Good Weather for Airstrikes
Title of this post is the English translation of a Sigur Ros song and not directly related to my mood at all. Cuz, really, I'm very happy, nay, almost giddy ^_^ Please, let me tell you what I did with my weekend.
First of all, I didn't get writing done, unless you count looking back at old stories and doing a little bit of editing 'writing'. I don't myself but I can imagine that sometimes you have to take what you can get. While there wasn't any writing, there was a whole TON of good stuff. Firstly, I talked for a great many hours with my new friend zaylas_the_bard. Read many of his stories (of which I am more enamoured) and just generally had a grand time talking about life, the universe and everything. He's begun to read my novel as well, for which I am very grateful to him. The ranks of my select fans may be growing; huzzah!
Let's see...what else? Okay, something that kind of got to me a little this weekend. We had an airshow going on in Salinas at the Salinas Airport (fancy an airshow happening there, eh?). Went from Friday to Sunday night (tonight). Now, I don't know if any of you have experienced an airshow firsthand but, let me tell you, just being in the same city as one going on, not more than a mile away from my house, that was more than a little freaky. First, you've got the jets flying in on Thursday to get to the airshow. All day long this happens. Freaky enough. But, then it continues on Friday. Friday night, we were gonna go see the fireworks show they had at the airshow but plans changed so Ian, Dad and I stood in the greenbelt park just down the sidewalk from the house to watch the last of the display. Now, I don't want to be all depressing or weird here, I'm just saying what the whole thing made me think of: the fireworks were going up into a fog bank that tends to fall over the edges of the valley at night. You've got explosions in the sky, lighting up the backdrop of foggy clouds. Several lit up a really good portion of the sky and made big, solid booms. It was like being near an airstrike. Literally, that's what it struck me to be like.
You've got planes flying over you for a few days, making a shit-ton of noise and then, at night, you see these big, bright explosions (of course, there were standard fireworks too but the bright bursts and explosions of noise in the clouds really affected me) not more than a mile or more from your house. Thus, the title of this LJ entry. 'Good Weather for Airstrikes'. Cuz, really, who could ask for better weather than the central California coast area? I would go into a whole long diatribe about how that made me think of what we've done to the Iraqi people but I'll leave politics out of this. This journal is a happy place. Still, it did bring that to mind, both Friday and Saturday but mostly after I saw those bursts of light and sound in the clouds, a mile or two from my house.
I saw 'Serenity' so hard on Friday night. Seriously great space opera action, to the max. It has been the first movie in a long time that I have wanted to see twice at the theatre, so that must be saying something. I <3 Joss Whedon, and not just because he's made noise that he wants to direct the movie version of the sixth Harry Potter book. That...would be awesome.
Okay, now for the big news: Renaissance Faires exist out there, and in a very big way. Today, we, as a family, went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruta. Friends, let me tell you what, Scarborough may be great but imagine having that under trees with tons of enthusiastic people in costume, tons more shops with different kinds of stuff, a brilliant acting troupe portraying (among other people) Elizabeth Gloriana, William Shakespeare, Philip Marlow and (the other playwright of that time whose name escapes me), all of which are judging a hilarious 'Miss Harvest Maiden' paegent. And that is just the beginning my friends! There were also two people who had dressed up and painted their faces to look like trolls and they just...it's hard to describe because I'm not even really sure what they did! They acted like primitive peoples, if that makes sense. The female one, at one point, took a man's flask and started to drink from it while allowing to drink from her large bottle of questionable fluid. Meanwhile, the male troll was trying to catch one of his pet rats with a ribbon tied to the end of a long stick. And people were watching them do this with RAPT ATTENTION. Myself among them. I have no idea what was so enchanting about it but I couldn't stop watching them move about like the rest of the world didn't exist (except when the female troll picked up a camera the male had filched from someone and went up real close to people, taking their pictures).
But that wasn't all! I bought a African woven reed hat (looks kind of like the ones you see Chinese and Japanese people wearing in rice paddies) around which I'm going to build a new costume, Ian bought a neat, old-looking padlock from a pirate shop (oh yes, they had a PIRATE shop, complete with cursed Black Pearl gold coin medallions) and Mom and Dad bought wedding bands from a really talented goldsmith. Also, as is required at each ren-faire, there were many comely wenches. Several stood out for me in that they had fox tails clipped to them and a few even had fox ears. I just about melted I tells ya! ^_^ Wish I'd brought my camera though.... And, yes, I went in costume, as I'd be remiss if I didn't wear my costume now that I'm in a climate that it's not a risk to do so.
Now, as a new fixture to my LJ posts (because I want to), I'm going to post the track lists for the two mix CDs I've made recently. Enjoy and stay awesome out there people!
Mortag's Kick Ass Track of Slightly Slanted and Totally Awesome Songs
1. "When the World Ends" Dave Matthews Band
2. "Saegiopur" Sigur Ros
3. "Drive" Incubus
4. "Be Yourself" Morcheeba
5. "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" Super Furry Animals
6. "Indie Rockin'" Common Rotation
7. "Somebody More Like You" Nickel Creek
8. "Atomic Bird" Yoko Kanno
9. "I'll Stick Around" Foo Fighters
10. "A" Barenaked Ladies
11. "He den bro" Brother
12. "Circles" Soul Coughing
13. "Here Comes Everybody" Autolux
14. "Man, It's So Loud In Here" They Might Be Giants
15. "It Ain't You" Squirrel Nut Zippers
16. "Fastest Way Thru the South" The Mercury Project
17. "Where It's At" Beck
18. "My Stupid Mouth" John Mayer
19. "Jimi Thing" Dave Matthews Band
Music A Merlin Would Love
1. "Viorar vel til Loftarasa" Sigur Ros
2. "Why Should the Fire Die?" Nickel Creek
3. "Ants Marching" Dave Matthews Band
4. "Light Up My Room" Barenaked Ladies
5. "Broke In Two" They Might Be Giants
6. "Suzie Q" Credence Clearwater Revival
7. "The Ballad of Sir Kibbles" Kirby's Adventure OCRemix
8. "Mr. Maintenance" Brother
9. "Novacaine for the Soul" Eels
10. "Summertime" Sidney Bechet
11. "Doubting Thomas" Nickel Creek
12. "Hoppipolla" Sigur Ros
13. "Fortunate" Common Rotation
14. "Names and Addresses" Junior Brown
15. "Sailing to Philadelphia" Mark Knopfler
16. "Daytripper" The Beatles
17. "A Rhetorical and Structural Analysis" Davinci's Notebook
18. "I Dreamt I Was An Architect" The Decemberists
First of all, I didn't get writing done, unless you count looking back at old stories and doing a little bit of editing 'writing'. I don't myself but I can imagine that sometimes you have to take what you can get. While there wasn't any writing, there was a whole TON of good stuff. Firstly, I talked for a great many hours with my new friend zaylas_the_bard. Read many of his stories (of which I am more enamoured) and just generally had a grand time talking about life, the universe and everything. He's begun to read my novel as well, for which I am very grateful to him. The ranks of my select fans may be growing; huzzah!
Let's see...what else? Okay, something that kind of got to me a little this weekend. We had an airshow going on in Salinas at the Salinas Airport (fancy an airshow happening there, eh?). Went from Friday to Sunday night (tonight). Now, I don't know if any of you have experienced an airshow firsthand but, let me tell you, just being in the same city as one going on, not more than a mile away from my house, that was more than a little freaky. First, you've got the jets flying in on Thursday to get to the airshow. All day long this happens. Freaky enough. But, then it continues on Friday. Friday night, we were gonna go see the fireworks show they had at the airshow but plans changed so Ian, Dad and I stood in the greenbelt park just down the sidewalk from the house to watch the last of the display. Now, I don't want to be all depressing or weird here, I'm just saying what the whole thing made me think of: the fireworks were going up into a fog bank that tends to fall over the edges of the valley at night. You've got explosions in the sky, lighting up the backdrop of foggy clouds. Several lit up a really good portion of the sky and made big, solid booms. It was like being near an airstrike. Literally, that's what it struck me to be like.
You've got planes flying over you for a few days, making a shit-ton of noise and then, at night, you see these big, bright explosions (of course, there were standard fireworks too but the bright bursts and explosions of noise in the clouds really affected me) not more than a mile or more from your house. Thus, the title of this LJ entry. 'Good Weather for Airstrikes'. Cuz, really, who could ask for better weather than the central California coast area? I would go into a whole long diatribe about how that made me think of what we've done to the Iraqi people but I'll leave politics out of this. This journal is a happy place. Still, it did bring that to mind, both Friday and Saturday but mostly after I saw those bursts of light and sound in the clouds, a mile or two from my house.
I saw 'Serenity' so hard on Friday night. Seriously great space opera action, to the max. It has been the first movie in a long time that I have wanted to see twice at the theatre, so that must be saying something. I <3 Joss Whedon, and not just because he's made noise that he wants to direct the movie version of the sixth Harry Potter book. That...would be awesome.
Okay, now for the big news: Renaissance Faires exist out there, and in a very big way. Today, we, as a family, went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire in Casa de Fruta. Friends, let me tell you what, Scarborough may be great but imagine having that under trees with tons of enthusiastic people in costume, tons more shops with different kinds of stuff, a brilliant acting troupe portraying (among other people) Elizabeth Gloriana, William Shakespeare, Philip Marlow and (the other playwright of that time whose name escapes me), all of which are judging a hilarious 'Miss Harvest Maiden' paegent. And that is just the beginning my friends! There were also two people who had dressed up and painted their faces to look like trolls and they just...it's hard to describe because I'm not even really sure what they did! They acted like primitive peoples, if that makes sense. The female one, at one point, took a man's flask and started to drink from it while allowing to drink from her large bottle of questionable fluid. Meanwhile, the male troll was trying to catch one of his pet rats with a ribbon tied to the end of a long stick. And people were watching them do this with RAPT ATTENTION. Myself among them. I have no idea what was so enchanting about it but I couldn't stop watching them move about like the rest of the world didn't exist (except when the female troll picked up a camera the male had filched from someone and went up real close to people, taking their pictures).
But that wasn't all! I bought a African woven reed hat (looks kind of like the ones you see Chinese and Japanese people wearing in rice paddies) around which I'm going to build a new costume, Ian bought a neat, old-looking padlock from a pirate shop (oh yes, they had a PIRATE shop, complete with cursed Black Pearl gold coin medallions) and Mom and Dad bought wedding bands from a really talented goldsmith. Also, as is required at each ren-faire, there were many comely wenches. Several stood out for me in that they had fox tails clipped to them and a few even had fox ears. I just about melted I tells ya! ^_^ Wish I'd brought my camera though.... And, yes, I went in costume, as I'd be remiss if I didn't wear my costume now that I'm in a climate that it's not a risk to do so.
Now, as a new fixture to my LJ posts (because I want to), I'm going to post the track lists for the two mix CDs I've made recently. Enjoy and stay awesome out there people!
Mortag's Kick Ass Track of Slightly Slanted and Totally Awesome Songs
1. "When the World Ends" Dave Matthews Band
2. "Saegiopur" Sigur Ros
3. "Drive" Incubus
4. "Be Yourself" Morcheeba
5. "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" Super Furry Animals
6. "Indie Rockin'" Common Rotation
7. "Somebody More Like You" Nickel Creek
8. "Atomic Bird" Yoko Kanno
9. "I'll Stick Around" Foo Fighters
10. "A" Barenaked Ladies
11. "He den bro" Brother
12. "Circles" Soul Coughing
13. "Here Comes Everybody" Autolux
14. "Man, It's So Loud In Here" They Might Be Giants
15. "It Ain't You" Squirrel Nut Zippers
16. "Fastest Way Thru the South" The Mercury Project
17. "Where It's At" Beck
18. "My Stupid Mouth" John Mayer
19. "Jimi Thing" Dave Matthews Band
Music A Merlin Would Love
1. "Viorar vel til Loftarasa" Sigur Ros
2. "Why Should the Fire Die?" Nickel Creek
3. "Ants Marching" Dave Matthews Band
4. "Light Up My Room" Barenaked Ladies
5. "Broke In Two" They Might Be Giants
6. "Suzie Q" Credence Clearwater Revival
7. "The Ballad of Sir Kibbles" Kirby's Adventure OCRemix
8. "Mr. Maintenance" Brother
9. "Novacaine for the Soul" Eels
10. "Summertime" Sidney Bechet
11. "Doubting Thomas" Nickel Creek
12. "Hoppipolla" Sigur Ros
13. "Fortunate" Common Rotation
14. "Names and Addresses" Junior Brown
15. "Sailing to Philadelphia" Mark Knopfler
16. "Daytripper" The Beatles
17. "A Rhetorical and Structural Analysis" Davinci's Notebook
18. "I Dreamt I Was An Architect" The Decemberists