Witches & Warlocks

It's been a sinfully lazy week... been watching movies, sitcoms, soaps on my laptop ... and watching some TV too!! It feels heavenly to be so... jobless :D

Stuff I've been watching:

1) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe

I was a big fan of the book & the TV mini-series when I was growing up. Naturally, I was dying to watch the movie. To someone who hasn't read the book, the movie would probably seem like a run-off-the-mill fairytale, heavily inspired by LOTR & Harry Potter, combined with really cool SFX. But it's so much more. I had a fab time with Devika - we did a real time semiotic analysis of the movie. Semiotics at face value, minus the Saussure, Barthe & Pearce, is damn cool. Any story designed to appeal to both kids and adults (like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Enid Blyton's popular stories) have many common threads. Here are some things we observed...

• All these stories have one kid who's a natural leader (a la Julian from Famous Five, Peter from Narnia) and one kid who's a rebel (Fatty from Five Find Outers, George & Dick from Famous Five, Snubby of the 'R' mysteries), one who's gentle & motherly & kind of a spoil sport (Susan from Narnia, Peggy of the Secret Series).
• There is generally a wise-old-man character - Dumbledore, Aslan, Gandalf...
• There are many references to mythology, the medieval age & Christianity. Sacrifice, trechery, resurrection, battles, paganism are some common themes.

2) Dilbert - The TV Series

Doesn't live up to the comic strips or the books for sure... but a good watch anyway. It goes beyond office situations, and gets quite un-Dilbert at times, but has some really interesting analogies. I especially liked "Art" from Season 2. Dogbert and Pointy Haired Boss are especially brilliant. A bit on the Southpark mold. Am surprised that the show had only 2 seasons on TV though. Earlier in the week, Vinay & I did a semiotic analysis of Dilbert for the long pending end term assignment.

3) Desperate Housewives

It took time, but I'm finally hooked to it... quite desperately. Have access only to a few episodes from Season 1... and I spent every vela minute reading scripts of the episodes I couldn't see. It's an awesome combination of a soap and a dark comedy. Been so hooked, I even took the Desperate Housewives quiz on ivillage... and here's what I got.

You are a determined, motivated and intelligent woman, like exec-turned-mum Lynette. You know how to make things happen and are committed to the important issues in your life, whether your children, your relationship, your family or your career. Your high standards reach into every area of your life, and no-one could question your dedication. You're also an inspiration to others in your ability to find out how the game is played and win on your own terms (take that, scary PTA mum!).
However, like the manic mother of Wisteria Lane, sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. While it's ok to pull an all-nighter for a big project from time to time, if you make it a regular occurrence you're going to burn out before your time. Try to balance your priorities. Sometimes you need to focus on your own needs rather than those of others - no matter how noble the other causes might be. After all, the secret to a happy life isn't just achieving goals and looking perfect on the outside. It's being happy on the inside. You know this; sometimes you just need reminding.

Aughh!! That's definitely what I don't want to be.

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There was a lot of vitriol in my last post. Stuff that a lot of people who are with me right now would have identified with. I'm surprised no one commented. Is it a bad case of missing vertebrae?