Stilling Running in the Same Hamster Wheel

My Google homepage quote of the day struck me as dreadfully apropos:

Someone's boring me. I think it's me.

Dylan Thomas, in Rayner Heppenstall, Four Absentees (1960)

Man Movies

Last night, I watched She's the Man and Inside Man. The first was, eh, just okay. I think Amanda Bynes is quite talented in general, but not especially brilliant in this. True, the boy was beautiful, but I really didn't see their relationship develop at all. As far as the Shakespearian adaptation, it was interesting enough, but no where near the dead on meld of teen and Bard as in 10 Things I Hate About You.

The second film was interesting. I didn't see much of Spike Lee, the auteur in it however, which was a little disappointing. Of course, my boyfriend, Clive Owen was wonderful--when isn't he? (oh right, Derailed), and I enjoyed the clever aspects of the heist--who doesn't? Samuel L. Jackson's character was interesting, more nuanced than one might expect; I guess that belongs to Mr. Lee. All in all, a nice film.

Some Quotes From This Week's Reading

For a classic Hollywood cinema presentation:
"Few people recognize opportunity because it comes disguised as hard work and application." Cary Grant

For American literature 1830-1865:
"No reason can be asked or given why the soul seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. God is the all-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All." Emerson from "Nature"

And last, but not least, from Old English:
"Nu tod[ae]g Godes gela[th]ung geond ealne ymbhwyrft m[ae]rsa[th] p[ae]ra eadigra cildra freolstide,..." King [Ae]lfric circa 1000. Pretend that all the [th] have one of two interchangable symbols (thorn or eth) and that all the [ae]'s are smooshed together into the symbol for the a, as in bath, sound. I spent about three or four hours translating ten lines. Blah-dy-blah.

Diluvian Rain

We had a lot of rain on Monday, or rather it all came in a short period of time. This picture from The Rockford Register Star (am I going to get into trouble for using it?) is about two miles from my house. Coming home from a church function with my parents, our car stalled in the middle of three feet of water a block from home. We got out (the water filling the car), waded home, and waited a few hours until we could walk back and get the car, which--thankfully--started!

Some Media

Angels & Insects (A.S. Byatt): I just finished reading it, knowing that if it didn't happen this weekend, I wouldn't get to it until next summer or so. It's scary to know that I will have very little time to read anything other than school stuff for the next semester and that Christmas break will be so busy that I won't be able to handle capital L Literature.

Anyway, the book is two novellas: "Morphia Eugenia" which, I'll confess I 'read' the movie first, is visually sumptuous but somewhat redundant to the movie (meaning the adaptation well-portrayed the text and didn't interpret it). But, I hadn't seen the film in years, so this was a nice repetition of story. Not to spoil the story, but the switching of letters around in "INSECT" makes for a wonderful connection to the natural world. A poor natural scholar gets caught up in a too-perfect family system that, of course, must be revealed.

"The Conjugial Angel" is interesting in how this follows up the impeccable Possession. This time the historical poets and poems that intertwine with our story are real. Alfred Tennyson's sister tries to contact, through seances in a lovely Victorian setting, the man (Arthur Hallstum)she was to marry years ago who died that Tennyson wrote In Memoriam about. Very interesting in how it weaves together Romantic and Victorian poetry with spirits in a type of ghost story. Basically, Byatt can do no wrong in my eyes, but it doesn't rival her magnum opus.

Katie and I saw a last movie together before she jetted off to London--The Illusionist, and I have to reaffirm for those in doubt that yes, I am available to have Edward Norton's babies. It was wonderful, the story, the acting (at least by Norton, Sewell, and Giamatti), the illusions (cinematography and cg)! While not being particularly impressive, Jessica Biel does a fine enough job and, most importantly, does not distract from or ruin the film. Katie and I were clever enough to figure out most of the story, but even 'knowing' what was happening didn't make the film any less enjoyable. Turn of the century Vienna is becoming more and more interesting to me as a time period; modern Western Europe, but tinged with Eastern influence (as this movie is). Especially interesting is Norton's show which is not just a magic show, but somehow a philosophic exploration on big issues: time, life, death. If it's showing near you, run don't walk!