Peace and Stupidity

[tamaranth]

Have slept past 9am for the first time since can't-remember-when. It was lovely and I feel ever so much better. I ♥ my bed.

Haven't been here since last Friday morning, and I'm not playing the catch-up game. Have I missed anything you think I should have seen? RSVP!

Financial chap, vexingly absent yesterday -- when I discovered the reason I was so broke this month was that I had paid four pension premiums rather than one* -- has just called, at length, to let me know what they are doing about it. As he points out, Independent Financial Mercenary gives out more damage points than Ignorant Customer, and anyway financial institutions are all stupid and behave like three-year-olds. So: am still broke, and will be until the end of next month, but It's All Right.

Yesterday evening I made it to the pool for the first time in a while: outdoor pool is closed due to vindictive desire to inconvenience parents over half-term mould, or something, but indoor pool was lovely and cool. Indeed, much cooler than the outdoor pool ever feels when the thermometer reads 29o. (Wonder where the thermometer on outdoor pool is: if not actually submerged it may be measuring steam).

I'd forgotten how zen lane swimming can be. By about the fifth iteration I've stopped worrying about my fellow swimmers, and just take their behaviour in my stride (or stroke): a little bit of my brain keeps count of lengths, and lengths-as-fraction-of-goal, and starts working out the volume of water, average speed, other minor mathy stuff. Without wishing to spew similes or metaphors, I stop fighting my way through the water and go with the flow, and it's smoother and faster and easier and requires much less thought.

Mind you, the showers at the Oasis do tend to counterbalance the swimming-zen ...

Then off to see The Day After Tomorrow with lproven, who exceeded expectations by turning up 30 seconds before the film started -- thus missing Keira Knightley in leather straps the King Arthur trailer. The cinema was packed, have seldom seen it so busy mid-week. Film itself more appealing than I expected -- few melodramatics, only the occasional unnecessary Micro-Crisis (aka Small-Scale Tragedy in Midst of Disaster) to keep the wheels turning, and hardly over-acted at all. Spotted a great many stereotypes and at least one Probable Inaccuracy. That is, isn't the Gulf Stream so-called because it comes from the Gulf of Mexico, rather than up the coast of Africa as per the US Government map? (This would explain a great deal).

The effects -- the whole reason I was there -- were spectacular, and worth the price of admission (which, as a UGC card holder, was effectively nil). However, I am afraid to admit that this is certainly a work of fantasy to rival Tolkien, as it featured a totally incredible event: a US politician admitting that he, personally, was wrong.

Shall get dressed now and do Domestic Stuff. It seems a very long time since I have done any (and the stickiness of the kitchen floor supports this theory). Hmm: three weeks, I think, since I was here and awake for more than a couple of hours. ::writes name in dust::

ETA: But I have better things to do than housework! ... More on Quicksilver (flawed, but delicious) in a later post. Perhaps I can arrange to lose the 30,000-word sheaf of BSFA proof-reading for a week or so.

---

*Have switched pension, on advice of Financial Chap, from Company A to Company B. Company A took premiums in March and April, then finally transferred policy on 20th April: they have refunded the premium they took at the beginning of May. Company B, on the other hand, got their greedy hands on the policy and looked at the date I started the transfer -- 17th March -- and decided to grab premiums for March and April and May in one grabby swoop. Evil grabby bastards. They are going to refund my overdraft fee -- how sweet of them! Meanwhile, I will be taking a 2-month premium holiday -- to balance out the double payments -- just as soon as my Financial Chap has rolled the dice a few more times.

Comments

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

thus missing Keira Knightley in leather straps the King Arthur trailer

I'd be interested to know whether the trailer moved you at all -- I saw it when I saw Troy on Tuesday, and thought it not remotely exciting. Clive Owen is just wrong for the part -- a television actor without the range the role requires. Judging by the (non-)reaction of the rest of the audience, they think like me that the film, when eventually released, will be rather flat and disappointing.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

"Clive Owen for James Bond" - yeah, RIGHT. It's a bit of a shame that King Arthur is likely ot be dull, and will probably flop. I like the idea of stripping it back to historical (supposedly, but I'm not qualified to comment) basics to what the root of the legend may be. If done well, it could be great.

But generally, I think it would make a better book (Oh hang on, Mary Stewart already did that).

And to cater to today's multiplex zombies, you need big round tables, shiny armour, lots of magic and mysticism, holy grails, and a sexy Morgana (oh hang on, John Boorman already did that).

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

see above re better book. Apparently he's aiming away from the mysticism -- which is certainly an interesting take. But look at Troy without gods: it makes the story much less intelligible.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

for 'above' read 'below'. Had forgotten order in which comments appear on page ...

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

But then, Troy was based on one text. And Gods were an integral part of the story. But Arthurian legend has many strands, is multi-source, multi-theory, and therefore is a far more flexible thing.

I like the idea of a 'real' 5th century general doing 'real' heroic things, thereby forming the kernel of the legend. Hence why if done well it would be interesting - but it still wouldn't be what people expect, and would still probably fail. Even if it had Brad Pitt in a skirt.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

The Lantern Bearers (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140312226/), as I believe I may have already mentioned ... Ask swisstone, he'll agree.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Have you got a copy I could blag?

BLAG? What the hell? Sorry, I must have been having a "Sweeney" moment.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Parts of the trailer did move me -- Guinevere properly clothed, standing in the snow: earthworks: banners -- but they had little to do with the actual cast, who seem mis-cast. It'll be pretty, though.

Actually, thinking about it, they moved me because they reminded me of parts of The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliff -- by far the best post-Roman descent-into-the-Dark-Ages Arthurian novel I have ever read (and I say that having read it repeatedly since the age of 9).

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

we too went to see TDAT last night - and remarked on exactly the same thing viz-a-viz the American politician.

as I said - tosh, but very entertaining tosh.

[jhaelan.livejournal.com]

Not necessary to catch up but wanted to say Thank You for making me go to Paris (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jhaelan/185669.html)

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Oooh, how nice of me!

Have I let you come back yet? <g>

Very happy to have made a positive difference ... Hope to see you soon and catch up: it's been ages