Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

An exciting email, Monkey's makeover, a few films and a flying finale
[Updated Tuesday 12th & Saturday 30th July 2016] 

Exciting email
Guess what! Our updated video of Reading in Bed @ 70 [see our previous blog post] has been shortlisted in the top ten by the Edinburgh International Film Festival Short Film Challenge, no less! It will be screened with the others on Saturday August 6th at the Edinburgh Filmhouse at 2:00pm. It's free, but ticketed, so if you intend to come, you should book. They will all be shown again on August 20th and 25th at this event as part of the Edinburgh Digital Entertainment Festival (looks interesting) but you'll have to pay! Oops, these showings are free, but others in the EDEF may cost you.
  
We were all so extremely excited when Alice got the email there was a lot of leaping about and laughing and cheering.

Of course, we don't have any expectations of actually winning, and suspect it was shortlisted just because it is so unusual, even if not up to professional standards. But then we did include some self-referential criticism! However, we notice there is "a special recognition for Most Innovative Use of the EIFF theme (seventy)" which might just apply. . . Watch this blog later.

Please be reassured that in the image above Ba has not trapped her hand, she is in the process of raising the clapper in order to bring it down again with a really satisfying bang. You can see and hear this in the original Reading in Bed [the one without the crucial @ 70 alterations and additions] on Alice's friend Joy's YouTube channel. If you can't manage to be at the Edinburgh event, or just don't feel so inclined, we're going to get her to post the new version too, after the show, for you to see at your leisure if you wish.

In view of this impending public event, I required some really real patching up. This involved being darned by Alice with Anchor embroidery thread (colour matched, of course.) Give her her due, she was very careful.

The first photo here (click to see larger) shows half-way through the process and reveals, for the first time, my remaining sad bald patches. (It's all that being carried about in a rucksack, rubbing against my sensitive fur, and nothing to do with age!) The second shows how I appear with the digital touching up, previously employed only for online appearances. I much prefer this look, but needs must, I suppose. Sigh.

Next, we found some wool, rather than embroidery thread, and darning with that seemed to have a less glaring effect. Whew. Then she decide Ba and I both needed  a good scrub-up (just on the non-delicate areas ..) The things we do for appearances! Here we are sitting together for mutual support while drying out and recovering. [Click as usual . . .]

Alice herself is already wondering whether she'll turn up in full feminine finery, or do a sort-of Jenny Beaven wearing her jeans, or bright patchwork trousers, with Iris Apfel style necklaces from the Cancer Research charity shop. We'll let you know, and might even have a photo.

It's getting late, as it usually does somehow when we're writing a blog, so the bit about a few films will have to wait for the updated version. Night, night!

A few films
I think two films will do for now, or this will never get posted before bed-time again.

See me here, beside a huge poster for Tale of Tales in Edinburgh's Cameo cinema, before going to see this super film of three interwoven  traditional 17th century fairytales. The little booklet below is much more my size.


Some of it is pretty gory (15 certificate) even more so than appears in the trailer, and horrific, as well as rather sexy. It had absolutely some of the most gorgeous design and cinematography we've ever seen, and wonderful music too. The acting was superb all round, the sets and settings were fantastic. The special effects were so well done that I even forgot they were almost certainly "added" to the scenes later.

There are of course morals to be found, but these are deep ones and Alice said you'll have to work them out for yourself. So there! In fact she has seen it twice, though once satisifed me.

We went to several films in the Edinburgh Film Festival, and our film friend has reviewed most of them, but one we really liked, Neither Wolf nor Dog (based on the book of the same title) hasn't got listed by Letterboxd yet, though it is on IMDb and Facebook.

See the trailer on YouTube to get a taste of it.

The most amazing thing about it is that Dan, stubborn, quirky, serious and humorous too, is played by 97 year old real-life Chief Dave Bald Eagle. He's simply terrific - and apparently still going strong.

The film reveals the horrific history of white oppression of the Native American Indian race, and is very enlightening as well as moving, especially when we reach the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The whole enterprise was done with crowd-funding, and had just two in the crew. There's a good review of the film here, so read that, and we'll save Alice's weary typing fingers and some space on here.

A flying finale
As you will probably know if you've followed us for a while, we're avid fans of HBO's Game of Thrones. Recently we had occasion to see the last two episodes of Season Six with a neighbour down the road and her Monkey. WOW! What a blast that was. Those in the know will know what I mean. No spoilers here, however.

We thought you might enjoy this photo of the other Monkey, practising his dragon-riding. It clearly startled the leopard hiding behind baby Drogon's wing. There's something in the show for everyone, you see, human or not.