Holiday Recap
Dec. 29th, 2005 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiChristmas Eve: Every year my family hosts a holiday bash on the night before Christmas, and this year was no exception. Veggies and dip, hot roast beef, glazed ham, and--most importantly--shrimp. It was a smaller affair than usual this year, but the real news is that it was my first Christmas with a girlfriend. Having the gf at my side made the holiday even nicer than usual.
Christmas Day: Presents! First presents at home, then to my aunt's for lunch and presents from my dad's side of the family, and finally to my grandmother's for my mother's side and, more importantly, Christmas dinner. Presents were the usual: books, CDs, DVDs, cash, gift cards, etc. My class ring will be waiting for me when I return to school on MLK2 day. Also a low-grade mp3 player (but more than enough for my purposes, as I didn't ask for an mp3 player!), two corduroy jackets, and Queen tickets! So what if Mercury is dead--long live Queen. (Not that any one could ever replace Mercury. I'm fully prepared to hate this new vocalist they've got.)
Also a checker set designed to act as a drinking game. That was a WTF moment for all present. I don't drink.
My grandmother's ravioli? Divine.
Boxing Day: Grandparents come over and we eat leftovers from the Christmas Eve party. A Boxing Day tradition.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: There's a reason why Christianity has thrived so well these last two millenia. Okay; there's many reasons, not all of them very pretty, but one of them is the archetypal beauty of the Christ story.
This movie, which I saw on Tuesday, beautifully adapts C.S. Lewis' religious allegory with a result which is not only visually stunning but deeply moving as well. This is an adaptation which, like Jackson's adaptation of LotR, trusts the source material, and once again the gamble pays off: the story Lewis had to tell is more than powerful enough for the movie, and the love and trust of those who made the movie allowed them to effectively convey a core sense of wonder.
Now, I'm adamant that cinema is a different medium than fiction, and that sometimes changes have to be made, but after watching LotR and now this, I have to say there is something that has to be said for true-to-all-the-details adapatations. (Of course, I haven't read LLW in years, so they may well have changed things and I just didn't notice.)
Now, one thing that did jar: do they actually grow up in the book the way they do in the movie, in Narnia? It was a particularly effectively way of demonstrating that they had been in Narnia for a ver, very long time without having to resort to clunky exposition. As such, it was an act of cinematic genius. But that just seemed so off to me. I always pictured them eternally young, like in Neverland.
A lot of people have objected to the "learning to be a hero" plotlines, especially for Peter, but I don't: art and the adolescent fantasy have always been deeply interconnected for me, as anyone who has heard me wax poetic about Buffy knows. Narnia is a dreamworld: a childish desire for omnipotence, a will to power, and as such it rings true to me at the deepest levels. Peter, Susan, Lucy, even Edmund--these are the types of children I still want to be, able to step into a dreamworld and find myself King or Queen.
It's exactly the type of experience which keeps me writing fanfiction.
Hmm. Peter/Susan. Erm, yeah.
Wednesday: Nothing happened yesterday. I spent something like 98.6% of the day in my room, reading through![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: I thought this was beautifully well-executed, with wonderful direction--the PG-13 rating gave it so much more room for artistry. I won't say anything about the story, even though most of it was new to me since I haven't read the books, because honestly I don't expect all that much from J.K. Rowling. I liked the moments between Hermione and Harry and Hermione and Ron, and the main plot did what it needed to. The ending was somewhat abrupt, but I guess the structure of the series necessitates that: the school year ends and everybody goes home, and there's not really a way to provide an ending that's thematically significant. Unless someone thinks the ending was thematically significant, in which case I'd be interested in figuring out what he or she saw that I didn't.
Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman were masterful, as always, for all their combined dozen lines. It was odd watching Miranda Richardson (one of my all-around favorite actresses) doing comedy; I'm used to her being so intense. Emma Watson seemed somewhat subpar until about a half-hour into the movie, when she returned to her normal level of quality.
I couldn't remember how many Weasly children there were and it turns out they weren't in those scenes at the beginning anyway (although I'm not sure why the older Weasly childrens were missing, unless it was for purely Doylist reasons), and so I had much difficulty keeping track of who was who. I had a particular difficulty with Ginny, and that difficulty persisted throughout the movie; she looked different than the last movie (older, more mature, which makes sense) and I could never be sure where (and if) she was.
Somebody rec me some Minerva/Severus? Or any HP fic for that matter (yes, I read it even though I haven't read the books; I'd never try to write it though)--there's so much bad stuff out there, but you guys probably know where the good stuff is. Feel free to rec your own stuff, but I might have read it if it was written since I've friended you and isn't m/m. Something reasonably-sized but plotty, with Hermione and/or Ginny playing prominent romantic roles? But especially Minerva/Severus.
If they dropped those newcomer teenagers (who aren't bad, don't get me wrong, but they don't have 50-year-old Oscars, either) and gave the movie to Smith, Rickman, and Richardson, not to mention the other outstanding British actors in the cast? Now, that would be one hell of a movie.
Tomorrow: I'm going hiking with a couple of classmates from high school. I'm not very social, so I hardly ever see my old classmates. This'll be a nice treat.
Christmas Day: Presents! First presents at home, then to my aunt's for lunch and presents from my dad's side of the family, and finally to my grandmother's for my mother's side and, more importantly, Christmas dinner. Presents were the usual: books, CDs, DVDs, cash, gift cards, etc. My class ring will be waiting for me when I return to school on MLK2 day. Also a low-grade mp3 player (but more than enough for my purposes, as I didn't ask for an mp3 player!), two corduroy jackets, and Queen tickets! So what if Mercury is dead--long live Queen. (Not that any one could ever replace Mercury. I'm fully prepared to hate this new vocalist they've got.)
Also a checker set designed to act as a drinking game. That was a WTF moment for all present. I don't drink.
My grandmother's ravioli? Divine.
Boxing Day: Grandparents come over and we eat leftovers from the Christmas Eve party. A Boxing Day tradition.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: There's a reason why Christianity has thrived so well these last two millenia. Okay; there's many reasons, not all of them very pretty, but one of them is the archetypal beauty of the Christ story.
This movie, which I saw on Tuesday, beautifully adapts C.S. Lewis' religious allegory with a result which is not only visually stunning but deeply moving as well. This is an adaptation which, like Jackson's adaptation of LotR, trusts the source material, and once again the gamble pays off: the story Lewis had to tell is more than powerful enough for the movie, and the love and trust of those who made the movie allowed them to effectively convey a core sense of wonder.
Now, I'm adamant that cinema is a different medium than fiction, and that sometimes changes have to be made, but after watching LotR and now this, I have to say there is something that has to be said for true-to-all-the-details adapatations. (Of course, I haven't read LLW in years, so they may well have changed things and I just didn't notice.)
Now, one thing that did jar: do they actually grow up in the book the way they do in the movie, in Narnia? It was a particularly effectively way of demonstrating that they had been in Narnia for a ver, very long time without having to resort to clunky exposition. As such, it was an act of cinematic genius. But that just seemed so off to me. I always pictured them eternally young, like in Neverland.
A lot of people have objected to the "learning to be a hero" plotlines, especially for Peter, but I don't: art and the adolescent fantasy have always been deeply interconnected for me, as anyone who has heard me wax poetic about Buffy knows. Narnia is a dreamworld: a childish desire for omnipotence, a will to power, and as such it rings true to me at the deepest levels. Peter, Susan, Lucy, even Edmund--these are the types of children I still want to be, able to step into a dreamworld and find myself King or Queen.
It's exactly the type of experience which keeps me writing fanfiction.
Hmm. Peter/Susan. Erm, yeah.
Wednesday: Nothing happened yesterday. I spent something like 98.6% of the day in my room, reading through
yuletide.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: I thought this was beautifully well-executed, with wonderful direction--the PG-13 rating gave it so much more room for artistry. I won't say anything about the story, even though most of it was new to me since I haven't read the books, because honestly I don't expect all that much from J.K. Rowling. I liked the moments between Hermione and Harry and Hermione and Ron, and the main plot did what it needed to. The ending was somewhat abrupt, but I guess the structure of the series necessitates that: the school year ends and everybody goes home, and there's not really a way to provide an ending that's thematically significant. Unless someone thinks the ending was thematically significant, in which case I'd be interested in figuring out what he or she saw that I didn't.
Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman were masterful, as always, for all their combined dozen lines. It was odd watching Miranda Richardson (one of my all-around favorite actresses) doing comedy; I'm used to her being so intense. Emma Watson seemed somewhat subpar until about a half-hour into the movie, when she returned to her normal level of quality.
I couldn't remember how many Weasly children there were and it turns out they weren't in those scenes at the beginning anyway (although I'm not sure why the older Weasly childrens were missing, unless it was for purely Doylist reasons), and so I had much difficulty keeping track of who was who. I had a particular difficulty with Ginny, and that difficulty persisted throughout the movie; she looked different than the last movie (older, more mature, which makes sense) and I could never be sure where (and if) she was.
Somebody rec me some Minerva/Severus? Or any HP fic for that matter (yes, I read it even though I haven't read the books; I'd never try to write it though)--there's so much bad stuff out there, but you guys probably know where the good stuff is. Feel free to rec your own stuff, but I might have read it if it was written since I've friended you and isn't m/m. Something reasonably-sized but plotty, with Hermione and/or Ginny playing prominent romantic roles? But especially Minerva/Severus.
If they dropped those newcomer teenagers (who aren't bad, don't get me wrong, but they don't have 50-year-old Oscars, either) and gave the movie to Smith, Rickman, and Richardson, not to mention the other outstanding British actors in the cast? Now, that would be one hell of a movie.
Tomorrow: I'm going hiking with a couple of classmates from high school. I'm not very social, so I hardly ever see my old classmates. This'll be a nice treat.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-30 03:27 am (UTC)Alchemine,
Minerva/Severus shipper and drive-by commenter
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-30 03:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-30 05:08 am (UTC)The Christmas Eve food sounds delicious - yum! - and it was nice that your gf got to come home with you. Did you get to visit her family, or do they live far away?
Sounds like you really made out in the present department! And, hey, I'm sure Brian May et al would have been very picky in their choice of a vocalist (I'm not saying 'replacement' vocalist, as I don't think anyone could actually replace Freddie Mercury). But . . . Queen tickets!!!
Grandmothers are still the Best! Cooks! Evah!
*sigh* I was really looking forward to seeing Narnia: TLTWaTW, HP and Brokeback Mountain (obviously not on your list as M/M slash isn't really your thing) but after the recent health crisis thing, I'm not allowed to actually go to public movies, so sadly must wait until they come out on DVD. *boo hiss*
Love Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman and am really looking forward to seeing them in TGoF. I enjoyed the HP books, with the exception of The Order of the Phoenix, which was comparable to the depression level of BtVS S6, but at least some of the issues were resolved in The Half-Blood Prince, as S7 just didn't seem to be able to do.
Have fun hiking, and have a very happy New Year!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-03 12:52 pm (UTC)Thanks for the well-wishes, and may the New Year bring you many good things, including but not limitied to the DVD releases.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-30 06:53 pm (UTC)I have generic HP recs, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 07:29 pm (UTC)If you're not a big HP person, though, then my recs probably aren't much use: I don't rec the "good stories which happen to be HP", I rec "HP stories which happen to be good."
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-01 09:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-03 12:51 pm (UTC)Thanks for the well-wishes, and may the New Year bring you many good things, including but not limitied to the DVD releases.