Thousands of ghosts in the daylight
Hestia sniffed my hands all over, but after some proprietary headbutting allowed herself to be petted with insistent slinks of her back and escalating purr. I had met two strange cats this evening at ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants and genarti's.
We did not actually watch one of the several productions of As You Like It inskygiants' possession, the notional goal of the hangout. We ate a bounty of deli from Mamaleh's—the bagel with chopped liver was successfully foraged despite the ravages of commencement weekend—and got as far as watching a 26-minute stop-motion Twelfth Night with a voice cast to die for, which turned out to be one of the Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992–94) adapted by Leon Garfield which I had been recommended last month. Then we were diverted by talking about books mostly of our childhoods and in the process I learned that prior to launching his nowadays much more famous career as a Nesbit-inspired children's fantasist, Edward Eager was a dramatist and lyricist responsible among other musical comedies for the Offenbach-in-English To Hell with Orpheus. It never seems to have made it to Broadway, but was one-shot premiered in 1953 by the irresistibly named St. John Terrell's Music Circus of Lambertville, NJ. I am captivated by this fact. I was also captivated by the strange cats, although Mina jinked out of any room I entered until very near the end of the evening, when she permitted me to stroke her very soft tuxedo-black head for about ten seconds before she headed for the refuge of the bedroom closet. So long as I didn't tower over him, Mr. Dash was more than content for me to attend to the covert white splash of his belly and his plush void back, although he seemed disappointed that leading me through the kitchen with a succession of soulful looks did not produce my feeding him. I had an out-of-season latke. It was an incredibly nice time.
genarti had made me a cup with the Uffington White Horse.
skygiants and genarti's.We did not actually watch one of the several productions of As You Like It in
skygiants' possession, the notional goal of the hangout. We ate a bounty of deli from Mamaleh's—the bagel with chopped liver was successfully foraged despite the ravages of commencement weekend—and got as far as watching a 26-minute stop-motion Twelfth Night with a voice cast to die for, which turned out to be one of the Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992–94) adapted by Leon Garfield which I had been recommended last month. Then we were diverted by talking about books mostly of our childhoods and in the process I learned that prior to launching his nowadays much more famous career as a Nesbit-inspired children's fantasist, Edward Eager was a dramatist and lyricist responsible among other musical comedies for the Offenbach-in-English To Hell with Orpheus. It never seems to have made it to Broadway, but was one-shot premiered in 1953 by the irresistibly named St. John Terrell's Music Circus of Lambertville, NJ. I am captivated by this fact. I was also captivated by the strange cats, although Mina jinked out of any room I entered until very near the end of the evening, when she permitted me to stroke her very soft tuxedo-black head for about ten seconds before she headed for the refuge of the bedroom closet. So long as I didn't tower over him, Mr. Dash was more than content for me to attend to the covert white splash of his belly and his plush void back, although he seemed disappointed that leading me through the kitchen with a succession of soulful looks did not produce my feeding him. I had an out-of-season latke. It was an incredibly nice time.genarti had made me a cup with the Uffington White Horse.
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The Uffington horse is wonderful.
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It is! It's beautifully made and even more turf-colored than it looks from my late-night photo.
(Icon: on point.)
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It's a marvelous gift and I wasn't expecting it at all!
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It's delightful! It has a Sir Toby with rambunctious tiny-dog energy and a Malvolio as pompous and finicking as a turkey cock and one of the stupidest (compliment) statuary cherubs I have ever seen.
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And I love
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One might also say it's a cup featuring the cover of XTC's English Settlement!
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got as far as watching a 26-minute stop-motion Twelfth Night with a voice cast to die for, which turned out to be one of the Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992–94) adapted by Leon Garfield
I remember those being on Children's BBC back in the day, and we watched some of them - I'm pretty sure one of those was that Twelfth Night. Not that I can remember much!
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Oh, cool! With Helen Mirren and Michael Pennington? (How is the class?)
I haven't seen As You Like It or Twelfth Night in a long time, but I want to watch them when we get to the plays in the class.)
That sounds like an excellent idea.
One might also say it's a cup featuring the cover of XTC's English Settlement!
It's true!
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They were a knockout combination!
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It was an enlightening as well as enjoyable evening.
And I love genarti's ceramics, love them. The cup is beautiful.
I feel very honored to have it.
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Thank you! The mug is amazing. It looks even better in sunlight.
I remember those being on Children's BBC back in the day, and we watched some of them - I'm pretty sure one of those was that Twelfth Night. Not that I can remember much!
Fiona Shaw as Viola, who would have been perfect in the role onstage. Roger Allam as Orsino, Suzanne Burden as Olivia, Gerald James as Malvolio. The puppets are a vivid, slightly grotesque style with beautifully expressive body language and the voices match them. Hugh Grant is randomly Sebastian. It is a speedrun and I would absolutely recommend.
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It looks chalk-cut!
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Yes! Young Helen Mirren is particularly amazing.
(How is the class?)
It's great: Shakespeare through the lens of myth, folklore, fairy tales, etc. Also, it looks at a wide range of adaptations (including the film 10 Things I Hate About You and Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time).
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Also if I die of botulism it was the jar of mustard, do not eat from the jar of mustard at my post-botulism funeral even if you think "roasted garlic mustard sounds like it will really go with these sardines I was left in the will!" N will be no help as they touch neither mustards nor sardines.
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*hugs*
Also if I die of botulism it was the jar of mustard, do not eat from the jar of mustard at my post-botulism funeral even if you think "roasted garlic mustard sounds like it will really go with these sardines I was left in the will!" N will be no help as they touch neither mustards nor sardines.
No botulism! Death is edging up on bullshit as no longer special!
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He seemed to do a lot of adaptations! I find it a fascinating line.
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Truly!
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It really was an incredibly nice time. <3 I'm delighted we could collectively make it happen. And that the cats (well, mostly Mr. Dash) consented to be so sociable!
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It contained the evening perfectly.
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I would admire it from afar no matter what, but selfishly I am thrilled. I forgot completely to ask what technical choices produced the effect of this cup! I just thought it was amazing!
And that the cats (well, mostly Mr. Dash) consented to be so sociable!
Mina did not absolutely bolt from me! That seemed sociable.
*hugs*
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Ha, well, you get an infodump, because secretly (not secretly) I'm very proud of the way the technical choices worked out!
The clay is brown, as you can obviously see on the underside and also through the glaze. So I made it and fired it to bisqueware and then painted on the horse with white underglaze. (Underglaze is a sort of paint made of clay + colorants; you can use it before or after the clay's bisque firing. It is, obviously, meant to go under the glaze. I like to use it on bisqueware because then if you mess up you can wash it off without affecting the pottery beneath, but if you paint on the underglaze and then do a bisque fire you can do more stuff at the glaze stage without worrying about washing off your underglaze decoration, so there are pros and cons. Anyway!)
Then I painted over the horse again with wax, before I dipped it in the glaze. (A slightly translucent green on the outside, and an opaque cream on the inside and at the rim, obviously.) The wax will burn off in the kiln, but meanwhile it resists the glaze, so the horse stays clear of it, and that's what gives the carved look -- the matte underglaze as a sort of batik poking through the layer of glaze. The hardest part is not going outside my own lines with the wax, or at least not so much it looks off, but it's not actually hard, just a bit fiddly. And I do kind of like being fiddly in art now and again, as, uh, just about every hobby I've ever taken up can attest.
And that's it! It's wax that's doing the heavy lifting in terms of the effect; the rest is just a bit of white paint and the fact that the studio has a pleasingly turf-green glaze.
Mina did not absolutely bolt from me! That seemed sociable.
It was! Quite sociable, honestly. But her level of sociability cannot compete with that of M. I-Was-A-Man-Of-The-Streets-Please-Pet-My-Belly Dash.
*hugs*
*hugs!*
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Tragically, I enjoy technical infodumps! I love that you can batik clay. It comes out looking exactly like the scratchboard of a hill figure.
Mr. Dash has acclimated magnificently to the great availability of petting in a settled home.
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It was good stuff!
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i have a small tattoo of the lasceaux bull - the one in this icon - over my right hip. i love the sensitivity, grace, and weight of ancient line art so so much.
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(I am so glad we got to see you and you got to make Hestia jealous with the cats, let's do it again soon!)
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I know that cave painting! What a beautiful piece of time to carry with you.
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What a career!
However, I did discover that another of his one-act operas, "Miranda and the Dark Young Man" appears to be not only extent, but [somewhat] available at the BPL!
Wow! What in this context is "somewhat"?
(I am so glad we got to see you and you got to make Hestia jealous with the cats, let's do it again soon!)
(I'm for it!)
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It's wonderful!