We will write a song by all the light that's left

[sovay]

tl;dr the verdict from my doctor is that between the construction and its complications, the sleep deprivation of this summer has been so severe that my body actually has gotten out of the habit and needs to be reintroduced. Fortunately she believes it can be done. Have some links.

1. Canadians! Per my previous post about the sudden move on the part of the Canadian Coast Guard to destaff two crucial light stations in British Columbia, there are now two petitions which can be signed in support of reconsidering the surprise decision, one to the House of Commons and the other to the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees. For people of whatever nationality who wish to spread the news on Tumblr, sanguinarysanguinity has done the good work. Please sign if you can, signal-boost if you can't. Relevant people were not consulted and that stretch of coast hasn't been called the Graveyard of the Pacific for its offhand navigability.

2. When Alain Delon died, nearly every obituary seemed to refer to his trenchcoat in Le Samouraï (1967) as Bogart-inspired. This is blatant Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire (1942) erasure.

3. Via selkie: "Goodbye gender studies; hello, Greek literature." Does the entire ancient world have bad news for New College of Florida. Aristophanes will have to take a number somewhere behind Athene and Axiothea and we haven't even gotten to the Bacchae.

I couldn't get a good scan of my favorite photo of Donald Swann out of Robin Muir's John Deakin: Photographs (1996), so I took a picture and am telling myself that the generation loss only adds to the scuffed-up Deakin aesthetic.

Comments

[spatch]

There I was, having just awakened after a morning of painfully-aware awakeness and then a crash of sleep, and there you were, having come in with a large book and there you had shown me pictures taken by someone from another medium's era and how wonderfully physical they all were, and this is just a great portrait regardless.

[sovay]

There I was, having just awakened after a morning of painfully-aware awakeness and then a crash of sleep, and there you were, having come in with a large book and there you had shown me pictures taken by someone from another medium's era and how wonderfully physical they all were, and this is just a great portrait regardless.

Oh, mow. I am glad I was able to so greet you. Also that I finally unpacked that book after almost ten years.

[muccamukk]

There's an inspirational teacher movie somewhere in using Greek Studies to stealth teach Gender Studies as a plotline.

[minoanmiss]

fistbump

[muccamukk]

💖💖💖

[sovay]

There's an inspirational teacher movie somewhere in using Greek Studies to stealth teach Gender Studies as a plotline.

Take my drachmas.

(You can't teach Lysistrata without talking about gender! It's kind of baked in!)

[thisbluespirit]

the sleep deprivation of this summer has been so severe that my body actually has gotten out of the habit and needs to be reintroduced. Fortunately she believes it can be done.

Unsurprising given what you've been saying, but erk. *hugs* I'm glad the doctor was responsive and hopeful, though. ♥

and am telling myself that the generation loss only adds to the scuffed-up Deakin aesthetic.

I think it does! :-)

[sovay]

Unsurprising given what you've been saying, but erk. *hugs* I'm glad the doctor was responsive and hopeful, though.

Thank you! She was somewhat dismayed that I had not reached out after the first few weeks of sleep-destroying construction and I had to remind her that I have spent most of my adult life with a sleep deficit that would beggar Endymion and did not expect this summer to be any different. Since it is, however, here we go!

I think it does!

Hooray!

*hugs*

[pameladean]

Oh, go your doctor; very best of luck with the reintroduction to sleep. Perhaps you may both be shy at first but I'm hopeful you will fall for one another again.

[sovay]

Oh, go your doctor; very best of luck with the reintroduction to sleep. Perhaps you may both be shy at first but I'm hopeful you will fall for one another again.

Thank you!

[a_reasonable_man]

I symbolically make a sacrifice to Hypnos on your behalf!

I looked up the guy that the corrupt new administrators of New College hired to teach Greek literature and unfortunately was not surprised. He's exactly the sort of Claremont Institute classicist these guys would be expected to hire. He wants to use the wisdom of the ancients to overcome what he sees as the current crisis of "the West," brought on by "a world gone mad." Specifically, he aims to prove the existence of "objective truth," combat "transgender insanity," demonstrate the "profound philosophical plausibility of Judeo-Christian revelation," and help save American "republican government" (as opposed, I assume, to American democracy) from imminent "collapse."

[sovay]

I symbolically make a sacrifice to Hypnos on your behalf!

Thank you!

I looked up the guy that the corrupt new administrators of New College hired to teach Greek literature and unfortunately was not surprised.

I figured that anyone who signed on to teach at New College would not be a classicist I would consider worth their hexameters. I take comfort from the fact that he's going to have to work very hard against his texts.

[garonne]

Goodbye gender studies; hello Greek literature

I’m no Classicist, indeed my meager knowledge of Greek literature is mostly via osmosis only. But wow, even I know enough to have laughed aloud when I laid eyes on that tweet!

This is blatant Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire (1942) erasure.

Yes! Haha.

Actually I don’t see much similarity at all between Le samouraï and Bogart's Chandler films (which I guess is what they're referring to) nor between Delon's and Bogart's portrayals. I mean, can you imagine Delon's character in either of the bookshop scenes? I don't know if I'm missing something or if it was just a case of the obituary writers latching onto the only film noir actor they thought people would have heard of!

[moon_custafer]

If any actor and any movie drew inspiration from the first of those bookshop scenes (hmm?) it was Harrison Ford as Deckard in Blade Runner, pretending to be from "the American Federation of Variety Artists, from the Committee on Moral Abuses."

[sovay]

I’m no Classicist, indeed my meager knowledge of Greek literature is mostly via osmosis only. But wow, even I know enough to have laughed aloud when I laid eyes on that tweet!

I can only hope some of his students do the same.

I mean, can you imagine Delon's character in either of the bookshop scenes?

I really can't. (I subscribe to moon_custafer's theory, though.)

I don't know if I'm missing something or if it was just a case of the obituary writers latching onto the only film noir actor they thought people would have heard of!

The only thing I can think is if Melville himself linked the character of Jef Costello to the screen persona of Bogart, but I have no evidence that he did and I still wouldn't see it. Even Mitchum would be closer.

[poliphilo]

Melville was in love with American popular culture. He knew Bogart wasn't the only man who owned a trench coat.

I agree Mitchum would be closer, but Ladd closest of all.

[kore]

"needs to be reintroduced. Fortunately she believes it can be done."

Oh, I'd love to know some of those methods. All I get is the "don't read in bed" (hahaha NO), "no caffeine after 2 pm, set a regular bedtime and wake time" crap, which does nothing ever for delayed sleep phase syndrome.

[genarti]

Keeping every possible digit crossed for the reintroduction of your body to sleep to go well and smoothly. I'm picturing it a bit like introducing new cats to each other; may the hissing give way to purring and who's-cuddling-not-me with all due haste.

[sovay]

I'm picturing it a bit like introducing new cats to each other; may the hissing give way to purring and who's-cuddling-not-me with all due haste.

*hugs*

Thank you so much.

[poliphilo]

Swann looks very intense for a writer of comic songs.

He was a Quaker, you know. We have his autobiography- cheekily entitled Swann's Way- in our Meeting House library.

[sovay]

Swann looks very intense for a writer of comic songs.

It's why I like the photo. Every other one from around the same time highlights his manic curate aspect. This one might have have driven an ambulance in Greece in WWII.

He was a Quaker, you know. We have his autobiography- cheekily entitled Swann's Way- in our Meeting House library.

I've wanted to read it for years! How is it?

[poliphilo]

I've only dipped into it. I'm afraid it didn't strike me as particularly exciting....