Indian Summer

I know that one of my jobs involves working in a grill kitchen that has a pretty high average temperature, so it may just be me... or is it just really frickin' hot for the end of September? Newbury seems to be awash with people in shorts and sunglasses... and it's October tomorrow! What's with that?!

I'm not really a summer person, I'm much more of a winter person, as many peolpe may know about me. Possibly because they've met me. My friend Coates once got confused because I said I didn't like Christmas and then took a second to analyse all he actually knew about me. It made more sense after that.

I like cold weather, I'm pysically more suited to it (being a fatass actually has a use) and most of my 'wardrobe' (and I use the term in the loosest possible sense) is better fitted to colder weather. I just don't know what to do in summer, other than burn slightly and bitterly complain, which is what people do during winter, so I guess it evens out.

Still, we're stuck in this Indian Summer for at least another weekend and I'm gonna have to put up with 'my time' of the year being taken over by people saying just how wonderful it is that we can be sweating uncomfortably in our tshirts. Ech, bring on the sodding snow.

POETRY.

I watched this film the same day as Beginners and it was a pretty difficult slog, I'll tell you that. I'm not saying that this is in any way a bad film, it's very well put together, it's got some decent performances and the story is... well, I'm not quite going to say compelling, but it was least interesting. An elderly Korean woman decides to take a poetry class and is the only student in that class dedicated enough to actually write a poem.

All the while, she must deal with the early stages of Alzhiemers developing (a plot factor that was woefully under-developed considering how topical it can be) and that her grandson, who lives with he full-time is part of a gang of schoolboys that raped a girl and left her suicidal. She has problems at all angles, really and the film is about her trying to cope with them in the ways that she can, all while trying to look at the flowers.

I'm not entirely sure where I stand on this film, but I think I'll say that it had a great deal more potential that was actually realised within it. The intricacies of Korean (and to a lesser degree Oriental in general) culture continue to astound me. The family of the girl who committed suicide are willing to accept money from the families of the boys who did it... in order that they don't go to the police or press? If I were a parent of one of those boys I'd drag them there myself, but that must be the Westerner in me thniking that.

All in all, this film is trying to be a bit more beautiful than it is, but isn't a bad effort. It's a little depressing, but not as bad as first feared.

Next up: Bobby Fischer Against The World.