h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hey Peanut luvvy , thanks. I am always still amazed when I manage to communicate anything to anyone, especially through writing.

It's good though, it makes me happy to communicate. In fact, I just got addicted to editing my writing. . It's good with the Guide Entry format, because you can leave the text there, and break into the studio from time to time and edit it.

Mind you, I'm working in Brunel skin. . I don't know if it work the same in the other skins? I guess it does. One day I will jump out of my skin (with fright haha), and venture into another skin.

It's good that, Mister DG, what you said, about how artists must work at their own pace. I never know how artists can work in the music industry, having to make another album on contract, and then do endless touring. What if they can't find the juice?

The editing thing is interesting though. Using spaces between words and paragraphs to communicate, making words work in an efficient way.

At this rate, I will be pestering you lot for tips!

What is happening to me?? I am trying to retire to a green valley in the foothills. No distractions. Just cows. And some nice cheese. No wifi. What????? Oh no .......

A green valley in the foothills, where the houses are built of local stone and there are damselflies dancing over the stream.
Except that the walls are threatened by subsidence, the septic tank needs changing, and there are lots of biting insects.

Sorry, I'm seeing life from the dark side.

Just taking the bad with the good, I expect. There are ants at every picnic.

Speaking of artists and all things artist-y, might I recommend a film you all might like? We saw it last night on Netflix. Unfortunately, it's fairly recent, and an independent film, so I guess you'd have to look out for it on DVD or in a local cinema. But for intelligent, artistic-type folks such as yourselves, this film is sure to please.

It's called 'The Look', and it's a sort of biographical film about - and starring - Charlotte Rampling. It's in English and French (with subtitles). Ms Rampling has made films in both languages. (I didn't know about the one with the chimp.)

The film seems to have been funded by French and German sources. It's hard to describe why a film that consists mostly of the actress discussing various topics - love, death, age, taboos, personal demons - with a variety of her artistic friends in various cities, from New York to London to Paris, should be so totally absorbing. But it is.

She demonstrates her skill at accessing emotion. She discusses her films a bit, and there are clips from some of them, but the film is not a puff piece about someone's career. It's a serious examination of a form of sensibility. I recommend this low-key but intense study for writers interested in emotion, and artists interested in the visual representation of same.

The scene near the end, when she flirts a bit with the older gents in the French park who recognise her, is gentle fun. We came away from the film with the feeling that we had spent an evening in good company - and I wished to share the experience.

Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj2ApqJtvbA

mvp! yes! you sold me the lifestyle. heheh. I think you work for the Valley (Green) tourist board. . .

I sense a story coming on. One of yours of course. .

Not so sure if I want those biting insects in my picnic. . And I never really know what to say to cows, even though I was raised on a farm. Hmm.



Oooh, now that's a film to think about, (and order the DVD). Thanks for the recommendation, my friends, that is really exciting. Nice trailer.

I never try to talk to cows. We just enjoy companionable silences.

yes. I'm a bit like that with horses too. . I get weird when they go all snufflypuffly and try to eat my sleeve.

My Dad loved his herd, especially the diary herd. He would talk to them, and scratch them behind their ears, and they would nuzzle into him and try to eat his sleeve, but he wasn't scared like his daughter.

What one with the chimp? , sorry, just reading your DG Freebie Film Tip again. I don't know anything about Charlotte Rampling, but The Look sounds so great, I'm about to order the DVD. What one with the chimp?

I think the DVD will go great with my Scott Walker DVD, 30 Century Man.

Noodge. Definition. Just checking. . Oh.... , so that's what it means. . I never heard that word before. You are a nice not-noodge. So when I said I like a bit of a noodge, I thought it mean nudge. Like one who nudges people into action. A nudger. But wait! One dictionary suggests that a noodge is a sort of a nudger.

Perhaps I might call you a creative catalyst. That way we will all enjoy our lives.

I think I had better go drink something stronger than water. .

Excuse me, said the pony smiley, please don't call me a small horse. Or else I will eat your sleeve.

'Noodge' is usually used by Yiddish speakers. It means someone who nudges, not always in a bad way. 'Don't be such a noodge...' is the comment.

According to the film, Rampling did a French film, I forget the title, about a woman who fell in love with a chimp. Not our cup of , as the chimp was being played by a small person...

Rampling is very cutting-edge. She and Dirk Bogarde did 'The Night Porter', a very risky film.

You're sweet to say I'm a catalyst. In education, we call it 'facilitating'. It's useful, sometimes.

Diary herd? I said diary herd back there. . My typos are leading me into pastures new.

My great-great-grandfather was an interesting man. He had a fine herd of diaries. They grazed peacefully in his garden, and every day he told them about his life, and wrote all over them with a quill pen.

.

Oh reeeely, ohmigod, OK, so Charlotte Rampling then...I had no idea!I don't think I could cope with the Night Porter. I remember it being spoken about in hushed tones, in the 70s. I never knew what it was about.



Facilitating community, I know that phrase from living around here, where we live, because there's lots of groups and communities and things. It's a good word, facilitator, but I think creative catalyst incorporates all that and all the everything else as well.

I have spoken.

thanks said the cat-alyst.

hmm. time for a slow gin I think.

You would understand 'The Night Porter', I think. Do not read any US reviewers on the subject. US reviewers are philistines. Especially Pauline Kael, she was...well... but for someone who appreciates Ken Russell, that movie is doable.

I like the diary herd. My grandfather didn't have diaries - he just had cows. Pretty cows that answered to his call. 'Sook-calf', 'Sook-calf'...

We are back inside and drying off. Did you people send all this rain? I waited until afternoon. Got half a mile from the house, it started pouring again...in Petco, the rain on the roof was deafening.

'We're out of everything,' said Elektra...we pressed on...

Going across the parking lot with our 'Blade Runner' umbrella. My sneakers got soaked. My feet got soaked. My jeans got so wet I thought I would lose them...

We found out there was no traffic because there was a flash-flood, storm, and tornado warning...that will teach us to watch the weather report...

I think that the movie with the psuedo chimp was called 'Max'.

I hope you weren't hit by any tornadoes, Dmitri.

Usually it's hurricanes that start over the Gulf of Mexico that head over here, when they've finished trashing the USA. Here we've had our summmer in March and September, with wet stuff in between. I blame the Olympics.

We need to find some way to blame 2legs.

But no tornados so far. It seems to have quieted down.

well, I'm glad you are both safe and have provisions, also that you managed to hold on to your trousers

I like cows, although it is good to aware of what the mood is in the field before you stomp through it

We particulary like ginger cows, of any kind but Hiccup's favourites are ginger cows with fringes, and horns, also known as Highland cattle

Highland cattle are beauties.

Can you put Highland cattle into a Halloween story?

My effort has turned into a load of bovine manure.

I wonder if we could.

Evening all. .

Just a few hours away, and the landscapes of hootoo are once again evolving, will you all stop being so interesting please? No! No! Never stop


...with reports about tornadoes (sheesh! glad you guys are OK, what's a Blade Runner umbrella?),

controversial chimps called Max,

and a consideration of Highland cattle, their handsomeness, they are lovely, although I don't know if I've ever met one. I should have, because my spouse is a Highlander, son of a crofter, but we never venture up that way these days.Bit cold. . Too many mountains. .

So, a Hallowe'en tale involving Highland cattle. . Let's see now .... ooh eh I just got a picture of a group of intense people sitting round a long table ... it's in an olde hotel in the Highlands ...or is it a castle ... what's going on here? ... there's a lady who looks like a tragic actress, there's a hearty chap wearing a kilt and some fine brogues ... There's ....

What?? . I thought that was developing nicely. Sounds like Monarch of the Glen??? No! (Although we loved Monarch )

And I haven't yet scripted the coos .

Must eat. . Back soon

Scripting the coos...

Blade Runner umbrellas (ours needs a battery):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ow78NdvQ0&feature=related

Ah! Thankyou! I love the Blade Runner umbrellas.

What about Blade Runner then? I never saw it. That clip drew me in, all that flashing neon. So it's loosely based on PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I never read this book, either. . I saw a copy in a second hand bookstore in Brighton the other day. I should have bought it.

I know I know, I am always about 40 yrs late for everything. . Great title. I'll get there.

PKD sounds like he was a really magic guy. I am fascinated by his life. Perhaps I should start with a biography. I think I will. I wonder if there is one, a good one.



Did you get Monarch of the Glen in the States? (changing topic from PKD now . Slightly different universe. .



What's happening with your Hallowe'en story then, mvp? Re the bovine manure. No! I must rescue this masterpiece from the file marked bovine manure! Please don't click delete, or send to the paper recycle.

(rootles through mvp's trashbin, hoping to resurrect masterpiece)

It's different in these eco friendly days, I think. . A writer traditionally has an overflowing trashbasket of crumpled drafts beside his/her desk. . Now its the recycling bin, if there's any paper at all. . Not so romantic, but more right-on.

(hides trashbin full of crumpled paper)



I've had some almost-intelligent thoughts today about communication. But I will spare you for tonight, and go on about it another day, oh lucky you, and if you're really lucky I might forget what they are.