Review: The Wind in the Willows

It's been a long time since I read The Wind in the Willows, or watched the iconic 80s TV series - and this isn't the book I remembered. Before it was an adventure peopled, or animaled, by characters such as Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad. Now, it feels more like a prose-hymn to the deep and transitory nature of friendship, community, the natural world and life.

It's quite a long time since you did any poetry,' he remarked. `You might have a try at it this evening, instead of--well, brooding over things so much. I've an idea that you'll feel a lot better when you've got something jotted down--if it's only just the rhymes.'

The Rat pushed the paper away from him wearily, but the discreet Mole took occasion to leave the room, and when he peeped in again some time later, the Rat was absorbed and deaf to the world; alternately scribbling and sucking the top of his pencil. It is true that he sucked a good deal more than he scribbled; but it was joy to the Mole to know that the cure had at least begun.

Strikingly, there are almost no female characters as those that do show up have minor parts and are mostly not named. I guess this reflects the times (Edwardian) and the original audience (Grahame's son).

The vocabulary is also richer than simple story suggests. I enjoyed looking up some words which are now out-of-common use and may never have been given their obscurity.

Verdict:  (T)ode to friendship.

 

Creativelive: 28 to Make: Day 2 - Draw a Houseplant

Creativelive has a 28 to make challenge where you get a prompt for something to draw or make every day for 28 days.

Day 2: Draw your a houseplant. 

Here's my attempt:

This challenge was a little harder because there's a lot more complexity in the shape of my jalapeño chilli pepper seedings. In the end, I decided to go with something which was a bit more impressionistic rather than accurate.

And at least it reminded me to water it today!


Fancy joining me? Check out the free series of video tutorials.

Creativelive: 28 to Make: Day 1 - Draw your beverage

Creativelive has a 28 to make challenge where you get a prompt for something to draw or make every day for 28 days.

Day 1: Draw your own drink. 

Here's my attempt:

I enjoyed this challenge as it made me think about which vantage point to draw my early morning mug of green tea from. I choose below because due to injured ankle I'm doing a lot more crawling at the moment and it's making me think about the world from a dog or small child's point of view. I also liked that the base of the mug was obscured from this angle, and the top was convex - confounding my mind's expectations.

Fancy joining me? Check out the free series of video tutorials.

My workout for a little while

I'm off my left ankle after falling and landing on it during a run on wet grass -and that means a bit of adaptation while I'm recovering. I tried this out this morning and it seemed to do the job of getting the  heart rate going and improving my mood:

Review: Sunrise

Sunrise is regarded as one of the last great silent movies, and Academy awards aside, it's easy to see why. Film had come a long way by 1927.  Director Murnau manages to pull off both technical and creative brilliance in the form of (mostly) naturalistic performances, some outstanding montages and animated  inter-titles to realise an expressionistic world which is by turns horrific, amusing and romantic. Gaynor as The Wife, who resembles Drew Barrymore at times, gives a particularly emotionally deft performance.

Some silent film tropes never quite go away though as the rescue dog makes an appearance, but this time it is subverted to add additional suspense.

Verdict: Silent and deep.

Review: The Firm

Slow, but decently made, lawyer procedural thriller starring Cruise, Hackman, Tripplehorn, Hunter and a host of other 90s character actors contributing small .

The setup is a good one. A young hotshot lawyer is made an extraordinary employment offer by a relatively small firm. But as soon as you spot some of his colleagues (including alumni from the X-files), you realise he's got himself in with some bad 'uns.

Only the mostly piano based soundtrack grates and makes this seem even longer than its two hour plus running time.

Verdict: All it seems

Review: Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

This short book like all good fables contains a profound message in an easily digested and memorable way. In this case, it is a colony of penguins facing disaster which acts as a metaphor for the process of how to successfully drive organisational change.

As someone who has only partially succeeded in attempting organisational change, I recognised many of the underlying difficulties as well as some of the solutions.   It would have been very helpful to have read this earlier!

Is this a complete guide to managing change? No, of course not. Could it be used for harm as well as good? Definitely. One of the reviews on Amazon about how this was used to soften staff up for redundancy sadly reflects that.

Verdict: With some power...