The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

An interesting film, and an intensely visually appealing one. For me, the aesthetic charm of this film was without question - it was a pleasure to look at.

However, no amount of aesthetic appeal can make a film good - it has to be endowed with a good plot, good script and good acting. Unfortunately, I felt this film fell down a bit on all three counts. In terms of the plot, whilst outwardly straightforward and linear, about halfway through the film goes haywire, and much of the sense and charm of the world is lost in chaos. There is a lack of continuity, an issue unfortunately enhanced by the fact that Heath Ledger was unable to complete his role in the film, due to some serious difficulties he had with being alive.

Terry Gilliam had to use three different actors to try and capture Heath's personality, and while it is claimed that this is effective because Tony (Heath's character) goes into the mirror three times, each with a different face, I feel that the great differences in acting style and demeanour really threw off any sense of consistency.

That, combined with the fact that the story gets extremely convoluted from about halfway, really put me off.

In terms of dialogue, I think that the film is generally adequate. It's far from bad, but it's hardly stellar either - there's a lot of entrenching stereotypes and capitalising on stereotypes, which for me outweighed the occasional clever line.

Finally, in terms of acting, I felt the film was quite lacklustre. The only performance that I can say I was really charmed by was Johnny Depp's brief cameo, though that may simply be because the part he played seemed almost written for his style of debonair, sarcastic charm. And while Heath Ledger (playing yet another original role) was head and shoulders above most of the rest of the cast, the fact that he only played Tony on the outside certainly detracted from his performance.

He played the character provided to him quite well, but I feel it's a definite pity he wasn't able to play the entire role, as I felt that would have really tied the film together much more tightly, and made it seem far less convoluted.

Obviously, the fact that Heath was unable to finish his part was not the fault of Terry Gilliam or the rest of the cast, and so they cannot really be fully blamed for the film not being appealing as it could be.

Still, there was one element of the plot that really excited me, because it was far from what I had expected in terms of character development. I'm not going to reveal what it is, but it was quite satisfying to think about it after the film.

I think this film is definitely worth a watch, but don't go into it with high expectations.

P.S. Perhaps part of the reason I detached from this film so entirely was because it didn't challenge me - it didn't make sense. The films I most like are those that challenge me to think about them (Donnie Darko and Memento as examples), and to work out how the world works, how the film is put together. This film didn't do that for me, too much of it was left unexplained, too much happened on screen without any form of reasoning. One of the people I went to see it with said they quite liked the film because of that, but myself and the other person both agreed that this was one of the film elements that really put us off.

I remember very few of my dreams, as most of you well know.

But about half an hour ago I remembered a dream that I had some weeks ago, a strange dream indeed.

I can't remember much about it, but I do remember that I was back in VCE, but this year, instead of last year. What I mean by that was that I had finished high school, got all my marks and everything, and then done VCE again. What kept striking me was that, despite the fact I had already done most of the exams, and two years of preparation on a subject would be ample time, I would do worse this time round. For all that my essay writing may have improved in the last year, it's no longer VCE essay writing, it's become even MORE prolix (and I thought it would hardly be possible :P).

I don't know, I'm not sure where the dream came from, or what it means. I'm just glad I'm not in VCE again. I mean, the year was quite fun, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the people that didn't have to work EXTREMELY hard throughout the year - in fact, having a few of those people around probably helped me - made me guilty for the lack of work I was doing, thus prompting me to actually get something done!

Things to do during the holidays.

• Have at least one group holiday at a beach house (which group of friends and which beach house - doesn't matter).

• A Trine evening.

• Attempt to sign up for some magazines/online newspapers as a volunteer editor.

• Work my way through some of the unwatched films and shows I have on my computer.

• Read A Requiem for Homo Sapiens.

• Catch up with the seven (that I can think of) people I haven't seen enough of (or at all) this year.

• Ice-Skating

• Moonlight Cinema.

• At least one picnic in a) the Rocket Park, b) the Botanical Gardens or c) Alexandra Gardens.

• Catch up on Japanese.

• Go Op Shopping

• Go back to the book grocer (all paperbacks $8!)
  

Quick post asking for inspiration and ideas from some of the most creative people I know.

In one of my subjects I've been given a brief for marketing a brand of organic dark chocolate. In other words, I have to think up a campaign for it, and write out a plan for that campaign.

Any ideas would be well and truly appreciated.

Edit: Some clarification - the campaign can range from anything regarding television, radio, posters to technologically advanced things, phones, 3g networks, the internet, pretty much everything and anything. Thus the brief is to take this organic dark chocolate and create a multifaceted campaign, targeted towards a specific demographic (or multiple demographics with multiple media utilised).

At this stage I'm thinking about emphasising the organic section, as that is what delineates it from other chocolate, and I think that highlighting that facet is a fairly good way to make it stand out amongst other chocolates.

Resipiscence

Okay, well, first and foremost, the promised photos of the recent fleshy addition to the Smith family:



Unfortunately I don't seem to have any of the mother and the bebbe, and I'd try and rectify that if I was really all that fussed. To tell the truth, I'm excited and happy for Ben and Sophie, yes, but I really don't have that much reason to be excited or happy for myself...I mean, sure, I have a nephew...but children before the age of about six I have very little time for :P
(Especially when they're babies who have colic and are thus reduced to crying unhappy bundles of flesh)

Okay, listing of the many distractions I've been using to avoid all sorts of uni work in the past few weeks...
1.
Jonathan Creek:
"Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches, and stars Alan Davies as the titular character, an eccentric magician's assistant who also solves seemingly supernatural mysteries through his talent for logical deduction and knowledge of illusionism."

(One of the best things about this show is the intro music, which is Danse Macabre.)

2.
FMA.
Bit unnecessary for me to put a trailer in here, since all the people that would be slightly interested in this have already seen it...but despite it being very anime-esque, and thus a little bit silly and offputting, it does get very dark and nasty in certain parts, which is kind of nice.


3.
Whose Line is it Anyway.
I don't think I need to introduce this. These best of clips are absolutely addictive (Maddy will can attest to this, as she too has watched all of them :$).


And finally...
4.
Fallout 3. This is, for those who don't know, a computer game. It's not bad, also kind of dark and nasty about facets of humanity. And it has quite excellent music (generally in the style of 1950s, post-ww2 cheery stuff), which has been stuck in my head for a while....examples;
Instrumental - Trumpets, clarinets & all.


Another Instrumental


MOAR (my favourite one)


Okay, enough of that...
Apart from all of those things, I've also been reading Pride and Prejudice (which I find interesting purely because of the superficially polite comments that are actually laced with arrogance, contempt and malice...96% of the novel is a drag to read [though not really hard to read...not sure why Dunny took 3 months to read it in year 10...[), leaving essays and work till far too late (and subsequently finding out that it's due a day earlier...) and numerous other such stuff.

Also got the FNS camp...well, today (Friday-Sunday), and I'm dreading it a bit. Not sure what it's going to be like this time round, as all the tutors who I used to attend FNS with won't be there, and most (if not all) of the tutees I've been working with for the past few years aren't coming...

But, on my return, I plan to be productive! Exercise and uni-work, that's my plan!
A jog in the morning and a ride in the afternoon, that's the optimistic outlook.
And in terms of uni work...I have to redraft all my professional writing, many essays and other stuff to prepare for.
Plan for the first week:
Monday - Off
Tue - Magazine Profile
Wed - PNA
Thurs - Uni for Japanese research essay
Friday - Dunny's for role play creation & prep
Sat - Book review
Sunday - Media release & New Media Promotion

Whether I will get all of those things done (also planning daily Jap revision, as I've sort of skipped all the kanji and vocab for this semester :$) and do the exercise...I'd like to say it's up in the air, but really, it's just not going to happen.


ANYWAY, other stuff to go get done, so..

(noun) ~ recognition of past mistakes and desire to do better in future.

Reificication (noun) ~ the process of mentally converting something (an abstraction, a person, etc) into a thing; the representation or expression of an abstraction in material form.

Ranula (noun) ~ a cyst on the underside of the tongue or the floor of the mouth.

P.S. One of the reasons this blog took so long to be made was because 'R' has such a long listing in the book, and thus I thouht it would take me a long time simply to choose the word...

Life can be so shitty sometimes. I guess that’s just the way the world works, that time moves on. I just got off the phone with my grandparents, who are in their mid-eighties and live in Noosa (Qld). Last week my grandmother had a minor stroke, and though she had a brain scan that showed no serious issues, everyone seems to share the sentiment that it’s the beginning of the end, that she doesn’t necessarily have all that much time left.

I talked with grandpa for a while, asking how the two of them were dealing with it, and everything else, and then I was able to speak with grandma herself. She generally has quite good recall, and most of the conversation was like that of times before – we talked about the weather up there, football, and of course my siblings, as family movements are always good topics. What shocked me most was how lucid she was, as everyone (dad, mum and grandpa) had mentioned that she had serious motor skill difficulties, and that often she would lapse into mumbles. What seemed really horrible to me was that she was fully aware of it, in fact we had a (brief) chat about how she felt.

Perhaps it’s my innate fear of my own mind slowly crumbling, but that slow degeneration seemed the most terrible thing of all. Especially considering she has such a sharp mind (I refuse to use the past form there), it will be a real tragedy. Grandpa gave off the sincere image of someone coping, but I can’t but sit here and think about how they’ve been married for sixty-odd years, and just how terrible it must be to see the one you’ve loved and cared for for so long slowly degenerate.

I know that time passes, and I’ve been through much of this process before (my other grandpa died fairly slowly [I can’t even remember what from, I have a feeling it was a congenital heart disease, but I was about seven, so I didn’t commit it to memory L] and his wife was slowly consumed by Alzheimer’s). It’s just no matter how often the process happens (okay, so it’s only happened three times…I’m far from an expert), it just seems to really rile me.

I got off the phone and wanted to punch something and cry simultaneously. As if this amalgam of emotions wasn’t enough, Ben and his partner (Sophia) have just had their first child, so it really does seem like change is coming all at once.

I’m visiting the new parents tonight (hopefully), so I’ll blog again soon [and might even have photos! :O]

Whut?

Most of my recent blogging thoughts have been relegated to the blog I have to keep for Culture, Media and Everyday Life - and since I only have so much blog in me usually, nearly all of it's gone into that, because it's like 30% of my mark for that subject :P

I'm just going to preface everything with a brief statement - in the last ~17 hours, I have spent about three of it awake. Thus my thoughts are more than a little muddled, and if that translates into text here, well, at least you know why.

A brief overview -
I am, personally, quite well. Things seem to be going relatively good on most fronts.
Ben's first child (I believe they intend to name it 'Dorian' [Though they seem unsure on the stress on the 'o', could be 'Door-i-an' or the 'do' sound from 'Doc' -ri-an], though the consensus on the surname is...not available) was due Wednesday, but I'm presuming from the lack of calls that nothing has happened there (everyone kept saying it would be late because it was their first pregnancy, and it seems as if the unthinkable has happened - common wisdom has prevailed).
However, my grandmother had a small stroke on Monday, and though she was scanned - they found no major blockage - she returned home still paralytic in places and unable to speak coherently. Mum flew there last night, so she should be with them now, trying to work out what's going to happen. She's of the opinion that it's 'the beginning of the end', and is trying to work out some sort of aged care for them.

Umm...the reason I was so tired last night was that I had three assessments on the day (literature essay - 800 words, professional writing PNA - 800 words, Japanese quiz), and despite the first two not being long, and the third not being worth tonnes, I still ended up getting up at 6 to finish the essay and piece, and then crammed Japanese at uni. Hopefully they all went well, but there's not much I can do about it now.

I had work Monday and Tuesday, as usual. But I also had an additional shift on Wednesday, replacing someone who was away. This was quite good, though I was a bit nervous prior to it, because the first hour I was going to be helping a child with Down Syndrome, as well as a couple of other kids at the same time. However, that turned out just fine, he was courteous and generally pretty diligent, though every now and then his attention wandered (which made one of the activities particularly hard, as it required direct attention for about a minute and a half, we had to do that one a couple of times before he finished it).

Anyway, on the way to work I had a bit of an accident - tumbled off my bike, loosening the handlebars (need to go visit papa to use his Allen key again :P) and bruising/gashing much of my right side. Apart from stiffness and a bit of pain when I move around, there aren't really any repercussions, so I consider it a good crash.

Then on the way to uni tomorrow, as I was waiting for a bus, another accident happened. It actually happened to the bus that was pulling into the stop, the one I was readying myself to jump on to. The bus driver came in a bit sharply, scraping the right side of teh bus along a telephone pole. Fortunately, because the windows are constructed out of safety glass, the three windows that came under pressure just crumbled, though with a loud bang. The people sitting next to the windows were showered with (mostly) harmless glass pellets, and I sat and watched the people on the bus staring out through the hole in the bus. Most of them didn't really move much, apart from turning to talk to the person next to them. I saw a tram coming and ran to the nearby tram stop to jump on that, and by that stage quite a few of the bus-riders had realised that the bus wasn't going to be going anywhere with a hole in the side, and jumped off.

There's probably a lot of other things I had intended to put here, but they don't come to mind right now. So until they do,
Ciao.

Quaintise

“In the new millennium, media culture is more important than ever in serving as a force
of socialization, providing models of masculinity and femininity, socially approved and
disapproved behavior, style and fashion, and appropriate role models…[It] arbitrate[s]
social and political issues, deciding what is real, important, and vital.”
Douglas Kellner, Media Spectacle (2002)

Watched spartacus and the fugitive yesterday. The latter remains to me an excellent film.
Might be going shopping for things that are wearable tomorrow. You know, those clothes things?

(noun) ~ 1. ingenuity; subtlety, cunning
2. a ploy or strategem.

Palinoia

Well, the story is done. I tried to tea-dye it (you know, that thing you do to paper to make it look older...that isn't burning the edges), tried being the operative word.

The story itself is atrocious, but frankly, its intention isn't to get the children to vote for it (what we were told was the intention), but rather to show that I put in effort and am dedicated etc etc. All of which is a lie, but a convenient one, considering that I'm trying to convince my employers of my reliability...:D

(noun) ~ The compulsive repetition of an act until performed perfectly.

Obloquy

I went from $7.05 to $736.65 in my bank account today.

It is a good day.

(noun) ~ 1. being generally spoken of in an abusive or derogatory manner; calumny; vilification.
2. a state of notoriety, disgrace or ill-repute resulting from abuse or distraction.

Edit 1: Also lost about three kgs in the last few weeks...only noticed because my pants were a bit slack, something that hasn't happened in a very long time. Time to chow down, eventually.

Edit 2: Special mention for all the Labyrinth fans, 'oubliette'; a secret dungeon with only one access point, usually hidden, through a trapdoor at the top.