A Neat Package

I went to see 'An Inconvenient Truth' the other night and although it was as good as people said,in the sense of statistics and unpalatable truths made quite watchable for 90-100 minutes, I was aware of the 'packaging' of the ex-would-be-President, an almost cultic appeal of the individual,with many lingering close-ups of his not unattractive face. (my goodness, though, what a dish he was in his youth. He and Tipper must have been Mr and Mrs Prom King and Queen).
Then there were the soft-focus reminiscences of his idyllic youth and sad family accidents and sadnesses. Surely these were pasted in pieces, album shots, which would not have appeared in his slide show.
I admit my emotions were stirred, but I also felt manipulated in the way these pieces were injected to the global warming theme. It isn't really necessary to explain whyhe followed up the cause, considering how crucial it is to us all, unless he was trying to present a certain image of himself.
Neither was there any explanation of how Gore lightened his own carbon footprint, having added considerably to emissions by flying all over the world, in order to deliver this message, as we were told repeatedly.
Maybe that was the reason for making the film, so that he could stop traversing the globe by aeroplane, but if so, it wasn't stated at all.
It was nice to see that he had managed to find a purpose after the terrible shock of the stolen election, but I kept wondering----where was Tipper? He seemed to be travelling constantly alone. Maybe I didn't notice her in the throngs of people looking at him, snapping pictures and listening to his lectures.
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about these things, because, frankly, there wasn't much in the film that I hadn't heard before and there were some very hokey bits of animation jammed in as well.
It made a sad picture and I wondered what his long range plans are:is he being groomed for some top-notch international job or simply settling into an Elder Statesman role?
I certainly hope that Tipper managed to recover a sense of purpose as well as he did, whatever she is doing (fundraising for the air fares?)and wherever she is (at home sorting the recycling every weekend?)while Al jets endlessly around the world.

I'm baaack, again

I'm trying to settle back to proper boring work - the carryover essay and the dissertation research. I wish I could just get the arch essay out of the way, so I could enjoy the research, bu I simply don't have much idea where I am going with an essay, whose topic I more or less picked at random, since they were all distasteful in a similar way. I am so sick of thinking so much about death, burial, funerary rites, and religious beliefs to be extrapolated thereon.
If I wanted to know quite so much about death, I might have opted to become an undertaker. Any minute now we may start of the minutiae of embalming...although that might be more bearable than endless discussion, with examples and full references please, on the various theories and interpretations of ideology and social organisation represented by different styles of burial.etc.
If it would just be the very end of it, I could gee myself up with that thought,but it will all have to be rehashed one more time for exams next May. O joy.
Then, next term:-Ethnicity... again. Terminal lack of imagination has affected the School of Arch this year.
Still, looking at next term's lecture plan has given me something to smile about - I have only 6 or 7 lectures per week, and may get Fridays off, once the Dissertation is underway. woo-hoo.
One more week of break and I have a full itinerary of Library visits, talks to intending students, house-cleaning and duty socialising, before being once more swallowed up by the demands of the new courses, not to mention getting this blasted essay set up,if not finished.
Unfortunately, I have become the Queen of Procrastination.

Winter jaunt

Off to London Town for a few days, to see some art shows and stay with my friends who have moved again since I last visited them 18 months ago. Since then, they visited me here, but I wasn't in London last year, unless you count a few hours at one of the London airports and I can't even remember which one it was, en route from Crete to Ireland.(3-islands-in-one-day, beaten later in the summer by 4-islands-in-one-day, Sark, Guernsey, Britain and Ireland).
This is the mark 2 journey, reduced from my original plan of going to Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and maybe Amsterdam.After all the illness and stress of December I just couldn't get it together to venture, alone of course, into unknown territory, hoping to find paintings where I thought they should be,or in many cases not knowing where they 'should' be at all, traipsing around in who-knows-what foul weather, cross country and between countries possibly. God-alive, why does everything seem so difficult in these short, cold days?
I'd just as soon hibernate, really, but I remember feeling that last winter I had missed an opportunity to get away for a few days and ended up feeling very stressed from early in the year right through to the exams. So this year, since we have I think, an extra week's break, I'm determined to get off this dripping wet island, even if it's only across to another wet one.(...and away from the smoker).
In the back of my mind, I know there is an essay waiting to be done, but I am telling myself I will be back on the 8th, which is the day that the college Library re-opens, so I am missing nothing and will start to work on it during next week, for sure (haven't even decided on the topic yet..
Saying a little prayer for good weather and no tornados.