djkittycat

I have been informed that Tess Williams passed away earlier this week.

Tess was a family friend*, a valued member of the local fannish community, and a gifted writer. I thoroughly recommend their books Map of Power and Sea As Mirror if you can get hold of them.

They will be missed.

*in this case, part of my mother's extended social crowd in my teenage years.

Obviously I am not at Readercon, but on the other hand I may have fixed our central air: it required a new filter, a section of insulation, and a quantity of aluminum tape, but the temperature in the apartment has in fact followed the thermostat down for the first time all week. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Although its state-of-the-art submarine is nuclear-powered and engaged in the humanitarian mission of planting a chain of seismometers around the sunken hotspots of the globe, Around the World Under the Sea (1966) plays so much like a modernized Verne mash-up right down to its trick-photographed battle with a giant moray eel and its climactic ascent amid the eruption of a newly discovered volcano that it should not be faulted for generally shorting its characters in favor of all the techno-oceanography, but Keenan Wynn grouches delightfully as the specialist in deep-sea survival who prefers to spend his time playing shortwave chess in a diving bell at the bottom of the Caribbean and the script actually remembers it isn't Shirley Eaton's fault if the average heterosexual male IQ plummets past the Marianas just because she's inhaled in its vicinity, but the MVP of the cast is David McCallum whose tinted monobrowline glasses and irritable social gracelessness would code him nerd in any era, but he's the grit in the philanthropy with his stake in a sunken treasure of transistor crystals and his surprise to be accused of cheating at chess when he designed and programmed the computer that's been making his moves for him. If the film of The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) had not made its inspired change in the nationality of its aeronautical engineer, McCallum could have knocked the part out of the park. "No, you don't get one," he almost gets the last word, distributing his sole precious handful of salvage among his fellow crew with the pointed exception of the captain played inevitably by Lloyd Bridges: "You blew the bloody submarine in half."

spatch and I have seen four films now by the husband-and-wife, director-and-editor team of Andrew L. and Virginia Stone and on the strength of Ring of Fire (1961), The Steel Trap (1952), The Decks Ran Red (1958), and just lately The Last Voyage (1960), the unifying theme of their pictures looks like pulp logistics. So far the standout has been the nail-biter noir of The Steel Trap, whose sprung ironies depend on an accumulation of individually trivial hitches in getting from L.A. to Rio that under less criminal circumstances would mount to planes-trains-and-automobiles farce, but Ring of Fire incorporates at least two real forest fires into its evacuation of a Cascadian small town, The Decks Ran Red transplants its historical mutiny to the modern engine room of a former Liberty ship, and The Last Voyage went the full Fitzcarraldo by sinking the scrap-bound SS Île de France after first blowing its boiler through its salon and smashing its funnel into its deckhouse without benefit of model work. The prevailing style is pedal-to-the-metal documentary with just enough infill of character to keep the proceedings from turning to clockwork and a deep anoraky delight in timetables and mechanical variables. Eventually I will hit one of their more conventional-sounding crime films, but until then I am really enjoying their clinker-built approach to human interest. Edmond O'Brien as the second engineer of the doomed SS Claridon lost his father on the Titanic, a second-generation trauma another film could have built an entire arc out of, and the Stones care mostly whether he's as handy with an acetylene torch as all that.

We were forty-four minutes into Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940) before anything remotely strange occurred beyond an impressive protraction of soap and with sincere regrets to Lew Ayres, I tapped out.

Fandoms: Stargate: SG-1, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters/Pairings: Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Sarah Connor, Cameron, John Connor
Rating: Gen
Length: 1886
Creator Links: cofax on AO3
Themes: Working together, Action/adventure, Crossover, Time travel, Teams, Robots and Androids

Summary: SG-1 meets a very intense woman with two heavily-armed teenagers in a warehouse in Modesto.

Reccer's Notes: A short fic about Sarah Connor's team helping Jack's team while on a mission in the past, dealing with a Terminator. Gripping action - and an intriguing and worrying AU in terms of the future of this crossover Earth. As Jack says: "That's just ... great." (Need to log in to AO3 to read it)

Fanwork Links: Temporary Alliances

One of the weirdnesses about being on the current campus is that while I've never studied here, I have a long history of being here.

In either 1980 or 1982 (probably the latter, but it doesn't quite add up) my mother was doing a Post-Grad Dip to convert from being a math teacher to a school psych. For reasons I either didn't know or have forgotten, I would be collected from school one day a week by one of the other students, and taken to campus. There, in theory, I was in the care of P--a friend of my mother's--who was a/the computer tech in what was then the psych building. I certainly hung out in their workshop a lot, learning a stack about computer games, and a small amount about other computer based skills.

I also hung out in two other spots. The first of these is the courtyard of the psych building, which has a water feature and what are now some very well developed trees. I went and had lunch there a couple of weeks ago and got a bit teary, because I lost track of P (who was incredibly important later on) and I suspect at this point they have passed on and I'll never actually get to have some of the conversations I regret not having. (Also, that there is a significant chance that the next I hear about my mother will be their funeral; or worse, post that).

The second was the library. Seven floors, of which I think five were accessible to non-librarians at that time. I used to wander around and find things to read. And books for doing my (primary school) assignments. It was musty and dusty and full of books and absolutely heaven for a book minded child. It continued to be like that for future encounters, including during my undergraduate years, where sometimes the journals I needed were not available at any of the libraries of the university I was enrolled at (there were, if I remember correctly, four libraries I used regularly which were 'on campus' if one counts the Med library as campus) and so I trekked elsewhere.

In the last few years, it has been significantly upgraded, remodelled and modernised. To the point that there are almost no books on floors 3-7. There is a locked area full of compactus on floor 2, as well as a set of borrowable books in an accessible space. The ones in the compactus have to be requested; so far my experience is that it takes 2-3 hours for them to become available, so a quick look can't happen (unless one is lucky and the book one wants is available in ebook, which is, I gather, between 80 and 90% of the collection). I haven't had a good look at the readily available for borrow ones, but it is a smaller area than the smallest suburban library I've been in. So, no just wandering and finding a book.

Except! They have fiction books scattered in sections over most of the floors. And these are borrowable on an honour system. You don't have to do anything to borrow them except pick them up and walk out with them. They aren't catalogued. It is so neat an idea that I've borrowed two (because I ended up in the library for a couple of hours for nothing else to do, so I borrowed a second before I'd finished the first).

Original plans for today: get brunch (with Youngest and Artisanat), and go past the place that does the good peanut butter on the way home. Achieved! We went to 'The Little Olive'* in, hmm, probably-Melville. They had GF spinach and ricotta rolls, so that was breakfast. They also have an interesting range of sweets, so we got two to share between us. Stopped at Kardinya to get peanut butter; also looked for the good muesli bars in Coles (assumption: they have been discontinued) and got some alternatives; went to the UK Lolly Shop and got rhubarb and custard hard lollies.

And then home. Where my goal for the afternoon is not to waste time on the internet. Being on the internet is fine, just not faffing around. So far I've watched about an hour and a half on Obsidian, note-taking, and related topics while progressing the hat I'm knitting; read some of Room With A View (which I continue to be underwhelmed by) and am now closing old DW tabs (skimming, but not replying) -- there are over 200, because I open what I don't have time to read in the morning, and plan to come back 'later'.

Plans for the evening are date night, which will involve finding something I want to cook. Other wishlist items are cooking stock paste, and making bikkies. Also tidying the bedroom enough that the dog has somewhere to lie down while visiting.

* given I'm now at uni on Fridays, Saturday is the new Friday, and Coffee Fridays happen when they happen. This is the first new to us cafe in some time (not counting Albany, because we didn't actually end up doing brunch).

1. I did some store visits today, none of which involved having to go there for negative reasons, so it was very pleasant. I did have some deskwork that needed to get done today that I then had to do at night when I got home, which sucked (especially since the bulk of it was pushed to today because two people did not get something to me they were supposed to do by Wednesday, even though I reminded them multiple times, so now I had to finish it all by tonight or else on my day off, because if I left it till Monday it would not leave them enough time to revise before the final deadline EOD Monday). But I got to eat some tasty food at the stores I visited and stopped for mochi donuts on the way home as well.

2. Just one more week until our new store grand opening. That was one of the places I stopped today and it's really coming along and looking great.

3. Our router has been slowly dying so today Carla got online to see if we can get a replacement, and also ended up getting us an upgraded plan, so we will have a new router with a longer range (sometimes wifi drops in the garage, but this should cover it better) and we'll have much higher speeds, for just a little more per month. They are coming to do the installation tomorrow.

4. I started playing Donkey Kong Bananza the other night and it seems like a lot of fun!

5. We got two new hires for our NoCal management team confirmed. Hopefully they work out, because our next new store is in the SF Bay area and we need to prepare!

6. Tuxie modelling how to do a perfect loaf.

 Fandom: Sinners
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Mary
Content Notes/Warnings: lots of blood!
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: seanpgilroy on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: This one is very much in the horror genre - Mary after she's been turned, grinning, with bloody teeth, blood all down her front. The drawing is very accomplished, and it packs a dramatic punch, especially as it's grayscale apart from the blood.
Link: Mary

Our destination for day 2 was Hood River. We loved this spot, both because of the view and the convenience of its location, parking and our rooms over the breakfast area.

This photo was the view from one of our rooms. It was not only a pretty view but one that changed all day long, as people at the inlet end point took kayaking, paddleboard and canoeing classes. I'd never seen a motorized paddleboard before but they were in use too, along with jet skis out on the river and parasailers.

We also got to watch birds diving for food, and trains and cargo barges go by on the river. We even saw a cruise ship once!

( Read more... )

Fandom: LOST
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Mr. Eko
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital painting
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: Left-Profession-1865 on Reddit

Why this piece is awesome: Eko sits in the gloom of the jungle, looking up at the Beechcraft that played such a crucial role in his story. It's a very atmospheric piece with great use of light and shadow.

Link: Mr. Eko character poster

The first weekend in May, spatch and I day-tripped to the Coney Island Film Festival in order to catch the short film debut of Steve Havelka and Nat Strange's Pokey the Penguin (1998–), which I described at the time as "a five-minute delight of shyster shenanigans including an accidentally combination cathedral and DMV and an international offer cautioned to be void in Lemuria. It loses nothing and in fact gains an inventive layer of detail in the translation to traditional animation from all-caps MS Paint, e.g. a beet instead of a carrot for the nose of a fast-talking snowman who could outbooze W. C. Fields. Steal a seat if it comes to a film festival near you." Fortunately, it is now necessary only to steal a seat on the internet: The Animated Adventures of Pokey the Penguin Presents: The Lawyers' Lawyers (2025) is freely streaming and still a delight. Guaranteed even on mythical continents.

Intro/FAQ
Days 1-15

My check-in: Spent my writing time trying to figure out what the Thames Estuary looks like during the Vorkosigan Saga. At this point, I'm reasonably certain it's not an estuary at all...

Day 18: chinashop, sanguinity

Day 17: badlyknitted, brithistorian, callmesandyk, carenejeans, chinashop, cornerofmadness, glinda, goddess47, nafs, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman

Day 16: badlyknitted, brithistorian, callmesandyk, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, glinda, goddess47, luzula, nafs, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!

Stephen Colbert is the only thing I have watched on CBS for a very, very long time, and even him, via clips.

Except for the time we were in NYC and went to a taping, which was good fun.

Paramount: How dare this man we hired to speak truth to power speak our truth to our power!

Trump: BWAH HA HA HA

Fans who grew up on the Colbert Report and are growing inured to canceled shows: ...okay, so who's going to hire the most popular guy in late night TV now?

I find it upsetting that one of the loudest voices pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is losing his position, not because Colbert is flawless but because what the fuck, censoring satire much? Being able to laugh at the assholes in charge is a survival mechanism.

Self-soothing with John Finnemore.

During one of the four discrete hours I may have managed to sleep in my own apartment, I dreamed of a trio of dark-masked, clever-clawed, civet-bodied animals tumbling across the carpet of the front hall that I recognized finally as orries, which I realized I had never known were marsupials of the real world as opposed to inventions of the 1970's children's trilogy where I had encountered them in elementary school, the companion animals of the nuclear-winter breed of human traveling in secret across a post-rain-of-fire Australia, in some places reverted to a sort of colonially reconstructed medievalism, more indigenously enduring in others. I had so wanted an orrie of my own as a child reader, not least because they were a mark of the strange: bonding with one could get an adolescent suddenly exiled from their pseudo-medieval settlement, as had of course happened to one of the protagonists; they too were creatures of the fallen-out world. In this one, they were inquisitive and quick-moving, slithered themselves into the tub as eagerly as yapoks, and Hestia hissed at them. Awake, I am even sadder about their nonexistence than the more predictable fictitiousness of the books and their famous Australian children's author. I dreamed also of Stephen Colbert, I assume because I am worrying about him. It does not feel actually out of character that he had read much of the same random science fiction I had.

Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairings/Characters: Twelve/Missy/Jack
Rating: M
Length: 11,681 words
Creator Links: Trobadora
Theme: Working Together, time travel

Summary: This is what it takes to hold together what has been sheared apart.
Or: The Doctor, Jack Harkness and Missy encounter a weapon from the Time War.

Reccer's Notes: Jack visits the Doctor to berate him for releasing the Master from the vault. While he's there, something terrible is happening to time itself.  The Doctor and Missy have to work together with Jack's help to stabilize their timeline.  The author does such a great job showing you these little snippets of possible timelines, and giving you just enough that you want to know more.  There is a sex scene between the three of them, but it makes sense in the context of story, and is about so much more than just sex.  If you like Twelve and Missy and have always wanted to see what it would have been like to throw Jack into the mix, then please read this one.

Fanwork Links: Ao3

Stone and Sky

4/5. New Rivers of London book. Rated for nostalgic fondness as much as for the book itself. This one takes Peter – and most of the main cast, including the kids – to a community on the North Sea to either vacation or solve a weird magical mystery, depending on whom you ask.

He is now giving Abigail POV chapters, which I will allow because I like Abigail, and also because this is a vast improvement over the American FBI agent (who he is still trying to make a thing, please stop). Anyway, it’s a pleasant mystery written to formula, complete with local cop that Peter befriends. There’s a lot of formula here, actually – Abigail builds a relationship that has a frankly astonishing amount of Peter/Bev DNA. Anyway, it’s a good time, and it is gesturing towards opening up another arc, which I am in favor of. I think he is intending to draw in some of the international elements he keeps so pointedly raising, but in what direction, I’m not sure yet.

Paul Krugman's been posting economic primers, accessible only to paid subscribers, and emailing teasers to his free subscribers. They turn up clock regular every Sunday, so at least I know by the posting date which of Krugman's blog posts to delete without even scanning. (He says in a recent Friday post that his Saturday posts are free; my memory says he originally said he'd be posting paid-only material on "weekends", and (less certainly) originally emailed useless-to-me teasers twice a week.)

He's decided to make two of his primers available to non-paying subscribers, though not on his substack. I'll now get to find out whether they are so elementary I could have written them myself, as I've long suspected. Or perhaps while a bit beyond my reach, they will turn out to be merely saying things I've already read from other non-neo-classical economists, such as perhaps Thomas Piketty.

Meanwhile, this has brought my attention to The Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality. I expect to enjoy dipping around on that site.

In other news, Krugman reports that he's happy to have reached the #10 spot among Substack political blogs, with 400K total subscriptions. At $70 per year, that would be a more than decent income if only 10% of those are paid. $280K per year is not chump change. Clearly he doesn't need my money as much as I need it myself.

I very much dislike this star system approach to any career. I wouldn't want to be one of the strivers, hoping that I might someday break into the rarified levels actually able to support themselves, with perhaps $28K per year. It's probably inevitable, though, for public intellectuals with for-pay blogs.

I also don't like the behaviour the would-be stars use to promote themselves. This, of course, includes spamming me with teasers for their for pay services, but also enthusiastically promoting fellow bloggers, in return for similar promotion of their own blogs. (Substack does this in a deceptive way, such that when you subscribe to one blogger, it's easy to be tricked into subscribing to several of their friends, more or less en masse.)