Visual feasts

Thursday 11 August 2005

We tried to watch Bewitched last night but the sound quality was very poor (not to mention that it was a very hit and miss film). I had wanted to see it because I am named after the character Samantha from the original series. However, I fell asleep towards the end of it so will have to go back and watch the end. Of the collection of seven animated films I mentioned previously, it seems only two of them actually work on our laptop.

Today we went to the “official” DVD shop and purchased lots more DVDs.

We bought the following television dramas: The L Word season 2 (which hasn’t been shown on Australian television yet and is due for release on DVD in the USA in October!) and Desperate Housewives (the last couple of episodes of season 1 which we missed because we left Australia for Timor).

Films: Spirited Away (the multi award winning Japanese animated film), The Manchurian Candidate (last year’s well-reviewed remake), I Heart Huckabees, The Sea Inside (the dramatic Spanish film about euthanasia that won the Jury Grand Prize at the 2004 Venice International Film Festival), Love is Thoughts (a German film).

I was thrilled to find these as I was wondering if any of the quality television dramas and art house films we enjoyed in abundance in Australia would be available here. The films we purchased were ones that we had wanted to see in Australia but had missed out on. We also found The West Wing and Queer as Folk but they were seasons we have already seen. The really weird thing is that the artwork on the cover of the latter was really funny: it had a picture of a scantily clad woman superimposed alongside the gay male characters. Obviously the graphic designer had no idea what this series is about! Daniel just had to take a photo(see below).

I have resisted looking at the ABC’s television guide online as to avoid knowing what I´m missing. However, today I took a sneak look and discovered that the third series of Spooks is currently showing! I then promptly went to the ABC’s shop online and found that it can be purchased for about $60. We will wait and see if it turns up in Dili (and I suspect it won’t, as most of the DVD’s are American content) then we will acknowledge that it is a luxury and spend the money anyway. It is amazing how the mere act of watching a creative visual feast from the English speaking world can bring you great comfort and a chance to pretend that you’re not actually living in one of the world’s poorest countries with all its attendant difficulties.

We received an internal memo at work today reconfirming that we can only access the Internet for 2.5 hours a day! 9am – 10am and again from 4:30pm – 6:00pm. I think I may indeed have to go to Daniel’s work when I need to do intensive research (work or otherwise).

Tonight we are meeting up with the two other AVIers that we came over with as one of them is finally leaving Dili for Aileu where she will begin teaching secondary school next month.

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)