Month: January 2016

True Grit vs True Grit, the old and the new, and what I think of both

Posted by on in FilmsLeave a comment
The new version of True Grit
The new version of True Grit
True Grit
True Grit

Now I’ve seen both, and within only a few weeks of each other, so I think it’s not a bad time to make a comparison.

I have to start with the fact that my preference is unchanged. I think that the original is the best of the two. In fact it is the best by far. Having said that, the remake has some very good qualities in its favour. First off, it is a very true remake. Very little is changed, with the exception of the ending, which, I believe, is much closer to the book. However, I’ve not read the book as yet. When I have there’ll be another comparison of all three.

Where I think the remake went wrong is in three key areas. I’ll explain them shortly. However, for now …

IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENTION OF WATCHING THESE FILMS, PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS FOLLOWING!

  1. John Wayne can’t really be bettered. Bridges did a good job but I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do with his accent really. That seemed a bit strange to me.
  2. The (for me) quintessential line “Fill you hands you son of a bitch” is delivered properly in the original. Not so much in the remake.
  3. The ending. I won’t say why I don’t like the ending in the remake, but the original’s ending is upbeat and excellent, and I love it.

I’m glad I’ve seen both and I’m glad I’ve got both. In my opinion they’re both worth watching, but the original will always be the best.

A place I really need to go to …

Posted by on in History, Music, PlacesLeave a comment

This was an excellent recommendation, and one I think I might need to get to a few times. I’ve never been to the Musical Museum at Kew Bridge, and up until a few days ago, I’d never even heard of it! It sounds (pun intended) like somewhere I should be very well acquainted with, so my plan is to sort that out very soon.

When I have, expect pictures, over enthusiasm etc!

Lee Thompson’s Ska Orchestra at the Jazz Cafe

Posted by on in Events, MusicLeave a comment
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra
Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra

What a great night out this turned out to be. I really enjoyed seeing this band. The sound was lovely, and atmosphere was fun and pretty lively at time. Ska has never been a big thing for me, but perhaps I should do a little more digging to find out a bit more and do some more listening.

Gawain Hewitt at the Roundhouse

Posted by on in Events, MusicLeave a comment
Gawain Hewitt at the Roundhouse
Gawain Hewitt at the Roundhouse

I was really pleased to be invited to this gig by my friend Gawain Hewitt. It’s always a lovely experience to see new music, and also to visit the Roundhouse. It was a really interesting performance. Improvised and based around field recordings of water that Gawain had taken in London, Norway, and Bangladesh.

It was at times very interesting and beautiful. I’m so glad that I got to go along.

Remembering Shackleton and the Endurance

Posted by on in HistoryLeave a comment
Shackleton stamps
Shackleton stamps

I really enjoyed the dramatisation with Kenneth Brannagh some years ago. I think I’ve watched it a couple of times now and the story is one that I find quite inspiring. So it was nice to see these commemorative stamps. At some point I’d like to find out a bit more about him and his other expeditions. One day I’ll do that.

Pythonista 2.0 is a massive leap forward

Posted by on in Making things, Mobile Applications, TechLeave a comment

There’s loads of new things to explore in the latest version. Here’s what’s new:

  • Pythonista is now compatible with all iOS screen sizes — from iPhone 4 to iPad Pro, and everything in-between.
  • For larger projects, you can now use multiple editor tabs to switch between related files more quickly.
  • The Pythonista app extension allows you to run Python scripts within other apps, using the standard iOS share sheet.
  • New and refined color themes are available in the settings; selecting a different theme now changes the entire app’s UI instead of just syntax highlighting.
  • The file browser and editor have much better support for non-Python files. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Markdown files are syntax-highlighted in the editor, Zip archives can be extracted, and a QuickLook preview is available for most common file types, e.g. images, PDFs, and audio/video.
  • Additional templates are available in the improved “new file” menu. You can also import photos from your camera roll as image files there.
  • The console’s interactive prompt is now syntax-highlighted, and provides better support for Bluetooth keyboards (you can use the up/down keys to navigate the command history).
  • You can now read the (pure Python) source code of the included standard library (and third-party modules) directly in the app. Simply enable the “Show Standard Library” setting if you’re interested in looking “under the hood”.
  • The UI editor contains a much improved inspector panel, undo/redo support, the possibility to set custom attributes, and a lot of other refinements.
  • The new traceback navigator allows you to get a lot more information about errors in your programs. When an exception occurs, a brief summary is shown at the top of the screen, and the line where the exception occurred is highlighted in the editor. By tapping on the exception summary, you can navigate the entire traceback, even if the source of the exception is in a different file. You can also tap the `<…` marker in the editor to inspect variable values in the selected stack frame.
  • The editor actions (“wrench”) menu has been improved significantly. You can now assign custom icons and colors to your script shortcuts. It’s also possible to invoke the standard iOS share sheet from the actions menu. If you have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus (with 3D Touch), you can launch shortcuts directly from the homescreen by pressing the Pythonista icon.
  • The improved asset picker (`[+]` button) contains more free image and sound effect collections that can be used with the `scene`, `ui`, and `sound` modules. The UI for opening the asset picker is also consistent between iPad and iPhone now.
  • When the cursor is inside a color string (e.g. ‘#ff0000’ or ‘red’) or built-in image name, a preview overlay is shown automatically. You can also tap the preview overlay to select a different color or image.
  • The new *Highlight All* option in the copy/paste menu allows you to quickly find all occurrences of a word (e.g. variable name), without typing anything in the search bar.
  • You can adjust the indentation of a selected block of code more easily with the new `⇥ Indent` menu items (in the copy/paste menu).
  • iPad only: The extended keyboard has a more compact layout by default. If you prefer a larger keyboard with an additional number row, you can enable this in the settings.
  • The completely revamped `scene` module gives you a lot more possibilities for building 2D games and animations in Pythonista. You can even use custom OpenGL fragment shaders. Lots of new sample code and a tutorial for building a simple game are available in the included *Examples* folder.

So I probably need to revisit some of my old projects and maybe even finish them!