During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
Listening
After waiting for what seemed like an entirety, season 4 of this most hilarious BBC4 radio show started on January 9. Written by John Finnemore, it stars Finnemore, Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allam, and Stephanie Cole. Undeniably quotable, it’s the tale of a one jet airline, MJN Air, run by a brassy old lady (Cole), with her may be missing a few cans from a six-pack son (Finnemore), a captain who takes his job a little bit too seriously (Cumberbatch), and a former sky-god whose recently become aware of his mortality (Allam). The oddball crew get into variety of odd situations every week, and you find yourself not only falling in love with the show but also becoming emotionally invested in the characters lives. John Finnemore posts his writing notes, deleted scenes, and other minutia on his blog. It airs Wednesday at 1:30 PM EST / 6:30 PM GMT. (BBC Radio is available legally outside the UK via its website, iTunes, and other streaming music/radio services, for free.)
Watching
Miranda Hart has been on my peripheral for sometime – I knew her as Chummy in Call The Midwife and as Tall Karen in Monday, Monday, as well as she’s popped up in variety of other shows over the years as various supporting characters. Cabin Pressure Beth (I know many Beths, this one shares my love of CP and other Britcoms), asked me if I had a chance to see Miranda yet? She suggested that I must and within the course of 2.5 days, I mainlined all three seasons of the eponymous named show. Many feelings were being felt all over the place.
Miranda is a comedy about a tall (6’1) woman, who is constantly called “Sir”, whose mother would do anything to get her married, and who harbors a crush on her next door neighbor and best friend, Gary. She owns a joke shop, much to the dismay of posh mother, that is run by her best girlfriend Stevie. Miranda harbors mixed feelings about her boarding school girlfriends, who call her Queen Kong, and are always seemingly in league with Miranda’s mother.
Miranda is what Bridge Jones’ Diary tried to be but failed, except you don’t really realize that until you watch Miranda as a comparison. I found myself identifying more with Miranda than with Bridget, and I think the big difference is Miranda’s relationships with her friends, family, and herself are more genuine and honest, where as Bridget now seems like a characterture and hollow, even slightly mocking.
Links
- As a reminder, I will be participating in a month of letters in February. This piece on how to write letters is very appropriate for the month.
- Do the current crop of great American writers all live in New York? No.
- How we read across America
- 10 Innovations That Built Ancient Rome, of which nine are still in practice today
- Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1851) as a female utopia
- How to make sure the language in your historical fantasy novel is period-accurate
- The White House rejected building a Death Star, so the Galactic Empire declares absolute Imperial power
- A Secret History of Women and Tattoo
- Hundreds of lost William Blake etchings discovered at a Manchester Library
- Shetland ponies wearing Shetland wool cardigans. I repeat, Shetland ponies wearing Shetland wool cardigans.
- Facebook has a new feature, Facebook Graph Search, that has some pretty interesting results.
- Who do you think is the best American writer who ever lived? And oh yeah, there is a map for that.
x0x0,
lisa