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Saturday, March 30, 2002 ( 12:25 AM ) Carolyn Pietala I was doing the insomnia thing last night too. Beat you to bed by an hour and a half. Not tonight. I could feel myself getting that obsessive second-wind, and I thought, no, I want a regular schedule. So I downed some melatonin at a little bit after 11:00. I can barely keep my eyes open now -- but this is good! Maybe it's time to go to bed...night! # Friday, March 29, 2002 ( 1:28 PM ) Nathan Kibler I admit I was suffering from a bout of insomnia brought on by the street cleaners making noises outside. I was up for about an hour and then went back to sleep and some odd dreams. I'm trying to be good about my sleep schedule in case my luck changes and I actually get called in for a job interview. *sigh* It's tough being good. In regards to something Nancy had noted at brunch a couple of weeks back, Jason sent me this URL. I thought I'd share it here: >check this out ( 11:59 AM ) Carolyn Pietala Yikes! I'm looking at that time-stamp, Nathan, and wondering if you were an early riser today or if you were still up from the night before. I'm in the position of looking for the next book to add to my count. The Babble book for April is one that I've read already, so I can work on something else. But what? I thought I might like to read The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor. (My, what a trashy cover, mine's way more classy than that.) (Here's mine.) But I started it the night before last and when I went to open it last night, I just wasn't in the mood. Taylor is a good writer and handles her steamy subject matter well. But she is also a horror writer and I just don't need more negatives heaped on my already dismal worldview right now. Went back to making my way through one of Dozois anthologies of the year's best science fiction. Speaking of the April Babble. You said something about being interested in our book, Nathan. This is the month that we do Perdido Street Station. If you'd like to participate you should probably come get the book from me and get started. It's 710 pages long. I know you want to finish the Kress writing book you borrowed from me before you borrow another but...the later you start the more pages you have to read a day before we meet on the 17th. # ( 5:34 AM ) Nathan Kibler Readerville--One of life's finest pursuits. Yeah! Reading posts on Readerville always puts me in a good mood. If there is anything I like better than browsing stacks, then it is conversing about books in general. Since I've been reading things that have been on my reading list for a very long time I haven't always had pertinent things to say. I'm hoping that may improve as I wend my way down my list. I was so hopeful and happy when I hit my fifth book this year that I have to admit I've been saddened and depressed more recently that March is nearly passed and I've not been able to add another title to the list. Very likely it will be a book that Carolyn loaned me on writing, "Beginnings, Middles & Ends: How to get your stories off to a roaring start, keep them tight and crisp throughout, and end them with a wallop." by Nancy Kress and published by Writer's Digest Books (despite my low opinions of its popular cousin publication, Writer's Digest is an excellent resource for writers and their books division publishes a lot of very helpful, if somewhat advanced guides). Nonfiction reading sometimes takes me longer and this is not a very thick book, but I'm about halfway through and if I give it an afternoon I should be able to polish it off and then do a rewrite on a recent short story from the fumes. I'm also about halfway through "The Fellowship of the Ring", so I hope to report on that soon, although I suspect I will be preaching to the choir here. # ( 1:24 AM ) Carolyn Pietala I was posting at Readerville tonight, wrapping up an inquiry I started a couple of weeks ago. Didn't really care for the March Babble book, An Exaltation of Larks by Robert Reed, so I thought I would give the author another chance. Here's my initial post that contains the plan I hatched. Here is what I posted tonight. # Wednesday, March 27, 2002 ( 11:33 PM ) Carolyn Pietala One more thought. Depending on whether he's landing in London or Amsterdam (I find I can not recover that info from my memory of conversation), Mark just got there or he was there an hour ago. # ( 11:04 PM ) Carolyn Pietala More on the Academy Awards. Finally caught up with the posts on the topic at Salon, which were going fast and furious for awhile. Found two interesting links there about the parties before and after the event. These are e-mail exchanges between two different sets of knowledgeable folks. The first actually covers before, during and after the awards but the second set of e-mails dishes more dirt.:-) # ( 7:58 PM ) Carolyn Pietala Sounds like you heard a bit of a scold in my last post. LOL! No, that wasn't the intended tone at all. My question was intended to mean more along the lines of "Can you imagine the stress of having to do your taxes on the night you're packing for international travel." Re: the Academy Awards. Yes, Nancy watched over here with me. The black bean chili sat awhile on the stove waiting for Mark to arrive with the spices, but once they were put in, they really made the dish. His timing was perfect as to what was on the television while he was here. He got here just in time to see Cirque du Soleil perform. They were great! They coordinated their acrobatics to film footage. It was almost like they were coming out of the screen. They *did* come out of the ceiling. These bungee-trapeze artists came down right over the audience. That must have been a rush -- to see one of those folks coming down towards your head. There were a number of disappointing awards, as there are every year. I came to the realization that it was rather reconciling to have seen the Independent Spirit awards the night before, because sometimes that which you wanted to see occurred there. Amelie didn't win the Oscar for best foreign language film, but it did win the Spirit award in that category. Of course that didn't help with Ian McKellen not winning best supporting actor, but then, as Nancy pointed out, he has two more years in which he can. (Nancy and I did see Jim Broadbent's Oscar-stealing performance that next day. He *was* good, can't really begrudge him.) # ( 10:37 AM ) Nathan Kibler Carolyn, I think we can all say our friends are imperfect, which is not to say that we are perfect either. Although I have my paperwork together in a pile somewhere, I have yet to file my taxes. It is safe to say that although fast approaching, there is still time left before April 15th to finish them. With the ability to file electronically, there is more than enough time. So, anyone watch the Academy Awards? # ( 2:00 AM ) Carolyn Pietala Mark leaves for Europe today. He'll be up in a couple of hours....or is that when he will be on his way to the airport? He stopped by for a last visit just when the movie I was watching (Boys on the Side) was reaching a critical plot point. But the movie will show again and Mark only goes to Europe for the first time once. Guess what he told me is one of his last chores for this evening....his taxes! Can you imagine? But yes, if he's going to be gone on April 15th, and he hasn't done them yet. Well, this is the time that's left. # Monday, March 25, 2002 ( 10:45 PM ) Nancy McCann my web site such as it is ( 9:41 AM ) Nancy McCann Innocents Be Damned The only innocent I know is unhappy and afraid ( 9:41 AM ) Nancy McCann Table de Marchand - round cairn -- posted on the Megalithic Portal -- When I visited this site in 1982, it fit the description of burial chamber or dolmen. It was excavated and reconstructed starting in 1986. The web sites for viewing it are: Bienvenue à Locmariaquer - a nice presentation in French with photos of many megaliths in the area Le Travail du Fouilleur - some photos of the excavation process of the site - in French Megalithes de Morbihan - a glitzy site, difficult to navigate, but worth it for the great photos - an English version coming soon Virtual Visit of Brittany - a site with annoying music, obviously translated into English, but worth it for the the photo of the spectacular carving on one of the most beautiful stones in France. ( 1:54 AM ) Nathan Kibler "You've seen nothing like it before...but after...you see things like it everywhere..." --C.S. Lewis Gormanghast Enya--the official Reprise site. Yes, Indeed. Jason hosted a wonderful afternoon and evening of music, videos and gastronomic stimulation (and I did not wretch or drop anything anywhere). I had not seen those Enya videos before and recommend them to everyone. What ever you might think of her music, these visuals are worth sitting through. Towards the end of the disc, she manages to evoke Mary Poppins, Maxfield Parrish and Doctor Who with her various costumes and settings. Wonderful. The official site has her music playing as you browse, as long as you have the correct plug-ins. Nice. Gormenghast was fabulous and I highly recommend watching the whole thing...to tide you all over until such time as you can arrange to see it complete, I suggest you to visit the web pages, starting with the one Jason suggested and then moving onto the one I suggested above. BTW, I recommend the Steerpike wallpaper at PBS...Jonathan Rhys Meyers in black and white...marvelous! # Sunday, March 24, 2002 ( 9:57 PM ) Ja'son Styles Well its Sunday night and I am back to work after 10 days off. Caroyln I would use the word ICK ACK POO to describe how I feel about being back. Well yesterday I had nay-Kibler over for dinner and a movie.. we looked at the BBC production of Peake's Gormenghast watching part of it on the TV and part of it on my computer. Greg made the dinner which was Cornish Game Hens and fresh bread, followed by raspberry cheese cake. We also watched an imported DVD Video album of ENYA. nay-Kibler helped me re-figure out how to use my scanner *as I have NOT used it with the Macintosh @ all* I am planning to start to sell on Ebay again. As he is also the computer genius I talked to him about creating a web page for my favorite band Alphaville. # ( 3:16 AM ) Carolyn Pietala Critiques of art... Hmmm. Well, I watched the Independent Spirit Awards tonight on Bravo. I was surprised how often In the Bedroom won when it was up against Ghost World. Thought for sure that that crowd would go for the pop culture icon. Speaking of pop culture icons, Hedwig was up for just about every category and didn't win in a single one. I guess their award was to be nominated, huh? It *was* interesting to finally see John Cameron Mitchell in boy clothes. (Although, as the link atests, the information was out there all along.) # ( 12:24 AM ) Nathan Kibler LOL! I am embarrassed now...it was wretched when I turned over my plate. But Carolyn is a gracious hostess and we did have fun cleaning up her document and her carpet. (Carolyn! Now no one is going to invite me over for dinner! I'll be known as the mad plate dropper!) The fact of the matter is that the space bar is where it is for a reason. I am not so imperious that I believe that it does not have its purpose. Dvorak is a MIT professor; I leave all the messing with the keyboard up to him. Now I return this Blog back to its regularly scheduled program of critiques of art...not my dining habits. # |
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