From the depths I return

I finally found a way to get Edmund and its been keeping me sane during these interesting weeks of prepping a brand new classroom by oneself not knowing who, if anyone, will be working with me and then having the person who would decide to work somewhere else so they hire a person who can start working but only on the very first day of school (and who speaks no english while I speak no spanish) so okay at least they found an assistant who knows how to be with the children but turns out she got accepted to graduate school and could only be with us for two weeks but hey they found someone else who (for what ever reason) decided this past week that the best way to heat up english muffins for the children was in a glass tray on a stovetop burner.

So yeah: Edmund Black Adder has been a spot of all right. Well that and seeing Nick Cave last night :) What a fabulous show.

Recently read:

Crossing to Paradise, Kevin Crossely-Holland

Chalice, Robin McKinley***CV

sail your ships

Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens, 855pp
I love Flora. She has such a surreal manner of speaking that it is a delight to try and figure out just what she is trying to say. Little Dorrit, or Amy, is the daughter of the Marshalsea a debtor's prison where debtors were placed until they could pay off their debts. Apparently as long as they were in the Marshalsea they couldn't be hounded and yet because they were in there they had no way of earning income. So yeah: makes as much sense as Flora but there you go. Sweet and good souls are pitted against corrupt and murderous rogues.

Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard, Isaak Dinesen cc77pp
Isaak Dinesen writes marvelous fairy tales that are not necessarilly happy but wonderfully intricate and carefully embroidered. I did not know she was the author of Babette's Feast. Yesterday I found a copy of Carnival which contains other short stories by her. I may end up reading Out of Africa.

Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn, cc07pp
What happens when the tiles from a statue depicting a sentence containing all twenty-six letters of the alphabet start falling off? Is it a nessage to the town? Some think so and one by one letters become banned from speech and writing. It becomes a capital offence to use the leters for anyone over the age of seven.

Meanwhile I am indulging in dvd nights. So far I've watched the Avengers, a Fish Called Wanda and You Only Live Twice. Tonight I realised that I have Nick Cave concerts on dvd.

testing, testing...is this thing on?

As one of the parents said last Friday : I have left the dark side of pc-dom and entered the light realm of -

"What is that faintly fruit scent wafting from the computer room? Could it be macintosh?"
"Wasn't macintosh an olde designer bloke?"
"I thought it was rain gear....."
"Ewww fruit scented rain gear?"
"Better than fruit scented elderly gent wouldn't you say?"


I did get to watch my first ever personaly owned dvd: the Avengers and I have A Fish Called Wanda, too.

Books read:

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens 426pp

Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson 2i9pp

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 509pp

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo 465pp

The Summer Book, Tove Jansson i70pp

Currently reading: Little Doritt, Charles Dickens
Seeing soon: Nick Cave, 'cause he's touring the large venues in the Fall
CV

Tea and Hemlock

If I do not see another progress report again it will be too soon. (I say this knowing full well that I'm going to be seeing them, and more, in less then three months *sigh*).

**

Meanwhile, I've been sedating my mind by cruising egl sites (elegant gothic lolita) Goodness, ssoooo much lace and bows and frills and, well, da-rama. ..... I do like that clodhopping alice in wonderland mary janes though *g* Sweet and amazing at the same time. Along with this of course I'm continuing to indulge in the Nick marathon so it's rather intersting to look at kawaii dress up pics and listen to lyrics that only Nick can write -

Red Right Hand indeed.***CV

Green Gloves.....

Lovely Creature

There she stands, this lovely creature
There she stands, there she stands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands

So I asked this lovely creature
Yes, I asked. Yes I asked
Would she walk with me a while
Through this night so vast

She took my hand, this lovely creature
"Yes", she said, "Yes", she said
"Yes, I'll walk with you a while"
It was a joyful man she led

Over hills, this lovely creature
Over mountains, over ranges
By great pyramids and sphinxs
We met drifters and strangers

Oh the sands, my lovely creature
And the mad, moaning winds
At night the deserts writhed
With diabolical things

Through the night, through the night
The wind lashed and it whipped me
When I got home, my lovely creature
She was no longer with me

Somewhere she lies, this lovely creature
Beneath the slow drifting sands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands

by Nick Cave, Murder ballads

Newsy news

Thank you Paula for the prezzies:) If I had a digital camera it would be up, so all of you will have to imagine a box of dark chocolate (mine!); a spiral bound note book with lined pages hidden behind a Kincaidian cover waiting to be filled with stories; the Writer's Workshop In a Book book (edited by Alan Cheuse and Lisa Alvarez and yet more candies. Thank you :)
**
My co guide and I talked with the children today about NaNo and they seemed pretty excited. One started writing today:

C: "I'm going to write 50K!"

Me: Oh?

C: "Well, me and A. agreed to do 1K but if we make that before the end of the month we're doing 50K"

Me: Uhhuh.

Nothing like reasonable expectations *g*
***
I finished From Russia With Love last night and it left me wondering if Ian Fleming felt the same way about Bond as Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have felt about Sherlock Holmes and if that would explain why the story ended that away it did. So I picked up Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service tonight. I also have Isaak Dinesen's Last Tales, a copy of Bullfinch's Mythology, M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman, Boots and the Seven Leagues, and I saw that the collected Moomintroll comics volume 2 is available.

AND Charles DeLint has a new book coming out in spring called Dingo! AND Nick Cave has a new album due out at the same time!

Kinda makes up for the two really strange guys I've run across this week *shudder* Neither of whom was named Rafe and yet I have met a person of said name this week. Why does that name sound like it was picked out of a gothic book?
******
Yes I am doing NANo this month. Why do you ask?******CV

Oh Baby!

I have a date with this man* in San Francisco.
So what if there'll be a bajillion other people there? He's all I'll see.***CV

*It's a rare pic of him smiling. So you may not guess who he is ;)

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.
**
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.
***
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

And the list goes on....

Read:

Angel Sanctuary vol.19, Kaori Yuki

Castle of Crossed Destinies, Italo Calvino

Museum of Horror vol.1, Junji Ito

Creating:

A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Barbara Walker

Music:

The Runaway Found, the Veils

Grinderman, Nick Cave,Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos

***

And I just found out that Pink Martini is doing an in shop promotion next week!***CV

Shalabasana

How to do a backbend on one's chin: do a full wheel only grab hold of your ankles and rest your chin between your feet is one way. Viparita shalabasana is another way. The latter is what we were working on in class. I posted a pic of it a while ago. I'll see if I can find it again.

Aha! Success.

If anyone is interested in asana postures - just to have a breakdown with photos, I highly recommend BKS Iyengar's, Light on Yoga. I bought my copy used in SF and if I had to have only one yoga book that would be it. Another good one is his daughter Geeta's book, Yoga, A Gem for Women, but her Dad is amazing. He still practices and is almost ninety.

This, btw, is not Mr. Iyengar.
**

In knitting news I refuse to believe that Noro Silky and Rowan Felted Tweed are the same weight. They don't even look the same thickness. So how come they're both considered DK?
***
Oh, and the cutest Nick looking boy rescued one of my DPN's for me on the bus today. Who says commuting can't be fun? ****CV