Monthly culture, January 2025
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025 07:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth09JAN25: Venom: The Last Dance (Marcel, 2024)
Missed this in cinemas: it's better than the second movie in the trilogy but not nearly as good as the first. Good cast (Andy Serkis, Juno Temple, Chiwete Ejiofor! and also Tom Hardy, not at his best). Laboured script, poor use of snippets of songs for mood, clunky structure. Best line: "so done with this multiverse shit!"
16JAN25: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra cond. Dudamel -- Barbican
I do like South American 'classical' and who better to perform it than the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra? Lorenz' 'Todo Terreno' was intense; Grau's 'Odisea' mostly interesting to me for the cuatro, a four-stringed instrument rather like a guitar which soloist Jorge Glem brought amazing sounds from; the second half was Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, which had me thinking about John Clute's wrongness-thinning-resolution model of fantastic literature, and how it might also apply to symphonies. The encore was Glem's own 'Pajarillo', a tour de force of European classical music including the Ode to Joy, Carmina Burana, and many more. His hands were blurs and his smile unfaltering. Wow!
Edited to add: and the orchestral encore was 'Danzon #9' by Marquez, whose 'Danzon #2' I completely adore -- and now I need to listen to all the others, because #9 was awesome.
17JAN25: Mars -- Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Scale model of Mars hanging in the Painted Hall... spectacular, and I found it easy to identify some features such as Mt Olympus, Tharsis etc. Afterwards, whilst critiquing the absence of women in the shop's selection of Mars-related SF, I encountered a fannish visitation, including fishlifters, bohemiancoast and coth. Beer ensued.
17JAN25: Nosferatu (Eggars, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Beautifully lit and shot -- at times I was reminded of Breughel -- and with many corner-of-the-eye details: a Slavic wooden statue moving, a cat fleeing an unworthy person. Nosferatu here is monstrous but, by the end, oddly tender. I reject this depiction of female sexuality.
30JAN25: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford/Mercado, 2022) -- Netflix
Saw this almost exactly three years ago in the cinema (review). Still great fun, sweet and warm-hearted.
Missed this in cinemas: it's better than the second movie in the trilogy but not nearly as good as the first. Good cast (Andy Serkis, Juno Temple, Chiwete Ejiofor! and also Tom Hardy, not at his best). Laboured script, poor use of snippets of songs for mood, clunky structure. Best line: "so done with this multiverse shit!"
16JAN25: Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra cond. Dudamel -- Barbican
I do like South American 'classical' and who better to perform it than the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra? Lorenz' 'Todo Terreno' was intense; Grau's 'Odisea' mostly interesting to me for the cuatro, a four-stringed instrument rather like a guitar which soloist Jorge Glem brought amazing sounds from; the second half was Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, which had me thinking about John Clute's wrongness-thinning-resolution model of fantastic literature, and how it might also apply to symphonies. The encore was Glem's own 'Pajarillo', a tour de force of European classical music including the Ode to Joy, Carmina Burana, and many more. His hands were blurs and his smile unfaltering. Wow!
Edited to add: and the orchestral encore was 'Danzon #9' by Marquez, whose 'Danzon #2' I completely adore -- and now I need to listen to all the others, because #9 was awesome.
17JAN25: Mars -- Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Scale model of Mars hanging in the Painted Hall... spectacular, and I found it easy to identify some features such as Mt Olympus, Tharsis etc. Afterwards, whilst critiquing the absence of women in the shop's selection of Mars-related SF, I encountered a fannish visitation, including fishlifters, bohemiancoast and coth. Beer ensued.
17JAN25: Nosferatu (Eggars, 2024) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Beautifully lit and shot -- at times I was reminded of Breughel -- and with many corner-of-the-eye details: a Slavic wooden statue moving, a cat fleeing an unworthy person. Nosferatu here is monstrous but, by the end, oddly tender. I reject this depiction of female sexuality.
30JAN25: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford/Mercado, 2022) -- Netflix
Saw this almost exactly three years ago in the cinema (review). Still great fun, sweet and warm-hearted.
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Date: Sunday, March 2nd, 2025 03:51 pm (UTC)