There are no antelopes in the city of Boston

[sovay]

Tonight ratatosk showed me and several other mostly unsuspecting persons a film called Pony Trouble (2005), which I cannot in any way recommend except as what might be called an experience. It was not the worst film I've ever seen, nor does it seem to have left me with traumatic brain injury, but it says something when a movie's utterly unraveling finale turns out to include vampire-hunting robots and they're not very interesting.

We chased it with The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) and everything got better.

Before that, I had dinner with derspatchel at Martsa on Elm. The masala mint soda needs a Sumerian beer straw, but it's delicious and also a pleasingly shocking green; the lamb with pumpkin and cashews does not quite rival the raahra gosht at Tamarind Bay, but that didn't stop us from eating almost all of it. (He quite intelligently bailed before Pony Trouble occurred.)

I am re-reading The Lady's Not for Burning (1949). I will probably re-read whatever other Christopher Fry is not in boxes when I'm done; I have A Sleep of Prisoners (1951), The Boy with a Cart (1938), and Venus Observed (1950) within sight right now. But this one always was important to me.

All right! You've done your worst. You force me to tell you
The disastrous truth. I love you. A misadventure
So intolerable, hell could not do more.
Nothing in the world could touch me
And you have to come and be the damnable
Exception. I was nicely tucked up for the night
Of eternity, and like a restless dream
Of a fool's paradise, you, with a rainbow where
Your face is and an ignis fatuus
Worn like a rose in your girdle, come pursued
By fire, and presto! the bedclothes are on the floor
And I, the tomfool, love you.

I missed the equinox, but the year is getting brighter.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I missed the equinox, but the year is getting brighter.

In my maudlin teenage years I luxuriated in everything autumnal; now this coming quarter has my heart.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

My two favourite seasons.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I looked up Pony Trouble, and I wish I hadn't. Reaching for the brain bleach now...

I think I'd read the Fry; trouble is, Margaret Thatcher perverted the title of that play for me. I'd best have a double bleach, no ice.

[csecooney.livejournal.com]

I love that! That last thing! I've not read Christopher Fry -- is it from Lady? It's beautiful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was nicely tucked up for the night
Of eternity

What an image

What a poem! You with a a rainbow where your face is!

So this is by... Christopher Fry?

Or is this you?

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I am so pissed off this morning, but this improved things. I am continually glad you are getting brightness.

Now I must go find a tourist and eat their pluck.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

This spring, despite or because of a lack of preceding winter seems a lot more spring-like to me than previous ones. Earlier this week (round about the equinox itself, or maybe the day before), I was told it had truly arrived. The robins are practically rioting, where once there were just the vultures and the crows (I am blessed with both turkey vultures and black-neck vultures at varying times, possibly because of the area being a small green island in an otherwise urban/suburban area or because I am JUST. THAT. GOTH.)

[sovay]

In my maudlin teenage years I luxuriated in everything autumnal; now this coming quarter has my heart.

Autumn and winter are still my favorites—I don't love them because they're romantic, but because I find them beautiful. But aside from the intermittent way it's behaving like the sticky height of August, I am enjoying this season.

[sovay]

My two favourite seasons.

You like liminal.

[sovay]

I looked up Pony Trouble, and I wish I hadn't. Reaching for the brain bleach now...

ratatosk cautioned that we should not attempt to Google the film before watching it. I think he was trying to make sure we wouldn't come to our senses and flee.

(strange_selkie did and sent me an e-mail whose contents were mostly comprised of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.")

I think I'd read the Fry; trouble is, Margaret Thatcher perverted the title of that play for me. I'd best have a double bleach, no ice.

Quick, re-read the Fry! Never let Thatcher have the last word on anything!

[sovay]

I've not read Christopher Fry -- is it from Lady? It's beautiful.

Yes. I've written about the play here and here; it's a touchstone for me. I think you would like it very much.

[sovay]

So this is by... Christopher Fry?
Or is this you?

Oh, hell, no, that's Christopher Fry! Read the play!

[sovay]

I am so pissed off this morning, but this improved things. I am continually glad you are getting brightness.

I'm glad it reflects.

Now I must go find a tourist and eat their pluck.

Do you really want a tourist? They are not necessarily in the best of shape and may be harder to catch, rather than the regulars whose haunts you know.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

They are not necessarily in the best of shape and may be harder to catch, rather than the regulars whose haunts you know.

This time of year, it's all about the abundance. You just have to pick the cherry-blossoms out of your teeth after, and take reasonable care not to ingest the fanny packs.

[sovay]

This spring, despite or because of a lack of preceding winter seems a lot more spring-like to me than previous ones.

I wish we had had real winter; I don't like these dry green seasons. At least there was snow earlier this month. And now there are flowering things everywhere. What a way this world works.

(I am blessed with both turkey vultures and black-neck vultures at varying times, possibly because of the area being a small green island in an otherwise urban/suburban area or because I am JUST. THAT. GOTH.)

That is brilliant.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I wish we had one as well. I persuaded my landlord to keep the little fence piece that conceals our garbage cans from the road folded to the rest so I would have some place to put the snow that never came this year.

That is brilliant.

I won't rule out either possibility.

[sovay]

You just have to pick the cherry-blossoms out of your teeth after, and take reasonable care not to ingest the fanny packs.

Good point! I forgot they're slowed down by sight-seeing. Get 'em while they're distracted. "What a lovely kite festiv—"

[larryhammer]

I reread Lady, Boy, and A Phoenix Too Frequent last year -- it was fortuitous that that's what I had on hand, but they make a good inadvertent trilogy.

---L.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

When I was younger I aestheticized decay and sorrow. Now that I experience both on a daily basis, they have lost much of their allure. However, if I lived in a climate where I saw frost and snow regularly, I think I could come to love their crystalline beauty. I do love Moominland Midwinter, even now.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

*You like liminal.*

Heh. Not sure what this says about me, but I take that as quite a compliment.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Autumn to me means beginnings and endings at once: the lazy summer cooling to a fresh breeze, and a new school year starting. It's energizing even as it brings in waves of nostalgia over the dead leaves. This year, it says, this year I will really be grown up, will start middle school, high school, college, graduate school. This year I will get things done. Suddenly anything is possible.

Spring is rebellion, restlessness, lemme-out-of-here. It's almost too much for me, too alive to handle. Who the hell put tax season in April?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

My money's on the accountants.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That film does sound pretty awful.* I'm glad you're not left with more serious injury from it.

vampire-hunting robots and they're not very interesting.

That... takes a sort of talent. Negative talent, I think.

I'm glad the dinner was good. Masala mint soda is something I've not heard of before.

I hope the Fry re-reading is everything it should be. I need to read The Lady's Not for Burning someday.

I missed the equinox, but the year is getting brighter.

Yes. It's lovely out.

If I may ask, have you any particular customs for observing the equinox?

*I googled. Links relating to the movie were interlaced with links to books about ponies and links to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic sites. The books about ponies reminded me of some of the girls I grew up with, who competed to see who could find the most egregious lack of equine knowledge in a novel about horses. IIRC one book had a pony's external ear be "broken" and require a splint. Another had a pony vomit on some poor child, which would be funnier if it weren't for the fact that the equine inability to vomit sometimes kills them.

[sovay]

it was fortuitous that that's what I had on hand, but they make a good inadvertent trilogy.

I'll have to try that!

[sovay]

Masala mint soda is something I've not heard of before.

I hadn't seen it before Martsa. It may be a standard feature of Tibetan restaurants, however. I haven't been to very many.

If I may ask, have you any particular customs for observing the equinox?

Not usually, but I try to note its occasion. It's a turning point.

Another had a pony vomit on some poor child, which would be funnier if it weren't for the fact that the equine inability to vomit sometimes kills them.

. . . Thanks for letting me know.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen it before Martsa. It may be a standard feature of Tibetan restaurants, however. I haven't been to very many.

You've been to more than I have. I've been intending to get to one for ages--now I have another reason to do so.

Not usually, but I try to note its occasion. It's a turning point.

I'm much the same.

. . . Thanks for letting me know.

You're welcome. I hope I've not introduced too unpleasant a piece of knowledge into your life.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Around they come right up to you: "Excuse me ma'am, can you tell me how to get to-" and there you are. They are usually well-marbled but repay slow cooking and careful seasoning.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I used to own a second hand bookstore, and one day we were unpacking a box and someone held up a copy of LADY, and we all started yelling out lines without even opening it.

A castle drafty as a tree!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

As for reading LADY for the first time, pls allow time for savoring. Maybe at age 14, up late alone, with a pot of oolong tea, in an old farmhouse full of antiques, and drafty as a tree.

[sovay]

I used to own a second hand bookstore, and one day we were unpacking a box and someone held up a copy of LADY, and we all started yelling out lines without even opening it.

That's lovely.

[sovay]

Maybe at age 14, up late alone, with a pot of oolong tea, in an old farmhouse full of antiques, and drafty as a tree.

Hah! I was thirteen when I saw the play for the first time (see links in reply to csecooney above); that was my introduction. I don't think I read it until I was in college, and then I bought the first copy I saw. I cannot remember now whether it was from The Book Rack or Upper Story Books, but they were my two steady sources of secondhand books until I moved to New Haven (and one of them closed and the other relocated under management). The jacket is trying to fall to fragments, but I read it very carefully and the words are the marvelous same.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I am surprisedly happy that the words of my favorite books are marvelously same when read at Project Gutenberg in Courier with too many line breaks.

LADY I only saw years later when my partner and his friends did it in local very amateur theatre. One young actor flubbed

"make the place we're lost in look as much like home as possible"

to

"make the place we're lost in look as much like wherever it is as possible"

and we have given that version super-canonical status ever since.

[sovay]

"make the place we're lost in look as much like wherever it is as possible"
and we have given that version super-canonical status ever since.

Aw.

[selidor]

Hooray for liminal seasons. Enjoy the hibernating-in-bursts with slightly-disintegrating books! And dear goodness: your side of the planet has a truly astonishing number of excellent restaurants.

[sovay]

Hooray for liminal seasons. Enjoy the hibernating-in-bursts with slightly-disintegrating books!

Thank you! So far, so good.

And dear goodness: your side of the planet has a truly astonishing number of excellent restaurants.

I feel very fortunate in the Boston area. People around here seem to like to cook.