Slugfest

Here's Rob, weighing slugs at Slugfest. A beautiful afternoon, although I wasn't the only one dying from the heat, several slugs actually did die from it.
We did everything we could but alas, being cooped up in a jar or yoghurt pot on a hideously hot afternoon when you are a slug, is not conducive to continued life.
Actually, one of the pieces of info that we were supposed to pass on to our audience was the most humane way to kill slugs. You freeze 'em. They pass away peacefully.

My own part started with the puppet Slimey the Slug. Slimey for some historic reason, speaks with a Glaswegian accent. So I practised.

'Would ye like to see the breathing hole in ma heed?'
'Can you do the bee dance, pleeeeease?'
'I'm nae a bee, ah'm a wee slug,'
'Yeah, buuuut, you're Betty bee, can you do the bee dance?'

At this point it always seemed a plan to get out the real banana slug and demonstrate slug power (slime is sticky) and put it on the glass plate so the kids could see its movement.

Slugfest didn't attract crowds exactly, but those who came were in a cheerful mood and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Yesterday, we saw the film 'Blood Diamond'. Leo di Caprio, an actor I'd love to be able to dislike, was beyond superb in this part. He has Chutzpah. He is a GREAT actor.
The film gave plenty of opportunity to feel the fear and horror of ordinary people living in Sierra Leone at that time, to understand.
But as a film, it seemed pedestrian to me. It lacked real vision. I felt as though I were looking through a camera lens rather than a director's eyes. I like a film to give me something to think about, but it left me nothing.

Except...except....
The character played by Jennifer Connelly was a strong woman. And Connelly isn't glamorous, so that strengthens the character further. But she was still very much a secondary character. I criticised Halle Berry for whining that she wasn't considered for some parts because she was black and I stand by that. But over 50% of the population of everywhere is female and this film, more than any other made me wonder whether whoever cast the movie even considered that the main character could be female. Because it could have been. There are some outstanding women actors who could have taken on the di Caprio role. This role, like Connelly's was not based on looks, far from it, it was a role where gender wouldn't have mattered. So why are we still not seeing women in better roles? Why are we still, as a society, so bizarrely prejudiced against women?

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Hmmm.