Time to draw your attention to a couple of bits of media that I’ve enjoyed recently, namely an excellent article by William Langewiesche in Vanity Fair about Captain “Sully” Sullenberger and the ‘miraculous’ landing on the Hudson River back in January. Langewiesche tells the story of the specific flight adroitly but also manages to tie it to modern aircraft manufacture, pilot politics and even has a hint of a Right Stuff “what makes a pilot” going on too. Superb and engrossing.
In a different arena entirely, I can recommend you download and listen to Elvis Mitchell’s interview with Rusell Brand, a famous West Ham fan and sometimes annoying presence as an actor who I had thought was inexplicably popular. Well, now, thanks to Elvis, it is explic’d. I get it. In the interview Brand is promoting the US edition of “My Booky Wook” and he is funny, supremely intelligent, spirited and self-aware. And he talks at 100mph. Download the interview from the KCRW site here, or download to the regular podcast via iTunes here. Mitchell is a former critic for The New York Times and his programme The Treatment is the most consistently intelligent half hour on cinema on the web.
Apologies for the lack of entries this week. The real world has intervened – but in a good way for a change. This sunny afternoon, preparing to take in my first two