I just got back from rehearsing the fight scene at…
I just got back from rehearsing the fight scene at Dean’s place. He and Dolly were being coached by Shirzi while Mindcrime and I sat on the sofa and made provided commentary. Seriously, though, it went even better than I expected, and I’m eager to see how good it can be on film. Unfortunately, the weather forcast is solid with rain for the next few days. We’re going to try and do it tomorrow night, but it doesn’t look promising. I sat down and storyboarded the final scene today, and we should be shooting that some time next week. After that, all we have are pickup shots, and then the whole editing/sound/special effects stage starts. This, of course, is a completely different challenge altogether, but I look forward to sculpting a film out of the mass of footage we’re presently accumulating. I also watched On Her Majesty’s Secret Service on DVD and was struck with the idea that Lazenby could have become a good Bond if he’d just given it a chance. That movie also has some of the very best musical themes, and the end scene, while painfully set up, was really quite devastating. All in all, a clumsy yet enthusiastic piece, teetering on the edge of Bondlessness.
I rode Gendoyun up to Tianmu this afternoon to sell off some excess bookage and buy some canned soup in case they decide to shut the island down for a week or two. In stark contrast to last weekend, a lot of people were out today; you’d think that the whole SARS thing was overwith by the look of things. It might have something to do with the resignation of the Minister of Health, a tactic that somehow seems guaranteed to assuage everyone’s concerns and fears. Blame assigned + responsibility taken=problem solved in most people’s eyes here.
Meanwhile, on the international stage, unbeknownst to the vast majority of local residents, Taiwan is being raked over the coals for its incompetence in mishandling the whole SARS things amidst reports of the disease’s spread. I wonder if anyone realized how quickly these revelations will prompt the international community to realize that Taiwan’s efforts at modernization and social advancement over the past few decades were all just for show, that no such progress has actually been made, the only effort has been put into fooling the globe into thinking Taiwan was completely different and far more advanced than China. Until now, when the SARS hits the fan, ironically, while everyone’s putting on masks, one big mask has fallen, that of the Taiwan government, whose incompetence and lack of managerial ability is now front-and-center for the whole world to see and compare to that of China. While Chinese culture may put the emphasis on procedure, the world demands results, and in this light Taiwan and China might as well be the same country.
I sound like I’m writing a letter to the editor. Hmmm…
