Last week was a really stressful one, so it was fantastic that some friends visited on Sunday evening and we ate scones and laughed ourselves silly. The first thing was remembering the day Rebecca came home and kicked her shoe off, only to have it break the window and bounce back into the flat (we're on the first floor, which meant she would have had to run downstairs to fetch it!).
But then we got onto another topic - Richard bought a cat skin a long time ago and he always wanted to use it to freak someone out, pretending he had flattened the cat in the car! I don't think he got the opportunity. Rich somehow got onto the topic of cats being run over, talking about how the cat would have to run to the freeway and wait for an 18 wheeler - it took me a while to catch on that he was referring to the nine lives!! We were in hysterics... ok, maybe you had to be there...
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
My newest favourite Russian Author!
There's something about Russian authors that I really love, the latest is Sergei Lukyanenko. The book I'm reading is The Night Watch and I seem to remember a movie being made about this - and if I'm remembering the right movie, it was made by a Russian/Polish director producer.
It's a fantasy novel about vampires and like all my favourite Russian writers is beautifully crafted writing with pangs of melancholy and fatalism. But the weird thing is how history and politics influences even fantasy writing - it is such an interesting read. The day watch are the bad guys and the night watch are the good guys but they never fight - they merely keep watch over each other. When the night watch does something good, it automatically entitles the day watch to do something bad to keep the balance. (Ok, that's an embarrassingly simplistic paraphrasing...) The interesting part is how these night watch people act as a type of "security police" and when they come across vampires, they have to show their implanted tag which glows a luminous blue and this automatically relays any offenses or violations of their treaties and laws. It's amazing how that part of Russian history and social "programming" has such and ingrained effect that it even crops up in fantasy. It's as though that's the only way of life they know - being policed constantly. The story itself grapples with all the usual moral and ethical dilema's of trying to control and police people - especially people who haven't committed any crimes, but who harbour the potential for crimes. I'm onto Story Two, but if I hit any "oh no, why did the writer feel the necessity to shove that in??" parts, I'll be sure to make another blog entry and let everyone know as soon as I've shut the book.
I once read an Anne Rice book and it started out so brilliantly - the synopsis on the cover sounded so revitting - recalling my rusty knowledge of Egyptian and Mesopotamian art & architectural history. But the story turned out to be a complete disappointment. Not only did it feel like she was dragging the story out to fill a page number quota that her publisher had insisted on, but it became evident that her publisher had also insisted on a little M&B scene just for the masses.
It's a fantasy novel about vampires and like all my favourite Russian writers is beautifully crafted writing with pangs of melancholy and fatalism. But the weird thing is how history and politics influences even fantasy writing - it is such an interesting read. The day watch are the bad guys and the night watch are the good guys but they never fight - they merely keep watch over each other. When the night watch does something good, it automatically entitles the day watch to do something bad to keep the balance. (Ok, that's an embarrassingly simplistic paraphrasing...) The interesting part is how these night watch people act as a type of "security police" and when they come across vampires, they have to show their implanted tag which glows a luminous blue and this automatically relays any offenses or violations of their treaties and laws. It's amazing how that part of Russian history and social "programming" has such and ingrained effect that it even crops up in fantasy. It's as though that's the only way of life they know - being policed constantly. The story itself grapples with all the usual moral and ethical dilema's of trying to control and police people - especially people who haven't committed any crimes, but who harbour the potential for crimes. I'm onto Story Two, but if I hit any "oh no, why did the writer feel the necessity to shove that in??" parts, I'll be sure to make another blog entry and let everyone know as soon as I've shut the book.
I once read an Anne Rice book and it started out so brilliantly - the synopsis on the cover sounded so revitting - recalling my rusty knowledge of Egyptian and Mesopotamian art & architectural history. But the story turned out to be a complete disappointment. Not only did it feel like she was dragging the story out to fill a page number quota that her publisher had insisted on, but it became evident that her publisher had also insisted on a little M&B scene just for the masses.
Monday, June 15, 2009
What an Amazing Weekend
I had the most brilliant weekend. On Saturday I sat and read with Rachel on my lap - well, sometimes on my lap, other times climbing all over me like a monkey on a jungle jim! Or is that gym?? I finished two books inbetween Rachel's climbing. Anyway, today was pretty laid back too - since there's a public holiday tomorrow, I took today off and we ended up going to the chapel and letting the kids play sport in the hall while I sat and worked on a painting and Rich did some work and met up with the elders quorum president.
I've been writing for the last few hours - working on Salt Water and listening to a stream of CD's that have gathered dust for a while. I'm listening to my favourite song by Midnight Oil right now: Now or Never Land. I love that song it's got a pacific island feel to it. I hope nobody was imagining I might be considering beds are burning... Blech! If it wasn't for Earth and Sun and Moon, I would probably abhor Midnight Oil. It's amazing how music affects what you're righting! I was listening to a BYU Men's choir and when I went back to read what I wrote, I doubled over in fits of laughter! It was like reading something from the Baroque era. (Baroque: a style of art - if memory serves me from around the 17th-18thC - very grandiose and overdone) But it worked in the story and while this flow of writing might stop as suddenly as it started, I am finding the story exciting to write at the moment.
I don't actually see myself as a writer - I just have these stories that keep seeping out and I really just want to get them on paper. Even if they're never published, I want to have them written down - from start to finish.
I have a good idea of the outline, but as I write, things keep happening - unexpected things that surprise me and that amazes me about writing. In art you plan something, draw it out and more often than not, it's pretty much what one expects - there aren't any surprises. Unless of course the kids knock over a bottle of dirty water or the cat runs through paint and then leaves mucky coloured paw prints all the way across your very expensive paper! I love how the characters suddenly do something that you don't really expect them to do and the writing becomes like a living organism existing on its own with the most amazing magical feel to it. It's wonderful.
I don't know if it's just me, but I'm finding increasingly that I can predict stories and what will happen. I'm not sure if this is a result of reading a lot, or being older! It's like you don't have to read the rest of the story - and for me that's an OCD thing! Mind you, there are still one or two that have surprised me. I have to watch the end of a movie or read the end of a book. It's essential for me to see how the creator of a piece envisions the end of the story... The only movie I have not felt the need to endure to the end was Napolean Dynamite - sorry Joanne! That movie was awful!
I've been writing for the last few hours - working on Salt Water and listening to a stream of CD's that have gathered dust for a while. I'm listening to my favourite song by Midnight Oil right now: Now or Never Land. I love that song it's got a pacific island feel to it. I hope nobody was imagining I might be considering beds are burning... Blech! If it wasn't for Earth and Sun and Moon, I would probably abhor Midnight Oil. It's amazing how music affects what you're righting! I was listening to a BYU Men's choir and when I went back to read what I wrote, I doubled over in fits of laughter! It was like reading something from the Baroque era. (Baroque: a style of art - if memory serves me from around the 17th-18thC - very grandiose and overdone) But it worked in the story and while this flow of writing might stop as suddenly as it started, I am finding the story exciting to write at the moment.
I don't actually see myself as a writer - I just have these stories that keep seeping out and I really just want to get them on paper. Even if they're never published, I want to have them written down - from start to finish.
I have a good idea of the outline, but as I write, things keep happening - unexpected things that surprise me and that amazes me about writing. In art you plan something, draw it out and more often than not, it's pretty much what one expects - there aren't any surprises. Unless of course the kids knock over a bottle of dirty water or the cat runs through paint and then leaves mucky coloured paw prints all the way across your very expensive paper! I love how the characters suddenly do something that you don't really expect them to do and the writing becomes like a living organism existing on its own with the most amazing magical feel to it. It's wonderful.
I don't know if it's just me, but I'm finding increasingly that I can predict stories and what will happen. I'm not sure if this is a result of reading a lot, or being older! It's like you don't have to read the rest of the story - and for me that's an OCD thing! Mind you, there are still one or two that have surprised me. I have to watch the end of a movie or read the end of a book. It's essential for me to see how the creator of a piece envisions the end of the story... The only movie I have not felt the need to endure to the end was Napolean Dynamite - sorry Joanne! That movie was awful!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Broken Telephone
So, I think it's time for the family to be taught some telephone manners... On Sunday someone phoned for Richard, but he was in the bath. The person was trying to get hold of someone in the ward and asked if Richard knew why he wasn't answering his cell. Rebecca had answered the phone and made the fatal error of speaking to the person on the other end, and then calling the relayed message to Rich without putting her hand over the receiver, or putting the receiver down. Anyway, at one point, Rich called to Rebecca that the individual was "in bed" and wouldn't be going to church. So, Rebecca says to the person on the end of the phone "my dad wants to know if he's dead"!!!
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