Here I rank the fragrances in Fragonard’s Garden line. And
for those who don’t want to watch the video (although it helps me if you play
through the whole video), here’s the list, in order:
1. 1. Bigarade
Jasmin
2. 2. Tilleul
Cédrat
3. 3. Jasmin
Perle de The
4. 4. Grenade
Pivoine
5. 5. Rose
Lavande
5. (joint) Encens Fève Tonka
6. Héliotrope Gingembre
7. Rose Ambre
7. (joint) Santal Cardamome
I’m not sure if that’s how they should be numbered, with two
ties in the ranking. It doesn’t match up with what I say in the video, either.
Sorry.
Don’t forget to like this video and to subscribe to my
channel. It may not seem like a very big thing to you, but it is the most
important thing you can do to show support for people who create videos on
YouTube.
While you’re here, you can also:
Read my blog: www.CamilleSharon.com
Buy my novel:
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/camille-sharon-and-a-r-meyering/elixir/paperback/product-6jmjkw.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Here's the script I wrote with what I thought I'd say:
Assistant Editor
Today I’m talking about editing video and film and not
editing words, specifically being an Assistant Editor.
Job Description:
An assistant editor’s job might vary from project to
project, but basically anything the editor doesn’t want to spend time doing,
the assistant editor will have to do. Since I did this in the “olden days,”
most of my knowledge has to do with working on film and not necessarily
remaining all digital. The workflow on an all-digital show will likely be
different.
On a movie, after the shoot day the “dailies,” the video or
film transfer (version of the film on tape or digital format) of everything
that was shot that day will be sent to the editing room. Depending on the
schedule, this material could arrive late at night and it is usually expected
that an assistant editor will be available to load everything into the computer
and make sure that everything looks correct before the editor arrives at 9 am
the next morning to start the first assembly of the film. Part of making sure
that everything looks correct is making sure that the time code/footage numbers
on the dailies are being correctly read by the editing computer.
The film editor will start working on the first assembly of
the film the second day of the shoot, once the material from the first day is
available in the editing room. During this first few weeks of production, while
the movie is still being shot, the editor will work days and the assistant will
work when the editor doesn’t - which means nights. There might be more than one
assistant editor, depending on the needs of the production.
Once the shoot is over, the assistant editor should be able
to transition to a better schedule of not just working nights. The duties of
the assistant while the editor is working on the assembly could be
significantly reduced. They might be asked to not come back until the editor
has his first cut done or close to done, or they might be asked to hang around
to just do whatever the editor tells them to do.
Some editors might ask the assistant to sort the digital
film clips a certain way or to do some of the rough assembling of scenes so the
editor can focus on making more nuanced choices.
Once the first cut is done, the assistant will be
responsible for making sure that whoever needs to view the cut of the film is
able to. This could mean setting up screenings in the editing room, making DVDs
to send around to producers, or maybe nowadays setting up a secure on-line
viewing experience.
The assistant might also be asked to provide materials to
different actors who would like something for their reel. So an assistant might
sit with the film and just pull out scenes that a specific actor appears in and
then create a file or tape for that actor.
On projects which finish on film, there might be some
special effects which will be created per the editor’s instructions and which
the assistant will then need to replace in the cut of the movie on the editing
system so that the effect film is referenced on the edit decision lists instead
of the dailies numbers.
Once the final cut of a film is determined to be locked, the
assistant editor really takes over and makes sure that all of the instructions
for the negative cutter are correct. This could mean watching back a cut of the
movie and verifying the in and out time of every shot on the edit decision
list. It is tedious work and one mistake could end up costing a lot of time and
money. Luckily, it is rare that the EDL will have a mistake, and if one does
show up, it means something at the start was done incorrectly.
You might also be asked to sit in and make some changes to a
cut if like the editor and director get into a fight. You’ll be a button pusher
for the director while the director explores their ideas the editor refuses to
entertain.
How do you get this work and what does it lead to:
I got this work by interning (working for no money) at a
post-production company where I told them specifically I wanted to get into
editing. I did a lot of different things at the company and they started paying
me after about a month of working for free, but I was a little surprised to
find out I was an assistant editor on a project. I was doing something for a
particularly grumpy editor and asked to not work with him. That’s when I was
told I didn’t have a choice but to work with him because I was actually his
assistant editor on the project in question. I just had to deal with him.
If you know someone who is an editor, you can ask them if
they’d be willing to let you assist them on a project. You should also get some
editing software and work on building your skills on your own so if you see an
ad which requires some basic understanding of editing software, you are able to
apply knowing it isn’t a total bluff.
Some editors will also be encouraging of their assistants
and let them edit segments on their projects, helping get them on their way to
being an editor and not an assistant.
You should also consider working on some low or no-pay
student films to get some experience.
What kind of person is this good for:
Night owls! If you don’t mind working long hours, alone, in
the dark, then you’ll be prepared for the first part of the job of making sure
the work is all loaded into the editing computer. You’ll need to organize the
files also, so you’ll need to be organized. And when I was the assistant I also
had to do a fair amount of tech support. If something malfunctions with the
editing computer or software, the assistant gets to troubleshoot it and maybe
spend hours on the phone with tech support instead of the editor doing it.
Eventually I knew a lot about how to troubleshoot AVID problems and for the
most part no longer needed to call tech support to solve the problems which
would pop up.
You should also have an easygoing personality and not take
it too personally when an editor is rude to you, because they will be rude to
you. It’s easier to blame an assistant editor for a mistake than to accept
responsibility.
The downsides:
You’re sort of down on the list of important people, so are
likely to be treated poorly or overlooked, even if you have good ideas on what
is or isn’t working in a particular scene.
The pay:
This can vary from literally nothing to really good. If you
can get into the union and work on union jobs, you’ll be doing great. A quick
internet search shows that the union salary for an assistant editor on a big
studio movie is over $2000/week. And because it will be in the union, there
will be protections that non-union projects won’t have as far as abusing your
time.
If you can get yourself booked most of the year, you’ll earn
a good living as an assistant editor. You’ll most likely be working project to
project, so you might go for long stretches without work. But you could also
get booked onto a project that lasts several years.
If you can get a job at a post-production company, like I
did, it will be a regular full-time job. Otherwise, you’ll be a freelancer
going from one long-term assignment to another.
If you have any questions about what else I did as an
assistant editor or what movies I’ve worked on, please feel free to ask them
below. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can see all my videos, about all the
different things.
Since I enjoy a good mystery, I decided to try out one of
the “cat who” series books by Lilian Jackson Braun. I had no idea how to select
a “good” book from the series, so I just picked one that had a good rating on
Audible.
The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal was published in 1991, something
I didn’t realize until just now. The first “cat who” book was published in 1966
and the one I read was the 12th in the series. There was a big gap
between the first three novels and the next, from 1968 to 1986. For some reason,
probably because I’ve spent so much time with Agatha Christie in the past two
months, as I listened to this book I imagined it was set in a much more distant
past than the 1990s. The setting of a small town helped with that illusion. I
don’t recall there being any talk of computers or mobile phones. The internet
wasn’t really a thing yet and mobile phones didn’t really become a regular
thing until the late 1990s. As a result, it didn’t matter that I pictured the
story being in “the past,” like anywhere between 1950 and 1970.
I don’t know what I expected of the titular cat, but I was a
little disappointed in the cats and their involvement in the crime solving. I
know cats can’t solve crime, but the little hype I had heard about these novels
led me to believe the cats would be more integral.
Once again, I listened to this story and didn’t read it. It
was read to me by George Guidall. I did not enjoy his narration. The lead character
in the story, Qwill, is a man. The reading for the men in the story was fine.
It was each time the narrator had to voice a woman that I would drop out of the
story. He voiced all the women as snippy and short, and I can’t believe they
would all have been written that way.
By this time in the continuing story of Qwill, he has two
cats, not just one. The original cat Koko is still with him, but now has a
companion Yum Yum. The story reminded me in many ways of Murder, She Wrote.
It is set in a small town and the focus is just as much on the quirky cast of
characters as it is on the murder which has taken place. Perhaps after reading several
books I might be more invested in the characters, but with just one I didn’t
find them all that likeable.
It isn’t even worth talking too much about the plot, which was
fine but not compelling. I’m not saying to avoid the series, but this one wasn’t
that great and certainly not the best introduction to the series. I don’t think
all of the titles were available on Audible, which limited my options when
picking which one to listen to. And some of the comments indicated that on the
2 for 1 offers on Audible the books were abridged versions, which I didn’t
want.
Anyway, another one done and two more to go for my year of
books!
If you wondered what I thought I'd say, here it is.
Audio Description:
Job:
Today I’m going to talk about writing audio description.
This is something required since 2010 for a set number of hours of broadcast
material on the major networks. Meaning that lots of TV shows and movies have
to include AD whether they want to or not. Details of the law can be found by
searching for the 21 Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).
Since this is required by law and not something TV shows and
movies elect to do, it often has very low budgets and the quality standards can
vary. Some larger companies will include AD in their budgets as an incentive to
get more higher paying work from clients. So like if you hire us to do all of
the dubbing and subtitling, we’ll throw in AD on your project for practically
nothing.
What is it?
AD is a spoken track on a TV show or movie which provides
audible information to explain action for visually impaired consumers. Just
like with closed captions for hearing impaired, there is another track you can
access on your TV which will play the AD alongside the original program. Since
this hasn’t been a requirement for very long, there are still some variations
in how companies approach the writing of the AD.
Basically, you go through a TV show or movie and create
placeholders between the dialogue where a narrator will have time to talk. Then
you go back through and put in descriptions of the action in these gaps between
dialogue and sound effects. After you write the AD, you need to go back through
and actually speak the words, since it doesn’t really matter how great your
writing is if no one could reasonably say it in the time allowed. Because you
have to speak out loud, or at least mumble the words quietly, this can be
annoying to your coworkers if you are in an office and not working from home,
but there’s no way around it.
Example:
Here’s a brief audio description of some video shot around
my house.
Orange feral cat Trapper and grey tuxedo feral cat O’Keefe
sit on a table chomping on cat treats. House cat Hot Lips plays with a rock on
the ground and then scratches herself. A pink hibiscus flower sways in a gentle
breeze.
Qualifications:
The companies I know that do this work are looking for
writers - meaning they are looking for people who identify as “writers” and
they are probably actively hiring right now. Since I haven’t been on the hiring
end of this, I’m not sure how they determine someone’s writing skills. Also,
since the written document is eventually going to be read, I would imagine they
wouldn’t be sticklers for things like exactly correct grammar which are needed
in some of the other English jobs, like DL and SL creation. And since this is
targeted to native English speakers and not going to be translated, there is
more leeway on writing informally and using slang terms than there would be in
documents given to translators.
Tests and Training:
I trained to do this for one company. They required 4 days
of tests, including reading of guidelines documents and watching examples.
Since the four days didn’t have to be sequential and you had to wait for
feedback after each day of testing, for me this spanned about a month of going
back and forth to get ready to be hired for my first project.
I was recommended to the head of that department by a former
coworker, but I imagine you can find job listings for AD writers and just
apply.
The pay:
So. I did one episode of one TV show - still as sort of a
test, but this time I was getting paid and then getting feedback on my work.
For me, the pay was atrocious. It didn’t even matter how good or bad my work
was, there is no way for that pay rate that I could justify accepting a second
episode. This was pre-pandemic, but I think even with the loss of steady work
during the pandemic, I couldn’t afford to do this.
Part of me feels like I let the company down or left them
thinking I couldn’t handle the notes or adapt my writing style, when really I
just couldn’t do this and afford to feed myself and my cats. If that was my
only choice of work, I’d go back to answering phones at a temp job, pretty much
anything else I could figure out.
Now, I’m not saying this will be the same experience for
everyone. If you can afford to get through the training - for no money - and
can hold out with the extremely low-paying work long enough to get really fast
at writing the AD, this might be a good job for you. As with all freelance
jobs, you are paid for the project and not based on how long it takes you to do.
If you can devote a whole week to making $200 for several months at a time, you
might be able to eventually get your speed up to the point where you can do
that amount of work in a day instead of a week, even though there might not be
enough work to then keep you busy for the whole week. At least it won’t be a
tremendous waste of your time. Or, if you can get a staff job writing AD it
might work out better where you would then be paid hourly.
This section (underlined) didn’t make it to the video: I’m
going to go on a little tangent now, though. In California, there was a law
called AB5 which went into effect in 2019 which has really messed up a lot of
freelance work vs. full-time work. The law was meant to target companies like
Uber and Lyft, to force them to give better pay and benefits to drivers, but it
has ruined the lives of many other freelancers. It left a lot of companies with
two choices about freelancers - either everyone who does a certain job, like
writing AD, needs to be freelance, or they all have to be staff with no
freelancers doing that job. Or, maybe, if there are a few staff people they can
hire freelancers as long as the freelancers don’t reside in California. So I’m
not sure if there are many staff writing jobs for AD left and if there are,
they might be limited to part-time only. I really don’t know, I just know that
AB5 has not helped anyone.
So, my advice, if you can find a full-time staff job
doing this, it might be worth it. Otherwise, it is a lot of work and training
for, at least in the beginning, a non-living wage.
Downsides:
The downside for me was the pay. Just not worth it for me to
do more than the one job. I should have asked the pay during my training time,
but didn’t and got stuck having to do a job that made me feel cheap and
unappreciated.
This section (underlined) didn’t make it to the video: And,
I just have to add this rant, one of the notes repeated during training was to
not use the verb “to be.” If you’ve taken a screenwriting class, you know this
usually means “don’t write in passive voice, avoid verbs ending in -ing.” This
turned out to not be what they meant. The person who proofread (and changed
every line I wrote) on my one and only assignment, added lots of words which
ended in “-ing,” but literally didn’t put the “to be” conjugation with them. So
instead of saying something like “The rabbit is jumping and grooming its ears,”
it would say “Jumping, the rabbit grooms its ears.” I found this note to be
contradictory and it really bothered me. I will always have a problem with this
and hold a grudge.
Wrap up:
So, AD writing is out there, and because it’s the law, it
will continue to be out there. And it might be something you would excel at, it
just wasn’t a fast enough fit for me for the money.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them
below. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can see all my videos and learn more
about what people in Los Angeles who aren’t rich and famous do.
Here's the latest video on writing Creative Letters. Below the video, I'll post the script I wrote if you want the highlights without watching the video or if you want to see how different the actual video turned out from what I thought I was going to say.
Creative Letter Writing
Hi. I just wanted to start by saying that if you notice I’ve
been a while between posts, I will often put something on my community page to
let you know what’s been going on with me and why I haven’t been posting much.
Job Description:
Today I’m going to talk about writing something called a
“creative letter.” This is another job in the International Versioning
Department, and is used for dubbing.
The name is a little bit misleading. When you write a
creative letter, you aren’t being very creative. You’re writing a technical
document which assists in the casting of voice actors in foreign countries for
the dubbed versions of the film.
A creative letter is an aggregate of a lot of information
taken from the dialogue lists which have already been created with the addition
of other items. If you are hired to write a creative letter, you should request
a previous one to use as a template of how that client wants the information presented,
so you aren’t starting from scratch.
The creative letter will include some basic information
about the film - like how long it is, the main cast from the end credits, and
links to the IMDb page and any official sites for the movie. There might also
be some technical information, but that will be supplied by the client - like
how they want the dubbed files returned to them and what casting approval might
need to happen before voice actors are hired.
The most creative part the creative letter writer needs to
write is a synopsis of the film. On some projects, this can be surprisingly
difficult. The synopsis doesn’t need to go into all of the details of a movie,
but it should cover important plot and character points. A synopsis can range
between one paragraph and two pages.
After that, the creative letter is divided into sections
which include things like a list of the characters in a movie, the actor
playing them, the actor’s credits, the actor’s age and the character’s age and
then a description of the character and a description of the character’s voice.
The most difficult part of creative letter writing is
describing the vocal qualities of the character. The description needs to
include those vocal qualities which have to do with the character and
differentiate them from the vocal qualities inherent in the actor.
For instance, is it important that a female character has a
deep voice? Is she mistaken for a man over the phone? Or is it just that Emma
Stone is the actress and she happens to have a deep voice?
So in a role like Emma Stone in Cruella, the creative
letter would include a note that when Estella is acting like Cruella she
intentionally lowers the tone of her voice, as if they are two different
people. You wouldn’t necessarily need to note that Estella has a deep voice,
but rather that there is a tonal change when she is in one persona or the
other.
These character and voice descriptions are written for each
character thought of as a “main” character. Sometimes that means even if a
character only appears for five minutes, they need to have a section dedicated
to them. Other times, a character who appears more frequently might be a side
character and not require this information. The client can help guide the
writer about which characters they expect to get this detailed treatment.
The CL then goes on to include word counts of how many words
each character speaks - so the dubbing supervisor can estimate how long to book
each actor into the dubbing studio. Every character who speaks in a movie will
be included in the word count list, whether they speak 2000 words or just grunt
one time.
The creative letter will also then include a section
detailing any words or phrases which require special attention when the move it
translated and dubbed. This might be something like a catch phrase that needs to
be said the same way each time a character says it, or it could be
alliterations which should be preserved during the translation. This is up to
the discretion of the CL writer, although the client will often weigh in if
they feel something has been overlooked.
The CL will also include a list of all of the on-screen text
in a movie, because some territories might decide to have a character say the
text rather than putting up a written translation of it. Like if someone is
reading a letter and in the OV it is just shown as the letter, it might be read
in a dubbed version instead of having text added to the picture.
There will be a list of songs and something called “ditties”
which will have specific instructions from the client. Often if a song is by
someone famous, that person has agreed to sing the song with the understanding
it will not be replaced in the foreign dubs. So if someone like Selena Gomez
stars in a movie and sings, you might have permission to dub all of her
speaking but be contractually obligated to subtitle when she sings, leaving her
voice and vocal performance in. This is information the client will give you
but it needs to be in the creative letter.
A ditty is a song which doesn’t require full lead sheets.
Maybe someone improvised something sing-songy and it doesn’t matter if the
person dubbing it sings the same notes or key or anything, just that they sing
those words or lines.
That’s the basics of what goes into it.
Example:
Let me put up a little example of what some pages of a creative
letter might look like.
Qualifications:
The best creative letter writings I’ve worked with are
professional singers. They are more in tune with hearing different vocal
qualities and describing them. You don’t have to be a professional singer, but you
need to have a good ear.
Tests:
We didn’t test anyone in this job.
Training:
As far as training goes, it seems like there are two paths
to learning this. If you find someone who writes creative letters, you can try
to offer to help them out in exchange for them teaching you how to write one,
or if you are in an English Department and have the opportunity to proofread
CLs, if you are self-directed in your learning ability, you can figure out how
to write them and then offer your services to the department.
The pay:
This is definitely a freelance thing and not enough money to
pay your bills like a full-time job. Think of it as an enhancement. The CL
writers I’ve known were also something else, like a dubbing supervisor, voice
teacher or a loop group lead. Or they might be a member of the English
department who gets to do this in addition to other things, like DL and SL
creation. On the plus side, you will sometimes luck out with a very easy
assignment.
There are sort of three categories of jobs.
The first is short things, like a trailer, TV spot or
Interstitial will all pay the same. An interstitial would be something short
which appears like on commercial bumpers or DVD bonus feature, so if you get an
interstitial which has one line, you will get a good payday.
Then there are short films. They require almost as much work
as a feature or TV show, because they will have a full run of characters. For
instance, there are a few short films based on the characters from Frozen and
Tangled. Luckily, the features were already done so a lot of information could
be reused from those CLs, but had they not been done already, the labor
involved in creating the CL would have been similar to a feature, for less pay.
And then there are features and TV series. Features and TV
series pay better, but they require more work and have tight deadlines.
Features will also usually require a first version, for
higher pay, and then revisions when new versions of the edit are done. The
revisions are usually pretty easy and mostly just require updating word counts
and text lists, since it is rare that new characters would be added between
edits of a film, but they will have a very fast turnaround, of like one or two
days.
TV series are usually very involved for the first episode,
but after that the dialogue list editors will probably handle making any
updates themselves, so the CL writer will not be hired for more than the first
episode and maybe a few updates as characters are added or removed from the
series.
I asked my friend who wrote CLs for a long time what she
liked best about the work and here’s what she said.
1. Got to see new movies early
2. I found the input pleasant.
3. It allows you to use your ears, and training to describe
voices, i.e. pitch, timbre, intent.
4. the Synopses were hard, but taught me to be a better
writer.
5. I liked working with my boss!!!!
Downsides:
I didn't like to intense deadlines. I didn't like picky
(client).It got hard having to do all
the subtitles as well. I didn't like the
grind, but LOVED the money!
Wrap up:
So, writing CLs is something you might be interested in
adding to your arsenal of skills, but don’t expect this to be your exclusive
full-time job. I don’t know of any companies that have someone on staff who
just writes creative letters.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them
below. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can see all my videos and learn more
about what people in Los Angeles who aren’t rich and famous do.
Ross currently has MAC lipsticks which were part of the special-edition
release for Lunar New Year 2021. I don’t know how your Ross handles cosmetics,
but here’s what mine does… They used to keep them in the jewelry counter, but I
guess that got to be a little annoying for employees, so they started putting
them in locked clear boxes. You can see what they have and what it costs, but
for things like lipstick, which is in an opaque box, you might not have any
clue what the color actually is. At least this gives you confidence as a buyer
that no one has tried on the makeup or accidentally left the lipstick extended
while putting the cap back on. I guess maybe you can ask someone who works at the
store to open the box so you can check the colors, but if you’re like me, you
don’t want any interaction with people while you are out, even if it saves you
some trouble and money by having a better idea of what you might buy.
But this is the modern age! I saw these lipsticks and knew I
was interested in them and took out my phone. Surely I should be able to
quickly determine what colors they were by searching through beauty blogs.
Surely…
A few videos popped up at the top of the search, but I didn’t
want to start watching potentially long-winded vlogs in the middle of Ross. The
information I needed was just a list of color names, a picture of the color and
maybe a description of the color to help me assess how good the pictures/my phone
screen were representing things. A few blogs popped up, but they were so
overrun with ads and pop-ups I struggled to even find if they really were about
the lipstick I was looking at. Seriously, I understand wanting to make money
from a blog, but at the point where you have an ad for every sentence or
picture, you’ve lost readers and are NOT HELPFUL!
One blog, which had the most useful information (which I
only found after leaving the store and searching again when I wasn’t pressed
for time) looks like it was Google translated from another language. The names
of the lipsticks are all slightly off, but since I did do a blind buy on two of
the lipsticks on my first outing, I could confirm that they were sort of
accurate in their descriptions with a fairly simple puzzle of what the names of
the colors were.
Turn Up Your Luck was listed as “Turn Up Your Rack,” a
vibrant bright red.
Luck Be a Lady was listed as “Luck Bee Lady,” a smoky brown
red.
Brickthrough was correct, but spelled as two words, a dusty
rose.
Healthy, Wealthy and Thriving was listed at “Healthy,
Wealthy and Sliving,” a true red.
And Playing Koi was mistranslated as “Playing Carp,” losing the
pun in the name, a vibrant orange coral.
Despite all the words I’ve used
to express my dismay at how bad beauty blogs are, my thought here was to
present a better version of the beauty blog about these lipsticks. Starting
now.
MAC Cosmetics has released a limited edition set of colors
for 2021 Lunar New Year. Packaged in vibrant boxes with graphics of goldfish on
the colorful tubes, the lipsticks are available in five colors in the “powder
kiss lipstick” formulation. The packages on all of the colors are identical.
Brickthrough is a dusty pink:
Healthy, Wealthy and Thriving
is a traditional blue-red:
Luck Be a Lady is a brownish red:
Playing Koi is a
bright orange coral:
Turn Up Your Luck is a bright pink-red. (I’m listing
them in alphabetical order and they appear in this order in the pictures.)
The powder kiss lipstick formulation has a sweetener in it,
so when you lick your lips you get a rush of sugar. They are also infused with
a sugary vanilla fragrance. They glide on smooth and are weightless to wear.
The color intensity deepens as you swipe back over your lips each time. Here I’ve
swiped the colors on my arm. Each one has been applied twice - once lightly and
once going back over it several times - so you can see how they darken with
repeat application.
For my personal preference, I’ll be wearing Brickthrough the
most, as a solid everyday color. I’ll wear Luck Be a Lady the second most, when
I want something a little more intense, although the brown in it does lean a
little bit to the orange side. For some reason, when I allow the girls at cosmetics
counters to put makeup on me, putting me in an orange coral color is their
favorite thing to do, but I’m unlikely to wear the orange/coral Playing Koi. I’m
also unlikely to wear Turn Up Your Luck, since it is just a little too bright
pink for me. Healthy, Wealthy and Thriving is a solid blue-red. For those out
there who like a red lip, I think it is a winner. Maybe if the pandemic ever
gets under control enough that I go out again, I’ll wear Healthy, Wealthy and
Thriving for that extra drama of a red lip.
MAC no longer carries these limited-edition lipsticks, but
you can currently (September 2021) find them at some Ross stores, and I’m sure
you’ll be able to find them on websites like eBay for a while.
If there’s one thing I love, it’s a cozy mystery -- British
preferred. I have seen every episode of Murder, She Wrote several times.
I can watch Columbo episodes again and again. Agatha Raisin?
Loved it. I’ve seen all of Poirot, Father Brown, Miss Fisher,
Shakespeare & Hathaway, Rosemary & Thyme, Queens of
Mystery and others. Not all of them work for me, but many do. So for my
next book, I decided to not go for another memoir but to try a mystery novel
instead.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a Poirot story by
Agatha Christie, published in 1926. I got the audiobook version, read by Hugh
Fraser, who happens to play Captain Hastings on Poirot. He did a
terrific job of reading/performing this story, including doing a good Poirot
voice.
A couple of things stuck out to me in this novel. First, I
must have read it before. Actually read it. I knew who the murderer was almost
immediately. I’ve only read maybe three Agatha Christie novels, millions of
years ago, so I thought it would be unlikely that I would select an audiobook
of one of those that I’ve read, but that’s what happened.
If you’ve ever read any Agatha Christie, then you will know
that guessing the murderer is nearly impossible. She withholds vital
information until the very end, or introduces a new character at the very end.
One of my favorite movies, Murder by Death, has a speech near the end
about the frustration of reading stories by a writer like Christie. I found a
copy of the speech online, which might not be accurate, but you get the point:
“You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've
tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced
characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've
withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did
it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now
getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be
selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.” -- Lionel Twain
That sums up my experience. So when I watch an episode of Poirot
or Marple, I don’t try to figure out who did it. That is an impossible
task. I just enjoy seeing the detective at work. Christie is a good writer and
reading or listening to her work is enjoyable.
The second thing that stuck out to me was how easy her
stories are to adapt to TVs and movies, which is probably why they remain so
popular. The novel sounded almost like someone reading a screenplay. The
dialogue was complete. The characters were complete. The locations were visual
and the story was engaging.
I tried to find the TV version of this story, but for some
reason it isn’t available on the subscription services I have, and I don’t want
to pay extra just to watch it. Maybe I’ll change my mind, but for now that’s
where I’m at.
Overall, this was a great title to listen to while pulling
up crabgrass in my yard, and I’m leaving the door open to listening to more
stories written by Agatha Christie.
