Weekend +1
Jun. 15th, 2004 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyThe weekend proper was good. Friday was City of Heroes, then Saturday consisted of a trip to Bolton, whereupon I purchased some light-coloured trews and enjoyed various motion-picture treats, being the Prisoner of Azkaban (good) au cinéma and The Frightners (also good) chez ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ghostbritain.
HP3: Excellent stuff. I was quite pleased that I managed to be surprised by it; even though I already knew all about Sirius Black (and, to an extent, Remus Lupin, though I'd forgotten his secret until the scene with the Boggart - for a while I thought maybe he was Sirius, in disguise) there were a number of less-publicised twists. I was wondering how they would explain Sirius obliterating somebody (good heavens, those teachers are a sloppy bunch when it comes to investigation, aren't they? Find a finger and assume the rest of the body has been disintegrated) and I'd figured out that the map was picking up a rat as Peter (from the sound effects and scampering motion of the feet), but I had thought that maybe Scabbers had eaten Peter's finger or something. Foolish, foolish Andy, assuming that a magical map would work off DNA evidence rather than detecting a person's notional self! Or whatever. Anyway. It's a movie with far fewer plot holes and conveniences than before, and even the time travel hangs together because Rowling picks a paradigm ("You can't change anything because anything you do already happened; that doesn't mean you can't do any good, though, just that anything you do already happened") and sticks with it. They never change anything that was explicitly witnessed by the travelling characters. In fact the only thing I would really question in the whole movie is the wisdom of the teachers, not only leaping to the monumentally wrong conclusion in Black's case (did he even have a proper trial? Did nobody think to try locating Pettigrew?), but giving a time travel device to a third-year student purely so she can attend more classes. That strikes me as somewhat irresponsible. But anyway, this in no way spoiled my enjoyment of the film. I particularly liked when, fleeing from the wolf-man, it was Harry who apparently tripped over nothing, and not the heroine. Which made a nice change.
The Frightners: Jolly good stuff. Should be required viewing for anyone playing an Orpheus campaign.
I also watched a lot of Family Guy, for the first time. It's a blindingly good show, its only real flaws being an over-fondness of cutaways (it interrupts the flow a little when you cut away to another adventure or TV show every other sentence) and that godawful opening sequence. Well, at least it's not overly long.
F'nar.
Sunday was frittered away with some Charmed, during which Nook let me playon his lapDungeon Siege on his borrowed laptop. Lots of fun. Then I went home and played some City of Heroes, at some point during which bacony came home all sated and exhausted and went straight to bed. Apparently, Grand Design was good.
Then yesterday I went down to Birmingham for my Gran's funeral. It was nice, if sad. The whole family made it - children, grandchildren, grandchildren's spouses and Significant Others. Which was nice because the family was her only real interest. It was always her greatest source of pleasure and pride that we all get on with one another, right down to the cousins-in-law - Mike's wife Kate sits down and chats with his cousin Neil's wife Mandy as though they were old school friends. Our family isn't plagued by feuds or long-standing disagreements or any of that rubbish, and it's largely because of Gran. She didn't have any hobbies or pastimes (aside from the occasional book), instead spending her days on the phone to her children, catching up on everyone's lives and passing on news from the others. I suspect from now on we will all be much less informed about our cousins.
ghostbritain.HP3: Excellent stuff. I was quite pleased that I managed to be surprised by it; even though I already knew all about Sirius Black (and, to an extent, Remus Lupin, though I'd forgotten his secret until the scene with the Boggart - for a while I thought maybe he was Sirius, in disguise) there were a number of less-publicised twists. I was wondering how they would explain Sirius obliterating somebody (good heavens, those teachers are a sloppy bunch when it comes to investigation, aren't they? Find a finger and assume the rest of the body has been disintegrated) and I'd figured out that the map was picking up a rat as Peter (from the sound effects and scampering motion of the feet), but I had thought that maybe Scabbers had eaten Peter's finger or something. Foolish, foolish Andy, assuming that a magical map would work off DNA evidence rather than detecting a person's notional self! Or whatever. Anyway. It's a movie with far fewer plot holes and conveniences than before, and even the time travel hangs together because Rowling picks a paradigm ("You can't change anything because anything you do already happened; that doesn't mean you can't do any good, though, just that anything you do already happened") and sticks with it. They never change anything that was explicitly witnessed by the travelling characters. In fact the only thing I would really question in the whole movie is the wisdom of the teachers, not only leaping to the monumentally wrong conclusion in Black's case (did he even have a proper trial? Did nobody think to try locating Pettigrew?), but giving a time travel device to a third-year student purely so she can attend more classes. That strikes me as somewhat irresponsible. But anyway, this in no way spoiled my enjoyment of the film. I particularly liked when, fleeing from the wolf-man, it was Harry who apparently tripped over nothing, and not the heroine. Which made a nice change.
The Frightners: Jolly good stuff. Should be required viewing for anyone playing an Orpheus campaign.
I also watched a lot of Family Guy, for the first time. It's a blindingly good show, its only real flaws being an over-fondness of cutaways (it interrupts the flow a little when you cut away to another adventure or TV show every other sentence) and that godawful opening sequence. Well, at least it's not overly long.
F'nar.
Sunday was frittered away with some Charmed, during which Nook let me play
bacony came home all sated and exhausted and went straight to bed. Apparently, Grand Design was good.Then yesterday I went down to Birmingham for my Gran's funeral. It was nice, if sad. The whole family made it - children, grandchildren, grandchildren's spouses and Significant Others. Which was nice because the family was her only real interest. It was always her greatest source of pleasure and pride that we all get on with one another, right down to the cousins-in-law - Mike's wife Kate sits down and chats with his cousin Neil's wife Mandy as though they were old school friends. Our family isn't plagued by feuds or long-standing disagreements or any of that rubbish, and it's largely because of Gran. She didn't have any hobbies or pastimes (aside from the occasional book), instead spending her days on the phone to her children, catching up on everyone's lives and passing on news from the others. I suspect from now on we will all be much less informed about our cousins.
