The Book of Na'Lon

Well, well, well. That's 99 minutes of my life I could have spent better.

The Marquis and I just watched Eragon on DVD. I had borrowed the film from a colleague who is one of those strange half-muggles that are fairly common these days: people who are into Harry Potter and the LotR movies, and are convinced that these are high art. The are an uncritical sort of fans. Don't get me wrong - I do not look down on these people - the opposite rather - I envy them a little and I am chuffed that fantasy has entered the mainstream a little... The fact that my colleague was a half-muggle alone should have warned me. As should the fact that she said the film could have been great.

Understatement!

It had Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich and Robert Carlyle and a few dishy young actors: a cheekboney elf-girl and a couple of bit parts (one of which should have been more than a bit part if they'd stuck to the story). It also had Alun Armstrong whose performances in New Tricks I enjoy... It had beautiful landscapes. It had a dragon with some insanely cute scenes.

Pity it didn't have a script. Never again shall I scoff at Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's adaptation of LotR. It is high art in comparison.

The Marquis' comment that sums it up really was: "I'm not drunk enough to watch this movie."

All that said... I enjoyed reading the book, derivative though it was in places (it was also rather 'written by a seventeen year old') - Let's just say I felt very unsophisticated for liking the book. Even so, I might reread it and I'd certainly like to read Eldest now. Maybe I am also turning into a half-muggle. Or a quarter-muggle.

Went to see this yesterday. It was very good. The effects were so good, I didn't really notice them!

Won't talk about the rest of the film yet, to avoid spoilers for others.

But, yay!

Today I returned from a fantabulous day at pellegrina. Even the 95-minute delay on the train home hasn't managed to dent my feeling of satisfaction...

So what did we actually do?

( 10 things to do when you are on (a writing) holiday )

the_marquis is just reading lj on our connection and so I am composing this off-line.

Yesterday was a strange day: I did some marking in the morning then had a meeting with a student about her dissertation and potential independent studies project. She’s thinking of putting together a presentation about some of the issues facing people that are long-term carers for loved ones with chronic illnesses – sounds really good! This girl really has improved so much since last year. Teacherly warm glow…

After that I did some marking (yuck!) of first year study skills portfolios. It was quite depressing because most of them didn’t do what asked for, despite repeated explanations. The final two I marked were pretty good, however. But I guess I’d better start on Tuesday with another workshop in using the Harvard Referencing system.

Had lunch with The Marquis, Ceejay, Marxist and Fierce and we had a good laugh about Lala, which Fierce sidetracked into a discussion of words for ‘many of’ – like skein of geese, flock of sheep, swarm of bees… and issues of Lala?

Did some more marking and started to prepare Monday’s session on Depression and psychological disorders during adolescence (cheerful, eh? I so know why I don’t like developmental psychology!), but didn’t get very far before my hair appointment.

I decided not to do anything too drastic just yet, but had the bottom layer taken out, which helps my hair look fuller. I also had a fringe cut. Not to sure about it, but it’s okay I guess, and certainly looks a little more purposeful than the annoying straggly bits I’d been having hitherto. We shall see what it looks like once I have washed it all again.

Back to work after that and back to the lecture for Monday. I managed to get the handout prepared and did a fair bit of the reading I’d meant to do – the session should be okay. But it did take me until about 19.30 until all was done. Because I knew I was going to be late, I called the Marquis and asked him to come and bring me some dinner, so that we could go to the cinema after I’d finished the lecture prep, which he kindly agreed to do.

So it was that we went to see The Last Samurai, which I enjoyed very much. It was a well-paced, well-told story, quite moving in parts. I was particularly pleased with hearing all the Japanese, and amazed at how much of it I recognised from my very brief recent bit of Japanese exchanges on the Soapy Place with pellegrina. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I understood it, but it had a very definite ring of familiarity in some cases. The other thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the visual execution of the Japanese village – much of it reminded me of what has become familiar about feudal Japan from reading Usagi Yojimbo. There was one scene that made me think of the Neko Ninja – I turned to the Marquis and he whispered ‘Neko Ninja’ before I could open my mouth! Anyway. I enjoyed the film, even if some of it was very sad indeed.

Emither update: still on ‘Connected’. Enjoying it very much. Wonder what’s going to happen next.

are just kind of weird, without anything particularly weird happening...

( So here's another ramble )