HSU IT Department

hp_holidaygen has begun posting, and guess whose gift was first under the tree? Mine!! Some wonderful, talented, generous person has written for me a bittersweet tale of mystery, friendship, loyalty and love, with (of course) a Hermione determined to Figure Things Out -- and all set in a fantastical, mysterious, enticing library that I would give my eye teeth to visit (ah, but perhaps I shall someday!). Not to mention that they have linked in ancient myths like Orpheus and Eurydice, Lot's wife, etc. -- I've always been fascinated by retelling of myths and fairy tales, so this is an extra extra bonus. Hermione encounters a series of "old friends" as she makes her way towards her goal, and the glimpses we get of what has happened to them all in the intervening years add a nice richness and complexity. Truly, I am a lucky recipient, and could not have asked for more!

Go ye and read: Don't Look Back.

Blecch -- HATE the new posting interface. Way too 70s looking with the rounded corners, and all those little fields make me feel as though I'm filling out a form. NOT what I am wanting when I go to share brilliant insights with flist. Thank goodness for "switch to old version."

I see that C.S. Lewis is being honored -- or, I should say, honoured -- with a memorial in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, right up there with Shakespeare, Chaucer, Kipling, Samuel Johnson et al. I'm pleased for old Jack, but my gruntle is more than a little dissed by the fact that, really, Tolkien should have gotten the hono(u)r first. I just don't see how ten transparent Christian allegories, no matter how lovely and pleasant to read*, top the incredibly rich and detailed world that Tolkien created, complete with millennia of myth, legend and history and at least four different languages, not to mention a cracking good quest narrative. Nevertheless, congrats, old boy.

Speaking of Tolkien, of course we all know that the opening of The Hobbit is now only two weeks away, and Mr Psmith and I have already bought our tickets for the midnight opening (I haven't been to a midnight opening in I-will-not-admit-how-long and am almost ridiculously excited about it). In honor of The Big Day, a_execution posted an interesting discussion of several of Tolkien's characters which you might be interested in.

Alas, no matter how long I live, I fear my reaction to movie!Legolas will be forever colored by the hilarious Very Secret Diary of Legolas ("still the prettiest member of the Fellowship"). Heeeee....

* Not to mention the Problem of Susan

During filming of The Hobbit, Ian McKellen had an angsty moment over the fact that he was acting with thirteen dwarves and yet not a single actor was there on camera with him -- all he had were 13 photographs of the dwarves on top of stands with little lights; whoever he was "talking" to their light would flash, but the actual actors did all their camera time separately and were filled in later by the computer techs. "I cried, actually. I cried. Then I said out loud, 'This is not why I became an actor'. Unfortunately the microphone was on and the whole studio heard..."

I sympathize with him. Much as I love special effects and amazingly realistic goblins, dwarves, dragons, monsters, spaceships, etc., there's something missing when 90% of what you see was produced inside a computer. The best, most memorable performances I've ever seen are live: Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Mikado, even the junior high musicals I was in (under protest) and the high school musicals I worked tech crew on were magical in a way that movies can't be. When you know there are no second takes...when the actors are responding in real time to the audience...there's a wonderful feedback loop that gets going, and its remarkable. Light years different from what happens in a movie theater, where your reaction makes no difference at all to what's playing on screen.

This is also why I'm very excited about the movie version of Les Mis that's coming out next month. Instead of the usual approach, where the singers do all the singing in the studio months ahead of time and then have to time their acting to what they did weeks earlier, this production is allowing them to sing in real time, while they act. It's an interesting middle ground between live performance and movie-musical, and the actors are pretty excited about it.

We've already bought our Hobbit tickets; may have to snap a couple of these up as well.

From Cake Wrecks, an awesome tribute to Hostess snackables (the photos are great fun as well):

"And the prophet said, cast ye your countenance toward the Walmart, and follow thy heart to the junk food aisle, for there the snack cakes are distributed in a manner wonderful to see. For the munchies are upon you, and the hunger is deep. Look with wonder upon the gifts you have been given. Of the puffed cheese and popped corn, you may eat, but not the HoHo. Of the jerky and Nutella and Doritos you may have your fill, but not the Twinkie. Of the potato chip, plain or barbecue, ranch or sugar coated, you may eat, but not the Donette. Of the oil based snack of dubious origin you may eat, but not the Ding Dong. Though your craving be deep, think not of the little chocolate cupcake with the white squiggle thereupon. For the punishment is upon us and Hostess is no more. And the people wept."

Lamentations 8:11-20

...or is it??...

I thought this clip would be up on YouTube dozens of times, but there were only two! Apologies for the annoying fuzzy text over about 30 seconds near the end -- my only other option was the BBC's official clip, but they cut it short so it ends before the fade-in of the field of poppies. Which is, you know, kind of necessary for the full impact.




In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below...


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Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. A clever and delightful merging of high-tech (Mechanical Turk, Google, 3-D imaging) and very low-tech indeed (an ancient font and a 500-year-old secret hidden in an underground library of books), all underlaid with a sense of the deep importance of friendship and imagination. My only complaint is that I wish it had been longer: there are a lot of fascinating ideas crammed into a fairly short book. On the plus side, that means it never gets boring.

Also a big plus (for me at least) is that the mystery -- while very mysterious -- is kept low-key. That is, there are no car chases, no surprise betrayals by people you thought could be trusted, no one gets shot at, no one has to jump out of a helicopter or climb onto a roof to escape an armed villain, etc. It was such a joy to read something whose power to engross and delight comes not from explosions and close calls, but from strong bonds of friendship on the one hand and exuberant high-tech geekery on the other. The incorporation of high fantasy into the mix is great fun, and the idea of initiates into the organization having to write their own codex vitae as a sort of mystical final exam is really intriguing. (Maybe Sloan will write some of those...) Highly recommended.

(I'm trying to catch up on my book reviews, so tomorrow: a creepy medieval apocalypse. And no, it has nothing to do with it being election day!)

Nice bit from the NY Times summarizing storm damage in the city. The photos of water flooding into a PATH station and highway signs just about the water level are pretty amazing.

Also, NASA has some great footage of Sandy from space!

We have returned safely from our trek to Pennsylvania for the Blackmore's Night concert and the PA Ren Faire, huzzah!

By happy chance (so he says *ahem*) Mr Psmith picked a hotel for Friday that was across the street from not one, not two, but THREE Irish pubs!! So as a prelude to the evening's main event there was well-poured Guinness for Mr Psmith and a nice pinot grigio for me, and a bartender from Leitrim with a GORGEOUS accent (when we asked him how long he had been here, he said "T'ree weeks"). We then "garbed up" and, since the theatre was only two blocks from the hotel, paraded downtown in our Renaissance-y best, nodding regally at mystified passersby. The concert was very good; lots of fellow audience members also in garb, so it was a bit like going to see the 16th century version of Rocky Horror Picture Show, only with less toast and more shawm. Seeing Carl as the opening act on a big stage was great fun, and then Blackmore's Night played for 2-1/2 hours straight -- many old favorites and one or two we didn't know, and Candace's voice was as stunning live as it is on the CDs.

The next morning we had a two-hour drive to the Ren Fair but a luxurious hour to get dressed once we arrived (normally at our "home festival" we have about 20 minutes!). We looked splendid, if I do say so myself, particular Mr Psmith who is quite dashing in doublet, hat, boots and sword :) We strolled the grounds like visiting nobility all day and had quite the time, inspecting the baby dragons (i.e., anole lizards), watching the various minstrels, and eating anachronistic but tasty food items. The PA Faire is more "produced" than our home festival -- for example, all the performers are mic'ed and the joust had theatrical piped-in music that sounded like the soundtrack to Ben Hur! But once you get past the different character it's a fun change of pace. The Faire's theme this year was a fierce competition between Shakespeare and Marlowe, and the "Finale in Song" (which is what PA has instead of a final pubsing) had some very funny bits indeed where they got out of temper and ranted at each other, and the Queen was clearly channeling her Blackadder incarnation. Though as Mr Psmith said, the last number was much more Glee than Tudor. Still, worth the trip if only for the chance to see Empty Hats and trot out our black velvet one more time :)

Mr Psmith scored again with Saturday night's hotel which had an excellent restaurant complete with vegetarian menu (spinach, mushroom and goat cheese quesadillas with chipotle honey glaze -- nomz!!)

We slept in this morning, then headed out and were home by 5pm, well ahead of Hurricane Sandy which was all over the news of course. On the drive home NPR taught us things about Kurt Weil and the Threepenny Opera, and we passed a convoy of five utility trucks which we speculated were being mobilized ahead of the storm. Made me feel rather reassured; not that we're supposed to get more than high winds and an inch or so of rain at Chez Psmith, but still, it's nice to know that people are Planning Ahead. We're happy to be home, and I hope that all of you who are in Sandy's path weather the storm safely and with minimal damage!