Day 38

Marge: "Homer, we need to talk to you"
Homer: "But then I won't be watching TV! You can see the bind I'm in"

My Amazon stuff finally arrived this morning - 2 Radiohead CDs, Mandarin II, some Tolkien books and a something else. I spent pretty much the whole rest of the day, inbetween movies etc, loading all the CDs onto the computer.

Finished my breakfast - though its still only the liquid stuff - by about 9:15, and went to move my car. After, started watching Dancing with Wolves.

Was then forced to carry-out FDs 'snatch and grab' plan at 11 - whereby he had taken a bus to the city some hour earlier, and I had to pick him up there to begin the shopping expedition, ending at approximately 2.

After that, I finished watching Dances with Wolves. I thought it was rather cute that the name of the film doesn't come from some philisophical statement about the way the colonial soldier, say, adapted to his environment, but was actually his Sioux name given to him because he was playing with a wolf which he, in a sense, knew. However, the main reason I enjoyed the film was because Kevin Costner, although in practically every scene, was quite understated, which allowed the focus to primarily be on the Indians, and their lives, as depicted, was truly fascinating. I have to agree with the Amazon reviewers that the depiction of the other white soldiers was over generalised and simplified, but you knew it was gonna happen like that anyway. Also, considering it was a 3 hour and 1 minute show, the ending was unsatisfying and too inconclusive, except for the statement which concluded everything.

Then watched Bless the Child, which was your run-of-the-mill religious cult thriller, except that it focussed less on the bizarre cultic stuff and more on the desparation of the aunt for her niece, which probably made the film better. But I wouldn't run out and watch it again.

Then watched a far worse film, but only cos it was about ballet, which I have pretty much no interest in. Called The Company, it was filmed as like a documentary, so there wasn't really an easy to follow story of, like, triumph over adversity, which is what dancing/singing/acting shows are usually about. I didn't watch all of it, but I couldn't see it becoming any better.
Watched The Simpsons instead, but it was again the episode 'Bart gets an F', which has been on way too many times, and is really the only episode obviously from season 2 - cos the animation and sound is so poor. There are good bits in it, but its just too cheesy and formulaic.

After dinner, watched Elizabeth while doing church accounts. I was surprised that it was only 1:15 in length - I was expecting another 3 hour extravaganza. It also had a quite unsatisfying ending, not saying anything about the heir to the throne - I guessed Victoria, but thats with no real assurance. Apart from that, it was quite a good film - I feared at the start that it was going to be entirely focussed on the catholic v protestant 'thing', but it really didn't come up that much. I think the string of murders and arrests at the end was an over tribute to the Godfather, or some such, which I found a bit melodramatic - ie, with the classical music, etc.