sovay | Stalking the Antichrist in the final days

1. I have a copy of Monica Hughes' Devil on My Back (1984)! It is a small ex-library hardback from Liverpool Polytechnic. It arrived in the mail this afternoon:

desperance sent it. I have never received a birthday present from the internet before. Thank you so much!

2. Cinderella Jump-Rope Rhymes. I am part of this upcoming chapbook, which evolved out of a livejournal post of

cucumberseed's. Watch this space. The illustrations are going to be amazing. The words aren't bad, either.

3. In honor of the first season of Millennium (1996–1999), which

lesser_celery and I finished last night, have a brief pre-apocalyptic mix.

Arcade Fire, "Black Mirror"

I know when the time is coming
All the words will lose their meaning

Robyn Hitchcock, "Judas Sings (Jesus & Me)"

This is the century of, 'I don't believe
In anything but what's up my sleeve—'
So what's up your sleeve?

Murder by Death, "Steam Rising"

There is steam rising from the belly of the beast
There is hell on earth, there are demons beneath the streets

Laura Veirs, "Chimney-Sweeping Man"

I try to make things better
I try to make things mine
I write a lot of letters
To pass the time

Sam Phillips, "Soul Eclipse"

You think I'm interesting
Like the apocalypse

The Mountain Goats, "Lovecraft in Brooklyn"

Woke up afraid of my own shadow
Like, genuinely afraid

Dirty Three and Nick Cave, "Time Jesum Transeuntum et Non Riverentum"

Now the stars they are all angled wrong
And the sun and the moon refuse to burn

PJ Harvey, "In the Dark Places"

And not one man has
And not one woman has
Revealed the secrets of this world

My Favorite, "The Suburbs Are Killing Us"

You did what you did because a pathetic mythology
Is better than no mythology at all

Tori Amos, "Sister Janet"

And all those up there are making it look so easy
With your perfect wings
A wing can cover all sorts of things

4. Has anyone ever set a production of Much Ado About Nothing in Depression-era America? I was reminded last Friday when

fleurdelis28 and I went to the opening night of Opera Boston's Béatrice et Bénédict—the original play is so much a screwball comedy, not just in its verbal fireworks or its double-blind plot, but in the way it presents love as a high-wire act over the very real possibility of getting hurt (and sooner or later, everyone who takes the risk must take a spill), that it seems the obvious choice to stage it like Hollywood in the 1930's, but I've never seen anyone try. Some of the business with the eavesdropping and the hedges and the folding chair in Kenneth Branagh's film is close, but it's sort of nineteenth-century Italy in any case.

5. Are there any other artists who attract the same kind of conspiracy theories as Shakespeare?

kenjari asked what it was about him; I had no idea, but I had to agree he seems to be the only one. At least, I've never heard of a Mozart authorship controversy.

Tonight: the Post-Meridian Radio Players' Big Broadcast of 1954. Given the last two years and music by

sen_no_ongaku, I'm looking forward.

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At least, I've never heard of a Mozart authorship controversy.

Instead, there's the Salieri-Mozart poisoning controversy. But does anyone actually believe that, the way you meet people who really believe in the Shakespeare authorship controversy?

I meant "poisoning conspiracy", not "poisoning controversy". Anyway, there are people who have suggested that all of Catullus, except the very few poems found in manuscripts other than V, was a 13th- or even 14th-century forgery. But I haven't met anyone who believes that, and it certainly has't become a popular trope among the masses.

Anyway, there are people who have suggested that all of Catullus, except the very few poems found in manuscripts other than V, was a 13th- or even 14th-century forgery.

Fascinating. I'd no idea anybody'd suggested such a thing.

I'm told there's a Russian conspiracy theorist who claims that all our classical and mediaeval history is the result of an effort by Westerners to hide the fact that everybody from Mongolia to Ireland was ruled by the Russian czar up until somewhere in the fifteenth century AD. Greco-Roman art was apparently all created by Renaissance-era forgers, but I've no notion what he has to say about their literature; however, considering he's reported to claim that stories of the Crusades, the Trojan War, and (I think) the exploits of Alexander the Great are all retellings of the same set of events, I'd assume there's some similar programme of literary forgery he'd have us to believe went on.

As far as I know, no one really believes that Salieri poisoned Mozart. At least, I've never met anyone in the musical community who does.

At least, I've never met anyone in the musical community who does.

Even Peter Shaffer didn't use that particular rumor in Amadeus.

I love all the songs here that I know--which probably means I'll love all the songs that I don't know.

And Wow! I hadn't seen that Erzebet put up the info about the chapbook--what a great writeup. She's on a roll.

What, you didn't link to my very own conspiratorial crackfic?

I flounce off in a huff, I rilly do.

I flounce off in a huff, I rilly do.

Dude, I thought your crackfic was friendlocked. I'll fix it in the next post.

Kiss, hoofprint, kiss kiss.

Ow . . . their Latin is wrong . . .

Oh, what I meant to ask was, how was the production of B&B? Was the cast good? Did they set it in a random time period again?

Ow . . . their Latin is wrong . . .

Yes, but I can't change it; it's the title.

how was the production of B&B? Was the cast good? Did they set it in a random time period again?

Not terribly random: Sicily in the 1950's, allowing for some very nice costuming and the occasional classical touch like the time-worn traces of a mural on the back wall, reminiscent of Pompeii. (It lifted up to reveal the single best backdrop I've ever seen in a production: lingering summer twilight, the mainland lights rippling on the water; as

fleurdelis28 said, "I can see the wrinkles in the cloth and I still believe it!") The spoken dialogue was in English, which caused some problems for their Béatrice, who was clearly not a native speaker (and even native speakers can have trouble with Shakespeare), but she was persuasive when singing; she picked up instantly with her duet with Bénédict in which each wonders independently why it's so much fun to bait the other, why their heart rates spike when the other's around, and in a spectacular display of denial both come to the conclusion that it must, of course, obviously, be dislike. He was very solid, a whimsical joker throwing himself into the role of lover with as much enthusiasm as he formerly dedicated himself to the mockery of love; I was quite fond of his awed, dawn-over-Marblehead delivery of "The world must be peopled!" Somarone was from some other opera altogether—which I suppose made him perfectly in line with Dogberry, who often appears to have been imported from a much sillier play—but that opera was delightful. Whoever was speaking Leonato was very good. I wouldn't call it my favorite opera by Berlioz, because frankly that's Les Troyens, and I prefer the complexity of the original Shakespeare, but it was lovely music. Héro and Ursule's duets were gorgeous.

I'm glad to hear of 1, and think 2 a definite Good Thing as well.

Thanks for 3!

4 does sound something somebody should have done, but I've never heard of anyone doing it.

5.

I've never heard of anyone making a similar claim about another artist. I'm trying to think how to research it, because it does seem a bit unfair that there wouldn't be. But that leads us down the road of creating a literary conspiracy theory to order,* which does seem a bit beyond the pale.

Tonight: the Post-Meridian Radio Players...

I hope you've enjoyed it very much.

*"Of course, the Nancy Drew books were really written by Eleanor Roosevelt, except for the ones that FDR did, and then there were at least two that J. Edgar Hoover had a hand in... they say he used to dress like Nancy in order to get himself in the mood to write. The Bobbsey Twins, now, those were Victoria Woodhull's."

4 does sound something somebody should have done, but I've never heard of anyone doing it.

Right! Why not? Is it too obvious? Wouldn't it be worth trying anyway? Did the RSC already and I'm just not theater-aware enough to have known?

I hope you've enjoyed it very much.

I did! They remain very good. I really need to see one of their non-Halloween shows sometime.

"Of course, the Nancy Drew books were really written by Eleanor Roosevelt, except for the ones that FDR did, and then there were at least two that J. Edgar Hoover had a hand in... they say he used to dress like Nancy in order to get himself in the mood to write. The Bobbsey Twins, now, those were Victoria Woodhull's."

*SNERK*

Right! Why not? Is it too obvious? Wouldn't it be worth trying anyway? Did the RSC already and I'm just not theater-aware enough to have known?

I wish I knew. I'm not sure. I think it would be. I've no idea, but hope there's somebody who can answer that question.

I did! They remain very good. I really need to see one of their non-Halloween shows sometime.

Excellent!

*SNERK*

Thank you!

Stalking the Antichrist in the final days

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