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prunesquallormdWell, this week hasn't really panned out as I'd planned, and obviously I have to exert every ounce of willpower I have not to fritter it away on general faff. For I am the faff-god :).
On the positive side, I may have found my car - well it's Golf shaped (of course, I don't know enough about cars to conclusively identify the make of one from a burnt out shell)and from what I can remember it has the same sort of wheels, and it may once have been blue(mind you, it seems like the fire was hot enought to melt the glass, so the blue sheen probably wasn't the original paint work). Admittedly, if it is my car, it's not really much good to me, now that the little pyros have had their fun with it. And I'm a little doubtful whether to report it - if it is mine, it would seem extremely suspicious to the insurance company that I should just happen across it. Yes, it was only about 15 minutes walk away, but it's on a several acre bit of fenced off derelict land (it was landscaped for a garden festival thing in the early 90s but has been left to go to rack and ruin ever since, probably so the council can flog to developers, if they haven't done so already) and the last time I was there was a couple of years ago. I was only there because it's such a gorgeous day, and it's a place you can go to nearby that (ignoring the tyres, empty calor gas canisters and burnt out cars) gives you a illusion of being in the country.
I have to admit to thinking, as I was looking at this husk of metal, that it must have been quite a sight when it went up. Especially if it was at night.
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lareinemisere gave me 'P', so without further ado we have:-
Mervyn Peake
from whose Titus books my user name comes - Dr Alfred Prunesquallor: "The doctor with his hyena laugh and his bizarre and elegant body, his celluloid face. His main defects? The insufferable pitch of his voice; his maddening laugh and his affected gestures. His cardinal virtue? An undamaged brain." (My favourite professor at university reminded me so much of this description it was uncanny :) ).
It's easy to look at Peake's work and see nothing but caricature and freakery, but not far beneath the surface there is intelligence, wicked humour, and a tenderness and sympathy that never descends into sentiment. He's not everyone's cup of tea, to say the least, but he's very much mine. And we used a line from one of his poems - 'To live at all is miracle enough' - on my Dad's headstone. Enough said.
Pan-galactic Gargle Blaster
'The effects of which are like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick'. Because, from Arthur Dent, to MegaDodo Publications, to the Ravenous BugBlatter Beast of Traal to Zaphod Beeblebrox (or ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, or even the Great Prophet Zarquon) there was no way that The Hitchhikker's Guide to the Galaxy wasn't going to be in this list, regardless of the letter. A constant favourite of mine for the last (gulp) quarter of a century (right, now I feel old), and it never fails to cheer me up. (I'm constantly annoyed, however, that Douglas Adams didn't complete the plot of the second season of the radio series. Harumph).
Psychonaut
I still have a soft spot for Fields of the Nephilim, and this is one of their goodies. Although when I dug out the 12 inch single when I was at home at Easter, it was the B side that I had on auto-repeat. 'Celebrate' - one of the least appropriately named songs ever I think :), but still a cracker.
Mount Parnassus
Sacred to Apollo and Dionysus, site of Delphi, and once the home of the Delphic Oracle and the Muses. As yet, the only place I've been to in Greece, but I can't imagine that there's anywhere much more beautiful in the entire country. It's very easy to see why there are so many myths and legends associated with it, and to imagine nymphs playing on its slopes (although when I was there it was pretty chilly, so they'd probably need rather more clothing than nymphs are traditionally depicted in :)).
Paradys
Tanith Lee's alternative Paris. This was the setting of the first Tanith Lee book I ever read, The Book of the Damned, consisting of three very loosely connected short stories. The first of these, Stained with Crimson, is still my favourite vampire story ever. All the usual adjectives people tend to attach to Lee's work apply here. Dreamlike, lush, surreal, fantastic, if at times a little cold. Very much quintessential Tanith. I love it, although, as they say in America, your mileage may vary :). And soon to be coming back into print in America with the others in the series as The Secret Books of Paradys. Yay :). I'll probably buy it, even though I have them all already, because I'm sad like that:).
Part 2 to follow, after the weekend :). London bound, so hopefully will see A and C tomorrow. Will try and call tonight.
On the positive side, I may have found my car - well it's Golf shaped (of course, I don't know enough about cars to conclusively identify the make of one from a burnt out shell)and from what I can remember it has the same sort of wheels, and it may once have been blue(mind you, it seems like the fire was hot enought to melt the glass, so the blue sheen probably wasn't the original paint work). Admittedly, if it is my car, it's not really much good to me, now that the little pyros have had their fun with it. And I'm a little doubtful whether to report it - if it is mine, it would seem extremely suspicious to the insurance company that I should just happen across it. Yes, it was only about 15 minutes walk away, but it's on a several acre bit of fenced off derelict land (it was landscaped for a garden festival thing in the early 90s but has been left to go to rack and ruin ever since, probably so the council can flog to developers, if they haven't done so already) and the last time I was there was a couple of years ago. I was only there because it's such a gorgeous day, and it's a place you can go to nearby that (ignoring the tyres, empty calor gas canisters and burnt out cars) gives you a illusion of being in the country.
I have to admit to thinking, as I was looking at this husk of metal, that it must have been quite a sight when it went up. Especially if it was at night.
lareinemisere gave me 'P', so without further ado we have:-Mervyn Peake
from whose Titus books my user name comes - Dr Alfred Prunesquallor: "The doctor with his hyena laugh and his bizarre and elegant body, his celluloid face. His main defects? The insufferable pitch of his voice; his maddening laugh and his affected gestures. His cardinal virtue? An undamaged brain." (My favourite professor at university reminded me so much of this description it was uncanny :) ).
It's easy to look at Peake's work and see nothing but caricature and freakery, but not far beneath the surface there is intelligence, wicked humour, and a tenderness and sympathy that never descends into sentiment. He's not everyone's cup of tea, to say the least, but he's very much mine. And we used a line from one of his poems - 'To live at all is miracle enough' - on my Dad's headstone. Enough said.
Pan-galactic Gargle Blaster
'The effects of which are like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick'. Because, from Arthur Dent, to MegaDodo Publications, to the Ravenous BugBlatter Beast of Traal to Zaphod Beeblebrox (or ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, or even the Great Prophet Zarquon) there was no way that The Hitchhikker's Guide to the Galaxy wasn't going to be in this list, regardless of the letter. A constant favourite of mine for the last (gulp) quarter of a century (right, now I feel old), and it never fails to cheer me up. (I'm constantly annoyed, however, that Douglas Adams didn't complete the plot of the second season of the radio series. Harumph).
Psychonaut
I still have a soft spot for Fields of the Nephilim, and this is one of their goodies. Although when I dug out the 12 inch single when I was at home at Easter, it was the B side that I had on auto-repeat. 'Celebrate' - one of the least appropriately named songs ever I think :), but still a cracker.
Mount Parnassus
Sacred to Apollo and Dionysus, site of Delphi, and once the home of the Delphic Oracle and the Muses. As yet, the only place I've been to in Greece, but I can't imagine that there's anywhere much more beautiful in the entire country. It's very easy to see why there are so many myths and legends associated with it, and to imagine nymphs playing on its slopes (although when I was there it was pretty chilly, so they'd probably need rather more clothing than nymphs are traditionally depicted in :)).
Paradys
Tanith Lee's alternative Paris. This was the setting of the first Tanith Lee book I ever read, The Book of the Damned, consisting of three very loosely connected short stories. The first of these, Stained with Crimson, is still my favourite vampire story ever. All the usual adjectives people tend to attach to Lee's work apply here. Dreamlike, lush, surreal, fantastic, if at times a little cold. Very much quintessential Tanith. I love it, although, as they say in America, your mileage may vary :). And soon to be coming back into print in America with the others in the series as The Secret Books of Paradys. Yay :). I'll probably buy it, even though I have them all already, because I'm sad like that:).
Part 2 to follow, after the weekend :). London bound, so hopefully will see A and C tomorrow. Will try and call tonight.
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Psychonaut/'now I feel old'
Date: 2006-05-18 05:56 pm (UTC)