It's been a bus ride to hell and back again
For reasons almost too stupid to summarize except that the alternative was grave, at eight in the morning ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
a_reasonable_man like a hero of the revolution drove me to the outer fringes of Waltham so that I could procure some cans of the prescription cat food that we had just run out of, which was of course the only one out of four prescription cat foods in the house that Autolycus was suddenly capable of eating. We were successful and the cat was fed and then I went out to Lexington for the afternoon to see my mother for Mother's Day and also to pass out hard for a couple of hours, having not slept at all last night, either. Have some pictures I took over the last week.
For May Day,spatch and I went out walking to check on the state of the local flowers. This tulip was particularly magnetic.
We have been keeping tabs on the progression of the GLX, too. We have no idea what this building is, except that it looks like you should flip it if the fuse blows on the Green Line.
Lilacs are a-coming in.
It was a good day for tulips.
Ivy wasn't bad, either.
Our Hestia, the croissant. She slept this morning as we stressed and we were glad of it.
The elm is flourishing! I got to say as much this evening in response to a survey from Somerville's Urban Forestry Committee.
Look at its leaves and fruit.
Also, some links.
1. Courtesy ofhandful_ofdust: the ongoing saga of a walrus in Wales. "Here is the problem with 2,500 lbs of predatory sea potato using the slipway of a lifeboat station as a spa bed."
2. Courtesy of same: Marion Morgan and Dorothy Arzner. I am extremely disappointed to learn the film they were shooting at the time of this photograph is considered lost. Lost John Ford comes to light all the time; could we get some of Arzner's missing catalogue?
3. People really should tag their butches/nbs. I got Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Dorothy Arzner, Thelma Wood, and Gluck, after which I have to resort to a reverse image search which feels like cheating. Good tie game on the two I don't recognize, though. (Christa Winsloe and Germaine Dulac.)
4. Theodore Bikel, "Mrs. McGrath." I heard the song for the first time on his album From Bondage to Freedom (1961), with the same record cover as on YouTube; it's a very theatrical arrangement, but it still made such an impression on me that I used it as the anchor for a paper I wrote on Irish folk songs in tenth grade history. For a presentation in the same class, I attempted to create the practical effect of a blighted potato. It started with a real potato. It had its moment in the spotlight and my parents disposed of it with extreme prejudice.
5. Courtesy ofa_reasonable_man: a tooth obelisk. You're probably not welcome.
Joseph Losey's Modesty Blaise (1966) is a terrible version of the comic strip, but an impressive piece of pop surrealism on its own time. Dirk Bogarde, his color-coordinated parasols, and his wig which gets its own costume credit may be worth the price of admission. "What have I done to deserve this? Everyone in my organization behaves as if she was Mata Hari or something."
a_reasonable_man like a hero of the revolution drove me to the outer fringes of Waltham so that I could procure some cans of the prescription cat food that we had just run out of, which was of course the only one out of four prescription cat foods in the house that Autolycus was suddenly capable of eating. We were successful and the cat was fed and then I went out to Lexington for the afternoon to see my mother for Mother's Day and also to pass out hard for a couple of hours, having not slept at all last night, either. Have some pictures I took over the last week.
For May Day,
spatch and I went out walking to check on the state of the local flowers. This tulip was particularly magnetic.
We have been keeping tabs on the progression of the GLX, too. We have no idea what this building is, except that it looks like you should flip it if the fuse blows on the Green Line.
Lilacs are a-coming in.
It was a good day for tulips.
Ivy wasn't bad, either.
Our Hestia, the croissant. She slept this morning as we stressed and we were glad of it.
The elm is flourishing! I got to say as much this evening in response to a survey from Somerville's Urban Forestry Committee.
Look at its leaves and fruit.
Also, some links.
1. Courtesy of
handful_ofdust: the ongoing saga of a walrus in Wales. "Here is the problem with 2,500 lbs of predatory sea potato using the slipway of a lifeboat station as a spa bed."2. Courtesy of same: Marion Morgan and Dorothy Arzner. I am extremely disappointed to learn the film they were shooting at the time of this photograph is considered lost. Lost John Ford comes to light all the time; could we get some of Arzner's missing catalogue?
3. People really should tag their butches/nbs. I got Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Dorothy Arzner, Thelma Wood, and Gluck, after which I have to resort to a reverse image search which feels like cheating. Good tie game on the two I don't recognize, though. (Christa Winsloe and Germaine Dulac.)
4. Theodore Bikel, "Mrs. McGrath." I heard the song for the first time on his album From Bondage to Freedom (1961), with the same record cover as on YouTube; it's a very theatrical arrangement, but it still made such an impression on me that I used it as the anchor for a paper I wrote on Irish folk songs in tenth grade history. For a presentation in the same class, I attempted to create the practical effect of a blighted potato. It started with a real potato. It had its moment in the spotlight and my parents disposed of it with extreme prejudice.
5. Courtesy of
a_reasonable_man: a tooth obelisk. You're probably not welcome.Joseph Losey's Modesty Blaise (1966) is a terrible version of the comic strip, but an impressive piece of pop surrealism on its own time. Dirk Bogarde, his color-coordinated parasols, and his wig which gets its own costume credit may be worth the price of admission. "What have I done to deserve this? Everyone in my organization behaves as if she was Mata Hari or something."
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https://stone-soup.ghost.io/archive/i-like-that-the-boat-is-stuck/
Only with more cheerful sunbathing delinquent blubber.
5. Courtesy of a_reasonable_man: a tooth obelisk. You're probably not welcome.
Someone who does the Twitters needs to bring this to the attention of
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Yes! It's peculiar and entertaining and no one is getting hurt, especially the walrus.
Only with more cheerful sunbathing delinquent blubber.
"What a public menace."
Someone who does the Twitters needs to bring this to the attention of jonnywaistcoat, who deserves it for the tooth-related unpleasantnesses he has inflicted on us in The Magnus Archives.
I do not do the Twitters, but if you find someone who does, please let me know his reaction!
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Understood, that was very much a reflection not a suggestion!
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I'm glad Autolycus has the food he needs--good heroic team effort! And Hestia looks as cute here as she does beautiful and baleful in
I have to say, a costume that gets its own shoutout in the credits and the promise of an office of Mata Haris is quite a strong inducement to take a peek at the film. At least screen shots!
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I'll have to find and photograph some roses.
And three cheers for the green and fruitful elm!
I've never had the opportunity to observe an elm up close before! It's young and already spectacular. No wonder people wanted them everywhere. I hope the replanting efforts pay off.
I'm glad Autolycus has the food he needs--good heroic team effort!
*hugs*
And Hestia looks as cute here as she does beautiful and baleful in spatch's two photos this morning.
We have such good cats.
I have to say, a costume that gets its own shoutout in the credits and the promise of an office of Mata Haris is quite a strong inducement to take a peek at the film. At least screen shots!
It's visually stunning. There are shots in this movie that seem to exist for no reason except that they look good—a tricolor ripple in an Amsterdam canal, Mediterranean blue sky above white crumbling parapets and one of Bogarde's lavender- or lemon-colored parasols—and I'm fine with it. Overall it doesn't quite seem to know whether it wants to be a spy film, a critique of spy films, or a sort of deconstructed combination of same, but when it works, it really works.
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It was the youngest I've seen him on film; I've only seen photographs younger. All principals of that film were rather ridiculously stylish.
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also thank you for your own pictures, the lilac in particular.
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Any time!
also thank you for your own pictures, the lilac in particular.
You're welcome. (And thank you.)
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Hestia is so cute! I love her little nose.
"Predatory sea potato" is the best phrase.
The photos are so lovely, particularly for some reason the very tender green of the flourishing elm. Perhaps because elms have had such a hard time of it.
P.
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*hugs*
Thank you. Sympathy on your own prescription cat food travails.
Hestia is so cute! I love her little nose.
She becomes so compact when she curls up. (Autolycus curls on his side like a black wheel with his paws over his nose and his tail over his paws and we call him the challah.)
"Predatory sea potato" is the best phrase.
The photos are so lovely, particularly for some reason the very tender green of the flourishing elm. Perhaps because elms have had such a hard time of it.
Thank you. I feel very protective toward the elm. They are so rare and I hope they can make a resistant comeback.
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Thank you. (I get many of them from awesome people!)
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3. I wouldn't have recognised any of the people on that list, but they're all damned handsome. Good tie game indeed; I'm convinced that pretty much everyone bar most men actually rock ties.
About all I remember about Modesty Blaise is the colour. Bogarde's wig is mesmerising.
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You're welcome! I'm so happy that I get to see one grow up.
I wouldn't have recognised any of the people on that list, but they're all damned handsome.
In order, they are Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Christa Winsloe, Dorothy Arzner, Germaine Dulac, Thelma Wood, and Gluck. (Have you seen Romaine Brooks' portrait of Gluck? You should see Romaine Brooks' portrait of Gluck. You should also see Romaine Brooks. Her self-portrait should be the cover of one of your collections.)
Good tie game indeed; I'm convinced that pretty much everyone bar most men actually rock ties.
I have seen (so far as I know straight, cis) men who can wear ties, so I believe them statistically to exist, but I also believe you are correct that everyone else comes in with an advantage.
About all I remember about Modesty Blaise is the colour. Bogarde's wig is mesmerising.
I am coming to the conclusion that I just really like Dirk Bogarde. He wore that wig and not the other way around.
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Holy shit. And Brookes herself. Pass me the spare knees - these ones have gone mysteriously weak for some reason.
*Her self-portrait should be the cover of one of your collections.*
HELL YES. That is stunning. There's a story (or several) in that picture alone.
I never could get the hang of ties, but I always wanted a fancy tiepin. And some pince-nez (I still do). I was an odd kid.
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Inexplicable yet ineluctable.
(At least two different friends originally made sure I saw the portrait of Gluck, on the theory I might need to. YES THANKS.)
I never could get the hang of ties, but I always wanted a fancy tiepin. And some pince-nez (I still do).
I think you should acquire both of these objects. Life's too short to miss out on pince-nez.
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Lost films make me cranky. I hope some of Arzner's missing movies turn up someday.
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Thank you!
Lost films make me cranky. I hope some of Arzner's missing movies turn up someday.
The entire phenomenon of lost films is incredibly strange to me. Then again, there's all that TV and radio that never even made it to the stage of recordings that could be lost. All the ephemera that shouldn't have been. I feel strongly that not all data needs to be archived, but you shouldn't go around misplacing art.
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THE HERO WE NEED IN THESE TIMES.