Chatiryworld

Light and blood

On Friday we went to the Botanics to see Spirit, a Chinese lantern show by the wonderful NVA (we will get to one of their landscape installations some day).  Cameras were not allowed (didn't seem to stop some people) but in a way this was good as it made us experience what we were seeing properly, through our eyes as opposed to a lens.  Press passes were available and I think the results can be seen here on Flickr.

Despite most of the other people attending being walking Edinburgh cliches (straight from Jenners tea rooms) we had a great time and were really impressed with what we saw.  The lights in the Palm House were low, and certain blooms, plants and details were highlighted with spotlights, encouraging you (we seemed to be the only ones not rushing through though) to examine the details in them.

Having taken a few days off to celebrate Jon's birthday, we went to the cinema this afternoon to see There Will Be Blood.  It was my first viewing, and Jon's second.  I'm sure he'll write a better review than me, but goodness it was amazing.  Has anyone read the book that it's based on, Oil!?  I know it's more a loose basing but I came away intrigued by the back story of the character of Eli.  Apart from having some kind of delusional mental illness, how did such a young person manage to become his community's spiritual leader?  I wondered why people were so ready to submit to him but in the same way that people were so ready to lease their land to the oil company for money, they were prepared to give their rationality to the church for salvation.  The acting is superb, especially by Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano, and their last scene is particularly powerful. 

Le monde du Chatiry

(I have no idea why I have made the word 'chatiry' male when I am female, it just seemed to go better with 'du' than 'de la'.)

Looks like I shall be in Paris for a few days in mid-January, for work, and lots of it, hence why Jon isn't coming too.  I get two half days free but I hopefully should be in a conference room with a stunning view of the Eiffel Tower.  I'm going via Eurostar which most people seem to think is insane when you can be there in an hour by plane.  Whilst I will fly, my dislike of it is great enough for me to be willing to be spend several hours on trains instead (but it's not as great as my dislike of boats).  It also means I won't be stressed out about it whilst I'm there and it's better for the environment.  I'm trying to set a good example to others.

In other news, we're hoping to see The Golden Compass soon.  I didn't get very far reading the books but may try again.  I haven't taken too much notice about all the fuss against it, because if I'm going to get annoyed about right-wing Christian fundamentalists it may as well be about something important, like sex education.  However, there's a hilarious post at the Friendly Atheist today, turning some of the fuss on its head.  The original article it links to is worth a read.  Another Friendly Atheist post talks about how The Golden Compass hasn't been as successful as producers might have hoped.  Even if you are not bothered about reading that, have a scroll down the article to read some reasons about why it, they may raise a giggle.  Apparently atheists don't have kids.  Someone want to tell my family that?

Umm...

...why is one of the adverts in my gmail for masonic clothing?

Feeling a bit better today, nearly reconsidered going through to Glasgow but glad I didn't as I went into town for a couple of hours and was knackered afterwards.  Lots of Christmas shoppers.  Really happy to see a small range of Liz Earle products now in John Lewis (strangely enough I once had a dream about this a few years ago), I am one of her many cleanse and polish devotees.

We've been watching lots of films over the past few days: Heima, The Gay Divorcee, 101 Reykjavik, Anchorman and My Fair Lady.  There has also been knitting, baking and killing zombies.  Guess which one of those activities was conducted by Jon.

And now I must go and serve up tasty and nutritious roast root vegetable risotto.

Some bits

Off work with a yucky cold, here are some bits and pieces.

A blog post combining atheism and knitting, hilarious advice on finding your pet cat.
A library card catalogue quilt.  Via Craft.
Listening to Martha Wainwright's album.  After seeing her duet with her brother on the BBC's Glastonbury coverage I had a listen on MySpace and liked what I heard.  The album is even better than I thought it would be.
We got the new Sigur Ros CDs, DVD and book yesterday.  We're saving the DVD for the weekend but the book it comes with is absolutely stunning, as Jon said 'the chatiry-est book ever'.  Full of gorgeous photos of Iceland including lots of blonde people in Lopi jumpers (and here's a photo of me in one as a small child).  Highly recommended and worth asking Santa for.  We plan to go to Iceland in the next couple of years, can't wait.
Sad news that the An Tuireann arts centre on Skye has gone bust (read in the West Highland Free Press but not online).  Glad I didn't apply for a job there last summer after all though, not that I think I would have got it anyway.

Seachd: The inaccessible storyline

We've just come back from going to see Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle at the cinema.  We really, really wanted to like it, set on Skye, in Gaelic, potentially lots of good storytelling, but I'm afraid it just didn't do it for us.  I don't want to pick it apart, as I support the idea of making films in Gaelic, in the Gaeltachd, but it came across as confusing and cliched with lots of elements that just didn't seem right (what kind of parent goes to climb a dangerous mountain on Christmas Eve, especially parents in an obviously close and loving family who look have lived in an area all their lives and must know the dangers). 

There were several folk tales woven into the film which I found more interesting than the main storyline, although they could have been made more of, in fact a great film could have been made based around one of the stories.  Each time a story ended, I wanted to know more, what happened next, especially with the kelpie tale.

We were also disappointed not to see more of Skye, if you want to see it in film, go and see Stardust, you get a lot more landscapes.  There are some stunning shots in Seachd, but it just feels like there could have been more.  Maybe the makers were worried about having too many dramatic landscape shots, I don't know.

I'm adding Seachd to the my list of island-films-I-really-want-to-like-but-they're-just-not-very-good.  Also appearing in this list are the Orkney-set films Blue Black Permanent and Venus Peter (actually I think Venus Peter is supposed to be set in Fife, but they filmed it in Orkney).  It's a shame, I really want to someone to make a fantastic Gaelic film, and unfortunately Seachd isn't it.  Keeping the story simpler and having professional actors (although it was great to see Dolina MacLennan) would probably go a long way.

Giggle

We've just got back from seeing Knocked Up at the Edinburgh Film Festival, what a great film, lots of laughter all the way through.  Like 40 Year Old Virgin, you're laughing with them not at them.  It was actually the UK premiere but as it wasn't in London it was very much a jeans and t-shirt affair.  The director, Judd Apatow, and two of the stars, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann (Judd Apatow's wife, their kids were also in it) were there to do a quick Q&A, which was really good.  I'm sure Jon will write better reviews of the films we've seen over the weekend so keep an eye on Falling Sky.  I'm really getting into the whole idea of seeing films at the festival, most seem to have a member of cast or crew present and it's nice to be able to applaud them (if you enjoyed it of course).  Hopefully we'll not move house next year and go to more films.

We needed a giggle after the night we had.  Yup, the neighbours again.  We woke up at 2am because we could hear their music, just as we were about to call the noise patrol people it stopped.  So we went back to sleep.  Until about 4am when it started up again.  We could hear all the lyrics clearly.  I called noise patrol immediately, and as they had knocked off the police came round.  We had to wait until about 5.30am but they got them to turn it down.  We're quite glad it came to that, even though we were kept awake, as they definitely deserved it.  Unfortunately due to the crap soundproofing in this building turning the music down wasn't really good enough so we went back to sleep in our own room (we've been sleeping in the spare bedroom as it tends to be quieter), also it didn't stink of smoke.  We got back to sleep but when we woke up at 9am they were talking loudly in the kitchen below.  I know people should be able to talk in their kitchens at 9am but it just felt like they were following us around!  Anyway, we got up then and they must have gone to bed soon after.  So glad we are moving a week on Thursday, we can't live like this (no one can).  We're absolutely sick of it, and the expense of this move will be worth every penny.

Round up

These are my little brothers, D (nearly 11) and R (9 1/2), playing on the pitch and putt course at Montrose on Thursday.  I joined them for the trek up, we went to a book launch for my dad's friend.  Photos here.

I slept badly at the Travel Inn and the scrambled egg from the all-you-can-eat-breakfast was horrible.

Great post from the Friendly Atheist answering a letter about what it's like to be an atheist.  I love Hemant's constructive and positive honesty.

Some good TV on at the moment.  Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe is absolutely hilarious, I wish I could press the red button on Freeview and have him do a commentary of what I'm watching.  Also good is Time Trumpet, and Monday sees the second series of Kath & Kim hit BBC2.  If you've got Freeview look out for the Hayao Miyazaki films showing on Film Four in the afternoons this week.  You've already missed my favourite, Kiki's Delivery Service, but Mr Nagl's favourite, My Neighbour Totoro is on Tuesday.

Think there might be some kind of festival going on in Edinburgh, but I'm not sure.