Entertainment For Lively Minds
Things that cheered me up in January
Posted by man.of.soup on 2 February 2011 - 1:34pm.
- The Word Massive mingle in London on 7th, especially the cake, free CD, and great company
- the Egyptian revolution. Isn't it glorious?
- this extract from a tweet, reprinted in the paper, by an Egyptian protester: "I feel like even the wind, the wind is new and the wind is different. Even the wind and the ground we walk on has changed". That's fantastic. Can you imagine any British protester - anyone in Britain, come to that - expressing such sentiments in such a way?
- seeing Patti Smith at the Art Deco masterpiece that is the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, along with half of my local friends from Hastings, and every lesbian in a 10-mile radius. Patti was even better than I expected - and I expected much.
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Hooray!
Well, it makes me happy that I was (in a small cakey sort of way) partially responsible for your happiness :-D
The thing that has made me happiest this month is having the time to go swimming. Blissful, peaceful. The only time I'm able to shut down my over-thinking mind and just enjoy myself through the magic of powering up and down the pool for half an hour.
And thanks to an early valentine's present, I now have prescription goggles that make it possible for me to power up and down the pool for half an hour without thumping into other swimmers. Yay!
Cake
It was a good'un!
I haven't been swimming since I was about 10. Silly, really, but I'm now far too neurotic about being amongst crowds (NB pubs are a little different, in that drinking relaxes me). It would probably do me a power of good to take some proper exercise, I suspect. I think I'd need prescription goggles too, though - are they expensive?
I hate crowds.
Absolutely hate them. To the extent that I had a panic attack at Glastonbury once - there were just too many people, stretching in every direction possible. Nightmare.
But swimming, I like. The pool I go to is pretty quiet, which helps.
I got my goggles from here. http://www.goggleyed.co.uk/
£15ish (inc P&P), next day delivery. Fantastic.
About revolutions
When, in 1971 Richard Nixon asked Zhou Enlai what he thought about the French Revolution, which started in 1789 and rumbled on for the best part of ten years, he said "It's too soon to tell."
It's a beautiful sentiment m.o.s
- but not sure Egyptian "revolution" is a wholly good thing for the West and its allies. The most likely outcome is The Muslim Brotherhood gain control which is a problematic development,
That's a fair point
But:
- My impression is that the MB lacks popular support. I assume there's a risk that they could take power by force, but I don't get the impression that the Egyptian people are ready to flock to tham in a free/fair election
- I'm not sure whether I care if it's a good thing for the West. The US in particular has a long and inglorious history of propping up friendly dictators in the name of "stability" (read: please let us plunder your resources in peace and we will fund and train your army). The US has continued to call it wrong in its responses so far.
- *sigh* events like this tend to bring out the hopeless romantic in me. You may well have a point, but please, allow me a bright spot in an otherwise dark month!
Well, the principle is,
but the reality is not looking so glorious after today...and it's gonna get much worse.
A good month for movies
For movie buffs like me, the year has got off to a cracking start:
- Black Swan
- Get Low
- The Green Hornet
- The Last Three Days
- Henry's Crime
- Tron Legacy
Every one a little masterpiece.
De La Warr
I have been meaning to visit the De La Warr Pavilion for years. I absolutely love Art Deco, and have a fascination with the (frankly, mainly bonkers) family too. I MUST go this year.
Like Stephen, I have also been having fun at the cinema, mainly through the Howard Hawks season and now a Truffaut one at the NFT.
Other good things about Jan for me:
Meeting some of you nice people
My friend's two babies leaving hospital and getting healthier by the day.
B's first birthday.
Finding Miles Davis CDs for a give-away price at Fopp. Almost embarrassing, they are so cheap.
My Auntie D's 99th birthday (not really an aunt, but my Nan's cousin) which involved her saying: "F me, I'm really old!". I love her.
Black Swan
Forgot to mention - I saw this in January as well. I have to be dragged kicking and screaming to films in general, but I had friends that fancied seeing it.
Well!
Brilliant film, and a great performance from Natalie Portman (and Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder in support)...
BUT! My god, it was a challenging thing to watch at times. I was literally watching through fingertips at certain points!
General consensus on leaving was that it was brilliant, but we never wanted to see it again.