wendy house

The film is ok

A well produced and acted, fast paced, thriller with one professionally executed theme. The cast quality held the film together.   It’s a good film for people who want to walk in and out  without having felt challenged or provoked to think.   Just take a ride.

The theme I noticed:

• Revenge.   several different revenge plots.   I guessed many plot ‘twists’ before they were explicitly revealed.   This was due to a very streamlined  script but it dampened the film’s impact as a thriller because  it felt predictable despite some very novel scenes.   The story structure is good quality but not innovative.

Other notable points

• The opening credits were impressive because of the graphic effects and  their  relevance to the plot.   You are taken straight into the movie while the credits are delivered.  
• Morgan Freeman’s velvet voice.   Isn’t it always?  
• Ben Kingsly as an American Rabbi. Riveting performance.   My main motivation for seeing the film was  experiencing Ben Kingsly act with Morgan Freeman.   There is one scene that contains both actors.
• Lucy Liu is not playing a vamp.  A pleasant suprise.   Very adorable character,   intellegent and cute without being a clutz.   The sugar collection scenes that establish her character provided a film highlight.   A credit to the scene scripting,   acting and direction.
• Bruce Willis is  not stretched by his role.   He had much more room to demonstrate his talent in 12 Monkeys, Sixth sense, Die Hard  or even Pulp Fiction.
• Lack of character development.   None that I noticed.   The boy and the girl fell in love.   Some people  discovered stuff they didn’t already know.  Some people died.   That’s not really character development.

1985 (Assume poetic licence  with the precision of dates and details.   The story has  changed with  fermentation in memory.   The gist of the story is consistent with the orginal experience.)

I   rented a room near ‘The Mermaid’ in a small  Sparkhill red-brick terraced house shared with four girls.   Bambi rented a room  in a Handsworth  red brick terraced house  shared with four boys.   Two bus rides, an hour, apart.   Neither house had a telephone.   We were poor.   We were young.

Bambi’s house smelt of rotting mice.   It was infested.  The neighbours houses were infested.   The whole area was infested.   Everyone lived with the mice.  Mice would dash for cover when you entered a room, switched on a light, moved suddenly.   The boys would play at trying to jump on, squash,  mice before they reached cover.   Several  squashed mice decorated the floor in the front room.   The floor was also decorated with chair-side piles of empty beer cans and chris-crossed with glittering slug trails.    A milk bottle containing a dead mouse sat on the fireplace mantle; gently warmed by the gas fire on colder days.   The mouse had climbed in voluntarily when the bottle lay on the floor then, unable to climb out,  starved to death.   The boys treated  the bottled mouse  as a trophy.   Some mice died more peacefully of old age under the floor boards.   Then rotted.   I’ll never forget the overwhelming stench of rotting mouse.   It’s integrally bound with first love.  It filled your lungs and scented your sweat during the deep breaths of love making.   It seems appropriate that I read Ian McEwan’s “First Love, Last Rites” in this house.  

Early on a brightly lit  summer evening I turned-up to meet  Bambi.   He wasn’t in.  In other homes I would make myself at home with a cup of Tea.   Not here. Concerns about household hygiene.   The mice-droppings on the kitchen work surfaces and stench were an effective deterrent to eating or drinking.   I picked a book from Bambi’s collection and  opened a window in a futile attempt to release the seemingly endless odour.   With my head by the open window I  started to read ‘the catcher in the rye‘.    My first American novel.   The sun gradually set.   Sodium pink, then yellow, street lights lit the pages.    The mice scuttled over the silence.   Lost in the story I forgot about the planned evening with Bambi.    Despite knowing  very little about the places,  symbols,  or lifestyle outlined in the book it felt powerfully relevant to  the loneliness of that night, madness of  youth,  and pains of new found adulthood.  

I finished the novel as Bambi arrived.

does ‘The Wendy House’ need re-branding with a name that is sweeter,   more American, and refers to the rambling  content?   For example:

0

nought, naught,  zero,  nil, none, nothing, nowt, zilch, diddly-squat

I still say naught (English version of zero).   It’s  begining to sound a bit strange to me now… …Wikipedia details the origins and use of the word Zero.   It doesn’t detail the origins on the word ‘naught.  

Highly recommended

An excellent heroic story that creatively  re-weaves threads from  classic themes in an original, engaging,  way.   Very topical.   High quality acting across the whole cast,   well constructed sound track and visuals.  Understandable at both superficial and multi-layered levels.

Long review warning

Some  themes that I recognized:

• Revenge: Alexandra Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Christo” is both explicitly and implicitly referenced.
• Masked caped hero of justice: a similar theme to “The Mask of Zorro“,   a story familiar to US audiences.   The hero uses a pre-christian runic style ‘Z’ symbol.   V for Vendetta uses a runic style symbol.   Why do I call them runic style?  ((not an actual rune))   Runes were originally created by cutting-wood, straight lines are more easily carved than curves.   Runes are made of short straight lines.   This runic site comments that:

“Adolf Hitler added a corrupted form of Runic occultism to his ideal of creating a master race. Several runic symbols were adopted as insignias by the Nazis, probably the most instantly recognisable is the use of Sowelu (the S-rune) by the infamous SS.”

• Totalitarianism:   Numerous implicit references to the strategies, practices  and timing of Hitler’s rise to and maintainance of power.   Another reference is to George Orwell’s ’1984′.   For me this was particularly striking because John Hurt played a roll in the film of 1984 and a contrasting roll in this film.   The filming of the scenes starring John Hurt are powerfully reminiscent of scenes from the film 1984.   The analogy to America is very subtle,   I believe it does exist through references to ‘Terrorism’ and how fear is used to manipulate the populous.
• Scapegoat & Spin:   the gunpowder plot theme is beautifully  used in the film.    The film exlicitly portrays the story as ‘man against government’.   Implicitly its relevance is far more substantial.   The government of 1605 spun the story that  Guy Fawkes had lead a large Catholic conspiracy to undermine government.  It is likely that the authorities knew of the plot in advance, let it happen,  picked Guy up at the scene, published the treasonous event  then used it to engender sufficient fear to support the subsequent removal of key Catholics.   Many were  hung drawn and quartered for complicity in the ‘plot’.    Fear invoked.   A national celebration instituted.   We survived, etc.   Politically influenced media spin 401 years ago!  

Other notable points:

• Use of the 1812 overture.   As a pre-teen I  didn’t like  listening to my parent’s Sibelius albums on a Sunday.   If they HAD to play classical music could they please  put on  the 1812 overture or Holst’s Planet Suite (I liked Mars).   Occassionally they indulged me and I’d jump up and down to the 1812 overture while improvising explosion noises.   It’s a fun game.   I resisted the temptation to jump up and down in the cinema…
• English rose: The English rose plays several significant symbolic roles in the film.   It’s a  very evocative symbol to me:   The national flower of England;  Represented in  the English Rugby Union team and Football team insignia; The red rose  is the symbol of the House of Lancaster;   The white rose is the symbol of the House of York;    Famously battling for control of England in the War of the  Roses;   Paul Weller’s poignant accoustic ballard  ”English Rose”;   The Damned’s first single ‘New Rose“;    The concept of an ‘English Rose’ as an outstandingly beautiful  of girl of snow white skin, rose red lips and dark hair;   The idealistic image of roses growing around the door of an English, thatched,  cottage.   I buy myself red roses when I need good heart, courage.
• Natalie Portman cast as a Londoner.   Why cast an American when there are plenty of talented and capable British actresses?   The rest of the cast were predominantly British.  Presumably Natalie was included to draw the none-British  audiences with a ‘big name’.   Despite my initial reservations I found Natalie’s performance worked extremely well.  
• The dialogue coach was the first credit following the cast.   Very approrpriate.   Natalie Portman’s accent was increadibly good.   It was subtly regional rather than the often inappropriate  ‘plummy’ upper class accent that I found ruined my experience of Renee Zellweger’s  interpretation of the essentially middle-class Bridget Jones.  
• Church & Monarchy: The light reference to established churches and complete lack of reference to  a monarchy   are  not detrimental to the film.   They are interesting.   The gunpowder plot was conducted on a day when the Monarch,   James  I,  would be in Parliament.   He was part of the target.   The protestant catholic tension was a core point of discontent in 1605.   V does reference religeous corruption and a core spokesperson talks of ‘God’ being with England.     I noticed no references to Monarchy and the existance of a hereditary class system.
• Speech excerpts played over the closing credits.   I heard the voices and felt more compelled to stay and listen than when a song typically plays with the credits.   This comment that I later discovered was a recording on  Gloria Steinem was very powerful: “This is no simple reform… It really is a revolution. Sex and race, because they are easy and visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor in which this system still depends.“

Frendy Fizzz recently published another, shorter,  praising review.

Peak page request times:

• Big: 8-9pm (PDT); 4-5am (GMT)
• Small:     8-9am (PDT); 4-5pm (GMT)

Trough ((posted in a big trough @ 3am PDT using a well hidden WordPress ‘automatic-post-at-this-time’ feature)) page request times:

• Big: 2-3am (PDT); 10-11am (GMT)
• Small: 4-5pm (PDT); Midnight-1am (GMT)

Graph below produced by my web service provider (not Excel).   Does the 3-dimensional nature of the graph make it more difficult to read the page-reqest values?   Does the top or bottom of the thick line represent the data values?   Looks like it’s about 700 page hits thick and 2  hours deep.  

Pretty

him: you’re not as hard as you make out

me: I choose not to make out,   that’s hard

This was scrawled directly onto a PC screen with a pen!   I ‘borrowed’ the Tablet PC from a friend at work.   I had to tear it from his arms leaving him trembling in the corridor as I ran clutching my prize and laughing maniacally.    WOW (Wendy One Wants)…   …oh,   geekiness abounds…     …that’s like ‘sploginess abounds’ without music or being stuck in the 1980′s:

aren’t you glad you can read my typed, rather than scrawled,  miss-spellings  

manager:   “how’s it going then Wendy?”

wendy: “Blah-good, blah=very-good, blah-not-so-good, and this… ..THIS is absolutely HORRIFIC!”

manager: (giggles) “…HOAR-ific…” (immitates and accentuates my vowel sounds,   giggles some more)

wendy: (giggles)

It is funny when you hear your manager say ‘Whore’.   Naughty!    Even more funny when he says it with  an immitation upper-class (plummy)  English accent and I know that  I have  a middle-class regional accent.

W easily-entertained

The  graph-map thingy below  shows USA States that I have

• explored a bit (lilac)
• got lost in an airport (pink)
• probably flown-over (yellow)

apologies to the 3 United States (Hawaii, Alaska, Britain) not included in this Excel MapPoint thingy.

a seat-belt length  on an airplane  is adjusted to suit the rotundness of the previous seat occupier.   When I get on a plane in North America I can normally fit a whole hand-length between my body and this setting:

I shorten the belt setting by approximately a ‘foot’.   It tickled me that these very portable measures,  one ‘Hand’ and one  ‘Foot’,  described different aspects of the  same space.   Apparantly  three hands (4″) equal one foot (12″) in length.      

Shifting back from Metric to using feet and inches when I moved to America was rather quaint.   They’re still using a British Imperial system even though the British no longer have an empire and have themselves moved on to Metric.   Lucky  for me that I was already familiar with feet and stuff….        

This Chicago Sun-Times article describes how a 45yr man advertised that he was willing to pay $1,000.00 for a virgin bride between 12-24yrs.   The Story is that his neighbours protested that he advertised for a girl as young as 12yrs.   Does this mean his neighbors:

1)   have no concerns about the explicit business relationship of purchasing a bride?   This made me wonder

• Will he get a receipt?
• can he return her if she’s ‘faulty’ or ‘damaged’ goods?

2)   think the lifetime commitment of a woman is adequately priced at $1,000.00? This made me wonder

• is this the ‘market value’ determined by ‘free trade’?
• who gets the $1,000.00?   If its her does he  effectively get it back by  virtue of their being married?
• If he discovers she wasn’t a virgin does the marriage contract become anulled for breach of promise?
• Does the marriage mean for life or for the average length of a first marriage in the US (8yrs)

These 2 unreported themes are MUCH MORE DISTURBING than  the honesty of declaring  preparedness for a marriage relationship with a 12 year old.     That these 2 themes are NOT EXPLICITLY MENTIONED is EVEN MORE  DISTURBING.

Maybe I could buy myself a husband who’ll stay at home and cook, clean and generally provide services for me.  Must not be a virgin.

Morning rituals blogged:

• Meegan:   Rituals
• Geeky:    Ritualistic, inspired by Meegan’s entry
• Anne:   Routine, inspired by Geeky’s entry
• LaCroix:   Compulsive, inspired by Anne and Geeky’s  entry

As a committed conformist here’s my outstandingly pedestrian morning inspired by all the above entries:

• alarm, wake,  fluff-ball love-fest, get out of bed (15mins)
• shower & dry (15mins).   Homage to Lush.
• fluff-ball love fest  @ top then foot of staircase (5mins)
• make & drink TEA while checking other people’s blogs (20mins)
• Leave for  work in a chuggy little LooSea.

chain-letters…   …chain blog-entries… …if I tell you about my morning does that mean it exists?   If no-one see’s my mornings (apart from the fluff-balls) does that mean they don’t exist?   Should I waffle about a tree falling in a forest or just go to bed?  

• sounds pleasing…
• smells fresh…
• tastes delicious…
• feels invigorating…   …internally and externally…
• looks luminous…

Like this:

This single girl is  easily pleased, temporarily,  with an Imperial pint.

server: do we have an English person?

wendy: we do

server:   I met a whole bunch of English people when  I worked in Florida  

wendy: oh!

server:   they asked for jacket potatoes

wendy: are they called something else over here?

server:   yes..   and they’d say it so fast it sounded like ‘jork’t ato’s (….lots of ‘blah’ from the server before  we managed to order some much needed food and beers)

colleague: you’ve got a built in conversation piece

wendy:   (raises eyebrow quizzically)

colleague: your accent

In just three days with me he’s witnessed  nearly 700 unsolicited stories  that start  with phrases like  I know a Brit’,   ‘my ancestors were English’   ‘what a cute accent…’ I’ve been there (insert either: London,   Scotland, Italy, Spain)  

this is not a case of ‘flash’ red-eye.   These are traffic lights at dusk in a North Carolina spring after a rainstorm that caused traffic havoc.   Havoc included police cars with very pretty lights,   ambulances and collections of crumpled cars on the edge of the road.        

Am  I on the ‘right’ side of the road?

Excel can tell me how many US states I have explored indside and outside  of an  airport…

Excel has  not worked out how to predict the State’s I will visit……opportunity for product development?  

My gorgeous little Sony Ericsson T610 mobile phone reminds me of the answers to all these questions.  

It synchronizes with my Outlook 2003  contacts and calendar.   Both Darling and my phone know where I have to be and when I have to be there.   If they are turned-on, they remind me.   Wonderful for a scatterbrain like me.   My phone is always turned on.   I just need to remember to charge and synchronize it.   I did have to buy a ‘Bluetooth adapter’ to enable Darling and my mobile phone to build a ‘partnership’.   Disappointing that a brand new laptop had neither an Infra-Red beam port or internal Bluetooth given how common these connection methods are on phones.  

Now  I dont ‘remember’ anyones phone number or where I have to be when,   my phone does it for me….  

Geeky GUSH!

wendy:   Maybe you should consider the benefits of trying out ‘blah’

collegaue: Wendy means do ‘blah’

wendy:   (…um, ….yes,   …based on what I know already that is my best guess.    But I don’t know about the implications of doing ‘blah’ for ‘stuff-I’m-not-a-specialist-in’ and…     ….more disclaimers…..)

I’m not used to using unhedged assertive directives.   They are quick and convey specialist opinions concisely.   This is valued in my workplace.   It’s difficult to break the habit of constructing sentences with hedging words ‘maybe’,  ‘perhaps’,   ‘possibly’, ‘consider’,   ‘it seems’,   “I suspect”…    

I use them because I  believe they enable direct respect for  the knowldge of other specialists and  convey there  are potential caveats without necessarily ennumerating them.   Assertive directives can convey arrogance and ignorance.

Last night Paul Weller deservedly won the Brit Award for outstanding contribution to the British Music Industry.   From  ’The Jam’   through  ’The Style Council’ to his solo work Paul has always been involved in producing musically interesting, lyrically astute, songs.   The award was presented by another gorgeous, talented, Londoner; Ray Winston.    Double GUSH!

neighbour: “can I have some more water”

manager: “No.   I’ve already got your money”

neighbour: “please?”

manager: “Alright,   but I must warn you,   its a little wet“

Fictional conversation with my ever-wise Mumsie :

Mumsie: “your dinner’s ready”

Wendy: “I’m not done yet” (tidying my bedroom)

Mumsie: “Gwendolyn,   YOU have not FINISHED.    The Dinner is DONE.    You are not a dinner that can be ‘done’.   Stop what you are doing now,   finish it after dinner, or your dinner will be OVERDONE and you risk being DONE OVER“

A quick look in online dictionarys suggests that  the US usage of ‘done’ is appropriate.   It makes me wince.   It doesn’t ‘sound’ right.   Obviously, I blame my mother for this over sensitivity.   She may not be responsible for this quirk of mine…

Museum of History.   Wendy winces.   At this rate of wincing I’m going to develop a permanent tic.  

The Charlotte Museum of History was a pleasure. Entrance was free on the Sunday I visited.   It was staffed by friendly, attentive,  volunteers.   I thought ‘this is southern hospitality’. The real highlight was the live folk music played by younsters and oldsters.   A ‘live’ museum.   The music  echoed around the impressive, modern, building.   Mandolins,   Banjo’s, Guitars, Violins and more.   Here they are playing ‘Amazing Grace’:

On flick-r there are more of my photographs of Charlotte.

excerpt from email distributed at work.   Email  title:   “Needed:   A few buff men”

“…to move (specified heavy) equipment.   I don’t think  us administrators have that kind of strengh.   Well maybe (girls name) but not me…”

This email explicitly cites gender as a requirement.   In my books that’s sexism.   Probability suggests that more men than women will have the strength (job criteria)  to carry large equipment.   Probability should not be used to explicitly exclude those women who do actually fit the criteria for the job.   Any job.   Generalise the idea.   Person with the best skills for the job is recruited to do it,   irrespective of gender.   Fabulous.  

That one female administrator may be qualified to carry the heavy equipment feels like  a last minute concession after the offense.   It might also be gender-based, derogatory,  humour.   I can’t tell.

I’m too small to carry the equipment.  I pointed out to the administrator that she was being sexist.   Does that make me witch of the day?   Then I’ll bewitching everyday…    

this configuration of signs nearly lured me into oncoming traffic…   …should I stay or should I go?

solving one of my shopping cunundrums.    How did I resist it’s sparkliness?   Impenetrable packaging helped…

Wendy:   “a pint of Bass please“server: “we don’t have any Bass“Wendy:   “it’s on your menu?”

server: “that Bass is in a bottle,  it isn’t draught”   (Wendy winces at the tautology)

Wendy: “then I’ll have  Bass from a bottle please’ (looks at server over the top of her glasses while toying with asking why Bass in a bottle is not Bass)

This has happened 2 times in different places.   I suspect that quantities are different for draught and bottled beers.   My specifying a pint implied draught.   I didnt know this.

* The word server is used because:

• it is gender neutral.
• it provides potential for ironic euphamisms based on  computing vernacular.
• the term ‘wait staff’, though gender neutral, is actually an instruction given to a rod used to aid walking.
• ‘wait staff’ doesnt afford opportunities for silly comparisons with computers.
• sounds similar to the retiring word – ‘servant’

Mumzie said:

“Darling,   don’t talk with your mouth full.    Spraying partially chewed food over the person you are talking-to is not a skill worth cultivating”

“Darling, the whole world doesn’t want to see your food while you are eating it,   close your mouth”

“If you don’t chew properly you’ll get indegestion“

I suspect mum was onto something.   I’ve not yet had indegestion (42yrs).    I’ve not  taken tablets to avoid indegestion.  

US server: “is the food alright for you”  (just after I put a mouthful of food in my mouth)

Wendy:   chews…     …chews faster…     …chews faster faster…    …swallows…     ….  ”yes it is fine thankyou”

US Server: “that was quite a build-up” turns around and walks away before I can say anything more

I must learn to deal with servers asking me this ‘service checklist’ question while i have a mouth full of food…  

Darling’s inside casing is a light metalic pink.   Her touchpad is the same light metalic pink.   The gal not only has style she has  3 USB ports on her sides  near the front.   Easy to plug-in  and remove a mouse, music player,   camera,   or any other thing,   all at the same time!   Versatility with working well  are so so so SEXY Oh!

shop assistant:    ‘are you finding everything alright?‘   (Standing over 5ft away from Wendy without having made eye-contact)

Wendy:       ……(doesn’t realize the assistant is  talking to me)…….

shop assistant:      ”ARE YOU FINDING EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?’‘  (louder, without moving closer, without  attempting to gain eye contact)

Wendy:   (walks to the shouting assistant, smiles) “were you talking to me?”  

shop assistant:   “yes” (looks a bit gobsmacked)

Wendy: “Can I help you?” (I adore reversing who is helping who with this phrase)

shop assistant:     “are…are  you finding everything alright?”

Wendy: “I’m just browsing,   but thank YOU for asking” (or provides  specific purchase criteria)

* the phrase ‘are you talking to me’ is often used as a pre-cursor to a contrived argument, a deliberate provocation to a fight.   Well illustrated  by Robert De Niro in ‘Taxi Driver’