Last night, I saw Pericles, and it was GOOD.

(Here, have a trailer. Now, mentally add back in 75% of the awesome.)

I was going to read Pericles before going to see it, but I changed my mind at the last minute. There isn't a lot of Shakespeare I haven't read; I thought it would be fun to go in and see it cold, especially since everything I'd ever read about it said that it was difficult on the page. And I'm really glad I did that, because it's just not possible, no matter how hard you're trying, to totally lose yourself in the spectacle if you're mentally comparing the production to every other Hamlet or Macbeth you've ever seen, or at least to the mental production of it you staged while reading. Now, I haven't seen much theater, but of the little I have seen, nothing has done as good a job as this production at simply captivating my undivided attention for the entirety of the show. When intermission came, I was actually startled.

So, how was the magic achieved? No idea. Not being a theater person, my vocabulary isn't precise enough to analyze it and put it into terms. I know that the music helped. A slightly younger version of myself would have scorned things like setting bits of the text to music so the cast could sing it because a) if the music were bad or cute it would be AWFUL and I have a huge embarrassment squick and 2) I would have felt it was, obscurely, cheating in some way. But no, this time I got it. The point of a play is to mesmerize the audience and good music does that really well. It was simple, folksy music, too, perfectly suited to a story like this. They took Gower's introduction seriously, and framed the story as a kind of "winter's tale". It reminded me of Gulliver's Travels, actually. It was immensely charming, but it didn't use the charm to get away with things, if you know what I mean.

There was a lot of cross-casting in this production. I think the only person who didn't play two roles was Pericles himself. Helicanus too, maybe. It worked really well because the guy who played Antiochus was also Simonides, and the contrast between the incestuous father and the good father was highlighted by the subtle changes to his costume. (The same actor came out later wearing a wine-bottle in a strap-on harness as Pandar, and the laugh was all the huger for that contrast.) Pericles was a complete and total GOOBER. I wasn't expecting that. I'd never seen a Shakespeare hero played that way. But it really worked, because he's the kind of goober who's intelligent enough to work out the meaning of Antiochus McStanky's riddle, but also young and dumb enough to be there in the first place, knowing that McStanky's killed like, a million dudes before him. But as the play goes on and he gets older he loses the brashness and becomes simply good natured and kind of puppyish. And that's when you realize that he's sort of got to be that kind of person, or else he'd never be able to keep bouncing back from all the crap that happens to him.

I heard the director on NPR last week and he said that the reason Pericles seems like a strange play is because Pericles doesn't really do anything wrong to be so punished, or right to be restored to happiness at the end. The same is true of all the other characters too--even though Antiochus dies, no one kills him, and though Pericles talks about tearing Cleon a new one, he never does. There's no justice, but there's still happiness. The director also described the plot as being like the plot of a regular play, but with all the boring bits cut out, and Gower put in their place to narrate the passage of time. Which was what finally made me want to see it, because that was the conclusion I'd come to regard The Winter's Tale the last time I read it (that Shakespeare'd said, "fuck it, I'm just gonna write the cool parts.") This is why I love the romances. I always pictured Shakespeare as saying, "now that I've proved I can do all the standard stuff, I'm just going to write what makes me happy"---so he wrote plays without a lot of tedious male strutting, he wrote about fathers and daughters, he left out the boring parts, he inserted GRATUITOUS PIRATES, and he was merciful toward his characters because he was older and knew firsthand that mercy was better than justice. The romances are a bit magical and they feel like fairy tales, but they're really more realistic than the exquisitely reciprocal high tragedies and comedies and histories.

So, if you're in the Triangle area (or within a reasonable drive of it) I earnestly recommend you come down and see it. Give me enough advance warning, and I might come with you. :-D

I've had a very pleasant three days off, filled with lots of sleeping, some reading, a tiny bit of cleaning, a little bit of quilting, and a lot of reading ghost stories on the webbernets. I meant to do some writing, but apart from some unsatisfactory tooling around with a troublesome paragraph last night, I can't concentrate. I've been reading ghost stories to get me in the mood to write, but the problem is that the archive is full of writing that makes the Teaspoon look like the Bodleian. Still, occasionally one stumbles across gems that are, if not high quality prose, still picturesque and adequate scope for imagination, such as this one. And this one, which is less creepy but more profound---a real story, if clumsily told.

I seem to be in a properly Halloweenish mood for the first time in my life, these days. I wasn't allowed to celebrate or even really acknowledge Halloween when I was growing up---in kindergarten, I remember my class had a Halloween party and my mom kept me home so I wouldn't be tainted by the evil Satanic force of jack-o-lantern cupcakes. Not sure what's brought it about this time, but I think I'm going to buy candy this year just in case any kids come around. My mother is very shirty on the topic, but I get really embarassed when people knock on the door and we don't have anything for them.

On the topic of Halloween, look at this amazing piece of animation that lizzie_borden posted. That'll get you in the mood if nothing else will.

Last year I also made a post with creepy links for the Halloween season, so there's the link if you want to revisit them.

In the spirit of the season, here are ( some ghostly experiences that happened to people I know, and one that happened to me. )

Hey, look what got dropped on our doorstep today!

Almost 70 years ago, Europe found itself at war with one of the most sinister figures in modern history: Adolf Hitler. When the last bullet of World War II was fired, over 50 million people were dead, and countless countries were both physically and economically devastated. Hitler’s bloody struggle sought to forge the world anew, in the crucible of Nazi values. How could such a disaster occur? How could the West have overlooked the evil staring it in the face, for so long, before standing forcefully against it?

Today, we find ourselves confronted by a new enemy, also engaged in a violent struggle to transform our world. As we sleep in the comfort of our homes, a new evil rises against us. A new menace is threatening, with all the means at its disposal, to bow Western Civilization under the yoke of its values. That enemy is Radical Islam.

Apart from the fact that the above blurb surely has to set some kind of world record for speediest trespass against Godwin's Law---hmm. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Presidential election?

"Nope. Not a thing. No, really. Our fake news article says so."

CAIR alleges that the free distribution of 28 million DVDs of the documentary Obsession is designed to help John McCain win the presidential election. This is a false accusation designed to distract the public and media from the issues raised in the film about radical Islam.

When your parents vote Republican in every presidential election for thirty years, I guess you should just expect to see stuff like this arrive on your doorstep. But seriously, what the actual fuck.

jonquil has a list of states where the names of registered voters have been purged for alleged inaccuracies and a link to a website where you can check and see if your name or the name of someone you know is on the list: here.

Hey, North Carolina, guess which three counties have affected members? That would be Durham, Wake, and Mecklenberg counties, aka the largest and most Democratic counties in the state.

Wake and Mecklenberg counties don't have functional links yet, but Durham does. Remember that the last day to register to vote in North Carolina is October 10, this Friday.

If, like me, you live in North Carolina, the last day you can register to vote is October 10th.

This is a general invitation for anyone who is interested in hearing more about my attempts to be a Srs Prfssnl Writer to come and friend bnharrison. In it, I will post word counts and daily excerpts entitled "The Bit I Wrote Today and Didn't Totally Hate", talk about my attempts to get short stories published, ask for feedback on things, share fun and good writing related links, etc. I've put a lot of effort into making it an inspiring place for myself, so hopefull it won't be as boring as my description just made it sound. I do intend to lock practically everything I post there, so you'll need to friend me if you want to read anything other than the two entries that are up right now.

If nothing else you should go and look at the icons. I pilfered them all from lecollage and emerged with an amazing store of pictures that could pass for illustrations of themes and characters from my story. :-)

So it turns out my mother's 401k is with Merrill Lynch.

I make less than $15k annually. I'm barely going to be able to afford my own rent, much less support my parents in retirement.

Do any of you have any experience shopping online "big and tall" men's clothing?

I'm trying to find a plain black long sleeved button front shirt for my brother. Preferably warm--not flannel, but cotton of a good weight. Not a dress shirt, just button front. I also suck at guessing waist measurements but he's kind of huge, and the biggest department store sizes probably won't work. I would much rather find a reliable online vendor for this than go into a store because OMG SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES ARRRGGGHH. Repeated Google searches aren't helping very much.

The break in his gray slacks is exquisite, his loafers are tassled, his cuffs are fastened with little silver donkeys and there is a starched hankie in his breast pocket.

his cuffs are fastened with little silver donkeys

his cuffs are fastened with little silver donkeys

HIS CUFFS ARE FASTENED WITH LITTLE SILVER DONKEYS

1. Clay Aiken is gay. My mom has the biggest crush on him, she's going to die. Still, as long as Orlando Bloom is shagging starlets, she'll survive.

2. Someone smashed the window of my mom's car yesterday and stole her digital camera and her box of CDs. So now I can't photograph my dolls or quilts anymore. Congratulations, asshole, I hope you enjoy my mother's music collection, which is half Star Wars soundtracks, half Shout to the Lord, vols. 1-5.

3. Working 40 hours/6 days a week. This month's paycheck will be my best ever, but I really want my three hour writing break back.

4. I've come up with a definition for what a geek is. A geek is someone who gets excited about things outside themselves---books, tv shows, movies, historical subjects, stamps, whatever. I miss geeks. They're usually more compassionate and less self-absorbed than mundies. There shouldn't be so many mundies in the world because I don't understand how they reproduce. How does a person who can't talk about anything but their own drama attract a mate? I will never understand these things.

Senator Obama Visits An Illustrious Personage In New Hampshire, by Aaron Sorkin via Maureen Dowd.

I'm growing to despise the necessity of fueling one's body in order to continue using it. Because I leave the house at eight in the morning and usually don't get home until 7-9 in the evening, I do basically all of my eating outside the house, and if I'm not vigilant, I end up doing all my eating in my car.

However, since I started packing my lunches, I have stumbled on some excellent lunchable options:

* There's a delicious, dirt-cheap Thai-Asian place in the same shopping center as the Starbucks I've established as my unofficial second residence. (It's got the character of a neighborhood bar. There are about eight of us who are there for several hours almost every single day and we've all gotten to know each other. If I had ever watched Cheers, I'm sure I'd have all kinds of comparisons to make.) Sometimes in the evenings I get an order of pad thai and eat half for dinner, and bring half as lunch the next day. You'd be astonished how many noodle dishes are actually pretty tasty cold or room temperature.

* A round of asiago artisan bread from Whole Foods is good for at three meals. Cut off a large hunk, wrap in a paper towel, microwave till bread is soft and cheese is runny, then slather with some butter and a good jam (it's been Hot Apple Cider Tea Jam from Republic of Tea for me lately.)

* It's impossible for me to get tired of certain things: carrot sticks and a good ranch, hummus and wheat crackers, strawberries and pineapples---although fruit is getting pricier by the second.

* A pot of homemade soup makes for many tasty lunches, especially if it's something your family won't touch with a ten foot pole.

* Ramen becomes surprisingly versatile when you chuck the seasoning packet and start adding things like peas and carrots and corn.


Those of you who pack lunches for yourself, please feel free to share your not-die-or-go-bankrupt lunch strategies!

FALL WEATHER IS HERE TO STAY (FOR TWO WEEKS OR LESS) AHAHAHAHAHAHA

If I happened to have, say, a Dell Inspiron laptop from 2003, would it be capable of receiving a wireless signal and if so what would I have to do to it?

I just spent thirty minutes picking out a new laptop on the Apple homepage then balked at the last moment. It's funny how having a little bit of money for the first time in my life makes me a million times more reluctant to spend it than when I had nothing at all.

Fall sports played by high school boys that aren't football.

Are there any?

How does RSS work, exactly? If I have a ginormous list of links to blogs I read regularly (or more accurately, want to read regularly) can I make an ersatz friends page out of them, new entries appearing in order, etc? If so, how, if not, why not?

I r busy person! Demand conveniently packaged internet!

The Doctor, in his eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth incarnation, may be visible somewhere in the background of this video. The camera was held by Ace.