Monday, November 14, 2005
V&A pics
I really liked this lion, who was sitting on the corner of a german duke's* tomby bit. One of his wings had fallen off, which was sad, but still left him with one more wing than most other lions. So I wouldn't imagine he gets teased too badly at parties.
The other bit, as you see, really does look like a supervillain's lair. Most odd. I managed to sneak a photo of a closed off bit as well**, which is always satisfying. I read about someone researching a movie once who was shown round a large Natural History Museum in the States, culminating in a huge glass tank in which something was quietly dissolving in acid. When they winched up the chains, it was revealed to be the skeleton of a rhinoceros. Although possibly I imagined that. I do read quite a lot in my dreams, which I'm sure you're not supposed to do.
Martha Wainwright was great as well, obviously. Others have commented on the general chick-heavy aspect of the show, which I personally had no problem with. However, Sigur Ros did manage to chuck in a small marching band, so it's a tricky one. Martha may have won on points, with an excellent cover of Tower of Song. Although I liked that Sigur Ros song that started off quietly? And built to a crescendo?*** With a bloke singing in a high-pitched voice?
Icelandic indie band humour there.
Went to see Howl's Moving Castle this evening, which was sadly very disappointing. Loads of stuff we've already seen in Spirited Away, and an ending so cheesy, the entire cinema dissolved into giggles. As I left, all I could hear was the eerie susurration caused by hundreds of people all saying 'sickly' at the same time, which was an odd experience.
As promised, here's that song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one of those bits of music that should cause dogs to stop barking and sparrows to rush home to spend more time with their families. Don't tell anyone though, or I'll get into trouble.
*Monument in bronze of Ernst, Duke of Saxony and Archbishop of Magdeburg (b. 1464; d. 1513) by Peter Vischer (d. 1529) in Magdeburg Cathedral dated 1497.
And then it says: '1904-55'. Don't know why.
** Which I forgot to put up. It's not that great a photo anyway. It'll be better in your imagination. Most things are.
*** Which is impossible apparently - see cello's note in comments.
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13 comments:
Best adjective ever. Tomby.
(Which calls into question whether Queen Momby in the movie "Return to Oz" should have been pronounced "Moomy." Hm.)
Haven't seen Spirited Away yet, even. Last from them I saw was "mononoke hime" (Princess mononoke) which was great, and definitely not sickly. (I saw it in japanese, in japan, by the way. I mention this for bonus points. However, quite a bit of it did use old style dialect, and even very rough Osaka-style accents, so I lose quite a lot of points for comprehension.)
I'm told that the studio (Studio Ghibli - I know you know this; for the benefit of others) figured they lost a fair bit of potential overseas market because of the violence and general blackness of that film (the "villain" had her reasons, deaths, maimings, etc. etc.) so that may be a reason for the increase in sugar since then.
Personally, my favourite is the one with the tanukis (raccoons) with the magic inflatable testicles that they use to fight with (Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko). Not sure why that one never got an international release.
Presumably the one-winged lion can only fly around in circles, though that would still look cool at parties.
And, apologies for the pedantry after you were so *sweet* with the birthday message, but you can't build to a crescendo. A crescendo *is* the building bit, as it comes from the Latin word to increase. You can crescendo to a climax... or build to a fortissimo etc. It's only because I'm a musician that I get all menopausal about it.
Don't suppose you're in London tommorrow are you?
Sadly not in London for a bit- and I never knew that about a crescendo! *note to self, stop trying to use technical terms you don't understand*.
This is what it must be like when I'm playing D&D and people say 'portholes' when they mean 'portals'. Or something.
I'm going to try and work the phrase 'build to a fortissimo' into casual conversation today. Very excited about this.
Can I just chip in here to point out that the word "crescendo" is the same as "croissant" and indeed "crescent"? All meaning "growing", or indeed "waxing", the latter coming from the German "wachsen", to grow.
Wow, that was *very* satisfying.
This is becoming like quite a good episode of QI. As long as I keep out of it.
Bags be Alan Davies.
Jo Brand for me - again - including all the unnecessary references to men's bits.
Pat, you're much cleverer than Alan D but the hair is not a million miles away.
But who would be Stephen Fry? Rob, possibly?
The photo of the closed-off bit is presumably the one in your Flicker photos? Love the Madonna and child one - if it's not (c) can I pinch it for my next church magazine?
Stephen Fry lives not twenty miles away from me, but I don't want to be him, thanks.
cello: er, yes, Alan Davies was exactly the look I was going for. Um.
james: belated acknowledgement of your top use of the word "susurration". Fantastic.
Dave - pinch away.
PP - dates amended - well spotted.
Hey PP - you'll be pleased to hear I bought Decline & Fall at the weekend. I'd forgotten quite how funny it is.
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