Saturday 30 April 2011

That Aspergery Thing

You know The Old Man has this phyzog problem at the moment? With a Great Big Scab Thing on his cheek from the miracle ointment?
Well, the good news is that The Scab fell off this morning.

Oh but that is such a relief.
I mean - for me, never mind The Old Man.

"How does it feel?" say I.
"I don't really like to feel it yet." say He.

I say: "Say what?"
He say: "Well it feels kind of rough...."

Say I: "No. Idiot. I mean how does it feel, as in .... sore, raw, uncomfortable... Why are you so literal? Is it that aspergery thing?"

Friday 29 April 2011

Phew! The Wedding

At last.
They finally plighted that troth thing.

There. I am referring to it.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

S-S-Steam Thinking: Japanese Anime, Goth-Lolis, etc.

Thought I'd bounce around up here again for a bit.

Cos I am reading up about Steampunk in Wikipedia... and the article mentions Hayao Miyazaki's anime, in particular "Howl's Moving Castle", and I do really love that one cos I never grow up (Click the link for a trailer viewing.)

And I am thinkin that maybe there's a steampunk connection with the Japanese street fashion thing of girls dressing in pseudo Victorian stuff. We are talkin Goth-Lolis here - "Gothic Lolitas".

So I should enjoy the film "Steamboy" . But sadly I don't. I remember quite a lot of "Bang! Bang! You're dead". So much so, that I get bored with it. I also think that the film is package heavy, content light. And the trailer (click on the "Steamboy" link above) shows that it does indeed look very sumptuous and kind of breath-taking and also...well.... Steampunkish.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Kneehigh: The Wild Bride

Yes I have indeed booked them tickets.

Going to see Kneehigh's The Wild Bride at the Asylum in August. Not much information about it yet. But I like em enough to give it a go whatever.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Kneehigh's Asylum Early Chough Offer: Last Week of

Ooer Missus!

Gotta get a move on and book for this summer's Kneehigh Theatre's Asylum events.

Until 30th April they've got a discount ticket price for Cornish postcodes. Then for the whole of May they've got a discount price for other postcodes. Full price booking from June 1st.

Loved seeing Kneehigh's "Red Shoes" last summer at the Asylum. (You can read that post again by clicking here.) So I'm gonna try for "The Wild Bride" this August.

Come on people - get booking.

Friday 22 April 2011

Fracking Animation




Can't help but pass this on.
Found it via the "Drawn" Blog.

The animation is the work of UK based illustrator Steven Millington, aka Lord Dunsby, on behalf of Earthjustice.

They specialise in American issues but.... "fracking" can happen in the UK too. Take a look at this Guardian article.

Thursday 21 April 2011

The Old Man and his Mush 4: The Dreaded Ointment

All right, already. I do know that part of my faithful audience is particularly faithful to News of The Old Man. So this is I... updating that faithful part.

You may remember that, to add to his ordeals, The Old Man had developed a naughty cancery spot on his physog. (Don't worry... these things are widely spread down here in Sunny Cornwall.) And so The Old Man has had to slap ointment on the thing just about every night for the last six weeks.

(You can remind yourself of the details by checking out the relevant Post here.)

Last Friday came the last ointment slap.
And not a moment too soon, say he.
He does not want no more of this. And wanders around bemoaning that they shoodda just cut it out, and let that be an end to it.

Truth to tell, instead of the small pink area that originally graced his mush, The Old Man now sports a zonking great face scab that looks more angry than The Old Man hisself.

I do feel a bit sorry for him. He says he feels like a freak.
A few days on from the last ointment slap, it must be said that the scabbed area is looking a bit calmer.

And now we wait to see if the skin doctors will bother to recall him. (You cannot tell anymore.)

But I tell you... as far as I understand the history of this ointment... it was originally developed for a far more intimate place of application. Knowing what I do now about its effects - I have to say - should I be that unfortunate (or interesting) as to develop that original complaint...
I would tell the prescribing doctor: "No way, Jose!"

Wednesday 20 April 2011

A Pessimist Tries to Get to Grips with Luck

So I tells The Old Man that he should be a Thurber cartoon. (I am a fan of Thurber.) Don't ask me why I tells him this. It just comes into my mind as The Old Man is pondering the nature of Luck.

The Old Man's logic seems to run with the concept that if you narrowly escape Something Bad Happening, this is not Good Luck, per se. Because Real Good Luck would see to it that you would be Nowhere Near the Bad Occurence at the time and would therefore.... Not Be At Risk at all.

My unthinking optimism replies that if you spend your life in bed with an umbrella over your head on the basis that this avoids being in the vicinity of a Bad Occurence....and therefore the Risk of Bad Luck... then some would say you have No Life at all. And no possibility of Any Luck, Good or Bad.

We amuse ourselves - as we do - by swapping dictionaries to find the root of the word "Luck" (Low German) as opposed to "Chance" (Old French).... not to mention Fortune, Fate, ....

And of course the Irony is that I am the more likely to spend my life in bed under an umbrella - of the two of us.

But I am right about The Old Man and the Thurber connection. Cos I find this Thurber quote, don't I. And it's just right for The Old Man.
"He who hesitates is sometimes saved."


Monday 18 April 2011

Coming Down to Earth?

Oh! Oh! Oh! Think I may be drifting back to Earth.

But I don't wanna.

Good news is... that the days are beautiful, mild, and sunny. So I am gardenin. Today I look up from neighbourly chats to see a male yellowhammer on top of the hawthorn opposite. A beautiful canary-yellow bird, lit up by the sun.

In the garden, things are being cleared up and new stuff planted. So once or twice we bend down to "rescue" displaced baby slow worms, placing them back in the undergrowth.

These are wonderful, smart, little creatures - about 10 cms long and half a centimeter wide. Pale bronze with a zoot-suit sharp, black stripe along their flanks. Little beauties. Google Image "Baby slow worms" to get the idea.

Friday 15 April 2011

Mrs Doonuthin's Doin' Somethin

Don't look now but...
... that Mrs Doonuthin has dragged herself out of the Slough of Despond and is starting to play with her animation puppets again.

You can see the result on her own blog.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. It's only a movement practice.

But it will be enough for her to sit down and uncork another Bottle of Red in celebration. Strange people these "artists". They get the hump dreadful easy.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Steampunk On My Bookshelf

Well it turns out, as I frantically try to research the title of a book I once read that qualified as Steampunk ... that it's sitting on my own bookshelf.

I knew I liked it. Must have. 'Cos I bought it.

I been remembering the imagery you see - the docks of High Haven and the Victorian sailing ships travelling the solar system. As the the book's jacket says:

"...the pleasure gardens of the Moon... the perilous Asteroid Sea and the cruel canyons of Mars where Angels fill the red sky with their ravenous cries..."

It's the splendid "Harm's Way" by British sci-fi writer Colin Greenland.

Dare I read it again? Or will I be disappointed after all these years?

Synchronous Steam

There I am, going on about Steampunk, and look... today is the birthday anniversary of that Cornish Father of Steam, Richard Trevithick.

A well known name down here, boy. And a man celebrated with his very own Trevithick Day in Camborne.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

No Steam Punk for Me

Thought I'd make a change in my reading habits... (the homeopathy effect) ... March off to my local library armed with the names of some Steam Punk authors. (See previous post).

Look in the Sci-Fi section. No Steam Punk there.

Check out authors under general fiction. Zilch. Nada.

Homeopathic calm a little dented at miserable shelf search results. Come home with the usual bunch of foreign crime fiction books: US , Icelandic, Scottish, Swedish.

Disappointed bout that Steam Punk sci-fi.
Whoo-woo-chugga-chugga-hisssssss-chug.

Monday 11 April 2011

Moon Tranquility

Whilst I am bobbing about on Moon Tranquility

.... I am reminded that I haven't checked out an AbeBooks link to their own article on "Steampunk".

So for all you sci-fi fans... let's read it together.

Sunday 10 April 2011

Homeopathy Treatment: Day 2


One tablet last night. One tablet this morning.

Voila. C'est tout. Finis.

Feeling very calm.

Saturday 9 April 2011

The Tooth of the Matter

Last week my tooth started to play up like it does every now and then. I goes to the dentist. After some x-raying and humming and aah-ing. I'm told it's likely a root under the crown what was fitted a couple of years ago. I'm smilingly given some possible plans of action that sound drastic, and range in price from one to three new house windows, I reckon. And new windows is what we need sometime soon, I thinks.

It takes a while for the shock to set in.

Meanwhile, after discussion with The Old Man, I decides to find a homeopath and see what might be done.

I duly see the homeopath this week, and have a lovely two hours talking all about myself. She warns me that teeth are teeth and may just have to come out... and that's all there is to it. But seeing as I am also talking about migraines, she thinks that she can try tackling them. She's sending the remedy to me in the post. Then I get in touch for a follow-up in a few weeks time.

I feel really sorted all that day. Next morning I wakes with a headache. Seems I only have to talk about headaches and their possible triggers - to start one. Never mind - I'm sure it's just so's I can paint a more accurate picture. And this one only lasts 24 hours instead of the usual three days.

Let me set the record straight. I have no problem with the "placebo effect". What I say is, if a sugar pill and a sympathetic ear sets me to rights. Roll on placebos. Particularly in opposition to a dental bill of literally thousands.

Anyways, this morning my two tiny tablets arrive in the post. One for tonight and one for tomorrow morning. Whoo-woo. It's Jekyll & Hyde time.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Travels with my Film-Life: Sweden

We's just been visiting Sweden via Roy Andersson's film: "Songs from the Second Floor".

'Cept... it's not exactly visiting Sweden... It's... erm..
It's entering an absurdist or Samuel Beckett version of Sweden. References and flavours that crop up after I watch the film are a collection of "B"s: Bunuel, Beckett, and Pina Bausch... with a little bit of Laurel and Hardy thrown in, especially the impotent rage of Oliver Hardy.

Beautifully and painstakingly filmed, with a succession of vignette scenes played to a fixed-point camera, in only one scene does the camera move. Finding this out, I realise why I am drawn to theatrical comparisons. In the sense of viewpoint, it's as though I am watching a proscenium theatre piece.

The occasional foray into white-faced makeup makes me think of silent films; the repetition of phrases and themes ... Beckett and Bausch; the procession of self-flagellating stockbrokers, and the serried ranks of bishops ... Bunuel.

But make no mistake, this film is not just a hotch-potch of references. It is a dark, funny, surreal, coherent piece, in which characters wander through office buildings, psychiatric wards, cafes, and an urban landscape dominated by an endless traffic jam. A railway station and a desolate, fringe-urban "plain" fill out the film's setting.

Andersson took four years to complete the film. He doesn't use storyboarding to plan scenes and shots - but walks through the scenes and situations with himself, crew members, and actors - until he has built the scene and the camera viewpoint that he wants.

Music is by Benny Andersson. No relation to the director. But yes. That - Benny Andersson. The man from Abba. I'm not an Abba Girl but ... this film's music progresses around my brain as I write.

"So who is this Pina Bausch then?" ask you.

Aah... wonderful, wonderful dance-theatre maker who died in 2009. The Old Man and me managed to see performances in London and Edinburgh. In fact, some years ago, I book tickets for a performance at Sadler's Wells. The performance coincides with The Hospital calling The Old Man in for treatment of an extreme nature... and he told 'em:

"I ain't coming in til I seen this show."

And neither did he.

The last piece of hers that we were able to see...was in 2002. We'd just moved to Cornwall. But we went back up to London to catch it. And glad we were too. This is a sample of the same piece, "Kontakthof" from another performance. (Click on that link if you want to know more.)

But I digress.
I love this here Andersson film. So I tries to find a link for you to watch a sample. Here is a trailer for it... If you are not ready for "some scenes of an adult nature" as they say .... then don't click here.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Mothering Sunday

Today is for Mothers. So let me say now that I did have one...

When we was cheek by jowl, things got scratchy and irritable. And I really saw no common ground between us. But now that she has passed on, I am able to say ..... that I am my Mother's Daughter.

Mindful of her, I wear a pinny when I eat - because of the boiled egg down my front. In her honour I swear like trooper whilst in the kitchen. In her honour I build Castles in Spain.

At her knee, I learned to read books. I make stuff and accumulate what my Father would call "schmutter"; I plant things in the garden... and tell them they're beautiful. I cook soups.

In her honour I rail around and get angry, but I continue. Like her, I sometimes bury my head in my hands... and have a little glass of sherry. In her honour I put on a hat and some lipstick.

And in her honour I imagine the possibility of being able to do something, somewhere, sometime ...


Saturday 2 April 2011

Two Things I Love...



....the music of Lhasa de Sela and animation. Just found this video for a Lhasa track on You Tube.

Play and Enjoy.

Friday 1 April 2011

The Money and the Mouth

A somewhat socialist friend of ours... long, long ago... would roll around on the floor laughing when we discussed politiks, etc.
"You're not socialists" say she, "You're anarchists..."

Can't be... I'm just a sweet Little Old GreyDoll.

One thing is for sure. It's time to put some money where the mouth is.

So I's switched me electric from Monsieur Le Nucleaire EDF .... to Windblown in the UK Good Energy.

We-e-ell. Haven't got time for this Government to go Green... Cameron had to take his windmill down cos the neighbours objected. Think he's decided being Green ain't a selling point anymore.