(no subject)

Last night I went out with my friend Malcolm and his girlfriend to the cinema to see "Grizzly Man", a documentary by Werner Herzog. The film tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, who spent thirteen summers living among wild grizzly bears in Alaska and recording his experiences on video, until, at the end of his thirteenth summer, he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear. The film is told mainly through Treadwell's video footage and interviews with his family and friends. It was a very good film. Herzog did the narration for the film and often seems to argue with Treadwell's opinions, in particular with Treadwell's view that the natural world is all harmonious and everything is in balance away form humanity's influence, whereas Herzog opines that the natural state of the world is chaos and violence. It's not really about the deaths of Treadwell and his girlfriend - there are no gruesome re-enactments and the only "footage" is an audio tape which we never here (apparently Herzog had access to the tape and is seen listening to it in the film, but against the studio's wishes, declined to feature it in the film out of respect to the families). It's often very amusing (with Treadwell coming across as somewhere between crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin and Andy Warhol) and genuinely moving in many places. Herzog's genuine affection and admiration for the eccentric and obssessed individulas in his work is very engaging.

Today has been quiet and dull. There was a big desk move at work yeterday so it is quite strange trying to get used to a new area and sitting beside new people, even though it's still the same room, it feels a bit strange wehn you're used to sitting in the same seat every day for months.