Icons and interests meme, from missdeathmetal
el_nihilismo's mention of 'Gloomy Sunday' reminds me that I need a Billie Holiday icon. Probably captioned with the Magnetic Fields' "Hey, Lady Day, can you save my life this time?"
Anyway. missdeathmetal asked me to explain three icons and three interests. Comment and I'll demand explanations for yours.
Recently I've taken to biking everywhere. Mostly because it's free and trains aren't. That's not my actual bike in the picture, but it is the right model, a Trojan Thunder, aka the cheapest one in Argos. Remnants of school French want to call it un VTT. There was a women's version, but I wasn't convinced it was tall enough, and also it was pink. My bike is called Black Meg, after the goat in A Hatful of Sky, because her personality is similarly cussed. I would be very upset if someone pimped my ride, even if my hardcore feminism could stand the use of the term "pimp", which it can't.
Samantha Jones was an early companion in the BBC's Eighth Doctor books. She was earnest and teenage and vegetarian and blonde and had the most colossal crush on the Doctor. All the fans hate her. I... don't, but then I mostly read stuff by kateorman, who can actually write, and who gave the poor cow a break in the area of character development.
I was very pissed off about something. I can't remember what, now, but doubtless it was part of some flamewar I'd jumped merrily into. The angriest icon I had at the time was the one of Janis Joplin looking kinda depressed, and that just wasn't enough. That's me, in the bathroom mirror, taken with the world's crappiest digital camera.
Dorothy Parker
My absolute favourite poet of all time. The quote on my userinfo is from her - "Travel, trouble, music, art / A kiss, a frock, a rhyme / I never said they feed my heart / But still they pass my time". She was the author of 'News Item' - "Men seldom make passes / At girls who wear glasses". In one of her poems she says, "Though I admit an edged wit / In woe is warranted", which about sums up her whole style. She also wrote 'Résumé', which Lisa quotes while dealing cards in Girl, Interrupted: "Razors pain you; / Rivers are damp; / Acids stain you; / And drugs cause cramp. / Guns aren't lawful; / Nooses give; / Gas smells awful: / You might as well live." She is my all-time favourite comfort reading for when everything's crap. Someone or other said she'd discovered "there is something irresistably comic in our most heartfelt woes".
Passionate friendships
This is from when I was writing my first dissertation, on the stigmatisation of lesbianism (or the suspicion thereof) in the interwar period. Prior to the increasing awareness of female homosexuality in the early 20th century, women had 'passionate' or 'romantic' friendships: sleeping in the same bed, 'embracing', declaring eternal love for each other, etc. But nobody went "urg, lesbians!" Lillian Faderman has a good book on it, Surpassing the Love of Men, though you can also use the thing as a spare doorstep.
Rola bola
It's a circus skills toy, basically a less-stable, miniature seesaw. You can make a fast, dangerous one by putting pipe on the floor, curved-side down, putting a short plank of wood on it, and standing on it. You can make a safer one by putting stops at each end of the plank and skateboard grip tape on the underside. They sell for ludicrous amounts. Mine cost me £5 for the pipe, £5 for the skateboard tape and 50p for the wood offcut, and I scrounged up glue, screws, paint, varnish, etc from around the house.
Anyway. missdeathmetal asked me to explain three icons and three interests. Comment and I'll demand explanations for yours.
Recently I've taken to biking everywhere. Mostly because it's free and trains aren't. That's not my actual bike in the picture, but it is the right model, a Trojan Thunder, aka the cheapest one in Argos. Remnants of school French want to call it un VTT. There was a women's version, but I wasn't convinced it was tall enough, and also it was pink. My bike is called Black Meg, after the goat in A Hatful of Sky, because her personality is similarly cussed. I would be very upset if someone pimped my ride, even if my hardcore feminism could stand the use of the term "pimp", which it can't.
Samantha Jones was an early companion in the BBC's Eighth Doctor books. She was earnest and teenage and vegetarian and blonde and had the most colossal crush on the Doctor. All the fans hate her. I... don't, but then I mostly read stuff by kateorman, who can actually write, and who gave the poor cow a break in the area of character development.
I was very pissed off about something. I can't remember what, now, but doubtless it was part of some flamewar I'd jumped merrily into. The angriest icon I had at the time was the one of Janis Joplin looking kinda depressed, and that just wasn't enough. That's me, in the bathroom mirror, taken with the world's crappiest digital camera.
Dorothy Parker
My absolute favourite poet of all time. The quote on my userinfo is from her - "Travel, trouble, music, art / A kiss, a frock, a rhyme / I never said they feed my heart / But still they pass my time". She was the author of 'News Item' - "Men seldom make passes / At girls who wear glasses". In one of her poems she says, "Though I admit an edged wit / In woe is warranted", which about sums up her whole style. She also wrote 'Résumé', which Lisa quotes while dealing cards in Girl, Interrupted: "Razors pain you; / Rivers are damp; / Acids stain you; / And drugs cause cramp. / Guns aren't lawful; / Nooses give; / Gas smells awful: / You might as well live." She is my all-time favourite comfort reading for when everything's crap. Someone or other said she'd discovered "there is something irresistably comic in our most heartfelt woes".
Passionate friendships
This is from when I was writing my first dissertation, on the stigmatisation of lesbianism (or the suspicion thereof) in the interwar period. Prior to the increasing awareness of female homosexuality in the early 20th century, women had 'passionate' or 'romantic' friendships: sleeping in the same bed, 'embracing', declaring eternal love for each other, etc. But nobody went "urg, lesbians!" Lillian Faderman has a good book on it, Surpassing the Love of Men, though you can also use the thing as a spare doorstep.
Rola bola
It's a circus skills toy, basically a less-stable, miniature seesaw. You can make a fast, dangerous one by putting pipe on the floor, curved-side down, putting a short plank of wood on it, and standing on it. You can make a safer one by putting stops at each end of the plank and skateboard grip tape on the underside. They sell for ludicrous amounts. Mine cost me £5 for the pipe, £5 for the skateboard tape and 50p for the wood offcut, and I scrounged up glue, screws, paint, varnish, etc from around the house.