The Alternate Realm

Books, said my brother. Aaaah, books. Yes they take a lot of room. Not everyone can afford a basement to line the walls with bookshelves. I might not have that luxury much longer.


Ze Library

At supper time, our house is probably the only house where you can find 3 generations eating in perfect silence, each engrossed in its own book. And perfectly happy, I might add.

My son, who is not yet eleven has so far devoured: All the Harry Potters; All the Chronicles of Narnia; The complete Lord of the Rings; Philip Pullman's His Dark Material, Watership Down, and the classic A.S. Neil, Le nuage vert.

Not bad. Next I'm getting him The Neverending Story.

Meanwhile, the snow is finally GONE! Flowers bravely open up, leading the way for the rest of the flora.


Brave New World

As always in the Spring, Love is in the air. For everyone but me.

Till death do us part

Finally, this is what happens when you're fat: you overflow.

Let's be serious

Things are serious and we, at home, take them seriously indeed.

We take ourselves seriously.



The cats are serious.



Circé takes her watchcat role seriously.



So does Luritja.

The Ludlum Pattern

The title is easy. Take "the". Add a name. Add a noun. There you have it.
The Icarus Agenda
The Bourne Identity
The Aquitaine Progression
etc
The hero's name varies but the hero himself doesn't. He's tall, handsome. He's knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, cunning. His instinct is simply infallible. Bad guys are after him. Deception, betrayal, tight situations. In the end, he always prevails.
That's the advantage of Robert Ludlum. Unlike a box of chocolate, when you pick one of his books, you know exactly what you're going to get. In that sense, it's a safe bet.
This is why, when I ran out of things to read yesterday, I saw a Ludlum at the drugstore and I thought: "Why not?"
However, there is a very real problem with Ludlum. His titles, plots and heroes are interchangeable. So how do you remember which book you've read and which you haven't?
Man. It's a real puzzle. An extreme difficulty. I wish Jason Bourne a.k.a. Joel Converse a.k.a. Hal Ambler a.k.a. Todd Belknap was here. His instinct would tell him for sure. Mine is not so efficient, so I took a chance. It was my lucky day: upon verification, I did not already own the Ludlum I got yesterday. So far it's really exciting. The hero is tall and handsome. Bad guys are after him but he's not sure why...

Now shall I tell you about Dick Francis?

And....Action!

Well, that's it! Enough is enough! After being sick for 6 weeks, doing nothing but lounging on my bed, reading and stuffing myself, my physical envelope has enlarged. I don't like my physical envelope enlarged, nor do I like my pants fitting too tightly. Consequently, it's DIET time!!! On the menu: stop eating anything at any hour. Slow way down on sugar and white flour. Increase physical output. Hum. Sounds so simple.
(Spits in her hands, rolls her sleeves up, takes a deep breath.)

Janica

I know the world is never short of tragedies. Yesterday, my heart went out to an abandoned cat in New York.
Today, as a crying woman blurted a tragic story, I struggled for composure.

In the small city where I work, Janica, a healthy, vibrant 26 years old, gave birth a month ago to twin girls. She, her boyfriend and family were ecstatic.

A month later, she was diagnosed with being riddled with cancer, in the brain, the liver, the lungs, and given two months to live. The doctors in Quebec refused to give her any treatment, saying that it wouldn't help and she was a lost cause.

Janica was a fitness instructor, who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, eats healthy. They were flabbergasted. Her whole family gathered behind her and refused to accept the death sentence, and Janica went to Florida, where some doctors are willing to treat her with radiation. That's where she is right now. It was a hard decision to leave her baby girls. But Janica is a fighter. She's fighting.

Her grand-mother set up a web page to keep people updated, to receive words or encouragement and donations.
It is only in French however.

It would take a miracle. She's a young, brand new mother of twins, determined to live. It will take a miracle. Please join me in prayers for Janica and her family.

Atonement

Movies rushing from theatres to DVD faster and faster, I rented Atonement last night a mere two months after it was last on the big screen.. Here's my take on it.

The cinematography was exquisite, as was the cast, with one exception, which I will complain about further down.

James McAvoy: I discovered him in "The Last King of Scotland" and could never understand that Forrest Whitaker was nominated for an Oscar while McAvoy was not even acknowledged. McAvoy was wonderful in Last King, as he is in Atonement. I proclaim him the best actor of his generation, conveying an array of emotions without even opening his mouth in a way famous stars like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise can only dream about. McAvoy, I salute you.



Keira Knightley: I saw her in "Pirates", and enjoyed her in the delightful "Sense and Sensibility". In Atonement, I must admit that my attention was totally distracted away from her acting by her absence of breasts. The lady is flat. She's like a walking advertisement for double mastectomy. As delightful as she was in her long, flowing, glamorous green dress, the minute she turned sideways, something didn't look right. Since I am a heterosexual woman, when I'm completely distracted by the absence of breasts of an individual, it gives you an idea about how blatant it is. Don't get me wrong, I am GLAD that British movies do not feel they have to adhere to American standards of every lead actress being physically perfect… and totally stereotyped. But but but… ask me how was Knightley in that movie, that will be my only answer: flat!



As for Briony, ah ha, Briony! She's played by two actresses, one when she is thirteen, the other when she is eighteen. The thirteen year-old is all ethereal, marvellous elfin grace, with long brittle limbs and a ravishing pointed face, emphasised by only dressing in white. She's delightful to watch, even when we can't like what she's doing.




The eighteen year-old, however, is where casting suddenly took a bad turn. The elfin pixie suddenly metamorphoses into a graceless blonde with marked features and a sullen expression. You vainly look for the magic that was in the younger girl. The older Brionny has no charm, no beauty, no expression, not much at all, really, except round blue eyes. It's like going from sips of Ambrosia to a prosaic plate of hamburger and fries. A dull awakening.

Overall, Wright's movie exudes once again an old fashion charm that I can't resist. The photography alone is worth seeing. I enjoyed it very much.