I liked that this one was set in modern – almost – England, and that there was no attempt to localize for the American middle school audience, so you get super British vocabulary like “roundabout” for merry-go-round and “bouncy castle” for those blow-up things at carnivals that the kids jump around inside. (Although yesterday I saw an ad for a children’s birthday party magician that used the same term, so maybe that’s just what they’re called.)
However, I don’t know if I can get over SPOILER the middle-aged man (Meril informs me that he’s in his thirties – but he has white hair!) proposing marriage to the recent college graduate who works for him, after previously considering same with his research assistant, thing long enough to give this a fair review. ^^
But I will try! WARNING: Severe spoilers are whited out but some details that do not affect the plot – but do give away character development arcs – are revealed: Continued…
Posted in fantasy.
Tagged with DianaWynneJones.
By subdee
– July 27, 2010
No more book reviews until my Statistics class ends in mid-July, because the only book I should be reading between now and then is my textbook :(
However, here is a movie review:
Children of God is a gay movie currently making the rounds at festivals. According to the director, it’s got a distribution deal, so you might be able to see or rent it at some point.
Overall it is a really, really impressive indie movie. ^^ There’s some problems with the script — scenes where unrelated characters just happen to be in the same places at the same times, for instance. But the movie is really beautifully shot — see trailer — and the characters are fully fleshed out and three-dimensional.
Possible reasons (besides good writing) for spot-on characterization include this movie being an expansion of an earlier short movie — so actors have had time to learn roles, and the director has had the chance to incorporate earlier audience reactions — and trends in gay cinema I am not aware of. ^^ For instance, the movie really nails Johnny’s wariness and twitchy uncomfortableness, but maybe this kind of psychology is just better understood, in general, within the gay filmmaking community than it is within the filmmaking community at large.
Things I particularly liked about this movie: that it is an unabashedly political movie. That there is a palpable sense that gays in the Bahamas have almost nothing, and homophobic crusaders are aiming to take away even that. That Johnny doesn’t trust easily – and he’s right! And that he calls Romeo out on Romeo’s bullshit: “I’ve seen what kind of person you are [with your band], I don’t know why I thought I was different.”
I also really liked the difference between their backgrounds, where Johnny (the shyer and more repressed one) has an actually supportive dad, while Romeo (the shameless – in private – one) comes from a repressive family background. This seems like pretty shrewd psychology to me.
There was a Q and A session after the movie where people asked some actually really good questions. Highlights!
Continued…
Posted in movies in english.
Tagged with ChildrenofGod.
By subdee
– June 25, 2010
The week before last, ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
tarigwaemir was in town and I brought up the possibility of restarting bibliophages on Dreamwidth. She gave her blessing, so I’ll probably start direct-messaging the old members soon, to see what the interest level is like and to collect ideas for the restart. Getting the community to work is mostly a matter of – as the mod – “matching” and then bettering the efforts of the members — kind of like the NY Philharmonic Board of Directors agreeing to match the first $750,000 of raised donations.
The weekend before last, I went up to Montreal for my brother’s graduation & hung out with petronia & met jokersama and calintz. We broke the ice over delicious, delicious food, but the highlight of the trip was probably on the third day when Puu and Sabina traded gossip about musicians while Sakkit and I grew gradually more quiet. XD; I don’t know how Sakkit feels about it, but I was definitely entertained.
R showed me this: Korean madness! In Korea they put popular internet memes on television (the ultimate in low-cost programming!) so that is what is happening here. Actually, this one was popular enough that it was turned into a series: a competition to find the best humorous karaoke by high school girls. I’m not sure whether the original pair won or not. The people looking unamused in the reaction shots are the original artists.
One more youtube find: My Date with Magibon. It’s an obvious joke, but someone had to do it. XD; Would be better without the totally unnecessary freak-out at the end, though.
Posted in real life.
By subdee
– June 7, 2010
Don’t read Tao Lin before bed. Repeat after me! Don’t read Tao Lin before bed. Though you know, (re)reading Ellen’s sections (and stopping when her nice but clueless but nice Mom dies in a plane crash) doesn’t get at your brain in quite the same way that (re)reading Andrew’s sections does. Ellen’s narration is fragmented in its own way but she is trying harder to really capture her experiences using her full vocabulary. Andrew’s thoughts are repetitive and distilled.
I do think that even in Ellen’s sections, you see her attempts to be truthful and clear-sighted occasionally interrupted by kinds of repetitions and themes you find in Andrew’s sections, a kind of premonition of what’s to come. (Or alternately the author was just feeling particularly exhausted and uninspired on those days, but made himself push through, retreating to simple sentences and absurd events until the feeling went away.)
Imaginary book review I am giving to posters on the Jayhawks boards (a step up from the Libertines boards?):
“I do recommend this book, but not if you are the kind of person who after finishing a book immediately goes back to reread it. If you pick up Eeeee Eee Eeee, you should give it a fair chance, and read it from start to finish – engaged or disengaged, doesn’t matter – then set it aside and do something else. Later, when you’re in a restless mood, you can pick it up again and start reading at any point. Short bursts are best, maybe two or three chapters at a time. Reading the entire story at once puts you in a kind of trance state where all thoughts end in absurdity or death. Not only is this depressive mood self-reinforcing, but if you are a writer, anything you write during this time will come out sounding like Tao Lin. Writing like Tao Lin should be left to Tao Lin, if you know what I mean.”
(My fuller, more critical review of the book is here.)
Posted in literature.
Tagged with TaoLin.
By subdee
– June 7, 2010
Thoughts on the last section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma:
It is, as R promised, hilarious. Pollan starts cooking on Tuesday! For dinner on Saturday! And then he worries that his dinner won’t be good enough! (Oh noes! The pie is burnt! That means my dinner is ruined!)
Also, take a look at what Pollan does for this dinner:
1. Learns to shoot a gun so he can hunt wild boar.
2. Gets up at 4:30 in the morning so he can beat other mushroom enthusiasts to a recently cleared (burnt) pine forest.
4. Goes abalone fishing in dangerous and freezing tidal waters wearing an ill-fitting wetsuit.
5. Harvests fava beans – which must be shelled, washed, then shelled again, and then washed again – and lettuces from his garden.
6. Scours his neighborhood for cherries for pie, herbs for seasoning, and yeast (!!) for bread.
7. Comments that gathered meals are not practical and are only for “sometimes,” as a ritual to remind ourselves of where our food comes from.
Maybe if you weren’t making everything from scratch in an elaborate and restaurant-quality meal to serve to professional chefs, it would be more practical, dude!
Another thought is that this kind of gathering is more possible in Berkeley, where there are a lot of these kinds of nut cases running around. (I’m not knocking it, actually it sounded tasty… and fun! =D)
The author hypothesizes that there are four kinds of people: those drawn to the mathematics of building, those drawn to the… something of knitting, those drawn to the “comedy” of gardening, and those drawn to the “emotional drama” of hunting. However, from where I’m sitting, it’s hunting that looks like the comedy. You wait all morning in the bush, a mighty hunter… and then on your way back from the lunch, chatting with a friend, the pigs come over the hill and you don’t even have your gun loaded. Ha, ha!
Posted in *nonfiction.
Tagged with MichaelPollan.
By subdee
– June 7, 2010
