Love at First Sight
I can't believe it took until 1989 for Babs to use this title.
Last night I made a second and successful attempt at seeing Into the Woods. It was okay. I saw it on stage a few years ago, and I remember it as being one half where the characters get their happy-ever-after ending and the other half where those endings all fall apart. The film spends too long on the front half, and rushes through the back so fast it doesn't have time to wrap up all the stories. And it tiptoes around the darker metaphors in the play, like the Big Bad Wolf being a sexual predator rather than a real wolf. But I suppose the version I saw on stage had a slightly older actress playing Red Riding Hood, while the film, with Wolf Johnny Depp singing to an actual 12-year-old Red Riding Hood, has to leave it open to interpretation.
Basically, eh, it was an evening out.
January book read
Well, book and a half, but the other half fell in February. This feels meagre, but I was studying for all of January. My next subject doesn't start until the end of February, so I am aiming for four books this month.
* The Golden Day - Ursula Dubosarsky (2011)
I love Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock, which is about a group of schoolgirls who go missing on Valentine's Day, 1900, while having a... picnic at Hanging Rock. The Golden Day was promoted as a sort of modern take on that, and it it turns out it both is and isn't. It's set in Sydney in 1968, the girls are much younger (only 11), and it's one teacher who goes missing. It's written for a much younger audience, too. A worthwhile read, even if not quite what I was expecting. Still, if you are taking book recommendations from these summaries, I'd suggest reading Hanging Rock instead. It's really good. (Or watch the very long trailer for the 1975 film version instead, which pretty much tells you the whole story.)
Day 1 - Ten random facts about yourself
Day 2 - Nine things you do everyday
Day 3 - Eight things that annoy you
Day 4 - Seven fears/phobias
Day 5 - Six songs that you’re addicted to
Day 6 - Five things you can’t live without
Day 7 - Four memories you won’t forget
Day 8 - Three words you can’t go a day without
Day 9 - Two things you wish you could do
Day 10 - One person you can trust
1. The new parcel delivery man, who just leaves things on the doorstep without even ringing.
2. Busy supermarkets that have twenty-one checkouts but only two open.
3. When you are nearing the end of a product (e.g. paper towels), and you take what you need and there is a tiny bit left that is too much to use now, but not enough to make up a whole serve next time. I suppose that's why sometimes you go to the loo and find a single square of toilet paper artfully draped over the tube.
4. People who come in halfway through a film or TV show and ask what's happening. 'Well, that man with the green shirt, he was let out of prison and he's trying to catch up with the guys who put him there, and that woman he's talking to was married to one of them, but she's also having an affair with this other man who seems to be in the secret service, and there's another man who looks like the man in the green shirt, that's his brother and they're not talking since their mother died, and they're all looking for this key that will open a bank vault, but they don't know the bank vault is empty, and that's a whole other story about these nuns who have the other key, and one of them is the sister or friend or something of the woman, and, oh, the ad break is over, shhh. Oh, and there's a volcano that's going to erupt. Shhh.'
5. When the ring pull on the cat food tin comes off and I have to get the can opener out anyway.
6. On a related note, 'easy peel' packets that are no such thing.
7. Sporting victories being described as 'back to back'. The word you're after is 'consecutive', sports reporter.
8. The man in the house behind mine who likes to rev his motorcycle for hours on end. Well... probably minutes. But it feels like hours.
Last night I made a second and successful attempt at seeing Into the Woods. It was okay. I saw it on stage a few years ago, and I remember it as being one half where the characters get their happy-ever-after ending and the other half where those endings all fall apart. The film spends too long on the front half, and rushes through the back so fast it doesn't have time to wrap up all the stories. And it tiptoes around the darker metaphors in the play, like the Big Bad Wolf being a sexual predator rather than a real wolf. But I suppose the version I saw on stage had a slightly older actress playing Red Riding Hood, while the film, with Wolf Johnny Depp singing to an actual 12-year-old Red Riding Hood, has to leave it open to interpretation.
Basically, eh, it was an evening out.
January book read
Well, book and a half, but the other half fell in February. This feels meagre, but I was studying for all of January. My next subject doesn't start until the end of February, so I am aiming for four books this month.
* The Golden Day - Ursula Dubosarsky (2011)
I love Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock, which is about a group of schoolgirls who go missing on Valentine's Day, 1900, while having a... picnic at Hanging Rock. The Golden Day was promoted as a sort of modern take on that, and it it turns out it both is and isn't. It's set in Sydney in 1968, the girls are much younger (only 11), and it's one teacher who goes missing. It's written for a much younger audience, too. A worthwhile read, even if not quite what I was expecting. Still, if you are taking book recommendations from these summaries, I'd suggest reading Hanging Rock instead. It's really good. (Or watch the very long trailer for the 1975 film version instead, which pretty much tells you the whole story.)
Day 1 - Ten random facts about yourself
Day 2 - Nine things you do everyday
Day 3 - Eight things that annoy you
Day 4 - Seven fears/phobias
Day 5 - Six songs that you’re addicted to
Day 6 - Five things you can’t live without
Day 7 - Four memories you won’t forget
Day 8 - Three words you can’t go a day without
Day 9 - Two things you wish you could do
Day 10 - One person you can trust
1. The new parcel delivery man, who just leaves things on the doorstep without even ringing.
2. Busy supermarkets that have twenty-one checkouts but only two open.
3. When you are nearing the end of a product (e.g. paper towels), and you take what you need and there is a tiny bit left that is too much to use now, but not enough to make up a whole serve next time. I suppose that's why sometimes you go to the loo and find a single square of toilet paper artfully draped over the tube.
4. People who come in halfway through a film or TV show and ask what's happening. 'Well, that man with the green shirt, he was let out of prison and he's trying to catch up with the guys who put him there, and that woman he's talking to was married to one of them, but she's also having an affair with this other man who seems to be in the secret service, and there's another man who looks like the man in the green shirt, that's his brother and they're not talking since their mother died, and they're all looking for this key that will open a bank vault, but they don't know the bank vault is empty, and that's a whole other story about these nuns who have the other key, and one of them is the sister or friend or something of the woman, and, oh, the ad break is over, shhh. Oh, and there's a volcano that's going to erupt. Shhh.'
5. When the ring pull on the cat food tin comes off and I have to get the can opener out anyway.
6. On a related note, 'easy peel' packets that are no such thing.
7. Sporting victories being described as 'back to back'. The word you're after is 'consecutive', sports reporter.
8. The man in the house behind mine who likes to rev his motorcycle for hours on end. Well... probably minutes. But it feels like hours.