2015 — 25 August: Tuesday
Some people sleep better by deploying dream-catchers. I slept better having deployed my drip-catcher up in the loft. And if "Hans-free"1 was the funniest joke punchline at this year's Edinburgh festival I don't think I missed too much.
Contra-flowing...
... against the stream of video titles currently leaving my collection (232 and counting2) was the merest trickle of replacement BDs thrust, with some ripping, through my letterbox yesterday while I was out to lunch. Another of those "triple" sets (this time, all featuring Eddie Murphy) struck me as the cheapest way of getting hold of an old favourite: an excellent 1982 Walter Hill film called "48 Hrs." But that set leaves me with a duplicate BD of the equally fine 1983 comedy "Trading Places" and a 2007 film I don't know — though its cover proclaims it to be "hysterically funny" — called "Norbit".
The other very welcome arrival was Ron Shelton's 1988 film "Bull Durham". This is a recursive BD replacement (of a DVD [that replaced a LaserDisc {that replaced a VHS tape}])...
Hard...
... though it is to believe now, the FBI was once thoroughly stupid. Or just plain mad. Ray Bradbury? Gimme a break. (Link.)
[Pause]
When I've tucked away the latest batch of fresh food I shall next turn my attention (such as it is, these days) to the matter of some breakfast. I'm also planning a little expotition now that the rain seems to be in abeyance.
How does one...
... escalate a guvmint IT project from $6m Aus. to over one billion in four years, commit ethical transgressions, and still not end up with a working payroll system? Are payroll systems downunder Woomera rocket science? (Link.)
My expotition...
... has been placed on "hold", basically because the rain returned. [Pause] I've learned that, for reasons probably better left unexplored, Anne Fontaine — who wrote the screenplay of the totally wonderful Australian film "Two Mothers" (aka "Adore") — my Dutch Blu-ray with English audio came from a Japanese company and arrived via Jamaica...
... has just directed a French film ("Gemma Bovery") of the Posy Simmonds 1999 graphic 'novel'. Posy drew on Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" for her inspiration, while this new film also stars Gemma Arterton, who so memorably appeared in the Stephen Frears version of Posy's later "Tamara Drewe"3 (itself based on Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd") so it's all sounding "a bit meta". (Small prize if you can name the "Castle" episode to use that phrase.)