the fundamental things apply
I thoroughly enjoyed Casablanca. It's one of those movies one should really watch before experiencing, oh, I dunno, modern culture. It's like watching Shakespeare: all sorts of references, quotes and idioms suddenly fall into place. It's aged very well, without any of that clunkiness one sometimes associates with old movies. And, as Mal points out, it's completely, totally and absolutely a LARP, complete with constrained setting, missing objects, conflicting purposes, romantic tension and hinted-at complex backstories which occasionally rise to the surface without warning, like nuclear submarines.1 It has also utterly ear-wormed me with "As time goes by", causing me to sing it loudly, inaccurately and incessantly, occasionally diving to the piano to produce an even more bastardised rendition interspersed with abusive epithets cast at jazz chords. Bloody jazz chords. I don't have enough jazz background 2 to play them by ear, and it annoys me.
The other highlight of yesterday was the trip out to Mal's smallholding: it made me realise how long it is since I hung out in farmhouse-style homes or drove joyously between potholes on dirt roads. I've live in a city for fifteen years now, and unless reminded, I forget that I grew up in environments perilously close to farm living. I drove back into the city yesterday evening, at sunset, with my car all caked with mud and storm-clouds on the horizon all lit with that evening glow, and was ridiculously happy.
Which is just as well, as today was another dead day. It's a sad state of affairs when random exhaustion makes it difficult to put any energy into teaching either Dracula or Terry Pratchett. On the upside, the dreaded cosplay student turned up for the Dracula tut wearing not only a cloak but plastic vampire teeth, which he was forced to remove half-way through as his contributions to the tut were completely incomprehensible.
1 Other films calculated to groove the ploons of a LARP-designer's heart: Gosford Park. The Cat's Miaouw. That crazy Cluedo one with Tim Curry. I dunno, there must be others. Help me out here!
2 I have no jazz background. Woe!
The other highlight of yesterday was the trip out to Mal's smallholding: it made me realise how long it is since I hung out in farmhouse-style homes or drove joyously between potholes on dirt roads. I've live in a city for fifteen years now, and unless reminded, I forget that I grew up in environments perilously close to farm living. I drove back into the city yesterday evening, at sunset, with my car all caked with mud and storm-clouds on the horizon all lit with that evening glow, and was ridiculously happy.
Which is just as well, as today was another dead day. It's a sad state of affairs when random exhaustion makes it difficult to put any energy into teaching either Dracula or Terry Pratchett. On the upside, the dreaded cosplay student turned up for the Dracula tut wearing not only a cloak but plastic vampire teeth, which he was forced to remove half-way through as his contributions to the tut were completely incomprehensible.
1 Other films calculated to groove the ploons of a LARP-designer's heart: Gosford Park. The Cat's Miaouw. That crazy Cluedo one with Tim Curry. I dunno, there must be others. Help me out here!
2 I have no jazz background. Woe!