This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green
Posting a day early because I'm off to visit my mother, which I'm really looking forward to. Not sure if I'll have anything next Friday.
I'm actually kind of upset. I was supposed to see the Night Vale show in Oakland on Tuesday, but due to a lot of factors, I wasn't able to attend. That's the second time I've missed their local show. I was supposed to go with Monanotlisa, so it's a double disappointment because I didn't get to spend the evening with her, either.
And that leads me to retirement. I'm still waiting and waiting to hear what's going to happen, but wow, there's part of me that's sorry I won't be retiring in July. There's so much I want to do that I simply don't have time or energy for while working full time + a lengthy commute.
POEM of the week is from a friend's LJ but I can't give her credit because she locks it. But she's awesome. Anyway, it's really cold and foggy here so this poem especially appealed to me:
The Enkindled Spring by D.H. Lawrence
This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.
I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.
And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.
Fannish Stuff:
» This is so sad. Jonathan Crombie, Anne of Green Gables actor, dead at 48. What a shock.
» This also made me cry, but in a different way: A letter to JK Rowling, whose words gave me a sense of home. I love the Guardian's "A Letter to . . ." series, and this one was especially moving to me. I could carry a whole universe within me and escape, for a time, from this small and unsatisfying world of mine, which I couldn’t prevent from falling apart. Even if I now understand that escapism, in that sense, is not a solution, as an eight-year-old boy it was all I could hope for.
» Penny Dreadful is back! What a hoot. You can see an "edited" version of the first episode of series two over on Youtube. By "edited" they mean the naked bits have been blurred, but not the violence and blood and guts. And there's a lot of violence and blood and guts.
» My hat, but I would love to see this show: Gypsy with Imelda Staunton, Peter Davison, and Lara Palmer. Yes, that Lara Palmer! Every facet of the character [of Momma Rose] is caught by Imelda Staunton who gives one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in musical theatre.
» This is a lengthy and at times difficult interview with Ralph Bakshi by Cliff Broadway (AKA Cliffbeam) from TORn, but I found it very worth reading: The Bakshi Interview: Uncloaking a Legacy. "Peter Jackson never called me once to thank me for getting the rights … He was very … He never called me once about getting the rights. He never called me once to tell me he was doing the film. And now you're showing me a picture of him with me seven years before … What does that mean? … The guy snuck up and took a picture of me -- you took a picture of me today, I never saw you before. So the point is: Peter Jackson was very, what is the word, impolite to Ralph Bakshi. And he said once, somewhere, that I was his inspiration. He said it only once, one time somewhere. You read every interview he's given, you don't see it at all. So you want to stop that?"
» Links to this essay have popped up everywhere, but there's a reason for that: In Celebration of Old-School LiveJournal: The girls who read my LJ, and vice versa, were doing the same; they, too, believed their lives were at least worth documenting, and so we were hungry together, reaching out toward the details in one another's lives like vines toward the sun; we loved each other, celebrated surprise joys and consoled atomic hurt. We joined communities to learn to knit and to share poetry and to post photos of ourselves. I was a lot older than the author when I came to LJ, but the significance of sharing my life with others is the same for me. In a shocking turn, the comments are also very worth reading.
» ENOUGH WITH THE TEARS ALREADY: Have you seen this? The Last Fuckable Day, from Inside Amy Schumer with Patricia Arquette, Tina Fey, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Okay, maybe we still need the tears.
Non-Fannish Stuff:
» I love this Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women, the chatelaine, so much; I think we should bring it back. Like a customized Swiss Army knife, a chatelaine provided its wearer with exactly the tools she needed closest at hand. For an avid seamstress, that might include a needle case, thimble, and tape measure, while for an active nurse it might mean a thermometer and safety pins. In fact, I kind of wear one -- I keep my work keys, ID, and a whistle on a long ribbon that I wear around my neck while I'm on campus.
This week's terrific fan artist is Imrisah, whom I have linked to before, but I want to point out her really fun AU of BBC Sherlock which she calls Westernlock. She has Greg Lestrade as a sheriff and Mycroft as a "dapper gentleman," of course, and John and Sherlock as Billy Holmes and Shotgun John. Even James "Jesse" Moriarty and Sebastian Moran are in the mix! I'm just going to leave the one link and let you scroll through -- except to point out that my absolute favorite one is this one. Heh. Great stuff, I think.
Be sure to check out past artists because many are still producing gorgeous work. (The list of past artists is so lengthy I've moved it to its own page.)
I'm actually kind of upset. I was supposed to see the Night Vale show in Oakland on Tuesday, but due to a lot of factors, I wasn't able to attend. That's the second time I've missed their local show. I was supposed to go with Monanotlisa, so it's a double disappointment because I didn't get to spend the evening with her, either.
And that leads me to retirement. I'm still waiting and waiting to hear what's going to happen, but wow, there's part of me that's sorry I won't be retiring in July. There's so much I want to do that I simply don't have time or energy for while working full time + a lengthy commute.
POEM of the week is from a friend's LJ but I can't give her credit because she locks it. But she's awesome. Anyway, it's really cold and foggy here so this poem especially appealed to me:
The Enkindled Spring by D.H. Lawrence
This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.
I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.
And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.
Fannish Stuff:
» This is so sad. Jonathan Crombie, Anne of Green Gables actor, dead at 48. What a shock.
» This also made me cry, but in a different way: A letter to JK Rowling, whose words gave me a sense of home. I love the Guardian's "A Letter to . . ." series, and this one was especially moving to me. I could carry a whole universe within me and escape, for a time, from this small and unsatisfying world of mine, which I couldn’t prevent from falling apart. Even if I now understand that escapism, in that sense, is not a solution, as an eight-year-old boy it was all I could hope for.
» Penny Dreadful is back! What a hoot. You can see an "edited" version of the first episode of series two over on Youtube. By "edited" they mean the naked bits have been blurred, but not the violence and blood and guts. And there's a lot of violence and blood and guts.
» My hat, but I would love to see this show: Gypsy with Imelda Staunton, Peter Davison, and Lara Palmer. Yes, that Lara Palmer! Every facet of the character [of Momma Rose] is caught by Imelda Staunton who gives one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in musical theatre.
» This is a lengthy and at times difficult interview with Ralph Bakshi by Cliff Broadway (AKA Cliffbeam) from TORn, but I found it very worth reading: The Bakshi Interview: Uncloaking a Legacy. "Peter Jackson never called me once to thank me for getting the rights … He was very … He never called me once about getting the rights. He never called me once to tell me he was doing the film. And now you're showing me a picture of him with me seven years before … What does that mean? … The guy snuck up and took a picture of me -- you took a picture of me today, I never saw you before. So the point is: Peter Jackson was very, what is the word, impolite to Ralph Bakshi. And he said once, somewhere, that I was his inspiration. He said it only once, one time somewhere. You read every interview he's given, you don't see it at all. So you want to stop that?"
» Links to this essay have popped up everywhere, but there's a reason for that: In Celebration of Old-School LiveJournal: The girls who read my LJ, and vice versa, were doing the same; they, too, believed their lives were at least worth documenting, and so we were hungry together, reaching out toward the details in one another's lives like vines toward the sun; we loved each other, celebrated surprise joys and consoled atomic hurt. We joined communities to learn to knit and to share poetry and to post photos of ourselves. I was a lot older than the author when I came to LJ, but the significance of sharing my life with others is the same for me. In a shocking turn, the comments are also very worth reading.
» ENOUGH WITH THE TEARS ALREADY: Have you seen this? The Last Fuckable Day, from Inside Amy Schumer with Patricia Arquette, Tina Fey, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Okay, maybe we still need the tears.
Non-Fannish Stuff:
» I love this Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women, the chatelaine, so much; I think we should bring it back. Like a customized Swiss Army knife, a chatelaine provided its wearer with exactly the tools she needed closest at hand. For an avid seamstress, that might include a needle case, thimble, and tape measure, while for an active nurse it might mean a thermometer and safety pins. In fact, I kind of wear one -- I keep my work keys, ID, and a whistle on a long ribbon that I wear around my neck while I'm on campus.
This week's terrific fan artist is Imrisah, whom I have linked to before, but I want to point out her really fun AU of BBC Sherlock which she calls Westernlock. She has Greg Lestrade as a sheriff and Mycroft as a "dapper gentleman," of course, and John and Sherlock as Billy Holmes and Shotgun John. Even James "Jesse" Moriarty and Sebastian Moran are in the mix! I'm just going to leave the one link and let you scroll through -- except to point out that my absolute favorite one is this one. Heh. Great stuff, I think.
Be sure to check out past artists because many are still producing gorgeous work. (The list of past artists is so lengthy I've moved it to its own page.)