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And I'll bet the flowers that you left out weren't dead then
I feel like I am losing track of my life again, between the nightly three hours of sleep and appointments of different kinds. I actually slept eight hours on Monday night, but for logistical reasons the achievement was not immediately repeatable. I am reading my way through Laurie R. King's Mary Russell mysteries and a highly randomized assortment of nonfiction and mostly pulp. Mental note goes here to talk about Anya Seton's Foxfire (1950) and Valerie Taylor's Stranger on Lesbos (1960), which I may or may not manage any time soon. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks and I continue our double-feature viewing of Person of Interest and Leverage. Did I mention that we saw James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus (1971) at the HFA on Saturday and it was exactly as amazing as Guy Maddin had promised? It could and should be screened in the same classes that include Cocteau's Orphée (1950) or Jules Dassin's Phaedra (1962) as an example of classical myth transformed in contemporary cinema, assuming it's all right to show undergraduates porn. Have some links off the internet.
1. R.I.P. William Schallert. I think I saw him most recently as the uncredited equivalent of Lieutenant Levy in The Reckless Moment (1949), but like the rest of the Star Trek-watching universe I saw him first and forever as Nilz Baris, obstructive bureaucrat par excellence of "The Trouble with Tribbles." Otherwise I mostly remember him from sci-fi features like The Man from Planet X (1951) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), making his starring role in the B-movie-within-a-movie Mant! in Joe Dante's Matinee (1993)—"Half man! Half ant! All terror!"—one of the better in-jokes in that film. I am glad I have living character actors to follow; the older ones keep doing this dying thing.
2. The Feminist Press is reprinting Ethel Johnston Phelps' Tatterhood and Other Tales (1978)! This is one of the books I would take out again and again from the children's section of the Cambridge Public Library, then didn't see again for decades until I finally ran into a used copy of my own. I tried to draw my own illustrations. The language that was so intensely evocative to me at the time turned out, years later, to have been a relatively plain folk style for children. But when the story said that one of the two flowers growing beneath the childless queen's bed "was green and oddly shaped; the other was pink and fragrant," I knew exactly what they looked like. I would always choose a green flower over a pink one myself, which is why I liked the title story best.
3. My first published story made a Tumblr list of retellings of Orpheus and Eurydike. For all I know they got my name off Wikipedia, but I'm still pleased.
4. I like the photograph fine, but I may like the way the photographer talks about it even better: "I decided to use a pomegranate, instead of a quince, because a pomegranate would explode like a grenade."
5. Ghost signs from around the world!
P.S. I am delighted that the U.S. Army has an official stance on the question of Captain America's back pay.
rushthatspeaks and I continue our double-feature viewing of Person of Interest and Leverage. Did I mention that we saw James Bidgood's Pink Narcissus (1971) at the HFA on Saturday and it was exactly as amazing as Guy Maddin had promised? It could and should be screened in the same classes that include Cocteau's Orphée (1950) or Jules Dassin's Phaedra (1962) as an example of classical myth transformed in contemporary cinema, assuming it's all right to show undergraduates porn. Have some links off the internet.1. R.I.P. William Schallert. I think I saw him most recently as the uncredited equivalent of Lieutenant Levy in The Reckless Moment (1949), but like the rest of the Star Trek-watching universe I saw him first and forever as Nilz Baris, obstructive bureaucrat par excellence of "The Trouble with Tribbles." Otherwise I mostly remember him from sci-fi features like The Man from Planet X (1951) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), making his starring role in the B-movie-within-a-movie Mant! in Joe Dante's Matinee (1993)—"Half man! Half ant! All terror!"—one of the better in-jokes in that film. I am glad I have living character actors to follow; the older ones keep doing this dying thing.
2. The Feminist Press is reprinting Ethel Johnston Phelps' Tatterhood and Other Tales (1978)! This is one of the books I would take out again and again from the children's section of the Cambridge Public Library, then didn't see again for decades until I finally ran into a used copy of my own. I tried to draw my own illustrations. The language that was so intensely evocative to me at the time turned out, years later, to have been a relatively plain folk style for children. But when the story said that one of the two flowers growing beneath the childless queen's bed "was green and oddly shaped; the other was pink and fragrant," I knew exactly what they looked like. I would always choose a green flower over a pink one myself, which is why I liked the title story best.
3. My first published story made a Tumblr list of retellings of Orpheus and Eurydike. For all I know they got my name off Wikipedia, but I'm still pleased.
4. I like the photograph fine, but I may like the way the photographer talks about it even better: "I decided to use a pomegranate, instead of a quince, because a pomegranate would explode like a grenade."
5. Ghost signs from around the world!
P.S. I am delighted that the U.S. Army has an official stance on the question of Captain America's back pay.
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Yes! I think it's one of the earlier versions I encountered, although even then not my favorite. There was a picture book by Jane Yolen that made a strong impression on me, and then there was Fire and Hemlock.
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July!
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He's owed upward of $3 million, not taking the possibility of promotions into account! I know that we do not live in a world in which the U.S. Army donates three million dollars to social causes and education, but come on, what do you think Steve would have done with it?
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(I like Tony Stark perfectly well as a character, but he's kind of an asshole. I'm amazed at how charismatic the actor makes him!)
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It really is a career best part for Robert Downey, Jr. This is one of the reasons it frustrates me when the Marvel movies do boneheaded things on the script level. They have such good actors, perfectly cast, making these weirdly diffcult characters work! Give them material that's worth their time! Don't let them down!
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That being said, I'm looking forward to watching Civil War when it eventually comes out for internet streaming. :p
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Something for everyone—a comedy tonight!
That being said, I'm looking forward to watching Civil War when it eventually comes out for internet streaming.
It's currently playing at the Somerville, so if I catch it before it leaves, I can see it in a theater for free. I was very unsure for a while, but now I'm curious.
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I've been reading people's reactions (since there's no point trying to stay unspoiled for it, considering how long I'll be waiting...!) and while people have reservations about some bits, there are enough people liking other bits that I think I'll probably enjoy it. Admittedly, I will also go in with low expectations, but what the hey.
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I don't know. If they do, it's a very nicely deployed image indeed. If they don't, language is fun.
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One fair and one rare!
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It's amazing how important that story was to me in elementary school and I've never done anything with it as an adult.
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I wonder if the green flower was a cuckoo-pint? That looks like a fairy-tale kind of plant, and it's blossoming now. (I'm not sure if it grows in North America.)
Well done on that list!
The ghost-signs pictures are terrifically evocative. I wish there was a whole book of these!
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Oh, that looks perfect. I don't think we have them, but I've run across them in fiction for years. I always pictured the flower as a cross between a rose and a lily, pale sea-green.
Well done on that list!
Thank you!
The ghost-signs pictures are terrifically evocative. I wish there was a whole book of these!
I know! I'd buy it!
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One of the quests involves a pomegrenade tree, a tree growing in the shadow of a weapons factory/stockpile that produces dangerous explosive fruit.
It is made safe by disarming the country and using its gunpowder reserves for fireworks (previously banned) instead.
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That's marvelous. Thank you for telling me about it!
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Thank you.
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We're enjoying PoI very much! I think more than any SF-flavored show we've watched since Fringe--at least, that's how I feel, and I think wakanomori feels similarly. Last night we watched the episode in season 1 where Reese is in the wheelchair after being shot, and in that episode and the pervious one, the hurt-comfort! The relationship between Reece and Finch generally! I smile every time Finch is on screen because I'm thinking of you.
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I'm so glad!
The relationship between Reece and Finch generally! I smile every time Finch is on screen because I'm thinking of you.
Aw. Thank you.