Only the voluntary homage paid by the living to the unqualified and dangerous dead

[sovay]

I have managed very little with the day beyond capitalism and serving as a platform for sleeping cats, but I recognize the latter of these two activities as imperative. Have some links.

1. I had never before heard of "Waka Waka Bang Splat," an ASCII poem composed by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese around 1990. I liked this note about regional pronunciations, which of course contains some folk drift of its own.

2. As I am still not comfortable in theaters, I would not be attending Perfection, of a Kind: Britten vs Auden even were I in the right country for it, I just wish they were offering virtual tickets. Even if he's just reprising his scenes from The Habit of Art, I am charmed by the idea that Alex Jennings has become an interpreter of Britten—it was my successfully imprinting introduction to him as an actor. I didn't realize Night Mail (1936) was ever performed outside of its GPO film context.

3. Courtesy of cyphomandra: on the other hand, the British Library is selling tickets for the livestream of The Dark is Rising and Other Stories: Susan Cooper and Natalie Haynes in Conversation. I can't remember what happened last year to prevent me listening to the radio adaptation, but I enjoyed its incidental music.

I don't think it is much of a news flash that I am very tired. Do I know anyone who's not?

Comments

[alexxkay]

If you have not yet run across it, let me recommend "Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics". It's a radio show/podcast, short episodes that are half lecture and half stand-up routine. The one on The Iliad is a particular favorite of this household.

[sovay]

It's a radio show/podcast, short episodes that are half lecture and half stand-up routine. The one on The Iliad is a particular favorite of this household.

I am glad the combination works.

[kore]

the livestream of The Dark is Rising and Other Stories: Susan Cooper and Natalie Haynes in Conversation

!! !!!

[sovay]

!! !!!

Enjoy!

[troisoiseaux]

A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies."

Huh. I was today years old when I learned, etc.

[sovay]

Huh. I was today years old when I learned, etc.

Me too! I've never heard them called anything beyond greater-or-less-than signs, which doesn't scan especially well.

[asakiyume]

I wonder if maybe the radio BBC The Dark Is Rising wasn't accessible here? I heard about its coming, then there was a big lacuna, and then it was an event in the past tense. I can recall at least once trying to access something on the BBC and not being able to.

Or maybe it *was* available but I, like you, just missed it.

Cool about the tickets for this event, though!

[rydra_wong]

You should be able to listen to it -- it's still up on the BBC Sounds website, which I believe is not region-locked:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvp7

ETA: this says that you can't download eps outside the UK, but you should be able to listen directly on the website:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/listening-outside-the-uk/international

[asakiyume]

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

[sovay]

You should be able to listen to it -- it's still up on the BBC Sounds website, which I believe is not region-locked

I'm glad it's still up!

[ethelmay]

I downloaded all of them at the time, I am pretty sure. I found them mildly enjoyable, but I wasn't nuts about them. I think the style was purposely old-fashioned and might very well appeal to someone who was familiar with that sort of presentation from childhood. I am not sure I had ever listened to a whole radio play of any sort - no, that's not quite true, I'd listened to a dramatization of The Lord of the Rings one year when my husband was gone a lot because his father was dying, and I wasn't sleeping much and was having unusual difficulty reading, so I spent a lot of midnight hours knitting and listening to LOTR on headphones. But I only listened to the dramatization because the library didn't have an audiobook.

[sovay]

But I only listened to the dramatization because the library didn't have an audiobook.

That's so interesting to me as a difference. I can listen to radio plays much more easily than I can to audiobooks or podcasts. I still can't do anything else while listening, but I enjoy the experience a lot more.

[ethelmay]

I don't usually do very much audio of any kind, but I was in a particular state and wanted something very familiar where it wouldn't matter much whether I finished it or could concentrate. (I did in fact listen to the whole thing in the end.) I bought a dramatization of The Wizard of Earthsea a while ago, and have hardly listened to any of it.

[sovay]

I don't usually do very much audio of any kind, but I was in a particular state and wanted something very familiar where it wouldn't matter much whether I finished it or could concentrate. (I did in fact listen to the whole thing in the end.)

That makes sense. (I hope you enjoyed it.) Under normal conditions, I listen to music almost constantly while working or writing, but if it has lyrics either they need to be in a language I absolutely don't understand or I need to know them so well that I don't have a chance of getting hooked by the sense of them, in direct contrast to my otherwise default of tuning out whatever I hear in favor of whatever I am reading. I can't do the wallpaper media thing that so many people I know report with podcasts or even TV shows. If I am listening, I need to be just listening.

PS, having clicked through the incidental music link

[asakiyume]

All by Johnny Flynn?! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!

Re: PS, having clicked through the incidental music link

[sovay]

All by Johnny Flynn?! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!

Yes! It looks like part of his ongoing collaboration with Robert Macfarlane that produced Lost in the Cedar Wood (2021) and Coins for the Eyes (2022) and a new album coming out in November I hadn't even known about! Aaaaaaaaah.

(Of the incidental music, my favorites are "Cutty Wren" and "The Wild Hunt.")

[watervole]

I do like the ASCII poem!

[sovay]

I do like the ASCII poem!

It is charming and catchy and reminds me of experimental poetry from the 1930's and '60's!

[minoanmiss]

The only adult I know who isn't very tired is one of of my twentyish coworkers. I have three twentyish coworkers. The other two are very tired.

[sovay]

The only adult I know who isn't very tired is one of of my twentyish coworkers. I have three twentyish coworkers. The other two are very tired.

Good for your one twentyish coworker, but *hugs* for everyone else including you.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I don't think it is much of a news flash that I am very tired. Do I know anyone who's not?

So relatable! *hugs*

[sovay]

So relatable!

Right?!

*hugs*

[rushthatspeaks]

Oh, my God, I think I just got a joke I'd been missing in Daniel Pinkwater for decades.

In Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars, the Higher Plane of Consciousness (which is actually a vaguely boring jungle planet) known as Waka-Waka is reached by activating your latent psychic powers of telepathy, minor telekinesis, etc..

< So when you're in Waka-Waka, you're in one of the standard typesetting denotations for telepathy. >

I didn't know those were called waka-wakas. But I will bet Pinkwater does. It seems the sort of thing he would know.

That's enough internet for the time being. I'm going to go do something else before I injure my brain any further. Waka-fucking-Wakas.

[sovay]

< So when you're in Waka-Waka, you're in one of the standard typesetting denotations for telepathy. >

That sounds like an incredibly Daniel Pinkwater joke. The Laird Cregar of typesetting gags.

(the comment thought the waka-wakas were bad HTML and croaked lmfao)

Heee.