Each species needs a sex that's fated to be highly decorated

[sovay]

This has been a much better day than expected. I'm burned out, but in a far more pleasant way than I have been for the last couple of weeks.

Late this morning, my brother and I set out into the wilds of Cambridge to see if we could find him a frock coat. And we did, at Keezer's; but he turned out to prefer a black morning coat from 1938 that we shall pick up on Tuesday, when he gets off work. I will have to take photographs. With a good shirt on and his hands leisurely in his pockets, he looks like the lead from an Oscar Wilde play.

In the course of this quest, the power of the apotropaic umbrella was proven once more,* I was tempted by a many-pocketed leather jacket at the Garment District,** and we had an excellent lunch at Legal Sea Foods. I don't usually order drinks, but this one was made out of rum and ginger beer, with a slice of lime and a stick of sugar cane stuck in it. It was awesome.***

And we returned home, and collapsed on the couch, and watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Which I liked, particularly Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent and the bits of the Guide as narrated by Stephen Fry. And Bill Nighy, because. He's gone on my list.

I think I should be able to sleep tonight.

*We were half-drowned crossing the street from the subway station, but the thunderstorm stopped as soon as we bought an umbrella from the MIT Coop. It hasn't started up again, either. But it is lowering hot.

**I might return for it, but if I'm to spend money on clothes I don't strictly need, I'd rather they were more anachronistic. Besides, I can fit half a dozen clementines into my current coat's pockets; that takes care of all my basic winter needs.

***It was duly noted why the rum was gone.

Comments

[kraada.livejournal.com]

I actually quite liked Marvin. Especially with the Point-Of-View gun . . . oh and the whale. But then, that was great in the book, too.

Also: You would almost certainly look very good in a multipocketed leather jacket. For whatever that's worth.

[sovay]

I actually quite liked Marvin. Especially with the Point-Of-View gun . . .

God, I'm so tired, I overlooked Marvin. I loved him. He was voiced by Alan Rickman; come on.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

[marvin voice]Just fitting. Nobody remembers me. I've been running for 8 times the lifespan of the Universe, but ho hum, just another robot . . .[/marvin voice]

Honestly I thought Marvin made the movie. Without him it would've been . . . maybe passable at best. With him, I'm quite glad I saw it. But it's okay, even if Marvin-voice doesn't forgive you for forgetting about him, I do :)

[sovay]

[/marvin voice]

*snerk*

(I hadn't looked at the cast list. I think my initial reaction to Marvin was, "He sounds like Alan Rickman with a killing hangover," and my mother said, "Yep.")

Without him it would've been . . . maybe passable at best.

See, I found it better than I'd been prepared for. Even with the added subplots and the romance, I thought it worked; and so far as I could tell, they preserved a fair amount of Douglas Adams' original text.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that it was much better than expected. I just thought he was the only character that really sang, at least for me. Sure the others weren't bad to varying degrees, but nobody else was "Yes! That's exactly what I would've expected!" except for him.

And the movie was definitely best when they were preserving original text. Because really.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

How did you get out of Keezer's without assorted "Top Hats, Derbies, and Fedoras"?

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Or doing Fred Astaire routines with the umbrella?

Nine

Top Hats, Derbies, and Fedoras

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

It's actually a Fred Astaire song-and-dance number... Fred at the haberdasher's with Edward Everett Horton, who is trying to make him select a hat, as Fred's was blown overboard on the ocean liner Horton's aunt arrived on this morning... Fred being difficult because his mind is on Ginger... whom he ran into on deck where she was behind the wheelchair of an elderly tycoon... He assumes Ginger is the man's nurse, or something else... Ginger is in fact the tycoon's only granddaughter and heiress of millions... misunderstandings and high-jinks must, of course, ensue.

Fred tries on a fedora and the number begins:

This hat's worn by Everyman:
It blends in with the crowd.
If you want to be noticed more, ya
Need more flash than a fedora.

Fred chucks the fedoras and tries on bowlers:

This morning she called me a clown
Because I took a fall!
She'll laugh if I run into her be-
neath the brim of Chaplin's derby.

On to the only possible correct hat:

You only wear a top hat
When you're on top
Or heading there!
It says success and opens doors
To the best dinners and ballroom floors.
For moving up from nothing flat
What I need is a top hat.


As the number wraps up, there's a hat-juggling bit with the shop assistants and a lot of complicated business with canes and umbrellas. Miraculously, Fred leaves holding the one he came in with.

Re: Top Hats, Derbies, and Fedoras

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

{{applause}}

Nine

[sovay]

(Yay, Edward Everett Horton.)

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I can't understand why neither the cinema in Palo Alto nor the Castro have ever had (to my knowledge) an Edward Everett Horton festival. Ideally it should include Fractured Fairy Tales.

[sovay]

an Edward Everett Horton festival.

I would attend that . . .

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Now, see, the reason that your music was When First I Came to Caledonia is that, what, a few hours before you wrote this, I was watching/listening to Martin Simpson singing it.

And thinking, as usual, that this is the most amazingly opaque song, and that one of these days I will write a post about all the things I don't understand about it...

[sovay]

And thinking, as usual, that this is the most amazingly opaque song, and that one of these days I will write a post about all the things I don't understand about it...

I would love to read that.

(Would you like Waterson : Carthy's version?)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That's very kind - on both scores.

I'm not sure I can cope with music on this machine - may I come back to you on that if I need to?

[sovay]

may I come back to you on that if I need to?

Of course. I don't want to blow up your computer. There are no sirens in that.

[eredien]

The drink, called a "Dark and Stormy," is apparently the Jamacian national drink, and also my favorite.

[sovay]

Legal Sea Foods had it under the name Category Three: Dark and Stormy, which amused me perhaps more than it should. I hadn't known it was anyone's national drink. That's awesome.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Besides, I can fit half a dozen clementines into my current coat's pockets

Both jackets sound great--I love pockets. I inherited a long winter coat that allows your arms to be straight with your hands in the pockets, and your hands plenty of swishing space. I recently bought a short fall jacket because it had a soldier look to it, with these gold clasps instead of buttons. But it has no pockets! I think I'd like that many-pocketed jacket you found. But, probably a clementine in each pocket wouldn't have the same effect as one big pocketful!

[sovay]

But, probably a clementine in each pocket wouldn't have the same effect as one big pocketful!

Clementines are my winter addiction. If they were as easily gotten in the summer, they'd be my summer addiction too. The other wonderful thing about clementines is that (at least if purchased from Wilson Farms) they come in boxes of light wood which burn like a thermite reaction when you throw them on the fire, so you get delicious citrus and pyromania all in one go. And they are a small fruit, so I can carry some everywhere. I survived watching Titanic (1997) by chain-eating clementines; I'll swear they saved my life.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

I really thought it was the narrations by Fry (and accompanying BritMinimalist animations) that made the film. But it did indeed rule to an unexpected degree.
And ah, multi-pocketed coats scented with citrus! They become a part of you: hence why I still have the same second-hand coat after twelve years and a couple of rips. (OK, the fact that it's Kashmir helps)

[sovay]

I really thought it was the narrations by Fry (and accompanying BritMinimalist animations) that made the film.

I think my favorites were the Infinite Improbability Drive and the credits cookie. "Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time."