Tag: Film

Xrays

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Xray of hand ap and at an angle.

A pet peeve. I watch quite a few programmes where people have to have xrays. I think the worst thing is when the xray is presented the wrong way up or back to front, or worse still when the image is of a different part of the body!

Sometimes I just laugh, but when it’s a life or death situation I wish the film makers would make a bit more of an effort!

Why do I know this? I did a course years ago. Being an artist helped me identify things that no one else noticed. I could see things like buttons in a stomach or a comb in a pocket…. And other more “unusual” images, ahem…

The Sound of Music

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What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

I first saw The Sound of Music as a child at our cinema. Then it started getting shown on TV, usually around Christmas time. I loved it because it was romantic, there was adventure in a different country. It was scary because of what was happening in that time in the 20th Century (just prior to the Second world war,) and there was the risk that Maria the governess would not end up with her Captain. Amid all that were the songs that ran through the film. I just saw it again recently and it still made me cry! I love joining in with the songs especially Doe a deer….

A complete unknown

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I just went to see “A complete unknown”, a biopic of Bob Dylan early career up until he started using electric guitar at the Newport folk festival in 1965.

It showed his collaboration and love of Joan Baez and his other girlfriend Suze Rotolo. There was wonderful singing in the film by all the cast. A lot of songs that I only vaguely remember from the 1960’s because I was only a young child. But certain songs like “Blowing in the wind” are strong memories. I also remember Joan Baez songs as my hubby used to play them a lot. Time plays tricks with memories but so much came sweeping back into my mind as I watched the film.

Music is a wonderful form of communication. This was a brilliant film. If you can go and see it. X

Scroogy

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A friend just came round to see how I was. I’d just finished watching the George C Scott version of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, so I was happy to ask her in. She’s a lovely person but a bit excitable and overwhelming.

Anyway she started tidying up the kitchen and put some things in the recycling bin. I heard her moving things and came in to find she was mixing up the types of waste. Not only that she had put my refillable olive oil bottle in the bin. I had to ask her to stop and pulled it back out again. Then she went in the bathroom and managed to break a bit off the tap, (it just needed screwing back in place).

I know how my stuff works and she could have asked instead of coming in like a bull in a China shop. I appreciated her concern for me but please let me do things my own way.

By the time we had chatted for half an hour I was feeling fraught. Thats why I feel a bit grumpy/scroogy. I’ve got used to my own company, I like doing things my own way and I was getting frustrated by her trying to take over. She’s gone now and so has my almost Migraine. It’s left me feeling  like a bad host!

Flying

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What skill would you like to learn?

For as long as I know I’ve been scared of flying. So why would I like to learn? Because I would be in CONTROL.

Alerons, throttle, yolk, flaps, landing gear. See I know the names of bits of planes, but not how to use them. I take note of TV programmes I watch. Even the ones where planes crash. But seeing mechanical failures really worry me. Like doors falling off without warning.

I think it stems from watching a James Stewart film when I was a child. It was either called “Glide Path”, or “No Highway”. It’s based on a book by Neville Shute. It is about a professor of engineering or mechanics who works out a series of recent crashes are caused by metal fatigue. The trouble is no one believes him. So he sets up a mechanical test to vibrate part of a plane and sets it going over hundreds of hours. But in the meantime he gets sent abroad and has to take drastic action to save himself and the other passengers on his plane.

It’s worth seeing, it’s set in the 50’s, and it put me off flying!

Top ten movies

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What are your top ten favorite movies?

  1. Close Encounters of the third kind. Good Sci-fi movie from 1977
  2. The Theory of everything, biography of Steven Hawking.
  3. Goodbye Mr Chips. 1940s film about school life.
  4. Shenandoah, western with James Stewart.
  5. Harvey, James Stewart and a giant invisible rabbit
  6. How to train your dragon, animated film.
  7. The cat from outer space, 1960’s Disney film
  8. Born Free, set in Africa about a lioness called Elsa
  9. Jurassic Park, because Jeff Goldblum is in it.
  10. A fish called Wanda, Madcap caper.

Close Encounters

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In 1977 a Sci fi film by Steven Spielberg came out that I have always loved. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I remember queuing around the block to get into the cinema. The story is of an alien encounter. The characters are all drawn to a place called Devils Tower in Wyoming USA.

It was made with cutting edge special effects. We go on a roller coaster adventure and complex plot line. The story was also written by Spielberg. It’s exciting and fascinating. I don’t  believe in Aliens visiting Earth, but I love the story. I’ve watched it several times and Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neery is the perfect odd ball hero.

The best thing? I’ve just watched it again for probably the 10th time. It cheers me up to see it again.

Something else

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What are you good at?

Margaret Rutherford played Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple

I often write here about Art and other activities I’m good at, but one of my favourite things is solving TV crime mysteries. I’m relatively good at it, I often know who the guilty party is well before the end. I have to stop myself saying who it is though, as its an irritating thing to do if I’m watching with someone else.

I would imagine that the makers of films and TV shows want people to guess so they include clues, but unless it’s a programme like Columbo where they show you the guilty party straight away it can be more of a challenge.

It’s a bit of a niche skill though, reality is not the same as a story. Life isn’t a tale we tell ourselves. I don’t think I would ever want to be a real detective, it would be too messy and upsetting. I just enjoy the fantasy of being good at guessing the criminal !

Feels like autumn!

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Some leaves are falling despite copious rain. It’s mid may up here in the northern hemisphere, but spring and summer feel far away. What is happening ? Is the climate changing? Maybe it’s a slow motion version of the film the day after tomorrow. Some talk of the Gulf stream current dwindling has been mooted over the last few years. The stream pulls up warm water from the Atlantic up the west coast of Wales and Scotland then on up to the Arctic. This floats above cold water travelling underneath it in the opposite direction. But humans seem to have the ability to mess things up. I have no proof of this. I’m merely speculating. But the weather is cold and grey. I think I’ll take a vitamin D tablet.

Four weddings and a funeral.

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I’ve just watched this film for the first time in about 20 years. In turn comedic, poignant, rude, surprising and life affirming

There is a poem by W H Auden in it “stop all the clocks”, so sad and yet to the point. I felt myself starting to cry again. But it helped.

It’s a film from the early 1990’s and has a strong cast of actors including Hugh Grant as the main star. It follows him through the marriages of his friends and perhaps himself. And the death of a close friend.

If you’ve never watched it I think you will probably enjoy it.