http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ecstaticdays/~3/340449722/

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/?p=1277

I’m very pleased to introduce Fábio Fernandes as this week’s guest blogger on Ecstatic Days. Fábio Fernandes, 42, is a writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. Also a journalist and translator, he is the responsible for the Brazilian translations of several SF novels, such as Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and A Clockwork Orange. He published more than two dozen stories in fanzines and magazines in Brazil, Portugal, and Romania. Currently working as Creative Writing teacher in the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Fernandes also published a non-fiction book on the work of William Gibson, A Construção do Imaginário Cyber (in Portuguese). He just finished his first SF novel, BACK IN THE USSR; he is currently writing short stories in English and starting what may be his first English-written novel. He can also be found at his English-language blog, the Post Weird Thoughts, which he shares with Brazilian writer Jacques Barcia. Fernandes also reviews fiction for The Fix, among others.

Saw many of our young friends do grand job in Suessical.

Dinner at Jebz. Finally had their meatloaf and mac & cheese.

A final visit to soon to be closing Seawolf Trading Co (aka The Pirate Store).

Now we're at Avalon Rising's 15th aniversary concert.

One was very good. The other was kinda bad. The bad one was something you might have heard of called Mama Mia. The problems with it were partly due to the director, partly due to the casting and partly due to the singing.

Meryl Streep had some problems. At times she over-acted, even when compared to her frequent over-acting. She was either having too good a time and got into things too much or the director wanted more and she supplied in abundance. Pierce Brosnan was a weak singer and could easily have been replaced by Richard Gere or even John C. Reily and it would have worked much better. Colin Firth adn Stellan Skarsgard both seemed like they were having the times of their lives. Amanda Seyfriend was really good. If there was any redemption, it was her. Of course, the big problem might have been the fact that the cinematographer couldn't pull off a beautiful film even with the Greek island they were on. It was something of a mess, but there was a fair bit of fun to it. It was certainly a fine Chick Flick.

The other, the good musical, was Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It was funny(He threw a car at my head) and the group that sang the letters from Bad Horse (The Thoroughbred of Evil) was wonderful THe whole thing was a real blast and I can't wait to see more stuff liek this from Joss. It was very Once More With Feeling and it even managed to fit the typical Joss outcome into a mere 45 minutes. I can't recommend it enough.

I do also have to say that Keanu Reeves has been rumored to be playing Plastic Man. Come on! What about Colbert? Stephen Colbert would be perfect as Plastic Man. He has more than one expression and he'd have real fun with it!
Chris

http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EkEyVkyyklNKzPXcbG&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle

The Mail on Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom is running a news story titled 500,000 pounds Mr Spielberg? Sorry, I've got a date with the Beeb, says the new Dr Who writer, in which it claims that incoming Doctor Who executive producer and chief writer Steven Moffat turned down a lucrative deal to write the second instalment of the new Tintin film franchise in order to take over the running of Doctor Who. Moffat tells the Mail that he had originally signed up to write the first two Tintin f

http://sarahsiegelstories.blogspot.com/2008/07/linda-sharars-everyday-album.html

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Full of Treats

I've told Linda that I'm a Janet Jackson or Teena Marie or even Annie Lenox type, but her latest album, "Everyday" is extraordinary. Usually, when I listen to a CD, three of the songs might fully grab me. With this collection of 13 songs, not being grabbed was the exception.

"Round the Corner;" "A Little Will Do;" "Harmony With You;" "Give It Your Best;" "Safe House;" "Great Expectations;" "Windows on the World;" "One Another;" and "Missing Helen" all moved me hugely and were my favorites. I loved that "Round the Corner" encouraged me to believe that what I was hoping for was just around the bend; "A Little Will Do" was about how, of course, she wants it all, but a little will do.

"Harmony With You" had great lyrics, e.g., "[Harmony is]...like dancing, sometimes like making love -- one voice below, the other up above...." "Give It Your Best" was all about not being unhealthily competitive; "Safe House" might have been about trying to re-program a lesbian kid by sending her off to an ex-gay conclave; "Great Expectations" was a sad one about a girl, who became anorexic and how grateful the singer was that her parents did not have unreasonably high expectations of the singer the way the anorexic friend's parents did of the anorexic friend. And then "Missing Helen" made me miss my dad of blessed memory.

At the end of the album, Linda includes an "Easter egg,' where her young daughter, at two years old, sings, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." How marvelous! Listening to Linda, and in some of the songs her sisters, singing artfully about subjects I related to made me calm, and then thinking about her as an IBM colleague, who's also a popular musician, made me proud.

so with near 10000k miles on the carbon bee im getting concerend i mean no hitches in the car runs phenominal putting down alot of power but the milage an payment an intrest rate are literally raping me an not in the good way, so im looking at a 2005 subaru sti for less than what im paying now with a better rate and its one we tuned at SE so i know the power of it and its only had one owner its in great condition but i have no idea if im doing the right thing

Title: Ceremonies of Spring
Author Name: Lferion
Fandom: Highlander
Characters|Pairing: Methos/Duncan
Genre: Short Story
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1520
Disclaimer: Panzer/Davis &etc. owns Highlander, not me. No harm, no foul, no money.
Summary: After winter comes spring.
Warnings: None
Written for: DM24 for the Sweet Charity spring 2008 RAINN auction.
Author Notes: The prompt was "Over the rainbow." Additional prompt words: hot, grass, and fish. I am only sorry it took me so long to get this written. Many, many thanks to auberus for beta-ing and cheerleading.

( Ceremonies of Spring )

But I submitted a couple of photos to the SF Chronicle's website and they seemed happy enough to take 'em.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/contribute/sn/photo?plckPhotoID=b93f935a-2719-459a-893b-d00a5da307c9&plckGalleryID=ebd3d576-0841-4ad1-b61b-ae24969a801a
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/contribute/sn/photo?plckPhotoID=99155e48-b1ac-40c1-b74b-7e5b87f2f93e&plckGalleryID=ebd3d576-0841-4ad1-b61b-ae24969a801a
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/contribute/sn/photo?plckPhotoID=c256498d-b4c3-4276-aae8-7a1079c8b210&plckGalleryID=5e261a99-201b-4fd4-a059-88e7360a0850

So I had my tea and still felt cold and thought, "I know, it won't be cold on the other side of the hill." I drove up to Walnut Creek, turned the wrong way on Mount Diablo Boulevard, so I decided to stop at the Ross up there on the principle that it would not be as picked over as the ones down here. It wasn't, but I didn't really love anything enough to take it home. Went back down Main Street in the right direction. Woe, Bonanza Books is gone. So I hopped onto 680 and went up a couple exits into Concord.

Bay Books is still in the strip mall on Willow Pass Road. (Yay!) Found that budget copy of Northanger Abbey, the ceramics and pottery volume from the Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art (and for $8.95 too), and, of all things, a paperback on the making of the miniseries Shogun. Most of the production stills are in B&W and the quality is at best so-so, but the costume design sketches and color stills were well worth the $10 I dropped on it. Costume designer Shin Nishida is shown sitting at a desk littered with books, one open to a page showing this painting of early Edo beauties!   (Look!.  A kosode with BUNNIES on it. And the woman in the dark kosode with the gold roundels, second panel from the left - she looks like me! Well, a bit.) And yeah, Richard Chamberlain did cut a fine figure in wafuku back in the day - even with all that fluffy 80's hair.

Took a spin through the nearby Cost Plus on basic general principle and picked up a bottle of sake that was in the wine clearance bin but had a date stamp on the label that didn't make me immediately set it down again. It can go for the HCM* party at Purgatorio.

Unfortunately, my headache is back.

It occurs to me that the person who was looking for a bagpiper for Purgatorio has not gotten back to me in more than a week.  I tried. I am not going to chase her down. Ball is in her court.

so my car's been in and out of the shop for nearly a week now and we've been effectively stranded together at the sublet apartment, unless we carpool out with the roomies for drinks. This gets tiresome. They all....get drunk nearly every day, never seem to sleep or get hangovers, and when I briefly tried to keep up with all that it just leaves me feeling bone tired and as though my body is poisoned. So, no more of that for a little while. I think being literally cooped up like this is testing us in a different way than the drive did. I wish there were hiking trails near here or at least that I had some of my books with me (especially the plant field guides) because otherwise there isn't much to do besides surf the internet again and again or play rock band or grand theft auto or halo for hours and hours on end.

Basically the dealership has kept my car overnight for maybe 4 days or so now, I've been billed for a side view mirror which didn't get replaced, and the 3 times now that they've said the car was 'done'- meaning I beg one of the roommates to get a ride across town to come get it- the check engine lights come on again before we even leave the dealer lot. the plus side of dealing with the car is that despite the asshattery I've been getting from the dealership, it looks like it is very likely a warranty issue and if they could just diagnose it then it would probably all be paid for and we'd get a free loaner car or whatever. If they completely fail at fixing it but I can prove that it is a warranty issue then I might even get a new car. It is exhausting though because it makes it pretty much impossible for Jonno to look for work, for us to shop for food besides ordering pizza in every day, or to even begin settling into the new place which we can't easily get to without a car. It's frustrating that even the bike shop is on the other end of town.

anyhow I am going to go on a walk before I crawl out of my own skin.

Rather than sleeping in as I wanted to do after getting back so late, I had to be up early so as to be ready to head off to Felton where today's SFSFC board meeting was. We had a fairly low-key, productive meeting that lasted less than two hours. No huge new projects this time to announce; just some incremental stuff that will go up on the SFSFC web site probably tomorrow.

However, tonight an early bedtime is indicated.

I have taken many photos over my life. I'm not a great photographer, but I get a few good shots out of the many I take, and a very few I'm actually proud of. This is the latest one.

(What you don't see in this picture is the slow thumping of the tail on the couch out of shot...)

http://sarahsiegelstories.blogspot.com/2008/07/today-i-drew.html

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Here Are the Drawings

Pat kindly photographed them for me.



The women's hair is composed of, respectively, leaves and flowers from my imagination, and I drew the picture with Caran D'ache crayons. I bought myself the collection of 84; it's a treasure-chest. Their hair was inspired by my partner Pat; this morning, at the farmer's market in Montclair, she picked up an application to become a Master Gardener. Rutgers University will train her for free if she does 100 hours of service for Essex County, the county where we live, upon completion of the program. She is excited to apply.

The women took me nearly two hours to draw. I sketched a couple on a plain journal page, but then went directly to the good, watercolor paper. Coming up with their hair was especially fun and then I enjoyed inventing the flowers. I did not lose self-consiousness till I was drawing the flower-hair and then I did lose myself a bit in the activity finally.

It's pretty personal, I know, to post a drawing of people, kissing, but it was just exactly what I wanted to draw today, and I let myself. It's not too often that I see images of women, being romantic with each other, and so I felt entitled to create my own imagery. Also, perhaps I was influenced by "Head in the Clouds," a movie Pat and I saw last night, where Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz played lovers, for a time.

The man featured here is a variation on the same man I've been drawing since childhood, and is done in charcoal. I don't know why I have always loved drawing men, all of whom are always square-jawed and thick-necked; it's like I was walking through the Castro in the '70s (even though I had not been in San Francisco till my adulthood) and was drawing the cartoon version of the guys I could have seen there.

I just got back from a nice ride with radjin and growlcoon . We met around 9:30 AM at Red Apple Cafe in Aptos. I had the BEST corned beef hash I have ever had there. Then we headed up to Alice's via the scenic route. Since I knew the area, I took them on a rather indirect route through the Santa Cruz Mountains, first up 9, then over through Bonny Doon to tour the fire area on Martin road form the "Martin fire" ... Then up Empire Grade ridge to the top, and then we dropped down through Boulder Creek. The weather was perfect. We stopped for pictures along the way. I'll try to get copies soon...

After a nice long lunchtime talk, we parted ways. They headed down to California Extreme, and I headed home, and got the speed on. My tires look like burnt cheese, all black and curdled form the friction in cornering....

I'll sleep well tonight :)

I almost forgot to mention, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog Act Three is up.

http://www.drhorrible.com/

You can also order swag off the same site too...aw, c'mon, you knew it was going to happen, didn't you?

Hi there members of the Party,
Getting back to the topic of food, most people wanted to be told what to bring.  Some did not.  I am just going to post some items that we need, as I will be getting into my pantry this week to see what we have as well as the Sandwich Stuff, and water of course. I'm just going to publish a list and you give me your prefs of what you'd like to bring, then I'll assign you. K?
Carole and Bill are bringing fresh Goat Cheese (yum).

Carrot Sticks
Celery Sticks
Tomatoes
Any Other Interesting Veggies  you would like to eat
Ranch dressing, or Any other Salad Dressing you would like to use
-or-
Veggie Tray

Potato Chips
Tortilla Chips
Strawberries
Grapes
Fresh fruit of any kind!
Dessert type stuff.  Cake, cookies, champagne wafers, or chocolate.   Chocolate is good with sweets.

Also, we'll need people to help out getting things ready, and don't be shy about opening the refrigerator and getting things out to help yourself. Seriously!


Any other suggestions are appreciated!
Thank you!
Co-Chairman of the Party,
Spring

I watch the community crafty_tardis.  Mostly you run across sculpy K-9's or really "interesting" for a lack of a better word, fan made stuff. Occasionally you run across something worth a "aw, that's cute". 
The beaded Dalek is one of those "aw, cute" things.
Go see for yourself.

Biggish image ( behind the cut )

More pictures of both Gwyn (the new Honda Fit) and Lithdil (the old Volvo 740 wagon) are here.