It's a far cry to payday

[sovay]

First, the serious thing: I will not be at Worldcon. For anyone who was scheduled on a panel with me, I am sorry not to be there to talk poetry, influences, and bad art; between my finances and some family things, it just turns out not to be possible this year. Send me postcards, you people who have my address. I will hold out hope for next year.

The other things are better. Last night, Eric and I (and Anita and Eddy) ventured out into the Second Coming of the Deluge to hear Birdsongs of the Mesozoic at AS220 with humglum and greygirlbeast. Except for short clips off their website, I had never heard the group before. I knew they contained Roger Miller and Erik Lindgren, and that Eric once described them as "the world's hardest-rocking chamber music quartet." I am tempted to gloss them if Stravinsky did not exist, it would be necessary for mad scientists to invent him, but that would not do justice to their three keyboards, tape loops, guitar, record player, and washboard with Mr. T painted on the reverse. With sheet music. I type this and my brother suddenly stops short in the hallway and asks, "What are you listening to?" which happens to be the last piece on their self-titled EP (1983, although I'm playing it off their recent and fantastic compilation Dawn of the Cycads); it is called called "Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous" and features birdcalls, piano arpeggi, and multiple tracks of percussion. I hope that's a better précis. By now you can probably tell I like them. I should also mention the opening act, a man with three different kinds of squeezebox and two bows for his fiddle who played slip jigs, reels, a bunch of Playford, and led the audience in chanteys like "Haul Away for Rosie," throwing out casually technical asides of comparative musicology as he went along. I kind of want to hear "The Trim-Rigged Doxy" accompanied on a Hardanger fiddle now. In any case, terrific music and company, we survived our run-in with a very loudly drunk man on Empire Street, and we did not drown on our way back to Boston; it was a very good night all round. I am only disappointed that Birdsongs of the Mesozoic do not sell T-shirts, because I really want one.

And this afternoon, rushthatspeaks, weirdquark, and I watched Vincente Minnelli's The Pirate (1948), with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. This film may be indescribable. I can write that it contains a ballet sequence with Gene Kelly in artfully tattered hot pants and the stage on fire, or that Judy Garland performs, while hypnotized, a broadside-ballad number whose scansion depends on two different pronunciations of "Caribbean," or that the finale involves beating Walter Slezak with a hula hoop, but I'm not sure that really conveys the experience. There are the costumes. And the sets. And . . . In the middle of one dance scene, rushthatspeaks said in a tone of wonder, "Gene Kelly is pole dancing." She was not wrong. I do not think I will ever need to drop acid now.

I think that's it for the day. My brother's wedding shower is tomorrow. The recently discovered daguerreotype of Phineas Gage makes me happy. Tell me something strange.

Comments

[rosefox]

Beet cake batter is a glorious shade of magenta, but the finished cake is beige.

[sovay]

Beet cake batter is a glorious shade of magenta, but the finished cake is beige.

Awesome. Cakes made with pistachio flour have a similar diversity of green.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Nothing strange springs to mind.

Worldcon will miss you terribly, not least because you could write about it like this.

Raise high the roofbeam, carpenters! I wish the wedding pair all joy.

Nine

[sovay]

Nothing strange springs to mind.

Tell me something normal. You never know with other people's ideas of strange.

Raise high the roofbeam, carpenters! I wish the wedding pair all joy.

I shall tell them so!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear about the concert and the film.

I'm sorry you'll not make Worldcon, but I'm sure I'm not half as sorry as those who'll be there without you.

Congratulations to your brother and his fiancée! I hope they have a lovely shower.

[sovay]

I'm sorry you'll not make Worldcon, but I'm sure I'm not half as sorry as those who'll be there without you.

I am going to miss being there with people. I am hoping by next year I will have a more functional income.

Congratulations to your brother and his fiancée!

I will pass on your good wishes.

I hope they have a lovely shower.

I got them T-shirts they do not yet know they want.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I am going to miss being there with people. I am hoping by next year I will have a more functional income.

I hope so as well.

I will pass on your good wishes.

Thank you!

I got them T-shirts they do not yet know they want.

Excellent. Those are very cool designs.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

First, the serious thing: I will not be at Worldcon.

Well, boo. I am sorry to hear that.

[sovay]

Well, boo. I am sorry to hear that.

You were, in fact, one of the people I was looking forward to hanging out with. Will you let me know if you're in the area anytime before next Readercon?

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I will indeed!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

if Stravinsky did not exist, it would be necessary for mad scientists to invent him,

I could hear you say this.

The only place we've been together in flesh and blood is at Readercon, and I had the impression of standing with you outside some room with chairs, and you saying those words. I could hear your voice so clearly in my head.

The story of Phineas Gage scares me, and the sleeping half of his face in that daguerreotype also scares me.

Something strange: I will just have to refer you back to the first of my entries yesterday, about the C-5 transport plane dropping its tires over my town. Tonight I was talking with people who heard them fall. The life guard at the town beach saw them fall.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

I can see how it could scare you, but I actually find his lopsided young face oddly fascinating. What with the bar and all, he looks like a priest of something or other, or as if he's passed through death.

[sovay]

but I actually find his lopsided young face oddly fascinating. What with the bar and all, he looks like a priest of something or other, or as if he's passed through death.

Poem.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You and sovay together have made me see the photo (and think of the man himself) in a much more whole way. Not scared anymore.

You should write a poem, as sovay suggests.

[sovay]

You should write a poem, as sovay suggests.

So could you, if he changes enough in your mind.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I have to write one about the earth bleeding water, first.

[sovay]

The only place we've been together in flesh and blood is at Readercon, and I had the impression of standing with you outside some room with chairs, and you saying those words. I could hear your voice so clearly in my head.

Thank you. I never know how the words I write sound to other people when I do not speak them. I'm glad they come through.

The story of Phineas Gage scares me, and the sleeping half of his face in that daguerreotype also scares me.

They do not scare me, because what I learned originally about Phineas Gage—I must have been in first or second grade, although I did not know until last year that his skull was in Boston—was a horror story, a man whose personality was so radically altered after the tamping iron went through his brain that his friends considered him unrecognizable and he was never really a functional adult again. Now I know that for years afterward he was a stagecoach driver in Chile, which is not a job a severely brain-damaged person would have been able to hold down, physically or socially. He worked in a livery stable in New Hampshire, on a farm in California. Maybe he did become someone else, but the someone else he became had a life and a livelihood and a face that makes me think of Odin, who traded an eye for wisdom. That's not fearful to me, but something of hope.

Tonight I was talking with people who heard them fall. The life guard at the town beach saw them fall.

That is very strange.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

more on Phineas Gage--

I had only known that he suffered the spike through his brain and that his personality changed; I didn't know anything beyond that, one way or another. The follow-up you give makes me feel better about the whole thing. I still don't like the idea of a personality change, but I think, upon reflection, that I believe in a baseline person beneath personality--and so even if he, say, went from being phlegmatic to being excitable, or from being morose to being cheerful (or vice versa), he would have done so in a himself sort of way.

So yeah, I guess I feel less bad about it. Also, your kind and thoughtful way of looking at his face makes me look at it with more accepting eyes.

[ckd]

I'm sorry you won't be able to be at Worldcon. I hope things improve to make at least NASFiC possible for you next year.

[sovay]

I hope things improve to make at least NASFiC possible for you next year.

Thank you.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

Tell me something strange.

Okay.

Visit my blog for the last word on the Realms of Fantasy cover controversy.

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Booo! Was looking forward to hanging out with you at Worldcon. Guess we'll have to wait for... Arisia?

Hope things turn around for you soon.

Something strange: Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor?

[sovay]

Hope things turn around for you soon.

Very much appreciated. I was looking forward to seeing you, too!

Guess we'll have to wait for... Arisia?

We'll always have the Hyatt Regency . . .

Something strange: Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor?

Okay; that's strange!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Them's fine T-shirts (and I know a bear would suit the bear...)

I'm very fond of The Pirate, though I realise this is not the universal view.

Something strange: there is only one land mammal native to Iceland (the arctic fox).

[sovay]

Them's fine T-shirts (and I know a bear would suit the bear...)

Then I am glad to have introduced you to them!

I'm very fond of The Pirate, though I realise this is not the universal view.

We had a wonderful time watching it. I'm just not sure it won't give me flashbacks!

Something strange: there is only one land mammal native to Iceland (the arctic fox).

For some reason, I knew this, but had forgotten. Thank you. I wonder what it fed on before humans brought mice and rabbits and other useful prey. Birds?

[seajules]

I'm not going to Worldcon, but I'm sorry to hear you're not, either. I would have loved to read your write-up of it.

Congratulations to your brother and his love!

The story and daguerreotype of Phineas Gage are marvels, and now a part of my brain is chewing over what he might see in his left eye. I'm not sure what you might count as strange, but my husband mock-poledanced at my heartsister's wedding last weekend, and I have been entertaining a guest from Vermont for the past few days. Given the contents of your entry, I find those interesting coincidences.

[sovay]

I would have loved to read your write-up of it.

Thanks. I would have liked the opportunity!

Congratulations to your brother and his love!

I will tell them so from you!

The story and daguerreotype of Phineas Gage are marvels, and now a part of my brain is chewing over what he might see in his left eye.

Prrrr.

Given the contents of your entry, I find those interesting coincidences.

Works for me.

[seajules]

now a part of my brain is chewing over what he might see in his left eye.

Done.