13. lake sherbrooke days - William Matheson's Journal

09:39 pm - 13. lake sherbrooke days

Monday

Watched The Bourne Ultimatum. There was a lot of good stuff going on with it. It had a neat way of echoing the themes from the first movie, sometimes even copying the shots but changing the subject. (I completely missed that my first time seeing this movie, since I hadn't seen the first two.) Also, you'll find that with the ending of the second, you didn't get quite the whole picture. It's an interesting trick; it makes the connection from one movie to the next more like a trailer hitch than a linear boundary.

The political side of things factors huge as the battle lines are drawn early in the movie – there's a lot of meaty confrontation and tension, and yet if you don't draw the lines so early you can preserve the mysteries of people's motivations and which “side” they're on. I might have expanded Julia Stiles' role (gawd, is she ever cute), but I can see why they didn't. I also wonder how it might have all gone down if only a certain character didn't panic. There's a huge chase scene in Morocco that really stretches believability and it's all confusion, but Bourne solves it because he's scripted to. All in all, it was satisfying – I just wanted a little more. 7.5

Tuesday

I have nothing to say, so here's a Calvin and Hobbes comic to make you wonder why. But seriously, nothing much happened.

Wednesday

My 10-meter HDMI cable was delivered today, so now I can hook my laptop to the living room TV. I got the cable online for peanuts. I re-watched A Clockwork Orange, this time with the subtitles on. It helped me pick out a lot of the Slavic words. It was good to experience the film's music and sound again. And, okay, the boobs.

Two ladies came by today selling accident insurance. When they pulled in, I woke up Grampy because I thought they might have been from the hospital or social services or something. If it had been a man, I'd have asked what it was about first. Anyway, they came in, and they couldn't sell anything to Grampy because they were looking for people under 70. Of course they asked me if I wanted to look at their offerings, and I just told them I didn't have any money. I doubt I would have been interested anyway.

Grampy mentioned that he once sold insurance, and when they asked him for details he ended up telling them most of his life story. They said it was interesting, and I think they were sincere.

It's nice living at the end of a long driveway that disappears into the woods. Generally, it discourages people who are going door-to-door. But some people can't take a “hint”. Like me as a kid. Oh, by the way, dark houses on Halloween night are a sign. So I learned.

Thursday

I went to pick up what I thought was the Season One of the US version of The Office at the library, and the box had the US cast on it, but in the case was Series One of the UK version of The Office. Somebody goofed! I borrowed it anyway, since I haven't seen the UK version. It gets me that I notice these kinds of things yet I couldn't get even an interview for a shelving clerk job at HPL with a million years of trying. j/k

The upstairs satellite receiver stopped working again, so I was obliged to call Shaw Direct and go around the mulberry bush. In the end, after it looked like a line problem (the same receiver works on the downstairs outlet), the rep proposed sending new receivers and seeing if they work. Then if they don't work, roll the truck. I would have gone for it had it not been for the $30 to ship the receivers. (Grampy would have exploded.) And it sure looked like a line problem. So roll the truck (or, more accurately, “roll the early-2000s Dodge Caravan”). Reluctantly, the rep did.

Friday

I watched Trance in Andy's studio. It's kind of like Inception, but with less depth and meaning. Trance isn't about who or an innate why, just about what and the proximal whys. There isn't – really – a soul-searching character in the whole cast. You really don't know who to root for. It's morally ambiguous. So, you wonder, what was the point of all this?

Well, if you don't have much of a story to tell, go for broke on the telling. A series of events unfolds in front of you. Eventually, it all makes sense, but, again, you'll wonder what the point was. What were they trying to say with this movie? They've got me replaying parts of the movie in my head – it's a little like being Mrs. Fletcher or Monk for five minutes, pointing out everything – but very little in the movie spoke to anything else but the part of me that likes logical puzzles. It's hollow nourishment. It's junk food. But on the whole, it's edible. 7

It doesn't belong in my capsule review, but some Saturday night I need to address a hair issue that the movie raises. It was masterfully fit into the movie – for the record, on that point, I like either.

In the evening, I crashed Andy's friend's “tentio” but I had a beer for Andy and some cheese crunch thingys for Josh and me. All good, I think. Then Andy had a long phone conversation with someone who couldn't sleep because there was a party going on. Meanwhile, in the studio it became Martin Freeman night.

The Office (UK): The humour seems a bit more subdued than the USA version, but maybe I think that just because I'm not part of the culture it's coming from. The dialogue is a lot racier than what would be acceptable for broadcast television in the USA. But it ain't the USA. The equivalent of Pam looks more like a “normal gal” but she's very attractive. The equivalent of Jim (played by Martin Freeman) is a lot more neurotic and not nearly as cocksure. (Things seem to get rolling faster there, too, and in general more seems to happen in less time.) The equivalent of Dwight isn't as bombastic but is just as funny. And the manager, well, he's every bit as hard to watch as his USA counterpart. There are times when you want to look away from the TV because you can't stand to see the faces of the people around him when he's saying ridiculous things. It's a good kind of torture. Anyway, I'm going to try to seek out the rest of this show, then maybe switch to the USA version, which I also like.

Sherlock: This was almost as good as the feature film! Lots of fascinating characters, all well-portrayed. Martin Freeman plays Dr. Watson and makes it his own. So does Benedict Cumberbatch* playing Sherlock Holmes. It's kind of a quasi-autistic take on the character – I like it! I definitely want to see more of this show. It's on Netflix, or at least the early episodes are.

* - Damn straight I had to look that up.

Saturday

I watched these moves at the studio ages ago this summer, but I don't think I “reviewed” them:

Brave: Saw this in 3-D. Don't think there was much point to that. Yet another enjoyable Pixar film. The central theme of the story comes off a little laboured. But there're all kinds of cute and funny things along the way. 8.5

Cars: Delightful. Hilarious. No attention to detail was spared. Only very occasionally gets a little too hokey.9.5.

Having a nice night chilling with Andy, Josh, Elise, and Elise's delightful, funny, loud exuberant friend. It's pretty much the perfect Saturday night. Well, okay, there's no crack or Polish strippers but it's still pretty cool.