And it's also raining like a son of a gun
Man. I am behind on everything except my actual job. Somehow that isn't the consolation I feel it should be. I have at least four movies I want to write about, three of them recent releases, and my brain feels like a blank screen. Too little sleep and too much pain. I had an orthodontist's appointment this afternoon; I am hoping it will help at least with the latter. Until then, have some links.
1. Thank you, Julian Barnes; I get interested in Shostakovich and you write a novel about him. "The book is, partly, an exercise in cold war nostalgia. But it's also, more interestingly, an inquiry into the nature of personal integrity . . . The process brings out all his characteristic qualities as a novelist—his essayistic lucidity, his preference for distillation and abstraction, his sympathetic interest in morally compromised figures, his faith in the transcendent value of art." All right, sold. I am reminded of John Hodge's Collaborators, which I still wish I could purchase on DVD.
2. JPL's retro-futuristic space tourism posters are pretty great. "The Grand Tour" looks like the Signet covers of the Lucky Starr novels I grew up with. I think Enceladus is my favorite for design.
3. I didn't realize there was any footage of New Faces of 1952 that wasn't the 1954 film version. I can't tell if this is the stage show itself or some kind of television special, but the salient points are Paul Lynde in a monologue that owes Charles Addams at least a program credit and Alice Ghostley performing "The Boston Beguine" with its inimitable romantic lament "How could we hope to enjoy all the pleasures ahead / When the books we should have read / Were all suppressed in Boston?" I should point out that I found this video in the first place because![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kore linked a Captain America filk to the tune of "Lizzie Borden." That was not a crossover I expected in my lifetime.
4. I can't believe I missed a local production of Victory Over the Sun last spring. It was even free and open to the public. Last year really was dreadful. It is a minor silver lining that at least I found Larissa Shmailo's translation.
5. Courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks: the 2016 All-Candidates Debate. I apologize for the earworm in advance.
Yesterday my two-year-old niece asked me for a hug for the first time. Previously she had assented to the offer of a hug about half the time; the other half I did not hug her, because of boundaries. She would be fine with me waving hello or goodbye. This time she not only wanted me to hug her, she wanted me to hug her two stuffed animal bunnies, Purple Hop and Yellow Hop, and would not consider the farewell properly finished until I had done so. It was like the moment when a cat suddenly comes to you of its own free will. I felt very honored.
1. Thank you, Julian Barnes; I get interested in Shostakovich and you write a novel about him. "The book is, partly, an exercise in cold war nostalgia. But it's also, more interestingly, an inquiry into the nature of personal integrity . . . The process brings out all his characteristic qualities as a novelist—his essayistic lucidity, his preference for distillation and abstraction, his sympathetic interest in morally compromised figures, his faith in the transcendent value of art." All right, sold. I am reminded of John Hodge's Collaborators, which I still wish I could purchase on DVD.
2. JPL's retro-futuristic space tourism posters are pretty great. "The Grand Tour" looks like the Signet covers of the Lucky Starr novels I grew up with. I think Enceladus is my favorite for design.
3. I didn't realize there was any footage of New Faces of 1952 that wasn't the 1954 film version. I can't tell if this is the stage show itself or some kind of television special, but the salient points are Paul Lynde in a monologue that owes Charles Addams at least a program credit and Alice Ghostley performing "The Boston Beguine" with its inimitable romantic lament "How could we hope to enjoy all the pleasures ahead / When the books we should have read / Were all suppressed in Boston?" I should point out that I found this video in the first place because
kore linked a Captain America filk to the tune of "Lizzie Borden." That was not a crossover I expected in my lifetime.4. I can't believe I missed a local production of Victory Over the Sun last spring. It was even free and open to the public. Last year really was dreadful. It is a minor silver lining that at least I found Larissa Shmailo's translation.
5. Courtesy of
rushthatspeaks: the 2016 All-Candidates Debate. I apologize for the earworm in advance.Yesterday my two-year-old niece asked me for a hug for the first time. Previously she had assented to the offer of a hug about half the time; the other half I did not hug her, because of boundaries. She would be fine with me waving hello or goodbye. This time she not only wanted me to hug her, she wanted me to hug her two stuffed animal bunnies, Purple Hop and Yellow Hop, and would not consider the farewell properly finished until I had done so. It was like the moment when a cat suddenly comes to you of its own free will. I felt very honored.
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I am also very fond of Europa.
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*wins at fucking LIFE, man*
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I shall be eternally grateful.
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Thank you. The orthodontist's appointment did help with my teeth.
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However, there is nothing quite like Alice Ghostley and the Boston Beguine.
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It's all right—I've read about him. I've never had any desire to watch Hogan's Heroes, but the makeup of the cast was fascinating.
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As you were.
Nine
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I like my niece a lot.
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Cal never quite took to Sophie, though he wasn't completely afraid of her, either. He kept addressing her directly, as though she was a sixth person in the house. Often you heard him ordering her around, polite but firm, like: "Sophie, you need to leave the room, please! Leave the room, Sophie!"
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I think that's wonderful. I talk to our cats similarly, except that sometimes I also just pick them up and move them.
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Professor Eleanor Dickey travelled around Europe to view the scraps of material that remain from ancient Latin school textbooks, or colloquia, which would have been used by young Greek speakers in the Roman empire learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD. The manuscripts, which Dickey has brought together and translated into English for the first time in her forthcoming book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, lay out everyday scenarios to help their readers get to grips with life in Latin. Subjects range from visiting the public baths to arriving at school late – and dealing with a sozzled close relative.
“Quis sic facit, domine, quomodo tu, ut tantum bibis? Quid dicent, qui te viderunt talem?” runs the scene from the latter, which Dickey translates as: “Who acts like this, sir, as you do, that you drink so much? What would they say, the people who saw you in such a condition? (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/10/ancient-greek-manuscripts-reveal-life-lessons-from-the-roman-empire)
Could be handy for the time-travel kit, right?
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Absolutely. I am delighted by the existence of an entire section on excuses.
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They really seemed to want sharing.
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The posters are wonderful.
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Yes, thank you, those look great. (And I already wrote my ghost poem, so I don't have to worry about catching the author's Shostakovich instead.)
The posters are wonderful.
You can download them freely at high resolution and print them out, if you want them on your walls. I like that.
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And yes, how exactly like when a cat comes to you of its own free will! What a lovely thing! You're in her circle now, for sure.
The Shostakovich novel--interesting. I always wonder when I'm reading novels about real people--or even, since this is more common, novels that feature real people in passing--how much in the fiction is real and how much is imagined. I mean, obviously internal thoughts and so on have to be imagined, though the set of a person's mind can be guessed at by letters and memoirs and other people's memories, but even just events--did they really go to the beach in February? Did they really mean X, Y, or Z person? It's somewhat distracting.
PS The posters! The posters are fabulous!
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What a lovely thing! You're in her circle now, for sure.
I hope so. She has started calling me "Aunt Sonya." (Also, according to my mother, once "Uncle Sonya." She's got the basic concept of parent's sibling sorted out.)
I mean, obviously internal thoughts and so on have to be imagined, though the set of a person's mind can be guessed at by letters and memoirs and other people's memories, but even just events--did they really go to the beach in February? Did they really mean X, Y, or Z person? It's somewhat distracting.
I think there is a certain amount of invented latitude I am willing to take from historical novels; if they were known to take walks by the sea in winter and lived within a plausible distance of the beach in question, then I don't mind if a crucial scene is set beside the sea in February even if no one can prove it. I object when it begins to contradict the historical record or it looks as though it's being done to conform to some conventional pattern—or both. I will talk about this if I ever get my act together about The Finest Hours (2016).
PS The posters! The posters are fabulous!
I cannot express my delight that they come from JPL.
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---L.
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Aw.
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Those posters are great. I think my favorites are The Grand Tour and Mars.
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I know! We live in an age of wonders.
Those posters are great. I think my favorites are The Grand Tour and Mars.
I am seriously considering whether I can ask my parents who have the archival-quality printer to make me one.