I’m home today due to my professor’s unexpected flu bug, which means I just have to be in Milwaukee tomorrow for this week. It snowed a couple inches today so a long drive, while doable, would not have been ideal. Good timing flu bug!
I’m now about 1/3rd done with my Spanish course and I feel like all my knowledge has completely evaporated. I understand this is somewhat normal but it’s disconcerting nonetheless. During this week’s 30-minute session this morning I did fine but my brain feels like I’m moving through mud. Even simple stuff has become elusive. The brain is a strange device.
I’ve now had Pan’s Labyrinth recommended to me by two people in four days. Hmmm…magic realism during the Spanish Civil War? And to think that would interest moi?
Erm. Yes. Greatly.
/ 
I need to write a story for my fiction workshop by the end of February. Though the course is titled “Magic and Wonder,” it’s a much more mainstream kind of magic and wonder than I’m used to, which is fine. But the story idea that I’m working with is a potential powder keg since I plan to incorporate a number of stereotypes which people may find offensive. Or worse, they may just think I’m a hack who needs to use stereotypes, but I’m thinking of this story as being about stereotype management. The story title is “Root the Mountain Down” and it’s loosely based on the folk song “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground.” It will be an interesting experiment and hopefully won’t get me thrown out of the program…
I’ve been listening to lots of old folk stuff lately and I have two new favorite songs: Willie Moore and Dry Bones. You can actually listen to the song if you follow that link. Same thing with “I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground” above.
Current Mood: So so | 
5 Comments
Pan’s Labyrinth is good stuff. If you like it you also check out Guillermo Del Torro’s other movie: The Devil’s Backbone.
That one is a ghost story that also takes place in the Spanish Civil War. You can get it from Netflix.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out.
Saw PL a few weeks ago- very violent, fantastic visuals and creatures and excellent cinematography. But… I thought the fantasy world half of the film was pretty shallow and left a lot to be desired.
Tottenham is playing Arsenal right now in the Carling Cup. I can hear a lot of cheering going on from Emirates Field though…
And.. Doesn’t Zaid count as being coached?
I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it. Move it. Move it.
When I came home tonight I said to Amy, “I need to go check on how badly Tottenham lost.” My positive side says it’s only the Carling Cup…
To clarify the coaching issue, sure, I had coaches all through my playing days but I was never “coached” in the sense of being drilled by a particular system, which was the gist of our conversation. Kids today are coached in a highly specific, technical manner that wasn’t around when I was playing. Our practices consisted of practicing set plays, small-sided games, and trapping/shooting drills. Today kids are being taught “When player X runs here, you pass the ball, and then you run to spot Y.”
Maybe it makes more sense if you play, but there’s a big difference between the two. Youth coaching is now a career for many people and they need to justify their paycheck with fancy coaching schemes rather than just, you know, improving the players.
Saw PL a few weeks ago- very violent, fantastic visuals and creatures and excellent cinematography. But… I thought the fantasy world half of the film was pretty shallow and left a lot to be desired.
Well, Blecha, I think that was part of the point of the film. The real horror is the real world. I like how the fantastical elements are understated, yet interact with the real world, so you never know if it is really happening or something she is imagining to escape from the horrors of her life.
It’s also very metafictional: asking why do we read/watch fantasy?
To escape from the horrors of our life for a few hours? Because it is the one medium that we can imagine and explore new worlds where there is still an ounce of hope left?
But I like how the fantastical elements are almost a side-story, only loosely interacting with the main story.