Everything at once

I don’t normally post on weekends, but yesterday was EXCEPTIONAL.

1. K broke her finger last night, right before the circus show. Her hand is in a splint. She misses the next show, her band concert, and this will affect her first few weeks of the next circus term.

2. The baby gerbils have a respiratory infection. J took them to veterinary urgent care at midnight last night. They may die.

3. Our clothes dryer is not working properly, and may need to be replaced.

4. I found a dead tick on the living room floor.

5. The puppies ate gross things in the yard, the way puppies do, and vomited in the shoes this morning.

Good morning, internets.

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May 10 2013

Happy birthday, J!

Today my family is in town, to see K’s circus show. See you all next week!

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I have no sense of proportion

I can’t tell whether yesterday was a really busy day by some arbitrary standard or not. I have trouble with this, in general — knowing whether something is “normal” or exceptional (for good or ill). So, was yesterday busy? I have no idea.

But, we got the kids up and going, K practiced her instruments, M did his chores and his penalty chores, we went to Spanish class, had lunch, went to Fleet Farm for two hours, got home, laid the last of the dirt, planted, got the hose out of storage, washed up, saw Iron Man 3, came home, got the kids to bed. While taking care of puppies constantly, doing four loads of dishes, and losing only marginal ground to entropy.

The kids got new summer shoes, I got new summer shirts that fit, K replaced her broken carabiner for her backpack, M cleaned up some old and previously-missed puppy pee, I got dog poop on my hands while unfurling the garden hose and scrubbed off, K made her own dinner, M’s ammo packs for his foam dart gum arrived in the mail, we mailed K’s application to the wall trampoline workshops, I email coordinated with my family for their visit on Friday, I had to change clothes THREE TIMES due to dirt, J held the gerbils twice to socialize them, the puppies ate a seed pod, I cooked breakfast this morning and kale chips after the movie, I replied to an email interview –

It’s a perfectly average day off for me. Made easier by the fact that we skipped school and replaced it with gardening.

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Things of mine on the internet

Two things of note recently:

1. Finn Clark reviewed Queers Dig Time Lords. Now, this is from a review copy — Queers Dig Time Lords will be available for sale on June 4th. Clark says,

“I’m reminded of Howard Hawks’s definition of a good movie: “Three great scenes, no bad ones.” This book has no bad articles [ ... ] and several outstanding ones.”

That’s a lovely review, thank you.

2. Apex Magazine published an essay of mine, Kicking Ass, Taking Names, Bubblegum Optional. It explains my love of the Tough Female Hero, regardless of how terrible, complicated, or problematic the film she is in may be.

“So, back to Alice and her halter top and nudity. Could I wish that not every female action hero be scantily clad? I could. I do. But I refuse to agree that the clothes a woman wears — even a character in a film, dressed by corporate filmmakers — somehow makes her less of a fucking badass.

Go on. Try telling Alice that you are judging her based on her clothes. Let me get some popcorn first.”

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May 7 2013

1. Happy birthday, N!

2. Listening to a podcast this morning, I was pondering how much I wish I could meet Cleopatra. It makes me genuinely sad that I will never get a chance to talk to her, to see for myself the wit and intellect that won people and kingdoms.

She’s not the only one. Victoria Woodhull. Mandukhai Khatun. Eleanor of Aquitaine. History is full of brilliant, angry, motivated women, and I won’t ever get to talk to them. It’s a sadness to me.

3. Warehouse 13 is back on the air! And this season is looking a bit darker, which is EXACTLY what I wanted.

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Doctor Who: “A Death in the Family”

I listened to Big Finish’s A Death in the Family this past weekend. I’m not certain, but this may be my favorite Seventh Doctor story yet.

This is a complicated Doctor Who story. I’m never that person who ponders the PLOTS of Who, trying to figure out if they hang together or not. This frequently means that the more timey-wimey stories lose me at some point. This problem is exacerbated with Big Finish’s audioplays, as some scenes take me a moment to figure out where and when we are, and who is speaking to whom. But none of that interfered with my enjoyment of “A Death in the Family.” Nor did it interfere with my dread.

This story is a rollercoaster of inevitable, spliced with a funhouse of doublecross and time-space trickery. Yet the emotional beats come down like a freight train. It’s all here, the themes I most love in Who. The lies and manipulation and secrets of The Doctor. The faith of his Companions. How he abuses that faith. How the Companions are changed, inexorably and not always for the better. How lies start to run both ways, and love and faith are weak.

The Doctor I recognize, the one I see on screen or in the audioplays and say, “yes, that, that is my Doctor,” is this wry, dark, funny, sardonic old man. Sometimes bitter, sometimes exultant, but so very knowing. Playing a deep game that wears a coat of inadvertent contempt for other creatures. The Doctor treasures life, yes – but sometimes he forgets to respect it.

It’s not a spoiler to say that Evelyn is in this story — Maggie Stables is in the credits. And her scenes are fantastic. She embodies another of my favorite themes in fiction, the consequences of one’s past choices. Her conversation with The Doctor at the end of the story is one I devoutly hope the Eleventh Doctor remembers when he looks at Clara.

This Doctor is my Doctor. I don’t always like him, I don’t always trust him, but if the universe must have a semi-benevolent omnipotent creature interfering in its workings, I want it to be this one.

Unless …

Unless I can have whatever he’s turning Ace into, instead.

The Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors have not always seen their Companions clearly enough. That lack of attention keeps coming back in ways The Doctor doesn’t like. You’d think that, eventually, he’d learn.

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Circus Juventas 2013 Spring Celebration

I saw K’s first circus show for the year last night. I have such goodwill for these shows.

Circus Juventas is a performing youth circus arts school. The spring shows are the school’s recital. All performing classes perform, regardless of age or readiness. You get your costume on, you get your gear, and you get out there and you perform.

The school is so large that the student body is divided into three section, or color groups. Each color does three shows and one dress/tech rehearsal. Leading up to this there have been regular classes, extra practices, and emergency extra practices. Ready or not, now you go on.

Last night was the Yellow show. Over 400 youth performers, 150 parent volunteers doing rigging and lighting and backstage-wrangling and locker-room-supervision and photography. The Toddler and Kinder acts always go first; three- and four- and five-year-olds dressed as naval officers and pirates, doing their respective acts.

The show is long. Over three hours, with an intermission. Every year they try to make sure the younger kids are all in the first half, so they can leave at 8:30 and go home. It doesn’t always work, but they try. K is now an older kid, and is in the second half for all nine shows.

The show last night had no mishaps. Sure, the Ringmistresses flubbed a couple of lines, but they recovered. Sure, a few unicyclists fell off their bikes, but they got back on. Only one of the flyers made it back to the bar, but ALL of them made it to the catcher without mishap. The clowns were funny. The kids juggling clubs didn’t drop anything. The rigging didn’t jam.

As always, there were a few costume or music choices that made me raise a brow. But the kids performing have no control over those things. They are given a costume and a song and a routines, and they do their best. They smile, and style, and they commit to whatever thing they are required to do. They are game, and I love that about them.

K was very, very tired last night. We got home, and I reminded her she needed to take her makeup off. We stood in the bathroom at 10:50 last night, smearing gunk on her eyelids and wiping them off. I gave her a lot of hugs, and told her she did great.

She did. She did great.

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