And what did you read over Christmas?

The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux)
I read this and found it a right bore. In large part because i wasn’t into the various romances. I haven’t in fact seen any of the dramatic productions of the story, though i can see how one could read this story and feel compelled to create a dramatic romantic production of it.

Flowers in the Attic (V. C. Andrews)
I finally got around to reading this book. It’s not bad though hardly the best thing i’ve ever read. Having read the plot summaries of the full original series and looked at the family tree for the whole thing, it seems very soap-opera-ish, and i’m disinclined to read further in the series.

Father of Frankenstein (Christopher Bram)
I read this so i would be allowed to watch the movie Gods and Monsters. Reading the book i found myself constantly reminded of Ed Wood. Now that i’ve read the book, of course, i have no desire to see the movie. I also think some of the casting choices a bit off, but whatever. Anyway, the book is not bad.


I also watched Jeffrey, which i quite enjoyed. I’d been meaning to see it for a while because of gay Patrick Stewart, and i am so not surprised that Emma so loves the movie. I want a Jarod Steve. (Oh, that’s who Ann Miller is.) The ending didn’t quite work. It came close, and given how the movie had been i thought, once that final scene began, that the ending would in fact work, but it didn’t, which was disappointing, because it could have.


Break also included Being John Malkovich, E. M. Forster’s Maurice, rereading the Narnia chronicles, finishing watching TNG on DVD, and finally watching a video of the NHS Les Mis. Yeah vacation :)

“to: Elizabeth, a few months early”

Because i had been making noises about wishing i had it early so as to inflict it upon people, on New Years Day, my parents gave me my graduation present.

Now all i have to do is pass my seminar (I have enough credits to graduate now except i haven’t completed a major yet.) or my parents will take it back :)

I kept stroking the still-pastic-wrapped boxed set and saying “Heart.” My mother said i was beaming.

( *giggles at randomly generated new year resolution* )

I rang in the new year watching the TNG series finale with my mom.

"Free Hugs Available Inside"

::does the dance of being back at Smith::

We arrived shortly before noon and so went out to lunch. I took them to Haymarket, which i knew served food, even though i have only ever had beverages or pastries there. Mmm, my kind of place. No meat involved in any of the dishes. Note to self.

So now i'm unpacked and on the computer, getting used to Firefox and my keyboard again after two weeks home on the family computer, and looking forward to catching up on all the fic.

Grand.

So, apparently i can receive calls but the party on the other end can't hear me. Look at me having love for the new phone system.

In more pleasant news, i'm finally getting around to reading the zines i procured late last summer. In glory-of-the-snow, sitonmykarma talks about a poetry class she took and David Lehman's The Daily Mirror and writing a poem a day whether you want to or not, and i thought about how buffyverse1000 is eating my brain and how even leaving aside all the other arguments around fanfic, it can be really good practice -- writing consistent characterization, plotting, dialogue, just the act of getting stuff written down -- and i thought about something she said about talking about experiences in poetry rather than prose and i thought about how much writing is taking experiences we've had and playing with them and how that isn't all that different from what fanfic is and was reminded of one of the buttons we saw at Pandemonium and yeah.

Q: Quel est le fruit que les poissons détestent le plus?
R: La pêche!