Stand in the Klieg lights, you're a real big star

[sovay]

spatch photographed me writing about a movie. The writing isn't finished, but I like the photo. My office is dimly lit because we had a full-street blackout earlier this evening and when the power (and heat) finally came back on, the resulting surge blew out half of the bulbs in the ceiling fixture. This apartment is wired like a trick cigar.

Comments

[nineweaving]

That's a wonderful picture.

Nine

[sovay]

That's a wonderful picture.

Thank you.

[strange_complex]

You look superbly scholarly, and the dim lighting just adds to the 'writer in Parisian garret' vibe.

[shewhomust]

This, exactly. But where is the cat?

[sovay]

This, exactly. But where is the cat?

I believe the cats at the time of this picture were curled up on the grate under the bed. It's been cold.

[sovay]

You look superbly scholarly, and the dim lighting just adds to the 'writer in Parisian garret' vibe.

Thank you!

(I feel like my apartments are always remining me that garrets are only romantic from a century away.)

[moon_custafer]

I have a dim memory of some Lovejoy episode in which he pulls a scheme to aid a Struggling Artist who’s been making ends meet for the past year by forging 19th-century bronze statuettes. IIRC at one point he introduces the young man to an antiques dealer who’s been selling the bronzes in good faith, and who he now plans to rope into the plan; the expert (played by Ian McNeice) isn’t even angry — he just shakes the artist’s hand and looks him over in astonishment:
“And to think I’d always pictured you in some Regency garret,” he says.
“Council flat,” Lovejoy explains, as the artist smiles ruefully.

For some reason I’ve always loved that moment; I suppose it’s the not-quite-time-travel aspect.

[sovay]

“Council flat,” Lovejoy explains, as the artist smiles ruefully.

That's adorable. My mother used to watch Lovejoy; I don't think I ever saw any of it, although I want to say I read some of the novels. I remember them being in the house.

(It looks like your episode is "The Italian Venus" from Season 2/1991, meaning the struggling artist should be played by Nicholas Farrell, whom I like.)

[moon_custafer]

Yes, that’s the one.

ETA — Thanks for finding it. I’d forgotten Lovejoy’s asides to the camera, but was surprised by how accurately I remembered the McNeice character’s reaction, although I’d mentally replaced Farrell with someone a bit more conventionally handsome for some reason. I can see why you like him, he has that kind of face.

[sovay]

Thanks for finding it.

Thanks for pointing me toward it! I watched it last night and it was delightful.

[ladymondegreen]

I should add Lovejoy to the aforementioned media on the data stick. =)

[sovay]

I should add Lovejoy to the aforementioned media on the data stick.

I will not say no.

[asakiyume]

Excellent photo--love everything about it (all the details like books, mug, and phone, but most of all the main subject!)

[sovay]

Excellent photo--love everything about it (all the details like books, mug, and phone, but most of all the main subject!)

Thank you!

[selkie]

The Author in Their Native Habitat!

[sovay]

The Author in Their Native Habitat!

Late at night, fueled by hot water!

[hamletta]

Really nice photo!

[sovay]

Really nice photo!

Thank you!

[kore]

Wow that's nice for a candid! You look focused and very scholarly.

It's kinda driving me crazy I can't figure out the book title tho. Strange something something?

[sovay]

Wow that's nice for a candid! You look focused and very scholarly.

Thank you!

It's kinda driving me crazy I can't figure out the book title tho. Strange something something?

It's a recent paperback of Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides (1987) which was left at the theater about a month ago; once it passed the sell-by date of the lost and found bin, spatch brought it home as a surprise present for me. I have not yet read it, but I've been meaning to for about a dozen years now, so I will.

[kore]

....and for a minute I thought that was his Gothic Byronic vampire series book. Oh, brain.

[sovay]

....and for a minute I thought that was his Gothic Byronic vampire series book. Oh, brain.

Hey, you correctly clocked it as Tim Powers!

[handful_ofdust]

Living-inside-a-cigarness aside, this is a really lovely photo.:)

[sovay]

Living-inside-a-cigarness aside, this is a really lovely photo.

Thank you.

[pameladean]

The blackout sounds very trying indeed, but it did produce a lovely atmosphere for the photograph. It's very nice to see that particular view after reading so much of your writing about movies.

P.

[sovay]

The blackout sounds very trying indeed, but it did produce a lovely atmosphere for the photograph. It's very nice to see that particular view after reading so much of your writing about movies.

Thank you! I am hoping to finish the writeup in question tonight.

[kore]

it would make a nice author photo for a collected edition of those

[sovay]

it would make a nice author photo for a collected edition of those

your suggestion has been noted and logged

[kore]

quiet non-pressury hurrah!

[gwynnega]

It's a great photo.

[sovay]

It's a great photo.

Thank you.

[yhlee]

That's a beautiful photo of you.

[sovay]

That's a beautiful photo of you.

Thank you!

[genarti]

What an excellent photo!

(Good lord, that wiring, though. Eesh.)

[sovay]

What an excellent photo!

Thank you!

(Good lord, that wiring, though. Eesh.)

Our apartment was . . . creatively constructed. As far as we can tell, our side of the duplex was not built as a triple-decker; it was a house. When it was chopped up into three apartments, only the first floor is really separate from the other two.

[jesse_the_k]

Oh My God.

That sounds like a maintenance nightmare.

Computer glasses?

[sovay]

That sounds like a maintenance nightmare.

We're a bit afraid to have an electrician actually come and look at any of it. We got our internet accidentally shut off during a maintenance visit in 2016.

Computer glasses?

That's them!

[drwex]

It is a good picture.

[sovay]

It is a good picture.

Thank you.