Hiatus

Somewhat obviously, this blog is on hiatus.

Blogging about sewing projects will resume when the sewing does! Estimated time for unearthing the work-in-progress sewing box is July 2007.

WIPing

Despite the long silence, there has been a small amount of sewing work going on. While I thought the new couch and organised baskets of things to sew might mean completion of projects in months rather than years, I'm afraid the delights of the new couch have resulted in more lying around and less sewing. Nonetheless, here is the current Work In Progress list to (hopefully) get me motivated:

• Silk Banner (large) - outlines traced on. Still needs to be properly outlined, painted, and hemmed.
• Coathardie (grey-blue cotton/linen) - body fully sewn, lacing made. Still need to sew sleeves and hem.
• Chair cover (silk) - have been given materials and instructions.

And there's the entire shelf of fabric, but I'm not thinking about that right now...

Kingdom of Heaven

Fearing another King-Arthur-esque episode (ie not seeing the latest probably dodgy medievalish flick when it first came out, then being too scared by the reviews to pay good potentially chocolate-buying money on it at the video shop) I went to see Kingdom of Heaven this weekend. It's amazing how much difference the correct movie-going companion makes, and having someone who comments in the same way about similar things does make it so much more fun. So, my impressions:

Orlando Bloom - pretty, was at least trying to act, and mercifully only had a bad attempte at facial hair rather than the chest-wig I had been warned about.
Siege weapons and seige tactics in general - I'm sure it's a bad sign that I find siege weapons sexy. Having said that, this film had some damn sexy ones. And I got through the siege tactics without yelling at either side to be sensible, which is a Good Thing and a contrast to most other films.
Costume - men's costume generally good (always nice to see coifs), also (from what I know of it) the armour. It does appear, however that the pink shirts for boys phenomenon is working back in time (see Orlando in one of the well digging scenes). If all you are wearing is an undershirt, undershirts are white goddamit! And on that note, the day a main male character wears braise and hose rather than wussy and incorrect trousers I shall simultaneously have a heart attack and start to worship them. As for the women's costume - well, I'll confine my rant to suggesting that the princess of a European Crusader Kingdom doesn't need to look like an extra-cheap-for-you bellydancer. It's not they didn't know better: the poor suffering refugees in the exodus from Jerusalem were dressed correctly. Now I live in dread of the amount of henna and jangly gold coins that will show up at the next event.
The Poncing. The Large Amounts of (Unnecessary and Anatomically Incorrect) Blood Spatters. You can't say they didn't have fun.

But the supposed point to the film, the whole issues of religion, reaaly didn't work. When the main character starts off by stabbing and burning alive the local priest, you can probably guess that a meaningful engagement with faith and religion is not on the cards. While the film did make its gestures in the direction of interfaith comparisons (the whole 'god wills it' and variants became rather repeditive), the characters that the film implied we were meant to like and admire were those without faith, contrasted with the Evil Fundamentalist of Either Side and the Self-Interested Bishop Who Is Only In It For The Perks. In some ways it might be easy to sit back and say, yes, to have a space where all faiths are tolerated and no-one really believes in them anyway is the way to go. But the failure to try and understand what a person of faith might do in this situation was ultimately, for me, the failure of this film.

But having said that - Blood! Gore! Siege Engines! Go and have fun, and don't expect much more. I'm now off home to dinner and costume drama on the ABC. Got to love Sundays.

Event Picture

IMGP0911
Originally uploaded by Karen_Hall_.

There are more picture posted up on my Flickr account. But now I have to run to lunch, flicking my new hairstyle in a Pantene-model-approved way as I go.

St Cellach's Preparations

Forget about St Patrick's Day! We proudly present St Cellach, the newly appointed patron saint of Scholar's Centre celebrations.

And in preparation for the glorious day (April 1):

The Alcohol Knowledge Test written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid

Bourbon Congratulations! You're 109 proof, with specific scores in beer (60) , wine (100), and liquor (78).

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

I don't know if I believe that...

Public History

Not that I normally link to news, but this controversy about Kingdom of Heaven, a film about the Crusades, and its similarities to the work of one historian caught my eye.

However, Fox lawyer Bonnie Bogin said that he could not "claim a monopoly on history". "The elements in Warriors of God are no more than historical facts which have been in the public domain for more than nine centuries," she said.

Back home

I don't have nearly as much to say now that I am back home, in my normal routine. Half the contents of the backpack still need to be put away (Aragorn still needs to be taken to my carrell) and Sunday morning pump class dispelled any illusions I had of building up muscles from carrying my backpack.
I did buy a set of funky wooden buttons in Christchurch, so I'm starting to plan an outfit around that.

Out of Ice

If I thought New Zealand was surreal before, then the experience of looking across a wall of ice to rainforest certainly convinved me that it is. On Tuesday I went for the full day guided tour of the Fox Glacier, on of the few glaciers in the world to descend almost to sea level. The glacier was amazing, literally ice blue in the caves and crevasses, and filigreed like packed down snowflackes on the surface. At some points avalanches had dposited rock and dirt on top of the glacier, looking like someone had sprinkled cocoa powder on bubble bath.
Now I'm in Hokitika, a former gold rush town, with the obligatory wide streets and former pubs on every corner. It is now the centre of the greenstone (jade) industry, and having been here for almost twenty four hours already I'm getting rather sick of the sight of it. So the plan for the rest of the day is to visit the beach and the cemetary, just for something different. I'm sending this message from a fishing shop with a gun display up the back and country music on the sound system - a little scary!
Tomorrow I catch a bus over the mountains back to Christchurch, through Arthurs Pass, and then home on Sunday. This has been a wonderful experience, but I will be happy to be home. No more pillow lucky dip (Fox Glacier is the worst so far I think), no more heavy backpack (I'm going to kick butt at pump class now), and proper kitchen equipment - and getting to see everyone again.