Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence is the true story of Molly Craig, who, in 1931, at 14, was taken from her mother in Jigalong, a depot on one of the fences that were being constructed across the continent in an attempt to keep marauding rabbits from destroying the western farmlands. Along with her half-sister Daisy, 8, and cousin Gracie Fields, she was taken to the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia.

[. . .] The film would show the terrified children sprinting across stony wasteland in a futile attempt to escape the police, distraught mothers wailing in the dust, and an aged granny battering her head with a stone in impotent frustration. It would show the girls in a cage as they are transported by train to their new home and a culture of flogging and solitary confinement for those who failed to appreciate what the white man was doing for them. (Source)

I just finished watching Rabbit-Proof Fence, which was recommended by my Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition professor. She wanted us to look at a) the many ways in which a second language is definitely not taught properly, and b) the ways in which language can be legislated. While I was taking notes on these things, I also spent a large portion of the movie wrestling with whether to feel horrified or uplifted.

On the one hand, it's beyond disturbing that the officials tearing families apart apparently thought they were doing "the right thing". Kenneth Branagh in particular does a brilliant job making me want to shake some sense into him as he questions, "should the coloreds be encouraged to go back to the black, or should they be advanced to white status?" The voiceover at the end is also enough to make one weep.

On the other hand, I believe that the underlying message in the film is also one of endurance and family. The three girls (Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, and Laura Monaghan) beautifully portray the trio who undertake an incredible trek, in an attempt to reunite with their mother. And, as we find out later, one of them actually makes the journey twice in her life.

I highly recommend this movie if you haven't seen it; I'm also adding both of the related books by Doris Pilkington (Molly's daughter) to my reading list.

Birthday Gift!

So, I don't hit my quarter-century until this summer. However, some industrious friends have already purchased my gifts (take notes, people)!

M & S returned from an antiquing trip with copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Gerard for me.

I'm jazzed because:

a) I've been meaning to branch out into more non-Holmes ACD works, because he's a good writer all around (I loved his Tales of Unease).

b) One can never own too many copies of Hound of the Baskervilles.

c) Both books are old enough to list the author as a mere "Arthur Conan Doyle" because the printing predates ACD's knighthood.

d) Old books smell wonderful.

e) The books are in rough condition, so said friends are going to have the binding redone for me.

http://www.savetxschools.org/

This morning was the pro-education rally at the Capitol, organized by savetxschools.org. It was a great experience - not as big as the March for Women's Rights I attended in DC, but definitely the largest rally I've been a part of since. With all the bad (and worse) news lately about budget and staff cuts in Austin and the rest of the state, I felt truly gratified to see how many people bussed in from around Texas to gather. Even better, the folks over at SXSW publicized the event, and I know at least a few people in town for live music also came out to the rally.

Also, the Austin-American Statesman has a lovely photo gallery up; here are a few of my own additions:

Austin's The Best

I've seen more plays in the last year and a half than in the last decade - and Austin theatre is still surprising me.

Here are the three most recent, since they're on my mind. These are all still running, by the way, so if you live in Austin go see them already:

Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, from the Palindrome Theatre Company. As a future English teacher I'm always interested in the not-often-done performances, and I'd never seen any Ibsen performances that weren't A Doll's House. (not that I have anything against A Doll's House, but a woman longs for a little variety). It was fairly impressively done, and I thought most of the actors put on a great performance. Kate Eminger also kindly answered a few of my questions afterward. I got into a debate about the scenery, which I found appropriately evocative of The Addams Family, and Ryan found somewhat distracting - if any of you see it, I'd love your opinion.

Alvida & The Airship Pirates: A Steampunk Adventure! from Weird City Theatre. Ok, so I love steampunk, and the music was from one of my favorite groups - Abney Park. My friend Ryan had me sold at steampunk, but he completely sealed the deal with "and John Carroll wrote and directed." We went last night, and I had a lot of fun. The set is nicely done, (most) of the costumes were quite good, and nearly all the writing was very funny. The fight scenes were a bit clunky, but overall it was enjoyable and the actors (who did a great job) seemed to be having as much fun as the audience.

This afternoon Ryan and I are off to see You Wouldn't Know Him, He Lives in Texas / You Wouldn't Know Her, She Lives in London from The Hidden Room. I'm excited about this one, since the format is quite a change:

From London's Look Left Look Right and Austin, Texas' The Hidden Room: You Wouldn't Know Him, He Lives in Texas / You Wouldn't Know Her, She Lives in London links US and UK actors and audiences live via Skype. Become the friends and family of the show's London/Texas lovers, and help decide if distance really does matter in this interactive, site-specific, partially improvised, original collaboration. (source)

Destroy! Destroy!

It's officially March - which means the weather has finally stopped randomly reverting to "dead of winter", like it does once a week in February around here.

I'm no longer in the hibernation mindset, and I'm very slowly dragging myself into Spring Cleaning mode. I started with the paper clutter this year; cleaning would be progressing much more smoothly if I hadn't ...well... skipped it entirely for the last five years. The stack of random paper junk I pulled off my bookshelf, out of my desk, and from my scattered files is just plain scary, especially considering how much of it should probably be shredded.

Shredding papers by hand is just no fun, and there's not a whole lot to do with the paper when you're done, except recycling. Paper that's been shredded with a machine, on the other hand, actually makes great packing material when shipping out anything that needs to be padded.

I've been hearing good buzz about the Fellowes P-12C Cross-Cut Shredder, and I'm thinking of investing in one. Even though I try to do much of my banking and bill-paying electronically, there are always documents that need to be destroyed when I'm through with them. The back student loan statements for the last couple years, for example, or the statements my credit card company keeps spending, despite the fact that I track my account online.

The Fellowes P-12C shredder has good reviews online, which is part of the reason I'm considering it. I've dealt with a couple of cheapo shredders at various jobs before, so I like to know that I'm purchasing a paper shredder that won't burn out on me after the first dozen sheets of paper:

(All opinions mine, and thanks to the ladies at the One2One network for this blogging opportunity!)

A Photo A Day, Day 3

...and by "a day" I mean "whenever the heck I feel like it". Obviously.

Tonight's photo is brought to you by my friend who does face painting and balloon art as her job. Tonight she made this on my face:

1) I am the steampunkiest of lions.

2) you can't quite tell in the photo, but there is also glitter on my face.

3) did you see the monocle? It's glorious.

A photo a day... day 2

My coworker/friend and I got incredibly lucky, and rode in the wheelhouse on the Mark Twain steamboat in Disneyland. The view is just astounding and - as an added bonus - we got to pull the cords for the bell and whistle. Ah, bliss.

A photo a day... day 1

Here's me in the bathroom at Club 33 in Disneyland, which encompassed the lunch part of our business trip. The dining area is gorgeous, the food is fantastic, and the bathroom (to quote a friend) looks like 17th-century France.

Only, you know, with much better plumbing.

I and two of my coworkers were also seated with a huge Disney fan, who had a lot of interesting stories to tell over lunch. I had a great time, and I think everyone else did too.

A photo a day...

2011 has been off to a fantastic start - I flew out to California for a work meeting at the beginning of January, and stayed a few extra days to see the Southern part of the state with friends. I'll be posting a photo or two a day until I a) run out of photos or b) forget.

Also, there are plays! coming up soon. This Friday is The Importance of Being Earnest and next week is The Tempest. I never get tired of Wilde, so that's exciting, and the play next week gives me an impetus to read Shakespeare's play before the performance...

Happy Almost Christmas!

Monday marked the end of my hardest semester of graduate school to date. On the bright side, next semester is going to be even more difficult.

But for the next two weeks, at least, I'll have more blogging time. And photos!

For example:

The best shot of the last lunar eclipse of 2010 (and also the first lunar eclipse to happen on the solstice in hundreds of years):

Also, banana bread:

This is beyond cool

I got this email today:

I hope you don't mind me contacting you, but I noticed on your blogger.com profile that The Odyssey was one of your favourite books.

One of our Contributors, Victoria Hooper has created a wonderful multimedia profile of the book here:

http://www.bookdrum.com/books/the-odyssey/9780140449112/index.html

If you enjoy this profile, please let your friends know about www.bookdrum.com.

Well I don't, and it is, and I did, so I am.

I've only had time to take a brief peek at the bookmarks for The Odyssey, but the resources included look quite amazing. This site is definitely getting saved for future review, particularly since I suspect it will make a wonderful teaching tool in the future.

This is what it's actually like inside my brain

I can't finish movies on the first try lately. Case in point:

I started watching Different for Girls tonight - because it looks interesting and has Rupert Graves, who does a wonderful job as DI Lestrade in the new Sherlock.

First, I had to pause the movie 3 minutes in (when the cab driver starts talking) and make a mad dash for IMDB. Turns out the cab drivers in Sherlock and Different for Girls are played by the same actor.

Then, at 14:40, Graves' character puts on a record of a rather catchy tune... which I realize is Whole Wide World! Which I know! Except, I own and love the Proclaimers' version, which is apparently a cover of the Wreckless Eric version. So, I hop over to YouTube, give it a listen, and realize I didn't even notice the song when it was in Stranger Than Fiction (so I watch the relevant movie clip).

Eventually, I look the song up on Wikipedia. Where I am informed that Elvis Costello did a live cover of Whole Wide World and how could I not try to find it?

Finally, I decide to blog about my finds, because clearly everyone wants to hear three versions of the same song.

And so it's now taken me an hour to watch 15 minutes of this film, and I decide I'm going to give it another go tomorrow night.

The CA-Team

I don't remember why I sat still long enough to let M doodle the A-Team (as cats, of course) on me... but I can't say I'm displeased with the results.

I don't even

I finished the last three episodes of League of Gentlemen this evening. I have two thoughts about it:

1. What the whatting whats.

2. I have never laughed so hard while also saying "stop stop oh god ew ew stop no stop why".

(ok, three thoughts: 3. I'm glad I saw Sherlock first, because if I'd seen Mark Gatiss in drag before seeing him all seriously-attired and umbrella'd I would have lost it while watching A Study in Pink).

Make It Better

Great post for National Coming Out Day, courtesy a librarian I am very fortunate to have as a pen-pal/internet friend: Make It Better