Tuesday, September 27, 2011

"Hate is not a family value"

And when you kick a lesbian couple off an aeroplane for giving each other a kiss on the lips, you're actively demonstrating hate and discrimination. And to do it in the name of "family values". I'd rather be from a family that loves and accepts everyone than from a family that discriminates against people who love each other.

I don't see anybody kicking hetero couples off of aeroplanes for kissing each other on the lips.

It's so depressing that in this day and age, this kind of shit happens: Lesbian couple forced off a Southwest plane for kissing.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Cramping Claws of Death

My hands have cramped into claws, but it was totally worth it, for I am MOVED.

A fuller, more coherent, post to follow, after I get some salt tablets or something.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Warm memories

When I was little, and I'm thinking this was probably when I was about four or five, I used to like pretending to be a dog. My main reason for pretending to be a dog was because I used to like lying on my side on the warm concrete near the back door of the house we lived in.

The concrete would be warm, never boiling, and I'd stretch as flat as I could. Sometimes I would close my eyes and really pretend to be a dog. But mostly it was an excuse to lie there and watch the ants march past, or roll over and watch the sparrows that used to fly under the chicken wire that protected the roof, or sing to myself. Occasionally I would talk to Dallas, who was my imaginary friend at the time.

I liked being four and five. I remember thinking so much at that age. I remember furiously trying to work out how the world worked, and watching to see if I had got it right.

I would like to run into myself, find myself spreadeagled under a dusty Karoo sun, listen to myself singing Hasie in die holte, and say: "There isn't enough warm concrete in the world - pretend to be a dog for as long as you can."

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Things I bought today

  • Two walnut tall and wide bookshelves
  • Two walnut DVD racks
  • A Freesat box
This is to match the coffee table I bought yesterday off the intranet at work. This totally makes up for the fact that I'm still at work at 20:35 on a Wednesday evening.

Can't wait to move!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Jane Eyre

I went to see the new Jane Eyre movie tonight, with Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska and Judi Dench. It was brilliant. I was in raptures. The creepiness, the smouldering, the pathos, the drama, the sheer angst. They did SUCH a good job, and I speak as someone who didn't see the point of a remake when they had just remade it a few years ago with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson, a version I thought was pretty damn cool.

I read Jane Eyre obsessively in first year, but I have to say I never really understood Jane. I think she's a character you can only appreciate properly with age. She's so resolutely herself, and unwilling to compromise her ideals, and what she knows she deserves, as a free human being, despite her material situation. It's now that I'm not blinded by Mr Rochester's hotness and I can see that she's the stronger of the two, that what attracts Mr Rochester to her is that fact that she won't bend, for anyone, including him.

Something I thought the movie did incredibly well was the juxtaposition of St John and Rochester. St John is supposed to be fairly unassuming, I think, but fired with missionary zeal and blind faith. He demands something of Jane, in a very pragmatic and harsh way. He wants her, but he wants her on his terms. Mr Rochester wants Jane too, and in spite of his impetuousness, his moodiness, his intensity, he wants her on her terms. I liked that very much.

I wonder if Charlotte Bronte wrote herself into the story at all. Do you think she, Emily, Anne and Branwell are supposed to St John and his sisters?

I'm rereading Jane Eyre for The Thing, and I actually can't wait to get my mitts on it again, and see how different it is reading it at 30 from reading it at 19.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Short reviews of the movies I've been far too lazy to review for the past six months or so

One Day
I don't know if it's better to have read the book before seeing this one or not...it has a stunner of a twist, which is less affecting in the movie because you know it's coming, whereas in the book it leaves you gasping for air. So there is that. However, the movie does make it a terribly one-sided story, preferring to focus on this couple's life more from the guy's perspective. And it does work, to a point. Ann Hathaway's accent is SHOCKING, even worse than Leonardo Di Caprio's accent in Blood Diamond. Seriously. Jim Sturgess was a revelation though - he was a fantastic. And hot. Hotness covers a multitude of sins.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I don't see what the point of a movie is that has the main plot point play out over the end credits. So stupid. It had a few good points but mostly it was stupid.

Transformers: Dark side of the moon
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Oh my god, what a line, what a performance. It was so good! I totally called the twist, which I almost never do so I was really chuffed about that. There were a couple of heartstopping moments, but the movie fell down in the worst way around the whole love angle. Seriously, we're asked to believe that Sam will put himself and everybody else in danger for a character we only met half an hour ago and who we don't like at all. All she does is shriek and wear inappropriate dresses. Seriously. Feed her to Starscream and get it over with. If you're going to go for the damsel in distress angle, at least make the audience buy it. Other than that: epic. It was so good.

Horrible Bosses
The difference between this movie, which was ok, and Bridesmaids, which I loved with an insane love, is that Horrible Bosses was clearly written by MEN and Bridesmaids was clearly written by incredibly witty and intelligent WOMEN. Horrible Bosses was ok, but not nearly as laugh out loud awesome as Bridesmaids.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Oh...I was so nervous before seeing Harry Potter. What if they fucked it up? What if they ruined my favourite parts? It could have been awful...but it wasn't. It rocked! Four favourite things. First, Snape. He was incredible - totally owned his death scene, totally rocked the ambiguity of his character. Your heart just broke for him. Second, the Malfoys, who make a sneaky exit over the bridge right before the final showdown. I loved that no matter how evil the Malfoys are, basically it'll all about family for them, and they were going to make it through no matter what. Awesome. Three, the scene where the teachers are casting spells and bringing down the protective net around the school. It was the perfect balance of dramatic and scary, and really let's you get a sense of where they are. This is It. Also awesome. Four, the scene where Harry uses the resurrection stone and walks into the forest with his parents, Sirius and Lupin. I cried when I hit this scene in the book. Harry is so alone, and then his family is there, and what can I say, it was 4am and I was emotional. I don't know what my excuse was at an 8pm movie showing, but I cried anyway. Less than at the end of Toy Story 3 though. Those scenes made the whole thing amazing. But Prisoner of Azkaban remains my favourite of the whole series, books and movies.

Bridesmaids
Oh my god, so funny. As in nearly cracked a rib funny. My friend Laura and I were rocking backwards and forwards in our seats laughing. And it was all because of the writing. The dialogue was so spot on. The relationships between the women were so finely observed and reported, it was excruciating as well as funny. The  grossest jokes told not shown, and that made such a difference, because it made it even funnier to imagine what the hell was going on. And the sweet cop and all his sweetness! So buying this movie on DVD.

Larry Crowne
I loved this movie and I absolutely did not expect to. But it was a movie with an amazing script. The writing was so stunning, it papered over some unbelievable aspects of the plot. But what this movie came down to was timing. It's about people taking risks at the right time, meeting people at the right moment, and using their opportunities wisely. It's about being a catalyst for your own success. It was so good, seriously.

Bad Teacher
I'm still vaguely ashamed that I thought this was so hysterical. I was clearly in that kind of mood. But it was funny - the Justin Timberlake dryhumping scene? It's on my personal list of funniest movie moments ever.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4
So crap. Crapper than crapper. The crappiest crap that ever crapped a crap movie out and then crapped all over it. And there are mermaids.

Green Lantern

Had a lot going for it but tried to fit entirely too much into an hour and a half, and then lost it completely as a result. I was extremely disappointed by it. And by Ryan Reynolds, who I have kind of a soft spot for.

X-Men First Class
Amazing. Incredible. Mind blowing. Emotional. So damn good and awesome, it has obliterated all the crappy X-Men movies that have been released since the first great one from my mind. And the Wolverine cameo made my day. I want to see it again, but I think it gave you the perfect explanation of how they all ended up where they were in the series. Why does Magneto despise humans? Why can't Charles ever let go of Erik? Why in spite of everything do you actually prefer Magneto for his open hatred, and distrust Charles' political manipulations, even if they are for the good. It was fascinating.

And that's it. Well, I have to do the books, but that can wait until tomorrow when I'm trying to work avoid.

Downton Abbey: the drama returns

I have been on tenterhooks ever since I saw the preview for this episode a few weeks ago. You just knew Julian Fellowes was going to send all the characters to hell and back before the final episode, and even the first 15 minutes didn't disappoint. From the minute Matthew's head pops up in no man's land you know we aren't in gentle pre-war England anymore...

I think that was the theme that came through most in this episode - the fact that even if they get through relatively unharmed, if most of their men get home in one piece, nothing will ever be the same again. The rot has set in for big houses and landed gentry, and in a century or so Downton Abbey will be hired out as scenery for movies about upstairs downstairs in the pre-war era. Anyway.

I was most impressed with Mary in this episode. She's grown so much in the past season. Would the Mary we saw in the very first episode of Downton have gotten up early to wish Matthew good luck at the train? Would she have given him a toy dog as a token (sniff!)? Would she have kneeled to pray for his safe return? That scene really got me.

The other person who impressed me was the Dowager Countess - who would have expected the grand old lady to be the one who would support Sybil going off as a Red Cross nurse? Sitting there in the room where they were packing her up, advising about clothes she won't need a main to get in and out of! She's splendid, it's the only word for it. But then in the same breath she's interfering to prevent Molesley and William from going off to war. She has her own sense of right and wrong, and you can't fault her, in a way. Why should anyone be off to war at all?

And that brings me to Thomas. I watched with horror when he took the bullet to the hand to get himself sent home. On the one hand, he's a devious bastard, who joined the medical corps to stay away from the front in the first place. Then on the other hand, who wouldn't want to stay away from the front? He's clearly been there for a while and done his bit. So cowardly or terribly brave?

And then there's Molesley, who was ok with the Dowager Countess keeping him off the draft list, and goes to the doctor to ask him to keep his mouth shut. Cowardly? Or a sense of self-preservation?

I was outraged by those women at the concert going round handing out white feathers - what right do they have to judge who is brave or not. Do you think that really happened?

You'll note I haven't talked about Anna and Bates. I just can't. I'm too distressed.

I'm so excited to see where the season is going....

I love my life

Catherine makes one random comment about DS9 on Facebook and suddenly I'm sitting at home watching Gargoyles on Youtube and laughing at a comment from one viewer saying: "Goliath and Elisa would kill Edward and Bella."

For reals.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Words to live by

"Live slow, die eventually, leave an indifferently attractive corpse."

God, I love David Mitchell.

Plans for the rest of the week

  • Continue packing (sob)
  • Fall over packed boxes (sob)
  • Ignore the fact that I haven't started any reading for The Thing yet (great start!) and try to pack some more
  • Kill the spiders that have been set free by my dislodging their habitat under the bed
  • Resist urge to open the boxes that have packed DVDs in them and focus on packing
  • Run away to Edinburgh for two days in order to avoid packing
  • Seriously consider moving to The Parents' house for two weeks
  • Call the council and ask them if I need a permit to burn my belongings on a bonfire out in the carpark.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

A head under the duvet day

Today I woke up feeling like poo, and I was due to spend an entire day in a course called "Influencing people". Couldn't face it, so I stayed in bed and watched Gilmore Girls and snoozed. And then I had an hour-long phone call with Leigh and some dinner, and now I'm watching The Great British Bake Off and feeling more equipped to deal with tomorrow.

I don't know how much of my headache, snotty nose and sleepiness was psychological, but fuck it: I'm going to take my mental health\physical health day and go with it.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

So a month after I start my new job, because my then uberboss wouldn't get his act together and another department picked up my contract, guess what: my uberboss has suddenly decided he needs me back, and has gotten the grand high poobah to assign me to this new project for two weeks, completely overwriting the concerns of my new boss.

Sorry, that looks like a mess written out, but suffice it to say I am now a mixture of annoyed (because I never wanted to leave my original damned department in the first place and I've been really angry with this guy for not getting his act together to keep me), complimented (because he claims I'm the only who can do it), upset (because I was JUST getting into the swing of things in my new department), guilty (because other people are now going to have to pick up my work, so I'm going to have to go crazy next week and get as much off my desk as possible), and confused (because...what? How can a respected organisation be this fecking disorganised?).
I need a cup of coffee.