Winging it.

Yesterday I spent the day at my Mom's; it was her birthday and 'the fambly' had a wee get together. The teevee is always on at my Mom's and yesterday it was tuned into PBS - one of the few decent channels. They were showing 'Winged Migration' - a sort of documentary about birds. I mean 'sort of' cos it wasn't informative really. It was more of a visual feast.

Here a wee clip following some geese:



It was made in 2001 but I had never heard of it before. Strange really cos this is the sort of thing I really like. It is stunning and hypnotic. The cinematography is amazing. It took four years to film and involved imprinting birds to accustom them to cameras and paragliders, ultralights and other filming techniques (dodgy?).

The end result, for me, is watching it and wishing I could fly.

Wonderful news! You can see it all on YouTube ... at least right now.

Part 1 of 8 is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lYEor72YQ The rest you can find from there.

But I think kicking back on a sofa with a DVD and a big screen would be ideal.

Enjoy.

Ultra-realistic labia!

Thanks for your attention.

I saw a wonderful film a few nights ago called 'Lars and the Real Girl' and I was going to write a bit of a movie review but thought, nah. All that I can really think to say about it is, "do yourself a favour and see this film; it's very sweet." And it is; it's a very sensitive film about a man who works through some personal problems with the help of a RealDoll named Bianca and his understanding friends and family. It's a yummy film.


I first became aware of RealDolls, a few years ago when I was doing a postgrad degree in gender studies. They were used as a talking point for ideas about and concepts of sexuality, corporal femininity, object/subject relations, techie-sex, etc. Very many interesting discussions were had indeed.

In one such discussion, I learned of a man who had purchased a RealDoll and a comment that he made has stuck in my head for years. He explained that when he ordered his RealDoll he asked that she have breast implants as he felt that that would make her more realistic to him. Ha! What kind of postmodern craziness is that?! It's so surreal and so fascinating to me that blurry grey bit between fantasy and reality and how differently, different people conceptualize these notions as well as notions of sexuality, human-ness, humanoid-ness, gender, subject/object, etc. I could go on and on...

Also about that time, I watched a documentary about RealDolls on British telly called, 'Guys and Dolls.' Although not as sweet and sensitive as 'Lars and the Real Girl,' it still attempted to portray the men interviewed in an understanding and compassionate light as opposed to allowing it to sway into freakshow territory (those 'documentaries' exist in abundance).

I just googled and found it! I (heart) the internet! Here it is in all its silicone glory. (The vagina repairman scenes are a bit freaky, in that gyno exam gone so entirely wrong kinda way, haha! Viewer discretion advised, I guess). It's an interesting documentary though as it shows that 'Lars' is not necessarily unique or fictional.

'Guys and Dolls':



Hey L, if you need any of this deciphered, let me know. I'm happy to translate (as much as I can, that is!) but here is a good synopsis that explains the show pretty well: http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/reviews/2006/guysanddolls.htm