Whew, so much happening on the music front. Friday the chorus had an honor flight at the Post. Saturday the quartet had one at the VFW. It was weirdly late - we were to show up at 7:45pm - so we got together a little early to practice. But on our way there we discovered texts from Mack, leading Beth to suspect she may have misread the time on the email - that is, 8:00 instead of 1800. Ah well. We arrived while Mack was giving his local history lesson, which taught us never to be late again, because omg that man can talk. In the meantime, we learned that these were the exact same people from the night before - which was good to know, since we'd planned on singing the exact same songs! So since it was so late, we only sang two: Billy-a-Dick and Armed Forces Medley. They were very appreciative, as usual. One lady even complimented me on my lovely alto voice, which was nice.

The day before someone had been doing a crossword puzzle and was looking for a 4-letter word for a woman's voice in a choir. Jason immediately said, "Bass!" I smiled and said it was probably alto, and later he was understandably a little confused: "You're a woman and you sing bass in a choir." So I explained how barbershop voicing works, and said in a regular choir I'd probably sing alto or tenor - but I would sound absolutely terrible attempting to sing tenor in women's barbershop!

Sunday the quartet had our gig in DC - the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) was celebrating 50 years at the Omni Shoreham. There are two kinds of gigs, I've found: ones where we come back glowing, all, "That's why we do this!" And then there are ones where we come back saying, "Well, we got paid." This, alas, was one of the latter. We were a quartet in an enormous ballroom full of people who really just wanted to talk to each other. I can count on one hand the number of people who actually acknowledged our presence. They didn't even turn off the music playing over the loudspeakers! Oh well. Coulda been worse.

Three gigs in three days is a lot, but my tyrant of a husband forced me to stay up way too late watching just one more episode of Ted Lasso. Monday was rough. When I got home from work I passed out on the bed with Zenith and Umbra for a couple hours, had a show script meeting, and then went to bed. The meeting went really well - Jason made a cameo to bring me dinner (homemade chicken gravy over rice - I am so spoiled) and had some really good ideas to contribute. He's going to play one of the contestants in our musical game show.

Last night the chorus had another honor flight, followed by rehearsal, both at the Post. There were some active duty guys there, which is unusual, and apparently one of them approached Claire afterwards to say he's stationed somewhere in this area, and is going to work with his commander to get an official military certificate of appreciation for the chorus. We've been doing honor flights for years, but this was a first. So that was pretty awesome. Someone else handed Claire a $20 tip - another first! And lastly, another really cool story from the evening: Sharon got to talking with one of the vets, who turned out not only to be from her hometown, but her dad and his dad lived across the street from each other as children and were best friends. Small world!

Then this afternoon the M-team got a bit of a shocking email from Claire: VF received another wildcard for internationals! If we go, it'll be next year, in Columbus, Ohio. Yay for driving distance! We hadn't expected to qualify, but it'd be a good opportunity to have a little comeback after last year's disappointment. I just hope we get new songs. I've gone to four contests in a row with those same two songs. I can't do it anymore.

In non-music news, today was the last day of school, so we went out for hibachi with the boys. Now all three boys (yes, the middle-aged one too) are upstairs happily gaming while I have some kate time in my study. I love my family so much, but I am just not cut out for the noise levels of parenthood. But instead of getting angry or annoyed, I just go elsewhere. That's literally what my study is for. I think sometimes Jason worries that I'm unhappy, but of course that's not remotely the case. I just need a place where I can go close the door. And, well, technically my study doesn't have a door, but it's quiet down here. I like it.

Community: summerofthe69

Event Description: Summer of the 69 is an event focused on creative works about the sexual position, open to all fandoms and to original works, and to all types of creations. Participation is through two means: A comment meme where users can leave and fill prompts, and themes posted weekly to get creative juices flowing.

The 2025 fest has officially opened! If the above description interests you at all, check out the following links:

Community profile
2025's Theme Calendar
2025's Comment Prompt Meme
2025's First Theme: "First Time 69: Everyone has to start somewhere"

I had already realised that I can't use "live-wire" to describe a character in the 17th century; it has now dawned upon me that I can't use the analogy of a child's jerky clockwork toy either. Nineteenth-century, yes; seventeenth, no :-p

(I decided to go for the miller releasing the pent-up mill-stream as an idea of jostling, uneven energy...)

I finally dedicated myself to doing a thorough re-watch of the 55-minute chunk of "Twenty Years After" that I had viewed 'blind' and unsubtitled as it was originally intended -- which took about six or eight hours of study spread over two days. Next time I'm going to have to try to force myself to stop watching sooner... although in fact there are only about 30 minutes left of the story, including end-credits :-(

( subtitles )

One of the non-subtitled lines, when I listened to it more carefully, turned out to be Porthos randomly observing that d'Artagnan looked good in a beard, which amused me mightily given my original comments on the scene ("for someone whose moustache has more or less been a permanent trademark since the start of his career, Mikhail Boyarsky actually looks pretty good in a 'full set' :-D)
Boyarsky in a beard

In fact as usual I did get pretty much all of it plot-wise on the first viewing, while the 'crib' filled in most of the longer/more rapid dialogues where I could only catch a few words (but generally sufficient to identify those sections in the novel, e.g. Milo of Croton, who unsurprisingly defeated me entirely when encountered as an unexpected subject of prison conversation :-p) The big changes from the novel are, I think, actually active *improvements*: ( Read more... )

( Madame de Chevreuse )

Sophia recently taught me the ADHD Prime Directive: "Don't set it down; put it away." And I've been attempting to put that practice into my life more lately. It's difficult, since 1. I'm not the only person who lives here, and 2. a lot of stuff gets set down and left without a "put away" location ever being designated.

The singing birthday present for the 96-year-old turned out to be not only for a man (for some reason I'd thought it was a woman), but a fellow barbershopper! His daughter sings with the Richmond chorus and their director reached out to us to see if we had any local quartets who could stop by that day. So that was a whole lot of fun. He was so touched. As we were walking back to the car, all of us were saying, "That's why we do this!"

The next morning was our annual Memorial Day gig for City of Fairfax. We sang a patriotic medley while people were getting seated and the national anthem at the start of the ceremony. Then they had a speaker, followed by the reading of every single Fairfax veteran killed in action since World War I, ringing a bell after each one. All told there were some 350 names. The toughest to hear are always the ones from the most recent conflicts. After that we sang a "song for reflection." Last year we sang It Is Well but this year we went with Amazing Grace, which I think suits our voices better. The bass part is identical for all three verses, but I think the other parts might change a bit, and of course Martie was fantastic as lead. They audience applauded afterwards, which was unexpected on its own, but somebody even whistled! Pretty sure that was all Martie's doing. :) And we got our picture in the local paper, which was nice. (No, I don't know why they list us as The Unmuted. We can't seem to convince Mac, who runs it, that our name has no "the" in it.)

Sunday we had another DCC session, which was hilarious as usual. We have the next one on the calendar but it'll depend on Wyatt's summer schedule. In years past he's been gone for weeks at a time; their mom likes to take them to visit her dad, who lives in the Outer Banks. In a couple weeks we're resurrecting the other D&D campaign, and tomorrow Eick is DMing a game here. I guess now that it's summer he has a little bit more free time.

More gigs: Honor Flights last night, tonight, and Tuesday; Unmuted is singing for a women's conference in DC tomorrow; and Beth's in the process of scheduling the chorus to sing at a number of farmers' markets over the next several months. Plus we're resurrecting a bunch of old songs for the annual show, meaning that rehearsal has been a whole lot more interesting lately than it has for the last year and change.

I've mailed all the wedding invitations and RSVPs are trickling in. Jason designed them; in the center is a picture of Princess Donut riding Mongo, with the heading, "What?! Already married?!" I know this invitation was how at least a few people learned we'd already gotten hitched. And the fact that only maybe half a dozen guests will get the DCC reference is just icing on the cake.

Jason and I have been watching Ted Lasso. It's funny and very sweet, which is a nice change. Ted Lasso himself is fun - endlessly positive and optimistic and supportive of literally everyone. I have to keep reminding myself that he is as genuine as he is portrayed; the people I've known in real life who act like that have been manipulators, trying to win over people so that when they do terrible things, they're more likely to get away with it. Sometimes when we're watching I catch myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Ted to be unveiled for who he truly is, but I don't think it's that kind of show.

Anyway, the boys are home this weekend and the loud gaming has begun. I can't complain too much - they are having a good time and playing together, rather than the regular "Elliott raging at strangers" 80-decibel concert we are usually treated to - but hoo jiminy is there a lot of yelling. That's one of the reasons I haven't been posting as often - I don't want to do it at work, even during lunch; I can't concentrate at the computer on the bridge when Elliott is in there (which is always); and I don't always want to be isolated downstairs in my study. (Though sometimes that's exactly what I want.)

I have about four hours before I need to get ready for the Honor Flight. Not sure how I'll spend my afternoon yet. We had a new sump pump installed this morning (it was working fine but was super old, and replacing it now was way cheaper than replacing it after it breaks and floods the basement). Maybe I'll see about finding some "away" locations to put things. We moved in July but still haven't emptied all the boxes. It's starting to get a little embarrassing.

Work continues to be busy and a tad stressful. People are leaving, offices are being disbanded or reorganized, and there's this constant existential threat of being walked out suddenly for being deemed insufficiently patriotic. Or, I guess, too diverse, equitable, or inclusive. The head of my agency is particularly venomous towards DEI, which is interesting since, as a woman, she is the indirect beneficiary of such programs.

A quick word on DEI: nobody particularly likes it. No one wants to hire people based on anything other than merit, and nobody likes knowing they didn't earn their position. But the problem is that human beings are not naturally merit-based thinkers. We are tribal thinkers. We want to hire our friends, or friends of friends, or members of some shared group - people whom we already feel we can trust. I don't think the racism is even conscious for most. As a white woman, most of my friends are white. It's not on purpose. But if I were to want to hire a friend, the pool of people of color is just a whole lot smaller.

But racism - intentional or not, conscious or not - is still alive and well. A friend of mine, an RN whose last name is Noriega, applied to a bunch of hospitals in the DC area. Zero interviews. Then he took his wife's last name, Murray, and sent the exact same applications to all the same hospitals. The only change was his name, and almost all of them called for interviews. Now, do I think the hiring managers saw his resume and thought, "Oh dear, we don't want to hire any Panamanian dictators"? No, no I do not. They probably rationalized it with concerns about language barriers - or maybe they didn't rationalize it at all, just decided he wasn't a good fit without giving it any more thought. My point is that we are not a colorblind society. And sometimes we need to be nudged outside of our comfort zone. Problems are often best solved by looking from multiple points of view, lessons learned from a variety of experiences.

On top of all that, we are people of anecdote. I know a guy who was once told he was passed over for promotion despite being the more qualified candidate because they "had to" hire a woman, so now he's at least a little bit skeptical of every woman who outranks him. The worst part is that I don't even know if that's true, or if he was just told that to make him feel better about being passed over. Ultimately it doesn't matter - it's colored his outlook forever.

I am personally in favor of inclusion, and diversity, and equity. Note that I didn't include quotas or rewarding incompetence in that list. Thing is, I've noticed that the people who shout the loudest about meritocracy are most likely to promote their white male buddies, regardless of fitness for the position. Working towards increasing the variety of backgrounds among members of a group is laudable, even if it's sometimes clumsily implemented. We need to keep trying.

Like in chorus: the more voices you have, the richer the sound.

Title: Show Your Colours on AO3
Artist: mific
Rating: G
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Content Notes: Made in Procreate. I decided to do a limited palette drawing, and of course chose the flag with the most eyewatering colours!

And there's also a grayscale version.

The towel-tomatoes have now reached the mystic state of Setting the Second Truss, which means I switch from feeding them with ordinary liquid fertiliser (although I haven't been doing so of late, because they had brand new compost a couple of weeks ago) to specialised tomato feed. I also gave the same dose to the single Roma tomato, although that has only set a single truss level as yet.

(In fact, on a renewed reading of the instructions on the tomato food bottle, I observe that I have actually been doing it wrong for the last few years: the instructions about 'after the setting of the second truss' only state that you should feed at a more frequent interval after that point, not that you should delay feeding until then! You are actually supposed to start to apply the feed after the *first* fruit has set...)

---

An unexpected connection: while I was listening in a desultory way to a recent TV interview with Venjiamin Smekhov ('Soviet Athos') a name familiar in another context suddenly caught my attention. Smekhov was being asked about his involvement with a rock musical recorded by the group Korol' i Shut, whose (unrelated) "Three Musketeers" song I translated :-)
( Read more... )

Title: Caeneus/Riddy sketch
Artist: mekare
Rating: G
Fandom: Kaos (Netflix)
Characters/Pairings: Caeneus, Euridice
Content Notes: Pentel brush pen, No erase. Caeneus is a trans character from Greek mythology who is the romantic lead in Kaos. He falls in love with Euridice in the underworld.

Clicky preview:


Happy Pride!

1. I absolutely adore my ridiculous children. Fiona is reading War and Peace. It's the book with the most AR points, and we kept telling her that she was probably not going to like it or understand it well, which just fueled her desire to read it more. Joke's on us, I guess, because she's moving through it a pretty fair clip, and while I'm certain that a significant amount of it is going over her head, she seems to be understanding the plot well enough (we debrief what everyone is reading over dinner every evening).

2.

A Century of Poems - TLS 100 by The Times Literary Supplement

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Well, this makes clear that I do not share taste in poetry with the editors of the Times Lierary Supplement, all however many of them served for the 20th century. Lol

So many war poems, which I get given the time period, but I am not a fan of most war poetry. Also so much rhyming, way more than I'd anticipated.

I did like some of the poems, but on the whole not for me.



View all my reviews

3.

( Scholomance by Naomi Novik--major spoilers )

4.

The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I kept finding myself in the pages of this book as I read it. My people are not mountain Southern, but some things about being Southern are universal. The backstory of poverty and wringing a living out of the land with backbreaking work in Bragg's memoir could easily describe many aspects of the backstory on both side of my family. Most especially, though, reflected here is that truth that no matter how poor my grandparents were or how stingy my parents were when I was growing up to avoid poverty we still ate well. Like Bragg, my family was almost self-sustaining in eating what we grew, caught, and raised, and we ate like kings. Still do.



View all my reviews

5.

The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman and Other Queer Nineteenth-Century Short Stories by Christopher Looby

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This collection of short stories is divided into four sections: queer places, queer genders, queer attachments, and queer things. Most of the stories in the queer things section don't seem to be queer to me (especially the Melville one where the protagonist is obsessed with his chimney and the Hartman story where a little waif girl drowns herself in the sea). Many of these stories are sad and/or violent, but a few of them are happy and hopeful--notably the Walt Whitman and the Mary Wilkins Freeman. The titular story of the book is incredibly fascinating.



View all my reviews

I have a PDF copy of this book, so if you'd like to read me, PM me and I'll email it to you.

Dates and ages (probably mutually inconsistent)

Athos tells Raoul on their arrival in Paris that he spent seven of the sweetest and yet most bitter years of his life in his old lodgings on the rue Férou (including the further years after d'Artagnan's promotion?)

He appeals to Porthos during the confrontation at the Place Royale on the grounds that "we slept ten years side by side", presumably referring to the length of time over which the two of them served together as musketeers.

( The age of Aramis )

I tried an experiment suggested for children's parties, and set half a pint of orange jelly in a shallow sponge tin to create a thin slab that could be sandwiched between two halves of sponge in place of a jam or butter icing filling. (I had some difficulty in getting it out of the tin again and had to resort to floating the tin in warm water to melt the outside a little; the sheet of jelly then tore on extraction.)

I then used the same pair of tins to make a two-egg Madeira sponge, and when it was cool I managed to invert the slice of jelly between the two halves, then glazed the top with marmalade. I found that the jelly had spread considerably, despite being set in the same tin as the cake, and had to be trimmed back around the edges!
( Read more... )

Challenge #71: Pride!

It's Pride throughout June in the USA and many other places, so that's our theme this month. You can draw or paint LGBTQ+ characters from canon or fandom, original characters representing some aspect of Pride, key historical LGBTQ figures, art based on the colours of the Pride flags - wherever your imagination takes you!

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about LGBTQ people and Pride.

It's fine to depict slash, femslash, poly, ace etc. relationships beloved of fandom, whether or not they're explicit in canon. Or show your favourite characters taking part in Pride activities like parades, marches, or parties - anything linked with Pride and the LGBTQ+ community.

A round-up post for submissions to this challenge will be done at the end of June.

 

( Oliver Reed's careless fencing )

---

On my second expedition I successfully managed to purchase a new slide buckle of the right size to fit my secondary clothes line, thanks to a very helpful Indian lady whose haberdashery stall turned out to be well-stocked with all sorts of components as well as the glittering sari fabrics and accessories. I tested it out this afternoon on a batch of washing, and it seems to function exactly as effectively as its predecessor (which is to say that it is no longer bar-taut after a few hours when you take the washing down again, but doesn't sag enough to cause a discernable problem while the weight is on it).


( New cycle computer )

( Documentaries in Russian )

What I *haven't* done, having been submerged in documentaries, or at least having had them playing in the background while engaged in other things, is actually finish watching "Twenty Years After", which I have already encountered 'spoilers' for in places ranging from TV Tropes (yes, the Soviet Musketeers have their own TV Tropes page...) to random Aramis fanvids and AU fan-fiction. Although I did, on my first (pedestrian) expedition to try to buy buckles, manage to start that third "Twenty Years After" Porthos-fic of my own...

Apart from anything else I got caught up in rereading the earlier parts of the book in the French version to see what else was missing in terms of detail, which turns out to include little scenes like the one in which d'Artagnan gives Raoul a fencing-lesson during his visit and praises Athos on the boy's swordsmanship (C’est déjà votre main, mon cher Athos, et si c’est votre sang-froid, je n’aurai que des compliments à lui faire) -- this entire conversation being omitted from the English edition, which cuts straight to Mazarin's recall message!

A bonanza of art this month! Congrats to those who took part in this challenge!

Entries submitted for Drawing Challenge #70 - Mermay & Marine:

• Under Atlantis by mific - Stargate Atlantis, G
• I use a razor shell by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• I feel the need for speed by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Take my shirt off and pray by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Underwater by mekare - Original art, G
• Sketch of a sad mermaid after a rainy day by zenigotchas - Original art, NSFW/Mature
• Shy shark by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Beachcomber by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• A bone to pick by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Spot on by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Sirenia by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Merwong by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• 3 Mermaids WiP by goss - Original art, G
• Merdurbot by mific - The Murderbot Diaries, G
• My story is not a short one by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Merther's day by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Aquamer by mific - Original art, G
• At least I'm not shallow! by leecetheartist - Original art, T
• Wheee! by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• High fives all round by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Hey there! by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• I get your point by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Dolphinmer by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• I'm not interested in your voice by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Steve MerGarrett by mific - Hawaii five-O, T
• She is so blue by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Did they see me? by leecetheartist - Original art, T
• I'm a beach comber by leecetheartist - Original art, NSFW
• Deal by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Quick merman by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Maze of twisty little scales all alike by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Sailfin guy by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• The Keepmer by mific - Stargate Atlantis, T
• Frisking by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Cosmic Wiggle by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Doing my stretches by leecetheartist - Original art, G
• Rainbow mermaid by leecetheartist - Original art, NSFW
• Ruler by leecetheartist - Original art, G

As usual, this challenge as well as all of our previous challenges will remain open, so you can continue to submit entries to the community any time after the Round Up date. Be sure to tag your art posts with the challenge name, so that it can be added to the list. --- Thanks to all who participated in this challenge! A new one will be issued shortly. :)

This is one of the few cases where a condensed adaptation works better than the original novel -- "Five Red Herrings" has always been one of Sayers' most tedious detective stories, and I found this dramatization a lot more successful than my last read of the novel. (I note that they do exactly as I suggested in my original review and simply don't attempt to hide the clue about the white paint; this really doesn't give away anything about the case (Wimsey contrives to watch all the suspects painting, but doesn't mention why until his exposition at the end), while making the plot device a lot less annoying!) Even the infamous string of rival theories at the end becomes magically non-boring once you've got actual people delivering them and enthusing over them.

I did miss the scene where Gowan is revealed to be completely ridiculous in appearance without his grandiose beard (Wimsey alludes to his potentially 'looking like a skinned rabbit' after being shaved, but the dramatisation doesn't mention that this isn't a mere allusion to the lack of hair, but to his unfortunate facial features). I wasn't aware of any other missing elements, and the audio background of cars, trains, wind etc. does a good job of setting the scene. I also enjoyed the selection of period tunes on the soundtrack, many of which I recognised!

Today's the last day of May, and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you this past month?

Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities in May, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming art challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.

Reminder: A Round-Up for the MerMay & Marine Challenge will be posted soon, and a new monthly challenge will be issued later this week. :)

YouTube just bestowed upon me a recording of the poem by Venjiamin Smekhov (who played Athos)...

( Source of the clip revealed )

However, what the longer context *does* provide is an explanation for the more obscure references in the poem: Smekhov mentions that he wrote it because they were filming in Lvov (now renamed 'Lviv' to reflect the tight Ukrainian accent, which still strikes me as akin to relabelling Glasgow as "Glasgae" ;-p) in August at the time of his birthday. It's a 'kino-horoscope': Lvov, the City of Lions (as in Lev Tolstoy, sometimes Anglicised to Leo) under the European astrological sign of Leo in the Chinese astrological Year of the Horse 1978.

( Tomatoes, sweet peas and poppies )

The blackfly problem is getting worse (as happened last year, the chives are unusable as a result, although they are flowering prettily!) Despite my plants being entirely 'organic' there is no sign of any predators moving in on the pests, so I am doing what I can to rub off the blackfly manually. They are currently making a move on the various nasturtiums :-(

After some thinning-out I now have five small but thriving chilli plants, some from all of the various attempts at sowing seed I made this year. Which is of course too many ;-)