timeripple (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeripple) wrote2006-09-21 12:41 am
timeripple) wrote2006-09-21 12:41 am
Here's fourteen shillings on the drum/for those who'll volunteer to come/to list and fight the foe
... today/ Over the hills and far away
I have been in LA for a week, and on my own for four days. The weather is less horrid than I had been led to believe. Westwood is kind of like the ville, only bigger, cheaper, and with more food. From my wanderings I have concluded that the various parts of LA are mostly ridiculously glitzy, and the parts between the ridiculously glitzy ones are fairly crummy.
Monday, September 18
Ye Olde Movie Reviewe (as always, Here Be Spoilers): “HAMLET”. (Or possibly “hamlet”.) The best part was when Ethan Hawke was walking around the Blockbuster between two aisles labeled “Action”, filled with a million videos. That was great. I wasn’t really sure what the Theme of video and still photography was supposed to do, but it was a Theme. Funny how in every version Ophelia gives the rue to a different person. Having Hamlet going to the king’s office, whipping out a gun, and looking to kill the king made no sense because immediately beforehand he was very obviously suicidal. I was disappointed not to see the airplane attacked by pirates. It was also unclear where people lived – does Ophelia have her own place? Does Hamlet? Do they all live in the Denmark Corp. building? Also, it’s pretty much obviously not an accident if Laertes pulls a pistol on him in the middle of a fencing match. He may be a grieving brother, but he’s not that stupid. More to the point, neither is Gertrude. If it’s going to be obvious, don’t have the king say it’ll look like an accident, hmm?
I dearly love the play, but Horatio ought to have said “Hamlet, dude, this plan sucks.” Or possibly “Methinks this plan doth hold more madness than ever the semblance of’t thou couldst devise within thy oppressed brain. I’faith, thy cure sits no further off than meat, fair company and good counsel. Shall we to supper, my lord?”
Perhaps that’s one of the things that makes tragedy: Hamlet had all sorts of chances of ignoring justice (or revenge), of ignoring evidence and instinct. He could have spent the play hanging out with his buddies and writing Ophelia bad poetry and getting over his father’s death and being happy and living his life, but he stuck to revenge (or justice), and baboom! high drama and tragedy ensue. This is probably why nobody writes great plays/epic poems/ballads/whatevers about sensible people. Take that, utilitarianism. We may often act in order to maximize utility, but that doesn’t mean we find it interesting. Drat. Now I want to re-read Mill to see what he has to say about justice. Too bad my copy’s probably in the hands of some hapless first-year in PHIL106.
I just realized I totally borrowed (badly) Sam’s speech to Frodo in The Two Towers (I’m pretty sure it’s in the book as well as the movie). Oh well. Don’t read me; read Tolkien.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day and some friendly prompting from Melanie, I have got off my lazy bum and begun actually writing up the events of the past week. Today I found the post office. I had to walk by a veteran memorial cemetery, which sounds more exciting than it is. Trust me, Allie, you wouldn’t have found this one the least bit interesting.
I also took the bus through Beverley Hills and into Hollywood. It was all right, I suppose. I would like to say that I was utterly unimpressed, but the truth is I was only mostly unimpressed. There were a few people around gawking at stars in the sidewalks and taking pictures and looking for specific people’s stars. It must be something like looking for one’s personalized shot glass, or rubber duck, or whatever, among 2006 (or 2003, if it’s a duckie) of them scattered all over the place. Ahem. I saw no pirates, sadly, but walked right between Zorro and the Phantom as they were accosting some people for some dastardly tourist reason probably involving the words “line”, “starts”, “here”, “tour”, and “bargain price”.
The Helpful Salesguy in BestBuy gave me a funny look and asked, “Did you just say ‘spiffy’?” Perhaps he was in shock, since I knew what model my printer was and precisely what kind of ink I wanted. Perhaps all the attractive, curvaceous young women with great hair and impeccable fashion sense around here send their geeky boyfriends in to buy their printer ink for them. Note to self: either become resigned to funny looks, or acquire geeky boyfriend.
Ye Olde Movie Reviewe: “Possession”. SQUEE! I LOVE this movie! Especially the part when Roland says “This is not a job for a grown-up” and Adoring Secretary-type is chewing on an adolescent fluffy green pen. Well, there are other parts I especially like. But that one’s just hilarious.
Ye Olde Television Reviewe: “MacGyver” (Season 2): SQUEE! Although I did criticize some stuff in the first episode before the squeeage (and the "hee! somebody's gone to Referencing Star Wars town!") took over. I mean, when you have a computer that’s hell-bent on creating a vacuum with which to kill intruders, it’s not sucking JUST the oxygen out. There’s, you know, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, and water vapor, and stuff. Although admittedly “Now removing the oxygen. A vacuum will be created in thirty minutes” sounds a lot more threatening than “Now removing the oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide and water vapor and stuff. A vacuum will be created in thirty minutes.” By the time the computer finished saying what it was going to take out, the unfortunate victims would probably have already died of asphyxiation anyway. Or boredom. If only I’d watched this, oh, fifteen years ago! I could have been a total science nerd! Oh, wait... well, I guess being a science groupie isn’t quite the same thing, is it.
Best line of the week: “How strong are your pants?” *snicker*
Wednesday, September 20
This morning I have not been very productive, unless you count fixing my toilet. I also looked up some bus routes, but since I do that every morning it doesn’t count.
Later That Day ...
A most curious thing happened as I was sitting in the university sculpture garden with Benner’s Iliad. I had only just begun translating, having been distracted (as usual) by the meter, and had gotten about as far as “ex hou de” when a young man in pinstriped trousers approached and ventured to ask if we had the pleasure of prior acquaintance. To which I replied (in kinder terms, perhaps; I am trying out a new voice here) that we certainly had not. I then held forth on a number of inane topics including the pleasantness of the weather, the size of the campus, the presence of a Jamba Juice in the student center, the feasibility of not owning a car, and the unreliability of Bus #761, while he stood there and most awkwardly refused either to contribute to the “conversation” beyond monosyllabic responses, or to go away and leave me to enjoy the menin oulomenen of Achilles in peace. He finally left when I dismissed him (there really is no other word for it) with a pleasant “Well! So nice to meet you.” I must conclude from the episode that to be the less embarrassed party is an agreeable novelty indeed. It was all very amusing.
In the past few days I have been asked by no fewer than three or four people where things are, including the Life Sciences building and “someplace you can get a smoothie”. Why does everyone always ask me?
I miss you all and think of you daily.
I have been in LA for a week, and on my own for four days. The weather is less horrid than I had been led to believe. Westwood is kind of like the ville, only bigger, cheaper, and with more food. From my wanderings I have concluded that the various parts of LA are mostly ridiculously glitzy, and the parts between the ridiculously glitzy ones are fairly crummy.
Monday, September 18
Ye Olde Movie Reviewe (as always, Here Be Spoilers): “HAMLET”. (Or possibly “hamlet”.) The best part was when Ethan Hawke was walking around the Blockbuster between two aisles labeled “Action”, filled with a million videos. That was great. I wasn’t really sure what the Theme of video and still photography was supposed to do, but it was a Theme. Funny how in every version Ophelia gives the rue to a different person. Having Hamlet going to the king’s office, whipping out a gun, and looking to kill the king made no sense because immediately beforehand he was very obviously suicidal. I was disappointed not to see the airplane attacked by pirates. It was also unclear where people lived – does Ophelia have her own place? Does Hamlet? Do they all live in the Denmark Corp. building? Also, it’s pretty much obviously not an accident if Laertes pulls a pistol on him in the middle of a fencing match. He may be a grieving brother, but he’s not that stupid. More to the point, neither is Gertrude. If it’s going to be obvious, don’t have the king say it’ll look like an accident, hmm?
I dearly love the play, but Horatio ought to have said “Hamlet, dude, this plan sucks.” Or possibly “Methinks this plan doth hold more madness than ever the semblance of’t thou couldst devise within thy oppressed brain. I’faith, thy cure sits no further off than meat, fair company and good counsel. Shall we to supper, my lord?”
Perhaps that’s one of the things that makes tragedy: Hamlet had all sorts of chances of ignoring justice (or revenge), of ignoring evidence and instinct. He could have spent the play hanging out with his buddies and writing Ophelia bad poetry and getting over his father’s death and being happy and living his life, but he stuck to revenge (or justice), and baboom! high drama and tragedy ensue. This is probably why nobody writes great plays/epic poems/ballads/whatevers about sensible people. Take that, utilitarianism. We may often act in order to maximize utility, but that doesn’t mean we find it interesting. Drat. Now I want to re-read Mill to see what he has to say about justice. Too bad my copy’s probably in the hands of some hapless first-year in PHIL106.
I just realized I totally borrowed (badly) Sam’s speech to Frodo in The Two Towers (I’m pretty sure it’s in the book as well as the movie). Oh well. Don’t read me; read Tolkien.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day and some friendly prompting from Melanie, I have got off my lazy bum and begun actually writing up the events of the past week. Today I found the post office. I had to walk by a veteran memorial cemetery, which sounds more exciting than it is. Trust me, Allie, you wouldn’t have found this one the least bit interesting.
I also took the bus through Beverley Hills and into Hollywood. It was all right, I suppose. I would like to say that I was utterly unimpressed, but the truth is I was only mostly unimpressed. There were a few people around gawking at stars in the sidewalks and taking pictures and looking for specific people’s stars. It must be something like looking for one’s personalized shot glass, or rubber duck, or whatever, among 2006 (or 2003, if it’s a duckie) of them scattered all over the place. Ahem. I saw no pirates, sadly, but walked right between Zorro and the Phantom as they were accosting some people for some dastardly tourist reason probably involving the words “line”, “starts”, “here”, “tour”, and “bargain price”.
The Helpful Salesguy in BestBuy gave me a funny look and asked, “Did you just say ‘spiffy’?” Perhaps he was in shock, since I knew what model my printer was and precisely what kind of ink I wanted. Perhaps all the attractive, curvaceous young women with great hair and impeccable fashion sense around here send their geeky boyfriends in to buy their printer ink for them. Note to self: either become resigned to funny looks, or acquire geeky boyfriend.
Ye Olde Movie Reviewe: “Possession”. SQUEE! I LOVE this movie! Especially the part when Roland says “This is not a job for a grown-up” and Adoring Secretary-type is chewing on an adolescent fluffy green pen. Well, there are other parts I especially like. But that one’s just hilarious.
Ye Olde Television Reviewe: “MacGyver” (Season 2): SQUEE! Although I did criticize some stuff in the first episode before the squeeage (and the "hee! somebody's gone to Referencing Star Wars town!") took over. I mean, when you have a computer that’s hell-bent on creating a vacuum with which to kill intruders, it’s not sucking JUST the oxygen out. There’s, you know, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, and water vapor, and stuff. Although admittedly “Now removing the oxygen. A vacuum will be created in thirty minutes” sounds a lot more threatening than “Now removing the oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide and water vapor and stuff. A vacuum will be created in thirty minutes.” By the time the computer finished saying what it was going to take out, the unfortunate victims would probably have already died of asphyxiation anyway. Or boredom. If only I’d watched this, oh, fifteen years ago! I could have been a total science nerd! Oh, wait... well, I guess being a science groupie isn’t quite the same thing, is it.
Best line of the week: “How strong are your pants?” *snicker*
Wednesday, September 20
This morning I have not been very productive, unless you count fixing my toilet. I also looked up some bus routes, but since I do that every morning it doesn’t count.
Later That Day ...
A most curious thing happened as I was sitting in the university sculpture garden with Benner’s Iliad. I had only just begun translating, having been distracted (as usual) by the meter, and had gotten about as far as “ex hou de” when a young man in pinstriped trousers approached and ventured to ask if we had the pleasure of prior acquaintance. To which I replied (in kinder terms, perhaps; I am trying out a new voice here) that we certainly had not. I then held forth on a number of inane topics including the pleasantness of the weather, the size of the campus, the presence of a Jamba Juice in the student center, the feasibility of not owning a car, and the unreliability of Bus #761, while he stood there and most awkwardly refused either to contribute to the “conversation” beyond monosyllabic responses, or to go away and leave me to enjoy the menin oulomenen of Achilles in peace. He finally left when I dismissed him (there really is no other word for it) with a pleasant “Well! So nice to meet you.” I must conclude from the episode that to be the less embarrassed party is an agreeable novelty indeed. It was all very amusing.
In the past few days I have been asked by no fewer than three or four people where things are, including the Life Sciences building and “someplace you can get a smoothie”. Why does everyone always ask me?
I miss you all and think of you daily.