Saturday, December 13, 2008

Two days of steady rain and, oh bloody hell, there's a leak in the ceiling almost directly above my monitor. [scowl] The drips are falling just to the side...
Right, shifted the monitor over another few inches but I don't like the way the wet patch is spreading along the fault in the plaster as I watch. I hate having to contact the estate agent. I always get defensive, I always feel as if whatever's gone wrong is going to be viewed as my fault...

~=o>


On a cheerier note:
And so it came to pass that five of my subjects this year were graded, and lo, I did receive Distinctions in all. (Cue chorus: 'I am so smrt' etc.)
Admittedly one of those DI's just squeaked in - half a mark less and it would've been a Credit. (That was for Cataloguing. Given the results of the first 2 tests I worked out I'd have to do very well indeed on the last one to average a Distinction. I checked and I had done very well indeed. : )

~=o>


Trotted off to the cinema with a few of my classmates to see Baz Luhrman's Australia. It's not had good reviews but I really enjoyed it. 'Grand scale' and 'Sweeping epic' are not unjustified I feel.
It was very long and there were a couple of points where it could've ended and still been a good movie, but going through to the ending it had gave it a real depth. The movie's been described as 'superficial' but I think it's only superficially superficial. True, it's a simple story, told a hundred times before but at heart it's a fairytale. Not the twee, genuinely superficial pap that's served up under that heading nowadays but a Brothers Grimm type of fairytale. There's villains and heroes - archetypes, not stereotypes - myth and magic, revenge and justice. (There's this sort of fairytale element in all of our Baz's films. I love the way he creates that slightly twisted, slightly surreal sense of 'real' life. Marvellous. : )
Amidst all the horror, drama and romance 'Australia' was also genuinely funny, the humour reflecting a peculiarly Australian viewpoint. There's a deal of funny in there that other nationalities probably won't get. But that's okay, this is a film about and for us. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.