The good, the bad and the nostalgic

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik: Thumbs up. A very easy read, and worth picking up for the sweet relationship between Laurence and Temeraire (man and dragon). Am 150 pages into the second in the series, Throne of Jade, now.

Nanny McPhee (2005, dir. Kirk Jones): Thumbs up. The reviews had made it sound awful, but my children's movie-loving dad needed cheering up, so we watched it -- and it was actually pretty charming, in a caricaturish way. It reminded me of Pushing Daisies: lots of bright colors, larger-than-life figures and settings, fairy tale ambiance, and morbid humor.

The Illustrated Man (1969, dir. Jack Smight): Thumbs down. Plodding, repetitive, painful. I'm sure the book was better. Only good things about it were Robert Drivas, looking like Malcolm Reynolds' and Simon Tam's lovechild, who did a decent acting job and also played the part as if his character were being seduced against his will by the title character (Rod Steiger), and the fact that "The Veldt" was sandwiched in the middle of it. We read that as a standalone short story in an English class in middle school; I hadn't known it came from the novel.

We read a lot of fantastic short stories in that class, actually: O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi," Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day," Shirley Jackson's "Charles" and "The Lottery," W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw," Frank R. Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger." And we watched movie/TV versions of at least four of them. They all left a strong impression on me. Our teacher was a sci fi fan, which was awesome (er, for me); I remember one rainy day, or maybe two, she put on The Wrath of Khan, and I was in raptures. We were in the sixth grade, and none of these was in the curriculum, just added for our enrichment. When a few of them resurfaced in later years' classes, you could tell who'd been in this class by their contributions to the discussion.

A little trip down memory lane. Consider it preparation for Memoryfest, which I think I'll start tomorrow or Tuesday.

We have been promised snow overnight, but right now it's raining. Pouring, really. Maybe it'll cool by morning, but I am not too hopeful. Thursday starting at about 4 a.m. we had something like ten hours of heavy storms on and off, complete with purple-tinged, popping lightning. In January. If it'd been snow, we'd have had about two feet by evening (going by 1 inch rain = 1 foot snow). Alas. Everyone north of us has been getting all the fun precipitation this season.

Memoryfest III (!) - Son of Memoryfest? Memoryfest Strikes Back?

What is Memoryfest?

For the last two years, I've dedicated the month of January to Memoryfest, where I post a memory a day and invite everyone to add one of their own in the comments. We've gotten into some great conversations in which we discover cultural and individual similarities and differences, coincidences, etc., and follow tangents into the oddest topics. It's a lot of fun. This year we're starting a little late because I've been so busy, but the premise is the same: take advantage of the new year to wind down and reflect, and get to know all of you a little better—and I hope you'll get to know each other better, too. There are a lot of people here who weren't here last year, and I'd be so happy to see some mingling goin' on in the comments.

( There aren't any official rules… )

Here are the indices to Memoryfest I (2006) and Memoryfest II (2007) if you want to see what we've gotten up to before (if you're new) or refresh your memory (if you're a veteran).

( Changes planned for Memoryfest III )

I'm glad to be doing this again, especially with so many new "faces" around, of a range of ages and nationalities. I hope you're looking forward to it too.