Conversation Between philistine and Abiraleft

I'm not sure if your Spacey immersion has passed just yet, though have you seen his film, K-Pax? I remember watching it several years ago, and really enjoyed it.

I'm not too bad, thanks. Not watched anything of any real note recently; Skyfall and Looper at the cinema, and re-watched American Beauty and The Usual Suspects the other month (yes, it was a Kevin Spacey thing ). Reading Ghosh's Sea of Poppies at the moment, which is decent. I need to sit down and watch/read something really good soon!

What ho, amigo? My laptop died quite unexpectedly a few weeks ago, and I've only been sporadically online ever since. I'm still hammering the films, the literature, and whatever else you might expect, so my head has become anything but what it already was- a confused fountainhead!

How are you these days?

Haven't seen you around for a while.

What ho!

Bloody hell, I haven't seen any of those! Nor have I seen This is Not a Film. I'll have to check them out.

Do you write short reviews consistently? A few months back I took to writing 100 - 150 words or so on every film I had seen, with the intentions of both buffing my writing ability and cementing my thoughts on the piece. Of course, that eventually petered off, and now I just watch them. Haha.

Nothing in particular. I'm not a graduate yet, so employment potential isn't too fantastic. I have an interview tomorrow afternoon (I should be sleeping, but, oh.. well), so we'll see how that turns out. I have an 'inside man' at the company, and I'm guessing it hasn't gone unnoticed!

The avatar is one of my delightfully zany self-portraits. I can send you the full resolution image if you want. I guess it does look like a David Lynch screenshot!

Have a good one

It was interesting; taxing at times, but enjoyable enough on the whole. I was teaching at primary school level, so it was quite fulfilling at times as well (thought I could have achieved a lot more with a little more time, but hey).

Oh yes, Iranian films are supposed to be fantastic, aren't they? I've heard a lot about the Iranian New Wave, but not seen enough to know much about it. The only Iranian film I've seen is Pahani's recent This is Not a Film - did you get to see that one? - which was surprisingly engaging. The films I saw were Bena, Broken Wings (which was the only Israeli film I'd seen previously), Nina's Tragedies, Noodle, Walk on Water and Mabul (The Flood) - over a period of three days. Decided to write a series of short (~200 words) reviews on each of them too. The standout for me was Nina's Tragedies.

Any particular job or sector that you're looking at, then?

Also, new avatar! What's it from?

How did you enjoy the volunteering? I give a day of my time away every week, and it's a jolly old riot, honestly.

Israeli films, eh? The only one which comes to mind is Riklis's Lemon Tree, which I saw a few years ago. I've seen a fair few Iranian films in my time, though I haven't seen enough of the former to compare. Which titles do you have lined up?

Absolutely. It's rare I'm seen without a book normally, though for the past few months, I've devoted much more time to film. As such, my interest has gone from quasi-serious-movie-fan, to decided film buff.

I'm looking for a new job at the moment, as there were... difficulties with the previous. Job searching should be the primary activity for those residing in the seventh circle of hell. Horrid business, it is.

Haha, don't worry about the stories. No rush whatsoever. I've since experimented with a more Faulknerian, Saramagoian style, and with damn good results. It's all arsing about for the minute, mind.

Take care

I'm well enough. Recently back from two stretches away from home - one volunteering in a rather remote area, the other a holiday. Just settling back in now; might be watching some Israeli films over the next couple of days, which could be interesting. Might actually get some time to read some of your stories as well now. I've only read the first two so far.

Anything especially interesting happening on your end? It sounds like you're watching a lot of decent films.

Evenin' sir. I'm very well, thank you. Yourself?

How have you been doing?