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Well, 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. ( brief rant on catching a cold )
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.) ( ramble on Susannah Clark's new novel )
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.
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.) ( ramble on Susannah Clark's new novel )
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.
