Yikes, I haven't been posting

...and I really should be in bed. But what the hey, I'll be home for the holiday soon and won't be able to post from there. Did you catch the Simpsons comix extravaganza this past Sunday? Fortuitously, I tuned in and caught it. Had some amusing moments although surely they could have come up with better lines for Art Spiegelman, right? Kate did point out that Alan Moore singing to his Little Lulu comic was definitely worth the price of admission.

Another amusing thing for you as you waste time at work or at home: if you remember the "Land of the Lost" and ever been in a library, check this youtube video out. It's nine seconds of silliness that made me laugh out loud.

So, I leave for home on Wednesday. My sister's birthday always falls around Thanksgiving and I finally realized the absurdity of having a full (and I mean FULL) meal and then having birthday cake. How is this possible or normal? Fortunately, I have her gift ready to go.

Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys....gobble gobble

There are jobs for English majors...

I know I shouldn't be laughing at this tragedy in Australia, but don't you just get the feeling that a disgruntled English major has been waiting for YEARS to write such a headline.

Lovely, lovely fall days

Today was one of those snuggly mornings. I had put on an extra blanket on my bed and turned up the heat a bit. I awoke to the low purring of one of my cats which mirrored my mood rather than interrupted it. I didn't even mind pulling myself from the cocoon to face the day.

Last night was a lot of fun too. I met up with friends, Cheryl and Faye, who had been at a symposium on witchcraft at ECSU. It's surprising that they hadn't had the chance to meet each other yet what with their overlapping interests and mutual friends. At dinner, we saw our new first selectman, Jean DeSmet. (It's nice living in a small, left leaning town -- I rubbed it into my friends' face who lives in Alabama and longs for such choices we face here). After dinner, we attended a dance performance about women executed in Connecticut for witchcraft. It was called The Witching Hour.

Though Cheryl was not enthusiastic about modern dance, I really liked it. The performers, as Faye put it, had "real" women's bodies and moved with a lot of grace. The set was very striking with giant puppets as the male Puritans who condemned these women, speaking the words of Cotton Mather among others. In front of them was a lone woman who signed their speech. Some of the dancers integrated sign language into their dance. I also loved their opening sequence where the dancers imitated the crossing over the Atlantic with the slow heaving and tipping of their bodies. The performance was partially narrated by a modern, home-schooled girl, Addie Avery, who has taken it upon herself to get her ancestor (a grandmother, nine times removed) exonerated. She played herself which made her words all the more meaningful.

Thanks very much Cheryl for the ticket!!

All Soul's Day -- Poetry Edition

On the Acaedmy of American Poets' website (www.poets.org), there's an interesting essay on the graves of poets -- there are lots of them lying around doing nothing in New England. In honor of dead poets everywhere, I give you a spooky poem from Emily Dickinson (you can see her grave in Amherst) -- the last line perfectly captures the feeling of coming across a snake unexpectantly:

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, --did you not,
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,
--When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature's people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

The Heat is On

I have succumbed to the cooler weather. I shouldn't really complain since the last weeks have been warm, and Saturday was downright balmy. But now I have turned on the heat and so comes the stuffy air and the high electric bill.

This past weekend, I had a great time at Joey and Cheryl's fabulous Halloween party! I even won two prizes!!! The chocolate skull is just too cool looking to eat. My pals, Kate and Gene, stayed with me and it was fun to catch up with them. I miss them even if they are much, much closer than where they were before. I also greatly appreciate their help with my costume -- as the surviving member of the Donner Party (Donner Party of One). Gene won first place for his costume -- Raggedy Andy Warhol. I told a colleague of mine about his costume and she laughed her ass off. She said she could immediately visualize it.

Well, the semester is heating up (to keep with the theme of this post). I am taking over another class for the rest of the semester, and I have a lot of stuff to do between now and the end.

(Image courtesy of www.cuteoverload.com)
yeah it's cute until you need to clean the juicy pumpkin innards from kitten fur
Happy Halloween you ghoulies and ghosties.

What I'm Reading and Watching

Besides all the research and writing stuff, I thought I would post my thoughts on what I've recently been perusing.

Since the local library has been stocking up on manga titles and that I now have a speedy wireless connection, I find that I've been dipping into Japanese comic books more than I have before. First off, Death Note, which I've read up to Volume 8 (12 is the last volume). This is one of those titles that the summary of it makes me think "that sounds awful" and yet, becomes very interesting. The premise is that everybody's death is determined by a group of "death gods" called Shinigami. They have a notebook which kills the victim once his or her name is entered. Now, the notebook is sometimes dropped or left for people to find who can use it for their own purposes. Indeed, it finds its way into one person's hands who decides to make the world a better place by killing all the nasty people in it (don't we all wish, right?). The manga then turns into a Sherlock Holmes/Moriarity thing with characters trying to discover each other's identity, twisting and turning under the rules of the Death Note. It's quite a dark series and extremely unpredictable. The anime just debuted on Cartoon Network, although I missed it. The DVD will be out in November. Must Netflix it.

Also reading, sad to admit, the current versions of Bleach and Naruto. Though pretty mainstream shonen fare, it's fun fluff. The amazing thing is that the twenty or so pages a week pop up in Shonen Jump, Tuesday in Japan. By Friday, the thing has been scanned, translated into English, and then cleaned up to make it look pretty. I find it fairly effective in guilting me to purchase the anime (when they are out uncut and subtitled) and related products to support the creators. I spend too much money nowadays ^_^;

Been Netflixing The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which has been rather amusing with its take on otaku culture although it looks like it's turning into a romantic comedy (I don't think I mind this but check back with me in a couple volumes). Speaking of otaku culture, I've also watched Genshiken 2 (which is currently airing in Japan).

On a completely, utterly different note, I watched the first couple episodes of Bleak House while I was grading papers tonight. I really should spend more time in the nineteenth century. I just enjoy it too much. And if one thinks that today's novels have too many coincidences to be believable, just take a look at Dickens. One would think that there are only ten people in all of England. However, he's still such a funny, funny writer, and his characters can be so tragic and so hilarious and so broadly drawn.

Addendum: OMG I just found out that the lead actor of Bleak House, Denis Lawson, is none other than Wedge Antilles from the original Star Wars trilogy. I just knew that my attempt at high art would spin back around to geekiness. Is there nothing that Star Wars doesn't touch? (shut up, Gene).

Catching Up

So, my friend's father passed away peacefully last Thursday night. He was just a few days short of his 92nd birthday. We should all be so fortunate to live not only as long but to be as independent as he was until the end. The memorial service is next Thursday, and I will arrange for someone to cover my afternoon class so I can attend. There's more family drama but I'd rather not write about that. I'm trying to be helpful but distant.

I'm watching the Red Sox/Indians game tonight (looks like the Sox will have won by the time you read this post). I really like having baseball on while I'm multi-tasking (made some phone calls, wrote some bills, now blogging) because I grew up listening to it on the radio. It's rather soothing, especially when it's not your team clinging to life in Game 7. Though I am a die-hard Braves fan, the Sox are my adopted team. Living in Connecticut is weird since there is no national team but rather is split down the middle between Yankees and Sox fans (and the occasional weird Mets fan). I've been to Fenway a few times (when the Braves were in town) and enjoyed it. It's the only park I've been to besides the ones in Atlanta (Altanta-Fulton County Stadium and then Turner Field).

My mother has turned into an obsessive baseball watcher. She's been glued to the TV watching all the playoffs and got really, really irritated with me when we discovered that I had a thirty second lead on what was going on. (Me: "Oh, he just struck out" HER: "WHAT?") For some reason, her broadcast was being delayed. My sister also watches it. It's a safe subject that all of us can talk about.