You never will be simplified and never will be synchronized

[sovay]

We saw exactly three meteors for forty-five minutes of freezing our asses off under the autumn stars, but the constellations glittered sharply while we were out and the clouds moved in almost as soon as we got home, whereupon we declared this year's Leonid expedition a success and I discovered that Paula Guran had said nice things about "Tea with the Earl of Twilight" in the October issue of Locus:

Sonya Taaffe's "Tea with the Earl of Twilight" is a haunting ghost story but also enough of a paean to and description of the environs, architecture, and waterways of Cambridge and Boston MA to serve in (an extremely poetic and slightly weird) tourist brochure . . . Sid is haunted by her ghost, not so much in any traditional sense but at least partially by the question: "When the dams failed at last and the tide rolled up the Charles, would he still be there on his dock of weeds and heavy metals, his cigarette glowing under the dusk-blue water like a phantom light?" This is a fine modern eerie tale.

I can live with being an extremely poetic and slightly weird tourist brochure, actually. spatch got a suitable picture of me on a streetlit corner.

Comments

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the terrific review! That is a great photo.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the terrific review! That is a great photo.

Thank you! I was not expecting the review and am really pleased about it. And thank you. The streets were deserted, so I could take my mask off for the impromptu photoshoot.

[spatch]

You know, I didn't see it as we were out there, but you are standing at the craziest brick demarcation line. This is why I like taking pictures of you; you just happen and the scene just happens around you and it's always very good.

[sovay]

You know, I didn't see it as we were out there, but you are standing at the craziest brick demarcation line.

I know! It looks like you caught me on a fracture of reality. Or one of the streets in Cocteau's Orphée (1949) that's just about to blow sideways into the underworld.

This is why I like taking pictures of you; you just happen and the scene just happens around you and it's always very good.

Mow. Thank you. I like you taking pictures of me.

[davidgillon]

It's weird, I clicked all the way in to blow up the pic to see if your face would come through clearer, it's a little lost in the shadow of your hat (which is cool!) in the DW sizing. The brickwork gets sharper, including that illusionary demarcation - I initially thought the left hand wall was stepped back 18" - but your face doesn't.

It's a great pic, but it's also a very weird pic.

[sovay]

It's a great pic, but it's also a very weird pic.

We may have accidentally achieved spirit photography.

[jesse_the_k]

spirit photography! for the win. I did the same thing as davidgillon, and marveled at your features melting under my closer inspection.

[nineweaving]

So glad you saw Leonids!

That's a fabulous review (as befits the story), and that photo of you looks like Paris 1968.

Nine

[sovay]

So glad you saw Leonids!

Thank you! I am glad yours was so unambiguous.

That's a fabulous review (as befits the story), and that photo of you looks like Paris 1968.

And thank you! I'm really pleased about both.

[cyphomandra]

The lightning in that picture is fantastic!! (you also look very nice :D )

[sovay]

The lightning in that picture is fantastic!! (you also look very nice :D )

Thank you!

[cmcmck]

This pic is one for the cover of your collected poems!

Very Thom Gunn.

[sovay]

Very Thom Gunn.

Thank you!

(I would love to have a collected poems someday.)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, that's great! The photo is also. ♥

[sovay]

Aw, that's great! The photo is also.

Thank you!

[selkie]

The photographer has mentioned, but you look exactly as if you stepped out of one moment somewhere else and into the second the picture was taken by temporal mistake.
It’s really cool.
Also kudos on the very nice modern review from
someone who knows her business!

[sovay]

The photographer has mentioned, but you look exactly as if you stepped out of one moment somewhere else and into the second the picture was taken by temporal mistake.

It was a well-lit but perfectly ordinary-looking wall, too.

Also kudos on the very nice modern review from
someone who knows her business!

Thank you! The double shot of reviews has definitely made my midweek.

[asakiyume]

I think "an extremely poetic and slightly weird tourist brochure" is a very apt and very appealing recommendation of that lovely story. I know that your writing on adventures by waterways and behind buildings and by the coast always makes me want to trace your path.

You look like your character in that photo. [ETA: WHICH IS A GOOD THING]

[selkie]

The looking like characters happens statistically way more often than you'd think! It's bewilderingly great.

[asakiyume]

Maybe it's like how people take after their pets take after their people ....

[selkie]

Heee. Also S is mostly not tethered to any one time, I think. Another clear advantage, but corporeal side-effects do crop up, and sometimes Enkidu forgets to return borrowed t-shirts.
(I am having a really punchy day! But I am also not telling a story. Make of that what you will!)

[asakiyume]

I have no doubts about S's lack of time-stickiness!

[sovay]

I know that your writing on adventures by waterways and behind buildings and by the coast always makes me want to trace your path.

That's a wonderful thing to hear. Thank you! I hope someday it will be safe for people to do so.

You look like your character in that photo. [ETA: WHICH IS A GOOD THING]

I took it as a compliment!

[sartorias]

If light could have fallen on your face, that would make a perfect author photo.

[sovay]

If light could have fallen on your face, that would make a perfect author photo.

It might still be good for something shadowy. davidgillon points out that the wall resolves at full size, but I don't.

[oracne]

Leonids!

[sovay]

Leonids!

They were worth the freezing!