but now, God knows, anything goes
Oct. 12th, 2013 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieLearned forward inside three turns today!
...Totally wiped out on one!
Thankfully, it was more of an embarrassing fall than a painful one, though I'll probably feel it tomorrow. I landed flat on my butt/back, so I have some padding there that took the brunt of the impact. Nevertheless, I managed to complete several in each direction.
My arms are a mess on the inside and outside turns, though less so on the clockwise ones. Between that and my distinctly poorer ability to "open" my left hip, I'm starting to wonder if skeletal structure is playing a part in this. My right hip is higher and sticks out more, and while it's not obvious to my eye in the mirror, I suspect that does something to my right shoulder that makes it correspondingly more "closed."
Or maybe I just need to practice more.
All I need to pass Gamma is the stupid hockey stop. Rar. I'm getting there, but it's slow.
My instructor and I were talking about ballroom dance (she's an ice dancer, so she's done a bit of ballroom) and I think we may wind up going to the Monday nightold people's dance lesson/party someday soon. That would be fun! Pain-inducing the next morning when I have to get up early after getting home late, but, you know.
*
After being a doofus and missing it when it was in the theaters (the first movie I actually wanted to see in 3D!), I finally watched The Great Gatsby last night. I liked it! I wasn't sure I would, because the novel has never been one of my favorites, and also I was deeply suspicious of the use of hip hop music. However, having seen it, I have to say the soundtrack was actually a stroke of genius. To most modern ears, actual 1920s music doesn't say "wild frat-like party" anymore, even if it did then. The modern music made the party scenes very in your face and teetering uncomfortably on the edge of control, which is exactly how they were intended. (Admittedly, I speak as someone who doesn't regularly listen to hip hop or rap. Maybe the effect was greater on me.) So if Baz Luhrmann's intention was to portray the wild excesses of the 1920s NYC party scene rather than be slavishly accurate, I think the music was an integral part of that.
The movie is also beautifully detailed/costumed/set dressed/shot. Color explosion! I didn't even want to look away to reach for my drink, it was that enthralling.
That said, the story...well, I don't know that the interpretation was wrong, but I will say that it's not the same as mine. When Nick said to Gatsby near the end of the movie that the other characters are "a rotten crowd" and Gatsby is "worth the whole damn bunch put together," I was kind of like, "Really?" Tom, yeah, sure. But Daisy was portrayed as much, much more sympathetic than she is in the book. Like, massively. She was amazingly likeable. And Jordan just got shoved unspeaking into the background, whereas I remember her getting at least a couple moments where her callousness could shine in the book.
So, mixed success, but damn, that is a gorgeous movie.
...Totally wiped out on one!
Thankfully, it was more of an embarrassing fall than a painful one, though I'll probably feel it tomorrow. I landed flat on my butt/back, so I have some padding there that took the brunt of the impact. Nevertheless, I managed to complete several in each direction.
My arms are a mess on the inside and outside turns, though less so on the clockwise ones. Between that and my distinctly poorer ability to "open" my left hip, I'm starting to wonder if skeletal structure is playing a part in this. My right hip is higher and sticks out more, and while it's not obvious to my eye in the mirror, I suspect that does something to my right shoulder that makes it correspondingly more "closed."
Or maybe I just need to practice more.
All I need to pass Gamma is the stupid hockey stop. Rar. I'm getting there, but it's slow.
My instructor and I were talking about ballroom dance (she's an ice dancer, so she's done a bit of ballroom) and I think we may wind up going to the Monday night
*
After being a doofus and missing it when it was in the theaters (the first movie I actually wanted to see in 3D!), I finally watched The Great Gatsby last night. I liked it! I wasn't sure I would, because the novel has never been one of my favorites, and also I was deeply suspicious of the use of hip hop music. However, having seen it, I have to say the soundtrack was actually a stroke of genius. To most modern ears, actual 1920s music doesn't say "wild frat-like party" anymore, even if it did then. The modern music made the party scenes very in your face and teetering uncomfortably on the edge of control, which is exactly how they were intended. (Admittedly, I speak as someone who doesn't regularly listen to hip hop or rap. Maybe the effect was greater on me.) So if Baz Luhrmann's intention was to portray the wild excesses of the 1920s NYC party scene rather than be slavishly accurate, I think the music was an integral part of that.
The movie is also beautifully detailed/costumed/set dressed/shot. Color explosion! I didn't even want to look away to reach for my drink, it was that enthralling.
That said, the story...well, I don't know that the interpretation was wrong, but I will say that it's not the same as mine. When Nick said to Gatsby near the end of the movie that the other characters are "a rotten crowd" and Gatsby is "worth the whole damn bunch put together," I was kind of like, "Really?" Tom, yeah, sure. But Daisy was portrayed as much, much more sympathetic than she is in the book. Like, massively. She was amazingly likeable. And Jordan just got shoved unspeaking into the background, whereas I remember her getting at least a couple moments where her callousness could shine in the book.
So, mixed success, but damn, that is a gorgeous movie.
