Maria’s Neighborhood

The Blind Assassin: A Novel

Margaret Atwood

3 comments

Next it was time for the graduates to receive their diplomas. Up they trooped, solemn and radiant, in many sizes, all beautiful as only the young can be beautiful. Even the ugly ones were beautiful, even the surly ones, the fat ones, even the spotty ones. None of them understands this -- how beautiful they are. But nevertheless they're irritating, the young. Their posture is appalling as a rule, and judging from their songs they snivel and wallow, grin and bear it having gone the way of the foxtrot. They don't understand their own luck.

- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

TO: The revelers outside my cave
FR: tom
DT: 5th July, 2008 just after midnight
RE: Really cool sounds

Here's an incomplete list of cool sounds:

• rain falling on Lake Tom
• Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp harmonizing about heartbreak
• ocean waves
• a powerful, well-tuned car engine
• a cat purring
• this one alto sax note Marc Russo hits at the end of "Local Hero" by the Yellowjackets
• a Hammond B-3 organ
• Rev Al Green singing anything
• wind through the pines in the Appalachicola National Forest
• a Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopter
• good whiskey being poured into a glass full of ice
• a golf ball falling into the cup
• a home run swing
• a 98 mph fastball hitting the catcher's mitt
• steak sizzling over an oak fire
• an oak fire even without a steak

• YOUR STUPID CHEAP-ASS FIREWORKS
• YOUR ACCOMPANYING DRUNKEN SHOUTS AND LAUGHTER

t

PS: If any of your aforementioned cheap-ass fireworks were to explode and cause you injury, that--and the ensuing ambulance sounds--would merit special placement on the former list.  The holiday's over now.  It's bedtime, heathens.

Thought I might as well do my brainstorming here seeing as this is looking like the scenario for this weekend.

1. 

   Let It Rain
   Go swimming at the indoor Aquatic Centre -  my daughter invited to a party there on Saturday along with my friend's eldest daughter.  My friend and I have decided to take the little ones along as well and stay there and have our own swim and indoor picnic while the party is on.  Will hopefully help with the stuck indoors stir craziness that all the kids bound to be experiencing.
2. Baking - my husband accidentally opened a tin of sweetened condensed milk the other night so planning to do something with that and also plan to make a lemon tart for my work morning tea next week.  The kids can help with that.
3. Go to the library - unfortunately our library has really limited opening hours on the weekend.  Maybe the council thinks that everyone in our local government area can't read or something!
4. Go to the movies - we have some 'movie money' to spend so planning to go and see Kung Fu Panda on Sunday morning.
5. Put on raincoats and go for a walk - would be even better if the kids had gumboots but alas I stopped buying these when the drought started biting as they would often only wear them a handful of times before growing out of them.
6. Get my son to decorate and start implementing his housework chart - his teacher sent this home last night and I think it is a great initiative.  My son is Mr Lazy normally.
7. Painting.
8. Sorting out books, CDs and DVDs and working out which ones to get rid of.
9. Planning our trip away the following week - my husband now has to work so it will be just me and the kids.  I still haven't worked out where to go.  Not too far afield though.
10. Watching tv - the kids favourite 'must watch' shows on the weekend are Australia's Funniest Home Videos on Saturday night and Gladiators on Sunday night.  They also usually pester to watch whatever Saturday night kids movie is showing and, more recently, Battle of the Choirs.
11. Reading - unfortunately my son too young to read independently and my daughter not really inclined to so I will read to them. 
12. Writing - my daughter's best friend H is in Japan at the moment and she has promised to write to her while she is away.
13. Board games, eg, chess (or 'chest' as my son calls it), scrabble, Enchanted Forest etc.

Stormy Weather

Check out this short film by director Alison McLean from 1989.  I first saw this at the cinema before a feature film I can't even recall now.  I was so impressed at the time. 

Melanie Lynskey who plays Rose is actually a New Zealander and started her acting career with one of the main roles (alongside Kate Winslet) in the wonderfully chilling New Zealand film Heavenly Creatures. 

What is also amazing is that she manages to disguise her New Zealand accent so well.  I travelled overseas with a girl from New Plymouth (where Lynskey also from) and she had the strongest Kiwi accent I have ever heard.  Her boyfriend (who was from somewhere on New Zealand's North Island) said he practically had to act as an interpreter for her when they were travelling in countries where people spoke English as a second language as noone could understand anything she said.  I'm sure there are some Australians who have similar "accent trouble" overseas. 

Back to Heavenly Creatures, I highly recommend watching it if you have never seen it.  There really is a lot more to New Zealand cinema than Lord of the Rings.  

I was hoping to post the Eat to the Beat round up before going away for the weekend, but my schedule has been really hectic this week and I'm not going to get a chance. I promise I will post it first thing next week! We have some great entries, again.

Also, just a quick note to those of you who use a reader. Several months back, Vox randomly switched to a feed that only shows the first couple of sentences and small pictures in readers, which I found to be incredibly annoying. I was playing around trying to move my site (again) when I came across my full RSS feed. So, if you want to be able to view my entire post in your reader and not just the first few sentences, you need to subscribe to this feed: http://ellysaysopa.vox.com/library/posts/rss-full.xml

Have a wonderful 4th, all!

Show us two things that should never be together.

3 years

Devilbitch hs photo

Me and my ex.  Now, of course, she'll probably get pissed that I used her high school yearbook photo.