Self-indulgence and appearances
Mar. 24th, 2013 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearPersonal reflection:
I've spent the last month rereading all my personal journals, which I started at on New Year's Eve 2001 and have added to periodically ever since. It was really interesting revisiting the last eleven years of my life in literary flashback (I've always been my own biggest fan when it comes to my writing!). Much of it was entertaining, some of it was almost wholly unfamiliar, and it was enlightening to look at the more painful bits from a less emotional point of view. What really came out of it was a desire to record more (there were several places where I made reference to things happening but didn't explain or elaborate) so the new journal I started on 14th March is so far getting much more attention than the previous ones. It probably won't last long - as I say in previous volumes, when there's lots going on, I'd rather be doing it than recording it - but we shall see how it goes.
The School for Wives by Moliere:
Last week, we went to an adaptation of this play at the wonderful White Bear Theatre in Kennington. It was packed, the tiny pub back room surely contravening fire regulations, and the audience forced to become quite friendly as the temperature rose. Still, it was an entertaining play, with the usual standard of good acting we've come to expect from this venue. I had two issues with the play itself - one was the translation, which had been modernised, but was still in rhyme. This combination (plus the fact that most of the actors emphasised the rhymes rather than skimming over them and making the dialogue sound more realistic) was a little jarring in places. My other issue was with the actor playing the main part, who mostly did a stirling job with a very wordy part and was barely off stage. He was very good, but he was playing to a much larger auditorium, and so was much too loud. Overall, though, it was lots of fun.
Ten Inch Hero [major spoilers]:
The only reason I came across this film is because it has Jensen Ackles in it (Dean from Supernatural). Having said that, it was really rather sweet, if incredibly contrived (not one, not two, but *four* ridiculously gooey happy endings). It was about the lives and loves of a group of people working in a sandwich shop - not the world's most edifying subject, but well put together and generally heartwarming. It was mostly about not judging people by appearances, which is always a good message, and it had one or two nice twists on the usual cliches to stop it being too predictable. However, I do have to take issue with one of the plot threads. One of the girls was very attractive, but kept going off on one-night-stands with very mainstream, mostly asshat guys, while her very sweet co-worker with the punk haristyle, many piercings and tattoos pined for her in the background and she ignored him. After various events that brought them closer together, he turned up at the end having chopped his hair off, removed all his piercings and dressed in painfully mainstream clothes to get her attention. The scene was really sweet and funny, I'd been anticipating it for some time, and it worked well. The problem was, the very next scene had them attending a wedding together, which must have taken place several months later - and he still looked mainstream! The temporary transformation to nudge her out of her idiocy was fair enough - but suggesting that he maintained the changes permanently to please her goes against the entire message of the film, which was really annoying.
I've spent the last month rereading all my personal journals, which I started at on New Year's Eve 2001 and have added to periodically ever since. It was really interesting revisiting the last eleven years of my life in literary flashback (I've always been my own biggest fan when it comes to my writing!). Much of it was entertaining, some of it was almost wholly unfamiliar, and it was enlightening to look at the more painful bits from a less emotional point of view. What really came out of it was a desire to record more (there were several places where I made reference to things happening but didn't explain or elaborate) so the new journal I started on 14th March is so far getting much more attention than the previous ones. It probably won't last long - as I say in previous volumes, when there's lots going on, I'd rather be doing it than recording it - but we shall see how it goes.
The School for Wives by Moliere:
Last week, we went to an adaptation of this play at the wonderful White Bear Theatre in Kennington. It was packed, the tiny pub back room surely contravening fire regulations, and the audience forced to become quite friendly as the temperature rose. Still, it was an entertaining play, with the usual standard of good acting we've come to expect from this venue. I had two issues with the play itself - one was the translation, which had been modernised, but was still in rhyme. This combination (plus the fact that most of the actors emphasised the rhymes rather than skimming over them and making the dialogue sound more realistic) was a little jarring in places. My other issue was with the actor playing the main part, who mostly did a stirling job with a very wordy part and was barely off stage. He was very good, but he was playing to a much larger auditorium, and so was much too loud. Overall, though, it was lots of fun.
Ten Inch Hero [major spoilers]:
The only reason I came across this film is because it has Jensen Ackles in it (Dean from Supernatural). Having said that, it was really rather sweet, if incredibly contrived (not one, not two, but *four* ridiculously gooey happy endings). It was about the lives and loves of a group of people working in a sandwich shop - not the world's most edifying subject, but well put together and generally heartwarming. It was mostly about not judging people by appearances, which is always a good message, and it had one or two nice twists on the usual cliches to stop it being too predictable. However, I do have to take issue with one of the plot threads. One of the girls was very attractive, but kept going off on one-night-stands with very mainstream, mostly asshat guys, while her very sweet co-worker with the punk haristyle, many piercings and tattoos pined for her in the background and she ignored him. After various events that brought them closer together, he turned up at the end having chopped his hair off, removed all his piercings and dressed in painfully mainstream clothes to get her attention. The scene was really sweet and funny, I'd been anticipating it for some time, and it worked well. The problem was, the very next scene had them attending a wedding together, which must have taken place several months later - and he still looked mainstream! The temporary transformation to nudge her out of her idiocy was fair enough - but suggesting that he maintained the changes permanently to please her goes against the entire message of the film, which was really annoying.
