Realm: Mememe
Jun. 13th, 2019 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sovay gave me ""three things that I may or may not know or care about," viz: Deserts, Energy drinks, and Claude Cahun.As it turns out, I DON'T know or care deeply about any of the above, but I'm gonna give it a stab anyway!
Deserts: I read this, had to double-check that it didn't say "desserts" (which I do know and care about a great deal), and had a flashback to that one "BC" strip. Anyway.
I've lived in various places, and visited more, and various branches of my family originated from/lived in yet others; but none of them are deserts. Heck, I haven't even been to the Desert of Maine. I see photos taken by friends who ARE from/have visited deserts: it's as bizarre and alien a landscape as...my first thought is Mars, which kinda IS a desert. Maybe one of those places with mineral springs that have deposits in colors you didn't think should exist in nature?
So what I want to observe about deserts is that they were similarly alien to medieval Europeans; but simultaneously, they were fundamental to medieval Christianity's sense of its origins. Israel in the wilderness; the Desert Fathers.* So you get the bizarre phenomenon of people who have never seen a desert trying to imagine one, and frequently imagining - and even drawing - it as a deserted place--which in a climate like the one I and they naturally expect, means "a lot of trees".
Energy Drinks: I'm really not into. Which is perhaps odd given how much I like both caffeine and exercising. But Nope--I tend to think that they're weird at best, going on creepy.
And what the hell sort of person names a beverage after the Red Bull?!?
Claude Cahun: Man, I keep forgetting about Claude Cahun! I think they were in my Art History textbook for a split second during the discussion of Surrealism; I *definitely* should remember them from Sovay posting about them. They were way cool. Go read the Wikipedia page: I'll wait. Through it I also discovered the cool quote by the late lamented David Bowie:
"You could call her transgressive or you could call her a cross dressing Man Ray with surrealist tendencies. I find this work really quite mad, in the nicest way. Outside of France and now the UK she has not had the kind of recognition that, as a founding follower, friend and worker of the original surrealist movement, she surely deserves."
Though I think he misgendered them. Well, it was 2007: most of us weren't as woke about that back then.
Also, that leaves out the whole "Nazi Resistance Artist" bit.
When I hit the Wikipedia page, I noted that they were buried on Jèrri; and promptly looked that up and determined that yes, their resting place is indeed one of the twelve ancient parish churches of Jersey, but does not have a ring of bells. Apologies, Mx Cahun: that IS how my mind works.
Anybody else want one?
* Well, and -Mothers; but the collection of Lives is the Vitae Patrum, even though some of them were female/possibly genderqueer.
More about things that start with C:
Californianization of everything: It's most noticeable with women's fashion. Wearing sunglasses as they were a barette, say; or the 12-month flipflop wearers. Also tanning, and fake tans.
And complaining about the cold all the time, while taking heat as a necessary evil.
All the things people where it seems as though they're pretending they live in the Sunshine State. (So why don't they just move there??)
Am I hatin'? Probably.
New topic!
Other things I hate: chemical dependency in general. grr.
The Film: Die Comedian Harmonists is one of those films where I'm not sure if it's actually good or not. It's basically a group biopic cum excuse to perform lots of the group's songs. But I hadn't heard of the group before, and both their music and their story are pretty cool.
For those who are as clueless as I was: The Comedian Harmonists were a male a capella group formed in Germany around about 1920: it says something about the Zeitgeist of 1920s Germany both that an a capella group became all-stars, and that someone in Marketing insisted that their name had to NOT be German if they were going to gain any sort of popularity. So the movie is partly about that wild, swingin', liberal decade before the Depression led to some Austrian maniac getting elected Chancellor. Of the period's genesis in the aftermath of WW1, of its crazy artsy weirdness, and of its demise...since a couple of them were Jewish, the group wound up breaking up when half of them had to flee the country. (The film closes, if memory serves, with an overview of what happened to them afterward, including who got drafted into the Wehrmacht and probably died horribly in Russia, vs who faded into obscurity in New York...)
But in between, in movie and in film, you get a lot of good songs, although inevitably it's the one where they impersonate a jazz band that you remember. Well, that and "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus," of course.
(The acting and casting, as far as I can recall, are first-rate. Again, I watched this in Germany, so it's been a while.)
-----
Anyway. In other news, new!coworker and I are each skiving off work tomorrow, and in fact both in unison started changing into dressier clothes as soon as we closed the window. As I put it "You are off to lots and lots of con stuff. I am off to lots and lots of Church stuff!"
...Although I have a standing invitation to crash their room party if MY afterparty turns out to be lame. We'll see.
Californianization of everything: It's most noticeable with women's fashion. Wearing sunglasses as they were a barette, say; or the 12-month flipflop wearers. Also tanning, and fake tans.
And complaining about the cold all the time, while taking heat as a necessary evil.
All the things people where it seems as though they're pretending they live in the Sunshine State. (So why don't they just move there??)
Am I hatin'? Probably.
New topic!
Other things I hate: chemical dependency in general. grr.
The Film: Die Comedian Harmonists is one of those films where I'm not sure if it's actually good or not. It's basically a group biopic cum excuse to perform lots of the group's songs. But I hadn't heard of the group before, and both their music and their story are pretty cool.
For those who are as clueless as I was: The Comedian Harmonists were a male a capella group formed in Germany around about 1920: it says something about the Zeitgeist of 1920s Germany both that an a capella group became all-stars, and that someone in Marketing insisted that their name had to NOT be German if they were going to gain any sort of popularity. So the movie is partly about that wild, swingin', liberal decade before the Depression led to some Austrian maniac getting elected Chancellor. Of the period's genesis in the aftermath of WW1, of its crazy artsy weirdness, and of its demise...since a couple of them were Jewish, the group wound up breaking up when half of them had to flee the country. (The film closes, if memory serves, with an overview of what happened to them afterward, including who got drafted into the Wehrmacht and probably died horribly in Russia, vs who faded into obscurity in New York...)
But in between, in movie and in film, you get a lot of good songs, although inevitably it's the one where they impersonate a jazz band that you remember. Well, that and "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus," of course.
(The acting and casting, as far as I can recall, are first-rate. Again, I watched this in Germany, so it's been a while.)
-----
Anyway. In other news, new!coworker and I are each skiving off work tomorrow, and in fact both in unison started changing into dressier clothes as soon as we closed the window. As I put it "You are off to lots and lots of con stuff. I am off to lots and lots of Church stuff!"
...Although I have a standing invitation to crash their room party if MY afterparty turns out to be lame. We'll see.
(no subject)
Mar. 21st, 2016 03:49 pmMeme from tree_and_leaf, among others. Brought to you by the letter C.
Something I hate:
There are a lot of options here, ranging from certain kinds of Conservatism to the California-ization of American culture to cauliflower. I can post more about any of the above if people are interested.
But I think I'm going to go with caffeine addiction, because that's the one that's hit me between the eyes this afternoon.
Something I love:
Contradancing, chocolate, curry, Cherryh novels, coffee (though that last is a bit of a love-hate relationship.) Climbing things. Especially rocks and mountains, though I used to climb a lot of trees.
Someplace I've been:
Well, both Cambridges, obviously. Constance. Carter Notch.
But what I remember this week is Cologne,* which I passed through at speed almost exactly fifteen (liturgical) years ago. I saw the cathedral, I had a beer, I sadly missed the opportunity to steal half the contents of the Stadtarchiv. I experienced German breakfast for the first time. I managed, badly and with a phrasebook, to make myself understood in a bakery; my accent was good enough that the employees thought I spoke more German than was in fact the case.
I resolved that I hd to go back to Germany one day.
Someplace I'd like to go:
Catalonia. It was my advisor's region of expertise, and I'd run into it even before then: it seems ridiculous to know as much (random stuff) about a place that I have never been in.
Someone I know:
...Huh. All the people I can think of are queer, in one way or another.
C-- is one of the bellringers. She's maybe 60, lives with her partner (also a bellringer) near Foxboro, but works (I think) at MIT. Somewhat stout, very very distractable, plays some iPhone game about Portals constantly, good bellringing teacher and leader despite it all. I like her very much.
A film I've seen:
Comedian Harmonists. OK, in English it's apparently called "The Harmonists", but I watched it in German, so screw you.
More detail on some of these to follow: I should get back to work.
* I am a firm believer in the theory that, if a place has a well-established name in English, you refer to it that way in English unless the inhabitants have specifically requested otherwise. Other place's I've been include Londres and Firenz, after all.
tree_and_leaf, among others. Brought to you by the letter C.Something I hate:
There are a lot of options here, ranging from certain kinds of Conservatism to the California-ization of American culture to cauliflower. I can post more about any of the above if people are interested.
But I think I'm going to go with caffeine addiction, because that's the one that's hit me between the eyes this afternoon.
Something I love:
Contradancing, chocolate, curry, Cherryh novels, coffee (though that last is a bit of a love-hate relationship.) Climbing things. Especially rocks and mountains, though I used to climb a lot of trees.
Someplace I've been:
Well, both Cambridges, obviously. Constance. Carter Notch.
But what I remember this week is Cologne,* which I passed through at speed almost exactly fifteen (liturgical) years ago. I saw the cathedral, I had a beer, I sadly missed the opportunity to steal half the contents of the Stadtarchiv. I experienced German breakfast for the first time. I managed, badly and with a phrasebook, to make myself understood in a bakery; my accent was good enough that the employees thought I spoke more German than was in fact the case.
I resolved that I hd to go back to Germany one day.
Someplace I'd like to go:
Catalonia. It was my advisor's region of expertise, and I'd run into it even before then: it seems ridiculous to know as much (random stuff) about a place that I have never been in.
Someone I know:
...Huh. All the people I can think of are queer, in one way or another.
C-- is one of the bellringers. She's maybe 60, lives with her partner (also a bellringer) near Foxboro, but works (I think) at MIT. Somewhat stout, very very distractable, plays some iPhone game about Portals constantly, good bellringing teacher and leader despite it all. I like her very much.
A film I've seen:
Comedian Harmonists. OK, in English it's apparently called "The Harmonists", but I watched it in German, so screw you.
More detail on some of these to follow: I should get back to work.
* I am a firm believer in the theory that, if a place has a well-established name in English, you refer to it that way in English unless the inhabitants have specifically requested otherwise. Other place's I've been include Londres and Firenz, after all.
Realm: Personal - Subrealm: Birthday Meme
Apr. 8th, 2006 01:47 pmOK, I should really be working on the introduction to my dissertation, but this is just too good to pass up...
Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.
( Read more... )
Meantime: we had our wonderful landlady (and her husband) over for dinner last night: initially planned to do Chicken Chasseur, but they don´t usually eat heavily in the evening. So I was going to do Mulligatawny Soup and popovers, until Grace (somewhat braindead after a week on a farm, but apparently more alert than I) reminded me that we don´t actually have any muffin tins. So we went the Traditional American route, with fried chicken and biscuits. And actually managed to keep conversation going through dinner. Go us!
Oh, and we fly to Istanbul on Wednesday...
Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.
( Read more... )
Meantime: we had our wonderful landlady (and her husband) over for dinner last night: initially planned to do Chicken Chasseur, but they don´t usually eat heavily in the evening. So I was going to do Mulligatawny Soup and popovers, until Grace (somewhat braindead after a week on a farm, but apparently more alert than I) reminded me that we don´t actually have any muffin tins. So we went the Traditional American route, with fried chicken and biscuits. And actually managed to keep conversation going through dinner. Go us!
Oh, and we fly to Istanbul on Wednesday...
