LOL at this season 6 episode of Natsume Yuujincho, "I don't do favours for youkai," says the guy who's been doing favours for youkai for five seasons. I've been on a Natsume Yuujincho binge all weekend, and it's amusing and reminding me how shippable Natsume is. Everyone wants a piece of him. Also, wow, the animation massively improves from season 1.
I appreciated that the weekend's new episode of Kaiju no 8 put focus on a different set of characters. I was really missing the old crew from division 3! Kaiju no 10's shifty proposition and the intelligence it gave in return are iiiiinteresting.
I appreciated that the weekend's new episode of Kaiju no 8 put focus on a different set of characters. I was really missing the old crew from division 3! Kaiju no 10's shifty proposition and the intelligence it gave in return are iiiiinteresting.
After finding a stash of bullets at the scene of a suicide, followed by a mass shooting at a hostel, cop Lee Do suspects, given tight gun control laws, that something more is going on than just random violence. Someone is sending guns to people.
Let me describe Lee Do. He is very lovely and kind to people like the bereaved mother protesting outside the company where her son died on the job. He does not take a gun on patrol, for backstory reasons, and refuses the idea of promotion. But! He is super skilled in combat situations. He plays cat-and-mouse with shooters, in the role of the mouse. He can take out a dozen gangsters with knives. Also he rides a motorbike and wears a leather jacket off duty. He is played by Kim Nam-gil so he’s very handsome but in an approachable kind of way. ‘Look how cool our hero is!’ says the show, and I am willing to agree.
(I read a ridiculous film studies essay on the female warrior figure in HK girls with guns films the other day, which implied these characters were an unrealistic fantasy, as if the equivalent male character is any less a fantasy! I thought about this during Lee Do’s fight scenes.)
However, the main reason I decided to watch this was because Kim Young-kwang is in it. They therefore rudely did not have him show up till the very end of the second episode. His character Moon Baek is even more ridiculous.
But it is a fun show. I am judging myself a little for how much I am enjoying it. But even if it’s ridiculous, it’s a well made ridiculous, with a cast I can enjoy, and I feel I shall have no regrets.
Let me describe Lee Do. He is very lovely and kind to people like the bereaved mother protesting outside the company where her son died on the job. He does not take a gun on patrol, for backstory reasons, and refuses the idea of promotion. But! He is super skilled in combat situations. He plays cat-and-mouse with shooters, in the role of the mouse. He can take out a dozen gangsters with knives. Also he rides a motorbike and wears a leather jacket off duty. He is played by Kim Nam-gil so he’s very handsome but in an approachable kind of way. ‘Look how cool our hero is!’ says the show, and I am willing to agree.
(I read a ridiculous film studies essay on the female warrior figure in HK girls with guns films the other day, which implied these characters were an unrealistic fantasy, as if the equivalent male character is any less a fantasy! I thought about this during Lee Do’s fight scenes.)
However, the main reason I decided to watch this was because Kim Young-kwang is in it. They therefore rudely did not have him show up till the very end of the second episode. His character Moon Baek is even more ridiculous.
You get his backstory in episode 5
Which is that he was abandoned as a baby and raised for his organs – he has one eye taken before he is shipped off to America where he is rescued mid-organ-theft surgery – and who after killing the men who wanted to steal his organs (after a time skip) impressed an illegal firearms dealer who adopts him, and gets him a new eye, but one eye is blue, so actually he has different coloured eyes!! Amazing. What an awful lot of choices were made in that backstory.But it is a fun show. I am judging myself a little for how much I am enjoying it. But even if it’s ridiculous, it’s a well made ridiculous, with a cast I can enjoy, and I feel I shall have no regrets.
On May 8th, I offered to read the first five books people recced - assuming they were available (preferably from the library) - and I'd give a short review [https://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/701769.html].
This is the ninth recced book review.
America (1986), by Jean Baudrillard (recced by Hannah on dreamwidth)
(Note: I read this at least a month ago, but I forgot to post the review!)
America is two entirely different books. If I hadn't felt compelled to complete America (I started it four times before I could move beyond the fifth page), I would have given up the ghost by the end of chapter one. There's no denying that it's beautifully written, poetic, philosophic, deeply thoughtful at times. I have no particular problem with his critique of America - even in what he sees as its "banality." But god, did it feel pretentious and oddly incoherent for the longest time.
It's also weirdly racist. when it most tries to be anything but, and so much of it feels just...wrong. Take his observations of New York City, for example. Yes, much is "fast" about NY - both literally and metaphorically - but of all things, cars aren't the things that are faster (those of you who have experienced an Uber taking 20 minutes to drive from 2nd Avenue to 8th Avenue know what I mean). And eating alone in New York? It isn't incredibly "sad" as Baudrillard suggests... far more often it's a way to feel a moment of pleasurable solitude in a city of so many millions of people.
Some of what I perceive as wrongness in the book could be that Baudrillard is writing about the America of the 80s, yet treating it as if that's all there is of the America of past and future instead of it being a snapshot of time. Or it could be as simple as the translation missing the point at times (although, I suspect that's not the case). But one way or the other, this America seems not just subjective, but far too often like a work of fiction.
There are also an incredible number of similes...sometimes a half dozen per page. :)
Anyway, once America hits the "Utopia Achieved" chapter, it morphs into something both readable and insightful. I'm not sure how that happened. It might possibly have been magic.
I'm not entirely sure it made up for the first 3/5 of the book, however.
This is the ninth recced book review.
America (1986), by Jean Baudrillard (recced by Hannah on dreamwidth)
(Note: I read this at least a month ago, but I forgot to post the review!)
America is two entirely different books. If I hadn't felt compelled to complete America (I started it four times before I could move beyond the fifth page), I would have given up the ghost by the end of chapter one. There's no denying that it's beautifully written, poetic, philosophic, deeply thoughtful at times. I have no particular problem with his critique of America - even in what he sees as its "banality." But god, did it feel pretentious and oddly incoherent for the longest time.
It's also weirdly racist. when it most tries to be anything but, and so much of it feels just...wrong. Take his observations of New York City, for example. Yes, much is "fast" about NY - both literally and metaphorically - but of all things, cars aren't the things that are faster (those of you who have experienced an Uber taking 20 minutes to drive from 2nd Avenue to 8th Avenue know what I mean). And eating alone in New York? It isn't incredibly "sad" as Baudrillard suggests... far more often it's a way to feel a moment of pleasurable solitude in a city of so many millions of people.
Some of what I perceive as wrongness in the book could be that Baudrillard is writing about the America of the 80s, yet treating it as if that's all there is of the America of past and future instead of it being a snapshot of time. Or it could be as simple as the translation missing the point at times (although, I suspect that's not the case). But one way or the other, this America seems not just subjective, but far too often like a work of fiction.
There are also an incredible number of similes...sometimes a half dozen per page. :)
Anyway, once America hits the "Utopia Achieved" chapter, it morphs into something both readable and insightful. I'm not sure how that happened. It might possibly have been magic.
I'm not entirely sure it made up for the first 3/5 of the book, however.
Tags:
Once upon a time, I read Exiled from Camelot, the novel-length Sir Kay angstfic by Cherith Baldry that Phyllis Ann Kar politely called 'one of the half-best Arthurian novels that I have yet read,' and then launched it off to Be Experienced by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer and troisoiseaux.
Now my sins have come back upon me sevenfold, or perhaps even fifteenfold:troisoiseaux has discovered that, not content with the amount of hurt and comfort that she inflicted upon Kay in exiled from Camelot, Cherith Baldry has written No Less than Fifteen Sad Kay Fanfics and collected them in a volume called The Last Knight of Camelot: The Chronicles of Sir Kay.
This book has now made its way fromtroisoiseaux via osprey_archer on to me, along with numerous annotations -- osprey_archer has suggested 'drink!' every time Baldry mentions Kay's 'hawk's face,' which I have not done, as I think this would kill me -- to which I have duly added in my turn. I am proud to tell you that I was taking notes and Kay only experiences agonized manly tears nine times in the volume. That means that there are at least six whole stories where Kay manages not to burst into tears at all! And we're very proud of him for that!
The thesis of The Last Knight of Camelot seems to be that Kay is in unrequited love with Arthur; Gawain and Gareth are both in unrequited love with Kay; and everyone else is mean to Kay, all the time, for no reason.troisoiseaux and osprey_archer in their posts have both pulled out this quote which I also feel I am duty-bound to do:
However, I also must provide the additional context that this tender moment is immediately interrupted by the ARRIVAL OF MORGAUSE, TO SEDUCE ARTHUR, TO MAKE MORDRED, leading me to believe that Baldry is suggesting that if Kay had instead seized the chance to confidently make out with Arthur at this time, the entire doom of Camelot might have been averted. Alas! instead, Arthur dismisses Kay to go hang out with Morgause, it all goes south, Arthur blames Kay for Some Reason, and Kay spends a week on his knees in the courtyard going on hunger strike for Arthur's forgiveness until he collapses on the cobblestones and wakes up to a repentant Arthur tenderly feeding him warm milk.
If the stories in this volume are any judge, this is a pretty normal week for Kay. I also want to shout out
- the one where Lancelot and Gaheris set up a Fake Adventure for Kay to prove his courage, which destroys Kay emotionally, and kitchen-boy-squire Gareth runs after him and tries to swear loyalty to him and ask Kay to knight him, but Kay is like "you cannot AFFORD to have Kay as a friend >:(( for your knightly reputation >:(((" and Gareth shouts "you can't make me your enemy!!" and then Lancelot finds them arguing and is like 'wow, Kay is abusing this poor kitchen boy' and sweeps the lovelorn Gareth away, leaving Kay's reputation worse than before
- the one where Arthur gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer who demands Excalibur as Arthur's ransom, and then Kay decides to try and trick the evil sorcerer with a Fake Excalibur even though Lancelot is like 'FAKE Excalibur? that's a LIE and DISHONORABLE,' and then Kay rescues Arthur from being magic-brainwashed by pure power of [brotherly?] love, and as soon as their tender embrace is over Arthur is like 'wait! you brought a FAKE Excalibur? that's a LIE and DISHONORABLE'
- the one where Kay is accused of rape as a Ploy to Discredit Arthur and has to go through a trial by ordeal where he walks over hot coals while on the verge of death from other injuries and Gawain flings himself into the fire to rescue him but it turns out it's fine because Kay is So Extremely Innocent of the Crime that they both end up clinging together bathed in golden light that heals their injuries
Again: FIFTEEN of these. Baldry is truly living her bliss and I honestly cannot but respect it. The book is going to make its way back from here whence it came, but if anyone else is really feeling a shortage of Kay Agonies in their life, let me know; I'm sure an additional stop would be welcomed as long as whoever gets it pays the annotation tax.
osprey_archer and troisoiseaux. Now my sins have come back upon me sevenfold, or perhaps even fifteenfold:
troisoiseaux has discovered that, not content with the amount of hurt and comfort that she inflicted upon Kay in exiled from Camelot, Cherith Baldry has written No Less than Fifteen Sad Kay Fanfics and collected them in a volume called The Last Knight of Camelot: The Chronicles of Sir Kay. This book has now made its way from
troisoiseaux via osprey_archer on to me, along with numerous annotations -- osprey_archer has suggested 'drink!' every time Baldry mentions Kay's 'hawk's face,' which I have not done, as I think this would kill me -- to which I have duly added in my turn. I am proud to tell you that I was taking notes and Kay only experiences agonized manly tears nine times in the volume. That means that there are at least six whole stories where Kay manages not to burst into tears at all! And we're very proud of him for that! The thesis of The Last Knight of Camelot seems to be that Kay is in unrequited love with Arthur; Gawain and Gareth are both in unrequited love with Kay; and everyone else is mean to Kay, all the time, for no reason.
troisoiseaux and osprey_archer in their posts have both pulled out this quote which I also feel I am duty-bound to do:"Lord of my heart, my mind, my life. All that I'll ever be. All I'll ever want.”
He had never revealed so much before.
Arthur leant towards him; there was love in his face, and wonder and compassion too, and Kay knew, his knowledge piercing like an arrow into his inmost spirit, that his love, this single-minded devotion that could fill his life and be poured out and yet never exhausted, was not returned. Arthur loved him, but not like that.
He could not help shrinking back a little.
However, I also must provide the additional context that this tender moment is immediately interrupted by the ARRIVAL OF MORGAUSE, TO SEDUCE ARTHUR, TO MAKE MORDRED, leading me to believe that Baldry is suggesting that if Kay had instead seized the chance to confidently make out with Arthur at this time, the entire doom of Camelot might have been averted. Alas! instead, Arthur dismisses Kay to go hang out with Morgause, it all goes south, Arthur blames Kay for Some Reason, and Kay spends a week on his knees in the courtyard going on hunger strike for Arthur's forgiveness until he collapses on the cobblestones and wakes up to a repentant Arthur tenderly feeding him warm milk.
If the stories in this volume are any judge, this is a pretty normal week for Kay. I also want to shout out
- the one where Lancelot and Gaheris set up a Fake Adventure for Kay to prove his courage, which destroys Kay emotionally, and kitchen-boy-squire Gareth runs after him and tries to swear loyalty to him and ask Kay to knight him, but Kay is like "you cannot AFFORD to have Kay as a friend >:(( for your knightly reputation >:(((" and Gareth shouts "you can't make me your enemy!!" and then Lancelot finds them arguing and is like 'wow, Kay is abusing this poor kitchen boy' and sweeps the lovelorn Gareth away, leaving Kay's reputation worse than before
- the one where Arthur gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer who demands Excalibur as Arthur's ransom, and then Kay decides to try and trick the evil sorcerer with a Fake Excalibur even though Lancelot is like 'FAKE Excalibur? that's a LIE and DISHONORABLE,' and then Kay rescues Arthur from being magic-brainwashed by pure power of [brotherly?] love, and as soon as their tender embrace is over Arthur is like 'wait! you brought a FAKE Excalibur? that's a LIE and DISHONORABLE'
- the one where Kay is accused of rape as a Ploy to Discredit Arthur and has to go through a trial by ordeal where he walks over hot coals while on the verge of death from other injuries and Gawain flings himself into the fire to rescue him but it turns out it's fine because Kay is So Extremely Innocent of the Crime that they both end up clinging together bathed in golden light that heals their injuries
Again: FIFTEEN of these. Baldry is truly living her bliss and I honestly cannot but respect it. The book is going to make its way back from here whence it came, but if anyone else is really feeling a shortage of Kay Agonies in their life, let me know; I'm sure an additional stop would be welcomed as long as whoever gets it pays the annotation tax.
Tags:
Lately I've been saving up dramas until I'm done watching them and then posting about them here, but right now I am watching several things and I want to talk about them. I also read a couple of things and watched a movie since the last time I posted one of these.
Kill My Sins ep 1-14—This is a cdrama about a woman who is a “mind healer” in not!Tang China. (And also some dude but I don’t care that much about him) There’s a lot I like about it, it's got women who are friends with each other, excellent costumes, including some crossdressing women, a character inspired by one of my favorite historical figures (Shangguan Wan’er), and a woman ruler. The plot is a twisty revenge story, and its very tense, so I have been watching very slowly.
Content notes: harm to animals, gore, backstory featuring sexual assault, torture, self harm, domestic violence
Mu Guiying Takes Command ep 5-11— I picked this drama back up because I wanted something very unstressful to watch. It’s not really very good, but the things that are bad about it make it easy to follow. like everything is a bit exaggerated, and I'm not super invested so it's less stressful. It’s got women in armor
Justice in the Dark eps 1-4 —This show sounds like it's made in a lab to be not for me. It’s got police, violent crime, bad things happening to kids, a CEO, a romance where the couple met when one was a kid and the other was an adult, and probably some things I’m forgetting. But it's the new show that my groupwatch picked, and that’s an important event in my social calendar so I decided to watch at least the first couple of episodes. Who knows maybe I will end up liking it, it’s happened before.
It does have some really nice food details, but I wish it wasn’t so visually dark – it's hard to see a lot of the time.
( Ash's Cabin, House of Flying Daggers, and A Rome of One's Own )
Kill My Sins ep 1-14—This is a cdrama about a woman who is a “mind healer” in not!Tang China. (And also some dude but I don’t care that much about him) There’s a lot I like about it, it's got women who are friends with each other, excellent costumes, including some crossdressing women, a character inspired by one of my favorite historical figures (Shangguan Wan’er), and a woman ruler. The plot is a twisty revenge story, and its very tense, so I have been watching very slowly.
Content notes: harm to animals, gore, backstory featuring sexual assault, torture, self harm, domestic violence
Mu Guiying Takes Command ep 5-11— I picked this drama back up because I wanted something very unstressful to watch. It’s not really very good, but the things that are bad about it make it easy to follow. like everything is a bit exaggerated, and I'm not super invested so it's less stressful. It’s got women in armor
Justice in the Dark eps 1-4 —This show sounds like it's made in a lab to be not for me. It’s got police, violent crime, bad things happening to kids, a CEO, a romance where the couple met when one was a kid and the other was an adult, and probably some things I’m forgetting. But it's the new show that my groupwatch picked, and that’s an important event in my social calendar so I decided to watch at least the first couple of episodes. Who knows maybe I will end up liking it, it’s happened before.
It does have some really nice food details, but I wish it wasn’t so visually dark – it's hard to see a lot of the time.
( Ash's Cabin, House of Flying Daggers, and A Rome of One's Own )
Tags:
I tried making mozzarella sticks again for dinner tonight and I don't know if the oil wasn't hot enough or what, but they stuck to the bottom of the pot. They stuck to the spatula when I finally scraped them off the bottom of the pot. They stuck to the PAPER TOWELS.
I have fried a lot of things in my time and then put them on paper towels to absorb the excess oil and NEVER BEFORE has anything stuck to them. What the actual fuck. I still ate whatever I was able to salvage, but wow, what a mess.
*
I have fried a lot of things in my time and then put them on paper towels to absorb the excess oil and NEVER BEFORE has anything stuck to them. What the actual fuck. I still ate whatever I was able to salvage, but wow, what a mess.
*
Tags:
genarti and I both recently read Leonora Carrington's 1974 surrealist novel The Hearing Trumpet, about a selectively deaf old lady whose unappreciative relatives put her into an old age home, where ( various increasingly weird things happen, cut in case you want to go in unspoiled )Beth found the pace and tone of plotting very Joan Aiken-ish and I have to admit I agree with her.
BETH: But I understand that The Hearing Trumpet is like this because Carrington was a surrealist. Is it possible that Joan Aiken was also a surrealist this whole time and we've simply not been looking at her work through the right lens?
ME: I don't think her life landed her in quite the right set of circumstances to be a surrealist properly ... I think she was a little too young when the movement was kicking off .... but I do think that perhaps she believed in their beliefs even if she didn't know it ....
Anyway, The Hearing Trumpet is in some ways has elements of a classically seventies feminist text -- she wrote it while deeply involved in Mexico's 1970s women's liberation movement, and the whole occultist nun -> holy grail -> icepocalypse plot has a lot of Sacred Sexy Goddess Repressed By The Evil And Prudish Christian Church running through it -- but Marian Leatherby's robust and and opinionated ninety-year-old voice is so charmingly unflappable that the experience is never in the least bit predictable or cliche. My favorite character is Marian's best friend Carmella, who kicks off the book by giving mostly-deaf Marian the hearing trumpet that allows her to [selectively] understand the things that are going on around her. Carmella plays the role often seen in children's books of Friend Who Is Constantly Gloriously Catastrophizing About How Dramatic A Situation Will Be And How They Will Heroically Rescue You From It (and then I will smuggle you a secret letter and tunnel into the old-age home in order to avoid the dozens of police dogs! etc. etc.) which is even funnier when the things that are actually happening are even weirder and more dramatic than anything Carmella predicts, just in a slightly different genre, and then funnier again when Carmella shows up towards the end of the book perfectly suited to surviving the Even Newer, Weirder, and More Dramatic Situations that have Arisen.
The end-note explains that Carrington based Carmella on her friend Remedios Varo, a detail I include as a treat for the Varo-heads but also as an illustration of how much the novel builds itself on the connections between weird women who survive a largely-incomprehensible world by being largely incomprehensible themselves. Carrington herself was in her late fifties when she wrote this book, but she too lived into her nineties; her Wikipedia article describes her in its header as "one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s." It's hard not to inscribe that back into the text in some way, which is of course an impossible reading, but one does like to imagine the ninety-year-old Carrington with just as much presence as the ninety-year-old Marian.
Tags:
Last night I successfully got the jersey I wanted for my team, and many of the people I wanted to draft to my team, and here we are:
(except one guy who'd wandered off, I'll try to get another group photo with him in at some point, but that one is beautiful; look at those gorgeous jerseys and that sunset sky)
I am so happy with this team. I put in some time and effort to read through the draft grid and make my first-and-second choice selections, and I switched things up as I spoke to people before and during the draft, and in response to how our draft order went on each round. I know I have a bunch of good people, both on and off the ice. In particular I got my captain from last year Sean, who is also the only person here this year who has been on my team in both the previous years. I instantly made him my A, and he's been a delight in the role already.
Three (short) games today and three tomorrow, to see whether I'm as good at picking and running a team as I think I am ...
Tags:
A few months ago I heard a love song and thought "this captures how I feel about ice hockey" and thus was a playlist born:
three-plus years in love (with hockey)
Additional suggestions always welcome :-)
( full list, with exemplar lyrics )
(previous playlists, titles hopefully self-explanatory:
first game feels
second season:stepping up
I have completely normal feelings about this sport.)
Tags:
I meant to post yesterday but fell asleep on the couch after dinner, which has been happening with more and more frequency over the last few months - usually it's only for 30 - 45 minutes, because it's never intentional and I am not in a comfortable sleeping position, but oh boy the dreams I have when it happens are super vivid and weirdly almost always take place here in this apartment. Usually "home" in my dreams is the house I grew up in (or some dream facsimile) or my first apartment - my second apartment is never what it actually looked like but always some much larger Manhattan apartment with a view! But when I am falling asleep on the couch, I am frequently also asleep on the couch in my dreams, and trying to wake up and not managing, or waking up in the dream to answer the door or something. Weird how that works!
Anyway, I did read something so Wednesday reading on a Thursday:
What I just finished
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, book one of the Burning Kingdoms trilogy. I really liked Suri's Books of Ambha duology - the second one in particular I thought was AMAZING - but this one isn't really doing it for me. It's fine.
What I'm reading now
Allegedly, the second book in the trilogy, The Oleander Sword but I haven't really been picking it up when I have time to read.
What I'm reading next
Well if I finish The Oleander Sword I will probably move onto the third book, The Lotus Empire, but who knows?
I did find time to finally watch K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix and I enjoyed it very much. It's like Buffy except there are 3 girls and they're in a band. Very fun!
Work today has been bonkers - it was 1 pm before I even thought about having breakfast so I just held out until 2 (my regular lunch time) for lunch. Hopefully the afternoon is quieter!
*
Anyway, I did read something so Wednesday reading on a Thursday:
What I just finished
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, book one of the Burning Kingdoms trilogy. I really liked Suri's Books of Ambha duology - the second one in particular I thought was AMAZING - but this one isn't really doing it for me. It's fine.
What I'm reading now
Allegedly, the second book in the trilogy, The Oleander Sword but I haven't really been picking it up when I have time to read.
What I'm reading next
Well if I finish The Oleander Sword I will probably move onto the third book, The Lotus Empire, but who knows?
I did find time to finally watch K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix and I enjoyed it very much. It's like Buffy except there are 3 girls and they're in a band. Very fun!
Work today has been bonkers - it was 1 pm before I even thought about having breakfast so I just held out until 2 (my regular lunch time) for lunch. Hopefully the afternoon is quieter!
*
Are there particular signs to look out for w/r/t an blu ray drive starting to fail?
I was importing a CD into iTunes last night and my external blu ray drive kept kinda getting stuck on some of the songs (some later imported successfully after I unplugged the drive and checking the connections plus restarting my PC seemed to resolve the issues with the last one).
I'm not sure if the problem was with the CD (it was from a historical society, so I'm not sure if it was burned or pressed), the software I was using, the USB connection, the drive, or something else, but now I'm feeling twitchy about the drive.
I was importing a CD into iTunes last night and my external blu ray drive kept kinda getting stuck on some of the songs (some later imported successfully after I unplugged the drive and checking the connections plus restarting my PC seemed to resolve the issues with the last one).
I'm not sure if the problem was with the CD (it was from a historical society, so I'm not sure if it was burned or pressed), the software I was using, the USB connection, the drive, or something else, but now I'm feeling twitchy about the drive.
If I post these perfunctory thoughts from films I watched months ago, then maybe soon I will be free ... jk, I have so many more films that I’ve watched this year. And it’s currently the film festival. Last year I only went to one thing due to work circumstances, so I am making up for that this year 😤
( Zinda )
( The Iron-Fisted Monk )
( Red + Red 2 )
( Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai )
( Holy Virgin vs the Evil Dead )
( Suspiria )
( Companion )
( Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning )
( Zinda )
( The Iron-Fisted Monk )
( Red + Red 2 )
( Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai )
( Holy Virgin vs the Evil Dead )
( Suspiria )
( Companion )
( Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning )
Ballad of Sword & Wine by Tang Jiu Qing (translated by XiA, Jia, and amixy):
( Read more... )
I just saw today that first few volumes of Rosmei's baihe titles (volume 1 of The Creater's Grace and volumes 1 and 2 of At The World's Mercy have their preorders scheduled for October!
I also continue to be unreasonably excited about The Beauty's Blade, despite the release date being ~2 months away.
( Read more... )
I just saw today that first few volumes of Rosmei's baihe titles (volume 1 of The Creater's Grace and volumes 1 and 2 of At The World's Mercy have their preorders scheduled for October!
I also continue to be unreasonably excited about The Beauty's Blade, despite the release date being ~2 months away.
Tags:
Tags:
What I've recently finished reading:
Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett, which, it's the third book in the series, so if you like this series you will probably like this book. I particularly enjoyed the trope (which is not uncommon - it's also an element of the Invisible Library series, for example) that the Fae are governed by tales and stories, so the things that happen in their kingdoms generally follow the well-known structures of fairy tales. I also appreciated that the story wrapped around to include elements of the first book.
What I'm reading now:
My hold on Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio came in, and - I can't remember why I put a hold on this book? Did one of you recommend it? I've started it but I am not finding the style particularly engaging. I'll stick with it for a while, though.
What I've recently finished watching:
Untamed, about which I must agree withtreewishes's assessment: "Excellent scenery and interesting characters, the plot, um." The drone shots of Yosemite are spectacular! The action taking place in meadows with cliffs in the background is beautiful! The very beginning has some really fingernail-biting rock climbing (both B and I, who used to climb, muttered at the total sketchiness of one of the placements...) and overall the scenery is just gorgeous. The characters and the way they interact, their backstories and their drama and trauma, are definitely interesting. The plot, um. I have a lot of niggling criticisms, like, there is no way an LA cop would be able to easily transfer to a park ranger job! There is no way an experienced law enforcement officer would go confront a dangerous person without backup! I am side-eyeing the idea of a hippie encampment being on park land and not cleared the hell out of there immediately they found it! I can't imagine a park far from major cities being a hub for [spoilers redacted]! But mostly it's just a ridiculously convoluted plot for the sake of ridiculous convolutions.
Apparently there will be a second season, but I have no idea what they are going to keep constant from the first - the people, the setting, ???
What I'm still playing:
I'm still playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and it's still entertaining.
Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett, which, it's the third book in the series, so if you like this series you will probably like this book. I particularly enjoyed the trope (which is not uncommon - it's also an element of the Invisible Library series, for example) that the Fae are governed by tales and stories, so the things that happen in their kingdoms generally follow the well-known structures of fairy tales. I also appreciated that the story wrapped around to include elements of the first book.
What I'm reading now:
My hold on Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio came in, and - I can't remember why I put a hold on this book? Did one of you recommend it? I've started it but I am not finding the style particularly engaging. I'll stick with it for a while, though.
What I've recently finished watching:
Untamed, about which I must agree with
treewishes's assessment: "Excellent scenery and interesting characters, the plot, um." The drone shots of Yosemite are spectacular! The action taking place in meadows with cliffs in the background is beautiful! The very beginning has some really fingernail-biting rock climbing (both B and I, who used to climb, muttered at the total sketchiness of one of the placements...) and overall the scenery is just gorgeous. The characters and the way they interact, their backstories and their drama and trauma, are definitely interesting. The plot, um. I have a lot of niggling criticisms, like, there is no way an LA cop would be able to easily transfer to a park ranger job! There is no way an experienced law enforcement officer would go confront a dangerous person without backup! I am side-eyeing the idea of a hippie encampment being on park land and not cleared the hell out of there immediately they found it! I can't imagine a park far from major cities being a hub for [spoilers redacted]! But mostly it's just a ridiculously convoluted plot for the sake of ridiculous convolutions.Apparently there will be a second season, but I have no idea what they are going to keep constant from the first - the people, the setting, ???
What I'm still playing:
I'm still playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and it's still entertaining.
Hi friends, I did not forget you. I've just had a busy week/weekend.
I spent most of the week doing homework and cleaning up around the house - cleaned the gutters (that I could reach since I couldn't find the tall ladder to do all of them), swept up about 298374982734987239473 million pine needles, and worked on my giant project for one class. After that I flew out on Friday morning at 12:45 to go to the bridal shower of my goddaughter. She didn't know I was coming so it was an amazing surprise. Spent the weekend there, meeting her soon-to-be in-laws (who were absolutely delightful), making a pound cake, and then sitting in an airport/airplane for about 14 hours.
After that it was focusing more on school. My goal is to be done asap so that I'm, you know, DONE. Fortunately this summer's classes have been easy so I've been able to fun stuff too. August is crazy-cakes with stuff to do (shower, board meeting, work training, baseball, Josh Johnson, birthday, training camp (supposedly, they haven't announced it yet), dropping my mom off for a cruise, and then Jordan Klepper). I've also started cutting hockey sticks to make coasters, will soon graduate to frames, and coming up with other ideas for the year, hopefully. I'm also picking up flooring from a friend and redoing my entryway and, all things willing, finally getting the fucking carpet out of my kitchen.
I've also been watching (bingeing) a few Netlix mini-series - The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, and currently Midnight Mass. They're all done by Mike Flanagan who I had never heard of until I saw an article on good mini-series to watch. I've enjoyed them all so far. He uses a lot of the same actors, so it's kind of fun. I just watched The Haunting of Bly Manner, but I didn't like that one as much.
Ok, I started this a few days ago and have failed to post anything yet. Even more things are happening, so apparently I've decided to cram all of my summer into the last two weeks before school. I lost a crown, so there have been three dentists appointments, two lunches, a doctor's appointment, and an extra day at work (and possibly missing a training camp day - though we don't know the times yet for one of said dentist appointments. Still, I'm happy to get them all in so I don't have to take time off of work.
Also since the start of this, I've completely finished one of my classes, and am almost done with the other. The group I'm working with (god, I hate group projects) fails at communication, so I don't actually know what the fuck we're doing.
BUT in amazing news, my ex-captain bb!hockey got re-signed by the Firebirds, so yay! I love this kid. He's great, I tell you. One of the other bb!hockeys I follow has moved to a team in Sweden, so I will not be seeing him play any time soon. Speaking of hockey - if you like hockey, bank heists, absolutely ridiculousness, political corruption, whiskey drinking thieves, and complete stupidity, you should listen to Attila: Heists and Hockey because it is all of those things and hosted by the amazing radio announcer for my bb!hockeys, and he's so good and funny. I had to pull over once while driving because it made me laugh so much.
Anyway. There you have it. Further reports on exhaustive schedule likely yet to come.
I spent most of the week doing homework and cleaning up around the house - cleaned the gutters (that I could reach since I couldn't find the tall ladder to do all of them), swept up about 298374982734987239473 million pine needles, and worked on my giant project for one class. After that I flew out on Friday morning at 12:45 to go to the bridal shower of my goddaughter. She didn't know I was coming so it was an amazing surprise. Spent the weekend there, meeting her soon-to-be in-laws (who were absolutely delightful), making a pound cake, and then sitting in an airport/airplane for about 14 hours.
After that it was focusing more on school. My goal is to be done asap so that I'm, you know, DONE. Fortunately this summer's classes have been easy so I've been able to fun stuff too. August is crazy-cakes with stuff to do (shower, board meeting, work training, baseball, Josh Johnson, birthday, training camp (supposedly, they haven't announced it yet), dropping my mom off for a cruise, and then Jordan Klepper). I've also started cutting hockey sticks to make coasters, will soon graduate to frames, and coming up with other ideas for the year, hopefully. I'm also picking up flooring from a friend and redoing my entryway and, all things willing, finally getting the fucking carpet out of my kitchen.
I've also been watching (bingeing) a few Netlix mini-series - The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher, and currently Midnight Mass. They're all done by Mike Flanagan who I had never heard of until I saw an article on good mini-series to watch. I've enjoyed them all so far. He uses a lot of the same actors, so it's kind of fun. I just watched The Haunting of Bly Manner, but I didn't like that one as much.
Ok, I started this a few days ago and have failed to post anything yet. Even more things are happening, so apparently I've decided to cram all of my summer into the last two weeks before school. I lost a crown, so there have been three dentists appointments, two lunches, a doctor's appointment, and an extra day at work (and possibly missing a training camp day - though we don't know the times yet for one of said dentist appointments. Still, I'm happy to get them all in so I don't have to take time off of work.
Also since the start of this, I've completely finished one of my classes, and am almost done with the other. The group I'm working with (god, I hate group projects) fails at communication, so I don't actually know what the fuck we're doing.
BUT in amazing news, my ex-captain bb!hockey got re-signed by the Firebirds, so yay! I love this kid. He's great, I tell you. One of the other bb!hockeys I follow has moved to a team in Sweden, so I will not be seeing him play any time soon. Speaking of hockey - if you like hockey, bank heists, absolutely ridiculousness, political corruption, whiskey drinking thieves, and complete stupidity, you should listen to Attila: Heists and Hockey because it is all of those things and hosted by the amazing radio announcer for my bb!hockeys, and he's so good and funny. I had to pull over once while driving because it made me laugh so much.
Anyway. There you have it. Further reports on exhaustive schedule likely yet to come.
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
This is something like 14th in the ongoing Penric+Desdemona books. You don't want to start here, it's a satisfying enough instalment in the series if you are already invested in the characters and the family. If I have a criticism I think that like the last two books I found the progress of the book a bit predictable and not very surprising. But I still read it in two solid bites (only separated by the tedious matter of needing to sleep).
The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd
This was on the "free paperbacks" shelf at Cambridge North and I picked it up on a whim, and used some of my free time to give it a try. A bit like the previous book, I didn't find it especially surprising but I did find it very engaging, and some very mouthwatering descriptions of food. Our protagonist Maya moves to Svalbard with her partner, who is taking up a research post there, and who turns out to not actually be as supportive and perfect in the arctic night as he seemed in London. When Maya makes a flying trip to Bangalore for her father's remarriage, she reconnects with a childhood friend and starts to dig up old family history. On her return to Svalbard she makes new friends and new culinary adventures.
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
A retiring police inspector in Mumbai inherits a baby elephant on his last day in the job, and finds himself investigating one last murder case in his retirement, with occasional assistance from the elephant Ganesha. This was both charming and surprising and I enjoyed it very much.
At the airport security check, putting my hand luggage in the trays for xray. The guy staffing the preparation area tells me if I have any electronics in my bag, I need to pull them out. I pull out my laptop and kindle. He asks me if I have anything else, such as a hairdryer.
My tournament buddy Lisa is in fits of giggles. Of all people, do I look like I need a hairdryer?
(cimorene Aug. 20th, 2025 08:08 pm)
cimorene Aug. 20th, 2025 08:08 pm)I am fascinated by reading antique magazines and the fiction published in them, and I don't want to imply that I'm not enjoying it, but... sometimes it's very hard to sympathize with the wealthy, or even the upper middle class.
Of course I'm used to literature being by and for the wealthy further back in history, and I don't say that I read about them without class consciousness, but somehow it's not as hard when it's from the 19th century or earlier. Maybe it's just that it's longer ago, or maybe it's because the society is more alien to me and harder to view through a personal lens.
But with these American upper middle class magazines from 1900-1940... well, the middle class was exploding in size and not all fiction or nonfiction was by and for the wealthy!
It's disorienting reading things about "every American girl" or "every new bride" in the 1920s that actually mean every American debutante. All four of my great-grandmothers got married in America around that time and none of them were worried about cruise ships and couture hats. (One was a nurse, one was a schoolteacher, one was a farmer's daughter and a farmer's wife, and one was a daughter of servants, from a big Catholic family.)
My tolerance for the wealthy perspective in fiction and nonfiction is lower the closer it gets to the present. I always have to overcome a strong impulse of disbelief that you're supposed to seriously sympathize with the idle rich, or people with maids, or the sphere where only people from recognizable New England families "count". Of course those people exist, but this is a big circulation women's magazine! Where are the average middle class women? The average middle class housewife was not a former debutante in 1908! But Woman's Home Companion could easily give the impression that she was. (Maybe there was a competing magazine that was preferred by the working middle classes. I'll try to find out.)
Of course I'm used to literature being by and for the wealthy further back in history, and I don't say that I read about them without class consciousness, but somehow it's not as hard when it's from the 19th century or earlier. Maybe it's just that it's longer ago, or maybe it's because the society is more alien to me and harder to view through a personal lens.
But with these American upper middle class magazines from 1900-1940... well, the middle class was exploding in size and not all fiction or nonfiction was by and for the wealthy!
It's disorienting reading things about "every American girl" or "every new bride" in the 1920s that actually mean every American debutante. All four of my great-grandmothers got married in America around that time and none of them were worried about cruise ships and couture hats. (One was a nurse, one was a schoolteacher, one was a farmer's daughter and a farmer's wife, and one was a daughter of servants, from a big Catholic family.)
My tolerance for the wealthy perspective in fiction and nonfiction is lower the closer it gets to the present. I always have to overcome a strong impulse of disbelief that you're supposed to seriously sympathize with the idle rich, or people with maids, or the sphere where only people from recognizable New England families "count". Of course those people exist, but this is a big circulation women's magazine! Where are the average middle class women? The average middle class housewife was not a former debutante in 1908! But Woman's Home Companion could easily give the impression that she was. (Maybe there was a competing magazine that was preferred by the working middle classes. I'll try to find out.)
.