Larry's Pretty Good LiveJournal

Characters frequently appearing in this drama:

• I - your humble narrator, sometime writer, poet, and translator (online pronoun: he/him/his)
• Janni - spouse and writer (online pronoun: she/her/her)
• Eaglet - nom de internet of our child, formerly known as TBD, not yet a writer (online pronoun: they/them/their)

Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/632515.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

A few links or so:

Every Sport a Bowling Ball. (via)

“When I heard that the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show was opening a Chelsea location of his celebrated bistro, Dorg Schnorfblorp Horganblorps, I was skeptical. I’m always hesitant to believe the hype surrounding celebrity chefs, especially when they’re made of felt.” (via)

I am inordinately pleased with myself for finally sorting out tamarack, tamarisk, and tamarind.

---L.

Subject quote from Don’t Stop Me Now, Queen. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/771776.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

Eaglet got an oddly specific cookie fortune:



(Text: “Don’t kiss an elephant on the lips today”)

But tomorrow’s okay, then?

---L.

Subject quote from Good as Hell, Lizzo. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/771362.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

This summer has been long, thanks to pandemic, and glorious, thanks to a much wetter than average monsoon season — as in, July was the wettest month ever on record, [edited with correction] enough combined with the rain since to make this the second wettest monsoon recorded. Guys, this desert is LUSH. The mountains, in the early morning light of the drive to school, look like moss-covered rocks. Every spare patch of ground (including our yard) has weeds and grasses and more mesquite seedlings than I can shake a weed-whacker at.

Eaglet describes school as a butterflytopia — flitters and moths sometimes cover the pavement outside their classroom, which faces the community garden. (No indoor hallways — all rooms open to covered passageways. Yes, this has made COVID mitigations a lot easier. And no, we hardly ever get snow.)

Pity it’s been too hot and sticky to get out and appreciate it much, or as much as it deserves. :-(

---L.

Subject quote from A Forsaken Garden, Algernon Swinburne. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/771305.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

(Background: We’ve been teaching Eaglet that the harder cuss words are inappropriate most of the time, but there are occasions where they are the exact right words to use, based on the severity of what's being said. Thanks to this, they now sometimes use “Ess-aitch word!” when a cleaner “Shoot!” or “Crap!” just isn’t strong enough.)

During last night’s bedtime wind-down discussion, Eaglet wanted to talk about war and whether any wars are currently being fought. So I summarized a few, and led them through how most fighting is caused by fear (especially of not having enough food/water/land/resources) or past misdeeds. Finally they burst out, “War is fucking stupid!” then realizing what they’d said, looked at me wide-eyed, “Was that appropriate?”

I met their gaze and said, “Yes, that’s an appropriate use of the word. War is fucking stupid.”

I even got to teach a little bit about Quaker pacifism and peacework before the day caught up with them and they finally crashed.

---L.

Subject quote from Enter Sandman, Metallica. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/770964.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

As a palliative for repeat-looping Patty Griffin’s Tony for an hour, Queen’s Under Pressure has been only a partial success. Ditto Iron & Wine’s Call It Dreaming.

Please rec me ‘take care of yourself’ songs.

---L.

Subject quote from Losing My Religion, REM. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/770589.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

Why, yes, it is stressful to send Eaglet off to third grade even though it’s illegal for their school to mandate wearing a facemask — why do you ask?

Some destressors:

Magically Turning Into Random Objects, a short collection of very-shorts. (via)

Columbo questions Kubla Khan. Read the replies. (via)

45 minutes of various funky old japanese soundtracks, samples, breaks, and beats. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from Phoenix, Olivia Holt. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/770347.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

After the by-my-count fifth* re-read, by way of a bedtime story, of Artemis: Wild Goddess of the Hunt by George O’Connor**, the following words popped into my head, sung to a possibly recognizable tune***:

Artemis, Artemis,
Doesn’t ever hardly miss.
Is she strong? Listen, bro,
The lady’s got a cyclops bow.
Look out — here comes Miss Artemis!

It’s going to take me a while to scrub this out of my brain, I just know it.


* I might have forgotten an iteration or three.

** The ninth of a projected twelve volumes of the Olympians graphic novel series, the whole of which has been repeatedly consumed by Eaglet (displacing all other channels for consuming Greek mythology). Favorite volumes are Hermes, Artemis, and Hera (because Heracles), with Poseidon being least liked. Eleven volumes are out, with Dionysus left to go. FWIW, I rilly like O’Connor’s takes on Persephone’s decision and Argus's downfall.

*** Mind you, Eaglet associates the tune more with the Squirrel Girl theme song than Spider-Man.

---L.

Subject quote from The Life and Death of Jason, William Morris. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/770246.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

It’s been a while since I shared some links, hasn’t it. In my defence, I’ve been camping in mountainous places and getting up close and personal with wild turkeys, though that’s only some of the time. Not really an excuse. Still, here’s some good ones I’ve collected:

Alternate Realities: 2400 CG artists were challenged to render a base animation of a walking person, and here’s the top 100 entries, one after the other. One of them is Ghibli inspired. All 2400 entries. (via)

John Oliver Loves Octopuses, especially the wonderfully named Wunderpus photogenicus. CW: octopus crawling out of a man’s mouth. (via)

r/MaliciousCompliance, stories about people conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. (via, which has more links to r/AmITheAsshole-adjacent places)

---L.

Subject quote from Schism, Tool. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/770018.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.

Three fascinating short videos with different ways of shifting perspectives:

Persepective: Juggling from Above. (via)

Four Laps: a Looping Video About Looping Videos, filmed as a live presentation. How it was made. (via)

A roller coaster engineer explains the types of coasters. (via)

(Yes, roller coasters are all about shifting your perspectives as well as your body—kinesthetic shifts.)

---L.

Subject quote attributed to Wernher von Braun. Originally posted at https://larryhammer.dreamwidth.org/769659.html (where it has comments). You can comment here or there.