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Showing posts from November, 2013
Just so y'all know, I am not going to be smart for the next month and a half or so. I was having issues on Tuesday getting distracted from both the proofing and the porn in the story I was supposed to be editing. Boss lady told me to go home and go to sleep. As an inadvertent demonstration of this, I've just now  been reminded that A) there are only 30 days in November, and that B) today is November 30th. This should have sunk in when I tried to miss a show I had tickets to on Friday because for some reason I thought it was on Sunday, but no. My bank is closed on Sundays now, because the universe hates me, so anyone I promised anything complicated to on the 1st is actually going to get it on the 2nd. You have no idea how sorry I am that I managed to fuck up counting and months, two things we all learn in kindergarten. Mainly because digging anything out of my brain and making it known to people on the outside takes a lot of energy, and it seems fruitless to grovel when it w

Weekend Radio Theater - "Five-Minute Mysteries"

Murder Under The Big Tent   Locale: Tibet   Murder At The Mountain   Ebb Tide For Murder   Tune In For Murder   Alec Kills Martha   Chicago To Denver   Dr. Brown's Poisoned Wife   Hammond Killed   Jules Buck Murder  
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WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE ENGAGEMENT OF MISS MARGARET  daughter of a LIBRARIAN and a NAVY CRYPTOLOGIST and  THE 2014 MAZDA MX-5 scion of SEVERAL TERRIFYING RALLY CARS and the SMALL BRITISH CABRIOLET The CLOSING CEREMONY will take place as soon as the DEALER calls her back with a proper QUOTE on how much it will cost to swap out the bits of the TRIM PACKAGE she doesn't like. I'm trying to convince her to hold the reception at one of the Roval track days. You know, so the car's family can all come. The MX-5 is pretty much the only car I have personally taken any notice of. A friend of mine out here bought an early '90s Miata -- in fairly decent condition, for a car nearly old enough to buy its own beer, but requiring a couple of preventative repairs and a lot of cosmetic work before it was perfect. He gave me a lift once, all of ten minutes down the road to the nearest Tedeschi, and and I abruptly understood why gearheads cared. It is qui
I'm taking part in the Speakeasy Circus at Club Oberon tonight. I volunteered to be an usher so I could see it for free, and I ended up with a bit part -- primarily, I suspect, because I told them I already had appropriate wardrobe, which I do. My main function in the show is to be extremely loud in order to support an aerialist who isn't great at shouting. I, of course, refuse to do costuming unless I can do it right, so I've gone out and scared up some flapper details. I bought a cheap cloche, because when do I ever not need more hats? And some knee-highs, because the proper place for a flapper's stockings is rolled down around her ankles, so she doesn't have to worry about them coming loose when she dances drunkenly. (There's also the option of not wearing them at all -- Clara Bow used to just paint her legs.) I already have appropriate shoes, an appropriate skirt, at least two appropriate sweaters, and if those don't work, a ruffly satin jacket that wi
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Top Gear is one of those things that's much easier to watch than to describe. You start out telling people, "It's about cars," and twenty minutes later you find yourself trying to explain why the BBC is sending an automotive journalist to the North Pole on a dogsled. They have used cars as a flimsy excuse to go to so many exotic places that Top Gear is now better at being the National Geographic Society than the actual National Geographic Society. The three of them have bickered like children in some of the most gorgeous spots on the face of the planet, usually while Clarkson is trying to fix his car with a very large hammer. Moggie has just finished her physics homework and needs something to stop the weeping, so I'm going to talk about Richard Hammond for a while. The bookseller from whom I attempted to order  On The Edge  somehow managed to be out of copies before they got around to shipping mine, so I'll just be doing my usual semi-baseless speculation
Anybody want to see the Speakeasy Circus this Friday? Use code OPENING at checkout for a $10 discount. See ya there. :)
Home. Warm. Need to be at the computer for stuff. TMI Tuesday -- ask away, y'all.
I'm not a gearhead. Everything I know about cars, I learned from Car Talk and Top Gear -- so it's probably a good thing I don't drive. Both of these programs are nevertheless entertaining, so I keep up with them anyway. I watch Top Gear  mainly because the three presenters -- Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May -- are hilarious. The show is partly scripted and partly edited segments of live camera commentary, which means both a lot of interesting ad-libs and a lot of interesting gag reels. The three of them do play characters, which have a sort of "based on a true story" relationship with their actual personalities; Clarkson is a bit of a curmudgeon, Hammond is a bit of a scrapper, and May is a bit of an obsessive geek, but it's exaggerated quite a lot for comic effect. They spend a lot of time dreaming up creative ways to be total cocks to one another without actually getting anyone killed -- pay attention and you'll notice that, while they

Weekend Radio Theater - "Five-Minute Mysteries"

Alibi In Red   Murder In Cairo   License For Murder   The Postman Didn't Ring   Clue In The Hand   Death At X Bar   Study In Ornithology   Pattern of Guilt   Fisherman's Clue   Trial By fire  
Apparently I am going to Salute To Supernatural in Las Vegas in March 2014. I know this because a few days ago, I was summarily informed that we had weekend passes and Moggie opined that it might be a good idea for me to fly in on Wednesday, so that we can start con-going early on Thursday. Moggie is resourceful and creative, and usually humors my pathetic and misguided attempts at financial independence, so when she starts simply chucking money at a problem to make it go away, it is time for me to capitulate gracefully. She says now I have to use my pass, or else -- the other person who had expressed interest in going with her is underage, which would prevent her from both getting properly hammered, and from taking any shortcuts through the casinos when she doesn't feel like going outside. I told her to do whatever she thinks will work out best (aside from the fact that she's paying the up-front costs, she also has the AAA membership, which is especially useful in Vegas) an

Weekend Radio Theater - "Five-Minute Mysteries"

The Man From Nowhere   Sound & Fury   Murder In The Tomb   Too-Early Bird   The Fine Art of Murder   Murder If You Please   Murder In Blue   Spitting Revolver   Blood On My Hands   Broken Window  

Doctor Who: Four

The Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker First Serial: Robot Last Serial: Logopolis Costume: The TARDIS coat rack. Layers and layers of Victorian-Edwardian influenced twills and tweed, with as many pockets as possible, a hat worn shapeless and jammed onto his head, and a twenty-foot scarf of many colors. Add mad curly hair and a madder grin. Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan , Leela , Romana I , Romana II , Adric , Nyssa of Traken The Fourth Doctor is probably the one most remembered prior to the series revival. Particularly in the US, where a large portion of his run was shown on public television -- the closest thing we have to the non-commercial BBC -- his mop of curly hair, flapping coat, and insanely long scarf were most characteristically associated with the program by casual viewers. Clocking in at seven years on the show, Tom Baker was and is the longest continually-running Doctor, bested only by the one who technically held the title from 1987 through the cancellatio

Doctor Who: Three

The Third Doctor: Jon Pertwee First Serial: Spearhead From Space Last Serial: Planet of The Spiders Costume: Edwardian gentleman, as interpreted by the 1970s. Tuxedo trousers with a flare at the cuff, velvet smoking jackets, great sweeping opera capes and ulster coats. Don't forget at least one pocket large enough to hold an assortment of gizmos, including the sonic screwdriver. Companions: Liz Shaw , Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart , Jo Grant , Captain Mike Yates , Sarah Jane Smith . Casting Jon Pertwee as the Doctor was very nearly the opposite of casting Patrick Troughton -- Troughton did scary movies and played a hobo space clown, and Pertwee, known for things like A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and innumerable Carry On films, ended up playing his gentleman-adventurer Doctor almost perfectly straight. Pertwee, comedic career notwithstanding, was an ex-Navy man and had a passion for things that went vroom,  which came out in the Third Docto
One of the things I truly appreciate about my weird life is that I never have to compartmentalize it. None of by jobs and/or hobbies could in any way derail any of my other jobs and/or hobbies. I can go to a show at Oberon and when someone asks me if I'm Arabella Flynn from the internet, I don't have to go umm, err, well... and tell them my name is Jessica, which is what I usually do if I particularly want someone to fuck off and not be able to find me again. I've never had to get to the point of telling them my last name is Rabbit, but I expect if I ever do, they'll get the hint. (True story. Someone recognized me at Cirque of the Dead! You have no idea how exciting this is. Intellectually, I know there are real humans who read this turkey, but I'm always startled to be reminded of it in person. I do answer to Arabella, Ari, Circe, and my legal name, if you happen to know that. I don't use pseudonyms because I want to keep people from associating my face with

Doctor Who: Two

The Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton First Serial: The Power of the Daleks Last Serial: The War Games Costume: Cheerful space hobo-clown. Black sack coat, baggy checked trousers, bow tie, Moe Howard haircut. Be sure to leave room in the interior breast pocket for a tasseled recorder. Companions: Polly, Ben Jackson, Jamie MacCrimmon , Victoria Waterfield , Zoe  (honorable mention: Brigadier Col. Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart , Sgt. Benton ) When the time came for William Hartnell to retire and a Second Doctor to be cast, the Doctor Who  production team made some very interesting choices. What they did was not look for an actor who had a track record of playing characters like the Doctor they wanted, but an actor who was in many ways was the Doctor they wanted, and had a track record of playing larger than life without making the audience want to throw tomatoes at the TV. This has resulted in a lot of actors being cast blatantly against type, but in exchange, almost all of
Hey, y'all. I'm doing a whole lotta stuff this weekend, but if any of the Cantabrigian natives want to catch me tonight, I'll be at Geek Peek . It's at the YMCA theater near Central Square, and tickets are $12 at the door. Geek Peek is being run by Sirlesque , an all-male burlesque troupe which first came to my attention when I saw one of them peel off the better part of a Tenth Doctor costume at Club Oberon. In a moment so geeky I should probably be embarrassed about it, I noticed that the coat was lined in the screen-accurate blue while he was throwing it off the stage . It took me a bit to hunt him down and ask him about it, since I tend to be volunteering for these things while he's not busy stripping. That one happened to be Ricky Lime. I've gotten to chat with all of them at least once now, but Ricky tends to pop up at the studio when I'm working, and has now tumbled onto the idea that I'm making all the 'hello there' noises at him , an

Doctor Who: One

The First Doctor: William Hartnell First serial: 100,000 BC Last serial: The Tenth Planet Costume details: A gentleman's day wear from roughly the Victorian era, with an appropriate shoulder-length hairstyle. Frock coat with astrakhan collar and karakul hat, dark cloak, long scarf. Wears an ornate ring on one finger. Companions: Susan , Ian Chesterton , Barbara Wright , Vicki , Steven Taylor , Katarina , Dodo Chaplet , Polly , Ben Jackson At first glance, the First Doctor is egotistical and imperious. At second glance, he's egotistical, imperious, and also flubs his lines a lot. This is because the Doctor was not initially supposed to be the focus character of the show. Originally, the show that we know as Doctor Who  was conceived of as less a science-fiction serial, and more of an edutainment program -- you will notice, if you watch the very early stories, that they're rather heavy on history, and comparatively light on stuntmen in giant rubber suits. The audien

Weekend Radio Theater - "Five-Minute Mysteries"

Marks of Death   Blood Will Tell   The Scorpion Recording   The Masquerade   The Weapon   The Needle   The Scientific Clue   Zombie   Snap Judgement   Gas Station Shooting  
Right-o. This is basically going to be a bunch of administrivia, set to post while I sober up from Cirque of the Dead. Zero: I finally got off my ass and fixed all the Weekend Radio Theater posts. You all get things to listen to on Saturday after you run out of Car Talk . They're auto-scheduled like that, to give me a breather day each week and therefore a better chance of actually posting an entry a day like I keep intending to. One: The holidays are approaching. Long story short, I have no relatives worth speaking to and tend to have nothing to do from Halloween through the new year, whereas everyone I know is running around spending time with the (relatively) reasonable people they call family. This sucks for me. I try to distract myself from it, to avoid going bonkers. The past few years running, what I've done is set out a call for other crafters to clean out their yarn stashes by sending it to me. I knit things a lot, mainly for something to do with my hands. If