Yes, this is once again mostly about me. But it's sunny today for the first time in a while, so I feel manically happy and excited about little things like making soup and biscuits for dinner. (But doesn't cheesy potato soup sound amazing? I thought so.) However, hopefully I will soon write a theoretical-ish entry about gender and The Crying Game, or something.
Anyway...
Friday, November 23, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
a belated update
This is an article about a series of performances I did last month. It was good times, that whole shutting-down thing. Apparently we might tour in New York and California sometime! (This is, by the way, the same opera I did last year where we played slide whistles.)
I spent the weekend in Nebraska earlier this month so that we could go to Tabitha's sister Valerie's wedding. I spent most of my time babysitting for her two nephews, one two-year-old and one three-year-old. It was fun but also terrifying.
My new job is a zillion times better than the last flower shop (at least so far). I have co-workers to talk to, people actually come in to the shop, and the bosses apparently frequently buy us all lunch. It's actually pretty fun, as far as jobs go.
That's all. I feel like I've been navel-gazing a lot lately, so I'll try to think of something more interesting to say for next time. Happy tofu day 2007!
I spent the weekend in Nebraska earlier this month so that we could go to Tabitha's sister Valerie's wedding. I spent most of my time babysitting for her two nephews, one two-year-old and one three-year-old. It was fun but also terrifying.
My new job is a zillion times better than the last flower shop (at least so far). I have co-workers to talk to, people actually come in to the shop, and the bosses apparently frequently buy us all lunch. It's actually pretty fun, as far as jobs go.
That's all. I feel like I've been navel-gazing a lot lately, so I'll try to think of something more interesting to say for next time. Happy tofu day 2007!
Friday, November 02, 2007
pen and ink
So I read two really great graphic novels lately. (A word of thanks to the Chicago Public Library system for stocking this totally awesome frm of literature in the first place. I almost forgive you for your ridiculous system for processing returned books downtown.)
First was Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, longtime writer of the Dykes to Watch Out For strips. The novel deals with her relationship to her father, a closeted gay man who raised his family in a small rural town, working as a funeral home director and high school literature teacher while meticulously and ridiculously restoring the family home in his spare time. He either accidentally died or (as the family and certainly Bechdel seem to believe) killed himself when she was twenty, months after she herself came out to her family. Sounds melodramatic and it is, but also kind of beautiful and gorgeously self-reflective. The story cycles; we hear the same parts in different ways in different sections of the novel, but each time a part reappears it has been fleshed out by what happened since you last saw it. Bechdel's relationship with her father is extremely complicated, and she doesn't shy away from admitting that perhaps what she is saying about him is entirely based on what she wants to believe, what fits into the narrative that she has written to explain all of this, and is not necessarily in any way true. The book is also framed in terms of books that her father loved and introduced her to, such as Remembrance of Things Past and especially Ulysses as well as other texts. I loved the structure and the gentle but inflexible tone, and I can see why it was such a popular book last year. Really great :)
The next book I read was the original graphic strip (published in installments and then gather into book form, I believe) of V for Vendetta. I loved the movie and had heard that the strip was significantly different, plus I've always been a stickler for original sources for movies. The book was great, of course, but I wish I had read it before because I was unable to seperate my comparisons to the movie from my reading. The differences are mostly small (if you haven't seen or read it and want to, perhaps you should stop reading here). The book has many more supporting characters and is a little less... sympathetic is not quite the right word, but perhaps just a little harsher with motivations of generally "good" characters like Finch. Also, much of what I remember as being revealed nearer to the end of the movie as a climactic discovery (V's "birth", etc.) are revelaed extremely early on in the book. I got about a third of the way through and felt like the entire movie had already been covered, so what was going to happen now? The movie, on the other hand, didn't cut out much plot (mostly just backstory and minor characters), but the additions they made were some of my favorite parts. I mean, the part that I loved the most (V mailing Guy Fawkes masks to the general populace and fomenting an uprising) is absent from the book. Which is perhaps more realistic, but not quite so... stirring.
Well, running out of time again, hopefully I'll write again soon.
First was Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, longtime writer of the Dykes to Watch Out For strips. The novel deals with her relationship to her father, a closeted gay man who raised his family in a small rural town, working as a funeral home director and high school literature teacher while meticulously and ridiculously restoring the family home in his spare time. He either accidentally died or (as the family and certainly Bechdel seem to believe) killed himself when she was twenty, months after she herself came out to her family. Sounds melodramatic and it is, but also kind of beautiful and gorgeously self-reflective. The story cycles; we hear the same parts in different ways in different sections of the novel, but each time a part reappears it has been fleshed out by what happened since you last saw it. Bechdel's relationship with her father is extremely complicated, and she doesn't shy away from admitting that perhaps what she is saying about him is entirely based on what she wants to believe, what fits into the narrative that she has written to explain all of this, and is not necessarily in any way true. The book is also framed in terms of books that her father loved and introduced her to, such as Remembrance of Things Past and especially Ulysses as well as other texts. I loved the structure and the gentle but inflexible tone, and I can see why it was such a popular book last year. Really great :)
The next book I read was the original graphic strip (published in installments and then gather into book form, I believe) of V for Vendetta. I loved the movie and had heard that the strip was significantly different, plus I've always been a stickler for original sources for movies. The book was great, of course, but I wish I had read it before because I was unable to seperate my comparisons to the movie from my reading. The differences are mostly small (if you haven't seen or read it and want to, perhaps you should stop reading here). The book has many more supporting characters and is a little less... sympathetic is not quite the right word, but perhaps just a little harsher with motivations of generally "good" characters like Finch. Also, much of what I remember as being revealed nearer to the end of the movie as a climactic discovery (V's "birth", etc.) are revelaed extremely early on in the book. I got about a third of the way through and felt like the entire movie had already been covered, so what was going to happen now? The movie, on the other hand, didn't cut out much plot (mostly just backstory and minor characters), but the additions they made were some of my favorite parts. I mean, the part that I loved the most (V mailing Guy Fawkes masks to the general populace and fomenting an uprising) is absent from the book. Which is perhaps more realistic, but not quite so... stirring.
Well, running out of time again, hopefully I'll write again soon.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
quick!
I saw a schoolbus on my way here this morning that said "Latino Express" on the side. It seemed like a legitimate bus (there were kids getting out to visit the Old Town School of Folk Music), but it seemed like a weird thing to label your bus.
I wasn't a nun, but the party I went to did have a self-made haunted house in the basement, which was awesome. (Not scary, but awesome.) Running out of computer time, so that's all for now.
I wasn't a nun, but the party I went to did have a self-made haunted house in the basement, which was awesome. (Not scary, but awesome.) Running out of computer time, so that's all for now.
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