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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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The
Write Way
21 March 2008 Surprises Aplenty! Greetings, We've been living in this little corner of the world for over a decade now, and ever since we moved to our current house (in 1999), I've been walking to our local library ... in fact, you've accompanied me on part of this walk along the Redcliffe waterfront. On my way to the library, I pass another council building that I've always regarded, rather cynically I have to confess, as an oxymoron incarnate. It's known rather grandly as the Cultural Centre, a misnomer if ever there was, since it's nothing more than a hulking concrete block (or is it 'cement' once it's been turned into a building? Let me look ... Ah ... here we are ... No, I was right the first time!) These buildings sprang up through the 70s and 80s out here as replacements for the old School of Arts Halls that used to grace every town and suburb in the land. The Arts buildings date from the late 1800s and were usually constructed of weather-board or brick (depending on the prosperity of the town at the time of construction). They were intended as multi-purpose halls that could become the venue for a Country Ball, a political meeting or a school concert, just by re-arranging the chairs. There was always a dressing-room for when touring theatre companies, the local repertory group or Miss McNamara's Tap-Dance School needed to change for a performance. There was also always a kitchen that would be a hive of activity as urns bubbled away to make gallons of tea, dozens of scones, pikelets and lamingtons were fetchingly laid out on paper lace doilies and a thousand reputations withered over the washing-up. But the newer constructions are far more grand and imposing and, I hate to say it ... soul-less. Well, that's what I thought until last Sunday, when the Love of My Life and I decided we'd take ourselves along to one of the Sunday movies that are screened each week. I've seen notices for films as I've walked past the Centre on my way to the library, but as often happens when you travel the same route, whether it's in a car or on foot, you get a sort of 'area-blindness' with some places and just drift by each time without really paying attention to minor details. However, a tiny notice in the local paper announcing a particular film to screen at our Cultural Centre last Sunday leapt off the page at me, because it was one my sister-in-law had recommended. So off we went ... And what a little ripper of a place it turned out to be! Once inside the forbidding concrete, the first sight that greeted us was people sitting around in comfy lounge chairs, sipping wine or coffee while listening to a pianist playing a baby grand. Now this was more like it ... Once we'd bought our tickets and chosen our seats from the seating plan, (how civilised is that in this age of buy your ticket and then "race-you-to-the-best-seat" free-for-all?) we wandered out to the café-bar and got a glass of wine to enjoy in the leafy courtyard. Next time, we're arriving early so we can have a meal as well as a wine before the film, because there were choices galore ... It was a menu par excellence and we could have stood there, arms akimbo, happily deciding on our fare all afternoon, had we not been pressed for time! Ah yes, I see that flicker of recognition as you greet those "deferential words" above. This term was coined by wordsmith, Richard Lederer, to describe the handful of adjectives that follow respectfully behind the words they modify, instead of grabbing the lead like most adjectives. We began this little ramble looking from the outside in at the oxymoron incarnate with its surprises aplenty and ended inside it, with arms akimbo ... making choices galore from the menu par excellence ... Other unassuming adjectives are aweigh, fatale, royale, immemorial and aforethought, and most of these have their favourite noun they follow meekly around: anchors aweigh femme fatale casino royale time immemorial malice aforethought You'll find another deferential adjective making its appearance as this week's Word of the Week.
And since we've been speaking of going to the pictures ... here are some of those things you learn from the movies: If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year. All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets which reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No-one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home. If your town is threatened by an imminent natural disaster or killer beast, the mayor's first concern will be the tourist trade or his forthcoming art exhibition. Here's something that will be a great boon if you'd like to spend your free time this Easter break making a start on that book you've been meaning to start writing ... This week's quiz: Match up these interesting film words: anamorphic, dailies, anime, cameo, diagetic, jib, chyron, dolly, gaffer, macguffin 1. head of the electrical department, responsible for the design and execution of the lighting plan for a production 2. an optical system which has different magnifications in the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the picture 3. the first positive prints made from the negatives photographed on the previous day. During filming, the director and some actors may view these dailies as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing 4. a bit part played by a famous actor who would ordinarily not take such a small part 5. term used by Alfred Hitchcock to refer to an item, event, or piece of knowledge that the characters in a film consider extremely important, but which the audience either doesn't know of or doesn't care about 6. text graphics which appear at the bottom of a screen used to describe time, place, or name of person on screen; can also describe the technology used to add the text to the bottom of the screen 7. style of animated movie which had its roots in the comic books of Japan 8. small truck which rolls along tracks carrying the camera, some of the camera crew and occasionally the director 9. the arm of a mechanical crane 10. sound that is created by something or someone visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film 9 Interviews with Bestselling Authors And some interesting facts about aliens in films ... If there are two or more than of an alien race, they are always roughly the same size as humans.Aliens usually speak English and have the same colloquialisms as we do. All members of an alien species wear the same outfits, including clothing, hairstyles and jewellery. This makes them readily identifiable. Aliens who do not dress like aliens are hiding something. This may, in fact, be a consequence of the fact that aliens all have single, monolithic cultures: one language, one religion, one outfit per planet. And while on the subject of clothes in movies ... Male characters generally are cold-natured. They need to wear jeans and leather jackets while the female characters are comfortable in cutoffs and a halter top.The hero is the exception to the above. He often is more comfortable in extreme cold after losing his coat or having the shirt ripped from his back. Whenever anyone knocks out anyone else and takes his/her clothes, it's always a flawless fit. And you thought you wouldn't learn anything new today!
Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com And I'm even prepared to offer a shameless bribe. An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. Last week's quiz: anaphylaxis, ectoparasite, aspirate, halzoun, cachexia, encystment, autochthonous, axostyle, cercaria, commensalism 1. association in which one individual receives benefits and the other is neither helped nor harmed - COMMENSALISM (Definitely the best relationship to have with your personal parasites, and fortunately for the human race, the one we most often form with the parasites that inhabit our bodies!) 2. general ill health with emaciation, usually occurring in association with cancer or a chronic infectious disease; severe debilitated states (heavy worm infestation, visceral leishmaniasis) - CACHEXIA 3. formation of a resistant external wall by protozoa to enable them to survive drying and adverse environmental conditions; encysted forms are infective to humans - ENCYSTMENT 4. exaggerated allergic reaction to a foreign protein resulting from previous exposure to it - ANAPHYLAXIS 5. organism that lives on or within the skin of its host (lice, mites, ticks) - ECTOPARASITE 6. indigenous or normally found in a particular area; originating where it is found - AUTOCHTHONOUS 7. remove fluid from a cavity - ASPIRATE 8. infestation of the larynx and pharynx especially by tongue worms of the genus Linguatula (especially L. serrata) consumed in raw liver - HALZOUN 9. rodlike supporting structure in some parasitic flagellates that gives rigidity to the body - AXOSTYLE 10. free-living, tailed larval stage of trematodes; may infect humans by direct penetration (schistosomes); may attach to vegetation and encyst to metacercarial stage, or may penetrate tissues of vertebrates or invertebrates and encyst to metacercarial stage; parasitic larva of a trematode worm, having a tail that disappears in the adult stage - CERCARIA (I told you they were social butterflies and party animals, didn't I? "Free-living" ... Say no more!) A Little Something Extra "In my humble opinion, The Sopranos was the best show aired on TV for ages. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I went out and bought each series and watched them four times over! Every time I watched it, I learned something new. "So what is it about the program that appeals to me? "Well for a start, the characters are believable and their situations interesting. Who would have thought that a show about a mob boss who suffers from anxiety attacks would get such massive ratings? Or that the final ending would cause so much controversy? "As a writer, who pens both fiction and non fiction, here's what I learned from The Sopranos:" Read what writer, Lynette Rees, gained from watching The Sopranos. Word of the week: Manqué Unfulfilled or frustrated in the realisation of one's ambitions or capabilities e.g. an artist manqué; a writer manqué; having failed, missed or fallen short, esp. because of circumstances or a defect of character; unsuccessful; unfulfilled or frustrated (usually used postpositively): a poet manqué who never produced a single book of verse ... This very useful word comes from the Latin mancus meaning 'maimed, having a useless hand' from manus 'hand.' Oxymoron of the week: real phony (since we've been at the movies this week!) This week's Latin phrase speaks for itself ... Rem tene: verba sequentur. [RAYM TAY-nay WERH-bah say-KWENT-oor] (Stick to the meaning: the words will follow.) Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? Kind regards, Jennifer To unsubscribe from this list, send
a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips- Copyright Jennifer Stewart 2008 Individual articles copyrighted by their authors. |
