Six Disparate Subjects that Together Make a Post

I.

My dreams last night involved: ( being John Sheppard's first kiss... )

Then I saw a rainbow on the way to work, even though it hasn't rained in days, which (a) made me exclaim "Ooh, a rainbow!" despite being alone in the car, and (b) was ten times better than yesterday morning, when a 3/4" striped spider that had fallen from a tree crouched on the hood of my car for half my commute before scurrying off out of sight, leaving me to wonder whether it would suddenly appear inside the car and make me freak out and cause an accident. Thankfully, it did not.


II.

Attended the semi-regular fangirl brunch on Sunday and had a great time. Between the food (linaerys's onion and fontina tart, moonlash_cc's mushroom omelettes, mimosas, salad, bread, cured meat, fruit, cheese, wine and scrunchy's spicy chocolate cookies) and the company (the above-mentioned, plus pun, krisdia, ahab99, lanthano, barely_bean, a recovering scribblinlenore, and a couple of people whose screen names I haven't yet learned, all of whom I'm getting to know as the "usual crew"), the conversation (skipping from topic to topic, both fannish and other, and this time for the most part I followed even the squee over shows I'm not familiar with that almost everyone else watches/watched) and the screenings (slashy Heroes DVD extras and the Burn Notice pilot), who wouldn't enjoy him/herself? It's really a blessing to have this kind of social outlet and to get to know new people with varied backgrounds and common interests. Like LJ, but in person.

Also, *waves* to new LJ friends!


III.

Work has been deader than House's sense of tact lately. ( The dull details. )

IV.

Friday at least was saved by an all-day "covers" theme on the radio, during which I was introduced to the glory that is the song "Jolene." Originally by Dolly Parton (1974), it's about one woman begging another, Jolene, not to "take [her] man." On Friday, the station played a cover by The White Stripes (2000), which not only transformed the original earnest plea into a dark and broken cry of despair, but also added a delicious homoerotic layer to the song, since Jack White kept the lyrics as they were rather than changing everyone's genders. Boy begs girl not to steal boy. Truly, few things are hotter than a young man with a desperate tenor and a Gothic face singing, "Well, you could have your choice of men / But I could never love again / He's the only one for me, Jolene."

( Full lyrics behind the cut. )

I haven't been able to find a recording of the 2000 version, which was crisp and clean, so unfortunately I can only offer you the mediocre live 2004 version ("Under Blackpool Lights"), where Jack White's voice is sometimes overwhelmed by the audience as it sings along, and he doesn't hit strong high notes because of his smoking habit, and he does strange and unnecessary things with his voice in places. Still, the emotion is there, and it should give you some idea of the awesomeness that is this cover. Video here or audio-only here.

ETA ETA ETA: thewlisian_afer to the rescue! The 2000 B-side vinyl release for your listening pleasure, right here. The tambourine! The electric guitar finger-picked as though it were acoustic! The minor chords! The slower pace! Seventies folk meets toned-down twenty-first century alternative/punk! Yay! Of course, now I have to get used to it after living with the rawer live recording over the weekend...

This is the Dolly Parton version. It's catchy and her voice is sweet and it's the only song of hers I own.


V.

I'm excited to read the stories that will be cropping up during the next two weeks based on the current theme at sga_flashfic: the Wordless Challenge, or "stories where the characters have to deal with a communication barrier, and there's a lot of different ways to take that on (situations that impose silence, medical conditions like deafness or aphasia, dealing with a literal language barrier, etc.)." ( It's one of my favorite tropes in fiction... )

VI.

In "pimp my friends' blogs" news, a wonderfully talented and all-around brilliant college friend of mine has started a blog over at Wordpress, Bardolatry, detailing her experiences as an actor with the American Shakespeare Center, which she joined in June. Though she commenced with the caveat that she may not update frequently, so far there have been several informative and entertaining posts covering topics such as the original staging practices the troupe follows and the advantages and disadvantages of participating in the madness that is "Renaissance Run" rehearsals. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Shakespeare (reading, performing or watching), acting, directing, period theater techniques, or windows into the life of someone who is doing something out of the ordinary. If you find yourself as charmed by Ellen's writing as I am, you can subscribe to the LJ feed. And/or perhaps you might catch the ASC if they perform somewhere near you this season.