Bats, Cats, Rats and Snakes
15/07/2015 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaTime flies when you are having fun. So much so that there’s been very little serpent posting online of late. Lots of slinking but other than the occasional comment or two, very little squiggling at all.
It’s mostly due to the annual ritual of Camp Nanowrimo as well as the occasional online course. The latest is Paradoxes and Infinity. It’s getting very mathy at the moment so extra time is needed to look at videos several times to get the old green cells around all the wierdness.
There are just so many fascinating courses out there so it has required a lot of will power to indulge in just one at a time. They are much more fun that way. It took a while to get used to the idea that there are plenty of chances to get more than one bite of the cherry so there is no need to fill one’s plate to overflowing, pigging out on too many temptations and then hardly tasting anything due to being so greedy.
Then there’s been the 150th birthday of the adventures of Alice, the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and a whole bunch of crazy quirky characters. So it was just the excuse to dust off an old dead tree copy with some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Not just the usual Tenniel but Arthur Rackham and a whole bunch of others.
This time I get to read at a reasonable pace like a chapter every other day not the crazy whole book in a week for 8 weeks as was the case during one online Science Fiction and Fantasy literature course.
I still cannot get over just how much this story has contributed to pop culture and art. Even a boring city like Dursleyville is full of wall murals featuring characters from this book.
The ending turned out to be a total drag but the snarky tone and strange logic of the characters more than make up for it.
Alice has been competing with “The King in Yellow” which will be going back to the library tomorrow. This book promised a lot as it has quite a reputation but unfortunately was very short on the delivery. It started well with the strange and spooky poems of creepy Corcosa on the first page. It was downhill all the way after that. The introduction by one H P Lovecraft was far more interesting than the actual content. A lot less pompous French airs and graces and a lot more creepy spookiness would have made all the difference. But the idea of a book so demonic that it mangles the mind of all those who dare read it is just too irresistible for such an incorrigible bibliophile.
Soon it will be time to return to “Lovecraft’s Monsters” followed by the cult tale “A Secret History”. James Herbert's very nasty rats were a riveting recent read. I snaffled a sequel somewhere at a charity book sale. I really must make a list for the rest of this year. Life is too short to read bad books.
Last year I visited some pop culture conventions for the first time. It was fascinating watching so many people dressed up as characters from assorted books, movies, comics or television series. It was less fun going into the actual convention itself and finding the place to be completely crowded and full of all sorts of overpriced cheap and nasty trinkets and toys and paying 30 silver sickles for the privilege.
It was so claustrophobic in the convention centre itself and there was nowhere to sit to watch the passing parade. I soon got very jittery and neurotic.
So this time I would do things differently. Since I got the most enjoyment character watching and that cost nothing at all, figured it would be fun to just bring along a packed lunch and sit outside the convention centre and watch the world go by.
I enjoyed it so much that I came back for another look the second day. There were some strange skimpy ladies in superhero costumes doing camera shoots and then there were a bunch of folks running around on the grass doing what looked like some sort of Morris dancing. First I wondered if it was some medieval game involving macho men holding white sticks between their legs like giant erections but these folks were dressed more like football players than knights in shining armour and there turned out to be one or two females running around riding those silly white poles.
It was when I noticed the three hoops at each end of the grassed area that the penny finally dropped.
They were playing Quidditch for muggles and these silly white poles were their broomsticks.
Later when I found a copy of the Supanova
program I discovered that one of the special guests was Jason Isaacs. I did not get to see him slithering around but there was a Lucius Malfoy lookalike wearing a long black cloak and carrying a completely drool worthy snake headed cane. There were also a few folks dressed up as generic Hogwarts students some wearing very swanky Slytherin team robes and carrying real broom sticks.
Between the real Lucius and the doppelganger, the pair of them should have been able to rustle up enough gold galleons to get those muggles some decent brooms.
Was sort of sad to miss seeing the real Lucius but no real regrets since it was definitely not worth paying $30 admission fees and even then the chances of getting to see him were not guaranteed unless you wanted to queue long before the scheduled ‘fireside chat’ with Ginny Weasley.
Also it was a gorgeous sunny day. If it hadn’t been raining the last time would likely not have paid to go see the official shows.
Watching the assorted Cat and Dragon ladies, Cinderella and her ugly sisters, an assortment of jokers and mad hatters was wonderful fun. Frozen also provided lots of inspiration for characters. There were red heads with bows and arrows everywhere.
Superman and Wonderwoman were conspicuous by their absence this time. Bats and cats seemed to be the big thing along with an assortment of characters from Game of Thrones. The only one I recognize was the Dragon Lady. One of whom had an absolutely adorable and lifelike dragon draped on her arm. It was some sort of puppet and looked as if it was made from real leather.
There was a guy in a giant fat suit dressed as Hagar the Horrible and quite a few hatchet heads and zombies. There’s always a legion of storm troopers and that pathetic princess with the creepy hairdo. It was fun to watch the light sabre battles going on outside next to game of Quidditch and watching all this action did not cost a single cent.
Even the weekly department store toy catalogues are full of Star Wars stuff. Cannot quite work out if it is making a comeback or if it never went away in the first place.
I did make a detour to see the last day of the Moriko Mori show at the art gallery and the Concert Hall open day but was quite happy to return to the convention centre around 4.30pm until the official closing time at 6pm when there would be hordes of die hard fans all leaving at the last minute. At least one third of them were in costume.
It was an interesting and inspiring day and a wonderful opportunity to lurk in the sun and watch all the freaks and geeks having bucket loads of fun.
It’s mostly due to the annual ritual of Camp Nanowrimo as well as the occasional online course. The latest is Paradoxes and Infinity. It’s getting very mathy at the moment so extra time is needed to look at videos several times to get the old green cells around all the wierdness.
There are just so many fascinating courses out there so it has required a lot of will power to indulge in just one at a time. They are much more fun that way. It took a while to get used to the idea that there are plenty of chances to get more than one bite of the cherry so there is no need to fill one’s plate to overflowing, pigging out on too many temptations and then hardly tasting anything due to being so greedy.
Then there’s been the 150th birthday of the adventures of Alice, the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and a whole bunch of crazy quirky characters. So it was just the excuse to dust off an old dead tree copy with some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Not just the usual Tenniel but Arthur Rackham and a whole bunch of others.
This time I get to read at a reasonable pace like a chapter every other day not the crazy whole book in a week for 8 weeks as was the case during one online Science Fiction and Fantasy literature course.
I still cannot get over just how much this story has contributed to pop culture and art. Even a boring city like Dursleyville is full of wall murals featuring characters from this book.
The ending turned out to be a total drag but the snarky tone and strange logic of the characters more than make up for it.
Alice has been competing with “The King in Yellow” which will be going back to the library tomorrow. This book promised a lot as it has quite a reputation but unfortunately was very short on the delivery. It started well with the strange and spooky poems of creepy Corcosa on the first page. It was downhill all the way after that. The introduction by one H P Lovecraft was far more interesting than the actual content. A lot less pompous French airs and graces and a lot more creepy spookiness would have made all the difference. But the idea of a book so demonic that it mangles the mind of all those who dare read it is just too irresistible for such an incorrigible bibliophile.
Soon it will be time to return to “Lovecraft’s Monsters” followed by the cult tale “A Secret History”. James Herbert's very nasty rats were a riveting recent read. I snaffled a sequel somewhere at a charity book sale. I really must make a list for the rest of this year. Life is too short to read bad books.
Last year I visited some pop culture conventions for the first time. It was fascinating watching so many people dressed up as characters from assorted books, movies, comics or television series. It was less fun going into the actual convention itself and finding the place to be completely crowded and full of all sorts of overpriced cheap and nasty trinkets and toys and paying 30 silver sickles for the privilege.
It was so claustrophobic in the convention centre itself and there was nowhere to sit to watch the passing parade. I soon got very jittery and neurotic.
So this time I would do things differently. Since I got the most enjoyment character watching and that cost nothing at all, figured it would be fun to just bring along a packed lunch and sit outside the convention centre and watch the world go by.
I enjoyed it so much that I came back for another look the second day. There were some strange skimpy ladies in superhero costumes doing camera shoots and then there were a bunch of folks running around on the grass doing what looked like some sort of Morris dancing. First I wondered if it was some medieval game involving macho men holding white sticks between their legs like giant erections but these folks were dressed more like football players than knights in shining armour and there turned out to be one or two females running around riding those silly white poles.
It was when I noticed the three hoops at each end of the grassed area that the penny finally dropped.
They were playing Quidditch for muggles and these silly white poles were their broomsticks.
Later when I found a copy of the Supanova
program I discovered that one of the special guests was Jason Isaacs. I did not get to see him slithering around but there was a Lucius Malfoy lookalike wearing a long black cloak and carrying a completely drool worthy snake headed cane. There were also a few folks dressed up as generic Hogwarts students some wearing very swanky Slytherin team robes and carrying real broom sticks.
Between the real Lucius and the doppelganger, the pair of them should have been able to rustle up enough gold galleons to get those muggles some decent brooms.
Was sort of sad to miss seeing the real Lucius but no real regrets since it was definitely not worth paying $30 admission fees and even then the chances of getting to see him were not guaranteed unless you wanted to queue long before the scheduled ‘fireside chat’ with Ginny Weasley.
Also it was a gorgeous sunny day. If it hadn’t been raining the last time would likely not have paid to go see the official shows.
Watching the assorted Cat and Dragon ladies, Cinderella and her ugly sisters, an assortment of jokers and mad hatters was wonderful fun. Frozen also provided lots of inspiration for characters. There were red heads with bows and arrows everywhere.
Superman and Wonderwoman were conspicuous by their absence this time. Bats and cats seemed to be the big thing along with an assortment of characters from Game of Thrones. The only one I recognize was the Dragon Lady. One of whom had an absolutely adorable and lifelike dragon draped on her arm. It was some sort of puppet and looked as if it was made from real leather.
There was a guy in a giant fat suit dressed as Hagar the Horrible and quite a few hatchet heads and zombies. There’s always a legion of storm troopers and that pathetic princess with the creepy hairdo. It was fun to watch the light sabre battles going on outside next to game of Quidditch and watching all this action did not cost a single cent.
Even the weekly department store toy catalogues are full of Star Wars stuff. Cannot quite work out if it is making a comeback or if it never went away in the first place.
I did make a detour to see the last day of the Moriko Mori show at the art gallery and the Concert Hall open day but was quite happy to return to the convention centre around 4.30pm until the official closing time at 6pm when there would be hordes of die hard fans all leaving at the last minute. At least one third of them were in costume.
It was an interesting and inspiring day and a wonderful opportunity to lurk in the sun and watch all the freaks and geeks having bucket loads of fun.
