Thursday, April 27, 2006

my fingers are not as long, nor as skinny, as kate moss'

[warning: this post contains text about six feet under, particularly the episode shown this week. it also contains text about chimney sweeping.]
okay. i am coming down to the wire with my thesis. i cancelled an appointment with my supevisor today so i can write. my days are messy; yesterday the chimney sweep plus my mother managed to combine and suck all the hours from my window of opportunity between school-drop-off at 9am and pick-up at 3.30pm. the hours fly, as they are now. and i have no excuse about blogging do i. the chimney sweep is not making me do it. but i have to have the right mental state in place to sit and write and think clearly about structure and flow and coherence. to be coherent is extremely difficult.
and here i am blogging. i've painted my nails bright red, which is something i don't usually do. toenails, yes. fingernails, no. but i wanted to approximate the kate moss look, you know girls, when she has short nails, but they are red. and they look fucking awesome with her long, skinny fingers. my fingers are not as long, nor as skinny, as kate moss'. it's funny how much i want to put another s after moss' like this: moss's.
to business.
three words.
SIX






FEET











UNDER.








you will just have to indulge me for the next seven weeks, because for the moment, sfu is my obsession. hear me? obsession.
it's come like a godsend back into my life. there was such a long break between seasons i thought it was lost to me forever. i'd seen it in the video shops but it didn't seem to have the correct shows. then out of the blue, it returns.
for me, sfu is unlike any other show i've ever watched. and i've seen a lot.
so, no big brother [used to watch it and like it until it got too skanky], no survivor, no amazing race. we do watch desperate housewives, and prison break and medium. and neighbours.
neighbours, i love. prison break is ok. like, just ok. not great, but there are characters i do enjoy, such as teabag is just such a thigh-grindingly creepoid. desperate housewives is good for watching bree and lynette, but the others are wearing thin. medium is great but i always feel it should have gone for another hour, and the endings can feel rushed and a bit pat.
last night we watched our taped episode of six feet under. nate and brenda seemed to reach a rapprochement, so i'm hoping that will be the end of the tension. maggie came to dinner with george; i really wonder what the maggie character will do.
seems david and keith are going to adopt a boy who has an older brother as well. we haven't met the brother but there's promise that he might be difficult. but david and keith are getting on so well, i LOVE the dynamic between them. the tender looks, the graceful bowing to each other's preferences.
billy is such a pathetic character, it is so hard to watch; his neediness and his on-the-brink-of-panic is so replusive. claire has such a good head on her shoulders, she is strong and she knows what she will and won't put up with. you can see she can't stand to be near him, and when she was tricked into seeing him not once, but twice, and the second time with the assistance of his mother, you couldn't blame her for just running away from the restaurant when she said she was going to the toilet.
george and ruth looked at a house, in an interesting area of town that is near the market and something else, a museum or gallery? ruth's face looks lighter and george is so loving with her. there was a very subtle after-sex scene, where she looked particularly harrowed and you just knew she had done it for him.
rico spoke about vanessa's private business behind her back to the principal of the kids' school and another mother; a transgression that was unforgivable and completely killed any chance of them getting together. i love the way rico speaks; he is so solemn and precise, and uber courteous. it's delicious.
and finally, a bit of closure about lisa and her death. i was wondering whether it would be mentioned again. it came up in the context of brenda thinking maya should be being told about her "first mommy" and nate was feeling rushed about it. then it all came out, his feelings about the way lisa died, that she'd been having an affair with her brother-in-law, and, shockingly, the thought nate has obviously been nursing that perhaps maya is not his biological child. this is something i had never considered, and brenda said they were also things that she had never thought of.
each episode is so full. i am going to be so bereft when it finishes. unlike arrested development and curb your enthusiasm i feel i have invested so much emotion in this show, in the characters and the stories. they are like family, my family. never has a show so thorougly moved into my mind and taken up residence before.

11 comments:

sublime-ation said...

And thank god they're not! (fingers skinny as Kate Moss'). My dad reckons that nowadays it's Moss's. I reckon he's losing it a little bit...but shhh, don't tell. He just published his book, first one in years.
You sound like you are in the same hell I am in with your thesis. I am about to go into swotvac mode to finish my book, I have about a month to write 50 000 words or so. Agh!

Melba said...

if you didn't have the same deadline as me, i'd ask if you needed a proofreader.

i LOVE proofing text. even really boring technical docs, like i did about a million bosch user manuals in a past life. the boss couldn't believe what i was picking up. i got a rep for being impressively thorough. but fast also. it's like a gift, what can i say?

good luck, hey!

magical_m said...

Maggie has an agenda. AGENDA I tell you.

I don't like her at all.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the child playing Maya looks like she is part goblin?

Very mean of me, I know...

*administers slap to self*

Melba said...

m_m, yes you are very mean. but then so am i. i said to john the other night:

"why do they have that ugly child on as maya? when there are so many beautiful children in the world"i think i may have shocked him, but then he mumbled something about "producer's child"

let's face it, most children are gorgeous before puberty gets to them. but she's not. she has character in her face at age 4.

sublime-ation said...

Thanks for the offer, you genius freak! My mum once had a job proofreading the Melways, and also the Yellow Pages. How boring is that? She said she nearly died of tedium.
I have a brilliant proofreader, he's insane: he proofed about 50 000 words in a week. And properly too.
I always thought I was a good proofreader, I started proofing some of my mum's books when I was 11. But I must've gone downhill, cause I proofed some of my book and was informed by my editor that I wasn't allowed to do it again and was better off sticking to writing.
I nearly cried.
But hey, I'd rather be a writer than a proofreader anyday. Let someone else clean up the mess.

Riss said...

You sound like you need an arrangement like mine.

Every so often I have to lock myself in my office at work to get something done - like today when I had a Fortnightly Report due.

I told my staff what I was doing, shut my door (locked - so no interruptions), forwarded my phone to one of them and came out again in an hour after answering three emails, finishing my report and ready to take my lunch break.

Would you like to borrow my staff? :)

Melba said...

i'll borrow anyone's staff! and then we can have lunch all together and there can be more people to help distract me.

i wasn't sure if you were offering staff to me or sublime, but thanks anyway!

BEVIS said...

Riss, you know the little rhyme:

"While the staff's away, the BEVIS will work for pay!"

(That kinda makes sense, right?)

And no, I'm not really asking for a job; although thanks for your email the other day ... :)

Tammiodo said...

Are there people who's jobs are as a proof-reader? I LOVE proofing (not to mention that I am (i think) fairly good at it! How does one go about getting such a job?

Melba said...

tammiodo. what you are talking about is sub-editing. i worked for a magazine publishing company and worked as sub-editor, which means a lot of proofing as well as other stuff.

i got that job through an editor i met who asked me if i'd like some work. then i did some freelance as well.

i was trying to get a job at the age a few years ago just when they were cutting budgets and losing people rather than taking them on.

so, look out for ads in the paper but they are very rare. and you'd need quals at the minimum (cause there a whole lot of things you learn, it's not just picking up spelling mistakes) and they'd probably want experience too. how do you get your first job then if they want experience? you have to work that out, there's no answers. but friends who are willing to give you a go can help.

if you're really serious about it, do a course first. rmit also run a certificate course (or used to) where you can do subjects like sub-editing, professional writing, desktop publishing etc.

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