I have now been initiated into Skypedom--thank you, Krista!
After all my fears, I'm pleased to report it's easy and, I think, maybe nicer than the phone. There is a slight lag time, though, which is challenging for the likes of me:
I have to consciously remember to employ "talking stick" style (no interrupting), not Italian style (everyone talk at once).
But the benefits of seeing the person's face makes up for that.
And the picture's a wee bit fuzzy too, so you can't really tell how clean someone's hair is.
Dirty hair's the norm after the apocalypse.
I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road again with Marz last night (my 2nd, her 5th time), and I liked it even better.
I thought seeing all the car chases again would be boring, but it wasn't---there's so much great stuff to look at. I read that they some of the stunt people are from Cirque du Soleil, and it's a wild show.
The movie's basically a normal dystopian, post-apocalyptic road movie---there's nothing particularly innovative in the story itself.
It's white, with traditional views of men and women (women are nurturing, men are ... not so much), no gender bending, and a familiar moral world: good is good, and bad is bad, and you can tell which is which... (This is not Apocalypse Now.)
Except the main hero is a woman, and that is unusual.Sad to say, it's still considered a game changer.
You'll have met the plot before, from Riddley Walker to oh... let's see, Canticle for Leibowitz, the Wasteland (T S Eliot), Waterworld (the only Kevin Costner movie I've liked), any number of Westerns (the name of one of the maternal figures sounds like Miss Kitty (Gunsmoke), tho in the credits it's spelled Miss Giddy),
and--oh, gollygee--is that you, Billy Jack, playing the old you-get-to-abhor-violence-at-the-same-time-you-enjoy-it trick, because "When people are mean to puppies, I. Just. Go. Berserk"?
(NOTE: There are no puppies in this Mad Max, but there is in the first one of 30 years ago. Warning: that dog dies.)
These echoes of other stories are the opposite of a problem---it's fun to play mix-and-match--and anyway, there's nothing new under the sun.
What are innovative, though, are the fabulous off-the-charts IMAGINATIVE visuals. Some are familiar (Bosch, Star Wars, I even ... this is a stretch, but I even thought of Waiting for Godot during the lone tree scene and Kafka's “In the Penal Colony” for back tattooing).
But it's really its own thing.
Hm. Maybe I should just say I have not seen it before, but then, I don't play video games and the like--maybe this is familiar to people who do? Though I wonder if they show a guy clipping another guy's toenails.
Either way, it's a lot of fun.
The movie is also funny (I even laughed a second time), and, basically, optimistic, à la Wall-E >
(there's even a sprouting plant).
Finally, it's got my favorite kind of romance, which I'm always going on about: the romance of people who come to love each other through shared work.
Work?
That reminds me... I'm supposed to be working! Back to it.
After all my fears, I'm pleased to report it's easy and, I think, maybe nicer than the phone. There is a slight lag time, though, which is challenging for the likes of me:
I have to consciously remember to employ "talking stick" style (no interrupting), not Italian style (everyone talk at once).
But the benefits of seeing the person's face makes up for that.
And the picture's a wee bit fuzzy too, so you can't really tell how clean someone's hair is.
Dirty hair's the norm after the apocalypse.
I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road again with Marz last night (my 2nd, her 5th time), and I liked it even better.
I thought seeing all the car chases again would be boring, but it wasn't---there's so much great stuff to look at. I read that they some of the stunt people are from Cirque du Soleil, and it's a wild show.
The movie's basically a normal dystopian, post-apocalyptic road movie---there's nothing particularly innovative in the story itself.
It's white, with traditional views of men and women (women are nurturing, men are ... not so much), no gender bending, and a familiar moral world: good is good, and bad is bad, and you can tell which is which... (This is not Apocalypse Now.)
Except the main hero is a woman, and that is unusual.Sad to say, it's still considered a game changer.
You'll have met the plot before, from Riddley Walker to oh... let's see, Canticle for Leibowitz, the Wasteland (T S Eliot), Waterworld (the only Kevin Costner movie I've liked), any number of Westerns (the name of one of the maternal figures sounds like Miss Kitty (Gunsmoke), tho in the credits it's spelled Miss Giddy),
and--oh, gollygee--is that you, Billy Jack, playing the old you-get-to-abhor-violence-at-the-same-time-you-enjoy-it trick, because "When people are mean to puppies, I. Just. Go. Berserk"?
(NOTE: There are no puppies in this Mad Max, but there is in the first one of 30 years ago. Warning: that dog dies.)
These echoes of other stories are the opposite of a problem---it's fun to play mix-and-match--and anyway, there's nothing new under the sun.
What are innovative, though, are the fabulous off-the-charts IMAGINATIVE visuals. Some are familiar (Bosch, Star Wars, I even ... this is a stretch, but I even thought of Waiting for Godot during the lone tree scene and Kafka's “In the Penal Colony” for back tattooing).
But it's really its own thing.
Hm. Maybe I should just say I have not seen it before, but then, I don't play video games and the like--maybe this is familiar to people who do? Though I wonder if they show a guy clipping another guy's toenails.
Either way, it's a lot of fun.
The movie is also funny (I even laughed a second time), and, basically, optimistic, à la Wall-E > (there's even a sprouting plant).
Finally, it's got my favorite kind of romance, which I'm always going on about: the romance of people who come to love each other through shared work.
Work?
That reminds me... I'm supposed to be working! Back to it.
OMG, the talking style! Italian style sounds a lot like Irish style--it's what I prefer, but I never know how to explain it to those who aren't well-versed in it, and I think there's a cultural divide where it can get unfairly demonized as rude/etc. by those unfamiliar with it. I'd love to hear more about your experience of it, as I think it's probably different from a more contrarian/argumentative Irish style...
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