The Golden Compass

[ellen_datlow]

This evening a group of nine adults went to dinner and then to see The Golden Compass at a movie theater in Belfast, ME. Dinner was delish at Darby's and we thought we'd have to wait on line for tix but nope. Although it was opening day it wasn't very crowded. But the big surprise is that tix were only $7 for adults! They're now $12 in NYC so this was a very nice jolt. I've not read the books so know very little about the plot but I enjoyed this first of what is obviously going to be three movies. As one person pointed out, if the movies were made before LOTR and Narnia the special effects would have seemed a lot more spectacular but we all loved the daemons and wanted our own...I personally already have my own-my two cats...however, you can see what daemon creature will be yours if you answer 20 questions at the Golden Compass website. Mine's an ocelot-which certainly fits ;-)

The acting was good and I really enjoyed it but wasn't overwhelmed. Partly, I don't think the sound was loud enough. Also, the soundtrack is awful. Possibly hearing the audience pop soda tops throughout the movie might have jolted me from the action. Oddly enough, NYC audiences have gotten much better over the years. No one drinks from cans but bottles, which are at least quiet...weird outside of NY experience.

It snowed again (about an inch) and did I mention that the other night Liz made lemon granita from the snow outside the house and Meyer lemons sent to her by a friend who has a tree. Yes, we ate yellow snow and it was yummy! Perhaps more tomorrow night for dessert.

Comments

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Ellen, we had the first chapter of The Golden Compass in the SFF library in OMNI on AOL. Long before anybody'd heard of it, I found it in the hold list and read it for TOS violations. I thought it was kind of boring (but I'm not that fond of fantasy).* I emailed Pullman and told him I was releasing his chapter and that he should remember that sometimes publishers wouldn't buy work that was already on the web. He replied that it had just been published and posting sample chapters was fine with his publisher.

*It was a lot better than most of the other stuff that was submitted. That library was kind of like a public slushpile. People kept asking me if you'd read their story and I told them probably not.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Hi Marilee,
I wasn't even aware of an sff library in OMNI....

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

We were on the third SFF library when OMNI left AOL. We also had an Antimatter library, a Science library, and of course, the official OMNI library where we put up logs of interviews and pieces from OMNI.* Antimatter tended to get loonier ideas, but few of the pieces were very good.

*Remember the batch of novelettes we did right before leaving? I still have those on diskette. I should probably move them to a flash drive.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

You mean the novellas we commissioned paying lots of money as a result of the Ford (auto) sponsorship). Too bad I didn't know you had them all on diskette--I needed at least one of them oh, about five years ago :-) I reprinted Howard Waldrop's novella on Event Horizon.

I never saw any of the OMNI stuff on aol.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Yep, those. I had OMNI logs and such for many many years and finally got rid of those earlier this year. I kept the novellas, though. You never want to let go of good stories. You want me to send them to you?

Most of the OMNI library was the online interviews we did, but we also had a few pieces from the paper mag to bring interest.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Sure. I can pass them on to the authors, who might find them useful.

But please wait until Wednesday, when I'm home.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Okay. :)