Fi Michell's Blog, page 5

Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph

On Boxing Day, my husband and I took the kids to see Wreck-It Ralph. Our six-year-old daughter chose the movie. Our eight-year-old son wasn’t that interested, but we inflicted it on him anyway.

Wreck-It Ralph is a bad-guy in a video game who destroys the building that Fix-It Felix fixes. He is ostracised by the people of Niceland when life in the video game continues after all the gamers leave. The movie follows his struggle to prove himself and find acceptance by winning a gold medal in a different game. His efforts throw the gaming arcade into chaos.  Vanellope Von Schweetz, a glitch in the ‘Sugar Rush’ game, becomes his fellow protagonist in her own struggle to be accepted as a race driver. Fix-It Felix discovers both love and rejection in his own character journey.

So how did it rate as a family movie? Very well in fact. All of us enjoyed it, even our son.  It suits both boys and girls. I liked the anti-heroes and the anti-bullying and pro-acceptance-of-different-kinds-of people stances.

Vanellope is a great character. She’s an antidote to the more traditional Disney princesses my six-year-old daughter loves. She’s independent, makes her own fashion, thinks for herself and tries to save herself. She is short with dark-hair in an untidy ponytail, as opposed to impossibly tall and slender with remarkable hair. She does not seek a handsome prince as the panacea to her miserable life. Nor are there any actual handsome princes in the movie.

The movie promoted values that I want to encourage in my kids, without preaching. In fact, though the plot is light and fun, it brought a tear to my eye – and to that of my husband.

Towards the end there is a fun scary bit that might frighten some very small or sensitive kids, but it doesn’t last long.  It didn’t disturb my six-year-old daughter.

I liked the twist on the ‘toys-come-to-life-when-you’re-not-there’ premise where the ‘video-games-come-to-life’. Us adults also enjoyed the Starship Troopers influences and the Donkey Kong graphics that Wreck-It Ralph himself is based on.

Kid’s movies such as The Incredibles and Up were more memorable in my opinion, but Wreck-It Ralph is very good. I recommend it if you’ve got kids at a loose end these school holidays.

A Christmas Poem

When I was a girl, my father delighted me with the pathos of the poem, ‘King John’s Christmas’ at Christmas time. He read it from a well-used paperback version of Now We are Six, by A.A.Milne.

This is the same King John immortalised in Robin Hood, who attempted, but failed, to usurp the throne when his brother King Richard was abroad in the Third Crusade. John was made king on Richard’s death, in 1199. He did not treat his nobles well, which contributed to him losing the duchy of Normandy to France, and to the later revolt of his barons in England. According to historian Ralph Turner, his personality traits included spitefulness, cruelty and pettiness.

He is a wonderful anti-hero. I hope this brings back memories.

King John’s Christmas



King John was not a good man,

He had his little ways.

And sometimes no one spoke to him

For days and days and days.

And men who came across him,

When walking in the town,

Gave him a supercilious stare,

Or passed with noses in the air–

And bad King John stood dumbly there,

Blushing beneath his crown.

King John was not a good man,

And no good friends had he.

He stayed in every afternoon…

But no one came to tea.

And, round about December,

The cards upon his shelf

Which wished him lots of Christmas cheer,

And fortune in the coming year,

Were never from his near and dear,

But only from himself.

King John was not a good man,

Yet had his hopes and fears.

They’d given him no present now

For years and years and years.

But every year at Christmas,

While minstrels stood about,

Collecting tribute from the young

For all the songs they might have sung,

He stole away upstairs and hung

A hopeful stocking out.

King John was not a good man,

He lived his life aloof;

Alone he thought a message out

While climbing on the roof.

He wrote it down and propped it

Against the chimney stack:

“TO ALL AND SUNDRY – NEAR AND FAR -

F.CHRISTMAS IN PARTICULAR.”

And signed it not “Johannes R.”

But very humbly, “JACK.”

“I want some crackers,

And I want some candy;

I think a box of chocolates

Would come in handy;

I don’t mind oranges,

I do like nuts!

And I SHOULD like a pocket-knife

That really cuts.

And, oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,

Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man -

He wrote this message out,

And gat him to his room again,

Descending by the spout.

And all that night he lay there,

A prey to hopes and fears.

“I think that’s him a-coming now,”

(Anxiety bedewed his brow.)

“He’ll bring one present anyhow -

The first I’ve had for years.”

Forget about the crackers,

And forget about the candy;

I’m sure a box of chocolates

Would never come in handy;

I don’t like oranges,

I don’t want nuts,

And I HAVE got a pocket-knife

That almost cuts.

But oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all,

Bring me a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John was not a good man -

Next morning when the sun

Rose up to tell a waiting world

That Christmas had begun,

And people seized their stockings,

And opened them with glee,

And crackers, toys and games appeared,

And lips with sticky sweets were smeared,

King John said grimly, “As I feared,

Nothing again for me!”

“I did want crackers,

And I did want candy;

I know a box of chocolates

Would come in hand;

I do love oranges,

I did want nuts.

I haven’t got a pocket-knife -

Not even one that cuts.

And, oh! if Father Christmas had loved me at all,

He would have brought a big, red, india-rubber ball!”

King John stood by the window,

And frowned to see below

The happy bands of boys and girls

All playing in the snow.

A while he stood there watching,

And envying them all…

When through the window big and red

There hurtled by his royal head,

And bounced and fell upon the bed,

An india-rubber ball!

AND, OH, FATHER CHRISTMAS

MY BLESSINGS ON YOU FALL

FOR BRINGING HIM

A BIG, RED,

INDIA-RUBBER

BALL!

A A Milne, Now We Are Six, 1927

 

 

 

 

‘Splinters’ to be part of Miscellanea Transdimensional Library

It’s been way too long since I posted here. I’ve been trying to finish various stories and submissions before the kids are off on school holidays for the next six weeks. But I have some good news.

Eggplant Literary Productions has accepted my story extract, Splinters, for their Miscellanea Transdimensional Library. This fantastic library is filled with excerpts from books that have never existed or are yet unwritten–prose, recipes, poems–anything at all, from anywhere in the universe.

I love the way the Library is presented. It’s visually appealing and fun to click through the unpredictable content. So I’m very pleased Splinters will be included, auspiciously on February 14, Valentine’s Day.

‘Splinter’ to be part of Miscellanea Transdimensional Library

It’s been way too long since I posted here. I’ve been trying to finish various stories and submissions before the kids are off on school holidays for the next six weeks. But I have some good news.

Eggplant Literary Productions has accepted my story extract, Splinter, for their Miscellanea Transdimensional Library. This fantastic library is filled with excerpts from books that have never existed or are yet unwritten–prose, recipes, poems–anything at all, from anywhere in the universe.

I love the way the Library is presented. It’s visually appealing and fun to click through the unpredictable content. So I’m very pleased Splinter will be included, auspiciously on February 14, Valentine’s Day.

Neil Gaiman Short Scary Story Download: Free until Halloween, for Charity.

The only thing better than reading a Neil Gaiman story is Neil Gaiman reading that story aloud.  I’ve been lucky enough to get to two of his readings in Sydney. Both were mesmerising, and one included the spine-chilling treat, Click Clack the Rattlebag.

Now, until Halloween, you can download Neil Gaiman’s Audible recording of Click Clack the Rattlebag for free. You will raise money for literacy by doing so and have for yourself a wonderfully creepy story.

Here’s some background at Neil Gaiman’s tumblr site. You can download from here if you are in the US, and here if you are in the UK. If you are somewhere else, either link will work.

The more people download a copy, the more money Audible donates.

Listen to the story after dark!

Midnight’s Children Movie Trailer Released

If you’ve not read Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, and want to do so before this hits the screen, then you’d better start reading now. This is not a book to read fast. Each chapter is dense with events and references to events, past and future, and needs time to be absorbed.  I began reading Midnight’s Children three months ago, and am only two thirds through, but have been reading other books at the same time. Here is the trailer:

 

Can’t wait to see it when it’s released in Sydney, and I’m so glad that I will have finished the book by then. To turn a novel this rich and complex into a satisfying movie will be an extraordinary achievement if they pull it off. The trailer is compelling.

Midnight’s Children won the Booker of Booker’s Prize. In it, Salman Rushdie breaks every rule of writing ever invented, with sheer brilliance.  It is a literary work, where fantasy (or magic realism – whatever you like to call it when it’s deemed literary) binds the real to the symbolic, and lifts the story of one boy into the story of an entire nation. And it does so with great humour and compassion. What surprised me when I began reading it, was how frequently it made me laugh, yet it also moves me at times to the point where it is hard to read on.

Should I get an iPhone?

I think maybe I need an iPhone. I think perhaps I’m the only person in my world who does not have one. I use a mobile phone with actual buttons that you press, and never use any of the special features. It lives in my handbag or on my kitchen bench or on the desk I used most recently. I don’t like carrying it in my pocket, and sometimes I take a couple of days to check for my messages, which can be bad. My mother always taught me not to let my life be run by the telephone, and this has slipped into the way I don’t use my mobile. 

But everyone seems to have an iPhone. Maybe it could replace my still camera, my video camera, my iPod nano, and my land line.  I worry about data charges getting out of control, and becoming addicted to checking emails or Twitter everywhere I go. But I’d love to have something on me that’s not too obtrusive to capture the kids when they do something cute or crazy. 

Do you have one? Should I get one? My neighbour said her iPhone changed her life. Did it change yours? Would it change mine?

“Feathers” is the feature story at Metro Fiction

Great day today – finished editing a story I’ve been writing for the past year – well, I wrote the beginning over a year ago but the ending only last month. And daylight saving is starting, which suits me well, since I’ve been waking up at dawn for the past few weeks already.

Best of all, my story, Feathers, is published today at Metro Fiction. It’s a sweet, light contemporary fantasy, and will be their feature story for the next two weeks. I hope everyone enjoys it.

Today was the last day of the school holidays, and the butcher birds were out because it’s spring. They terrorised my eight-year-old son every time he went into the backyard. I watched from the kitchen while he slid one of our glass family room doors open. Within one second, a black and white missile swooped at his head. Clack! He ducked, and ran back in, slamming the door behind him. I thought the bird hit him, but thankfully he was fine. The bird always snaps its beak for effect when it’s about an inch from his ear. Not the kind of feathered creature in my story!

A great talk about editors…

I’m reading the Anywhere But Earth anthology, edited by Keith Stevenson, at the moment. It contains twenty-nine science fiction stories set, obviously, anywhere but Earth. Three of the stories were nominated for Aurealis awards. One of them, The Rains of La Strange, won. I’m loving the collection so far; I’m about half-way through.

Keith Stevenson gave a talk called, The Editing Apocalypse, or Why Authors Need Editors at at the Conflux 8 convention in Canberra on Saturday 29 September, 2012. Click on the link above and read this, if you are interested in the future of e-publishing. Much publishing happens these days, with little genuine editing. If I was writing a novel, I think I’d be doing my research, and taking Stevenson’s advice.

The Missing Shop

I had a strange experience yesterday.  According to my podiatrist, my feet are like Ferraris.  They are special, and need special care or they’ll break down.  They look like any other feet, but she’s right. If I go around barefoot too long or don’t wear orthotics, after a while, I cripple myself.  So… off to the specialist shoe shop, where I hoped I could buy nice shoes with removable footbeds so I can fit the orthotics in.

I had never been there before, but I recognised the address. I was confident I would find it since I’d grown up in the same suburb.  When I parked my car under the gumtrees, the little shopping centre looked pretty much the same as it had when I was twelve, except there was a red and blue climbing frame in the middle, and it now seemed to specialise in shops relating to children – kid’s art, maternity wear, cafes for mums with prams.  There was a lone greengrocer, and a cream brick supermarket that had not changed.

It took me less than two minutes to walk around the perimeter and not see the shop I was after anywhere, although I’d looked it up on the internet only an hour ago.

I walked around one more time, this time paying careful attention to all the signs on the awnings.  I checked there were no shops around the back.  Only a service road.  I crossed back over the carpark and inspected the block of units on the far side, which did have a couple of shops under it that I’d never seen before. A dimly lit computer shop, and an accountant.

I dug in my handbag for my mobile phone, to check the location again.  Typical me, I’d left it at home. I’d do one more lap.  Then I’d ask in one of the cafes to find out where the shop had gone.

On the third circuit, again, nothing. I picked up a brochure from the art shop about kid’s parties, so it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.  No prices listed, probably too expensive. And then I saw it.  Right where it had been the entire time.  The widest building there – the old supermarket.  Its windows were full of shoes.  There was a blue and white sign at waist height that proclaimed, “The Shoe Shop”.

My mind had filled all the details in with what I ‘knew’ was there, rendering the actual shop invisible.

Just like when I write a story and know what is there, but forget to describe it to a reader.

Impressive, how our minds can fill in the blanks when we don’t even know it.

Have you ever had a similar experience?