Let's go fly a kite

A couple of weekends ago I made the trek to Brisbane to see Mary Poppins. Not in person obviously. She's a fictional character. Rather, this was the musical. Much lauded. Much praised. I had been told by many people that I would "love" it. So I was looking forward to seeing it but I was also a little hesitant. You know when Margaret and David give a movie five stars and then you and see it and think "meh...3 and a half from me actually". What I'm saying is that when someone tells me I'm going to love something I always start to worry. WHAT IF I DON'T LOVE IT AS MUCH AS I'M SUPPOSED TO? WHAT ABOUT THAT? So, what did I think about the Poppinses? Well, spectacular chorus numbers. Excellent and impressive special effects. The set was wonderful. The leads were good. I was particularly impressed that the guy from So You think You Can Dance who played Bert actually could dance...Really Well! I even got a lump in my throat when Mary Poppins "flew" out across the audience at the end. Shush...that's not a spoiler...we all know she leaves. So it was very good. But there were things that weren't quite right. For one, the balance between the orchestra and the singers was a little out. Brass...I'm sorry...you were too loud. And the girl playing Jane got a bit shrieky at times in her microphone. And I just didn't love Simon Burke as Mr Banks. Perhaps it was the part? I'm not sure. And I didn't love the "new" songs. As a child my parents had a limited record collection. One of the LPs (showing my age here) was the original cast recording from the Disney movie with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. Now I know his accent still remains unforgivable as the cockney Bert but I loved the suffragette songs of Mrs Banks. Why was she suddenly made into a wannabe actress in the stage version? Are we not able to cope with a little bit of lightweight feminism in a musical? I found this a strange choice. Also, the letter that Jane and Michael sing before Mary Poppins arrive was way too fast. I like it slower and more thoughtful as in the film. Now, I understand that translating a film to the stage means there will be differences, certain things are not possible (dancing animated penguins for instance) but for the life of me the thing that bugged me the most was that they didn't finish with Let's Go Fly a Kite. It's my favourite moment in the film. It's the perfect ending as the family go out into the street and everyone lives happily ever after even without Mary Poppins. Why chuck it in the middle in some half-hearted fashion? It just wasn't quite right either. And then I realised...because I had listened to the original soundtrack so often, because I have watched the film so many times, perhaps it's not possible for me to fully embrace the stage show in the same way as say, a young child today who hasn't had the original version ingrained into their brain. That's okay. I still liked it. I just didn't LOVE it.

Thinking about the Muppets

On Sunday I went to see The Muppets. Being a Generation X child who was six years old in 1979 when the first film was released I had high expectations. I had been following the stream of trailers leading up to the film's official release. I had been sad when I realised it would be at least a week before I could get to a cinema to see the movie. I had heard that Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords was doing the music. I am a big FOTC fan so that was okay by me. I had spent much of my childhood watching the television series. I quite like Jason Segal and Amy Adams. So here's my verdict after a few days of mulling the whole thing over in my mind. I enjoyed it but I won't go to see it again. There were lots of lovely moments, there was fun, there were winks to the audience, the songs were good although they sounded like FOTC songs rather than Muppet songs, there were great choices of cameos, Chris Cooper made an admirable villain. This was all very well and good. But for me, it didn't "feel" like a Muppet movie. While I think the love of the Muppets that ran through the narrative was genuine, it was for me, too nostalgic. It relied on Muppet history so much that there was a sense that there was no moving forward. It was treading the fine line of when good postmodernism goes bad. And although it asked the question as to why the Muppets might have been forgotten with their yesteryear vaudevillian charms, it didn't quite recapture the tone of the Jim Henson glory days, thus providing its own answer. Perhaps Frank Oz was wise not to be involved. Perhaps he realised that there was no going back. My reaction to the movie was different to my sister's. She is 12 years younger than me. She didn't spend her childhood watching the tv show, or listening to the original movie soundtrack over and over and over on the cassette player in the car. She doesn't like it when I sing Rainbow Connection in my faux opera voice. She doesn't know the joke about the fork in the road. She doesn't have the same relationship with the Muppets that I do. We are of different generations. Many of our pop culture references are the same but in terms of Muppets we seem to be different. I vaguely remember reading once someone (it may have been Neil Finn) saying that the music you love when you are 25 stays with you for life. The same might be true for the pop culture of your childhood. It stays with you in a way that is unlike anything else that follows. And I think this explains my reaction to The Muppets. I didn't not like it. I appreciated the effort and the sincerity that had gone into it's production, but when the nuances of the voices of Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Kermit and Rowlf (to name a few) jar, when you find yourself wishing you were watching the original Rainbow Connection, not a do-over, you realise that you are pining for the original experience, but by the same token there is no way you can recapture that moment.

what I did on my holidays

I had a beautiful holiday in Tasmania and it was sad to come home last Friday evening to stinky, hot Queensland. We had one hot day in Tassie where the forecast was 33 degrees. The locals were talking of nothing else but the weather. We Queenslanders felt a little like Mick Dundee, "Call that hot, THIS (humid and 35 degrees) is HOT". Not to say it wasn't warm, but it was dry and there was a breeze blowing all day. We ate dinner next to the beach at Randalls Bay near Cygnet. Some brave souls swam. I contented myself with paddling in the icy water which was plenty cool enough for me. By bedtime it was storming and colder. So you know, swings and roundabouts type weather. That's the boring weather talk over. My Mum and I left Bundaberg on the baby Qantas plane and changed in Brisbane for a direct flight to Hobart. We had to get up Very Early which meant by the time we arrived and added daylight saving it seemed like we had been up since 4:30am. This didn't stop us having a lovely lunch at the IXL building on the waterfront in Hobart. Then we went to the movies and saw the Women on the 6th Floor. This was a very nice film. What was even better were the leather lounges in the small downstairs cinema at the State Theatre. I may have dozed off at a couple of points. They were so comfy. Then it was "home" to Cygnet where we spent the next day planning our Thelma, Louise and friend road trip to the north. Unlike Thelma and Louise we did not commit any crimes or drive off a cliff to freedom from patriarchy. Instead, we stayed at a world heritage convict settlement farm stay at Brickenden outside Longford. Then we went to the Sunday morning markets at Evandale which are Excellent! I found some very cheap Carltonware to add to my little collection. There were also homemade scones and jam. Then it was off to Latrobe via Westbury and Deloraine. We visited Reliquaire..an astonishing shop which, if you have a phobia of dolls coming to life, should perhaps be avoided. They are everywhere. Dinner in Deloraine was a beautiful vegetarian pizza made from flour from the mill at Oatlands which we had toured on the way up the Midlands highway. The next day we drove down the Great Lake Road (I don't think that's its official name but it follows the Great Lake) and enjoyed the alpinesque scenery and brisk air before descending once more to Hobart and then home. Wednesday saw a visit to MONA which was both excellent and fascinating (and deserving of its own blog post elsewhere), a little bit of shopping and then back to the State Theatre for Hugo in 3D. What a stunningly beautiful film about film history. I lurved it and definitely agree with Margaret and David. Five stars all round. By then it was Thursday. We went for a little drive over to Franklin, at lunch in Huonville, bought some Valhalla caramel fudge ice-cream for our dessert and went home for final dinner. The next morning we trekked to Hobart with much heavier bags than when we arrived, had brunch at Jackman and McRoss, bought some home made chocolates, made sure the kilo of fresh blueberries were safely packed in my carry on luggage and hopped on the plane. We were sad to leave our wonderful friends. Here are some random photos.

(excuse my hair and weird expression...)

He got rhythm

Ah the first Wednesday of 2012. How exciting! Well not that exciting actually but I had to start this post somehow. What's Wendy been doing I hear you wondering? Not very flipping much to be truthful. I have been doing bits and pieces on my assignment. Although part of me is wishing I hadn't taken a summer subject I know that in the long run I will be very glad to have it completed. Apart from that there has been a fair amount of sleeping and reading. Of course there has been TV watching but that's no different to any other time of the year. I am very happy that ABC2 is rerunning Doctor Who from the beginning of the Christopher Eccleston series. The story lines were a lot less complicated back in 2005 weren't they? I mean, honestly, I could barely follow all the time-travellin' hijinks in the last series. Also watching Billie Piper emphasises just what an ordinary companion the Amy Pond character is compared to the previous gals - Rose, Martha, Donna. I am not sad to hear that she is leaving. I actually prefer Rory. How about a cool male companion for the Doctor? Any enough of that Doctor Who talk. What else have I been a'watching? On the weekend I found I had recorded An American in Paris so I watched that. Firstly, Gene Kelly is an astonishing and amazing dancer. Sure, he did like to get carried away with dream/fantasy dance sequences but that's forgivable. The music of Gershwin is timeless and one of my absolute favourite things in the whole world. I had missed the dry genius of Oscar Levant the first time I watched this movie (which was some years ago now). Here's a little treat for you: http://youtu.be/LvglHa_P9BA - you'll have to go to youtube I'm afraid as "embedding is disabled by request". Here's another absolute treat though! Such joy!

Once.....

I missed a fair few good movies during the first decade of this century. It was a combination of being consumed by a PhD and living in a regional centre that isn't great at getting the more independent releases. This is why I was very happy to see Once was on Monday night on one of those extra channels. I recorded it (because I can't seem to watch anything with ads in it anymore) and sat down to watch it last night. I had heard about it of course but nothing prepared for the simple beauty of the story, the understated, natural performances of the two leads, and the amazingly heartbreaking songs. I could see the ending coming (and I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it) but it was quietly devastating. This was a true romance of a film. So when I finished it and found that Four Weddings and a Funeral was on the normal telly, the contrast was absolutely ridiculous. Here's one of the songs from Once.

Christmas Countdown day 9

Well there are so many questions about this film. My first one is when did we get so skimpy with the size of our Christmas paper hats? These ones are monsters!

Not romantic or funny

Last night I watched 27 Dresses, just to see what I might have missed when it was at the movies. The answer to that question is nothing. Sure, I like James Marsden and Judy Greer and the guy from 30 Rock whose name I can't remember. I don't watch Gray's Anatomy so the appeal of Katherine Heigl is lost on me. And really, is Ed Burns that hard up for a gig these days that he had to take a crap, one-dimensional part in this film? It seems so.

It was just what I expected, or even a little bit less. Lots of stereotyping of romance, love and gender. There was the potential for it to be a little bit subversive but they went for the happily ever after ending which all in all was a little bit sick-making. Overall, it made me feel old, cynical and not at all inclined to watch another so called romantic comedy ever again. Unless someone can recommend a decent one made in the last five years.

fillums and musik

Well I didn't get to South Solitary on Friday night. I swapped it for a wonderful evening of fun and laughs with my darling sister in law. I introduced her to Beautiful People.

Yesterday though I did get to see Creation with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. It was a beautiful film, a lament for Darwin's daughter Annie who died at a young age, his coming to terms with her death during the writing of the Origin of Species, the battle between religion and science, and the question of faith...as a separate issue. I found it very moving and still find myself thinking about it today. Then I stayed on and watched a documentary about the Vietnam War - The Most Dangerous Man in America. Not having been alive at this time I am pretty hazy on the details of the Vietnam War so this was fascinating. It was the story of Daniel Ellsburg, a top man for many years working within the US government advising on policy and strategy in Vietnam, who after some time of seeing the hypocrisy of what went on in private compared to the public face of the various administrations from Kennedy through to Nixon, decided to release what became known as the Pentagon Papers exposing the increasingly farcical nature of America's involvement in Vietnam. Moral courage was the theme and it was strong and inspiring.

This morning I went to see the Italian film Mid-Day Lunch, about a man who lives with his aging mother, and ends up entertaining three other elderly ladies for lunch. It doesn't sound like much when I say it like that but it was a reminder to take life for what it is, to enjoy the little moments, of sharing, of friendship, of food, of wine and of laughter. Tonight at seven I am going to Exit through the Gift Shop. I made sure I bought my ticket this morning so I wouldn't have a "can't be bothered moment". For in between all this I have played at a choir concert last night and this afternoon. I am a little bit tired. Accompanying takes a fair amount of concentration even if the pieces are pretty easy. But I am looking forward to Banksy's exploits on film. What has been really wonderful has been the crowds at the films. I overheard so many people this morning saying they had been to all or most of the them. And while next weekend I am going to Brisbane for opera and the Valentino exhibition, today I feel fortunate to be just where I am...in Bundaberg.

intensive arts and cultcha

The end of the week is here once more. I welcome it with a headache and a weekend of film going and concertising ahead of me. Yes I realise "concertising" is not a word. I have just made it up. We are lucky enough to have the Sydney Travelling Film Festival here in Bundaberg this weekend. It starts tonight with South Solitary starring Miranda Otto and directed by Shirley Barrett. All I know is that it's set at a lighthouse which is good enough reason for anyone to go to a film. More lighthouses in films is what the world needs. I'm sure you agree. Then tomorrow I hope to get to Creation (about Charles Darwin) and one more in the afternoon before rocking up to the Barolin Street Uniting Church for our Orpheus Singers Concert "Flying Free". The theme of all songs is birds, flight, etc etc. Then Sunday morning there is a art market at the Art Gallery from 10am, another performance of the choir concert at 2pm and then I plan to get to the final film, Exit through the Gift Shop, a documentary about Banksy. On Monday I may well be a little tired.

We're not used to such intensive arts and cultcha in these parts.

wasting time on facebook and the like

I'm now very good at walking, going for walks of about 15 minutes a day plus extra walking round the shops, at the beach, round the house and yard etc. My panadol intake has decreased markedly. I can sleep on either side of myself which is lovely and amazing and will never be taken for granted EVER AGAIN.

I will be starting to drive again either tomorrow or Monday so I will be able to take myself places. Again, this will never ever be taken for granted.

I have spent the week watching the following:

Firstly, Shine a Light on The Rolling Stones. I wanted less live concert footage and more archival footage. Still, I had to be impressed with Mick Jagger's stamina and energy. And I also had to be impressed with Keith Richards. Just because, you know, he was not only upright, but could actually play the guitar.

I then rewatched No Direction Home, perhaps the finest musical documentary I have seen. Bob Dylan is fascinating, but what is more interesting is the era of social and political upheaval within which Dylan is situated.
Here is the song that struck me the most:


Then I bought myself the Black Books complete series on DVD. Because at the moment I'm quite into buying myself presents. I have made it through Series 1 and 2. I am saving up 3 for tomorrow. Here is my favourite moment so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPh53BCJQKE

(embedding is disabled but it is well worth going to YouTube for a look)

I also finished rewatching Series 1 of Beautiful People which I adore and am about to start Series 2 this evening.

Apart from that there has been a number of outings for coffee and lunch, my mother's birthday today, and a fair bit of sitting on the lounge wasting time on facebook and the like.

Wendy's Weeks of TV. 2.0: "Oh", they said....

"Oh", they said, "you'll be able to to watch so many movies and read so many books! It will be just lovely".

Truth be told I didn't much feel like doing either of these things until earlier this week. It started on Monday night with GO playing Hairspray. In my humble opinion this might well be John Travolta's greatest performance ever. I could watch the final musical number many many more times and still not be sick of it.

Tuesday my mother and I watched Fiddler on the Roof. This is one of my all time favourite musicals as well. Topol is still amazing in the lead role, and I love the fact that there is no happy ending. And since I was very young I adored the opening violin solo played by Issac Stern over the credits. It's stunning.

Wednesday I was left home alone for the first time so I indulged in not one but two romantic comedies. Love Actually and Strictly Ballroom. The first was better than I remembered. The second may well be the only good film Baz Luhrmann ever makes. And I make this bold statement without having seen Australia and with no plans to ever do so.

Thursday I watched the fabulous documentary on the ABC about music and the brain. There were also some episodes of the IT Crowd and The Good Life. Both are classic comedies which I can watch over and over again. And Friday I watched Life on Mars which I am ashamed to say I have never seen before but I am love love loving. I also rewatched Chicago. I don't normally like Richard Gere in anything but he does a pretty good job as Billy Flynn and Catherine Zeta Jones and Renee Zwellwegger are impressive. It's such a good musical.

I am yet to start reading anything more interesting than facebook and twitter. Shantaram looms large on my bedside table. I just can't bring myself to pick it up yet. It's quite heavy and I can't lean it on my stomach. That's my excuse at the moment anyway.

Sunday morning at the movies: I didn't look at my watch

Been to the movies because for the first time in quite some time because there's been a movie on that doesn't look like complete and utter garbage. Too harsh on the film industry? Whatever....

Let's just say that Mao's Last Dancer is one of my favourite books. A favourite book is one that I have read more than once. All the others are just known as "books". So, I was very interested to see what Bruce Beresford would do with it. I had also watched Margaret and David review it on Wednesday evening. Margaret cried "buckets". David was far more stoic in his reaction. I think my reaction is probably somewhere in between Margaret and David.

I didn't look at my watch....which is always a good sign in a film...but then that may have been because I had forgot to wear it. The telling of the story through flashback was okay. And I know we're not supposed to compare books with movies, but for me the more interesting part of the book was the first part spent in China. Don't get me wrong the US experience of Li is fascinating as well but it seemed to be given greater weight in the movie. Aden Young was unrecognisable as the Texan husband of one of the dancers. And what's with Jack Thompson doing Southern drawl cameos? Is he linked to the funding of Australian movies?

Still it's all about the dancing, which looked fabulous - even for a ballet dunce like myself. Graeme Murphy choreographed. And the final scene of a performance of the Rite of Spring was grea, Having only ever listened to the music it was a treat to see some dancing to go along with it.

If you don't choke up and shed a few tears when Li finally meet his parents after so long, you might just have a heart of stone.

What Wendy Watched: I sing the body electric

Well, here The Spiralling Shape continues its occasional series in which Wendy catches up with seminal dancing, singing, music movies from the 1980s that she has never managed to watch before. Today's topic is Fame (1980).

What's weird about this is that as a young person we watched the TV series Fame well before I encountered the movie. Then one day, not long after my family bought a VHS recorder, we rented the movie Fame thinking it would be similar in tone etc to the television episodes. Big mistake. After half an hour of "bad language" (i.e. swearing) the video was turned off and I never got to see it again until yesterday. I might have been 11 or so at the time I think.

So what a treat to sit down last night and watch Alan Parker's film. (One of my other absolute favourites is The Commitments). Fame was nicely gritty and is certainly is no High School Musical. That's a good thing by the way. I was particularly oblivious to the other songs that were in the film (apart from the title track which is perhaps the most annoying). I enjoyed them a lot even if they seem a bit sappy now (nearly thirty years later). I loved the scenes where Doris and Ralph went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the depiction of the difficulties of actually ever making a living in the performing arts. Speaking as one who studied a degree in music long ago, it seems very few people "make it" (whatever that really means) and many, years later, find themselves doing very different jobs to those they dreamed of at age 17. I don't think I'll bother with the just released remake. But here, for your enjoyment is the final song.



Verdict: It has aged more gracefully than Footloose. Next stop...maybe Flashdance. My hopes aren't high for that one.

What Wendy Watched: Jack get back and pass me my leg warmers if you please

I spent the afternoon watching my 6.99 bargain copy of Footloose. As I started I realised that I hadn't actually seen it before even though if you had asked me I would have said I had (if that makes sense). That song sure is catchy though. And what a fabulously stupid and ridiculous movie it is. Kevin Bacon dances up a storm in an uptight small town community. There's fightin', swearin' and preachin' as well as a game of chicken on big tractors. This last scene is perhaps the silliest in the whole film. Meanwhile Kevin's hair is very spiky and his nose all button like. John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest must wonder what they were doing, while Sarah Jessica Parker is extremely un-Carrie Bradshaw-like as the friend of the lead character, who herself is improbably named Ariel. Is she the Little Mermaid? No, she's just a rebellious teen with 80s curly,flicky hair who falls for Kevin, his dancin' ways, his love of Slaughterhouse 5 and knowledge of Men at Work and David Bowie.

All in all very strange. This is all you really need to see I think.



Maybe next I need to watch Flashdance, then Fame, then Billy Elliot, then Strictly Ballroom and any other movie about dancing that you can think of. Actually, perhaps I should start at the beginning with Fred and Ginger in Top Hat or some such.

Bookclub report: Rapper, flapper...whatever

We just never know where our bookclub choice is going to take us. Yesterday we had all watched Quiz Show. Some of us had seen it a few times, others never before. (We alternate between books and films). Reasons for never watching it before seemed to range from an ambivalence to an outright dislike of Ralph Fiennes. Fair enough. I don't find him to be the most scintillating of actors, but that seemed to suit his character in this film. That got us on to The English Patient. Two of us had seen it. One was vehement that it was highly overrated and way, way too long. This gave them something in common with Elaine Benes which is no bad thing. I haven't seen it because of my ongoing suspicion of movies that get rave reviews and look dull, long and boring. (See Forrest Gump, Titantic, Apollo 18 and many more). Plus I couldn't get through the book.

Back to Quiz Show. Everyone agreed that John Turturro was excellent as Herb Stempel. This lead us to a lengthy discussion of the Coen Brothers and some recommendations for further viewing. I wondered why Robert Redford had cast English actors in the leads - Paul Schofield, along with Fiennes. And we all thought Rob Morrow's accent was highly distracting. I also thought his eyebrows were a bit much, but forgot to mention that at the time. There was a lengthy discussion of the American Dream, memories of the introduction of television, the intersection of race, class, stereotyping in the media, spelling bees, knowledge for knowledge's sake, how much has changed or not in the quiz show genre, and the general working of television. We are indeed fortunate to have a real live American as one of our members for extra insight.

Then the highlight. Over afternoon tea somehow we got on to movies we had recently seen. Two of us recommended Ghosttown with Ricky Gervais (me being one of them). And two of us had recently watched The Changeling with Angelina. One had loved it. The other thought it slow, boring and in her eagerness to get her point across described Angie as being dressed a rapper (rather than a flapper). Cue much hilarity. I made a joke about baseball caps. I haven't laughed that much in an age.

(N.B. You probably had to be there)

Next time: Song lyrics. I'm excited about that!

Watch, Listen and Singalong: Part 10: skating past Rod Stewart

This is what happens when you see an ad for House starring Hugh Laurie, a program I tried for a while, but found less than compelling. However, I started thinking about Laurie's career pre Emmy award winning, cranky-genius doctor. He was in a movie called Peter's Friends. I can't remember anything about it except that in it he sang this song. And since then it has been one of my all time favourites toons. So searching through you tube for a Hugh's version (which surprisingly was not found) I passed by Michael Buble's overly mannered jazzy take, ignored the zillion people doing covers of Frank Sinatra singing it, briefly flirted with Tony Bennett's version, skated past Rod Stewart and then hit on this.



When musicals were musicals.

you know those comedies that aren't actually funny...this isn't one of them

I haven't been to the actual movies, as in buy and ticket and go to the theatre for a long time. Months....since sometime in 2008 I would be guessing. And I can't remember the last movie I saw at the theatre so clearly it wasn't really that memorable. Actually now I come to think about it, it may have been Mamma Mia.

But my love of all things Ricky Gervais drew me out in the heat of a summer's day to Ghost Town. The Jinxster and I met up and squished ourselves into the smallest theatre with a group of about 20, late teenagers, a family of four, and one or two loners. Clearly, our Cinema 4 thinks that there is little audience for this ghostly comedy, having relegated it to the tiniest room in the building. Before the start, we wondered whether we were going to have to put on our teacher voices but once things got going all was well. Who knew young people went to the movies in the middle of the day on a Sunday? I thought it was all Friday/ Saturday nights, leaving the daytime sessions for parents with children, and us - the aged. HA!

If you have bad memories of the Righteous Brothers, Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze (sadly now very unwell) and a pottery wheel rest assured Ghost Town is nothing like that. Gervais is a misanthropic dentist, Greg Kinnear, the slightly dislikeable unfaithful husband haunting him, and Tea Leoni the woman they are both chasing for different reasons. And best of all, for all you Ferris Bueller fans, an Alan Ruck sighting...older and greyer now, but not all that different from when Matthew Broderick led him astray all those years ago. I'll say no more, except I haven't laughed out loud at a movie so much for quite some time. You know those comedies that aren't actually funny, where you've seen all the mildly amusing scenes in the trailer - this isn't one of them.

I'm such a social butterfly

I'm such a social butterfly (she types with mild sarcasm dripping on to her keyboard) that I actually had a choice last evening of what to do. Firstly, there was a bookclub group excursion to see Frost/Nixon which finally made it to little ole Bundaberg as the (dah dah!) Showcase Movie of the Week at the Moncrieff Theatre. This was to be followed by coffee and chat. Mmmmm...very tempting. But before that had been pencilled in on the calendar I had been invited to a Valentine's bbq/ 40th Wedding Anniversary party at Burnett Heads. So after much to'ing and fro'ing I decided on the bbq and am leaving it to the other bookclubbers to fill me in on Frost Nixon. Because I'm pretty sure I'll be able to see that movie again in the future, whereas Valentine's Day bbqs/ 40th wedding anniversaries are a little rarer. Sorry ladies, I'm sure you missed my opinionated and unsubstantiated conversational analysis over the coffee.

Our host, Laurel, whose anniversary it was, had gone to lots of decorating effort. And even though I'm a little bit bah humbug about Valentine's Day, my favourite was this:



Aaaaww...cute!

Oh and ladies who went to the movie...I'm expecting great swathes of opinions on the movie here in the comments!. Or you can just tell me about it when I see you next. Or if anyone else who saw it, or chose not to see it wants to comment please do.

all in a day's work

You know it's a special morning when you get in the car and the radio is playing the Theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I drove along triumphantly, with a sense of adventure tinged with nostalgia for days gone by when the difference between good and evil was clear for allto see, yet safe in the knowledge that I had saved the world from baddies once again.

Watch,Listen and Singalong: The Christmas Edition 1

What a treat. I have decided to post one of my favourite Christmas songs (excluding actual carols) everyday til Thursday. This is one of my all time favourites, particularly because it goes against the "ho ho ho,isn't everything jolly" trend of so many Christmas songs. From the classic Vincente Minnelli musical Meet Me in St Louis, you can appreciate the skill of Judy Garland in conveying the melancholy of the song (quite similar in tone to Over the Rainbow if you think about it). Anyway, any time I see it's on the TV I'll sit down and watch it, for this song and the other classics The Trolley Song and the title song.
Read more all about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in_St_Louis

Enjoy, or if it's not your cuppa tea, simply marvel at whatever that is Judy is wearing on her head.