The Lioness of Justice: Dr Naledi Pandor vs Israel

Apart from obvious contextual stuff, there were a few other things that I learned during tonight's audience with Dr Pandor. The most striking was that, yes, it is possible to have a genuine, humane, intelligent and articulate leader (where "leader" is to be taken in its most literal, governmental form).

Perhaps it's as basic as being highly educated, or maybe something a little more deeper about not having travelled through the usual path of hypocrisy and compromise that makes one a candidate in western democracies. Whatever the reasons, this alone, the fact that leaders can be excellent and are not inevitably awful, brought hope (and possibly despair if it's proven such integrity is impossible where we live).

But to the talk itself. A lot wasn't new, apart from in how it was presented (I may have mentioned how excellent the speaker was), and it's the precision and conciseness with which Dr Pandor expressed ideas the audience already knew of that shows why she is so valuable to the cause.

Aamer Rahman was excellent as the QA host - he kept out of the way and acted as a filter to a passionate, yet potentially tiresome, crowd. It was especially cute when the event ate itself when the question of SOAS's actions against its own Palestinian advocates was raised.

The topic is hot, with various deadlines approaching (both legally and on the ground in Gaza), so this was a useful opportunity to re-shift our minds to the apparent working of justice going on miles away from ground zero. 

Twenty One

It only occurred to me as I write this how post count could be a pretty good indicator of blog productivity. I'm on for around 40 posts for 2025, which sounded pretty impressive until I saw the almost-500 that were being created during The Good Times.

That's not to say I'm too sad about the slowing down - for example I've long realised that I don't care enough about food to write about or recommend restaurants and as such I no longer spend time thinking about what I'm eating. I think that's a win win? The point is that as a litmus test of who I am (or rather, what I think about), this blog holds some useful insights. It's like an objective measure of where I am.

Otherwise 21 is a milestone apparently, although perhaps not as much in the UK. One odd observation is how it's approaching the age that I can remember being, which probably says something about my conscious or mental development at the time or something. I wonder what further years around here will reveal?

Book: Wind and Truth, Brandon Sanderson

More often than not, bigger is never better. At [stupid number] of pages long, WaT is the longest volume in the Stormlight Archive, and therefore also the longest book in the Cosmere - in fact, it might be longer than some trilogies in this particular universe.

That isn't enough to wreck a book, but it didn't help that this one was especially terse. The time passed since the previous books (as well as the dragging of the Roshar stories) didn't help, and I got up to page 13 before giving up and going to the Internet to read the four 200 page summaries of what came before. Doing so was helpful both in getting me up to date, but also allowing me to think about the series as a whole.

You see, The Stormlight Archive isn't a book or even an epic - it's a lifestyle choice. To get the most out of it you have to be part of the meta, read and contribute to forums, follow off-book developments. That kind of thing. Needless to say I didn't sign up to that.

In some ways the summaries were actually better than the books themselves, distilling the story to the essentials, while skipping some of the more dubious character development present here. And indeed that might have been my issue with this series - the characterisation failed at what it tried to do, and for me any development was cheap, gimmicky and shallow, especially in the shadow of the faux-depth they tried to have.

Another example of the gimmicks at play here were the epitaphs sprinkled throughout each chapter start. Perhaps I'm too procedural or one dimensional, but having to read in two different directions was a chore and reminded me of how much this book felt like work.

The multiple threads were somewhat tied up - or at least reduced - by the end of the book, and we finally have the wider Cosmere context that's been promised for so long. Given that this is the first arc (of two) in Stormlight, I'm not sure how excited I am for things to proceed.

So here I am over six months after starting Wind and Truth, complaining about how much it all was. In many ways I had the same complaints during the middle of The Wheel of Time, and in many ways Stormlight was a bit of a rip off of that series too. I can only hope that, like in the WoT series, the ending made the middle worth it in the end.

Film: Weapons

It was only as the credits rolled that I realised what Weapons was calling me back to. So it was with little surprise to learn that yes, Weapons is from the same people who brought us Barbarian, and just like that previous film it was great. In fact more than great - you could even call this Barbarian+.

The film was excellent whichever way I cut it. The acting, plot, characters, production - there wasn't any aspect which I felt was lacking. Like Barbarian (and to an extent, Companion), the mix of horror and humour was subtle and understated in a way that horror-comedies aren't. In many ways this is a film that rejects any genre you put it in.

It's August so I guess around the time one can make the call - and so for me Weapons is definitely contender for film of the year. Highly recommended.

Film: The Naked Gun

Nostalgia aside, this 2025 rendering of a spoof classic was experimental in many ways. How would it fare in this post-political correct world? Do these kids even find spoofs funny? I was a little unsure before sitting down to watch The Naked Gun, but am pleased to say that it just about managed to pull it all off.

It might be offensive to say that these kind of films don't really need any real acting chops, but regardless our Liam and Pam did more than enough to keep the show rolling. The film wasn't thick with laughter but in many ways that kept the interest levels up. Plot wise, well there was enough to frame the laughs anyway.

All in all we have here an unoffensive 90 mins that won't be film of the year but wasn't a total failure either.

Film: Saiyaara

It's fair to say that I've been absent from the Bollywood scene for a good while now. I didn't recognise anyone in this film nor had any idea about what it was about. I had been dragged along by a friend who was being dragged along by his wife after what seems to have been a compelling social media campaign mesmerising young and old alike.

Anyway. Saiyaara wasn't the worst. In some ways it was a bit of a throwback to the YR era at the turn of the century. Yes, it had been updated with sex and nudity and kissing that did nothing for the film (never has a movie make me feel so old), but the emovibes were there and the plot enough to get us to the end.

Without spoiling too much, I'm not sure if the subject matter was given the full justice it deserved but on the other hand the 150+ minutes runtime did kind of fly by.

So perhaps not quite a full recommendation, but not something I hated myself for watching either.