The old broken stars they fall down on the land

[rolanni]

So, last night we made the journey into Waterville to see James McMurty perform at the Opera House.

The House was full; I think the three empty seats in the row directly in front of us may have been the only empty seats.  It was a crowd almost exclusively made up of the gray of hair, and all of us had a startlingly raucous good time.

I had one of those Awkward Moments of Mortality when the Aggressively Blonde woman in her Coordinated Outfit sitting beside Steve got up to dance.  "Really?" I thought.  "She's sixty-five if she's a day."

hi-hat

James, who was without the Heartless Bastards for this show, sang and played for two hours straight.  You know what?  Having just recently finished a tour where all I did was sit and talk for two hours, I don't know how he did it.  I went back to the hotel exhausted, and my voice still hasn't recovered.  James has another show tonight, in New Hampshire.

If you get a chance to see James perform -- grab it.

Even if your hair isn't gray.

* * *

. . .so, today at the Confusion Factory, having identified the Cause of the Stuckness on First of Five, I will be going through Dragon Ship and extracting a chronology so I can figure out where I am in Space and Time.  I suspect this will show me that the two story arcs I had thought to tackle this time are mismatched, which will mean I'll need to sort through my Big Box of Story Tackle and Spare Parts to find the correct linkage, which is kind of a pain in the hat.

But not as much of a pain in the hat as writing three-quarters of a book and then realizing that the timing's off.

* * *

Fans of Sprite will be pleased to know that she has ascended from the Cold and Dreary Basement and is now spending almost all of her time upstairs in the warm world, where she has become the Terror of the Stuffed Chipmunk, and started circulating a petition to ensure that All The Hugs Belong to Her.

The petition has little chance of getting enough signatures in this house, but its nice to see that she's civic minded.

The rest of the cats continue, mostly unperturbed.  Mozart accords the kid a sort of absent-minded goodwill; and she's respectful, as is proper.  Scrabble, of course, isn't about to take any 'tude from an overpowered kitten, no matter how tall she is.

Trooper actually deals with her the most, which is a mixed blessing, I think, from his perspective.  On the one paw, it's good to have somebody to play tag and wrestle with.  On the other paw, she's trying to take over all the Good Places he's identified for himself.

On the left hind paw, though, he's not shy about asserting his rights, when they matter.  Just yesterday, Sprite had taken over the Plan B box in my office, and Trooper decided that he wanted it.  So, he just. . .walked in, apparently intending to lie down on the kitten, if that's what it took.

The kitten vacated in favor of the blue rug behind my chair.

And thus. . .tranquility reigns at the Cat Farm.

What did y'all do this weekend that was fun?

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

apparently intending to lie down on the kitten, if that's what it took.

thus ends another lesson in Cat Physics.. where time and space are not in line with human values.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

I went with friends to a Cat Show near Detroit. It was huge and there were an amazing array of examples of Felis silvestris catus. I said "hello" to Ash's breeder but missed Fi's.

I had been looking for a new cat tree for a while and found one that I thought would accommodate two sleeping Maine Coons. It was brought home and pronounced acceptable.

The glow inside the opening is Fi.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, so the other cat's look is 'how dare you be so presumptuous as to take the spot *I* wanted', not 'What *is* this strange object in my living room?!'

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

The cubby was the first place they both explored. It may be interesting watching them decide who owns it.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Nice one! Some height, but not enough that you need fear a large, furry rock plummeting down upon you from a height.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

Or speeding cat hitting it at 35mph and knocking it over.

Cats, Pashmina

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Great technique from Trooper! If Sprite won't get out of my box I'll just lie down on top of her! The bluff worked.

I saw your Facebook entry about pashmina scarfs. Then I couldn't find it again. Did a tiny bit of research. The bad news is that the word "pashmina" doesn't mean much any more as you have no doubt found out. Said scarf could be imported from China, Nepal, India etc. with different kinds of materials in it. So the best thing might be to go where those
items are sold and see if you like any of them. they used to be from Kashmir. Also from Afghanistan from the hair of a high altitude dwelling domesticated goat. But today, who knows?

"What did y'all do this weekend that was fun?"

[edgreenberg.livejournal.com]

This seems like a good prompt to mention that this weekend I finished Trade Secret. Well done. Bravo/Brava!

As expected, the writing was as filled with nuance as a Liaden bow. The world building was both intricate and exacting. I enjoyed the pilot scenes, as they advanced my feeling of what it is like to conduct space travel in the LU as opposed to other author's universes.

I loved the learning about Jethri's family and heritage.

There was a clear sense of foreshadowing in the early part of the book. I felt lots of tension building, as I became convinced that the reality of the situation was greater than Jethri expected. Yet he performed with aplomb, and remained a man of Melant'i as I knew he would.

My only complaint is that the various peripheral characters, especially the villains, remained a bit two-dimentional, but I understand that the book can only be so long, and I'm guessing that Some Things Need To Remain Hidden so that they do not foreshadow what has not yet been written/decided.

Thanks for a good read. When Carousel Seas comes out in final edit and ebook, I will be reading that one. I guess I need to read Carousel Sun again in advance.

Best,

Ed