Irrumirecycling
The Tortoise and the Hair
A few days ago, I was pulling on my boxers when I noticed a light hair wavering on my hip. Figuring it to be a loose hair that had settled there, I brushed it away. It didn’t move. I tugged on it, and realized that it was attached to me. This is odd because (a) the hair was over two inches long, and (b) it was perfectly straight, and jutted out from my hip like it was pointing at someone.
I’m sure you’ve all had hairs like these. Hairs that grow to unnatural lengths, hairs that break free from the expectations of all the other hairs and reach for the stars. It always seems like these hairs grow overnight, because surely we’d notice a two-inch hair sticking out from our hip? Right? But this guy got past my radar.
Of course, I plucked the hair and placed it in my display case of rogue hairs. I’ll show it to you at Festivus.
Otherworldly
Above the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and even Harry Potter, I’m of the opinion that the His Dark Materials trilogy is the best young adult fantasy series ever (yes, I purposely didn’t include the Dark Tower series, The Earthsea Cycle, or The Wrinkle in Time books in that shortlist…still very good, though). If you’re not familiar with His Dark Materials, you may have heard of The Golden Compass, the film version of which will be released next Friday. However, there were preview screenings across the country the past Saturday.
There’s nothing I like more than a preview screening.
So Caroline and I went to see the movie. I have to say, it was great. Not a perfect movie, but it pulls off the difficult task of whisking you away into another universe for 2 hours. The acting is serviceable, as is the direction, and the CGI is mostly fantastic. The fight scenes and battles are particularly beautiful, and the computer-generated polar bears have a real weight to them, a characteristic missing in other movies. Also, I really love that the main character is smart enough to figure her way out of troublesome situations; only 2 deus ex machina were needed to save her (opposed to the 12,765 that pulled Harry Potter from certain doom). I’m crossing my fingers that the film makes enough money to spurn two sequels; if not, I’ll always have the books.
Next week: I discover a two-foot long pubic hair growing out of my forehead.