Ridley gets Weird on us...

I watched A Good Year and I sort of wondered what the heck happend to poor Ridley Scott that he made such a bad, out of character movie. And let it be known that Russell Crowe was positively pathetic - apart from wondering when on earth he was going to shave that stupid dirty face hair off (I think we've discussed the whole issue of not everybody being able to carry off a goatie - well, the same applies to unshaven faces...). The awful hairy mugg made his nose look bulbous and growth like and as for those horrendous "hip" glasses... Evidently, Russell is just not meant to wear glasses as well as sport an unshaven mug.
The scenery is amazing, but lets face it - even the most absurdly inept photographer (if you look that phrase up in the dictionary, you'll find my name) wouldn't be able to mess up the Tuscan landscape. And, having been versed extensively in cinematography, one would sort of expect Ridley to come up trumps when it comes to capturing images and compositions - whether still or in movement.
I don't know if it was Russell's very poor attempt at an english accent that repelled me like citronella does the cats, but honestly - that english/australian drawl was even more laborious to endure than American actors making bad attempts at South African accents (Leonardo excluded).
I'd like to say I could sit through that movie again to soak in the amazing scenery, but I can't - I have some paint on canvas that I'd prefer to watch as it dries!!

Swine Flu

I heard on the news this morning that swine flu has jumped from 2 cases to almost 100 in about a month - maybe less. We're told not to worry since it's only people who have been travelling that have caught it... The number is somewhere around 96 but will only be considered an outbreak if it reaches 100. This sounds really familiar... oh, I know - wasn't this the whole story with Zimbabwe and the infected water and was it a cholera outbreak a few months ago?
I also heard they've discovered that the crime stats have been doctored and crime is really far worse in SA than we're lead to believe. NO! Really?
You might be wondering when we ever get any good news - I'm wondering pretty much the same thing...

Cars and Rain

Richard has a Ford Baki and I have a Ford Tracer - they're great green cars with low running costs but there is one annoying drawback: there's a manufacturing flaw in all these vehicles and the windscreen and some other unknown place I can't find yet in my car LEAKS LIKE A BUCKET! Up until a few weeks back, it wasn't a big deal because we seldom get rain and when we do, it's a maximum of two hours and then it stops. But here's the thing: Rich has this awful problem that when he pulls away or stops, a splash of water lands directly in his lap (how's that for Murphy's Law's aim??) and it's a little embarrassing when he gets out the car. So, when it rains before he leaves for work, he sighs resignedly and hangs his head low as he walks out the door!
Up until last week, I really only had the problem of a puddle developing under the petrol pedal, but last week I noticed in the pelting rain that the windscreen wipers weren't wiping the rain on the windscreen... That was when I realised it was dripping on the INSIDE of the windscreen!! Oh boy! The girls and I had a good laugh at that.

Laughing

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...

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.

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!

Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman Series