Stars

The reason I haven’t blogged for so long is that I was intending to blog about my stay in Tokyo on my way out of Japan. Y’know, keep everything chronological. I was going to post pictures I took inside the Himiko ferry and pictures I took in Odaiba. But I’m not in Japan anymore. What is the point in blogging about being in Japan? I guess that must have been what my subconscious was thinking as I procrastinated and procrastinated some more writing that blog post. I now give up, and move on.

What have I been doing since I returned to NZ? Not a lot, really. I have applied for lots of jobs I found in the newspaper or on www.seek.co.nz, but I haven’t had an interview for any of them. I have had an interview with an employment agent. I hope she has better luck on my behalf than I have had on my own. I have made a little money. I sold a few bracelets I made on www.trademe.co.nz. But the amount of money I made no where near makes up for not having a job.

One thing I have been doing a lot of is watching DVDs. I rented Pan’s Labyrinth and Tideland from the video store. Pan’s Labyrinth was wonderful. It felt like a proper traditional fairytale (i.e. dark) rather than some airy-fairy Disney concoction. It struck a chord and resonated. Four and a half stars out of five. Tideland was disturbing, as it was obviously intended to be. There are many deep and powerful messages in Tideland, about innocence, resilience and the power of imagination and denial. However the movie is not for everyone, and I can see that many people would be disgusted by it. I wouldn’t give it to my mother to watch. She definitely wouldn’t understand. Four stars out of five.

Since August I have seen several different series on DVD. My mother has all four seasons of Enterprise on DVD and I have watched the first season and part of the second. I’m not a big Trek fan and Enterprise isn’t as good as earlier Star Trek series, but it is worth watching, if only when there is nothing else to watch. Oh, and I think I’ll just take the time to say that I don’t like Captain Archer.

My cousin lent me series one and two of the new Battlestar Galactica. My mother who is a big Sci Fi fan doen’t like it. She says it is ‘too dark’. I say that her memories of the old series are ruining her enjoyment of the new one. She says ‘Starbuck’s a woman!’ thereby proving my point. Anyway, I’m rather enjoying the new Battlestar Galactica. I don’t think it is too dark and gritty, I think the old series was unrealistically bright. Considering the situation the fleet is in, of course things would be grim. I like the new Starbuck and Boomer characters, the two who were changed from men to women. I like how the cylons have a story of their own to tell. I give the show four stars out of five. It misses out on that fifth star because of the over-use of sex and/or drunken tomfoolery as a plot driving tool, and also because the new Apollo is a git and I don’t like him.

My Mum bought a new series last week. I watched the whole thing over the weekend, twelve episodes on Saturday and all the rest on Sunday (and very early Monday morning). What TV series could have driven me to undertake such a marathon? Why, Heroes of course. (I don’t usually do this, but) OMG, SQUEEEE!!!! It’s so good! I couldn’t stop watching it, I just had to keep going and going until my eyes and my backside hurt. It was imperative. Eight stars out of five. No, nine! My favourite character is Peter because he is the Clark Kent/Peter Parker of the series. Not that he is exactly like either of those characters, but close enough. I also like Claire because her talent is one of the more intimately disturbing and yet she dealt better than most. And who couldn’t like Hiro? Even his manner of speaking Japanese is cute! The second series starts soon here. The ‘coming soon’ ads are already playing. Lucky!

I’ve started watching a few shows on TV. On Mondays I watch Robin Hood. Superficially light but in actuality rather dark, this newest incarnation of the old story has just the right balance of humour and death. But I’m not too sure about the costumes. It seems what they’ve tried to do is make the clothes look like clothes of the period and modern clothes at the same time. Presumably they have done this to appeal to younger audiences, to say ‘Hey, those cats back in the medieval period, they could be cool too’. Instead, it just looks like they were working with an incredibly small budget and couldn’t afford to make proper period costumes. Three and a half stars out of five.

On Tuesdays I watch The Tudors. Henry, although lacking the light hair he was known for, is sufficiently psycho, and Catherine of Aragon is as deserving of pity as she should be. The show is not quite historically correct, but even so good viewing. Three and a half stars out of five.

On Wednesdays, I watch The Nine. It’s fairly good, and has an interesting concept, but I don’t have a favourite character yet which is a bad sign.

On Friday I watch Boston Legal. Everyone else here has seen it all before, but it is my first time seeing it. I’m told that it gets wackier as the series progresses. I think it is already rather wacky. I haven’t seen enough of it yet to form a proper opinion, but I am definitely going to keep watching it. Denny Crane.

On Sundays I watch Doctor Who. It is the third of the new seasons that is playing on TV now, although I had previously only seen up to half way through the second. I still don’t know how Rose left, only that she is alive and the Doctor sinks into depression every time she is mentioned. I actually rather miss Rose. Not that Martha is a bad companion, but the Doctor/Rose partnership was such a good one. Oh, well. So far three and a half stars out of five, although that rating may go up once I have forgotten those terrible New York accents.

There is another show I keep watching and shock, horror, it is a reality TV show. It is called Miami Ink and it is about a tattoo shop in Miami. The artists who work there are all very talented. Their tattoos are works of art, above and beyond what most tattooers are capable of. I watch it for the art

And that, basically, is my life at the moment. Sad, isn’t it?