I...am...alive!

[nigeltde]

I have been gone for a long time. I have been reading, mostly, and also doing essays and watching movies. I read The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay, by Michael "Wonder Boys" Chabon, and it was very, very good and sort of about comics and the people who write them and the people who use them to escape in umpteen ways. I also read Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault, which I only just got to because when I read The Persian Boy I didn't realise that there was a prequen and sequel. I did like PB better but it was nice to see the beginning of his relationships with Hephaistion and, of course, Beucephalus, that wonderful, iconic moment, and to hear more about Olympias and Aristotle. I watched Master and Commander on DVD a whole bunch of times because now that I've read half the books I can just sit back and wallow in these characters and how funny and sweet they are, even if they're not really the same (who is this jolly man Davies?). And also perv on Mssrs Crowe and Bettany and Tom Pullings and the Surprise and all those beautiful seascapes. I also watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid again. Is there any better threesome than Butch, Etta and Sundance? I didn't think so. Everyone in this movie is so perfect and hilarious and pretty (and gay)

I saw the preview for King Arthur. It looks quite shitty, really, but I am not getting over Keira Knightley in that get up any time soon. I mean, seriously. That is a Guinevere I can, heh, get behind. Ioan Gruffudd looks so funny with a beard.

Oz is on tonight, SBS, 10pm, starting right from the beginning. I cracked up when I saw it in the TV guide. I had sort of taken it for granted that we'd never get it here. I look forward to revelling in Ryan O'Reily's atrocious sideburns again.

ETA: I have also been dropping subjects. I now no longer rank amongst those illustrious worthies, the Full Time Students but am, according to Centrelink, a Job Seeker, for the next six weeks until the semester ends, left with nothing left but a $60 textbook and that song from Grease, "Political Economy of the 'Global Villiage' School Dropout", echoing in my head.

Comments

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

OMFG OZ! Thankyou for the reminder!

Kavalier and Clay is wonderful, isn't it? I actually think it's a better read than Wonder Boys.

[nigeltde]

I really loved it, I stayed up far too late reading it. It's certainly one of the best books I've read recently but as I read WB ages ago I guess I'll have to reread that to compare them, oh no! :-D

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

I just found K&C to be a lot better written, unsurprising because it is so much more recent. I also found the characters so much more lifelike and appealing.

But, but! Tracy Bacon! How sad was that whole thing? ;-((

[nigeltde]

So true, and they hung around in my head for days afterwards, especially Josef.

Tracy Bacon killed me. Dead. Every time I thought I'd managed to control my bawling there'd be another reference to him - like that signed photo Thomas discovers at the end - that would set me off again.

[lydia-petze.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I really need to go back and read it again.