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shadowkatWell, after spending Sunday walking around the Park with cjl (a particularly overcast, cool Sunday), I'm indoors on lovely, cloudless sky Labour Day. Why? Methinks I've caught a cold/flu bug.
Let's see: itchy throat, watery eyes, stuffy head, achy body, fatigue - ugh! No! No! Can't afford a cold now. Ugh. Can you beat this luck? Just as I am finishing temp jop and am about to start new job, plus dealing with Mother coming on this Sunday, I catch a cold! So, question, can I get past the cold/flu bugabu before mother arrives and I start new job? Am certainly going to try. Hence the staying home today, resting, drinking lots of fluids, doing the chicken noodle soup, and feeling very happy that I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. (Considering the next vacation day I get is Thanksgiving, this was a good idea.)
Sort of ironic really - joining a healthcare company with a cold. Hee. Except...mother cannot afford to get my cold since she is coming to see baby Cedar. Ugh. Go away. Cold. Go Away.
In other news - have read and watched numerous different accounts of the RNC, and have come to the conclusion that John Kerry has a 50/50 chance of defeating President Bush. Which means this is going to be a nail-biting election for some of us.
Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and promptly loaned my copy to cjl. Figured he'd enjoy it. It's one of the few Dick he hasn't read. Fascinating book. Now reading the latest Harry Dresden novel, Blood Rites, before I consider tackling my book club's selection of Like Water for Chocolat. In between read an interesting book review of Susannah Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, by Gregory Macguire (yes the same guy who wrote Wicked.)
I've been reading a lot about Clark's book, which appears to be a very intricate commentary on fantasy, magic and fantasy writers. Complete with satrical footnotes. It's very long - 800 pages. And apparently Neil Gaiman's latest discovery. Having read a few outtakes in MacGuire's review (which you can find in this weeks New York Times Book Review),
it looks wryly witty. Not sure I won't to spend the money and time on it though. Also, the blending of real historical events with the fantastical gets on my nerves in novels. (She blends in the Napoleanic Wars and meetings with Bryon and the Shelley's). On the other hand - it's wonderful to see yet another female writer enter what has steadily become an overwhelmingly male dominated field. Yes, there are other female writers in it, they just don't seem to get as much acclaim and attention as the CS Lewises, Philip Pullmen's, JR Tolkien's, Neil Gaiman's, and Terry Brooks. But that may just be my impression. I admit I've never delved deeply into the fantasy genre or the sci-fi genre, too eclectic, I tend to sample from all writing genre's never focusing too much on just one - generalist in everything. Has it's drawbacks I know.
At any rate, if anyone on line has actually bought or read this new tome - would love to hear your take on it.
Also saw the film Hero recently. Beautiful movie. Also oddly released to the US three years after it was first released in China and Hong Kong. Quite popular there and according to The Village Voice and The Onion, achieved acclaim that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon did not.
Not much going on Hero. There was actually a lot more story in Crouching Tiger and Crouching Tiger is the better film. Hero is fairly simplistic in places and overtly patriotic. That said, it has beautiful visuals, that moved me to tears more than once. I'm a sucker for a good visual. Also possibly one of the most beautiful films I've seen cinematography wise. The director/cinematographer uses different color palettes to paint/ metaphorically depict each scene, reminding me a bit of looking at Chinese calligraphy or paintings of fantasy ballets. Recommend for the visuals and the ballet style fight scenes, particularly one that takes place amongst dancing leaves. But if you are hunting something deeper or more substantive plotwise? You'll probably be disappointed.
Let's see: itchy throat, watery eyes, stuffy head, achy body, fatigue - ugh! No! No! Can't afford a cold now. Ugh. Can you beat this luck? Just as I am finishing temp jop and am about to start new job, plus dealing with Mother coming on this Sunday, I catch a cold! So, question, can I get past the cold/flu bugabu before mother arrives and I start new job? Am certainly going to try. Hence the staying home today, resting, drinking lots of fluids, doing the chicken noodle soup, and feeling very happy that I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. (Considering the next vacation day I get is Thanksgiving, this was a good idea.)
Sort of ironic really - joining a healthcare company with a cold. Hee. Except...mother cannot afford to get my cold since she is coming to see baby Cedar. Ugh. Go away. Cold. Go Away.
In other news - have read and watched numerous different accounts of the RNC, and have come to the conclusion that John Kerry has a 50/50 chance of defeating President Bush. Which means this is going to be a nail-biting election for some of us.
Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and promptly loaned my copy to cjl. Figured he'd enjoy it. It's one of the few Dick he hasn't read. Fascinating book. Now reading the latest Harry Dresden novel, Blood Rites, before I consider tackling my book club's selection of Like Water for Chocolat. In between read an interesting book review of Susannah Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, by Gregory Macguire (yes the same guy who wrote Wicked.)
I've been reading a lot about Clark's book, which appears to be a very intricate commentary on fantasy, magic and fantasy writers. Complete with satrical footnotes. It's very long - 800 pages. And apparently Neil Gaiman's latest discovery. Having read a few outtakes in MacGuire's review (which you can find in this weeks New York Times Book Review),
it looks wryly witty. Not sure I won't to spend the money and time on it though. Also, the blending of real historical events with the fantastical gets on my nerves in novels. (She blends in the Napoleanic Wars and meetings with Bryon and the Shelley's). On the other hand - it's wonderful to see yet another female writer enter what has steadily become an overwhelmingly male dominated field. Yes, there are other female writers in it, they just don't seem to get as much acclaim and attention as the CS Lewises, Philip Pullmen's, JR Tolkien's, Neil Gaiman's, and Terry Brooks. But that may just be my impression. I admit I've never delved deeply into the fantasy genre or the sci-fi genre, too eclectic, I tend to sample from all writing genre's never focusing too much on just one - generalist in everything. Has it's drawbacks I know.
At any rate, if anyone on line has actually bought or read this new tome - would love to hear your take on it.
Also saw the film Hero recently. Beautiful movie. Also oddly released to the US three years after it was first released in China and Hong Kong. Quite popular there and according to The Village Voice and The Onion, achieved acclaim that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon did not.
Not much going on Hero. There was actually a lot more story in Crouching Tiger and Crouching Tiger is the better film. Hero is fairly simplistic in places and overtly patriotic. That said, it has beautiful visuals, that moved me to tears more than once. I'm a sucker for a good visual. Also possibly one of the most beautiful films I've seen cinematography wise. The director/cinematographer uses different color palettes to paint/ metaphorically depict each scene, reminding me a bit of looking at Chinese calligraphy or paintings of fantasy ballets. Recommend for the visuals and the ballet style fight scenes, particularly one that takes place amongst dancing leaves. But if you are hunting something deeper or more substantive plotwise? You'll probably be disappointed.
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It's All My Fault.
Date: 2004-09-07 09:38 am (UTC)To soothe my conscience, I could deliver some matzoh ball soup on Thursday or Friday night while you're prepping for the new job...
"Recommend for the visuals and the ballet style fight scenes, particularly one that takes place amongst dancing leaves. But if you are hunting something deeper or more substantive plotwise? You'll probably be disappointed."
HERO appeals to me less and less the more I think about it. To me, there's a serious disconnect between the style of the movie and the message. The director (or whoever was pulling his strings at the Chinese Ministry of Propaganda) wants us to think about the sacrifice and bloodshed necessary to bring together a nation--but the movie is composed of fight sequences so refined, so aestheticized, that blood is never spilled. The film strikes me as intrinsically dishonest.
Doesn't help that:
1) I'm not a big fan of wire work in recent martial arts epics.
2) Jet Li's nameless warrior is the center of the movie, and he's the least interesting character.
Still, I love Maggie Cheung's expression of pure disdain
when Zhang Ziyi attacks her in the "yellow leaves" sequence. It's pure "don't waste my time, little girl, I've got more important things to worry about." Even if I'm not wild about the movie overall, there's no questioning the raw star power of ZZ, Cheung and Tony Leung (as Broken Sword). They've got IT.
Re: It's All My Fault.
Date: 2004-09-07 04:01 pm (UTC)Don't worry, sure it didn't have much effect one way or the other. I think I caught whatever this is from the finance company. About four other people who work near me have the same thing. So it could either be a cold, or a reaction to something in the area/air conditioning. Since tomorrow is my last day...it won't matter.
In regards to HERO, we'll have to agree to disagree somewhat. I enjoyed it for what it was - a very pretty movie with lovely visuals.
But then I'm a fan of that type of martial arts. The blood and guts style, which overwhelmed Kill Bill, bores and squicks me.