http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett I reserve the right to be wrong. Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:10:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This is a hilarious and intriguing book, painstakingly written by assembling thousands of fragments from several decade's worth of women's magazines. The tone of the sentences is unmistakable. I love the way that some of the word combinations lead to odd turns of phrase and overextended metaphors that you wouldn't see ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2009/11/23/womans-world-graham-rawle/ This book is not really about being right. It's about winning arguments, even when you're wrong. The 38 tactics include such classics as "Use your opponent's views", "Beg the question" and the ultimate: "Become personal, insulting, rude". You'll recognise these from many annoying and unsatisfying arguments you've had. This book ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2009/11/05/the-art-of-always-being-right-arthur-schopenhauer/ The increasing amount of choice we have now allows us to lead lives that are objectively better, but subjectively worse than before. This thought-provoking book by Barry Schwartz tries to show why the increasing amount of choice in our lives isn't making us happier -- in fact, it's making us ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2009/10/25/the-paradox-of-choice-why-more-is-less/ (500) Days of Summer (don't forget the parentheses!) is a conventional boy-meets-girl story dressed up with a bundle of enjoyable and inventive extras. It's a lot of fun. The film-makers dug deep into their box of tricks for this film. The timeline zooms back and forth across the 500 ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2009/10/19/500-days-of-summer/ Any time the thunder starts to rumble down Don't let hope tumble down Or castles crumble down If the blues appear just make the best of them Just make a jest of them Don't be possessed of them At the risk of sounding rather platitudinous Here's what I believe should be the attitude in us A sunny disposish ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2009/06/05/sunny-disposish/ That guy from The Office (who despite many other noteworthy roles including this one is destined always to be known only as "That guy from The Office") really is pretty funny. He's much more likeable in this film than the painful idiots he plays in The Office and Extras. (OK, his ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2008/12/09/ghost-town/ Headless Chickens played their first gig in almost a decade last Friday. The setlist was packed with great songs, the crowd was into it, the sound was excellent. They rocked. Headless Chickens have been one of my favourite bands since the early '90s, even though they pretty much called it a ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2008/12/04/headless-chickens-live-in-auckland/ Mellow mellifluous melodies. The Bads are a girl/boy duo from New Zealand; you could call them a guitar-based pop/rock group, or even a "popular beat combo" (as John Peel used to say). But that would just be lazy pigeonholing, so if you pretend you didn't read that then I will ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2008/07/06/earth-from-space-the-bads/ Here's a set of simple, affecting songs, beautifully sung and sympathetically arranged. The overall theme is Love Gone Wrong, the traditional singer-songwriter preoccupation. But Anna Coddington turns it into something that sounds great -- "beauty exploding from despair", to use one of her own lines. I was looking forward to buying ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2008/06/24/the-lake-anna-coddington/ I had a great time at this big, fun and loud film about a big, fun and loud elephant. The story of Horton and the Whos is one of my 2-year-old son's favourite stories, so this was a good choice as his first ever cinema experience. He enjoyed it, and ... http://www.thunderguy.com/bennett/2008/06/02/horton-hears-a-who/