Longing
Twilight
Films That Defined Us – Irish Films
As part of the Go, See, Talk! “Films That Defined Us” multi-blog-a-thon, created by Marc V. Ciafardini, I have compiled a list (in no particular order) of eight Irish films. Rather than providing an individual explanation of each choice, my eight selections hold a common reason for appearing on this list. Their importance lies, for me, not only in the fact that they define a particular era of film-making in and/or about Ireland, but they also each define, through their subject matter, a particular moment in Irish history, ranging from the control of the Catholic Church to the cloud of the 1980s recession and so forth. Each film offers a pre-Celtic Tiger and pre-internet age peek of Ireland, as well as early performances by actors who would continue on to become established and revered for their art.
1. My Left Foot (1989)
2. In the Name of the Father (1993)
3. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
4. The General (1998)
5. Into the West (1992)
6. The Field (1990)
7. The Boxer (1997)
8. The Committments (1991)
My first film review and guest post…ever!
Please join me on this momentous occasion and trek your way over to Filmplicity, where you will find the first film review I have ever written, which also happens to be my first guest post on a blog. I decided to review Guy Maddin and “The Saddest Music in the World”.
Read more at www.filmplicity.com
Teaser Tuesday
The concept of Teaser Tuesday originated at Should Be Reading and can be explained in the following easy steps!
- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page.
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.
I know it’s Monday and therefore the idea of Teaser Tuesday is a little premature…or even redundant… Nonetheless, in an effort to regenerate the frequency of my blog posts, I’m going to force feed you a teaser from a book I have “to hand” at the moment.
This week’s book is “How to Survive a Robot Uprising”, by Daniel H. Wilson. Here is a quote from page 145:
“The uprising is timed to occur with a critical mass of infected robots and during a vulnerable time for humans (like on a rainy Monday morning). While hundreds of thousands of service robots run amuck, the malevolent AI shuts down utilities and disrupts communication and transportation networks”.
In honour of this quote…a robot violin recital:
Versatile Blogger Award
The talented Olive of Movie News First awarded me this VBA, as did Novroz of Novroz’ Favorite Things. It was originally intended for my second blog, Róisín Recommends, however I felt it would be more at home here on sundryandco.
There are a few simple rules for this award:
Thank the person who gave you the award, share seven things about yourself and then pass the award along to any blogger(s) of your choice.
Let me see…Seven interesting points about Róisín..:
1. Ranulph Fiennes asked me last weekend if there were many Róisíns in Ireland.
2. As a child, I had a great fascination with The Beatles, namely John Lennon.
3. I am an atheist.
4. I spend too much time dreaming of space travel, Antarctic adventures and film sets.
5. Last week I found an old certificate from an exam I had passed for, to my surprise, the “British Amateur Gymnastics Association”.
6. I have lived and worked in Dublin, Limerick and Cork in the past two years.
7. I unintentionally refused to shake David Puttnam’s hand in 2005.
I wish to give this award to the following bloggers for their entertaining reviews, rants and musings!
Alexandria of Musings of a Geologist Who Writes Paranormal Fiction
Introducing…Hannu Rajaniemi
A 30 year old Finnish physicist with a PhD in String Theory – What’s the natural progression with a biodata like that? To become a science fiction writer, of course.
Interest is beginning to build around the work of Hannu Rajaniemi, whose debut novel “The Quantum Thief” is soon to be released. The string theorist achieved a book deal on the basis of one chapter. Amazon gave the following synopsis:
Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy – from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons – the Dilemma Prison – against countless copies of himself. Jean’s routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future – a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy.
The buzz around this book stems not only from the high quality of the writing, but also its inclusion of “hardcore” physics. British agent John Jarrold explains how Hannu has brought originality to the science fiction genre of writing:
Hannu’s first chapter was entirely enticing; yes, it was brimful of energy, originality, and fascinating science but these were bonuses. What caught me and left me desperate for more was the masterful way he set up the characters, created relationships between them based on intrigue and need and suggested a rich past and a dangerous future for all concerned. I haven’t been this excited after reading just one chapter in a long, long time…
Hannu Rajaniemi also has a history of short fiction writing for a number of Finnish magazines and is certainly not new to the craft. This writer sounds like he has produced something that could take the art of science fiction in a refreshingly new direction. Here’s hoping that with a quantum leap of faith, we might see a string of film adaptations…
For anyone who wishes to learn more about String Theory, I began my string journey some years ago by watching The Elegant Universe – Simplified and entertaining. I urge you to embrace it!
