Issue #43: August 15th - 21st, 2003
(Short Holiday Edition)
A Pirates Life For Me
When you have been lazing in the sun all day you want to settle down with your bucket of popcorn and enjoy a movie that doesn’t make you think too hard.
By Grainne Lynch
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts
...having nothing much to do, explore the ceiling. It doesn’t really matter where you are or where you’ll be. It doesn’t. And the half tone of grey or white of the ceiling you will be looking at tomorrow, for there will be spiders on the corner.
By Stefano Santabarbara
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As Johan said, it used to be the sunshine only - though very soon there were other things too: the way the rain fell on the trees, so quietly, the first few notes of a song, London as seen from a train approaching Waterloo station, the sunshine falling on the green hills around St Andrews, overcast skies that made colours brighter and an open-air market near where you used to live - the list grew bigger and bigger and there was no stopping it. It grew through happy times and sad times alike, boring times and exciting times, bright times and dark times and the feelings around it where always the same, too: thinking of it made you wistful, whimsical and homesick for something you could not define, but you thought was the future.
And then there was that crazy idea and the words she said to convince you, too. The words more than the idea, if you want to be honest. To make something out of our obsessions. While your mind said it was probably going to prove pointless another part of you found it was about time you did something, and mind you, it's not easy to say no to her either - so you said yes. Soon you discovered that was the right thing to have done, too for everything seemed to work itself out, it was very exciting and we came up with some great ideas, or at least so we thought and before long we had picked a name, bought a domain name and got the first issue up.
And then we fell in love with it. We thought it was the best thing ever and it filled our lives with colours and smiles week in week out, marking the passing of the time and growing bigger and bigger and soon we realised that it had a life of its own. We followed it rather than lead it and it was in proud amazement that we did so, too. With the marvelling there came the hope, unreasonable and yet so strong and that in its turn brought the days when we expected something big to happen. Secretly or maybe not very much so, on excited Thursday afternoons and drunk nights of all sorts we whispered to each other we could feel something big was about to happen or we swore to strangers that we knew this would take us somewhere.
And then of course it didn't, as these things do - or rather as they don't: not much happened for what seemed like a rather long while. You needed to be very careful to notice the things that did happen and a fair bit of faith and optimism to think they meant something, but of course we kept going: at first because of the realisation you couldn't live without the creative output once you'd seen what life is with it and when things got hard only just because you had promised yourself you'd never give it up. Or maybe it was that you knew you would get too desperate if you walked away, and there was nowhere to go to anyway.
Any reason is a good reason sometimes. The Friends of the Heroes is still a great thing to have: despite everything or maybe because of everything or maybe regardless of everything. At least, now I have something to tell the aliens. Maybe they'll have something to tell me too.
('Something to tell the aliens' is a song by the lovely Tidy-ups)
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A Pirates Life For Me
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is the perfect summer blockbuster. When you have been lazing in the sun all day you want to settle down with your bucket of popcorn and enjoy a movie that doesn’t make you think too hard. Pirates of the Caribbean is easy to watch, but also very funny and highly enjoyable. It is a fantasy film about cursed gold and damsels in distress. It’s also part buddy-movie as rouge pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and honest blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) team up to go chasing after the cursed Black Pearl.
The plot may be gossamer-thin but the story is skilfully told, as the details are slowly revealed. The script, from the writers of Shrek (Ted Elliott and Terry Rossis) is smart and funny. The film contains some great lines and fantastic visual comedy, a lot of it coming from Depp’s character Captain Jack Sparrow.
This film belongs to Johnny Depp. His eccentric performance as Captain Jack Sparrow is what really makes it so enjoyable to watch. Sparrow is a larger than life character, with his verbal tics, erratic movements and funny, mincing walk. Keira Knightley also does a wonderful job as the feisty heroine Elizabeth Swann. Her earnest performance makes Elizabeth a convincing and likable character. Her fear and terror when she encounters the skeletal pirates is believable and it’s easy to empathise with her.
There are also strong performances from the other lead actors, namely Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa, Captain of the Black Pearl), as well as some nice performances from British tv stars. Jack Davenport (This Life, Coupling) is perfect as the safe, dependable and very English Commodore Norrington and Mackenzie Crook (The Office) is wonderfully funny as the inept pirate Ragetti.
The strong cast meant that this film does not have to rely on special effects or CGI to tell the story or keep the audience entertained. The most important thing is the story and the people involved in the story. Although CGI is used to create the skeletal pirates, they are a small part of the overall structure of the film.
The film is also beautifully shot, making Port Royal look like a perfect holiday destination, above and below the water. There are also some very stylish sword fights, and the historical period is set up well with the Redcoats doing manoeuvres, the magnificent Governors house and the old, stone Navy barracks.
The film itself seems almost to be from another time, as it never uses sly parodies to reference other popular movies or get a laugh – a technique that has been over-used in Hollywood films in the last few years. Pirates of the Caribbean stays true to it’s self, choosing instead to pay homage to old pirate films, such as the Crimson Tide.
The main criticism of this film is that at two and a half hours, it’s too long. And apparently there’s a little bit more after the credits. I missed it because I fled as soon as the credits rolled. I also felt the love story was a little flat. It was sweet and cute, but it was definitely missing something. I would love to see this film win some major awards next year, because for a summer blockbuster, it had a lot of style and a lot class. The script is great, the cinematography is superb and the cast were faultless. Above all it was very funny and very entertaining.
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It hurts, it hurts, it hurts
It hurts to be the one who looks at things behind the window glass, on which you can put your finger and feel the coldness, but can’t touch them. The far away desires. As if they don’t belong to you. Like a diamond in a museum casket. Where’s the gate he can see? Where the key he can hold?
It hurts, to be sitting on a chair, observing the movement of the people around you. Who you think you knew. And they don’t look the same. Sometimes. As the music flows by, and you’re still sitting there. Will anyone say something worth saying to you? Will someone tell you something at all?
It hurts, to wake up alone in the morning and, having nothing much to do, explore the ceiling. It doesn’t really matter where you are or where you’ll be. It doesn’t. And the half tone of grey or white of the ceiling you will be looking at tomorrow, for there will be spiders on the corner. And your thoughts are focused on how to lift your hands from the sticky web. And when you’ll look at your side, in the morning, there will be no one there who’ll help you, then. Yes. It hurts.
It hurts to see a life flowing beside you like it wasn’t yours. Like the diffused silhouettes of images in dreams. In a state of suspension. When will they play that final chord? And when you’ll look back and will see it is not 1988 anymore, will it be too late to recognise it? Will you be able to change the paths of the bubbling foam, the trajectories of the steam springs? Will you dare to taste a sip of fresh water? Or will you be just too scared to wake up that you’ll take another pill?
It hurts to be a naked nerves creature. And you, yes you. You don’t really need to point your magnification lens, the thoughts are already exposed, waiting for a thrill and a shiny flash of electricity. Being exposed, pinned on purple velvet, spread on a marble table.
Can’t you see it is all already here? Won’t you, won’t I, set me free, and find a shelter to nurse all these wounds? Don’t give me medicines. Don’t give me anaesthetics. I need to feel this all, even if it hurts.
And God knows it hurts.
It hurts, to love
the simple things in life. Like every day’s breakfast-
One day, I will.
I will.
Eventually.
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