Thothmuffin
Don't get any crumbs on the scale of judgement.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
NaNo Prep
Since I can't start writing yet, I've been doing ridiculous other things as "preparation" for NaNo. I bought the most kick-ass computer chair ever today. It's a behemoth, made of black and grey athletic type fabric. It practically wrestles you to the ground and screams ergonomic in your ear. Itissocomfy. <3 Which is good, because I'll be spending a lot of time in it.
I also met with my live NaNo support group in town. There's a wide range of genres and backgrounds, so they should be a fun group to hang out with and get to know. I think the group was amused when I declared "Demons are fun!" Especially because I was dressed up as Little Goth Riding Hood, complete with ringlet wig, crinoline, and makeup (!). Nothing better than flounce & demons!
I've also been looking for pretty art of demony/angelic boys. Anime has some of this, but I've actually been looking for stuff that's slightly less anime style. I haven't found much, sadly. If anyone knows of any, let me know. Furiae's fiery fae are as close to lovely demons as I've found so far.
So...reading PL, flipping through biblical art, cleaning my room, stockpiling chocolate...I'm not used to deferring my muse! How will I ever last?! Hopefully one of my friends will show some interest in going to halloween goth night at the alt club. *more flouncing* I think this'll be the first year I haven't gone trick-or-treating...although I'm sure I could still pass. ^_^
I also met with my live NaNo support group in town. There's a wide range of genres and backgrounds, so they should be a fun group to hang out with and get to know. I think the group was amused when I declared "Demons are fun!" Especially because I was dressed up as Little Goth Riding Hood, complete with ringlet wig, crinoline, and makeup (!). Nothing better than flounce & demons!
I've also been looking for pretty art of demony/angelic boys. Anime has some of this, but I've actually been looking for stuff that's slightly less anime style. I haven't found much, sadly. If anyone knows of any, let me know. Furiae's fiery fae are as close to lovely demons as I've found so far.
So...reading PL, flipping through biblical art, cleaning my room, stockpiling chocolate...I'm not used to deferring my muse! How will I ever last?! Hopefully one of my friends will show some interest in going to halloween goth night at the alt club. *more flouncing* I think this'll be the first year I haven't gone trick-or-treating...although I'm sure I could still pass. ^_^
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Just a moment of my time that I'll never get back
I was the victim of one of those "get out and vote, n00b" campaigns that's targeting young people. Their latest effort was a fuxtacular exercise in hand-holding by phone where they call you up and tell you everything you have to do to vote--short of which candidates to pick. Which they may have been trying to do subliminally.
My favorite part was how the nice lady on the phone persisted in trying to give me all sorts of information about voting even though I'd told her that I'd already registered to vote, had voted in the primaries, and knew when and where I was going to vote. After I told her I didn't want to give her my email address so that she could send me a reminder of where, when, and how to vote, she took just a moment more of my time to tell me my polling place--which, incidentally, she got wrong.
I considered telling her that my county had switched from assigned polling places to everyone being able to vote at any of several designated public buildings around the county, but the imp of perversity rose in me and sparked a delightful fantasy of her misinforming hundreds of youthful voters about their polling stations, and held silent. If you're too much of a n00b to read the back of your voter registration card to find your polling place, I don't want you choosing my political leaders.
My favorite part was how the nice lady on the phone persisted in trying to give me all sorts of information about voting even though I'd told her that I'd already registered to vote, had voted in the primaries, and knew when and where I was going to vote. After I told her I didn't want to give her my email address so that she could send me a reminder of where, when, and how to vote, she took just a moment more of my time to tell me my polling place--which, incidentally, she got wrong.
I considered telling her that my county had switched from assigned polling places to everyone being able to vote at any of several designated public buildings around the county, but the imp of perversity rose in me and sparked a delightful fantasy of her misinforming hundreds of youthful voters about their polling stations, and held silent. If you're too much of a n00b to read the back of your voter registration card to find your polling place, I don't want you choosing my political leaders.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Uniqueness Meme
Yoinked from havermorphism. And then made better.
Things typical of Thothmuffin that none of its blog readers share:
1. CD: Godsmack's first album. Eryaaat!
2. Book: "Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century", Richard Kieckhefer
3. Movie: A Life Less Ordinary
4. Place I've been: Ogdensburg, NY.
5. Piece of clothing: Home-made "This is my doppelganger" t-shirt
6. Occupation: Pre-fabricated furniture assembler
7. Item on desk: 8" spherical plush zebra (name of Humphrey)
8. Link in my Favorites: The Book of Tobit.
Things typical of Thothmuffin that none of its blog readers share:
1. CD: Godsmack's first album. Eryaaat!
2. Book: "Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century", Richard Kieckhefer
3. Movie: A Life Less Ordinary
4. Place I've been: Ogdensburg, NY.
5. Piece of clothing: Home-made "This is my doppelganger" t-shirt
6. Occupation: Pre-fabricated furniture assembler
7. Item on desk: 8" spherical plush zebra (name of Humphrey)
8. Link in my Favorites: The Book of Tobit.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Milton dorks 4evah!!!1
While looking for pretty art of demons and/or angels to inspire me for my NaNovel, I came across a quiz to see which of Milton's fallen angels from Paradise Lost you are. Aaaah Milton dorks are so much love! And look who I got. Huh, that's so weird...^_^
You're Beelzebub! Go home and practice.
Which Fallen Angel are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
I really like this picture, although he looks nothing like my Beelzebub. It does, however, remind me of the boys of Lilies. Valier! *_*
You're Beelzebub! Go home and practice.
Which Fallen Angel are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
I really like this picture, although he looks nothing like my Beelzebub. It does, however, remind me of the boys of Lilies. Valier! *_*
MileHiCon 2004
Yesterday I went to MileHiCon 2004, a science fiction and fantasy con in Denver. It was pretty small as far as cons go, about 1000 people. The panels were better than I expected. The first one I went to discussed economics in fantasy. Mostly we talked about world-level economics and why so many fantasy authors ignore economic motivation in favor of religious or moral motivation or simple "bad blood" as the inciting factor for wars (which are a fantasy staple.)
One of the panelists was a guy who helped design the Euro currency system, and he knew a great deal about economy, currency, and supply-and-demand. The other good panelist was L.E. Modesitt, whose used to be an economist before becoming a fantasy writer. His Recluse series really impressed me because of the very real ways in which his mages had to earn their living, and how important trade and tax laws were to the political situations of his countries. One thing he brought up but we didn't discuss as much as I'd like was the personal economics of magic--whether there is a limited amount of magic in the world, and how mages have to "pay" for their magic--through exertion, probably the most common, or through Faustian bargains and the like, which is usually reserved for the nasties.
Christie Golden was also on this panel. I ended up inadvertantly stalking Ms. Golden all day, which will become apparent later. She was heavily on book tour promotion for her new book, which is original fiction published by Luna Books. Thanks to her, I learned that what I awkwardly referred to as "sanctioned fan novels" in the RPG and Star Wars novels tradition are actually referred to in the industry as "media work."
The dealer's room was much smaller than I wanted it to be. *shoppingislove* The only thing I bought was a baby Cthulhu plush. Tiny tentacles so cute!! ~>,_,<~ I really wanted a forest green t-shirt with a stylized Cthulhu-fish eating the stylized Jesus car fish, but it only came in sizes from "way too big" to "super-omg-world-destroying huge." Not enough people make cool t-shirts in youth/women's sizes.
I also talked to Christie Golden in person in the dealer's room. She was nice, but I sensed that she was exasperated that people tend to know her for her "media work," especially the vampire Ravenloft novels. Apparently White Wolf owns the rights to the Ravenloft system now, but WotC still owns the fiction rights and refuses to republish the old Ravenloft books, even though Ms. Golden gets an email a week about the character I liked. She ended our conversation with "I just want to tell those readers, it's great that you liked that old character so much, but read my new original stuff! I need to make money here!" A sentiment I can appreciate from a writer's standpoint, although as a reader, I'm not as interested in the premise of her new book...
The last panel I went to was on writing good description and was with (big shock) Christie Golden, Carol Berg, and Elizabeth Moon. I'd never read anything by Mrs. Moon but she seemed like a cool lady. And had a fabulous red hat.
Nothing was too revelatory about the panel, but it was pretty interesting to hear how the three women approached the writing process. There was a heavy emphasis on what I call "method writing," which is the sense that you have to go experience, hold, feel, see, smell, and taste as well as you can all the things that are happening in your book. It's the sort of thing that made C.S. Friedman dangle out of a helicopter over an active volcano for Crown of Shadows. I appreciate this kind of research, even if I don't have the money or time for it.
I fully supported their point that, if you do have to do research from books, only do it from primary sources, not other fiction. A really good example of this from my own life is the use of the word "crest" to indicate an entire heraldic device or coat of arms. I picked it up from fantasy novels, and it wasn't until a heraldry enthusiast emailed me that I knew I was using crest wrong (it actually just refers to the part that sits on top of the shield device thingy, which makes total sense if you just stop and think about it.) I still see famous, published fantasy authors using it wrong.
One of my favorite stories from the panel was from Elizabeth Moon, who apparently once paid a bunch of neighborhood kids to let her teach them how to organize in formation as a squadron of infantry with polearms, just so she could see how hard it was to mobilize troops and the sort of difficulties one encounters when dealing with polearms.
Carol Berg also suggested an interesting exercise that she does in workshops to help people with descriptions, which is to blindfold your main character and take it on a walk around its environs and think of all the things it will experience with its non-visual senses. It's not an exercise I'd ever do, because I tend not to do things like that, but I thought some of you might be interested.
Another interesting side discussion from that panel was the issue of cover art. Christie Golden mentioned that two of her recent publishers actually asked her if her main characters looked like any famous actors so they could have a source to draw from or get a model that looked close. The others had never had that experience, but Carol Berg mentioned being astounded at how people envision her main characters when they're not explicitly described. The example she gave was people imagining Seyonne (who, for those of you who don't know, is 30-40 yrs old and has been tortured, branded, and enslaved for most of his life and is sort of a rugged fighter type) as Orlando Bloom. Everyone in the room who had read her books, including myself, busted up laughing.
I finally got Carol Berg to sign my copy of Restoration after the panel. We had a nice talk, and when I told her that her books were responsible for making me respect the first person POV as a valid and interesting technique that can be used well in fantasy novels, she expressed surprise. Apparently a lot of people tell her that her books are exceptional examples of 1st POV, and she's surprised that so many other people are doing it so badly.
Her inscription in my book reads: 'For Muffin "Tales of courage are the truest evidence of the divine." Best wishes, Carol Berg MileHiCon 2004.' I can only assume that the quote is from her own work, as doing an Internet search provided me with no clues. She also told me that Muffin, spelled my way, is "a very special name" to her because the first fiction she ever wrote was a series of in-character e-mails with a friend of hers, whose character was named Muffin. So the first two words of fiction Carol Berg ever wrote were "Dear Muffin." [Yes, I'm stoically sticking to my use of aliases here, although it just made the above anecdote completely absurd.] It also turns out that she lives not just in Colorado but actually in my hometown. Craziness.
That covers most of the con goodness. I also played some Apples to Apples, got a few good cosplay shots, and received a free copy of Warchild and Kevin J. Anderson's new book with my registration. I'm sad Karin Lowachee wasn't there in person. Now that's an author I'd like to meet.
Oh, and I added a NaNoWriMo progess meter to my left bar of goodness. It shows the progress in percent of 50,000 words completed. Only a week, and then it begins!
One of the panelists was a guy who helped design the Euro currency system, and he knew a great deal about economy, currency, and supply-and-demand. The other good panelist was L.E. Modesitt, whose used to be an economist before becoming a fantasy writer. His Recluse series really impressed me because of the very real ways in which his mages had to earn their living, and how important trade and tax laws were to the political situations of his countries. One thing he brought up but we didn't discuss as much as I'd like was the personal economics of magic--whether there is a limited amount of magic in the world, and how mages have to "pay" for their magic--through exertion, probably the most common, or through Faustian bargains and the like, which is usually reserved for the nasties.
Christie Golden was also on this panel. I ended up inadvertantly stalking Ms. Golden all day, which will become apparent later. She was heavily on book tour promotion for her new book, which is original fiction published by Luna Books. Thanks to her, I learned that what I awkwardly referred to as "sanctioned fan novels" in the RPG and Star Wars novels tradition are actually referred to in the industry as "media work."
The dealer's room was much smaller than I wanted it to be. *shoppingislove* The only thing I bought was a baby Cthulhu plush. Tiny tentacles so cute!! ~>,_,<~ I really wanted a forest green t-shirt with a stylized Cthulhu-fish eating the stylized Jesus car fish, but it only came in sizes from "way too big" to "super-omg-world-destroying huge." Not enough people make cool t-shirts in youth/women's sizes.
I also talked to Christie Golden in person in the dealer's room. She was nice, but I sensed that she was exasperated that people tend to know her for her "media work," especially the vampire Ravenloft novels. Apparently White Wolf owns the rights to the Ravenloft system now, but WotC still owns the fiction rights and refuses to republish the old Ravenloft books, even though Ms. Golden gets an email a week about the character I liked. She ended our conversation with "I just want to tell those readers, it's great that you liked that old character so much, but read my new original stuff! I need to make money here!" A sentiment I can appreciate from a writer's standpoint, although as a reader, I'm not as interested in the premise of her new book...
The last panel I went to was on writing good description and was with (big shock) Christie Golden, Carol Berg, and Elizabeth Moon. I'd never read anything by Mrs. Moon but she seemed like a cool lady. And had a fabulous red hat.
Nothing was too revelatory about the panel, but it was pretty interesting to hear how the three women approached the writing process. There was a heavy emphasis on what I call "method writing," which is the sense that you have to go experience, hold, feel, see, smell, and taste as well as you can all the things that are happening in your book. It's the sort of thing that made C.S. Friedman dangle out of a helicopter over an active volcano for Crown of Shadows. I appreciate this kind of research, even if I don't have the money or time for it.
I fully supported their point that, if you do have to do research from books, only do it from primary sources, not other fiction. A really good example of this from my own life is the use of the word "crest" to indicate an entire heraldic device or coat of arms. I picked it up from fantasy novels, and it wasn't until a heraldry enthusiast emailed me that I knew I was using crest wrong (it actually just refers to the part that sits on top of the shield device thingy, which makes total sense if you just stop and think about it.) I still see famous, published fantasy authors using it wrong.
One of my favorite stories from the panel was from Elizabeth Moon, who apparently once paid a bunch of neighborhood kids to let her teach them how to organize in formation as a squadron of infantry with polearms, just so she could see how hard it was to mobilize troops and the sort of difficulties one encounters when dealing with polearms.
Carol Berg also suggested an interesting exercise that she does in workshops to help people with descriptions, which is to blindfold your main character and take it on a walk around its environs and think of all the things it will experience with its non-visual senses. It's not an exercise I'd ever do, because I tend not to do things like that, but I thought some of you might be interested.
Another interesting side discussion from that panel was the issue of cover art. Christie Golden mentioned that two of her recent publishers actually asked her if her main characters looked like any famous actors so they could have a source to draw from or get a model that looked close. The others had never had that experience, but Carol Berg mentioned being astounded at how people envision her main characters when they're not explicitly described. The example she gave was people imagining Seyonne (who, for those of you who don't know, is 30-40 yrs old and has been tortured, branded, and enslaved for most of his life and is sort of a rugged fighter type) as Orlando Bloom. Everyone in the room who had read her books, including myself, busted up laughing.
I finally got Carol Berg to sign my copy of Restoration after the panel. We had a nice talk, and when I told her that her books were responsible for making me respect the first person POV as a valid and interesting technique that can be used well in fantasy novels, she expressed surprise. Apparently a lot of people tell her that her books are exceptional examples of 1st POV, and she's surprised that so many other people are doing it so badly.
Her inscription in my book reads: 'For Muffin "Tales of courage are the truest evidence of the divine." Best wishes, Carol Berg MileHiCon 2004.' I can only assume that the quote is from her own work, as doing an Internet search provided me with no clues. She also told me that Muffin, spelled my way, is "a very special name" to her because the first fiction she ever wrote was a series of in-character e-mails with a friend of hers, whose character was named Muffin. So the first two words of fiction Carol Berg ever wrote were "Dear Muffin." [Yes, I'm stoically sticking to my use of aliases here, although it just made the above anecdote completely absurd.] It also turns out that she lives not just in Colorado but actually in my hometown. Craziness.
That covers most of the con goodness. I also played some Apples to Apples, got a few good cosplay shots, and received a free copy of Warchild and Kevin J. Anderson's new book with my registration. I'm sad Karin Lowachee wasn't there in person. Now that's an author I'd like to meet.
Oh, and I added a NaNoWriMo progess meter to my left bar of goodness. It shows the progress in percent of 50,000 words completed. Only a week, and then it begins!
Thursday, October 21, 2004
November Madness!
I sat down and had a conversation with my boss today about me going full time, since our product is launching soon. Because insurance starts on the first of the month, I'm going to get hired on Oct. 31 (even though it's a Sunday) and Nov. 1 will be my first full day of work.
That's right. Nov. 1. The day I start my NaNovel. And you know I'm starting at the Witching Hour on All Hallow's Eve. So that'll be a pretty hilarious Monday at the office. I'm so celebrating my insanity by wearing my NaNo t-shirt that Monday.
I really have had such auspicious hiring dates for this job. I was officially hired on Friday the 13th and I'm being upgraded to FT on Halloween. My life is so goth sometimes. <3
In other news, I'm so excited about finally finding the college anime club (which I'm infiltrating in all my post-graduated oldness tonight) and going to MileHiCon this weekend. Maybe I can actually get Carol Berg to sign Restoration this time.
And Christie Golden's going to be there! And doing a reading! I'm going to have to research if she's written any new books since last I read her. See, she started the books in the Forgotten Realms Ravenloft universe, which is basically a cheesy Dracula rip-off world. [I love the 90s Forgotten Realms books. You may scoff, but they're the reason I like fantasy, and I think everyone here would agree that me liking fantasy is a very good thing. Plus, some of them are astoundingly high quality. The 90s ones, mind you.] Her protagonist in the Ravenloft books is this amazingly pretty gold elf who has a conscience but also happens to be the most badass vampire ever. He's so tormented! I loved her books so much when I was like 12. I am totally bringing my battered old 1991 copy of "Vampire of the Mists" for her to sign. XD
That's right. Nov. 1. The day I start my NaNovel. And you know I'm starting at the Witching Hour on All Hallow's Eve. So that'll be a pretty hilarious Monday at the office. I'm so celebrating my insanity by wearing my NaNo t-shirt that Monday.
I really have had such auspicious hiring dates for this job. I was officially hired on Friday the 13th and I'm being upgraded to FT on Halloween. My life is so goth sometimes. <3
In other news, I'm so excited about finally finding the college anime club (which I'm infiltrating in all my post-graduated oldness tonight) and going to MileHiCon this weekend. Maybe I can actually get Carol Berg to sign Restoration this time.
And Christie Golden's going to be there! And doing a reading! I'm going to have to research if she's written any new books since last I read her. See, she started the books in the Forgotten Realms Ravenloft universe, which is basically a cheesy Dracula rip-off world. [I love the 90s Forgotten Realms books. You may scoff, but they're the reason I like fantasy, and I think everyone here would agree that me liking fantasy is a very good thing. Plus, some of them are astoundingly high quality. The 90s ones, mind you.] Her protagonist in the Ravenloft books is this amazingly pretty gold elf who has a conscience but also happens to be the most badass vampire ever. He's so tormented! I loved her books so much when I was like 12. I am totally bringing my battered old 1991 copy of "Vampire of the Mists" for her to sign. XD
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Resistance is Futile
How is NaNoWriMo already keeping me up way past my bedtime?!
Although in good news, I have made my first convert. Welcome Brother Davesque into the fold of madness. Our Biblefic is strong!
Although in good news, I have made my first convert. Welcome Brother Davesque into the fold of madness. Our Biblefic is strong!
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Drag queens vs. strippers
I spent my evening at an AIDS benefit at the local "alternative lifestyles" club. The theme was cabaret, and there were all kinds of performers there, shaking their booty or singing their torch songs for a good cause. As I was watching an unending string of male strippers, drag queens, drag kings, Mr. Gay this and Miss Gay that, as well as some older folks in matching red vests and some nice young man with a lovely singing voice who looked like he hadn't quite realized what he'd signed up for, this thought occurred to me: why are drag queens so much like strippers?
Maybe it's just this club that I go to, but I think not. See, in movies about drag queens, they are up on their stage, doing their fabulous this and their campy all-that, and a bunch of happy people in the audience are cheering for them. Apparently our drag queens don't get paid enough to just be admired, because in this venue, charity or not, they always come dance up on people and shake their gender-bending thang and let you convey dollar bills to them in a variety of interesting methods. Except, of course, the people in the drag shows keep their original costumes (mostly) on, whereas strippers have a higher tendency to lose clothes over the course of their show.
So I guess this all leads me to this question: are drag shows every bit as much a sex show as strip shows? Or, phrased a different way, is being nearly naked and sexy the ultimate test of whether you're passing as another gender? And, as a corrolary, are strippers the yard by which we measure the norms of gender and attractiveness? [Chicken and egg: Do we only want to see gender normative, conventionally attractive people get nakeder?] That might seem like an obvious question, but wow, people have some *high* standards for strippers--and are those the standards that drag performers have to meet to have a successful, 'passing' act?
Personally, I think that drag performances that involve a bit more clothing are more interesting and fun to watch. Sure, it's great to queer bodies all the way down to the fine edge of genitalia--everyone knows that last bit isn't coming off, stripper or drag queen, which gives both categories of folks that whole mystical, what's under the lingerie appeal. But on the other hand, part of the wonder of drag queens is how they teach us just how much of gender, and life, is a performance. Seeing a biological male performing in a gorgeous wig, stunning evening gown, satin gloves, elaborate jewels, and a controlling interest in Mary Kay is a bolder, more exciting statement to me. It says, "Look, here is your gendered culture on display, but for a limited time only we're offering it to everyone, men or women or anything else: it's yours, take the fabulousness!" What does a drag queen in a thong say? "You can't tell if I have a cock, tee hee."
So I guess I want more clothes, a little more performance from my local drag queens, and less of them trying to hump my leg for ca$h. This makes me wonder if we couldn't revolutionize strippers the same way, too. (I am also not very impressed by strip shows.) I want the anti-stripper; I want masquerades with elaborate costumes, slow pivots and poses to show off fabric, character, beauty. I want the tableau vivant, mini-opera, models wearing *clothes*.
But sometimes skin raises money for a good cause, and hey, that's cool. Although I would like to close with what I think are two of the most egregious drag queen faux pas I have ever witnessed. 1: Having your foam booby pop up out of your Brittney Spears tank top, and 2: Having the top of your support pantyhose showing above your little white hotpants. Ladies, no! Check yourself!
Maybe it's just this club that I go to, but I think not. See, in movies about drag queens, they are up on their stage, doing their fabulous this and their campy all-that, and a bunch of happy people in the audience are cheering for them. Apparently our drag queens don't get paid enough to just be admired, because in this venue, charity or not, they always come dance up on people and shake their gender-bending thang and let you convey dollar bills to them in a variety of interesting methods. Except, of course, the people in the drag shows keep their original costumes (mostly) on, whereas strippers have a higher tendency to lose clothes over the course of their show.
So I guess this all leads me to this question: are drag shows every bit as much a sex show as strip shows? Or, phrased a different way, is being nearly naked and sexy the ultimate test of whether you're passing as another gender? And, as a corrolary, are strippers the yard by which we measure the norms of gender and attractiveness? [Chicken and egg: Do we only want to see gender normative, conventionally attractive people get nakeder?] That might seem like an obvious question, but wow, people have some *high* standards for strippers--and are those the standards that drag performers have to meet to have a successful, 'passing' act?
Personally, I think that drag performances that involve a bit more clothing are more interesting and fun to watch. Sure, it's great to queer bodies all the way down to the fine edge of genitalia--everyone knows that last bit isn't coming off, stripper or drag queen, which gives both categories of folks that whole mystical, what's under the lingerie appeal. But on the other hand, part of the wonder of drag queens is how they teach us just how much of gender, and life, is a performance. Seeing a biological male performing in a gorgeous wig, stunning evening gown, satin gloves, elaborate jewels, and a controlling interest in Mary Kay is a bolder, more exciting statement to me. It says, "Look, here is your gendered culture on display, but for a limited time only we're offering it to everyone, men or women or anything else: it's yours, take the fabulousness!" What does a drag queen in a thong say? "You can't tell if I have a cock, tee hee."
So I guess I want more clothes, a little more performance from my local drag queens, and less of them trying to hump my leg for ca$h. This makes me wonder if we couldn't revolutionize strippers the same way, too. (I am also not very impressed by strip shows.) I want the anti-stripper; I want masquerades with elaborate costumes, slow pivots and poses to show off fabric, character, beauty. I want the tableau vivant, mini-opera, models wearing *clothes*.
But sometimes skin raises money for a good cause, and hey, that's cool. Although I would like to close with what I think are two of the most egregious drag queen faux pas I have ever witnessed. 1: Having your foam booby pop up out of your Brittney Spears tank top, and 2: Having the top of your support pantyhose showing above your little white hotpants. Ladies, no! Check yourself!
Friday, October 15, 2004
The people have spoken
Huh. I'm the only person who has reservations about me doing NaNo. And really I think I was just being stubborn.
Yes, that's right, I signed up! I am now committed. I even bought a t-shirt. I guess I shouldn't try to hide any more how terribly exciting I find this whole idea. It'll probably be good for me to go wild and write without...ok, with an incredibly intense but totally different kind of pressure.
I'm almost more excited for the social aspect of NaNo than the writing aspect, since I already know it's something I can do and enjoy. As opposed to meeting new people, which I tend to suck at. But the group of people doing NaNo in my area looks very promising. Of the five of us who have arranged to meet so far, two others are girls into SF/Fantasy/Anime. Rock on, my people.
The only thing that annoys me is how lame the official NaNo icons are. I'm putting the best of the lot up on my blog anyway. At least it's a squirrel in a viking hat. That can't be all bad, right? And the squirrel is baby blue, so it matches Thoth-chan.
The working title for my novel is "Lord of the House." There's an interesting question of etymology there which will be good for a few hundred words in the novel. Plus, "Lord of the Flies" was taken.
Anybody have any thoughts on what a good job for Beelzebub would be? Anyone who says Orkin man gets disqualified. ^_^
Yes, that's right, I signed up! I am now committed. I even bought a t-shirt. I guess I shouldn't try to hide any more how terribly exciting I find this whole idea. It'll probably be good for me to go wild and write without...ok, with an incredibly intense but totally different kind of pressure.
I'm almost more excited for the social aspect of NaNo than the writing aspect, since I already know it's something I can do and enjoy. As opposed to meeting new people, which I tend to suck at. But the group of people doing NaNo in my area looks very promising. Of the five of us who have arranged to meet so far, two others are girls into SF/Fantasy/Anime. Rock on, my people.
The only thing that annoys me is how lame the official NaNo icons are. I'm putting the best of the lot up on my blog anyway. At least it's a squirrel in a viking hat. That can't be all bad, right? And the squirrel is baby blue, so it matches Thoth-chan.
The working title for my novel is "Lord of the House." There's an interesting question of etymology there which will be good for a few hundred words in the novel. Plus, "Lord of the Flies" was taken.
Anybody have any thoughts on what a good job for Beelzebub would be? Anyone who says Orkin man gets disqualified. ^_^
Monday, October 11, 2004
A very bad idea
So the time has come, beloved friends, for you to either talk me down from a bad idea or to become so wildly enthusiastic about it that you convince me to abandon all reason. A lot of you tend to be good for the latter, but I promise to fully consider opinions from both sides.
CHUCOM and company will be familiar with the idea of NaNoWriMo, which is basically people from all over the world trying to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. The beauty of this challenge is that these are the only criteria. Begins and ends in November; 50,000 words. So simple. So elegant. SO COMPLETELY INSANE.
I wanna do it.
The reason why this whim would be truly insane for me to pursue is that I am currently in the middle of two, count them: two, other novels, one of which is a very ambitious project and the other of which really just needs to get done for my health and peace of mind. Is taking a month off from a sane writing-and-developing pace to frantically compose a work of almost unadulterated nonsense really such a good idea?
On the flip side, there's a story I've really been wanting to write for some time, ever since I first read Milton's Paradise Lost. I'm fascinated by the character of Beelzebub, who in PL is Lucifer's second-in-command and seems rather important in the first 5 books, but who gradually disappears as the character of Lucifer becomes more one-dimensional and focus shifts to the humans.
My story goes like this: Tired of being underappreciated by his oldest friend and boon companion (Satan), Beelzebub strikes a deal with the forces of Good to let him back into Heaven on the condition that he prove truly contrite and spend a year on earth in corporeal form accomplishing certain tasks set him. This leads to our hero moving in with a house of disaffected students and twenty-somethings, during which much hilarity, drama, and covertcy ensues. Lucifer gets wind of the whole deal and tries to lure Beelzebub back, but can the Prince of Pride, the Nefarious Narcissus, ever understand, much less return, our hero's feelings for him? This question, as well as certain musings on the nature of hunmanity, deity, and everything in between, will be explored with great gusto and interludes of hanky-panky and other shenanagins.
Am I crazy, or what? ^_^
CHUCOM and company will be familiar with the idea of NaNoWriMo, which is basically people from all over the world trying to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. The beauty of this challenge is that these are the only criteria. Begins and ends in November; 50,000 words. So simple. So elegant. SO COMPLETELY INSANE.
I wanna do it.
The reason why this whim would be truly insane for me to pursue is that I am currently in the middle of two, count them: two, other novels, one of which is a very ambitious project and the other of which really just needs to get done for my health and peace of mind. Is taking a month off from a sane writing-and-developing pace to frantically compose a work of almost unadulterated nonsense really such a good idea?
On the flip side, there's a story I've really been wanting to write for some time, ever since I first read Milton's Paradise Lost. I'm fascinated by the character of Beelzebub, who in PL is Lucifer's second-in-command and seems rather important in the first 5 books, but who gradually disappears as the character of Lucifer becomes more one-dimensional and focus shifts to the humans.
My story goes like this: Tired of being underappreciated by his oldest friend and boon companion (Satan), Beelzebub strikes a deal with the forces of Good to let him back into Heaven on the condition that he prove truly contrite and spend a year on earth in corporeal form accomplishing certain tasks set him. This leads to our hero moving in with a house of disaffected students and twenty-somethings, during which much hilarity, drama, and covertcy ensues. Lucifer gets wind of the whole deal and tries to lure Beelzebub back, but can the Prince of Pride, the Nefarious Narcissus, ever understand, much less return, our hero's feelings for him? This question, as well as certain musings on the nature of hunmanity, deity, and everything in between, will be explored with great gusto and interludes of hanky-panky and other shenanagins.
Am I crazy, or what? ^_^
Monday, October 04, 2004
Intimacy Issues? *Batman*? @_@
So I watched the original 1989 Tim Burton Batman with Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger [among others] last night, and got into an argument/discussion with Beta about some of the fade-to-black (FTB) parts. Now, especially when I was younger, I wasn't too huge on editing sex into FTBs. Even now, I bow to Purin's vast wisdom in the matter. ^_^ But I think, even when I watched Batman at the tender age of 8 or whenever I first saw it, I assumed that Vicky Vale had sex [or, really, did the same thing that all adults do when they fade to black and wake up in beds with clothes disheveled in the next scene] with Wayne/Batman *twice*: first when she sleeps over at his house, and later when Batman does the awesome cape thingy to get the roll of film back. [This might be a bit opaque to people who haven't seen the movie recently, sorry.]
But then Beta pointed out that, because of Batman's intimacy issues, it's probable, nay, almost certain, that he never has sex in that movie. In fact, never has sex in any of the movies. That when Vicky says "I slept with you!!" she's not actually using it as a euphemism like every other movie does, but is truly outraged that a guy she slept [briefly] in the same bed with didn't call her back for 2 weeks. And that when she wakes up alone in her bed after being carried off by Batman, disheveled and stunned, that he really just did INCREDIBLY SEXY things with his cape, groped her for film, and sent her right home.
Huh. Well, that changes things. I guess the only question left is why I completely ignored people having actual sex in other movies but was entirely convinced that once the bat cape came up, incredibly kinky things were going on.
Actually, maybe we shouldn't go there. ^_^;; Anyway, people of my generation, what was your take on Batman's chastity?
But then Beta pointed out that, because of Batman's intimacy issues, it's probable, nay, almost certain, that he never has sex in that movie. In fact, never has sex in any of the movies. That when Vicky says "I slept with you!!" she's not actually using it as a euphemism like every other movie does, but is truly outraged that a guy she slept [briefly] in the same bed with didn't call her back for 2 weeks. And that when she wakes up alone in her bed after being carried off by Batman, disheveled and stunned, that he really just did INCREDIBLY SEXY things with his cape, groped her for film, and sent her right home.
Huh. Well, that changes things. I guess the only question left is why I completely ignored people having actual sex in other movies but was entirely convinced that once the bat cape came up, incredibly kinky things were going on.
Actually, maybe we shouldn't go there. ^_^;; Anyway, people of my generation, what was your take on Batman's chastity?
Saturday, October 02, 2004
What's the common theme here?
The Friends of the Library were having a used book sale today in the mall, and as per the usual, I spent far too much money. Definitely the best find was a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, which I've been looking for for quite some time to aid me in my research of medieval demonology. This book, written in 1486 after Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull confirming belief in witchcraft, was used for centuries after to persecute 'witches' and other people suspected of having ties with demons.
Highlights from the TOC which are pertinent to my reasearch include "Question III: Whether Children can be Generated by Incubi and Succubi" and "Question IV: By which Devils are the Operations of Incubus and Succubus Practised?" Other questions such as "Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body" promise that the non-pertinent sections of this book also merit a good read. Although, in all seriousness, the book is pretty creepy when it gets into the witch trials and "just sentencing" portions, which is basically everything you never want to imagine happening to people. Torture to extract confessions...red-hot irons...you know the drill. Way to go, Innocent 8. >_<
I also bought a suede calfskin-bound pocket edition of "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde. It has an extraordinarily dapper sepia photograph of Oscar inside the front cover. I don't know what year it's from, only that they don't make books this fabulous any more. I also like the thought of someone having a pocket version of this poem before me. Plus, it was $4. <3
The other, more mundane purchases include "The Greek Alexander Romance" which is about Alexander the Great and was apparently composed in 3rd-2nd century BC, translated to many languages and preserved by the Greeks, and influenced such texts as the Qur'an. I'd never heard of it before but I'm wondering if this is the source of all the Alexander myths. Probably predates Plutarch's Lives? I 'll have to check.
I also got a collection of plays that include "Lysistrata" and "Faust" as well as "The Hero and the Crown" by Robin McKinley, which Purin recommended to me. So in all, a day of mighty victories on the book front! Until I realized that all available shelving in my room, as well as many less appropriate areas, are already chock full of books....
Highlights from the TOC which are pertinent to my reasearch include "Question III: Whether Children can be Generated by Incubi and Succubi" and "Question IV: By which Devils are the Operations of Incubus and Succubus Practised?" Other questions such as "Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body" promise that the non-pertinent sections of this book also merit a good read. Although, in all seriousness, the book is pretty creepy when it gets into the witch trials and "just sentencing" portions, which is basically everything you never want to imagine happening to people. Torture to extract confessions...red-hot irons...you know the drill. Way to go, Innocent 8. >_<
I also bought a suede calfskin-bound pocket edition of "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde. It has an extraordinarily dapper sepia photograph of Oscar inside the front cover. I don't know what year it's from, only that they don't make books this fabulous any more. I also like the thought of someone having a pocket version of this poem before me. Plus, it was $4. <3
The other, more mundane purchases include "The Greek Alexander Romance" which is about Alexander the Great and was apparently composed in 3rd-2nd century BC, translated to many languages and preserved by the Greeks, and influenced such texts as the Qur'an. I'd never heard of it before but I'm wondering if this is the source of all the Alexander myths. Probably predates Plutarch's Lives? I 'll have to check.
I also got a collection of plays that include "Lysistrata" and "Faust" as well as "The Hero and the Crown" by Robin McKinley, which Purin recommended to me. So in all, a day of mighty victories on the book front! Until I realized that all available shelving in my room, as well as many less appropriate areas, are already chock full of books....
