Friday, January 12, 2007

Rocky Horror Picture Show, and some real culture too.


Watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show last night. Yup, with the kids. It was pretty educational...they hid for Meatloaf's demise. They could only get out of it as much as they put in, and most of it went right over their heads. Here is a telling comment, the parents were giggling away, and at the end, the elder child said that she would have preferred to have watched Shakespeare in Love, which we also have out. Gotta love her.



The older one mentioned that there is a striking similarity between Dr Frankfurter and Ronaldinho....of Barca fame....Blo**#gger won't upload the photos, so you'll have to search that out for yourselves....as they don't show my photos most of the time anyway......(no I am NOT bitter)




Have to love the sound track to that movie. We also listened to Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's dead. That's a great tune too. I am not that crazy about the visuals on this...especially all the shots up his nose, but you don't have to look.




Watched Shakespeare in Love this evening, survey says....too much kissing. Kidlets did NOT approve.

We did also take them to the latest opening in the town's art gallery....a group of photographers had a year long assignment based on the colour red. Vermell in Catalan. It was pretty good, one artist even managed a dig at McDonalds!!! So we aren't completely filling their mind with 1970's pop culture.

Went to the post office today. The guy behind the desk spoke incredibly quickly, and only in Castillian. Can you imagine hiring someone to work in a public service sector that cannot speak one of the official languages of the region? Like the post office in Chicoutimi speaking only English. Mystifying. Telefonica, the national phone company also does not have people in the call center that speak Catalan. Seems like bad business to me. If it irritates me, how do the real Catalans feel? Do we do this in Canada? Probably, and I don't see it, but I am sure, completely certain, that the folks in the post office in Trois Riviers speak French.

I've read two books recently, and I am in the middle of the third that employ a loathsome literary devise. They each have at least 10 major characters, each of whom get their own chapter at the beginning, and then towards the end, they all come together and solve each other's problems. It is a nice idea, but even when I read the book in a single sitting, I am left constantly wondering who the hell THIS person is and what the hell is going on. The authors cannot pull it off. Either their short story ability in each chapter is inadequate to generate a sufficiently compelling and memorable character, or there are just too many damn main characters for it to be anything but irritating. One of the authors is internationally famous, and the other has a Pulitzer, Jane Smiley. I am reading MOO, recommended by my Dad and sister, who are usually pretty reliable. Why oh why can't they write a book where you can keep track of the damn characters. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That said, Moo was on the New York Times Bestsellers list, so maybe I am alone in this complaint.

8 comments:

Beth said...

Lots of family time (and cultural exposure) happening over there - keep it up!
I recently quit a book at page 138. (And it was for my Book Club.) Seven "main" characters - and I didn't like any of them.
Life is too short - too many other good books to read!

oreneta said...

Beth: I'm on page 160. It may not go any further. I finished Gone With The Wind when I was younger, hated it all the way through, and hated it at the end. The only reason I didn't actually chuck it overboard was because it was a library book, and having to then pay for it would have been rubbing salt into the wound.

Started Bruce Chatwin's In Pategonia...How I wish I could write like him...Although when you sit down and anazyse it he's pretty scattered. I've read it before and he is amazing.

Baron Ectar said...

Hi There - Found you - via Beths blog.

Personally my very first love of my life starred in the Rocky Horror Picture Show - I watch it every now and then just to feel young again!

Beth said...

Me again. Check out my blog - I posted a picture for you of the snow in our backyard. There's not much - yet!

Barbara said...

Cermia cru li, os stro, yit sostos vocaspessa... Finhai buso jamadesmarti, atrarl, habbam. Coisanni vola bissibliosas...

oreneta said...

Baron E: Thanks for coming by...I cannot say that the first love of my life starred in the Rocky Horror, but it certainly is funny.

Beth: You are so wonderful....I probably could show them that. Thank you so much! Thanks for the link too.

Barbara: So sorry, I can't tell what language your posting in, give me a hint, and I'll try to respond.. Ran your comment through Google translator...no luck.

kate said...

Oh, great. I read this post a few hours ago, and all morning I've been singing "Let's do the time warp again!!!!"

Thanks a lot.

;-)

oreneta said...

So have I for DAYS...