sundries

[rm]

- About to go into work at the new office. Have to do a bunch of freelance pieces today too.

- Must also design and order the holiday cards by the end of the weekend.

- We're working on the next piece of IHNIIHBT and this is the chunck where most of what we've been doing fits itself together. We're more or less just started it, but it is SO COOL. This is not me praising us, this is me praising the internal force of stories to do what needs doing.

- I am thinking of going to the movies tonight, because I'd like to see something that won't leave me sad for my very relationship with film. So it can be a sad movie -- it just can't suck. Although I think the most likely choices are the new Bond flick or Milk (but maybe Patty wants to come with) or that gay Midsummer Night's Dream (but gaaaaah, I loathe the Angelika with all my heart because you can feel the subway under it). Just something. Despite the long review, I've been sitting quietly with my feelings about Australia because I still don't know how to express them.

- I've been listening over and over to that school choir version of Flame Trees and it makes me so desperately melancholy for Australia. This will probably mean nothing to any non-Aussie reading this, except coyotegoth who is the only person I know who also saw Little Fish, which hey, you should all see!

- Patty comes home tomorrow!

- Busy week upcoming with a reading by ellen_kushner and deliasherman on Tuesday, a Michael Aranella and His Dreamland Orchestra appearance on Thursday that I hope we can wedge into the schedule, and then on Friday, our departure for CT and a historical ball that may or may not approve of my gender and presentation. Which reminds me -- I need to get some black trousers like NOW, bring some stuff to the dry-cleaner and seriously check on the ball gown delivery date situation.

- I have _got_ to get my Ohio tickets today. Speaking of which, we will need a person to look in on the cats during that period (26 Dec - 1 Jan). Let me know if you are interested. $$ involved, of course.

- My parents were sort of insane and alarmist over the economy during Thanksgiving, but I suppose the last couple of years of health dramas (me, then my mom, then my dad) has left them living in a seige mode.

- While I am not actively avoiding TW, season 3 spoilers (and have sought many out), I am actively avoiding TW, season 3 discussion. Because the level of fan anxiety stresses me out. That said, we did get a very happy making spoiler from an official source today, which means GDL wasn't just saying shit to make the fans happy.

- Gallifrey One is going to be so funny. marchek and I started singing "I Know Him So Well" at the bar last night because we were too lazy to go to karaoke. Also, there was much discussion about how pained and funny we're all going to be wandering around with coffee (hey, airspaniel did you ever put those mugs up?) and donuts and sunglasses for the early morning panels.

Comments

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

i feel compelled to see australia for similar reasons that i felt compelled to see twilight. mandy walker, who lensed australia, is the first woman to be seriously considered as a contender for the best cinematography oscar, and i want to vote for her with my dollars. this is in spite of the fact that i have some serious issues with some aspect of the production. (in this case, i find luhrmann kind of irritating, and know i will want to punch babies after seeing it.)

anyway: hi!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hi! I don't know if this movie is more or less irritating to peopel who don't like Luhrmann. I didn't feel bereft of his normal style watching it -- just cogency. That said, this film is much calmer than his other films and does rely on more conventional storytelling -- it's just done badly. So it will probably irritate you, but probably in a very different way than it irritated me. The cinematography is great looking, but I felt the landscapes actually weren't done justice to at all. The smaller shots though are spectacular, and the big shots probably work better for people who don't know the landscape.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. With the exception of Topsy Turvy, which hits all my Victorianist and G&S hot buttons, I watch Luhrmann mostly for the mise-en-scène.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Why does everyone always think Topsy-Turvy was Luhrmann? It wasn't (and I love it too -- smart, smart film). Maybe it's the Jim Broadbent being ridiculous factor?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

[headdesk] I think it's the sumptuous visuals. And Broadbent.

I kept gleeing: "Look, that's Aesthetic dress!" "Look at how she leans on the piano to listen!"

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

That would be my thought- one rarely thinks "absurd over-the-top musical comedy performance" together with "Mike Leigh."

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

it's weird, because i generally like that kind of overexuberance -- a lot of the filmmakers who influenced luhrmann are some of my faves (the archers come immediately to mind, as well as some bollywood directors), and a few directors i love have a similar overstuffed aesthetic. and i've read interviews with him and i like aspects of his work, but there's this...overstuffed self-indulgent quality to a lot of his stuff that rubs me the wrong way for reasons i can't quite explain. with someone like guy maddin -- whose work has a similar over-the-top sensibility -- you get the feeling that everything that's in there is there for a reason, and he gives you moments to come up for air. when i watch romeo + juliet or mouin rouge!, i feel as though i'm being force-fed. (simply ballroom is a lot of fun, though, and i liked watching his la boheme on TV. why i've never cottoned to his major, trademark films is something i don't understand. they have an audience, just one that doesn't include me.)

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You may not know me well enough to trust my opinion, but the Bond film is fun. (There's an M moment that makes me go awwwwww.) However, the fight/chase editing continues to be incoherent: there's no clear through-line so it's unclear what progress is being made. My husband commented that in one chase, both Bond *and* the villains have the same dark suits and short haircuts, so it's very hard to tell what's going on. I checked with my (18 and 16) kids to make sure it isn't just my pre-MTV filmic sensibilities, but they said it wasn't clear to them, either.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

some yahoo commenting on cinematical described the editing as "amazing".

i wanted to slap them.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The Bond film is so awesome. He's so angry! See it for the opening car chase alone.

[afterthree.livejournal.com]

Which site did you find the Torchwood spoilers on today? I must have missed them somewhere.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on LJ. It's basically just a paragraph from the new TW magazine about series three and Jack/Ianto.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh that's right! I suck.

I was trying to remember who I saw it with! ha! Well they have that damn single on iTunes now.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

I liked WERE THERE WORLD MINE and I'd like to hear what you thought of it.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Email me your new office address and I will send you a coat!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Not sure we can accept packages with our names on them yet (we rent from an office suite company). Let me investigate.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Word. Clearly the coat is not going anywhere.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Have emailed you about a possible cat-sitting and other deal....

[rm.livejournal.com]

email sent

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Which GDL spoiler is this? *curious/out of the loop*

[rm.livejournal.com]

The thing about how he keeps saying that there's relationship evelopment for Jack and Ianto? Confirmed in TW magazine by producers/writers, referring to it as a "romance"

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Well, they promised us a fair bit more with S2 than we got. I'm not holding my breath.

I will, however, make some time to check out the mag. I've got #10 on top of a filing cabinet waiting for me to have half an hour that I'm not already elbow deep in other stuff.

But hey, I made gloves! And soup!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Gloves and soup sound like a disturbing combination -- as if you need gloves to handle the soup.

Hey, one day I'll catch up on email to you, although it is unlikely to be this week, as we have something every night and then go away for the weekend to upset old ladies with queerness.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Well, I knitted a pair of wool gloves in the same weekend as making lamb stew, so it's sort of disturbing in the same way as eating eggs with chicken. Which, incidentally, I also did this weekend. And ate a cheeseburger.

Good god, I'm a monster.

I'll dig into the archives. I have a weird suspicion I may be the one owing e-mail at the moment. No rush, though. This is Patty-before-absence time for you. Find me when you find me, you know?

I like your theory re: S3, but one of the things Torchwood has instilled in me as a fan (both with canon and with fiction) is a deep-seated fear that when I look up, it's all shoes and swords suspended on hair, just itching to drop.

Sometime between now and air, you'll start seeing/hearing me repeat the magic words "I'm reserving judgment until it airs." That's when you know the worry center of my brain with regard to Torchwood has buried the needle and gone into emergency hibernation. Heh.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also, I think our odds are good for some relationship development -- there are fewer cast members, we've seen them shoot tons of stuff that's just Jack and Ianto, and the icreasing suspicion is that the alien threat in this one is the "most horrible creatures you can imagine" that Jack is always referring to from his past.

So do I think they'll get a quiet moment? Probably not. But is something going to be made clear in the midst of chaos, probably.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

Slumdog Millionaire doesn't suck at all. Actually, it is quite wonderful. I was torn between seeing Australia and Transporter-3 and ended up in Slumdog and I had a wonderful time.