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books

Reading Wednesday

It feels very strange and unpleasant to be making my regular book post under the circumstances. Nevertheless.

Just finished: A Drop Of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was so much fun, and I'm hooked on the series. It's mostly a lighthearted absolutely nightmare fuel cosmic horror murder mystery, but as the afterword says, it's also kind of a commentary on fantasy's obsession with kings and nobles and what this means for our present political circumstances. Which is to say. Kings. Not a great idea. I disagree with Bennett re: what ASOIaF was trying to do but the book is a great example of how you can smuggle interesting politics in a rip-roaring narrative.

Currently reading: Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. I love everything she writes and meant to read her most well-known work ages ago but it ended up near the bottom of my physical TBR stack and I'm only now getting to it. This is the story of Baby, a little girl in Montreal whose father is a possibly-schizophrenic heroin addict. Does that sound depressing? Because it is. It's also very much a dark comedy, like it's genuinely fucking hilarious the more searingly awful Baby's life gets. Sometimes I just want fiction to fuck me up, and this does.

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Amazing Spider-Man #23

( Scans under the cut... )

(no subject)

Happy birthday,

sister_luck!

Wednesday's Comic

Plan. . . let us say . . . "K."

(no subject)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260303.html

If you could fly over the North Pole of

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260303.html

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Absolute Green Lantern #11 - "Something Red"

Half of the names in the book are still names. Kilowog is still Kilowog. But, you know, Tomar Re, I think he's like Re something else now. Technically speaking, Jo Mullein is Tomar Jo. God, that does sound very manga. Maybe what everybody's saying is right. I am accidentally writing a manga. -- Al Ewing

( Read more... )

How odd

It seems comments of mine quoted on Wikipedia has angered someone.

This bit caught my eye: " I only paid attention to this page after looking up those for several authors whose works I'd enjoyed, only to be surprised by how Nicoll's opinions had been added to criticisms of their works. Looking at the edit history, it showed they had all been added by the same person - Nicoll."

Except I didn't and looking at the Simmons entry, which I did suspect is what set this off, I don't see why anyone would think I had.

Entry tags:

personal

In Memoriam: Minoanmiss (Ny)

I just heard that

minoanmiss has died suddenly and unexpectedly of cardiac arrest; doctors were unable to determine a cause.

I am absolutely in shock. We emailed a couple days ago. I had promised to make her some pottery mini-books ages ago, finally made her a set of her favorite books (The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea, The Mask of Apollo, and Bujold's Falling Free), plus The Minoan Mer with her as the author. I emailed her to get her current address. I didn't tell her what I was sending, because I wanted it to be a surprise. She sent it and wrote, "thank you in advance :)" Yesterday I tried to mail them. The post office didn't recognize her address, so I emailed her to confirm it and was puzzled when I didn't get a reply as she tends to reply quickly.

I am kicking myself for not making/mailing them sooner. She would have loved them, and she only missed them by days. This is a tiny thing in the grand scheme of it but she was so filled with joy when people made things for her, and all our interactions along those lines were so bright and joyous. The icon is a hedgehog because she sent me a hedgehog magnet for my fridge, which is still there. I should have reached out more.

She sent me rainbow fudge with each layer a different flavor - cardamom and mango were among them - and it was so delicious that every now and then I'd hopefully suggest that she go into professional candy-making.

Her art was so charming and distinctive.

She had such righteous anger and a passion for justice.

She was so sweet and kind and thoughtful. Just a really good person all-round. We never met in person and now we never will.

Random things make a post

In one of the books I'm reading right now, they frequently make references to another researcher by the name of "Fruhstuck." On a hunch, I looked it up and saw that her name is actually "Frühstück," with umlauts over the u's, which is German for "breakfast." I suppose this is an occupational surname that you wind up with if your ancestors worked at Waffle Haus.
In the past I've mentioned Cherry Bullet's "Hands Up", which uses "Für Elise" as part of the song. Today I discovered Twice Dahyun's "Chess," which uses the same song even more directly. Enjoy!
Watch on YouTube
The fact that I didn't get this posted during the Olympics shows how off-task I've been recently, but I've been doing better for the past couple of days, so you get the post now. This year's Games featured an odd intersection of two of my interests: The Olympics and intellectual property law. Several figure skaters had trouble getting clearance to use the music they wanted for their routines. Intellectual property law is a mess anyway, but once you're crossing pretty much every border on earth and involving major international organizations like the IOC and numerous of the world's largest broadcasters and on top of that there's a lot of money on the line, things just get even more bonkers.

Hope you're all doing well!

Alan Cumming Unloads on the BAFTAs for Managing To Offend Everyone

Posted by Mike Redmond

https://www.pajiba.com/pajiba_love/alan-cumming-unloads-on-the-baftas-for-managing-to-offend-everyone.php

I'm not sure if you've heard, but things went real south at the BAFTAs, and Alan Cumming has now offered his frank assessment of the "trauma triggering s***show." (NBC News) Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly are crushing it on...

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Heated Rivalry RPF/BTS fic: Hall Pass

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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Green Lantern #32 Love And Responsibilities

( Read more, )

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miss you

I was so shocked to hear you have left us,

minoanmiss. You are a fountain of art and fic and joy at making babies smile. You've sent me poems, you've sent me stickers that have decorated letters I've sent people. When the pandemic hit and I posted about the Japanese amabie, you made a fridge magnet of one. She's on my fridge above your Minoan dancers.

photo of fridge magnets

Do you remember when you sent me a postcard for a pine tree, and I took it there?

You made magic happen.

I will think of you every time I see someone making a baby smile. I will talk to that pine tree about you. Maybe it has your forwarding address, and I can send you a postcard.

Current Music: The Pack a.d., "8"

I think that was a joke that only we know, so I'm sorry

I was in the middle of making snow-delayed hamantashn when I heard that

minoanmiss who always raised a light for memory has gone out. She made art for my niece. I wrote "The House Snakes" for her. (She made art for it.) And once again the people who make this country so difficult to stay alive in are still burning and burdening this earth. I will raise a light, but I feel more like throwing a Molotov cocktail.

‘Industry’ Season 4 Finale Explained: There Is No Rock Bottom

Posted by Chris Revelle

https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/industry-season-4-finale-explained-and-season-5-announced.php

HBO's Industry spent its fourth season digging ever-deepening holes for its characters. Past seasons didn't skimp on the salacious or shocking, but this season put them all to shame. The finale, "Both/And," is maybe the series's most shocking yet. Tender...

We're Getting a 'Game of Thrones' Movie (Unless Warner Bros. Implodes)

Posted by Mike Redmond

https://www.pajiba.com/news/were-getting-a-game-of-thrones-movie-unless-warner-bros-implodes.php

This is some awkward timing. On the heels of Warner Bros. Discovery's future dramatically changing hands from Netflix to Paramount thanks to nonsensically overpriced bid, we're supposed to believe that a Game of Thrones movie is somehow going to get...

Entry tags:

food,
travel

New Orleans

I don't usually travel to a place for the place, as such. I've left home a lot, but in all but one case I've been going to visit a person or going to an event like a con. But Cattitude was having a hard time coping with winter, and then we had a blizzard, and it all got to be too much. So Redbird and Cattitude and I picked up and went to New Orleans for a few days, because it wasn't snowing there.

One of many challenging things about winter is that we still don't want to eat in company indoors. It has been SIX YEARS, and sometimes it feels like we are the only people in the country who care about public health and it is just so exhausting. (There were a few other people wearing masks in the airport, which felt good.) But the general frustration is still wearing, especially in winter. We were informed that New Orleans has lots of restaurants with patios that are open, even in February. The crowds recede after Mardi Gras, and the weather forecast was glorious.

New Orleans is a great city for dining. Unfortunately, it's a terrible city for ME to dine. I keep kosher in a very haphazard way (I won't eat pork or shellfish, but I don't care how the chicken was slaughtered), and I can't eat dairy products at all. Everything had shellfish or dairy or both. I went down there thinking most restaurants would have have at least one vegan item on the menu, but the places with outdoor dining or takeout generally did not.

The music was good. I need more music in my life.

It could be worse

Benford and Bear in the Epstein files

As far as I can tell, they weren't involved in Epstein's sex trafficking. Just there as big name authors. Bear at least is reported as unimpressed.

Oddly, the third Killer B doesn't seem to have been invited.

Can Amy Madigan Win an Oscar for ‘Weapons’?

Posted by Kayleigh Donaldson

https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/can-amy-madigan-win-an-oscar-for-weapons-and-make-horror-movie-history-.php

The 2025/6 awards season has been one of unpredictability. Few of the major categories are safe bets, and many of the Oscar wins we can usually can weeks in advance are still up in the air. One such instance is...

Kevin Kline, a Dying Playhouse, and the Best New Show You're Not Watching

Posted by Dustin Rowles

https://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/review-american-classic-starring-kevin-kline-and-laura-linney.php

Kevin Kline has been acting steadily his entire career, but it's been a long time since I've seen him in anything. His career peaked in the late '80s and '90s with a trio of outstanding comedies -- A Fish Called...