Discussing the question of when the Russian Revolution changed from revolution to counter-revolution, a friend of mine gave, I think, the only unassailable answer: in 1920, when Trotsky stopped fighting the civil war by traveling around on a train with a brass band.

I was reminded of this when &catherine posted something about the tATu best of, which I wasn’t aware of but which is pretty good. Apart from most of the tracks from Dangerous and Moving, the album includes the closest tATu have yet come to dubstep, a pleasingly eerie remix of “Cosmos,” and a “Bollywood” version of “Craving.” Which works surprisingly well, but more importantly served to remind me of a great film I saw a while back (with, coincidentally, the same friend who so wisely analyzed the Russian Revolution), Bhagam Bhag.

Read more↴

…but communicative capitalism is interested in you.

Read more↴

Paris Hilton has reached the attention of the Indian film industry. She has been invited to play Nobel Peace prize recipient Mother Theresa in a film partly written by Pope John Paul II. The film will include the talents of other notables of her stature such as Pandit Ravi Shankar. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to give his blessing to this film.

Actually, I’d already heard about this. Astonishingly, I’d managed to forget all about it.

Meanwhile, Ian Penman channels Julie Burchill , and is of course entirely right.