Wordplay

Last night we went to see Wordplay. It is a movie about the creation, character, and some of the characters completing the New York Times crossword, and concludes with a look at the characters competing in the Stamford Crossword competition. It is a good length film (about 90mins), and well constructed. I enjoyed the recollections of Bill Clinton, and Bob Dole who both recalled the 1996 election crossword, which was built around a clue 'Tomorrow's headline', which could read "Clinton [or] Bob Dole Elected". Not your typical film, but definitely worth a look.

Kids…

Was down in Wollongong (a while ago now) and my mother drew my attention to an article in the Good Weekend; based on an excerpt from the book Adult themes: rewriting the rules of adulthood (Kate Crawford). The article talked about attitudes to the cultural landscape around us. It was quite a fascinating read, and I am now quite looking forward to reading the book.

Staying on culture a little longer, I am quite fond of the modern adaptions of Shakespeare’s plays, even if they have their flaws. I’m looking forward to watching Shakespeare Retold (Modern interpretations of four Shakespearian plays produced by the BBC). I saw one (Much ado about Nothing) while I was in the UK last year and really enjoyed it. From memory it will be on our ABC this year too, it is worth keeping an eye out for.

The Swell Season

Glen Hansard (of The Frames) and classical pianist and singer Marketa Irglova's CD The Swell Season was reviewed by Bruce Elder in the SMH today. I can really only echo the words of the review - the interplay of the instruments and the combination of voices creates a cd of real beauty.
The standout tracks for me are: Are You Sleeping?, Falling Slowly and the instrumental The Swell Season.

Political correctness in fiction

Last weekend I also caught quite an interesting article in The Australian. Lionel Shriver (author of We Need to talk About Kevin) wrote on some of the feedback she had received about the attitudes and behaviour of characters in her novels. Given the social-political climate she wondered if authors would soon be charged because of the views of their characters.

It was quite interesting reading some people’s responses to her characters, asking why the mother in We Need to talk About Kevin was Armenian; and didn’t attend P&C meetings. She was waiting for the day her narrator would be arrested. 

As it seems there is often an enforced silence about issues (note the fuss with Martin Sheen and the Dixie Chicks, when they spoke out about the war with Iraq). It does seem to me that we should fight for the right of novelists (and other artists) to write freely. Shriver commented that writing a novel allowed her more freedom to deal with issues. 

I might leave the last word for Shriver: 

My characters are full of prejudices. My characters may not like Chinese people. My characters may believe that homosexuality is unnatural. My characters may slander Islam, or belief in crystals, or my father's Presbyterianism. My characters murder schoolchildren, plot to massacre two billion people overnight and hit their husbands over the head. My characters are obnoxious, spiteful, seething, difficult, resentful and inconsistent; and no, my characters will not always take their six-year-old kids to therapists to get help. My characters think abominations. In other words, my characters are the closest approximations I can contrive of real people.

In which the Long Weekend is mentioned.

Fi and I went down to Canberra for the long weekend. Was really quite lovely to get away for a few days, and get to spend a bit of time with her family and our friends.

We all went out to Tidbinbilla for a picnic on Saturday, which was so quiet and peaceful. One of the nice surprises was seeing a couple of Platypuses (some might say Platypi?). I have to admit I would not have known what to look for, but Fi’s dad pointed them out for us. We generally saw the ripples in the water as they came up and then dived back down.

We listened to the last five minutes of the AFL Grand Final as we were driving home. While I was a little disappointed in the loss, the Sydney Swans have had a fantastic year, and they could leave the field with their heads held high, they gave it everything, and came back to one point of the West Coast Eagles (who are worthy winners). West Coast and Sydney played out two of the closest Grand Finals in the last 30 years.

The Grand Final is also the 64th time the Swans have played a match decided by 1 point. I’m already looking forward to the first bounce next season.

Sunday morning we went to St Andrews Presbyterian Church and then Floraide with Deb which was lovely. (Deb has posted some photos on her blog and I’ll post a few later).

Sunday night, we went and saw The Devil Wears Prada. It is quite a feel-good-type-film, and I quite enjoyed it. A couple of scenes stood out, firstly one where Andrea becomes self-aware (in the context of she was made aware of what she did to her colleague by choosing to go to Paris), and secondly a line that was given to Nate (Andrea’s boyfriend), 'the phone calls you always take is the relationship you are in’, and I think this is a helpful reminder for us.

Monday morning we had brunch with Fi’s school friends, then went to do a bit of shopping (mainly clothes shopping) before heading to Manuka for lunch, and back to Floraide before starting the drive back to Sydney. It was a very enjoyable weekend.