8.19.2011

The Feline Perspective and other stories

About half of the moves I've made in my life have involved bringing a dog along. Dogs do not like moving; they, like people, are quickly stressed out by chaos and change. For further information, see this.

As far as I can remember, I've never moved a cat. We have yet to see how Maia will take the change, but so far she seems to be enjoying the chaos. The world is full of new toys and hidey-holes.

At least someone likes the packing process.

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My book club met the other day to watch the new Jane Eyre movie. High-speed review:

The cinematography was so beautiful that I wished I'd seen it in the theater.

The use of flashbacks was intriguing but problematic; the shifts confused the only one of my friends who hadn't read the book.

The film suffered—as they all do—from the novel's persistent unadaptability, though I loved a lot of the scenes. Especially ones that stuck closer to the dialogue of the book. The first evening conversation between Jane and Rochester was excellent, which made me think that if the screenwriters had retained even part of the splendid dialogue in the last chapters of the story, the actors could have pulled it off.

The movie's time constraints were the primary culprit, though. Two hours just isn't enough to cover the story. The miniseries format perhaps works better; my friends strongly recommended both the Timothy Dalton/Zelah Clarke and the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson.

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Writers' link of the week: John Mayer talking music at Berkley. He has some interesting cautions about social media and the artist.

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Music of the week: Maria sent me this video a few days ago, and it's just so perfect. Now, how do I do my hair like Lisa Hannigan's? And is there any chance that in this life, I'll have time to learn the cello? Hmm.



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Funny of the week: Cat versus Human. It needs no more introduction than that.

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Now onto packing boxes and defending them from the cat, housecleaning, and writing books when I get a scrap of spare time. Happy weekend, everyone!

3 comments:

  1. I second the Timothy Dalton / Zelah Clarke miniseries recommend. Timothy Dalton is Mr. Rochester (though, like the others, we have to massively suspend our disbelief to accept that Jane finds him "hideous").

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  2. If you ask a cat "What is best in life," boxes will be one of the answers. :)

    Boxes are holy, sacred objects in our household. We need to buy things just for their boxes.

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  3. Eric, the moviemakers seem physically incapable of picking a less-than-drop-dead-gorgeous person to play either Rochester or Jane. But I think I'll have to try the Dalton version eventually anyway. :)

    George, seriously! We're going to save a bunch of them, because when Maia destroys boxes, she spends less time destroying the furniture.

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