sovay: (Rotwang)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2011-03-11 12:05 am

Someday everyone will know exactly what you did

1. I called the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst and ordered a fifteen-year-old back issue of Der Pakn Treger, because it contains, as far as I can tell, the only complete English translation of Sholem Asch's Got fun nekome (God of Vengeance, 1907) since Isaac Goldberg's in 1918, which I do not recommend. I cannot figure out how I never heard of this play until last night. Seriously, first lesbians of the Yiddish theater? Will report back when I have read it. Also maybe see if [livejournal.com profile] strange_selkie wants to direct a production.

2. Bydgoszcz is a real place. I had always vaguely assumed Harlan Ellison made it up for "The Last Will and Testicle of Trees Rabelais"—nothing about the rest of the story, including the title, would encourage one to believe otherwise. Nope. It's quite a large city. It's where one finds the Bydgoszcz Canal and Casimir the Great University. It came up in the course of my job, which has heretofore mostly been teaching me about fast food in Finland and small Indonesian streets.

3. I am pleased beyond words that someone appears to be coming out with a full translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar of Nigidius Figulus. It's a seventh-century Etruscan omen text translated into Latin in the first century BCE and surviving in a sixth-century Greek edition; it's incredibly awesome. Also, it's just that much fun to say.

4. I had coffee this afternoon (all right, they had coffee, I had herbal chai) with a pair of philosophers at Café Gato Rojo in Harvard Square. The conversation turned to Robert Musil and then someone quoted Wittgenstein.

5. I wish I hadn't missed A Taste of Honey (1961) on TCM. I read the play last week.

[identity profile] teenybuffalo.livejournal.com 2011-03-11 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
The Yiddish Book Center! I was there a few months ago with [livejournal.com profile] negothick. It's delightful. They have giant antique printing presses with lead type for Yiddish newspapers, and racks on racks of books.

Lots of sheet music, which caught me by surprise--the Yiddish-language musical theater isn't something you hear a lot about these days, but there was a whole wall which consisted mainly of huge heaps of sheet music from the nineteen-and-single-digits. They were all much like the Yiddish answer to "While Strolling Through The Park One Day" and "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-de-ay". I'm going to buy some of it sometime and learn to sing it.

I'm curious, what does your job entail?

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2011-03-11 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
It sounds like a job someone could have in a story--I think strange things may happen as a consequence of that job. The things you may discover... it's the start of a film, and I wonder what will happen next.

[identity profile] teenybuffalo.livejournal.com 2011-03-11 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
It depends on where you listen!

Yes--assume I'm an academic paper, and for "you hear a lot" read "I hear a lot". (As well as for "It is widely remarked that...", read "somebody told me once".)