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Friends
Dec. 16th, 2009
08:27 pm - onward and upward
Watched a bit of cspan today, since for once there was something interesting: the forced reading, for something over two hours, of one of the amendments to the health care legislation, in a fit of pique by a senator. Our legislative system is, sadly, somewhat lacking in the high drama and bombast of, say, Question Time in the British Parliament, but every now and then something like this happens, which makes it worthwhile. Kind of.
More notes on google chrome: I'm rather liking it so far. There are some plugins--or, as they're called, extensions--in the package, and they aren't too bad. Not as robust a selection as for firefox, but I think that will come along. The most interesting thing to me so far, though, is that I haven't noticed any great difference in speed, loading pages. In short, it's a different look at web browsing, but not necessarily a better one.
Back to work tomorrow night, which is fun. I'll spend tonight reading some fanfics, and continuing on with the editing of BSSO, with an eye to some further ff.net uploads in the morning.
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hungryDec. 15th, 2009
04:35 pm - Whoa... Flower won Best Original Soundtrack...!
Totally didn't expect this. Especially in a year where someone like Hans Zimmer throws his hat into the game audio ring...!
06:31 am - it's a beautiful day
I'm trying out Google Chrome today, at least in a limited capacity. Being able to import settings from firefox is a useful and good thing, though. I actually don't have many complaints against it so far, though of course it is rather early. I'll have to see how I handle being without scripts and plugins.
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awakeDec. 14th, 2009
07:12 pm - and out of nowhere
Wow. Long time since I updated. Well... I sitll have a job. Finished nanowrimo. currently updating and editing BSSO, with an eye to putting it on ff.net, once and for all. Just about finished Christmas shopping. That about sums things up.
Oh, and the new amarok version absolutely sucks.
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complacent
05:15 am - Lord, what fools these mortals be!
I've been putting off A Midsummer Night's Dream for a while. It's one of those classic Shakespeare plays that I don't like quite as much as others. This isn't to say it's not a great play, though.
Let's start with the good stuff. The language of this play is beautiful, with not just poetic and quotable phrases but an almost epic poem quality at times, which is a rarity in a lowbrow comedy. The fairy world especially gets some wonderful dialogue, and on the opposite end of the spectrum the 'rude mechanicals' are hysterical, and the best part of the entire play.
The play works magnificently on stage, and can be arranged and altered in a multitude of ways. Peter Brook's Dream is the most famous, with its trapezes and stark backgrounds, but really, the forest invites interpretation.
Oberon, Titania, and Puck are fantastic characters, as are Bottom and his entire gang. The play within a play is one of the comedic highlights of all of Shakespeare.
And then there's the Athenians, aka the giant weak link in the play. I've mentioned before how Shakespeare's romantic leads could occasionally be faceless at times, but it goes to ridiculous extremes in Dream, where it becomes impossible to tell the four young lovers apart. I may get angered by the ending of Two Gentlemen of Verona, but at least I can differentiate Julia and Silvia, which is more than I can say for Hermia and Helena. The names suggest he might have even done this deliberately, but if it was an experiment it failed.
Speaking of experiments, you have to wonder how 'happy ending' Shakespeare meant the play to be, and if he expected us to be uncomfortable. The whole love potion plot is sort of uncomfortable as it is, and to resolve the love quadrangle by its use seems even worse. And, let's face it, Theseus is a giant prick. You have to feel sorry for Hippolyta, especially as it's never really clear if she's married to him out of love. He bluntly notes he won her by military conquest. (Really, if you're looking for feminism in Shakespeare, there are better examples; the play is hideously patriarchal.)
One can argue, of course, that once again Shakespeare is having fun with ambiguity and trying to have the play's multiple viewpoints all visible at the same time. This works a hell of a lot better on stage than it does in a printed book, which is another reason this is one of his most-performed comedies. Its language and worldscape are top-notch (though I'd say the forest in As You Like It is better), and the acting troupe always steals the show, especially Bottom. For this, I'll forgive Shakespeare the dull and disquieting romantic leads.
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aggravatedDec. 13th, 2009
04:23 pm - The Pickwick Papers - Installment 1
Yes, I'm still writing up Shakespeare - should have Dream done tonight. But for now, I want to talk about Charles Dickens.
Most of Shakespeare I had read before in high school and college, being a drama buff. But I never really got into Dickens. I'd read A Christmas Carol, of course. And I'd seen Oliver!, which is not quite the same thing as reading Oliver Twist. And I'd also seen a production of Grate Expectations as a child, which I remember very little of except I found it depressing. I think my high school English class was American Lit. as opposed to English Lit., so I missed Tale of Two Cities as well.
So why not try reading Dickens? He has a reputation of being depressing, though, so I thought I'd start with his frothiest, lightest book. Not his shortest, mind you - this thing is nearly 800 pages in my Penguin Edition - but at least one where I don't have to worry about Little Nell or Tiny Tim dropping dead. It's also his debut. The Pickwick Papers.
The novel was first published in magazine-like installments, and I decided to read them like that. So let's start with the first.
I am immediately reminded of the sheer difference in prose between novels of 1836 and today. Dickens was parodying English fops, and the style he uses is loquacious in the extreme. I frequently had to go back and reread to figure out the entire sentence. Despite that, the gap in years was less apparently than I'd initially thought (Penguin's endnotes help considerably), and there are some passages that are truly hysterically funny even today. The description of a woman eating a sandwich when she gets her head lopped off by a low hanging bridge, for example; or the title character noting the 'gallantry' of a gentleman who, having stabbed a barmaid while drunk, came back the next day to announce he was prepared to forgive her insult.
As for the characters, the 4 English fops who star aren't really all that developed yet in this first section. Pickwick is egotistical and cod-philanthropic; Tupman is the lover of ladies; Winkle is the sporting hunter, and Snodgrass the highbrow poet. In reality, they're all interchangeable upper-class twits. Deliberately, to be fair; Dickens was mocking a certain type of publication, as well as a certain type of Englishman.
However, the first installment is enlivened considerably by the mysterious stranger (still unnamed throughout this entire section) who drives the plot. He shows up after our heroes get into a scuffle with some cabbies because they were writing down everything they said, and proceeds to worm his way into their party. It is immediately obvious to everyone but the four fops who he takes advantage of that this man is an utter villain; the sort who will help you up, dust you off, and steal your wallet. He proceeds to go with them to Kent, borrow one of the men's suits, chat up some women, and then scarper, leaving the man whose suit it was to fight in a duel (the man, being drunk the previous evening, believing he had been a bounder as he couldn't remember anything).
Dickens is very good at dialogue and dialect - his characters do not sound like each other, something I always find helpful. His cabbies and servants talk an odd Cockney that is apparently a phoneticism of the accent in 1836 - which doesn't sound much like the modern one. It almost reads like Russian! And the stranger is even better. He speaks in short, clipped sentence fragments, giving the appearance of someone who is too busy to pause - as well as too busy to make you think about what he's saying. It fits him very well, though I expect it will get tiring pretty quickly.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, and look forward to the 2nd installment, which comprises Chapters 3-5.
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chipperDec. 12th, 2009
10:28 am - "Arise, Sir Loin of Beef!" (WHAM!)
The 1940s come to an end, with 11 more Warner Brothers cartoons. What have we here?
( Read more... )
The 1940s end with a very good series of cartoons, with nary a duffer in the bunch. Next is 1950, which I will once again divide into thirds. In the first third of the year, Bugs runs a hurdy-gurdy, battles Yosemite Sam on pirate ship and in prison yard, and takes on a construction worker. Meanwhile, Daffy abuses Porky in the woods (in what may be his last "wacky" cartoon) and writes a cartoon epic for himself.
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okayDec. 11th, 2009
03:53 am - New Coat
I has a new coat.
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cheerfulDec. 10th, 2009
07:14 pm - Manga the week of 12/16
As we get closer to Xmas, the releases get much smaller...
BANDAI:
Eureka Seven Collecttion Vol. 1. Shonen. Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in Shonen Ace since 2005.
CMX:
Go West Vol. 4 (Final Volume). Shonen. Mediaworks, serialized in Dengeki GAO! since 2003.
DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING:
Vampire Hunter D Vol. 4. Seinen. Media Factory, serialization unknown, 2007.
SEVEN SEAS:
Kashimashi Omnibus Vol. 2 (Final Volume). Seinen. Mediaworks, serialized in Dengeki Daioh since 2005.
Hayate x Blade Vol. 5. Seinen. Mediaworks, serialized in Dengeki Daioh since 2004.
That's it. Recs? Hayate x Blade, which apparently features one of the best fights of the series. Kashimashi if you didn't buy it the first time.
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pleasedDec. 9th, 2009
07:07 pm - Kees
No need, for regrets for mistakes made yesterday.
The past is gone.
No looming fate, no uncontrolable destiny.
Nothing ahead, nothing behind. Just stillness.
The pain you felt, the pain you may have caused others, it is behind you.
No looking back.
No fear of what will come. Just the pulse of time.
Dec. 5th, 2009
01:10 pm - Eh
The friends that have been lost and the choices made at the expense of my acquaintances. A minion to America's great ingenuity, of course... I have no regrets. To live as I do, to enjoy only the best of what this wretched country has to offer, I gladly blend the rules -advantageously.
Zachary has been my great guardian, I am glad for his return tomorrow.
11:16 am - Hana To Yume 2010-01
It's a new year for Hana to Yume!
Cover goes to The Prince, the Witch, the Heiress, and..., a new series by the creator of Happy Cafe!.
Color pages for The Prince, the Witch, the Heiress, and... (2), Seiyuu Kaa!, Vampire Hunter Maira, and Hoshi Wa Utau.
Breakdown:
The Prince, the Witch, the Heiress, and... 1
Gakuen Alice 124
Seiyuu Kaa! 11
Love So Life 19
Skip Beat! 149
Maira the Vampire Hunter (one-shot by a newbie)
黒いサンタクロース (gag-manga)
Nice To Meet You, Kamisama 35
月刊なかとば (gag manga)
Kaizoku to Ningyo 9
Hoshi Wa Utau 45
Akatsuki no Yona 8
Isshi Ni Neyou No 15
Berry Berry, Monochrome Kids, Oresama Teacher, Hana To Akuma, and Kyou Mo Ashita Mo are all on break.
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still sickDec. 4th, 2009
02:35 am - List
In the spring of 1997...
I dropped out on high school and went to G.E.D. school.
The first one was located in midtown on the west side of Manhattan, in what is now considered Hell's Kitchen. It was setup in a four story brick townhouse with informal general education style classrooms. It was very Kurt Cobain with a little bit of New Yorker's middle Americana.
I did not find out about Harvy Milk School until about mid summer, the only school on the east coast targeting GLBT youths. It was located within the Hetrick Martin Institute above the Astor Place Barbershop.
It was the most importantly horrible education I would ever receive.
In the fall of 1998, when I was seventeen.