Day 55: Clementines and Aggressive Shorts

The muffled days between Christmas and New Year.  Lots of people dislike them.  Not me.  I love the suspended sense of limbo.  Time to do things like boiling clementines for TWO HOURS.  Yes.  I did that today.  A first for me.  I've boiled potatoes, eggs - the classics - but never clementines, and never for two hours.  Exciting times.

(I should perhaps clarify that there was point to this - a clementine and almond cake.  I was not just boiling clementines for the hell of it.  It wasn't an art film.)

And then to see 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' - the new US version.  At the cinema in Hatfield Galleria - a lot more terrifying and a lot less fragrant than boiling clementines.  I liked the original Swedish version, and didn't think a remake was at all necessary, but was interested to see what they'd do.  I wasn't expecting much.  But I was pleasantly surprised - mainly by the performance of Rooney Mara.  Really strong presence - uncompromising and bold.  Some clunky bits of plot slow things down, but that's the book's fault, not the film.  Still a good sense of Scandi bleakness and minimalism.  A little weird that so many of the characters had Swedish accents (journalist = 'yurnaleest'), but not Daniel Craig - who still sounds like he's just about to step out of the surf in his sky blue swimmers.  No matter.  A perfect way to spend a limbo afternoon. 

Not a beret.  Shorts.

But think the title should actually have been 'The Girl With The Aggressive Fringe'.  The fringe most definitely pulled maximum focus.  Any dragon-business was secondary. 

Fringe.  Or, because it is an American film, bangs.  'The Girl With The Aggressive Bangs'.  BANGS.  (According to Wikipedia, this comes from the practice of cutting hair 'bang-off'.  That clarifies, doesn't it?  A more logical approach might be the term 'shorts' - from the practice of cutting hair 'short'.  That's what mine will be called from now on.  My shorts.  As in 'I cut me some shorts.' 

Dare me to.  Dare me to cut some aggressive shorts.  An inch from the hair line.  I've got a pair of itchy scissors right here.  RIGHT HERE.  All it would take is a tiny snicketty snip...