I Burn, I Burn...

My past few weeks have been tied up with the usual work at the Rep, and also with my latest design project. Ellen Rosand, a Dept of Music Prof recently received a grant from the Mellon Foundation which she has used to fund the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Their inaugural piece Ardo, Ardo: Montiverdi In Motion's costumes were designed by yours truly. I ended up using the abstract paintings of the music director Richard Lalli for color inspiration, much to his delight. So over the course of two days many white clothes purchased from the Dharma Trading Co. ended up in a dye pot and here's the result...Now I'm inspired to start dyeing sock yarn. I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed dyeing until I worked on this project. The picture above is Ariadne from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the Montiverdi piece Lamento L'Arianna. The Yale Schola Cantorum singers (dressed in black) created the physical labyrinth, Theseus unwound his ball of red yarn and left his end on the edge of the stage. Ariadne enters with her end and sings her aria, eventually she finds the other end with no one there, betrayed and heartbroken, she dies. I love the yarn amongst the people labyrinth.

Photos by Ethan Heard

Getting My Elizabethan On

This is a very delayed entry. I simply have not had the time to put this experience to blog as it were. Though I have gone over it in my head about a hundred times since.
During our run of Richard II at the Rep our dramaturg made arrangements for the cast to go over to the Yale Elizabethan Club for a little show and tell. Being a Shakespeare fan I tagged along and had such an amazing time. I had no idea this club even existed much less that their vault held so many fine Elizabethan treasures. It is indeed an actual vault set into a little closet space off one of the parlors. The club member in charge of our group kindly pulled out a First Folio to let us look at. (Look at, but definitely not touch.) He also showed us several original Quatros which he let us handle, which we did with great reverence. There was a copy of the sonnets with the famed dedication page. Also the plays Hamlet, Richard II, and Romeo and Juliet. The R&J actually had cuts and notes made in it by a former owner which was fascinating.
By far my favorite item was a letter they acquired at a Christie's auction written by Queen E herself. It was a letter addressed to her Good Bess (Elizabeth Throckmorton) consoling her on the death of her husband. I didn't realize the significance of this letter until I saw the movie Elizabeth The Golden Age the next day. This is not just consoling her Lady in Waiting about a death but the death of Sir Walter Raleigh. It appears to be written in her own hand and not dictated and merely signed. It was very sincere and is even more interesting now that I know the details behind it.
Inspired by this visit and the viewing of the new movie, I spent some time in the library of the Yale Center for British Art. They have a copy of the Janet Arnold book Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocked. This is a rare book which details the clothing of Queen Elizabeth I, based on portraits, surviving inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes, and other original documents. It's amazing and of course on reference only at the library. It in turn has inspired a few knitting projects based on Elizabethan portraiture.

First, is Lord Leicester's Leg Warmers. These are inspired by the pattern on the pumpkin breeches worn by Robert Dudley in this portrait at the YCBA. The chevron striping on the beeches inspired a lace pattern of my own design. This took a couple days to work out, first the pattern then an adjustment for the scale of the leg warmers. I'm using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in the shoreline twist colorway of brown and purple. I cast on on size 6 dpn's for the ribbing with a plan to switch to magic loop on a size 7 circ when I get to the pattern. Unfortunately I've stalled out having little time to knit with Ardo taking up all of my time. But now that Ardo is up and soon over I will have time to curl up with the kitties and knit.

Progress thus far...
I'm really liking twisting my knit stitches by knitting into the back of the stitch. It's a much firmer ribbing than I normally manage and by not twisting the purl stitch it's creating a lace effect between the 2 knit stitches.

Old Friends...And New Ones

I have recently been revisiting an old favorite book series. The original Dragonlance Chronicles by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read these rather obsessively in high school. (Me, obsessive? No!) In retrospect they are really just a rip-off of Lord of the Rings. Though they are a creative rip-off with good characters. But I equate them to old friends. You've changed, they haven't. You look at them with new eyes and while you may not feel the same affection you once did, you can appreciate them for what they are.




Even more interesting is the new Lost Chronicles series written by the same authors. These are stories that fill in the time jumps in the original tales. I have to say the plot line is expertly crafted and I have yet to find a discrepancy in that department. however the characters and their language is different. Significantly so in some cases. That being said I enjoyed both Dragons of the Dwarven Depths and Dragons of the Highlord Skies.






Dwarven Depths is the story between Autumn Twilight and Winter Night. The companions go on a quest for the mythical Hammer of Kharas while trying to protect the group of refugees from Pax Tharkas. Highlord Skies focuses on the events surrounding the recovery of the Dragon Orb. These events are counterpointed by Kitiara's quest for power amongst the Dragon Highlords and her journey to challenge the death knight Lord Soth. I found that these books gave two characters in particular a new amount of depth, Flint and Kitiara. I ended up liking both a lot more once I got some more background and traveled with them through a quest of sorts. All in all I could look past some of the clunkyness of the Lost Chronicles and enjoy these as much as the originals.

OK now we REALLY return to our regularly scheduled programming...

I mean it this time... There's even a new look to be excited about.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

After an extended interlude I like to call The Elm Shakespeare Company, I have returned to blogging. I have still been reading, just not writing. Updated posts continue below...

Stumbling on Happiness

By Daniel Gilbert
The self-help book industry is huge, giving the public much advice on how to be thin, be sucessful and ultimately how to be happy. This book does not tell you how to be happy. What it does tell you is how the human brain functions in the pursuit of happiness. It gives us suggestions on how to utilize this information, but it does not tell you how to be happy.
What we learn is we cannot ever reasonably predict our future feelings due to our imagination. We are the only creatures on this planet who not only think about, but imagine the future. But current and past influences skew our imaginations into a warped version of what our future may bring. We think this imagining is the way things absolutely will be and then are constantly disappointed in outcomes that are diferent.
Society is also a factor. We are told make more, spend more, breed more, ultimately to keep society functioning for the greater good, not for our individual happiness. Case in point, I do not want to have children. I don't like 'em, I don't know what to do with them. I can reasonably predict I would feel resentful towards them. I feel resentment towards my neighbor when his screaming wakes me up at 7:30 am, why wouldn't I feel resentful towards a screaming baby at that hour? Even if it's the blood of my loins and all. So I choose to not have children so I do not make some poor child unhappy with my terrible parenting, and I'm making myself happy by not feeling resentful and bitter for 18 years. But society would have me have children, so there are more people to fuel the economy. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." be damned, you need to have children and while your at it you need to buy a $900 stroller.
So what can we do to be happy? As I said there is no instruction list in this book. What I took away from it is I need to make predictions based of what I know, not what I imagine. For example, I have Crohn's Disease. Popcorn makes it act up. Popcorn smells really good. When someone makes popcorn and it smells so good, it is tempting to eat some. Now I could eat the popcorn, I could savor that puffy, salty, buttery goodness and be really happy about it for about 5 minutes. But what I know is about 24 hours later, I will be curled up on my bathroom floor for about 5 hours praying for death. According to Mr. Gilbert the way the brain works, it would actually have me keep eating the popcorn, resulting in 5 hours of pain for the 5 minutes of pleasure. This is true as it took me several years to figure out the same action would keep producing the same result. Fortunately, I'm already on the road to happiness as I have retrained myself over the years not to eat things that cause Crohn's flare ups, no matter how good that food may taste.
So for an experiment I'm going to try a new way of thinking about loosing weight. I've always gone into the weight loss thing with the idea that if I lose weight things will be so much better! Clothes will fit! Boys will like me! I will be able to manage my finances! OK, maybe not the latter but you get the point. What I know is if I loose weight I will physically feel better. When I was 20lbs lighter I could move faster, lift more, and wasn't so wiped out all the time. I shouldn't imagine what it will be like because I can't know what the outcome will be. So my goal is to loose weight to gain physical health. To be able to do run for an emergency at work and not feel like I'm having a minor heart attack. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

The Lovely Bones

By Alice Sebold
You'd have to be living under a rock not to at least have seen this book around. I've seen it many times and as usual, I refused to hop on the bandwagon right away. I'm glad I finally got on for the ride. The narrative of this book is really different than anything I've ever read. Susie Salmon at fourteen is brutally raped and murdered by her neighbor. The rest of the book is Susie watching her family, friends, and her killer from her personalized heaven.
What's really interesting is that instead of first person narrative from each character we get first person emotions and actions through Susie. Because she is dead she can sense the thoughts and feelings of the other characters and express them to us. This is really brilliant as we get so many perspectives on the story but through only one "voice."
The actions and plot are very realistic. This is life in the suburbs. All the houses look the same but behind the similar facades are broken hearts, broken marriages, weak adults, strong children, murderers, and unhappiness. The end is not tied up neatly in a bow, and I appreciate that as life never is. This is an impressive debut novel. Alice Sebold's next novel is due out in October and I'm looking forward to reading it. Peter Jackson is directing the movie, which is very exciting as he is good at the adaptations.

Atonement

By Ian McEwan
I had started Atonement last year and didn't finish. I tried again, letting the locale of Edgerton Park and oppressive heat of Connecticut in the summer put me in the world of an English country manor in August. I found myself completely drawn in by the story, characters, and McEwan's writing style. Briony is a girl of thirteen who is isolated and over-imaginative. (I can relate!) She misconstrues an encounter she witnesses between her sister, Celia and a family friend, Robbie. This leads to her accusing him of the reap of her cousin. In turn it leads to the destruction of her family. We then see the continuation of Robbie's life after his release from prison. He is now a soldier in the Army retreating from Dunkirk. He and Celia are still in contact. Briony is now a nurse, like Celia, and tries to atone for her sins though her work. It is still not enough and she tracks down her family in an attempt to redress the wrongs against Robbie and clear his name.
The end is Briony in her 70's, a successful novelist and the author of all we have read before. Were the previous accounts true? Parts are explained and parts are left to the readers imagination. I actually wish it had been a little less specific in regards to Robbie and Celia's outcomes. But I do see where the fictional author is attempting to use her novel as her atonement which is something she could not do in her actions. Much is made that until her "character's" are all dead, the novel will not be published. Briony herself is dying, so it is unclear if she will even be able to atone, or worse be aware of it if she does. This is the irony of Briony's situation, she has been diagnosed with vascular dementia. The person who over-fantasized will now be stripped of her mind and the guilt over her accusation may be relieved but she may not even be aware of it. Sad ending. It will be interesting to see how the movie pans out.

The Cider House Rules

By John Irving
I spent my re-read of Deathly Hallows with the other two authors from the charity event I attended last year. Stephen King organized a fund raiser for The Haven Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. He read from his work as did J.K. Rowling and John Irving. My three favorite authors in one setting at Radio City Music Hall. It was heaven!
Anyway to recreate the triumvirate I listened to The Cider House Rules on audio book. Cider House is one of my favorite Irving novels. It doesn't deal with the usual issues of his main characters and this has a nice historical backdrop of the US during the first half of the 20th century. It also goes into detail about a controversial subject, abortion. I must say reading the graphic detail and hearing it are two different things. Reading any of it doesn't phase me, but hearing the squelchier details was a little much. The narrator Grover Gardener has a suitable reading voice. He doesn't do "voices", but I don't think " voices " are necessary for the story. It sound's as if Homer Wells himself were telling the tale at the end of his life.

Cell

By Stephen King
How does one make the transition from Harry Potter Mania back to their regular reading. With a zombie novel of course! I had read this book last summer and enjoyed it. I wanted to read something familiar and comforting. This novel is classic King, I think of it as sort of a mini-The Stand.
Take a common item in society-cell phones. Make them destructive-everyone who uses them turns into a zombie. Break down society-zombies vs. the normal people. Have a big confrontation between the two-normal people blow up the zombies. End on a vague but hopeful note-leading man tries to heal partially zombified son, but we don't know whether it worked or not. I'd like to think it did.
This is short by King's standards-only 450 pages. It cooks along at a fast pace and has some surprising and shocking twists. As usual the character's are the best, including Tom-King's first Homosexual!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

So as promised, more on Deathly Hallows. However I feel a little Harry Pottered-out. So instead of a detailed post (which would be long) I have made a list of my Five Favorite Things about this book...
1. Severus Snape's back story. Yes he's ultimately on Harry's side but it's so much more complex than good and evil. The biggest surprise, Snape and Lilly BFF's! Never saw that coming.
2. The Deathly Hallows. New mythology at this late stage of the game? Yes!
3. Neville Longbottom, he could have been the chosen one. In this book he proves he was equal to the task.
4. Harry's use of the Hallows and Horcruxes for the greater good and not his own purposes.
5. Voldemort's stupidity. He doesn't trust, he has a huge superiority complex, and he's assumptive. I love that part of his undoing was thinking only he knew of the Room of Requirement. Where did he think all that crap came from?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It's a little over 24 hours since I picked up the book at Borders yesterday at midnight. This was without a doubt the best read of my 30 years on this earth. I will write more later as I am just going to reread the book again at a slower pace. I also wish to not spoil the book for anyone.

Some of my favorite moments:
"Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run."
"You know, sometimes I think we Sort too soon..."
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Thanks Jo this was well worth the wait.

The Order of the Phoenix

I enjoy Order of the Phoenix a great deal more than most. Sure it has Angry Harry-but if I had to go through all that I'd be pissed too. My favorite parts:
1. Voldemort's possession of Harry and then vacating the premises when love is in the air. I can just see Volde jumping around saying "Ewww!....Love...Nasty!"
2. Umbridge getting hauled off by Centaurs.
3. Neville kicking ass.
4. Luna Lovegood.
5. The badges given out at the Ministry of Magic "Harry Potter-Rescue Mission."

The Deathly Hallows

So I've just discovered that there are major spoilerish happenings on the interwebs. People who ordered their copies of Deatly hallows from DeepDiscounts.com got their books already. (Lucky bastards.) Of course these idiots are now posting scans of the book on the internet. Again-bastards. So I think I am headed into official internet silence. After tomorrow's internet orders for the shows I'm designing, other than email checks and whatever blog posts I can manage, there will be no other internet viewings until after the book is finished.
More time to spend with the cats.
UPDATE: The following piece in the Times is causing an uproar, claiming it has spoilers galore. I don't think it does. It has hints and mentions a few things from previous books but it does not give details. I thought it was the perfect thing to read to quench any taste I might have had for a spoiler.
This piece from the NY Times is great. It is their carefully worded review of the book. Again who are these people that just go buy the book early? So unfair!

Goblet of Fire

I finished Goblet of Fire two days ago. It is my least favorite of the books but it does have some key points for the series at large.

1.No one stops being a Death Eater. Sirius mentions this to Harry when describing Karkaroff. It is indeed true as Karkaroff is killed later. Every other Death Eater has either died in the line of duty or on Volde's orders. Foreshadowing to Snape's Death? You betcha. Draco's death? Could be the reprieve, likely he'll be used alive to torment Narcissa and Lucius for a while at least.

2. Mad-Eye Moody fake out. One of the best fake-outs in the history of Literature. Absolutely Brilliant. It even works so well when you know the conceit and are re-reading and thinking about it from Barty Crouch Jr.'s point of view. Why is he so nice to Neville? He's sneaky and manipulative sure, he's trying to emulate Moody, and he wants Harry to figure out the Gillyweed thing. But Mad-Eye Barty is really kind to Neville. Residual guilt perhaps? He was stopped in his Death Eater tracks by a Dementor so I suppose we'll never know.

3. Snape's reveal of the Dark Mark. I think this tiny moment is HUGE and proof of Snape's true colors more on this at the Snape Theory.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In the third installment of the Harry Potter series we really get the ball rolling. Major characters and plot points are introduced. This is my favorite of all the books so far. Mainly because we are introduced to the Marauders and their backstory. We also meet Trelawney and see how divination works in the Wizarding World. And let's not forget, Gryffindor finally wins the Quidditch Cup. The most brilliant part of the book is JKR's writing. She frequently set's us up and bowls us over with plot twist after plot twist.

HP&POA brings up several big questions that as of book 6 have not been answered:
Why is Neville so afraid of Snape? Sure Snape is very critical of Neville, but so is Neville's whole family. Neville is terrified of Snape. Does Neville know more of Snape's history than we think? I belive that's possible. Neville's Grandmother has told him all about his parents, Voldemort, and the Death Eaters. What has she told him about Sanpe? I hope we find out in Book 7.
When we are first made privy to the events of Halloween '81 by Sirius he mentions how he was to check on Wormtail that night. When he didn't find Wormtail, he went to check on Lily & James and found them dead. If Sirius was not the secret keeper, how would he know where to go? I hope we get a clear description of this night in Book 7, because I am so confused.
How did Peter Pettigrew get sorted into Gryffindor? And what made him adopt such Slytheriny ways? I think we will find Wormtail's redemption as a Gryffindor in Book 7.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

After finishing Year 2 of the Harry Potter Series I've noticed a few more subtle clues to the outcome of the books. We are introduced to a Horcrux in this book in the form of Tom Riddle's diary. Though at this time it is only viewed as a serious piece of dark magic. Harry instinctively destroys the Horcrux, which is probably a path he should stick to for destroying the rest considering Dumbledore's hand in Book 6. This secret Horcrux introduction is mirrored in Book 6 where the Horcruxes are a major plot device and explained, though somewhat inefficiently.

During the post-action Dumbledore wrap-up, Dumbledore explains to Harry why he is a Parselmouth. "Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" says Harry. Well, upon further reflection this supports the Harry is a Horcrux theory now doesn't it? I know this has been a major key to that theory but in now observing the structure of Years 1 & 2 it seems far more likely. Harry mentions to Riddle that he does not know why the spell Voldemort cast backfired, in fact no one does. My theory is since he had intended to make a Horcrux from Harry's murder, he probably had to cast Avada Kedavra and the Horcrux spell at the same time. The spells hit Harry, who was protected by Lily's sacrafice, and the spells flew and backfired everywhere. Most likely turning Harry into an accidental Horcrux in the process.

I also wonder if Harry will make a return to the Chamber of Secrets on his Horcrux hunt. There is no item specifially mentioned in the text that could be a Horcrux, but Harry could go into the lair of the Basalisk now that it's dead. Voldemort might not have left it there before graduating, but he could have dropped it of during his application for the DADA job.

There's not much going on with Snape in this book. Knowing JKR, there probably is something crucial but oh-so-subtle that I'm missing.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

So of course with the imminent release (37 days-squeee!) of HP & the Deathly Hallows I have begun rereading the series. After finishing HP&SS my head is spinning, I really think JKR has structurally bookended the series with Books 1 & 7. By this I mean, Books 1 & 7 will mirror each other. For instance I believe Harry needs Ron and Hermione to complete the things he needs to do to face Voldemort, but ultimately he must face Voldemort alone. The quest to find the Horcruxes and confront Voldemort will be much like the tasks to find the Sorcerers Stone.
I also had quite the revelation about the DADA teachers and the pattern they have through the series. Then there is Snape, throughout SS Snape is set up to be the bad guy but given the reprieve at the end of the book. I think this will be the ultimate outcome of Snape's character in Book 7. But naturally JKR will do it in some super tricksy way we never saw coming.
In addition to reading the books I've been participating in The Leaky Cauldron's Ultimate Deathly Hallows Prediction Exam. You sign in, answer the questions, and eventually when the answers in Deathly Hallows are revealed you have the chance to be THE ULTIMATE HARRY POTTER MASTER OF KNOWLEDGE! And maybe win a prize, it's fun stuff.

Squeeee!

There is a trailer for The Golden Compass film on the Yahoo! Movies site via this link here.
And this poster is so beautiful.
It looks amazing! It's got a lot of CG work to it, which makes sense, you could never get a polar bear to wear armor and co-operate. It will be interesting to see if they fuse the CG and live action a little more or if they leave it as a style choice.
So exciting!

Snape Theory Begins!

As noted in previous posts, I have a fabulous Snape theory and I pledged to have it finished before Book 7 arrives. The short version of the theory is this: Snape is ultimately good and wants Voldemort to go down, but he wants to be famous because of it. He wants to be the greatest wizard in the world.
I've been pondering how best to post this theory and instead of a big fat post on the 101 blog I decided to drag it out over the next two months on my newest blog: ElizaB's Snape Theory, Severus Snape: The Epic Hero Wannabe.
I'm very excited about this process but blogger is being a pain and won't let me pretty up the site. Grrrrr!
*cross posted at the 101 blog*

Bookround

Tonight I attended my first Bookround. This is a local book club in New Haven. It works by announcing the book, meeting place, and time online, then members sign up for the books they want to read and discuss. It's perfect for me. I'm not forced into reading anything I don't want to and I can attend the discussion if it fits into my schedule. I've been meaning to attend one for a while, but between one thing and another (and chickening out once) I never made it before tonight.
I had a great time. We discussed To Kill A Mockingbird as part of Big Read New Haven. One of the ladies who works at The Arts and Ideas Festival was there and expalined why they chose this particualr book. 1.) The race issues in the novel were something that New Haven-ites could relate to. 2.) It is available in Spanish. 3.) It's a book many ages can read and connect to because it works on so many levels. So we discussed the race issues, and the ages we were when we read the book initially. This was one girl's first reading, which was exciting to hear. We talked about social class and the difference between kids now and then. It was a good discussion.
I think I will try to attend another. I'm sure there is a difference in the type of book and group dynamic at every Bookround which is exciting. I am voting for the current contenders The Red Tent, The Tao of Pooh, and The Robber Bride. Hopefully I will be able to attend another this summer.

*cross posted at the 101 blog*

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

by Diana Gabaldon
I've made it! I've finished! I have read all the Outlander books! I am done!
What's that?
There's going to be another book! Oh for christ's sake...

Annoyance with the fact that I'm still not at the end of the story aside, A Breath of Snow and Ashes was great. It cooked along at a fast pace with many exciting plot twists. I even stayed up waaay late into the night a few times because the story was so gripping. Less politics-more melodrama!
Editing is still an issue. It tends to get worse towards the end of the book. This time I noted words with letters left out and a sentence that literally repeated a phrase with in itself. Were these flaws buried deep within the text I could have forgiven them. But they were not only at the beginning of paragraphs, but at the beginning of chapters!
Really? Who is it that's not doing their job at Delta? Come on!
Hopefully they will get it together for the final (maybe?) book King, Farewell. It is dubious amongst any press I can find whether there will actually be another book. However Snow and Ashes did not tie everything up, and it left out the chapter printed in The Outlandish Companion. The biggest indicator is that a big hoopla was not made over Snow and Ashes being "THE END." Now DG is no JKR but you'd think they'd make a big deal over the end of a story that has taken 5347 pages so far.

The Outlandish Companion

by:Diana Gabaldon
In Which Much is Revealed...if you really want to know. Truth is, I don't need to know. I don't need to read emails between Ms. Gabaldon and her fans about herbal medicine practices. I don't need to read the birth charts and horoscopes for Jamie and Claire. I don't need a synopsis of all the books I've already read, thanks.
I had checked this out of the library when I had begun The Fiery Cross, intending to blast through FC and the latest book, and continuing on to Companion. Unfortunately (or really rather fortunately) I was only able to skim this before I had to return it to the library. I read the chapters I wanted and skipped such things as character horoscopes, emails between Diana and her readers on various obsessive topics, and bad computer generated images and rehashed descriptions of items like wedding rings, necklaces, and other "Objects of Use."
What I did get out of this book was the process of Diana's writing and research, which was interesting. Just as I suspected she writes random chapters and then strings them together with filler. Enh...whatever works for you. She frequently re-iterates that the first book was for practice and never meant to be seen by anyone, therefore she has been using this series to develop her style and process. OK, I can live with that. Seriously though the editing still needs work, I thought the point of the editor was to help the author string these things together.
The other big point of interest was the chapters of things she has already written for future books. One was for The Fiery Cross, which has been published, although part of that ended up in A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Interestingly the series was intended as 6 books with the final being King's Farewell. But we know A Breath of Snow and Ashes is #6 and the chapter from King's Farewell "Surgeon's Steel" was not in Snow. So I'm thinking we still have one more book to go.

Forever

So the good olde Post Office will be raising stamp prices again on Monday the 14th. They are also producing a "Forever Stamp." Meaning, no matter how high prices go you can always use the Forever Stamp at whatever price you originally purchased it. Considering prices only go up and technology is now way ahead of the stamps and mules they use to deliver mail, a Forever Stamp seems like a good idea.
Or is it?
In Ring Around the Sun a group of mutant humans is secretly manufacturing items like the Forever Light Bulb, Forever Razor Blade, and the Forever Car. Coincidence? Well... yes it probably is-but a creepy one none the less!

The Golden Compass

I overheard recently on Pottercast that The Golden Compass Movie site was up and that it would generate your Daemon for you. Those of you who have read the books know what I mean when I say Daemon. The rest of you, well read the books or check out the http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/ for yourself.

The site is pretty cool and in addition to the Daemon Generator has a lot of the concept art. It looks beautiful, especially those armored bears! The alethiometer was kind of disappointing, you twiddle with it and it reveals...desktop wallpapers! These are nice, but really? Wallpapers?

My Daemon's name is Alvin and is a crow, which means I am "responsible, modest, shy, flexible, and solitary." Yep, pretty much sums me up.

The Fiery Cross

By Diana Gabaldon

I have finally finished reading the fifth installment of the Outlander Series, The Fiery Cross. It took a while for a few reasons,
1. The book is 1443 pages long. That's a bit much even for me.
2. I was too busy to read.
3. Like Dragonfly in Amber, the book stalled out with it's talk of politics.

I was heartened to finish when I talked about the books recently with my colleague and neighbor Amanda. She had also read the first book and loved it. When she moved onto the second book, she too got bored. We realized it wasn't just her or me, it was the book. So I encouraged her to read Voyager-which is my favorite thus far. In turn she encouraged me to skip forward.
Now skipping forward in books is something I don't make a practice of. Garth does it all the time, but my fear is I will miss something important or at least that I'll miss a good bit of gravy. If it's a book I've read a dozen times like Gone With The Wind, I'll skip parts that I'm not keen to re-read again. Like the descriptions of the Civil War battles-snooze!
In Fiery Cross I was trucking along, things had gotten very exciting with a good death fake-out. Then, boom! Mired down in the politics once again. Then another major character nearly dead! More politics. Snooze. Then finally the culmination of a mystery that's been lingering through the last three books. End scene. Again it's Gabaldon's erratic writing style that bugs me, but on the other hand I need to know what happens to these people!
Now I'm on to the last installment (thus far), A Breath of Snow and Ashes. We'll see how we go....

Ring Around the Sun

by Clifford D. Simak
Ring Around the Sun is a sci-fi novel published in 1952. It's been on my "Unread Bookshelf" for a year or two now and I finally managed to blast through it this week. I think it's been said before that I'm a huge Stephen King fan. (Has it? Are you really?) He has stated that this book was a big influence on him writing the Dark Tower Series. Well, last weeks Lost episode reminded me I needed to reread the Tower series and then reminded me I still had this book kicking around. I figured since it is only 200 pages I really had no excuse.
It was good, though old school sci-fi really isn't my thing. The writing style is a little flat but the ideas are way ahead of their time for '52. The writing was not terribly descriptive which normally I would find annoying, however it didn't immediately bring to mind the "future" specific to the 50's either. It was much more archetypal. I could clearly see the influences on the Dark Tower. The main one being the idea that there is an Earth one second in front of us and another behind and so on stretching to infinity. Creating a ring round the sun. Unless you really dig the 50's sci-fi I wouldn't rush right out and buy it. However for King and Lost fans might be worth a perusal.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee
This year the International Festival of Arts and Ideas here in New Haven (my employer for the month of June) is participating with the New Haven Public Library in a project called The Big Read. The reading selection is the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird. A book which I have not read in 15 years. In May I will be attending a Bookround discussion of the novel and I will try to make it to a few of the Mockingbird events around the city. Or at the very least I will watch events from the 12th floor office of the Festival.
I have just completed a first read through of the book. It's still as good as I remember But I was surprised at how much I had forgotten. It's difficult to forget the Tom Robinson trial as Gregory Peck's movie performance was so magnetic. And who could forget Boo Radley and the children's obsession to see him in the flesh? The rabid dog in February was another high point. But when isn't a rabid dog in February a high point?
I also remember being completely confused by the "chiffarobe" What the heck is a chiffarobe? In this day and age one could just Google the damn thing. But I grew up like Scout and Jem, playing outdoors with no internets or fiber-optic anything.

I am pleased to present or your information (and mine)...a chiffarobe.

Sitcom Style

By Diana Friedman
As a child I watched a fair amount of TV. I remember being limited by how much I could watch and that I had a fairly early bedtime. Therefore I watched a lot of sitcom reruns in the hours between getting home from school and dinnertime. My favorite was the Brady Bunch, I was thoroughly fascinated by this large suburban family. Mine is very small so the idea of more than three or four people living in one space is completely foreign to me. The Brady's house and their frequent space and privacy issues were mind boggling to me. Why not move? Why doesn't Mr. Brady-an architect-build an addition? Why all that living space and then sleep in the tiniest bedrooms known to man? Where the hell are the closets?
Sitcom Style is a coffee table book dedicated to the scene design of the genre known as sitcom. This was an interesting book. Not only do I finally get the layouts of these homes that have plagued me with their inconsistencies for years, but the designers also discuss the set dressing and where and why they acquired it. My favorite bit of trivia. The granny square afghan on the back of Roseanne's couch was made for the show because the designer couldn't find one. And people kept lifting it from the set, so after the third one they had custom made it was stitched directly to the couch.
The book also has a strange aspect of it which is how to design your home to look like a sitcom home. Wanting your home to look like a sitcom? Now if that isn't a symptom of media obsessed consumerist America, I don't know what is.

Drums of Autumn

Before my trip to Lulu-land I did manage to read another of the Outlander novels, but didn't have time to post. Drums of Autumn is the continuation of the saga of Jamie and Claire. This episode brings us to colonial North Carolina. Back in modern Scotland there is a nice counterpoint with the adventures of Claire and Jamie's daughter Brianna going back in time to find them and her boyfriend Rodger following. I enjoyed this book as much as Outlander, Voyager is still my favorite, and Dragonfly in Amber is still my least favorite. And less editing problems this time! I have a co-worker who also reads these novels and is a huge fan. She feels like Diana Gabaldon doesn't write in a linear fashion. Most novelists (it seems, though I am no expert) sort of have an outline, at least in their head, and write with the intention of point A to point B. It turns out Diana Gabaldon writes random chapters and then pieces them together into a story later, filling in the blanks with other chapters. This explains a lot of the editing issues and occasional plot holes. The series is still enjoyable, regardless and I am onto the next one.

The problem with working in theatre...

...is that sometimes your life is consumed by it. For the past month or so I've been working on the current production at our humble regional theater. The first few weeks were helping out in the costume shop pulling costumes from stock and ordering things, the last two were spent in a hellish tech process. Fortunately the actors and run crew on the production have been the most amazing, positive, and fun group of people anyone could hope to work with in this kind of situation. Through all the craziness, we are having a blast.
So there has barely been time for sleeping, much less blogging, reading, or working on the 101. I have only the briefest bit of down time over Easter weekend as I am also designing costumes for a show as well. The good news is my finances are in great shape with all the OT and extra income. But is it worth it? I have no qualms about working endless hours on a show where the end result is an amazing theatrical experience. But Lulu is not my cup of tea. It may well be just me, though. I have a HUGE problem with the portrayal of women as original sin and objects of lust. I don't like the stories of Helen of Troy or Guenivere either-an unsympathetic female holds no interest for me. Oh all the men of the world love you, yet you are so miserable?-cry me a f-ing river. Therefore it's not suprising Lulu grates on me. The show is visually quite stunning, even if those visuals leave us wiping up stage blood and picking blue berries out of the washing machine. Between myself and the props runner everyday is a new laundry disaster. Now that we've opened things will settle down and I'll be back in the blogging groove soon.
(cross-posted on the 101 Blog)

Voyager

By: Diana Gabaldon
Due to a vicious sinus infection I spent the last week in bed. Subsequently I was able to blast through Voyager, the third book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I liked this book a great deal more than Dragonfly in Amber. There were more locations and we didn't spend too long in one place, which prevented the stall-outs I found in the previous novel. The action centers around a treasure and a kidnapping. We jump from Scotland of the '60's to Scotland of the 18th Century, America, France, and finally the 18th century West Indies, giving things a very Pirate's of the Caribbean feel.
The characters have aged 20 years in this episode and we see more action from a few minor characters from the previous books. In particular there is a huge twist at the end which I did not see coming. Thing's tied up nicely and I found this plot to be much more intricate and better structured than the previous novels. I think the idea of a historical novel is great, but it's possible that structuring your story around specific events can be limiting. For instance DIA takes us up to the Battle of Culloden. This can't really happen until the end of the novel so the expanse before is used to build the political intrigue of the Jacobite uprising. Problem is, it was not very intriguing, it felt very forced. In Voyager the plot is driven by the character's attempt to resolve conflict in a historical setting. Not to participate in history itself. And yes, there were editing problems once again. This time the work suffered from an overuse of unreferenced pronouns and a few grammatical errors.
All in all, the series is still compelling and I'm moving on to the next book Drums of Autumn. I only hope it's as good as it's predecessor.

Catundra

By: Stephen Cosgrove
Illustrated by: Robin James
While I was sorting through the small mountain of books in my mother's attic I happened upon one of my favorite children's books, Catundra. In the late 70's, a fellow named Stephen Cosgrove was shopping for a book for his three year old daughter. What he wanted was a nice story, with pictures, with a small moral attached, and a small price tag. He didn't find any, so he wrote his own. Thus was born the Serendipity Books
I had several of these books, but my favorite was always Catundra. One, it had a cat, my favorite critter. Two, the cat was a big fat orange cat, my favorite kind of cat. Three, it had a good story. The good parts version: Catundra is fat, she lives alone in the woods, the forest critters laugh at her because she is so fat, so she is miserable. One day she is so hungry, she catches a mole to eat. The mole convinces her that she should not eat him but let him become her personal trainer. With hard work and coaching from the mole, Catundra loses the weight. She and the mole live happily ever after. The End.
What's now amazing to me, at age 30, is this book comes right out and says "Poor Catundra would feel so bad after their name calling that she felt she just had to do something to forget what they had said and so she would eat more and more. Every time she ate some more she got just a little fatter, which made her feel worse and so she ate some more." Catundra is the source of her own misery. She is comfort eating. This is still something people can't wrap their heads around, and this book was written in 1978?! Maybe if more people read Catundra, we wouldn't have this obesity epidemic in America.
I took a look around the web to see what Stephen has been up to. Turns out he's re-edited all the books to correct errors and now they all take place on the mythical island of Serendipity. He's also created this amazing website called bookpop.com. It has interactive stories, printable coloring books, and audio books read by Steve himself. I think it's a brilliant way to get kids reading- Stephen Cosgrove Rocks!

Mapping the World of Harry Potter

Edited By Mercedes Lackey
"Purveyors of Aids to Literary Mischief Makers is proud to present the highly unauthorized work: Mapping the World of Harry Potter." In which, science fiction and fantasy writers expound upon the Harry Potter world with varying results including but not limited to: hilarity, amusement, incredulity, and dullness.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. First off, there is the embossed cover which has such a nice texture to it that with the sepia and gold printing you are kind of fooled into the notion that it could be parchment. The essays were all relatively short, lending itself to mealtime and waiting room reading. The quality of the essays were all very good, well researched and holding strong points of view.
I learned a few things such as the existence and format of the "Schooldays Novel." The existence of extensive fan fiction that leans towards the, ahem, adult fantasy genre. Ok, fine it's porn, there is fan fiction porn out there, on the internet with Harry Potter characters! On one hand I'm not surprised, on the other I'm a little disturbed. It's like movies with puppets or muppets having sex. I understand it's about pushing an envelope for some people, it's supposed to be a controversial thing. For me personally, it crosses a line and I just can't go there.
Anyway, onward to more decorous topics. Sarah Zettel proves that Hermione Granger, while somewhat annoying, is indeed a feminist and a fine role model for girls. Martha Wells tells us why Neville Longbottom is an epic hero in his own right. Richard Garfinkle has the most ludicrous theory on why Harry should really die and leave the defeat of Voldemort in the far more capable hands of Hermione Granger. Maybe he's just writing this tongue in cheek, but seriously? Have you not read Hero With A Thousand Faces? Do you not know the epic hero's journey? Have you been reading the same books as the rest of the free world?

Dragonfly in Amber

By Diana Gabaldon
Wow. In looking back over the book blog I haven't finished a fiction book in two months. I've been mostly spending time in the Harry Potterverse working on the Snape Theory, so I've been perusing quite a bit of non-fiction on that subject. I had planned to finish Dragonfly in Amber long before I left for Oregon, but I became busy with the Theory and ran out of time. I couldn't take the book with me due to the enormous size of the hardback copy I own. It was also unfortunate that the book began to drag in the last third. Dragonfly in Amber is the continuation of Outlander and while it is a good book it was not as exciting as it's predecessor.
The characters are still amazing, the story is moving, there were interesting plot twists. But again the editing is out of hand. My previous experience with Outlander's editing was an annoyance at obvious grammatical errors. This time there was rambling and unnecessary action. I'm all for descriptive color. One of my favorite authors is John Irving who can ramble on about detail with the best of them. In the case of Diana Gabaldon I find some of it wasteful.
Perhaps my problem is too much Harry Potter and Lost. Both of these creations have so much depth and texture but all of it is carefully constructed and all of it has some deeper meaning. Maybe I'm being too hasty, after all there are at least four more books in the series and more to come that are not published. I think I'm putting this series in the Robert Jordan George R.R. Martin, and Jean M. Auel category of excellent writer, excellent story, amazing scope, however not quite brilliant-and in need of a better editor.
It is still compelling enough a series to move on to the next book Voyager. However the Acknowledgments are disconcerting.... "To...Jackie Cantor, as always, for being the rare and marvelous sort of editor who thinks it's all right for a book to be long as long as it's good..." Hmm, we'll see about that.

Gather First Chapters Update...

It had been my intention to read all of the first chapters in the Gather.com writing contest. Well with nearly 200 entries it's going to be a daunting task. I think I've read 15 so far. The entries close on March 15th and Round 2 begins on April 4. So if I can manage in 20 days to read 200+ entries I will. But I'm making no promises.
And they thought they wouldn't have enough entries...

What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7?

Ahh, the question on every Harry potter fans mind these days. Especially now with the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows confirmed. Mugglenet.com has published a book to answer the question: What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7? Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How Will The Adventure Finally End? I picked this up at the library with the intention of using it for research for my Snape Theory. It turned out to be a well written , concise, thoughtful examination of the Harry Potter theory-verse. There were even ideas I had not heard of yet, such as Neville possibly having his memory modified as a child-hence his rememberall always lights up. The more controversial theories such as Dumbledore is not dead and Harry is a Horcrux are presented with a for and against viewpoint, and in most cases I could see both arguments clearly, good points are made on both sides.
For the record I am a fan of The Leaky Cauldron Harry Potter site. Mugglenet is fine but is geared for a younger audience and I find their site hard to follow and look at, though their research and news is comparable to Leaky's. I also enjoy the Leaky podcast PotterCast. Their Cannon Conundrums segment is a particular favorite of mine and recently their Mailbag segment proposed the Time Turner Theory which is really interesting and incidentally works well with my theories too.

Harry Potter Book 7 Release Date!

It has been announced today via J.K. Rowling's site that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released at 12:01 am on July 21, 2007. I am alternately elated, and sad. It is after all the last Harry Potter book. I will probably go to the Borders midnight release party. That is not usually my style, but I am afraid of the spoilers that are going to leak out into the world. So I think the best plan is to get the book as soon as I can, go straight to my apartment, turn off the computer and the phone, and read for 12 hours or however long it takes to finish the book. At my reading rate I can manage 100 pages an hour so it will probably take less than 12, but I might need a nap and probably some weeping breaks too. Anyone else who wants to hang with me in my bubble is welcome.
The book will be released a week after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hits the movie theaters on July 13th. I guess July 13th-21st will be an Unofficial Harry Potter Week.

Update: The PotterCast blog challenge as of 2/5 is to answer the question how quickly will you read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and why? The answer was already written above!

Ummm...

You can call me a dirty old woman. (If you call 30 old.)
But when did Daniel Radcliffe become buff and hot?
Check out these publicity stills from the new London West End production of Equus.

Happy Trails...

Oprah's Book Club Returns...

Ladies and Gentlemen....drum roll... Oprah's Book Club has returned! What? You're not rushing to the bookstore to purchase Sidney Poitier's Autobiography The Measure of a Man? Well, truthfully, neither am I.
I have to say, while Ms. Winfrey's book club is somewhat cheesy. She has inspired millions more people (women especially) to read more books. Which is always a good thing. And Mr. Poitier certainly deserves the accolades and millions of dollars this opportunity will present.
It is an interesting choice this autobiography. It is a choice with a clearly defined genre, a subject which is easily fact checked, and a PBS documentary tie-in! After the last book club round with the Frey debacle I'm sure Oprah wants no controversy.

First Chapters Update...

After much press and fanfare the first chapters of the First Chapters contest were posted today. There are already so many! Gather.com has said if there are less than 200 entries then Simon and Schuster reserves the right to pull the publishing contract and the winner will be awarded the $5000 prize only. After 26 entries posted the first day, I don't think it's going to be a problem. I think this contest is a great idea and I'm sure the brains behind the operation thought they would be giving an amazing opportunity to an unpublished writer. I don't think they know how many people harbor the unpublished novel deep in the recesses of their hard drive. If you look at the FAQ's on every nearly writer's website, there is usually the question "How do I get my book published? Can I send you my manuscript?" The answers are usually "Get an agent!" and "No." My friend Linda gets asked these questions all the time and she's an illustrator.
It will be interesting indeed to see the quality of these submissions...

Hannibal the Cannibal of Words

Interesting news today about the new Thomas Harris book Hannibal Rising. Apparently Harris may have been plagiarising his fan fiction for material for his new novel. Check out the article here. I have to say even the idea of this book is appalling to me. Like Chriton's Lost World, Hannibal Rising is coinciding with a movie release. After reading his last book Hannibal I was horrified. I really felt that the ending was just sensationalized and not at all what Clarice Starling the character he has so well established in Silence of the Lambs would do. (The Hannibal movie ending was so much better.) I thought Hannibal was a sell out, when I heard about Hannibal Rising I was just disgusted. Now this charge of plagiarism is very curious indeed...

First Chapters...

Ah the popularity of the "America-Chooses-the-Winner-Contest." "American Idol" is the cornerstone of this type of contest it has been around the longest-followed by "So You Think You Can Dance?" Even porn stars have gotten into the act in "My Bare Lady" An adult movie star gets a chance to be a Shakespearean actress! (I'm not kidding! I wish I were.) Over saturation of this market aside the contest-reality show has now spilled into my life in two direct forms. First in theater with NBC's Grease: You're the One That I Want which I intend to watch because I want to see if any one I know will be on it. And Gather.com's First Chapter Contest which I will be participating in as a reader. I'd never even heard of Gather.com until the press started buzzing about this contest, but joined immediately. Essentially it's like American Idol with reading, there are judges but America Reads, and America Votes, and one lucky contestant gets a book deal. (If only Anya Peters had waited another year in her car-think of the glory!)
Round one is the first chapters of the submissions narrowed down to a field of twenty. Fifteen of those are chosen by readers five by the official judges. The second and third rounds are the second and third chapters, respectively. Four of the five finalists will be selected by the readers, one by the judges, and the finalist will be announced May 31st decided by the judges.
While I think "My Bare Lady is a little out of control, anything that gets Americans reading and voting gets my vote.

Outlander

by Diana Gabaldon
I heard about this book from two reputable sources within a few weeks of one another and that sealed the deal giving them a try. Funny enough both sources also mentioned the fact that these books are also usually labeled as Romance novels-"But they are not-not at all!" I purchased a copy at Book Trader from the Sci-fi section. I purchased a copy at Borders for my mother as a gift and it was in the Romance section. Yesterday when I went to Books and Co. to get a couple more books in the series it was shelved in regular ol' literature.
So Outlander really has no genre. Yes it's literature, yes there is romance, and there is time travel involved so it could be sci-fi. Regardless it's a really good story and well written. (Though poorly edited-I'll get to that later) Essentially Claire Randall, our heroine, accidentally travels in time through a stone ring from 1943 to 1743. There she gets trapped and meets, and marries, Jamie Frasier. It's a whirlwind of a novel that has adventure, history, fighting, torture, poison, true love, hate, revenge, bad men, good men, pain, death, bravery, cowardice, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion, and miracles. I described it to my mother as Brigadoon meets Clan of the Cave Bear. Meaning Scottish mysticism mixed with an impeccably researched historical setting, and a hot love story. For more on what Outlander is or isn't check out the male perspective of Gavin McNett on Salon.com.
My only gripe is the editing of the novel. Usually my problems with book editing come from the editor allowing the author to run his or her mouth with the story. (See Stephen King's It) In this case as the novel progresses punctuation, spelling, and grammar get spotty. For which there is just no excuse. Especially when a book has been reissued a few times. (Note: While my posts may not be the most grammatically correct, I do not have an editor, just spell check.)
So like many others who have read this book before me, I highly recommend it. It is not a romance novel. Don't be a book snob, march right into the Borders romance section and grab yourself a copy.