pantherinsnow | Reading

I can't remember if it ever occurred to me before last night's re-read of Jane Yolen's Neptune Rising: Songs and Tales of the Undersea Folk (1982) that her Greyling (1968) resembles Gordon Bok's "Peter Kagan and the Wind" (1971) in that both are stories of selkies who return to their seal-selves not despite the bonds of human love but because of them—a father in one case, a husband in the other, both fishermen in peril on the sea. Bok and Yolen knew one another; she partly dedicated the collection to him. It's slightly nuts to me that he never set either of her sea-songs published in it, since it takes so little imagination to hear "The Ballad of the White Seal Maid" or "The Selchie's Midnight Song" in his deep-grained swell of a voice. I don't know whose version coalesced first. I grew up on both of them.

Via

regshoe, a book meme.

General Questions

This week I'm reading: I am currently in the middle of Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous (1955), the paperback reprint sent me by

boxofdelights in 2022 as a replacement for my long-lost, lent-out college copy. Also re-reading Yolen's Merlin's Booke (1986), the Ace first edition inherited from my god-aunt in 2000 which I had not then read since my childhood in the Cambridge Public Library. For the first time, Jonas Kreppel's Adventures of Max Spitzkopf: The Yiddish Sherlock Holmes (trans. Mikhl Yashinsky, 1908/2025), a present from my parents earlier this year. With snail-mortifying slowness, I am continuing to poke at the modern Greek of Nikos Kavvadias' Πούσι (1947).

My favourite book of all time is: Impossible to answer. I did that hundred books meme last spring and kept having to append titles that had slipped my mind.

My current favourite book (read or re-read in the last 3 months): With apologies to Molly Crabapple and Seamus Heaney, almost certainly Leon Garfield's The Stolen Watch (1988).

The last book I bought was: Joan Coggins' Dancing with Death (1947), a present for my mother which she promptly loaned back to me so that she could discuss it. The last book I bought for myself was Andrew Hiller's Hornytown Chutzpah (2026), brought to my attention by

mrissa.

The first book I bought with my own money: No clue. My first real job was in a science fiction and fantasy bookstore when I was fifteen and they might as well have paid me off the shelves.

The first book I received as a gift: Equally impossible to estimate. I can remember receiving Brophy's The Prince and the Wild Geese (1983) early on, but it would not have been the first.

The last book I received as a gift was: Molly Crabapple's Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund (2026), courtesy of

a_reasonable_man.

The last book I borrowed from the library: Either Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City (1960) or What Time Is This Place? (1972), whichever was not checked out first.

The book physically closest to me right now: Robinson Jeffers' Such Counsels You Gave to Me (1937), the burgundy-boarded, jacketless first edition from my grandparents' house. After that, Imogen Sara Smith's Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy (2008), which I gave some years ago to

spatch.

Do you read bookfic, and if so what is your favourite bookshop fic? I don't think I have ever read a bookshop fic. I read Satoshi Yagisawa's Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (trans. Eric Ozawa, 2010/2023) when

spatch gave it to me for our last anniversary.

This or That

Physical book or e-book: Physical book if at all possible, since I process them differently. E-book in the inevitable event that I can't get hold of something and there's one copy digitized maddeningly on the Internet Archive.

Used or new: As a reading experience, I don't think it makes much difference to me. If I own a book, I try to keep it in good shape.

Fiction or non-fiction: At the moment I seem to be reading more fiction than nonfiction, which may or may not be the case in another three months.

Read at a coffee shop or at the park: I haven't been inside a coffee shop in years. Last Friday I was reading on the stone wall overlooking the water at Spy Pond Park while waiting for

ladymondegreen.

Paperback or hardcover: In terms of preferred reading format? I don't think it makes much difference to me, either.

Romance or Crime: More crime than romance.

Yes or No

Stream of consciousness? Yes.

Poetry? Yes.

Memoirs? Yes.

Philosophy? Yes.

Thrillers? Yes.

Chronicles? What?

Dialogue heavy? Alan Garner?

Current Music: Gordon Bok, "Peter Kagan and the Wind"

shadowkat

The knee injection went better than expected? I'm icing it now - as ordered. It required an ultra-sound, then an injection. For a bit it felt great, then after an hour of standing and walking - mildly painful (or per usual). I have the next injection on Juneteenth, in the morning. Since I have the day off - this means I don't have to take time off for it. And the one after that - sigh, is a 2:20pm appointment - so I may have to take the day off work for what amounts to a 20 minute doctor visit. Oh, well, maybe I'll visit the book store afterwards (Barnes and Noble is conveniently located three blocks from the doctor, and on the way to and from the doctor) or a coffee shop and read. B&N is selling records and CDs again. Along with journals, art supplies, cards, chocolate, fancy pens, and lovely books. It has a whole section reserved for fantasy. The doctor's office is about a moderately brisk fifteen-twenty five minute walk from the subway. Barnes and Nobel is closer, although it's about a ten-fifteen minute walk to the subway.

So after the knee doctor, I went to B&N (probably shouldn't have - since wandering around a book store for thirty minutes isn't the best for knees).
And bought four large paperbacks, a specialty chocolate bar, and a kind energy bar. Got five dollars off - using my Premium Card. But, that was probably just for the treats.

My hoard includes (honestly, Book Instagram is not good for me - it makes me want to hoard books, and I obviously do not need assistance in that department):

* The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - this is highly rec'd by Book Instagram.

*The controversial Want by Gillian Anderson.
(Nancy Friday's collections of erotica were controversial as well.)

* The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - which I think I may have on Kindle, but I've been eyeing the very pretty paperback for some time now - and I think I want to read it in large paperback? It's a doorstop book.

* Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson- he's extremely popular (kind of Fantasy's take on Stephen King or John Scalzi) and it's been optioned for a television series. But it caught my eye because it's about a caper - with the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the determination of an unlikely heroine: a street urchin who must learn to master the power of a Mistborn.

They are all large paperbacks, with slightly larger print - not the teeny tiny print that only someone who doesn't require reading glasses can read.

I love books. I can fall into a book and forget everything. Also I can't eat while I read. Or do much but read. Unlike television - where my hands get twitchy and I want to snack or eat or do things.

I joined Story Graph a while back - mainly because Good Reads was annoying me? Not that I'm good at keeping either up to date.

***

Oh, per Instagram, my union announced that its members had ratified the most recent negotiated contract by an extraordinary margin. (Basically it passed and I'll get my raise sometime this year. Yay. I'll probably retire before the next one gets passed.

***

Apparently it was New York Flag Day? So, of course to commemorate the occasion, they had a mini parade through the Financial Historic District. (Basically in front of my building to roughly Francis Tavern. ) Complete with bagpipes, a marching band (a small one) and lots of big flags. And they were thrusting flags on folks who passed by. I got one. Not feeling all that patriotic at the moment, but I got one and put it in a drawer - in reserve.

It's not a great photo? But below is a picture of the bagpipers at the end of the parade, standing around chatting in the shade. It doesn't look hot? But it was. It was 92 degrees with humidity - high humidity - so had a heat index of well over 100 (I think that's 35 C?). It wasn't that bad where I worked - we had a breeze and we're near the water. But it was hot on the way to the doctor's appointment, even though that's about ten blocks uphill from the water. (I live and work on a group of islands in New York Harbor with over 8 million other people, most of which appear to be under the age of 30 and didn't exist when I first moved here in the 1990s. People had an insane amount of children between now and then and dumped them all in NYC for some reason.)

sovay

The World Cup is upon us. Insofar as I have opinions about it beyond the strong feeling that this country is currently too authoritarian to have been allowed near anything that even pretends to internationalism, I am rooting for Cape Verde: it is their first year and the diaspora in these parts is second only to Brockton. I may also have found myself, for the first time in my life, in a house divided by team affiliation.

spatch ancestrally favors Scotland for this weekend's match and I am hoping Haiti beats the kilts off them. Anywhere the man in the White House disapproves of, let them shine. The 1936 Olympic spirit.

Current Music: Hila Ruach, "Sprint"

sovay

Jane Yolen has died. Her books were some of the first I read. Even with my library in storage, I can see several of her titles just by turning my head. Her shadow sisters got into my Jewish demons. She ushered me through the corridors of the sea. I had the fortune of sharing some panels with her; I did have the chance to tell her how much of my sense of story she had shaped. Tam Lin and Commander Toad, White Jenna and Merlin, dragons and owls and selkies and golems and cats and always, unsentimentally, words. Which remain, but it still feels like a great light blown out.

I saw a sailor once
shed his skin
as quickly as a crab
sloughs its shell.
He danced alone,
easy in his bones,
amid the coral memories
of his sunken ship.
When he opened his mouth,
little colored fish
swam in and out,
avoiding his brittle teeth,
his stripped and shining jaw.
They were quick and bright
as laughter,
running their zigzag course
through the silent syncopation
of the sea.

—Jane Yolen, "Metamorphosis" (1982)

Current Music: Yene Velt, "Indwelling"

sovay

I have partly triumphed over bureaucracy! The parking ticket which it made no temporal sense for the car to have incurred was dispelled by a perfectly friendly clerk, exasperated with his computer and overheated in his office whose fan seemed just as overworked. Other forms of bureaucracy remain to contend with, but nonetheless.

Hollywood Hotel (1937) is otherwise such a prefabricated meta-movie musical that neither

spatch nor I expected it to bust out with the three-minute jam of "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" that directly encouraged the legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, but it justifies the entire film especially when it's chased by the integrated magic of the Benny Goodman Quartet on "I've Got a Heartful of Music." I pulled myself upright on the couch at the speed of Pavlov at the instantly recognizable Gene Krupa. The proto-Singin' in the Rain (1952) shenanigans of the plot also offer a chance to see the normally prim and mustached Allyn Joslyn as a clean-shaven, fast-talking publicity heel, in which capacity he is a sarcastic delight, but the total experience really shoots one of its feet off when it sets up a very funny and totally deserved parody of Gone with the Wind and then tops it with blackface. Just watch Lionel Hampton instead.

It makes me happy to hear about the musical version of Pride, not least that the original miners and the lesbians and gays who supported them approve.

My mother wasn't joking about Mamdani repealing bedtime.

Current Music: Wet Leg, "Chaise Longue"

serafaery

Needed to lock down my last couple entries because of too much detail about money/income related to the messed up taxes fiasco. I'm still feeling nauseated and unsettled about it but slightly less, it will diminish as I get used to the fact that this is just my new normal, now. I know they cut something like 81% of the staff at the IRS so they're basically purposefully messing up people's taxes and letting us drown in the fallout. My issue of payments from a secondary spouse not being applied to a joint return is known and common, the software is antiquated and can't resolve the two SSNs automatically, who knows if/when it will get fixed or what. But at least, it happens enough that they probably have a system in place for fixing it, once they get through the stacks of mistakes and eventually reach mine? Going to try not to pay it so much upset and attention, it's just really hard. We already bent over backwards and went so far out of our way to make sure we did everything right and this is clearly their mistake. So. Trying to relax about it.

It's a tough adjustment taking away Avalanche's free reign. She keeps going to the cat door and crying. I am wondering if I seal up the mystery hole in the bottom of the fence under the clematis and maybe somehow install a barrier so she can't climb up the tree, maybe that will solve the problem, or at least make it so I can let her out when I'm here at the house but not necessarily watching her.

I need to do some research on pet GPS devices, too. If she had something that actually worked and also alerted me immediately if she leaves, that would allow her more freedom also.

I am pretty sure when we lost her the other night she was just hiding under the neighbor's deck and not coming out. I shined my flashlight under there but it's a huge deck and I couldn't see all the way inside of it.

So I am playing with her and hyper focused on her in the mornings in the yard so she doesn't go anywhere, which takes away from all of my relaxation in the mornings, as it's about an hour of pure Avalanche supervision and play, but I want her to have some freedom and playtime so, I will get used to it. Just a tough adjustment.

It's fun to daydream about building some elaborate structure that she could run up like the tree but in the middle of the yard so she can't escape. But that's probably way overkill.

It's such a perfect day already. I need to get dressed and head to the dentist. Grateful I got in! Not looking forward to images as I just had that done, but will probably have to start over since this is a new doctor. sigh. At least it's close by.

sovay

I spent far too much of my day engaged in the further pursuit of bureaucracy. Ironically I feel that I may be coming out of the tunnel vision of the last few years when I was focused almost exclusively on not dying because I seem to be seized with chronic low-grade grief. I was able to present

spatch with his CD of Harpo Speaks! The Riverside Symphony Concert (1964/2026) which I had ordered for him the second I knew of its existence. Yesterday I did actually run screaming into the afternoon and took a couple of pictures to prove it.

( Thankfully, summer's here. )

WERS played the Last Dinner Party's "Big Dog" (2026) and I have been playing it ever since. I haven't heard someone wail like that into a chorus since '90's PJ Harvey.

Current Music: Armalite, "Metastic!"

lassarina

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

shadowkat

Work was busier today - I get to play with a new excel spreadsheet as well as the editing that I'm currently doing. Lawyer has created a nifty one in Excel - that does things I didn't know you could do in excel. Sigh. She has an advantage? She grew up with the technology or as she put it, with excel and youtube, while I grew up with an electronic typewriter, dial up internet, rotary phones, copy machines, micro fiche, recording devices, cassettes, record players, and calculators. ( Read more... )

***

Television Shows

I'm currently watching Legend of Vox Machina (new obsession - well not as obsessed as I was with Buffy, which dissatisfied me - only aiding in the obsession), Widow's Bay, From, Rivals, General Hospital, and Midnight Mass.
Also flirting with X-men '97, the Legend of Korra, the Mighty Nein, and The Citadel (which requires a rewatch), and the Witcher (which requires a rewatch). Oh, almost forgot, also flirting with the horror series "We Were Liars". (I'm in a horror, soap opera, and anime mood for some reason.)

***

Books

Almost done with Wylding Hall (at the 90% mark) - which means I got to find something else? It's the first book that I've finished on the Kindle in about two months, since I finished "The Inheritance" - I went through three DNF's in between. So kudos to Wylding Hall! And it hasn't taken me that long to finish. I'm still reading "This Kingdom Will Not

I may go back to Willow Hill (another British folk horror novel). I need an e-book. Carting paperbacks or hardbacks on the subway is just unwieldy now. Although, considering I did it up until roughly 2008, I don't know why?

Wylding Hall is creepy and unnerving - it's also more in lines of Shirly Jackson and Donna Tartt than Stephen King? Or psychological horror with folk horror underpinnings? We get the suggestion of it, but don't quite see it happen. The author leaves it up to our imaginations. And, it's told through six points of view - in a kind of scattershot written documentary style narrative (think Daisy Jones & the Six). This makes it very interesting to me - because no one sees the same thing, or they each perceive it differently. Or see a different piece of it. I actually prefer this type of horror novel - but it's not for everyone.

**

Catching up on June Mememage

4. Is rain forecast for your area this week?

Yes. There's rain forecast for tomorrow - 80% chance and on Friday. ( Read more... )

5. Have you learned anything new in the past year (a new hobby/craft/language/fact)?

Well, right now I'm learning new things about Excel? I learn new things at work all the time. What else have I learned? I learned there's such a thing as a LORAM Dump Train this week. And I learned that if you go to work when you are supposed to be on strike or cross union lines, your union can garnish your pay for that period and suspend your union privileges.

I also learned that you can do cardio by marching in places and lifting your knees high - this is also considered Tai Chi walking.

6. Can you swim? If so, what age were you when you had lessons?

Probably 5 or 6, it might have been earlier than that. ( Read more... )

7. Have you ever made pastry from scratch?

Yes. But I don't remember how? ( Read more... )

8. If you could share your life with any kind of animal (assume for a moment that the animal is tame and wouldn’t kill you, and you had the space and resources to care for it *g*), what kind of animal would be your dream companion (real or imaginary)?

A flying white tiger or a flying lion.

More practical? Siberian Forest Cat or a Siamese Cat.

I'm a cat person.

9. Do you like wearing hats?

No. They tend to give me a headache or come off. I don't mind knitted hats during winter.

10. Have you ever been to a horse race?

Yes. A couple when I was a child living in PA. We lived in Horse Country.
I didn't own one. But I had a friend with one. And my parents took me to a horse race once when I was a kid, I only have vague memories of it - mainly of a lot of people standing around dressed up and in the mud. It had rained.

shadowkat

Still enjoying the Legend of Vox Machina - each season is slightly better than the last, the characters (six leads) all have good arcs, and it's a adult animation. (ie. There are sex scenes, battles, and swearing, thank you very much. And sardonic ribald humor. With British accents.)

It's streaming on Prime, and each episode is 20- 30 minutes each.

It's about a bunch of adventurers who band together to fuck shit up. Has a gunslinger, two magical elves, a woodland spirit, a cleric gnome, a singing magical gnome, and an giant orc. Music, chaos, romance, adventure, magic and adventure ensues - while they fight dragons, warlocks and other beasties along the way. High fantasy at its comedic best.

Time got away from me. Off to bed.

sovay

I have spent the majority of my day in the pursuit of bureaucracy, which is obfuscating and elusive and in our supposedly frictionless digital age requires multiple rounds of phone tag, and am seriously tempted to run screaming into the afternoon. I hadn't known there was a documentary about Pete and Toshi Seeger and the Clearwater, but it's playing the Somerville in July. Recent fruits of college radio include Violet Grohl's "Bug in the Cake" (2026), the Japanese House's "Boyhood" (2023) and Noah Kahan's "Doors" (2026), which the DJ at WERS declared would make her cry all summer as she drove around Boston, unless she'd actually just been looking at the price of gas. I took a picture of myself yesterday with the late-blooming dogwood in my mother's yard.

Current Music: Nxdia, "Nothing at All"

shadowkat

Well, the rheumatoid arthritis appointment was a colossal waste of time. Okay not completely? I got exercise - it's about ten blocks north of my work place in the building next door to The Trinity Church. And, I only really missed 30 minutes of work - not worth mentioning or recording, and it's so slow at the moment - that it wasn't even notable. It's not like I'm doing much of anything at the moment outside of answering the occasional email.

( sigh, as predicted I don't have rheumatoid arthritis )

Now, hopefully the knee injection on Friday is more productive. Considering I postponed jury duty for this and the knee injections - I certainly hope so. Otherwise, I'm going to regret postponing the jury duty.

The Doofus has once again pissed off New Yorkers by insisting on coming to tonight's Knicks Game at the Garden. ( sigh )

Okay enough ranting.

I've found a new television show to become obsessed with - The Legend of Vox Machina. They hit my story kinks hard. This doesn't happen often. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your point of view? And one of my favorite male hero archetypes and female hero archetypes. Add to that the romantic pairing is very similar to Crichton/Areyn Sun (also to a lesser degree Spike/Buffy - but I'd say more Crichton/Aeryn), which is my favorite romantic trope. So, I'm in love with the show. And figured out a way to read some of the comics - the prequel for free. Except they changed some of it for the better with the series.

This series has an interesting back story. It's done by Critical Role - who through a kick-starter campaign turned one of their D&D Role playing campaigns into an animated series and got Amazon to sponsor it, and bank roll them for five seasons, plus a spin off - the Mighty Nein.( Read more... )

Anyway it's my latest obsession. I'll probably re-watch all of it from the beginning, while waiting for Amazon to release S5 sometime in 2027/2028. It has four seasons now. I'm in the middle of S3. The episodes aren't that long - about 22-30 minutes each. It has about 12 episodes a season. It's compact, and as a result fairly tightly written, with interesting character arcs and a diverse group of characters. My only difficulty with it - is it has a long wait between seasons. (I'm impatient, anything longer than six months, is a long wait from my perspective. Particularly when you only have 12 episodes.) I got obsessed with it - when it only had two seasons. Now, I'm obsessed again. I thought about it all last night, when I wasn't sleeping and most of today. So definitely a new television obsession. Is anyone else aware of this? Is there even a fandom? There must be. Although I'm wary...so probably best to avoid?

sovay

Good Monday! I slept an hour and have to fight with both my insurance and the city parking department. Have a small number of links.

1. Thanks to the ongoing movement to eat the invasive green crab, I have discovered the existence of Maine Garum. Of course I want to order a bottle of their fish sauce; I haven't had garum in the kitchen since our last apartment. Then I want to order their crab sauce, because intense oceanic funk is most attractive to me.

2. Since I last checked in on Dermot Turing, he has produced two books of obvious interest to me: Enigma Traitors: The Struggle to Lose the Cipher War (2023) and Misread Signals: How History Overlooked Women Codebreakers (2025). The first makes me hope he has written about Leo Marks and Englandspiel, the second is right on.

3. Have a photoset of Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton outside a pub in Shepperton, 1963. They are obviously in the middle of filming Becket (1964) and just as obviously are the modern AU. "He's drunk and wenched his way through London, but he's thinking all the time."

I have draft schedules for both Readercon and NecronomiCon Providence. I like the looks of both of them. Wish my constitution luck.

Current Music: Joy Oladokun, "Nothing Comes Easy"

serafaery

It's funny how some songs just sort of creep into the cell structure of my being. I could not imagine existence without this song interwoven into my body. It's not a favorite or anything, but it is indispensable, if that makes sense. Everything would be different if we didn't have it.

Watch on YouTube

Grateful to live in the same timeline as Thom Yorke.

(Showing my age just a touch here lol.)

sovay

For the seventy-second yahrzeit of Alan Turing, it feels inevitable that I should find AI tools incorporated into the creation of opera and sculpture about his life. The flaw in the imitation game is not the mimicry of the machine, but the mirror test of humanity which has such difficulty recognizing itself to begin with. How much more readily the present of this future ascribes personhood to an app than acknowledges it in a rainbow. No chatbot has ever been as queer as the Manchester University Computer. His ideas on computability are still investigated and his reaction–diffusion systems turned into art and I can't remember knowing that a road had been named after him in 1994. When Alan imagined a child-machine, he included the concern that it would be made fun of at school. It was never necessary to share a taste for strawberries and cream.

Current Music: Rabbitology, "Sweet Death of Me"

glinda

It feels like one moment, I was up to my eyes in election programme planning and the next it was the end of the month.

I think (I hope, I hope) that we’re finally making some progress on sorting the rotas at work because there’s frankly perilous levels of burnout so fingers crossed that I’ll start seeing some real improvements to the old work/life balance. I’m also back in the archives again for the second half of my 80/20 placement. I’ve got some boxes ordered so I can start getting the stuff that’s been digitised organised to go to cold store.

Speaking of work/life balance I’m taking myself off on holiday in August. You know how you can do these ‘week in Tuscany painting/learning to make pasta’ kind of holidays? I’m essentially doing one of those for sound recordists, I’m off to deepest Argyll to learn to use a bunch of weird and wonderful specialist microphones and get in some studio time. I’m hoping to reset my creative brain or at least make some art. (Worst case scenario I come home with a bunch of cool field recordings and having read a book and written some fic.) If it goes well, I want to start submitting sound art to projects/call outs again, I’ve missed doing that - I’ve missed that being part of who I am.

Despite work’s attempts to eat me alive, I’ve been having a decent year for consuming new-to-me media. Despite having watched no new films this month, I’m well ahead of where I was last year in terms of film watching, though in fairness, last year I re-watched a whole bunch of films at home but that didn’t start until June or so when I realised I wasn’t watching new films and went on a re-watching films and writing fic for them kick throughout July and August. I’m cautiously going to suggest that I’m more able to read fiction this year than last, but only cautiously because while I inhaled the latest Rivers of London book the other week, I’m conscious that this series is the only fiction I’ve been letting myself buy sight unseen over the last few years as I know I’m going to read them within at most a week or two of buying them. So there may be an element of exception proving the rule there. (The advantage of having gone to cover the same week long event for work this year and last, is that having inhaled a whole book during that week on both occasions I have a clear marker of where I was book wise both years. And the answer is, in exactly the same spot.) What I’ve definitely done is watch more drama series than the last few years. Limited series only but watching a six episode series over the course of a month is such an improvement over the last couple of years. So many watched the first episode, enjoyed it, never went back and watched the rest of it, situations. Okay so it’s only been Chernobyl and Heated Rivalry so far but I have missed being excited about shows.

I’m not sure if it’s correlation or causation, but it sure seems to have helped that I’ve had some good tv knitting on the go. I’ve just finished my election project scarf and having a non challenging craft project literally on hand definitely helped me actually focus and stay put for long enough to get engrossed.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Griff - Earl Grey Tea

lassarina

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

$radiantfracture: Small painting of Penguin book (Books post)$

radiantfracture

I have to leave the house sometime. I sent myself downtown to pick up more black ink and paper for loon prints. On impulse, I leapt onto the #6 bus instead of the homeward vessel and rode out along Quadra through a sudden pelting rainstorm. Riding the bus suits my habitual (and currently intensified) feelings of displacement and liminality.

I got out at Royal Oak Shopping Centre, a disorientingly centreless mass of self-spawning plazas.

The attraction of the Royal Oak is the Smart Bookshop, a longstanding proper old-fashioned used bookstore. In the literature section, this unassuming black hardcover caught my eye:

I opened Mörder Guss Reims: The Gustave Leberwurst Manuscript (1981) to a random page and found a curiously over-annotated poem in German. I only glanced at the German, and I could not make sense of it, but the ratio of annotation to poem had a real Pale Fire shimmer. Sincere? In-? Either way, desirable.

I thought: yes, this is clearly the book I came in here for. I paid my $5 and left with it tucked into my bag.

I did not work out the trick, because I did not try sounding out the cod German. (Try it!)

Just now I web-searched and found out what sort of artefact this is. It is a remarkably poker-faced object in both design and presentation. However, the copyright page gives the game away:

Macaronic literature! Facetiae!

I do think this John Hulme must be a Nabokov fan. I have not yet been able to find out anything about him online, except that this seems to have been his Own Particular Genre. (I do not think he can be the contemporary author/director of the same name, since he would have had to publish this book at the age of 12.)

§rf§

sovay

I had entertained fantasies of attending Pride, especially since I can really get behind the theme of protesting since 1776, but what I actually had the energy for was imitating a pancake. Eventually I gathered enough verticality to walk around the neighborhood and make hot dogs for dinner. TCM gladdened my heart by running The Sea Wolf (1941). I have not enjoyed the news about either Marjane Satrapi or Anthony Stewart Head. In lieu of a parade, I wore the rainbow cat T-shirt my godson handed up to me.

Current Music: Houndmouth, "Tiger Blood"

shadowkat

I kind of fell down the rabbit hole of Tony Head tributes and clips last night so forgot about doing various memes. Also, we lost two Star Wars alums: Marsha Lucas (George Lucas's wife and his film editor - at 80) and Tom Kane (the voice of Yoda in Star Wars, among others) in May.

( personal health update )

This morning - I woke up with painful right knee. Felt like someone stuck a hot poker into the left side of the right knee. After hobbling about, making the bed, taking a shower, putting cream on it, and taking an aleve, felt better. Also sorted out the rest of the winter-spring attire to make room for the spring-summer attire. (There's a lot of clothing that I need to get rid of. I foresee lugging clothing to the basement in the foreseeable future. I take it down there - it magically disappears on its own. ) Actually standing on it for a bit - helped. I think I moved it the wrong way in my sleep. Oh well, I'm getting the first injection into it - this coming week - so that should help tremendously.

I felt accomplished and slightly better. (Back is just bugging me. Will do exercises shortly. Doing the heating pad first.) After that - it was around 11:30 am and I'd not eaten anything or taken my pills, so that had to be seen to.

But. Just as I was about to make brunch - I saw a wasp crawling along the inside of the apartment window. I stared at it in shock. First wasp I've seen in ...I can't remember how long? And it was a big one too. Cursed. And hunted for something to catch it in. ( Read more... )

After that I tried to make brunch - only to have the two freshly cracked eggs slide down between the stove and the counter top, because they got knocked out of the container I'd put them in when the coconut oil fell from the shelf into the container. I didn't give up. I still made fried eggs, grits and power greens (argula, spinach, and protein pea shoots with lemon juice on the greens).

So a productive morning?

Friday Five swiped from solenne.

1. Do you enjoy reading?

Oh I adore it. Which is kind of strange considering how long it took me to figure out how to do it. It didn't come easily. I'm the sort of person who appears to appreciate the things that don't come easily for me? Once I figured out how to read? I read everything in sight. I devoured books.

2. What is the first book you remember reading?

It was probably the Robin Hood picture book based on the Disney Cartoon. I also read Benji. Most books were read to me - such as the EB White Books, which I adored. The Little House on the Prairie novels that were read to me and I'd read. Ronald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and James and the Giant Peach. A lot of ghost stories.

But the first I loved was probably Watership Down, followed by Misty of Chinaook Island, Lisa Bright and Dark, Witches of Worm by Zelphia Keatley Snyder, The Westing Game, Escape to Witch Mountain, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien...

3. Who is your favourite author?

At the moment? It's probably Illona Andrews - who I've read just about everything they've written. They write urban fantasy, sci-fantasy, science fiction romance, and epic fantasy romance. But romance is slow burn and not the main focus of most of their books.

But it shifts a lot, and technically, I don't really have a favorite? My spellcheck doesn't like how folks are spelling favourite - it wants favorite. It's an American English Spell Check.

4. What is your favourite book?

There's too many, and it constantly changes? I mean it would be like picking a favorite pet or child? I've books I've loved and re-read multiple times - such as the Vicky Bliss mysteries, the Kate Daniels series, the Dresden Files, the Hobbit, Dune, Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Rider series, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, The Secret History....the Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge, Storm of Swords by GRR Martin, The Great Gatbsy...

5. What is the last book you read and the first you'll read next?

The Inheritance by Illona Andrews and a reread via audio book of Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, currently reading This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Illona Andrews (hardcover and audio book), and Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (e-book).

I really love books. I love reading. I love discussing books. I love analyzing them, I love writing them. As long as books exist, life is good. What I love about NYC is it such a book city. There are books everywhere. And people reading them everywhere. It's a city that loves to read, talk about books, sell books, and write books. It's my type of city.

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Mark

August 2023

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Page Summary

sovay - Down the smoking sea she came and over the rail of the dory she came and laughing to his arms
shadowkat - TGIF finally...and a very warm Friday at that.
sovay - לקום מסוחררת במאה אחרת
sovay - History is a yahrzeit candle
sovay - Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?
serafaery - new routines and practicing acceptance
sovay - Just three co-jerks together in an awkward situation
lassarina - What Are You Playing Wednesday
shadowkat - Catching up on the June Question a Day Meme among other things...
shadowkat - (no subject)
sovay - I hope I keep feeling like I'm learning all the time
shadowkat - This that and my new television obsession - Legend of Vox Machnia
sovay - What can a friend do to try and convince you that trouble's the cost of being alive?
serafaery - sad 90s songs.
sovay - I'll spend past lives like they're dimes
glinda - Where on Earth Did May Go?
lassarina - time passes and I'm pretty sure I do things but I'm not sure what
radiantfracture - Today's find: Mörder Guss Reims: The Gustave Leberwurst Manuscript (1981)
sovay - I think it's down between the earth and the pavement
shadowkat - My psuedo-productive morning and a book meme

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Page generated Jun. 14th, 2026 02:38 pm

A Panther In The Snow

Reading

Down the smoking sea she came and over the rail of the dory she came and laughing to his arms

TGIF finally...and a very warm Friday at that.

לקום מסוחררת במאה אחרת

History is a yahrzeit candle

Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?

new routines and practicing acceptance

Just three co-jerks together in an awkward situation

What Are You Playing Wednesday

Catching up on the June Question a Day Meme among other things...

(no subject)

I hope I keep feeling like I'm learning all the time

This that and my new television obsession - Legend of Vox Machnia

What can a friend do to try and convince you that trouble's the cost of being alive?

sad 90s songs.

I'll spend past lives like they're dimes

Where on Earth Did May Go?

time passes and I'm pretty sure I do things but I'm not sure what

Today's find: Mörder Guss Reims: The Gustave Leberwurst Manuscript (1981)

I think it's down between the earth and the pavement

My psuedo-productive morning and a book meme

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August 2023

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