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.

[kore]

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

!! !!!

[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.

[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!

PS, having clicked through the incidental music link

[asakiyume]

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

[watervole]

I do like the ASCII poem!

[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.

[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*

[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.