steepholm

In general I listen to Nyman's music far more often than I watch Greenaway's films, although some (including Prospero's Books) I like a lot. Drowning by Numbers is different, though. I connect with it in quite a visceral way, Freud knows why. I can see that the cinematography is amazing, but I'm almost unable to judge it as art.

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calimac.livejournal.com

I haven't seen that one, actually, though as with others I've heard and liked the music. As far as the films go, I liked Prospero's Books and The Draughtsman's Contract, which I saw afterwards; but it was then seeing A Zed & Two Noughts ("The movie gained a mixed reaction" - Wikipedia) that persuaded me I should be very, very cautious about ever seeing any other Greenaway films.

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A Zed & Two Noughts is one I've not actually seen, oddly enough. But I enjoyed The Draughtsman's Contract too. I was less taken with The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and rather bored by The Pillow Book, after which I stopped seeking them out - which was no doubt connected with the fact that he'd ceased working with Nyman by that point.

But do try Drowning by Numbers: I'd be very interested to know what you think. (It's got a great performance by Bernard Hill, long before he met Peter Jackson...)

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:o)

Almost as good as the seaweed eating sheep who consort with seals on the beach on North Ronaldsay!

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Footage, please!

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North Rons are a unique and ancient breed. I can't find any video images but there's a nice photo of the phenomenon here:

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/71/06/710686_be4c8f50.jpg

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They look a hardy breed!

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They certainly are- they trace back to the neolithic.

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North Ron sheep are very fine sheep indeed. We saw one who was quite intelligent and nimble enough to cross a cattle grid.

They taste good, too :-)

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They are amazing! We've spent time on North Ronaldsay and their antics can be a great deal of fun! :o)

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I gather that it's only North Ron sheep on North Ron that eat seaweed. The established population on Papa Westray eat grass.

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True, but Papay has less in the way of beaches that aren't salt marsh and machar- North Ronaldsay is surrounded by the most amazing white sand beaches and has vast amounts of kelp.

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Oh, indeed.

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God, sheep are stupid. Everyone knows about those tides.
Trying to work out whereabouts they were - I should know from the view of the Coniston fells in the background, but I haven't been up for a couple of years. I'm guessing north of the railway viaduct... but judging by this December 2010 Coniston fells in snow

which I know was taken further south I could be wrong.

I love Drowning by Numbers too. Particularly the numbers.

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Admittedly, sheep can be pretty dim, but didn't a bunch of cockle pickers drown in that same area a few years back when they misjudged the tide?

Edited Date: 2012-07-19 11:10 am (UTC)

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Precisely. The cockle-pickers were Chinese, the victims of a gangmaster, and clearly knew nothing about local conditions; they should never have been sent out there. (There are local cockle-pickers who don't drown.) The sheep are locals who should know better.

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Maybe the sheep were tourists?

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Nah, they're just stupid. I've met sheep in that area who sat in the middle of the road, in the dark, and the only reason we didn't run over them was that their eyes glinted in the headlights. They were still sitting there when we came back; that time we didn't run over them because we slowed down just in case.

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North Rons are like that, but that's because they see so few cars on an island thee miles odd long and two wide with a (human) population of 58! The sheep are by far the majority, closely followed by the seals.

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It's not a busy road by urban standards, but it sees steady traffic. I don't know how they survived three hours in the dark without shifting.

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Therein lies their cunning.

My daughter recently wrote in the shower: "Sheep are just heavy clouds!" Perhaps that's a clue?

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That's just lovely :o)

There's a novel title in there somewhere.

Reminds me that years ago I taught Mr and Mrs Lamb's little boy.

They'd named him Sean...............

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I think they're demons. As we'd been driving along, I'd been telling my mother about a New Zealand film called Black Sheep, about killer sheep, and she said "What do you mean, killer sheep?" And then we saw these demonic figures with horns and glowing eyes sitting right in our path, and I said "You see, killer sheep!"

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ISTR a D&D adventure with, at the very least, canivore sheep.

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ethelmay.livejournal.com

Weren't there meat-eating sheep at Derkholm?

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I confess I haven't read it yet ...

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Yes, there were - some of Wizard Derk's more dubious experiments, I think.

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ethelmay.livejournal.com

Sounds like a riddle from The Hobbit -- "Wool in the blue field sees wool in the green field. That wool is like to this wool, but in low place, not in high place."

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:-)

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Very true!

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