26 May 2002
[blogs] Pat Kane.com — the Scottish journalist and musician has a weblog … ‘pop, politics, technoculture…& scotland’
25 May 2002
[film] Dinomania — Review of Jurassic Park from Stephen Jay Gould in 1993 … ‘…the mantle of carnivorous heroism has clearly passed to the much smaller Velociraptor, Henry Fairfield Osborn’s Mongolian jewel. Downsizing and diversity are in; constrained hugeness has become a tragic flaw. Velociraptor is everything that modern corporate life values in a tough competitor-mean, lean, lithe, and intelligent. They hunt in packs, using a fine military technique of feinting by one beast in front, followed by attack from the side by a co-conspirator. In the film’s best moment of wry parody of its own inventions, the wonderfully stereotyped stiff-upper-lip-British-hunter Muldoon gets the center beast in his gun’s sight, only to realize too late that the side-hunting companion is a few inches from his head. He looks at the side beast, says “Clever girl” in a tone of true admiration (all of Jurassic Park’s dinosaurs are engineered to be female in another ultimately failed attempt to control their reproduction), and then gets gobbled to death.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
24 May 2002
[aftermath] GIs Battle ‘Ghosts’ in Afghanistan — great article about the mopping up operations in Afghanistan … ‘The soldiers would set up nighttime roadblocks to search every car coming north from the Pakistani border, a particularly dangerous task. “If the vehicle tries to roll through a roadblock that is clearly marked as a roadblock . . . they are now hostile,” Fetterman told his subordinates. “That’s hostile intent. They could hurt you with the vehicle. You are allowed to engage. I spoke to the lawyers about this.”‘ [via Red Rock Eater News Service]
23 May 2002
[science] The Man Who Cracked The Code to Everything — Steven Levy on Stephen Wolfram. ‘…he’s saying that all we hold dear – our minds, if not our souls – is a computational consequence of a simple rule. “It’s a very negative conclusion about the human condition,” he admits. “You know, consider those gas clouds in the universe that are doing a lot of complicated stuff. What’s the difference [computationally] between what they’re doing and what we’re doing? It’s not easy to see.”‘
[web] Geeks go hack to the future — Ben Hammersley on O’Reilly’s ETCon … ‘It was either a masterpiece of timing, or serendipitous coincidence. Either way, 500 of the world’s leading developers, hackers and alpha geeks gathered in a Santa Clara hotel for the O’Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference last week. At the same time, Apple launched a new machine, Star Wars: Episode II premiered, the X-Files ended, and Napster shut down and then reopened. It was all just asking for trouble.’ [Related: Matt Webb’s notes on ETCon]
22 May 2002
[rip] Stephen Jay Gould Obit … ‘Stephen Jay Gould will be missed: he was a one-off and nobody can even try to fill his shoes. He was always there, ready to foment a revolution or challenge a cherished belief. He was a scientist, historian and populariser of his time’
[comics] Leach Revisits Warpsmiths — Gary Leach to rework and complete his Warpsmiths comics written by Alan Moore. ‘…the decision was made to reprint the reprint the whole Warpsmiths story. One small problem though – the original artwork no longer exists, and no reproducible copies were kept. “Garry gave away a lot of the artwork for the first two parts,” Elliot said. “He does have most of the artwork for the A1″ story but feels some of it needs to redrawn. He’s a bit of a perfectionist – a perfect match for someone working with Alan.” So – back to the drawing board. Literally.’ [via Barbelith]
21 May 2002
[science] MC Hawkings Crib — Fuck the Creationists [lyrics] …
‘Fuck the damn creationists, those bunch of dumb-ass bitches,
every time I think of them my trigger finger itches.
They want to have their bullshit, taught in public class,
Stephen J. Gould should put his foot right up their ass.’
[rip] Stephen Jay Gould is dead … Two quotes:
[Related: Metafilter, BBC News, Guardian, Slashdot ]
‘We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher’ answer – but none exists.’
‘Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one. The tragedy of human history lies in the enormous potential for destruction in rare acts of evil, not in the high frequency of evil people. Complex systems can only be built step by step, whereas destruction requires but an instant. Thus, in what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the “ordinary” efforts of a vast majority.’
[Related: Metafilter, BBC News, Guardian, Slashdot ]
20 May 2002
[movies] Road to Perdition Trailer … [via Ghost in the Machine]
[film] The Unlikely Pin-Up of the Cannes Festival — interview with Michael Moore … ‘The film includes sequences in which Moore investigates the civilian Michigan Militia, with which Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh trained, and a bank which offers free guns as an incentive to clients. He also interviews weapons-obsessed teenagers, including one who admits to manufacturing home-made napalm. Rock star Marilyn Manson, widely accused of being an influence on the Colombine killers, makes a lucid and pithy response to the charge. When asked by Moore what he would say to the Columbine Killers, he replies, “I wouldn’t say anything. I’d listen.”‘
19 May 2002
[books] Philip Pullman resources on the Web from Robot Wisdom … Pullman: ‘The rise of fundamentalist religion I think, is the most dangerous aspect of late twentieth-century life, whether it is intolerance among Christians or Muslims or Orthodox Jews. I think fundamentalist religion is one of the greatest dangers we have ever faced. And so if there is a source of wickedness in the book, you can place it there… What makes a religion fundamentalist is the insistence that because of some book of scriptures or some revelation given to the founder of the religion, that they alone possess the ‘truth’. And when anyone believes that, they’re wrong. I think my position would be that throughout human history, the greatest moral advances have been made by religious leaders such as Jesus and the Buddha. And the greatest moral wickedness has been perpetrated by their followers.’
18 May 2002
[swimming] Don’t be so wet — Julie Burchill on Swimming Pools … ‘I’m not being a killjoy here. I know that swimming pools can be used for physical activities other than swimming, and that “breaststroke” can have a double meaning in any place where strangers are packed together wearing very little. In fact, “No Running, No Diving, No Petting” made it on to my shortlist as a title for my autobiography, neatly summing up my steadfast idleness, my obdurate heterosexuality and my intrinsic heartlessness.’
17 May 2002
[politics] Fortunate Son — the Barbelith Webzine looks at the murky past of George W. Bush. ‘[Fortunate Son] contained the allegation that in 1972 Bush senior had arranged for a Texas judge to have his son’s conviction for possession of cocaine expunged from the records, in return for which Junior performed works of public service. This last was already documented; the fact that he worked for a while in the early seventies in an outreach centre for teenagers in one of Dallas’ poorest districts has often been touted by republican publicists eager to round off some of their leader’s corners. Needless to say, it stands out like a sore thumb.’
[movies] Age Shall Wither Them — the Guardian on the twilight years of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis. ‘…they’re getting on a bit now. Stallone will be 56 this year, Schwarzenegger 55, whilst Willis clocks in at a mere 47. Think of it this way: Stallone has been a superstar since the Ford administration; and Schwarzenegger first started to make his mark in Hollywood in 1968.’
16 May 2002
[comics] An interview with Chester Brown covering all aspects of his career … along with an excellent republished comic strip — My Mom Was A Schizophrenic. Brown on Peep Show: ‘I think there are a lot of people out there who do think that the person in Peepshow is me, portrayed accurately. They don’t take into account the fact that JOE MATT IS A LYING BASTARD!’ [via WEF]
15 May 2002
[comics] Theory.Org.UK Trading Cards — Unofficial Card #21: Dave Sim … ‘Particularly toxic in the parlor setting, these slash and burn ideological stylings are not suited to those needing affirmation, or friends. Or sex.’ [via Cerebus Yahoo Group]
[tv] It’s Really Happening — what it’s like at Greg Dyke’s BBC … ‘…executives trip gaily (in the old sense) down the rose-petal-strewn boulevards of Television Centre, chatting amiably to programme-makers they’ve actually met before, and insisting that everyone calls them by their first name. They still go to pointless meetings, as we all do. But now they can wave “cut the crap” cards so it’s pointless but fun.’
14 May 2002
[comics] Peter David is blogging (kinda) and REVEALING SEASON SIX BUFFY SPOILERS (beware) … ‘Greetings and solicitations. This will be the first of what will ideally be daily updates in this on-line journal. In the near future, we’ll have a regular Q&A set-up, plus we’re trying to figure out how to produce an on-line whack-a-mole.’ [via Neilalien]
[books] A Deadline Bandit’s Last Hurrah — A brief review of The Salmon of Doubt from Douglas Adams. ‘…as Robert MacFarlane has already noticed in The Observer, Adams is more plausibly ‘the Lewis Carroll of the twentieth century’, a writer who articulated painful, accidental truths behind a mask of foolery and who found in his parallel universe a happy release from the vanities of earth and the almost intolerable stress of everyday life.’
13 May 2002
[comics] All About POP — interview with Philip Bond … What made him want to get into comics in the first place: ‘The chance to use a talent for drawing to tell stories. That sounds like a stock answer, doesn’t it? OK, a chance to draw pretty girls over and over again.’ [via Bugpowder]
[schooldays] Sacks appeal — interview with Oliver Sacks … ‘[He did not know] as a very young child, that chemistry would end up saving his sanity. But in September 1939, with war breaking out, his London school was evacuated wholesale to the Northamptonshire village of Braefield, and he and Michael became boarders, while the school became, by his account, a jaw-droppingly brutal institution even by the standards of the time. He was repeatedly beaten by a headmaster “unhinged by his own power”, who once hit him so hard that his cane broke. The cost of replacing it was added to the Sacks family’s tuition bill.’
10 May 2002
[idle thought] Something I’ve wondered about… Who is Merv Griffin? [via Haddock]
Merv Griffin Bio — I think I’m beginning to understand now… ‘Merv became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences and his fame soared among the general public when he struck gold in 1950 with “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” reaching the number one spot on the Hit Parade and selling three million copies.’
Merv Griffin Bio — I think I’m beginning to understand now… ‘Merv became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences and his fame soared among the general public when he struck gold in 1950 with “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts,” reaching the number one spot on the Hit Parade and selling three million copies.’
9 May 2002
[comics] Trash of the Titans — Kevin Smith on the difference between Marvel and DC … ‘I had Green Arrow referring to Green Lantern as an ”old fart.” This was excised from the story, and the term ”old toot” was used instead. Mind you, this was in the same month that Superman and Wonder Woman had such passionate sky sex that it shattered the earth in Frank Miller’s DC-published ”The Dark Knight Strikes Again.” The lesson: A Kryptonian can knock red boots with an Amazonian, but at no time can either fart.’ [via Neilalien]
[destroy] Delete, Baby, Delete — on the difficulty of destroying evidence … ‘On the eve of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Iran, in 1979, American officials desperately fed secret documents into the embassy’s paper shredders. Over the next several years, while waiting for satellite dishes and Baywatch to arrive, the Iranians painstakingly stitched the documents back together. They ultimately published the reconstituted intelligence files in some sixty volumes, under the overarching title Documents From the U.S. Espionage Den.’ [via Sore Eyes]
[net] Me and my Net Stalker — interesting article on stalking over the internet … ‘…last year Gobion Rowlands logged on as usual to check his email. There was a message from an unusual Hotmail address. Its title was Gob on Rowlands. Its text – not for sensitive eyes – read: “You probably don’t remember me, but I haven’t forgotten you. So you’re still into your wanky dungeons and dragons shit… Clearly you have lived up to your full potential: a self-obsessed arsehole with bad kidneys. Oh yes Rowlands, I fucking know who you are… So why am I emailing you? Just to let you know that you can’t leave your past behind…”‘
8 May 2002
[media] Paranoia, stupidity and greed ganging up on the public — Dan Gillmor on the “Entertainment” Industry … ‘Jamie Kellner, head of Turner Broadcasting, part of the AOL Time Warner conglomerate, told the newsweekly CableWorld that you are a thief if you use one of a PVR’s best features — skipping commercials. “Your contract with the network when you get the show is you’re going to watch the spots,” he said. “Otherwise you couldn’t get the show on an ad-supported basis. Whenever you fail to watch a commercial,” he added, “you’re actually stealing the programming.” It gets better. When the interviewer asked whether it’s OK to go to the bathroom or get a soft drink out of the refrigerator, Kellner replied, “I guess there’s a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom.”’ [via Red Rock Eater News Service]
7 May 2002
[tv] The Young Ones Fansite — excellent episode guide and complete set of scripts [via Fark] …
RICK: There’ll be plenty of chicks for these tigers on the road to the Promised Land. This is it! It’s really happening! Who needs qualifications? Who cares about Thatcher and unemployment?! We can do just exactly whatever we want to do! And you know why? Because we’re Young Ones. Bachelor boys! Crazy, mad, wild-eyed, big-bottomed anarchists!! [Rick gazes ahead in horror] Look out!! CLIFF!!!
[The bus plows through a Cliff Richard billboard and over an enormous man-made cliff, crashing down hundreds of feet.]
VYVYAN, MIKE, RICK, NEIL: [together] Whew! That was close!
[The bus explodes]
5 May 2002
[disunited] Web Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned — UK press mention of the Spouses Disunited Meme. ‘…although the site carries accounts of marriages between previously estranged friends and even some cases of adopted children reunited with their natural parents, it is also responsible for a growing list of divorces and painful separations.’
4 May 2002
[politics] What I learned about Tony – the Hard Way — William Hague on Tony Blair … ‘All politicians like to identify with their audiences, but his desire to do so is extreme. People who listened to his speech of welcome to the Australians who came to London to celebrate their centenary two years ago could have been forgiven for believing that he had spent most of his life there. When Frank Sinatra died, he bizarrely announced that he had “grown up with him”. In the Labour party magazine it was announced that “Tony’s favourite food is fish and chips. He gets a takeaway from his local chippy whenever he is at home in his constituency.” In The Islington Cookbook his favourite food was “fresh fettuccine garnished with an exotic sauce of olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and capers”. So, even more than most politicians, he wants to be loved by everyone, and can act himself into the necessary part without the sense of the ridiculous that would overcome most of the rest of us.’
3 May 2002
[comics] Jazzy John Junior — interview with John Romita Jr. from Newsarama … ‘My style may have been altered by a change of events when I got on Daredevil, which was my ultimate turning point. I was ready to get out of the industry before then. I got on Daredevil, and was given free reign by [editor] Ralph Macchio. He gave me permission to do full pencils and tell the story as I saw fit. Before that, I was always under Chris Claremont or Jim Shooter’s guidelines. From that point on, I was really able to stretch my wings.’
[spouses disunited] When Friends Reunited Goes Bad … ‘Until recently he had his details on this site, accompanied with a photograph of himself, which was an extremely good likeness of the ugly twat. Unfortunately none of you will now be able to look at his photo because he has deleted all his details as he is embarrassed to admit that on 5th January 2002 he deleted his wife and 9 year old daughter out of his life when he met a hoar called CLAUDIA *******, just before Christmas and began shagging the slag while his wife and daughter were out shopping for Christmas presents.’ [thanks Phil]
Update: The Register has more details… ‘The posting has been pulled from Friends Reunited, but we’ve been sent a copy of the page, which is now doing the email rounds. We’ve checked out the address of the poster, the tel no. (which appears to have been disconnected), we know the school and the year. But we’ve not made contact with either protaganist. We know that one national newspaper is on the case, so we reckon a local stringer could be camping outside the protaganists’ houses right now.’ [via Blogjam]
Update: The Register has more details… ‘The posting has been pulled from Friends Reunited, but we’ve been sent a copy of the page, which is now doing the email rounds. We’ve checked out the address of the poster, the tel no. (which appears to have been disconnected), we know the school and the year. But we’ve not made contact with either protaganist. We know that one national newspaper is on the case, so we reckon a local stringer could be camping outside the protaganists’ houses right now.’ [via Blogjam]
2 May 2002
[comics] Through the Eyes of Karen Berger — interview with Vertigo’s Executive Editor … Berger on Original Graphic Novels: ‘We’re interested in creating bodies of work that the person who’s not going into comics shops weekly – if at all – can easily pick up and enjoy as a self-contained experience. As the evolution of books from serialized reading experiences published in magazines a hundred years ago to original self-contained entities allowed greater popularity with the advent of the paperback format, it’s likely we’re going to make a similar transition, at least with a large portion of our material. It’s not an easy transition, as the industry is still built on getting your comics ‘fix’ on a weekly or monthly cycle. Kyle Baker is a good example of a creator who can build a truly great story that really can’t or shouldn’t be broken up into pieces. It’s a thing as a whole and that’s the only really good way to absorb it.’
[quotes] Physics Quotes … ‘I do not like Quantum Mechanics, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it.’ — Erwin Schrödinger.
1 May 2002
[blogs] The Life Cycle of your Weblog — Sadly, no section on ‘Endlessly Linking and Quoting Meaningless Drivel’. Oh well… must try harder. [via More Like This]
[tv] ITV Digital: An Insider’s Story — a middle-manager at ITV Digital talks about what went wrong … ‘Quality needs to override the consumers thirst for quantity. The quality of UK digital programming must improve in order that the digital platform becomes attractive. The consumers’ perception can be summed up by a letter sent to HQ this week from a subscriber. They offered to buy a monkey in exchange for a lifetime’s supply of crisps – is this how we are to be remembered? We are a supplier of programmes not a toy store!’ [Related: Media Guardian Coverage of ITV Digital Shutdown]
30 April 2002
[distractions] “I’m bored. Entertain me linky-boy!” …
- Defender … a pixel perfect conversion of the original arcade game. [via FunJunkie]
- Advertising Safety Guide … ‘ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A NEW FUCKING HAIR-DO?’ [via plasticbag.org]
- The Thatcher Illusion … Not really a distraction more a ‘What the Fuck?!’ [via Cult of Orbyn]
[comics] Spider-Man’s Long-Lost Parent — great article on the reclusive Steve Ditko … ‘The first rule of Steve Ditko is you don’t talk about Steve Ditko. Not to the press, not even to friends or peers. Intensely private, Ditko is an enigmatic figure — the J.D. Salinger of comics. He avoids publicity and hasn’t given an interview in more than 35 years. Only a few published photographs of him are known to exist, and good luck finding them. “He’s the exact opposite of me,” says Lee, who has spent the last 40 years as the public face of Spider-Man and the rest of Marvel Comics’ superhero pantheon. Those who know Ditko say he prefers to let his work speak for itself.’ [via Neilalien]
29 April 2002
[post-it] Postmodernism, Writ Small — a look at the Post-It Note … ‘Unlike its predecessor, the memo, which functions as a self-contained message, the Post-it Note is an analog forebear to hypertext; it acknowledges in its very construction that what’s most important is context — and that context is where you make it, achievable with glue as much as any organic cohesion of ideas. Whereas a memo generally includes such information as who it’s from, to whom it’s directed, what its purpose is, and what sort of response it expects to generate, a Post-it Note is usually spontaneous, associative, and fragmentary. Its message often has meaning only in relation to the object or document to which it’s been attached; detach it and it becomes a mystery.’ [via kottke.org]
26 April 2002
[politics] ‘The veil? It protects us from ugly women’ — Guardian interview with Jean-Marie Le Pen. ‘…[Le Pen is] someone who loves a fight, who stirs up strife and contention; a despised and dangerous man who went looking for a violent dust-up and lost his eye as a consequence. His contrasting version of events fits in well with his regular complaints of being politically slandered, of deep-rooted misunderstandings and systematic abuse from the establishment. Even the more jocular aspect that he seeks to ascribe to the whole episode perfectly suits his personality: “On one occasion, a female political rival claimed that I was looking at her with a ‘hard stare’. I replied: ‘But of course, madam. You are looking at my glass eye,'” he says with a boisterous laugh. An encounter with Le Pen can be a bit of a culture shock. The man is blessed with a rare, intoxicating charisma.’
[comics] Interesting thread on Warren Ellis on the Barbelith Underground … ‘Someone alleged the other week that Warren Ellis is perhaps the world’s most successful writer of slash fiction, and I thought that was an interesting point, if essentially not true.’ [More]
24 April 2002
[books] The master of all he surveys — interview with Alexi Sayle. ‘…he reads “whatever my wife’s reading group is doing that month. I read it first and she never gets round to reading it.” He recently finished Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and is currently trying his best to get through Dickens’s Great Expectations . It’s a safe bet that he doesn’t read much by his fellow comedians. “I was the first alternative comic to write a novel,” he says with a sigh. “Fucking hell, it’s a terrible legacy . . .”‘
23 April 2002
[politics] A French Movement — another Steve Bell cartoon on Jean-Marie Le Pen and the French Presidential Elections.
[p2p] Would You Download Music From This Man? — Wired profiles a “master of the file sharing universe” … ‘What motivates someone to collect more music than he could ever possibly listen to, more movies than he can watch, more games than he could ever play – and so actively spread the wealth? It’s no stretch to say Verner’s responsible for millions of dollars in lost revenue for the record labels and movie studios. And while he considers those industries “damn greedy,” it’s not malice that drives him. “A lot of people out there don’t have any idea what their computer really is for and how much they can enjoy it,” he says. “I think I’m doing a public service.”‘
22 April 2002
[redrum] A Rough Guide to The Shining …
‘Have you ever had a single moment’s thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the first? Does it matter to you at all that the owners have placed their complete confidence and trust in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a contract, in which I have accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is, do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? Has it?!’
‘Have you ever had a single moment’s thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the first? Does it matter to you at all that the owners have placed their complete confidence and trust in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a contract, in which I have accepted that responsibility? Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is, do you? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? Has it?!’
[lmg] New feature — Check out the new mini-blog on the left in the sidebar underneath the LMG Search Button…
21 April 2002
[comics] The 2001 Squiddies — comic awards from rec.arts.comic.* on Usenet. [Related: Postings on Usenet — PR and Results | Analysis of Results]
[tv] The Double Life of Johnny Vegas — great profile / interview … ‘He pinched the name from the rock ‘n’ roll singer in Grease, Johnny Casino, adopting it originally to give him the courage to get up on stage and sing in pubs. But pouring all his disappointments into him proved to be a stroke of genius, because sunny-natured Michael Pennington could never, I suspect, have got up on stage and been so bilious and pathetic and bitter. “It sounds simple, if you say you’re accepting, but I was never one to resent anything. From a certain age, I sort of accepted myself for what I was. And although to other people it was like nothing ever goes right, I had a really nice attitude that I’d inherited from my parents, and especially from my dad.”‘
20 April 2002
[books] McVicar’s crime against Jill Dando — review of John McVicar’s new book about the murder of Jill Dando … ‘[McVicar] believes that George did commit the murder – under, according to the theory he and Pell construct, the combined influence of Queen lyrics, Zoroastrianism, Ninjutsu, born-again Baptism and Highlander.’
19 April 2002
[tv] Ben Elton — another you ask the questions … ‘Q:What would Rik, Mike, Neil and Vyv each be doing now, 20 years after The Young Ones? A: Rik would be President of the Michael Portillo Fan Club. Vyv would be a special advisor to Stephen Byers on transport policy. Neil would have moved to Brixton in the hope of being allowed to cultivate his dope plants in peace – unfortunately, he would have been ripped off when he bought the seeds and be getting a headache trying to smoke fennel. Mike was an enigma then, and remains so.’
[clones] Tears of a Clone — update on Dolly the Sheep and cloning in general … ‘Like most stars, she isn’t the size you expect from her pictures. In Dolly’s case, she’s a lot bulkier than she looks on the page or the screen, although the weight problem that dogged the early days of her celebrity status is behind her. Habituated to human attention, she is friendly and gentle, and convincingly feigns interest in the affairs of strangers. These are star qualities. Most stars don’t have bits of dung and straw in their hair, of course. Nor do they break off in the middle of a photoshoot and, with an expression of utter serenity, pee on the grass.’