sundries

[rm]

Getting off the subway just now, I see a woman in tears chasing after a man, wailing, "how could you do this to me? how can you just toss me aside?" Then I tripped over some woman staring at the scene, as if the woman crying (the presumably injured party) was somehow insane. The whole thing rattled me in the dark places. If he can't respect you, time to stop respecting him.

Can we be done with the Mercury Retrograde please? It has been epic and ridiculous and horrible.

Speaking of Mercury Retrograde, some of you will remember a thing I posted about advocating for more academic programming at Dragon*Con -- well here's an update on how to do (and not) do that.

Also speaking of Mercury Retrograde, Dances of Vice was wonderful last night after we finally found it, because Google Maps (and some random people we stopped on the street) led us astray in an epic wandering journey through Park Slope, which was super fun in a corset. I hope the other lost folks we found on the way had a great time too.

Highlights included the degree to which it was very organically like things I remember from the 80s -- it wasn't a recreation or a set-up or full of winks and nods, but there were bright lights and shiny objects and an oompah band playing 99 Luft Ballons along with a fire act and an actual dance company and costumes and odd cocktails and a guy who made himself into different animals using shaving cream as well as a fellow Jill and I kept referring to as Lumiere of Rassilon and then Patty and I wound up hiding in a nest of pillows behind some chairs for a while. Pictures soon.

laughingirl raises money for breast cancer charities by walking in various Avon Walks and also by auctioning off small plush bears autographed by stars. She's raised tens of thousands of dollars doing this, and current autographed plush bears for auction may be of particular interest to many of my fannish friends and include ones from John Barrowman, James Marsters and GDL. Buy a bear, people!

Speaking of bears, check out this article on Ring cycle fannishness, which includes a photo of a woman with a costumed bear. Proof that fannishiness isn't some tawdry low-culture thing or proof that opera really is just as trashy as fans have been trying to tell you for years?

If you visit the Creation Museum you can ride a triceratops.

There's a meme going around for people to post high school pics next to pics of them now. I post lots of now pics of me all the time, so that seems a little besides the point, but this is from the beginning of 9th grade (1986), so I'm probably 13 or barely 14 in it.



It reminds me that I've always been serious and that I really need a fucking haircut.

Comments

[laughingirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for mentioning the auctions! I really appreciate it! :)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the Trip Planner at the MTA’s website? You enter your origin point, destination, departure or arrival time, and preferred means of travel, and it gives you routes. The best part is that every suggestion has a “Map This Option” link, and if you open the map and put your mouse arrow on the place where you exit the transit system you’ll get directions on how to walk from the station or bus stop to your final destination.

[rm.livejournal.com]

We used HopStop, which pulled from an erroneous Google map. I'll try theirs next time.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That's a very good picture. Having never seen you in person, I'd allow that if I'd seen it with no explanation I'd have guessed it was a picture of you as a young adult -- somewhere around 18 or 20. It's very becoming.

And just for the heck of it, here's my icon of my high school senior class picture.

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

in that picture, you look exactly like a girl I had an incredible crush on when I was in the 9th grade. You may always have been serious, but you always have been beautiful :-)

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

Nice icon! I used to have a giant poster of that picture! In fact, I named my computer Nekkid Red-Haired Lady on a Bike. :) (I lived in residence at the time and needed a name to distinguish my comp from everyone elses on the network) Gotta love inspiration!

[louiseroho.livejournal.com]

You looked like Ducky from Pretty in Pink.
That is not meant as a deprecation.
You were beautiful, just as you are beautiful today.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I know! The Ducky hair!

What's so funny, is I fucking hated that movie, because it was about how losers wind up getting everything they want, and that was not happening for me. Ninth grade was absolutely, positively the worst of my teen years though.

(and thank you)

[annablume.livejournal.com]

Opera is totally trashy. That's part of why it's so awesome.

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

'Hagen gives Siegfried a magic potion that makes him forget all about Brünnhilde and fall in love with Gutrune - who by the way is the only woman Siegfried has ever come across who hasn’t been his aunt.'
- Anna Russell

Yeah, totally trashy. If only it weren't such expensive trash. (I just finished ordering 09-10 tickets.)

[amberite2112.livejournal.com]

thank you! i grew up with that record!
no one i've ever known has heard it!
thank you, now i know i'm not hallucinating it!

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

'I'm not making this up, you know!'

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Nothing will ever compare to the Bell Pepper Lady at Private Lives.

[rm.livejournal.com]

EVER.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered what happened to that pepper. It cracks me up - I imagine it encased in a Lucite cube in the middle of the living room table.

[fragiletender.livejournal.com]

Oh great, now I'm squeeing at fannish bears.

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

First, I had almost the same stupid conversation when Yoshi and I broke up, also in a train station. Why do people DO that?

Second, you look now SO much like you did then. How on earth do you simply not age?

[firinel.livejournal.com]

rm has a painting in someone's attic?

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

LMFAO!

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

You know, I wish I could just admire how pretty you were (and are!) along with everyone else and leave it at that, but I really can't get over that shirt! It looks like it's related to the background behind you! :D Actually, now that I think about it, I think my mom has a similar style of shirt back then too. ;D

[rm.livejournal.com]

It was part of a suit, sorta -- not with a jacket, but matching blouse and skirt, and teh skirt was long and fitted with a little flair at the bottom -- more tulip shape than fishtail. It's all very FLDS prairie dress to me now. The background is a large oil painting done by a family friend.

I thought Looked so grownup and stylish in that outfit, but dear god, the 80s -- what were we thinking?

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

I love pictures from the 80's! I was born in '81, so I missed (or don't remember) a good portion of it, but my goodness, the things my parents wore, and the things they dressed ME in! Love it!

[trillian42.livejournal.com]

Me too!! I mean, you look great, but that shirt makes me think of the upholstery on my Nana's deck chairs when I was a kid.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Mercury retrograde can frakking END NOW, yes. *shakes head*

[ecce-echo.livejournal.com]

You can also pet a 'zorse'(zebra/horse) and a 'zonkey' (zebra/donkey) in the petting museum at the creation museum (I forget what their existence was supposed to 'prove', but they are adorable). I grew up about 15 minutes from where the museum now sits and a lot of us from around there now feel this sense of embarrassment at its existence because people come from everywhere to see it and then they get this Kentucky = fundamentalist christian bedrock thing in their heads.

It's an interesting place to visit as a 'fan' because I had some level of self-identification with these people leading these rigidly text-based existences. I wanted to empathize because the 'museum' had the air of a con that's gone on far too long and taken itself far too seriously. Like, this is canon, you must comply. (But then you have to confront the crazy of holding up 'man's logic tells us that the world is 4.5 billion years old, god's word tells us the world is 6,000 years old' as equally valid statements)

(Sorry for the random comment by a stranger, I've been following your journal because you say such interesting things ,and I wanted to reply because I have very strong feelings toward the creation museum)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And that's a really interesting perspective and one that has potential to be useful to me in terms of having compassion for folks I often view as the enemy.

(aside, my first boyfriend was from Bowling Green, KY, and he was queer and had pink hair, so my sense of Kentucky isn't all fundamentalists!)

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

I'm not brave enough to post my school photo from 1986. I made myself look as awful as possible because I did not want to get the photo taken. UGH. HORRIBLE.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

The thing about opera is, they use the plots that anime doesn't use because they're too silly. Pure crack, and I love it.

One of the people who worked on costuming for the Ring here made my corset. (Which, hey, might fit again, so I should try it on!) And there is a woman who comes every single time without a ticket, and has got in every single time when some kind soul has given her one.

Bruckner once sank to his knees in front of Wagner, gushing “Oh Master, I worship you.” To which Wagner responded, “There, there, Bruckner. Good night!”

Oh, fandom. Never change.

[sethg]

In that picture, you bear a remarkable resemblance to my high-school girlfriend, even though she was 18 (when I was going out with her) and is half Vietnamese. I don't suppose your father was a civilian aircraft repairman during the Vietnam War?