Monday 12 May 2014

Just quickly

If you have the chance to see it, I highly recommend Lukas Moodysson's film "We are the best!".  It's delightful; truthful and very funny, and the three leads are tremendous.

If you remember being young - and especially if you remember being young in the eighties - if you've ever played in a band or known anyone who did, if you've ever felt that no-one will ever understand you, if you have ever been embarrassed by your parents or fought with your friends, or rebelled, or got drunk when you couldn't hold your liquor, or trailed about as the gooseberry when everyone else seemed to be pairing up...  If you love seeing fresh, unfussy, natural acting from non-professional actors who seem blind to the camera and make every scene burst with life...  Well, just see this film.  It's hilarious and touching, and deliciously real about all of those things. It's on at Waterman's Arts Centre at the moment, and probably at an art house cinema near you, too.

That aside, Monday has been okay.  We had passable weather right until the evening, with plenty of sunshne during my lunch break.  Work was mostly just about manageable (as in, I managed to keep on top of the phone calls and also did something right that I was sure I'd done wrong, but I still haven't got done the job I didn't do Friday, even now - so it was one step forward and one back, whereas on Friday it felt like backwards all the way).  Then a nice curry supper with the Dipterist, and a good film to finish off with.  Yep, not a bad day.

And I got home to find a postcard from someone I was at college with, telling me about her most recent show.  Alex Perri was one of the most talented painters I met in the five years I was at KIAD, and it's a real pleasure to know she is still painting and exhibiting.  And judging by the image on the card, she's creating good work, too.  Proof that talent can still rise to the top.  Alex, you rock!

Hope tomorrow is as good.  I could use a few good days.  Hope all are well - Cryptic, I hope you were able to meet your deadlines without staying up all night wearing yourself out - Kath, I hope you are feeling better after that nasty bug.  Off to bed with me now, I think.  Ridiculously tired tonight...

4 comments:

Passim said...

Thanks for your concer, Cymbeline's daughter. My deadline is the end of the month but I seem to have 'gone wrong' - the piece needs to be rejigged and two of the characters require major motivational surgery. I'm left wondering whether I should soldier on (I hate leaving things unfinished), or just rip it up and start again? I can probably re-use most of the material I've written thus far...

Yes, I am Passim. I did have a google name once but it's long-forgotten. From now on, I shall be Passim, so thanks for the appropriate monicker. :)

Imogen said...

Hello, then, Passim! Good to hear you're alive and not quite at disaster's door, anyway...

I hate moments like that in my own writing, so you have my sympathies. Half the time things run away from me, and the characters take control of their lives rather smugly; and then just when I'm accustomed to that particular roller-coaster I find myself in your present situation instead, thinking (for example) "Huw is a faceless wimp, he needs a radical re-write, what went wrong?" or "Oh shit, my main antagonist is solid cardboard, what went wrong?". Or, famously a couple of years ago, "Damn, I haven't a clue how to blow up a laboratory, how do I find out without bringing MI6 down on me?" (Answer, ask the Dipterist). And all joking apart, it's desperate, isn't it?!

I hate unfinished stuff, too, as it seems to me there's quite enough of that in life as it is. If only one could sit the characters down and make them tea, or give them beer, or something, and simply have a chat. At least the end of the month is still two weeks away. Is that enough time for major surgery (and adequate recuperation) for your work? Good luck with it, whichever path you choose to take it down.

The one thing I'm puzzled by now is why you were responding to my poems. Since you seem to like being cryptic I suppose I may just have to live with the mystery... But seriously, if you work in the same place as me, please can I ask you to give me some kind of hint? - just so's I don't say anything untoward or unprofessional (who, me?)...

If you want to hide, fair enough, it's your choice and as we know I can be somewhat weird; you might not like me at all in real life. But please would you be a gentleman (or a lady for that matter) in this one wee thing, and let me not make a fool of myself yet again?

Go well, meanwhile, anyway.

Passim said...

No, youll be relieved to know I don't work at Kew but we have 'shared the same space' on a couple of occasions. I've been reading your blog for a few years now and have recognised you at a few concerts and even once in the open air! Not easy to introduce yourself to people you only know online, though!

Imogen said...

Oh, you're just being rum tonight, are you? We've never met, but you recognise me? Crikey, I didn't think myself so distinctive as all that... Cryptic Passim the discombobulator.

I don't know whether to be disappointed or hugely relieved that you're not the Kew person I was beginning to wonder if you might be.

Ah well, it's your privacy, feel free to keep it. But I don't bite, and am indeed quite shy in the "real world", so I doubt that I'd do you any harm... If you ever do feel like introducing yourself it might not be ghastly.

Only please, don't turn into a stalker or anything odd like that. Such things are not for the likes of me; I wouldn't know what to do with myself! I try not to stalk others and hope they'll all do me the same favour...