Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 PM

Sigh

Sometimes I'm so predictable.

So, I stopped at the libraries last night both to return some imminently-due books and to check out some new ones for reading on next weekend's trip. Walked away with:

• Ender's game
• Time's fool (yet another Shakespeare mystery novel)
• Inside the Victorian home
• 1603
• Elizabeth's London (yet another attempt at the book, though I'm starting to give up hope on ever getting through it)

and the only available copy of Tamburlaine Must Die within three library networks is currently in transit. [Plus we own Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I haven't managed to get into yet.]

Of course, they're all hardcovers, which I'm slightly grumbling about. Why can't my preferred light reading actually be light -- or at least small and compact? But I digress...

Then I read the news this morning about the Rose Theatre, and I've got a whole new obsession. [Or, rather, a new lease on life for an existing one.]

For example, I've already found two photos of the ring (Museum of London and Rose Theatre Trust) which is supposed to be the focus of the story contest, though I still can't quite make out the inscription. [If anybody else figures or finds out, please let me know!]

And can I just say how wonderful it is working for a library vendor? I've come up with a whole new list of books that I want to read. Tops of my list are:

• Playgoing in Shakespeare's London, Third Edition by Andrew Gurr
• Shakespeare's Shakespeare : how the plays were made by John C. Meagher
• Squeaking Cleopatras : the Elizabethan boy player by Joy Leslie Gibson
• Looking for sex in Shakespeare by Stanley Wells

I'm trying to decide whether I can get some of these thru the library networks before my flight next Friday...

Other recent books on the subject that caught my eye include:

• Drama and the market in the age of Shakespeare by Douglas Bruster
• Elizabethan popular theatre : plays in performance by Michael Hattaway
• Exit, Pursued By A Bear : Shakespeare's Characters, Plays, Poems, History, and Stagecraft by Louise McConnell
• Global economics : a history of the theater business, the Chamberlain's/King's Men, and their plays, 1599-1642 by Melissa Aaron
• Murder In Shakespeare's England by Vanessa McMahon

For more information on the Rose Theatre itself, I've turned up:

• The Rose Theatre by Christine Eccles (1991)
• The Rose Theatre : An Archeological Discovery by Julian Bowsher (1998)
• The Archaeology of Shakespeare : The Material Legacy of Shakespeare's Theatre by Jean Wilson (1998)

And, just for my own edification, my searches also uncovered Walking Shakespeare's London : 20 Original Walks In And Around London by Nicholas Robins, a title I hope will soon become both relevant and useful.

Please keep in mind, I haven't actually read any of these books (yet). This is partly for my own edification, to have these titles handy on my next library visit (or whenever I'm bored). If you have read any of these, or have other books to suggest, please share!

Also, if people do want a short bibliography of Elizabethan/Jacobean nonfiction that I've read and can recommend, ask and I'll try to compile one. I mean what I said about helping contest entrants with research. I may not have academic training, but I'm definitely interested and aware...

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 PM

Take the quiz: "What does your birth month reveal about you?"

June
Thinks far with vision. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite andsoft-spoken. Having lots of ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating, tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Abiding. Able to show character. Easilyhurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Brand conscious. Executive. Stubborn.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:45 PM

So I've mentioned before that our company uses a Wiki system for its intranet site.

Well, apparently the external hosting/development site for that flavor of wiki uses IP addresses to authenticate.

I have now been informed by two managers that when they open up that website, they are greeted on every screen with a friendly

Hello Lis Riba!

I finally replied that if I'm going to be both SeniorVP/CIO and manager of web development, I probably deserve a raise. :)

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:40 PM

Sorry for the virtual tumbleweeds rolling across the screen. For his birthday, I got Ian Joss Whedon's Firefly on DVD, and now that I finished my story, I've been watching episodes in the evenings. Great show! I love it! A few links and tidbits I've picked up to enrich my viewing experience (and yours):

• The Firefly Chinese Pinyinary provides translations for all the spoken and written Chinese used in the series. Most of them were fairly obvious in context, though some of the expletives Joss Whedon came up with are quite entertaining (and what a clever way to get around the censors!)
• Through FireflyFans.Net, I found "Dead or Alive": the writers draft of an unfilmed script.
• Lots of other cool and scary stuff online, including informational wikis, scripts both shooting and transcribed (I won't post links to avoid getting sites in trouble, but they're easy to find), filks (I think this Brady Bunch crossover is the most terrifying so far!) and fanfic. How 'bout "Big Damn Zombies, Sir"? [Don't be squeamish: it's not a work of slash.]
• Rumors are that the first trailer for the Serenity movie will be bundled with the Hitchhiker's Guide movie in May. [BTW, the advance trailers for HHGTG are looking real good...]
• Joss has announced a three-issue comicbook miniseries to bridge a few of the plotpoints between the TV series and film.
• On the whole, I think Simon Tam is my favorite character, partly because I'm incredibly fascinated by his story arc and how he's developing, but also because I just plain like his looks.
• Jewel Staite (Kaylee and also Catalina from Space Cases (another old favorite of mine)) has a website and blog. After seeing some photos of her all decked out in goth, it suddenly hit me: Jewel Staite for Neil Gaiman's Death! She's certainly got the right bodytype and can do perky. Unfortunately, she probably doesn't have name recognition to carry the lead in a film, which is a shame, but I think she'd be great at it.

In other news, I saw this article about plans to rebuild the Rose Theatre in London. Unlike the reproduction planned for Lenox, MA, it sounds like this will be for educational and historic purposes, rather than creating a working theater.

Still, this paragraph caught my eye for any writers out there:

In the coming months Sir Ian [McKellan] will raise awareness of the project through a story-writing competition in which people will be asked to construct a tale about one of the items found during the 1989 dig, an inscribed gold ring that dates back 400 years. The winning entries will be read on radio by the actor.

I don't think the rules have been announced yet, but may be time to start cultivating those Kit Marlowe plotbunnies...

I don't have a story myself (nor the confidence yet to compete), but am willing to help others with research. I've read a lot of Elizabethan theatrical fiction (just discovered a third such mystery series), along with nonfiction works exploring the period worldview with a focus on attitudes towards sex (& homosexuality) and beliefs about faeries. Plus royal histories and court gossip of the time, general theater histories, technical information on the publishing business. I've even got a detailed map of St. Paul's (the bookselling district), identifying the locations of the major retailers. Plus of course, all that juicy biographical data on Marlowe, and I've kept up with the latest theories.

And, I suppose, this is also an opportunity to dust off another Seldom Seen Cite:

What else is going on in my life...

I'm still coming off the afterglow of finishing a story. I've been watching hits on SiteMeter (another reason I've been staying away from the computer to watch Firefly: watching page hits can become quite compulsive!), but am somewhat dismayed by how few comments it's garnered. I guess I need to figure out how to pimp the fic, or where to archive it to attract more readers.

However, I suspect posting will continue to be light for a while. The following week is shaping up to be a busy one. We're going to see Dido, Queen of Carthage on Saturday night, preceded by dinner. [I'm dressing too formally for my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt, but wish I had a more formal brooch to convey that message. Maybe I'll see about making one out of crystals...] With luck, I'll have my review up Sunday morning, thus beating the local press. Ian's sister is in town, so we're getting together all Sunday afternoon with that.

Monday is my godson and nephew's first birthday, so we're flying down to Florida next weekend for the big family celebration. I feel like a bad godparent/aunt, that I haven't managed to see him since the bris. [Two previously planned trips to Florida were cancelled due to impending hurricanes.] We're only coming down for the weekend this time, but I'm hoping to spend some more time with family over Pesach. It hit me recently that I haven't spent Passover with my family since I left Lotus (before I started this blog). And well, I miss it. Seders with Ian's family are nice, but, well, they're not really my seder, if you get my meaning.

I was thinking things would ease up after that, but I've got honest-to-goodness press tickets to a Shakespeare play the weekend after that! [More details forthcoming.]

Anyways, I've still got a zillion little links I've been meaning to post. We'll see what I can squeeze in in the time remaining.

I know I've drifted away from newsblogging. To fill that gap, may I strongly recommend Koufax award-winner Suburban Guerrilla as an excellent source for staying up on the latest news. When I only have time to read one political blog, it's hers (I choose it over Atrios, Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, Kos...).

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:32 AM

Apparently, today is Yahoo's tenth birthday. So, in honor of the occasion, Baskin Robbins is giving away free ice cream to Yahoo members!

Log in through this URL and you can print out the coupon. Membership to Yahoo Groups is sufficient. No clue if you can just sign up with an account today and qualify, but I don't see any reason why not. The page includes a store locator as well.

And, just to honor the sponsor of this little giveaway, here's Yahoo's birthday netrospective.

Courtesy of The Shifted Librarian

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:54 AM

Trying to get back into the swing of things, my latest Free Will Astrology horoscope says:

"The average river requires a million years to move a grain of sand one hundred miles," says science writer James Trefil. The work you've been doing on yourself these past two years, Cancerian, must sometimes have seemed as maddeningly gradual. The good news is that you are now in the last few months of this slow-motion, long-term project. If you can sustain your focus, you'll finish up around your birthday, having created such a strong inner sense of sanctuary that you will forever after be able to feel at home in the world no matter where you are.

Of course, given my current state of mind, this makes me think of writing fanfic.

I started outlining the first idea I thought worth writing just over two years ago. And since Rowling announced the release date of Book Six for July (shortly after my birthday), I've been considering that as a personal deadline for finishing off as many fics as I can, before new canon renders invalidates any of my projections.

Posted by Lis Riba at 5:51 PM

Last night, I finished my first work of fiction in nearly thirteen years.

Go me.

I'll spare you the whole long story about how I burned out on my undergraduate thesis and stopped writing fiction altogether. I'll skip the parts of the tale about how reading fanfiction bolstered my courage enough to try again. I'll even avoid mentioning the half-dozen unfinished attempts still languishing on my computers and in notebooks. Suffice it to say, I haven't completed writing a fictional story in a long, long time.

One month ago, I mentioned Pornish Pixies was holding a Shakespeare challenge. The assignment (for those who dared to pick up the torch): write (1) slash fanfiction (2) in the Harry Potter universe, (3) inspired by Shakespeare (4) rated R or NC-17 (5) by February 28th.

I made it with two hours to spare. A perfect five out of five!
What can I say, I was inspired.

You'll notice that I haven't yet posted a link to the story.

This is a work of slash. The OED defines slash as:

A subgenre of fiction [...] in which characters who appear together in popular films or other media are portrayed as having a sexual (esp. homosexual) relationship.

What I'm trying to say is: Don't read the story solely out of loyalty/friendship to me.

If you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the concept of slash fiction in the Harry Potter universe, I suggest you just skip it. You won't hurt my feelings. My primary audience for this work was other Harry Potter slash fans, so if you're new to the genre, this may not make the best introduction.

Furthermore, I know several family members read this journal. I'd really prefer it if you not read this story. Or, for that matter, any subsequent adult fanfic I should write.
Bubbe, Zayde: I've got some lovely Bible stories on my Writings page that may be more suitable.
If you guys really can't hold back and curiousity compels you to read it, don't let me know -- okay?

And if all that hasn't scared you off, may I present Touchstone:

Rating: R
Genre: PWP
Pairing: Draco/OMC
Length: just under 2000 words
Summary: Based very loosely upon As You Like It.

It's not the greatest fic I could've written: the last half was rather rushed, and I cut about a thousand words of characterization from the middle as I realized that those scenes were getting in the way of the story's point. [Murder your darlings, alas...]

But I completed it, which is more than I can say for anything else I've written in the last dozen years.

At any rate, that's why things have been so quiet around here recently. Links (and life) that I want to share have been piling up around me. But I have only so much time for writing, and I wanted to see if I couldn't complete this fic by the challenge deadline.

Which I did.

Rah.