While there was sufficient light today, I started photographing miscellaneous bits and bobs - things I collect, but which aren't TransFormers related - for a side project. Didn't last long, though, as the camera's battery running out put a serious additional delay on proceedings. Got a fair bit done, however... not much more to add now.
All this meant that I didn't get done the sketching I wanted to do today - meaning Wednesday is likely to be my earliest next opportunity to spend any quality time on sketching. Tomorrow, I'm having lunch with my family. Monday and Tuesday I'm heading uptown. Realistically, Tuesday afternoon is a possibilty for doing stuff... but it's still getting dark quite early and sketching in electric light just isn't pleasant.
Not much in the way of interesting television today, but there were two movies I decided to watch. The first was The Pursuit of Happyness, in which Will Smith plays a 'triumphing over adversity' role in a movie based on a true story. Smith tends to be very likeably in just about everything he's in (easy for me to say - I've never watched The Fresh Price of Bel Air), and his performance as a father struggling to eke out a living when everything seems to be going wrong is very compelling. It makes its point very well and without decending into saccharine or preaching - everyone is free to pursue happiness, but achieving it takes a lot of work, and that should never be taken for granted. So many times, I found myself thinking "It can't possibly get worse for him", only for it to do just that... and yet, by the time it finally went right for him, I was expecting another disaster.
Compare and contrast, then, to Double Jeopardy, in which Ashley Judd is convicted of murdering her husband, only to find he faked his murder, shacked up with her friend after changing his name, then killed her and reinvented himself all over again... The central premise is that, under US law, one cannot be tried twice for the same specific crime... So, having spent time in prison, ostensibly for murdering her husband, she was then free to actually commit that crime. Of course, she didn't really want to... she only wanted her son back... but the way it all came together was predictable and far too convenient. Prime example: the revelation that her parole officer was once a lawyer pretty clearly telegraphed the way the latter half of the movie was going to go... and I figured it might have gone so much smoother if she'd involved him from the start... but still, it felt tacked on. Almost as if the writers got to the end and realised they needed to plug some holes, so they rewrote elements of the parole officer rather than introducing more characters. The most glaring proof if this possibility was that the bad guy/husband had moved to New Orleans for the finale of the film: when confronted by his wife and her Parole Officer at the end, he pointed out that Louisiana always goes for the death penalty in murder cases. Wife points out she's already been convicted of his murder, so she could kill him in the middle of Mardi Gras and get away with it. Parole Officer confirms the Double Jeopardy rule.
I'm happy to report that I'm still reasonably tidy... though there are a few things I need to get done tomorrow... whether they happen before or after Family Lunch will be decided largely by what time I get out of bed tomorrow...
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