Holmes

This evening Paul consented to stay with William (watching every short Madagascar video we have on the dvr) while Margaret and I finally got out to Sherlock Holmes. Liked it a lot. I particularly liked how they depicted the ways he fought, showing in slow time how quickly his mind will come up with solutions and act upon them. There is a pattern in films that if a character reveals a plan, such as with a heist film, then the plan is doomed to fail. However, Holmes succeeds in these mini-plans, demonstrating his advanced intelligence. He would really look foolish if he believed he could defeat someone using some random blow to a knee but then fails; that would discredit him and be contrary to the entire character. It just worked very well.
There was a buzz in the bass in the sound system that could rarely be heard during the movie since there were no quiet scenes, but was likely hiding beneath the sound somewhere (Southland Mall).

Remember

I finally got over my headache while watching The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes (which I believe I watched a couple years ago) with an ice pack on my head. I woke up relaxed and not thinking about anything and thus did very little today but finish my biscotti, start some vanilla gelato, and while William's friend Rowan was over, I explode a diet coke with mentos (see video). I also finished off the roll of super-8 film I started around William's 8th birthday that Margaret suggested would represent his "super-8th birthday".

This evening I tried to watch some Clone Wars with William. I missed recording season 2 episode 3 about 3 weeks ago and couldn't find a copy of the whole thing on the internet anywhere. One source "watchcartoons.tv" seemed very deceptive as although it claimed to give you free tv, you need to either pay them or give them your "mobile number" to which they send you a code. I was really put off by them, since I don't know my cel phone number and have never received a text on it so I don't even know how that works. I'm getting too old to use technology. I found the first 3 parts of the show, missing the last six minutes. William sensed how frustrated I was and suggested we skip it and watch the next one (which I have on my dvd recorder).

Holmes

Last night Margaret and I watched the final episode of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes. I had hoped to get to it over a week ago but we've been so tired at night that we just couldn't. I bought the complete collection last year to help me with my presentation about Watson and Holmes at the Conan Doyle conference at the University. The dvd set arrived on Halloween 2008 so it took us about 53 weeks to watch the 12 discs. That's pretty slow, about an episode per week, but we were not always in the mood. Great show though. The final few got a bit odd, diverging from the original stories uncharacteristically far. The final one was converted into a freaking Christmas episode with Holmes fretting with Mrs Hudson about what gift to get for Watson! It felt like it belonged for the most part, but it was a bit kooky when you compare the texts. The earlier episodes are very close to the original stories.

New Lego posting

This morning William slept in and we were going to rush him to school as he said he felt up to it. Margaret called ahead and found out that the students were mostly in the gym all morning watching movies while teachers met with their students individually regarding goal setting. This seemed a low priority for rushing so we took it easy, ate some breakfast, had a freaking wonderful cookie I made last night which is basically a merange and Belgium chocolate cookie, and we built a bit of Lego. I need to work on my syllubi now, but first I posted the Sherlock Holmes Lego onto William's blog.

Sherlock Holmes

Last night I presented some films at the "Re-Examining Arthur Conan Doyle: An International Symposium" a the University of Regina. Here is what I said.

Dr. Watson I presume

I'm almost ready for my Sherlock Holmes presentation on Friday night, but still wanting to watch a couple of more things. My talk is half written. I'll still need to copy the clips onto one dvd for convenience, otherwise I'll be cuing up disc after disc and will get all off track. Presenting to Phd's is making me nervous.
I taught all evening so didn't turn on the US election at all. Glad, would rather just read about it in the morning once votes are actually all in.

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This evening we watched some Sherlock Holmes with Jeromy Brett, certainly the best adaptations ever. It gets me all excited about the character again, especially after some of the other versions I've watched this year. I put a coat of paint on the shed door and painted out some graffiti on the garbage bins in the alley.

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I've been blogging every day for a half year now. I'm asked from time to time why I am doing it. I usually say that the blog keeps me honest, that I have to answer to myself and my readers at the end of the day, to say what I am doing with my life. This doesn't always make me feel any better and in fact has been trouble lately as I have more and more things to do that I can't report on my blog due to certain promises. Therefore I am left talking about baking and watching movies, which I do admit are my favorite things to do most days. The other reason I blog is to create an ongoing journal for myself. I haven't written a journal in years. I carry note books but do not write most stuff down. The blog gives me a typed record of many things that I might want to look up later. For example, when I am asked to fulfill my promise to put something together for the Arthur Conan Doyle conference next year, I will be able to go into these notes and find the references I made to Sherlock Holmes. Tonight Margaret and I watched the first ten minutes of "The Speckled Band", an old one with Raymond Massey as Holmes. Watson was bald. It was made in the early 30s and set contemporary. The Baker Street house was a business for Holmes and he had the latest technology and a large secretarial staff using Dictaphones and transcribing all conversations and keeping a constantly updated filing system, almost a data base. Now I will remember.

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While William and I were watching "Return of the Jedi" this morning, a lady bug landed on my neck. We put it on one of the plants. It's the first one I've seen in two months, it is -20 outside.

This evening I watched "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" with Christopher Lee as Holmes, directed by Hammer Film's Terrance Fisher in 1962 as a weird German/French/English co-production. It was a bad dvd with scratches and faded blacks. The dubbing was so peculiar I often felt I was watching a Guy Maddin film. Flashbacks were even shot with a canted angle! I couldn't quite put my finger on what year it was taking place, they had cars that sometimes looked 1950 but often looked 1230s. The costuming in the pubs was 50s/60s, but Watson looked 1890s. The musical score was uneven with occasional ultra-modern rhythm moments akin to those on the Maya Deren experimental films. I liked Lee as Holmes, he was less aloof and more human, even angry (note: 1962 Britain).

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I gave William the chess set I bought him today, a modest wooden set with wooden board, the pieces easy to distinguish. We played for a while. He led with a knight, very pleasing. He tired after a while and didn't know what to do next. I'd helped him quite a bit with his moves so I didn't actually see any great moves for him, or for myself. The set sits ready to continue tomorrow.
Margaret and I watched the first episode of "Murder Rooms: the dark origins of Sherlock Holmes", a BBC show from 2000. It's pretty nicely done, although tired we are temped to stay up to watch more. I'll be looking at more Sherlock Holmes over the next while as I committed to programming a screening of work at a Conan Doyle symposium next fall. I also picked up a cheap collection of Holmes films, 37 items in total for $20 at Chapters, as a sampler as it contains 3 or 4 different actors doing the role.

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I had a meeting today to discuss my involvement in an Arthur Conan Doyle symposium next year. I might put together a film screening based around the many renditions of Sherlock Holmes from over the past century. The up side is watching lots of great Holmes films. The down side is watching lots of dreadful ones. There have been some reasonably well made Sherlock Holmes films, but in general they are not regarded as great or visionary cinema. Rather, their role in cinema history would relate more to the iconic nature of the character, his hat and pipe and sidekick Watson are part of our shared cultural knowledge, even if we rarely (or never) watch those films or read the books.

I've also just reset some of setting to allow non-blog users to leave comments to this post.