Masons and Swedish thrillers
Having finished "The Girl who Played with Fire" during the week, it was only a matter of time before we went to see the film version, and yesterday was the day.
It was also the day of the first "Brisbane Open House", which I believe will become an annual thing. Essentially, a number of Brisbane landmarks were open to the public for free "behind the scenes" sort of tours. Quite an impressive concept, but understandably one with some teething problems the first time it happened.
We decided to go to the Masonic Memorial Temple, since the chances of getting inside a Masonic Temple without being a Mason are quite slim - indeed, since there are no female Masons Krista's chances are even lower than that. The website had promised tours every half hour, and for the Temple to be open 9-1. In the event, there were no "tours" per se, but everyone wandered around and asked the Masons on duty various interesting questions about what everything meant. I suspect the organisers had no idea how popular the Temple would be. What was perhaps more concerning, though, was that when we came out of the building at about 12:15, they were turning people away for reasons that didn't make sense.
From there, we went to Customs House. The operation here involved 15-minute tours for groups of 20, which seemed more regulated than the Temple, but turned into a bit of a shambles. Our tour began in the Long Room and our guide took us down to the remnants of the art gallery (UQ used to have one at Customs House, but that's been moved to St Lucia), where she promptly disappeared. We stooged around in the gallery for a bit and ended up joining a much larger group than just 20 in another tour that showed us more of the building. A fair bit of the building was offlimits, though, as there was a private lunch function on upstairs and the Long Room itself would host a wedding reception that day as well. This also points to a problem with the execution, in that the buildings that were still operational on a Saturday were of course going to be operational, and those of us playing tourist had to work around that, which did cause a sense of being rushed.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the Masonic Temple in particular. Being a historian, it was fascinating to finally be able to understand at least something about this secret society which so many prominent figures around the world have been members of. I'm sure there's at least as much that the Masons weren't going to tell us - even if we had known the right questions to ask - but what information I did pick up (and I even bought a book on the subject) was very interesting indeed.
And so to the film, which we reached at Portside after CityCatting our way through some foul weather.
I had high hopes for this one, since I knew what people like Mikael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace were capable of after the first part of the trilogy, and I wasn't disappointed. There were some scenes I wouldn't have minded seeing filmed even though they would have been difficult and not necessarily advanced the plot (the way Salander acquires her apartment is hilarious, for example), but it was a truly stunning experience once again. The "Millennium Trilogy" really has to stand as one of the most striking accomplishments of the present decade, both in written and filmed form, and I genuinely can't wait to read the final part and then see the film thereof.
Moreover, if I'd thought that Hollywood would have trouble filming "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", the gauntlet has really been thrown down now. I don't see the American films being able to hold a candle to their Swedish originals.
It was also the day of the first "Brisbane Open House", which I believe will become an annual thing. Essentially, a number of Brisbane landmarks were open to the public for free "behind the scenes" sort of tours. Quite an impressive concept, but understandably one with some teething problems the first time it happened.
We decided to go to the Masonic Memorial Temple, since the chances of getting inside a Masonic Temple without being a Mason are quite slim - indeed, since there are no female Masons Krista's chances are even lower than that. The website had promised tours every half hour, and for the Temple to be open 9-1. In the event, there were no "tours" per se, but everyone wandered around and asked the Masons on duty various interesting questions about what everything meant. I suspect the organisers had no idea how popular the Temple would be. What was perhaps more concerning, though, was that when we came out of the building at about 12:15, they were turning people away for reasons that didn't make sense.
From there, we went to Customs House. The operation here involved 15-minute tours for groups of 20, which seemed more regulated than the Temple, but turned into a bit of a shambles. Our tour began in the Long Room and our guide took us down to the remnants of the art gallery (UQ used to have one at Customs House, but that's been moved to St Lucia), where she promptly disappeared. We stooged around in the gallery for a bit and ended up joining a much larger group than just 20 in another tour that showed us more of the building. A fair bit of the building was offlimits, though, as there was a private lunch function on upstairs and the Long Room itself would host a wedding reception that day as well. This also points to a problem with the execution, in that the buildings that were still operational on a Saturday were of course going to be operational, and those of us playing tourist had to work around that, which did cause a sense of being rushed.
Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the Masonic Temple in particular. Being a historian, it was fascinating to finally be able to understand at least something about this secret society which so many prominent figures around the world have been members of. I'm sure there's at least as much that the Masons weren't going to tell us - even if we had known the right questions to ask - but what information I did pick up (and I even bought a book on the subject) was very interesting indeed.
And so to the film, which we reached at Portside after CityCatting our way through some foul weather.
I had high hopes for this one, since I knew what people like Mikael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace were capable of after the first part of the trilogy, and I wasn't disappointed. There were some scenes I wouldn't have minded seeing filmed even though they would have been difficult and not necessarily advanced the plot (the way Salander acquires her apartment is hilarious, for example), but it was a truly stunning experience once again. The "Millennium Trilogy" really has to stand as one of the most striking accomplishments of the present decade, both in written and filmed form, and I genuinely can't wait to read the final part and then see the film thereof.
Moreover, if I'd thought that Hollywood would have trouble filming "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", the gauntlet has really been thrown down now. I don't see the American films being able to hold a candle to their Swedish originals.