I've reread Riders To The Midnight Sun during my horizontality. The travel story is fast becoming an overdone genre, but a good one is still hard to beat. This one follows a 30-ish couple who ride cheap, crappy bicycles from the Black Sea to Murmansk in the former Soviet Union. For me, it has it all: the former Eastern Bloc; cycling; ill-advised trips; the angst of "growing up" (ie turning 30); an emerging writer; the creepy, compulsive draw of nuclear power stations; strange food; and vodka. He writes well, so it's worth a look for his crafting alone.
The DVD list is a little hazier. Many of them passed by in a pain-and-codeine fog, but I do remember:
- Stepford Wives (thin and unsatisfying, although mildly amusing in parts),
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (despite a cast of favorites, never really got going for me),
- Around the World in 80 Days (not even Jackie Chan could save this one),
- Withnail and I (the world is just so much better with Richard E Grant aboard, don't you think?)
- Cassanova (nice costumes)
- The Brothers Grimm (nice costumes)
All in all, a mostly poor selection. I think there were around 16 more, but my usually-agreeable brain just won't cooperate. I'm sure you'll cope.
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But in news far more exciting, to me at least, is that university results for semester 1 are released tomorrow. Will she make High Distinction? Or will Distinction have to suffice? Will she get enough to land a few of those juicy merit-based scholarships for next year? Or will she have to keep hacking away at her unloved day job?
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You'd think that having leisure to loll about would be an opportunity for some quality writing, but sadly, no. Pain is distracting. How bloody annoying.
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Edited to add: High Distinction for Writing, but only Credit for French. Bugger! If I'd studied harder I'd know how to say that with a Gallic shrug.
5 comments:
Yikes! I hope you're feeling better soon, Z. And I'll keep my fingers crossed about the grades.
Thanks, Tim. The key to recovery is actually sitting (or lying) still, something I'm finding rather challenging.
As for the grades, I've totted up my results for writing, and I have a High Distinction for that one. That said, I am a humanities type, and no mathematician, so I'll await the official word before getting too excited. I guess it's a little silly to get wriggly over a couple of gold stars, but the whole university thing has a bit of baggage for me, so getting a pat on the head--and not having fallen flat on my face--is a cause for cheering.
Well, congratulations on the High Distinction! Not that anyone who knows you will be surprised, of course. :)
Oh, The Brothers Grimm was such a disappointment. Nice costumes is about the best thing one can say. Sigh.
Wasn't it, though? Some of the effects were quite good, but that's not really enough to sustain the attention of this particular viewer. Two stars.
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