"Very Odd, What Happens in a World without Children's Voices."

[meddow]

Here’s an exercise for all of you living in the Northern Hemisphere. First, picture houses, streets, shopping malls, basically the whole world all decked up in Christmas finery with fake pine trees with reds and gold baubles everywhere and Christmas lights and fake snow and roast dinners. All of it screaming out warmth and comfort from a harsh cold winter, when you can sit around a fire with family and brandy.

Now take all of that and put it in July with a perfect cloudless blue sky and the sun blazing down and a temperature that matches. Everyone around you in the mall is wearing singlet tops and either shorts or skirts. And then you have why I think maintaining the Christmas traditions of the Northern Hemisphere in the Southern Hemisphere is just a little bit ridiculous.

I saw Children of Men today. Alfonso Cuarón is a genius. The plot is about a world that has lost hope, since women the world over have become infertile. There’s bombs going off in coffee stores, Britain has closed its borders and is rounding up refugees like cattle, and everyone else is either going to work or sitting around and smoking pot. Except, unlike every other science fiction movie which seems to be commenting on what the world will be like if we keep heading down the same path or if x happens, it’s a comment on what the world actually is like today. It’s Iraq. It’s filmed with a handheld camera style and in once scene blood splatters on the camera lens and it just keeps going, just like that infamous footage a couple of years back of a news crew that came under friendly fire. Watching it is like being in all that footage that is on the news every night. It’s brilliant and it’s tragic and I think you should all go and see it.

And if that doesn't convince you, this will - Aunt Marge in dreadlocks. I'm not kidding.

And now I’ve had my little comment on Xmas, and my comment on world affairs, now a slightly more materialistic question. I’m giving serious consideration to buying an ipod. Thing is, all my music on my computer is in mp3 format. Will that work on an ipod? I hear all these things about not buying an apple because of something to do with file formats and I don't want to ask the store people becasue they can never seem to give me a simple answer.

Comments

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

That definitely sounds intiguing. I'll have to go see it.

kiwi in my icon!

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

iTunes converts mp3s into it's special format, so it totally works. It also converts wma files as well.

Re: kiwi in my icon!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Thanks

*Squints* Is that Karl Urban? On first look I thought it was David Tennant. *Fails*

If you like Karl Urban you have to track down The Price of Milk (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249893) and Out of the Blue (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0839938). The first is a fairytale and the second is true story of a massacre. They are both great kiwi movies.

Re: kiwi in my icon!

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

Karl Urban was my first celebrity boyfriend. I've never seen the Price of Milk but I've heard much about it. Hmmmmm.

[nfwbls.livejournal.com]

I read Children of Men when it first came out and I was very intrigued (P.D. James wrote it in a break from her Dagliesh mysteries) - it was beautifully written though perhaps a bit of a disappointment when compared to her other work. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

The interesting thing was that it was published in 1992 (I had to google it but I knew it was more than 10 years ago) so the book itself has no reference to Iraq or any particular set of current events.

The iPod will play mp3s without a problem (you don't need to convert them, although you can if you like) and they also play the format from iTunes. What they don't play is the DRM (digital rights management) version of WMA, so if you buy your music via subscription service from someplace like Napster or Rhapsody, those won't work.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I read on wikipiedia that it is very very loosely based on the novel. The screenwriters just used it as a starting point and then did their own thing, which is how all the modern stuff got in. I haven't read the novel myself it is now my “to read” list.

Thanks for the ipod help. I don’t have any subscription service wma so it shouldn't be a problem.