a cat in a room full of dogs

[greygirlbeast]

The dreams were spectacularly vivid last night. I cannot now build anything like narratives from them, as they've already faded far too much. There's nothing remaining but bright shards behind my eyes. I feel somewhere south of centre, but at least the funk that began Friday night seems to have released me for the time being. No thanks to the weather, I might add. Today and yesterday, it's like summer in the equatorial ice forests of Nebari Prime out there — cold, wet, drizzle, fog for a sky.

I have decided to allow myself only two more days editing Daughter of Hounds before I send it away to NYC. I could keep picking at it until Friday. But it's making me ill, I think, and I need to be done and get it out of here. I couldn't stand to look at it yesterday. The day was spent wandering, instead. There are too many annoyances left to be dealt with. For example, I forgot that convenience stores in Rhode Island aren't permitted to sell beer or wine, so there this whole thing in Chapter Nine that has to be written out of the ms. Wandering was preferable. At some point, I read part of the type description of Adamantisaurus mezzalirai, a new titanosaurid sauropod from southeastern Brazil. And at some other point, I was looking at the big, gaudy book that's been published about the Broadway musical version of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and getting pissed at how wrong it is (wrong in the "cosmic horror" sense of the word), how the actress playing Elphaba looks nothing like Elphaba and they did Nessarose all backwards, and Spooky says the music is insipid and cloying (thankfully, I've not heard it). But it got me to thinking about a musical of Low Red Moon, because, you know, if some witless producer showed up with a ton of money, it's not like I'd say no. I'd take the damned money, and it would be dumb and gaudy and insipid, and Narcissa would sing happy songs about being neither a ghul nor human, and somehow the ending would be gloriously upbeat. Perhaps I should begin writing lyrics, because Wayne Cilento and Stephen Schwartz and Joe Mantello are likely to be knocking at the door any damn day now, and I don't want them to think me unenthusiastic.

Anyway, the platypus was grateful for some downtime yesterday.

We're trying to plan the week (I mean beside the writing part), and maybe we'll begin reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, or maybe we'll go on a Hal Hartley binge. Or maybe it'll be a Wim Winders binge, instead.

This is Day 5 of the letter S auction, the proceeds of which will be going to pay the latest astronomical gas bill. If you don't bid, you can't win, and only the winner will be able to sit around in his or her unmentionables fondling the crushed velvet "cozy" lined in red silk, contemplating the hand-embroidered letter S. That's something to consider. Sure, there will be other letters, but we're talking S here. Also, we have some other auctions going on, and today is an especially wonderful day to begin your subscription to Sirenia Digest. Just click here.

I continue to be pleased with Jane Raeburn's book, Celtic Wicca. Take this short quote, for example: There are no ancient Druid manuscripts. Anywhere. Ever. Anybody who claims he or she has access to one is, at best, projecting a religious belief as historical reality. Sometimes, it's necessary to state the obvious...

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this?

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

Narcissa would sing happy songs about being neither a ghul nor human

I'm not a ghul
And I'm not a human
But I like my sweetbreads
With a nice touch of cumin
Don't care how I get 'em
From Goth girl or junkie
But never from book critics
Cause theirs taste too funky

I had a nice house
Beachfront property
But I stabbed my poor grandpa
Torched the old pile
And went off to steal that bay-BEEEEEE!!!

Cause I'm a
Half-breed
(Ghuls ain't gonna love me cause I don't fit in)
Cause I'm a
Half-breed
(Humans never love me cause I eat 'em for din-din)
I'm a half-breed
And a reject
And a monster far and wide
But that cute little baby's gonna GET ME INSIDE!

Gonna live in that yellow house
On Benefit Street
For the Madame's steel table
Gonna catch all the meat
Gonna find my real family
And no longer live sham-ly
When I'm a GHUL, GHUL, GHUL!
(I'm on my way, baby!)

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Okay. I just laughed until I puked.

[nykolus.livejournal.com]

o.m.g. i think i just peed a little.

i had NO idea the doc had it in him.

to what tune should it be sung, doc?

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

to what tune should it be sung, doc?

Any one you can force it into.

[mb2u]

Best. Showtune. Evah!

[sovay]

. . . Wow.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Here I thought Doc had stopped writing horror. Truly, this is a most chilling glimpse of such the possibility of a musical.

I was using "On Top of Old Smokey" for a while, but it doesn't quite fit.

[mellawyrden.livejournal.com]

If you write a musical, I can have it produced as part of my masters Thesis! In fact, I've been wondering what you might think of my writing a (non-musical) stage adaptation of one of your stories.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

In fact, I've been wondering what you might think of my writing a (non-musical) stage adaptation of one of your stories.

Hmmmm. Let me think on that...

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Along this line of thought, let me state that "Spindleshanks (New Orelans 1956)" is prime material for a student/amateur film short. Should I have the gumption, it's also one that could probably get done in about two or three weeks, tops.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Along this line of thought, let me state that "Spindleshanks (New Orelans 1956)" is prime material for a student/amateur film short.

I agree. I think "Spindleshanks" would make a marvelous stage play. It requires no special effects. Even the "writing on the wall" could remain off-stage.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Actually, you could dress the set with it already there and just introduce the scene in dim lighting so as not to actually reveal it until necessary. You could do the same with basic photographic direction, particularly since the wall in question really isn't even a focus of the action until the particular moment it is necessary to shoot it.

I had the film short opinion of at least another of the stories in TCF,WL. Actually, now that I'm looking back at them, plenty of them are. To pick only a few: "Redress for Andromeda" (again, student/amateur or even experimental film; makeup effect probably the largest necessary expenditure), "The Road of Pins" (A graduate level film, perhaps, requiring a bit more production value and polish from the actors; also prime material for a integrated arts film/stage project), and "Onion" (which might lend itself well to some kind of short Twilight-Zone-ish format of a short teleplay if only for the SFX likely necessary). As much as I loved the story, "Apokatastasis", is just the kind of story that gets blown up into a needlessly overwrought and producer-meddled "horror" film that would probably make the skin crawl. No offense to the story or yourself (it is, in my opinion, one of the stories that really got me at heart), but I've got a bad feeling about what would happen if a producer got ahold of it.

[sovay]

Broadway musical version of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and getting pissed at how wrong it is (wrong in the "cosmic horror" sense of the word)

Have you heard (and do you like) any of Hannah Fury's songs based on the book? I have only heard "It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose," which I like, but I'm reliably informed there's an entire cycle of them.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Have you heard (and do you like) any of Hannah Fury's songs based on the book?

I haven't. Perhaps I shall.

[sovay]

I think the entire cycle is "Let It Show," "I Can't Let You In," "And Your Little Dog Too," "All Is Not Well," "It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose," "Never Come Down Again," and "Someone Speaks Softly," but keep in mind that I am not an informed opinion. She's also done a song based on Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures—"The Last Piece of Cake."

[extatika.livejournal.com]

There are no ancient Druid manuscripts. Anywhere. Ever. Anybody who claims he or she has access to one is, at best, projecting a religious belief as historical reality.


*swoon*
You wouldn't believe the number of absolutely factual historical honest-to-goddess Druids from unbroken traditions I've wanted to curb-stomp.
Or maybe you would.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Or maybe you would.

At this point, yes, I would.

[extatika.livejournal.com]

It could just be that I have a bad attitude.