Of Seeds and Development

Finally — while taping up boxes — found the connecting link for the elevated 'turn' of thought I wanted in order to serve as an ending for "A Family Man": Christine, of course :-)
(Though I'm not yet sure if the title for this story should have the indefinite article, the definite article, or neither...)

Immediately after writing the ending I suddenly recalled a whole segment of unused material that was in the original development (while I was sitting on the bus... I even remember which road we were going along at the time), in which it is mentioned that Raoul as a child used to smuggle food to Christine and her father, and Christine now admits for the first time that it wasn't actually very suitable food for an invalid, and that her father didn't eat it! But I no longer remember what the line of thought that led to this exchange was (possibly Raoul comparing his wife's figure favourably to the scrawny girl of their childhood?) or how it fitted into the rest, so my subconscious was probably right to omit it.

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We have initial germination on the second sowing of seed; a little more quickly than the original batch, I think, possibly because it's now later in the season and/or a lot warmer.
The orange ones are coming up first, which I think I remember.

Unfortunately the first batch got quite bashed about by the billowing curtains when I left the door of my room open with the curtains shut; I do try not to do that because the through draught sends my papers everywhere, but this is a new hazard :-(
I think they'll recover...

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

This was one of the Disney films I meant to see during the BFI's all-year Disney-a-week marathon, but managed to miss out on (my enthusiasm had rather flagged by the end of the year). I watched it today under less-than-ideal conditions, on a salvaged second-hand DVD that jammed and skipped, and without actually being able to concentrate on the screen for considerable periods of time, and I liked it a lot: more than "Tangled", more than "Frozen". Loved the Twenties aesthetic (little references like Naveen's ukulele), Tiana's realistic working-class parents, the New Orleans setting, the jazz, the voodoo (the Shadow Man has definite overtones of Baron Samedi). I liked the way that Charlotte, though clearly spoilt rotten, turns out to be a good friend and not an antagonist (and they even manage to make the friendship between the Sugar King's daughter and Tiana the black waitress come across as plausible). The Shadow Man makes an excellent villain. And, although this sounds cruel, I liked the fact that they went so far as to really kill off Ray, instead of pulling off the last-minute magical resurrection that seemed to be on the cards -- though any last words at all were a bit implausible under the circumstances :-p
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