- Mood:
crappy - Music:Gillian Welch - The Devil Had A Hold Of Me
It is this: a fairy tale starts, "Once upon a time..." A war story begins, "No shit, there I was."
So one of the more amazing things that happened at VPXIII was Sean Craven's chili dog casserole, which is sort of the culinary equivalent of crack!fic.
The recipe is posted here, and, well, it's the funniest recipe you're likely to read in the extended internet absence of
You can feel the chemicals crawling around in your veins on little spiked feet afterwards. It's kind of a humbling experience.
And if I ever make it, it will involve Velveeta.
- Mood:
amused - Music:TBRE watching sports in the next room
Davy Jones sings "Your Personal Penguin."
So that's what happened to him...
(I think it's mostly that he's totally still Davy Jones, but I'm having that OMG YOU GOT OLDER WHILE I WASN"T LOOKING AT YOU thing.)
- Mood:
amused - Music:The Monkees - Last Train to Clarkesville
It's that it has these moments of utter brilliance (most of them centering on Lafayette* or Terry) and nothing else ever quite measures up to the promise of those brief, shining moments.*
In fact, they only serve to point out to viewer that nothing, ever, anywhere, anywhen, could measure up to this:

Yeah.
Here's that t-shirt in close up, for the full impact of wonderfulness:

Please note, I'm not recommending you watch the show. It's terrible. It's so terrible, in fact, that I am actually convinced that everybody who works on it knows how terrible it is, and they're just resigned to collecting their paychecks for as long as it runs.
It's so terrible that I watch it because it's terrible. Fabtastically, baroquely, OMG I can't believe they just did that with a plain bald face terrible.
...yes, I probably will watch Season 3. But by God, I will not pretend to like it.
*For example, Lafayette's expression after Sookie places that jambalaya order, having been reminded of it by his ranting about the unwisdom of asking what goes in the sausage. Jambalaya, for those of you not familiar with Gulf Coast American cuisine, contains sausage.
*(And then there's all that suffering through Vampire Bill. And did I mention the willful stupidity? Sookie needs to read the Evil Overlord list and apply it to protagging, I tell you what.)
...and now, I will commence several weeks of staring at the walls and playing a lot of Bejeweled while I try to figure out what the hell Grail is about.
Please stand by.
- Mood:
annoyed - Music:Sting - Big Lie Small World
baaaaa....
LONG!
1) Vethulf and Skjaldwulf did not get along. (A Reckoning of Men, with
2) Tin laced her fingers together across her gravid belly and frowned along her nose at the feeble human child. (An Apprentice to Elves, with
3) The first hint of returning consciousness was the icy tickle of fluid dropping across his lids, lashes, nostrils. (Chill)
4) It's harder to get good roles when you're dead. (Smile)
5) Nothing made Matthew hate himself more than waiting for the elevator. (Patience & Fortitude)
6) Ragged vultures spiraled up a cherry sky. (The Steles of the Sky)
7) I loved you not. (Posthumous Jonson)
8) On the first sunny day of Spring, Vladimir Karl Wilhelm Alexander, Prince of Freimarc, came to his father's father's fortress for the only time in his short sixteen years. He did not come willing. (A Treachery of Princes)
9) No first line, but an epigraph:
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.
And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. (Grail)
10) Mrs. Cornelius stalked into the mahogany-paneled reception room, a jacket matching her chocolate trousers slung over her shoulder like the mantle of a queen, tiny emerald studs glinting in her ears like the eyes of a snake. (Unsuitable Metal)
11) A lone einherjar stood alone on the narrow band of black sand under the curve of the volcano's flank and raised his head to the impossibly bright spill of stars filling the sky. (Between the Bones)
12) No first line (Untitled virtual reality novel)
13) No first line (Untitled Heroic Hookers of the Old West novel)
SHORT!
1) The dream is smoke.
Smoke. Not fire. Not yet.
But you know the fire is coming. ("Smoke & Mirrors," Shadow Unit)
2) One gray-blue eye emerged from under the zippered edge of the jacket, blearily squinched. "From Hell's heart I stab at thee," Todd grated. "Is it the end of the world?" ("The Unicorn Evils," Shadow Unit, with
coffeeem)
3) Someone had left flowers again. ("Spell 81A," Shadow Unit, with
stillsostrange)
4) The first word was meant to be spoken quietly, if it should ever be spoken at all. ("The Death of Terrestrial Radio")
5) "We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you'd flunked Algebra." ("On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera")
Good dog, I really am totally out of short stories. 0.0
Oh, and La Datlow took a cute photo of me losing a Locus award to Paolo Baciagalupi. With the much-requested Purple Hair.
- Mood:
sleepy
Then I did a little time on the treadmill, swam, and visited My Friend The Hot Tub. Worth a drive in the snow, especially since while I was out, I took the opportunity to patronize a local business, the Cosmos Grocery on Farmington Avenue, which is a kind of Indian grocery store/deli with profoundly weird cultural influences. By which I mean, it's the only place on Earth that I'm aware of where you can get halal takeout, rent Heroes in Hindi, and also buy lingonberries.
So lunch will be pistachio halvah, bhaigan, saag, chicken tikka, and curry goat. Just as soon as the rice is done. (Yes, I finally found a place to buy lingonberries in Connecticut, and it's the Indian deli. Truly the future is a fine fine place to live.
Maybe I'll have the lingonberries for dessert.)
God, I love my neighborhood. Sadly, the excellent Jamaican restaurant seems to be gone, but I still have good Indian, Brazilian, Pho, Thai, Japanese, and the best Irish pub, pizza, and hot wings in Hartford within walking distance (in fact, the pizza and hot wings deliver). My three closest delis are Algerian, Greek, and Indian, in that order.
I hope you're jealous, because you should be. The only problem is that I can't eat all of it every day.
- Mood:
content - Music:Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Pink Elephant
Unicorn menstrual pads.
Gecko, unicorn, and cute-kitten-reclining-on-crescent-moon nursing pads. Also, monkeys on pogo sticks.
From the department of products designed by somebody who has never actually changed a baby boy department:
The Pee Pee Teepee.
(Otherwise known as a good way to study ballistics.)
- Mood:
0.o - Music:ZZ Top - Jesus Just Left Chicago
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- Mood:
chipper
Why yes, I am working. I've edited five whole pages tonight.
- Mood:
amused
Charlie the Coyote.
Charlie's an orphan coyote who is being raised by Shreve Stockton, a woman who lives in rural Wyoming, and her tabby cat Eli. She's an evocative photographer, and an articulate writer.
There are Charlie calendars and prints here.
There's an eljay feed here:
- Mood:
awed - Music:NPR- Weekend Edition
- Mood:
amused - Music:Thomas Dolby - The Keys to Her Ferrari
Those are the boys for me.
So why did it take me until I was 36 to realize that this is because I'm not a good girl?
0.0
- Mood:
amused - Music:No Doubt - Bathwater
Set in a furry strip club.
As he says, NSFW in the USA. Bears in loincloths, furries, poledancing giraffes, exploding octopus bosoms, etc.
View it here.
.
- Mood:
0.0 - Music:I like it like that - not sure of the version
(via
...now I wonder what Sesame Street looks like to Japanese people.
- Mood:
0.o - Music:Tom Waits - How's It Gonna End
- Mood:
naughty - Music:John Lee Hooker - Woman On My Mind
...
...okay, I'm telling myself that it's fun.
- Mood:
confused - Music:Tom Waits - Singapore
Mission: Impossible, season 1, the episode "A Cube of Sugar."
Except there was less skinning in the sixties, because Rollin planned ahead.
(yes, spoilers for a forty-year-old TV show. life is like that sometimes.)
- Mood:
geeky - Music:dun dun DUH duh, dun dun DUH duh,
1:32 AM ETA: Now it's a bodhran version of "On Christmas Day In The Morning."
Charlie, are you taking notes? I'm pretty sure you can use this for something.
- Mood:
on hold - Music:WTF?
Or: Oh. My. God.
( Context is at Stereogum. This could be the best blues movie since Crossroads ;-\ )
And now, time for a Friday Night Poll!
Poll #919616 friday night fights!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 106
Bear has written her words today and is a mile closer to Mordor. She should:
press on, and write the first big angel fight scene (The angel of battle systems (aka !Richard O'Brien) v. the angel of read-only memory (who actually showed up looking like himself.)![]()
![]()
30 (28.6%)
drink peppermint schnapps and get plastered![]()
![]()
40 (38.1%)
drink mediocre Ozzie shiraz and get tipsy![]()
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16 (15.2%)
watch Survivorman![]()
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9 (8.6%)
watch Cracker (BBC version)![]()
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16 (15.2%)
stealth ticky!![]()
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39 (37.1%)
watch Mission: Impossible (the TV show, you heathens.)![]()
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15 (14.3%)
read The Fellowship of the Ring![]()
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24 (22.9%)
ticky tocky![]()
![]()
21 (20.0%)
rikki ticky tavi![]()
![]()
48 (45.7%)
ideally,
peaceful death of a G-type main sequence star, expanding to many times its volume, resulting in the engulfment of inner planets![]()
![]()
12 (12.0%)
catastrophic detonation as the white dwarf partner in a binary pair unbinds, resulting in a type 1a supernova![]()
![]()
21 (21.0%)
ticky![]()
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8 (8.0%)
cake![]()
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33 (33.0%)
all of the above![]()
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26 (26.0%)
ticky?
- Mood:
cheerful - Music:Doctor John - Stagolee
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- Mood:
scarred for life - Music:Mythbusters, which is now for me forever soiled