A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Love Actually is directed by Richard Curtis and stars, among others, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, and Alan Rickman. That’s a pretty heavy duty cast so you’d expect some outstanding performances. Luckily it doesn’t disappoint. It’s not just one love story, it several–at least eight. It’s also a comedy and a Christmas movie. With all that going for it, I couldn’t resist.

This is one of those movies that grows on you the more you watch it. It begins and ends in an airport — so there’s a sense of completion, even though not all the smaller stories within the larger framework have happy endings or even any kind of ending.  Because of the framing airport scenes, there is a sense of completion.

Hugh Grant plays the newly elected Prime Minister. On his first day at 10 Downing Street, he meets a member of his new staff that not only catches his attention but makes him think that maybe she could be the one for him. Not a great time to fall in love and not the thing to do when you’re trying to run a government and are under continuing scrutiny.

Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman play a couple who are comfortable or maybe too comfortable with each other–especially when a new employee at his firm seems to be offering more than just excellent administrative skills. Sarah, another employee of the firm is in love with the Chief Designer but does he return her affection? And who is it that keeps calling Sarah. Is it guilt, duty and/or love that keeps her from having a life of her own.

Mark and Peter are best friends and Peter is getting married to Juliette. Peter knows that Mark doesn’t care for Juliette. Juliette is trying her best to be friendly. When the professional videotape of the wedding turns out blue, Juliette asks for Mark’s tape and learn something that surprises her.

Bill Nighy turns in an excellent performance as an over-the-hill rock star making a desperate attempt to make a come back and he’ll succeed if only he can get the spot of number one Christmas song of the year. His over-the-top performance playing the role as someone who has nothing to loose and therefore telling the unvarnished truth is reminiscent of Bullworth.

Daniel is a newly widowed step-father trying to find someway to connect with his eleven-year-old stepson, Sam. These scenes really show what it’s like to be a dad, not necessarily a father (biological) but a dad with all the meanings of that word.

There’s a couple of more stories. They all seem to intertwine in one way or another. After a few viewings, you notice that there the various characters show up in the background or in short bits during the other characters story arcs. All in all, there’s a lot going on. I laughed. I cried. I sang along with the music. In other words, the movie made me feel for the characters and remember similar though different events in my life. Most of all I was enraptured and entertained and reminded that love is all around us all the time, we just sometimes forget to look for it.

We were walking through Sam’s Club and a movie was playing on the big screen TV in the Blu-Ray section. There seems to be a weird back and forth with a woman on a computer and a young girl and the same man was in the background of both scenes talking to them. Hmmmm, looked interesting. We stood there for a few minutes until someone said “Nim” and we realized it was Nim’s Island. Checking out the movie section, we found that there wasn’t a copy for sale — not actually surprising just before Christmas so we went home and put it on our Netflix list and popped it to the top.

The movie, directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, stars Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Abigail Breslin, Michael Carman, Mark Brady, and others. The basic premise is that Nim lives with her marine biologist father, Jack, on an island in the South Pacific. They don’t let anyone know where the island is, even going out in their boat to meet the ships bring supplies. Jack goes out to a small atoll to collect specimens while Nim remains behind to make sure her friend the turtle’s eggs hatch and the babies survive. A huge storm comes up and Jack doesn’t come home as expected in two days. Meanwhile, a cruise ship approaches the island and the adventurer Alex Rover contacts Jack via email to ask about their volcano. Nim and Jack are fans of the Alex Rover novels so this gets Nim excited and she asks Alex for help. But Alex is a character in the novels written by Alexandra Rover who lives in San Francisco and is agoraphobia. Pathos, comedy, adventure, and a darn good movie ensues.

The movie is loosely based on the book, Nim’s Island by by Wendy Orr and illustrated by Kerry Millard. It seems to me, reading the book’s description, that the movie probably adhere more to the spirit rather than the letter of the book — but that’s just a guess since I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the book — yet.

Anyway, what I found interesting is the back and forth between Alex Rover, the fictional male adventure hero and Alex Rover, the writer of the character, and between Nim and Alex Rover the writer who she thought was the adventurer. The movie had so much going on that after watching it three times, I could have watched several more but had to send it back.

The director’s played the imagination of the characters wonderfully. Nim’s friends are a seal, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and a pelican. She has a very active imagination and a self-reliance very advanced for an eleven-year-old. She’s always active and never bored. When the new Alex Rover novel comes, she immediately dives in and we have a wonderful scene of her curled up in bed reading and the room disappears and she’s suddenly on the bed in the middle of the desert and the book’s action is going on all about her. On the other hand, Alex Rover the novelist actively talks to and interacts with her creation Alex Rover the adventurous hero of her books. We see her with all her neuroses and fears and yet when Nim calls for help, Alex goes to her aid.

It could be trite and all heartwarming but there a lot more going on that you’d expect. I’m sure children will enjoy the story at it’s surface level but there’s a lot more going on in the visuals as Alex travels to help Nim and Nim struggles to help herself survive while dreading the loss of her father. Do yourself a favor and if you can suspend belief and just enjoy, watch Nim’s Island. I think you’ll find it well worth the time.

Tonight we watched An Inconvenient Truth on DVD. We’d been meaning to for a while since we’ve heard so much about it — for and against.

What did I think? It’s excellent. The case for global warming is made in a clear, straightforward manner backed up by graphs, photos, and scientific evidence. I doubt if I’ve seen the evidence as clearly and concisely presented in this form. I’d expected to see some of what people have complained about — exaggerations and soft and mushy science. Not there. I’m afraid the nay-sayers have been misleading the public again. There is very little that is stated in the movie/slide show that is not backed up by scientific fact. The bits that are opinion or reminiscences are clearly delineated and if viewers can’t tell the difference, I doubt they’d recognize the difference between truth and fiction anyway.

I was doubly impressed with the short segment on automobile gas mileage requirements in various countries. In this segment, it shows the US against many other countries, and that we have the worse mileage rules regarding what our automobiles should be getting per gallon of gas. Then it listed California’s proposed standard for cars and the fact that automobile companies in American complain that this would require them to, in eleven years time, meet the current Chinese standards. He then showed a chart of the profitable car manufacturers worldwide. Guess what? The US big three car companies were in the red on that chart. Now years later and our big 3 are in critical trouble. While the rest of the world was at least taking a interest in helping the environment (if not just conserving their own oil reserves), we, in the US, put short-term profit over all other considerations and we lost — big time.

Gore also tries to deal with the major objections used by those that try to poo-poo Global Warning. His data blows most, if not all, of those objections out of the water. The few that aren’t totally torn down are left to be merely rumble-strips to be dealt with but not deal breakers.  The fact is, all reputable scientist accept that global warming is real and caused, in whole or in part, by our actions.  The only disagreement is on what is going to happen as a result, and how soon its going to happen.

We’re in trouble. Our environment is our environment. This Earth is all we have and if we don’t start doing everything in our power to help stabilize or reduce the impact of Global Warming, we are looking at worldwide catastrophes that are going to change the shape of the world, our societies, and our way of life.

Everyone should have to see this film and think about the changes that have happened during their lifetimes and what changes are coming in the next fifty years. Then we need to not just think about our place in this world but what we can do to help. That help can be changing to compact florescent lighting, improved insulation, lowering our thermostats (I have and I’m cold), recycling, properly inflating our tires, getting a more fuel efficient car or hybrid, recycling (we have to actually take our stuff to a recycle center it isn’t picked up for us). Individually, we really don’t need to do that much, but what little we can do, needs to be done.

If we all do our part and make our elected representatives understand that our environment is as important an issue (at least as important as the economy because many of the problems with our economy spring from environmental issues), and act for the good of the Earth, not just their state — it will be a good thing. Why? Because it will be good for the states and the country in the long run and thus good for all the citizens. We’ll all be better off, remember it is not like we can go live somewhere else, Earth is currently all we have and that’s not going to change anytime soon so we have to take care of our home planet.

I’m a sucker for a good love story and this sounded like that’s what it would be, with the added benefit of the ghost being in love and, since usually ghost are ephemeral, the love would probably be unrequited. What I got was a rip roaring adventure in love, metaphysics, and morality.

Ben Gould and German Landis met and fell in love. It seems life couldn’t get any better. They complimented each other — one strong where the other was weak. They even decided to get a dog. On the way home from the shelter with the dog, Ben slipped and hit is head on the curb. Ben should have died. An angel was dispatched to take care of any business Ben had left to deal with. But Ben didn’t die. That’s the point when their lives began to unravel.

Ben was having weird side effects of the blow to his head. He thought he was going insane and he withdrew from German. She felt like he was shutting her out of his life and she issued an ultimatum and then moved out. When the story starts they are sharing custody of the dog. German comes to pick the dog up. Ben is depressed and German worries.

Ben decides he is going to tell German what’s been happening to him. Will she believe? Will she listen? Would anyone if they heard his story? At his point when Ben talks to German and tries to tell her why he withdrew and that he wants her back, well, it sound like he’s insane. Then he offers to prove it.

It’s by such twisty little points in the story that Carroll plays with the reader. Normally, once you’re into a story by a few chapters you may not know where it’s going or how it will all turn out but you have good idea of the shape of the narrative and the road it will travel on. With Ghosts in Love, every time you think you know where you are and what will come next, Carroll twists the tropes a bit and sets off in another direction. The beauty is that at every point it’s perfectly logical that we veer off in these new directions.

Keeping the reader unsettled, but entertained enough to keep reading, means that the reader can’t relax and go along for the ride. All the while, the reader has to take care to read the story that is there without presupposing that it is going in any particular direction. What you end up with is a story that raises many issues about life, death, love, friendship, responsibility, and morality.

When I finished the book, I had many questions to ask myself about my own life — its direction and the people I travel with. Any book that makes you think, not just about the story, but about those deeper issues that drove it beyond the closing of the covers is a book that is one that stays in the memory as a experience beyond just the reading. Ghost in Love is such a book.

Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan caught me by surprise. My first exposure to Shawn Tan’s work was his graphic story The Arrival which had no words. The story was conveyed by the drawings. In Tales From Outer Suburbia there are plenty of drawings and, if you’ve seen Shaun Tan’s work, you’ll recognize the style immediately. However, this collection of short stories is one that will leave you spellbound, slightly off-center, and entertained.

Each story is a bit surreal. They begin with a strange event or happening and while seeming perfectly normal, take you in a direction that you didn’t realize you were going until you get there. The entire book is a bit different, the table of contents is a page of postage stamps. Each stamp is the title of one of the stories and the postage is the page number. The image on the stamp is a bit of one of the illustrations for that story. The signal is the journey you’re about to take when reading these stories.

One of my favorite stories was “Grampa’s Story”. Grampa is telling his grandchildren about his wedding. The story is an adventure that the grandchildren are not sure is real and after hearing the story they go to Grandma for verification. While the tale of their wedding is a wonderful light tale it is also more — a roadmap for all marriages or directions for maintaining a happy marriage. Wonderful illustrations highlight their wedding day journey.

“Eric” is the story of an exchange student and his exchange family. Eric doesn’t talk much and studies hard. The family doesn’t know what to make of him or even how to tell if he’s happy with them. They do their best to entertain and befriend Eric. When he leaves they’re not sure how they did or how he’ll remember them. Off beat and with clues to the true nature of friendship and understanding.

Two children have a terrible time with one of the neighbors destroying their toys if they stray over to her yarn in “Broken Toys”. When wandering the town they come upon a strange sight and a stranger that doesn’t seem to understand them. They believe they have the perfect trick to play but it backfires in a very surprising way. Again the drawings are surreal as is the underlying nature of the story.

“Make Your Own Pet” is a quirky set of instructions to follow to make your own special pet out of discarded trash. It’s a two page spread that is reminiscent of those huge foldout instructional sheets. I’d seen this one in an art show a few years back and I like it then and liked it now even more.

If you like the off-beat, surreal, and strange — especially when it is also entertaining, enjoyable and beautifully illustrated, find a copy of Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shawn Tan. I’m sure you’ll find it to be a bit different.

I love teapots and have a small collection of them. So, when I saw 500 Teapots, I decided that it would be fun to see the variations on a theme that potters would come up with.

Let’s get my biases up front. I love it when form and function come together and the object is not only beautiful, but actually useful. All the teapots that I have, I use. Some more than others and some days I’ll pull something out of the back of the cupboard because that pot is just what I need on this particular day. My favorite lately is a crackled celery green ceramic pot — it make one big mug of tea and yet looks delicate and soothing. I also have several YiXing teapots with one of my favorites being a dragon — then there’s the rugged Brown Betty. I also have a few, very few, modern teapots I’ve picked up at crafts faires. What attracts me is utility and then something that just speaks to me and I know that I and that teapot will enjoy each others company.

Leafing through 500 Teapots, I found teapots of breath-taking beauty, some that made me laugh out loud, some that made me think, hmmmmm. There were also some that were just teapots with different finishes and colors, some with spirals, flowers, birds, shells.

There were also many teapots that are a teapot in name only. Either they wouldn’t hold water, or wouldn’t make very good tea — due to the shape and where the water would be versus where the spout was. To my mind, these aren’t teapots; they are works of art for display only. Something to be enjoyed for the artistry, the whimsy, or the metaphor the piece is trying to embody. Form but little function, beauty with no utility. A teapot has a function and without the function, is it really a teapot anymore?

Nevertheless, the book is a feast for the eyes. There’s ideas aplenty for those who work with these materials. For those who just enjoy looking at beautiful works, this fills that need. There is much to enjoy for its beauty, its whimsy, and what it says about hearth, home, life, and the universe.

Some of the photos, as well as including the artist’s name, name of the piece, information about materials and how it was made, also include a paragraph or two about what the artist’s intent was in making this particular pot. It’s the information about intent and inspiration that I found added to the appreciation of the piece.

So, if you enjoy a good cuppa once in a while and would like to see just how far one can go when working with function to make it stand-out, take a look at 500 Teapots.

I saw this in the library and picked it up. I’d been noticing it in the bookstores and flipped through it quickly but didn’t want to buy on a flip through so did my usual and got it out of the library first for a closer look.

This is a great book if you haven’t knit for a while, or you have but you don’t own any stitch pattern books — I own 6 not including this one. It has a short section that goes over some of the basics like casting on, casting off, how to read a pattern, knitting abbreviations, and other basic knowledge that lot of us take for granted and, if you’re a beginner or return after a hiatus, might need to get started. Myself, if I was a total beginner I think I’d opt for Bitch ‘N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook since it has a lot more of the “how-to” stuff.

Now to Super Stitches Knitting, the stitch library is laid out so that the left hand page has the instructions for the (usually) three patterns shown in the photo on the right hand side. The photo shows stitches usually horizontally — top to bottom — changing colors for each pattern. The instructions on the left are leftmost column for the top pattern, and the right most column for the bottom pattern. The problem is that they while the instructions are labeled as to what pattern it is, the photo is not labeled on the photo but in lighter lettering on the very bottom of the lefthand page. It took me a while to find the labels for the photo and I was actually looking. So the info is there.

While most of the photo clearly show the stitch definition because of the light color of the yarn, some of the patterns were in a very dark blue, making if very difficult to detect the stitch pattern unless you already knew what it was going to look like. In a book of stitch patterns, having clear photos is not only a good idea, it’s critical for the reader using it. This didn’t happen often but it was often enough to be annoying.

The book has a great mix of stitches patterns: knit and purl patterns, knit and purl panels, ribs, textured stitches (that seemed to repeat some of the knit and purl patterns/panels), edgings (some wonderful inclusions), ornamental stitches, eyelet patterns, cables, knitted lace, textured colorwork, and some fair isle.

Most of the instructions are written out in standard knitter code. There are some charts but not as many as I’d like.  But I wouldn’t let that dissuade me from getting the book. Instructions for the patterns that I read through seemed clear and easy to follow — same for the charts. Since there’s a section on how to read charts and instructions — you’ve got a primer for following which ever method you choose.

So, overall this is a great book for the beginner, a returning knitter, or someone without a stitch pattern. Unfortunately, for me there were no stitch patterns that I don’t already have in the other books that are in my library. However, if I didn’t already have so many stitch library-type book, I’d certainly be adding this one to my bookshelf. So, if you’ve looked at this quickly thinking well, maybe, take another closer look. This may just be the book you need to begin putting together your own bookshelf of stitch patterns.

Somehow I missed the first volume of this manga series by Amy Reeder Hadley. This is a story of two girls. Penny, high-school student and clothing designer, has formed a club in her high school for girls only to learn how to recognize jerks and avoid dating them. She’s even developed a list of boys the girls shouldn’t date. All this is done under the guise of a geology club. Then there is Hannah, high-school student and model. She’s been charged by these barred guys to destroy the club so they can start dating again. She and Penny both seem to have a thing for Blake (a good looking guy) who is on the banned list.

Now Penny is dating currently dating a guy who is safe — Orion. Orion is also a student and an environmentalist and quite a bit clingy and needy. As an outside observer, I’d say Penny is in for a world of chaos and pain if she every breaks up with Orion because he has trouble written all over his insecurities and possessiveness.

Now Blake is another kettle of fish. He’s rich, smart, neurotic as all get out. He’s also got a slight problem with paint cans and signs — or at least we’re led to believe he does. I’m sure we’ll learn more about that in a later chapter of this story.

With the cast of the school play now listed. Hannah is playing Elizabeth to Blake’s Mr. Darcy while Penny is designing all the costumes. With all these prejudices, not to mention mountains of pride — there’s enough emotion running wild to cause havoc and mayhem without the fact that Blake now has a job in the costume shop that Penny designs for and works in and her aunt owns.

There’s many references to Pride and Prejudice and the parallels as well as the interweaving of the school play with the characters can’t help but echo the original story in modernized form. But then each manga is closer to an extended chapter than a finished story so we’ve got more reading to do to find out what happens to these people.

The drawing are realistic and as all good graphic work should adds considerably to the story. The moods and feelings of the characters are conveyed as much by the art as the words. The clothing on Penny is stunning as it should be since she’s the clothing designer and makes her own clothes.

The episode of Fool’s Gold is followed by a tutorial on line weight in drawing (worth the cost of the book is you’re interested in art). The tutorial is followed by Re-Play Vol. 2 a short story about love, loss, setting priorities.