Why is Everyone Getting Twitter-pated?!

I am an old woman. Seriously. I know I've said that many times over the years for many reasons - I can't deal with loud music, I have had conversations with people (ok, children) who were born since i've been in high school - but I am serious this time. How did I not know about Twitter?

Apparently, it's the biggest thing right now. There are tons of celebrities on it. And at least 30,000 other people. 

The name sounds so familiar. Maybe I heard it, but I thought it was just something like Flickr. Not. 

I mean, I knew about MySpace, but chose never to be on it, cause MySpace is sketch. I got on Facebook, back when there weren't tons of adults and little children on it. But Twitter escaped my knowledge. 

Perhaps it's better this way. Despite the call of celebrities being into it, I feel like it would be far too tiring to attempt to maintain Facebook, this blog, Twitter, and a normal, functioning REAL life. 

The Adventures of Kristyne-Koala: What the Traveler!

I just realized Kristyne-Koala hasn't given her adoring fans an update in quite some time. For a while she had to disappear from the limelight and get treated for "exhaustion," but she's back! With a whirlwind tour! 

Before starting off across the big blue wet thing, Kristyne-Koala took a short holiday in a Winter Wonderland! Where is she? 

Snow abounds across the wooded hills

Of this northern state I love so dear, 

So much so that it gives me thrills

To return to the place of the redcoats' fear.

And when Kristyne-Koala arrives

With me and Boris, so used to the cold,

Though she shivers atop the iced-over ride

She can leave the winds that blow so bold, 

Go into the Walnut enclave, and rest

Her paws round a very warm mug. 

Content in the most unique, and best, 

Home on the street - a place of warm hugs.

Sitting four floors up

away from the city streets

oogling Sawyer. 

Tall silent sentinels, dressed to the nines 

In green velvet, keep vigil on the hill.

Their spidery feel hold to the inclines

As the have forever, or at least still

Since the Celts brought these rough-hewn stones

to the varied circles and high-build henge. 

To think they were able, with so many moans

Of strain and pain, to create this Stonehenge

Cousin. So as Kristyne-Koala sits 

Surveying the site, she begins to think 

About all that has past and what it's 

That is yet to come, in this thought sinks - 

How lucky it is that was have this fair place 

And such beauty exists in the whole of space. 

I don't know what it is

That makes me love this picture so. 

Perhaps it's the tragic loveliness of the broken arches -

not as complete as Tintern, but with their small simplicity - 

Perhaps it's the green grass - 

A promise of the good weather to come - 

Perhaps it's the way I look - 

Not yet flushed with the Tor-id attempt - 

Whatever the reason, the end result

Is a photograph with a person I love

And a moment of a memory I wish to dearly savor. 

Yum Yum goes the little grey Koala one day

Yum Yum goes the little grey Bear.

Yum Yum goes the little grey Koala one day

And the bath waters tast'd like Iron.

Yuck Yuck goes the little grey Koala 

Yuck Yuck goes the little grey Bear. 

Yuck Yuck goes the little greay Koala, 

And the Romans couldn't have liked that. 

Dickens Comes to London (well, Dickensian Weather, at Least)

SNOW! SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!

There's snow in London! It started last night around 10 or 11, when the Super Bowl began.
They began putting salt down around noon, which Katie and I found hilarious. Being from Buffalo and New England, and going to Ithaca, the fact that they were so concerned as to put out salt a good 10 hours beforehand was amusing. Though I have heard since that they haven't had significant snow - really, any snow that counts as snow - here in six years. Six years!

A bunch of kids were being rowdy in the street, throwing snowballs and nearly getting hit by cars. It reminded me of Ithaca and playing in the snow, I really wanted to go out. Tears.
This morning we heard that virtually all the tube lines are down, and when Katie and I walked to the bus stop, no buses were coming, either. So we walked to the London Centre through Hyde Park. It was gorgeous, and I was ecstatic. Poor Katie wasn't feeling well, and her shoes got completely soaked, so she was less than thrilled.

When we finally got to the London Centre - which only took us an hour, and we were walking through snow - only a few people were there, and with all the prep for us cold students coming in Bill started class half an hour late, and let us out a bit early as well. And my afternoon class had been cancelled. After hanging for a bit, I walked back through Hyde Park - which was gorgeous! There were some roses that had already bloomed, poor things. 

A bunch of the trees were very green and mossy, which was a beautiful contrast to their bark and the snow. 

The park was swarming with people - mostly kids and parents. Virtually all London schools were cancelled, and between people not being able to get to work and offices closing, parents got a day off, too. I eventually found out ten of the eleven tube lines were either down or partly suspended, and it was the first time EVER that ALL London buses were withdrawn from the roads. This includes the Blitz, people. So basically, the town that kept things running on the roads during bombings couldn't deal with 7 inches of snow. All that is a roundabout way of saying, the park was covered in snowmen and snowballs. I found one that was an inch or two wider than I am tall in diameter. How do people make these things?

Ollie Ollie OXEN-free: Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Congrats to all Ox-people and enthusiasts. It was a bit confusing here, because the New Year started last Monday, and that's when all us in the flat thought the big China in London celebration was. I was a bit bummed because I had to go to a play for my Drama class, so to celebrate I bought my own little meal.

The meal was more money than I was expecting to pay, and I waited MUCH longer than I would have liked, but it was actually pretty good, and it made up about 3 meals. Plus it had mushrooms, and as I'm very hobbit-like in my adoration of mushrooms, that made me very happy.
It turned out that the celebration was not the night of the 26th, but this past Sunday, February 1st. Jackie, Katie, Clara and I went to it for a little bit. Honestly, it wasn't too exciting. I did love seeing so many people in Trafalgar Square. And the singers and dancers on the stage were pretty spectacular, but they were far away. So we went into the National Gallery for a bit.
I had no idea 15th century artists liked to paint Mary breast-feeding baby Jesus so much.

Walk 2: Cathedrals and Gardens and Landmarks, Oh My!

Our second Bill-led walk was on January 24th (hey, I'm only about a week behind on London recaps!), and wasn't as long as the first. Maybe because we've been here longer, but it wasn't quite as new, exciting, or fun. We still got to see tons of great sites. We started out by St. Paul's (the Fifth version of it, constructed by Christopher Wren, and the first Cathedral specifically build for the Protestant faith).We then saw a Christopher Wren designed gate for the City. Really, virtually everything we saw was Wren. By the end I was a little Wren out.

St. Paul's was followed seeing a bunch of cute little green areas. My favorite was Postman's Park. There was an adorable fountain, and memorial tiles for people who sacrificed their lives trying to save others. It was sad and beautiful. I remembered the area from the film Closer.

I can't really remember the order of the things we saw. St. Bartholomew-the-Greater stands out for me, it was a beautiful, very old church. Before going in, we saw Smithfield Street - where William Wallace was eviscerated and Queen Mary watched Protestants die - and the memorial to Wallace outside St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The whole situation of the area was incredibly ironic - "Over here is the site of one of the oldest hospitals in the world. And over here is the site of thousands and thousands of executions over hundreds of years."

But the church was very pretty. Much of the church dates from the 15oo's, and has been used in films for the period look. It was in Shakespeare in Love, which I love (I'm just realizing a lot of this is relating places back to films. I can't help it though, and in my defense, these places advertise the facts of their fame). I also lit a candle next to a nativity.
And this is the Golden Boy of Pye Corner. Since the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane (at a bakery, natch) and ended at Pye Corner, the people blamed it on the sin of Gluttony (that is, when they weren't blaming it on the Catholics). Thus, the reminder about the sin via this "fat" little boy. We had lunch in the Museum of London, right next to the Barbican - the old Roman wall around London - here's a part of it. The Museum of London looked nice, though we couldn't see much of it. I ordered a baguette and salmon pate, which came in a cute jar. I would never have been able to eat all the pate, and I wasn't about to leave it, so I took it back. Jar and all!

Almost at the end, we got to see the Guildhall, and the outline of the Roman stadium. The Guildhall was very pretty, with all sorts of neat statues. I LOVED the crazy wood carvings of Gog and Magog. Here's the pretty lights and windows, and Bill the Encyclopedia explaining things to us ignorant students.
There was a lion, which reminded me of Aslan. But for some reason, he thought my hand was very tasty. Oh no!We rounded out the walk back at St. Paul's, with a much better view. Jackie, Clara, Katie, and I had wanted to take the bus back, but it took us a while to figure out the buses weren't going as far as Edgware Road because of protests. It was really nice to see the absolute center of London, though.

The Ithacan: "Australia" Review

Now, this review I wrote right after Thanksgiving break brought up a lot of dissenting opinions among my friends. Australia was directed by Baz Luhrmann, whose few films are incredibly polarizing. There are those that L. O. V. E. the sumptuous splendor and tragedy of Moulin Rouge, though many others find it too frenzied. And William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet can be seen as the freshest take on any of Shakespeare's plays or a needless adulteration of a classic. 

I, for one, love his work. And though Australia has it's flaws, it was aiming to be a sweeping, romantic and joyous epic of a previous age. Which it succeeded at. Perhaps the reason the film did not do well is a testament to how much films have changed, and how the public's general expectations have been streamlined. For more, just see below. 

Epic Aussie film breaks genre boundaries

By Anne Gould Northgraves Staff Writer | December 4th, 2008

Expectant moviegoers have been anticipating the release of “Australia” for months, and the large-scale, romantic and exotic epic did not let them down. It is epic with a capital “E.”

The film is anything but genre-specific. With the cattle driving and beautifully shot desert scenery in most of the movie, it is part Western. The passionate relationship between Nicole Kidman’s stuffy Brit Lady Ashley and Hugh Jackman’s gruff Aussie Drover is classic romance fodder, and moments of physical and verbal humor create flashes of comedy.

 The social prejudices and Japanese Invasion of 1930s northern Australia add historical perspective. A large portion of the story revolves around the appalling racist policies of ruling whites against Aborigines and mixed-race children, providing social commentary.

“Australia” is reported to be the largest and most expensive film made in the titular country, costing upward of $150 million. Aussie director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann — best known for tragic romance spectacles “Moulin Rouge” (2001) and “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) — did not appear to be the ideal person to tackle “Australia.” But his experience crafting genre-bending films that fit bygone times was vital to making “Australia” work.

As in “Moulin Rouge,” the story starts off with a few too many characters and plot points presented all at once. Understanding all the information is admittedly difficult at first because of thick Australian accents. Also there are moments when quick editing, panning shots and physical humor akin to the style of “Moulin Rouge” and “Romeo + Juliet” are out of place. But overall the film flows well, and the audience can become truly invested in the story and the characters’ journeys. Luhrmann’s experience directing dance and action spectacles allows him to craft dramatic sequences in the expansive setting.

The writers also deserve a great deal of credit for the success of “Australia.” If not handled delicately, the story could have been predictable and unable to hold the viewer’s interest for the film’s 165 minutes. But “Australia” deftly handles the required plot points. While Kidman’s and Jackman’s characters progress through an archetypal relationship, from their initial loathing to being united to achieve a common goal to love, it is wholly believable. Though romantic films usually have an uplifting ending, given Luhrmann’s predilection for tragic endings, the conclusion does not feel forced or predictable.

The final piece of the epic puzzle that makes “Australia” a successfully grand picture is the actors’ skills. Though Kidman is Australian, she convincingly portrays a stuck-up British aristocrat. Her character is more than a caricature — Lady Ashley has good reasoning and motivation for her actions. Jackman is multidimensional as Drover, with his own motivations and convincing character arc. His emotional performance toward the end of the film when Drover comes to a startling realization is particularly moving. But while David Wenham is convincing as the evil Neil Fletcher, a far cry from his martyr-like role in “The Lord of the Rings,” Fletcher remains a one-note character and could have benefited from more development.

“Australia” reaches for epic proportions and hits the mark. Luhrmann transcends his customary style while keeping the film entertaining and surprising. The result is a film that recalls the grand spectacle of features like “Ben-Hur” in setting and story, while focusing on individual characters’ struggle through the landscape.

 

“Australia” was written by Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan, and directed by Luhrmann. It received three and a half out of four stars.

UK Libraries are Greedy

I would have though, given the Welfare State that the UK "supposedly" is, that their public systems would be well funded. Museums certainly are. Virtually every one is free general admission. At the British Museum, I just walked straight in. No security check. No people at a desk. The door was literally OPEN. 

So the assumption would be that PUBLIC libraries would be the same as well. Actually, no. Just about the only free thing at libraries are taking out books and using the Internet (when you reserve a computer). What if you want to rent DVDs? That'll be  over £3, please. 

I admit, I'm probably a bit extra-bitter because Netflix's instant movies cannot be played outside the US, and Hulu doesn't work over here, either. But libraries in the US let you get DVDs for free. Score one for the US. 

I wonder what the prices are at the rental store down the road.