NDBT

Did some grocery shopping and the laundry last night, and felt very productive. I finished a Man lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh, which was good, except I figured it out on page 44. Much as I like being right, after the initial excitement, I’m always a bit disappointed that the author wasn’t cleverer. Still, I liked it and I’m sure I’ll read more of hers. I’m reading a new book called Ratcatcher, which may actually be Aussie, because I don’t think it’s on Amazon. Anyways, it featured the words “Derring-do” on the back cover, so that was enough for me. I think its a shame ‘derring-do’ doesn’t come up in conversation very often today. It’s a great term. Anyhoo – the book is about a bow street runner who’s all very James Bond – “men want to be him, women want him” sort of thing. It’s entertaining so far.

Went to the opera today. The Barber of Seville. The guy playing Figaro was very good, as was Rosina (although her arias were not so much songs as, ‘hey check out the vocal acrobatics I can do’). The romantic lead wasn’t very good in the first act, but he got it together by the second act. Overall, very entertaining. Walked through Hyde park afterwards (dodging the 50 million wedding parties taking photos by the fountains and fig tree walk).
I’m having a small bout of indecision over what to do in New Zealand. I’ve started looking up jobs and apartments in and around Christchurch and while I need to make a couple of phone calls for some details, it looks like my options are boiling down to: temping in Christchurch and trying to find a cheap room or working on a dairy farm for a few months. When you add in the fact that accommodation is included in the dairy job, the pay works out to about the same (rent in Christchurch is about 400-450/ month). The girl I got on really well with in Melbourne has been up on a farm in Queensland and she’s had a really great time and has saved lots of money. Yes it means being sort of cut off for a while – but then I won’t be spending money. Plus Christchurch is tiny anyways, and being out on a dairy farm would probably be really pretty. On the other hand, it is a long time to be out on a farm. But the work might be steadier than signing up with a temp agency. I don’t know. I have to call a couple of farms and see how many hours of work per week is typical, and I want to get an idea of how much temp work is available in Christchurch. But any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

For the 4th of July (belatedly): 1776 at the Tonys:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u-Xyz3mbDmk

And the vote: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lKU81hc1aYI&mode=related&search=

And the egg: http://youtube.com/watch?v=WoAuEkkYGxc

This: http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/ (July 7th) is so me right now!!

EW has a retrospective on Christian Bale’s roles. I feel like they did this before Batman, too:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1547207,00.html

An oldie, but goodie: Colbert on Katrina:

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=23427

(Article here: Anti-gay ad is no match for Colbert’s logic.)

This: Dinner guest finds host’s wife, son in freezer is not the headline you want to see when you check the news in the morning before breakfast.

From Cleolinda, Daniel Radcliff on being famous:

“Girls who want to go out with me just because I’m famous has never been a problem. I’m 17. I don’t care. Obviously, if I wanted a deep and meaningful relationship then I wouldn’t want to be going out with somebody who is only with me because I’m an actor, but if you don’t a relationship like that then it’s fine.”However, Daniel is adamant he wouldn’t stay with a girl who called him Harry during sex.

“People do call me Harry. I once had a friend call me it by accident. If there’s another person in the room called Harry and somebody shouts their name I do respond slightly, which is embarrassing. But no one has ever said it in the throes of passion. That would be the end of that session. Go now!”

It’s the “I’m 17. I don’t care” part that cracked me up.”

Brad Pitt Rumored to Star in ‘Bullitt’ Remake.

Yet another awesome new Christian Bale interview.

This: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/07/03/ur-noze/ is great.

The lovely Emily sent this to me (Time Out NY on Sam Rockwell):

http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/features/show-feature/3111/the-parent-trap.html

Highlights: “Hotly buzzed at Sundance, where the movie was snapped up for $3.7 million, Joshua does play like an indie The Omen, albeit the smartest evil-kid film you’ve ever seen.” “Rockwell’s performance—a slyly calibrated descent from cocky master of the universe to frazzled, fearful target—stands as one of his most absorbing and intelligent. “I knew he could totally do it,” says Joshua director George Ratliff, noting that while Rockwell himself is not a parent, his performance (largely informed by Ratliff’s own plunge into fatherhood) was eerily on-target. “Sam can’t do it unless he believes it. I mean, every scene. So that’s one of the advantages of using Sam. I felt like this movie had to be steeped in naturalism for it to work.””

And Steven King on the ending of Harry Potter (no spoilers! Although he advances a couple of his ideas) :

“I’m having a day of mixed feelings: happy because I’m reading the manuscript of a novel that’s full of magic, mystery, and monsters; sad because it will be finished tomorrow and on my shelf, with all its secrets told and its surviving characters set free to live their own lives (if characters have lives beyond the end of a novel — I’ve always felt they do). It’s called The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff, and it will be published early next year.

Did you think I meant the final Harry Potter tale? Don’t be a sillykins — not even your Uncle Stevie gets that one in advance (although I’m sure you agree that he should, he should). But I expect to face the same feelings, only stronger, when the pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows dwindle down to the final few. Hell, I had trouble saying goodbye to Tony Soprano, and let’s face it — he was a turd. Harry’s one of the good guys. One of the great guys, in fact, and the same holds true for his friends.

The sense of sadness I feel at the approaching end of The Monsters of Templeton isn’t just because the story’s going to be over; when you read a good one — and this is a very good one — those feelings are deepened by the realization that you probably won’t tie into anything that much fun again for a long time. This particular melancholy deepens even more when the story is spread over multiple volumes. I felt it as I approached the end of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy, more strongly as I neared the conclusion of Frodo’s quest in The Lord of the Rings, and with painful keenness when, as the writer, I got to the end of The Dark Tower, which stretched over seven volumes and a quarter century’s writing time.

When it comes to Harry, part of me — a fairly large part, actually — can hardly bear to say goodbye. I’d guess that J.K. Rowling feels the same, although I’d also guess those feelings are mingled with the relief of knowing that the work is finally done, for better or worse.

And I’m a grown-up, for God’s sake — a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, with its cartoon jacket and modest (500 copies) first edition. Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods — magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale’s recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita. My advice to families containing Harry Potter readers: Stock up on the Kleenex. You’re gonna need it. It’s all made worse by one unavoidable fact: It’s not just Harry. It’s time to say goodbye to the whole cast, from Moaning Myrtle to Scabbers the rat (a.k.a. Wormtail). Which leads to an interesting question — will the final volume satisfy Harry’s longtime (and very devoted) readers?

Although the only thing we can be sure of is that Deathly Hallows won’t end in a 10-second blackout (you’re going to hear that a lot in the next few weeks), my guess is that large numbers of readers will not be satisfied even if Harry survives (I’m betting he will) and Lord Voldemort is vanquished (I’m betting on this, too, although evil is never vanquished for long). I’m partly drawing on my own experience with The Dark Tower (reader satisfaction with the ending was low — tough titty, since it was the only one I had); partly on my belief that very few long works end as felicitously as Tolkien’s Rings series, with its beautiful pilgrimage into the Grey Havens; but mostly on the fact that there is that sadness, that inevitable parting from characters who have been loved deeply by many. The Internet blog sites will be full of this was bad and that was wrong, but it’s going to boil down to something that many will feel and few will come right out and state: No ending can be right, because it shouldn’t be over at all. The magic is not supposed to go away.

Rowling will almost certainly go on to other works, and they may be terrific, but it won’t be quite the same, and I’m sure she knows that. Readers will be able to go back and reread the existing books — as I’ve gone back to Tolkien, as my wife goes back to Patrick O’Brian’s wonderful sea stories featuring Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin, as others do with novels featuring Travis McGee or Lord Peter Wimsey — and rereading is a great pleasure, but it’s not the bated-breath, what’s-gonna-happen-next suspense that Potter readers have enjoyed since 1997. And, of course, Harry’s audience is different. It is, in large part, made up of children who will be experiencing these unique and rather terrible feelings for the first time.

But there’s comfort. There are always more good stories, and now and then there are great stories. They come along if you wait for them. And here’s something I believe in my heart: No story can be great without closure. There must be closure, because it’s the human condition. And since that’s how it is, I’ll be in line with my money in my hand on July 21.

And, I must admit, sorrow in my heart.”

Music: Words – Kate Miller-Heidke (I really love this song), Scar – Missy Higgins, Better – Regina Spektor, Androgyny (Hermaphrodite remix) – Garbage, Bad Boyfriend (Garbage remix) – Garbage, Everyday I love you less and less (live at Coachella) – Kaiser Chiefs

Tags: Travel

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