Stuff! And THINGS!
I really have been terrible about posting, haven't I? I think it's because I end up feeling guilty spending a significant amount of time writing anything that isn't course-related, but since I also bear the title of Master Procrastinator I end up writing NOTHING AT ALL. Similarly, I got stuck trying to figure out a different, better style for the illustrations my sister commissioned, and as a result have not drawn anything in months. I am honestly kind of disgusted at myself.
Ah well. Scriptwriting might help break that dam: one of our last assignments is a folio of exercises, no definition or word-limit given, so I'm going to turn those prompts into page-or-less scripts (weirdly easier than prose), and also collaborate with musicforwolves to storyboard and comic-ify parts of his script treatment. Productivity: easier when it's got a deadline!
And it's not like there's nothing going on. Look how much!
I went to a roller derby game! A real one, at the TSB Bank Arena! A whole bunch of us (including Sas, who was down for the weekend) went to Richter City Shakedown: Stop Drop and Roll and cheered ourselves hoarse for Brutal Pageant, the team we arbitrarily picked (in my case, it was because they were playing against last year's champions and their names were the punniest). The best part, I think, was the turnout: half an hour after the game was supposed to start, the announcer sheepishly informed us that, although the stadium already looked full, there were another 800 people outside and the game would start just as soon as they got in. It was enormously gratifying, and getting to watch a great game was just gravy after that.
Our own skating practice has been somewhat curtailed by factors like Sas moving up North and the weather getting so genuinely, nostril-rimingly cold that even in when the weather's been dry for days, the roads still get slick because of condensation. Still, Jenni hauled me out to the cul-de-sac last night and practiced her fancy turns with some convenient traffic cones, while I shuffled arthritically around trying to get my speed and internal body temperature up. However, while she made disgustingly good progress, I had a tumble just as I was getting loose-limbed and confident and stiffened right back up again. Dammit, I can't wait for spring!
~
Also, after weeks on end of NOTHING ON AT THE CINEMA WHAT THE HELL, I went and saw I Love You Phillip Morris at the Embassy (also with Sas, and morbane to boot). I was in the same position as when I went to see Sherlock Holmes, in that I was really eager to see it and also really dreading it. I mean, yay, romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor! But ack, romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. The potential for frantic mugging, cringing awkwardness and awful worthiness all presented themselves to me. But the film got good reviews (although it appears to have had a really limited release), so I hoped for the best. And I pretty much got it, despite moments of that kind of awkward!comedy that I normally loathe (and happily, even those moments are justified by the plot and over quickly).
It's one of Carrey's better performances: Steven Russel is a fantastically unreliable narrator, and one of the film's cleverest aspects is how he tricks and manipulates the viewer almost as often as he does the people around him. That he remains a likeable character throughout is a feat in and of itself. Better still, the movie is just flat-out funny: there is one scene that turns the separation of sight and sound into a hysterical comedy of dissonance, as we're treated to the sight of Russel and Morris slow-dancing in their cell as the guy next door fights a dozen guards in defense of the music he's playing for them: "FUCK YOU, MY WORD IS MY BOND!" Tears, actual tears. Holy crap.
But what was most pleasantly surprising was how much the movie avoided being a Worthy Message About Gayness. There is in fact a bit at the end - believe me, you'll know it when it comes - when you think it's going to actually go there, and you're even willing to forgive it because it's really sad and heart-tugging and the performances are wonderful, and then bam! You're reminded that you're watching a movie about a CON MAN. And it really is, no matter what Phillip Morris' gender, or what got Carrey's character, Steven Russell, into fraud in the first place (hint: "Being gay is really expensive!"). I Love You Phillip Morris is basically a comedy about how much it sucks to be a con man's true love, especially when you're as innocent and trusting as Morris.
~
The state of recent cinema was doubly annoying since there hasn't been much good TV on either - until the last fortnight, when it got awesome again. I was all sad that the recent seasons of Doctor Who and Supernatural and Castle ended, but then a couple of weeks passed and new seasons of other shows started. Yay, new White Collar and True Blood!
But I didn't hear about Sherlock until a few days before it aired. Then someone told me "Modern day Sherlock Holmes! Written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat!" and I spent the intervening days wishing that there were no intervening days. There hasn't been a decent TV version of the books since the Grenada series! (Uh, you may have noticed I'm very fond of Sherlock Holmes.) Anyway, this more than lived up to my expectations. The plot was silly and fun, the cinematography was Top Gear pretty and the updating to modern day was very well done. Martin Freeman was the best part: he's Watson as I always imagined him, both in personality and looks. And I like this version of Lestrade: a decent, longsuffering copper who's humble enough to ask for Holmes' help, but is not exactly powerless against him (the drugs bust was hilarious, and I'd quite like to know what the modern Holmes' history with that is). I like the way Benedict Cumberbatch looks: he's like some awkward cross between Matt Smith and Colin Morgan, just funny-looking enough to be fascinating, with a proper Holmesian lankiness. And Mrs Hudson! And Mycroft! Eee, I adored them. Anyway, the next one's meant to be based on The Dancing Men, which I was always fond of. Damn, I hope they make more episodes. I could really do with this being a proper series.
~
Anyway, since it is cold, cold, cold as balls here right now, I figured I should finish with a recipe Heba gave me a few days ago. It helps to have a double-boiler, but a glass bowl and a saucepan will do, and you could probably also do it in the microwave. This will make 4-6 mugs of insanely rich, chocolately chocolate.
75g dark chocolate
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup milk
Hot water to top up
Heat some water in the pan to simmering (you don't want it much hotter than that), and rest the bowl/other pan on top. Break the chocolate into squares and melt them gently in the bowl, then add the condensed milk and stir until it's all warm and melted together. Add the milk a dash at a time, stirring gently (you want it hot, but not bubbling). Top it up with boiling water until you can stand the sweetness, and that is the best hot chocolate I have ever had.
~
Anyway, tomorrow I'm getting up early so I can see Inception tomorrow morning. Ack, everything worth watching is suddenly on at once - I need to see Toy Story 3 as well, and The Girl Who Played With Fire, and I kind of want to see The Karate Kid too (don't judge me, I like Jackie Chan). Mmm, tomorrow is gonna be good.
Ah well. Scriptwriting might help break that dam: one of our last assignments is a folio of exercises, no definition or word-limit given, so I'm going to turn those prompts into page-or-less scripts (weirdly easier than prose), and also collaborate with musicforwolves to storyboard and comic-ify parts of his script treatment. Productivity: easier when it's got a deadline!
And it's not like there's nothing going on. Look how much!
I went to a roller derby game! A real one, at the TSB Bank Arena! A whole bunch of us (including Sas, who was down for the weekend) went to Richter City Shakedown: Stop Drop and Roll and cheered ourselves hoarse for Brutal Pageant, the team we arbitrarily picked (in my case, it was because they were playing against last year's champions and their names were the punniest). The best part, I think, was the turnout: half an hour after the game was supposed to start, the announcer sheepishly informed us that, although the stadium already looked full, there were another 800 people outside and the game would start just as soon as they got in. It was enormously gratifying, and getting to watch a great game was just gravy after that.
Our own skating practice has been somewhat curtailed by factors like Sas moving up North and the weather getting so genuinely, nostril-rimingly cold that even in when the weather's been dry for days, the roads still get slick because of condensation. Still, Jenni hauled me out to the cul-de-sac last night and practiced her fancy turns with some convenient traffic cones, while I shuffled arthritically around trying to get my speed and internal body temperature up. However, while she made disgustingly good progress, I had a tumble just as I was getting loose-limbed and confident and stiffened right back up again. Dammit, I can't wait for spring!
~
Also, after weeks on end of NOTHING ON AT THE CINEMA WHAT THE HELL, I went and saw I Love You Phillip Morris at the Embassy (also with Sas, and morbane to boot). I was in the same position as when I went to see Sherlock Holmes, in that I was really eager to see it and also really dreading it. I mean, yay, romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor! But ack, romantic comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. The potential for frantic mugging, cringing awkwardness and awful worthiness all presented themselves to me. But the film got good reviews (although it appears to have had a really limited release), so I hoped for the best. And I pretty much got it, despite moments of that kind of awkward!comedy that I normally loathe (and happily, even those moments are justified by the plot and over quickly).
It's one of Carrey's better performances: Steven Russel is a fantastically unreliable narrator, and one of the film's cleverest aspects is how he tricks and manipulates the viewer almost as often as he does the people around him. That he remains a likeable character throughout is a feat in and of itself. Better still, the movie is just flat-out funny: there is one scene that turns the separation of sight and sound into a hysterical comedy of dissonance, as we're treated to the sight of Russel and Morris slow-dancing in their cell as the guy next door fights a dozen guards in defense of the music he's playing for them: "FUCK YOU, MY WORD IS MY BOND!" Tears, actual tears. Holy crap.
But what was most pleasantly surprising was how much the movie avoided being a Worthy Message About Gayness. There is in fact a bit at the end - believe me, you'll know it when it comes - when you think it's going to actually go there, and you're even willing to forgive it because it's really sad and heart-tugging and the performances are wonderful, and then bam! You're reminded that you're watching a movie about a CON MAN. And it really is, no matter what Phillip Morris' gender, or what got Carrey's character, Steven Russell, into fraud in the first place (hint: "Being gay is really expensive!"). I Love You Phillip Morris is basically a comedy about how much it sucks to be a con man's true love, especially when you're as innocent and trusting as Morris.
~
The state of recent cinema was doubly annoying since there hasn't been much good TV on either - until the last fortnight, when it got awesome again. I was all sad that the recent seasons of Doctor Who and Supernatural and Castle ended, but then a couple of weeks passed and new seasons of other shows started. Yay, new White Collar and True Blood!
But I didn't hear about Sherlock until a few days before it aired. Then someone told me "Modern day Sherlock Holmes! Written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat!" and I spent the intervening days wishing that there were no intervening days. There hasn't been a decent TV version of the books since the Grenada series! (Uh, you may have noticed I'm very fond of Sherlock Holmes.) Anyway, this more than lived up to my expectations. The plot was silly and fun, the cinematography was Top Gear pretty and the updating to modern day was very well done. Martin Freeman was the best part: he's Watson as I always imagined him, both in personality and looks. And I like this version of Lestrade: a decent, longsuffering copper who's humble enough to ask for Holmes' help, but is not exactly powerless against him (the drugs bust was hilarious, and I'd quite like to know what the modern Holmes' history with that is). I like the way Benedict Cumberbatch looks: he's like some awkward cross between Matt Smith and Colin Morgan, just funny-looking enough to be fascinating, with a proper Holmesian lankiness. And Mrs Hudson! And Mycroft! Eee, I adored them. Anyway, the next one's meant to be based on The Dancing Men, which I was always fond of. Damn, I hope they make more episodes. I could really do with this being a proper series.
~
Anyway, since it is cold, cold, cold as balls here right now, I figured I should finish with a recipe Heba gave me a few days ago. It helps to have a double-boiler, but a glass bowl and a saucepan will do, and you could probably also do it in the microwave. This will make 4-6 mugs of insanely rich, chocolately chocolate.
75g dark chocolate
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup milk
Hot water to top up
Heat some water in the pan to simmering (you don't want it much hotter than that), and rest the bowl/other pan on top. Break the chocolate into squares and melt them gently in the bowl, then add the condensed milk and stir until it's all warm and melted together. Add the milk a dash at a time, stirring gently (you want it hot, but not bubbling). Top it up with boiling water until you can stand the sweetness, and that is the best hot chocolate I have ever had.
~
Anyway, tomorrow I'm getting up early so I can see Inception tomorrow morning. Ack, everything worth watching is suddenly on at once - I need to see Toy Story 3 as well, and The Girl Who Played With Fire, and I kind of want to see The Karate Kid too (don't judge me, I like Jackie Chan). Mmm, tomorrow is gonna be good.