*sob*

Frank, A friend of mine from the MFA program (who's now moved away) has a brain tumor. Not sure if I have any readers who have met him, but you can read his blog here:

http://thisthinginmyhead.blogspot.com/

Secret of Kells!

Tortola Wedding Updates (WINs vs. FAILs)

Rediscovered "lost" jewelery (in neighbor's mailbox) (2 items): WIN
Lipstick colors (2 new, plus all owned previously): FAIL
New hair: WIN
"New" boobs: WIN
Maintenance of weight: FAIL
Ability to make my nose not-red: Yet to be Determined
"New" vision: Yet to be Determined
Boyfriend moral support: Win, hopefully to continue to be so

everything we've been taught about meter in poetry is wrong. . . sigh.

From Hugh's Prosody class:

Syllable-stress verse requires a fixed number of beats per line—just like stress-meter verse—but it also requires a fixed number of syllables per line (there are exceptions to both these rules, of course, but in principle this is the "normal" case).

-->Indeed, people who have been poorly taught poetic meter will often attempt to identify verse forms by the number of syllables (as in "this is in iambic pentameter; it has ten syllables per line").

Of course, we all now know why that statement makes no sense—a four-beat line of stress-meter verse can easily have anywhere from four to twelve syllables—or more.

In theory, she was an artist you want to root for— all these ideas about art and celebrity and a flair for the dramatic. But the first few singles made the Lady Gaga project feel so presumptuous, her artsy entitlement overwhelming her songs’ occasional strengths. “Bad Romance” was the moment where the music didn’t just live up to the (self-inflated) hype, but surpassed it. The track is epic in construction— by the time she gets to the bridge, more than three minutes in, the realization that there are hooks yet to come is thrilling. It helps that RedOne’s production matches the songwriting’s torrential drama; the churning, earth-shifting low-frequency synths are a programmatic reflection of the singer’s unsteady, perhaps unwise, infatuation. But it’s Gaga’s performance, the wholly unapologetic fools-rush-in carnal energy, that commitment to emotional bravery in a context of increasingly twee chart pop, that makes “Bad Romance” feel so necessary. —David Drake

me: i dont' get what my dissertation is supposed to be about
i read about modesty
and then about tourists
and then about magic
and now i'm reading about things.
"things," that is.

joevictorianist: magically modest tourists?

me: i wish
actually no
they sound dull

Lolcat Waste Land. Check it out. Ridiculous.

http://www.corprew.org/content/lolcat-wasteland/

Wow, kind of surprised that my blog is the first google hit for "Radiant Squalor." Perhaps more surprising is that it's the first hit for the Rochester quote, "As trees are by their bark embraced / Love to my soul doth cling." Did it somehow link it first because I was the one searching (?) is that crazy (?).

Speaking of the Rochester quote, it's from and early poem, and I continue to wonder whether it is meant as an innuendo or if he was at the time actually just writing more conventional poetry. Since I apparently have a problem with "irony," so I suppose I should run this by someone more "authoritative" on the subject. Maybe I'll put up the whole poem on here, why not? Can't sleep. . . hm but then I might have to go downstairs and get my volume of Rochester.

Actually kind of all poetry from the seventeenth century is innuendo anyway.

Ring for sale on etsy. Freaked me out!

Cloud Nine: Best Of Quote of the Day.

BETTY: I live for Clive. The whole aim of my life
Is to be what he looks for in a wife.
I am man’s creation you see,
And what men want is what I want to be.

CLIVE presents JOSHUA. He is played by a white.

Clive: My boy’s a jewel. Really has the knack.
You’d hardly notice that the fellow’s black.

YOU ARE DARK LIKE THIS CONTINENT

Okay, so as the last play of the quarter, I'm teaching Cloud Nine, by Caryl Churchill. I was a bit taken aback when I read it (I assigned it without having read it before). And so, for your amusement (?) I will be including a series of "best of" quotations. I'm not going to attempt analysis, but just as a caveat, yes, Churchill definitely intended some absurdity here, but since the play was written in 1979, it is not clear to me which aspects of the play were absurd to her vs. absurd to me.

But, enjoy! Esp. if I've already attempted to tell you about these.

BEST OF #1 (this is really the best/worst). This is from the first act, which is set in "Victorian Africa":

--------

CLIVE: You will be raped by cannibals.

MRS SAUNDERS: I just wanted to get out of your house.

CLIVE: My God, what women put us through. Cruel, cruel. I think you are the sort of woman who would enjoy whipping somebody. I’ve never met one before.

MRS SAUNDERS: Can I tell you something, Clive?

CLIVE: Let me tell you something first. Since you came to the house I have had an erection twenty-four hours a day except for ten minutes after the time we had intercourse.

MRS SAUNDERS: I don’t think that’s physically possible.

CLIVE: You are causing me appalling physical suffering. Is this the way to treat a benefactor?

(…)

CLIVE: Caroline, if you were shot with poisoned arrows do you know what I’d do? I’d fuck your dead body and poison myself. Caroline, you smell amazing. You terrify me. You are dark like this continent. Mysterious. Treacherous. When you rode to me through the night. When you fainted in my arms. When I came to you in your bed, when I lifted the mosquito netting, when I said let me in, let me in. Oh don’t shut me out, Caroline, let me in.

He has been caressing her feet and legs. He disappears completely under her skirt.

MRS SAUNDERS: Please stop. I can’t concentrate. I want to go home. I wish I didn’t enjoy the sensation because I don’t like you, Clive. I do like living in your house where there’s plenty of guns. But I don’t like you at all. But I do like the sensation. Well I’ll have it then. I’ll have it, I’ll have it. . .

(. . . )

CLIVE: Caroline, you are so voracious. Do let go. Tidy yourself up. There’s a hair in my mouth.

From philosophicallexicon.com. I mostly get these :-P. But my favorite is the "Derrida" entry.


aquinas, n.pl. (from a-, not, and quine) Philosophers who refuse to deny the existence or importance of something real or significant.
assearltion, n. A speech act whose illocutionary force is identical with the speaker. "He assearled himself across the room."

austintatious, adj. Displaying in a fine sense the niceties of the language. "I'm not sure what his point was, but his presentation was certainly austintatious."

derrida. A sequence of signs that fails to signify anything beyond itself. From a old French nonsense refrain: "Hey nonny derrida, nonny nonny derrida falala."

heidegger, n. A ponderous device for boring through thick layers of substance. "It's buried so deep we'll have to use a heidegger." Also useful for burying one's own past.

immanuel, n. (from im-, not, + manual, guide or rulebook) A set of instructions for doing something that kant (q.v.) be done.

kitch, n.Popular and pretentious academic nonsense, such as creationism or pop sociobiology. Hence kitcher, n. a kitch critic. "If only we had a kitcher around to tackle the anthropic principle!"

schell, n. An impermeable protective covering made entirely of German technical jargon, on the premise that what cannot be understood cannot be refuted; a useful hiding place for Ideas (though it may hold only one). Hence schell, v. to hide within a schell, e.g. "In the Phenomenology you can really see Hegel schelling his theory from any possible empiricist criticisms."


wittgenstone (from Old High Anglo-Austrian, witty and Stein) (1) v. To deny resolutely the existence or importance of something real or significant, on the ground that the grammatical pre-conditions for such a denial do not obtain. “Some think qualia should be quined or fostered – but I think they should be wittgenstoned.” (2) n. Clever but utterly unrelated metaphor used as an argumentative move to silence the opponent. “He argued that on my view I don’t know that I’m in pain; but since he’s not a good kripkographer, I managed to outsmart him with a wittgenstone.”

Check her out!



Mao Asada. Black gloves = awesome and terrifying!

Media that has made me cry in the relatively recent past (e.g. college +), from the absurd to the ridiculous to the actually sad:

Movies:
LOTR: Two Towers
Pan's Labyrinth
300 (it's the manipulation of rhetorical strategies)
Twilight: New Moon (when she's depressed and/or shots of the landscape and rain)

TV Miniseries:
Doctor Zhivago (version with Keira Knightley etc)

Music Videos:
Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"

Songs:
Tim Buckley, "Song To The Siren"
Sufjan Stevens, "Casimir Pulaski Day" (nooo to anything about cancer!)
Nancy Sinatra, "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)"

Novels:
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Mercy
Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

Poems:
Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Dirge Without Music"
D.H. Lawrence, "The Ship of Death"
Eavan Boland, "The Pomegranate"
Randall Jarrell, "Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"

I have to append here that I think something from Robin McKinley's books and definitely the Darkangel books has also made me tear up, though I can't quite remember which one.

Finally, in utmost absurdity, my pomegranate earrings from Coryell Design.

(Yes, I bought something. . . and I'm barely managing not to buy EVERYTHING: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoryellDesign.)

Cecelia in Thesisland: Seems pretty accurate to me!

Things I am trying to save:

My money
My time
My cell phone minutes
My visitor parking passes
My teeth

sigh.

Ok, final update on the swimsuit issue, is a somewhat disappointing, embarrassing, and relieving discover that I apparently already have six bikinis, which is more than any pale bookworm from Seattle should have. I mean maybe if I actually went to the beach more than once or twice a year.

Since we've been this far in Maia's swimsuit adventures (which sadly haven't been as fun as they sound), and this has been my primary accomplishment for the day (rather than preparing a stellar class for tomorrow) I may as well tie it up properly and sum them up:

Two I've never worn, one that's this red paisley pattern from J.Crew that I really love; the other, black with little flowers by Betsey Johnson (and other very silly Betsey Johnson-ish detailing);

Two that fit reliably enough to lounge around near a pool but not to actually go in the water, both of which I've worn a fair amount: one is red with a tiny string top and boyshort bottoms, from when I apparently thought this would make me look thinner (?) and one that's white with bananas from VS that I actually wore quite a bit last summer;

My favorite white standby from J. Crew which is cute and useful for all sorts of things like hoop dancing, though perhaps the color is starting to go a little;

Finally, an unwearable but adorable Anthro fortiesish (someone has to help me on accuracy) bikini. It has MORE coverage than any of the others but the waist hits right below the bellybotton, and I kind of think that regardless of how much I weigh or don't weigh, that is not a good place for elastic to hit. WHY did I keep it? This was a case of some kind of wishful thinking that somehow my body is capable of abs of steel.

I think I've just negated any possible argument for a new swimsuit, haven't I. Hmm. . .

EPIC SWIMSUIT POSTS PART IV: Final statements

#1: Does this girl have breasts? Anywhere? Also why is the sun obliterating her head?



Also, note re: turquoise Anthro suit (the non-Athena one). It looks a lot more turquoise on the website and in the pic I have, I'm not sure what blogger is doing to it.

There is also a simple VS suit in a plum color in consideration, but I can't get a proper picture of it, so I'm leaving it off.

Shopping, anyone? Input would actually be appreciated, I'm curious to get opinions.

EPIC SWIMSUIT POSTS PART III: Victoria's Secret

I feel like I've wanted the first one on here since 2005, but I can't imagine they've kept the same one that long, so I must be wrong. The stars are very cute and cheap. Gold might be ok, even if the picture is ridiculous. I'm not sure if I can wear the color at the bottom.

--interlude, meeting with committee member--


me: according to [committee member], i need to read more about the history of western culture
ro something
like

callmemrtopps: oif

me: i need to know more.
period
so i'm drinking wine out of a juice box
and updating my blog
check it out
swimsuit edition

EPIC SWIMSUIT POST PART II: Anthropologie Edition.

I really like the first one, which is called the "Athena Bikini," drawing attention to how Anthro constantly manipulates us by their names ("blue bikini with oval cutouts" would be very Stephenie Meyer but not so much $200 swimsuit). I mean seriously:

"A two-piece fit for a goddess, hued in sky blue and trimmed with mythical swirls of shimmering seed beads. By Kathleen Cook."

Why wouldn't you want it? Even if you hadn't seen it?

The one below I like, but I'm not sure if I can wear turquoise. It also comes in black.

As a late preface to this whole thing, it is not at all apparent that I should buy a new swimsuit at all, since first I would have to try on my old swimsuits and see which ones fit. I will do this at some point when my roommate's boyfriend is not at home.

EPIC SWIMSUIT POSTS PART I

I totally missed this popping up on J.Crew until it sold out of every size in each style (though the full swimsuit one probably would be too short in the body for me anyway. But I love the pattern so much! The cover-up is still for sale.

Also, why are half of the J.Crew swimsuits sold out in January? I assume that this isn't the one shot summer swimsuit shopping? I'm assuming this is winter-getaway season and that the stores will be replenished. . .

I do like this kind of tangly over the top necklace that is in right now:



Though that one doesn't seem to be for sale, if it even IS a necklace, and not a necklacelike illusion. However, aside from the pretty picture, I am even more pleased by this:



Not, please, by the necklace itself. But rather, because it is made by Subversive. Whose website, http://www.subversivejewelry.com/, I came across in September, when I was working on my Sade paper, and typed in the word "subversive" to find synonyms (because it's so dull to say literature is "subversive" these days!). Which I immediately thought was quite fashionably awesome, and clearly, of the moment. (I don't think the necklace above is one of their best exactly. . . ).

So now I feel very "with it." Kind of.

Searching for a comparison between "Dionysia" and "Saturnalia," I come across this website, which is upsettingly helpful and clearly went through wonderful magical translation machine. . .
http://www.veselo.info/english/travel/holidays-festivals/carnival/history-carnival.html


History of Carnival Origin
How is wonderful magical holiday come from and where its sources?
Of course, nothing born in an empty place, and no single opinion on these questions.

It is known, that holidays was celebrated in the pre-Christian time and had many common with present carnivals:

* In the Ancient Greece, for instance, in honor of the Dionysus (the god of fructiferous forces of the earth, vegetation, wine-making and the patron of a theatrical act), it was a large religious festival - the Dionysia, which included: merry dances, an execution of joking songs, competitions of poets and awards for victorious actors, and also the masquerade procession, where in front of it always had been the funny “ship” with a costume group. Authors of the Ancient Rome named it “carrus navalis”, what means “sea chariot”.

* In the Rome it was heathen holidays, named the Saturnalia and initiated to the Saturn, god of grain, vegetation and wine. The general idea of the feast consists to invert the ordinary motion of life in time. During two weeks all class boundaries was erased by nonpublic law of festival: the rich and poor was equalized in rights, children headed families, slaves could sit freely with theirs masters at the table and demand from them a subordination, and for reason do not spoil the merriment - everybody hid their faces behind masks. Also, a pseudo-king was chosen at the time of the holiday and in the end of Saturnalias he must be to die by any ways: to be burned, hanged and etc.

After Christianity became popularity, all heathen feasts were forgotten.

* And only thousands years later, in the Venice of Italy, it was created merry and motley holiday, which was celebrated every year before the beginning of the traditional Christian fasting of Lent, at that period Catholics do not eat the meat. And the most probably, the name “Carnival” comes from the Italian «carnovale», which originates from the Latin words “caro” (meat) and “vale” (farewell), literally "Farewell to meat" or from the carnem (meat) + levare (lighten or raise), literally "to remove the meat" or "stop eating meat".