So, being the perpetually-late-to-the-party person that I am, I didn't see the new version of "Wuthering Heights" that aired on Masterpiece in January until last week. And being the perpetually-Bronte-obsessed person that I am, I had to write a belated review of it.

Love it or hate it, "Wuthering Heights" is some pretty important stuff, and this adaptation is definitely worth a viewing. And if my humble critique sparks your interest, you just got lucky! It's out on Region 1 dvd today.




( Still haunted by a mediocre 'Heights' )

I attended my first Caucus yesterday afternoon, and I have to say it was a pretty amazing experience. The energy and enthusiasm and commitment of all the folks there really warmed my heart, especially since a lot of them were my next-door neighbors. Our street had great representation! Needless to say (if you've read the news) we did make a difference: Obama took Washington state and beat out Hillary 2-1. Booyah!!

Also, if you haven't taken a look at this yet, you should:

As of today, I have been at my current job for a year.  Shoot me.

All day, three words have been going round and round in my head:

Look...at...me...

*sob!!*

Okay yeah I did...

And I cried even harder the second time 'round. Thank goodness I haven't become desensitized to it - yet. I really will be getting this one when it comes out on dvd. Yes there is a lot missing, but what is there is brilliant. Young Daniel is becoming quite the skillful actor. He and Michael Gambon broke my heart in that scene. I'll definitely be re-reading the book very soon, but first (drumroll)... DEATHLY HALLOWS!!

So excited!

To all my friends who are graduating, and to all those (like me) who feel that a year can't really have passed since our graduation, and to all those who have yet to graduate but are thinking about it because after all, it will happen to you too some day -

This graduation speech moved me in more ways than I can describe. Our generation has inherited a crapload of problems in amounts that other generations would have thought inconceivable. BUT WE CAN ACT! We CAN save the world. But we have to do it NOW.

There's not enough hope in this world, and there's not enough kindness. I think these two things, combined with action, really would form the holy trinity that could guide our world through the crisis it faces.

I'll close with a quote from the late Kurt Vonnegut:

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’"

God damn it, we've got to be kind.

That is all.

Turns out our "strong man from the Cam" is a Port! How come EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER row port-side and not starboard-side? A true mystery, if ever I knew one. Maybe Hugh should compose a song about THAT!

Anyway, this is still cool (even if he's a Port and a Cambridge man to boot! Humph!):

As some may know, I've recently been on an unofficial quest for the perfect "little-known work of brilliance" - be it book or film. I've been asking for recommendations that fit that description but my inquiries had not yielded many successful results... until now. Well, until this weekend, that is. Allow me to step back for a moment and clarify (is the suspense killing you?): It's a great thing for a person like myself - a devotee of the well-crafted story, be it in book or film form - to discover something truly wonderful, and while it's fun when an already popular book or film winds up being all it's cracked up to be, it's even more fun to discover a not-so-well-known one. I guess it's comparable the childish thrill of having a secret, at least for me. And of course a really good secret is the sort of thing you want to tell to all your friends. So here I go, telling all of you my secret.

On Friday and Saturday, I watched Stephen Poliakoff's 3-part mini, "Almost Strangers" (retitled for us Americans for some undoubtedly stupid reason - its original title was "Perfect Strangers" and I'm sure the significance of the change comes down to nuances I've not yet appreciated to their full extent) with Michael Gambon and Matthew MacFadyen... and it was everything I'd hoped for and more. A brilliant, brilliant piece of storytelling and yet further proof (as if we needed more!) of how superior British television is to American television. Dear God, this series had me absolutely enthralled and I've been able to think of little else since, which is a good thing because it's distracted me from a rather awful cold I happen to have at the moment.

Without giving too much away, it's a family drama in the absolute best sense of the genre - the polar opposite of its bastard *insert distant relation here* the soap opera. It centers around Daniel and his attendance at a family reunion, over the course of which he discovers (at least) three fascinating family secrets, all of which, of course, are intricately entwined in one way or another. This film is moving and beautiful and tells a fantastic story without any cheap thrills, i.e. violence or shoot-em-up/car chase action. Suffice it to say I'm completely in awe, and I'd be a terrible person if I let this slip by without sharing it. So do what you have to do - beg, borrow or (...never let it be said that I condoned open theft!) ... just go out and do yourself a favor by purchasing a copy of "Almost Strangers" - you won't regret it. Okay, and if you do you can blame me, I'll probably buy the copy off you to give to someone else!

So I finally finished A.S. Byatt's "Possession" today. It was a long haul - I had no idea how long, when I first started - but it was totally worth a month's reading. I feel, it was definitely one of those novels I would never have been able to read before college, but now I have the patience and appreciation for nuances of language to truly enjoy and admire this great accomplishment. For it is a great accomplishment - there is nothing diminuitive about this book. It is a book for English majors, for people who love literature - reading and writing (or attempting to write) it.

There is one thing that could have enhanced my reading/experience of this story - not having already seen the movie. I was constantly on the alert for certain lines/events from the film, and when they didn't crop up in the book I was - stupidly - disappointed. However, to contradict myself, I am glad I saw the film because it is doubtful I'd have read the book if I'd not. I cannot help but think what Ms. Byatt herself thought of the film. Aside from some very bare plot elements and the four central characters, the film has nothing on the book. It's as if someone took the first entry for each letter of the alphabet out of a dictionary and called that meager compilation a dictionary. Characters were left out, stripped down, merged, manipulated, twisted completely (*cough* ROLAND! *cough* isnotacockyAmerican! *cough*) or deprived of essential characteristics - one would never guess from the movie that Christabel was a feminist poet in the mythological Romantic tradition.

But enough griping. Byatt writes beautifully, her prose reads like poetry, and both her prose and poetry highlight my sense of ignorance and dilletantism as a reader and writer. But I feel that is a good thing. It makes me feel I want to strive at improvement, and I hate - HATE - it when I feel smarter or a better writer than the author I'm reading. My supervisor/writing instructor last year pushed home how much reading influences one's writing, and I think already Byatt is starting to rub off on me. I feel certain that only good can come of this! And maybe someday someone will anaylize the fanfic I wrote while reading Byatt and recognize that some of the wording and nostaligic atmosphere bears some resemblance to her.

I recently - to my own and others' amusement - refered to Charlotte Bronte's writing as "orgasmically-poetic" and I think I may safely apply the same term to A.S. Byatt. Possession is food for the literary soul - it warms my little English major's heart and excites me. And I can't stop thinking of Jennifer Ehle's voice speaking the words, "I cannot let you burn me up - I cannot!" and Jeremy Northam's close to the last beautiful monologue, "This is how it was."

Yup, orgasmically-poetic just about sums it up. This book is amazing. Tell all your friends!

I realize I haven't posted in ages, but honestly I don't have the patience right now to cover Christmas, New Years and my (oh-so-exciting) life all at once, I'm going to skip over the holidays entirely. How's that for a fresh start?

Happy 2007, my friends!

I'm just back from seeing Casino Royale. With my entire family (which in itself is an extraordinary thing as we NEVER go to the movies) no less. I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. I guess it's sort of my own fault, because I read the book (the only Bond book I've actually read) in preparation for this film, and obviously no franchise film is going to resemble the original very much. The thing is, they actually did end up keeping a few things from the book, but the parts that were most important to me, they changed. That pissed me off. Such as Vesper's suicide. I thought that was a very moving part in the book, and the film saw Bond trying to save Vesper after learning of her betrayal while she resigned herself to death. Not as good by half. I don't think the book's Bond would have tried to save her.

That said, I thought Eva Green was phenomenal (I've never seen her in anything before - I never could bring myself to see "Kingdom of Heaven"!) and completely drop-dead-gorgeous. And I like guys. I thought the dynamic between Vesper and Bond was brilliant, I thought the settings were gorgeous, and when the plot did stick to the book, I thought the story was good. I still can't decide about Daniel Craig. Obviously he's a good actor, he does a good Bond, but I didn't wind up falling for him the way everyone else and their mother has done. Does that make me not a "real" woman? I hope not. I still like dark-haired guys better, I guess! I will say this - he is very very fit, and his eyes are amazing! I look forward very much to seeing him as Lord Asriel in "The Golden Compass" - which, incidentally, Eva Green is in too. Whaddaya know!

But back to Bond, if this re-start of the series really marks the return of Ian Fleming's Bond, then I'm all for it. Nothing will be able to beat the pared-down simplicity of the books, but if you're going to make a movie of them you might as well have a Bond who's true to character. Gritty, ruthless, and cold. And Daniel Craig pulled that off with aplomb.

Also, kudos to the film for having a pretty awesome song and song-sequence! I'm actually listening to the song right now!