About Her
Elle E. is 24 and teaches in a state overrun by the spawn of yuppies. Therefore she is a full-time heretic much afflicted by spleen.
the colour green, reading, scribes and orators, ruffs, cuffs, Machiavellian villains and vindictive heroes.
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Last 10 Entries
What I'm Reading Now
The Boleyn Inheritance
Philippa Gregory
Blurb: The year is 1539. Henry VIII must take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. Although she is fascinated by the galmour of her new surroundings, she can sense a trap closing around her.
Reviewed
Book
Plato & a Platypus Walk into a Bar
Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
Rating 
This book cheered me up and enlightened me and made me distribute the jokes to everyone around me. I'm still laughing.
Oriental Ghost Stories
Lafcadio Hearn
Rating 
I only enjoyed "Kwaidan" - ghost stories from Japan. Especially strange were the tales 'Of a Mirror and a Bell' and 'jikininki', which further confirmed my suspicions that the land of the rising sun has got to be one of the most superstitious nations ever.
The Leopard
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Rating 
The slow decay of the Sicilian nobility at the time of Garibaldi's 'invasion' as seen by the Prince of Salina, Don Fabrizio. There's everything in this book to make it a classic.
Film
The Golden Compass
Directed By Chris Weitz
Rating 
Yet another movie that oversimplifies the book. Now anyone who's read Pullman's trilogy will know about the theories the author expounds at every chance. The movie cuts most of the 'philosophy' and insists on torturing us with extended scenes of the ruler-like Mrs Coulter and the monkey. If I thought there was a silver lining in all of this, it's Pantalaimon's voice. Truly gentle and androgynous creature. Sister says Dakota Blue Richards resembles the guy who played Faramir, David Wyndham. I think she's not off the mark.
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Directed By Francis Ford Coppola
Rating 
What can one say when confronted by drivel such as this? Who cares if it's Francis Ford Coppola? The man deserves no special hushed reverence. He's not Stanley Kubrick. The movie is unnecessarily erotic. Mina and Lucy become lesbians when the Demeter arrives; Jonathan Harker - portrayed to fantastic wooden perfection by the bewildered Reeves - gets bitten in the wrong places by topless bitch vampires; Van Helsing, my only favourite thing in Stoker's collective oeuvre, is as lusty as the rest of the crazies when he slobbers all over Mina's non-existant boobs. I could go on. Eroticism aside, what's up with the misleading title? It's Coppola's Dracula not Stoker's. What the director did was simple and effective - in toppling the integrity of Dracula's profusions of blood spewing adoration of his wife. If the Prince became an undead out of love for that special ninny portrayed by the ninny incomparable, Ryder, what was he trying to prove to her by raping her best friend in bat/wolf mode? Like, what was that for?
Papillon
Directed By Franklin J. Schaffner
Rating 
Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman make an unlikely pair in this film adaptation of a French novel of the same name. McQueen plays the eponymous protagonist bent on escaping from jail. Papillon's misadventures are supposedly based on the ex-con author's experiences. Whether his claims are genuine or otherwise, his dogged determination to be free at all costs is remarkable. The landscape depicted throughout is wet, muggy and surely infested with mosquitoes. The escape sequences are brilliantly shot. The audience, already in cahoots with the principal characters' desires to be free, is made to sit through nail biting moments of taut drama and tension.
Blogroll
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 9:07 PM
I'm listening to Aha!'s Take On me and I must say I'm not ashamed to admit that I like it quite a bit. Ten years ago, I would have poo-poohed on the idea of giving '80s bands a chance. But I notice that I like them. I'm no die hard fan and I don't know that many of the bands. However, my absolute favourite musician along with Bjork is Kate Bush, a fascinating woman of the age of big hair and awful shoulder pads. Notice how '80s fashion is on a comeback? Leggings, chunky jewellery, Back to the Future Nike sneakers.
I was born in '83, so I was never aware of the period's significance as I was doing all that growing up - until I reached the '90s and started to look around me, metaphorically speaking, and look back too. "Oh no! People could not have looked like that!" I must have exclaimed in my itty bitty world. How people change.
I'll go away. Before I bore you with platitudes.
Oh wait. One last thing. Read America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. It's all I do every day after work, lying on my stomach and laughing my big fat ass off and reading out the ridiculously funny bits to an amused Sister. She doesn't mind; she's crazy about Jon Stewart after all. Yeah, nice looking chap that one. Read it.
Comments:
*lol* the 80s was an interesting era. Bon Jovi videos from then are...erm...truly something :P Kate Bush was one of the more eccentric ones i think, she's a bit awesome though.
oh. hi btw. i found your site via Renate's :D
Jon Stewart is ten shades of awesome. i have that book...and STILL need to read it. ugh. one day, one day.
haha.. back to the future eh?
Ha, I own the America parody textbook. It's fantastic--pictures of naked politicians!
And Stephen Colbert!
Wattle at
9:57 PM, May 17, 2007
Sabrina at
12:38 PM, May 19, 2007