Reading, watching, listening

[altariel]

Been reading:
The Silent Woman: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath by Janet Malcolm
The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston
No Telling by Adam Thorpe
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Skellig by David Almond

Been watching:
Cabaret
Solaris (remake)
Repeat of Jonathan Creek
Opening credits of Neighbours (to see if I recognized anyone)

Been listening:
Self caterwauling song from Cabaret (but why is it the one sung by the Hitler Youth?)

Comments

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're not working completely solidly!

What did you think of the 'Solaris' remake? I've never seen the original, but I enjoyed the remake a lot (and would have done even without George's bottom, but that was certainly a bonus ;-))


why is it the one sung by the Hitler Youth?

That's what earworms are about - whatever you're going to end up wishing *wasn't* going through your head. Can you do 'Springtime for Hitler' instead?

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

(but why is it the one sung by the Hitler Youth?)

Your long-repressed fascist desires are finally surfacing?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

What's your take on The Silent Woman?

[windswept1.livejournal.com]

Did you like Artemis Fowl?

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Self caterwauling song from Cabaret (but why is it the one sung by the Hitler Youth?)

Because it's a very powerful image? That bit always makes me shiver, then cry.

The songs I always end up singing (well, I think I'm singing. YMMV) are 'Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome' and the one that starts 'You have to understand the way I am, mein Herr'.

[cruisedirector]

You'll appreciate this: I interviewed J.G. Hertzler for Mania magazine several years ago, and at some point we were discussing DC-area dinner theater from his youth, and he started to sing "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" to explain something or other about the acoustics in this one theater. I'd never heard him sing before. His voice is wonderful. And I have this on tape somewhere, him singing the first verse of that song. *g*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*looks at icon*

I'm not sure they're entirely repressed.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I did, a great deal. I thought it was pretty crappily written, but it was very energetic, and very funny (a paranoid centaur in a tinfoil hat? Cool!). I'm looking forward to seeing the film which I suspect the author is hoping it will be turned into.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a very clever, subtle, well-constructed book. She's very disarming in being up-front about her own biases. I actually got more absorbed in the relationship between Anne Stevenson and Olwyn Hughes than in the Plath-Ted Hughes.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Love that icon.

Solaris: I haven't seen the original either. Very absorbing, very atmospheric. And only 95 minutes long - bargain.

Earworms: Don't be shtupid, be a shmartie...!

Awghrrnnrngh!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's cool!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That whole scene is amazing: the boy's face, then it pans down to show the armband, and then the rest of the crowd start singing one-by-one, except for the uneasy old man, who has seen it all before and can see what's coming next... the music goes up a tone and picks up speed, the boy puts on his cap and gives the Nazi salute, and then it cuts to the MC nodding and smiling... Geez. Oh, and the exchange between Michael York and the gay baron ("Still think you can control them?", and the baron's uncaring shrug).

The other bit running around my head is: "Life is a cabaret old chum..."

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing, and that this book, which isn't a biography, created a more interesting portrait of Plath for me than the various biographies I had read.

The Anne Stevenson - Olwyn Hughes relationship is fascinating, especially if you're a writer yourself; however, Plathians by and large remained just as condemming of poor Anne S. later than they were before.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the icon. I had a rush of blood to the head during last week. I think it was while I was supposed to be getting some work done and/or preparing for my parents' visit. That figures. ;-)

Sorry about the earworm. Thinking about it did the same to me, too...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

When did/do the parents descend? :-)

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I've been rubbish about updating. They arrived on Thursday, and today's their last day. I seem to have surived so far

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Well done :-)

[windswept1.livejournal.com]

I always felt the real reason I liked it was because the author so very smartly ensured he pulled out his books in that nice little gap between HP4 and HP5 :))

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yes, he does seem to have had a very good eye for the market with these books *envies him*