Sanctuary: An Overview/Review

There are shows I like, and shows I would like to like. Sanctuary falls into that second category.

Unfortunately, seven episodes in--more than I usually give a new show--and I can't see my way to anything more than indifference-to-impatience.

What works: It has some good things going for it, probably the biggest being the Stargate legacy. Enough actors have crossed over to make otherwise indifferent people (like me) take a good, long look at it.

Christopher Heyerdahl and his Voice (a Stargate legacy, to be sure, but worthy of separate notice).

A great setting. I mean, it's a Gothic mansion.

What Doesn't Work

The plots: More about this anon, but they are, sadly, mostly recycled hash without any additional spicing to make them stand out on their own.

The Stargate legacy: Their current biggest asset is also their biggest problem. I can't help but compare characters. Doctor Magnus, for example, has none of Sam's spark or energy, Will is like Daniel but somehow not as interesting, the folklore bits Doctor Magnus brings up are similar to the myths Daniel references, only not.

This last is its own separate problem; when someone brings up a myth on Stargate, it's an existing myth. Moreover, the tales work with the Stargate mythos, one can imagine the Norse people meeting Thor the Asgard alien (or his hologram, at any rate), buying his "I'm a god" story and mixing the tales he told them in with their own tales of the god. In turn, any knowledge of the myths mentioned adds depth and dimension to the characters encountered on the show. On the other hand, when Doctor Magnus mentions "some Amazonian peoples" having tales about the Nubbins, I cannot make a similar trip to the library nor draw on any previously-known myths. I can only wonder why the producers think "Amazonian peoples" are still obscure enough and exotic enough that it is safe to tag them as possessors of non-existent creatures and tales.

Amanda Tapping's accent: I'm told that she is "really" British, or has "really" British parents, or somesuch background that qualifies her to speak in a "real" British accent, but all I can say is it is a slippery accent. True, it has improved a bit over the episodes, but she still has a tendency to start a sentence one way and end it another, and her vowels are all over the place.

The scientific underpinnings: Why, oh why, oh why are they trying to make this scientific? Look, the X-Men only gets away with saying that genetic mutations enable human beings to shoot beams out of their eyes, or fly, or alter reality, or turn their skins to diamond because the whole crazy story got started in the 1960's in a comic book. Sanctuary is set and told on television in the 21st century and is making some claims at being realistic and pulling in bits of science when it suits them. So, no, I won't accept the guy with wings, or the one with two faces, or the men with folding bones, not as "genetic mutations." If the show's creators want magical effects--and they clearly do--why don't they just call it magic?

Sanctuary: From what and for whom? So far, exactly two people have come to the place voluntarily in search of help; Jack the Ripper was not terribly welcome, and the poor girl with the dead grandfather was not terribly happy with the whole idea (Maybe they shouldn't have shown her the mermaid-in-a-tank). Otherwise, the team seems to spend a lot of time out hunting, trapping, and killing Abnormals. Making matters worse is Will's recent reference in The Five to the abmormals Magnus "allows" to roam freely, as opposed to the unknown number locked up here and there. Sanctuary? Jail? Zoo? What is this place?

Folding Men, otherwise their best show to date, didn't do a terribly good job at convincing me that "Normals" posed a threat to "Abnormals," not to the extent that any group needed to hole up in a gothic mansion or live tucked away in atrium aquariums. So again--Sanctuary from what? For whom? Why? This is all the more an issue because if they start showing pitchfork-toting, hysterical mobs on the hunt, they will swerve back toward resembling X-Men all the more, and they don't need that (I like X-Men, sometimes quite a lot, but don't particularly see the point having someone else tell almost the same story). In other words, the current setup leaves everyone involved in the show's creation in a no-win scenario.

Jack the Ripper: No. Just no. This protest is partly caused by a personal prejudice on my part; I fail to see the fascination in a mass murderer, no matter when he ran around killing women or how uncaught he was. The protest also arises because Jack has been showing up everywhere these days and needs to take a break, a long one, before he saunters through another show, book, or movie.

Even Heyerdahl's Voice can't save the character from being a problem.

Doctor Helen Magnus as a Victorian lady. Again, no. It doesn't work. She's utterly wrong for the era. I will (for the moment, at any rate) spare you my rant about how "They were not just like us!" and how tired I am of twentieth and twenty-first century portrayals of Victorian people as Just Like Us only in funny clothes, and particularly of Victorian women as all being possessed of a modern feminist outlook, but I will let you know that I do have such a rant, and Magnus has triggered it more than once.

The odd use of science: It's not just the unbelievable mutations, it's the issue of Magnus being able, back in Victorian times, to safely extract and freeze a viable embryo, where she does not now seem to have access to any remarkably advanced science, nor have access to any decent-sized support team. For the most part, her equipment seems pretty standard issue. If she were really all that far ahead of her time then, why isn't she now? And, where is everyone else? Someone had to be helping with all that science then, where are they now? Or are we meant to believe that there were only, ever five people? And, why did the benevolent Magnus keep whatever scientific advancements she was making secret? If she could manage cryogenic freezing, she could manage refrigerators (which, by preserving food, affect general health) so why didn't they show up on the scene earlier? If she was up for refining vampire blood, she was up for refining vaccines, so again, where were they? I know, I know, I'm not supposed to ask, but there are only so many questions I can not-ask for the sake of a show to go on, and Sanctuary is fast exceeding the quota.

___
I just finished catching up on the episodes currently available on hulu.com, so a quick, individual overview:

Sanctuary For All, parts 1 & 2: Kind of dark & murky. Not bad, not outstanding, failed to answer the central question: What kind of Sanctuary is this and for whom? Will strikes me as a very Daniel-like character with less reason for being that way; he's been working for the FBI for a while, surely that ought to put some dent into the invincible naive niceness he displays? And does he or does he not believe in the weirdness of the world? On the one hand, he's written a nice book disproving it, on the other, he's always in trouble for advocating it. At least Daniel was consistent. Tapping's accent is atrocious, her daughter about as generic a character as is possible to create, up to and including her appearance and stale slang. On the other hand, it is nice to see a fairly amiable mother-daughter relationship. That last is new on TV.

Fata Morgana Hey, they acknowledged the linguistic shift! Nice. Oh, an all-powerful-but-not-quite Shadow Organization. Not so nice. Not terribly original, either, but could turn out all right. If we're asking why the women speak modern English, can we also ask why they wear modern makeup? The story does get points for not ending completely happily. It isn't clear what becomes of the women, and they might very well go back to being brainwashed again.

Folding Man: Like I said, this was their best episode so far. It actually had a fairly tight plot and a mystery to solve, and it took an unexpected turn--just as I was thinking how tiresome it would be if Will were always right about other people and always able to convince them to do what he wanted, he was wrong about their prisoner. I do not believe in the poor, persecuted Folding Men, however, and have a hard time believing they had an established culture. How did they meet each other? Or are we meant to believe that they had somehow set up a community Way Back When they were circus & court attractions and had been intermarrying and maintaining a culture all along? And, incidentally, just how secret, unknown, and amazing can they be in the age of X-Rays? Do none of them ever break those bones or get pneumonia or have any other cause to go in for medical help? Or are we supposed to refrain from asking awkward questions?

Kush: The show tries for that claustrophobic, scary effect and never quite obtains it. It also relies on Our Heroes being incredibly stupid. That's ok, though, so is the monster, so it all evens out: It never occurs to Our Heroes that the monster might cast a glamor over the blood, and it never occurs to the monster (who is telepathic, or at least empathic) that Helen M. might be lying about the coffee, though since she was saying she wanted coffee in order to fool the creature, it ought to have picked that up. And while we're at it: Was the monster sentient? The illusions sure seemed that way, but then again, Helen & co. were out to trap it, and they're supposed to be the good guys, so maybe it wasn't, only if it wasn't, how was it that it knew to make the wrong blood liquid? Are all Abnormals sentient? I'm still not clear on that point. It seems their ought, by the weird, evolutionary logic of the show, be Abnormal animals, and the monster that killed Will's mom has only ever roared, but at the same time, everything that has stalked them so far, no matter its form, has acted as though it were sentient. Oh, and Eric actually gets interesting just before he dies. Pity. The show sadly needs character development.

Nubbins: A dead crew on a ship. The really cute, furry things couldn't possibly responsible, could they? Oh, and something is making people lust after each other. Sometimes. When they remember.

It's not so much that both these plots heave been done before, it's that Sanctuary did them with such a complete lack of enthusiasm. I mean, most people, when they serve an old plot, try to add a new twist. This was just a paint-by-numbers story of furry creatures that breed a lot and turn out to be dangerous, primarily because their keepers are so careless. Even a cursory physical examination ought to have revealed teeth capable of chewing through metal--at which point, the suddenly and strangely cute-obsessed Ashley (The person I would have voted least likely to go gaga over cuddly furry things) would never have taken one out of its cage, and the show would have ended early.

The lust-inducing plant/animal/scent plot has also been done before, though not (that I can recall) in conjunction with the "harmless animal" plot. Usually, the plot is used to show unexpected aspects of the characters' relationships, or develops an already-existing attraction. Usually it happens a bit later, after characters' relationships are a bit further developed so that they can be affected. This particular bit was unusually generic, even for Sanctuary: Everyone seemed to feel a sort of low-level lust for everyone else, but once they all grabbed guns & vacuum cleaners and got down to critter-hunting, the attraction went away. Why was it even part of the story?

Conveniently Psychic Granddaughter: Also a puzzler. I thought initially she might be a new cast member and might add some team dynamic. Instead, she's a walk-through who happened to have a useful power. Yup. This episode tanked.

The Five: Wait, now we've always known about Shadowy Secret Agency from before? How come it seemed secret and a surprise back in Fata Morgana? Oooh, Nicola Tesla! How lovely! Yes, he's almost as overexposed as Jack the Ripper, but not quite, and (personal taste here) mad scientist geniuses are a whole lot more fun than mass murderers.

Oh. Never mind. He's an Evil Vampire and we must destroy him. And Jack is back, only he's good now (maybe). Injecting vampire blood into your system makes you develop Cool Powers? Really? And everyone who tries it gets a different Cool Power? And is it just me or did Helen have really bad taste in friends, lovers, and confidants back when?

Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated B or C plot, Will and Big Furry Guy are chased around by a monster of indeterminate origin. And Henry is a werewolf--well, that last could be interesting, if character development ever actually happens to anyone (other than Nicola Tesla, who was kind of cool for the first few minutes, before he turned out to be a vampire, and Eric, who is now deceased and doesn't count).

Wait--why am I still watching this show?

Inspired By

By the way both "Miss Blue" and "Brain in a Jar" as well as a few others owe their existence to John Murphy's Stupid Sock Creatures, the book which first showed me that not all socks want to be monkeys. Murphy is also responsible for providing clear directions on how to give a sock creature lips. I have never made any of the creatures in the book (if memory serves, some of them are incredibly elaborate), but I've gotten hours of fun out of making creatures that never would have existed if I hadn't read it. Murphy has a website , which I've only just thought of looking for & haven't really read through at all. Looks like there is a blog involved, as well, and maybe some other books I'll have to keep an eye out for.

Another Lolcat

more animals

Mulled Mead

I mentioned earlier that I tried Turkish Delight because it showed up in books I loved.

I'm not the only member of the family who tries literary food. My brother turned 21 today and decided that for his coming-of-age drink, he'd like to try mulled mead because it shows up in so many books. Mead does, at least. I'm not too sure about the "mulled" bit.

So, he and Dad picked up some Chaucer's Mead at the store a week or so ago, and this afternoon he carefully brewed it.

The results:

Dad: "It's...sweet."

Pause.

"You know what it reminds me of? Cough syrup."

Mom: "No, it's better than cough syrup."

My brother: "I like it."

Pause.

"But I think I prefer sparkling cider."

I never really developed a taste for wine or its associated beverages, so my own contribution, that it's vaguely alcoholic in flavor and kind of sweet, doesn't really count, though I include it for completeness.

So, now you know.

Beowulf and various other heroic types of the past drank something sweetish and vaguely alcoholic in flavor that was kind of like cough syrup only better.

Mmmmm.

Brain in a Jar

My latest stuffed critter. To understand this one you need to know that:

1) It was a birthday present for my brother.

2) My brother is a philosophy major.

3) Philosophy majors spend a lot of their time wondering whether or not they are brains kept in jars.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

The breakfast cinnamon rolls have been baked and eaten (This year's were the best yet, if I do say so myself)

The turkey is in the oven (Stuffed with herbs from our garden, and garlic from elsewhere)

The dog is almost-but-not-quite in the kitchen (Where she is not allowed, but the smells are so good)

The birthday cake is ready.

The birthday present made and wrapped (Just in the nick of time)

Rain clouds are dark in the sky (We badly need more rain)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Prayer Art

Take a moment to look over here at Michael Mize's Nativity Scene.

It is also a prayer wall, a form of prayer itself, and a wonderful work of art made out of post it notes. The congregation wrote the names of people they wished to pray for and to have the church pray for on post-it notes. He then took them and made a mural. He tells the full story here and here in his blog.

And while you are at it, take a look at the rest of his gallery. I love the Communion Table Project, myself, especially Creation. Oh, and the Monoprints are great, too (and I like the story behind the Nonsequitur Landscape: Cold almost as much as I like the piece itself).

Blues Be Gone!

I posted a few days ago about the post project blues.

Turns out the cure and a Christmas present for a friend was only one brightly striped pair of socks away.

Blue has now gone to her new home where I hope she will continue to help banish the blues and the blahs.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Hey, this is funny!

And it educational too. How often does that happen?

The discussion of punctuation was clear, full of good examples, and peppered with historical explanations and comments. I especially appreciated the last part--it's great knowing not only how and why to use commas but where they came from and why they have such complicated, contradictory functions.

I have read complaints that it is about British usage only, with little allowance for American variation, but I did not find that to be the case. Much of the punctuation is the same on both sides of the Atlantic, and when there were variations, Truss commented on them.

No Name by Wilkie Collins

I finished it last night. I found it engaging but not engrossing. There were items when it downright dragged. I can't help but think that it is a pity Magdalen and Lydia Gwilt were not combined to make one character.

Magdalen's motivation and Lydia's drive would have made for fantastic reading, and there are far more direct looks at Lydia's thoughts and struggles than their are into Magdalen's. The latter's struggles tend to be confined to vague statements like "That night, the struggle between Good and Evil was fought once more within her," a sad contrast to Lydia's diary entries and need to use laudanum for sleep. On the other hand, Lydia's motivation was far less convincing than Magdalen's is.

The plot is less engineered than that of Armadale--until right at the end where there is an obvious wrench in order for the "right" ending to happen. A satisfying end, mostly, but definitely one where the puppeteer is apparent. It is a good book, but not as good as Moonstone or Woman in White, both of which are books I think everyone should read. This one, I think, is only for fans of the Victorian novel.

An added note

Since an effort to substitute caffeine for oxygen this afternoon has (predictably) backfired, and I'm still awake, I'll add a bit about music I meant to write in earlier: One of the advantages to writing for The Broken Hourglass is that I get to listen to the music. In fact, I often listen while I write. It fits the game perfectly--epic, eastern, and often haunting--and is also worth listening to on its own. There's a brief clip up, together with an interview with Rob Howard, here, though he seems to have moved his website (the link in there used to work, but did not today); he does have another (newer?) blog up over here. I haven't looked at it much, though, just checked to see if he mentions TBH at all, as a sort of insurance against linking to the wrong guy.

A Quick Blurby Blog

Well, I was planning a nice, chatty blog about listening again to The Dread Waltz, which Kat Bella wrote for the Mage Trio, and how happy I was when I first heard it, it made the mod seem more real, and it is exactly what I wanted, and about having a new quest to work on for The Broken Hourglass and how I've finally broken through that awful frozen bit where I have nothing written and have to actually start, and how one or two characters did something unexpected in today's bit, which is always fun and exciting and really helps get things going, and about how I wish there were some air in our air, but there is not because all those houses burned (far enough away from us that we were never even remotely in danger, but not so far away that we can escape the smoke), so today in particular the sky is full of some sort of chemical soup that makes breathing a chore and walking slightly sickening, and my brain cells keep wanting to curl up under the covers and go to sleep and have to get rousted out, and I was thinking about talking about Doctor Who as well--the old black and white, first Doctor stories--but it's kind of late, and I'm kind of tired, and I'm going to be heading off to LA tomorrow to watch The Importance of Being Earnest, which I love and want to be awake for, so I won't blog about those things at all.

Instead, I'll stick one long, sprawly sentence in up there for everyone to read and go to bed.

Good night!

More Silliness

I seem to have a split personality. According to o'Faust, I there is a "moderate" resemblance between my writing in this blog and that of Oscar Wilde, Frank Baum, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lewis Caroll, results depending on how much text I paste in, and the resemblance never going higher than 30%. I'm semi-tempted to give it yet more to see what else it pulls up, but really do need to get ready for the Book Arts class and tearing down the Reading Room.

GenderAnalyzer

According to GenderAnalyzer, there is a 66% probability that this blog is being written by a man.

Should I use more exclamations or question marks? Or should I discuss pink more enthusiastically? Or should I settle down and get back to work on The Broken Hourglass?

Edit: Adding those question marks just pushed the probability up to 67%. Did the % offset the ? What are they using in their estimations anyway?
Edit2: And throwing in the names of the male authors--see above post--raised the likelihood of this being by a man to 69%.

Building a Book (Stage 1)

Step One: Find a doll washed ashore on the beach.
Step Two: Take lots of pictures.
Step Three: Decide to feature her as part of a Found Object Book. Sort through pictures again.
Step Four: Conclude that seaweed is essential to the process. Bike to the beach and collect some part of a huge mound lying there waiting. Pack it in a plastic bag, inside an old backpack.
Step Five: Hang it on the line to dry. Duck back and forth for things, getting thoroughly seaweedy in the process.
Step Six (optional): Rush off to class, realizing on the way there that the seaweed smell has well and truly stuck. Discover that someone is needed to gallery sit and stay late, still smelling of seaweed.

Still to come: Attempting to make paper with some of the seaweed.

Cake Wrecks II

See also "The Cake Head Diet Aid."

Cake Wrecks

I just got hooked on Cake Wrecks, a site I have been studiously avoiding despite numerous recommendations for fear I would get hooked.

But, inevitably, I did follow one of the links, and inevitably, I did get hooked and have spent far more time than I should reading old posts and giggling.

So far, "I'll Take My Chances" and "Get Me Holly Hobbie's Head on a Platter" are my favorites.

Post Project Blues

I've got the post-project blues.

You know what I mean: The work is done, the end product is off to its new home, or sitting on its shelf, and there is an empty hole sitting there where an all-absorbing task used to be.

The bluuuuuues.

I used to think that starting another project was the cure, or, failing that, maybe a good dose of common sense, a long walk, and some chocolate.

But no.

It's hopeless.

I've more projects than I know what to do with, have taken the walk, and had the chocolate.

And the project is still done and the void remains.

A Bunch of Book Reviews

I had a sleepless night the other night, a perfect time to gather together a bunch of short reviews from Facebook, maybe tidy them a little, and repost them here in a somewhat more organized fashion.

'Cause, you know, for a blog by a Bookwyrme, this doesn't have a whole lot of reviews.

Yet.

So, without further ado, and in only a slightly organized fashion, the reviews follow:

Chalice by Robin Mckinley It finally came into the library! I always wait eagerly for Mckinley's new books, and this was no exception.

I still think her best writing was pre-Spindle's End, with Sunshine being a welcome upswing, but that's not to say the later books aren't good: They're still marvels, just not as marvelous as they could be.

Chalice fits that evaluation. Overall, it is a good book. The basic setting and concept are fascinating, with the Chalice and her honey magic. In fact, the world and the magic system are the clear stars of this one. I think it could have done with being just a bit longer to develop things more--not something I say often about books. There needed to be just a bit more attention to the interpersonal relationships, just a little more explanation of what was going on with the magic. Just... a bit more. I devoured it in one night's sitting, though, so don't take the caveats too seriously.

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling: I love these rhythmic, graceful, and deceptively simple stories. I strongly recommend listening to these as recordings or getting someone to read them to you. I've read them to myself before, but they really are meant to be read aloud, and listening adds a new level of appreciation. The Librivox recording, (I listened to version 2) is not up to the best professional standards, but still very good and worth putting on your MP3 player.

The Seventh Tower Series (The Fall, Castle, Aenir, Above the Veil, Into Battle, The Violet Keystone). I picked these up after reading the Keys to the Kingdom series. I found them to be decently written and plotted, but not spectacular. They are written almost entirely in short, declarative sentences that never let me forget that this was written for kids. Nix also sets up a complicated, four-group set of conflicts and resolves three of them, quite tidily a little too tidily for my tastes) but leaves the fourth to dangle with a brief "no one really knows how it started" comment. Since members of the fourth group have been represented as part of the general struggle, the oversight is distressing. Also, Lucas Arts either planned to release or did release a card game with this--the markers for such a commercial tie-in are all there (badly named beasts and obtrusive mentions of the game add inopportune moments included). Fun, quick, brainless reads but not ones to give to all your friends and relations, no matter what their ages happen to be.

The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix (Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday). These are well-written and well-plotted and have a likable central character, a good supporting cast, and more than on thorny dilemma. The difficulties are both immediate and long-term and challenge those involved both morally and practically. The tension mounts satisfactorily as the books continue. I'm looking forward to Sir Sunday, the concluding book of the series.

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke. This is another book I'd been looking forward to. I thoroughly enjoyed Inkheart and Inkspell, but I am afraid Inkdeath was something of a letdown. It wasn't a bad book, but it was a long book and the plotting was not as tight as it should have been; instead of feeling a mounting tension as difficulties increased, I found myself impatiently skimming as stuff just kept happening without a clear central thread pulling it together. Also, I have to admit I had forgotten who some of the characters were and I didn't end up wanting to read the other two books again to reacquaint myself with them.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: I remembered this book as being good and decided to reread it. It is magnificent, better than I remembered, a dark, tangled mystery with plenty of drama, characters to love, and a standout villain.

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins: I had forgotten how much I like this one. I started listening to the librivox version and ended up leapfrogging between recording and text because I did not want to switch books the way I normally do.

Armadale by Wilkie Collins: Not quite as gripping as Woman in White--one is more aware of strings being pulled to make things happen-and the cast of characters as a whole is not as strong as in Woman in White or Moonstone, but still quite a good read, and has an a great heroine/villain who completely steals the last several chapters, as she should.

No Thoroughfare by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens: I had fun listening to this one and trying to guess which bits were Dickens' idea (the veiled woman at the beginning seems a good bet) and which were Collins' (Maguerite's climb down the cliff, I think). Otherwise, it's a fairly typical and predictable blend of the two. Fun, but not the best of either.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Some of you may remember the countdown I had in the margin of this blog. Yes, I really was looking forward to it that much, and it was every bit worth the wait. It is brilliant. Sharp, spooky, and haunting in the best way. There are elements familiar from The Jungle Book, retold and remade into a new and wonderful form.

McKean's pictures are an important part of the story, incorporated into the whole in a way unusual to novels, and I hope to goodness that all the versions include them.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: Having read The Graveyard Book, I had to revisit this one, and did so courtesy of a librivox recording. It is a classic for good reason. It's more ambivalent and haunting than The Graveyard Book with Mowgli stuck between two worlds far harsher than those Bod faces.

And then there are the short stories I am constantly forgetting are part of the tale, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi especially deserves notice.

Tarzan of the Apes and The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Well, I just finished two "raised outside of human society" books, why not reread the other famous example?

The Tarzan books are pulp, pure and simple. Burroughs is racist, sexist, and classist, and his plots don't thicken, they congeal into oddly shaped lumps. Sailors exist to mutiny, islands are desolate, all cats are man eaters, and everyone lusts after Jane.

And, guess what? I still enjoy them. I find myself obligingly tensing up for the cliffhangers, and I've still downloaded A Princess of Mars to listen to--partly, I must add, due to some nostalgia. I used to own the series and a good many of the Tarzan books, first reading them when I was eight or nine years old, after my dad brought home a box of paperbacks picked up at a garage sale. Don't expect anything like the grace and beauty of The Jungle Book or the subtle creepiness of The Graveyard Book, but go ahead and give them a try.

Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman: Worth checking out from the library and looking through but not worth buying or making a special hunt for. Most of the breads in here are white breads, and I almost never make white bread, so I won't be using them much.

I did find the instructions for making sourdough starter quite helpful, however. Thanks to Leader and Chattman I have a working sourdough starter in my fridge for the first time in a couple of years. The most helpful bit of advice was to use filtered water for the first few days of the starter's life so as not to overwhelm the beginning culture with the minerals and chlorine of regular city water. After that, it's ok to switch.

Rat: How the World's Most Notorious Rodent Clawed Its Way to the Top by Jerry Langton: I ended up giving up on this one. I enjoyed Sullivan's Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants, ,so I expected to like this one. However, it proved to go for the "aren't rats gross" angle more than the "aren't rats interesting" slant, and it turned out to be Too Much Information. About a third of the way through, I chose blissful ignorance and closed the book.

Paper People by Michael Grater: Interesting and fun, full of lots of neat projects I'll have to try when I dig myself out from my current collection.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne: An extraordinary, extravagant travel full of adventure, misadventure, and money.

From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon by Jules Verne: These are boring, there's no other way of putting it. About 2/3 of the way through From the Earth to the Moon, when they decide to send people to the moon and not just a projectile, the story starts to take off a bit, but there's no central eccentric like Phileas Fogg to enliven matters and no enigmatic genius like Captain Nemo to hold anyone's attention. I finished them because I started them, and I can't suggest anyone else try the experiment

Od Magicby Patricia McKillip. I just went through a McKillip reread, and I have to say again, I love this one. McKillip is one author whose books I read and reread. this one is one of her best, shimmery, beautiful, and full of magic.

As a side, I really, really wish someone would make audio recordings of McKillip's work. The language just begs to be read aloud, and I want to hear it.

The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip. A new book this year. It is beautiful and evocative, like all her work, but not as good as, say Od Magic or Tower at Stony Wood. About half the characters get sidelined at the end while a character whose point of view we never see takes care of matters, and the story-within-a-story doesn't tie as well into the whole as I would have liked. Still splendid, though, and one I will read again, probably many times

Superdoveby Courtney Humphries: I found this a good, solid, and interesting read. Humphries does a good job of giving us the history of pigeons and provides interesting, though brief, discussions on the question of what is "natural" and what is not--and why we make the distinctions we do.

There. Reviews done (for today). Time to go bake brownies and listen to more of John Carter's adventures in A Princess of Mars.

Something from this evening's walk

Ok. I won't.

But evidence of what?

Two National Geographic Photos You Have to See

One is stunning, one is funny and sad and iconic.

The Reading Room

That was fun!

The reception was this evening from 5-7 PM--at least, officially it ended at 7. People stayed until past 7:30, and that was wonderful.

It was much, much busier than I expected, sometimes quite crowded, and people were really looking at the books, filling the chairs as they read them, or standing by the shelves. It was great!

A couple of people made me very happy by walking out, looking back and saying, "Oh, I didn't see that one!" and reentering.

Thank you to everyone who came!

And if you couldn't make it to the reception, or if you made it but couldn't see everything, it's not too late: The show runs through the 21st.

I took the picture just at the beginning of the show, after that, it got very busy!

You Are Invited II

Did I mention that we're serving food at the reception?


Stop in!

You are Invited

To The Reading Room:


From November 3 through November 21, the Orange Coast College student gallery will be turned into a library. It is full of work by students past and present. Come in, sit down, and page through any or all of over sixty handmade pieces.



Orange Coast College Project Gallery
(located in the OCC Fine Arts Center, Merrimac Rd., next to Starbucks)

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 6, 5-7pm

Gallery Hours: M,T,W,Th 10am-4pm, T 6-8pm

Setting Up the Show

I've mentioned earlier that Orange Coast College is doing a book arts show featuring books made by students over the last few years.

It's this month, from today til the 21st, and we had quite a bit to do to get ready for it.

First of all, we wanted the books to be accessible to people which meant making a space where the books could both be on display and within reach.

Second, we wanted an inviting place. So, last Tuesday, the class spent several hours browsing through the drama department's collection (everything from "Mouse poison" to "Old fashioned telephones" and man-eating plants was available on the shelves--I would have loved to stay longer just looking at the labels) and carrying our finds over to the room. There are some lovely pieces there now, an old-fashioned couch, a chaise lounge, some comfortable chairs, just waiting for people to come in and sit down.

Bookshelves proved to be in short supply, so several of us ended up coming back on Sunday to bring and/or set up shelves and an additional supply of tables, rugs, and plants (Guess who brought those last?). We spent a lot of time studying the room, carrying shelves back and forth and re-arranging the rugs to get the look we wanted.

It also took a while figuring out how to display some of the pieces. My own contribution is, I finally realized, thirteen feet long and *not* the easiest to find shelf space for when it is fully displayed. Someone else made a lovely book with images from Hawaian quilts--one I still need to look at in greater detail, the images are so complex--and an accompanying smaller book that needed extra

care. A small portion had to go behind glass.

The final results are, I think, well worth the time it took. I do hope plenty of people can come to the opening on Thursday night.


Pictures: Courtney, Kim, and Keri carefully hanging a piece; Keri arranging the tea things opposite an altered Alice in Wonderland book, me taking advantage of the chance to sit down and look at one of the books.

Sand Paintings and Photoshop

I posted earlier about playing with Photoshop. I'm still at it!
I have continued with my series, Patterns in the Sand on ArtID & find that the sand pictures in particular have provided an opportunity for fun and exploration.


While I have chosen to keep them in their sandy colors and to use Photoshop only as an aid in enhancing the contrast to make the pictures stand out more, the fact that they are primarily patterns means that I try other colors and combinations as well. "Elegance" looks best sandy, I think, but I also like the blue-and-white patterned version.