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« Show all entries for DECEMBER 2007
Thursday, 06 December 2007 00:47:56
Scanning through the library ('cause I'm really deeply insecure and shy around people, lol) I came accross a book of Persian Poets. Hit upon this one, which admittedly is an excerpt. Beauty alone will not account for her; No single attribute her charm explains; Though each be named, beyond glimmers she, Strangely distinct, mysteriously fair, Her this, this hers, and this-yet she remains. Wonderful are her locks-she is not there; Her body a spirit is-it is not she; Her waist the compass of a sliken thread; Her mouth a ruby-but it is not she; Say all of her, yet hast thou nothing said, Surely the beauty of an houri or a fay A fashion of beauty is-but to my eye Her way of beauty is beauty's only way. Thine eye, ah! what an arrow! thine eyebrow, How strong a bow! and what an archer thou! Ah, what a target hast thou made of me! This was by Hafez of Shiraz (1320-91) considered one of if not the finest of the medieval lyric poets of Persia, who took the form to unparalleled heights of subtlety and beauty. And though I'm sure this will cause a row, another reason why you should save ancient cultures instead of destroying them. Uncle Jayne, sigining off...keep flying!
Thursday, 06 December 2007 04:47:20
I don't know what to say that probably hasn't been said already, but wow. Keri Russell is spectacular. I never much cared for 'Felicity'. Not real sure why, I just didn't. Nathan didn't seem to be acting at all. Capt'n looks perfectly at home in front of, to the side, or no where near a camera. I liked him in this even more than his role in Slither. Adrienne Shelly. I knew she had directed the movie, but when I saw her on screen as Dawn....it was tough to watch. She's so pretty and talented. Her energy just shows up on screen. I find it difficult to put into words at the loss I feel, for her family, friends , colleagues, and for anyone lucky enough to have met her. Or for folks like me, who only knew her by her work. I hate that she was taken from us all. As for the movie, I liked it. Though I felt it 'almost' got stuck in the 'real' world, a few too many times, it definatly had its classic moments.
Thursday, 06 December 2007 14:11:15
Spoliers ahead if you haven't read the all the journals yet. It's finally finished and I heave a sigh of relief and also feel a little sad. I've been writing the Dr. Tam Journals since August and, other than my Master's thesis, it's the longest I've ever spent on one project. At first it was going to a be just a one shot, with Kaylee finding something about herself, confronting Simon and then the ramifications of that. But then I thought, mmm, why not make it more. But how? The first few chapters just had Kaylee reading and it had the two voices, hers and Simon's, with mine thrown in occasionally as a narrator. At first I wanted Kaylee to read the whole journal in one night but after two chapters I found that illogical and impractical from a story point of view. If it was just Kaylee reading the journals, which is basically the TV show and movie from Simon's point of view, wouldn't that get tedious after a while? So I started out with a thread of an idea from a comment someone made about how mad Simon would be if he found Kaylee reading it. So that gave me a nice little subplot. And then others kept popping up. Inara leaving, Mal and Inara getting together, Jayne's betrayal, the cargo for Harrow, the Alliance still looking for the Tams, and of course, the big one, Simon, Kaylee, and River leaving Serenity, which a lot a people hated or at least thought was crazy. By the time I got to chapter ten or so it felt like the secondary stories were taking center stage from the journals themselves so I had to be careful to balance both sides and make them fit together which was not easy at all. I watched every episode before I wrote, took notes on where Simon was and what he was doing, who he interacted with, and what would he know and not know, that we the audience knew but Simon couldn't cause he wasn't there. Other problems: getting everyone's voice right; thinking on how Simon would view all the events, his reactions to the crew, the ship and this criminal lifestyle; Kaylee's reaction to Jayne's betrayal and Jayne's counter reaction to being discovered; Mal's reaction to Kaylee leaving, and finally how to get them to leave the ship. They were always going to leave the ship and that was my ending I had in mind after the first three chapters. No angst. Well, not much anyway. No violence, no gun play, not in the present day stories, but with of course a lot in the journal readings. All action contained within the ship for many chapters. So to overcome these plot limitations I got into Kaylee's mind as a mechanic and had her and River do an inspection which was a great way to explain a lot of things and how they worked on the ship. Also the daily routine of the ship had to fit in there somehow, with meals, bedtime, laundry, cleaning dishes, and all that. Finally, having a logical but not contrived way for them to leave the ship and for that I needed a new character P.T. Beauregard, whose last name I got from a Civil War general, from the south also, like Jubal Early. I think that worked well; least I hope it did. The epilouge was always going to be the way I've written it and this was my ending in mind for many months now. Not all the details but the basics, a long view of the rest of their lives until Simon's death, funeral, and Kaylee giving the journals to their children. Mal's eulogy came as an after thought and I hope it made someone laugh and maybe also cry a little cause that was the intention. Anyways, thanks to all the people who read and those who made comments and I'm glad someone out there liked it or got a little pleasure or at least was able to read it without falling asleep. Stay shiny Browncoats everywhere in our verse!
Thursday, 06 December 2007 18:27:36
A year ago last August, a friend of mine was admitted to the hospital. She suffered a severe blow to the back of the head, and the doctors immediately declared her brain dead. Her body was kept on life support for a week until all of her family could say one last goodbye to her, then they let her go. The next day, her husband, who was known to be abusive and a drug addict, was arrested for being responsible for her death. He also lost temporary custody of their one year old son, and there has been an on-going battle between my friend’s sister (who is in a good marriage to a surgeon and they have three children on their own) and her husband’s parents (who have a history of being neglective parents). Over the summer, the judge decided that the sister will be awarded primary custody and is ordered to give the grandparents two visitations each year. This morning, her husband plead guilty of second degree murder in her death. He will get 10-14 years in prison and will lose all rights to his son in three years. Since his health is bad, he is not expected to outlive his sentence. I’m grateful that he decided to do the right thing and confess. My friend was a good person and didn’t deserve to die at the age of 23.