State of the me [sheldrake]

Are there any objections to me staying in bed for the rest of my life? Good.

My moods are like the shipping forecast. Good. Good. Moderate becoming good. Moderate becoming variable. Complex low, slow-moving and filling. Stay in bed forever, veering westerly. Rockall, Malin, occasional rain. Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes, Southeast Iceland. Severe gale 8, decreasing 4 or 5. And now, The Archers.

Blah.

Things I have done this weekend: chocolate brownies - bit overdone but nice. Finished knitting a shawl which has mutated over the months from Christmas present to Mother's Day present to birthday present to... something that will one day be finished. And now it is... nearly. We finally watched that Pete & Dud documentary, Not Only But Always, which was good. Rhys Ifans was scarily like Peter Cook. I wrote a sort of Pete & Dud fic in 2002. Doesn't time fly, eh? Now I feel all sad and nostalgic about lots of things. Sad stories...

I'm still on an Alan Bennett thing, it seems. There was an article about him and The History Boys in last month's Sight and Sound -- interesting. There was one bit that particularly struck me:

In Bennett's work, it's the innocent who get it in the neck. Or if not the innocent, the timid: those who fail to grab the main chance and get shafted for their reticence [...] "The biggest handicap for a writer is to have had a decent upbringing," Bennett muses; raised not to fib or brag, he has been thrown back on modesty and his disabling scruples. One of those scruples involves his determination to distinguish between timidity and virtue. "Shy is a gentle word," he reflects, "soft, blurred but sometimes murderous." Shy is usually trampled by swagger on the cinema screen, but Bennett insists that we pay it attention.

I really like that - 'soft, blurred but sometimes murderous'. And again:

Alan Bennett is loved by his public, occasionally to a disconcerting degree. His voice, spoken and written, has woven itself into a certain strand of British culture, yet his status as national uncle doesn't quite square with the scalding anger that courses through his autobiographical writing and inflects his other work. His diaries rage at crassness and unkindness. Ignored by a receptionist while making a hospital appointment: "I long to drag her across the counter and shake her till her dentures drop out" and exhort her to "Be nice, you cow!"

So there you go - some reasons I like Alan Bennett. Gah, anyway. I'm sick of myself ... who has fun stuff? Anyone?

May

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9 1	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

who has fun stuff?
not moi. i don't even have any gingerbread. sorry, duck.

b.x :(

[link] [reply]

Is ok. I don't think I really feel up to fun stuff, anyway. I was just clutching at straws, as one does. I have enjoyed all your PEDW posts, btw. I was having a rather stressful week at work, and I looked foward to reading about your breakfast. :)

[link] [parent] [reply]

I have enjoyed all your PEDW posts, btw

*feels your forehead*

are you okay, duckling? *anxious*

i didn't even have brekkie today, just coffee.

b.x :)

I can post you some semi pornographic paintings an graphics of boys touching each other? Does that count at fun?

Oh, of course! :)

Ummm.. when I sadi semi pornographic, I sort of meant quite graphic. Click on them for bigger pics.

I never noted down who the artists were when I downloaded these I'm afraid. They are quite pretty though. :)

Gosh! It's turned awfully GAY around here, all of a sudden! Hee, thanks love. :)

Um. Gulp.

Russian Poppy Seed Cake!! Sounds like fun stuff to me. :)

Hi, Duckie!

Alan Bennett really is marvellous. *nods sagely*

That DOES sound fun.

Alan Bennett really is marvellous.

Is true. I just ordered Untold Stories along with the customary other two things to get it above the free deliver threshold. I should be banned from Amazon, really.

deliver-y.

*pets*

You need not fear the typo!

Amazon is evol.

*nods even more sagely*

I think 'soft, blurred but sometimes murderous' could be my new journal subtitle. But changing it from whatever it currently is would be effort, so maybe not.

This weekend I have eaten chinese takeaway and watched King Arthur with the new roommate, although for various reasons (one of which involves me ~~not having left this room yet~~ only having gone far enough to make a cup of tea today) she is not yet my actual roommate, being in a different building some small distance away. And it's raining.

Fun stuff? I don't know. I found a post wherein

rageprufrock asked for comfort fic and received many replies, and I have mostly been reading them. I think maybe now it's time for a break, so I might put some music on and do some knitting instead. Or maybe just one more little story...

I think that would make an excellent subtitle. I've been meaning to change mine to 'The 'T' is silent, as in 'Fox',' which is a Peter Cook quote. But, as you say -- effort.

I loved The History Boys. I do have some problems with it, though, which makes me different from every theater critic I've read so far. And I feel really silly, but who is Alan Bennett? Is he the author?

<---- ignorant American here.

I enjoyed The History Boys very much, although I thought it was far from perfect.

Here's Alan Bennett on Wikipedia. I recommend his Talking Heads TV monologues if you can get hold of them.

Agreed, it is far from perfect. Out of curiosity, what was your take on it?

Thanks for the link.

Ah, sorry about the delay.

Well, I basically thought it had some very very good bits in it, but wasn't sure how well it all hung together. Although that's generally not a great problem for me. Also, it seemed to me very obviously made for the stage rather than the screen.

I loved the songs and the film clip recreations in the classrooms, and I loved Hector talking to Posner about poetry - about reading being like 'someone reaching out a hand', and I loved the Irwin/Dakin flirting. And I loved Mrs Lintott.

I did wonder how I might have reacted to this film if I hadn't known it was by Alan Bennett, being a fan and being familiar with his earlier work. Particularly the ending, with Posner's seemingly inevitable development into another Hector - the repressed gay teacher who 'doesn't touch the boys...'

That's as much as my brain can manage tonight - killed by NaNoWriMo. :)

Hey, I'm late. Sorry!

Heh. When I asked what you thought of it, I thought you were talking about the stage play -- the only thing I'd seen at the time. Having seen the movie now, I would say I prefer it to the play. There were elements of the play that upset me, which they either changed or did away with entirely in the movie. Also, the character of Posner is treated much better in the movie than in the play.

Posner was my absolute, absolute favorite, and while in a way it makes sense for him to turn into another Hector, I'm sorely tempted to write fic where he makes peace with himself -- possibly after Lockwood's funeral, definitely before he's sixty -- and finds himself a nice boy. Possibly Scripps. Or maybe Will Stanton.

I'm sorely tempted to write fic where he makes peace with himself -- possibly after Lockwood's funeral, definitely before he's sixty -- and finds himself a nice boy. Possibly Scripps. Or maybe Will Stanton.

Were you to actually do this, I should be forced to follow you to your house and take up residence under your bed in order to stalk you more effectively and just generally creep you out as reward for being brilliant.

So you'd better not.

:)

~~Do it!~~

I have been trying all day to write out something, but the fact that I am not British and not Alan Bennett tends to get in the way. You might hate me if I wrote that story for my unending abuse, misuse, and neglect of British speech patterns.

Can I tell you the plot?

The weather this weekend does seem conducive to compulsive couch-based activity, doesn't it? (at least down here in SW London atm)

iseult_variante linked to this the other day, and it amused me highly

http://www.voyezleseffetssecondaires.ca/

Turn on your speakers. It starts off in French, but all you have to do is click Passez au Salon, and wait for a sec, and English will appear at the lower left. Then click through to the Living Room, select a product, and then click for side effects.

And I presume you've seen the awesome OK Go treadmill music vid you youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NINJQ5LRh-0

oh, and there's a great collection of lightbulb jokes on

resonant8's lj here

http://resonant8.livejournal.com/139822.html?page=2#comments

Um, that's all I got at the moment.

Yay, thank you! I shall work through these when I get home from work. :)

What shawl what shawl?

(oh *come on* you knew i was going to ask!)

This one!

Now just has to have its ends woven in and be blocked.

Wow this comment is late...

Oh COOL! did you enjoy making it? was it your first shawl? i've really got into shawl-making recently, though it's more about the knitting of them, than the wearing of them at the moment.

http://del.icio.us/oscarcat/shawl :)

Ah, seems I never answered this. How very not unlike me. :)

I did enjoy making that shawl, but I'm not entirely convinced it was a success. It was kind of small for a shawl. My mum was ecstatic on first being presented with it, but after she'd walked around the house in it and had it fall off a number of times, she came back and said, 'How about if I sew some buttons on it?' To which I responded with a sort of ungracious howl of rage. I told her she just wasn't draping it right, all right? and did she realise just how long it took me to make and so on and etc. To which responded that of course, it was lovely and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, she just thought... buttons...

It was that sort of Christmas, really.

I watched the trailer for The History Boys, and I have to admit that I'm a little confused by it. Are they trying to peg the film as...upbeat? Because the play...really wasn't. Or at least, I didn't find as such. I still do want to go see it, because I adored the play when I saw it at the National Theatre, but I'm hoping that they didn't have to change TOO much to adapt it to film.

And Alan Bennett is very much love. ^_^

I haven't seen the play, so I can't really compare, but I did think the trailer was somewhat misleading. In fact, there was some ominous and annoying grumbling going on from people sitting behind us who obviously felt they'd been lured in on false pretences. I liked it - bits of it very much indeed. I'd love to hear how you think it compares to the play, so do go and see it!

I should get an Alan Bennett icon, I think.

Genius post, Ms Caesar.
Fun things from Poule's World:
1. new words!
Palm sex.....when you point your palm pilot at someone else's and swap stuff.
Nerd bling....is wearing your memory stick as a necklace.
2. Lustfulness
I have been watching Depeche Mode Live in Milan. Closely. It is a mystery as to how Dave Gahan's trousers stay up/on. One I would like to solve in a practical way.

poule x

Thank you, my dear Poule. :)

I've got my eye on you, Sheldrake....

Eeks! hehee. :)

(deleted comment)

I so would!

Have replied to your other journal.

*has death fit at sight of shipping mood forecast and then The Archers* I've recently got into The Archers! Can I be British now??

Also: Torchwood. Where are the downloads? I need to know.

You can now be British, because I say so. :) I always catch bits of The Archers, but I never really know what's going on. Last time I think Ruth and whatsisname were having marital problems.

Torchwood! Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm. Be there or be square or tape it.

I don't need to tape it because (sshh) I have Other Sources now.

Ruth and David are having problems, and she's mucking around with Sam in the cowshed.

I am thinking of slashing David and Sam. I've never slashed radio before. (You have, haven't you?)

RUTH AND SAM???? OMG!!!1

Have I slashed radio? It sounds like the sort of thing I'd do, but I don't remember actually having done it.

But you must slash David and Sam!

You don't know about Ruth and Sam? So is this something really controversial in the Archers universe? I've only got into it very recently and mainly because of Ruth and Sam.