« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 28, 2005
Hmf, I say
… on discovering that my girlfriend’s pet name for Kenneth Branagh is The Blonde Babe. She hastened to reassure me that her pet name for me was Babe with a Brain, but I’m not sure that’s a long-standing term of endearment.
I cannot wait for this long weekend, though my only plans so far are to attend a fancy dress party in some borrowed 70s gear. And hopefully to make good on some of those dark mutterings about ‘Projects’ and the like that never actually go anywhere.
Posted by Oliver at 03:22 PM | Comments (4)
October 21, 2005
Zuzz-zuzz
Sleeplessness has many costs, not least of which is forgetting to bring trousers when heading off to spend the weekend with your girlfriend and her parents. I’ll be wearing my work pants all weekend. The same trousers a nice man splashed with mud as he drove past me at speed this morning. Super!
Three hours sleep a night = zombie boyfriend. I should put that on a label and attach it to myself.
Posted by Oliver at 03:49 PM | Comments (1)
October 14, 2005
Spoiler-free Serenity review: GO SEE
My brother loves his DVD collections, and he’s something of a Joss Whedon fan to boot, owning all of the Buffy, Angel and Firefly DVD collections. I’m not so good at either watching TV programmes regularly or buying DVDs (I don’t own a single one) but I did watch all of the Firefly episodes a few months ago.
They were great, and I’m sure ardent Whedon fans grit their teeth whenever they hear this, but I did spend 15 minutes going “There’s the Giles character! And the Cordelia character! And the demon equivalents!” But it’s not actually true, and every episode of the series was great fun.
They set me up nicely to go see Serenity last night, and it was excellent. Really, really good. I was a bit worried as a friend of mine at work, dragged to see it by her boyfriend, claimed it was so dull she fell asleep mid-film. I am relieved to report she is either wrong or perhaps narcoleptic.
It was heart-warming to see all the characters from the TV series again, and one of the best bits (as a viewer of the TV series) was seeing how the rich back-stories of each character develop. The person I saw it with hadn’t seen any of the Firefly episodes at all and still really enjoyed it, but I thought it was stuffed full of little treats for the long-term fans.
Now, I wonder when my brother will buy the DVD…
Posted by Oliver at 03:01 PM | Comments (3)
October 13, 2005
Fallen Leaves
In the Jewish Museum Berlin there’s an exhibition by Menashe Kadishman called “Shalechet (Fallen Leaves).” It’s a collection of over ten thousand metal faces roughly cut from sheet metal, of varying sizes and thicknesses. The idea is that you walk directly on these metal faces. As you do so the noise of the faces grinding and banging against each other and echoing off the walls creates a folorn, unsettling sound that stays with you long after you leave. Looking down at your feet as you walk on the faces is also disturbing.
We saw many memorials to the victims of the Holocaust while we were in Germany but for me this was far more affecting than the more abstract memorials like constructions of vast empty rooms, deserted exhibition spaces or arrangements of irregular concrete blocks.
Posted by Oliver at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
Short update to indicate I'm still alive
Being promoted has meant a fortnight-long headache (since coming back to work). But I seem to be adjusting.
Posted by Oliver at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2005
Virtues
I’m attending an evening class in (ahem) poetry appreciation. They like to get submissions from the attendees so I dusted off my pen. It’s my first attempt at a poem for literally years and it’s as inaccessible to the casual reader as ever. My apologies if that’s you!
Virtues
We are loyal. What is our faith, and where can it be found? In the teeth and arms of men,
in fury, a harsh bite against an implacable world? Or in turning against ourselves,
the consuming state in which we are born? Faith could be the eternal tick of a clock,
Beating a rhythm to a drive to become more than we have known. Tock.
We are helpless. Even madness is no refuge from narration. Draw a circle,
In it two dots, not close to the circle, or each other. See the face?
What empty expression! Explain change to that thoughtless gaze. Be dire:
extol the virtue of smoothness, the doom of wrinkles. Crumple the page.
We are honest. In a forest of tales we know the tallest are truest. We teach ourselves climbing.
Imagined height gives the best views. Around us detritus comes to rest,
Props and platforms made by the people for the people. An armada is here.
Recite carefully ephemera of my time: Zoids, Rock 104, Granada.
04/10/05
Posted by Oliver at 08:28 PM | Comments (2)