themis

However, if you've followed a link to an entry on this journal and would like it unlocked please just let me know. There may be stuff that was originally public that I have forgotten to unlock.

28 movies, from 1934 to 2008.

( this month's movies )

February needs to be here like, now. (Plz to be putting out Shanghai Express, Criterion.)

( some of the stories I liked )

I stupidly turned off comment copies and reading history only shows mystery works! So most of the stuff I commented on and didn't bookmark I've lost track of. :(

Happy Christmas!

I got many lovely presents (Happy Together!!! The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp!!!) and I hope you did too.

For Yuletide, someone AMAZING wrote me an entire 10,00 words about Rood of An growing up. Three Gifts. None of you have read the books, though, so you'll never know how perfect the story is. But I do, so I am quite happy.

11, 1922-2009

( and they are . . .  )

Thank you for giving me a chance to use this icon.

( Even though, as you know, I did not request The Lion in Winter )

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!–An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Everything was new this month. 13 movies from 1944-2009.

( this is kind of an interesting collection, I think, though )

Only 10, from 1991 to 2007. Damn you, classes with your required reading.

Anyway, that is why I'm not typing up comments - I have to go read Bleak House and the rest of Othello. If you ask, though, I will happily have a conversation about any of these movies.

( j'adore le cinéma )

34 movies from 1932 to 2009.

( I watched a lot of boring movies this month )

35 movies, from 1927 to 2009.

( movies! )

38, 1931-2001

This month, I am representing my opinion of each film with a smiley face or a frowny face (or perhaps some variation). I will elaborate, upon request.

( movies! )

I've started watching Smith* . . .

What can I say, caitie you were completely right about this show. Simon Baker really, really wants Johnny Lee Miller - if they were cute, it would be cute. But they are horrible people, so it isn't.

I also like picking out actors from The Wire. My count so far is two (2), but my hopes are great.

*Uh, by which I mean: I have watched the first episode.

And also, it's all zempasuchil's fault because she put the idea in my head last time I posted mixes. Anyway: Here is a Merlin fanmix! Merlin, almost a month before it premieres on US TV. \o/

I did a cover this time. Yay, me!

Oh, Young Lions: a Merlin&Arthur (or Merlin/Arthur, this being Merlin) fanmix

( there may come a day when I will do a Gwen&Morgana mix, but it is not this day )

Well, I'm in a celebratory mood since I just finished my paper on Tasso. And since I asked for a drabble when evilprodigy did this . . . and when schiarire did the foreign language equivalent.

I'll take TEN requests for drabbles of any pairing/character from a fandom with which I'm familiar. In return, those ten people have to post this in their journals, regardless of their ability level.

I reserve the right to write more than a drabble if you give me a good prompt; you reserve the right not to repost if you don't feel like it.

C'mon, guys, give me some procrastination material. I can only devote so much time to Victorian morality.

Also, do any of you have "Stand By Me"? Surely some of you must, and be willing to pass it my way.

Actually, I have...three. They are fanmixes and you can certainly try and figure them out if you want. However, it is not terribly important in the scheme of things really! For example, it is not important enough for me to make cover art and post them to a community requiring said art.

( My Brain Knows Better )
( Trashcan Fire in a Prison Cell )
( Your Faith Is Making a Ghost of You )

For your amusement and edification...And so I don't forget this.

It was evidently there, at a party in Antibes, that [Louise Brooks] met Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald for the second and last time. It struck her that they were already considered a bit passé by the fickle breed that summered there: The smart set's literary conversation now ran more to Hemingway, whose A Farewell to Arms was just out, rather than to Fitzgerlad, whose Great Gatsby was four years old. Sensing the social (and perhaps literary) decline, Scott was apparently depressed - but Zelda was enraged. Though Louise never saw Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds together, she later came to a startling conclusion: "The homosexual hero of war and adventure. A man's man. 'Men without Women.' Zelda Fitzgerald hated Hemingway because he knew she was viciously insane, and Hemingway hated Zelda because she knew he was basically a homo putting on a fighting-and-fucking act to fool himself."

Barry Paris, Louise Brooks. Pg. 319.

(I would like to note, however, that she is far from a reliable source being insanely alcoholic and also, possibly, kind of just insane.)

I've been at The Golden Notebook for nearly a month, and not because it is a long book (although it is). Partly it is because Lessing divided it up oddly so I can't just pick it up and read it whenever - I have to know I have enough free time to get through a section. Partly it is passages like this one:

( pg 344-345 )

Ouch. :/

For some reason, TCM is not showing this movie today. But...Mr. Smith Goes To Washington will always be the movie that says the best things about our government and our political system (except, maybe, 1776). I do not universally adore all its polical opinions...but I do not universally adore all of Barack Obama's political opinions, either.

JEFFERSON SMITH: Just get up off the ground, that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won't just see scenery; you'll see the whole parade of what Man's carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so's he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh, if that's what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we'd better get those boys' camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it's not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!