Private View

Private View by Jean McNeil is another book I pulled at random from AndiF's "Brit Lit" sack.  The protagonist is a woman named Alex who is living in a London loft with an artist named Conrad, although they are not "living together" in a relationship.  Alex was once an artist but she can no longer create.  McNeil tells the story mostly in linear form but with flashbacks at the end of each chapter to a traumatic incident that Alex experienced when traveling in Central America.  Alex's lack of creativity dates from the incident and, as a result of the incident, she has suffered some memory loss.

New Season

The new television season is about to begin. What should I watch?

I'm considering checking out Glee, which premiers this Wednesday on Fox (9:00 eastern). It's the story of a high school glee club, set in Ohio. I watched the pilot on hulu and enjoyed it. But, then, I'm a sucker for singing and dancing. I'm usually not home on most Wednesdays, though, so I'll probably always be catching it on hulu. I will not be going to the local watch party but for those of you in St. Louis here's the info:

THE EVENT NOT TO MISS - CALL THE NEIGHBORS!
On Wednesday September 9, FOX will air the Season Premiere of GLEE. The pilot was amazing and now you can watch the anticipated episode "Showmance" in the main auditorium at the beautiful Tivoli Theatre in the Delmar Loop. (Imagine 400 Gleeks - and soon to be Gleeks - bringing the fun spirit of this show to life right here in St. Louis!)
This event is hosted by Growing American Youth and everyone is welcome.
Doors open at 6:30pm
Pre-show event/entertainment at 7pm emceed by local actor/comedian Ed Reggi
GLEE airs LIVE at 8pm.
Bring your friends, families, show choir, cheerleading squad, etc (you get the point)
No pre-registration is needed. No tickets to buy ahead of time. We will seat until capacity.
$5 minimum suggested donation supports Growing American Youth

I'm kind of sorry I'll miss meeting 400 Gleeks.

Time Keeps Slippin'

I didn't get much reading done on vacation but a few months ago AndiF lent me a sack of Brit Lit.  I intended to take it with me on vacation but actually ended up reading quite a few of the books before vacation time even arrived.  I just never got around to writing about it in the rush to get all my work finished so I could get out of town.

Falling, by Debbie Moon, is the story of Jude, a woman living in some future version of London, who is a "Retracer".  Through a freak of genetic code she is able to jump backwards in time to any point in her life and change things.  "Rarely enough to change history, but sometimes enough to shift the details of a conversation, change the routine of a working day."

Men's Minds Turn to Mush Around Hot Babes

When I wasn't feeling well I started working my way through episodes of the long running science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Over the years I'd seen episodes here and there but not in any particular order. I chose it on hulu.com because, since there were 10 seasons and six of them are on hulu, I figured I wouldn't run out of episodes to watch before I recovered.

In the first season there was an episode called Hathor in which a Goa'uld (alien being) has taken as its human host a beautiful woman and the identity of the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Of course the actress playing Hathor is dressed in typical television science fiction sexualized garb and of course all the men fall in love with her. But they fall a little more in love with her than usual. Hathor uses a version of a (fictional) brainwashing drug to cause an intense infatuation that gives her control over all the men. She plans to use them to build an army to work her will on the other aliens and on earth. But, eventually, the women on the base (who are unaffected by the drug) take control of the situation and defeat Hathor.

Now what?

hmmm. I'm back and now I have to think of things to write. This was never a problem before. I usually write late at night. Ideas just come to me late at night. I'm a night owl. I don't like to interact with people after a certain point but I could stay up for hours after that point. But the past few weeks I've been going to bed early (for me) and I'm finding it harder to get back into the groove.

Sooooooo ...

Break is Over

Yes, I’m back. My break was a little longer than I originally anticipated when I left for vacation back in July.

And yes. It was The Worst Vacation Ever.

The virus appeared on the second day of vacation and stayed with me the whole ten days. I can’t say it was swine flu because for the first ten days I was in a cabin in the north woods and didn’t bother having anyone drive me the forty miles to the nearest emergency room to find out. But I definitely had flu-like symptoms, and what other kind of flu is going around right now? By the time I got home, it became severe bronchitis (due, probably, to the airplane travel) and I and my doctor were only interested in treating the immediate symptoms. The bronchitis lasted another ten days, followed by a couple of weeks of exhaustion. It has not been fun.

Taking a Break

I'm just not up to it right now.

In the meantime, check out Poemless' new blog.

Update: Whatever virus I caught really wiped me out but I'm feeling much better. But I'm still very tired and have been using most of my free time to try to catch up on sleep. Thanks for the e-mails etc. from those who have been concerned. In answer to everyone's questions about how long this break will last, I think I'll start back up at the beginning of September. I should (hopefully) be 100% again by then.