Fiveday Fry
Song: Cheap Tricks by Thea Gilmore. Thea Gilmore has been plugged irregularly on this blog, so rather than go on about it, I'll just note that, due to a limited budget, the song Cheap Tricks has a cheap video. Oh the irony.
Book: Temeraire by Naomi Novik. Napoleonic Wars + Dragons = Yowzer! Novik is pitch perfect (except for the anachronistic use of 'hello' as a greeting rather than an exclamation) and the story is fascinating. The twists on 19th century storytelling standards give you a touch of intellectual cover for reading about tales of Daring! Aerial! Combat!
Film: Children of Men, which has just turned up on the Sky Movie channels this week. Not for the story, or background or ideas, not that they aren't interesting, but purely for the length of some of the shots in the action sequences. The most violent scenes appear to be one long take, including one in a car that goes on and on, and one in a future Bexhill being fought over street-by-street, where it begins with them coming out of a building, they're ambushed by people, split up, then the army turn up and gun people down, and the hero goes for cover, then goes up the street, then takes cover for a while as more fighting breaks out, then goes around the corner to a block of flats, and takes cover for really quite a while whilst shots and explosions go on, then sneaks across the road, and up the stairs in the flats and along, and people who were in the scene earlier reappear - and it looks like it's one shot. Outstanding documentary-style film making.
Food: Big Mushrooms baked with garlic butter. Get some of those really big mushrooms, make some garlic butter (room temperature butter, crushed garlic, chopped parsley stirred together), smear the butter on the mushrooms and bake for 25 minutes in a medium oven. Gorgeous.
Other: This news story will be used (by me) as a story seed, although not until next week at the earliest. But it's cool on it's own. If you prefer mysteries to the gritty, grainy minutiae of human existence, don't click on the 'Update: mystery solved!' link. If you like details and answers rather than pointless ignorance, do click on the link (after you've read the story first).
Book: Temeraire by Naomi Novik. Napoleonic Wars + Dragons = Yowzer! Novik is pitch perfect (except for the anachronistic use of 'hello' as a greeting rather than an exclamation) and the story is fascinating. The twists on 19th century storytelling standards give you a touch of intellectual cover for reading about tales of Daring! Aerial! Combat!
Film: Children of Men, which has just turned up on the Sky Movie channels this week. Not for the story, or background or ideas, not that they aren't interesting, but purely for the length of some of the shots in the action sequences. The most violent scenes appear to be one long take, including one in a car that goes on and on, and one in a future Bexhill being fought over street-by-street, where it begins with them coming out of a building, they're ambushed by people, split up, then the army turn up and gun people down, and the hero goes for cover, then goes up the street, then takes cover for a while as more fighting breaks out, then goes around the corner to a block of flats, and takes cover for really quite a while whilst shots and explosions go on, then sneaks across the road, and up the stairs in the flats and along, and people who were in the scene earlier reappear - and it looks like it's one shot. Outstanding documentary-style film making.
Food: Big Mushrooms baked with garlic butter. Get some of those really big mushrooms, make some garlic butter (room temperature butter, crushed garlic, chopped parsley stirred together), smear the butter on the mushrooms and bake for 25 minutes in a medium oven. Gorgeous.
Other: This news story will be used (by me) as a story seed, although not until next week at the earliest. But it's cool on it's own. If you prefer mysteries to the gritty, grainy minutiae of human existence, don't click on the 'Update: mystery solved!' link. If you like details and answers rather than pointless ignorance, do click on the link (after you've read the story first).
Comments