Movie review - Sex And The City 2

(This review was pretty much the result of a discussion between me and Pooey that took place in the car after we saw this movie. Spoilers abound so don't read on if you want to form your own opinion.)

Taking place two years after the events of the first SATC movie, after finally getting the things they've wanted for the last 10 years, we see life has not been so rosy for all the girls. Carrie is finding herself champing at the married bit despite finally pinning down Mr. Big, - after a hard day's work, he'd rather stay home and watch old movies while she wants to keep going out and party. Having finally reached a high level in the legal world, Miranda is finding herself faced with the dual challenges of balancing work and a boss who seems to hate her. Charlotte is finding it difficult to handle being a stay at home mother (despite the help of a hot, full-time, braless nanny), and Samantha is in menopause and fighting the loss of her sex drive.

Now, prior to the opening of this movie, I will admit to being a bit alarmed to various reviews calling this the WORST MOVIE EVER - if you can, please watch this highly entertaining review by Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton. I was willing to bet that all these reviews were from non-fans and thus my expectations would be so low that I'd find this one just as entertaining as SATC 1.

I was wrong. I was so wrong. This movie is abominable, so I'm going to do a formal breakdown of why.

The plot. As Pooey said to me, the first movie didn't exactly break new ground but after a hiatus of several years, it was like catching up with old friends - a natural progression for the time and their personalities. This, on the other hand, was absolutely ridiculous. Part of the 'charm' of SATC series and movie was the dreamland where a writer could afford high fashion clothes and a wonderfully decorated apartment. As we all know, NYC was hit pretty hard by the GFC, but other than Carrie saying the market was not good for selling real estate we get none of that - everyone is still getting along quite affluently. I wonder which writer thought it would be pretty gauche to have them continue to do their high spending ways in NYC...and decided to up the girls up to one of the few places where conspicuous displays of wealth is still okay - Abu Dhabi. And we are hence presented with a heap of scenes that show Orientalism is alive and kicking. Middle Eastern women may all be veiled and therefore freaky-looking, but they're all wearing the same fashion pieces as us! Arab men on the other hand are all conservative and hating on women's freedom and sexuality - the only suitable p33n comes from Europe or the Aussie Rugby Team - cue the budgie smuggler close ups!

This then brings me to the characters, the acting, and the script. When the actors are saying classic lines such as "Abu Dhabi-doooooo!" or " Lawrence of my labia", it's kinda hard to judge if the acting is good. But then, we all know that there have been plenty of crap movies that I've enjoyed usually because the cast don't take what they're saying too seriously. This cast did not do that partly because we all know this was a money-making exercise following the success of the last movie, but also because the characters have basically been distilled to a singular trait that has made them unlikable. Miranda is a Type A who still struggles to balance work and family and spends the holiday planning things for the girls to do, Charlotte spends the entire time worrying about why her perfect life isn't perfect, Samantha still tries to sleep with anyone or complains about menopause and how she can't have her hormone pills in the UAE, and Carrie is still as self-absorbed as ever. As I said to Pooey, Samantha needs to realise the world doesn't run the way she wants it - despite REPEATED efforts from Miranda to explain how conservative the Middle East can be, she has no respect for the public decency laws, can't understand why she gets arrested for kissing someone in public, and then winds up a crowd of men by exclaiming "I HAVE SEX!!!" complete with thrusting. Carrie needs to #@$!ing grow up. Her husband works all day and wants to spend Monday night resting at home. I don't see what's so unreasonable about that but apparently it's something worth getting pissed off about because she wants to attend a movie premiere.

One of the iconic things about SATC was the use of fashion. Part of what makes this movie so abominable is that the costume and styling is bizarre to the point of ridiculousness. At Stanford and Anthony's wedding, Carrie wears a tux - fair enough. But she then tops it by wearing a...headband? Crown? Forehead cover? that makes her look like a witch. Or as Pooey said, "Disgusting." I can't find a photo of it, but if/when you see the movie, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

There's nothing outwardly wrong with Charlotte's outfit here.

Except that she's wearing vintage Valentino while trying to make cupcakes with her two kids and then gets angry when Lily puts handprints on her ass.

Then there's this ensemble which Carrie wore to the Souk.

That's right. She wore this to a STREET MARKET.

In one scene, Miranda has organised them to have lunch in the desert, and we're treated seeing them get out in the SAND in their stilettos. That was bad enough. The girls duly complain that they're not dressed appropriately. Miranda explains that since this trip was all expenses paid, she arranged their butlers to get them appropriate clothes.

And we're treated to seeing them stride over the dunes and ride camels while wearing this get up. As Suboo said, "YEUCH! But I feel Charlotte especially lucked out with the spandex!"

The updo was one of Carrie's trademarks, but combined with her long face accentuated by the amount of weight she's lost since the TV series started, the surgical changes and the altered makeup to hide that, not to mention the freaky Madonna arms, this makes Carrie/SJP look like The Alien Queen when shot from the side.

Okay, enough of this. It's like dissecting a car crash.

Put all together, I hope you can all understand when Pooey said her main feeling during the viewing was one of embarrassment for everyone involved in the production, and as a fan of the show. Even our fandom of the show could not erase how painfully bad this movie is. And when you think it can't get worse, there was a karaoke scene where the girls sing Helen Reddy's "I am Woman"

Gor, looking at Carrie/SJP's posing makes me want to slap her

As a happy karaoke-ista, karaoke is about bonding with your friends and having fun. Karaoke is not about singing well and they don't sing well so I won't hold that against them. But karaoke is DEFINITELY NOT about pushing an agenda. We're supposed to feel empowered and cheer along like the rest of the bar audience and again, remember that all women, no matter what culture you're from, are strong and powerful. But it's kinda hard to go *yeah!* when they've spent the rest of the movie basically giving the finger to the culture in which they're meant to be exploring and enjoying.

Despite my blasting, there are a few things that stop the movie from being an absolute shocker :

• The opening scenes showing brief 80s flashbacks and fashions as Carrie describes how they met each other was a bit fun.
• The marriage between Carrie and Charlotte's respective gay bffs Stanford and Anthony is also fun and super campy - Liza Minelli has still got it!
• The sole scene that rung true for me - when Miranda and Charlotte get drunk and discuss the difficulty of being mothers, wanting to work, and how difficult it is to explain that to others.
  
• And...well...I guess the sets were pretty nice, especially Big and Carrie's apartment...

...but that's pretty much it...

And so to end, Pooey told me that since I'd get my review out much faster than hers (if she does it at all), I may use her quote:

"I beg, beg, BEG you, please stop."

That's all that needs to be said.
2/10
Believe it or not, when I started writing this, the rating was actually a 4. After writing and editing this entry, the shockerdom would rear it's head. Yes, it's definitely down there with Paranormal Activity.

Deliciousness at Bistro Vue!

A friend of Pooey's was coming to visit Melbourne so I crashed their dinner at Bistro Vue :D. And when I say crashed, I really do mean crashed because, as a sociologist, he was going to meet Pooey and charge it to work as a "research dinner" - well, as a newly minted PhD, I am also now able to talk about all sorts of topics in a research capacity! Kekekeke.

Because I'm kinda crazy, I decided to walk from uni all the way down to the restaurant. I had 40 minutes and was wearing a pair of kitten heels. The Pom thought I wouldn't be able to do it in time. Well, not only did I make it with 5mins to spare, I beat Pooey and Dr.R to the restaurant! Now, there was a bit of a kerfuffle because I didn't know whose name it was under - not having met Dr. Reez (yet), and the restaurant refusing to give me the names of the other parties of three for that night. Maybe they thought I would steal it, maybe I would...

Anyway, the issue was solved and I opted to sit at the bar rather than sit all alone at the table, waiting for them to drag their drunk asses to the place. I was asked if I'd like a drink while I waited - Gin & tonic? Champagne? I was all "Champagne would be lovely!" until I heard the maitre d'hotel lean over and say, "The Veuve." The barman promptly showed me a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, pulled off the foil, uncorked, and poured me a glass.

Meanwhile, I was slightly freaking out at what that was going to cost
And I sat there at the bar, nervously drinking my (admittedly, lovely) champagne, slightly freaking out and all alone.

Pooey and Dr.R eventually arrived and we were shown to our table where Pooey introduced me as someone who liked soccer - and the conversation went from there! In fact, we had to tell the waitress to give us more time because we didn't look at the menu! When we did eventually look at our menus, we ordered

Escargots in garlic sauce for entree! Miam miam
(Dr. R refused to eat these)

Pooey's main - the confit duck!

My main! - Cassoulet with porkbelly, confit duck, and toulouse sausage!
Also came with a shiraz on the side. Deliciousness and highly recommended!

Dr. R's main - umm....steak?

Side of fennel salad

GOOSE FAT POMME FRITES!!!
*food gargle*

Mini baguettes - these were still warm when we got them!

Doesn't matter what kind of Dr. or Asian you are, we photograph our food!

At this point, I was feeling pretty full. So full that I was contemplating not getting dessert.

WHUT?!

Luckily, I re-entered a state of sanity and got the...

Madeleines
Oh hello! Look at you cute little cakes with your crispy outers and soft tender buttery cakey inners with the sides of apple puree and honey icecream....*food gargle*

Bubbai Madeleine, you're going to good home!

Dr. R's chocolate souffle - when the waitress poured chocolate sauce into it, it rose even more!

Pooey lovingly looks at her rhubarb trifle.

Now at this point, I must mention the party that was sitting next to us. We'd been sitting for a while when a large party of young-twentyish asians sat down. It was an odd party because most of them were dressed smart/casually in jeans and tshirts and yet one of them had a fascinator on her head. I'm not sure how to express how annoying it was seeing that GIANT BOW on her head. Inappropriate headwear! Turns out one of the party was having a birthday. We know this because they sang *Happy birthday* and we joined in, especially on the *hoorays!*

I think we ended up being the second last party to leave at the end of the night. Good food, good convo, good sociological research, and only one stupid hat.

Covers

I borrowed a copy of the Ministry of Sound Uncovered vol. 2 from a friend and, I must say, I quite like it! I think my favourite is this cover of Kanye West's Heartless by William Fitzsimmons.

It turns from a minimalist pop/rap blend with a bit of help from the autotune machine for the singing bits...


...into a bleak guitar and piano lament that highlight's Kanye's hurt at the broken heart :(

Painting of the Week - Ophelia by Millais

John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-2

Tate Britain, London
(Source)

A few years ago, I went to the Millais exhibition at the Tate Britain. I will unashamedly say that the exhibition was excellent and it spanned his paintings and drawings from the the age of 8 (!) until his late portaits. I resisted purchasing the catalogue because it was pretty damn thick and I already had a large number of books I was hauling back to Australia. I regret that decision because the exhibition showed Millais' change in influence and technique over his career.

Having said that, Millais come to prominence in his 20s as a co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The group rejected the criteria on style and subject as prescribed by the Royal Academy, instead wanting to return to the simplicity of works from the early Renaissance (i.e. before the work of Raphael). An admirable aim. Having said that, there is something about Pre-Raphaelite works that I hate. I've previously mentioned my dislike for Victorian Art, but I think my specific dislike for the PRB stems from finding the works of others somewhat pompous (stand up, Rosetti!), and their predilection for declaring pouting, heavy-lidded, long nosed women 'beautiful' to be erroneous. Despite my general dislike for Pre-Raphaelite work, I do like this picture.

Modelled by the most famous PRB 'muse', Lizzie Siddal, Ophelia shows the fine brushwork and meticulous attention to nature and detail championed by the movement. There's also dramatic tension in seeing the mad girl newly dead or dying, slowly being dragged under as her ballooning gown gets filled with water. Incidentally, I think Siddal looks a lot like Tilda Swinton in this painting, someone who may be striking, but certainly not beautiful.

CHEESE!!! With extra books!

I finally submitted the final bound version of my thesis. So here I am, posing with them in front of Professor Jones' personal library in their eye-gougingly red (Oxford Red!) and gold lettering glory.

Me and my 300 page baby (x2)

That's it! Depending on who you talk to, The Phud is officially OVER!!! (The Uni reckons I'm not a Dr. until I get my fluffy hat. Tight!)

Good week last week!

I just feel like sharing the goodness that was my week last week.

Monday - lost 2kg, got cleared of cancer, had a great afternoon nap.
Tuesday - productive day at work, good session at the gym, delicious roast lamb leg dinner!
Wednesday - productive day at work, good session at the gym...I can't remember what happened in the afternoon.
Thursday - *pritti hearts* birthday of my husband *pritti hearts*, another productive day at work, got interviewed for another job, finished thesis corrections.
Friday - CAKE!!! THESIS CORRECTIONS PASSED!!! OFFERED JOB!!! EXCELLENT SICHUAN DINNER!!!
Saturday - My birthday, duly celebrated with tea, cakes, pastries, dinner, and drinks.
Sunday - Yum cha + cake.
Monday - More cake, given the go-ahead to print out final copy of thesis, printed out final copy of thesis.

Yes, my week last week was damn good. Seriously good stuff. Here's to this week being just as good!

Anyone want an octopus in a specimen jar?

Someone has left these jars in the lab. No name, no date, nothing, and no one has come to claim them. They're quite nice specimens and it seems a bit of a shame to chuck them out, so if anyone wants them, stake a claim! I think they're in formalin, but I can put them in 70% ethanol if you like.

Octopus 1

Octopus 2

Octopus 3

Octopus 4

Octopus 5

Any takers? Anyone?

Sculpture of the week - Dropped Cone by Oldenburg & van Bruggen

Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, Dropped Cone, 2001

Neumarkt Galerie, Cologne, Germany
(Image source)

Continuing on Pop Art, Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish/American artist who came to prominence in the late 50s and early 60s firstly with performance art and then with the replication of popular objects with papier mache and plaster. Van Bruggen was an art historian, curator, and critic who first collaborated with Oldenburg in 1976 on the reconstruction and relocation of his work Trowel I to the Netherlands. The pair married in 1977 and continued to collaborate on making awesomely cool colossal sculptures of everyday items.

The 40f tall ice cream cone, drips over the edge of the building on which it's been dropped - you can imagine the giant tears from the huge kid who did it! But there's more to this being cool other than through size and friendly demeanour. Dropped Cone is also architectural in its presentation. Through its location and shape, it draws parallels church spires and the modern church -the sculpture was commissioned by the owners of the Neumarkt Galerie - a shopping centre, and the sculpture was described by van Bruggen as "a cornucopia of consumerism".

To my beloved husband (well, one of them, anyway...)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY :D

with bonus tiger cub love!

Ever wanted to see guys singing and dancing like Lady Gaga?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Here you go

Painting of the week - Still Life #30 by Tom Wesselmann

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #30, 1963

Museum Of Modern Art, NYC
(Source)

This week's painting (of sorts) is inspired by Mischka who enjoyed herself muchly in NYC and in MOMA. (In contrast, we all know how I felt.) Like much of Wesselmann's other work from the 60s, Still Life is a combination of painting, sculpture (that's a real fridge door with 7-UP bottles), and collage of of commercial labels he found on the street. The use of those popular objects, combined with his bright coloured scenes of domesticity, meant he was grouped as a Pop Artist with his contemporaries, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Wesselmann himself disliked the label as he believed that while his works celebrated popular culture, his work was also a modern reimaging of genre types. Still Life #30 reflects not only the tradition of depicting inanimate objects that the name reflects, but also landscape through the scene out of the window, and the nude - the positioning of the two oranges near the tower is no mere coincidence!

Poor grammar in music

Poor grammar and spelling has given me the shits before. I don't proclaim to be an expert in all grammatical rules but when people can't seem to establish the difference between *your* and *you're* (FFS, your is a possessive, you're is a contraction between 'you' and 'are'), and everytime I read the word *definately* on emails or Facebook, I feel like tearing my hair out.

But the newest addition to the list is poor grammar in music, or more specifically the way songwriters seem to have trouble with the verb *to be* in the first person singular present tense - i.e. I am. For example:

"The was I are."
Should be: "The way I am" - 'are' is the conjugation for second person (you are) and third person plural (they are).

"I'mma be on the next level." (or pretty much any other line in the song)
Okay, in this case, they have conjugated the verb correctly if you stop a just 'I'm'. But the insertion of the article 'a', and then having the definitive 'be'...it's just all sorts of wrong. The amusing thing is that when I'm sleeping and this song comes on the radio alarm, it sounds as if they're saying "I'm a bee..."

More food stuff

To celebrate EFW, the lab and I went to Fandango for lunch where I had the

Pesto eggs with a side of bacon and mushrooms!

And then to celebrate the return of my thesis (with minor corrections - W00T!!!), I went to Le Triskel where I had

L'Originel - Apple, cinnamon, icecream, Calvados and FIRE!!!

Healesville!

On what is being proclaimed (but probably will not) be the last good weekend of the season, I toddled on over to Healesville/Yarra Valley with Mr. & Mrs. Koh and Jen to visit some wineries for eating and drinking.

Our first stop was the Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander where we were met by some Radelaidian friends of the Kohs. I was advised to eat the parmesan & truffle oil fries, but where we primarily went to eat their mighty fine pizza. In fact, it was so fine that when they hit the table, we all dove in and it wasn't until a number of slices were eaten that I remembered that I was supposed to document them!

Nom nom nom

Innocent Bystander is (justifiably) well known for their pink moscato. They also served it in their sorbet (delicious!) but I went for the pink moscato-flavoured turkish delight!

Just like the wine, it was delightfully nice and light in flavour but in hindsight, I might prefer rose-flavoured delight.

Trying to be cool by wearing Jen's sunnies

Yeah, they suited her much better

We then moved onto Tarrawarra where we were greeted by some lovely autumn sights.

The nice walk from the carpark to the cellar door...

the pretty cool looking entry to the Museum...

best of all, the gorgeous view over the Yarra Valley
(click to enlarge!)

Here I purchased a lovely and smooth Tin Cows pinot noir 2008. Not my usual red type (more of a shiraz and grenache girl), but it was so nice that I even managed to con those from Radelaide to get some!

Our last stop was Yering Station where I invested in yet another bottle of tawny after being taken in by how warming it was. Miam.

But I must finish this entry with a comment about one of the real highlights. I was at Woolies on Thursday where I discovered these:
They were NUM!!! So I purchased some for the ride to the Yarra Valley. Now, because I'm slightly retarded, I left them in the warm car while having wine tastings. They melted somewhat and stuck to the packet but the others being some real troopers and not wanting to hurt my feelings, ate them even though they were somewhat squishy. But you know what? Serendipity!!! The meltiness made them EVEN better! Orgasmically so! So yes. Buy them, melt a little, then lie back and enjoy the sensation.

Song of the week - Make you feel my love by Adele (Bob Dylan)

When is this girl going to release her second album?! (huff!)

Student Food Review - Old Town Kopitiam Mamak, QV Square

I met up with Suboo and we discussed how the Student Food Reviews were going to work. We didn't really nut out any hard and fast rules other than to talk about whether the food was any good and to cap prices at $15 - although under $10 would be preferred. More criteria may become apparent as more food gets eaten.

So to kick it off, we headed to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak at QV Square.
The authentic, bona fide Malaysian Suboo said this place was okay although contrary to others, she said the chicken rice was substandard based on a previous outing here and warned me off it.

That was okay for me because as a noodle fiend,

I had seafood laksa ($10.50)

Firstly, the serving size was pretty good for $10.50, I suppose if at a standard size for this kind of dish. Given that it was *seafood*, it did indeed have mussels (frozen), prawns (three!), calamari, and fish loaf in a curry-ish, not too coconutty broth. It lacked clams *sigh*, but oh well. It also lacked rice vemicelli noodles but my discussion with Suboo (who personally thinks they're not supposed to be there) make me think it's probably due to personal preferences. What was a pleasant surprise was my discovery of the presence of curry leaves actually in my soup! They actually tried to make the curry flavour from something other than paste and/or powder! The chicken and vegetarian options ARE under $10 - I think each were $9.50.

Suboo had roti canai ($4.00)...

And might I say...it looked mighty tempting and I couldn't say no when she offered me some! The bread was warm and fluffy - it also had the right scent to the extent that Suboo made me lean over and inhale the goodness. It came with some sambal sauce (meh) and a light coconutty curry sauce for dipping (very nice!). I believe Suboo was very happy with it and polished it off quick-smart!

followed by the Chinese Malaysian Rojak ($7.50)

I have never had or even heard of this before. It's apparently a *fruit salady* dish covered in a sweet...black...sauce. It consisted of pieces of pineapple, apple, cucumber, and crispy fried chinese donut (you char kwai - a pleasant surprise!). Suboo mentioned it was missing something that was supposed to give it a crispy bite but figured that the donut made up for it. Also, apparently the pineapple tasted funny but on the whole, the place was okay.

This bit might be too much information but I feel that when reviewing cheap foods, it is necessary information. Suboo and I walked out of OTKM feeling on the slightly uncomfortable side of full, but quite happy nonetheless. Within half an hour of our leaving, I started getting what I will delicately refer to as *sensitive stomach issues*, followed by *evacuating* (hi Nance!) although it did not progress to *The Sweats*. Whether this was related to food intake, I can not say for certain. But it did happen so cheap eaters, caveat emptor.

So on the whole, Old Town Kopitiam Mamak serves food on the slightly more excy side of cheap, that is not bad and in the case of the roti, pretty good. But tummy troubles may ensue although I will say that it may have been due to my gourmand tendencies.

Crimes against fashion

With a new camera at the ready, the old favourite returns!!! I spied this one walking down the street.

Theyre' not CFMs, but I didn't know streetwalker chic was back in fashion!

Compare and contrast!
(source)

In other news...

I finally managed to replace my old and broken point-and-click camera. No, I did not replace it with a DSLR. After doing a bit of research about what I wanted and what I was willing to pay for it, I settled on the Canon IXUS105, although quite frankly I don't feel I need the 12 megapixels which seem to be the standard starting points nowawayds. I then embarked on going around to a number of stores to compare prices and figure out which one I could barter down to a lower price. In the end, I decided I was too pov and asked Pooey to get one for me. Given the strong AUD and weak GBP, I was looking at getting it for $250 or about $50 less than what they're selling it for here. BUT then I heard about a CRAZY sale going on where the cameras were going for $198 each THIS WEEKEND ONLY!!! I promptly asked Pooey to not go through with the buy, woke up early and raced on down to the store!

And now I am no longer camera-free. Here's an example of a pic:

An extreme zoom of our TV from my seated located on the floor. Nice Megasaurus burger.

The shits!

Continuing on my prior post where I ruminated on something in our everyday modern life that annoys me, I must list *Loudspeakers*. These are not bullhorns, they're what I call people who speak REALLY LOUDLY on their phone, mobile or otherwise, in a public space, usually about some sort of inappropriate topic.

I think the first time I came into contact with one of these was on a bus in Sydney in 2003. Pooey and I endured a girl exclaiming, "OH MY GOD!!!", "I KNOW!!!", "WHAT?! WOW!!!", and so forth for the duration of the trip. Despite a lot of muttering and dirty looks from other passengers, not to mention the sheepish appearance of who I assume to be her boyfriend, she managed to keep it up for the entire 15 minute trip. It made me wonder whether people take note of the volume at which they speak on public transport.

The answer is *no*. I know this for sure because this past weekend I listened as another loudspeaker talked to someone about their relationship woes, then promptly turned around to their friend, and REPEATED the entire story, this time with both sides of the conversation! Incidentally, that boy is useless and they couldn't believe he said that to her.

Of course, it's not always bad. One loudspeaker on the bus spent 30 minutes bitching to her friend about workplace politics (I got the impression she worked in a bank or some sort of financial office). But it was a full bus so the majority of the trip consisted not only of listening to her go on and on, but also various people making incredulous looks at each other to the point that it actually evolved to a number of passengers (myself included) making jokes about what she was discussing to each other. She was still going strong by the time a number of my co-commuters and I disembarked. As one fellow exclaimed as he got off, "Wow! I'd hate to be in an office with her!" And we all slowly trudged away to our respective homes, linked by our bonds of suffering and hatred of loudspeakers.

Painting of the week - Delphic Sibyl by Michelangelo

Michelangelo, Delphic Sibyl, 1508-12
Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City
(Image Source)

For reasons I don't quite understand, this is possibly my favourite figure from Michelangelo's EPIC Sistine Ceiling fresco. Bordering the scenes from Genesis, Michelangelo painted a number of biblical and classical seers who allegedly foretold the coming of Christ. The Delphic Sibyl - not to be confused with the Oracle at Delphi (Pythia), being one of them. The Sibyl looks away from her attendants and is about to enter a trance, as seen by her open mouth, wide-open gaze and unfocused eyes.

This was one of the first completed figures of the ceiling and is therefore quite small compared to the later figures. According to Vasari, Michelangelo took a look at the partially completed ceiling, realised the first bits were too small and accordingly made figures of the second half of the ceiling much larger. I'm also pretty sure the image I've used is post-restoration as seen by the super-bright colours of her gown and cape.