Day: May 10, 2004

Wrinkling

It’s weird to see A Wrinkle In Time as a kid’s Disney TV movie. Good weird, some of the time. But the transformation to the screen makes even the mean stuff of the book, the scenes on Camazotz (which used to give me nightmares as a kid) look cheap and somehow funny.

Madeleine L’Engle agrees:

NEWSWEEK: So you’ve seen the movie?
Madeleine L’Engle: I’ve glimpsed it.

And did it meet expectations?
Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it is.

But for all that, it’s actually not awful. Watching it recalls the power of the book, the tremendous contrast between family and awful hate, the fierce cynicism of IT and its servants and the aching love of family no matter how fragile.

One down, twenty to go

I’m speaking of course about the items on my “fix the house” list. Yesterday’s porch repair went pretty easily, if tediously. After verifying the extent of the damage yesterday, I squared off the damaged section to a 33″ x 4″ rectangle using my trusty jig saw, then trimmed a 3/4″ x 6″ x 6′ hardwood board to match the dimensions and nailed it to the floor studs. When I was done, the patch had less give than the rest of the sections of original flooring. I spent the rest of the late afternoon, until about 7 pm, cutting the replacement carpet to shape and getting it snugly into place with my trusty staple gun. It now looks a hell of a lot better than it did. I was even able to fix a loose step or two while I was at it.

Tonight’s project: either clean up the library (where months of processed bills wait for me to file them) or finish the trim in the guest bathroom. Both, maybe, if I’m lucky.

Hide your vinyl, I’m on the loose

Today’s listening comes courtesy of Cellophane Square, the excellent used music store in Seattle’s U-District about which I’ve written before. I grabbed a handful of really nice vinyl there Thursday, including today’s listening, the Beatles’ Help!. Judging from this guide, the record I got was not an original pressing—it probably dates from after 1976—but it’s still a kick to listen to the music the way it was meant to be heard.

Other finds included the Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food, Get Happy!! by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and David Byrne’s Music from the Knee Plays, a soundtrack of sorts to a Robert Anton Wilson play that I don’t believe has ever been reissued on CD. In fact, as luck would have it, I have never heard any of these albums (except excerpted on greatest hits), so I’m in for some good listening if I ever get some time near my record player.