potpourri
nghhh I have Tolkien meta and Prisoner of Azkaban The Movie meta and The Novel meta and I want to write it all and why do I feel so busy this is absurd. Of course, there is the whole thing where I have to write and compose or at least re-arrange a new song every day through Saturday, which I admit is thoroughly my own fault, and also it is good for me and once I get over the initial panic and wanting to go straight to bed at early o'clock in the afternoon, I like what happens, because I end up writing songs and things, which for years I was convinced I could not do at all. Still, it generally takes me two or three hours, sometimes longer, depending on whether I've actually got a song in front of me, and if I decide to put in harmony vocals or piano or something. Tonight I just wanted to hide under a pillow, but I persevered and forced music out of myself anyway, and was then absurdly pleased with the result: so pleased that I uploaded it it as is, realising the harmonies I had planned would spoil it.
Also I am listening to this beyond amazing album by the Unthanks (formerly Rachel Unthank & the Winterset), and I think it may have leapt prematurely onto my Desert Island Albums List. So good. Exactly what I love -- English vocals and dialect, rich harmonies, lots of rich, full-yet-spare acoustic instrumentation... Blimey.
Ah, and here is the Dress of Splendour. I am also wearing a fantastic fascinater made for me by charismitaine, but I can't get a good picture of the back of my head at all. It's got sheet music and a cameo and feathers and is the best thing ever. Anyway, this dress! We found it at Goodwill and I promptly yelled and ran off the to the dressing room with it. It fits me exactly right and the skirt is all swishy and akjshdgfgh. Mum posted it on her forums to see what other people thought about the date, and it looks like the consensus is that it is vintage 1977-'79. It is Montgomery Ward, not Gunne Sax, but still, amazing. Also, people would probably kill for this on Etsy. So today I was a gothic heroine (complete with rather dark and smudgey eye makeup and granny boots and earrings shaped like keys) and traipsed about feeling extremely romantic.
Also, if you are anything like me, do not Google "Gunne Sax" or search it on Etsy. You will probably burst into violent weeping and pound hopelessly on your keyboard and save approximately thirty pictures to your hard drive.
(Then we kind of ended up at Goodwill again today for a manager's special and I managed to find replacements for both my red flats and my black flats which were beaten to veritable tatters when I was working at the kiosk and they were nearly the only shoes I wore for two months. Also apparently found ninety dollar heels and little corduroy flowered flats. Shoes were on sale, okay?)
And: two things that made yesterday fantastic, despite it being a hair-dyeing day, which means that I spend half the day with muck slathered all over my head and don't even get dressed till after three -- first, Googling around for versions of "Lyke Wake Dirge", I stumbled on Steeleye Span's version of "Tam Lin", which is completely magnificent. They have the Tam-Lin reel on Time, but that's not the same thing -- but apparently there is one live recording that ended up on some best-of album -- it's a really excellent live recording, too; you can't really tell it's live till you hear the applause. And it is lovely. It is probably my new favourite version. Also, I feel that I have heard it before, often, and intimately, somewhere, somehow -- but considering that Steeleye Span played constantly in the background of my childhood, I have that reaction to most of their catalogue. Anyway, it reminds me a lot of the Decemberists' The Hazards of Love -- it sounds a lot like a folk-rock opera. The melody changes for different parts of the song and it's ten minutes long and here just listen to it.
ALSO ALSO ALSO THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT BUT BARBARA HAMBLY IS WRITING A SEQUEL TO THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT AND TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD AND WHEN I READ IT I JUMPED UP AND DOWN AND RAN AROUND THE BEDROOM AND JUMPED ON THE BED. Seriously, these are some of my favourite books in the entire world and I fall a little more in love with them with every re-read. Not only are they some of the few not-awful vampire novels I have read, but they are fascinating and full of historical detail and the characters and vampires as Other and ALSO though I keep mentioning this there is James Asher, former secret agent, current Oxford professor, folklorist, and philologist, which makes my fangirly little heart flutter like nothing else can. (I totally get weak in the knees when he finally believes Ysidro's claim of being a vampire because of the speech patterns he recognises as being from a very long time ago. This could come off as rather silly, but it's all in the description, and the prose is fantastic. ALSO there is James' wife Lydia who is ONE OF MY FAVOURITE HEROINES OF ALL TIME partly because she doesn't conform to any of the stereotypes -- she gets to be the "plucky" female, and she's got a hard-won medical degree in 1907 when that sort of thing was Not What Women Did, but also she's happily and comfortably married -- James and Lydia's relationship is one of my favourite parts of the book and there need to be more stories about married couples -- and she's vain about the fact she has to wear spectacles (being ridiculously myopic myself I always have immense fellow-feeling for the half-blind heroines), and she likes pretty clothes, and she can put vampires in their place with sheer fierceness and dodge secret agent politics and I love her.)
Anyway, so that's happening. And Barbara Hambly seems almost as excited about it as I am -- apparently she's had the outline written for years and couldn't get a deal for it, which makes me sad, BUT NOW SHE IS WRITING IT and she keeps saying things like "I'm looking over the outline and IT MAKES ME HAPPY" and "On Thursday I get to start writing Blood Maidens! YAY!" and I am falling over myself with glee. I also really hope this means the other two books get re-released, and with covers that aren't misleadingly pulp and off-putting.
And now for bed, and The Graveyard Book, before I find something else to talk about, good heavens.
Also I am listening to this beyond amazing album by the Unthanks (formerly Rachel Unthank & the Winterset), and I think it may have leapt prematurely onto my Desert Island Albums List. So good. Exactly what I love -- English vocals and dialect, rich harmonies, lots of rich, full-yet-spare acoustic instrumentation... Blimey.
Ah, and here is the Dress of Splendour. I am also wearing a fantastic fascinater made for me by charismitaine, but I can't get a good picture of the back of my head at all. It's got sheet music and a cameo and feathers and is the best thing ever. Anyway, this dress! We found it at Goodwill and I promptly yelled and ran off the to the dressing room with it. It fits me exactly right and the skirt is all swishy and akjshdgfgh. Mum posted it on her forums to see what other people thought about the date, and it looks like the consensus is that it is vintage 1977-'79. It is Montgomery Ward, not Gunne Sax, but still, amazing. Also, people would probably kill for this on Etsy. So today I was a gothic heroine (complete with rather dark and smudgey eye makeup and granny boots and earrings shaped like keys) and traipsed about feeling extremely romantic.
Also, if you are anything like me, do not Google "Gunne Sax" or search it on Etsy. You will probably burst into violent weeping and pound hopelessly on your keyboard and save approximately thirty pictures to your hard drive.
(Then we kind of ended up at Goodwill again today for a manager's special and I managed to find replacements for both my red flats and my black flats which were beaten to veritable tatters when I was working at the kiosk and they were nearly the only shoes I wore for two months. Also apparently found ninety dollar heels and little corduroy flowered flats. Shoes were on sale, okay?)
And: two things that made yesterday fantastic, despite it being a hair-dyeing day, which means that I spend half the day with muck slathered all over my head and don't even get dressed till after three -- first, Googling around for versions of "Lyke Wake Dirge", I stumbled on Steeleye Span's version of "Tam Lin", which is completely magnificent. They have the Tam-Lin reel on Time, but that's not the same thing -- but apparently there is one live recording that ended up on some best-of album -- it's a really excellent live recording, too; you can't really tell it's live till you hear the applause. And it is lovely. It is probably my new favourite version. Also, I feel that I have heard it before, often, and intimately, somewhere, somehow -- but considering that Steeleye Span played constantly in the background of my childhood, I have that reaction to most of their catalogue. Anyway, it reminds me a lot of the Decemberists' The Hazards of Love -- it sounds a lot like a folk-rock opera. The melody changes for different parts of the song and it's ten minutes long and here just listen to it.
ALSO ALSO ALSO THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT BUT BARBARA HAMBLY IS WRITING A SEQUEL TO THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT AND TRAVELING WITH THE DEAD AND WHEN I READ IT I JUMPED UP AND DOWN AND RAN AROUND THE BEDROOM AND JUMPED ON THE BED. Seriously, these are some of my favourite books in the entire world and I fall a little more in love with them with every re-read. Not only are they some of the few not-awful vampire novels I have read, but they are fascinating and full of historical detail and the characters and vampires as Other and ALSO though I keep mentioning this there is James Asher, former secret agent, current Oxford professor, folklorist, and philologist, which makes my fangirly little heart flutter like nothing else can. (I totally get weak in the knees when he finally believes Ysidro's claim of being a vampire because of the speech patterns he recognises as being from a very long time ago. This could come off as rather silly, but it's all in the description, and the prose is fantastic. ALSO there is James' wife Lydia who is ONE OF MY FAVOURITE HEROINES OF ALL TIME partly because she doesn't conform to any of the stereotypes -- she gets to be the "plucky" female, and she's got a hard-won medical degree in 1907 when that sort of thing was Not What Women Did, but also she's happily and comfortably married -- James and Lydia's relationship is one of my favourite parts of the book and there need to be more stories about married couples -- and she's vain about the fact she has to wear spectacles (being ridiculously myopic myself I always have immense fellow-feeling for the half-blind heroines), and she likes pretty clothes, and she can put vampires in their place with sheer fierceness and dodge secret agent politics and I love her.)
Anyway, so that's happening. And Barbara Hambly seems almost as excited about it as I am -- apparently she's had the outline written for years and couldn't get a deal for it, which makes me sad, BUT NOW SHE IS WRITING IT and she keeps saying things like "I'm looking over the outline and IT MAKES ME HAPPY" and "On Thursday I get to start writing Blood Maidens! YAY!" and I am falling over myself with glee. I also really hope this means the other two books get re-released, and with covers that aren't misleadingly pulp and off-putting.
And now for bed, and The Graveyard Book, before I find something else to talk about, good heavens.