Sunday afternoon ..

Will someone please explain to me the need to add music to film? One of the best & most memorable pieces of film I've ever seen was shot at a ghat in Varanasi over 24 hours & the only sounds came from what was actually happening. This irritating habit has begun only in the last ten years I would say, but like political correctness & other recent insanities it has taken a firm hold. I just clicked on a short video of a puppy prancing about in front of a rather bored-looking cat. Perhaps the music is a favourite of the person who shot the video? I would have preferred just ambient sounds as I found the content entertaining enough on its own. A bizarre example of the music-with-everything trend is adding it to television news stories! As Suparni would say, "What's up with that?"

I think it's an off-shoot of dumbing down, like the asinine captions on a collection of photos I saw earlier on Huffington Post. These particular photos were of graffiti, so they really needed no introduction, yet this normally excellent online news site clearly has less confidence in the intelligence, or even reading ability of its readers than I had thought.

Dumbing down is another thing, & here's what Stephen Fry had to say about it in June of this year in the Daily Mail, "Infantilism's the problem. The number of times I turn on the television and I think: "Gosh, children's television's gone on, that's a really good art documentary... Oh my God, it's nine o'clock in the evening. This is for grown-ups?"

A word about Suparni, she's a wonderful person with excellent taste & happens to be a terrific photographer, here's a link to her web site, Jen Ross Photography. Her work is copyrighted otherwise I'd show you myself.

So today's picture is of my mother's Christmas cake. As time progresses it will have brandy added at the rate of 'a good spoonful a couple of times a week.' Another one may have to be made as my brother will get to it before the end of December & what he doesn't eat he'll take back with him to Kabul. And I've promised a slice to Suparni!

& my brother is in Kabul for the Mines Advisory Group, 'a neutral & impartial humanitarian organisation that clears the remnants of conflict for the benefit of communities worldwide.'