Curiouser and curiouser
Jul. 23rd, 2009 11:37 pmAhah!
Watch.
Watch.
Last night I saw "Watchmen" at the cinema in Roppongi. I haven't read the graphic novel, so I knew very little about it, aside from the very mixed reviews it received. As far as![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jennerose told me, it was quite faithful to the book, however, one can always get away with meandering and plotlessness to a degree in a book, but in a film it's much more difficult to pull off. There were numerous moments when I wondered when exactly something was going to happen, and when it did happen there was so little anticipation of it that I couldn't really care about it. I felt the Minutemen were superfluous to the film, and should have stayed in the opening credits, as they took too much away from the main characters. And the sex scene in Archie was probably one of the most squirm-making I've had to endure. Just cringeworthy.
Yet there were moments when I enjoyed it. I thought some of the dialogue was good, and it was visually pleasing... but... Anyway, I may read the book and see how I feel about it then.
In other news, my school was visited by the sister of the company president on Wednesday. I thought something odd was afoot, as a friend of mine in Gifu had told me about a visit her school had had from the same woman, which involved the liberal flinging of salt all over the school, causing the manager to go into panicked vacuuming mode before the students arrived. I therefore came as no surprise when a little woman came wandering into my classroom unannounced carrying a huge bag of yellow salt, which she proceeded to distribute across my carpet in varying amounts, according to whatever seemed to be offending her. She was muttering something in Japanese, but broke off momentarily to address my rather confused countenance:
"Good luck!" she said in English, gesturing at the bag of piss-coloured salt.
"Err, thanks." I replied.
"You can clean it up afterwards," she proceeded to tell me in Japanese, before waddling out of the room.
She took particular offense to another teacher's classroom, where she not only doused the carpet, but also the chairs, table, stereo and bin in huge handfuls of the stuff. He wandered in half-way through, unaware of what was going on, to be met with a terse "Tidy! Tidy!"
Good luck? Well, in the process of clearing up, one manager cut her finger open, and the vacuum cleaner broke and is now unusable, meaning we have to dip into the school fund (that's the fund for buying nice things for school, not hoovers) to buy a new one. We also found that she had deposited small paper packets of salt beneath the desks and behind the doors of the school. I began to wonder if there may not be some sort of exorcism going on here, and whether or not I should go put some more makeup on incase one of the Winchesters turned up.
I actually bothered me a good deal and I spent that night having a fit of insomnia, trying to figure out what I would do if the company went under. I mean, I guess that's why she was there - trying to fix financial problems with salt. Should my little ratty self be preparing to jump ship? This visit has destoryed what little confidence I had left.
I keep seeing adverts to go and work in Okinawa for the summer doing beach stuff. I would take them up on the offer, but then I remember sunburn and debts.
jennerose told me, it was quite faithful to the book, however, one can always get away with meandering and plotlessness to a degree in a book, but in a film it's much more difficult to pull off. There were numerous moments when I wondered when exactly something was going to happen, and when it did happen there was so little anticipation of it that I couldn't really care about it. I felt the Minutemen were superfluous to the film, and should have stayed in the opening credits, as they took too much away from the main characters. And the sex scene in Archie was probably one of the most squirm-making I've had to endure. Just cringeworthy. Yet there were moments when I enjoyed it. I thought some of the dialogue was good, and it was visually pleasing... but... Anyway, I may read the book and see how I feel about it then.
In other news, my school was visited by the sister of the company president on Wednesday. I thought something odd was afoot, as a friend of mine in Gifu had told me about a visit her school had had from the same woman, which involved the liberal flinging of salt all over the school, causing the manager to go into panicked vacuuming mode before the students arrived. I therefore came as no surprise when a little woman came wandering into my classroom unannounced carrying a huge bag of yellow salt, which she proceeded to distribute across my carpet in varying amounts, according to whatever seemed to be offending her. She was muttering something in Japanese, but broke off momentarily to address my rather confused countenance:
"Good luck!" she said in English, gesturing at the bag of piss-coloured salt.
"Err, thanks." I replied.
"You can clean it up afterwards," she proceeded to tell me in Japanese, before waddling out of the room.
She took particular offense to another teacher's classroom, where she not only doused the carpet, but also the chairs, table, stereo and bin in huge handfuls of the stuff. He wandered in half-way through, unaware of what was going on, to be met with a terse "Tidy! Tidy!"
Good luck? Well, in the process of clearing up, one manager cut her finger open, and the vacuum cleaner broke and is now unusable, meaning we have to dip into the school fund (that's the fund for buying nice things for school, not hoovers) to buy a new one. We also found that she had deposited small paper packets of salt beneath the desks and behind the doors of the school. I began to wonder if there may not be some sort of exorcism going on here, and whether or not I should go put some more makeup on incase one of the Winchesters turned up.
I actually bothered me a good deal and I spent that night having a fit of insomnia, trying to figure out what I would do if the company went under. I mean, I guess that's why she was there - trying to fix financial problems with salt. Should my little ratty self be preparing to jump ship? This visit has destoryed what little confidence I had left.
I keep seeing adverts to go and work in Okinawa for the summer doing beach stuff. I would take them up on the offer, but then I remember sunburn and debts.
Ghosts and Strange Men on the Balcony
Mar. 12th, 2009 11:14 amAs I write two men are on my balcony, heavy-breathing and wielding power-drills. This would be something horror-like if I weren't sitting here lazily eating rice and miso soup and wondering what I'm going to do about getting hold of the third season of Supernatural. There's a 3 season box set going on Amazon for £27, which with shipping will be closer to £40. Hmmm... I'd download it, but I've got 6Gb on my hardrive and the whole series is 5Gb or so. This dilemma has arisen because I indulged myself last night by watching the last three episodes of Season 2. I started off with the Djinn episode, and then thought I 'd watch Part 1 of "All Hell Breaks Loose", and well, I couldn't leave it hanging like that, could I? So, I might treat myself...though I should probably buy more shampoo, and perhaps some food, before I do that.
I didn't get round to getting any food shopping done this week, though it has turned out rather well, as my stockpiling habit is paying off. It's quite impressive what can actually be achieved with some two-week old tomatos, a carrot, some spinach and a pot of tomato sauce I wisely froze that last time I made a batch. I now have sag aloo sauce for the weekend (if I remember to buy potatos), kidney bean chilli for today and Saturday, and a pot of carrot salad. Yay. And I also have 3000yen, which I haven't spent yet. Hurrah.
The men are dropping things and muttering "Are?" to themselves.
So, onto the ghosts thing. In the last week or so I've had three very vivid ghost dreams. Really vivid. Last night, needless to say, I also had a ghost dream in which I was in a house with the ghost of a child who later became a serial killer in adult life. Is it even possible in ghost-lore for your soul to revert back to childhood? We we walking about the house, and then dug up the bones of various animals this little girl had been killing for years. I blame the stupid amount of horror I've been imbibing lately: Supernatural in inhuman quantities, stories by Joe Hill, My Bloody Valentine 3D.
I should actually mention the latter, purely for comedy value. Kate and I went to see MBV in 3D in Ikebukuro. We got weird 3D glasses and popcorn and settled down to watch the film. Only, as soon as it started we realised it was dubbed in Japanese... At first I was a little disappointed, but actually I probably managed to work out about 50% of what was being said. Of course, being so well-versed in horror films means you can pretty much lip-synch the dialogue, or infer what's going on anyway, so I'm not crediting my Japanese skills for this one. Anyway, it was all a bit silly and predictable, but thoroughly enjoyable. Perhaps I'm a little odd for finding it funny when someone's eye is leaning out over the audience on the end of a pickaxe...
I didn't get round to getting any food shopping done this week, though it has turned out rather well, as my stockpiling habit is paying off. It's quite impressive what can actually be achieved with some two-week old tomatos, a carrot, some spinach and a pot of tomato sauce I wisely froze that last time I made a batch. I now have sag aloo sauce for the weekend (if I remember to buy potatos), kidney bean chilli for today and Saturday, and a pot of carrot salad. Yay. And I also have 3000yen, which I haven't spent yet. Hurrah.
The men are dropping things and muttering "Are?" to themselves.
So, onto the ghosts thing. In the last week or so I've had three very vivid ghost dreams. Really vivid. Last night, needless to say, I also had a ghost dream in which I was in a house with the ghost of a child who later became a serial killer in adult life. Is it even possible in ghost-lore for your soul to revert back to childhood? We we walking about the house, and then dug up the bones of various animals this little girl had been killing for years. I blame the stupid amount of horror I've been imbibing lately: Supernatural in inhuman quantities, stories by Joe Hill, My Bloody Valentine 3D.
I should actually mention the latter, purely for comedy value. Kate and I went to see MBV in 3D in Ikebukuro. We got weird 3D glasses and popcorn and settled down to watch the film. Only, as soon as it started we realised it was dubbed in Japanese... At first I was a little disappointed, but actually I probably managed to work out about 50% of what was being said. Of course, being so well-versed in horror films means you can pretty much lip-synch the dialogue, or infer what's going on anyway, so I'm not crediting my Japanese skills for this one. Anyway, it was all a bit silly and predictable, but thoroughly enjoyable. Perhaps I'm a little odd for finding it funny when someone's eye is leaning out over the audience on the end of a pickaxe...
A quick update from work. My 6pm cancelled so I'm sitting in the office wondering why my head isn't with me today. All week I've woken up late, having slept through my alarm. Given that the alarm is normally by my ear, this is not good.
I should do something constructive for tomorrow's lessons...
Later I will be cooking Aubergine Parmagiana (sp?) and watching "パプリカ”、which I've heard good things about. Let's hope the subs I downloaded for it aren't for the Tinto Brass film of the same name.
Am also about to finish David Mitchell's "Number9Dream", which is going to take book of the year, unless something astoundingly good comes along. There is a particular pleasure gained from reading books in the country they are set in. Those little bits of information you miss in England - like knowing what a Lawson is - add a familiar, engaging touch.
Today's weather is very English, rain rain rain all day. The kind of rain that gets under your clothes. I'm going to think about what else I'm going to do with my next class.
I should do something constructive for tomorrow's lessons...
Later I will be cooking Aubergine Parmagiana (sp?) and watching "パプリカ”、which I've heard good things about. Let's hope the subs I downloaded for it aren't for the Tinto Brass film of the same name.
Am also about to finish David Mitchell's "Number9Dream", which is going to take book of the year, unless something astoundingly good comes along. There is a particular pleasure gained from reading books in the country they are set in. Those little bits of information you miss in England - like knowing what a Lawson is - add a familiar, engaging touch.
Today's weather is very English, rain rain rain all day. The kind of rain that gets under your clothes. I'm going to think about what else I'm going to do with my next class.
