reinforce my clarity

I watched a film this afternoon - not on telly, but The King's Speech on DVD. *sniff* Despite being surprisingly funny, that film does make me go all teary at the end. I think it is the judicious use of Beethoven under the speech - I saw a review when it came out complaining it undercut the big moment to do that but it totally works for me. Partially because I think that piece is incredibly beautiful anyway, but the timing of it so the music swells up underneath his words gets me right in the chest.

And now I would like a Colin Firth of my own please, so he can be vulnerable and gorgeous in a stiff-upper-lipped way and I can bring him tea and hug him a lot. I love the 30s suits too, not to mention the whole uniform with the sash.

I played my clarinet this afternoon, for the first time in... ooh, must be a couple of years at least and even before that it had been sporadic for another bunch of years. So I was a bit worried that I'd pick it up and be unable to remember any fingering or how to read music.

But to my pleased surprise, it all came flooding trickling back. The first attempt at playing an (easy) tune was a bit messy but then I dragged out my book of scales and plugged through a bunch of majors and minors until it felt like the relevant portion of my brain had started to wake up. And then I was away with proper music for about 40 minutes - I'm amazed my embrasure held up that long. Apparently muscle memory is incredibly retentive as well because apart from coming unstuck at trickier bits of fingering, some failure of sightreading when accidentals popped up and a trifling difficulty in remembering which of the weird key combinations up at the upper end of the instrument range was which note, it was mostly okay. I think I'd struggle with pieces I didn't know, but with most of the ones I tried, as long as I didn't think too much it was okay. Not proficient, mind, or particularly smooth but way better than I was expecting.

I need to practice more, because I felt so satisfied when I'd finished playing. And also so I can regain the ability to play semiquavers evenly... I don't really know why I stopped - no I do, it was because I didn't like practicing when I was in a shared house for some reason. (Now I can just annoy the neighbours, which I will try not to think about.) Pretty stupid to let it slip, since I'd worked so hard at it when I was at school. I'm not mssively musical but I made it my goal to pass the ABRSM Grade 8 in my final year of school and I played in the school band, the school orchestra, the regional schools wind band and a concert band one of the music teachers ran... I probably could have passed the exam with a better mark than I did, but it ended up being 2 weeks earlier than me and my teacher had anticipated and I was so nervous I threw up before it (the only exam in my life I have done that for).

Oh, and random weird fact: my accompanist for the exam was Magnus Magnusson's sister - a very lovely woman and very good at playing the piano.

I watched the first episode of Miracle Day today, and I'm... hmm, don't really know what I am. I've seen a lot of people posting reactions along the theme of 'it's not my show anymore' and I can't say I was massively hooked by the episode - but then I thought the very first episode of TW I ever watched sucked and wouldn't have watched anymore if it hadn't been for other people's recs (Ghost Machine, if you're wondering).

And it got me thinking: was Torchwood ever my show in the first place? A lot of these posts have been comparing the latest installment to the previous series and reminiscing about all the reasons they loved earlier versions, and I've realised I just don't feel like that about it anymore. I enjoyed some of the S1 and S2 episodes a lot, some I thought were bloody awful and some were just meh, and I have no urge to rewatch any of them. CoE I thought was overall a brutal, stunning piece of TV drama and I actively don't want to ever rewatch it.

And it's odd. I've looked back at my posts from way back then and I was genuinely excited for the return of S2 but then I look back at my memories of watching and there's a whole lot of emotional connection gone missing. Whereas with BtVS I am still turning over character beats and thinking through plotlines and getting angry and happy and excited over what happened.

Anyway. To go back to Miracle Day, it was intriguing enough that I'll keep watching it for another few episodes but it didn't exactly stir the blood. (And does anyone else think John Barrowman is looking awful thin in the face these days?)

Today I came down to log on and discovered, to my utter horror and nausea, that a SLUG had made itself at home underneath and between the keys in the number pad of my keyboard.

Yeah, you read that right.

A SLUG. IN MY KEYBOARD!

Urg, ew, ack. I may never feel clean again.

You probably don't want the details of how I disposed of it, suffice to say it employed salt and various extracting tools and the stiffest upper lip I could muster. Miraculously, the keyboard still works (unlike my peace of mind).

I've removed the little (sometimes big) bastards from my floors off and on since I moved in but this is the absolute limit.

Anyone got any advice on preventing future incursions? Or failing that, something really happy-making to rec?

Okay, I have now seen the episode.

( Random rambliness under here )

( The River revelation )

I have now watched the prepenultimate and penultimate episode of Highlander series one and... yeah. Not really running up to the finale with a bang! They're probably the ones I've enjoyed least so far.

( Der Racheengel )

( Flucht ohne Ausweg )

I think one thing I am missing in this series is an arc. Here I am, with just one episode to go but there's no thread to pull me into it with anticipation. All the episodes have been standalones and while they have (mostly) been entertaining and enjoyable, it does lose something from not having that plot tying them together and from not having a build up to the finale.

Of the two episodes under review this time, I have no memory of ever watching the first before and a very clear memory of the second. Possibly I never did watch this first one...

( Zirkusluft )

( Das Geheimnis des Modeschoepfers )

Only three episodes to go and then series one is over. If I remember rightly, the Watchers should be entering soon, stage left... I'm looking forward to Joe's arrival but less so to Darius' departure, sigh.

I'm slightly over half way through series 1 now and still enjoying myself. Particularly the historical flashbacks actually - despite my inappropriate glee every time Duncan has a different accent, they really are rather impressive for a TV series. The costume dept must have loved all the opportunities to do different things too not to mention getting to dress someone who looks as good in absolutely everything as Adrian Paul!

So next up we have:

( Blondinen bevorzugt )

( Das Attentat )

( Nachright von Darius )

It seems like the order of episodes has sorted itself out now - the DVDs have started to agree with the order on the box so that will make it less irritating to watch!

Or if we want to be British "there can be only one, chaps". (Okay, they don't really say chaps.)

My quest to rewatch Highlander continues and now that I've demanded ny refund for shoddy, unplayable DVDs I have moved on to collecting the DVDs in the German releases (UK ones no longer seeming to exist). Which fortunately have a choice of German or original English audio because I don't remember much of the Deutsch I learned at school.

Though if you give me a couple of weeks, I'll be able to claim that I'm immortal, born in the highlands of Scotland and that I'm waiting for the Gathering since the written introduction at the start of each episodes' credits is in German. So are the titles actually which I was not expecting. And confusingly, the order of the episodes written on the DVD packaging does not match the order of the episodes actually on the discs... I'm pretty sure it is the packaging that has it correct from the little I was able to watch of the last set I tried! But all the episodes are there, just a little... jumbled.

So for the Germans on my flist I have now watched:
Die Zusammenkunft
Die Maske
Willenlos
Der Fremde
Sprung in den Tod
Ein Toter zuwenig
Die Wilderer

1, 2, 4 and 6 I can translate or it's close enough to the English version. Does 'sprung in den tod' mean jump to the death? It would fit, even if it's not much like Free Fall. But what on earth do 'willenlos' and 'ein toter zuwenig' mean? Because the second does not look much like Bad Day in Building A to me!

( Further ramblings on what I've watched below (with spoilers, obvs) )

I watched 3.5 of those today. This series is seriously addictive! And when I finish, I can watch them all again in German for the fun of it.

10 minutes of behind the scenes from The Hobbit. I am in love with the whole LotR crew all over again. There was Alan Lee! And John Howe! And Dan Hennah! And Richard Taylor! And of course Peter Jackson (looking much less like a hobbit himself these days)! Oh guys, I've missed you guys...

And Ian McKellen, and Andy Serkis, and Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage - and OMG is that James Nesbitt? And why did nobody tell me Ken Stott was Balin? I love Ken Stott, and Balin is my favourite dwarf!