By Doug McClellan
Burn the clothes
you wore that day.
Save the ashes.
Bring them to the square
where we are fashioning
a monument of ashes.
Winds will rise,
soften the heroic shapes,
the paper faces
around the square will
become eyeless,
the sideshow
will depart to a muffle
of drums, leaving only
hollow sounds of wind--
and wind being wind,
the ashes will follow it,
leaving a swept field
of countless jagged stones.
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My day began with waiting for the plumber, since we have two leaking toilets and wanted to make sure it was nothing more complicated than valves needing replacement before we had another epic flood that would require cutting into the downstairs ceilings to air out. Apparently the toilets can be repaired with just new valves, but while the plumber was here, he inspected the rest of the house and told us we really should think about replacing our water heater. Sure, because after all the van repairs we'll have plenty of money left over for that, plus rebuilding the deck, recarpeting the living room, oh and paying for college! (I know I am supposed to apologize for whining about my first-world problems now and beat myself up for my privilege, especially today of all days. I'm just kind of tired.)
Anyway, Paul did his late morning phone conference from home so we could go pick up the minivan after the plumber left, but by then it was almost noon and I had to tell Gblvr that I didn't think I could keep our lunch plans. I finished a review of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Force of Nature" that I don't think was any more brutal than it deserved. We retrieved the van, Paul stopped at Home Depot to get a new bulb for the living room light, we discovered that the dimmer hates fluorescent bulbs. Adam went to the pool though we had our first beautiful cool fall afternoon; Daniel disappeared upstairs. We all had dinner with my parents, leftovers from Rosh Hashanah which were still delicious.
Adam had seen and enjoyed Inception, so since it was On Demand, we put on Memento when we came home. I wish Christopher Nolan could be barred from making Batman movies so he'd have more time to keep making his own movies -- I absolutely love The Prestige and this one, though I do wish crime and the evil in men's hearts didn't interest him quite so much. Adam surprisingly compared it not only to Inception (which I still haven't seen) but to The Fountain, which he found confusing and really disliked, whereas I didn't think it was confusing and thought it was moving and brilliant; I like it when a filmmaker tells a story in a completely unexpected way and it doesn't feel at all like a gimmick, but like the best way to convey whatever it is that's significant in the film.
The Friday Five: Quite Random
1. What do you really want to be when you grow up? The unexpected heir to a waterside estate in the Cotswolds.
2. Where were you born? Washington, DC.
3. Who were you with on September 11, 2001? My friend Ellen. Details in the archives here. We haven't seen all that much of each other in the intervening years but I may call her in the morning.
4. When do you brush your teeth? Morning and before bed, sometimes in the middle depending on where I am and what I ate.
5. Where is Waldo? Westchester.
Fannish5: Name five fictional bars you would like to visit.
I'm not much of a drinker, so this is all about the locations.
1. The Leaky Cauldron and The Three Broomsticks, Harry Potter
2. Ten Forward and Quark's, Star Trek
3. The Green Dragon and The Prancing Pony, The Lord of the Rings
4. Joselito's Coffee House and The Crown, Master & Commander
5. Isaac's, The Love Boat
At the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, we heard music by the Rakish Rogues and Sultry Sirens of Sin...
...the Dandy Pirates...
...and Sloanwolfe, plus a fiddle-and-mandolin duo...
...a hammered dulcimer player...
...and various wandering minstrels.
We saw acrobatics and juggling by Tribal Circus...
...sword-swallowing by Thom Sellectomy...
...and games of skill on horseback before the joust.
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