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)