Poem for Friday

My Boy Jack
By Rudyard Kipling

"Have you news of my boy Jack?"
    Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
    Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"
    Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
    Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
    None this tide,
    Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind--
    Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
    This tide,
    And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
    And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

--------

I spent a lovely day with , who took me out for Thai food and brought me glass, magnetic and metal seahorses, Bath & Body Works potions, tall ship books, a Dorothy Parker puppet and Prince Ken! After going to Benjarong (on the new Montrose Road, to my surprise, as I wasn't expecting the road diversion), we came back to my house, ate the remainder of my Nubian chocolate roll and indulged ourselves in Daniel Radcliffe movies -- December Boys, My Boy Jack and the Order of the Phoenix DVD extras. December Boys was not as cliched as the reviews led me to believe, though maybe I just don't know my Catholic orphan stereotypes well enough...all the young actors were very good, the guy playing Fearless could be the love child of Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman and his wife was played by Xena hottie Victoria Hill. Also, the scenery is very prettily shot...the is movie very easy on the eyes in so many ways. Spoilers: We think Maps' future as a priest is a huge waste of potential. Seriously, forgetting his erotic future, the film does very little to recommend Catholic institutional life and for Maps, returning to a Catholic orphanage is a kind of defensiveness against being hurt again by friends or potential family. But maybe I am not believing in the miracle of the Virgin's appearance sufficiently.

I thought My Boy Jack was actually a better-scripted movie and magnificently filmed...I realize it was made for TV but if they cut corners on the battle scenes, I certainly couldn't see it on the small screen (we watched an .avi file on my new laptop). The acting is first-rate -- Caroline Kipling is my favorite Kim Cattrall role ever, completely unglamorous and focused, and David Haig (who also wrote the screenplay) and Carey Mulligan are terrific too. I knew in broad strokes what would happen, but the war scenes were still very upsetting and the contrast with the quiet English countryside was portrayed very well. Plus I liked the relationship between the siblings, the storytelling scenes and the portrayal of the women going out to do hard physical labor while the aristocratic men continued to dress well and sit at nice clean tables discussing the war.

As for the HP extras...ohhgod, I still want a poster of that still of Lucius sitting in the fancy chair with the dogs at his feetl, his brandy in his hand, and his legs spread. We didn't get to the Tonks tour -- is it any good? -- but we did watch the deleted scenes, which as usual were entertaining but nothing that made me desperately wish for an extended edition. Spoilers: There's lots of added Umbridge, Neville and Trelawney but not Snape, and nothing really thrilling added back from book like, you know, Lockhart, or Remus and Sirius giving Harry a joint Christmas present. Instead there's a long, funny but rather pointless bit of Trelawney making a mess on the table in the Great Hall while Umbridge talks, an extended bit of the scene with Umbridge in Trelawney's classroom, a funny moment between Umbridge and Filch after the Weasley twins' departure, Umbridge's rant just before the centaurs arrive in the Forbidden Forest.


There was a downtown holiday street fair...


...set up outside the Smithsonian's Reynolds Center last weekend.


In addition to the carolers, there were merchants and craftspeople.


Many of the people coming and going from the National Portrait Gallery went to look at the wares.


The back of the building is next to the MCI Center (with its giant National Treasure: Book of Secrets poster).

Smallville started out so promisingly: Lois has to rescue Chloe, yay! Girls helping girls and not a Clark in sight! But of course we didn't get so lucky all episode. Spoilers: Clark's dialogue with Lana is even more atrocious than usual -- "I'm back and you're here, that's all that matters now," "When I saw you in the barn it was like I fell in love with you all over again" -- gaaaah, maybe these writers deserve to stay on strike while I watch more British TV! Fine, it's not really Clark, something I suspected before he flew and then we saw the Ice Prince...but the thing is, Clark and Lana's dialogue is often that bad when it IS really him. And then HE gets to rescue Chloe while Lois is UNCONSCIOUS because of Lex's EVIL CLONING SCHEME. Gaaaaah, again! I suppose it was worth watching for the Grant Gabriel "My Clone Sleeps Alone" storyline and Lex's hysterical "You're not my brother, you're a mistake!" And his priceless line to Grant, "If I didn't love you, you wouldn't be here." But that's very little to like in 40+ minutes of television.

Was dorkily excited to see that the remains of the Quedagh Merchant, Captain Kidd's pirate ship, have been found. More excited by that anyway than Jodie Foster...some of the same people who were screaming that J.K. Rowling is a homophobe for doing too little too late are now lionizing Foster for a tiny acknowledgment of her partner and co-parent after her 15 years of determined silence on gay issues in Hollywood.