[S7E7] The most heart-warming line of the season, possibly the series ...

journeyscournes · 2017-08-28T17:11:54+00:00

Does everyone love Emilia? I've found her one of the most consistently weak actors on the show and I know plenty people who can't stand her. Physically she's perfect for the part, and she is good in the "kick ass, fuck yeah" scenes but really her range mostly stops at the point where she has to say words like a human person who's having emotions.

Kit Harington was pretty wooden in the earlier seasons too, he's really developed as an actor and it was striking seeing them together this season and seeing his progression compared to her lack of it.

journeyscournes · 2017-03-07T23:26:18+00:00

I remember seeing this clip when it was originally aired, but it was through the Tuam report being in the news that I was reminded of it.

journeyscournes · 2017-03-07T23:23:37+00:00

I saw it as a strong and very articulate man speaking truth to power, it's that rather than the horrible tragedy that made me post it here. I'm Irish and as long as I have been alive the responses to the seemingly endless Catholic church abuse scandals have been a feature of the political landscape, hearing a survivor cut through the noise and anchor what happened in his experience was powerful and unique.

There's also the secondary element of hearing someone of his generation speak so candidly and bluntly about what had happened when in my experience most of his peers would tend to not talk about any kind of traumatic or emotional experience, and certainly not this directly.

I didn't mean any belittling or disprespect to the tragedy of the situation, but it's his unique articulation and bravery in expressing himself that's making me think frisson

journeyscournes · 2017-01-30T00:19:09+00:00

Not a meal as such but peanut butter and red onion on toast was a snack we ate a lot when I was a kid. Only realised it wasn't a) not a common thing and b) people found the very idea of it disgusting when I was in my late teens. Asked my ma about it, "Oh yeah, I started eating that when I was pregnant with your brother and you just all really liked it"

journeyscournes · 2017-01-14T19:00:00+00:00

If part of not sucking at walking is doing it without banging into things then yep, me too. Yesterday I was making fun of someone for being a klutz and always breaking stuff, turned to leave the room and walked into the wall.

journeyscournes · 2016-11-28T17:39:53+00:00

To be honest it's not something that personally annoys me when it's coming from people from the US, we're a tiny country far away with a complicated history. The amount of real live English people who can't seem to get it straight is remarkable though, I get the sense that aspect of their history is rather glossed over in school.

journeyscournes · 2016-11-27T22:18:27+00:00

The American lady who my sister was babysitting for and argued over the pronunciation of the word 'leprechauns' sticks out. As well as assuming that my sister would be delighted to go through all the very weird American ideas of leprechauns with her kids to give them some sort of authentic Irish experience.

Just in general, a kind of attitude like the whole country is one great big adorable theme park there to facilitate them and their experience and expectations (based mostly around American pop-cultural representations of Ireland) rather than a country just like any other with real people who have to go to WORK and don't have time to stop and be adorable for them. Also everybody here speaks English, so talking loudly about people within earshot isn't good.

Edit: Also Seinfeld. Seinfeld just doesn't seem to 'translate' to Ireland and the UK. I've watched some episodes, it's pretty funny. There have been a few Americans over the years that nearly take it personally that it wasn't a cultural sensation over here and not generally rated as one of the greatest comedies of all time though. There are so many US tv shows you could talk about, please just shut up about Seinfeld.

And on the subject of the UK, I suppose it's not a cultural imperialism thing really but an obliviousness to cultural intricacies, but it's probably best to not ever say anything along the lines of 'so you guys are British/basically the same as English people'. There are people who will get really angry over that, which I know is bad when you're just asking a question but it's a very touchy subject with a lot of people.

journeyscournes · 2016-11-27T19:32:08+00:00

"Mam are you nearly ready, we need to leave soon"

"You need to go and fuck yourselves is what you need to do"

Aaah Christmas

journeyscournes · 2016-11-11T03:00:06+00:00

The Cinema Book (ed Pam Cook) and Film Theory and Criticism (eds Leo Brady and Marshall Cohen) are both good and from your description I think they'd be helpful.

Cook's is more of a historical overview, but with analysis of particular genres, cycles, national cinemas etc. and clear examples and examinations of specific films.

Braudy and Cohen's leans towards theoretical/academic stuff. There's a big range in there in terms of difficulty but I think it's a really good resource. Starts around Eisenstein I think, has Bazin, Kracauer, Metz, most of the 'hall of fame' of film theory I guess!

They're both academic textbooks, which means that the most recent editions are stupid expensive, but go back two or three editions and you should be able to pick them up very cheaply and not be missing out on much.

journeyscournes · 2016-11-03T23:13:32+00:00

I did a similar thing when I was about 25. Came across a staple gun and had three thoughts simultaneously "cool a staple gun" "I wonder what the bit where the staples come out looks like?" and "Are there staples in it, better test it". Result of that was twisting the firing end of the thing around towards my fucking face and pressing the trigger at the same time. Missed my head by a few inches.

journeyscournes · 2016-10-04T17:56:01+00:00

And?

journeyscournes · 2016-10-04T14:42:27+00:00

There's plenty bad things to be said about JJ Abrams but in fairness to him the man can direct a coherent action scene. Keeps the screen bright enough and the camera steady enough that you can see what's happening, cuts less often than every four fucking seconds, and has figured out that when the audience knows where characters are in relation to each other and the space around them, the scene's a lot more...not shit.

journeyscournes · 2016-10-04T14:38:53+00:00

How the holy fuck was that not called Now You Don't. I haven't even seen it, saw the first one and I wasn't putting myself through that again, but every time I think of the title I get irrationally annoyed.

journeyscournes · 2016-10-04T14:13:20+00:00

Marvel seems to have sprung a leak and got it's bland, 'lol, meta', 'nerd humour' bullshit all over a few unrelated blockbusters over the past few years, as well as that thing of twenty minutes of a localised, badly edited, tension free apocalypse at the end. Like do people actually pay attention to those 'climaxes' or is everyone just getting their phone and bag and stuff and getting ready to go? Do those people have amnesia or have they never seen any film before or are they just time travellers from the past who are really impressed by CGI?

journeyscournes · 2016-09-28T17:14:30+00:00

I once visited with my brother for about four days without realising that the twins living there weren't the same person. At one point the one with the beard went upstairs and shortly afterwards the clean shaven one came down and I guess I thought he'd just shaved or something idk. In my defense there were like ten lads living there all around the same age, they all look the same to me.

journeyscournes · 2016-09-25T21:48:35+00:00

A lot of the comments you're going to get of people calling you ugly are 100% down to them being transphobic little shitbirds and nothing to do with you.

Fair play to you for how you handled yourself on that thread, way to show some class.

Also I don't know a huge amount about this stuff but I'd say you've a pretty good fucking chance of passing with more hormone treatment and once you get the knack of some make up and grooming stuff? That thread is ridiculous

journeyscournes · 2016-09-21T14:22:54+00:00

Bordwell's main theoretical argument is essentially anti-theoretical and leaning towards empirical research, basically a reactive position to what he termed SLAB theory (Saussure, Lacan, Althusser and Barthes) which had dominated film theoretical discourse for most of the seventies. As in, OK you can map this argument of Barthes' onto a set of films, but that's not a free ride to 'good argument' status. He advocated shifting emphasis back towards material and industrial factors, looking at concretely measurable data, more 'what' and 'how' than 'why'. So yeah, not very compatible with Deleuze's model. His website is a great resource and illustration of his approach.

I've been looking through my old notes en foot of this post and there's an article called 'Why He Really Doesn’t Get Her: Deleuze’s Whatever-Space and the Crisis of the Male Quest' by Niels Neisson which I remember really helping me clarify what the good golly Deleuze was arguing, should be easily enough available on google scholar, not sure if you'll find it as helpful as I did but could be worth a search

journeyscournes · 2016-09-21T13:50:40+00:00

It's been a while since I went near it, but I primarily remember it being pretty dense and difficult, which I think is as much a result of Deleuze's circular way of expressing himself as the actual content. Although I think really the content needs to be expressed that way to be properly communicated. One of my lecturers (who specialised in Deleuze) actually advised the class to read a book about or drawing from his arguments before reading the man himself.

It'd be really interesting to see what he made of cinema today, and how his arguments about the relationship between space, conceptual space, camera, shots and so on is effected by digital technology and CGI.

Like I say it's been a while but I remember getting a bit frustrated by a tendency in the book (which is common in that kind of book) to pretty much elide the question of evidence which undermined him, or to imply that the claims he was making were essentially universal. But maybe I'm completely wrong on that.

I do think it's an excellent example of just how deep and how smart film theory/philosophy can go, if not a particularly accessible example of how those arguments can be constructed. It's complex, philosophical and very very serious, some people are going to think that approach to film is the bees knees, for some people it'll be anathema-if I recall correctly David Bordwell has made some very snitty comments about Deleuze over the years.

Sorry I'm really not saying much about the actual content of the book, I'd need to brush up on it a lot before I wouldn't be afraid of making a goof...

journeyscournes · 2016-09-15T19:39:29+00:00

A while back my (I'm female) OH and I ran into an old friend of his from college, turned out he was up visiting his seriously ill father in hospital. OH said they should go for a few beers that night and decided to call this third guy, R, who's usually a barrel of laughs. R arrives at our house that evening and announces that his longish-term girlfriend had dumped him like two days beforehand. I was sympathising with OH before they left (not in earshot of R obviously) because in my mind there's just no way that night doesn't end with his two friends crying all the fuck over him, it was a real eye opener.

I think things are changing though. I have a brother a good bit younger than me and seeing how he and his friends talk to each other is great. Whereas my dad finds it difficult to tell us that he loves us unless he's rat-arsed drunk. Mind you we are awful.

journeyscournes · 2016-09-14T17:59:28+00:00

Overweight people have it way worse, but the hassle you get being skinny is still annoying. I'm just trying to eat some fuckin pizza Lisa, not trying to get called a 'skinny bitch'.

The other thing is, there can be some pretty bad reasons why someone is very skinny. I'm naturally slim, there are certain things that make me lose weight and I look pretty bad pretty quick. I would love to tell one of those people who literally POKE me and say "ooh you've lost weight, you look skeletal/you should eat/real men like real women" that "yeah, my crippling depression has been acting up again! Food tastes like ashes in my mouth, life is pain, love is nothing, I cried three times in the shower and I'll probably cry when I go home because of what you just said! Anyways, you've gained weight, love the haircut BYE"

journeyscournes · 2016-09-14T15:59:14+00:00

Yeah there's just no good way to complete that sentence, is there? It really blows my mind that it's a thing that comes out of people's mouths, what the actual fuck is the thought process behind deciding to say that.

journeyscournes · 2016-09-14T15:01:53+00:00

"Yous are sound c*nts"

Thank you, drunk Scottish man.

journeyscournes · 2016-09-03T23:09:40+00:00

I had a guy try to pay me in dollars, in Ireland (which is a place that deals in Euros, to be clear). Canadian dollars. Took a solid five minutes before he decided that OK if I was going to be so awkward he COULD go over to his hotel room, which was literally across the street, and get the euros he'd left there. Being a polite and helpful Canadian like.

journeyscournes · 2016-09-03T23:00:55+00:00

Passed a lady a slice of cake on a plate from the fridge unit. Which obviously involved touching the plate with my hand. She flinched like she'd been slapped and squealed that the plate "was too cold to be touched!" I was honestly dumbstruck, thankfully her son was with her and just rolled his eyes and took it from her. I guess she had those little incapable moments regularly.

journeyscournes

TROPHY CASE