A Little Love, A Little Chaos

Today is my last day at home before I head back to university. The weather has continued throughout April - blue skies, sun, and heat every day. It hasn't rained for weeks. So yesterday was a good day to hang out with my best friend Danielle one final time, and we spent a lot of it down at the old bowling green (now essentially a park) in my town, with Coke and burgers and the sun. However, we also went to see A Little Chaos, because Danielle has an enormous crush on Alan Rickman, so I might as well write about it.

As far as period dramas go, I've seen better. I feel like something set at the French court should have been more unashamedly sleazy; a lot of pro reviewers have called A Little Chaos too sedate for the setting it's portraying, and I'd agree with that. It's also much too slow, with a beginning that goes on for ever (we know Le Notre is going to hire Sabine de Barra to do the landscape feature in Versailles, it really doesn't need to be dragged out) and a middle that could have been cut down a bit. It's not bloated so much as slow, which is at least something, because I still get angry sometimes about all the pointless, pointless filler in the Hobbit films.

There are lots of things that worked for me, though. Kate Winslet is wonderful as the widowed gardener Sabine de Barra. This film has a good cast in general, although I retain a special fondness for Stanley Tucci's flamboyant bisexual dandy, and Jennifer Ehle was enjoyable as his good-natured wife. The music was good, too - I'm tempted to get the soundtrack, which was just right for this film and really elevated some of the scenes. In terms of the plot, while I criticise the beginning and a lot of the middle, the last half hour was worth the price of admission alone. There's an absolutely marvellous scene when de Barra arrives at the court in Fontainebleau and she ends up being taken to a "secret space" where the women of the court gather; a few of them are familiar faces, such as Jennifer Ehle's character, but most are not. One of the women asks her about her marital status and she says she's widowed and had one child (who is dead now). It's something that's been hinted throughout the film, and we'll hear the full story later, because de Barra can't bear to tell it now - it's too painful. But that's OK - as we go round the circle of women, a lot of them admit that they've lost children (and a few husbands as well), and they're happy to say it out loud even though "the King doesn't allow death to be spoken of at court" (I have no idea if that's the actual line, but it's something like that). They reassure her that even though she might not be able to talk about it yet, some day she'll find the strength. It's an incredible, emotional scene that makes you feel it without being exploitative.

Anyway, it's not my favourite film but it was overall fun to watch, and what it lacked in plot and setting-appropriate sleaze it made up for in great acting, fun characters, and some genuinely touching scenes. Sadly I have no screencaps, because the costumes in this film were to die for.

What I'm Listening To

More music!

(Rapalje - Loch Lomond)

I saw Rapalje last year at a music festival in the Netherlands; I hadn't heard most of their stuff before, but my friend whom I went to visit is a huge fan and they were playing at Midwinter Archaeon Fair, so we went. This was one of the songs they were playing, and I liked it.

(La Plebe - Guerria Sucia)

I found La Plebe through another favourite band, Dubioza Kolektiv (an amaaazing Bosnian dub/ska/reggae band), since they were featured on one of the tracks on Dubioza's album Apsurdistan. I looked up the band on YT, was instantly hooked, and hope you realise that when I say "Guerria Sucia" I actually mean "the entirety of Brazo en Brazo".

(Dilek Koç - Dere Geliyor Dere)

This song is one I learnt during my time working on an EU cultural exchange programme in Turkey. I remembered it one day, and after a few Google searches found the name and searched for recorded versions on YouTube. And I found Dilek Koç! I've listened to a few of her other songs and I'm a fan, I love Turkish folk music.

(Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive)

Featured on one of my favourite TV shows, The Shield. I was doing a rewatch recently, this song was playing, and I... have not stopped listening since!

(Verka Serduchka - Ya Popola Na Lubov')

...There is really no excuse for this one. I admit, I love Verka Serduchka unironically. Also, I really hope the transliteration is correct!

Why the fuck did I take a translation class

It's been unusually sunny here for April, and today was no exception. Blue skies, bright sun, and I was stuck indoors with a pile of paper. Because I have a Latin translation mock in two weeks time which I haven't prepared for! And I'm going to fail!

When I settle down for a long period of translation, it tends to require a lot of work and space. For this - I was translating Tacitus, which is a big ball of WTF and OH MY GOD KILL ME NOW - I had a notebook to write the English translation in, a printout of the original to annotate, my dictionary, a commentary on the text, and a translation off the web on my laptop.

Not pictured: my laptop, or my crushing sense of despair.

To be honest, I can't do this, mostly because I haven't actually learnt the vocabulary. All the grammar knowledge in the world doesn't, it turns out, help you out if you don't know the words. So I found a vocabulary list of my textbook online - God bless the internet - and have a snazzy blue folder with it all in. I'll have to do my exam more or less blind, but at least I might remember this time what egredior means...

On Dart-a-moor so wild

I didn't spend Easter in Bristol. The house we were staying in was full of dust and cat hair, aka Asthmatic Hell, and I only managed two nights there (one of which I spent at my godmother's) before I had to come home. I would have liked to do more in Bristol - I only went to Blaise Castle, IKEA, and the harbour - but I like breathing more. So I've been at home since Saturday - went to the beach, bought discounted jeans at Gap, went down the river on one of the first truly sunny days of the year - and yesterday I went to Dartmoor. It's still dry from the winter, and the new green grass hasn't come through yet. It doesn't really look like Dartmoor in a lot of places, mostly because at the moment it's in its wintry stage but yesterday was very warm and sunny (I got sunburn!) so it was very odd. Anyway, I took a lot of photos and thought I'd share some here.

This is one of several photos I have which I can play the "Dartmoor or Eurasian steppe?" game with.

My mum and brother provide a human comparison to the vast expanse of wherever.

Stone circle yayyyy. This is what we mostly came to see.

Meee!! This is far from the best photo of me - I'm windswept, wearing my glasses and no makeup, but I quite like the photo. Mostly because my smiles in photos usually look horrifying.

Imagine this stretching as far as you can see in every direction and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it was like yesterday.

It's more like Dartmoor down by the rivers. Some of the greenery still remains.

Prehistoric stone lines and rocks and stuff.

Anyway, I liked how these photos came out. This very much isn't what Dartmoor usually looks like, though it looks more familiar in some photos, and I like the results, even if they're not as familiar as you might expect for being taken where they were.

Right, Then.

In the last week I have:

• begun tutoring my younger brother in Latin, because there's no way he'll learn it all in time to pass his exam if he keeps on just teaching himself.
• had an appointment at the optician's, where I found out that my sore eyes are caused by meibomian gland dysfunction. Hurray!
• missed out on meeting up with my friends because of said optician's appointment.
• played my mandolin for the first time in MONTHS and now have a blister on my thumb because I didn't use a plectrum.
• rewatched a significant part of the first two seasons of The Shield because I have a problem.
• bought wool for knitting a scarf, the pattern of which is hideously complicated and will probably be the death of me.
• spent today with my best friend and talked absolute rubbish for most of it, but I always have a good time with her.
• bought a fountain pen!

I'm off to Bristol tomorrow for a few days; my whole family is staying at the house of my mum's friend who is out of town. I think we all (especially my dad, who's been working on the same manuscript for work since before Christmas, and my brother, who has major exams this summer) need the break, and I love Bristol. I'll be taking my camera, and will try to get some photos!

(Not that it matters, because no one actually reads this blog lol)