Tag: The Americans

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes for May 24, 2014

Johann Georg Hainz's Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsJohann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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,
TheHusband whisked me away to Chicago earlier part of the week to see Elbow, we were then home for a few days, and now we’re up at  Throbbing Cabin to open it up for the summer.  My media empire is currently a titch light at the moment.
P.S. You can now follow me on Pinterest on what I’m reading, watching, and listening.

Listening

Reading

Currently reading
Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
(Amazon | Worldcat | GoodReads)

Watching

  • The Americans
    I’m really loving how this series just seems to gain strength after strength, and who knew it was the kid this entire time? Where the series is going next is going to be key — either the showrunners will make it the best thing ever or it will just destroyed in their attempt to gain ratings.
  • Survivor: Cagayan
    The show has ended another season. Hurrah.

Weekly watching:  Fargo, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Louie, Penny Dreadful, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Doctor Blake Mysteries, Elementary

Links

What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in:

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes for March 8, 2014

Johann Georg Hainz's Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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,

Reading

msyteryofmercyclose
The Mystery of Mercy Close: A Walsh Sister Novel by Marian Keyes
(Amazon | WorldCat | GoodReads)
Status: Finished
Marian Keyes has long been one of my favorite authors, one who can encapsulate a horrible event (abuse, addiction, recovery) in a story that at first glance, seems like some kind of fluff until you dig deeper and get to the heart of the story.
Keyes, however, has failed with this book. Terribly.
At first glance through the reviews, I am apparently the only one who caught the not so very subtle racism against Arabs/Muslims peppered throughout the book. Snide comments about “towel heads,” “arabic-y looking wording,” and the often slights against one of the secondary characters who is Muslim and an Arab. Then once you pick up on the racism, you realise either Marian, or Marian using Helen’s voice, is a bigot against fat people, the mentally ill, and anyone who doesn’t fit into her little world.
Now you’re probably thinking, “But Marian has chronicled her severe depression — how can she be bigoted against the mentally ill?” And you know, I totally get you on that, because I was floored at first. But with Helen’s voice, and point of view, you notice how Helen starts being dismissive against any and all attempts of trying to work on her depression. She rejects drugs (at first), she’s dismissive against any alternative methods, and the constant comments about how she was special with her depression because it wasn’t like anyone elses in terms of symptoms and effects. Okay, we get it, you’re a special snowflake.
This book was a hot mess. Between the bigotry, the lead up to through the mystery, explanation of her past relationship, the foundation of her current one, and really? How she and her BFF ever broke up and why was incredibly weak. Coupled with her depression and the utter lack development for most of the characters, why was this book even published?

Watching

Weekly watching: Vikings, The Musketeers, Mr. Selfridge, Black Sails, Top Gear, Stella, University Challenge, House of Lies, Episodes, Archer,  True Detective, Under the Gunn, Justified, Banshee, Reign, Elementary

Links

What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in:

in like a lion

Medieval Oscar Party via Bodleian MS264, circa 14C.
Medieval Oscar Party via Bodleian MS264, circa 14C.

Dear Internet,
Russia has invaded the Ukraine. Suddenly The Americans seem topical television show, not one steeped in history.
Tonight’s the Oscars and the only reason I can muster the will to watch is to make sure white people don’t overrun the awards with their sloppy circle jerking, but of course they will.
It’s a cold (19F/-7C) early Sunday afternoon and I’ve started listening to R.E.M’s entire catalog, starting with Murmur. According to Spotify, this exercise will take me 24 hours. Since I have nothing really planned for my spring break week, this seems fortuitous.
Though I will note my hot cocoa has cooled off and is like drinking a thicker version of chocolate milk, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Thick, barely warm chocolate milk is much preferable to the remnants of milk from my cereal I poured into my coffee this morning because I was too lazy to walk to the fridge. Lesson learned.
This morning, as I ignored the phone calls from my brother to go the gym, TheHusband asked what was on my plans for today. I said read and write. I need to start working on my fiction. I have an article due tomorrow which I’ve started and need to finish, I need to start making headway into my large to be read pile. I keep checking out titles from MPOW because we are given almost unlimited time for titles without consequences. Some titles I’ve had for over a year. Possibly longer.
But it’s hard when you keep finding authors who pique your interest. Recently discovered Clarice Lispector, a mid-century Brazilian Mary Maclane, who is getting new breath injected into her work via Penguin. Then this morning, I found Eve Babitz via an article I read in Vanity Fair.
Eve Babitz playing chess with Marcel Duchamp, 1973. © Julian Wasser.
Eve Babitz playing chess with Marcel Duchamp, 1963. © Julian Wasser

How could not become enamoured of a confident naked woman playing chess against Marcel Duchamp?
Babitz’s work, unlike Lispector’s, is out of print. I will be able to procure much of her work via interlibrary loan, but purchasing it? Not unless I get eagle-eyed on jaunts to used book stores. Used copies are fetching for hundreds on Amazon. Another important and critical voice burnished into obscurity.
It’s painful to consider how much is lost to the void. It has made me conscious of my own work, the never ending fucking battle of getting all of it back up online after nearly a decade of remove. But will it lay in the ether forever because once we’re dead, the lights of the site will go dim. Not that I’m going to die anytime in the near future, knock wood, but what would happen?
This July marks 16 years I’ve been writing online and right now the goal is to get as much of the back content up before then, to make the archives complete. The whole site is already indexed, but to make it even more available, I’ve started manually forcing the Wayback Machine to crawl it to archive the latest and greatest. It will always be available then, under different guises. Even if something happens to me, my work will live digitally on until the world dies.
I’ve added this thought to my project list this summer: Finally do something with the work other than getting it back up online. Edit it, clean it up, release it in volumes of something.
And then write some more.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2010, 2010, 2003

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes: May 25, 2013

Johann Georg Hainz's Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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,

Writing

The Lisa Chronicles

Watching

Weekly watching: Rectify, Borgia, DaVinci’s Demons, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, The Borgias, Veep, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, The Vampire Diaries, Elementary.
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2003

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes: February 2, 2013

Johann Georg Hainz's Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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,
This past week, I had surgery to fix a permanent “squirrelly suture” that was a result from my surgery last summer. Since Tuesday, I’ve been spending most of my days in a lovely drugged haze, in which I have just enough attention to watch a lot of vaguely bad TV in between my gentle snores. The recovery is, fingers crossed, planned to not be as exacting as last summers. I go back to the ortho docs on February 18th for follow up, with hopes to go back to work on February 19th. I’m zero weight baring, so the knee scooter is back. But I spend my days in bed, foot elevated, zoning in and out depending on when I’ve taken the drugs. Shortly after I came home from the surgery, Kristin and I had to write up a proposal for conference submission and it was the hardest thing I could ever do, because  I could not concentrate long enough to cobble two sentences together. Somehow we managed to get the proposal together, but the sheer amount of will it took to write that proposal told me I was not cognizant enough to do anything serious this week. Give me a few days, and I’ll have more of a proper update for you.
Watching
Hyperdrive
I plowed through the entire series in one day. Quick, short, and dripping in sci-fi cultural references, it’s great fun!
Red Dwarf
Beloved cult classic, I started on season one this week and mixed it up with Hyperdrive.
Fringe
Another show I missed when it first aired, so playing catch up via Amazon Instant Video.
Also watching: Spartacus, The Americans, Archer, and Project Runway.
Links

  • Downton Abbey as envisioned as a SNES game
  • For sale: a Hemingway story, never written
  • William Shakespeare gave the English language over 2000 words, here are 20 of them.

 
x0x0,
Lisa