Diary of a Necromancer

As one can see from the Media Consumption List, the Household has made the semi-annual-or-indeed-occasionally-biennial pilgrimage to a Real Live Movie Palace to see a film on the big screen, this instance of arse-getting-off-of being occasioned by the debut of Blade Runner 2049, which as one can imagine with the Sekrit Project being a dystopia and all has been on the to-do list for a while now. (As opposed to the practice of recent years of looking up at some point on xmas or new year's day and deciding to hell with it, let's call 'going to see this year's effects-blockbuster' the best of a bad job for the day and/or year.)

So, nonspoilery thoughts: I'd characterise BR2049 as an interesting failure; it's trying to do too much, and ends up collapsing beneath the weight of all the subplots, but I'll give it partial credit for trying to do anything at all, which is rare enough these days, and it was absolutely worth going to see on the house-sized screen, not least because I suspect that the actual story part isn't going to hold up well at a remove from the physical bombardment of images. Overall, contented enough that I went, and an extra half-point for not having walked out of the theater feeling motion-sick like after a couple of my last few trips to the local googleplex. (Difference there possibly that I got new glasses since the last time I went to the movies, and have been realising that the depth-perception issues weren't my eyes...)

As to the film immediately preceding BR2049 on the List, I have some vitriolic Feels about twentysomething studio execs who decide to change a setting from WWII to WWI and then fail a spot-check for realising that "german military" is NOT eternally coterminous with "cartoon nazis"; my grandfather who switched sides between the wars to go punch the latter because that was a whole different quantum-shell of asshattery would surely have had some Feels of his own about that, I do think.

(Also none of the women's costuming was within five years either side of the general period the film was allegedly trying for, but I've pretty much given up on that dead horse.)

Next Big Shiny films to look forward to specifically (as opposed to "we'll probably get bored at some point on xmas or new year's and go see the Last Jedi" because Reasons) are Pacific Rim 2: More Giant Robots Punching Monsters, the first film of which is one of the few I genuinely regret not getting to see on a big screen back when it was released, and Ready Player One, which already has my inner fangirl squeaking things that sound suspiciously like shut up and take my money is it next spring yet. I shall console myself until then by thinking that it will probably go horribly, horribly wrong anyway because, well, these things always do.



Also, as an aside, given that BR 2049 and Wonder Woman both had Robin Wright in them, I am now having passing fancies about Princess Buttercup punching Nazis. My Muse is not a well anthropomorphic personification.

I appear to have thrown myself wholeheartedly into worldbuilding for New Sekrit Project. Have to balance that with not neglecting Previous Sekrit Project, assuming anyone's still following that...

What I'm hung up at right now is the part where Muse, in-her-infinite-wisdom, seems to have mentally cast the Bernard Marx-y role in her Brave New World homage as Idris Elba. I suspect that it's Relevant, bordering on plot-Relevant, that he's both A, an Englishman, and B, not a white Englishman, but it would be nice for once to be able to dredge up some of the stuff that goes on at the level of subconscious intuition to where I can interrogate the crap out of it before I'm elbows deep in things and have to work back to see how I can reinforce ideas I'd half(-assedly) worked out here and there already. Because compared to that, I suspect that genderswapping most of the rest of the cast is fairly small potatoes, relatively speaking...

(Have also learned that Shaw's original ending for Pygmalion was basically going to be "Eliza punches Henry in the face and goes off to work for universal suffrage" -- I may have interpreted it in my own unique idiom. Feeling rather vindicated in my displeasure at Billy Elliot right about now.)

The problem with The Graduate is that the narrative endorses the protagonist's self-absorption rather than commenting upon it. Discuss:


(This essay-question brought to you by the late-night realisation that hey, I'd never seen it all the way through, followed several hours later by the late-night realisation RE why I'd never stuck with it, which is that none of the women back in 1967 are allowed the agency of a bag of hammers. When you find yourself relating more to the prostitute in Risky Business because at least she has her own life independent of the protagonist, you know the culture has undergone some serious generational shifts...)

It's distressing to realise just how much of my long-term plan for my life has been basically 'not getting run over by a bus before 23rd November 2013'.

Perhaps I should consider piracy.

Actual question I found myself considering yesterday: "so, which is more disturbing, the penis bong or the Hello Kitty?"

Even my Muse wasn't quite sure how to process that one through her art-therapy.

Though I'm sure she's going to try.

Fed the cats the other morning and went out of the room for about ten minutes. When I came back into the kitchen, Snip leapt up onto the counter and began making a case that she hadn't been fed in, um, ever, and was in imminent danger of a gruesome death by starvation.

While she was licking the grease off her whiskers.

And there was still half a can of gooshyfood left on their plate.

So I told her, in all seriousness, "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

Snip was not impressed.

Caught myself Disapproving of a 20yo's haircut on the train last night. Granted, it wasn't a particularly well-executed example of whateverthehellitwas that he may have been trying for with it, but it still feels like one more slip down the inevitable slide towards SENESCENCE AND DEATH.

I seem to recall making more than one "So Blogging This" remark of late, so I'll throw it open to the Audience as to which neglected lead I should be working on next:

[Poll #1866725]


But first, Muse has finally turned in the next installment of "Hiraeth". I'm still not entirely sure that I didn't accidentally break a couple of things fixing others -- thoughts on how well this stands up RE structure or general sense-making particularly appreciated...


( Trevor and Jason, Vignette #36: There's a centipede the size of a mouse... )

Oh, great, now I've got the theme song stuck in my head... again.

Inner Jason is cheering for at least six countries, Inner Trevor hasn't stopped crying since the tribute to suffragettes in the opening ceremony, and Inner Button-Down made me watch an entire game of men's beach volleyball before mumbling that he'd be in his bunk. I may be gone for some time.