sitrep

Sick. Been sick since Saturday. I’ve reached the stage of the cold where all the snot that’s left is gluey and won’t come out. My head feels like it’s been filled with molasses. I’m sure you are all thrilled to know these things.

In the next room over, some computer-generated fantasy creatures are dying. Loudly. With many piercing shrieks.

The Bertolli frozen skillet dinners are amazingly good. At least, the Chicken Alla Vodka & Farfalle and the Chicken Florentine & Farfalle are great. I’m not as wild about the Italian Sausage one. Still, it’s a meal that cooks in ten minutes with minimal cleanup and tastes better than half the stuff I get in restaurants. Thumbs up.

The Jane Eyre that was on Masterpiece Theater a few weeks ago is also amazingly good. Like the most recent Pride and Prejudice, I think it did a fantastic job of translating things for modern audiences. Rochester gets away with less damage at the end, for example, but I’m okay with that because a) Toby Stephens did such a lovely job with him up to that point that you just don’t want to see him get mutilated, and b) modern audiences don’t need the poor man to lose an eye and a hand before we’re willing to accept Jane as his equal. Ruth Wilson also did a lovely job — much better than Charlotte Gainsbourg in the last theatrical version. The supporting cast was wonderful, too; it was nice to see the chick from Hex turn up in a role that doesn’t suck (she was Blanche Ingram), and they got Georgie Henley to do the young Jane, which was just great. The score was suitably haunting, and for the most part the sets didn’t scream “BBC production!” the way BBC productions often do. In short, I love it.

I also got to watch Babel over the weekend. I liked it a lot in the way that doesn’t leave me wanting to own a copy. It’s very well done. The interconnected stories reminded me of China Mountain Zhang’s structure. I thought Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were the least compelling actors in the thing, which says a lot for the director and the rest of the cast.

And now it is time to crank out some words.