Day of documentaries
Jan. 10th, 2011 03:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venetia_sassyLast night was revoltingly humid, I had little sleep, weird dreams (there were giant white birds - the size of giraffes? Bigger? Smaller? - an almost albino peacock, a neighbour's paddock and something to do with my brother's sunglasses. WTF?) and a sore neck. I was not feeling very bright this morning.
Serious reading was out but fortunately there were a number of documentaries showing that I wanted to watch.
Ode to a Requiem - from the blurb in the tv guide, I thought this was a doco about the writing of Mozart's Requiem and the efforts to complete the most 'authentic' version. Well, there was a little of that. But when I started watching I realised I'd seen the doco before; I just couldn't remember much about it. That would be because there isn't much to remember. There was less information than on the wiki page. Mostly it was extensive excerpts from a glorious performance of Robert D. Levin's reworking of the Requiem. Beautiful but not much of a documentary. In this case the title was more accurate than the blurb.
I had South Pacific: Castaways on while I was making dinner. Mostly I admired the wonderful scenery as I was a trifle distracted. I was fascinated by the bird of paradise and the crabclaw sails, though. It wasn't until afterwards that I realised the narration was by Benedict Cumberbatch. Well, damn. Oh wait! That was the second episode in an six-part series!
(Dinner was cold sesame noodles and a cucumber sesame salad. I messed around with portions and ratios - and cut out the chilli - but those recipes were the starting points. And the food was really good and perfect for a hot night.)
Then it was Immigration Nation: The Secret History of Us, first in a three-part series detailing Australian attitudes toward immigration over the years. This episode focused on the official beginning of the White Australia policy just after Federation in 1901. Said policy was revolting. The treatment of non-Caucasians who wanted to come to Australia was appalling and the treatment of non-Caucasians already in Australia ... it was shameful. My one complaint about this documentary was that it really didn't say just how many non-Caucasians there were already in Australia at the time of Federation. It made it clear that the proportion became much less due to the policy but compared to what? I know about the Chinese miners, the Japanese pearl-divers, the Afghani camel drivers and the South Sea Islanders who were brought over to cut the sugar cane. I know that not all the convicts were white. But how many? And who else?
Then it was Catastrophe: Snowball Earth. Ye gods. Fascinating subject but a painfully slow and repetitive treatment. Every simple, basic fact was repeated. And repeated. And repeated. So. Fucking. Tedious. I made it to the end because I wanted to know what happened but Mum gave it up halfway through and I don't blame her. I think I'll leave this series alone. Yeesh.
Can it be cooler tomorrow, please?
Serious reading was out but fortunately there were a number of documentaries showing that I wanted to watch.
Ode to a Requiem - from the blurb in the tv guide, I thought this was a doco about the writing of Mozart's Requiem and the efforts to complete the most 'authentic' version. Well, there was a little of that. But when I started watching I realised I'd seen the doco before; I just couldn't remember much about it. That would be because there isn't much to remember. There was less information than on the wiki page. Mostly it was extensive excerpts from a glorious performance of Robert D. Levin's reworking of the Requiem. Beautiful but not much of a documentary. In this case the title was more accurate than the blurb.
I had South Pacific: Castaways on while I was making dinner. Mostly I admired the wonderful scenery as I was a trifle distracted. I was fascinated by the bird of paradise and the crabclaw sails, though. It wasn't until afterwards that I realised the narration was by Benedict Cumberbatch. Well, damn. Oh wait! That was the second episode in an six-part series!
(Dinner was cold sesame noodles and a cucumber sesame salad. I messed around with portions and ratios - and cut out the chilli - but those recipes were the starting points. And the food was really good and perfect for a hot night.)
Then it was Immigration Nation: The Secret History of Us, first in a three-part series detailing Australian attitudes toward immigration over the years. This episode focused on the official beginning of the White Australia policy just after Federation in 1901. Said policy was revolting. The treatment of non-Caucasians who wanted to come to Australia was appalling and the treatment of non-Caucasians already in Australia ... it was shameful. My one complaint about this documentary was that it really didn't say just how many non-Caucasians there were already in Australia at the time of Federation. It made it clear that the proportion became much less due to the policy but compared to what? I know about the Chinese miners, the Japanese pearl-divers, the Afghani camel drivers and the South Sea Islanders who were brought over to cut the sugar cane. I know that not all the convicts were white. But how many? And who else?
Then it was Catastrophe: Snowball Earth. Ye gods. Fascinating subject but a painfully slow and repetitive treatment. Every simple, basic fact was repeated. And repeated. And repeated. So. Fucking. Tedious. I made it to the end because I wanted to know what happened but Mum gave it up halfway through and I don't blame her. I think I'll leave this series alone. Yeesh.
Can it be cooler tomorrow, please?
