Selkie

Potters are an unusually religious lot. Not the religion of churches and sermons, though I'm sure there's plenty of that too. The religion of potters is the silkiness of the earth in our fingers, the coolness of the water that gives life to clay, the heat of our kiln fires. Working with clay even involves magical transformations, strict adherence to rituals, and use of archaic language that any objective anthropologist would recognize as religion. Potters may joke about the role of the "kiln goddess" fetish placed on the lid before every firing, but it's nervous laughter with one eye cast skyward. We don't quite believe in such a deity ... but we don't quite not believe, either.

 

I've always thought that the opening of the lid should be accompanied by the sound of trumpets, or the sacrifice of a bull, or something dramatic to mark such a momentous occasion. Usually, though, it's the efforts a solitary person freezing in a cold garage, peeking inside to see whether their efforts have met with triumph or disaster.

 

Tonight, opening the kiln lid was accompanied by the sound of the clay singing. Unmistakably singing. The occasional ping of the glaze accustoming itself to everyday temperatures is quite normal, but this is a chorus of sounds coming from a clay formulated from an ancient Egyptian recipe. The sound is unbelievably beautiful to my modern ears, just as it must have been to the first potter who heard it over four thousand years ago.

 

Real Potters (that is, the ones who make a living at it) regularly bemoan that the general public doesn't appreciate hand-made work, and prefers cheap uniform wares instead. At a fundamental level, they don't understand why "civilians" don't feel the same pleasure at using things that are all individuals in and of themselves. Tonight, I can't help but wonder: would their work come back into favor if people watched as newborn pots were pulled from the bellies of our kilns, and heard the clay singing?

 

Gods, I love clay.

King Arthur, The Director's Cut : AWFUL.  Starts off on the right foot with a funky little action sequence but quickly falls apart at the seams - jumps all over the place, the worst example of which being anything to do with the native Brits.  All of a sudden there's a big army of im hiding out on the other side of Hadrian's Wall - huh ?!? 

 

By any chance did you see the theatrical cut for comparison? I saw it in the theaters, thought it was bad, but thought maybe there was a better movie lying on the cutting room floor because the editing was so obviously choppy. I'm still toying the the idea of renting the director's cut, but your review isn't encouraging me.

Continuing my movie marathon with Kinsey, which is an excellent film I doubt many will see. Everything from structure to dialogue to acting in the major roles is really first rate in this film, and I give the filmmakers major kudos from handling inflammatory material in an adult, even-handed manner. The film suffers a bit from covering too much material in its short running time, and some of the characterization of the minor player s(particularly the conservatives) suffers a bit as a result, but these are minor quibbles in what's one of the best films of the year.

ooh... do I get to play with clay??? Sara took my playdough away, said I can't have it back 'till I finish my final paper 

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OF COURSE you get to play with clay!! Have to reward you for the hard work of making molds, don't I? Let's see, there are a couple of different stonewares, Eygptian faience (in the traditional turquoise, of course), earthenware paper clay, two different porcelains (one formulated from the historical Ming recipe), and among the non-fired media there are at least three different polymer clays.

AngieIs, your walk with a bunch of buddies sounds like fun rather than eccentricity to me, even in November. The only part that surprises me is that people were shocked about the eating with your hands. Around here, they would assume you were homeless and probably offer you some money.

 

And for not thinking I'm insane, you're officially invited to come to my studio anytime you're in Chi-town to make molds! I'm also reminded that it's high time I poured some more rocks to use as Hannukah/Solstice/Christmas gifts.

We rented Gangs of New York for tonight. Anyone know if it's any good?

 

I liked it quite a bit, but understand why other people don't feel the same way. Seems to provoke pretty sharply mixed reations among the people who see it.

Almost every aspect of my life induces head scratches from those around me, so much so that within my circle of friends, any strange occurrence is referred to as a "Selkie moment." I'm supposed to choose just one?! OK, here goes...

 

I reproduce my original sculptures in ceramics, primarily porcelain (which, in and of itself, is enough to make any trained ceramicist worry about my sanity). Among the tasks I often have to undertake is making molds. One day, instead of casting one of my sculptures, I decided to make a mold of a small porous rock.

 

First, I surrounded the rock face with walls of clay, which which resulted in an oddly cheery daisy-like "rock flower" sprouting on my kitchen countertop. Out came the indispensible double boiler, which has never (and will never) in its life so much as seen food, let alone cooked it.

 

I then poured hot rubber on the rock to create a negative mold.

 

I then poured hot wax inside the rubber negative, to make a new positive.

 

I then poured plaster on the wax positive to create a new negative.

 

Which I then filled with liquid clay to make ...

 

A stoneware positive that's indistinguishable from the original.

 

This endeavor brought me great joy. My ceramics mentor believes I discovered the meaning of life. Everyone else thought (thinks?) I'm completely bonkers. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat if a need presented itself.

Mark and Red, I imagine the odds of Vikings! opening outside the U.S. are between slim and none, but I'll bet if you wrote the folks at Noble Fool and asked, you'd make a lot of theater folk very happy! Never, ever have I laughed so hard in public as I did when watching this. In fact, just remembering it as I type this is making me smile.

 

Looks like the mainstream sources, like the Chicago Tribune, that reviewed this when it was running have taken down the relevant pages, but for a tiny taste of what it was like, check out this review at Sequential Tart.

I just saw Alexander too. WHat a waste of potential. I was amazed at what they skipped over and what they decided to show.

 

When everything between "Alexander's a snot nosed kid in danger of being executed by his father for being a smart-ass" and "Alexander's a warrior-king about to embark on his greatest battle of all" is excised, there's a problem, isn't there?

 

WHat's wrong with scenes of homosexuality in a movie. SPecially in a movie about a time period where there was no taboo attached to it and everyone did it??!!!

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But think about it this way - after seeing all those rape scenes, especially the wedding night scene, would you have wanted to see Oliver Stone's direction of another sexual encounter? Ordinarily, given that the film focused on Alexander's private life rather than anything interesting, I would have bitched about the omission of at least one homosexual scene between Alexander and Hephastion, but in this case, I'm relieved. At least audiences didn't have to endure whatever Stone would have cooked up.

 

Ahem, and now on to the latest movies I've seen...

 

Finding Neverland. I went into this not particularly enjoying Peter Pan, and knowing zilch about J.M. Barrie. Turns out that's the perfect state of ignorance for watching this movie. The film succeeds quite well as a piece of fiction, and Johnny Depp is about note-perfect. I thought all the characters were a little too saintly (except for the Cruella DeVille mother) and sanitized to say it was a great film, but it's well worth the time and money invested to see it in the theater. Doing even just a little Googling revealed just how sanitized its portrayal of Barrie was, and I can't decide whether or not I would have preferred a more accurate film.

 

National Treasure. Major guilty pleasure time! I can't, in any way, recommend this as a quality film, but I admit to enjoying it immensely. It does get a few extra points for being an action film in which the decisive factor isn't brawn, but knowledge.

My picks will be somewhat handicapped by my being a wait for the trade/DVD/whatever consumer, but here goes:

 

Best Single Issue Comic: Sleeper 2.2, hands down. Superhero comics aren't supposed to contain this much emotional truth.

 

Worst Single Issue Comic: The suicide intervention issues of Y, the Last Man came out this year, right? Gads, were they horrible - too awful to verify issue numbers and release dates.

 

Best Popcorn Movie (tie) Hellboy and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

 

Best Oscar Bait Movie of the Year: Still TBD. Other than Finding Neverland, I'm not impressed with the contenders thus far, but have high hopes for Kinsey.

 

Worst Movie of the Year: Another clear winner in this category, with Alexander. Oliver Stone, get thee an editor!

 

Best TV Show. I'm sure Vic and the boys would win this hands-down had I watched The Shield, but I'm waiting for the DVD. Most of my regular favorites - 24, Sopranos, Six Feet Under - failed to distinguish themselves, and the less said about Survivor: Vanuatu, the better. I'll have to go with the oh-thank-the-gods-the-right couple-won The Amazing Race.

 

Best Ad Campaign: The Hewlett Packard photo printing campaign. Brilliance.

 

Worst Ad Campaign: The Lamisil toenail fungus commercials induced cringes and panicked races for the remote control in everyone I know.

 

Best Play. Despite seeing larger, splashier productions this year, I have to go with Vikings, a Musical in Two Axe, an original work put on by a way-better-than-they-have-any-right-to-be local theater company. Words completely fail when trying to describe this partially dramatic, partially comedic work. Let's just say it involves Vikings stranded in time, a cruise ship, various gods, the terrible fate of an Irish dance troupe, and Odin and Thor represented by chipmunk and squirrel handpuppets.

sethos, for once, the critics are right. In fact, reading the reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes is more entertaining than this movie. A masochistic part of me almost wants to see it again, just to focus on the camp/"What were they thinking?!" aspects.

Just returned from seeing Alexander. It committed the greatest sin a movie intended to entertain can make: it bored me. It bored my traveling companion. It bored the random guy in the seat next to her (he mentioned this on the way out). Of all the reactions I could have anticipated, boredom wasn't even on the long list of contenders. I can't speak as to the historical accuracy of the film - most of my knowledge comes from the recent cable documentary, but even with that scant background a lot of points made me go "Hmmm" - but as entertainment, it jumped over some of the most interesting occurrences, and dwelled on aspects that just didn't seem all that important. I really wonder about the number of rapes that occur on screen, especially when they felt gratuitous.

 

Want details? Just ask. Short version: not worth my money, even as a bargain matinee.

Pfftttt. What's with all the spring chickens?

 

80 year old spine in a 33 year old body.

Along with The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbin's greatest role has been in Robert Altman's The Player.

 

Amen! Those are two terrific Tim Robbins performances. Come to think of it, it's been far too long since I watched either one.

The home page of my personal web site is 42% evil. Fear me!

Pooka, I'm so sorry to hear about your skyrocketing pulse. I had an overdose of Prednisone do the same thing to me, and I COMPLETELY understand what you mean. You feel like you're living in a perpetual anxiety attack, and it's the worst feeling imaginable. Are you getting the shakes and sweats too? I walked around looking like an extra from Trainspotting for days.

 

Hang in there, and get those doctors to take proper care of you. If they don't, tell them Selkie's going to come over and shout HIPAA at them till they get your body under control. (No, HIPAA has nothing to do with your situation, but just mentioning it scares doctors into an anxiety attack that will hopefully feel just like what you're going through).

Very sad news indeed! I'm pleased to hear the series will be continuing, although I still wonder about its future. I always had the impression EricJ was an integral part of the writing as well as the art.

 

Rogan, there are thirteen issues so far (0-12), of what IIRC is a planned 36 issue run. It's one of the few series that have kept me buying monthly comics. Web site is here: http://www.rexmundi.net .

Just returned from seeing The Incredibles, and there's only one way I can summarize it: Watchmen for the kiddies and their parents, with some Fantastic Four, James Bond, and even a little Rising Stars tossed in for seasoning. Somehow, surprisingly, it works more than it doesn't. I had hoped to come back saying Pixar completely batted this one out of the park. I can't quite go that far, but the parts that worked were fantastic, and the ones that didn't weren't bad. I thought last 15 - 20 minutes did a lot to improve my enjoyment of the experience. Well worth the price of admission. Don't arrive late - the short before the movie is terrific. I stayed through the end credits, but there really wasn't a Pixar moment of note. They'll probably add an "outtake" or somesuch a few weeks from now.

Rented The Magdalene Sisters, the story of girls who had been raped, had children out of wedlock, behaved flirtatiously, or were just plain embarassments to their families were incarcerated in Irish asylums run by the Catholic church and forced to ensure humiliating conditions while "washing away their sins." What a powerful and depressing film. I can only hope that the events portrayed therein are heavily fictionalized and fundamentally untrue, but the story sounds and feels like something that would actually occur. So far, light Googling has revealed lots of protests, but no one actually saying the conditions portrayed in the film are portrayed inaccurately.

 

Watch as a double feature with Rabbit Proof Fence for a guaranteed bout of depression.

Has anyone heard anything recent about the film adaptation of Whiteout? This article was the most recent thing I've heard. Even with Reese Witherspoon in the lead role, this is still a film I'd love to see.

Minx, I'm glad you're back, but sorry to hear of your personal situation. I know how hard it can be to deal with a self-destructive family member, though mine hasn't been quite as extreme. Hang in there, and keep those creative juices flowing!

Party City. He was a little shopworn - nothing that wasn't easily fixed with some spray point - so he was marked way, WAY down from original retail. This year he's going to be placed in front of the all-glass door at the front of my house to greet trick or treaters. I'm already plotting and planning as to what he'll be doing next year. His back is flat, so he'd rest very nicely in a coffin.

By the way, the guy in the black t-shirt has tiny cereal boxes affixed to him and there's a little knife stabbed through each box. That makes him a... what, class?

 

Gotta love a little cereal killer humor, especially coming from MI.

 

I will not be dressing up for Halloween, so Count Bob will be my stand-in:

 

Count Bob

 

Count Bob is ready for his close-up

And while on ths topic of pumpkins, here are the obligatory posts to:

 

Extreme Pumpkins

 

Zombie Pumpkins

My eagerly anticipated copy of ES. Posthumus' "Unearthed" arrived today, and I'm enjoying it immensely. Come for "Nara," the theme song to the TV show "Cold Case," but stay for the rest of the great songs.

 

Also listening endless to Tori Amos, because there's nothing like some Tori when you're in a really crappy mood!