In a struggle to be happy and free

Drystone Wall

Author: Rick Page 319 of 326

Sic Transit Venus

I was disappointed, but completely unsurprised, that with the exception of one guy I heard talking on the phone a few desks over, not a soul at work mentioned the transit of Venus. In case you haven’t seen the news, the orbits of the Earth and of Venus lined up this morning so the silhouette of Venus crossed the sun’s disc. Because the orbits of Earth and Venus are tilted in respect to each other, a transit of Venus is comparatively rare. The last one occurred in 1882 when William Harkness of the U.S. Naval Observatory said:

There will be no other till the twenty-first century of our era has dawned upon the Earth and the June flowers are blooming in 2004. What will be the state of science — God only knows.

Spooky, isn’t it? It’s like this man, now long dead, was talking to us. It took about six hours for Venus to pass across the sun and unfortunately, I didn’t see any of it. My sleep, being what it is, wouldn’t really allow me to get up early enough to leave home and see it from some vantage point with east exposure. My apartment doesn’t face the proper direction, so I would’ve had to leave. The bright side of my missing it is a quirk of orbital mechanics. Transits of Venus come in close occurring pairs with about ten years between transits and over a century between close pairs. The next will occur on June 6, 2012 and I’m determined to be prepared because to see the one after, I’ll have to wait until December 11, 2117. I’m not likely to be in the mood come the twenty-second century.

A close-up of Venus as it begins its transit on June 8, 05:34 UT. The photo was taken by NASA’s Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite.

What I did hear people talking about at work was reality television and Jennifer Lopez’s marriage. What repeatedly came to mind was something I read many years ago:

The heavens call to you, and circle around you, displaying to you their eternal splendours, and your eye gazes only at the Earth

Dante


Whole sun photo ©2004 The Associated Press

Venus silhouette close up courtesy NASA

The final season

It turns out I started work at just the right moment! I started Monday and the next day, Babylon 5: The Complete Fifth Season was released on DVD. What would I have done had I not been able to buy it? Goodness knows. Probably buy it anyway. The image here shows the five seasons lined up nicely on my shelf. The only things missing now is the movie box-set, and the Crusade discs. Both are expected to be released later this year so we don’t have long to wait. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the final twenty-two episodes of the series.

Your copywriter is fired!

Am I missing something obvious here? A teaser for The Apprentice ran on NBC earlier this week. The announcer said viewers have been used to hearing two words. A montage of Donald Trump followed in which he repeatedly said “You’re fired.” The announcer then told us on the next episode of The Apprentice we’d have to get used to hearing two new words: “You’re hired.” Only one of those words are new. The other hasn’t changed!

In Your Ass, China

The Dalai Lama is in Canada and when he makes it to Ottawa, he and Prime Minister Martin will meet. China is not pleased.

The Chinese embassy here in Ottawa likens the Dalai Lama to the separatists in Quebec and strongly oppose the planned meeting. I’d point out Canada didn’t invade a sovereign Quebec and take over, seeking to purposefully obliterate their culture and religion. Because of the gall of China for publicly disapproving of the meeting, I’m thrilled Martin will meet with Dalai Lama.

Stick it, China.

Kill Bill’s continuity

Work is going just fine. I seem to have settled nicely into a routine, at least so far. I’ve been going to bed between ten and eleven, and it has been quite an adjustment. After not having worked for a while, going there every day makes damn sure I’m tired so getting to sleep is not a problem. Hell, Friday morning I woke up ten minutes before the alarm. How’s that for weird?

The difficult part comes with the weekend. Staying up too late makes sure I can’t get to sleep early enough to get up nicely with the alarm. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. This is what most people deal with all the time. After being unemployed for a good while however, it makes coming back to work quite an adjustment!

Part of what might make this weekend adjustment difficult is my and Jessica’s watching Kill Bill, Volume 1 on Saturday night. That itself is no big deal, except we started at around midnight and I was already very tired. I feared Tarantino’s popularity would adversely affect his movies. After seeing this film, I realise I shouldn’t have worried in the least. The film is chock-full of all the signature Tarantino weirdness I’ve come to enjoy. If I’ve got a complaint about the film, it’s that Tarantino’s trying his hand at directing an action film. Believe me, I’ve got no problem with action movies, but one of the joys of his films is the characters. Jam a film with all sorts of action, and our learning about the characters will have to take a back seat. Still, it’s a great film and I’m really looking forward to seeing volume two.

Tarantino’s style is an eclectic mix of many genres. If he’s original, it’s all in how he takes all sorts of existing styles and combines them. There are so many tributes to other films in Kill Bill, it’s nearly ridiculous. The only thing is you probably won’t recognise most of them as the films he borrows from are hardly mainstream. I have no problem with any of it. Entertain me and it’s all good.

That’s not to say the film isn’t without faults however. The only one continuity gaffe that distracted me enough to pull me out of the film was done for composition, but it’s so damn obvious. Have a look at the cropped screen capture above. Uma Thurman is standing there holding the knife and Ambrosia Kelley stands in the background looking cute in her pink sweater. Kelley is eight but her character is four. It’s a bit of a stretch but it’s okay. What isn’t okay is she looks pretty damn tall, doesn’t she?

After the shot above, Thurman turns to look at Kelley and we see Thurman’s point of view (at right). Notice anything incongruous? She’s suddenly a little girl again after being a giant in the previous shot. If you’re not seeing it, compare her height to the telephone on the wall to the left of the doorway she’s standing in. I fully expect things will be moved around to result in more pleasing composition, but moving things around between shots is going to draw a lot of attention to itself. It’s even worse because the two shots above are inter-cut a few times.


Cropped Kill Bill, Vol. 1 screen grabs ©2003 Miramax Film Corporation

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