You know you're listening to too much Psychedelic Furs when...

you write this:

I tried to kill a f*#&ing hour today.
It struggled in my arms

And when I thought I had a grip
I found I held nothing.

I cling to the idea...

...that I am a late bloomer.

Star Trek

The new Star Trek (which is now old) is fantastic and FAN-tastic as well. Friend T who missed the Trekkiedom in all its forms still enjoyed it, and those of us who worshiped Star Trek for 30+ years--well, it kept the essence and was a damn good ride as well.

And the core is Zachary Quinto as Spock. Spock is my favorite character--always has been. I heart Spock, and Quinto seems born to play young Spock (although he is only a few years younger than Nimoy was when he took the role originally). Quinto outside of Spock does not interest me in the least, by the way.

Star Trek succeeds because at its core are a group of great characters, and this movie gave each of them their own space--even if it is not "true" to the original origin stories. I am not so bothered by that. The friendship of Kirk and Spock, Spock's divided nature--all there.

Sometimes I wonder if my fondness for Spock comes from my own feelings of division, but a tiny look at ST fan fiction for all 43 years of its existence shows that many women are drawn to Spock. Is it the House problem? Women want to save the wounded. Kirk doesn't need us, but Spock does? I even do not mind the romance of Spock and Uhura, although it certainly breaks canon--both for the humor it provides, and for the added vulnerability it brings. That Uhura can love the emotionless Spock and he her. Majel Barrett got it when she created Nurse Chapel's long unrequited love for Spock. She was all of us--yearning and hoping.

Seeing the movie has drawn me back to a book I loved as a child--perhaps the first piece of quality fan fiction to come out of the show--Star Trek: The New Voyages. I read it over and over along with Nimoy's I am Not Spock. The stories are personal and sad, and explore emotions in a way that was not always possible in the show, particularly in 1966. By 1976, the year of the book, much more could be described and explored, including, interestingly, a torture story that leaves Kirk shattered.

The first story is about Spock literally divided into two beings, the Vulcan and the human and his realization that neither can exist without the other. Is that true of my division? That I am who I am because of it?

Another weekend, another quilt top

I'm having a vote for the title of this one--again from random collected fabrics.

Choices are:

a) Cats in the Crypt

b) At Play in the Boneyard

c) Kitties in the Graveyard

Novel being creative

I've been creative these last few weekends. There are a lot of reasons--some pharmaceutical, some not.

So I've been crafting. First I made a chatelaine.

Chatelaines were used in the middle ages as a sort of pocket (pockets are a very recent invention). The idea was re-embraced in the Victorian era (of course). Housekeepers would keep them on their belts with useful items. I'd been thinking about making one for a while because of my Steampunk fascination. Then when I found the little scissors pendant I knew I had to.
Mine has scissors, a needle case, a paperclip which is holding a suede envelope with safety pins and straight pins. There's a little metal envelope at the top with a little metal letter in it (I had it and I didn't know what to use it for. Mine can be clipped on or the safety pin can be pinned to the clothes. Mainly I'm keeping it on the end table to sew in front of the tv.
Here's a real one:
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/grko/exb/Family/Kohrs/grko2522_chatelaine.html


Then I made a bag for my new yoga mat. It has a pocket for a towel and for yoga socks. A water bottle can clip on, but it rattles a bit. I made it just the right size, but I should have made the circumference a little bigger so I could just slip the mat in and out more easily. Live and learn.

I made this out of the left overs from the black and white quilt.













Finally I made a quilt top--I don't have backing for it yet, but I do have binding. It's chaotic but I'm trying to learn to embrace the art of chaos. Of not over planning. I call it "A Riot of Dogs (and some cats)." Originally it was going to be dogs and cats, but this is what it wanted to be. There's a little orange cat on one of the prints, but the rest are all dogs.

Basically, I collected any dog and cat fabric that appealed to me for the last few years--fat quarters, regular remnants and quarters. I also collected paw prints and bones prints because I knew I'd have to break up the patterns somehow. The border I did buy a yard of. It has no animals, just dog accessories (sorry the shot is blurry--normally I'm a better photographer).

I had no pattern in mind. Originally I was going to frame individual dogs but the fabrics were too random. Then I was going to box them. In the last few months I'd been taking them out and playing with them to see if anything came to me. I started to notice that some paired up naturally and some could be made to pair up and that's when I decided on the triangles. I cut the triangles at random, I matched them loosely by color and then laid them out in the pinwheels. And it all worked out. Weird but true. Listen to the fabric and it will tell you what it wants to be.

Now I have to finish it--which I hate. And then decide what to do with all the cat pieces.

Personal Pizza (parody)

Your own personal pizza
Something to fill your needs
Something with cheese...

Feeling a jones
And you're all alone
Stomach moan
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
You know that they deliver

Your own personal pizza
Something to fill your needs
Something with cheese

Reach out and touch dough
Reach out and touch dough
--Novel "Weird Al" West(with apologies to Depeche Mode)

Plan-It Green

There's a game I played recently with the above name. It's a variation on Build-a-Lot where you are a real estate developer. On each level you have different goals-build/upgrade so many houses, reach a certain rental income (unrealistically collected each day), etc. This one, as the title implies, involves making things eco friendly. You add solar panels, water reclamation, etc. Then you track the carbon savings, energy efficiency, etc. Wouldn't that be nice, if developers swept in and improved neighborhoods? But does everyone want an eco garden? Or to bike to work? And of course, in the real world these improvements are competing with many other types of services. It's sad, because this kind of long term planning is ultimately cost efficient, but getting there faces so many obstacles, not the least of which is the human right not to work in our long term best interest.

More Watchmen

A friend commented on my quickie review that he didn't know why the rest of the team tolerates the Comedian. For that matter, why do they tolerate Rorshach? Psychopaths both. Is the answer that Laurie and Dan are actually more like them than unlike them-that they all need the masks to show their faces? Certainly Dr. Manhattan has lost touch with humanity as has Veidt. Who watches the Watchmen indeed. And their acceptance of Veidt's answer is eerie. Except, of course for Rorshach who has ignored trial by jury and other civil liberties for so long but cannot accept lying.

Watchmen

We finally went to see it last night. In the same theater-same room even-where we so V for Vendetta. We liked it very much. And as I mentioned, my husband loves the book. I agree with most of the critics. The soundtrack was bold and sometimes too obvious, it's long and slow, and Laurie seemed young-but not unrealistically so. The 80s were a character in a way they couldn't be in the book-the effect of distance, rather like in Ashes to Ashes (bbc show). Rorshach was frighteningly perfect. I thought them all well cast, even Adrian-he's something of a cipher in the book as well.