So, here are several short reviews and bits of news from my weekend.
1) I finally finished The House on Durrow Street by Galen Beckett (pseudonym). Two years ago, after reading Orson Scott Card's glowing review of The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, I was mildly excited about this sequel. As the years passed, however, my enthusiasm cooled a bit, and I think that when the next book comes out in the series, I will be torn as to whether it's worth the time and energy to slog through it (it took me about two weeks to finish it, when I finished two other books in two days the week I started it). Three things of note:
a) The writing is competent, but still nothing like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Beckett's attempt to play with the styles, tropes, figures, and references of classic English literature and history are cute, such as the nice touch about the old king trying to get his young princess secured as his heir in a clear reference to the Victoria succession in 1820s England (though here the country is called "Altania," clearly a Regency/Victorian England clone).
b) While the first book owed its plot to a fairly naked rip of elements from Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, and Oliver Twist, this book turns to the pulpy gothic type novels of the end of the Victorian era - the Cthulu mythos seems to be a big inspiration. At least, I assume it is, as I've not read them, but the plot is basically a carbon copy of the Mass Effect franchise, which from everything I've read is a carbon copy of the Cthulu stories.
c) Hints of political themes, such as character sexuality and anti-religious sentiments, which appeared in the first novel become rather annoying central to this volume.
All in all, it's a series I will probably continue to follow, but with considerably less enthusiasm.
2) Film Noirs: The Third Man is a real disappointment. A grim and taut story, with amazing camerawork and a tour-de-force of a performance by Orson Welles (for all of 10 minutes - and he owns the film with that amount of time) - and the soundtrack sounds like a luau. Though I'm told it's not a ukulele, but a zither. A film major friend says it's an aesthetic choice, an exercise in contrast. All I can say is that contrast should be like a spice - used to season a story, not deliberately thumb your nose at your audiences' emotional reactions. Because I hated it. Though Welles, the camerawork, and the ending (talk about romatic burn - so classic for film noir) are very, very nice, the music is horrific.
3) Screwball Noirs: The Thin Man - delightful, if a bit silly. What happens when you combine the energy and romantic interaction of Adam's Rib or Bringing Up Baby with the dark and sinister world of The Third Man or The Big Sleep. And throw in some rather bad secondary acting, first-rate performances by the two leads, a dog I could have done without, and a whole lot of drinking (made me go out and make juice cocktails) (yes, I'm suggestible. Sue me ;-), and you have a very fun film.
4) Risk party - this Saturday, a friend of mine and I finally threw the party we'd been planning all semester (and had been percolating in my mind when we had a similar party last semester, playing Lord of the Rings Risk). Normally, I don't like Risk, being very bad at it. But I very much enjoy the role-playing elements offered by the variant editions, such as Risk 2210 (a truly delightful hard science fiction game with incredibly well thought through rules), Star Wars: The Clone Wars Risk, Lord of the Rings Risk, and the brand new Risk Reinvention from 2009. All of them tend to be more strategic than slugging matches of troop buildups (which is what most games of Risk seem to end in when I watch or play, and bores/horrifies me from a military perspective). So, we got together about 12-15 people, got together around 10 am, and played Risk until 6. Well, the Lord of the Rings game was still going at that time, but I assume they cut it off sometime soon after. I hope. We managed to play one round of Risk Reinvention, one round of Clone Wars Risk (which I won through a series of very lucky die rolls during the pivotal execution of Order 66 - sorry Joseph and Bruce - you had me dead to rights), and two rounds of Risk 2210. My buddy's mom hosted the party, and allowed me to help make one of three delicious soup/stews I feasted upon this weekend (Friday - another friend's sister's pork stew; Saturday - my Risk party friend's mom's delicious sausage/beef broth/tortellini soup; Sunday - yet another friend's mom's heartbreakingly lovely beer-beef stew - sweet and savory and rich - to make your heart melt from your tongue's bliss - wow, talk about purple prose - but it was just sooo tasty). I brought four loaves of bread, there was pop, and much food and drink was consumed by all. Perhaps a bit more people than I'm fully comfortable with, but tis my own fault, and I am glad to have the problem of more friends than I know what to do with than not enough.
Oh, and I also had the nerdy pleasure of making up a soundtrack for the games: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Clone Wars, and Republic Commando scores for the Clone Wars Risk, the three Lord of the Rings and Dragon Age: Origins scores for Lord of the Rings Risk, and Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Firefly and Serenity scores for Risk 2210. I thought it was awesome, especially as the Lord of the Rings music kept getting epic during intense battles, and when I called Order 66, Revenge of the Sith started up the dark defeat battle music. Providentially appropriate - even the trivial things. :-)
5) Renaissance Festival, part deux (because I went with a girl of French descent): my first experience at the Maryland RennFest was a large disappointment, despite the valiant efforts of the friend who invited me. The truncated time, rather impolite behavior of our ride, and my own high expectations combined with ignorance of what to do at the Festival resulted in a rather sad day (though my buddy did take me home, feed me, and let me win at Catan Cities and Knights afterwards - so the evening ended in joy for me - oh, and I bought Beauty and the Beast for 15 bucks that night too). This time, though, I woke up at 7:30 today, got gas, and drove down to Maryland, joining a party of five lovely young ladies (I'm not sure, but I think most of them are younger than I), who all had been to the Festival before. After bedecking me with a nice fluffy shirt, vest, and cavalier hat, we set off. One of the ladies let me swish about her cloak for the day, making me even happier. Starting the day off by spending several seconds in the stocks for Heresy (oh, yiss, I deny that Transubstantiation alright :-), and quickly moving on to knife throwing (freaking two young ladies out by flipping the very dull knives about in my hands and catching them by their blades before I threw them - oh, and I got two to stick, which is better than I thought I'd do) and axe throwing (which I didn't get any to stick, but it was okay because it was all very exciting, wearing a stupid hat and throwing a five pound stick), the day began extremely well. We then wandered about the grounds, seeing elephants, jousting, juggling, whilst munching on the loaf of bread and sticks of cheese and three water bottles I'd brought (I have foresight, I say - plus, I didn't want to spend another seven bucks on the turkey leg that was tasty but waaaay overpriced - not to mention the two bucks for a medium fountain drink). And, of course, speaking most wretchedly forsoothly - I fear we muchly murdered the Queen's good English. After much anticking, great conversation, and being generally tired out, we capped the day off with two very funny parodies of Shakespeare by the Shakespeare Scum players. Quite a good show. All in all, a wonderful time. And now, instead of being rather saddened about the whole RennFest, I'm looking forward to going again, perhaps next time to the one in Minnesota with friends and family!
Well, that's my weekend. Disparate, social, and silly silly silly. But oh so much fun. And full of delicious soup.
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