Sunday
Sunday morning was spent sleeping in after a quite accidental trip to the pub. I took the bus back home after working the whole of Saturday at the lodge and I overshot my stop, landing very nicely in front of the Woodstock Arms. I might have well wandered back home immediately but saw a sign advertising a Pub Quiz on Sunday. My interest piqued, I went inside, hoping to make enquiries and to have a quick pint. Doing so would add to the long list of fine drinking establishments that I have patronised in Oxford - I am trying to see how many I can accumulate before I leave. So instead of an early evening, I got to talking with some pub regulars about quizzes and trivia, having overheard one of them ask another one what he was going to set in the quiz tomorrow. It turned out the other bloke was the person who sets the quiz. Soon found myself ordering a couple more pints and staying to chat. Promised to go down for the pub quiz the next day, and eventually didn't (see below).
The whole afternoon managed to go by idling surfing the net and without a whole lot of stuff done. I did proof read Sam Longair's extended essay on the London welfare movement in the 1970s and made some basic grammatical and stylistic corrections/suggestions. Other than that, wasn't very productive.
The evening was spent watching a movie with Kimberley - Ang Lee critically acclaimed movie Brokeback Mountain. It has been characterized in shorthand as "the gay cowboy movie", lending the movie a great deal of interest due to the stereotypes it challenged. Of course, as is always the case it was much more than that. I greatly enjoyed the movie on the whole - it was wonderfully paced and very well directed and it had a wonderful balance to it that is really hard to achieve in any movie, let alone one with the sparseness and controversy this one had. Heath Ledger gave a pitch perfect perfomance and the supporting cast was impressive enough. The movie was able to present a picture of Mid-Western American society and its values that offers realy insight and amazingly little in the way of prejudice - in watching it I was never tempted for a moment to judge the social values that prevented the protagonists from achieving their happiness, just the realization that it was a way of life. Some breathtaking scenery and camerawork just added to the feel of the picture. Altogether, this must count as one of the major Oscar contenders.
The whole afternoon managed to go by idling surfing the net and without a whole lot of stuff done. I did proof read Sam Longair's extended essay on the London welfare movement in the 1970s and made some basic grammatical and stylistic corrections/suggestions. Other than that, wasn't very productive.
The evening was spent watching a movie with Kimberley - Ang Lee critically acclaimed movie Brokeback Mountain. It has been characterized in shorthand as "the gay cowboy movie", lending the movie a great deal of interest due to the stereotypes it challenged. Of course, as is always the case it was much more than that. I greatly enjoyed the movie on the whole - it was wonderfully paced and very well directed and it had a wonderful balance to it that is really hard to achieve in any movie, let alone one with the sparseness and controversy this one had. Heath Ledger gave a pitch perfect perfomance and the supporting cast was impressive enough. The movie was able to present a picture of Mid-Western American society and its values that offers realy insight and amazingly little in the way of prejudice - in watching it I was never tempted for a moment to judge the social values that prevented the protagonists from achieving their happiness, just the realization that it was a way of life. Some breathtaking scenery and camerawork just added to the feel of the picture. Altogether, this must count as one of the major Oscar contenders.
posted by Caleb Liu | 3:15 AM
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