seeing the strange

I took this photo in the woods about a week ago. Of course it’s a desiccated thistle head, but it also looks like there’s a winged creature escaped from a fantasy world – such as The Dark Crystal – perched on top of it.

Seeing the world at a slant can lend wonder to the most ordinary moment or scene.

I’m away today to spend the holiday with my parents, and I’ll be back next week. I might blog, but I also might take a break. It depends on my humour.

It was inevitable that after praising the Little Crackers series on Sky I should see two of them I didn’t care for, and for similar reasons.

The first was by David Baddiel, which started off somewhat angry because Baddiel introduced his short film to explain he was reframing a story someone else told in The Guardian – incorrectly, according to Baddiel. While all the incidents related in the short film were interesting and evocative they didn’t really add up to much and this resulted in Babbiel having to appear at the end ‘to sum up’. A short film shouldn’t require a closing statement.

Julia Davis’s piece was a romance plot – a socially awkward 14-year-old girl with braces has her first snog at a 80s house party. The ensemble cast was very good (featuring the best oddball Dad I’ve seen in a while), the production was great, but it didn’t add up to much. I’m all for stories about socially awkward girls, but I like a narrative to go along with the character. It was a bit of a damp fizz.

Still, I’m looking forward to catching the rest of the Little Crackers at some point during the festive season.