Yo ho ho and a whole lot of rum
Yep, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean part TWO yesterday. And it was GREAT.
Jack Sparrow was the same as ever – deceitful, duplicitous, and delightful. Once again Johnny Depp was magnificent. I heard a few days ago that ‘they’ (that nefarious they who seem to be behind everything bad… very X-Files) didn’t want Sparrow to be like he was, but someone said to give him a go (I’m sorry, how you can you ever doubt Depp and his ideas in a film?). And so we have Jack Sparrow, the bestest pirate in the innumerable seas.
Keira Knightley was mildly painful as always. She is only just bearable as Elizabeth. At least the accent is appropriate in this context… unlike as Guinevere…. Orlando Bloom was ok.
My one beef with this movie was Davey Jones’ crewmen. I can accept that they might turn into sea-creatures, but I wanted them to be more recognisably actual sea-creatures, rather than just barnacle-encrusted monsters. I did like, however, the number of different sea myths that could be put into this movie before being saturated and dumb. Davey Jones, the Flying Dutchman, the Kraken… very nice.
King Solomon’s Mines
Just went to the vid store. I had no idea that a new movie had been made of King Solomon’s Mines! With Patrick Swayze as Alan Quatermain! This might give me a feel for whether I should actually go and read the books… I have heard some dubious things about the worth of H Rider Haggard’s style… the story will hae to be pretty good, I think, to make me go read it. Just looked it up in Wikipedia (my respect for which as a general source of probably-true information has grown recently), and I don’t think I realised that the oldest Alan Q book was published in 1885…
Me cycling
I don’t think I mentioned that I bought a bike – or had one bought for me, anyway… It’s a Kona Fire Mountain. J has a Kona Caldera, so it seems that lots of the Kona cycles are somewhat volcanic… Anyway, I’ve had it for a week. I’ve been trying to cycle every day, but what with getting home late and it still being winter, and me not having lights, makes this somewhat hard. At any rate, today we went into the city – more abot that later – and we decided to ride. Thi was quite a feat for me. It was 5.5km one way, which to experienced cyclists is a walk in the park literally, but for me was quite a way. The way in was quite easy – lots of downhill, which is always nice – but the way home was a bit home, for the aforementioned reason…. Nonetheless, I made it; hurrah!
Pussycat Dolls
Hmm, with what I’ve been blogging the last little while, anyone would think I was trying to increase traffic through here…
Anyway, my question is this: do the Pussycat Dolls really count themselves as a singing group? As a band? I’ve heard them described as a cabaret act, and that certainly seems closer to the reality of their video clips, and the one time I saw them on some awards show. Only one of them actually makes any attempt at singing; all the others are just there for eye-candy. Doesn’t really make that much sense to me, but then – I’m not exactly their target audience.
Ads and Artemis
I can’t really pretend this is an unusual thing anymore – once again, I am flicking between Video Hits and Rage. But that’s not the point of this post. No: the point is Britney Spears, and not even her ‘music’. The ad was for her new perfume. Basically, I think she’s heard the story of Artemis and Aktaeon, and got it mixed up a bit in her head. In the ad, she (the goddess, of course), is being pursued by a hunter, who has fallen in love with her; he shoots her with a ‘magic love arrow’ or somesuch (so maybe Aktaeon and Eros have got mixed up in her head… who’s to say?), and they live happily ever after. Very curious. And all of this, of course, takes place in a forest… very primal.
ASif! and volunteering
No, I’m not reverting to adolescence here. Aus Specific in Focus is a new website dedicated to reviewing all the Aussie scifi and fantasy it can get its hands on. I’ve volunteered to review stuff, starting with Garth Nix, of course. Looks like it will be great fun.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/
I’ve also started doing proofreading for the Digital Proofreaders, for Project Gutenberg. You just sign up and start proofing… I haven’t had anything proofed at the second round yet (there’s at least two, if not three I think, rounds of proofing), so I don’t know if there is anything that I should be doing that I haven’t. Currently I am doing pages of Wordsworth poetry. I don’t have to stick with this, which I started on, but I think I will stick with it – might as well help it get through.
Zoe is my hero
We’re re-watching Serenity. I love it. Zoe really is fantastic.
I aim to misbehave…
Huckabees again
Naomi Watts is really fatastic in this movie… for most of the movie, she’s only been a voice and the occasional face; now she’s onto the Existential Detectives, and she’s trying to figure out whether or not to be pretty…
I [heart] Huckabees
I wrote quite a long post, for me, about this movie, which I’m watching at the moment. It got et by the puter because for whatever reason, I lost the internet for a minute. I don’t think I can be bothered writing it all again. It involved:
— I’m watching it because of seeing it reviewed on The Movie Show, and David loved it.
— I’m watching it for something completely different from what I would usually watch, although it is a little bit like The Life Aquatic (but better)
— The cast is excellent. Dustin Hoffman is a legend, and so is Lily Tomlin; Mark Wahlberg is surprisingly good, and Jude Law plays a total prat.
— OK, the bit that I just watched, with the mud and sex and stuff – that was really damn weird.
— This is a really, really funny movie; I’m loving it.
Attila the Hun
I’ve been fascinated by Attila for a while, at least partly because there seems to be so little actually known about him and he – along with his Huns – have become synonymous with evil bad rampaging Vandals (with whom they were contemporaneous – lovely). So when I saw a bio of him written by John Man, who I just love after reading Alpha Beta and The Gutenberg Revolution, I was very impressed. And I am still impressed after reading it. He does a lot to make his work accessible, and bring the subject to life: I wonder how many other would-be biographers of Attila would go to Hungary and find the man who has, single-handedly, basically reinvented the art of horse-mounted archery? And from he description, this is quite an amazing feat.
So anyway, finally I have an understanding of where Attila actually fits into the whole world history picture. I also really appreciated Man spending a chapter on later representations of Attilla and the Huns, since I never understood why the Germans suddenly became Huns in WWI. Plus, to read about the near-veneration of Attila frm modern Hungarians is also eye-opening; that old chestnut about one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter…
Randomly Yours, Alex 