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Hooray for Hollywood

Do you know, I disappoint myself sometimes. I love the cinema as you know. I love films. Yet, I sort of hope that being a grown up, I would be able to discern when Tinseltown was thinking it was above the rules and act accordingly. Unfortunately not.

I have been a fan of Woody Allen since the late seventies. More than a fan actually. Annie Hall and Stardust Memories would make it into my top ten of all time. However, this week Allen's adopted daughter wrote an open letter to us all about the abuses she says she suffered at Allen's hands. I don't know if this is true or not. I know he denies it and I also know that we have to be careful about not believing the claims of some one who has been abused. What if his daughter was telling the truth? Then Hollywood decided that it wanted the films more than justice and closed ranks? Then idiots like me just took their word for it? It's all a bit depressing as is my lack of a spine. I think that there will always be films that I love and some will be by Woody Allen. Still, a bit ...you know...

Hollywood is full of donks - Part Two.

You may not have heard but  Joni Eareckson Tada was nominated for an Oscar for best original song this week If you didn't hear, it may well be because the nomination has since been withdrawn. this was because 

Songwriter Bruce Broughton "had emailed [some of the other 239] members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period,"

There is some talk around the fount of all integrity that is The Hollywood Oscar Publicity Machine, that Mr Broughton had used his position to try and influence Academy Members. HEAVEN FORBID. I mean it's not as if studios ever put pressure on the academy or anything. They only spend around $100 million dollars on publicity etc trying to get wins. 

In case you don't know who Mrs Tada is, she is an evangelical Christian with more integrity in her little finger than all these people. As a quadriplegic she struggles to sing and her husband had to put his knees on her chest to help her to reach the notes. I have heard the song and, tbh, it's not really my cup of tea but people who know about these things say it is a good song and certainly no worse than that U2 thingy that will probably win it.

You know, we may not be shot through with tinsel and glamour here in Plymouth but sometimes I am quite glad I'm boring.

Thank goodness for that

In my quest to conquer all the various craft skills - well to be honest knitting and a bit of sewing. (Crochet is a wicked thing as far as I am concerned and I am very suspicious of anyone who can do it without dislocating a knuckle.) I have finished my blanket - yes I have. I am frankly embarrassed to reveal how long knitting all these little hexagons took. It was, I am pretty sure, started in this millennium. The whole idea was that it should be something that I could pick up and put down. I think I put it down a lot more than I picked it up. Still, I'm glad it's done now. Very glad. The main problem was a lack of urgency on my part. It was a big task even by a proper knitter's standards. (Yes it was - even my mum said so) and I kind of felt that I had forever to do it. Eventually though the flippin thing kept getting on my nerves so much that I was knitting through gritted teeth and then sewing it together with a sort of obsessive speed that did not add to the harmony of the household.

I read this week about a man who wanted to increase his mindfulness of how life was passing. He has calculated how many days he can expect to live if he lives to eighty. (All being well I suppose) He has then taken two jars and filled one with a pebble for each day he has left. At the end of every day he moves one pebble from one jar to the other. This signifies that a day has gone from his timeline - a day he cannot get back. I know this is a bit DOOM laden. What happens on his eightieth birthday when he moves the last pebble over? (Assuming he can still see the jar by that point) Does he just lie down and give in or run down to the beach and frantically try and fill an Asda bag with a few more to tide him over? Still, it a good thing is it not to be mindful that time passes? To think that, if we want to achieve anything, the best time to start is now? 
If you are building anything slowly, whether it's a life or a stupid blanket, the principles are the same. Bit by bit. Keeping at it. Not letting where you want to finish up slip away. And, I suppose being aware that the time provided to get to be where you want to be is not infinite. 

Reviews and Thinkings

As you probably know it has been weathering like the end of the world for about a month outside and now it has the temerity to turn cold. (Not America cold but cold enough for me to discover that I have, in a kind of traditional way, lost my gloves again.) 

We haven't managed to spend much time outside except getting to and from places and dragging a recalcitrant dog around the park. I did make the piccs though and got to see "Saving Mr Banks" just in time. Just, just fantastic and lovely and sad and Emma Thompson you are brilliant. Academy Awards people - you know nothing. Nothing I tell you! No nomination for Ms Thompson or  Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips. Seriously - you couldn't pick a good performance in a Godfather movie. 

Various members of my family saw "12 Years a Slave" Hard to review because what do you say? I didn't like it? I don't think you are supposed to LIKE it are you? But still, they didn't like it. Relentless was the word used. I didn't go myself. A girl's gotta know her limitations. I know I would spend two and a half hours trying to get my head between my knees. 

So then. To Sherlock. SPOILER ALERT 

To tell you up front, I think it is head and shoulders above anything else on the Telly-Telly-Bunkum-Box (Thank you Mr Dahl) but I worried a bit at first. You will understand my wobbles if you are a Doctor Who fan. I'm not really - hasn't been the same since Eccleston left for me but did like Tennant quite a lot. But in Doctor Who - it sometimes feels to me like the fans write it now and I worried with the first episode of Sherlock that it was happening again. The outlandish solution to his death, the Morriarty nearly snog, the Bulgaria thingy. If you go anywhere near the Interweb, these will not have been new developments. Fans have been speculating about developments like these for ages. However, for me they did manage to turn it around. The wedding episode was just lovely and I think it needed to be lovely - it was the wedding for goodness sake. My favourite one though was the final episode in which we got the return of what was missing from the other two - menace. That chap from Borgen playing Rupert Murdoch was genuinely scary.

I've watched em all again. (Told you I wasn't getting out much) and these are my best bits

• Sherlock snogging Molly. Didn't say all the fan fiction was bad did I?
• John Watson's face when he sees Sherlock for the first time. Underrated excellence.
• Sherlock and Mycroft's parents being played by Benedict's Mum and Dad. Classy
• The character of Mary. Really glad she fits in with them Would have been boring drivel to make her antagonistic to Sherlock (See every other girl who has gone out with Watson in every other adaptation - ever)
• The game of Operation between Mycroft and Sherlock. So much back story in there. Excellent writing.
• Sherlock's battle for survival after being shot. Genuinely original and engaging. Nice to see Andrew Strong back but am hoping he is not alive. (Morriarty that is) Does no one die in this thing?

Stephen Moffat says he wants to write it as long as he can keep Benedict in it as the Cumberbatch is hot as July there now. I am hoping Hollywood holds its horses for just a bit longer.

Not as easy as you would think

I was wasting time on the t'Internet looking for photos of  dogs in onesies and rabbits making friends with baby cheetahs. (Not convinced about the long term future of that one) I came across a thing on The Huffington Post more or less saying that we over complicate the Christian Life. You just like... do it - God has left instructions. Easy Peasy.  Then they quoted Micah 8

It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,

From my experience, I think we have to be careful mixing up the words "simple" and "easy". The basic idea of living a Christian life may be simple. It don't necessarily follow that it is easy. Take that bit about doing what is fair and just to your neighbour. What if your neighbour doesn't fancy having what is fair and just done to them maybe because your neighbour is in the wrong? What if they just wanted you to be on their side even if your neighbour knows in their heart that side isn't the fair and just side? Or maybe they think their side is the right side? Then they tell everyone they know that you have done them a wrong thing. Suddenly you are the most unpopular kid in school - just for trying to do the right thing.
You know in the long term that the right thing is simple and indeed right but in the short term, it may not be too much fun for you if you choose to follow it. Jesus chose to speak the truth - it didn't always make him the most popular man in town. 

I think Jesus' life was messy and complicated - full of distractions. That's why he had to "set his face like flint" I think the young people call it "eyes on the prize" 

What I am saying is not to panic if it doesn't all fall in your lap. You do the right thing- the simple thing for God and it all goes wrong. You know you operated with the best intentions so it is really discouraging when things fall apart.

When I was a young person I was really keen on Be-Be and Ce-Ce Winans. They did a song once called "The Blood" with MC Hammer of all people. It was a cheery enough song - not exactly a personal favorite. (My personal faves were the ones where Ce-Ce sounded like she was just about to cough her lungs up) Then, once, I listened to it with earphones. And there, ever so quietly, in the background was a secret message sung in the backing track. Over and over they would whisper

"No need to panic. Trust the Blood."

And that's all  we can do in the end. If Philippians says - don't worry about anything - pray about everything - it sort of follows that God knows that there will be things to worry about - mais non? In the words of the great Michael MacDonald - "No-one said it was easy..." etc etc
Don't think you are always doing something wrong it you find the Christian life hard. The central core of love is the simplest thing in the world. The day to day living of it can really do your head in. The central comfort for me is that I never do any of it alone.