Songs of May 2008 at Elementary Funk
Paging dragons and sea monsters
Not quite in succession, the mind is still able to recall elements of other novels across the same year. A bane for walking in fresh. A boon for continuing the trail of the intrepid hero. Either way, a mind wipe has its consequences.
Meg and The Loch - Steve Alten
Two big sea monsters. Two leads with fears of the deep. Two novels in the short span of however long and the similarities read sequelicious. Or at least of parallelism. Alten delivering the story in a matter of fact way. Fun but heavy—heavy—on the strip down of character build ups reeling off facts, notes and lessons on both the Mariana Trench and the Loch. Niggling self doubt plagues the mind of both, behaviour and reaction. Twins of mind.
Trading in the Scottish lore for the Loch, reading ornate font in a book slows down as the eyes engage the serifs, looking to decipher the meaning behind their kerning. Parts history lesson, other parts visitations of ancient conspiracies.
In the other direction, but in the same literal boat, to the ends of the bottom of the ocean in search of the prehistoric megalodon. Beastly thing, dangerous foe to rival on its own territory, however possible lost in time. Collecting a lot in terms of plotting out the events and people, suspense is not keeping.
Eragon and Eldest - Christopher Paolini
Tale of a narcoleptic who rises above the forest, finds a dragon egg and conquers his fear of being outside the comfort zone of staying awake more than a couple of hours. How anything happens is a testament to the supporting characters carrying the load. Long ventures to many places, but lots more of nothing but angst and letting the rest of the world move on and run in its own.
Every turn of chapter sees the hero sleeping it off, either from exhaustion, after meal rest or just because. Sleepy time is any time anything of note occurs. And even when the day is of no splash, it's a transition between the sleep to wake up with plans falling into place no thanks to the lazy hero.
Second episode of Inheritance picks up with more Dwarves and elves. Eragon figures out a way at keeping a better check on his body clock to knock out when being up and about. Not as sleepy, so the teenager is growing up a little to deal better with responsibilities and having the book stretch it out. Middle of the trilogy and the stove is still on back at the house, here goeth the return journey. All that way to just go back again, reading each tome taking as much time as traversing the lands of Alagaesia in real time.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Quality time with The Doctor
Long into the ether of missing the first of the third of the Tenth. Time asks for nothing more than patience and patience returns the favour with attention, fixation and simply whiling away the hours of the day losing the world around to that of Gallifrey
Blink
Light on The Doctor and Martha, off with Charlemagne. Heavy on the suspense, thrilling shrill of fear and tension. Smooth play of disconnecting time streams and all that wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff. Time travel gets extremely messy and finding the logic is not the point. Just don't blink. Keep your eyes open on them all the time and whatever you do, don't blink. Scary, stuff that puts fingernails into the canvas chair.
Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords
Climbing mountains for Martha's leg of the trip with The Doctor, Captain Jack makes a welcome return. Split double over the course, the crescendo tremors to reveal the intricate nature of dealing with Time Lords and the power they wield over the mind and their understanding of all that time travelling stuff. Power struggle of the kind that wants and hopes for a happy resolve. You can't get what you want all the time.
Partners in Crime
Donna Noble joins Tenth as the new companion in a lost love/lingering knowing kind of revelation. Warm and happy and loud all while fat little pudgy aliens run about in the background to the mothership. Cute introduction to a new species while serving up a deliberate dose of what and how this new travelling partner will take to things. Funny on the whole, terribly uplifting escapist fare by the time the two decide to make with the vroop-vroop and end up in Rome.
The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky
UNIT, Martha and the Nobles are all in the car with The Doctor and Donna heading long and hard into the decimation of the world's population in what appears to be an environmental catastrophe. Nothing is accidental, mind, in the world of The Doctor. Homely, the time with Donna's family grounds better than showing the London populace gasping for air from the killer gases hissing from their cars. Travelling with The Doctor tends not to bode well for the family members' peace and quiet.
The Doctor's Daughter
Donna really lets out with her clerical skills as Ten is the one shouting more than ever. Splicing off some DNA might do that. Ludicrous nature of war and fighting for beliefs long ago, the parallels are certainly apparent with the many years and centuries on normal Earth. The post Time War resolve and being of The Doctor faces the demons in a mannered passion. And the passion is overt, but kind, knowing of the ravages on the psyche death and plying the hands of destruction will render.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Pretty Little Devils - Nancy Holder
Cutting between pages electronic, journal and the book itself, the cast of suspicion intrigues a mystery of personalities. Superficially of cliques and high school playground drama, it's not long before wanting to watch the threads of the whodunnit unravel in age-angling voices.
Petty infighting, the subtle backstabbing, the cadence of the rivalry between the girls. Looking to know each other but starting from a zero point of knowing nothing at all, the book takes the school bus past neighbourhoods of surface familiarity and tries to crack a peek at what lies behind the façade of neat hedges shielding clean brick veneer.
Black edge humour, intentions cruel with good hollowing out the soul in a vain effort to fit in at all costs to save the social self. But finding out that society and living isn't quite about fitting in. It's about knowing people. Knowing them just enough to know who hold the knife.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Working to underpin the absence together
Tilting the mail mound, sitting atop itself ever so gingerly, a hot political toilet roll forged well into the form of a nifty metal pin. No plastics here. This is a thanks for statistical commitment amid the flurry and thrust breading the crust of the last Federal election.
We made absences work together
Months now with Labor at the helm down in Canberra, the effect and feel is non-existent. Same as it ever was but with a fresh new coat of liberal paint.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Free Comic Book Day in Lexington
First Saturday in May and the comic shops are out in force flogging off with the free comic books. Four shops in Lexington means four hits along the way to where the tarmac is long and not at all windy. Limiting two comics per person on the picks, a walk off with at least four on each visit. Four from four in four before four. But the maths does not count three and one when all is for death.
A+ Comics & Collectibles
Clean and orderly front section, the flowing traffic past Batman in the window is carnival strongman time as the front door takes the effort of the entire body weight behind the push/pull mechanism. Lots of armpit stink wafting from the Magic tables and the fill of the place is bustling. Moderate spread of offerings and trinkets or miniature models that look like Iron Man in plastic wrap sitting on the table.
The Comic Interlude
Claustrophobic trigger is walking into the mess that lies beyond the cash register. Floor to ceiling replete with Star Wars and Star Trek toys, action figures and play dolls. There is only enough real estate on the ceiling for light bulbs and holds to dangle inflatables. Shuffling is all the room to move when there are more than 3 people in any one section. With no space otherwise, it's an inverse to see the entire FCBD slather up for grabs. Two per customer and the mini Bongo Comics title is a half-pint of fun the size of an Archie digest.
Everyday is a day in the Interlude garage
Heroes Realm
Nothing beyond the other half of the store with CCG players again stinging the air of that imperceptible and trademark scent. Off the shelf is luck and finding issue 4 of Speak of the Devil from Gilbert Hernandez.
Collectibles, Etc
Rabid back issue menagerie below the waistline is all had for 50 cents or less. Continuing in the stream of busy and people circling the mound that contains the higher up bagged and boarded. Family friendly atmosphere from the get go and pinging chaos as the front window captures the look and feel of feeling up the look of spotting what range the haunt shows up on this day. No limitation on this slab outside of doubling up. No time to dust up the fingers rifling through the cheap comics when the freebies are only a few steps away and cleaner.
Glorious range of half dollar back issues, etc
Three out of four and more than four after the final door and the collection bulges a little more.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Dropping mustard on United 839 - LAX to Sydney
Cracking loud are the knees boxing up in a flight over the Pacific. 14 hours later and the rehydration begins in earnest as the cold fresh air hits the face once again. Pocketing paper to watch the warping pressure of a backpack and air travel atmospheric controls, the eyes barely register enough to pick out many or any plots and characters flickering on the red and orange tinted monitors.
The Golden Compass
Polar bear jumps up and Nicole Kidman pulls a face to then fade into the obscurity of seeing how well a neck and spine in upright position handles sleeping without slouching. Not well.
Jumper
Fun fantasy element of being anywhere the mind has seen or can remember. Escapist in the travelogue sense and execution. Wonderful location shots across the world being able to teleport across continents without the drying effects of cabin air and other passengers. Groovy and inventive action sets where the fight sequences throw in a scatter shot of dislocating shoulders through wormholes. A dinner film. Also starring Billy Elliot.
Roast beef, mash, peas and carrots. Salad with a vinaigrette with a slice of cherry cake and a bread roll
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Bathtub sees a little boy hide out what eventually turns out to be the creature of Loch Ness. Time or not, the implication is all family friendly and watching only the second half through a widening glaze is enough to grasp the gist. Sounds of which older than the years, creaking wood and blue hues swimming the mind toward a cobalt era.
Charlie Wilson's War
Peering through one eye along the midnight snack handout, a gritty scene of indeterminate determination and extreme close-up.
Dropping the mustard squirt that comes with the midnight snack roll is death with a taste of dry. Room is at a constant premium, forward movement butting heads with the seat in front in vain search of a little condiment. Slightly pretentious serving of a Turkey And Swiss Cheese Roll proudly declaring itself in title case. Uninspiring packet of Ruffles crisps clears the way for the Twix salvo. Not a good idea for chocolate at night and the itty bitty waits for the light of the next day.
Honey roasted turkey and Swiss cheese on a traditional white roll
27 Dresses
Katherine Heigl is a loser looking for love and a long white wedding dress. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Running around with her potential beau right in front of her very eyes, it's a guess what happens next when blacking out under shades. Hours later the scene runs again through the mind awash with a temporal void by the name of sleep.
Omelette and fruit salad
Milk is not explicitly an option jumping around with orange, apple and tomato juice on the drinks cart. Morning is breakfast time and breakfast includes a boxy dose of liquid calcium for measure. The omelette is chives aplenty on the underside. Running enough colour to suggest an appearance of mould. A crisscross affair cracking at the eggs.
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Iron Man
Picking up on the interest on the Heroes Reborn period, leaving again shortly after the Heroes Return section, Iron Man picks up much of the "less" on finding another superhero to follow who doesn't swingline through the city wearing red and blue webs.
The run up to Onslaught, jumping back with a teen Tony Stark in the suit, well, it never made stick in the first place. That was a start to reading up and were the wane returns later in the aforementioned Heroes Reborn experiment making the pages something to look at.
Comics to movies, here we go again. Only this time, with stock to purchase. Iron Man starring Charlie Chaplin and The Dude.
Robert Downey, Jr. fits well inside the Iron Man suit. With the charisma and stride of Tony Stark, that arrogant, brilliant mind of an industrial arms power-broker. Casual air of non-consequence, leading the visceral charge that the film takes itself on even portions of earnestness and a laid back attitude.
Fantastic special effects no doubt, and plenty to marvel at in terms of watching metal make a man. Design, smooth and svelte, the Iron Man suit is a gorgeous sculpt. Wonderful to watch it play with and not over the rest of the cast. Even the monster bulk of the Mark I has a certain charm plodding about and testing its mettle.
Terrence Howard as Rhodey talks with a higher register than the voice in the head reading him in the comics or watching him on the static cartoon hour. There's something just short of this, and the villainous streak of Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane takes up the slack.
Buffing it up, the sheen is too apparent to miss. Interesting and simply fun to watch.
Monday, 5 May 2008
Briar Bowl Lanes of Somerset
Deniable stickiness lingering in the air. Cigarettes and greasy finger rubbing curiousness. No telling, no guessing. Bowling ten pin with the wife and the game of gutter balls hoping for strikes is on.
Plenty of open lanes through the nearly not there mist of the haze. Dank atmosphere where the lights are halfway low and off, only a few of the lanes with competition. Far right and a league in the middle of the day with the next lanes over a couple of blokes midway and out already.
Where treads fear to step
Shoes are slippery to walk in. Especially in the toilet where the touch of the walls leaves a want to squeeze out more of that non-existent soap. Not too much traction on the waxed lanes proper. Enough to slide and stand watching the bowling balls launch down, hurtling toward the gutter and maybe hitting the pins. Socks, fantastic idea in the renting and wearing of bowling shoes.
One strike, a few spares and plenty of rubber walling. No technique or grace ever got in the way of learning on the fly.
Gumballs from the machine
And the one delivery seeing the elbow curve in a way only the thumb knows how to.
Thursday, 1 May 2008
