The Wire and orange t-shirts

I have spent the day being besieged by nearly a hundred 7-yers olds in orange t-shirts. They were on a field trip to the museum and ran through the exhibition reminiscent of the Mongolian Horde. A very orange, very loud horde. I caught two trying to climb the Rhino, and a group of boys re-enacting the fight between Aragorn and the Nazguls somewhere between the cabinets of the geology exhibition.

When asked who was their favourite Tolkien character most replied Aragorn, some Boromir and one really liked Gimli. Then one boy said, rather out of the blue, that Legolas was gay. The other four guys in the group got angry and said: “There is nothing wrong with being gay!” The first boy replied that he knew this, and Legolas was still gay.
To this there was much agreement.

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Aside from that I’ve spent much of my spare time watching “The Wire”. I’ve tricked jorun to watch with me (it wasn’t very hard), so now we can squee in unison. I’m loving the show, and I’m starting to feel about it much as I do with Deadwood. The entire ensemble is wonderful, played out through careful characterisation. I love that, and the fact that the show doesn’t rush it’s storytelling but takes it time and slowly builds momentum. In many ways it reminds me of reading a very good novel, that carefully and expertly weaves its story.
I adore the subtle juxtapositions that abound, like one scene will show the hoppers in the projects eating Chicken McNuggets, and the next scene will show Rhonda Pearlman eating shushi. There will be a shot of Stinkum lighting a cigarette, next shot a policeman under a No Smoking sign.

Then there is the dialog. I feel quoting it cannot do it justice. One of the greatest scenes so far goes on for minutes, and the dialog is basically the word F**k over and over – but the level of emotion in each word? The varieties in pronunciation? It’s amazing. I also got chills during D’Angelo’s explanation of chess.
(Note: I have not seen past the last episodes of season one, so please: let me be unspoiled. )
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The Wire and orange t-shirts

I have spent the day being besieged by nearly a hundred 7-yers olds in orange t-shirts. They were on a field trip to the museum and ran through the exhibition reminiscent of the Mongolian Horde. A very orange, very loud horde. I caught two trying to climb the Rhino, and a group of boys re-enacting the fight between Aragorn and the Nazguls somewhere between the cabinets of the geology exhibition.

When asked who was their favourite Tolkien character most replied Aragorn, some Boromir and one really liked Gimli. Then one boy said, rather out of the blue, that Legolas was gay. The other four guys in the group got angry and said: “There is nothing wrong with being gay!” The first boy replied that he knew this, and Legolas was still gay.
To this there was much agreement.

----

Aside from that I’ve spent much of my spare time watching “The Wire”. I’ve tricked jorun to watch with me (it wasn’t very hard), so now we can squee in unison. I’m loving the show, and I’m starting to feel about it much as I do with Deadwood. The entire ensemble is wonderful, played out through careful characterisation. I love that, and the fact that the show doesn’t rush it’s storytelling but takes it time and slowly builds momentum. In many ways it reminds me of reading a very good novel, that carefully and expertly weaves its story.
I adore the subtle juxtapositions that abound, like one scene will show the hoppers in the projects eating Chicken McNuggets, and the next scene will show Rhonda Pearlman eating shushi. There will be a shot of Stinkum lighting a cigarette, next shot a policeman under a No Smoking sign.

Then there is the dialog. I feel quoting it cannot do it justice. One of the greatest scenes so far goes on for minutes, and the dialog is basically the word F**k over and over – but the level of emotion in each word? The varieties in pronunciation? It’s amazing. I also got chills during D’Angelo’s explanation of chess.
(Note: I have not seen past the last episodes of season one, so please: let me be unspoiled. )
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