Mm'kay, so Van Helsing is all daft accents, expensive sets, absurd effects and loud bangs. The sheer number of references to other movies (the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the gadgets from James Bond, the pods from Aliens, the Jawas from Star Wars, the mirrors from Orphee, the towers from LOTR) is sort of amusing, but, over two and a half hours, the whole thing grows rather tiresome. I considered leaving half way through, but, y'know, I'd paid for a ticket...
I'd only really come on the promise of seeing Elena Anaya with whom I fell hopeless in love after witnessing her in the Spanish film Lucia y el sexo a couple of years ago. Here she plays one of Dracula's brides, but she's barely recognisable under all the silly make-up and orange wig...
So yesterday Prendick asked us what our most significant spiritual/mystical object was, and I've been kind of troubled at my inability to come up with an answer... It seems I have no such object. Indeed, I don't really have many possessions at all aside from books and records (although I do have a lot of those...)
But, well here goes... I used to be kind of into the tarot and I was taught about the tarot by my aunt Jacky who was one of the most important influences in my life until she died of cancer in 2000 and in fact who still is one of the most important influences in my life... I'm not sure i have the emotional energy to go into detail here about Jacky except to say that I haven't used the tarot since she died because I became convinced that the cards had foreseen her demise...
(Parenthesis: I don't believe that the tarot will tell you what's going to happen any more than the horoscope in the newspaper will tell you what's going to happen... I do believe that meditation with the tarot is one means of tapping into the energies at work in the universe producing a heightened sensitivity to events that is, in some ways, akin to knowing what's going to happen.)
So I got kind of scared when the tarot 'contained' Jacky's death, especially after it had been she that got me into it in the first place...
Anyway, my tarot deck is nothing special, although it has the curious claim to fame of being the deck used in the James bond movie Live and Let Die. Jacky, on the other hand, had a very special and very mysterious tarot deck that she used to keep wrapped in black silk and which was passed to me upon her death... I haven't had the courage to touch it since (and it's been nearly four years), but i'm thinking that here, in fact, could be the most spiritually/mystically significant object I have... and I'm thinking now may be the time to let the genie back out of the bottle...
Anyway, the night's calling...
'Well the dogs on Main Street howl, 'cos they understand
If I could take one moment into my hand...'
- Bruce Springsteen ('The Promised Land')
(and I make no apologies for quoting the Boss: at his best, he's up there with Dylan and Cohen...)
I'd only really come on the promise of seeing Elena Anaya with whom I fell hopeless in love after witnessing her in the Spanish film Lucia y el sexo a couple of years ago. Here she plays one of Dracula's brides, but she's barely recognisable under all the silly make-up and orange wig...
So yesterday Prendick asked us what our most significant spiritual/mystical object was, and I've been kind of troubled at my inability to come up with an answer... It seems I have no such object. Indeed, I don't really have many possessions at all aside from books and records (although I do have a lot of those...)
But, well here goes... I used to be kind of into the tarot and I was taught about the tarot by my aunt Jacky who was one of the most important influences in my life until she died of cancer in 2000 and in fact who still is one of the most important influences in my life... I'm not sure i have the emotional energy to go into detail here about Jacky except to say that I haven't used the tarot since she died because I became convinced that the cards had foreseen her demise...
(Parenthesis: I don't believe that the tarot will tell you what's going to happen any more than the horoscope in the newspaper will tell you what's going to happen... I do believe that meditation with the tarot is one means of tapping into the energies at work in the universe producing a heightened sensitivity to events that is, in some ways, akin to knowing what's going to happen.)
So I got kind of scared when the tarot 'contained' Jacky's death, especially after it had been she that got me into it in the first place...
Anyway, my tarot deck is nothing special, although it has the curious claim to fame of being the deck used in the James bond movie Live and Let Die. Jacky, on the other hand, had a very special and very mysterious tarot deck that she used to keep wrapped in black silk and which was passed to me upon her death... I haven't had the courage to touch it since (and it's been nearly four years), but i'm thinking that here, in fact, could be the most spiritually/mystically significant object I have... and I'm thinking now may be the time to let the genie back out of the bottle...
Anyway, the night's calling...
'Well the dogs on Main Street howl, 'cos they understand
If I could take one moment into my hand...'
- Bruce Springsteen ('The Promised Land')
(and I make no apologies for quoting the Boss: at his best, he's up there with Dylan and Cohen...)
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I have not read all of his works. If I ever do come across something that changes my opinion of him, I will let you know. ;-)
That's funny that you mention that James Bond deck. Was it Jane Seymour in that movie? I think that was the first ever tarot deck I saw.
Tomorrow is the beginning of my week long removal of superfluous items. It's a week of vacation. Tomorrow I'm going through my bathroom. It's my first room to be descummed.