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An introductory meme that looked fun
Aug. 12th, 2015 10:07 amBased on one that was quite American-centric, Britishish version created by cmcmck on LJ, I saw it on Gillo's LJ.
( Curry, Corrie and King's Cross )
( Curry, Corrie and King's Cross )
(no subject)
Apr. 15th, 2015 08:41 pmReading Wednesday
I just finished Steel Blues, the second Order of the Air book by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham, and also a book about Round the Horne by Barry Took (and very bona it was, my dearios) and Sowing Secrets by Trisha Ashley.
I'm reading about half-a-dozen books; the third Order of the Air book, Throne of The Crescent Moon, Dave Barry's You Can Date Boys When You're Dead, a volume of Colette's letters, The Art of Coarse Acting, etc.
Next may be The Dark Colony, by Richard Penn, or Stella Benson's Living Alone.
I just finished Steel Blues, the second Order of the Air book by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham, and also a book about Round the Horne by Barry Took (and very bona it was, my dearios) and Sowing Secrets by Trisha Ashley.
I'm reading about half-a-dozen books; the third Order of the Air book, Throne of The Crescent Moon, Dave Barry's You Can Date Boys When You're Dead, a volume of Colette's letters, The Art of Coarse Acting, etc.
Next may be The Dark Colony, by Richard Penn, or Stella Benson's Living Alone.
long time no see
Jan. 31st, 2015 07:29 pmThere was a wren in the garden this morning!
Went to see Opera North's Figaro last night, which was excellent- go if it comes to your city and you like opera at all, lovely set design/staging, funny (the "This is my mother? Oh God, really?" scene was excellent), good acting, good singing, a great time all round. Reminded of how much I love the trios and quartets.
There was a televised Figaro in English in the nineties which was fun, with the Count as a nasty Tory MEP, which I was pleased to find on youtube when i came home and wanted to see the opera all over again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPV2Ac7S6-A (I must admit I slightly want to get Mark off of Mark Does Stuff to watch it to see him getting agitated about what a privileged git the Count is!)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQmL6ki6yE8 from Glydebourne, in Italian, with subtitles)
I finally browsed through this year's Yuletide fics; here are the ones I liked enough to keep.
( fairly long list )
Went to see Opera North's Figaro last night, which was excellent- go if it comes to your city and you like opera at all, lovely set design/staging, funny (the "This is my mother? Oh God, really?" scene was excellent), good acting, good singing, a great time all round. Reminded of how much I love the trios and quartets.
There was a televised Figaro in English in the nineties which was fun, with the Count as a nasty Tory MEP, which I was pleased to find on youtube when i came home and wanted to see the opera all over again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPV2Ac7S6-A (I must admit I slightly want to get Mark off of Mark Does Stuff to watch it to see him getting agitated about what a privileged git the Count is!)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQmL6ki6yE8 from Glydebourne, in Italian, with subtitles)
I finally browsed through this year's Yuletide fics; here are the ones I liked enough to keep.
( fairly long list )
Reading Wednesday
Nov. 26th, 2014 04:59 pmJust finished:
An Emma Lathen mystery; Zen Cho's collection of short stories Spirits Abroad (which is AMAZING); and the Good Housekeeping collection of articles from during the second world war.
Currently reading:
A regency romance Harry Potter fanfic! http://archiveofourown.org/works/28567/chapters/37909 (Crossover with the Antonia Forest Marlows series, but I haven't read them and it still works. Not sure if the fanwriter Ankaret is also the author with the first name Ankaret who's written a bunch of original books I've enjoyed lately; this one can certainly write well.)
Will read next:
Maybe a Dell Shannon. Or I've just bought Child of a Hidden Sea.
An Emma Lathen mystery; Zen Cho's collection of short stories Spirits Abroad (which is AMAZING); and the Good Housekeeping collection of articles from during the second world war.
Currently reading:
A regency romance Harry Potter fanfic! http://archiveofourown.org/works/28567/chapters/37909 (Crossover with the Antonia Forest Marlows series, but I haven't read them and it still works. Not sure if the fanwriter Ankaret is also the author with the first name Ankaret who's written a bunch of original books I've enjoyed lately; this one can certainly write well.)
Will read next:
Maybe a Dell Shannon. Or I've just bought Child of a Hidden Sea.
(no subject)
Aug. 30th, 2014 10:25 amPlaylist shuffle meme sheepery
Comedy playlist:
( Read more... )
(… pretty representative, yes- though no Mitch Benn, who's at the top of my "most plays" list. The first one of his in the shuffle seems to be "West End musical" at no. 18.)
Background music playlist:
( Read more... )
(also pretty representative, in that it's fairly incoherent- I've never collected one genre or another, it's just what I happened to hear and quite like at some point.)
Comedy playlist:
( Read more... )
(… pretty representative, yes- though no Mitch Benn, who's at the top of my "most plays" list. The first one of his in the shuffle seems to be "West End musical" at no. 18.)
Background music playlist:
( Read more... )
(also pretty representative, in that it's fairly incoherent- I've never collected one genre or another, it's just what I happened to hear and quite like at some point.)
Edinburgh gig notes
Aug. 27th, 2014 12:48 pmAs usual- fairly sketchy, mainly to trigger my memory.
Friday (arrived in the evening)
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Friday (arrived in the evening)
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Aug. 27th, 2014 11:52 amReading Wednesday
Currently reading: Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders- it's about leisure and consumption in Victorian England- it actually goes back earlier than the Victorians a lot, to show where the trends came from. Really enjoying it. Also Let's Stay Married by Basil Boothroyd, which is a comic take on self-help. And I'm slowly working my way through the short stories in the Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue of Lightspeed, which have all been good so far.
Just finished: The Travels of Ibn Battutah, (trans. Tim Mackintosh-Smith), memoirs of a great Muslim traveller of the 14th century. T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)'s story collection, Toad Words. One of Dorothy Dunnet's Johnson Johnson mysteries. Oh, and I read Edinburgh Picturesque by RL Stevenson on the train back from Edinburgh.
Next: Maybe a Dick Francis.
Currently reading: Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders- it's about leisure and consumption in Victorian England- it actually goes back earlier than the Victorians a lot, to show where the trends came from. Really enjoying it. Also Let's Stay Married by Basil Boothroyd, which is a comic take on self-help. And I'm slowly working my way through the short stories in the Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue of Lightspeed, which have all been good so far.
Just finished: The Travels of Ibn Battutah, (trans. Tim Mackintosh-Smith), memoirs of a great Muslim traveller of the 14th century. T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)'s story collection, Toad Words. One of Dorothy Dunnet's Johnson Johnson mysteries. Oh, and I read Edinburgh Picturesque by RL Stevenson on the train back from Edinburgh.
Next: Maybe a Dick Francis.
(no subject)
Aug. 20th, 2014 08:02 pmBack from Edinburgh! Wish I was still there! (I was definitely planning to not go next year. Maaayyyybe just for a weekend?)
Amount of booze, coffee and doughnuts consumed: Less than last year. Though probably only because the doughnut van wasn't there this year.
Sleep deprivation: About the same as last year
Poor planning leading to much dashing from old town to new town: Quite a lot less than last year, well done my spreadsheet skills!
Shows seen over three full days and two part days: 22 (of which 1 dance, 1 acrobatics, 20 comedy- 3 of which were instances of Alternative Comedy Memorial Society)
Days without a sore throat that hurts every time I laugh: 1
Shows missed: 4 (Decided to get up late and miss a morning one; decided to go to bed early and miss a midnight one; previous show badly overran; couldn't find venue. Like, I defy someone to walk down Victoria Street and find The Liquid Room, it DOES NOT EXIST.)
Performers making reference to the same army recruitment ad: 2
Most times seeing same performer: 3 (in own show and two mixed bills)
Unexpected onstage male nudity incidents: 2 (with a further 3 extremely revealing male skintight bodysuit incidents)
Unexpected onstage hats with rabbits on: 2
Plans to write up gigs properly: *out of cucumber error, please reboot*
Amount of booze, coffee and doughnuts consumed: Less than last year. Though probably only because the doughnut van wasn't there this year.
Sleep deprivation: About the same as last year
Poor planning leading to much dashing from old town to new town: Quite a lot less than last year, well done my spreadsheet skills!
Shows seen over three full days and two part days: 22 (of which 1 dance, 1 acrobatics, 20 comedy- 3 of which were instances of Alternative Comedy Memorial Society)
Days without a sore throat that hurts every time I laugh: 1
Shows missed: 4 (Decided to get up late and miss a morning one; decided to go to bed early and miss a midnight one; previous show badly overran; couldn't find venue. Like, I defy someone to walk down Victoria Street and find The Liquid Room, it DOES NOT EXIST.)
Performers making reference to the same army recruitment ad: 2
Most times seeing same performer: 3 (in own show and two mixed bills)
Unexpected onstage male nudity incidents: 2 (with a further 3 extremely revealing male skintight bodysuit incidents)
Unexpected onstage hats with rabbits on: 2
Plans to write up gigs properly: *out of cucumber error, please reboot*
Reading Wednesday
Jul. 23rd, 2014 10:30 amJust read:
I'm trying to catch up on the books I got for Christmas and the ebooks I got for my holiday in April. Read Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords (anthropological science fiction, very good) and the second Eternal Sky book, The Shattered Pillars- a very satisfactory second book, with everything getting worse for the characters but glints of hope, and I need to read Steles of the Sky *right now* to find out what happens, but it's still in hardback/expensive ebook, aargh. Also a mystery from Project Gutenberg, The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Reading: an A.J. Hall fic, and the TVGoHome book.
Will read next:
Not sure. Another Rinehart, perhaps, or a Robert Sheckley from my physical unread pile.
I'm trying to catch up on the books I got for Christmas and the ebooks I got for my holiday in April. Read Eleanor Arnason's Ring of Swords (anthropological science fiction, very good) and the second Eternal Sky book, The Shattered Pillars- a very satisfactory second book, with everything getting worse for the characters but glints of hope, and I need to read Steles of the Sky *right now* to find out what happens, but it's still in hardback/expensive ebook, aargh. Also a mystery from Project Gutenberg, The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Reading: an A.J. Hall fic, and the TVGoHome book.
Will read next:
Not sure. Another Rinehart, perhaps, or a Robert Sheckley from my physical unread pile.
(no subject)
Jul. 13th, 2014 05:27 pmARGComFest, second bit (I realised my notes on scraps of paper are a bit out of order so I've already done a lot of the Sunday. Less to type!)
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Full-length Alternative Comedy Memorial Society at the Soho Theatre. Themes: Japanese wishing festival! Python quotes! Buttplug!
( Read more... )
OK, so typing this out mayyyyyy have made me decide to go to ACMS an extra time in Edinburgh, necessitating dashing from the Pleasance to the Stand's yurt in St Andrew Sq in half an hour. IT'LL BE FINE. It's not like the bridge will be crowded or anything.
( Read more... )
Full-length Alternative Comedy Memorial Society at the Soho Theatre. Themes: Japanese wishing festival! Python quotes! Buttplug!
( Read more... )
OK, so typing this out mayyyyyy have made me decide to go to ACMS an extra time in Edinburgh, necessitating dashing from the Pleasance to the Stand's yurt in St Andrew Sq in half an hour. IT'LL BE FINE. It's not like the bridge will be crowded or anything.
last weekend's comedy marathon
Jul. 12th, 2014 07:55 pmI went to ARG on Sat and Sun and then to the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society on Monday night. About 17 hours of comedy over three days, mostly a bit weird. Very much my kind of weekend.
Philosophers quoted: Wittgenstein, Derrida, Zizek (twice).
ARG day 1, fragmentary notes of some good bits:
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Tl;dr: I had a lovely time, and you should go and see Joseph Morpurgo's show.
Philosophers quoted: Wittgenstein, Derrida, Zizek (twice).
ARG day 1, fragmentary notes of some good bits:
( Read more... )
Tl;dr: I had a lovely time, and you should go and see Joseph Morpurgo's show.
Reading Wednesday
Jun. 25th, 2014 02:08 pmJust read:
All the Dell Shannon mysteries have been republished as ebooks by an outfit called The Murder Room, and I read a couple of them that I don't have in print. Also Staynes and Storey's Goodbye Nanny Grey.
Reading:
Partway through a bunch of reading-myself-to-sleep books- The Science of Discworld, Adventure on the High Teas, The Chickens are Restless, Mrs Miniver, a collection of Armando Iannucci columns and one of Paul Jennings columns.
Will read next:
Dunno. I'm in the mood for some more mysteries, something not too hardboiled but not too cozy. I'll read some fanfic on the way home and then see see what I have on the shelf that I haven't read recently.
All the Dell Shannon mysteries have been republished as ebooks by an outfit called The Murder Room, and I read a couple of them that I don't have in print. Also Staynes and Storey's Goodbye Nanny Grey.
Reading:
Partway through a bunch of reading-myself-to-sleep books- The Science of Discworld, Adventure on the High Teas, The Chickens are Restless, Mrs Miniver, a collection of Armando Iannucci columns and one of Paul Jennings columns.
Will read next:
Dunno. I'm in the mood for some more mysteries, something not too hardboiled but not too cozy. I'll read some fanfic on the way home and then see see what I have on the shelf that I haven't read recently.
(no subject)
May. 25th, 2014 05:00 pmCheering myself up by watching Absolutely (also available on youtube). So many blissful, ridiculous moments. And scabrous, grotty ones too. And daft songs, and madly quotable punchlines, and silly linking devices. The famous sketches are the recurring ones, like Stoneybridge and the Little Girl, but I think many of the one-offs are even better (the swanky clothes shop in series 1 is a favourite, so's the woman at the opera with her flunkies).
Buy the box set (region 0) and get excellent special features too; the commentary's great because it was done 20 years later and they're all still friends so they're taking the piss out of each other and wondering why the hell they wrote the scripts like that. ("Oh, a Don and George sketch. This'll be short, then." "Yeah, you've got time to go and get a cup of tea." "You've got time to go and have a three course meal."
"Ah, now this one's biting satire." "No it's not, it's about shoving a giraffe up your arse."
"Oh, more squalor."
"Is this kid's TV, or are you just trying to be Morecambe and Wise?")
Buy the box set (region 0) and get excellent special features too; the commentary's great because it was done 20 years later and they're all still friends so they're taking the piss out of each other and wondering why the hell they wrote the scripts like that. ("Oh, a Don and George sketch. This'll be short, then." "Yeah, you've got time to go and get a cup of tea." "You've got time to go and have a three course meal."
"Ah, now this one's biting satire." "No it's not, it's about shoving a giraffe up your arse."
"Oh, more squalor."
"Is this kid's TV, or are you just trying to be Morecambe and Wise?")
Comedy gig notes
May. 21st, 2014 03:06 pmSpecifically, Mach comedy festival, a couple of weeks ago now. It was really nice, small and friendly. Not many hotel rooms in the town (it being a fairly small country town and all) so it's mostly hostels or camping; I was in a hostel with a bunch of the people who were doing the admin and running venues. I think another time I'd book a few less things beforehand so I had a bit more opportunity for going to some of the "surprise" events (and getting proper meals). It's mainly people trying stuff out for Edinburgh, but quite a few people were doing one finished show and one in progress.
Friday highlights:
( Natasia Demetriou and Ellie White, Mike Wozniak )
Saturday:
( Caroline Mabey, Nadia Kamil )
( Sheeps, Birthday Girls, Toby )
Sunday:
( Josh Widdecombe and Elis James, Gabby Best, John-Luke Roberts )
( Freeze!, The Bearpit Podcast (Podcast)* )
Friday highlights:
( Natasia Demetriou and Ellie White, Mike Wozniak )
Saturday:
( Caroline Mabey, Nadia Kamil )
( Sheeps, Birthday Girls, Toby )
Sunday:
( Josh Widdecombe and Elis James, Gabby Best, John-Luke Roberts )
( Freeze!, The Bearpit Podcast (Podcast)* )
(no subject)
Apr. 30th, 2014 07:49 pmCurrently reading: One of the Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr books- The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, I think it is. Also a facsimile of the 1931 Joy of Cookery, and the book about the Ignobel Prizes.
Just read: Several other Burglar Who… books, Matilda, Death of the Necromancer, The Talisman Ring, Spirits of Glory by Emily Devenport, What Matters in Jane Austen, and Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews. (My tablet stopped working on the flight to America. My kindle was fine.)
To read next: Perhaps Three Parts Dead. Or some more Burglar ones.
Just read: Several other Burglar Who… books, Matilda, Death of the Necromancer, The Talisman Ring, Spirits of Glory by Emily Devenport, What Matters in Jane Austen, and Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews. (My tablet stopped working on the flight to America. My kindle was fine.)
To read next: Perhaps Three Parts Dead. Or some more Burglar ones.
(no subject)
Apr. 13th, 2014 04:02 pmBecause I downloaded a bunch of fic yesterday in preparation for going away next weekend, have some recs from Yuletide 2013! (They're mostly 1-2,000 words or so; they tend to the funny or fluffy rather than angsty but check each one's own tags if you're feeling fragile.)
( cut for length )
( cut for length )
