Thurs. Nov. 8, 2007
Flying through the Air with the Greatest of Ease
or The small, bouncy child version thereof
or the non-Twitter but NaBloPoMo version
Approx. 4:30pm (PST) or 12:30am (GMT) – After a long and stressful week that included a scheduled small nervous breakdown from 5:05 pm to 5:07 pm on Tuesday afternoon, I am on a Boeing 777 flying over the Great Lakes en route to London. London Calling, the November edition.
Due to completing tasks and finishing my Jane Austen-a-thon, I did not get to sleep until 2am. When the alarm rang at 6:04 am, I was hurting from too little sleep. No matter, zip bags up, and get them out to the car. I drove over to my brother’s house and together we drove up to LAX.
My first flight was uneventful as I cat napped. The plane landed in Chicago a bit early and I miscalculated time, I thought I had an hour and a half until boarding my next flight to London, it was really 45 mins. I had a bit of steamed rice and mixed veg at the Manchu Wok place at the food court and a lovely chat with some folks from Yorkshire who had just visited their grandkids in Houston. I then went for a walk, got a little lost, and kept hearing “Last boarding call for London gate K-12” over the paging system. Oops. Last one on the plane.
The flight to London is going well so far. I have the “H” right aisle seat and the block of the middle 5 seats is occupied by a woman and her three children under 6 years old, of which the two boys are bouncing off the seats, walls, aisles, etc. Should be interesting. The Simpsons movie has them somewhat quieted down but the oldest is still kicking the seat in front of him. The lady in front of him is watching the Transformers movie.
The best part of seat backs with video screens is being able to vaguely watch the various movies in one’s view, partial attention with no sound. The best way to watch a movie. Unless one is having a Jane Austen-a-thon or Kevin Smith-a-thon, then it should be one movie at a time with sound.
The meal service is now coming by and it is the very first time I called beforehand and ordered a gluten-free meal. I am quite curious what it will be.
1:17am (GMT) – Best airplane meal I have ever had. Steamed salmon on a bed of rice with mango salsa and a side of steamed bok choy. A few sides and a chocolate coconut gluten-free vegan cookie. Not only was the food tasty and gluten-free, but it was also dairy-free and egg-free. What a blessing.
Back to the movies on other’s seat back screens: I am completely unclear as to why the Transformers movie was ever made. I heard it was bad, even by fanboys’ estimation. Even if a movie doesn’t get stellar reviews, if one watches it without sound the visuals can carry a plot line without bad dialogue. The Transformers movie doesn’t even work as a visual experience. It does work as one big commercial for Chevrolet cars and trucks. Bah.
I am a reader but as an artist if I am going to watch a movie then the visual narrative should hold up even without sound, even better if it holds up visually and aurally. In an effort to keep up on some cinema culture, I recently got a netflix account and have been watching about 1.5 movies a month. Over the course of the last month plus, I have watched “Emma”, “Sense and Sensibility”, and “Pride and Prejudice” (The BBC mini-series version). Previous to this last month’s Jane Austen-a-thon, I had only seen “Emma” before when it was in the theater.
Of all three, I like the movie version of “Sense and Sensibility” best due to Emma Thompson’s screen play and the superior actors in the cast (hello! Greg Laurie is brilliant as Mr….). Thompson’s screen play and the actors get one beyond the convoluted passive language and early 19th century mores and are laugh out loud funny. On the other side, “Emma” was just vapid. I didn’t believe that Gweneth Platrow and the other cast members were inhabiting an early 19th century world other than the clothes and set design. It was also shot as dark and dramatic in many of the interior scenes which did not lend weight, but contrast on lightness moving towards vapidity of the acting and editing.
Of all three movies, the BBC’s “Pride and Prejudice” is most faithful to the book and dialogue as Austen wrote it. While I truly enjoyed it, I took two watches to catch all the nuances. The humor was much more subtle than Thompson’s “Sense and Sensibility”. P&P was played as a romantic dramedy, were as S&S was a definite romantic comedy with the right touch of drama.
I must be bored that I am writing a full movie review while sitting here in seat 40H. I can though, as I have a power point. ;o)
[Posted to the internet upon arrival in London, as the plane did not have wifi.]