Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
The man at the gym whose name I can't remember owns two dogs - some sort of Japanese warrior breed with reddish fur - and he shows them. (I don't know if that's the correct verb. I mean, he takes them to dog shows and they parade around and might win a prize.)
One dog has low to no potential. Billy. He was purchased as a companion for the dog with high potential, Katie. They're siblings but poor Billy wasn't blessed with the same proud gait as Katie so is doomed to life as a pet in a kennel in this man's backyard.
Katie, from the sounds of it, is a proud creature. She attends the prime dog training sessions. I bet she gets the best morsels of pig's ear snacks. She is bathed periodically and blow-dried. And she has been escorted to various dog shows by the man's niece, there to be adorned with various rosettes depending on the quantity of other creatures in her category.
This week, she was taken to Crufts. The man had high hopes. Having been worried her coat would do something or other bad in the run up to Crufts (fall out??), it instead considerately remained intact in prime puppy fluffy condition which optimised her chances reportedly in the 18 to 24 month old category. The teenagers, in effect.
She was driven down on Wednesday. Stayed at the breeder's overnight. And yesterday was show day.
I did fleetingly think about watching the Crufts coverage on TV last night, not that I would've known this creature or the niece by sight, just to see.
But instead, I fled to the gym this morning to find out the verdict.
Third out of three.
And with the cruelty inherent in genes, she lost out to her big sister.
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
Absurd to be so upset about a show. Shouldn't you grow out of such things? And I'm plenty old enough to know better. So I gobbled alternative sources of stories told last week like a cookie monster to try and fill the gap left by the absence of mine.
Spotlight is a very deserving Oscar winner. I'm delighted that a story with a point that very much needed to be told, both then and now, was justly honoured. I'm also delighted that Peter Bradshaw has revised his initially underwhelmed opinion back in September to appreciate that the "plodding" "dramatic pace" was maybe wholly fitting for a story of this magnitude. I'm happy to see it grew on him over the winter. Happier still that it got Best Pic on Sunday night.
I haven't seen The Revenant. It looks grim. The poster looks grim so what must the film be like??
I watched Gone Girl on DVD which was less gripping than I expected. Suspenseful for sure but not the cinematic wonder I'd hoped.
I watched a horrifying docudrama that I should have watched a month ago. The awful tale of Breck Bednar who was groomed online and ended up murdered just for loving video games. This is another story that desperately needs to be told and retold. Hats off to his family and friends for participating in Katharine English's unflinching retelling: Murder Games.
And I snuck in some frivol with the rather excellent nonsensical but very cathartic Deadpool. A smart and very sassy script and a great performance from Mr Ryan Reynolds.
So I'm still missing my three times a week diet of selfies and sass. I'm missing Bea's beautiful hair. I'm missing watching my imaginary story stalking about in 3D in front of me. But I'm busily pretending I don't mind.
Labels: Breck Bednar, Deadpool, Gone Girl, Katharine English, Murder Games, Oscars, Oscars 2016, Ryan Reynolds, Spotlight, The Revenant