Author Archive
Word 48: Sequestered
You’re made to sleep in your own private room, sequestered from the rest of the family.
sequestered (adj) 1: providing privacy or seclusion [syn: cloistered, reclusive, secluded] 2: kept separate and secluded – source: The Onion Ad Nauseam, p. 221
Waste of money
We’d visited Cardiff Market once before, but at that time we were so tired that I didn’t pay attention to anything. But oh boy, is there a nice record store or what? I recommend Kelly’s Records to everyone. Not only are the selections good, but the staff are actually helpful. Unbelievable. So I ended up with A Fish Called Wanda and Family Guy, season 2 DVDs for under £20 altogether.
Before that I had already spent a few pounds at MVC, stacking up on cheap collection albums by classic performers (Diana Ross & The Supremes, Shirley Bassey, Al Green, Dusty Springfield). Afterwards we popped into an el cheapo bookstore the name of which escapes me, but it’s by the library. I just couldn’t help myself and had to buy Robert Ross’s Monty Python Encyclopedia and The Onion Ad Nauseam.
Now some people might wonder what the hell I am doing here as an exchange student and just buying stuff. The answer is that all the money you put into pub nights, drinks, and fags, I spend on DVDs, CDs, and books. It’s that simple. On a related note, I checked out whether it would be cheaper to just send all our stuff to Finland by post. No it wouldn’t. Actually it’ll cost exactly the same, whether we mail them or take them with us on the airplane. What a shame.
Highlight of the day: A bird shitted (shat?) on Sonja’s coat. Yesterday’s highlight: An eccentric individual (read: looney) was recording street noises near the bus station. I didn’t stop to ask what he was doing but it sure sounded weird.
Are stars indispensable?
Tom Cruise played only a small role in Magnolia, but elevated the whole picture.Wait a minute. Just which Magnolia are we talking about? The one with Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, and John C. Reilly, among others? And here’s Peter Bart magazine claiming Tom ”tame the cunt / I used to wear really big shades / Church of Scientology rules a-ok” Cruise* elevates the movie? Admitted, he was funny, but so was Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys shouting ”enemas for everyone”, and I don’t hear no Variety editors claiming he made the film work.
Yes I know I’m attacking his person but just what did you expect from an ugly fat guy like me?
Word 47: Skullduggery
Or, even if the flight had gone ahead as planned, what might have been the result had Powers done what he was supposed to do in the event of trouble, thereby depriving the Soviets of any evidence of American skullduggery?
skullduggery (n) : verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way [syn: trickery, hocus-pocus, slickness, hanky panky, jiggery-pokery] – source: What If?, p. 370
Enraged
Slippery language
First a story about a ”great art collector” Arthur Acton, whose wife presumably did something, too. Well… Hortense was best known for the excellent martini cocktails she served after afternoon tea
(p. 40). I guess it’s better to be remembered somehow than not at all.
Then, in the same story, Mr. Acton’s son demonstrates how life isn’t just roses: Harold often grumbled about the pressure of royal visits
(p. 43). Doesn’t everybody feel that once in a while?
Moving on from upper-class gits to reporter’s arrogance. In a story about mail order wives, reporter Lauren St John displays her razor-shard people skills when describing one of her interviewees: A radiantly fit but otherwise unremarkable 46-year-old
(p. 60). And there’s more! A moment later there’s this peculiar sentence: He thought she was gorgeous, she thought he was ”fantastic”
. Please tell me why only one of the adjectives has been surrounded by quotation marks.
Matrix merchandise
What interests me more is the product placements. I’ve seen at least televisions and mobile phones being marked by the upcoming movie. What’s even more interesting from a fiercely nationalistic viewpoint is that this time they aren’t going for Nokia, but for Samsung.
For those reading this in Finland, Samsung is a big player in cellphones here. Their GX-10, a camera-enabled flip-cover model is the phone this year. Does this mean that our (yes, I’m aware of the irony in that) Nokia is falling behind? Could it be?
Word 46: Exonerate
We learnt then that it was going to be a very important, substantial tool for exonerating the innocent as well as identifying the guilty.
exonerate (v) 1: to unload; to disburden; to discharge 2: to relieve, in a moral sense, as of a charge, obligation, or load of blame resting on one; to clear of something that lies upon oppresses one, as an accusation or imputation; as, to exonerate one’s self from blame, or from the charge of avarice 3: to discharge from duty or obligation, as a bail [syn: absolve, acquit, exculpate] – source: The Observer Magazine 4.5.2003, p. 26
Copyrights
Another thing: X-Men 2 had an extra notice at the beginning about how photographing the movie is a crime etc, but the noticeable thing about it was that it was sponsored by FACT, ”Federation Against Copyright Theft” or something. Quite a nerve they’ve had with the acronym.