sundries

Email subject lines that scare me before noon and probably after: "Badger badger badger Aragorn!"

Television that scares me: Meant to watch the latest HH disc from Netflix last night. Somehow, instead, was mesmerized by the astounding bizarreness that is The Surreal Life on VH1. This is not a way to reclaim your fame kids.

I can't find my jazz shoes! And I need non-heeled non-street shoes for this class. Argh.

Presuming the Germans do get the airplane ticket into my hands in time, this week is going to involve a lot of sucky chaos revolving around getting my passport.

Please, please let my riding pants get here tomorrow and please please let them leave the package or let someone be here to get them, because I have no idea how I will live through my lesson on Tuesday without them.

I don't agree or disagree with this in its entirety, but I totally get it: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/magazine/12WWLN.html -- Tragedy to Policy, on being "over" 9/11.

Meanwhile, Colin Powell has some words for the neo-cons -- most notably: "fucking crazies". http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1302834,00.html via folk. Poor Colin Powell -- if there was ever a guy who got screwed over and over again for trying to do right by his party, it's him. Maybe he should go hang out with the Log Cabin Republicans.

Finally, and I keep forgetting to write about this, but I saw the preview for Alexander the Second time I went to see Vanity Fair. I know that I'm perhaps excessively intvested in this whole thing in all sorts of conflicting ways (hi, I've read the Mary Renault books, I liked the Mary Renault books, so why am I being a bitch about Alexander fanfic?) -- but oh my god... the hair design in this film is so bad... so so so bad. Like, barbie dolls were scalped to make these wigs. I expect to have intense quibbles with Oliver Stone films as a rule, especially on subjects I'm knowledgeable on... but I don't expect him to fuck up a simple yet critical design element. Ugh. It was painful. Also, did every single clip have to involve Collin Farrel baring his teeth?

Regency dance class

Went to my Regency dance class (after a bit of mad wandering about the city which involved Sansha having moved, their new location not being open, and the people at Capezio being their usual "buy Capezio" selves while I was all like "no... Bloch owns me"), and it was the greatest thing ever.

The class was small (apparently much smaller than usual), and wildly gender unbalanced (this thought apparently swings all over the map, from too many girls to too many boys), but this was only really problematic when we worked on the waltzes (which are nothing like a modern waltz) and really needed people who knew what they were doing and new how to lead.

Many things were startling about the experience as a whole. First, at this period in time ballet and social dance had not entirely seperated themselves yet, and as such there were a lot of similarities in the movement of feet, but significant differences in the stances and force of movements. I had to struggle to be less athletic (I assure you, a novel problem for me).

While much of the dances involve matters of patterns, they are surprisingly tiring to do (we worked on French Quadrilles, Scottish Country Dances and the waltzes), and the three hour class was actually a massive workout, although mainly aerobically and for the calves (something my riding instructor won't mind in the least).

What was perhaps particularly surprising was the degree to which doing the dances informed me so much, on an innate, non-verbal level about the period. As much as I've been immersed in all this Napoleanic era stuff right now (HH and Vanity Fair), moving as these people would move, even in modern clothes, with music on a persnickety stereo in a weird little dance studio west of Eight Avenue in the theatre district, just brought it all so much more to life for me. It was really neat.

People were kind, and welcoming. And now I've just got to cajole other people into doing this with me, both for the next class (October 3rd) and the Assembly in CT on the 16th. Well, that and sewing. And learning more period card games for the gaming parlor (they're all much easier than I thought... at least as their basic level... certainly I love the Internet for all the random arcane knowledge you can teach yourself in ten minutes or less).

way fucked up Craigslist post of the day

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tlg/42145278.html

random weird survey of crap on TV

Did anyone else watch the new WB show Jack & Bobby? I wound up watching it by accident, and it sort of blew me away, obvious and heavy handed though it was. I'm still not sure why on earth the show exists, but definitely compelling. Shades of the whole Gattaca "I never saved anything for the way back" thing in the plotline.

Of course, the competition was grim:

The Perfect Storm -- saw this in a theatre with Kat and we both hated it (the book is good though). It also made us seasick and we had sit down on the curb because we couldn't walk a straight line for ages afterwards (yes, I've gotten seasick twice ever -- once at a movie, and once on a ferry to Yankee Stadium. Yes, I'm embarassed -- I actually passed out getting off the ferry. That's the best part... I get back on solid ground... walk, I dunno...twenty yards...? get even more dizzy and pass out).

The Patriot -- _awful_. It's such a pity Jason Isaacs is so much fun in it... because Mel Gibson is his creepy weird awful self in it, and it's really just unwatchable.

The Lubavitcher Telethon -- there is no commentary I could possibly come up with on this one.

Aside from all of that channel flipping, I watched HH disc 7, and was somewhat confused because I'm reading the books at the same time and some of the differences are pronounced and confusingly so. Aside from that, can anyone tell me why Maria is Mariah in this, or is it that Maria is pronounced Mariah in Britain? Anyway, while less annoying in the DVD, I'm sort of more amused by her in the books. Either way, I think there's really something to be said for the way the marriage comes across thus far in both mediums -- I mean... how often do we get to see men being idiots about women, and knowing they're being idiots about women, and having the good grace not to make crappy excuses about the fact that they're idiots about women? I guess it's this notion, and not anything about love, that makes these damn things romances at their heart.