ANTHROPOID

Up to now, the Nazis, if somewhat halfhearted in the concealment of their crimes, have nevertheless kept up a superficial discretion that has enabled some people to avert their gaze from the regime’s true nature. With Lidice, the scales have fallen from the whole world’s eyes. In the days that follow, Hitler will understand. For once, it is not his SS who will be let loose but an entity whose power he does not fully grasp: world opinion. Soviet newspapers declare that, from today, people will fight with the name Lidice on their lips – and they’re right. In England, miners from Stoke-on-Trent launch an appeal to raise money for the future reconstruction of the village and come up with a slogan that will be echoed all around the world: 'Lidice shall live!' In the United States, in Mexico, in Cuba, in Venezuela and Uruguay and Brazil, town squares and districts, even villages, are renamed Lidice. Egypt and India broadcast messages of solidarity. Writers, composers, filmmakers and dramatists pay homage to Lidice in their works. The news is relayed by newspapers, radio, and television. In Washington, D.C., the naval secretary declares: 'If future generations ask us what we were fighting for, we shall tell them the story of Lidice.' The name of the martyred village is scrawled on the bombs dropped by the Allies on German cities, while in the East, Soviet soldiers do the same on the gun turrets of their T34s. By reacting like the crude psychopath that he is (rather than the head of state that he also is), Hitler will suffer his most devastating defeat in a domain he once mastered: by the end of the month the international propaganda war will be irredeemably lost.

But on June 10, 1942, neither he nor anyone else is aware of all this – least of all Gabčík and Kubiš. The news of the village’s destruction plunges the two parachutists into horror and despair. More than ever, they are wracked by guilt. No matter that they have rid Czechoslovakia and the world of one of its most evil creatures – they feel as if they themselves have killed the inhabitants of Lidice.
…
No one ever manages to persuade them that Heydrich’s death was good for anything.

Perhaps I am writing this book to make them understand that they are wrong.

 - Laurent Binet, HHhH (2012)

A Gazely Stare

 

Now all I have to do is work out the single most unsettling place in the house to put it.

 

No One Here Gets Out Alive

Today the Londonist Twitter account asked people for the most ludicrous flats and houses they'd seen in the capital. Highlights included the following:

@Londonist Room in shared flat: £350pcm. Was a bed mounted on a platform above the washing machine and tumble drier in a utility room.

— Judoon Platoon (@Judoon_Platoon) August 21, 2013

Choice London flat horror stories being tweeted by @Londonist. I once looked at one with a trail of blood from Hackney rd to the front door.

— Jess Lilley (@lilleyjuice) August 21, 2013

@Londonist I once saw a house in Deptford, the kitchen was covered in black dust, the words 'help me' was clearly written in said grime...

— Alex MacDonald (@Selected_Poems) August 21, 2013

@Londonist flat in Archway with shower in the kitchen behind a curtain. Agent said "Its space saving, and sociable".... It shouldn't be!

— Emma B (@emsypickle) August 21, 2013

@Londonist Saw a flat advertised as having '3 split-level mezzanine bedrooms'. Turns out that's code for '3 built-in bunk-beds'.

— Flora (@AccidentalLDNr) August 21, 2013

@Londonist Saw a house in Harrow where you had to climb through the shower to get to the bath, which was situated 10cms from the ceiling

— Emily Waddell (@callsignemily) August 21, 2013

There have now been three examples of properties being offered with no actual roof. Three.

— Londonist (@Londonist) August 21, 2013

Nice Chaps, Aren't They? Picturesque...

In a column in this weekend's Spectator, "Taki" describes Greece's neo-fascist Golden Dawn as "good old-fashioned patriotic Greeks" who are "not house-trained, and many of its members tend to use rough language and get physical." I instantly knew what the column made me think of:

I've seen them all right. I was in sunny Italy when the Fascisti went for the Freemasons in twenty-five. Florence it was. Night after night of it with shooting and beating and screams, till you felt like vomiting. I was in Vienna in thirty-four when they turned the guns on the municipal flats with the women and children inside them. A lot of the men they strung up afterwards had to be lifted on to the gallows because of their wounds. I saw the Paris riots with the garde mobile shooting down the crowd like flies and everyone howling "mort aux vaches" like lunatics. I saw the Nazis in Frankfurt kick a man to death in his front garden. After the first he never made a sound. I was arrested that night because I'd seen it, but they had to let me go. In Spain, they tell me, they doused men with petrol and set light to them.

Nice chaps, aren't they? Picturesque...

- Eric Ambler, Uncommon Danger (1937)

Monuments are for Defeats, as well as Victories

It's a decade since I started this blog, while I was an MA student living in north London - a period of 12 months which I count as one of the happiest times in my life. On that basis I felt that some sort of acknowledgement of the anniversary was appropriate. At the same time, there's no doubt that if the version of me who started the blog in 2003 could see himself in 2013 he'd be disappointed, and rightly so.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Considered as a Gameshow

The best use of the only surviving witness to the Lincoln assassination is surely as a turn on a light-entertainment panel show. I'd say that this is the sort of thing that could only happen on 1950s TV, but I reckon it could easily happen now, too.

The Ghostly Voices of a Distant War

Thanks to the Brown Moses Blog, I came across this video of intercepted radio communications from Qusayr, Syria. There's an English transcription of the conversation behind that link.

Robust Defence

Fulham have just signed Fernando Amorebieta on a free transfer from Athletic Bilbao. This is how he opted to deal with the threat from Barcelona's Lionel Messi, arguably the best player in the world:

Amorebieta received 11 red cards during his playing career in Spain. I look forward to seeing him in the Premier League.

Canadian Football

About 40 years ago my dad came back from being an MA student in Canada, bringing with him this set of posters for the teams in the Canadian Football League. I'm thinking of getting one framed for my wall. Let me know your favourites!

An Accident Waiting To Happen

Billy Bragg - An Accident Waiting To Happen (Live, 1992)

The Hero Bradford Deserves, But Not the One it Needs

We start carrying semi automatics, they buy automatics, we start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds, and you're wearing a mask and jumping off rooftops.

- Jim Gordon, Batman Begins (2005)

I'm not saying that we're definitely going to see someone dressed as a clown committing a series of anarchic crimes across south Yorkshire. I'm just saying that that's the logical progression.

A Wacky Nuremberg

This week it's become apparent that a young fascist has ensconced himself at the University of Liverpool. He's used his Twitter account to invite people to ask him about his philosophy of "culturism" fascism. Craig Sinclair, lead singer of the band Lovecraft has asked the following questions:

@jackbuckby What are your favourite five works of art?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the best dream you ever had?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your favourite stage of human evolution?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the oldest building you've ever been inside?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby How fast is your favourite British person (living or dead)?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What is your least favourite form of artistic expression?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your favourite red meat side dish?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby Which foreign language would you least like to see an episode of 'Friends' dubbed into?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby How cloudy would it have to be for you to consider taking a precautionary umbrella to Ascot?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your favourite colour about the real meaning of culturism?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your least favourite vowel in the word 'Fatwa'?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the strongest plastic you've ever leaned against?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your favourite shape of sunroof?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby Where's your favourite swamp?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the least funniest sex crime you've ever read about?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's your favourite font size?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby Who's your favourite European TV historian?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the longest you've ever waited for a miracle?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 27, 2013

@jackbuckby How warm would a glass of tizer have to be (fahrenheit) before you would tip it away?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 28, 2013

@jackbuckby Describe the most lacklustre tie you own in three words.
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 28, 2013

@jackbuckby What's the smallest mouse you've never kicked?
— Craig Sinclair (@craigsinclair) February 28, 2013

The Robert James Lees Moment

I made it all up...

...and it all came true anyway.

That's the funny part.

Materialising Class in the English Classroom

I'm currently doing work of different kinds at two universities in the north-west. At one, I notice a fair number of students using iPads or laptops in their lectures, and at the other I notice none at all. Have I stumbled on the emergence of some new form of class divide in English HE?

Men Who Hate Thrillers

I'm just back from a conference in Sweden, at which I was not once attacked by any bisexual-hacker-biker-Nazi-serial killers. There is a sense in which this is disappointing.

Skyfall

Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever, but it's on the basis of Casino Royale, not Skyfall. The latter is a film which works for every second of the time that Javier Bardem is on screen, and ambles around a bit aimlessly whenever he isn't.

There are also problems with what this film wants to be. The 50th anniversary hoopla means that it's trying to do a lot of things at once - part homage to the Bond films that people go on about as if Roger Moore was something to be proud of, part post-Bourne dark action thriller. It's on the latter front that it particularly falls down, coming over all multiple-personality as to whether the things that the security services get up to are bad or not. Bardem is great, but if he'd been allowed to be a villain who often tells the truth (like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises) the film would work a lot better. For all the talk about significant deaths in Skyfall, there's nothing here as powerful or moving  as Clive Owen's last words in the first Bourne film.

Skyfall is beautifully shot, and is much better than the incomprehensible low-stakes mess that was Quantum of Solace. But three films in and I'm still waiting for the Bond series that Casino Royale promised, one that was free of baggage like Moneypenny and Q (both of whom are reintroduced here). Some have suggested that with the 50th anniversary out of the way, the sequel I've been waiting for will be coming next. We'll see. 

General Strike

The museum was closed on Thursday due to the general strike in Greece. This was good from the point of view of myself and Dave, because we were running a theoretical seminar at the Irish Institute, and it gave use extra time to prepare. When we went out for lunch at about 3, Exarchia was full of riot police, and we passed some protesters burning boxes in the street - I have no photos of any of this, for all the obvious reasons. This seemed pretty much par for the course, and it was only when I got messages from the UK asking how everything was that I realised the international media had been running a riot story - something must have happened within view of the bar at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, as the old joke goes.

The seminar went well, although it wasn't as like this as we'd hoped:

Walking back from a local bar after the seminar was over we encountered the remnants of some hours-old teargas trapped in a concrete overhang, so I can say that I have been very slightly teargassed. This is endlessly amusing to my dad, due largely to this song. 

Raining, In The City Near The Sea

Tonight in Athens there's a thunderstorm over the hills to the east of the city. Proper forked lightening, too, which you see so often in the Mediterranean, but so rarely at home. It's something of a relief, as the hot weather here has been something of a shock to someone used to British Octobers - I caught the sun by walking through the city yesterday.

I've been in Athens for a week now, working as an assistant on a project in the archives of the National Museum. It's a great opportunity, and I'm hoping that I'm making the most of it.

The thing which most people reading this are probably wondering is what changes I'm seeing in the city due to the economic crisis. I'm not the best placed to answer that, unfortunately, as previously I've at best spent a couple of days in the city. I know that there were some riots on Monday, coinciding with Merkel's visit, but the only evidence I saw of that was a burned-out taxi by the museum the next day. Walking through Exarchia  the other night had a sort of 1980s dystopian feel to it (assisted by Bowie's "Heroes" blaring out from one of the bars), but Exarchia's probably always felt like that, being the main anarchist/punk/junkie area since well before the economic crisis began. There's also the matter of confirmation bias: to some extent, I see the city I want to see.

Over the weekend I've been down to the Kerameikos, the area just outside the main gate of ancient Athens, which was used as a cemetery from the Iron Age down into the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It's a nice site, as no-one seems to go there much, and it acts as a surprisingly quiet little park almost in the centre of modern Athens. One of my main highlights was seeing the wild tortoises which live down there. I even got to see a tortoise fight, which I think was inconclusive, as most tortoise fights probably are.

Today I went down to the new Acropolis Museum, which I've never had the chance to go into before. It's a really great building, although I'm not sure all of the material is displayed in the most useful way. And while I've never been much of a fan of Classical art (I prefer Hellenistic), the Parthenon Sculptures gallery is really good, displaying the material (mostly plaster replicas, of course...) around the outside of a rectangle the same size as that of the Parthenon. This is much better that how the British Museum displays its collection of the originals. The Museum's design also shines in the views you get of the acropolis from the gallery while you're viewing the sculptures.

I'm hoping to take in a football match while I'm here, so that might be my next post.

LA Noire

Posting this month has been down, due mostly to the fact that I've liberated my sister's Xbox 360. The first game I played was LA Noire (a loan from Emily), one of the reasons I wanted to borrow the console in the first place. As might be expected, the period detail is immersive, down to 1940s comedies playing on car radios. The game's real selling point is the investigation mechanics, however, and I'm not aware of any game which has put as much effort into collecting evidence and then using it. It's not enough to suspect things, you have to actually prove that people are lying. Spotting lies is also crucial, thanks to the facial capture technology, which means you spot lies in the same way you will in day-to-day life.

My reservations with the game are twofold: it wasn't entirely clear to me how my results in cases actually affected the overall plot, which makes it feel a little bit like it's on rails - playing some of the cases again might give me a better idea of how true this feeling is. The second is that aspects of the metaplot seem underdeveloped: the dénouement in the "hunt for a serial killer" section is underwhelming, but more important are the relationships of the protagonist with women, which aren't really explored until late in the game. This matters in terms of the choices the protagonist makes, which are significant, but lack impact without a background context.

A minor quibble is that the game is in glorious technicolour: an optional mode allowing you to play it in expressionist, shadowy black-and-white would have been a nice touch. And despite my reservations about some aspects of the plot, LA Noire gets its noir ending spot on. I know that extra cases are available as downloadable content, and I suspect I'll be getting them sooner or later.

EVA

Neil Armstrong's death brought up some discussion of the fact that there are almost no photographs of him on the surface of the moon: most of the photography was assigned to Armstrong, so the pictures are of Aldrin, and it's very hard to tell two men in identical spacesuits apart (later missions added red stripes to the Commander's suit to help with identification). Thanks to my misspent youth collecting things to do with astronomy and spaceflight,  I do have a copy of one of the photographs identified as Armstrong, so here it is (the NASA designation is AS11-40-5886):