grondfic

Today's

thefridayfive questions:

5. Name five favourite movies.
Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, The Sting, The Italian Job, The Fifth Element

4. Name four areas of interest you became interested in after you were done with your formal education.
History, Crafting, Astronomy, Battlefields

3. Name three things you would change about this world.
Greater respect for all people; greater care for ecology; a true desire for peace

2. Name two of your favourite childhood toys.
My teddy bear, which I still have, my collection of zoo animals

1. Name one person you could be handcuffed to for a full day.
Please no!

smallhobbit

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favourite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passers by to check it out.

My chosen subject is Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures productions.

No surprise to my regular readers!

For those who aren't: these are dance productions based on classic ballets (Swan Lake, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker), films (Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes), play or opera (Romeo & Juliet, Car Man) or books (The Midnight Bell). There are a few more, but I haven't seen them (yet!)

They aren't traditional ballets, but do use some ballet moves, as well as modern dance. The key thing is the story which is told and which requires no prior knowledge. These are the dance version of fanfic or fanart, taking the original stories but changing them in interesting ways.

Details can be found here: New Adventures

And you can find out more of my thoughts using my tag: Matthew Bourne

Here's my bedroom walls:

lycomingst

The other night I stayed up until dawn watching Agents of Shield season 4. It had alternative reality and they know my sweet spot. I couldn’t stop. But I noticed something about my tv. It was so dark that I couldn’t even see who was hitting who.

I moved my smaller tv in from the living room. I don’t watch in there because the electronics are on the floor until I spring for a table. So I hooked it up and yes, my other tv is dying of creeping dark. Testing it involved sorting out about 5 remotes. And then finding the one I needed on the kitchen counter where I randomly put it down as I was to and froing.

I’m debating buying a new, cheap Roku tv.

cmcmck

We went for a walk on the other side of town for a change. One side of us is hill country and the other side is moorland- the Shropshire Plain. The nearest moorland to us is known as the Weald Moors.

We walked out via Apley and its very fine pool.

The blackberries are starting to fruit even since last week when they were still in flower:

( More pics! )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ere

oracne

I’ll be at Readercon 34 this weekend after spending most of the last couple of weeks doing massive re-reads.

If you’ll be there, please feel free to stop and say hello! My schedule is below.

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Andrea Hairston [moderator]; Leon Perniciaro; Rob Cameron; Tom Doyle; Victoria Janssen
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Storm Humbert [moderator]; Anne E.G. Nydam; Charles Allison; Ellen Kushner; Victoria Janssen
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Cecilia Tan; Jedediah Berry; Sarah Smith; Steven Popkes
It’s becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

The Works of Cecilia Tan
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Charlie Jane Anders; Laura Antoniou; Cecilia Tan (i)
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov’s, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America’s other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia’s many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Alexander Jablokov; J.M. Sidorova; Laurence Raphael Brothers; Steven Popkes
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Kate Nepveu [moderator]; Claire Houck/Nina Waters; Laura Antoniou; Victoria Janssen
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how “2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.” Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

lycomingst

The Friday Five

1. What was the most sick that you've ever been?
I used to get terrible sore throats when I was young. They got worse every year. The last time I got delusional. When I could afford it I had my tonsils out and I swear I didn’t have a cold for 10 years.

2. What disease are you afraid of getting?
Lyme disease.

3. Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses?
No.

4. Is going to the doctor really THAT bad?
Yes.

5. Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it?
Maybe for $10,000 but I don’t come cheap.

lycomingst

We’re having a spate of hot days, 100F/37C, then it will cool down. The mobile home park had to shut down the water on Friday as something broke. The system is old and a piece needs replacing and it needs hunting down.. Management had to choose between no water and telling everyone to keep a faucet open to regulate the pressure. They decided on the latter one which is painful to anyone who lived with drought. But better than no water.

I have strawberries ripening, actually strawberries. I have to hang pots on the fence because those I had in pots on the ground got munched on. I keep them there as decoys. The tomatoes are soso. I think I watered too much. Or this type doesn’t grow as tall as I am used to. But the cucumber has a flower on it and soon I will have a round, light green ball of a cucumber.

Even the butterfly bush plant I got from the Arbor Day Society is growing and I thought I killed that.

jazzy_dave

Carlene Bauer "Frances and Bernard" (Chatto & Windus)

A fictional love story told through letters, “inspired by” the real life correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell. Since I know virtually nothing about either of these writers, I had no issues with what was true or not in this novel about two intelligent people who can’t find a way to make their relationship work.

The author described the theme of the book to Publisher’s Weekly as “what happens when someone effusive, passionate and grandiose {Bernard} gets involved with someone tough-minded, cranky and aloof {Frances}.” While Bernard is instantly likeable and Frances seems cold in comparison, once his manic depression becomes problematic, Frances’ reticence to become romantically involved with him becomes more understandable and my sympathies switched to her side. Here are a couple of quotes to give you an idea of the heartbreaking nature of their relationship:

Bernard, in a letter to Frances: “I love your suspicion--it means your mind is always sharpening itself against the many lies of the world--but right now it is killing me. So I am going to ask you to write me a letter convincing me that you believe me. You do not have to tell me that you are in love with me, and you do not have to tell me how you feel about me. You have to write and tell me that you believe I love you.”

Frances, in a letter to a friend: “He will call four separate times at work; I can’t answer it the first three times, and the fourth time, when I pick up, he’ll say: “Why didn’t you pick up before? You’re Florence Nightingale, you’re supposed to pick up. I could be bleeding on a field in Turkey.” We laugh, it’s funny, but the fact remains: He has called four times in a row in a span of five minutes. . . It makes me want to hide from him sometimes in embarrassment--I have maybe a tenth of his energy, and I often wonder when he will realize that he’s in love with a slug. Whirlwinds can’t love slugs. They need other whirlwinds, don’t they? Or mountains.”

I finished this book over a month ago and it’s stayed with me and I would even consider re-reading it, which I, on the whole, never do. A good satisfying book that I will certainly will reread at some point.

smallhobbit

Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

In no particular order. Feel free to ask about any of them, I might even create a post about some of them next month.

1 - The Ferret A creation of my own, based in the Sherlock Holmes (ACD) 'verse. A song and dance mustelid.

2 - Werewolf!Lucas Another of my creations. Based in Spooks (MI5) where Lucas North is now a werewolf, and continues to work for Section D in both human and vulpine forms. This is a party-loving werewolf, who likes to look smart.

3 - Cake I have already posted about cake for Challenge #2

4 - Families at church. We have a lot of engagement with local families, and apart from baptisms, we also have a toddler group and after-school club, a youth group, occasional Saturday activity mornings and in a couple of weeks we're running a Teddy Bear's Zipwire.

5 - Getting engrossed in my cross stitch while listening to something on the radio on my headphones. Perfect for shutting out the rest of the world.

6 - My To Be Read list which is once more threatening to fall off the shelf and onto my head when I'm asleep.

7 - My total inability to resist the urge to 'complete' a list. Recently I found two music programmes on the radio which have a number of series, going back several years. So, of course, I need to listen to them all (or at least the interesting majority) over the next year.

8 - The thought of

no_true_pair main challenge (with 8 characters) sign up coming next month.

9 - The fact that the skirt I bought some years ago and rarely wore still fits and was perfect to wear today in the heat.

10 - The sheer wonder of creation - how the sun is changing its poles between North and South; all the amazing galaxies out there (points vaguely in all directions at once).

shewhomust

J. invited us to dinner on Friday. She doesn't need a reason to do this, and we didn't need a reason to accept, gladly. Nonetheless, there were two reasons: it was an opportunity to catch up with our old friend C., who was visiting; and she wanted

durham_rambler's help setting up a subscription to ink supplies for her computer.

So while

durham_rambler wrangled the computer (with only partial success) and J. cooked, C. and I chatted: about what she and J. had done over the past few days, and about holidays past and planned, and fmily and old friends - and eventually C. told me about a conversation she had had with someone I didn't know, about the many words for shades of blue. They had competed to find the most obscure word, and C. had won with a name she could not now remember, though she thought it was the name of an artist, and maybe something to do with tiles.

So we dived down that rabbit-hole, and listed all the shades of blue we could think of; we discussed the difference between blue, green and turquoise; I told her about the exhibition of cyanotypes we had seen, and what I had learned there about the colour cyan; we dismissed sky blue and the blue traditional in the robes of the Madonna; I fell asleep that night thinking about periwinkles, and indigo, and Alice blue (favoured by Alice Roosevelt, apparently) and the wine-dark seas (blue being something for which the Greeks apparently did not have a word).

The next day C. messaged to say that she had remembered the name of Jacques Majorelle and the garden he created in Marrakech, painting the walls of the villa in an intense shade of blue ispired by the local use of colour and coloured tiles. This morning I looked it up, and found many extremely pretty pictures. I won't say I had never heard of it, because the Yves Saint-Laurent connection is faintly familiar - but I would not have thought of it in a thousand years!

jazzy_dave

Paul Morley "Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City" (Bloomsbury Publishing)

This is a bit of a re-read as it is a very esoteric history of pop, which I like. A ride in a very fast car. Insightful and entertaining. Lots and lots of lists some of which will interest you and some won't. It will alomost certainly make you curious about some artist or genre you have never heard of. Plenty of philosphy and ideas - for example a discussion of celebrity. Goes well beyond a history of pop and leaves out as much as it takes in. Eclectic and wacky. I still take it off the shelf to get inspiration as to what to listen to next- or what to challenge Amazon music with.

I have always been that adventurous with music, so I would definitely recommend this book to the very curious music lover.

jazzy_dave

Janina Ramirez "Femina : A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It" (W. H Allen)

A book asserting that there are lots of interesting stories to tell about the centrality of women in the Middle Ages, which basically is preaching to the converted as far as I am concerned. It starts however in 1913: Emily Davison, who was trampled to death by the King’s horse when her suffragette protest went wrong at the Derby, was a qualified and enthusiastic medievalist who saw the political empowerment of women as fully consistent with history.

Ramirez goes on to look at the Loftus Princess; Cyneðryð and Æðelflæd of Mercia; the Viking woman from Birka; Hildegard of Bingen; the women who made the Bayeux Tapestry; the women of the Cathars; Jadwiga of Poland; and Margery Kempe. It’s a solid piece of work which simultaneously rides the two horses of “these were remarkable individuals” and “women in general were much more important in the Middle Ages than you have probably been told”.

I didn’t know much about any of these particular cases, and had never heard of some of them – and I’ve read quite a lot of medieval history in my time, since I did an arts degree course back in the eigtie, and I covered the middle ages for my final dissertation. So I felt enlightened and encouraged by the end of the book and would recommend this to any budding historian or curious reader.

jazzy_dave

Graham Swift "Waterland" (Picador)

Not my first book by the author, I read Last Orders wile travelling a few years ago, but I had forgotten his roundabout, yet entertaining, way of spinning a yarn.

Set in the Fens, the characters are as much tied to the land, the titular Waterland. Like the water in its springy earth, the Fens seem to move, retract and then burst their banks as the try to get back to their previous untamed state.

The book has 3 threads. The first is that of a history teacher, Crick, being given his marching orders, partly for his unorthodox teaching methods and partly because of an incident in his personal life. In his classes, he tells the students about the other two threads - the history of his family in the Fens and the death of a childhood friend, both of which have contributed to the current state of events.

Price, a clever boy in Crick's class, questions the relevance of history in a world which has a bleak, if any, future. Written in the early '80s, it is a fear that my own generation dismissed with the fall of the Iron Curtain, only for it to have reared its head again in the wake of 9/11 and the current economic crisis.

The impression you get of the Fens is that of a fierce, resistant people. Resistant to those who tried to tame the waters, independent from the world outside until it strategic position and the source of man power were discovered by the powers that be. I suppose you could argue nature versus nurture, but how can you separate the two when both seem to be governed by the Fens? Most of all, though, there is a feeling of guilt that pervades in its pages - for what has happened, whether it could have been prevented. Absent mothers and madness are two other recurring notes.

Highly recommended.

jazzy_dave

M. R. James "The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories" (Penguin Classics)

This finally made its slow way to the top of the to be read pile, and I thought a nice long weekend would be the perfect time to dip into the stories. I was not disappointed.

While the editor calls the stories included here "generally inferior" to those in the other volume, which includes James' earlier stories (and which I've now ordered up), I quite enjoyed those between these covers. James captures supernatural visitations and unexplained events very well, and has a way of lending very creepy powers to seemingly benign, inanimate objects (among them are binoculars, fabric, and, as might be expected from the title, even a dollhouse).

All of the stories here are well worth reading, but if I had to pick just a few, I'd highlight "The Residence at Whitminster", "The Diary of Mr. Poynter", "Two Doctors," "The Haunted Dolls' House", "A View from a Hill," and "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" (which takes as its supernatural element a bibliographically-mysterious Commonwealth-period Book of Common Prayer). One of the things I really like (and I'm sure you'll be shocked, shocked at this) about James' stories is the inclusion of books, libraries, book auctions and antiquarianism in the plots (he was a medievalist and manuscript cataloger).

Some of my favorite Conan Doyle stories are his supernatural tales, and these reminded me (in a good way) of those. Creepy, but highly enjoyable, and very much recommended.

ashkitty

In Dublin for now. There's a summer school thing I'm going to for the next two weeks to learn Old Irish, or at least make the attempt. I left Aber this morning in some confusion about whether there was a train (Nat Rail and TFW apps both showed no train, but it turns out there was, in fact, a train). Changed at Shrewsbury, where the new train was 1) delayed and 2) chockablock - in only two carriages there were two hen dos, a stag party and a large number of people going to Chester for the races. While it cleared out a bit after Chester, there was no AC to be had, so to prevent anyone getting ill, they passed out water (which was nice of them)!

Getting to the ferry itself actually went quite quickly once we got to Holyhead (15 min or so late, but whatever), and after that journey I quite cheerfully paid to upgrade to the 'hygge lounge', which is a quiet lounge with big recliner chairs and a great view. No regrets about that at all.

Arrived at Dublin port, phone decided it wasn't going to work yet, but employees there will book you a taxi. (Would this journey, clocking in at 10.5 hours at that point, be improved by an hour on public transit with luggage? It would not.) Anyway, we got stuck at an intersection when the car in front of us broke down.

But I have arrived! Felt like it was such a pretty night I should go out and explore and walk a bit, but am also very, very tired, and going to Spar for a sandwich to eat in front of the tv in my AIR CONDITIONED hotel room won out, in the end. Anyway, hi Dublin, looking good.

I should post more and maybe talk about stuff, but I'm lazy. Anyway, hi.

shewhomust

I wasn't even sure I would make it to the Gala this year. I wanted to; it's always an important date in my year. But I mistrusted my ability to spend all day on my feet, let alone a day at the mercy of what passes for a heatwave in the north of England. Well, the good news was that despite the announced withdrawal of the 3G on which my phone apparently runs, I could still get through to

durham_rambler. So I set off, with no plan for the day beyond doing my best and withdrawing if I needed to. And it turned out fine: we did a lot of shade-hopping, and all was well.

One of the pleasures of the Big Meeting is - well, the people you meet. Often they are Old Comrades, but this yer the first old friend we ran into was a poet, which was an unexpected pleasure.

We made our way down to the Racecourse. As we followed the path down behind this banner:

this is what I heard from the stage:

Watch on YouTube

It turns out to be Joe Solo's The Last Miner, and the more I listen to it, the more I like the way it engages with the question What is the Miners' Gala for now that the pits are all closed?.

We made our way down to the field, past the astronomy tent (we didn't see anything that looked like this), past StrikeMap (I meant to go back for a better look later, but when I did they were already packing up), and into a large marquee, which I think belonged to the Aged Miners' Homes: it contained nothing but some tables, a generous supply of chairs, and some people who were enjoying the shade. We joined them, with gratitude to our hosts, whoever they were. From here we made contact the our friend in the NASUWT, who arrived to brief us about her family news, and how her union has managed both to appoint and not to appoint Matt Wrack as its new General Secretary. From here, too,

durham_rambler foraged for our lunch (chips with mystery toppings). And from here we set off from home.

We didn't stay for the speeches: we didn't have the stamina to sit in the sun and listen, even to Jeremy Corbyn. We did pause on another well placed bench, from which we could hear the Palestinian Ambassador - not what he was saying, but the music of his speech, and the audience response. Then on to Hotel Indigo (we were aiming for the Methodist church, but they had stopped serving at two), to sit in the shade, drink water and watch the bands going past: and from here, finally, skirting the town along with the crowds of bandmembers carrying their instruments to the bus, and I sat at the foot of Crossgate while

durham_rambler came home and collected the car.

abject_reptile

Watch on YouTube

azdak

In the way that one does on the internet, I recently stumbled across a video interview with Quentin Tarantino and Leo DiCaprio about Rick Dalton, the character DiCaprio plays in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I don’t know much about Tarantino, my family having warned me off his films on the grounds that I’d find them too violent, so this was my first time seeing him and I was charmed by how delightfully nerdy he is – he went on and on about all the different 1950s and 60s TV Westerns he’d shown DiCaprio to give him a feel for the kind of actor Rick Dalton was, until apparently at some point DiCaprio said stop giving me information and give me something I can act (this made me laugh because as an aspiring director at drama school I had once been asked by the instructor who a particular character in a scene I was directing was, and I said, “He’s the personification of advanced capitalism!” “Well, yes”, said the instructor, “but how is the poor actor supposed to play that?”). Me and Quentin Tarantino, that makes two of us. Of course, the difference between me and Quentin is that I didn’t really have an answer back then (nowadays everyone would just say “Elon Musk!” and the problem would be solved), whereas Tarantino did; he came up with the actor Pete Duel from the series Alias Smith and Jones, because one of the other things Quentin Tarantino and I have in common is that we both really, really liked Pete Duel.

( Read more... )

shewhomust

I collected my new glasses from the optician yesterday morning. They are as close in appearance to my old ones as I could find: I was happy with what I had, so why change it? But of course fashion means that you can never get exactly the same as last time, so these are subtly different: slightly larger, slightly darker, slightly heavier, slightly more angular in shape, almost hexgonal. I wore them to the pub quiz last night, and C. noticed at once: "New glasses?" she asked, and

durham_rambler wondered how she knew - had someone seen us leaving the opticians? No, we explained, she knew because she could see that I was wearing them.

The real question, though, is: do they improve my vision? Too soon to say.

I left my other pair - that is, the mid-distance pair that I use at my desktop - with the optician. These are the ones whose frames I really like, so we will try fitting the new lenses into the old frames, and hope they don't shatter. I should find out in a week or so.

smallhobbit

Journaling prompt: What are your favourite summer-associated foods?

Not so much food, as the memory of summer picnics. Which conjures up ideals of everyone sitting round a check tablecloth, relaxed and enjoying a selection of delicate foods. Whereas the reality is the wasps after everything sweet. The sudden gust of wind blowing over a tub of mini sausages and taking off with the pretty, carefully chosen, paper serviettes and causing children to rush madly after them, thus falling over and returning with muddy hands etc. Trying to drink a mug of hot tea, because the calendar might say July but otherwise you'd never know, and having hair blow in the mouth. And just when you think it's going to be okay after all, half the tablecloth blows up and falls on top of the iced cupcakes.

Of course, all this may be alleviated by sitting in the car because it's raining and still enjoying the bread rolls, packets of crisps and chocolate mini rolls - which certainly haven't melted.

Or even better, giving up on the whole idea and spreading the tablecloth out on the living room floor and picnicking at home!

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grondfic

November 2024

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Reading

The Friday Five - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Sunshine Revival Challenge #5

(no subject)

A walk to the Weald Moors

Readercon 2025

(no subject)

(no subject)

Book 31 - Carlene Bauer "Frances and Bernard"

Sunshine Revival Challenge #4

Talking blues

Book 30 - Paul Morley "Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City"

Book 29 - Janina Ramirez "Femina"

Book 28 - Graham Swift "Waterland"

Book 27 - M. R. James "The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories"

(no subject)

On the same Saturday in July...

He Moves My Heart

Alias Smith and Jones

New glasses!

Sunshine Revival Challenge #3

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November 2024

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