brought down a few aircraft in the Falklands war."
No they didn't.
The RAF weren't involved in air-to-air combat in the Falklands. That was all Fleet Air Arm. All the RAF did manage was to bomb the strip at Port Stanley - the one and only time a Victor was used in anger. And it was more a vainglorious attempt at flying the flag than a tactical strike.
See my disclaimer.
...though I feel you might be understating their role a little bit by limiting it to Black Buck, which was an awful amount of trouble to put a single hole in a runway. Good book though.
As I was only 12 when all this kicked off, I'm not speaking from any position of expertise, and so can only google my argument.
This page gives an overview of RAF ops in the Falklands
http://www.naval-history.net/F25raf.htm
and this page indicates that RAF pilots shot down Argentine aircraft
http://www.naval-history.net/F64argaircraftlost.htm
...loaner pilots in FAA aircraft, but definitely RAF.
Port Stanley was bombed by a Vulcan
although there were 17(?) Victor tankers used to get it there.
The book Vulcan 607 tells the whole Boys-Own tale
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vulcan-607-Rowland-White/dp/0552152293/ref=sr_1_...
I stand corrected..
And seeing that I've read the book, I should have remembered my "V" bombers properly.
V for Vendetta
Set in an authotitarian 'near future' Britain, but not so prophetic that the filmforesaw the smoking ban.
As it happens I'm just back from Prague (not nearly as cheap as it was due the the GBP being weaker than a concussed kitten, holiday planners, but still stunning). It came as a shock to be able to smoke in pubs and restaurants. That said, I don't mind the ban - I like being able to take a break from the pub chat now and again.
"nothing endures but change" - Heraclitus 5th century BC
Nothing seems as antique as the recent past - or as perfectly modern as ancient wisdom
Updated version...
"Nothing endures but change and Keith Richards."
MiniDiscs
Dead on arrival. Big mistake buying one.
And portable CD players must be close to gone - mine has been gathering dust for a few years now.
Still useful at Record Fairs
For a quick check of a Cd before purchase - just what is the balance between the band and the audience in this "limited live edition" ? Mine saved me £20 on a Steely Dan "soundboard" recording that was more like 2 guys shouting at each other over a cassette recorder while Steely Dan played in the middle distance, with a PA facing away from the argument.
A small niche but worthwhile.
CD bootlegs
Surely that industry is dead now? Everything's available online isn't it? I haven't bought a physical bootleg for *years* now
Most things are available online
But I hadn't seen this one, and it looked good - good crisp photo on the cover, neat tracklisting.
But, in terms of the listening experience, on a scale of 1-10, it was about 2.
"For Completists Only".
I still treasure a few vinyl boots - similar argument to CD/vinyl for the regular stuff, but I've ripped them so I can have them on my iPod.
I think Eamonn Forde had a piece on live bootleggers being killed off by everything being available online in a recent Word.
DOA..
Now you tell me..
My player was very useful for about 18 months.
At least I didn't go for DAT.
or DCC
the Phillips Digital Compact Cassette format that died when it went head to head with MiniDisc. Luckily I don't have one of those.
And those digital video discs, the big LP sized ones that were around before DVDs came out.
Danny Baker's yer man for Laserdisks
Still got an extensive collection of 'em.
SuBo award
I saw the Susan Boyle show last night and chuckled when they presented her with her gold disc for selling 1m copies - it had an LP on it!!
and it won't be an LP of her record either!
XMAS
.. now thats surely 'old hat' isnt it?