We are arguing about the pronounciation of this title: PeneLOPiad, or PenELopiad? Not that it makes much difference to a mind-boggling, brilliant, and generally superlative book.

I have been looking forward to reading this book for about four months now- I haven’t read it before for numerous good reasons, none of which currently spring to mind, except the fact that I haven’t owned it. Mum bought it, though, and I read it when I was in Adelaide for the weekend (it only took a few hours – it’s very short).

It’s by Margaret Atwood, who can always be coounted on to write interesting stories; it’s part of a series of classical myth re-writes, which I am very excited about: the other one that has been published, to my knowledge, is Weight, about when Herakles takes the weight of the world from Atlas’ shoulders so he can steal the apples (of the sun god?) as part of his Labours. I don’t know what the others will be like, but the few other authors I recognised sound promising.

Anyway – obviously, it’s The Odyssey from Penelope’s point of view. She doesn’t like Cousin Helen, and that is refreshing. She’s also telling the story from Hades (taking a walk through the asphodel… having a bite of asphodel… go and look at Sisyphus…), with a few chapters given to the hanged maids doing a Greek chorus thing.

I cannpt recommend it highly enough. It provides a slightly acerbic, much more real counterpoint to cunning Odysseus’ tale.

Part III is on TV at the moment. It’s pretty bad. Entertaining, but still – definitely made in the 80s. Michael J Fox never ceases to amaze me just how much of a baby-face he was for such a long time; still is, I guess.

And The Mummy Returns is on next. I like spending Saturdays at home some nights.

I was so excited when I went to the video place last night – Serenity was out! I had been told that it was coming to JB on the 12th, but there it was – earlier than expected! There were two full shelves of copies, but more than 3/4, I reckon, were gone, so no telling how long it had been there… although it is only an over-night hire, so I guess unless they were overdue they can only have gone that day or the day before.

Anyway. We watched it this morning, and it was as good as we remembered – I think it might have been a bit better, because we had more of an emotional attachment to the characters thanks to the 14 episodes we have now seen. Of course, that makes some things more painful… I certainly enjoyed it just as much. And the extras we looked at were quite entertaining. We’re definitely going to buy it.

The only time I have seen this was at the movies, at the end of ’99 (I’m not really that much of a freak; J and I had just started going out, which is why I remember). I saw it with Alisona and Kate – they are huge period-piece fans, and of Rupert too. Anyway, Kate recently got it on DVD, so we had a viewing today (she’s already watched it four times…). It was great, as I remembered: rather convoluted, in a delightful way, and not as embarassing as so many more recent rom-coms tend to be (and hence attract my loathing). The dialogue is so witty – they are both scandalised with me for not having seen The Importance of being Earnest; they think Wilde is great, although Alison more than Kate. Neither Alison nor I can decide whether we think Jeremy Northam (who I think was the intelligence agent in Enigma, another breath-taking movie) is a good actor or not. He was good in this role, but still a bit wooden. Cate Blanchett, though, was awesome, and the only way to decsrive Julieanne Moore is ‘sultry minx’; I’ve always thought that Minnie Driver, while great, was a bit out of place. Rupert, needless to say, was glorious. And the sets were great.

I only realised tonight that Grammy was short for gramaphone. So I’m a bit slow – whatever.

One person of the show shown on TV has thanked God so far. And counting.

The Gorillaz opened the show. Once again, however they are projected, it’s very clever – Madonna came on and ‘performed’ with them for a minute or so, and she actually walked behind one of them, which was very impressive.

And David Bowie got a Lifetime Acheivement Award. About damn time.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago. I experienced a little trepidation when I started reading it, because I worried that it was going to be highly academic and therefore a real trial to get through. I shouldn’t have worried; it was magnificent. The whole first chapter – it might have been a long prologue – was about how Europeans treated the Greeks and their inherited heritage (hmmm, just occurred to me those words are related), from the Englightenment onwards – which explains a great deal about the received tradition, really. Just for that it was worth reading – why a classical education was stressed (to keep the upper classes different from the masses, in his opinion), and pointing out the things that 19th C historians glossed over, to make themselves feel better (slavery, poor treatment of women, what Athenian democracy really meant). He goes from the Mycenaeans and Minoans – what we know – through to the closure of the Platonic Academy in the 4th C AD by Christians, meaning that for the last part he spends a lot of time looking at the East, which is different from most other books on Greece, which will stop with the conquering of Greece by Rome.

I learnt a lot. And it was a pure joy to read, too – I genuinely looked forward to picking it up, because his style was entrancing, something too often lacking in academic books, especially ones about classical topics.

In Human Rights the other day, we were talking about slavery and ways of getting rid of it. One of my kids said: “Miss, when all else fails: nuclear warfare.”

I guess he has a point – an ultimate one, but still a point.

We just watched Stealth, because we missed it at the movie – Joshua Lucas, Jamie Foxx (how could they do that to him??) and the not-tarty Jessica (Biel, therefore, not Alba). It was ok, if different from what we were expecting. With a tagline like “Fear the sky”, you would expect that the whole movie would be about dealing with the rogue AI in the stealth ‘plane. Some is; some isn’t. It’s not a bad movie – certainly not in the Flight of the Phoenix category – but I must say I was a bit disappointed by the plot. And J was disappointed by the CGI, and the poor quality thereof, for a movie made in 2005.

I’d still recommend it – when it goes to weekly – as a brainless action flick.

Library Spice, on JJJ, played the first song by the Raconteurs yesterday (or the day before?). It was called “Steady as she goes.” Their first album is due out mid-year.

So what?

The singer is Jack White.

And it was way, way cool.