round the ragged rocks
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bisi's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, May 4th, 2006 | | 4:48 pm |
they call me Mrs. Pitiful
One day last week I came home to the sound of heaves and grunts, the chink of weights sliding onto metal and cries of 'Higher - higher - higher - more - that's it - stay there -" gasp.heave.shunkCLUNK. The boys were taking turns, two spotting, one lifting, and there were instructions to me not to come into the laundry room. I put the fear of god into them by popping in there with a camera and saying "You guys know I keep a blog, right?" ( Read more... )How's everybody been? Hey, it just about looks like Summer late Spring. We've got pear blossom, the hedges are creamy with hawthorn-or-is-it-blackthorn blossom (ne'er cast a clout etc.) The evil killer magpies have been marauding through the new nests in our garden, and just cos they have fledglings of their own it doesn't make it any easier to watch. Oh, and it's no more than poetic justice, I guess, when the person who doesn't believe in dieting on principle finds they can no longer fit in their trousers. See what giving up smoking will do for you. | | Friday, March 31st, 2006 | | 4:57 pm |
crucible on a swing
Speaking to Jem yesterday. she says her girlfriend teaches The Crucible to year 10/11. Before they even start on the text she divides the class into 3 research groups and sets one group to research witchcraft, one group to research communism and one group to research Sen. McCarthy. Anyhow, KT's class's first performance was last night. I'd asked if I could video it. I haven't picked up a camera in such a long while I couldn't work out how to get it into manual or how to do the white balance. So it was kind of a mess, and I'm doing it again tonight, having spent all day poring over the on-line manuals. Ususally the circus school is very very chary over visual rights, so I'm pleased they're letting me do this. During the performance the young people took it in turns with the principal roles, the boys being John Proctor and the girls being Abigail. The character of Abigail was indicated by putting on a red vest. (KT: and they told us to take power as we put it on, did you notice? Cos I would get my arm in and stop and look at the audience and then put the other arm in slowly.) Not a barrel of laughs, the Crucible. All the kids had begged their families to keep clapping so they would get a curtain call. They all huddled at the back looking questioning til we had clapped hard enough for them to come forward again. Then they rushed forward squeaking with delight. Looking at yesterdays footage, all fuzzy and pink as it is, some of the stills I've pulled from it have a lovely painterly quality. ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 | | 9:52 pm |
ho hum
trying to post my way out of the doldrums, so there may be spam for a while. For nothing is more easeful to the constitution than regularity, and healthful dispersal, or outpouring rather, of whatever stale old humours might otherwise accumulate to our detriment - (The book in the loo at the moment is Essays of Elia, not that I've any prospect of succeeding in a pastiche of that, very elaborate, language.) My youngest was 19 on the 17th and my eldest was 27 on the 24th. Which makes me about 307. Plus it hit me on the Sunday, I no longer have anyone to buy a mother's day card for, or even organise the getting of one on behalf of. Hence, doldrums. Also bad temper, which is preferable. Now St. Patricks Day is no great huge thing here, but an Irish person might buy you a drink in the pub, if they like you. So the kid goes out on the piss on on her birthday and manages to come home without her purse, her bus pass or her provisional license. She did, however have a large plush hat in the shape of a shamrock mutating into three pints of guinness. As her brother said, you've got to get your priorities right. Where to even start, I'll have to pace myself. Ok, picspam. Amazon's one-click shopping is a very dangerous activity - like it's virtual money so you may as well spend it, there are no consequences! - but today the result of my rashness was delivered and I'm delighted. Bellocq's Storyville Portaits.( Read more... ) | | Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 | | 12:29 pm |
straight off a cliff
Last week had various cases of flu and going to bed early. And hiding out in guilt because i have an obligation not fulfilled (feeling like a heel on that one). Weekend however was... drum roll...CLOWN WORKSHOP It's Tuesday and i think my hands have just about stopped shaking. ( Read more... ) | | Sunday, February 19th, 2006 | | 9:46 pm |
solace
Had a nice long bitchy phonecall from Armstrong today, in which we discussed my sister's many many deficiencies to our utmost satisfaction. Armstrongisms: (He and Pauly are convinced any attractive foreign young man walking alone down the wild North East streets MUST be gay. Eta: this is because they are optimists.) "He's got a wand on him somewhere." "Eh? What do you mean, Armstrong?" "Cos he's a fairy, you daft besom." (On house buying) "It never goes smoothly, if it does there's something the matter." "Darling, it's a lovely hat but I wouldn't keep nails in it." I told him about the oyster bloke and he accused me of exaggerating. I mentioned how after you've seen enough people take off their clothes you just want them to put them back on again. He said he'd noticed the same thing when he'd been running a nightclub with strippers. (Not a strip club - that would have been vulgar.) I want to go visit my uncle and get coddled and over-fed and bitched at and spoiled. (Armstrong cringes when you give him a hug because, as he says, of the bazoobas.) You can tell he was brought up by a bunch of formidable women - WOMEN WITH IMMENSE BAZOOBAS - half the time he's channeling them. Exept when he's making cocktails: he has the downstairs larder done up as a small bar, optics and everything. | | Thursday, February 16th, 2006 | | 12:02 am |
ordinary family stuff
Goodness, it's past midnight. Lazy day, catching up. Thank heavens. And hence, to rambling without purpose. * Bloody girl nearly scared the life out of me just now arriving home from salsa, couldn't be bothered to find her keys so stood outside in the dark calling softly "Mum! Let me in!" AT MIDNIGHT. ( Read more... ) | | Saturday, February 11th, 2006 | | 9:44 am |
festival workshop
I've never been so knackered in all my born days. And every evening I would come home, eye the growing pile of dirty plates, and go to bed. By about Sunday someone had put them in the sink and poured water over them. (Everybody: "I didn't do it, I've been at work all day!") I thought I'd actually stopped running after everyone and doing housework, but from the state of the house, this is not so. Wednesday, last workshop day, Thursday, cleanup, Friday I had a big evaluation meeting, today, blessed leisure. We were each supposed to write two reviews a day and have them ready by the next day, but that was a tall order. It got so that if anything was cancelled - like the post-gay Duckie event - all you felt was relief. The valuable thing was being forced to write regardless, being strictly edited for clarity and getting instant feedback in pragmatic terms : this works, this doesn't, this sentence is too long, etc. Hothousing. So, with me, the great thing that happened was that I stopped being all detached and started writing how I actually think. Like from "Each statement falls deliberately into the space as the stage gradually brightens" to "Bloody hell, he's haring away sharpish, was I supposed to lose sight of him?" Liberating. Stuff I seen. ( Read more... ) | | 9:08 am |
talking with a friend
there's an inter-personal dynamic that goes like this: straight woman: Men! gay woman: Hahaha not my problem! So I was talking with Jem about among other things, Brokeback ( Read more... ) | | Friday, February 3rd, 2006 | | 12:18 am |
I've seen so many dicks today! There's something about live art seems to make men want to tear all their clothes off. | | Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 | | 12:16 pm |
I still don't seem able to navigate anywhere while logged in, so I suppose the security of lj is assured now. I'm feeling ( distracted and quite worried with the workshop stuff )The writing workshops have been good - editing and style tips mostly. Handy things, cutting out extra words: thises, thats, thens, whiches, using straightforwaed constructions, being definite, not beating about the bush, not being hesitant. It's great to be edited by someone you trust. Hats off to betas! ( trepidation )It's going to be intense. Two pieces of writing a day til Sunday. http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/ibt/ | | Monday, January 30th, 2006 | | 7:29 pm |
I can't believe they still haven't fixed this - can't navigate anywhere once I'm logged in. I feel my lurker's rights are being violated. Anyway, nice day today, bunch of nice people, one little writing exercise and we have HOMEWORK. Man, I love this Dumas icon. He looks so twinkly. | | Monday, January 23rd, 2006 | | 11:11 pm |
oh dear, oh dear, oh lord.
Omygod, Prison Break! It's - like crack!fic. Except without the hoyay. Might create a whole trend of fic being more realistic than the source material. Followed by Supernatural ( Read more... ) Current Mood: jaded | | 11:01 am |
Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no
The god-damn awful crisis has been crising away, and although it's not directly my problem, I've had to stay away from my lj, because it brings up a lot of mouldy old sibling issues, and I get petty and unwarranted - plus, it's actually quite worrying. Huh. Sibling stuff. Even now, if I'm talking to one of my two eldest kids, the other will come up and butt in on some completely unrelated topic, obliviously. Like gannets, they are, for attention instead of fish. I think I saw an episode of Golden Girls once, with the septagenarians (sp?) doing the same. But I had good news today! I've been accepted on a writing workshop for a Live Art festival - I get to see shows, plus there's a small fee. Yippee! *squeals* I'd totally given up on it, cos they said they would contact by the 18, but the email came this morning. So much for giving up admin and desk work. | | Sunday, January 8th, 2006 | | 10:30 pm |
life in Kingswood
So this afternoon I hear a commotion, look out of the window in time to see a pink-and-blue streak go belting down the street, shouting. Now HH had said before that there's a woman goes yelling down our street every afternoon like clockwork. ( Read more... ) | | 1:37 am |
| | Saturday, January 7th, 2006 | | 11:52 pm |
discursive.
The Princess's new boyfriend was posted to Northern Ireland on the 2nd, she decamped to my sister's, where I'm told she cried for two days. I've been thinking about this idea that we each have something particular to learn each life cycle, and probably what I was supposed to learn was how to appreciate traditional masculine virtues; you know, like being clueless and dogged and taciturn and linear and translating all emotions into either anger or sex.* And I'm very nearly there already. (eta: in that I've evolved to the extent of frequently being able to see the positive side of these qualities.) So this evening we went to see Brokeback Mountain. ( very spoilers ) | | Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 | | 8:28 pm |
I like the idea that 'abusing popular credulity' might be illegal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1677430,00.htmlLuigi Cascioli, a militant atheist and author of The Fable of Christ, has brought a case against Father Enrico Righi after the priest lambasted the writer for questioning Christ's historical origins. Cascioli argues that there is no reliable and/or contemporary evidence that Jesus existed, which makes Father Righi guilty of "an abuse of popular credulity" and the church authorities guilty of "substitution of persons", both offences under Italian law.
The judge (and you might feel some sneaking sympathy for his decision) refused to take up the case until compelled by the court of appeal, which decreed that the priest had a reasonable case to answer. (Sorry, I've just realised this has all gone a bit first-draft-Dan-Brown, but I hope you have staggered with me to the bitter end.) Accordingly, the judge will require Father Righi to adduce proof that not only was there a charismatic fellow gathering followers and boundless admiration as he toured first-century Palestine, but that he was also the son of God.
There is a pleasing symmetry to the notion that, in a time when presidents can invoke the will of God to justify setting aside the constitutional laws of their respective lands, it should be the law that calls for evidence of God. Father Righi has until the end of the month to come up with his testimony. | | 11:02 am |
*pokes head up* Is it safe yet? This is the first time i've been alone in the house for WEEKS. Jesus, the relief. *frantically sucks lingering traces of nicotine from teeth and dives back into blissful solitude* | | Friday, December 16th, 2005 | | 3:46 am |
The boy bought a router so we can have both computers online at the same time, and there's been deinstalling, reinstalling, tearing hair out, gnashing teeth and bitter exchanges of recrimination for days. But now it works. Or at least my end does. His end, the wireless end, is still wonky. I wonder if I can sneak onto his desktop and see what he's doing? O my god, I wonder if he can do that to mine? I wonder if now I'm going to be vulnerable to assorted funky viruses? *prays to the great god Macintosh* The Princess brought the new boyfriend home. Apparently he'll be here for Christmas if he doesn't get posted first. ( Read more... )Tonight, the BTech circus students had their Christmas show. ( Read more... )Jamie Oliver's got some ads out for an unnecessary little gadget, a bottle with a stone in it for mashing up ingredients. Have these people not heard of the back of a spoon? The bottle has to be shaken, and one of the ads is most uncalled for: he slips the bottle into the back pocket of a young woman's batty-riders and retires to a corner of the kitchen cringing while she - ahem - shakes it. Love it. Rambly and up late. I blame the full moon. | | Sunday, November 27th, 2005 | | 11:20 am |
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