Since we don’t live by politics alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
(apologies for belated lazy sunday posting)
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Let’s get this party started: it’s just as well that I recorded Boardwalk Empire because mr tog fell asleep on the couch after a very busy weekend and it’s more fun when we watch it together, so I changed channels. We’re out tonight for the Cracker Night Gala for the Sydney Comedy Festival, so I won’t get to admire Steve Buscemi’s fine line in menaces until Tuesday at the earliest!
Well … I do have one from the weekend.
Tim Minchin, one of my favourite Ex-pat Australian Comedians just released one of his signature stand-up pieces as an animated movie, it’s called ‘Storm’. Considering a few of you out there love a good wine and company, I’m sure you will relate.
I finished re-reading Moby Dick.
I saw The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest which I thought was much better than most people have said. I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who whinged about Lisabeth spending most of it in hospital and it ‘therefore’ being static are people who need at least three car chases per movie to keep them happy. How they’d go watching The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, say, or the sort of French movie where the camera lingers for minutes at a time on Isabelle Huppert’s silent face, I really do not know. Besides, the first ‘Girl’ movie in the series was full of people using computers, which it’s also quite hard to make exciting viewing, and nobody complained about that.
And to the criticism that you couldn’t follow it if you hadn’t read the book, I’d say (a) the main projected audience for these movies are people who have read the books, as with Harry Potter, which likewise nbody saw any reason to dumb down; (b) I wouldn’t know because I’ve read the book, but it looked pretty coherent to me; and (c) if you go to a film that you know to be the third in a series of anything, much less of fiction adaptations, and expect it to stand alone then you’re just not being realistic.
Given that the Swedes have done an unforgettable job of making movies out of the work of one of their own, and that everything about the story (characters, mise en scene etc) is very, very European, can anyone explain to me why the Americans have felt it necessary to do it again? Is it because they don’t think people should be expected to do anything as intellectually taxing as read subtitles, or what?
Exam writing.
Which is really, really hard work!
To any FIT3042 students who discover this comment, rest assured that there are no questions on Commodore 64 Basic on the exam…
PC,
Have not read the books, but recently watched the first 2 movies in the series and had no trouble following them. Hanging out for the third one to come out on DVD.
As to why the Americans are doing a remake. They probably think the American versions will make a profit. It is, aftrer all their raison d’etre to make movies – to make money.
_____________________
Spent most of the weekend reading Maya Jasanoff’s Liberty’s Exiles. American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. Bit slower getting through books at the moment because of eyesight problems, but so far I’m managing, using magnifying glasses.
Yeah, PC – any film with subtitles can’t get a wide release in the USA. Hollywood is going through a phase of mainly wanting to make franchises, comic books, remakes, videogames etc. Not that this makes them bad films necessarily, but it just makes the field a bit limited.
Arrived back in Australia, hired car to drive back home to Brisbane from Coolangatta (via Currumbin and Tamborine).
Fed birds, fed self, bought tomatoes for Mum.
Got to Mum’s and realised I didn’t appear to have my mobile phone with me.
As I need the phone for work, and it has a present from the distant beloved hanging from it, I could see that I would be deeply in the ordure.
So I drove back to Tamborine, and Currumbin, and Coolangatta.
No trace of the phone.
Stopped for a coffee on the way back, to discover that the phone was in a coat pocket and had come along with me on my 320km-long wild goose chase.
Spent Saturday sightseeing in Osaka with the distant beloved and her two children. Kept catching the wrong trains, but eventually got to see the museum and the heavenly tower.
Tomato bottling. Much later than usual this year. Not a good year for the tomatoes, so only 16 cases.
Terangeree, I have learned through bitter experience that the very first thing one should do whenever one loses one’s mobile is to find, beg, borrow or steal another phone of some kind and ring said mobile’s number. This simple test has saved me a great deal of time.
I second Robert’s comment @5 about exam writing!
Dr Cat. I did that at my Mum’s.
But I couldn’t hear the phone ringing, as it was buried in my coat pocket (and my coat was still in the car, whose floor and seats and consoles and boot I had already searched diligently for a dropped phone.
On another note, after 20+ years of fruitless searching, I have found a place in Brisbane that sells the proper type of Fry’s Chocolate (my favourite type of chocolate until I discovered the delights of Green Tea flavoured Kit Kats).
Paul Burns @ 6, I don’t know what size magnifying glass you are using but if it’s not big, you can buy a magnifying sheet which may be easier to use. I got one from Neds (cheap shop) for $2.95. You don’t need to move it around all the time as it is bigger than the page. Freznel lens.
http://www.ilcaustralia.org/home/search4.asp?state=ACT&page=12&MC=61&MinC=12