It's a "best acts of the rock era" special, covering the top 40 acts between 1955 to 1986 (the year of transmission), and as such isn't nearly so interesting to me right now, so I'm not bothering.

Instead, it's back to work cleaning the house (again) for the 3rd day of BBQing, this time with family arriving around 4pm.

And watching more Dr. Who.

I am aware that different time periods had different favored silhouettes and undergarments, but I'm wondering if an Elizabethan corset can still be worn under a regency-era gown (I'm blind and can't compare pictures). All I have (will soon have, rather) is a tabbedreed-boned Elizabethan corset, but I am also interested in in investing in some Jane Austin-era clothing. My dream is to get all out and some day get everything from the skin out for my time periods of interest (12th-13th century, Elizabethan, Regency, Victorian), but that just isn't possible for a college student. So, I've been trying to overlap as much as I can. Hence, my corses question. I thought that this would be a good place to ask. Thanks!

Current Mood: awake

I was reminiscing with jducoeur the other night about my roommate from my sophomore year at Wellesley. We made cordial roommates but were never chums (having fallen into rooming together when our respective freshman roommates decided to room with one another), and I haven't heard anything of or from her since we graduated, 24 years ago.

So I Googled her. In short order, I discovered where she's working and in what major city, that she is still in the line of work (art history/curation/conservation) she wanted when in college, the topics of some recent exhibits/papers, who she married and what year and where they honeymooned.

It wasn't that long ago when this would have been considered prodigious output of a day's brilliant research, instead of something I did over coffee.

http://www.snopes.com/sports/soccer/barbados.asp

I haven't posted a lot of reviews lately. The inter webs is rotten with reviews on pretty much anything, so it often seems like a waste.

Still, I seem to have seen a lot of movies in the theater of late and a surprising number of them have been pretty good. Rather than go deep, I'm just going to offer sound bites on the things, which I suspect is all most people read of reviews anyway.


Hancock. It's hard not the like Will Smith. While not amazing or consistent, the movie is still fun and worth the trip. Far better than the evil critics would have you believe.

Wall-E. Brilliant. Easily the best thing I've seen in theaters this year. All the charm of a Pixar short, but with a story. The story is an unexpected surprise. Exceptional for both what it says and what it doesn't say, it's far deeper than one would expect. Wall-E, I believe, is a Zen master, waking up all the beings he touches.

Kung Fu Panda. Amusing, fun, and well done. Despite the dearth of formula and a sense of seeing most of it before, it carries us on anyway. Unlike the tired Shrek franchise, it is refreshingly light on pop culture references. We never do find out why the panda's dad is a duck, which I kind of like.

The Incredible Hulk. Good for popcorn, though eminently forgettable. Ed Norton is a great choice, though. An excellent example of why action / comic movies should really give up on romance. I was actually far more intrigued by Dr. Banner's relationship with a Latina that got maybe two minutes screen time than with Liv, the deer in headlights space alien.

Iron Man. For good or ill, Downey owns this film. About a narcissistic wealthy playboy who has a change of heart after a life changing incarceration; acting hardly seems required. Still, it's the actor's intensity that raises this one above the expected predictable fare. It's good.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Does an excellent job of propagating the franchise. Has the same full speed ahead, happily implausible, serial cliff hanger quality of the others. Like Iron Man, this one also owes a lot to the actor's charisma.

Narnia ( Caspian ): Some elements are charming, others frustrating. Any Christian elements of Narnia are not particularly overt, being just the natural imaginings of a respected theologian trying to entertain children. Yet, I felt bludgeoned by someone with more of an agenda than that. At the same time, the innocence of a young prince is replaced by a near adult who obviously wants to jump Susan. It's pretty, well polished, has some excellent action, and, ironically, lacks soul.


Next week, Hellboy II. Can... not... wait.

( more garden )

( gardening blither )

Fans in Argentina found a 3 reel version of Metropolis.
Picture's here from the original article (in German).

Current Mood: happy

We received the first volume of Hygiene of the Middle Ages and Renaissance by the awesome Mistress Bunny! I know what I'm reading tonight!

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: happy

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

http://news.perlfoundation.org/2008/07/perl_on_a_stick_grant_update.html

You can find on use.perl some updates on Adam Kennedy Perl on a Stick grant.

Quoting:

    This is the first release of Strawberry Perl Portable Edition for Mobile Devices and Flash Drives (or whatever the hell it ends up being called).
   Firstly, please note this is extremely alpha. In fact it's SO alpha that it's basically just whatever is on my test flash drive, zipped up with no packaging at all.

   To install, simply unzip it absolutely anywhere you like.

It seems to me that birds, more than any other critter, are portents to strangeness. Perhaps it's because I see them as rather surreal animals in their own right. Little avian dinosaurs with topsy turvy eyelids and inscrutable thoughts in tilted considering stares.

One of the more bizarre Jersey birds is the turkey buzzard. These creatures look like they would be more at home next to a bleached skull on sandy expanse. Instead, they often circle over highways, observing things like jack knifed tracker trailers and car fires with disturbing intent.

I once spotted a pair of them doing the "that cowboy ain't gonna make it" aerial dance over the traffic ahead of me. Around the next bend, off the road, hidden under foliage, was a grounded one straddling a deer carcass. For a moment I thought I was on Lion Country Safari, not I-78. Dead deer don't usually bounce that far off the road, did the giant scavenger somehow drag it's prize to a more comfortable spot? Like I said, surreal.

Yesterday, a pair of the impressively ugly birds were just standing in the middle of a local road, seemingly amiably sharing some road kill. They didn't really seem to mind as we drove past them. They seemed to dare oncoming traffic to hit them, so content were they on the road. Unusually relaxed for the usually skittish beasts.

Like I said, portents to strangeness.

One block up the road, the air was murky, seemingly emanating from behind a house. At first, it looked like a spray of water reflecting the sunlight. No, it was smoke. Smoke off color enough that we initially didn't recognize it as such. And thick. Probably a BBQ, but there was the troubling thought of house fire. We drove through the cloud, both trying the catch an odor that would say burning burgers rather than burning house and ease our worries. Indeed, are worries were eased!

The smell was distinct. Not treated pine, nor starter doused charcoal. No animal sacrifice or some sickly sweet sauce from bottle. No, there was absolutely no doubt. The enormous cloud we'd just passed through could only be marijuana!

There was a pause of disbelief. Quick startled glances confirmed the initial impression. On some local road in suburbia was a cloud that would do a rock concert proud. It made quite an impression and we have developed numerous theories. A parent incinerating some teenager's stash? Or better, a stash hidden in the family BBQ, accidentally sacrificed to the first firing of the year? One thing is sure, someone is "totally bummed" right now.

But the best part, thinking back, is the buzzards. The overly mellow buzzards, their attention completely absorbed by their munchies!

Allo....I vaguely remember some form of service that would download your entire LJ journal. Does anyone remember where that was?

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: amused

And Hippo Birdies too!

Current Mood: happy

http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/christie.asp

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Well poo. My babies are sickies. They're not badly sick, just under the weather, goopy eyes and energy levels a little low. FF is actually better this morning than last night (had enough energy to CARE that I was taking her temperature--which is normal, for both of them) but still not entirely well. Poor babies.

Acu-chiro-vet was telling me when she was here Weds that it's really common for 2-yr-olds to get mild respiratory "things" and it's nothing really to worry about, and it's typically a virus so there's not much we can do anyway. She was telling me this because she figured FF's goopy eyes were *causing* her to get hair stuck in them (as compared to hair in the eyes causing them to run). Makes sense. Poor bibbies. And now mean ol' mommy is putting awful ointment into their eyeballs twice a day, HORRORS! Very poor bibbies.

http://archive.gamespy.com/comics/dorktower/images/comics/Dorktower658.gif

Dork Tower by John Kovalic

Current Comic

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp07032008.shtml

If there are any problems with the comic or website, or if you have any questions, comments, or complaints you would like to address directly to Randy, please email him at choochoobear@gmail.com.

1. Please welcome: lissa510, mare_in_flames, sileas_1, woodwindy.

Introduce yourselves around if you would like.

2. Needless to say, it's been raining in the North Country. Not too bad, but things are wet. I do not know what it's like at the Northern Region War Camp site, which is maybe an hour north. It's is supposed to be good for the weekend.

3. I am feeling rather craptastic, but part of that might have been because I forgot to eat today. I have recently had two chicken sausages, a banana, a little toast and a croissant, and I am eating a peach. There are chicken legs in yellow curry sauce, largely because when I tried to use the knife to get the plastic off the red curry sauce, I lopped off the top and wore part of it. Done with the peach. Now drinking Green Mountain Red Raspberry.

4. Last call on two excellent Great Big Sea tickets for July 12 in Toronto before I put them up on a ticket site. Molson Center: Section 102, Row M, seats 9 and 10. $140 for the pair, which is less than I paid for them.

5. OK, then. theresat and l3arcelona -- and the Kona -- are two hours away! Yay!1. And the trip to Bhakail yields four more friends, including one from Nova Scotia.

6. If you are going to Northern Region War Camp, please say hello and grab my camera and take a picture of me.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

OK so maybe adventurous was the wrong descriptor.

( Last night was Decontamination training. )

Holiday weekend, trip to Lancaster planned for Sat and I'm coming down
with either allergies (hope) or a cold (I so hope not). Lots of sinus
pressure and stuffiness. Some scratchy to my throat but that could be
the smoke at the meeting last night.

Damn.

I e-mailed several places yesterday and the day before and no one has gotten back to me.
I have called several places and no one has gotten back to me.

I did look at a place last night. A one bedroom for $1335 that is 5.8 miles from work and on a major bus route, but not really near anything useful, on-sight parking is an additional fee and it's a third floor walk-up!!

There is a place nearer to my office and better situated for D to get a job and go to school. It's only $1100, but they haven't returned my call or e-mail...