Howard Hughes Lives and Learns
So, I've finished today's pages, and I have a little time to make an entry before this week's Kindernacht festivities begin (i.e, before pizza and a scary movie). I'm very tired. I've been going nonstop for days now, even taking word to bed with me at night, at bad, bad habit and a thing that, normally, I never, ever do.
1. As promised, behind the cut, photos from Wednesday's trip to Mount Auburn. Actually, there will likely be a second set of these tomorrow, the photos that Kathryn took with Nemo. These are the photos we took with Camera III (it has no name, alas):
We were stuck in traffic in Watertown, and this place caught my eye. I want to eat there.
Sadly blurry shot of one of the many pods of bagpipers.
Some people call them "selflies." I call this putting my bad skin on display for all the world to see.
American Sphinx, 1872
"In Watertown, within Mt. Auburn Cemetery, is a large stone statue by the Bigelow Chapel that is of a sphinx, facing toward the chapel. This work is a memorial to those who fell in the Civil War and was started by Doctor Jacob Bigelow, who was instrumental in founding Mt. Auburn Cemetery." And this inscription, in English on one side, Latin on another:
"American Union Preserved
African Slavery Destroyed
By the Uprising of a Great People
by the Blood of Fallen Heroes."
More on the Sphinx here.
Bigelow Chapel.
Spooky and Sonya.
Ice on a frozen pond.
My eyes are so desperate for green, that even the moss on these dissolving marble headstones was a welcome sight.
Every little bit helps.
The bronze handle of a door that will figure prominently at the end of Cherry Bomb.
Sonya and Spooky. I think Spooky was determined her face would not be photographed.
Recall that door handle? Well, here's the door, and the entrance to ghoul warrens (or so I have been told by reliable sources).
Looking down at the "natural amphitheater" where on the 24th of September 1831 the cemetery was consecrated. It was known for a time as Consecration Dell. This spot also figures in the book.
Sonya and I, outside Bigelow Chapel.
On the way back to Providence, the wide carnivorous sky laid out above the I-95.
All photographs Copyright © 2014 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
2. This year I have, thus far, read three books. The Arbus and Burroughs biographies, and this morning I finished Carson McCullers brilliant The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940). So, yeah, I can manage about one book a month. Also, yesterday and today I read, from the latest JVP, "The first discovery of an alligatorid (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea, Alligatoridae) in the Eocene of China" and "A new specimen of Nothosaurus youngi from the Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China." Interestingly, the authors of the latter paper hint that Nothosaurus and Lariosaurus may be synonymous.
4. My contributor's copy of Ellen Datlow's Lovecraft's Monsters arrived today. It looks too be a splendid volume. Check it out!
And I think that's all I have for now. Oh, except that
4. We saw Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity last week. Here is an example of a good film by one of our most talented directors that could have been a great film, but which misses the mark primarily because it hobbled itself with contrived and distracting 3D gimmickry. Even though I was able to see the film in 2D, it was impossible to see past all the junk that kept floating towards the fourth wall. Flashbacks to Dr. Tongue's 3D House of Pancakes. I hope this is the last 3D we will see from Cuarón, who should be making movies, not theme-park thrill rides.
TTFN,
Aunt Beast
1. As promised, behind the cut, photos from Wednesday's trip to Mount Auburn. Actually, there will likely be a second set of these tomorrow, the photos that Kathryn took with Nemo. These are the photos we took with Camera III (it has no name, alas):
We were stuck in traffic in Watertown, and this place caught my eye. I want to eat there.
Sadly blurry shot of one of the many pods of bagpipers.
Some people call them "selflies." I call this putting my bad skin on display for all the world to see.
American Sphinx, 1872
"In Watertown, within Mt. Auburn Cemetery, is a large stone statue by the Bigelow Chapel that is of a sphinx, facing toward the chapel. This work is a memorial to those who fell in the Civil War and was started by Doctor Jacob Bigelow, who was instrumental in founding Mt. Auburn Cemetery." And this inscription, in English on one side, Latin on another:
"American Union Preserved
African Slavery Destroyed
By the Uprising of a Great People
by the Blood of Fallen Heroes."
More on the Sphinx here.
Bigelow Chapel.
Spooky and Sonya.
Ice on a frozen pond.
My eyes are so desperate for green, that even the moss on these dissolving marble headstones was a welcome sight.
Every little bit helps.
The bronze handle of a door that will figure prominently at the end of Cherry Bomb.
Sonya and Spooky. I think Spooky was determined her face would not be photographed.
Recall that door handle? Well, here's the door, and the entrance to ghoul warrens (or so I have been told by reliable sources).
Looking down at the "natural amphitheater" where on the 24th of September 1831 the cemetery was consecrated. It was known for a time as Consecration Dell. This spot also figures in the book.
Sonya and I, outside Bigelow Chapel.
On the way back to Providence, the wide carnivorous sky laid out above the I-95.
All photographs Copyright © 2014 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
2. This year I have, thus far, read three books. The Arbus and Burroughs biographies, and this morning I finished Carson McCullers brilliant The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940). So, yeah, I can manage about one book a month. Also, yesterday and today I read, from the latest JVP, "The first discovery of an alligatorid (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea, Alligatoridae) in the Eocene of China" and "A new specimen of Nothosaurus youngi from the Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China." Interestingly, the authors of the latter paper hint that Nothosaurus and Lariosaurus may be synonymous.
4. My contributor's copy of Ellen Datlow's Lovecraft's Monsters arrived today. It looks too be a splendid volume. Check it out!
And I think that's all I have for now. Oh, except that
4. We saw Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity last week. Here is an example of a good film by one of our most talented directors that could have been a great film, but which misses the mark primarily because it hobbled itself with contrived and distracting 3D gimmickry. Even though I was able to see the film in 2D, it was impossible to see past all the junk that kept floating towards the fourth wall. Flashbacks to Dr. Tongue's 3D House of Pancakes. I hope this is the last 3D we will see from Cuarón, who should be making movies, not theme-park thrill rides.
TTFN,
Aunt Beast