Changeability can be an indication of emotional and mental instability just as sticking to routines and conventional thinking can reflect a control rigidity and a lack of imagination and, creativity. It is also true that they just be an indication of adapting and to changing circumstances and to the wisdom of experience.
This thought occurred last night while watching an unexpected delight called Raising Helen and then this morning as the two computers and the TV all demonstrated their individuality and determination to resist my attempts to master and control them I rapidly changed from attending a lunchtime piano concert to going to the Tyneside Cinema to staying home and scrubbing the kitchen and day rooms floors among a host of jobs needing to be done. There is something satisfying about getting on all paws and giving the floor a close dust pan brushing and then an inch by inch scrub. It quickly dried with the kitchen door open. With cricket matches on Friday and Monday and Lulu in concert on Sunday I need to give the house a good dust vacuum and tidy by Wednesday.
I usually agree with everything written by James Berardinelli of the on line film critics society but the way he savaged Raising Helen surprised me. Apparently Raising Helen is a near reprise of Jersey Girl which I have not seen. There are four stories in this film. The first is the relationship between three sisters of which Helen is the youngest and lives as a single woman in the fast lane of New York Life as an executive assistant to the head of a modelling agency led by Helen Mirren, (a far cry from Her Majesty). Both her sisters have families and one is a model mom and who raised Helen when their own mother died when she was small. When the older sister and her husband die in a car crash the surprise is that she Wills' Helen to be the guardian of her three children rather than the mom of moms. I appreciate Hollywood plays fast and loose which legal niceties but I am amazed that such a wish is regarded as having the force of law given that the matter was not previously discussed with the surviving two sisters and that the children one of whom is an adolescent is not consulted by the law about their future. The next admittedly dubious aspect film is that such thoughtful parents did not have appropriate life insurance, mortgage insurance or the insurance against the driver of the vehicle responsible for the accident and that these did not combine to ensure that the children were able to remain in their existing home and continue at their existing school and provide for appropriate help in the home. However this is a fairy tale and such realities would only spoil the second story which is that Helen is forced to give up the family home because the sisters cannot pay the mortgage and to give up her Manhattan apartment and move to somewhere in Queens where she can afford to rent a suitable apartment in one off those cheek by jowl block upon blocks which appears to be the feature of some American cities and the police are much in evidence at the local public school. They all have lots of adjusting to do especially after getting the push by Helen Mirren and having to take a job a second hand car lot. The fourth story is the relationship between Helen and the Pastor of the Lutheran Church School which she chooses for the children. The big event of the film is when the eldest acquires a fake age identity, steals the aunt's credit card and goes off to a motel with the wildest lad at the school. Such an event is unlikely to happen in the UK as there are comparatively few independently owned motels with the majority run by public companies with high standards. However in the UK it is not unknown for runaway teenagers with older boys or men friends to use caravan sites. Such are the different standards and approaches to life!
This is a cheesy cliché film and I loved it. It has the desired ending for everyone. It is good to know that there are families of Great moms somewhere other than in the UK!
In complete contrast, this morning I caught up the third in the Tribal Wives series on BBCi as an air hostess and former drunk, double whisky in coffee first thing and one wine box every evening and everything else in between, was made welcome by an Ethiopian tribe who recently became members of a curious Muslims group whose men regarded them as possessions and able to beat them at will ,e specially if they talk back, in addition to insisting on a circumcision which prevents sexual pleasure for the woman and a death rate in child birth of one in twelve. The subject finds her true self, although she would in any environment which accepted her as she is now rather than as she has been. While this was good for her because there was no evidence presented that there was no harm to anyone other than herself and to her immediate family, kind of putting the past to rest enables the worst kind of killers especially those who organise atrocities or turn their eyes away from them as most politicians are able to do, to sleep easy at night. I firmly believe that what we do and who we do it with as well as what we say, think and feel lives with us and with others for eternity and the punishment of others is unnecessary, except as a means of social regulation and providing a sense of social justice. One cannot purge sin by simple acts of contrition, it has to be genuine and life long. Maturity is understanding this and living with it. It is one of the ironies of life that had Nelson Mandella not been imprisoned for close on three decades he would have remained just another ruthless terrorist no different from his oppressors and South Africa had a much better kick start into becoming a democratic nation as a consequence, although this is not to say it would have been better for all those who suffered greatly as a consequence of the continuation of the Apartheid system if regime change had not occurred earlier but one wonders if the transition would have been as quick and as effective had Mandella not prepared himself and was recognised by British and other world interests to have the capacity to adjust and move forward. The trouble is that is mortal and you can doom a country if you rely on one individual rather than the development of an effective system covering education and further education, civil administration at national and local levels and a controllable and responsible army.
In the evening I punished my self by watching an odd and pointless film called Zentropa of the kind that some film buffs rave about when viewed at art house cinemas such as the Newcastle film theatre I was due to visit earlier in the day. The film is also known as Europa, but not to be confused with Europa Europa which is a truish story about a young Jew who hid himself within the German army and survived to tell the tale, and which I thought was a good film as well as good story.
Zentropa is designed to transport the viewer back to Germany immediately after the war has ended in the role of a pacifist American from the USA who is fixed a job on the railway as a first class sleeping car conductor by his uncle and is seduced by the daughter of the railway company owner on his first night who is in fact a Nazi sympathiser terrorist out to disrupt the occupation much like the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The director wanting to impress uses a range of film making techniques to try and recreate the atmosphere of that time super black and white with occasional inserts of colour which have no function other that to kid the gullible that this was contemporary art in 1991. There was a memorable line which I shall improve by translating as you Germans amaze me, we have bombed you to blitz but you still behave as if you rule the world. The film also make one good point in taking a healthy swipe as all those individuals who insist on following rules and regulations without deviation regardless of the consequences. There is much to be praised about the management of the economy by the Labour administration during the past twelve years but not the obsession of government by rule and regulation, the extent of which is not at the heart of its downfall, as is always with those who fail to understand that government is about leadership and good management.
The handset on the TV has crashed but I worked out how to operate regardless so can take time to sort out given a host of priorities over the coming month. The scanning and sorting of photograph has continued with 78 more completed thus creating about 200 computerised copies with enlargements. However the priority over the weekend is cricket, Lulu and giving the house a good once over.
This thought occurred last night while watching an unexpected delight called Raising Helen and then this morning as the two computers and the TV all demonstrated their individuality and determination to resist my attempts to master and control them I rapidly changed from attending a lunchtime piano concert to going to the Tyneside Cinema to staying home and scrubbing the kitchen and day rooms floors among a host of jobs needing to be done. There is something satisfying about getting on all paws and giving the floor a close dust pan brushing and then an inch by inch scrub. It quickly dried with the kitchen door open. With cricket matches on Friday and Monday and Lulu in concert on Sunday I need to give the house a good dust vacuum and tidy by Wednesday.
I usually agree with everything written by James Berardinelli of the on line film critics society but the way he savaged Raising Helen surprised me. Apparently Raising Helen is a near reprise of Jersey Girl which I have not seen. There are four stories in this film. The first is the relationship between three sisters of which Helen is the youngest and lives as a single woman in the fast lane of New York Life as an executive assistant to the head of a modelling agency led by Helen Mirren, (a far cry from Her Majesty). Both her sisters have families and one is a model mom and who raised Helen when their own mother died when she was small. When the older sister and her husband die in a car crash the surprise is that she Wills' Helen to be the guardian of her three children rather than the mom of moms. I appreciate Hollywood plays fast and loose which legal niceties but I am amazed that such a wish is regarded as having the force of law given that the matter was not previously discussed with the surviving two sisters and that the children one of whom is an adolescent is not consulted by the law about their future. The next admittedly dubious aspect film is that such thoughtful parents did not have appropriate life insurance, mortgage insurance or the insurance against the driver of the vehicle responsible for the accident and that these did not combine to ensure that the children were able to remain in their existing home and continue at their existing school and provide for appropriate help in the home. However this is a fairy tale and such realities would only spoil the second story which is that Helen is forced to give up the family home because the sisters cannot pay the mortgage and to give up her Manhattan apartment and move to somewhere in Queens where she can afford to rent a suitable apartment in one off those cheek by jowl block upon blocks which appears to be the feature of some American cities and the police are much in evidence at the local public school. They all have lots of adjusting to do especially after getting the push by Helen Mirren and having to take a job a second hand car lot. The fourth story is the relationship between Helen and the Pastor of the Lutheran Church School which she chooses for the children. The big event of the film is when the eldest acquires a fake age identity, steals the aunt's credit card and goes off to a motel with the wildest lad at the school. Such an event is unlikely to happen in the UK as there are comparatively few independently owned motels with the majority run by public companies with high standards. However in the UK it is not unknown for runaway teenagers with older boys or men friends to use caravan sites. Such are the different standards and approaches to life!
This is a cheesy cliché film and I loved it. It has the desired ending for everyone. It is good to know that there are families of Great moms somewhere other than in the UK!
In complete contrast, this morning I caught up the third in the Tribal Wives series on BBCi as an air hostess and former drunk, double whisky in coffee first thing and one wine box every evening and everything else in between, was made welcome by an Ethiopian tribe who recently became members of a curious Muslims group whose men regarded them as possessions and able to beat them at will ,e specially if they talk back, in addition to insisting on a circumcision which prevents sexual pleasure for the woman and a death rate in child birth of one in twelve. The subject finds her true self, although she would in any environment which accepted her as she is now rather than as she has been. While this was good for her because there was no evidence presented that there was no harm to anyone other than herself and to her immediate family, kind of putting the past to rest enables the worst kind of killers especially those who organise atrocities or turn their eyes away from them as most politicians are able to do, to sleep easy at night. I firmly believe that what we do and who we do it with as well as what we say, think and feel lives with us and with others for eternity and the punishment of others is unnecessary, except as a means of social regulation and providing a sense of social justice. One cannot purge sin by simple acts of contrition, it has to be genuine and life long. Maturity is understanding this and living with it. It is one of the ironies of life that had Nelson Mandella not been imprisoned for close on three decades he would have remained just another ruthless terrorist no different from his oppressors and South Africa had a much better kick start into becoming a democratic nation as a consequence, although this is not to say it would have been better for all those who suffered greatly as a consequence of the continuation of the Apartheid system if regime change had not occurred earlier but one wonders if the transition would have been as quick and as effective had Mandella not prepared himself and was recognised by British and other world interests to have the capacity to adjust and move forward. The trouble is that is mortal and you can doom a country if you rely on one individual rather than the development of an effective system covering education and further education, civil administration at national and local levels and a controllable and responsible army.
In the evening I punished my self by watching an odd and pointless film called Zentropa of the kind that some film buffs rave about when viewed at art house cinemas such as the Newcastle film theatre I was due to visit earlier in the day. The film is also known as Europa, but not to be confused with Europa Europa which is a truish story about a young Jew who hid himself within the German army and survived to tell the tale, and which I thought was a good film as well as good story.
Zentropa is designed to transport the viewer back to Germany immediately after the war has ended in the role of a pacifist American from the USA who is fixed a job on the railway as a first class sleeping car conductor by his uncle and is seduced by the daughter of the railway company owner on his first night who is in fact a Nazi sympathiser terrorist out to disrupt the occupation much like the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The director wanting to impress uses a range of film making techniques to try and recreate the atmosphere of that time super black and white with occasional inserts of colour which have no function other that to kid the gullible that this was contemporary art in 1991. There was a memorable line which I shall improve by translating as you Germans amaze me, we have bombed you to blitz but you still behave as if you rule the world. The film also make one good point in taking a healthy swipe as all those individuals who insist on following rules and regulations without deviation regardless of the consequences. There is much to be praised about the management of the economy by the Labour administration during the past twelve years but not the obsession of government by rule and regulation, the extent of which is not at the heart of its downfall, as is always with those who fail to understand that government is about leadership and good management.
The handset on the TV has crashed but I worked out how to operate regardless so can take time to sort out given a host of priorities over the coming month. The scanning and sorting of photograph has continued with 78 more completed thus creating about 200 computerised copies with enlargements. However the priority over the weekend is cricket, Lulu and giving the house a good once over.
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