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We're linking tongues and moving on
Most of today does not bear repeating, but in the afternoon my mother and I went to the Museum of Science and looked at the frogs: they were still beautiful. The dart-poison frogs, which look like metallic glazes. The waxy monkey frog, sitting up on its branch with delicate, unsticky fingers and opposable thumbs. Bullfrog tadpoles, fire-bellied toads; even a clawed Xenopus, whose name I learned almost twenty-five years ago from a children's abecedary, As I Was Crossing Boston Common. The Brazilian milk frog is the one that I love. Its skin is like celadon, softly watered with black; it crouches with only its throat flickering and its eyes are wide rims of gold. There are three or four of them near the beginning of the exhibit, the first frogs the visitor sees after the initial materials. I can imagine them in clay and faience. They look like things recovered from the ancient world.
On a channel that unfortunately cut for commercials, I caught the last third of The Magnificent Seven (1960) earlier tonight. I need to rewatch it and Seven Samurai (1954); I saw them both at the same time, probably not later than my first year of high school.
The Pliny moment yesterday was the Great Meadows of Arlington and Lexington, burning. Being wetlands, they should regrow soon. I still think conservation land should not be catching on fire. I imagine someone was smoking, and I wonder if I can invoke contrapasso against them.
There are not enough good stories with shape-changing and frogs.
On a channel that unfortunately cut for commercials, I caught the last third of The Magnificent Seven (1960) earlier tonight. I need to rewatch it and Seven Samurai (1954); I saw them both at the same time, probably not later than my first year of high school.
The Pliny moment yesterday was the Great Meadows of Arlington and Lexington, burning. Being wetlands, they should regrow soon. I still think conservation land should not be catching on fire. I imagine someone was smoking, and I wonder if I can invoke contrapasso against them.
There are not enough good stories with shape-changing and frogs.
and round they went, and round, although
And I know the abecedary you're referring to with Xenopus. I LOVE it. That's also where I learned Trogon and Yaguarundi.
sweet and slow, a circular tow,
round as the moon that leaned to blow
its beams upon Boston Common.
also...
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You would be proud of me. In keeping with the tradition of horrifying lullabies full of deadly things, I filked "Hush Little Baby" to the contents of Larousse Gastronomique, more or less, to friends' sleepless eight month old. It would have worked, too, if someone hadn't popped a party balloon.
the Great Meadow burning
I was hoping to go walking there Patriots Day or next weekend
I'm surprised the wetlands would burn.... I biked thru there not long ago, and things did not look dry.
I disagree with you: Sometimes conservation land should burn. Isn't that what they found about prairies and Yellowstone? On the other hand, I thought that is more relevant to the Southwest than New England.
BTW: I talked/bragged about your Vanth [proposed] name to some coworkers Friday when we were swapping stores.
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And speaking of critters ... Our sheep Chemaine just had twins black lambs. I have a photo up on my blog that you might enjoy, given our mythological naming hierarchy for black sheep.
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No, no. I just feel that way some days.
In keeping with the tradition of horrifying lullabies full of deadly things, I filked "Hush Little Baby" to the contents of Larousse Gastronomique, more or less, to friends' sleepless eight month old.
You rock. Softly, but you rock.
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I don't think it all burned, but based on the map they link from the website, it still looks like a substantial area.
I disagree with you: Sometimes conservation land should burn. Isn't that what they found about prairies and Yellowstone? On the other hand, I thought that is more relevant to the Southwest than New England.
Yeah. I do not think fire ecology was going on here.
I talked/bragged about your Vanth [proposed] name to some coworkers Friday when we were swapping stories.
I'm honored! Thank you!
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Yes! Not for years; I don't think Brian Froud meant anything to me at the time. There was a copy in my elementary school library. Now I want to re-read it.
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Yes. The exhibit talked about their scarcity. That was not the beautiful part.
Our sheep Chemaine just had twins black lambs.
Oh, nice. Just don't sacrifice them to Teiresias or Persephone.
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Rewrite?
sweet and slow, a circular tow,
round as the moon that leaned to blow
its beams upon Boston Common.
Yes! Angwantibo. Galliwasp. Sassaby. The names are like an incantation.
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Is it one of your favorites? Or just one you like?
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Pity about the cutting for commercials.
I hope the Great Meadows do grow back quickly. I'd wonder if it wasn't smoking, or some stupid person making a campfire and not having any concept how to do it properly. Contrapasso sounds appropriate, yes.
There are not enough good stories with shape-changing and frogs.
There are never enough good stories with anything.
But yes, there should be more with shape-changing and frogs. It actually sounds like a good thing for Ursula Vernon to do at some point, once she's done with Digger, although she does seem to have projects coming out her ears already.
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And it was so much fun to read out loud.
As for the story, I think it just is what it is--kind of a piece of fluff? But it would be a fun thing to write a different, wilder story about poison dart frogs--they are so beautiful. When I was writing the fluff story, I googled lots of images of them. And I learned a few words in Embera (tribe that hunts with arrows and darts using that venom).
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I love that it included pronunciations at the back.
But it would be a fun thing to write a different, wilder story about poison dart frogs--they are so beautiful.
Then may I request it of you?
And I learned a few words in Embera (tribe that hunts with arrows and darts using that venom).
That's great. I don't know any.
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If you find yourself in Boston before the twenty-fifth of May, I highly recommend you visit them.
It actually sounds like a good thing for Ursula Vernon to do at some point
I was just thinking prose, but anything by Ursula Vernon I would totally approve.
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In the event (somewhat unlikely, unfortunately) that I do so find myself, I will do so. Thank you for the recommendation.
I was just thinking prose, but anything by Ursula Vernon I would totally approve.
Ah, yes. I think she actually does do some prose writing, albeit highly (and self-) illustrated--she's got a juvenile novel called Nurk which is apparently about Sorka the shrew's grandson,* and there's a funny story somewhere well back in her deviantart gallery about an elf veterinarian and an orc poet.**
I, also, would totally approve just about anything by her. (And she does draw wonderful frogs.)
*The local Borders doesn't stock it, and I'm unfortunately note flush enough to order novels simply because I'd like to look at them. If my bonnie wee cousin-once-removed Ella were old enough, I'd get it for her as a gift and read it before I sent it, but such is not the case, and I amn't close enough to any of the other cousins-with-children to do so for their offspring.
**It seems to have been dropped after six or eight chapterlets, but it looks like developing into a nicely atypical elf-orc (in the post-Tolkienian sense, rather than the Tolkienian) romance.
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On the other hand, burning off phragmites is about the only way to get the seed heads, and the beds don't support much other life (it's a monoculture and too dense to offer cover for water birds), so I can't be too torqued about that.
Early spring fire in a spot like Great Meadows should do no long-term damage. It'll green up in a couple weeks if you get some rain.
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he's got a juvenile novel called Nurk which is apparently about Sorka the shrew's grandson
You could also get your local library to order it. (Either ILL, or buy to spread the gospel of Vernon). At any rate, that's what I'm planning to do.
there's a funny story somewhere well back in her deviantart gallery about an elf veterinarian and an orc poet.
MUST. READ.
there should be more with shape-changing and frogs.
Or you [sovay] could write it?
Anyway, sorry to hear that the non-ranine portions of yesterday were not worth the price of admission. I hope that they are, indeed, unrepeatable.
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One day! My head is totally taken up with one particular story right now...
But maybe a poem? Though--to state the obvious--a poem is not a story, and stories and poems are not interchangeable experiences...
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I seem to recall a word for the holiday of the damned. "Refrigerium". I think. Does that mean that Judas goes to refrigerate himself on an ice floe on his one day off a year?
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This is true. Nonetheless, I will accept a poem.
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I am very sorry to hear about the hernia surgery. I agree that it is a great movie, however; I rented it from the library this afternoon and just finished watching.
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I've seen a review of that! Maybe it's in a library.
and there's a funny story somewhere well back in her deviantart gallery about an elf veterinarian and an orc poet.
. . . excuse me while I look that up . . .
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Same here. I have no money.
Or you [sovay] could write it?
Hmm. I have so many things in my head already that I need to get onto the page . . .
Anyway, sorry to hear that the non-ranine portions of yesterday were not worth the price of admission. I hope that they are, indeed, unrepeatable.
Thank you. Very much appreciated. Also I think I need to use the adjective "non-ranine" more often.
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I walked down in the afternoon to look: the grass and the brush had burned out or blackened to the ground, but the trees were still standing. I took this as a good sign. Thanks.
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I think it's more of a graveside meal, like el Día de los Muertos, but Judas is let up from the hell once a year—ask Jo Walton.
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I will take your word for it.
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I need more Robyn Hitchcock. The only complete album I have is I Often Dream of Trains—the rest are scattered songs, many of which I truly love. Which is your first favorite?
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Hmm, that is a thought. My mother's got connections at the library--I'll ask her about it.
MUST. READ.
Definitely. It can be found by going to http://ursulav.deviantart.com/gallery/ and searching (in the search box under the gallery tab, rather than the one above) for "elf vs. orc".
The first chapter is rated mature*, so you'd have to be logged into deviantart in order to read it. The rest are open.
Or you [sovay] could write it?
I'd defintely read it, an she did.
*Even though there's nothing more explicit in it than the description of Sings-to-Trees' discovery that Celadon Toadstool is female whilst cutting off her shirt in the process of working on her wounded arm--the fact that she has nipple rings is mentioned, but that's about it.
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It certainly should be, to the sound of it.
. . . excuse me while I look that up . . .
Enjoy! I think I said more about it below.
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I don't have anything from it at all. Thank you.
PS
Have you a deviantart membership? An you don't, and don't want to be bothered with it, let me know and I'll find a way to email you a copy of the one bit that's rated mature and thus lockt.
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I could be completely wrong, though.