… Quit dieting and declare a truce with your body. Authors: Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.
I was a big fan of Shapely Prose, the fat acceptance blog begun by Kate Harding, and mostly bought this book to be supportive and see if there were further insights to be gained that were not obvious from following along at the blog when it was still active.
It quickly became clear that I am not the target audience for this book. From the word go I found the book’s style to be far to be to loosey goosey and was not impressed by the lack of depth and seriousness. I think this book is much more suited to a twenty something who’s never really given much thought to how the world works and how she’s being manipulated and mislead by the main stream media. In some respects this book is a not unreasonable introduction to the subject and a jumping off point to learn more.
For me the style was way to informal. The style of writing more suited to a blog, rather than a book I’ve paid hard earned cash for. I wanted more depth and seriousness. While studies were quoted there was no really digging down into analysing what science had to say about fat issues. I wanted to grapple up front and personal with the hard issues where this was a brief introduction and hand shake.
The book definitely has an urban bias, which makes a number of its suggestions untenable for those living in a rural environment.
Erratic. This was a little like a roller coaster ride, zooming up to brilliantly good and down to ditch water dull. Can’t recommend it really but there are some great little bits and pieces hidden along the way. The visuals are spectacular though why anyone would need to watch this in 3-d is beyond me. I love that we have a heroine who squashes her buckle and comes through to win the day. Plus the white queen is one of the creepiest, supposedly good guys, you’ll ever come across. She was brilliant. Somehow in the end this film didn’t amount to more than the sum of its parts and certainly left me wondering why on earth it was made.
Dull. Yeah, so this was a huge disappointment and didn’t pass the WeatherGrrrl sleep test. Luckily I don’t live in the real world where ticket prices are obscene so my little nap didn’t cost the earth. Popcorn and soda were tasty though. You could definitely see the budget up there on the big screen, shame they didn’t save anything for the script. I have a brain. It needs to be engaged. This failed completely. I’d also love to see some female characters who have, um, a character, and aren’t just part of the scenery for the adolescent-boy part of the audience.
Viewing faith through an atheist’s eyes by Hemant Mehta.
This is a very odd little book. A sort of guide to improving the church going experience from an atheist point of view. Huh? I understand that being a member of a community that shares a set of values/beliefs can be an important part in constructing a happy decent life. But if those social groups are based on a religious perspective shouldn’t a set of shared beliefs about the world be what binds you together not the experience in the pew? Shouldn’t you be examining what you believe, how it lines up with reality and whether or not it leads you to a happy decent life? At the end of the day I don’t think this book helps with that at all.
Tense. So these kind of movies always make me incredibly tense and this one is no different. As the movie unfolded the question that came to mind was, ‘wtf is the west doing in Iraq?’ The entire situation makes no sense and the insanity of being there is clearly played out in this movie. Definitely a must see but in no way could it be described as enjoyable. As an examination of male addiction to war it is quite exemplary.
This year I submitted two sculptures to the juried student art show and both of them were accepted.
The first piece is called, Entangled, and was made as part of the Fabric as Form class. We were each given 2.25 yards of muslin and asked to create a piece of art based on an object from nature using all the fabric in the piece.
Some what obliquely I began with the idea of a vagina and how society talks about this piece of female anatomy as if it’s a constantly present space waiting to be occupied by a man’s penis. In fact, it is much more reasonable to think of it as a glove, or sheath, that space is only created when an object is either pushed inside or enveloped. With this as my starting point I went on to create the piece below.
Below is my second piece called, Torso. This was one of the first pieces I made as part of an aluminium pour in the introductory sculpture class. The original form was carved out of Styrofoam/polystyrene. (Styrofoam is a brand of polystyrene.) In approaching working with polystyrene I found that the nature of the material led me to carve organic forms that could rest comfortably in the palm of my hand. (The wood base is walnut.)
So this first aired during the 2010 Super Bowl and has fast become my favourite ad. Mostly they’ve aired shortened versions of the original but every time it comes on I actually watch this ad rather than fast forward over it and chair dance my way through it.
Favourite bits: bowling, the “Right Stuff” entry into the casino, the stitched tattoo and the snow angels.
I could have done without the “hot babes” as I don’t think they do anything but add a scurvy frisson. This ad uses toys as characters and I found the hot tub scene, especially, inappropriate. Once again ad makers appear unable to resist including a shout out to straight adolescent males even for a product that is clearly aimed at suburban mum types. Fortunately the shortened versions of the ad I’ve seen haven’t included the “hot babes”.
By the way, the album is brilliant. (The Heavy, The House That Dirt Built.) We play tracks from it all the time on our KUMM radio show and they haven’t disappointed. And they are British. Who knew!!!!!!
Brilliant. This has to be one of the most gorgeous movies of all time. The images are stunning and beautifully represent the emotional journey of the main character over a single day. Colin Firth is amazing and fully deserves his Oscar nomination. I was a little nervous about where they were headed with one of the relationships (professor/student) but it did not resolve inappropriately so that was a relief. Definitely a must see.
Overrated. All the money is clearly on the screen, shame they didn’t spend any on the script. I so wanted this to be good and kept hoping to be drawn in and absorbed by the story but you really do need more that kick arse special effects to engage the entire human brain. There were a lot of tired old tropes present in this retelling of Pocahontas. You’d think by now, with the revolution of thought that has happened in the last one hundred years, the lone white guy wouldn’t get to save the day by out nativing the natives for the umpteenth time. Really?
Erratic. Well, this movie sure is all over the shop, from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. It doesn’t seem able to make its mind up what on earth it is. Paul Bettany has never been better lit and has my full attention every moment he’s on screen. *ahem* Ocassionally there are subtle interesting images and a real sense of the oppression and desolation of the desert. Mostly though the trite music queues tell us exactly what every one is thinking and feeling and Dennis Quaid gives one of the worst acting performances ever. Ever! At least Charles S. Dutton looks like he’s having an absolute blast, which is the only way to deal with a mess of a project like this.
