I know I've only brought you grief

[sovay]

I lost most of Friday to a migraine. Saturday I did not have a migraine and attended rehearsal, which was lovely, but then came home in the evening and collapsed with shrimp curry soup courtesy of choco_frosh. Today I appear to have a migraine again, or at least an escalation of headache to the point of nausea and the desire not to move from my bed or even turn my head and open my eyes, which is not for any number of reasons a viable option. I am not happy. I have written again to the ENT. I quietly ate some corned beef for the day.

1. Philip Hoare on boilersuits. rushthatspeaks and I agree that Derek Jarman would approve of the banner images. The article quite properly refers to him as "St. Derek."

2. Adam Gopnik on Diderot. I had never previously given him much thought, but this profile-review succeeds unequivocally in making me want to have a conversation with the philosopher or at least read his novel with the talking genitalia.

3. I started reading this story because of the title and finished it because of the prose: Quintan Ana Wikswo's "The Fisherman Bombardier of Naval Station Norfolk: A Performance in Four Generations, Three Races, and Too Many Genders to Name."

4. Courtesy of moon_custafer: Art Deco and Streamline Moderne radios. I visit a couple of those at the MFA.

5. I keep forgetting that "The Good Ship Calabar" is the same tune as "The Handsome Cabin Boy." This is probably because I don't actually like "The Handsome Cabin Boy" very much.

I watched a couple of movies last night, but I am not writing about anything because my concentration is shot from pain, and I hate that perhaps even more than I hate being in pain. I spend a lot of my life in pain. I have to get something out of it anyway.

Comments

[sartorias]

I'm getting a stupid tech loop on reading what the article has to say about Diderot, about whom I already know quite a bit--I wanted to see this slant.

Diderot was a complex person, upside being his enthusiasm for knowledge. I often think of him when I contemplate Wikipedia and the Net--it was exactly that that the Encyclopedists tried to invent.

[sovay]

I'm getting a stupid tech loop on reading what the article has to say about Diderot, about whom I already know quite a bit--I wanted to see this slant.

I'm sorry about the tech loop. I assume you have tried different browsers and all the usual.

[sartorias]

I'm too tech-stupid to deal with different browsers (and all that entails, what with having to reenter my fifteen billion passwords) so I hunted through my stack of New Yorkers, and found it. It kind of slips over the surface of what Diderot was like, but it's a good intro,.

[sovay]

so I hunted through my stack of New Yorkers, and found it.

I read it in print myself, but that's harder to share with the internet.

It kind of slips over the surface of what Diderot was like, but it's a good intro,.

I'm glad.

[ethelmay]

I got kind of mad at that article. There was a lot of "He loved women and women loved him," and I immediately went "O RLY show me these women" and checked for actual evidence of what women said. So his wife was very unhappy with him (had street brawls with his mistresses), he writes to a lover to scold her for not having orgasms (the author of the article reads this letter very differently than I do), and he beats on the Tsarevna's thighs so that she has to put a table in between her and him so as not to get bruises at every conversation. I admit I might not be being fair, but Gopnik tends to get my back up.

[sovay]

I admit I might not be being fair, but Gopnik tends to get my back up.

I agree with you that I don't find thigh-pinching endearing any more than Catherine did. I did take the letter to his lover as encouraging rather than pushy. Fortunately, my wanting to have a conversation with a historical figure is not contingent on my wanting to sleep with them.

[ethelmay]

I think it was that Gopnik kept being so aggressive in defending behavior that didn't sound so great that I assumed the worst all around.

Also of course I meant tsarina, not tsarevna.

[moon_custafer]

(You might not associate Churchill with gender fluidity, but he was said to have bedded the glamorous singer, Ivor Novello, in his youth. Asked what it was like, he retorted gruffly: “Musical!” – interwar argot for queer.)

I think my head just exploded.

[sovay]

I think my head just exploded.

I knew all the connotations of theater, but I hadn't actually known the same went for "musical." I'm going to keep it.

[lemon_badgeress]

I am making a voodoo doll of your ENT, and sticking pins in its HEAD.

I will remove them if you report they begin listening to you.

[sovay]

I will remove them if you report they begin listening to you.

*hugs*

[gwynnega]

Those radios are beautiful.

I hope your headache goes away soon.

[sovay]

Those radios are beautiful.

I adore the Sparton Bluebird.

I hope your headache goes away soon.

Thank you.

[moon_custafer]

I’ve probably posted this before, but there is a man in Toronto who collects and restores antique typewriters: https://www.antiquetypewriters.com/ . The Blickensderfer 6 has always been my favourite.

[asakiyume]

Wow, those are gorgeous

[asakiyume]

The shrimp curry soup sounds fabulous; the migraine not so much.

Boilersuits! Is that the name of that garment! I love it very much--very nice.

And I'll have to show the radios to wakanomori; he'll like them very much (they are very likable).

[sovay]

The shrimp curry soup sounds fabulous; the migraine not so much.

It was excellent soup. It's being a really awful migraine.

Boilersuits! Is that the name of that garment! I love it very much--very nice.

I really do associate them with Jarman—Karl Johnson's Ariel wears one in his Tempest (1979).

And I'll have to show the radios to wakanomori; he'll like them very much (they are very likable).

I like the idea of likeable radios, and I also agree with you that they are. I hope he does!

[asakiyume]

I hope he does!

He did! Likeability: further verified!

[moon_custafer]

Boilersuits! Is that the name of that garment! I love it very much--very nice.


A modern-day Rational Dress Society is apparently trying to encourage the wearing of them, by both selling ready-made ones and offering free downloadable patterns for those who wish to make their own:
https://www.jumpsu.it/pattern/

[wpadmirer]

I am so sorry to hear about your migraine! I hope you feel better soon.

[sovay]

I am so sorry to hear about your migraine! I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you!

[thisbluespirit]

I@m sorry! I hope the migraine gets lost ASAP. <3

[sovay]

I@m sorry! I hope the migraine gets lost ASAP.

Thank you.

[shewhomust]

I had no trouble reading the Diderot article. I disagree with great chunks of it - how can you prefer 'Le Neveu de Rameau' to 'Jacques le Fataliste'? - but the book about Diderot and Catherine sounds interesting.

[sovay]

I had no trouble reading the Diderot article.

Good to know!

I disagree with great chunks of it

Also good to know!

how can you prefer 'Le Neveu de Rameau' to 'Jacques le Fataliste'?

The latter is the one thing of Diderot's I'm confident of having read—it was referenced in E.T.A. Hoffmann's Kater Murr, so I went out and found a translation. That was almost two decades ago, though, so I should probably re-read it.

[cmcmck]

I sang years ago with an all female shanty outfit called the 'handsome cabin boys' :o)

[sovay]

I sang years ago with an all female shanty outfit called the 'handsome cabin boys'

Okay, that's cool.

[choco_frosh]

Today I appear to have a migraine again,

:( :( :(

[sovay]

:( :( :(

*hugs*

[brigdh]

"The Fisherman Bombardier of Naval Station Norfolk: A Performance in Four Generations, Three Races, and Too Many Genders to Name" was fantastic. Thank you for linking it! That prose - you're right, it's just amazing. I wanted to sing every line.

The Diderot reviews also sound great! He seems like he would make a much more fun dinner companion than Rousseau or Saint-Just.

I watched a couple of movies last night, but I am not writing about anything because my concentration is shot from pain, and I hate that perhaps even more than I hate being in pain. I spend a lot of my life in pain. I have to get something out of it anyway.
Very late sympathy, but a lot of sympathy nonetheless.