the case for letting sleeping dogs lie (with apologies to the judge).

and pun intended.

we watched under the mountain today. and in my opinion…what a pile of crap!

spoilers may probably follow…you have been warned. I’m afraid I don’t have as much discretion as the judge. firstly. it was either way ahead of its time in 1982, or maurice gee was embracing the feminist revolution, but what was wrong with having rachel as the strong one? secondly. was it necessary to have a love interest for ricky? I mean please…he spent the whole movie trying to get his end away (and I was disappointed he didn’t die in the end, he was a dick). thirdly. wtf was it with mr jones? he was not very likeable at all.

I think watching the 80s series which stuck pretty closely to the book was wise in retrospect. now I know that there was way more time in a tv series to develop characters etc, but I think they departed too much from the story line. it was nearly unrecognisable as the same story.

one positive and one nice touch. I did like seeing the original mr wilberforce in the movie (I did hear the original theo and rachel were in the movie too but I must say I was not watching that closely). and it was interesting seeing the britomart in the opening part seeing as it was the same station that was in the original…just a bit flasher.

i think all of us preferred the original (shame they couldn't resurrect billy t. he was fantastic!).

ta hua ee la

well this is the spelling of the words i've been led to believe are true...i'm open to other interpretations.

this is the hawaiian war chant (please don't cringe at the english lyrics...they are not a translation, just a reflection of the times) and i'm discussing the muppets' version (google hawaiian war chant muppets). it rocks. and following on from my under the mountain thing my students liked it too, but for different reasons. for the reasons that i liked the muppets. they were entertaining and they were funny. but as an adult i realise that they were entertaining and funny and also decidedly subversive. i realised this while watching the vikings...who were pigs...literally for the muppets, figuratively in real life...singing in the navy. fabulous. and ironic. i'm tempted to buy the full muppets on dvd and just watch it. twice. once trying to recapture the youthful innocent love i had for it. and again to try to see what lies beneath. but i'm thinking that maybe i shouldn't bother with the second reason. just let the muppets be the muppets. funny and entertaining.

for the record, my favourite muppets are animal and beaker.

happy day after yesterday day

thought i'd continue the theme...

happy non-mother's day...

...to all of us out there who are child-free either by choice or circumstance.

happy star wars day

tacky i know...but may the 4th be with you!

we're watching under the mountain...

...80s stylz...and i can't believe how much my year 7s and 8s love it. we're reading the book and i was going to watch the new movie afterwards to do the old compare and contrast. i thought that the 1982 series would be too naff for them so didn't bother trying to find it. boy was i wrong. one of my boys got it out from the library and they were keen to see it. they think they're 'getting out of working' by watching it. little do they know they are actually doing some learning.

a few observations...the shirt slashed to the navel look is interesting in a show for children. and what is the difference between the short shorts they wore then and the ones they wear now? i guess calling them 'canterburys' makes them more appealing. i forgot that billy t james was the traffic cop. he was channelling eric estrada and doing a great chips impersonation (of course that was lost on today's youth). despite the special effects being 1982, the students still think they're cool. the acting is appalling (even compared with the actors on shorty st) and the accents are ever so slightly british sounding. auckland has no sky tower. there were a lot of vivas back in the day. i loved my viva.

one of my boys remarked that the twins just went with mr jones even though he seemed like a pervy old man (i can't blame them though, he was wearing his pants very high). in fact they asked if there was no stranger danger back then. i replied, in a quote from the show, that they should just tell a policeman. they also thought it was weird that another old man was following them round in a hearse. i remembered that my 11 year old self would have thought nothing of it. another reminder of how the times have changed.

we had an interesting discussion about how when this was made homosexuality was actually illegal (context...the weird driver dude for the wilberforces who is not mentioned in the book. the students wanted to know if they were gay because a wife is mentioned in the book but she hasn't been in the show yet). they wanted to know if they would go to a female prison if they were arrested (!). i explained no because they were still, in fact, men.

there are pauses for ad breaks. the ads have been removed. my class would have loved for the ads to still be in there so they could watch them. they have a point. the ads would have been fascinating for them to watch.

we're going to do a threeway now. compare and contrast the book with the series with the movie...(what were you thinking?)