You bit me.

[jackshoegazer]

It's hard to believe that my iconomicon has been around 4.75 years and is watched by 6000 people. I realize that's like twice the number of active LJ users, but I'm okay with that.

Today, I am driving Jacquelyn to Chicago because she's flying to Crete (yes, the island near Greece) for a conference. Right now, we're waiting for her poster to print. Apparently all scientists wait until the last moment. Her advisor is giving a talk which he's writing on the plane.

I am going to try and cut back on the number of contractions I use in my writing. After watching True Grit, listening to the characters talk without them made me realize that while writing sounds better without them, speaking that way is damned right silly.

We went on a movie marathon recently. On top of True Grit, we also went to see The King's Speech which was hilarious and would not surprise me in the least if Colin Firth was up for a Best Actor nod.

Last night, we went to see Darren Aronofsky's latest, Black Swan which was, well, a lot like Aronofsky's other movies – so eerie and visceral that when the credits finally roll, you realize you've been clenching every muscle for two hours and you can not believe the relief you feel. Natalie Portman, holy hell. I've not been a big fan of hers, but I give her a lot of credit for not flinching away from challenging roles.

Poster is done! Bon voyage!

Comments

[scarbaby.livejournal.com]

I noticed a lack of contractions used in the dialogue in Guys and Dolls, and yet Sinatra still sounded like a mook. I suppose it's (or it is) all in how you apply your contractions or lack thereof.

[dakini-grl.livejournal.com]

Correction: all scientists *and* all engineers wait until the last minute. Crete! Lucky girl.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

That's okay, I've been known to sit down the day before a paper is due and churn out fifteen pages and turn it in without editing :P

[chalcedony.livejournal.com]

I once did my first - and only - run through of a talk in the car on the way to the meeting, using my car's dashboard clock to time it. ;)

In my defense, I had spent the previous two weeks helping my three students get their talks into shape, but still ...

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I don't begrudge anyone procrastination :) I write most of my papers in one day the day before it's due.

[la-tante.livejournal.com]

congratulations on the 4.75 anniversary. iconomicon is certainly my absolute go to for icons (and a smile should i need one).

as for the films, yes yes yes to the king's speech. i thought colin firth and geoffrey rush both were revelations. it's one of my favorite films of all time at this point. and i can't wait to see true grit having just finished watching the john wayne version, i'm anxious to do a little compare-contrast. black swan while gripping during left me with almost no afterburn which i generally expect from aronofsky. though, i totally agree, natalie portman was pretty amazing.

bonne journée!

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that was weird about Black Swan; I even mentioned that it didn't leave me devastated in the way his other movies have. And I wonder if it's because Natalie Portman's character wasn't (or at least I didn't find her) very sympathetic. Having a character so emotionally distant for most of the film makes it hard to identify and thus care for her, thus losing some of the wallop that ending should have engendered. Yah?

[la-tante.livejournal.com]

yeah yeah. i'd be heard pressed to find any character or actor who stayed with me in as much of a burnt into my retinas kind of way as ellen burstyn in requiem. she was so full of pathos you couldn't help but die with her along with way. whereas i disliked natalie portman's character and kinda wanted to bitch slap her into being awake. it's not much of a protagonist that leaves you glad when they die, right?

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

I was really interested by the language in True Grit, too. I saw it after spending the past couple of months working on a story in the form of a character's journal from 1898, in which I had to drastically reduce my own contraction use (though I didn't eliminate contractions entirely.) It's an interesting experiment, and harder to do than it seems at first. Some sentence just don't sound right to contemporary ears without contractions--the rhythm feels all wrong. I was impressed by the 100% percent commitment to that writing style in True Grit.

I'd love to hear about how contraction reduction works for you.