A daughter of Eve

Mirthful

I finally got around to seeing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday (in my defence, it opened on 26 December here), and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was absolutely lovely. As someone who loves C.S. Lewis’ seven novels about Narnia wholeheartedly and unconditionally, I have obviously been a bit worried.

First I worried about the children. Will they manage to cast someone who is young enough to be a believable Lucy and also good enough to play the difficult parts? And Peter? It’s a bit of a tall order, really. And Susan? How do you pull off that mixture of maturity and of childish and historical innocence (it was a less cynical age, after all, and Susan, though sometimes irritating, really shouldn’t be sassy)? And Edmund? Poor Edmund. Not a fun part to play, is it?

Then I saw the trailer and thought: Wow. They found them!

Then I saw the trailer again and thought: Huh? What do they think they’re making? Lord of the Rings?

So I started worrying about the soundtrack and the battle scenes, which, from the trailer, seemed to have run amock a bit. The soundtrack seemed somewhat majestic and, well, pompous. And the battle scenes seemed to be on a far grander scale than I had imagined, and involving a lot of unexpected creatures. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of Orcs. Not that there’s anything wrong with Orcs… Uhm, well, you know, obviously there is something fundamentally wrong with Orcs, but not in the sense that they shouldn’t be in movies, but they don’t belong in THIS movie. From that brief glimpse of trailer it looked a lot like the producers had been at Peter Jackson’s jumble sale to find the costumes.

However, neither the soundtrack or the battlescenes seemed out of place in the movie, and there weren’t really any Orcs. There were a lot of unusual (and butt-ugly) creatures, but none that couldn’t have been in Lewis’ mind when he wrote:

Ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read the book — Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets. Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins.

There were echoes of LotR, but what can one expect? There are echoes of LotR in the Narina books. Or, if you like, there are echoes of the Narnia books in LotR. Lewis and Tolkien were pals, you know, and they’ve been looting (please don’t take the choice of the word “looting” to mean that I disapprove) the same mythologies for inspiration. So that was all good.

I’ve noticed some critics have talked about how the battles have been “sanitised”, presumably because of this being a Disney production, meaning that you see very little blood and that it’s therefore a more child-friendly movie than it would otherwise have been. Well, perhaps. I don’t think there was much blood. There was possibly even a little less than you might have expected to see in a real battle. But let me tell you that when two warriors in full battle dress charge each other and Warrior A drives his sword into Warrior B’s stomach, I don’t need to see blood. I know it’s not going to be Warrior B’s happiest day. If you really need to see blood, go see a splatter movie, I thought this was horrific enough. Besides, the white which is terrifying. Just as she ought to be.

So. All Good. Except the people some rows behind who were giggling (possibly at something other than the movie, but still) when Lucy and Susan are sneaking up to see what Aslan wants to go to the Stone Table for in the middle of the night. It’s not, to put it that way, the funniest movie scene I know.

More shuffling

Mirthful

Because I have nothing else to do (Ha!) I’m importing the really old blog entries from the first blog (published through blogger) which have languished in the archives since I converted to MT back in 2003. It’ll be nice to have all the entries in the same format for searching and backup purposes, besides, glancing through old entries is kinda fun. So far we have April and May 2002 (it takes a while as the only way I can figure is to add them manually as entries and alter the timestamp to reflect the time they were originally published) – which means the blog, or rather my career as a blogger, will soon be four years old. Aah, look, my baby is all grown up. Or something. Whatever. It’s too late to continue now (at least I’m getting too bleary-eyed) so I’ll stop and go do something else. Like read.

Cold

Mirthful

But, as Theresa says, probably worth it. At least the world was very pretty when I got the bus to town this morning to finally pick out a pair of new specs at the opticians (it seems I’ve gone from -1.75 and -2.5 to -2.75 and -3.5 one the right and left eye respectively over the last three years – it’s becoming a problem). The trees were all covered in frost and I got stuck on the Pooh hum lines “And hoar-frost twinkles on the trees, how very readily one sees that these are whose – but whose are these?” (read the extended entry for the rest of the hum), which would have been less of a problem if I’d remembered the rest of the hum.

At the stop by the teacher’s college a guy dressed in a bright orange turban and matching robes with a bright blue padded jacket over got on the bus. His appearance cheered me up mightily, being such a splash of colour in a rather white, grey and black world.

Voice on the stereo: Halvdan Sivertsen – H

Commenting confusion

Mirthful

I have now imported all the comments from the Little Voices blog. Unfortunately, I made a couple of stupid mistakes when importing the entries, one consequence of which is that some entries have aquired new ids and the consequence of that is that some of the comments are now tied to the wrong entry. So if something seems confusing, that’ll be why. Or it might just be the regular confusion of everyday life, of course, don’t blame me for that one… Anyhoo. Will try to fix. To start with will try to unpublish all switched comments.

Mayfly 2005

Mirthful

button05.gif

Watch this space.

Lots of happiness. Not enough books. Lots of change. New (old) town. New job. New friends. New husband. New life. Eagerly anticipating the next.

(Note: I’ve edited the last “sentence” after publishing on the Mayfly site, as a better wording came to me on the bus.)

Ow

Mirthful

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May it bring peace and love to all mankind, and lots of great books and great single malts to me.

I’ve had a good weekend in Trysil. Snowboarding was fun. We only tried a few runs before giving up, actually (being lazy, I suspect), though I managed to sprain my thumb (by catching most of my own weight on it when falling) before we were through. Not a particularly good idea, though it’s such an ignoble injury that even I find it hard to take it seriously. But it does hurt. It was my right thumb, too, and it’s amazing how many little things become frightfully diffucult when your right hand is only partly operational. Two days later it no longer hurts constantly, and I can even move it about a bit without wanting to scream, but I still can’t really grip anything with it and it still hurts whenever I tense the muscles in my hand in general, so using the mouse hurts (need to move it over to my left hand, I guess) and this typing is slightly uncomfortable.

Hence I’ll stop now.

2005

Mirthful

En oppsummering, selv om året ikke er helt slutt ennå. Har man kommet lenger enn i fjor, mon tro?

1. Hva gjorde du i 2004 som du aldri har gjort før?
Giftet meg. Jeg har ingen planer om å gjøre det flere ganger, heller, selv om det var fantastisk morsomt.

2. Holdt du nyttårsforsettene dine, og vil du fortsette å holde dem i år?
Som i fjor: Jeg har aldri nyttårsforsetter. Når det er noe jeg burde gjort noe med prøver jeg å gjøre noe med en gang i stedet for å vente til nyttår (ikke alltid jeg lykkes, selvsagt).

3. Ble noen som står deg nær mor/far?
Vel, jeg ble tante (by marriage). Er det nær nok? Og Nicolette fikk jo barn. Og Pia. Jøss. There must be something in the water…

4. Døde noen som står deg nær?
Nei. Heldigvis.

5. Hvilke andre land har du vært i enn Norge?
Storbritannia og Sverige (no surprises there, then). Ja, og så en svipptur til Danmark.

6. Hva ønsker du deg i 2005 som du ikke hadde/fikk i fjor?
Fred på jord. Fast jobb.

7. Hvilken dato vil du huske best, og hvorfor?
18. juni. Derfor.

8. Hva er det største du oppnådde?
Hver gang jeg får sånne spørsmål føler jeg meg veldig lite ambisiøs… Jeg synes liksom ikke jeg oppnådde så mye i 2005, på den annen side føler jeg slett ikke at året var bortkastet eller noe sånt. Jeg fikk jo en jobb, da, det var jo nyttig, selv om den så langt bare er midlertidig.

9. Hva er den største fiaskoen?
Den derre sodden vi liksom skulle ha til nattmat i bryllupet. Den var det ingen som hadde kjøpt inn. Så da ble det ingen sodd. Oops. Ja, og så klarte presten å si Arvid i stedet for Arve, men heldigvis ikke før i “talen” – hadde han spurt om jeg ville ha Arvid som ved min side sto vet jeg ikke hva jeg ville gjort.

10. Har du vært syk eller skadet?
Forkjølet til stadighet. Tror jeg bør begynne å ta solhatt eller noe. Og så har jeg jo denne herre plantar fasitten, da. Egentlig er jeg visst ganske frisk…

11. Hva var ditt beste kjøp?
Hm. Leiligheten, kanskje? Tross vannlekkasjeproblemene og alt det førte med seg er vi fortsatt veldig fornøyde.

14. Hva brukte du mest penger på?
Leiligheten. Definitivt. Nest dyreste innkjøp var laptopen. Og vi har vel kjøpt litt whisky i år også. Og brukt litt penger på å reise til Skottland. Blandt annet.

15. Hva gjorde deg virkelig virkelig virkelig glad?
Arve. Stadig vekk.

16. Hvilke sanger vil for alltid minne deg om 2004?
Hitravalsen. Og Hitra, Frøya og Fjellværøya.

17. Sammenlignet med samme tidpunkt i fjor, er du …
Lykkeligere eller ulykkeligere? Lykkeligere
Eldre eller klokere? Mest eldre. Føler meg ikke så mye klokere
Tynnere eller tjukkere? Litt tjukkere
Rikere eller fattigere? Omtrent det samme

18. Hva gjorde du for lite av?
Leste bøker. Kan alltid bruke mer tid på å lese bøker.

19. Hva gjorde du for mye av?
Spente skuldrene foran datamaskinen. Kjenner det nå.

20. Hvordan feiret du jul og nyttår?
Jul hos svigers for første gang. Det var helt ok, selv om jeg gjerne skulle sett Kjetil og Kristine i jula. Nyttårsaften skal tilbringes i Trysil på invitasjon fra Linda og Fredrik. Det blir sannsynligvis gøy, jeg gleder meg.

22. Var du forelsket i 2004?
Å ja.

24. Hva så du helst på TV?
Beat for Beat. Parkinson. Diverse Animal Police programmer på Animal Planet.

25. Hater du noen nå som du ikke hatet på denne tiden i fjor?
Nei. Tror i grunn ikke jeg hater noen. Har ikke fått mer respekt for George Bush siden sist, men er ikke sikker på om man kan si at jeg hater ham heller, for eksempel.

26. Den beste boken du leste?
Vel, jeg leste Aubrey/Maturin serien om igjen, men av nye bøker (altså første-gangs lesing) gjorde vel Case Histories, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Harry Potter og 44 Scotland Street/Espresso Tales mest inntrykk.

27. Hva var den største musikalske åpenbaringen?
Jeg vet ikke om jeg hadde noen musikalske “åpenbaringer” i 2005. Jeg fikk meg noen fine nye plater, men jeg oppdaget liksom ikke noe nytt, tror jeg. På den annen side kommer jeg nå på noe jeg “oppdaget” i 2004, og som jeg derfor skulle skrevet i fjorårets oppsummering, nemlig Robin Laing, og siden vi først fikk kjøpt noen av platene hans helt på tampen av 2004 begynte jeg forsåvidt ikke å høre noe særlig på dem før i 2005, så sånn sett kan jeg kanskje slippe unna med å kalle det en 2005-“åpenbaring”. Vi sier det.

28. Hva ønsket du deg – og fikk?
Ny jobb.

29. Hva ønsket du deg – men fikk ikke?
Fred på jorden.

30. Den beste filmen du så?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Charlie og sjokoladefabrikken. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (hadde ikke sett den før).

31. Hvordan feiret du bursdagen din?
Stille og rolig for en gangs skyld – middag hjemme hos mamma og pappa, med svigerfamilien som gjester.

32. Hvilken enkeltting ville ha gjort hele fjoråret mer tilfredsstillende totalt sett?
Hm. En lottomillion eller to ville ikke vært så dumt. Fast snarere enn midlertidig jobb hadde gjort seg.

33. Hvordan beskriver du din egen klesstil?
Tilfeldig. Fortsatt.

34. Hva holdt forstanden oppe?
Arve.

35. Hvilken kjendis likte du best?
Jeg hadde stor sans for Robbie Williams når han kuppet Først & Sist. Ellers følger jeg liksom ikke så mye med på hva kjendisene foretar seg.

36. Hvilken begivenhet opprørte deg mest?
Den totale mangelen på løsninger på verdens fattigdom som G8-møtet resulterte i.

37. Hvem savner du?
Linda bor for langt unna. Det gjør forsåvidt Linda også.

38. Hvem var den beste nye personen du ble kjent med?
Hanne, kanskje?

39. Hvilken nyttig erfaring har du gjort deg?
Nyttig? Vannlekkasjer blir ikke borte av seg selv, selv om naboen håper det.

40. Siter en sangtekst som oppsummerer året?
I’ve been in the wrong place long enough to know:
I’m in the right place now.

Ah, peace

Mirthful

…and quiet. I’m at work. And, you know, funnily enough there doesn’t seem to be anyone else here. What? No students at Uni during the Christmas holidays? No lecturers?

Actually, I’m not quite alone – I mean, it wouldn’t do to take a stroll down the indoor street (known as “gata”, naturally, “gata” meaning “the street”) in the nude. Not only is it way too cold, but there are janitors and such. But not very many others.

But definitely peace and quiet. So I’ve hooked the zen up to the computer speakers to keep me company, and just now, for some unfathomable reason, it’ playing Debbie Gibson’s “Lost in Your Eyes”. Ah well. I was going to listen to Robin Laing, but found that I must have imagined uploading the songs to the zen – so I’ll have to wait until I get home to the CDs (and I will have to try to remember to actually upload them at some point).