I'd Rather Be On Arrakis

I went to see Dune yesterday.  [Small spoiler in second paragraph!]  It was the first time I’d been to see a movie since Princess Bride at the Rooftop Cinema last year some time.  One a year is a lot these days.  The movie was excellent, though having to watch masked and suited Fremen on screen while wearing a mask myself was….interesting.   I thought they did a very good job staying true to the book while doing necessary simplification for screen.   To me it also looked authentic, as in the interiors of the great houses, the views of Arrakis itself were as evoked by the book.

I don’t think there’s any other movie coming up that I’d be prepared to wear a mask for, not until part 2 of Dune shows up.  It wasn’t a cliffhanger, though, even if one didn’t know the story.   It breaks at the time jump part of the novel, when Paul and Jessica join the Fremen and essentially disappear into the desert for three years.

It was a reluctant return to real life, with more nutters on the train.  Coming in, there were loud drunks [at 2pm], one without a mask, though I doubt COVID would have had a chance past the pickling due to beer.  Didn’t get close anyway.   Then on the way back there was some woman screaming abuse at a dude for supposed insult and/or injury.  He just sat there and took it so nobody else did anything either.

I’m hoping hard that the mask rule will be relaxed on Friday and for now considering just not going anywhere for three days.  I’m not feeling optimistic because we now do have community spread, of both Delta and Omicron variants.  Whichever way fate falls, I’m thinking of visiting the Fremantle Markets on the weekend.   There’s a hattery stall I want to visit and also somebody making masks that has been favourably reported.