And listen for the old melody as it comes to me

[sovay]

1. Today, lesser_celery and I made reservations for lunch at The Salty Pig and ate a lot of exactly what the name implies. He had a plate of charcuterie, I had a sandwich with mortadella and soppressata and a cheese whose name I should have written down. It was delightful, even if I got badly rained on negotiating public transportation home afterward. We found it through a review in the Globe. Later tonight, we'll pick up Season Two of Millennium.

2. I know the Marvell Rep does not really exist to gratify my theatrical desires, but since their upcoming season includes The Threepenny Opera (1928), Arthur Schnitzler's The Bernhardi Affair (1912), Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance (1907), and Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening (1891), I am having a hard time arguing this point to myself. Man, why do I not live in New York?

3. In all other respects that do not involve webcomics, unfortunately, this week is not working out so well.

[edited] time_shark signal-boosts A Mayse-Bikhl! Which you already know about if you read this journal, but you should still listen to him anyway.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Your music reminds me--and I would totally have forgotten otherwise, and yet I promised!--that my father asked me to ask you if you had ever translated any Lucretius. It came up by weird free association in our morning's conversation, and he remembered talking with you about translation, and asked me to ask. I don't suppose he's **desperate** for the answer--I guess it means, though, that talking with you left an impression :-)

[sovay]

my father asked me to ask you if you had ever translated any Lucretius.

I have certainly read Lucretius. (I knew I would like him from the line caeli subter labentia signa: under the slipping signs of the sky. The philosophy's not bad, either.) Is there a particular passage he's interested in?

I guess it means, though, that talking with you left an impression

Well, that's good!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's a particular passage--but I will ask him!

Your last remark made me laugh. There are times and people where making an impression's probably a bad idea, but now, and my dad, are not (to echo and misquote movie!Aragorn) those times and people.

(Sorry to ramble so: I'm INSANE from work and things)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Well, I happened to speak with him just now. He said he didn't have a particular passage, but that there are moments when the poetry rises up, and that occasionally Lucretius has a turn of phrase--he mentioned stars grazing on the shores of--of what? was it the milky way?--and I shared with him the line you mentioned.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Does A Mayse Bikhl ship from the UK?

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

God of Vengeance AND Spring Awakening?! Now I want to see both of those. Through not having enough money, I've already missed the chance to see this:

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/theater/reviews/neo-futurists-present-stage-directions-from-oneill-plays.html

It just ain't fair.

I wished for a good book at the gym the other day and one turned up. Obviously I have powers. I Wish Each Of Us Had A Bushel Basket Full Of $100 Bills. *dusts hands*

[sovay]

Does A Mayse Bikhl ship from the UK?

Yes; the publisher lives in Yorkshire.

[sovay]

Now I want to see both of those.

Well, you'll have your chance!

(I will be slightly cautious about their Dreigroschenoper until I know which translation they're using, but I'll almost certainly see it even if it's the Donmar Warehouse's; I know it's the one piece of entartete Kunst everyone knows, but I still love it.)

It just ain't fair.

I approve of New York Neo-Futurists in principle, but especially of "The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill Volume 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays." Alas.

I wished for a good book at the gym the other day and one turned up.

What book?

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Gosh. I love the People's Republic of Vermont and I love not leaving home, but...Threepenny Opera. I am torn. I am seriously torn.

[sovay]

I am torn. I am seriously torn.

I am seriously contemplating a season subscription to a theater company in a city I don't live in.

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Agoraphobia, schmagoraphobia. Threepenny Opera. Which, given the distance, would be an overnight stay.

[sen-no-ongaku.livejournal.com]

I must now visit The Salty Pig.

[sovay]

I must now visit The Salty Pig.

Your icon confirms this as a plan.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

I know, right? The hell of it is that I'm probably the perfect audience for the Eugene O'Neill send-up--I'm a fan who's read a lot of his plays but not seen many. The stage directions for, say, Long Day's Journey Into Night run on for pages, devoting paragraphs to the shape of a character's nose, or to other things that you could never reproduce with real actors. (I find it easy to forgive in that one, because he never necessarily meant it to be produced. It's his memoir, it's OK for it to be novelistic.)

Stage direction from The Emperor Jones:

"Smithers is a tall, stoop-shouldered man about forty. His bald head, perched on a long neck with an enormous Adam's apple, looks like an egg. The tropics have tanned his naturally pasty face with its small, sharp features to a sickly yellow, and native rum has painted his pointed nose to a startling red. His little, washy-blue eyes are red-rimmed and dart about him like a ferret's. His expression is one of unscrupulous meanness, cowardly and dangerous."

There are eyeballs, I tell you! Eyeballs in the sky!

The book was Caitlin R. Kiernan's From Weird and Distant Shores. And then they let me take it home in exchange for leaving a different book next time. I could live with more of that sort of luck.

[sovay]

I'm a fan who's read a lot of his plays but not seen many.

I will show you The Long Voyage Home (1940). I've written about it before; I don't know if I've recommended it to you specifically. It's the film of his Glencairn cycle—four one-act plays set aboard a tramp steamer, Bound East for Cardiff (1914), In the Zone (1917), The Long Voyage Home (1917), and Moon of the Caribbees (1918)—with the action updated from the first world war to the second, an ensemble cast of character actors, and some of the most complex black-and-white cinematography going in the years before Citizen Kane which, look at that, Gregg Toland also photographed. It's one of my favorite movies. It's a better piece of theater than the original plays; it has exactly one misplaced directorial choice; it's the only film of his work that O'Neill actually liked. And it is tremendously of the sea. I think you will like it.

The book was Caitlin R. Kiernan's From Weird and Distant Shores. And then they let me take it home in exchange for leaving a different book next time.

Nice!

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

It is a deal. I don't think you've ever mentioned it before, and I like all his work so far set aboard tramp steamers.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm delighted for 1. Don't know how to answer the question at the end of 2, but I hope you can make at least some of them. I like NYC as well, albeit for different reasons.

I'm very sorry to hear 3. I hope it improves, at least a little bit.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

(I knew I would like him from the line caeli subter labentia signa: under the slipping signs of the sky. The philosophy's not bad, either.)

Oooh!

Nine

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

Man, why do I not live in New York?

Why does anyone not live in New York? I've often wondered that myself. Of course, now I'm not living in New York myself, for the first time in my life, and it's weird....

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

How would you best like your signal to be boosted, by the way? I'm of no account Monday through Thursday, but tomorrow is Friday. So facebook or LJ or tweeter?

Tweet.

There is a new episode of Warhorses of Letters and I can't liiiiisten to it, oh my HORSEY GOD.

[sovay]

Of course, now I'm not living in New York myself, for the first time in my life, and it's weird....

Well, honestly, I know why I don't live in New York: I have no job that would require it and no money with which to try it for fun. But it would be nice. I've always liked the city.

[sovay]

I'm very sorry to hear 3. I hope it improves, at least a little bit.

Thanks.

[sovay]

So facebook or LJ or tweeter?

Yikes. I have no idea. Whatever you think people would pay attention to.

There is a new episode of Warhorses of Letters and I can't liiiiisten to it, oh my HORSEY GOD.

I need to work! Don't tell me these things!

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

You must listen - it's a fantastic little series.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I've just ordered A Mayse-Bikhl.

[sovay]

You must listen - it's a fantastic little series.

I introduced her to the program! I was just making vague hopeless gestures in the direction of productivity . . .

[sovay]

Oh, and I've just ordered A Mayse-Bikhl.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it!