Well, today is officially the last day on which you can wish a 'Happy New Year' to someone you haven't seen in a long time. By February all hope is lost - it'll either be a happy year or it won't, but either way there's no turning back.
2009 has already been something of a mixed bag for me. Positive highlights include attending a very interesting and informative 'Get Started in Voice Overs' workshop at Shining Management, confirming two school visits for March and starting work on my first playscript. On the negative side, my mother had to go into hospital for 8 days, the playwriting course I wanted to do was cancelled at the last minute and I've also found myself plagued by strange dreams about people I haven't seen in years - very odd!
I'm intrigued to see what the next month will bring...
Have you read Twilight yet? Seen the film? Can you name one or all of the sequels? If you answered no to all of the questions above then you are, these days, a rarer creature than you would once have been. International Twilight fever continues unabated, particularly among the female of the species.
This review in the Guardian, covering both the film and the book, made me laugh. As well as making a few indignant points about the different way in which author Stephenie Meyer has chosen to present her vampires - defanged and dressed in (oh, the unspeakable horror of it!) beige - it confirms that the Twilight phenomenon is all but irresistible to any who choose to dip even the tiniest of their toes in the water. However much they claim not to want to, people seem unable to stop themselves from finishing first the original book, then the series, and, finally, going to see the film.
As for those who do want to do any of these things, well, they clearly want to do them as many times as humanly possible and then once more, just for kicks. Following the example set by the Mamma Mia obsessives, it is not unheard of for certain Twilight fans to book several showings in the same week. Now, I'm all for repeat viewings of films or re-reading of books I've enjoyed, but only when it doesn't cost me any more to do so, i.e. when I own a copy of the literary or cinematic creation in question. London cinemas aren't exactly cheap these days, even in the suburbs!
Once, therefore, was enough for me. I saw the film recently and, despite being distracted by the quartet of tweenage girls behind me staging the world's noisiest in-cinema picnic and quoting most of the film's lines a few seconds ahead of the characters on screen (definitely not their first viewing), I managed to take in enough of it to appreciate the following spoof, which I was directed to via Twitter. Having said that, you won't need to have seen any more than the television trailers in order to recognise enough to make you grin...
It is Twelfth Night or Epiphany tonight, so I shall be enjoying my family's traditional Twelfth Night dinner to mark the end (sob!) of all things Christmassy for another year. For me, 2009 begins in earnest tomorrow...
An extract fromJourney of the Magi T.S. Eliot (1885-1965)
'A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.' And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet...
...Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel, Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, And feet kicking the empty wine-skins, But there was no information, and so we continued And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.
Read the complete poem or listen to T.S. Eliot himself reading it to you here, courtesy of the wonderful Poetry Archive, a wide-ranging collection of recordings of major poets reading their own work.
At the end of the first full year for both my blog and my website, a quick review of the visitor statistics reveals some rather interesting facts.
The website has been host to visitors from 45 different countries, including Azerbaijan, South Korea and Ukraine! They have been lead there by a wide variety of search terms. The most common of these have all included some variation on my own name or Uncle Alonzo's, but prizes for the most bizarre must surely go to "chocolate fireworks", "Paul Cookson poetry about furniture" and "once again many thanks for the lovely afternoon evenning endeed" (sic)! You can decide for yourself which one deserves first place!
This blog has been visited by the inhabitants of 27 assorted countries, including Croatia, Finland and Taiwan. Among the strangest search terms to bring them here were "shivery chills", "woodlice as medical cure" and "Stacey Farquharson". I assume that the first two searches would have lead to last February's post on Modern Marvels & Curious Cures, while Stacey F would have linked to January's What's in a Name. A rather odd thought, since I employed the two names together in that post specifically because I imagined that no-one else would ever do so! It certainly is a funny old world.
Since I appear to be revisiting old posts with a vengeance today, I'll seize the moment and remind you of just one more: My Child, I Recycled. Once again the Woodland Trust is eager to encourage the recycling of old Christmas cards and the subsequent planting of new trees. Please support them if you can.
And there it was - my first post of 2009. There may have been some (extremely) quiet times, but the blog has survived its first year, which, if I'm honest, is more than I thought it might when I began.
So here's to the next year and to a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2009 for everyone! Cheers!
yet? Seen the film? Can you name one or all of the sequels? If you answered no to all of the questions above then you are, these days, a rarer creature than you would once have been. International Twilight fever continues unabated, particularly among the female of the species.
