05.14.08
Posted in Career, Media & Internet, Writing at 9.47 am by Caitlin
There’s a fascinating article in Granta about the web habits of highly effective people. Being a literary tome, these people are all journalists, writers and bloggers, which suits me fine.
Novelist A.L. Kennedy says: “I don’t blog or Facebook. If I want to write, I’d rather do it to some kind of definable end.”
Wise words, no doubt. I’m sure there are definable ends within blogging and social networking but I somehow I don’t think pirate games on Facebook and blogging about South Park count.
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Posted in Media & Internet, Society & Politics at 9.04 am by Caitlin
(link via Mark Jones on Filtered Media).
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05.11.08
Posted in Family & Friends, Film, Food, London at 2.46 pm by Caitlin
Summer is here early in London. There are green leaves and flowers all over town, we’ve enjoyed beautiful sunshine for days on end, everyone is out enjoying picnics in the park, the pubs are doing a brisk trade in cider and Pimms (one of the quintessentially English signs of summer).
It’s actually unseasonally hot – it’s expected to peak at 26C today and I can well believe it. I think I must be acclimatised because, for the first time, I can understand the English male’s desire to take his shirt off when temperature climb around the high 20s.
I was out this morning, doing my Japan tour at the British Museum and having coffee and lunch with friends. Now I’m spending a relaxing afternoon at home, perusing the Sunday papers. This evening we’re catching up with Kimberley, who is in town briefly on holiday from her native Vancouver.
Last night we met with our friends Emme and Jon. We saw a movie at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and then had a picnic in St James’ Park. The picnic was lovely – homemade sushi, salad and parsnip cake (like carrot cake but with a straight substitution of parsnips). It was a beautiful night and really great to catch up with our friends as we hadn’t seen them for a few months.
The movie, however, was awful – it was a Japanese film called Vexille – and it was probably the worst thing I’ve seen in a few years. I usually enjoy Japanese animé but I guess I’ve only seen the good stuff – this was a highly implausible and emotionally vacuous story with ridiculous plot holes and even more ridiculous dialogue. Also, they seem to have used the cut-and-paste job with the animation – the Americans look Japanese and the two main female characters are identical except for their hair and clothing.
I did see Iron Man the previous week and that was surprisingly good. Robert Downey Jr was superb in that role – utterly convincing. It’s not that Iron Man is any more plausible than Vexille when you get down to it but solid storytelling means you are willing to suspend your disbelief and that makes all the difference. It’s not going to change the world or win any prizes, but the characters are charismatic and believable, and it’s all round good fun.
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05.05.08
Posted in Family & Friends, Film at 9.46 am by Caitlin
Probably the best movie I’ve seen so far this year is Persepolis. It’s based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi and it’s an autobiographical account of growing up in Tehran and Vienna during the Iranian Revolution.
The movie basically animates Satrapi’s drawings, so it has a very distinctive style and it’s mostly in black and white. The drawings appear very simple but are in no way crude – it really conveyed a wonderful sense of place and character. One of my favourite moments was when she went driving with a new boyfriend and the car sprouted wings and flew down the hill.
Iran is a fascinating place and this film gives you a wonderful peek behind the veil to see what real people in the country actually think and feel. Marjane was a wonderful character and I really liked her family as well, especially her cool granny. It was also just so sad because of how unfree Iranian society is, especially for women, and how many people live in exile and never see their families.
We saw this last weekend with Tash and Matt at the wonderful Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. You can buy single seats or sofas and order food and drinks from the ushers – what’s not to like?!
I did laugh when they played the trailers. Because it’s based on a graphic novel, the trailers were all for other comic book movies – Batman, Iron Man and so on. I wonder how many people in the cinema were really in the demographic for both Persepolis and Iron Man?
Actually, that would be the four of us… And I saw Iron Man last night and thought it was brilliant. But that’s a subject for another post.
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