Julian stares defiantly at the future in front of him

Mike's Pith & Wind - I chat, therefore I am..
As you know, I sometimes fret about what I’m going to write in this column - well, alright then, I always fret about what I’m going to write in this column. I’m an anxious sort of person and I think it must show, otherwise how do you explain the fact that the last three times I’ve been to the airport I’ve been scanned for traces of explosives on my person? (I asked the security people as they waved their wands over my clothes why they’d chosen me in particular and they maintained it was completely random, but I don’t believe them. I reckon I must look anxious and I probably must look anxious in a text-book kind of way).
Anyway, at least this time I had the ‘I chat, therefore I am..’ theme for this column, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Then today I got a gift from heaven in the shape of Julian (pic) just before the No. 70 tram arrived to whisk me home from Camberwell Junction. I don’t know about you, but unless I’m caught stone-cold alone with somebody else at a tram or train stop where it might actually appear rude if I didn’t say something, I usually keep myself to myself. You might suspect, as I do, that somebody who approaches you for no other reason than to chat at a busy tram stop might be either a) on the bot or b) damaged in some way. It wasn’t a botting ploy from Julian, so I’ll let you be the judge.
In the seconds before we got on the tram Julian had told me that he was a rap artist who had been taking photos of graffiti round town to put up in his bedroom, and once we were safely seated he proceeded to.. read more

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Dick's Toolbox - 2012
2012 is not going to be compared with Citizen Kane, but it’s not bad as throw-away entertainment on a par with a really good roller coaster ride - very much longer, the thrills vicarious and the denouement predictable. To be honest it won’t really work as well on even an extraordinarily large TV, so if you must see it, see it at the cinema.
But, should you go, you won’t want to think too deeply about it. In fact, the movie demands that you don’t think about it, or the elaborate and expensive house of cards will tumble down like most of the world’s landmarks and geography do in the movie. Typical of its genre there are large tracts where you realize that you are watching and listening to the same wall to wall clichés, the same pious sentimentality and the same typical America relationship kitsch. Like.. read more