Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:18 PM

“Are you experiencing lightheadedness, sore cheeks, or the inability to focus? You may be feeling the effects of DemoGlad.”

Mark Fiore has the details:

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:59 PM

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:56 PM

offers his own contribution to the Happy Ending Shakespeare list:

Richard III:

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:10 PM

1) Duane finds a LiveJournal post (plus a sequel) with multiple plays by The Happy Ending Shakespeare Company.

Cute gimmick, so I think I'll give it a try:

Love's Labours Lost
by William Shakespeare:

King of Navarre: Let's swear off women!
Berowne: But the Princess of France is coming to visit, and she's brought enough hotties for us all!
Navarre: Oh, yeah, that's right. Well, screw that idea!

[Hey, these are fun! Another attempt:]

Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare:

Hortensio: If you marry Katherina, I can get it on with her younger sister.
Petruchio: That shrew? No way. Forget it.

2) Meanwhile, Jim Henley offers what he humbly calls the Best Conspiracy Theory Ever:

Edward de Vere killed JFK.

Seems reasonable to me.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:08 PM

Yesterday he wrote two excellent posts on politics, first addressing the conservative Republicans being courted by Mitt Romney, and then adding a few words of sympathy for Kerry Healey.

Read 'em!

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:00 PM

NPR this morning discussed the possible purchase of Delta by USAir, expressing concern over what this would mean for Terminal A at Logan Airport -- recently- (and expensively-) renovated exclusively for Delta.

When I first came to Boston, Terminal A was exclusively Eastern Airlines.

Could it be jinxed? Like the Blade Runner "curse" in which most of the companies whose logos were used suffered hard times. [Isn't there something similar about 2001, too?]

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:45 PM

I've been thinking of the plays I've seen this year...

Tickets for Titus Andronicus @ Wellesley cost $10 apiece.

Hamlet (the bad quarto) @ UNH cost $15.50

The Tempest @ MIT cost $8

And had we gone to Twelfth Night in Providence, tickets would've been $5.

Those are college performances.

Of the local professional companies,

Actors' Shakespeare Project Hamlet tickets cost $35 on weeknights and $40 on weekends.

The most expensive seats at Shakespeare & Company cost $54, they do offer tickets as low as $18.

So why am I thinking along these lines?

In February, F. Murray Abraham will be playing Barabas and Shylock in a double-bill of Marlowe's Jew of Malta and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. [@ TFANA in NYC]

I'll confess, given the antisemitism, I never thought I'd see Jew of Malta performed in my lifetime, so I am dying to go.

But near as I can tell, tickets will cost $65 apiece. [Not including service charges, travel to NYC, a meal, and other incidentals.] Ouch!

It may actually be cheaper to buy a $120 season subscription and skip out on the third play.

As much as I want to see these shows, I'm wincing at the cost.

Sure, they've got a big name, but is it really twice as good as ASP? Or worth five college productions?

So, there's another reason Boston's superior to NYC -- affordable theater!

PS for New Yorkers and Marlowe fans: On Wednesday, December 6th at 8 PM, F. Murray Abraham will perform dramatic readings from both plays at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center. Tickets will cost $18, only $10 for people under 35. Click here for details and ticket sales.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:27 PM

Lucky for me, the urge to excess overtook me in the library after work.

I rather overdid it.

Walked in, intending to grab a couple things, and came out with a baker's dozen of books.

• A Perilous power by E. Rose Sabin
• When the beast ravens by E. Rose Sabin
• Bella at midnight: the thimble, the ring, and the slippers of glass by Diane Stanley
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
• The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (the library didn't have the third book in the series)
• Inside: life behind bars in America by Michael Santos
• Making comics: storytelling secrets of comics, manga, and graphic novels by Scott McCloud
• Pox: genius, madness, and the mysteries of syphilis by Deborah Hayden
• The Rituals of dinner: the origins, evolution, eccentricities, and meaning of table manners by Margaret Visser
• The United States of Arugula: how we became a gourmet nation by David Kamp
• The Shakespeare wars: clashing scholars, public fiascoes, palace coups by Ron Rosenbaum
• plus two work-related books.

I saw several other books I wanted to pick up, but given the number of oversized hardcovers in the stack, I already had more than I could carry.

Now I just have to decide which to read first...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:55 PM

We got our flu shots this evening.

Have you gotten yours yet?

Find out where @ FindAFluShot.com.

via

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:20 AM

I am always so entertained by the fact that I can give Boopsie a catnip high by blowing in her face after brushing my teeth with minty toothpaste.

Anybody care to share other stupid cat tricks?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:50 PM

PrettyVeela is poking at fandom controversies in the Harry Potter books. Not interpersonal conflicts, but debates over textual interpretations. In other words, she's asking who's more at fault for certain hot-button scenes.

The first one on her list is the issue of Percy Weasley's estrangement from his family.

Several months ago, I wrote a short essay, conducting a close-reading on that scene.

So, if anybody's interested, please read:

And after you're done with that, if you've got a LiveJournal, take PrettyVeela's poll. Right now, it's nearly 2-to-1 with more people describing the fight as Percy's fault than Arthur's.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:08 PM

I just finished reading Poison study by Maria V. Snyder

An unrepentant murderess, Yelena has been sentenced to death for her crimes. But then she's offered a choice: the quick execution she's been expecting... or a lifetime appointment as the Commander's food taster. To keep her from escaping, they have her poisoned, dependent on receiving a daily dose of antidote.

It's a clever concept, and makes for a good story. Interesting world and government, that I'd love to learn more about.

And, damn, but the problem with being a fast reader is now I've got to figure out what to read next...

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:59 PM

This morning, NPR aired a story about protecting one's online reputation, when hiring managers (or other influential persons) go a-Googling.

[I]n the age of Google and social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, people's most embarrassing details are increasingly out there for the world to see. In some cases, it's affecting their ability to land a job.

It's something I've blogged before... Heck, six months ago I appeared on the front page of the Globe as a cautionary tale!

NPR reports a new twist:

[S]everal startups are offering to help people manage their online identities and scrub embarrassing information.

I'm particularly intrigued by the first company they describe:

Michael Fertik recently launched a company called ReputationDefender.com. For a small fee, he digs through clients' Internet profiles and then shows them how they appear online. If clients see something they don't like, ReputationDefender will contact whoever controls the Web page and urge them to delete the material.

[Aside: Wired News wrote about them last week.]

Now, I've been online for nearly two decades, first on Usenet and then the web. I have a fairly good idea what skeletons are hiding in Google's bright closets.

But I wonder how accessible they are to those who don't know me so well...

[When I've daydreamed about a political career, I thought one of my first steps would be to hire an investigator to scour the web and see what kind of dirt opponents might be able to find about me.
I'd possibly hire two teams -- one starting from a blank slate and public records, the other seeded with information. That way, I could be certain both what's out there and how likely it is to come back to bite me. And I could use that prepare advance responses should any of it appear against me in the campaign...]

I have no plans to run for office, but I'm still curious what a dedicated searcher could find from my name alone.

Yes, I'm tempted to pay for this service. [Seems cheaper than a private detective.]

Unfortunately, it appears they only offer subscriptions. I just want a one-time report on what they can find about me...

And, hey, if I know of info out there that they don't turn up, I wonder if they'd either (a) pay me a consultant fee for some better search strategies, or (b) hire me as a searcher...

After all, this is why I've got a Master's degree...

I feel this overwhelming need to quote Katherine Hepburn from Desk Set:

“Oh, I did a little research on you.
“You were born in Columbus, Ohio on May the 22nd. That makes you a Gemini. You're a graduate of MIT with a PhD in science. You're a Phi Beta Kappa, although you don't wear your key, which means either that you're modest or you lost it. You spent World War Two in Greenland, working on something so top secret that even I couldn't find out about it. You're one of the leading exponents of the electronic brain in this country and the inventor and patent holder of an electronic brain machine called EMERAC -- the Electromagnetic Memory and Research Arithmetical Calculator.
“That's all I found out so far, but I only had half an hour.”

ReputationDefender lists nine names on their management team.

If they're smart, they probably scrubbed their own web-presences, unless they either don't care or don't wish to tamper with the archives.

I wonder how much I could find out about them...

Which, come to think of it, would be an effective means of pre-employment screening.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:59 PM

Tamora Pierce has been writing fantasy novels in the Tortall Universe since 1983 -- Terrier is her fifteenth (plus another nine books in the Circle universe).

I sometimes find myself reluctant to recommend the series to others, because the first few books are rather shaky. But she gets better as she goes on -- a good direction for a writer's career. :)

However, I've been noticing something about her books that I wish to point out. The further into the series, the smaller the problems.

The earliest books pit the protagonists against threats to the kingdom and even the world. The characters are knights and mages and royalty.

Terrier is set amid the slums. Its protagonist is a rookie cop, and she's facing down kidnappers and murderers and riots. And it's a much better book.

I noticed a similar trend in her Circle books. The Circle of Magic quartet pit the powerful young mages against earthquakes, pirates, forest fires and plague. In the second quartet, The Circle Opens, they face drug addicts, gang warfare, an arsonist, and a serial killer. Smaller-scale threats, but ones not so easily surmounted by magic alone, and thus more riveting.

Furthermore, the protagonists are becoming less mythic and more real.

Just contrast Alanna of Trebond, the hero of the first Tortall book, with Beka Cooper, narrator in the latest:

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:36 PM

Just a quick nonspoilery note that Terrier, Tamora Pierce's latest YA fantasy in her Tortall universe, includes among its supporting characters a triad in an open relationship. And while some characters aren't interested in "sharing" or being somebody's "second", nobody seems to consider the relationship disturbing or wrong.

It reminds me of one of the things I've noticed about women's and queer roles in fiction, and how they've changed over time. In early works, there would be a real... strident and obvious tone about them. We're here, we're just as good as the guys, get used to it!

But eventually, audience support can be assumed. Of course, the girl can become a knight. If she has to prove her worth, it's only to other characters -- not to the reader. Even better when they become background characters -- someone waves farewell to the captain and her wife, who are mentioned in that one line and never again. The trait is so commonplace it can be part of the local color, rather than a topic for discussion.

So, hurrah for the trio in Terrier. May this be a sign of acceptance-to-come.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:49 PM

Now that UNH's Hamlet has closed, I wish to share one gag that cracked me up:

When greeting the players (II.2 in standard texts), Hamlet addresses one like so:

My yong lady and mistris, burlady^* but your
Ladiship is growne by the altitude of a chopine^† higher than you were:
Pray God sir your voyce, like a peece of vncurrant
Golde, be not crack't in the ring

* By your Lady
† a platform shoe

At UNH, this was addressed to a tall, skinny, bearded man in a dress, who replied with a falsetto Thisbe:

“I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.”

Well, we laughed...

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:34 PM

[Crossposted to bard_in_boston]

The bio for Trevi Ramirez, director of Titus Andronicus, concludes:

She would also like to inform her parents that she has decided not to go to medical school, but to transfer schools next semester and change her major to technical theater (sorry).

I'm not sure whether this is a genuine change of heart or an in-joke I'm missing, but after seeing what she's done with Shakespeare's bloodiest play, I have every confidence in either career choice.

As Michael Anderson says in Free-Style Shakespeare, " you know that you've seen authentic Shakespeare when they have to hose the blood off the stage."

If you do attend a show by the Shakespeare Society, they offer complimentary tea and cookies downstairs during intermission. And be sure to look around the Shakespeare House while you have the time. It's a lovely Tudor-style building, and I wish I had more time to spend among their books. Oh, and check out these cool Titus t-shirts!

Titus Andronicus by the Wellesley Shakespeare Society

Thursday @ 7 pm, Friday @ 8 pm, Saturday @ 8 pm, Sunday @ 7 pm
$10 for non-students; runs about two hours with a 15 minute intermission

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:54 AM

If this is serious, I think Bush just forfeited any right to continue calling modern Republicans the "party of Lincoln"

Yesterday's Carpetbagger report:

I believe it's important that Americans appreciate the democratic process, but this seems to have "soft bigotry of low expectations" written all over it. From yesterday's presidential radio address:

One freedom that defines our way of life is the freedom to choose our leaders at the ballot box. We saw that freedom earlier this week, when millions of Americans went to the polls to cast their votes for a new Congress. Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war." (emphasis added)

We should be "proud" that the federal government didn't cancel our elections? That the Bush administration didn't use the war as an excuse to interrupt the democratic process?

Contrast that with what Garrison Keillor described earlier this week on Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day [November 8] in 1864 that Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president of the United States, an election that helped ensure the preservation of the Union. It was one of the only times in history that an election was held by a nation in the middle of a civil war. Lincoln might have tried to cancel or postpone the election until the war was over, but he never considered doing so.

He had a lot of reasons to worry the election might not go his way. The summer before the election, most Americans were weary of war, and calls to end the conflict were becoming louder and louder. But on September 4th, General Tecumseh Sherman announced that his army had captured Atlanta. At the same time, Rear Admiral David G. Farragut announced that he had captured Mobile, Alabama, the last major Gulf port in Confederate hands. In the end, Lincoln carried every state in the Union except New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky.

If Bush was serious, is this something to be wary of for 2008?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:59 PM

Something worthwhile from AOL.

Via Bear, AOL is making Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes available online.

From the AOL homepage, follow the link in their In2TV section, or just go here for the listings.

It's Windows only, and more specifically wants IE and Windows Media Player, but they're available streaming or downloadable.

It's been a long time since I've seen the show, and I've been wanting to hook Ian for a while.

I think we're starting with "The Project Strigas Affair", in part because of the guest stars. Further recommendations for watching most welcome.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:45 PM

Keith Olbermann and the editors from Countdown compiled some of the best post-election quips from the late night shows:

Doesn't the laughter feel good?

Via Mark Evanier

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:40 PM

At the bookstore this evening, I finally picked up a copy of Tamora Pierce's latest, Terrier. As I put my purchases* on the counter, the clerk gushed. She just finished Terrier last night, and it's wonderful!

I asked if she went to Boskone. She hadn't heard of it, so I told her quickly while she rung me up. Its an SF con in February and Tamora Pierce is a regular. While she finished, I pulled out a scrap of paper and wrote:

Couldn't talk long, as a line was forming, but I hoped to see her there.

And thus, I did my service for fandom today. :) I just wish I could remember the title of the other book she recommended...

^* I also bought: The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After by Wrede and Stevermer and Up, up and oy vey! .
And earlier today, I finished a library copy of E. Rose Sabin's A School for sorcery, and I'll probably go looking for other books in the series...

Posted by Lis Riba at 2:08 PM

This article in today's Boston Globe about NYC restaurant S'MAC has me seriously craving macaroni and cheese...

Any suggestions for who makes the best in the Boston area? [Besides homemade, that is...]

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:45 PM

After seeing Titus, Ian and I started compiling a thematic list, which we need help with (the presence of some titles on this list may constitute spoilers):

• A Boy and his dog
• Fried green tomatoes
• "Friends" by The Police
• Rocky horror picture show
• Silence of the lambs
• Stranger in a strange land
• Soylent green
• Sweeney Todd
• Titus Andronicus

After I started writing this, I found a Wikipedia page with more entries. I don't think zombies, vampires, reavers or other supernatural creatures should count, since I think people who eat people (the pluckiest people) should refer to humans only, though I may be willing to concede alien races which devour their own.

Further contributions?

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:31 AM

In a Hallmark shop yesterday, I saw a book of photos billing itself Utterly adorable cats.

Flipping thru, I realized I can see far more attractive cat photos any day of the week on Cute Overload -- and those are free.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:08 AM

Yesterday, we went to see Titus Andronicus as performed by the Wellesley College Shakespeare Society.

Ian already posted his review, so I'm not sure whether I'll write up one of my own.

After arriving on campus, Ian observed that he'd never actually been to the student center or academic buildings -- his only knowledge of the campus was the dorms. Was this bad? he asked.

I replied that for a straight man and a women's college, most would consider that perfectly normal, or even admirable.

So, we stopped into the student center to withdraw cash for tickets.

Ian winced when he saw the sign:

He started rooting through his bag for a red pen with which to correct the redundancy.

I hissed back, "Don't you dare impose your masculinist notions of grammar here!"

As we walked about campus trying to find Shakespeare House based upon the small map printed from their website, we bickered over directions. He quoted scientific studies about men's better spacial sense, while I replied that since this campus was designed by women for women, I should have the advantage...

Of course, given such a bloody play and the nearly-all-female surroundings, my period started sometime during the second-half.

We decided to skip the evening show in Providence. [Besides, isn't there something wrong about seeing Twelfth Night on the eleventh?] Instead, we treated ourselves to ice cream at White Mountain Creamery: Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum ice cream is delicious -- particularly when paired with hot butterscotch! Ian enjoyed two scoops: apple crisp paired with pumpkin pie.

And now, I'm home, recuperating in bed as my body sloughs off the lining of my uterus.

I've noticed I'm easily exhausted the first day of my period. I suspect my body is redirecting its energies to fighting off the cramps (with the help of strong painkillers) and its internal pursuits, so leaves me little reserves for other activities.