![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicHad a really lovely time last weekend visiting ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
synn for what is likely to be the last time before she moves (from 8 hours away to 2, hurrah!). We wandered through some thoroughly enjoyable local artist galleries, had all sorts of good food, and made ourselves a Neapolitan belated birthday cake: chocolate cake layer, strawberry cake layer, white cake layer, all with slightly different batters, and butter icing with strawberries, finished with a silver metallic spray and purple piping with black sugar pearls at the tip of each peak. By "we," I mean I served as assistant to synn and her ever-growing baking expertise. *cough* While darting back and forth to my laptop to make the AMTDI poem.
Tasty cake!
synn and I now have Mason jar monster BFFs:
Some other lovely art included:
http://melissamossart.com/paint.htm
http://sarahfaulkner.com/
http://curious3d.com/gallery.html
http://obsoleteworld.com/art_viewer.php?art=thelovedonesleftbehind
http://www.edsdoodles.com/Gallery/Gallery.html (science fiction & UFOs)
& hopefully http://alicestearns.com will be back up soon because that was adorable.
.
One night we tried to watch Plan B, a low-budget Spanish movie about a young man who tries to get his ex-girlfriend back by seducing her new boyfriend, who BTW looks like the lovechild of Gael Garcia Bernal and the dark-haired coworker on Chuck. The logic of that was not clear, but neither of us really cared when offered a plot like that. It had its moments, and was more realistic than a lot of fic in depicting what it might be like for two historically straight guys to try to get physical when they've decided they maybe sort of like each other (i.e. they lean in to kiss but one of them cracks up with discomfort), but it mostly felt like someone's film school project. Lots of empty space, lack of progress and unflattering shots from the foot of the bed.
We ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of it and then watching Eyes Wide Open (Einayim Petukhoth), an Israeli film about a Hasidic butcher in Jerusalem who falls for the new hired help, a younger man who was driven out of his last community for being gay and who arouses unrest in his new one. Would not be surprised if it had gotten in trouble with Orthodox authorities for its unflattering cultural portrayal and for a couple of m/m sex scenes. Or are we past that now? Either way, nice tension, good acting, understated humor. The younger actor in many moments reminded me of Tom Hardy.
.
On the plane I read a short story collection by Roger Zelazny,* The Last Defender of Camelot. One of the novellas in it, "He Who Shapes," which was very good, would appeal to Inception fans, I think: a psychologist who shapes people's dreams for therapeutic purposes gets caught up in the mind of another prospective dream-shaper and struggles against falling into limbo.
Another novella, "For a Breath I Tarry," which may be my favorite, started out awfully like Wall-E, then shifted into something more like Faust, then veered into Bicentennial Man, and ended up somewhere cyber-Biblical. The last few lines were beautifully poetic.
Not to judge the stories only by comparing them to other works. Intertextuality, whether it's intended by the author or happens because the story has influenced subsequent works, enriches my reading experience, and can help in pitching things to other media fans. :)
*Also fascinating to follow some of the conversations that have been going on on LJ/DW surrounding NPR's "100 best" SF/fantasy books list, which,like so many authoritative "best of" lists that don't quite define whether "best" means "most literary" or "most influential" or "most popular" or "most enjoyable" (unlikely) or something else ETA: after making plain that it is a popularity contest /ETA, consists mainly of white American and British men, Zelazny among them. Working through ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eruthros's crowd-sourced alternative list promises to expand my SF reading horizons.
.
Finished my John/Radek fic, too, so keep an eye out for that. I hope there are still people around who are interested in SGA rare pairs (and hot hot kink!).
synn for what is likely to be the last time before she moves (from 8 hours away to 2, hurrah!). We wandered through some thoroughly enjoyable local artist galleries, had all sorts of good food, and made ourselves a Neapolitan belated birthday cake: chocolate cake layer, strawberry cake layer, white cake layer, all with slightly different batters, and butter icing with strawberries, finished with a silver metallic spray and purple piping with black sugar pearls at the tip of each peak. By "we," I mean I served as assistant to synn and her ever-growing baking expertise. *cough* While darting back and forth to my laptop to make the AMTDI poem.Tasty cake!
synn and I now have Mason jar monster BFFs:
Some other lovely art included:
http://melissamossart.com/paint.htm
http://sarahfaulkner.com/
http://curious3d.com/gallery.html
http://obsoleteworld.com/art_viewer.php?art=thelovedonesleftbehind
http://www.edsdoodles.com/Gallery/Gallery.html (science fiction & UFOs)
& hopefully http://alicestearns.com will be back up soon because that was adorable.
.
One night we tried to watch Plan B, a low-budget Spanish movie about a young man who tries to get his ex-girlfriend back by seducing her new boyfriend, who BTW looks like the lovechild of Gael Garcia Bernal and the dark-haired coworker on Chuck. The logic of that was not clear, but neither of us really cared when offered a plot like that. It had its moments, and was more realistic than a lot of fic in depicting what it might be like for two historically straight guys to try to get physical when they've decided they maybe sort of like each other (i.e. they lean in to kiss but one of them cracks up with discomfort), but it mostly felt like someone's film school project. Lots of empty space, lack of progress and unflattering shots from the foot of the bed.
We ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of it and then watching Eyes Wide Open (Einayim Petukhoth), an Israeli film about a Hasidic butcher in Jerusalem who falls for the new hired help, a younger man who was driven out of his last community for being gay and who arouses unrest in his new one. Would not be surprised if it had gotten in trouble with Orthodox authorities for its unflattering cultural portrayal and for a couple of m/m sex scenes. Or are we past that now? Either way, nice tension, good acting, understated humor. The younger actor in many moments reminded me of Tom Hardy.
.
On the plane I read a short story collection by Roger Zelazny,* The Last Defender of Camelot. One of the novellas in it, "He Who Shapes," which was very good, would appeal to Inception fans, I think: a psychologist who shapes people's dreams for therapeutic purposes gets caught up in the mind of another prospective dream-shaper and struggles against falling into limbo.
Another novella, "For a Breath I Tarry," which may be my favorite, started out awfully like Wall-E, then shifted into something more like Faust, then veered into Bicentennial Man, and ended up somewhere cyber-Biblical. The last few lines were beautifully poetic.
Not to judge the stories only by comparing them to other works. Intertextuality, whether it's intended by the author or happens because the story has influenced subsequent works, enriches my reading experience, and can help in pitching things to other media fans. :)
*Also fascinating to follow some of the conversations that have been going on on LJ/DW surrounding NPR's "100 best" SF/fantasy books list, which,
eruthros's crowd-sourced alternative list promises to expand my SF reading horizons..
Finished my John/Radek fic, too, so keep an eye out for that. I hope there are still people around who are interested in SGA rare pairs (and hot hot kink!).
no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:21 pm (UTC)The editing was very odd and the pace was very slow, but I enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 17th, 2011 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 12:27 am (UTC):) Though I couldn't say the same if I'd been able to stick around longer and if you hadn't had to go back to the office.
no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 01:22 pm (UTC)The logic of that was not clear, but neither of us really cared when offered a plot like that.
Heh. So true.
no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 10:03 pm (UTC)I think I've had that book for five years and only just got around to reading it, whoops. You're welcome to borrow it if you like. Um, just being aware that despite my enjoyment of the above-mentioned novellas, the former does also contain some cringe-worthy misogyny ("You can't possibly be good at this job, your emotions will get in the way!") and ableism ("Also, you can't achieve great things in your career because you're blind!").
no subject
Date: Aug. 18th, 2011 10:04 pm (UTC)