Flavour of the Week

So I've just spent a worthy couple of hours watching the film Sideways. Billed as a film about two men on a trip to experience the (Californian) world of wine, this is really just providing the backbone on which the real story. On the one hand is a guy in search of new direction in life 2 years after his divorce, while on the other is a guy in search of confirmation that his forthcoming marriage is right move for him to take. The resulting film forms an absorbing story with a surprising amount of subtle & not so subtle humour thrown in. And although its perhaps a little sad for what it says about relationships, for example, both leading characters ultimately getting away with their lies / transgressions, it does end on an optimistic with the film ending with both characters finding some sort of direction in which to continue their lives.

Having planned to dive straight into Haruki Murakami's latest book, I've found myself side-tracked into reading Noam Chomsky's 'magnum opus', Understanding Power. It takes the form of a collection of transcripts / essays from talks Noam has given over the years, and provides an enlightening and rather frightening / depressing examination of the politics of power in the last of the last 60 odd years. A core target for attack is the idea that we live under a free market economy. The information presented through the book make it clear that current western economic model is anything but 'a free market'; rather massive state intervention & indirect subsidy's through, for example, the Pentagon & NASA research grants form the backbone of scientific research & development providing jobs for many & seed the market for later exploitation by corporations. Another target is the corporate media machine, showing how rather than providing broad ranging & honest reportage, it focuses its output within a tightly controlled range, ommitting vast swaves of news. Countries at the height of communism never had such an all-encompassing propaganda system - the general populous is completely unaware that the news is anything by balanced.