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Let me separate out the good advice from the bitter herbs...
Sleep deprivation made it difficult to fight the everyday gremlins. Today wasn't so much a bad day --- or an unusual one --- as one in which my usual resources to cope were compromised. I left work early (read: on time) only to return to people grinding stumps in my front triangle. So I sat on the back step and cried, called a ton of people, and ( Read more... ) -
Jeannette Winterson
A truly lovely interview with Jeanette Winterson over at Writers & Co this week. If you are interested at all in her work, it's highly recommended. I'm very interested in reading her latest book, a memoir of being adopted in a pentecostal family. Even the title hits a nerve, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? There are stories she tells in the ( Read more... ) -
Overture
So, I never noticed this before, but here is the overture to Mendelssohn's Melusina (very popular legend in the 19C; I wonder why?):
And here is the overture to Das Reingold
They are using the same intervals. But of course Mendelssohn does the usual structured thing. While Wagner... you can hear the revolutionary things he's doing with music ( Read more... ) -
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Absolutely exhausted last night. I came home from work after a 10 hour day, finished Elizbeth Wein's book Code Name Verity, which arrived in the mail this week, and went to bed ( Read more... ) -
Last Exile: Fam Silverwing
So despite the fact that I am not generally an anime fan, several years ago dr_tectonic and kung_fu_monkey introduced me to Last Exile and I liked it. I suppose you could say its steam, though they are actually fueled by a lighter than air element called "Claudio" and have these little "vanships" that are like flying eggbeaters/vintage aircraft. It has adventure and a ( Read more... ) -
Working backwards on Madame de Staël
From the conclusion of J. Christopher Herold's 1958 biography Mistress to an Age:
Byron, shortly after his first meeting with Germaine, wrote to a friend, "She thinks like a man, but alas! she feels like a woman." The "alas!" is gratuitous. It was her feeling like a woman, her passionate feminine exaltation and emotion, which communicated its ( Read more... ) -
Mummers, mummers, mummers!
Leila sent me this one, I thought it was too funny not to share ( Read more... ) -
Shut-up about Charles Dickens!
My teenreads review of Andrea Warren's Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London is finally up at teenreads with only minor changes. The strength of my feelings on this topic surprised me as did my political confessions; I generally try not to let these colors show in my reviews. This review has also led to some fascinating discussions. ( Read more... ) -
Lute Hero
Ellen Hargis & Paul O'dette, one of the premier vocal/lute duos in the US, will be guests on St. Paul Sunday this weekend ( Read more... ) -
Vaclav Havel
I woke at stupid 'o clock this morning to the news that Vaclav Havel has died. I was actually just thinking about the legacy of communism, yesterday, and whether all the protest movements we've seen this your will come to naught. Sometimes it's difficult to see that freedom is not something bought, paid for, and won in a single instance, but fought ( Read more... )
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