Critic Cal

No, not the Dining Cryptographers Problem (that sounds rather too much like the sort of thing I should be writing about, now that I'm officially 'writing up'). Rather, I refer to a recent outing with the wonderful research group that is nurturing me through my PhD, the experience of which struck me profoundly enough to depart slightly from my 'usual' themes and turn temporary restaurant critic. And so I give you: the 'all-you-can-eat' buffet. All the flavours of the world on one plate...and when you reach shiny ceramic - in that pause before you go up for more - a mirror to your soul. What a worthy service - forcing us to hold our appetites up against our actions, throwing into sharp relief a fundamental characteristic of the human condition: the stark contrast between what we want to do and what we do. Of course, we all have our different battles, and perhaps it is just me after all…but every time I set out with the intention to ignore the invited

I *love* Masterchef: I love seeing people excel at what they do, I love the human interaction and moments of genuine affection, and I love salivating over plate-upon-plate of delicious looking food (normally whilst eating some toast-based creation of my own). But as a series progresses each episode becomes more and more frequently punctuated by contestant sound-bites expressing ever-increasing fervour and obsession. To quote: "every single cell of my body is dedicated to Masterchef right now" …and that's only 5 minutes in to episode 4. The competition to express the most intense and all-consuming emotion and commitment becomes at least as fierce as the competition to present the best plates of food. It appears to be mandatory to love cooking to the exclusion of all other interests, to the neglect of your family and friends, to the jeopardy of your health and mental stability… and this 'passion' is presented to the audience as something inspirational, to be laude

A habit I have benefited lots from is stocking up my iPod with stuff that I might be able to learn from in those moments where I'm physically occupied but mentally at liberty (cleaning and exercising being obvious such opportunities). Hopefully some of it filters through! (A habit which I have not benefited from is falling asleep listening to BBC 4's ' Unbelievable Truth '...I don't half worry about what that has 'taught' me! :-/ ) This talk by Dallas Willard on 'Nietzsche vs. Jesus' made for a very interesting gym session a couple of weeks ago. The premise of his talk is that 'the burden of human life is to find an adequate basis for human action in knowledge' and explores what those two thinkers* have to say about that knowledge. According to Willard, Nietzsche was calling out the hypocrisy that was rife in academic/social/cultural institutions, which professed Christian ideology but in practice were driven by ambition, cliques, and

During a fervid, teenage brush with asceticism I spurned all worldy musical influences. Which, in practice, meant classifying my CD collection by "artist has made explicit public profession of Christian faith" and "other", and giving the latter portion to my sister (except for the particularly 'dangerous' ones which of course I dutifully destroyed...CDs are actually quite hard to break). I was left with a ramshackle collection of (mostly) mediocre 'CCM'*, a few 'worship' CDs**, and some desperately tenuous "mainstream artists who I don't actually like and who aren't exactly evangelical but, well, they said something about God in that interview I read so they're in". Hmm. In truth, I don't regret this as an act of surrender, albeit a comically confused one. I can't exactly remember how long I kept it up but it was in the order of years - long after the initial naivity had worn off. Eventually, I recognised that

(Black Mirror, Channel 4 2011) OK, last of the TV 'events': I'm really not a big TV watcher but I can't talk about Sherlock and This is England without mentioning Charlie Brooker, diagnostician extraordinaire. The prognosis he offers is pretty grim…though surely the only rational one within the worldview he presupposes (which is expressly atheist and, I would suspect, rather coherently so given his evident thoughtfulness). I knew Black Mirror had got to me when I tried to watch a bit of Masterchef the other day and couldn't look at poor old 'John and Greg' without thinking of the excruciating reality TV-ruled dystopia of episode 2 ("15 Million Merits"). Boy was it bleak…and convincingly so. A particularly low point was watching the hero's impassioned and hard-won opportunity to 'tell it like it is', all the while anticipating the inevitable synthetic affirmation of 'the judges' and eventual compromise. Brooker follows in a

(This is England '88, Channel 4 2011) Whatever Meadows believes about Christmas he certainly seems to 'get it' in a way that the rest of the world (including lots of us 'in the church') have either missed or prefer to ignore. His latest 3-part installment in the 'This is England' story had me gripped…with desperation for the plight of his characters, remembered pain from shared experiences*, fearful glimmers of hope as I dared to believe that they might make it through the darkness after all… Although the redemptive plot elements primarily focus on human forgiveness and restoration of relationship, Meadows does not exalt this to the position of a be-all-and-end-all fix-it for his characters. Woody and Lol, in particular, end up poignantly reminiscent of Adam and Eve at the end of Paradise Lost: "hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow". Moreover, he explicitly deals with the 'what if?' of Jesus - recognising the need, the darkn

(BBC's 'Sherlock', Season 2, 2012) Gatiss, Moffat and Cumberbatch between them have tapped into some of the deepest yearnings of human nature, and done it with style, wit, visual flair and remarkable insight. Who wouldn't want a friend like Sherlock? The sheer certainty and brilliance of the man…he always knows what is really going on, speaks with astounding confidence and is pretty much always vindicated. His apparent invincibility…able to outsmart the world and the enemy, comes back just when you think he's surely beaten. And his faithfulness…prepared to lay down his life for his friends (the fact that friendship is so hard won from him just makes it all the more desirable). The final installment of series 2 made for compelling viewing. Actually, it caught me off guard…I had forgotten how powerful good television could be. Ever find you've subconsciously written yourself into a story that isn't real and that you prefer it to reality? I felt strangely