Areas of Unrest

27 April 2000 - Free Association

QOTD: "Nikola Tesla's laboratory was a rectangular solid with stuff in it." - Spider Robinson

Reading: Ernest Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic

Listening to: Blackmore's Night, Shadow of the Moon

In case you couldn't figure out what the last entry was about, I ran an anagram program on my name (in its preferred form, namely "Miriam H. Nadel") and free-associated on some of the results that came up. I'm really particularly fond of "hire a mild man" and "her mild mania." It doesn't mean a lot but it was an entertaining bit of word play.

Speaking of things mentioned in recent entries, I erred a bit in my characterization of Peruvian politics. Alberto Fujimori calls himself "El Chino" despite his Japanese ancestry. I still think Alejandro Toledo is appealing to racism, though.

I should also point out that Fionnula Flanagan is actually an excellent actor and I don't think she's a ham at all. She happened to be the first Irish actor I thought of.

Just to point out that I'm right about some things, the situation in Zimbabwe looks like it's getting worse. What I find most interesting in the news reports is that they are still focused on the land question. Two white farmers have been killed, compared to 19 black supporters of the opposition political party. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is about Mugabe trying to stay in power so he can continue to drain the country. Sigh.

On a lighter note, I keep forgetting to mention some things about recent reading. If you follow my marginalia, you might have noticed that I devoured the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I liked them, in general, despite the obvious need for better editing. The later books provide some interesting material for sexual fantasies, at least if you share my predilection towards hairy men. Still, I'm not all that keen to get involved with a lycanthrope.

I've also read a couple of Jonathan Gash's novels lately. I find the Lovejoy series very inconsistent, but I admire Lovejoy's passion for antiques. My favorite of the series is still Firefly Gadroon, largely because of a scene at the end that is a particularly dramatic illustration of what craftsmanship is all about. The Clare Burtonall books are darker; Bonn is a fascinating character but I keep feeling like I'm being teased and wishing Gash let us in deeper. But I have to admit my major reaction to Prey Dancing was wondering if Gash makes up the slang he uses or if Manchester skollies really talk that way.

Tonight featured a CD binge and a minor book binge. The former was somewhat planned, though I hadn't expected that Tower Records would have the London cast recording of Flowers For Algernon. Yes, that classic science fiction story was made into a musical. It may be the unlikeliest subject for a musical ever. (Carrie is another obvious contender. This is one of those great parlor games - make up very bad premises for musical comedy.) I found several CDs I'd been looking for and several more I didn't know of. The most notable addition (besides Flowers for Algernon) is part of the Tzadik Records "Radical Jewish Culture" series and is by a group called Ahava Raba (which translates roughly to "Great Love"). The title of the CD is "Kete Kuf" and I bought it because I couldn't resist the jacket blurb that starts out "Klezmer, Gypsy folk music, contemporary classical composition and Tuvan throat singing all come together in the remarkable debut CD of the exciting and eclectic group Ahava Raba."

The books are another matter. I was really just killing time at Barnes and Noble before driving over to Penny's and I saw a couple of books I absolutely had to have. (One about freaks and the latest of the Applewood Books Nancy Drew reprints.) Since I was already going to have to get out my credit card, I figured I might as well add in a book about the Franklin expedition for my polar collection.

At least I have plenty of distractions to ease the stress of a work week that has largely involved playing telephone tag with affiliates of the nuclear mafia. (That's a former boss's name for the Department of Energy, by the way. I use it because I think it's funny.) In between developing deep personal relationships with several people's voicemail services, I've had people need to meet with me urgently and then not show up. And one of my less admired colleagues asked me if we could do a telecon from my office tomorrow morning. There were 5 people involved so I thought it would work fine and agreed. He then sent out the notice to 11 additional people. My office is big, but if all of them show up, this will be comparable to the phone booth stuffing fad of the 1950's.

Storytelling is also heating up again as a distraction. I'm doing a humor workshop at the annual Southern California Story Swapping Festival on May 6th. The first swap at Otherworld Cottage is the 7th, and I feel obliged to show up to support venue development, despite my skepticism about why Travis is putting on this event. Then there's my guest performance at With Our Words (at the Beverly Hills Library) on May 13th; this is pretty much the pinnacle of local venues and I feel like I have to be at my very best for it. And tonight Penny mentioned that Jon is starting up events at a venue in the Valley and would like to book the Bards. It was just me, Penny and Greg tonight so we have to check with Barry and Kane before setting anything up, but my guess is that they'll agree happily. Especially since this place supposedly has both enough chairs and its own sound system. And no espresso machine to compete with. I suppose we'd still have to do our own publicity, though. Even the best venues have little stickers on the windows that say "audience not included."