Alphaville

A sam spade secret agent visits a town operated by a computer. All the women are numbered and some citizens are encouraged to suicide if they cannot adapt  and if incapable of either are executed. Something like nazi germany meets Bladerunner and hal is president.

the Sea Hawk

Errol Flynn. Need I say more? Okay Alan Hale is there too and Claude Rains. But really Flynn should be enough. To quote Elizabeth about "Flash": 'I've got such a crush on him'. Well who else could have been the original Man In Black??

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Melmoth has put me off my reading. Only 200 more pages to go. I think I can I think I can. The fact that Balzac has written a conclusion to this book is the only thing keeping me at it. I've been dabbling in non fiction: Yoga Morality by Georg Fuerstein (about the yamas essentially), and The Disciplined Mind by Howard Gardner (he of the Multiple Intelligences theory).

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Other films watched include: 

the Triplets of Belleville

Robin Hood (Douglas Fairbanks)

Roxanne (Steve Martin)

Thanks to the DVDs I've actually been knitting again. I've completed one felted bag, finished a

noro fan and feather scarf and just need to make the handles and lining for two intarsia bags.

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So I really enjoyed watching the Black Adders and I'm considering owning the set. With that thought in mind I perused the offerings. I'm tempted to present what I found as a lesson in consumerism for some of my class, viz:

You have the opportunity to own a complete set of films which you know you will enjoy. The set is 100 dollars. Do you get it? Perhaps you want to now what is meant by a complete set? Thus a complete set is 5 DVDs. So that is roughly 20 dollars per. Well you know you will like it ad watch it so do you get it? Perhaps you are curious how much each costs if purchased individually? Okay they are 15 dollars individually.

See my confusion? Why if I want the whole set does it cost more for one package then if I buy each of them indivdually?

***CV

mordi!

La Reine Margot, Alexandre Dumas (468pp) Well. Dumas certainly doesn't believe in cluttering up a story with too many details does he? Really though it's the fighting, the wooing, and the conspiring we read Dumas for right? In some ways I am grateful I saw the old three musketeers on the silver screen (by old I mean the 70's versions) before reading any of the original works. It is also helpful to know that Dumas wrote for the theater. This way I did not get hung up on sudden shifts in plot and what not. Why are Coconnas and Mole at Catherine's perfumer? Why is he making a wax doll? Why is he shaking the heasdsman's hand at this moment?... oh, it's a plot twist *thwack* silly me.

I am now eagerly looking forward to reading the Three Musketeers and The Knight of the Maison Rouge.
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It occurred to me today that a fun way to read French Literature might be to start out with Balzac and then read Dumas and see the similarities as well as differences. Balzac writes romances with lots of detail in setting, politics and what not. Dumas writes romances. Period. On the one hand lots of bric-abrac on the other streamlined efficiency.

Then one could seperate the remaining authors of the period into Balzacian and Dumasian camps. I think Hugo would go into the Balzac column as would Flaubert and Huysmans.But who would be with Dumas?***CV

When I First Came to Town

As I said before it's frustrating trying to find a place when one can't actually go there and look. It must be hard for the landlords too though *sigh* I was this close to havng a place in my old neighborhood, but I didn't go for it. I keep reminding myself that the manager wanted to let it this week and that there is no realistic way I could have done it that quickly.

My goal is July 1st.

I also received a call from a lovely person in the same area the school is, or at least the same town. The place sounds wonderful. No, wonderful, as in perfect for the pedestrian who needs to be in a diverse community of souls person that I am. It also has everything I want: light, hardwood, top floor, seperate rooms, affordable, pet friendly. I've sent what information I could but I do not know if it is enough.
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I went to Powell's to cheer myself up. Apparently someone had the complete works of Balzac, hardbound, and sold it recently because there they were all teh volumes sitting in a row today where they had not been yesterday. I didn't get any. They were very used copies. But it was interesting to see included in the fiction were some early plays Honore had written.
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Then I went to a music shop and I picked up some CDs with the gift certificate the families had thoughtfully given me: Kirsten Hirsch, Lisa Germano, Peter Murphy and the Abattoir Blues DVD/CD tour. If I can't see Nick when he comes this year I will at least find someone with a DVD player so I can see him that way *g* ****CV

Moving Right Along

Okay I was wondering when it was to be this year: June 9th is KIP day. And the night before that the Yarn Harlot will be at Powell's. Appropo, no?
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Yesterday when I took in my allotment to sell the buyer said, "I see you've been bringing in a lot of books. Are you selling your own?"

Perhaps it is better not to take care of ones books so that they look as if they have never been read? Admittedly almost every YA was a hardcover first edition with the paper covers completely in tact. Still.
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I have finished reading After Dark by Murakami and if you like resolutions to mysteries stay far, far away from this book 'cause resoloution there ain't. Still it's Murakami so why would you read it if you wanted something that made sense? Wasteland, by FLB, is definitely a retelling of a fairy tale. One of those brother sister ones where all is not what it appears on the surface. And Girl Goddess #9 is a very sweet collection of fey Valley tales.

I'm currently reading A Harlot High and Low by Balzac****CV

Repris

I am back. I liked what I saw. I will hopefully not jinx things any further ;)
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Having finished The Doomsday Book (*sniff* that poor, poor cow) I am deciding whether to curl up with Ganesh Gaitonde or Lucien, hmmmm.***CV

Wallflower

Waiting is very hard. Usually it is something I am fairly good at. The model of patience. Whooops, out the door when it comes to call backs.

*tap*tap*tap*

I had to tell one person that I couldn't accept their offer to come see the school as I can't afford to, even with their offer of assistance. Had a different interview on Sunday which sounds very nice but she is, like I am, a processor. Which means that we like to think things over and not come to hasty decisions. *sigh*

Then there is the local place which, though challenging, could be wonderful only I don't quite know how to proceed. I've been in contact but saying, "Hey how's about an interview?" seems somewhat crass.

Or is that just me?
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History of the Thirteen, Honore Balzac (321pp) Not his best that I've read. I think he may have been having issues with his Hungarian Countess at the time. Either that or he simply wanted to demonstrate what egotistial pigs men can be on the one hand and what pathetic self sacrificing creatures women can be on the other. The Girl with the Amber Eyes was strange to say the least. More Radcliffe than Radcliffe: More conspiritorial then Fouquet: I kept expecting the hero and heroine to turn out to be brother and sister intead of what they were, which was still rather sick and abrupt. Maybe Honore needed some quick money.
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I've started Carlyle's, The French Revolution, but I may break into one of my YA purchases first. ***CV

With so much Balzac....

The French Revolution, Thomas Carlysle

The Reign of Terror (1792-1795)
the Directory (1795-1799)
the Consulate (1799 -1804)
the Empire (1804-1814)
Restoration of the Bourbons (1814-1830)
July Monarchy (1830-1848)
the Second Republic (1848-1852)
the Second Empire (1852-1871)

***CV

duchesse

the History of the Thirteen. Having read the first of three stories I now find mself in a gothic sequence. A French liberator of a Spainish island discovers his true love has secluded herself away within the island's Carmelite Convent. He is determined to retrieve her though she desires no such retrieval. Flashback to how they met in Paris....I would just like to say that I wish we could learn from these flirting techniques or perhaps the silent film masters did. My what melodrama:

"You may kiss my forehead mon cher but you must allow me to have many more male visitors during the mornings so that none suspect how devoted I am to you. Further we must see each other with less frequency but know that I am always at home until 10 0'clock to you. Do remember that I am a married woman and though I may do what I like with my heart I must remain true to my husband, no matter how cruelly he treats me."

So that is not a direct quote but I must say soap operas ain't got nothing on Msr. Balzac.
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"I have a head ache" has become rather a classic excuse. It may all have started with a convenient migraine. (Which I know when it is real is anything but convenient). The type of migraine which disallows attendence at a ball but miraculously disappears when ones lover arrives in one's boudoir. Hmmmmmm.
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I'm off to see how the Duchesse ended up in Spain.****CV

unfair fare

So what is up with the cost of airfares?! I have a potential inerview and when I go on line to book a cheap fare the cheap fare leads me to the real fare which is 4x as great. Bah!

Seems like a really good school too. Now I have to go and let the lovely lady know that we have to reschedule to a time when I can afford the airfare.
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Is it good to send out four inquiries and the next day have two respond positively? I was thinking it would be about a week before I heard from anyone. But then switching jobs seems to bring out the insecure part of me.
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Collected Short Stories, Honore de Balzac (272pp) There are approximately ten stories in this colection and each one shows Balzac in a different light. One moment he is a mystery author, the next a gothic, then again he is an ironic critic of bourgoise artists and their admirers ( now why did Kincaide keep coming to mind during this story?), and then he is a religious skeptic.

I have now started, The Thirteen, by Balzac. Over the weekend I purchased a Moshe Feldenkreis book as well as one by John Holt***CV

An artist

I love Balzac.

I love the way he paints each person with tiny strokes then sets them in a scene both historic and present. I love how each person tugs at the strings of other people he has painted so that one can hear their echoes much as one hears the hearts of friends not present when in conversation with friends who are.

I love how I can fall into one of his stories and emerge later with the deep sense that I have learned something about myself, about others, and about the world.

I love how each of the short stories I am reading is like a cameo. Not something to be hidden away and carefully preserved but worn proudly with all its age and chips showing.

I love the innocence of his melodramas and how he shows the deep consequences of our slightest actions. ***CV