The King’s Speech – A compelling human interest story of human failings & courage

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

In spite of apparently having everything in life, the second son of King George V of England had one troubling impediment: a debilitating stammer.

Prince Albert, or Bertie as he was affectionately known, was a high-ranking member of the Royal family. As such he was obliged to make speeches periodically. Every one became a nightmare for him. To overcome this affliction he had tried every form of speech therapy but none worked. Fortunately for him, he had a wonderful loving wife who persevered.

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My Week with Marilyn – Unveiling a Marilyn requiring constant validation in spite of fame

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

This sliver of time in the life of Marilyn Monroe highlights a woman already famous & now on her third marriage – this time to the author Arthur Miller – that still requires validation.

This movie opens the world on a Marilyn wracked with insecurities & craving attention, validation & affirmation as a serious actress. This movie does not attempt to address the issue of the reasons for her insecurity but it does shine a sharp light on it.

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Schindler’s List – Spielberg highlights the Nazi’s depravity brilliantly

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

The story of the holocaust is well-known & is better known than the atrocities committed by Stalin & Mao even though the magnitude of these were larger than those committed by the Nazis.

Nevertheless, the sheer horror of the Nazi’s killing machine is brought to life in this intense but moving portrayal of the first the ghettoization & then the elimination of this 600 year-old community.

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China – Triumph & Turmoil – A Brief Overview of three aspects of Modern China

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Rating: 4 out of 5

With its stellar economic rise since the death of Mao Zedong 1976, more focus needs to be placed on the Chinese in order to understand the ascendant pre-eminent 21st Century World Power. Anyway, that is what the Chinese themselves believe.

The questions that require answers or at least some insights whether China will survive in its current form as an authoritarian state or whether the Chinese people will rebel in their quest for something more akin to Western values.
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The Village – Series 1 – Authentic portrayal of Life in an English Village circa 1913-1920

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

Undoubtedly a grim tale told through the eyes of a young Bert Middleton. Life was dismal, wretched & tough for all in a down-at-heel village where nobody seems to smile. Powerful performances of John Middleton, a tormented alcoholic father struggling to make a living on a stony patch of land are buttressed by his wife, Grace, the ballast in the turbulent mix.

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The Grand Scam – An Expert Dissection & Expose of a Classic Ponzi Scheme

By Dean McCleland in Books, Financial Matters 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

By all accounts, Barry Tannenbaum was the most unlikely person to either be a crook or even to be able to harm a fly yet ultimately the extent of his fraud & lies was to affect not only the super-rich for which losses of R30m were like pocket money & were written off to experience without a second thought.

But it was not only the mega-rich who were financially affected but life-long friendships were annihilated as a consequence but ultimately the small players were sucked in through greed & their better judgment into this scheme.

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The Diet Delusion – An in-depth scientific investigation into dieting

By Dean McCleland in Books, Health 0 Comment

Rating: 5 out of 5

This book is not for the faint-hearted. Like a defence advocate in a trial, in the book The Diet Delusion Gary Taubes builds his case against the accepted wisdom on dieting from the very first scientific test on the efficacy of various diets way back in the 1860s.

Prior to this time, diets & dieting was not considered at all as all contemporary photos will attest. All people of the period were slim with nary an ounce of fat bodies to be seen in any photos. It is only with the advent of the 1950s that the phenomena of obesity started to rear its head to become the epidemic that it is now.

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Glenn Agliotti – Hagiographical view of a true-blood Hustler

By Dean McCleland in Books 0 Comment

Rating: 4 out of 5

By his own admission Glenn Agliotti is a hustler. A larger-than-life person physically & temperamentally, Glenn’s Curriculum Vitae can only list one attribute & that is being able to connect people who are involved in shady deals. That is how Glenn ultimately became involved in “donating” money to the South African National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi.

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Book Review: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

By Dean McCleland in Books, Religion 0 Comment

Provocative examination of the case against Religion

Rating: 5 out of 5

With his indomitable spirit & lucidly argued analysis, Richard Dawkins comprehensively demolishes the deeply held beliefs buttressing the rationale for religion.

He skillfully exposes all the claims made by the various religious movements & society in general that Religion is the arbiter of morality & bedrock of morality. This is convincingly proved to be totally fallacious.

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DVD Review: Earth Flight

By Dean McCleland in Movies & DVDs 0 Comment

A Bird’s eye view of birds on the wing

Rating: 5 out of 5

What a stunning video. Instead of the usual shots of birds taken from the ground, these photos are taken alongside the birds as if one were flying adjacent to them in the flock. Many of them are taken of migrations with shots of birds flying over well-known features such as the Grand Canyon or the Statue of Liberty.

In each of the three episodes Earth Flight deals with birds from a different continent. So in the case of South Africa, my home country, the one portion is of Cape Gannet’s diving through a school of dolphins to catch pilchards, an epipelagic fish. This section shows gannets at wing height, from above & beneath the water. All are stunning.

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