movie time
i watched 2001: a space odyssey last week. 2 movie critics i respect love this movie. the first is roger ebert. the other is barry norman. it is cited in their respective "greatest movie" lists. i thought it was a bit shite. it's art, with a capital f. it's just less than the sum of it's parts: the apes are good, hal is good, some space effects are good, but; it's high brow fodder. opium for the over educated.
i also watched unforgiven. this is an excellent movie. the first time i saw it, i thought that the little bill character (hackman) wasn't such a bad guy. he just wants peace in his town. there's nothing wrong with that. clint eastwood looks old in that movie. i used to watch rawhide on sunday mornings. the one criticism i have is when the sheriff and his men are torturing morgan freeman, the only black man in the film, and there is no racial slur. am i to believe in the 1890's in a near enough white only town in wyoming (there are a few chinese people) that all racism in the language has been vanquished? it is weird to hear two old guys talking about jacking off too.
yesterday i saw spirited away. it's anime by miyasaki. i loved it. it made me wish i had children so i could show it to them and they could tell me what it's all about.
book
there is a part in the book i am reading about plays. the priest is talking to a canon. the canon is complaining that all the plays performed in spain today are all nonsense. he complains that they are full of miracles, used to delight the audience only. historical and geographical facts are used carelessly to contradict eachother. he laments that the masses flock to these preposterous shows and ignore anything else. the theatre managers say that they have to produce these because this is what the people want: pure fantasy and effect.
hell boy, nothing has changed.
hols
going to okinawa on tuesday. it is typhoon season. no wonder the tickets were so cheap.
errata
james coburn not james caan: magnificent seven.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Thursday, September 16, 2004
yes, i am ok
those tremors happened over a week ago now, but 3 nights out of seven, i've dreamt of earthquakes. it's not like those crazy dreams, where anything could happen, but they have all been those ultra realistic dreams, where i've had to ask other people if there actually was an earthquake last night because i don't know if i woke up in the middle of the night or not. i'm living in a house of cards.
sleepless
because of or despite of those dreams, i have also been unable to sleep early for the past ten days. every insomniac has a time limit of trying to get to sleep before having to do something else. my limit is one hour. after that i read. in this limbo between wanting to sleep and not being able to sleep, my concentration is misty. i can't focus on new material, so i always go back to books i have read. re-reading old books is like talking to old friends: you can start wherever you want; you are comfortable in their company even though you're not sure what they are talking about; you always know what they are going to say or do next; you know their flaws and secrets; there is always something new that they want to show you. you can leave and there is no regret or hard feelings. you can return whenever you like know that they will always be the same. you can always pick up where you left off.
most recently: mrs dalloway - virginia wolfe, essays - george orwell, snows of kilimanjaro - ernest hemmingway.
magnificent
watched magnificent seven and hannah and her sisters yesterday and the day before yesterday. both great films. woody allen is untouchable. how can you make a joke about nazis where the punch like is can openers? stunning. magnificent 7 was also great. it's a bit like the wild bunch for kids. makes me want to watch westworld again. james caan was really skinny. only the dead have no fear.
39,360 words
those tremors happened over a week ago now, but 3 nights out of seven, i've dreamt of earthquakes. it's not like those crazy dreams, where anything could happen, but they have all been those ultra realistic dreams, where i've had to ask other people if there actually was an earthquake last night because i don't know if i woke up in the middle of the night or not. i'm living in a house of cards.
sleepless
because of or despite of those dreams, i have also been unable to sleep early for the past ten days. every insomniac has a time limit of trying to get to sleep before having to do something else. my limit is one hour. after that i read. in this limbo between wanting to sleep and not being able to sleep, my concentration is misty. i can't focus on new material, so i always go back to books i have read. re-reading old books is like talking to old friends: you can start wherever you want; you are comfortable in their company even though you're not sure what they are talking about; you always know what they are going to say or do next; you know their flaws and secrets; there is always something new that they want to show you. you can leave and there is no regret or hard feelings. you can return whenever you like know that they will always be the same. you can always pick up where you left off.
most recently: mrs dalloway - virginia wolfe, essays - george orwell, snows of kilimanjaro - ernest hemmingway.
magnificent
watched magnificent seven and hannah and her sisters yesterday and the day before yesterday. both great films. woody allen is untouchable. how can you make a joke about nazis where the punch like is can openers? stunning. magnificent 7 was also great. it's a bit like the wild bunch for kids. makes me want to watch westworld again. james caan was really skinny. only the dead have no fear.
39,360 words
Monday, September 06, 2004
here comes the sun
all i have been hearing for the past few days is about the hammer gold medal being stripped from a guy called annus. all i could think of were the sun's puns into this doping scandal. OIC looking for missing annus. probe into annus. annus opens up and tells all. WORLD EXCLUSIVE: annus speaks to the sun. annus found in frankfurt.
dylan
those two dylan cds are FUCKING EXCELLENT.
earth moved
there were 2 earthquakes in nagoya yesterday. i know i've written about earthquakes before, but these were much bigger than before. i live on the 3rd floor if an old apartment block. when the quake hit, the whole room was shaking. it is almost impossible to describe how it feels when you are stuck in a shaking room, where the bed is walking across the wooden floorboards, the shelf with the tv on is rocking back and forth and the bathroom starts to creak and moan under the strain. everything is swaying, all your clothes you've hung up, the bottles of ketchup on the fridge, the very floor you are sitting on. the second one was slightly bigger than the first and managed to knock cds and cups off the shelves, smashing as they hit the ground. as the tremors approach, you can feel it slowly at first, and then it builds in intensity. a second lasts a minute. as things tremble they create a mismash of beats, like a thousand crazy drummers playing on your furniture. all the safety procedures run through your head. dive under a table, stand in a doorway, don't go outside until it is over, prepare 3 days of food and water... and then it slows to slight murmur and stops, although for you the ground still feels unsteady and you feel slightly nauseous from motion sickness. all that is left is fragments of ceramic and plastic to clean up, and the realisation that you are at the complete mercy of one of those things.
all i have been hearing for the past few days is about the hammer gold medal being stripped from a guy called annus. all i could think of were the sun's puns into this doping scandal. OIC looking for missing annus. probe into annus. annus opens up and tells all. WORLD EXCLUSIVE: annus speaks to the sun. annus found in frankfurt.
dylan
those two dylan cds are FUCKING EXCELLENT.
earth moved
there were 2 earthquakes in nagoya yesterday. i know i've written about earthquakes before, but these were much bigger than before. i live on the 3rd floor if an old apartment block. when the quake hit, the whole room was shaking. it is almost impossible to describe how it feels when you are stuck in a shaking room, where the bed is walking across the wooden floorboards, the shelf with the tv on is rocking back and forth and the bathroom starts to creak and moan under the strain. everything is swaying, all your clothes you've hung up, the bottles of ketchup on the fridge, the very floor you are sitting on. the second one was slightly bigger than the first and managed to knock cds and cups off the shelves, smashing as they hit the ground. as the tremors approach, you can feel it slowly at first, and then it builds in intensity. a second lasts a minute. as things tremble they create a mismash of beats, like a thousand crazy drummers playing on your furniture. all the safety procedures run through your head. dive under a table, stand in a doorway, don't go outside until it is over, prepare 3 days of food and water... and then it slows to slight murmur and stops, although for you the ground still feels unsteady and you feel slightly nauseous from motion sickness. all that is left is fragments of ceramic and plastic to clean up, and the realisation that you are at the complete mercy of one of those things.
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