The Witching Well

We saw Bladerunner, the Final Cut Monday night on the big screen.

Normally, I don’t get all ga-ga about it when a director recuts a film. Sure, I enjoy seeing a director’s cut of a film that I loved, because it’s fascinating to see what the original vision had been, and often it really is even better than the theater release. But sometimes (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) the filmmaker just hasn’t learned to leave well enough alone and insists on trying to fix something that ain’t broke.

The original theater release of Bladerunner, for the record, ain’t broke. It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking, and a milestone in SF cinema. And we’ve had a director’s cut of it already. But, still. It’s Ridley Scott.

And it’s fabulous.

All these years of watching the film on the small screen, I’d forgotten how wonderfully drearily beautiful this was. The darkness. The constant rain. The claustrophobia of all those buildings looming over the streets. The desolation of a decaying society. And Rutger Hauer’s tragic, desperate Roy Batty. And Harrison Ford’s gritty, determined Rick Deckard.

I think I need this DVD. I think I need a giant, HD TV to watch it on.

Mood: impressed

Andy and I went to a reading of the letters of John and Abigail Adams last night at Faneuil Hall. Which in and of itself is a wonderful thing, since the Adams letters are really quite an amazing snapshot of what was going on during those years. Not to mention wonderfully personal.

But this particular event was even cooler because the Massachusetts Historical Society managed to get as readers Ted and Victoria Kennedy, Duval and Diane Patrick, and Michael and Kitty Dukakis.

That’s right. A sitting senator, a sitting governor, and a former governor. Reading historical documents.

And it was wonderful. They obviously had a lot of love for the material. And most of them seemed to be having a ball up there.

And that line between politicians and actors? Very thin indeed.

Mood: impressed

Someone has very kindly posted to YouTube the Doctor Who segment from this year’s Children in Need special, for those of us outside the UK who might otherwise never see it.

It’s very cute. See for yourself.

Mood: chipper

Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes, Court Says 19-Year-Old Woman Improperly Used Media To Influence Case

I would love to be articulate right now. I would love to be able, right at this moment, to write a diatribe that goes on for pages about how badly I think the House of Saud needs to be toppled and why. About how any society that treats people like this ought to be taken apart and its name erased from history like the Egyptians tried to do to Akhenaten. But I’m just shaking too hard with anger and outrage.

Gods, I feel sick.

Via Jeralyn at TalkLeft.

Mood: infuriated

Clients won’t need you anymore, once they get hold of these invaluable products!

Mood: giddy

Little things like the USB wireless adapter I’ve just gotten — and it is tiny, too, about the size of a portable flash drive.

This particular little thing means that I don’t have to choose whether to sit in my own office, in my comfy desk chair, and use (shudder) dial-up or move into my husband’s office, which is cold and uncomfortable, in order to get into the DSL.

Life is wonderful when your 6-year-old laptop is dying by inches.

But even though its card slots are dead, its CD/DVD drive only works sporadically, its battery no longer holds a charge, its C: drive is always on the verge of being too full, and it occasionally turns itself off for no apparent reason, it’s back to being able to do what I need it to.

Mood: content

Oh, my Gods. I couldn’t stop laughing.

I’m such a geek.

Mood: giggly