Spoiler: the volcano wins

[sovay]

1. My poem "The Antiquities of Herculaneum" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It was inspired by reading a blistering review of a disastrous movie and thinking the people who died in the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius really deserved a break.

2. I still don't want to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), but this is some pretty great mermaid concept art.

3. An Alphabet of Embers is fully funded and rocketing toward its second stretch goal! A little less than $1200 more and you can sell all the rhyming mermaid poetry your heart desires to a special April Fool's Day issue of Stone Telling. In the meantime, the anthology is now open to submissions and guidelines are here.

4. rose_lemberg drew me a marvelous pair of aquatic critters as a reward for backing the Kickstarter within a lucky window of time. I will link to them tomorrow when they are publicly available. They are spiny and wonderful!

5. The Kickstarter for Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy just went live this afternoon and they are already nearly half funded! I've had a poem solicited for the project and I am in very fine company—I really want to read their work. Throw money at this endeavor! Space unicorns for everyone!

Tonight derspatchel and I attended the second open rehearsal of usernamenumber and company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. (I don't know anyone else's LJ-handle. Collectively they are the RSC Shakespeare Company. The "R" stands for "RSC.") They are performing it in August at Loncon 3. I won't be there, but I strongly recommend that anyone attending make the time in their schedule to see this show. There's blank verse, amazing wigs, toy boats, sportscasting, vomit . . . You know. Culture.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I don't recall if I told you, but that poem, and reference to the excoriating review, got us to see the movie, just for larks and laughs. It really was dreadful. The poem on the other hand--awesome. I'm glad to know it found a home.

Oh, and did you know about this? (Have you blogged about seeing a performance elsewhere? If so, forgive my poor, poor, memory.) If not, it seems like something you and derspatchel could find a way to get to Great Barrington Pittsfield* to see--it's gotten good reviews.

*Now why does something called "Barrington Stage" go and locate in Pittsfield?

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I'd figured I ought to give the film a miss when I noticed in the trailer that Vesuvius is missing its top even before the eruption.

(OK, also I checked on IMDb and no one was credited as Pliny the Elder, and I wasn’t up for a Pompeii movie that left out the badass asthmatic.)

[sovay]

Vesuvius is missing its top even before the eruption.

Oh, dear.

(OK, also I checked on IMDb and no one was credited as Pliny the Elder, and I wasn’t up for a Pompeii movie that left out the badass asthmatic.)

Seriously! And not even Bulwer-Lytton to blame for it.

[sovay]

I don't recall if I told you, but that poem, and reference to the excoriating review, got us to see the movie, just for larks and laughs.

No, you didn't tell me! Oh, your eyes. Was it at least dreadful enough to be funny?

The poem on the other hand--awesome. I'm glad to know it found a home.

Thank you!

(Have you blogged about seeing a performance elsewhere? If so, forgive my poor, poor, memory.)

I saw a production at the Central Square Theater in 2011 (and then disagreed with the Boston Globe about it afterward). I was trying to encourage the Porpentine Players to stage the play—they were already talking about Michael Frayn's Copenhagen next season—but that was before they got the bad news about the Factory Theatre. I'm honestly not sure what their plans are from here.

Now why does something called "Barrington Stage" go and locate in Pittsfield?

I know how to get to Pittsfield by public transit only in 1919!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It was fun to watch the way a hilariously bad movie can be. Never did Pompeii start to succumb to Vesuvius so dramatically and continue to succumb for so long, and with such atmospherico-geothermal ebullience.

[sovay]

Never did Pompeii start to succumb to Vesuvius so dramatically and continue to succumb for so long, and with such atmospherico-geothermal ebullience.

A+ this review.