Please don't be negatively influenced regarding Senna the movie - as it's fascinating for modern Formula 1 fans - by my perspective of Senna the racing driver. The cornerstone of his driving legacy is seen every time a car puts its front tyre up the inside of another's rear axle, then claims this as a legitimate overtaking manoeuvre. Except in Senna's era, the subsequent collision if the forward driver didn't back off was potentially fatal.

Like Schumacher currently, I cannot see him adapting to today's higher racing standards. Even in his final years, I recall reading of him being resolutely trounced - and blubbing about it [sound familiar, @LewisHamilton ?] - by Prost, Mansell, & Schumi. What the documentary does do is make clear that Senna was dedicated to personal victory, but remains obscure - almost to the point of silence - over his minimalist approach to good sportsmanship.

More willfully propogandist is its claim that this driver cared for the safety of his fellows, with an insight proven correct thereafter. Whereas, if you watch closely, you will only see that Senna only pursued such with a view that his personal performance should not be repetitively compromised.

For example, observe how having been previously censured for dangerous driving and also having crashed into a tyre wall, he successfully agitates for similar to be removed; then promptly forces a rival straight off the track at a corner that would have otherwise have resulted in a duplicate accident & punishment.

Sport should mean more than simply winning.

In visualising speed, 3D has finally found a use beyond being a lo-lumen gimmick. It's closer to the edge of actual visceral reality than Formula 1 high definition television, for example.

Regarding this one-off documentary specifically, a commercial professionalism does appear to be encroaching on the Isle Of Man's week-long Tourist Trophy races. Yet the tradition of amateur daring-do appears to be surviving also, as exemplified by Guy Martin, who left us in stitches [fortunately of a kind that didn't require hospital treatment] & with a thirst for a giant mug of tea.

As a matter of curiosity, there were no motorcycles in the carpark after the showing last night, which I assume to mean that the only racing the audience does is from the comfort of their armchairs [but that may be just me]. Whether we had all simply been breathing during the film, but failing to live, is open to speculation. I do know that I was happy to leave the theatre with the seat of my pants intact & no 170mph friction burns on my backside [but then again, I'm always happy in such circumstance]  !

[courtesy cinemax]

I found the cheque stub when searching for the contract's paperwork.

The date doesn't just precede my credit history, it's virtually pre- internet, and definitely pre- email & sms services [which I only began to use a year later].

On that last subject, I fondly recall the http://www.uboot.com/eng of 2001, who gave free unlimited sms-ing from the web to any mobile. Even @O2 allowed 600 web sms per month to UK mobiles.

A decade on, and @O2 gives 10 sms as standard; which rather says much for how telecom pricing has evolved.

The local newspaper outrage at Virgin Bolton cheekily - but humourously - passing off bacon as movie star material [when we all know it's usually ham], the £1 per film introductory offer that tempted me from video rental to cinema viewing [even if it was my mother who saw the print ad for this, and made a strongly-worded suggestion that I "get out of the house & enjoy yourself, before you turn into Howard Hughes in his reclusive degradation - not dating starlets - phase!"], and the Replay Diner pizzas whose cheese almost outstripped Hollywood's onscreen offering. Ah yes, I remember it well.

Branson lost his interest in virginity. The French bravely attempted to battle on English soil, but retreated back across La Manche. Then some small Southerners swapped their little boots for big wellies and took on the Irish, the Scots, & the Welsh; succeeding where flyboys & foreigners had failed.

Over the past years though, what has continued to distract me from the chips/kebabs/whippets/ & flat caps of this area [or home entertainment in the form of dvd/blu-ray/Sky Movies, for that matter] has been the big screens of 6/7/8; where one can truly be immersed in sight & sound, losing oneself in fiction/fact/ & occasionally some Bollywood caper in which the cast intermittently [for no apparent reason other than romance, or to proclaim their personal grandeur & uniqueness ] break into song & dance.

Oh, and those Premier screens @CineworldBolton referred to earlier today? They've finally been refurbished for the first time since they were installed in December 1998; and my posterior, which I demonstrably spend much time speaking through, thanks them for their investment in comfort!

To great relief, Rachel McAdams managed to supply my viewed Morning Glory with a happy ending. Sure, it got a little flaccid three quarters of the way in, but the pace & friction of the earlier experience managed to squeeze out a reasonable climax -  mainly through the affection generated whilst snug in the folds of the warm narrative. It was a slick ride worth paying for.

Think of it as the gentler, more good-natured, child of Working Girl; in which the challenge is the job - not the job system; and with Harrison Ford as the narrow-minded ogre, not the broad-minded romantic hero, in a woman's battle for fulfilment.

[courtesy paramount]

awoke me this morning; and will keep me a-quiver until at least Wednesday, when a replacement sim arrives [today's engineering thinking being that the current card has been fried in trying to maintain hsdpa connectivity]. 

Such times, naturalmente, are the most exciting in any romance with technology. When all is pristine, hopeful for the future, with flaws shone over; and disappointment over deficiencies is barely discernable in the distance.

You know, I think I'll leave this Htc HD in it's virgin boxed state for the moment; occasionally gently stroking it to heighten anticipation.

Besides, it won't take long for my demands to complete exhaust it - if consensu[al]s reports are accurate.

[courtesy u2 remixers]

If you do happen to have any such slices of a metallic spheres, perhaps you may care to purchase this album as an demonstration of common sense; for Gilmour & The Orb will be donating their royalties, as described at  http://www.londontv.net/freegarymckinnon.html  .

[courtesy columbia]

It's rare for Ray Winstone's dialogue not to feature the line, "You're a dirty CN*T, you cn*t !"; and I couldn't help thinking that exposure to such language has influenced his daughter Jaime's interests, as she presented her recent programme at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/xhdzl/  .

From there, my id slithered into action - slyly cataloguing [as that primitive part of the brain is wont to do] examples where one might find it difficult not to feel that contracting Human PapillomaVirus is just a wash & vaccination away.

Now that [even unwarranted] suspicion would transformers your life !

[courtesy esquire]