MEH

last night we watched the movie "elizabeth" with cate blanchett as elizabeth and the delicious clive owen as sir walter raleigh. i am certain these forays into history play it fast and loose with the facts, plus this one tended to be long on Significant Poses and short on Actual Acting, but it was good enough entertainment. the costumes and sets were magnificent and clive owen - who can look a bit dragged out and pasty at times - was all swarthy and swashbuckley as the dashing privateer mr raleigh. (there was talk of the new land, a state named virginia, a city named for mr raleigh.) papists, traitors, and the spanish armada all made appearances, as did mary stuart, queen of scots (looking very spanishy), and others whose names i am sure i was supposed to learn in MEH. yes, MEH as in modern european history (which encompasses eras that i would not technically classify as "modern"), not "meh" as in whatever, although there was often a general feeling of meh in MEH except the day coach (most of our classes were taught by coaches, but that's another story) banned purple looseleaf paper (oh, the humanity!) and the day my classmate showed up with a walkman. a CASSETTE playing walkman - one of the original breed. purple looseleaf + walkman -- talk about history!