GrlEe Movie. Not! And some Dreamwatch

Watched Pieces of April with jenni_talula, holding_pattern, and other's last night.

Was quite impressed, lots of lovely little touches to the movie, including a sex scene in which you didn't see anything in a believable way, and some wonderful character portrayals, and a really nasty story that made you laugh at it's awfulness even when feeling sorry for the characters. And it still managed to have a happy ending with a positive "Thanksgiving Day" feel. All without actually resolving anything.

It was also stupendously low budget, even down to light glare in some car scenes. Norman would never have let those scenes go through, he'd have "fixed them in digital".

Still I'm glad I saw it, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in either low budget indeependant films with quirky stories or people who like Katie Holmes.

I ate too much chocolate though, what with a Jenni special hot chocolate the Mars Pods, and all the other chocolaty stuff around. I blame the chocolate for being unable to get back to sleep at 3.00am this morning, though it was actually the fire station siren that I think woke me.

Instead I lay awake singing to myself and coming up with a new Firefly filk, which I may post later when I've decide if it's any good at all.

Half asleep, I dreamed about playing guitar and singing ion in front of crowd I was doing interesting patter about the songs to fill in between them, and continually apologizing for not having ever learned to sing or play the guitar, I'm just doing what I enjoy, not necessarily what's right, and I have no idea what my voice sounds like, and stuff.

I did the stuff I know, Let Her Cry, Michael Hutchence's paen to autoerotic asphyxiation Mystify, the Dylan Baby Blue. Strangely I then attempted to do an acoustic guitar version of NIN's "The Only Time" , and finished with U2's All I Want Is You.

Then the dream shifted to some sort of wargaming convention held in a large country estate. It was dark, and I was attempting to go and "walk in the garden" with a lady in an evening dress, and boufonted hair whose face I never got to see, we were trying to exit through some locked French doors.

She finally got them open, with a hair clip or something and we wandered out onto a balustraded terrace. Leaning against the balustrade in moonlight , we looked over and saw two entwined naked bodies. But then we realized they were dead.

I blame evie_fae's dream!

Last Exile - Per Ardua Ad Astra

Watched the last few episodes to the end of Last Exile this evening. Actually quite a good ending for an anime, with a minimum of waste and death.

( Spoilers )

So currently, as always after watching a lot of one, Last Exile is my favourite animé. It is beautiful. It has vanships, which I love. It has Tatiana, whom I love. It has Dio, whom I love. Even Luciola is lovely.

So what if parts of it are reminiscent of Star Wars? The retro-tech, the Range Muratta character designs, the ship designs, the way vanships move,

Walking home in the brisk cold air, bright stars high above, the Scorpion above my head, singing the Who's Behind Blue Eyes to the trees and lights of the valley, I am reminded of the song Have You Seen The Stars Tonight?. This song is the at the end of Paul Kantner's classic Blows Against The Empire album. Kantner, ex Jefferson Starship put together this album before Last Exile, before even the first Star Wars movie, and yet it suits the post-coital quietus at the endings of both series.

So please imagine, if you will, we have defeated the Empire, we have ended the reign of Maestro Delphine, that we have defeated the Emperor Mongo, and our hero looks up from a ship of the line into the deep blue violet sky and sees the stars, he rushes to the Princess, working late into the night, head bowed buy the weight of state now descended upon her beautiful shoulders by the defeat of Empire, and he sings:

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up on A Deck and look at them with me?
Have you seen the stars tonight?
Would you like to go up for a stroll and keep me company?

Don't you know, we could go, for we are free
Any place you can think of, we could be

Have you seen the stars tonight?
Have you looked at all?
Beyond the veil of stars.