Everything we do tonight is wrong, wrong, wrong

[sovay]

From kraada, a meme. I will be out of town for the weekend and potentially AWOI (absent without internet), so my replies may take a few days, but—

Comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I added you to my friends list and/or why I keep you there.

2. Associate you with something. A song, a color, a work of art, a character in a play, a piece of fruit. SOMETHING.

3. Tell you something I like about you.

4. Tell you a memory I have of you/us.

5. Associate you with a character from a book or a film.

6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you. (Or else I'll just ask a random question. I reserve that right.)

7. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

8. In return, you must spread this disease in your LJ.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

1. But also you wrote a book that was autumn in almost all the ways that are important to me.

The book did its work then. I'm glad.

2. The color that comes with winter twilight...

Heavens. That's one of the loveliest things anyone's ever said to me.

3. Your apartment is what branch libraries want to be when they grow up.

At best a shard of one. There are chasms in it, huge gaps in my holdings. You wouldn't know there'd been an Enlightenment. An aspiring child could not read up on Economics or Engineering. And that's just the Es.

4. We were once accidentally locked inside an ornamental garden at Harvard.

If they ever do the movie...

5. Doctor Dianus Shaachen, from Tanith Lee's Faces Under Water.

All I can find is one review from amazon.ca:

"Humor and odd bits of truth are provided by Furian's friend/mentor/irritant Dianus Shaachen, an aging doctor who dabbles in alchemy and other mystical arts, dotes on his pet magpie, loves to be cryptic, and may actually know something of use to Furian."

Tell me more.

6. Do you see any of your characters as avatars of yourself?

From within me? Not as such. Though some, poor souls, bear aspects of myself; and all of them share my habits of metaphor and voice. I can't do inarticulate.

7. The one with your illustration of the tinker.

Well, it's not an icon as such, but I'm fond of that drawing.

Nine

[wind05.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how you pronounce "meme"

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

I totally want to ask, and I totally doubt that I'll have the time to do it in my journal.

But still?

(also, hi!)

[sovay]

1. You are the first friend I made at Brandeis. I plan to know you for the rest of my life. End of story.

2. Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer's "Lancelot." I know I've used it before, but it's true.

3. I can talk to you about anything. And probably at any hour of the night, too.

4. Well, you already took both the Sign-Seeker's Chant and Most College Day Ever, so . . . This is a memory of you, for which you were not there. The first time I ever tasted limoncello, homemade, when I was in Rome for the first time in 2004, I still describe the flavor as a very small lemon-flavored nuclear bomb going off in one's sinuses, but the very first thing I thought was, "I am going to have to see if I can bring some of this home for Joel."

5. Oscar Hopkins, from Oscar and Lucinda (1997).

6. Would you choose to live in another world?

7. You never seem to use the dragon icon, and I do like it.

[sovay]

1. Curiosity.

2. Jacques Brel's "Je suis un soir d'été."

3. Many of your posts are in the language of memoir, not text message or e-mail update: even when they discuss academic schedules and Nine Inch Nails, they could be published and read fifty years from now.

4. You shared with me the spam names Antigonus Probert and Libitina Loving, which I still think deserve their own story.

5. Antonina Scarabin, from Tanith Lee's "Stained with Crimson."

6. What is the origin of your username?

7. The default with the mask: it should illustrate something.

[sovay]

(also, hi!)

Hi!

1. Best. Cousin. Ever.

2. Robyn Hitchcock's "Sometimes A Blonde."

3. Your customary greeting is "Be hugged!" with whose awesomeness not even the unwieldy nature of the English passive imperative can interfere.

4. You were the only person I'd ever met who had read Peter S. Beagle's The Folk of the Air without me first telling them to.

5. Florian de Lacey, from Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History.

6. If you were an anime character and your hair could not be pink, what color would it be?

7. "Bunny!"

[sovay]

I don't even know how you pronounce "meme"

To rhyme with "theme," I believe. I am fairly certain the common internet usage is a bastardization of the original definition, which has more to do with the cultural equivalent of genes—transmissable packets of information; technologies, melodies, superstitions—than with humorous questionnaires, but that's language for you.

1. Because I only now found out you have a livejournal.

2. The Devil’s Interval's "Studying Economy."

3. You have the talent of making anecdotes about your life into full-fledged performances of storytelling, even casually, which I prize.

4. You pointed to a lengthily incomprehensible acronym of a sign over the inner lintel of the restaurant's door and said, "If I tell you what it means, will you buy me a drink?"

5. Vir Cotto, from Babylon 5 (1994—1998).

6. If you left Catholicism (if one can leave Catholicism), toward what other faith, if any, would you gravitate?

7. I had actually been meaning to ask what yours is . . .

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

Me please?

[wind05.livejournal.com]

5. Vir Cotto, from Babylon 5 (1994—1998).

I should probably try to watch an episode of that sometime.

6. If you left Catholicism (if one can leave Catholicism), toward what other faith, if any, would you gravitate?

No contest--Hinayana Buddhism. Even if it would mean learning even MORE languages.

7. I had actually been meaning to ask what yours is . . .

El Greco's View of Toledo. It got sadly mashed-up when lj made it small.

Thanks!

[sovay]

We HAVE the internet in Maryland, you know.

Yes: and I am using it! But I wasn’t sure ahead of time whether I would be monopolizing your computer, and that did not seem a bright idea to me.

1. In person, I see you even less frequently than I see shirei_shibolim, and this needs to stop.

2. The clementine. Duh.

3. You can write historical fiction: you know all the right details to catch the flavor of the time.

4. The Leonids we watched fall from outside the Castle, freezing and eating winter fruit and singing.

5. Ryan, from Susan Cooper's Seaward.

6. What genre of food do you most like to cook?

7. Zachor.

[sovay]

1. I was the Archmage; you were Locutus.

2. Pearl Jam's "Off He Goes."

3. Because of you, I read Gene Wolfe.

4. You came cross-dressed to Halloween, and kraada came as you, and my brother has never been quite sure since which one of you was the real dasheiff.

5. Ismaël Vuillard, from Rois et reine (2004).

6. Do you still own the tweed jacket?

7. The dasheiff-die.

[sovay]

but maybe you like challenges. :-)

Well, from what I know of your livejournal . . .

1. The photographs you post are as luminous as their descriptions.

2. Don Mandarin's "The Medlar."

3. You write otherworlds that are not comfortable.

4. You asked me to translate a Greek inscription. That doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like.

5. Janette, from Forever Knight (1992—1996).

6. What music matters most to you?

7. The stone angel.

[chriscrick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but, but, I don't actually keep a journal like this. My account is solely for the purpose of making snarky asides in _other_ people's posts.

[sovay]

1.Your knowledge of music and film seems to be encyclopedic. Likewise your reviews of the same.

2 Orgy's "Fiction (Dreams In Digital)."

3. Your music recommendations are so far infallible.

4. You wrote an incredible review for me, and then you wrote another one, and I believe you both times.

5. The Hermit, from any pack of Tarot cards.

6. Badgers?

7. The Da Vinci Badger.

[sovay]

1. You play traditional Irish music on several instruments and have a fascinating family history.

2. Andy M. Stewart's "The Errant Apprentice."

3. You translate beautifully.

4. When you wrote out your username, I thought it was Welsh.

5. Des Helani, from Doris Egan's Two-Bit Heroes.

6. What is your native accent?

7. When you get one, I’ll let you know . . .

[sovay]

1. You mythologize. And beautifully.

2. Jill Tracy, "Quintessentially Unreal."

3. Ezekiel, the Monkey, is on the list of favorite characters I have been keeping since my sophomore year of college.

4. You referred to an escape of tzatziki from the gyros we were eating at the Greek restaurant in Madison as a "bukkake moment."

5. Morgause, from Elizabeth E. Wein's The Winter Prince.

6. Would you change your name legally to Apollonia?

7. "Dear Ezra . . ."

[sovay]

My account is solely for the purpose of making snarky asides in _other_ people's posts.

I got a livejournal in order to read friends' locked posts. Look where that got me.

1. Because in case you ever post anything, I want to read it!

2. The Comedian Harmonists' "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus."

3. You are a jack of all trades and master of an impressive number thereof.

4. Your homebrewed stout was, to date, one of exactly three beers I have ever wanted to drink again.

5. Verdialos, from the Liavek anthologies (primarily in the contributions by Pamela Dean, whose invention I believe he is).

6. Do you have a middle name?

7. The only one you have: you look decently like yourself.

[dasheiff.livejournal.com]

I do but I don't have many times to wear it. It's usually hot around here. Besides I now wear button up shirts all of the time so I don't quite feel the need to anymore. Still wear the tweed hat though.

[sovay]

Funny, that's what I'd say about you.

Heh. Thank you. I am honored!

Yeesh, I just used radio static as a metaphor in a non-public journal entry!

You also use the sound effect "Yeesh." I am now trying to remember if Calvin and Hobbes is where I picked it up . . .

HOW many people have you infected with this form of time-eating virus?

Σωκράτη φησὶν ἀδικεῖν τούς τε νέους διαφθείροντα καὶ θεοὺς οὓς ἡ πόλις νομίζει οὐ νομίζοντα, ἕτερα δὲ δαιμόνια καινά . . .

Don't think I've ever eaten one, oddly.

They are small, pungent, orange-colored citrons, whose rind is sweeter than its enclosed fruit, as a consequence of which the kumquat is usually eaten whole. My grandmother used to buy them, and for some reason I believe I once had a marmalade made partially from kumquats. But my primary association with them is an exchange from The Fantasticks:

"You're standing in my kumquats!"

"Sorry!"

I am not sure either of these anecdotes adequately explains why I thought of you. But I did.

Haven't met him yet, have I?

Have you read / are you reading the series? If you do so in chronological order (rather than publishing: the last book in the quartet was the first written, and later revised slightly to match its predecessors), he is first sighted in the second book, Searching for Dragons. He is a theoretical magician with an intensely technical vocabulary and an enthusiastic disregard for the comprehension of his audience unless forcibly reminded; if he accidentally unraveled the fabric of the universe in the course of an experiment, he would take meticulous notes right up to the point his notebook ceased to exist. fleudelis28 and I have long agreed that, in this world, he would instantly gravitate to MIT.

It's an octopus, silly!

I thought it was spaghetti!

What's this about being set up with a prince? Or have I heard this story?

I don't think so. setsuled used my likeness and a partial acronym of my name for a minor character in his webcomic The Adventures of Boschen and Nesuko (which while it ran was one of the better things I had ever read online, and now that it's finished, I am eagerly awaiting the next project). As a natural consequence of the plot (which I will not get into, in hopes that you will just read the comic), my alter ego ended up with a prince. In that universe, much worse things could have happened.

[sovay]

I should probably try to watch an episode of that sometime.

You should watch the whole five-year arc. The first season is mostly groundwork for the ways in which the characters will change, and the fifth suffers from a cancellation and reboot that severely shortchanged its plotting, but the second through the fourth seasons are mythic science-fictional genius. I am currently rewatching the series for the first time since high school and I am still impressed.

No contest--Hinayana Buddhism. Even if it would mean learning even MORE languages.

Why that particular school of Buddhism?

El Greco's View of Toledo. It got sadly mashed-up when lj made it small.

I'm afraid I wouldn't have recognized it as Toledo, yes. Why that painting?

(Feel free not to answer; the meme only specified one question.)

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

I would if I thought for a minute I could get away with it. No one would ever buy a classically oriented author with that name. Alas!

And I'm so secretly excited by #2.

[palecast.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you - that is fascinating! I shall have to listen to the Medlar. What music matter to me? hmmm... I love New Model Army, particularly Thunder and Consolation, and Carnival. I also adore Nick Cave's album When the Boatman Calls, though not all his other work. I also like Waterson Carthy, the English Acoustic Collective, Bach, Bartok, Jill Tracy and Dead Can Dance.

[kraada.livejournal.com]

Would you choose to live in another world?

If I could take Becky with me, I might, depending on the world. I would not leave this world -- no matter the destination -- without her.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Hokay, if you still are up for playing I'd be curious :)

(Though my LJ pics are kind of embarrassing, mostly HP-related and out of date).

[sovay]

And now I need to see that.

It has selkies, not mermaids, but it's one of my touchstone films about the sea. Splash is another, because I saw it at such a young age that all the romantic comedy bypassed me completely and what I retained was the myth and the metamorphosis, and all the scenes aboard the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Like many of my alien names, I started by spelling an English word backwards, in this case "delete", and then adding whatever letters I felt like.

Where did the names "Boschen" and "Nesuko" come from?