French Film overdose

Posted on May 6, 2007 by borysSNORC

It’s been a weekend of indulging in French film. Yesterday afternoon I went to see The Singer in town with Yaleman. I’d won a free double pass to go see it, and had read and heard some great reviews about it, so I was quite looking forward to it. But… maybe it was all the glowingly positive critical acclaim that killed it for me, or perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood for it….. but I was a little disappointed with it. The film seemed to meander along at a rather slow pace, and while Gerard Depardieu (the only actor in France) and Cecile de France portrayed a very strong connection between the two main characters, the events and story line didn’t seem to really explain why the relationship develops, or even seem to show a progression. He seemed to spend most of the film irritating her, and she seemed to spend most of the film being alternately attracted to him and annoyed with him. Shrug?!?! I was expecting more.

The other film was last night’s showing at Azerbaijan of Combien tu m’aimes which starred the simply gorgeous Monica Bellucci. Monica, as you all know, is pure sex on a stick …. and this movie is largely about just that…. sex . She’s absolutely gorgeous and so sensual and alluring… (Is it getting hot in here? I need a moment alone now…. 🙂 So anyway, this movie, has a great cast, a patchy kinda farcical storyline, but is well worth the hour and a half just for Monica 🙂 I was so exhausted after fighting with my back pain all day, that I know I dozed off in the middle there for a bit, so the end wasn’t making a great deal of sense but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it, and I saw enough to know that I need to make time for a second viewing….. :S If anyone else has seen it … maybe you can explain what I missed while I dozed off.

Clean up … :)

Posted on May 5, 2007 by borysSNORC

Everynow and then I go to clean up my desk top and find the most random and obscure things that I’ve saved there and then just forgotten about. Some of it I can’t remember being sent or downloading, so it feels like it just ‘appears’ there. 🙂 I mean this image for example… I must have found it somewhere… or have someone I can blame for sending it to me… but I’m not sure when it appeared and I’m not sure why I’ve kept it!

Maybe having a scattered or messy desktop is just a sign of a creative mind right? Or is it far more likely to be a sign of early onset senility :S I think I’ll start posting some more of the strange and random pics that turn up on my desktop… promise not to post anything that wouldn’t sneak in under an (R) rating! 🙂
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Burn burn burn

Posted on May 4, 2007 by borysSNORC

My Dad, who was normally a rather serious and often even stern individual, used to recite a little poem to us when we were kids. It has stuck in my head I guess cos it was rare to see my Dad indulging in nonsense at all, and this one was dolled out regualarly. I remember him first recounting it for us over at Straddie and then BigSal and myself rock hopping around Point Lookout reciting it –

The boy stood on the burning deck,
Picking his nose like mad
Rolling them into little balls
And flicking ’em at his Dad!

We thought it was hilarious at the time, and I always thought was a stupid little thing to be taken about as seriously as a limerick. The other day I was wondering if there was more to it than that… maybe it had more nonsense verses out there somewhere… maybe it would be a good one to teach to Angel to take to school 🙂 So I did a bit of a hunt around and found some more parodies –

The boy stood on the burning deck
Playing a game of cricket
The ball flew down his trouser leg
And hit his middle wicket!

The boy stood on the burning deck
Eating a tuppeny Walls*
A bit dropped down his trouser leg
And paralysed his balls!

Anyway, what mostly came up about this poem wasn’t nonsense at all. The original poem that has spawned these was called Casabianca and was written by a woman named Felicia Hemans. It’s a tragically serious poem that commemorates the courage (fear?) of a small boy of about 12/13 who wouldn’t desert his post when his ship, L’Orient, was on fire and sinking during the Battle for the Nile in 1798 for fear of disappointing his father or perhaps…. and more likely, fearing retribution for doing so. So the actual opening lines of the poem reads –

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
Shone round him o’er the dead.

And now I find that the parodies aren’t so funny anymore. My Dad was obviously forced to study this poem in primary school and no doubt to recite it from memory ad nauseum in that especially torturous delightful way educators use as they attempt to drill appreciation of poetry into the heads of unwilling children. (I have rather traumatic Clancy of the Overflow memories that resemble this myself!). Anyway this poem is well worth a read and while you’re at it say a little thanks for not being born in Victorian England.

* I have no idea what that is…??
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I don’t try to be myself….. I just am myself.

Posted on May 3, 2007 by borysSNORC

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.6
Mind:	5.9
Body:	4.1
Spirit:	5.2
Friends/Family:	7.1
Love:	10
Finance:	7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Sir Phil was doing this Rate My Life Quiz and flicked me the link so I could complete it while we were chatting on the phone. The response I got was pretty bloody ordinary I think…5.6 out of 10… Thanks Sir_Phil for reminding me how crap my life is!!! And then I read the short analysis that came under the pretty graph. Apparently I’ve scored much higher than average on the Love aspect of my life – my score… 10, average score… 4.3 from 961,533 respondents. And it came up with this blurb –

Your Love score is very high, much higher than the average. If you wouldn’t mind, please take a little time to explain how you manage to succeed so well at this aspect of your life. Your words may be read by someone else who scored very low. Take a moment to give them some useful advice. Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

So I was trying to come up with some useful advice… hmmm…. I couldn’t think of anything! Which is excessively rare for me. Normally I’m full of advice for my friends about managing relationships (Well, full of something!! 🙂 But in this context …. still can’t think of anything. Why am I happy with my love life? hmmm,…. well MrK is my best friend. We live in the same house, and yet see other people. Neither of us gets bent out of shape about the other one’s choices and so far I think the reason it’s working for us is because we’re as honest with each other as humanly possible. There’s no bullshit there, no second guessing, no attempting to manipulate each other… everything is just out in the open. I rarely hold back from telling people how I’m feeling and have never held back anything from MrK. I find it exhausting to be in a relationship (even a friendship) where you can’t just be yourself and speak your mind, and so tend to avoid people who aren’t able to cope with a brutal honesty every now and then.

Anyway, I think being open and honest about who you are and what you want is probably the most important thing. But I think it’s also something that a lot of people find really difficult because they’re worried they wont be accepted for who they really are and so tend to present a version of themselves – sometimes that’s a sanitized, more socially accepted version of themselves – in the hope that potential partners will find them more readily acceptable. Or maybe I’m just talking shit 🙂 I’m off to bed.

Try asking me again next week and you’ll probably get a very different story!!! 🙂

Amazon dot com

Posted on May 3, 2007 by borysSNORC

Don’t cha just love Amazon!?!?

Ordinarily the answer to that would be – “Yeah sure”…. but right now… I’m a bit “Meh 😐 ” on the subject. I ordered a book from them a while back, and I admit, I keep forgetting about it… until I get an email in my inbox telling me that it’s still not available and that I need to update my order if I still want my order kept in the system. Each time I dutifully click on the link, sign in and then get a renewed delivery date.

The book itself is not that special – The V&A’s Textile Collection by Santina Levey and Donald King and I can see no reason why Amazon still don’t have it in stock considering its I could get it from the online V&A bookshop?!?! The only difference is that from Amazon the advertised price when I ordered it was US$15.95 and from the V&A approx £19.99. Which given current exchange is the difference between AUD$20 and about AUD$60.

So I get another email today from Amazon asking me if I still want this book, and I think sure – here we go again… so I look back through my records and notice that original order was placed on Aug 18th 2006. No wait! That was the original estimated delivery date… so it must have been ordered even earlier than that…….. grrr… think I may as well kiss this one off…. i reckon this would have really been pissing me off over the last year if it weren’t for the fact that I have had someone else’s copy of it this whole time ! 😀