Midsummer last night, and random blog stuff

I spent nigh on 20 USD (£9.50) for the cheapest seats (which mean i didn't hear all the lines) at an open-air production of Midsummer. The theatre in Regent's Park is not as easy to find as i would have expected, but i managed to get there on time and, even with it being dark, only get lost a little bit coming back. I may actually be developing a sense of direction. A lot of the dialogue sounded really flat to me, like they were too focused on being loud enough to really get emotion into what they were saying. The hysterical Pyramus&Thisbe at the end almost made the ticket price worth it. I realized watching it that the fairy story (Titania/Bottom) was the only part of Midsummer i knew going in. Oderon reminded me of David Bowie's character in Labyrinth, only darker. I wonder if that was just the costume; one of these days i really must rewatch that movie. Robert Sean Leonard in Dead Poets Society will always be how i picture Puck. (And watching the play end last night i realized that Puck's ending speech -- which is the biggest part of Midsummer we see in the movie -- makes an interesting epilogue to Dead Poets Society.)

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this,--and all is mended,--
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend;
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

---

My dad sent me this link, but i got distracted by this embedded link (and follow-up posts and links). Rating the dateability of superheroes (and, in linked posts, heroines). Go now. The Batman one made me snicker. [I went through monkeycrackmary's LJ starting at the time i got LJ, looking for that Batman/Robin comic because i didn't think to bookmark it, and i couldn't find it. This is wrongness.] I've always loved Professor X, so bah on her, but props for Beast, whom i also loved (cartoon X-Men when i was a kid -- my only X-Men exposure before the recent movies). And yes, Cyclops is so boring. Iceman... stuff like this has ruined me (and Dolly mentioned "bring me a cold drink" at the end... what do you want from me?). [edit: Batgirl, yo.]

Yo, when did InstaPundit start having a comments feature? (Took him long enough, though given the tremendous amounts of traffic he gets, i wasn't surprised he didn't have one.)

Also, this just in, directory of left-leaning blogs. All the ones i read lean right (though looking at the list, i have spent some time at a few of them) so i'm definitely gonna go through the list here, because it would really be only fair for me to read liberal-leaning stuff that doesn't drive me up a wall.

up and down

Blessing of the Day:

The weather. I did some errands around noon/one and was comfortable.

Also:

As it grew dark last night, blue lightning bugs came out -- a charming and fitting addition to the Midsummer production.

Complaint of the Day:

Slow moving pedestrians. Who take up the whole width of the sidewalk.

I remember learning in elementary school to stay to the right. It means traffic can flow in two directions. It also means people can pass you. While i know little about British driving protocols, i know that the escalators in the London Underground ask you to stand to the right.

Also:

I had to go to Borders to purchase V's Adam Bede (Oxford World's Classics edition -- i previously tried Waterstones, Blackwells including the secondhand department, and the Oxford University Press Bookshop).

Lots of colleges say "closed to visitors." I suspect if i told the Porters i'm studying at Trinity they would let me in anyway. I feel weird, though.

I dislike when the cloth on the bottom of the inside of a shoe begins to detach. (What's that part of the shoe called, anyway?) Would that cease to happen if i bought better shoes than Payless? (This is not a rhetorical question.)

I must have been more hungry than i thought because i just about inhaled lunch. And now i find i'm still hungry. Will i get any work done today?

I wish this were a more balanced list.

[edit: Michele just e-mailed me and i'm working 3 more hours the week i get back. And despite the bads outweighing the goods on this particular list, i'm in a good mood, so really, there's no problem.]

edit the second: Yes, there was indeed another positive item i had forgotten. The bus dropped me off on High Street at 1am and i made it back to Trinity without incident. Wahoo!

The lefty blog directory has been disappointing so far.

Honestly, i'm indifferent to Ahnuhld's bid for California governor. I thought Jesse Ventura running for (and winning) governor of Minnesota was mad cool. He predated my memory of WWF pro wrestling, but i thought an ex-Marine in a feather boa was mad cool. Plus anything relating to "old-school" WWF tends to make my heart go pit-a-pat.

Andrew Sullivan says, "Yay! A pro-gay, pro-choice, hard-ass Republican!" and Eugene Volokh links to a bit from Demolition Man i had forgotten. I love that movie and wanna rewatch it when i get home.

While i'm admitting to liking things i should perhaps be ashamed of, i adored Models Inc. -- the prime-time soap opera which ran for one summer when i was 11.

I refuse to comment on anyone running for President until i've done serious research, which isn't going to happen until i return to the States and likely not until i'm settled in my Lamont room at Smith.

Eugene Volokh has interesting thoughts on party-line voting (and a follow-up addendum here).

Can we tell i'm procrastinating today?

1) I have a barely-written essay due on Wednesday.
2) The number of WIPs [works-in-progress] i have is probably verging on illegal.
3) pallidamors has a fabulous idea about triggering ficlets with 2 characters and a word.

I don't expect to read HP Book 5 until Winter Break, and don't really fandom outside of Whedonverse, though i suppose Sandman could be doable if they were easy characters. But Whedonverse is really the best bet -- if anyone wants to take me up on this, that is. You all could, of course, instead encourage me to write about solitude, labor, Puritanism and Robinson Crusoe.

edit: Everyone's talking about Robinson Crusoe, but if you were to feed my procrastination, X-Men's good, too. (Thanks for reminding me, scrollgirl.) I never read the comics, but i watched the cartoons as a kid and the movies are sucking me into fandom.

would squee but am in public computer lab

Okay, so at Balcony Dinner thanks to Jim talking we learned that my professor Valentine Cunningham (frequently referred to in this journal as V) plays trumpet and has a band.

From the final Weekly Seminarian, about the closing banquet:

After dinner there will be live music in the Beer Cellar featuring Professor Val Cunningham on the trumpet and his Dixieland Jazz Band.

"i'll sing you a song that starts out descriptive and locates a time and a place..."

People annoy me sometimes. Mandy said she didn't think she could afford to go to "Poohville" (as she called it) with me. That was fine, and i'm used to (and tend to prefer) doing things on my own. I ignored the fact that i continued to see her buying food and alcohol and smokes, because we all have stuff we splurge on or just don't consider a splurge. I happened to take the same bus as her and some other Trinitarians back from London the day i went to Ashdown Forest. So they went to a market and a restaurant and stuff, okay fine. Then today they're going to Scotland for the weekend. Maybe it's something she really wants to do and Karen's spotting her money. Maybe her parents sent her money. Maybe she has more money than she thought. I really don't know, and i don't care that much, it just annoys me, largely because i think she's pretty cool and would like to get to know her better but i don't see her that much and yeah.

Then there are other people who are funny and intelligent and helpful and just all around wonderful, so who's complaining, really?

Homelessness isn't a cool cause anymore, is it? Walking tonight i was hit up for change (of course) and i got to thinking (probably because the craziness that is the California gubernatorial race was in my brain), "How could you live in an urban area and pass on the streets and then go and run for mayor and not have homelessness be an absolute top priority? No one likes getting hit up for money." Then i remembered how easy it is to forget about that once you're back in your home.

you can doubt anything if you think about it long enough cuz what happened always adjusts to fit what happened after that
-"reckoning"

i remember the first time i saw someone
lying on the cold street
i thought: i can't just walk past here
this can't just be true
but i learned by example
to just keep moving my feet
it's amazing the things that we all learn to do
-"subdivision"

---

I got ice cream because i wanted to, and it was good (chocolate cheesecake), and i bumped into Peter Groves who remembered me (including my name) which was lovely and impressive, and i now have a photo of the infamous kebab van, but the walk didn't wake me up, and i definitely have fear about tomorrow's hike, with the heat and the 7 or 8 mile-ness. It will be okay, though. And i'll come home and sleep and recover and go to the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday and finally start really working on my paper (which isn't due until Wednesday, so really now) on Sunday. *sighs* It will all be fine, i know. Because it always is. Because there isn't any other option.